Editing Process

The editing process is an interesting beast. You reach out to a bunch of strangers over the Internet and offer to pay them money to rip apart your story. That’s what I’m looking for at least. Someone who can take my novel, rip it apart at the seams, and tell me what I need to do to improve it. I had posted the first three chapters online, hoping I’d get feedback. I wanted to hear what worked and what didn’t work. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. I didn’t get any responses at all. So now I’ve turned to professional editors hoping they can help me with Ren’s story.

I love this story. It’s very near and dear to my heart because it’s the first original story I ever wrote. It’s certainly not perfect, but I want it to get as close to perfection as I can. That said, perfection ain’t cheap.

For the level of editing I want, I’ve been quoted a minimum of $1100. Now, some editors will proofread it or give it a once over copyedit, which costs in the $300 to $600 range. But let’s say I only sell 20 books at a dollar a piece. That would put me at a minimum of $280 in the hole and…well, you can see why I’d hesitate to spend a lot of money on this.

Now, I know, it’s not supposed to be about the money, right? Be glad you sold any books at all, right? Don’t get me wrong. If even one person buys my story and is entertained by it, I’ll be happy. But when you live paycheck to paycheck, you can’t throw $500 around like you have it to burn.

So, what’s a gal to do?

I’m still collecting bids. I had one editor say she wouldn’t edit my story in the state it’s currently in, but if I want to do a more extensive edit, she’ll give me a quote (I already know it’s going to be WAY out of my price range, but I’m feeling  particularly masochistic today so I asked her to send me one). Another told me she could only get through two of the five pages I sent her because I had too much backstory. Now, I appreciate the constructive feedback and I’m looking at ways to tighten up the first chapter based on her suggestions. But if you can’t even find the patience to get through five pages of my work, why on earth would I hire you to navigate through my 347 page manuscript? Sheesh.

The good news is, I discovered the local university has a writing center and they will help students and alumni (which I just so happen to be) with their novels for free. The bad news is, it’s finals week and then the students who critique your work (creative writing and writing majors) are off on summer break. Bad freaking time on my part, but I think I’ll go out there after work and beg for help anyway. If I can get someone at the school to edit the story the way I need it to be, I’ll feel more comfortable about paying a professional editor to clean up any left over issues. 

Editing is complete!

I finished doing the major edits last night for The Selene Moon. I'm going to tweak some things today and then find an editor. I'm thinking this book will launch sometime in May.

Book Title

If you follow my Twitter, you know I recently announced the upcoming title of book 1 from the Selene Moon Series. I've been going back and forth on titles since 2011. My first two title choices weren't important to the overall plot of the story. The third title I chose was about one of the main characters, but since the second book's title is about said character, I didn't want to make the title about this person two books in a row.

LOL, it's been a struggle, and as I get closer to finishing up editing before I sent it to an official editor, I figured the pressure was on to come up with a fitting title. Then it hit me last week. The series is called the Selene Moon Series. It seemed only fitting that the title from the first book be called, The Selene Moon. If you read the book (and I hope you do), you'll see it makes the most sense.

As you check out my website and Youtube channel, you'll probably see various titles bouncing around. I apologize for the confusion. But I'm really happy with this title so that's the one I'm going to stick with.

Be on the lookout for updates on The Selene Moon.

Chapter 3 is now up.

Check out the last sneak peek I'll be posting from the Selene Moon Series: Book 1.

Selene Moon Series.

Chapter 2 is now up

Check chapter 2 and please let me know your thoughts. Should I continue posting this story?

Selene Moon Series