My father used to say: "there are no good writers, just good re-writers." There is nothing new about editing in the literary world, yet e-books seem to lack the same level of editing that traditional print has enjoyed for so long. There is a high level of craftsmanship that goes into any piece of published work one would see on the newsstands, or in their favorite magazine. Yet publishing, albeit digital, is getting a face lift, and with that lift some of the mater editing we have come to expect has disappeared. The e-book should be treated no different then a traditional print book, and thus edited accordingly. A few tips for getting your e-book edited for content, grammar, spelling, and fluency are listed below.
For the starving writer, have a friend take a look at your work. While your friend may not have much of an eye for double negatives, or verb noun contusions, you will at least get the fluency of you work edited. Friends can look at our work and honestly tell us if a sentence makes no sense, if it?s a run on, and so forth. Also the price you pay a friend is often no more then a slap on the back, and a smile. A real print editor will require some type of financial commitment from the author.
Have a few bucks, but not looking to break the bank, look no further then the internet. You?ve got great resources with freelance sites that often promote editors to work on a per word price basis, typically a few cents a word. Also there are websites that offer professional editing services on a per page basis, for larger works it can be as cheap as $1 a page. One service developed by college students bragged they had turned out a doctoral dissertation edit in 2 weeks for less then two hundred bucks. Just think what they could do to your e-book!
The proof is in the pudding or in this case the vitality of your e-book. If you want to be remembered as the author that could not spell the word police, or put a comma in the appropriate place, be my guest. But for those with a higher calling to write genuine e-books worthy of their reader?s time, make sure to have the e-book edited as much as possible.
Nicolas Gremion is President of Paradise Publishers Inc (http://www.ParadisePublishers.com), an online based publishing firm. The company?s flagship website, http://www.Free-eBooks.net, is considered the internet?s top source of free e-books. Through Free-eBooks.net visitors can instantly download thousands of title from a vast array of categories at no charge. | |
Return to Index
