How Long Does It Take?

*I originally wrote this in February of 2014 and feel I ought to update at least the novel section*

How long does it take to write and publish a book?

Answer: It depends on the book and the form of publication. Here are my averages:

Short Stories 
- like REAL LIES, SEVENTY and Prime Sensations in the TALES FROM THE SFR BRIGADE anthology -
REAL LIES took me a day to write because it's microfiction. It's super, super short and I wrote it in one sitting. SEVENTY and Prime Sensations were both written over the course of a week for an anthology call. I'd seen the anthology call, plotted it out, and scripted most of the story before I sat down to write.

REAL LIES went on query for nearly nine months to several ezines. They all closed during the first upwelling of ebooks and so I self-published it with the help of my friend. The cover art is a stock photo, the editing was done by Amy Laurens. Start to finish... 10 months for five pages.

SEVENTY went on query for about seven months, four of which were spent waiting to hear back about the anthology. It was originally published in M-BRANE #5 with no additional editing. Start to finish... thirteen months for the first printing, 2 years until the ebook came out.

Prime Sensations was written, edited, and accepted in under 2 months because I submitted just before the anthology closed. Start to finish...six months between writing and publication because I was working with experienced editors and authors who know how to make things happen.

Novella
- like FEY LIGHTS and the Heroes and Villains stories -
FEY LIGHTS was written with the intent to self-publish and the idea was an old one that I dug back out and tidied up. It took roughly a month to write, two more months to edit, and then another six weeks to create the cover art, format, and get it published. It was an experiment and I don't really recommend the Do It All Yourself route to anyone. Start to finish... four months plus change.

EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE was written for an anthology call. I wrote it subbed it, and heard back in about five months. I did another edit to lengthen it for publication elsewhere, sent it out, and heard back in another seven months. Start to finish... thirteen months between writing and publication.

EVEN VILLAINS GO TO THE MOVIES was written knowing I was an In House author with Breathless Press and that I had an editor there. That meant I got to skip most of the messy parts of submission and skip to the head of the line. Still, it took me seven months to write and four more with my editor to make it publication-ready. Start to finish... eleven months.

EVEN VILLAINS HAVE INTERNS was written over the course of ten months or so. I wrote a manuscript, hated it, and rewrote from scratch. By that point it was late to my editor and pushed back in the publication schedule. Start to finish it took fourteen months.

Novels
JANE DOE is the only novel I've taken from rough draft to finished, edited, query-ready novel and even then there's a big question mark over whether it's still good enough. JANE took over a year to write, and about thirteen drafts until I considered it polished. I queried for three months before revising based on the rejection of a full request. Queried again. Revised again. Queried some more. Got a lot of great feedback. Picked up plenty of rejections. Had some editor interest. Revised. Got rejected. And JANE is still out there. It's been a full year since I sent my first query. 

IF (and that's a big IF), if JANE is good enough that an agent signs me there is no guarantee it will ever be published. The agent might recommend I shelve it until the market is better (the SF market is scary). The agent might try to sell it but have it rejected by big and small presses. It may be acquired and later dropped. And if by some miracle of miracles JANE gets me an agent, is picked up by a publishing house, and I have a contract that will eventually take it to print we're still looking at 2-3 years between when the editor contracts the book and when JANE hits the shelves. 

If I turned around and sold JANE to a small e-press I could probably have it published in 2014, but we would still be looking at nearly four years invested in writing a novel that will most likely retail for under $8. 

Eight dollars for a novel that dominated my life for half a decade. 
UPDATE!!!!

Back when I originally wrote this all of this about JANE DOE was true. That was February of 2014. In May of 2014 I turned a Revise & Resubmit into Marlene Stringer. She called me in July 2014 to offer representation. The official paperwork was signed in August and we did several editing passes of the book. The first expression of interest came in late September and the book was sold in October of 2014 to HarperVoyager (and imprint of HarperCollins). The title was changed to THE DAY BEFORE and it was published in April 2015. Start to finish... close to five years.

JANE'S SHADOW (working title) will be my second published novel. It was sold on spec (meaning based on a synopsis and as part of a series) in the three book deal to HarperVoyager. I had the basic idea for the story and the opening chapter last summer. I started writing in earnest in November of 2014, the publication date is November 2015. That's nine months to write the book, and three months of editorial love with my publisher. Twelve months start to finish.



Is there a trend here?

No, not really. It looks like I'm getting faster at writing but that's a bit of an illusion. Consider the untitled Book 4 of the Heroes and Villains series. I started writing it in late 2013. Hated it. Started a rewrite, and then dropped it in the summer of 2014 because I signed with an agent and sold my novel. Forced to choose between spending time on a book that was under contract and a book that wasn't I put my efforts into meeting my contractual deadline.

Book 4 is still waiting for attention. We're looking at a potential three year lag time between starting the book and publishing it.

On the other hand, I am getting better at writing clean first drafts. THE DAY BEFORE had over twenty drafts after I counted my early ones, the revisions done while querying, the R&R and edits with my agent, and the editing rounds with my editors at the publishing house (I have a main editor and a line editor who cries when I make up new words to describe my clones).

Twenty drafts is a lot, but it was necessary because I was still learning to write. JANE'S SHADOW had three drafts between my desk and my agent's. This proves the old adage, "The more you write the better you write."

Working On JANE'S SHADOW

I'm on draft 3 of JANE'S SHADOW and to the stage of editing where I actually minimize the pages and go hunting for gaps. That yellow highlight is a missing scene. Actually, it's a whole chunk of missing scenes that either were deleted during the second draft purge or didn't exist until I added a subplot last week.

For a book that was supposed to be with my betas and my agent on the first there are quite a few gaps.

On one hand.... YAY! I'm almost done! I can't believe how long it takes to write a decent book!

On the other hand.... HELP! I'm going to die! It's not done and it takes forever and seriously? Ten months of work and someone like me is going to read it in a couple of hours.

I always feel a bit bad about how fast I read. I know exactly how hard it is to write a book and I feel guilty I don't savor the pages and appreciate the artistry. But, then again, I plowed through the Lourve in a couple of hours when I was 13. Some art is best appreciated at high speeds, ya' know?

Wish me luck! In a few days those yellow highlights will be several pages of [SPOILERS]!

The One Thing You Must Not Forget

If there is one writing rule I hope new authors pick up reading my blog I hope it's this: NOTHING GOES ON SUBMISSION BEFORE YOUR CRIT PARTNER SEES IT.

Nothing.

You never, ever send writing to an editor, agent, or contest without letting someone else read it first.

I don't care if your name is William Shakespeare and you've been writing sonnets since 1592. You run that past someone else. Spell check ain't good enough, Willie. You get another pair of intelligent eyeballs on those words. No excuses.

Sending your work out without having someone else read it is like showing up to a firefight with one bullet. It's begging for failure.

You might actually be better off NOT sending that piece on submission, because at least then no one will blacklist you for being an illiterate cretin.

I know it's tempting to send your first draft into the world. To unleash your brilliance on your eager audience. But the fact is: authors are blind to their own mistakes. Your brain is lying to you. It's seeing commas where none are because it knows the commas belong there.

You need a crit partner. Find them and let them read before you do anything with your manuscript. You'll thank me later.

NaNo Craziness Abounds

How's November treating you?

I'm (obviously from the lack of blog posts) a little busy. The good news is: Even Villains Have Interns is just about put to bed and I should have cover art soon. *fingers crossed*

The bad news is: JANE 2 is not going as fast as I was hoping.

It's not a bad thing, per se. Rough drafts are tricky things at times and if going a little slower means not having as many editing SNAFUS than yay! But it means I probably won't finish the whole 80,000 word rough draft this month. That was a pipe dream any way and right now I'd happily settle for the 50,000 words from NaNo and finish the manuscript in December. I've never written 80k in a month so why I thought I'd do it this month while prepping for a move I don't know.

.... okay. I do know. I wanted to write 80k this month because it would make my life so much easier if I could spit out 5,000 words a day without feeling like the words were horrible or the draft dead or shooting myself from stress.

There are authors who do that. Five thousand words or more, rain or shine, in sickness and in health, on holidays or on vacation. I admire and respect those people but I have no idea how they get it done. I imagine they have a better method for plotting their books than I do.

But, where there's a will there's a way. The book will get written. And edited. And edited again. And edited fifty more times after that. Edits are what make a rough draft a finished novel worth reading.

A Novel Way To Edit

Do you know what my least favorite part of writing a report was as a kid? Writing the bibliography. It was tedious, and dull, and I never knew where to stop with the commas. And apparently I'm not the only one who felt this way because some smarty pants out there went and wrote a website called EasyBib.com where you enter a URL and it writes the bibliography for you. You can enter a book's ISBN number or title and get the bibliography.

Seriously, my kid showed this to me and I turned green with envy!

That isn't the only fun trick she's learned at school. Modern age editing for 6th graders includes a crash course in Google Translate. Eldest's teacher has them put their paragraphs into the Google Translate, set it on English, and see if GT thinks they're missing any words.

This isn't the most sophisticated way to edit a story, and it's not the end all and be all of editing, but if you want a quick check, Google Translate isn't a bad way to go. At least you'll know you're writing as well as a 6th grader.

The Edits That Never End

I'm sure I've talked about this before. Probably more than once, come to think of it. Editing is a mucky mire and it's very easy to get lost in the muck. And, after much thought, I've come to the conclusion that editing is a learned skill. I've never met an author who can edit instinctively.

Yes, there are some brilliant grammarians out there who know exactly what to do with a comma (whereas I survived high school English by putting apostrophes over the s and using horrendous handwriting to hide spelling errors). And there are some people who know if their bones how to pace a good story. Their are those who are born understanding how well placed conflict creates the stepping stones of a story... but none of these people can do it all.

Most of them fall apart in content edits.

For those who don't spend all day thinking about fiction (what's that like, by the way?), a content edit is where you shape the story. It's the emotional arc, the pacing, the action, the mood and content of the narrative. And it's really hard to get right.

A lot of people think of editing as fixing typos and adjusting comma placement. That's a line edit. And sometimes it's the only edit an author does. It's a basic beginner mistake: you finish Draft 1, run spell check, and call the book done! Whee! So easy! Why is it taking Big Famous Author so long to write their book?

Well, probably because practice and wisdom lead authors to believe there is no such thing as a finished book. Seasoned authors often fall into the trap of constantly tinkering with edits. Just one more change. Maybe rewrite that chapter again. Maybe, you know, start over? Who knows!

It takes a lot of deadlines to train an author to let go of the book. The more you write, the more you think you need to edit, and the less you recognize Finished.

Sadly, I don't know where I am on this spectrum. Am I giving up the edits too early? Am I well past finished but unable to recognize it? Is this book a lost cause? Am I actually performing CPR on a headless body of a book?

The only way to know is to turn in the edits and see how much my editor yells.

...

... I should probably buy her a present. What kind of chocolate makes bad books look good?

Octopus Dreams and Other Omens

Pictured: Not an octopus.

 Back in college I had a reef tank, or rather WE had a reef tank, it was a joint project between me and my roommates and then later me and my husband (who is also a permanent sort of roommate). In our tiny two bedroom apartment on the east coast of Florida the couches pointed towards a reef tank. Guests would first give me a funny look, and then sit down, and then a few minutes later start screaming that a rock was moving, or something just waved at them. There were Christmas Tree worm and Xenia. Mandarin dragonets, a dragon wrasse, and a flame angel all came to live with us.

During our travels we've tried to set up the tank everywhere we go. I daydream about corals the way the cliched cheerleader in a the after-school comedy line up dreams about shoes and dating the quarterback. It isn't always possible to set the tank up, sometimes we're too far from a good supplier, sometimes we won't be in one place long enough to set up the tank.

Pictured: Still not an octopus.

Time is crucial for reefs. They are a hobby that requires patience. Before you even think of buying the fish you need to get the water ready, then layer in the sand and live rocks, the teeny tiny things living on the life rocks need time to grow and build a healthy population, then you might be able to add some corals, and then a tester fish or two, damsels are good but some people prefer chromis...  but you don't need the technical specs.

Right now there's a 55 gallon tank in my living room. We never set it up because half the equipment was broken in the move, and because starting a reef tank requires a significant monetary investment and the budget is tight, and because when we arrived we weren't sure how long we would be here.

Still, the other night I dreamed I was fish shopping. I was soooo excited! And even though I know how quickly you can overcrowd a 55 gallon tank I was buying fish up left and right. Pretty soon I had a cart full of plastic bags filled with swimming jewels. I packed them all in my car and drove home to my unprepared tank.

Pictured: OCTOPUS!!!!

This was nerve-wracking. In my dream I was wringing my hands and I could feel my blood pressure rising as I worried about how I was going to get everything done in time to keep my precious fish alive.

As the fish died one by one I woke up in a panic. Why had I been so stupid? I know better! I KNOW BETTER!It was a horrible feeling knowing I'd killed those wonderful creatures because I was in such a rush to have a reef tank.

Possibly the worst bit were the octopuses, three little baby octopuses that I had no business buying (even in a dream) because they don't belong in a tiny reef tank.  The vivid dream of them lying helpless and dying as time and oxygen ran out gutted me. Nothing should suffer like that!

As I grumbled my way out of bed, cursing my own dream stupidity, I had a moment of perfect clarity. My subconscious has finally found a way to communicate without using "return to high school" nightmares. I spent this week thinking about querying JANE DOE again. There's pitch contests and an agent posted a description on the #MSWL tumblr that seems a perfect fit for my manuscript. But it's not.

Because JANE isn't ready. In fact, I'm not sure JANE will be JANE much longer. Editorial feedback from various agents has led to some editing to make this book the book I really wanted, but either didn't have the patience or skill for the first time. I rushed into querying. I thought I was ready, and I was good enough, but not great. Better than average, but not flawless.

Worst of all is that the manuscript I originally queried last October isn't exactly what I wanted it to be. It's close, very close, but it's a Shadow of the true thing. Which means I can make my manuscript better, perfect it, and this time plan ahead so my manuscript doesn't die from over-eagerness the way the fish in my dreams did.

Patience is the best strategy in the long run.

The Sign Of Three

Getting back to writing and schedules after a month of loafing around with the family at the beach is hard. Part of me wanted to roll over at six this morning, throw the alarm clock at the wall, and sleep for three more hours. That's why my phone is my alarm clock, I'm aware of exactly how much that sucker costs and I'm not going to break it. Cheap alarm clocks die quickly.

A month away from everything - the gym, my schedule, regular writing sessions - means my hard won control and focus is gone. After thirty minutes my brain was switching from writing to breakfast. And even after breakfast I found my concentration was withering away. I got twitchy, opened a new browser tab. Then another. Then another.

That's my sign of three... if I have more than three browser tabs open I'm either researching or procrastinating. When I'm supposed to be editing the first 3-10k of a book today, that's not good.

I got up, I found more food because I was still hungry, fed the kids, started a load of laundry, got dressed for the day, double checked the gym schedule to find out what class I could make today... Somehow I convinced myself that I could shake off the frustration with this edit and come back enthusiastic.

I wandered over to Hey, There's a Dead Guy In The Living Room because Jeff Cohen is awesome and I love his books and the Dead Guys always have something good to say. They did. As always. And I remembered that the fastest writer doesn't always win in the long run. A rushed book is a rushed book, and sometimes what the book really needs is a slow simmer, not a fast boil.

Staring at a blank screen isn't working. Writing is the tip of the iceberg, the penultimate action, followed only by editing. The first step to writing a novel is coming up with an idea and then thinking it out. The same holds true with editing. Sitting down to stare at a messy manuscript won't work if you don't know what you're supposed to edit.

So... I'm making notes. Reading through. Trying to find what needs to editing and what was cleaned enough with the last edit.

Editing: It Never Ends

Editing Once More

I got this question a couple of times on Twitter so I'm answering it here.

"Shouldn't you finish editing before you query?"

Yes, yes you should. And I did to the very best of my ability as of last October when I began querying JANE DOE. In the nearly eight months since I finished that round of edits on JANE DOE I've written three more books and worked with a new editor who had some amazing insight into my writing style.

You see, I'm good with dialog. It's something I've been told by many people I do well, and my editor pointed out that I was using dialog as a crutch. I wound up rewriting several scenes for the short story that's going into this summer's anthology because I'd relied on dialog to carry the story without bothering to give a description, setting, or show the character's emotions. That's not a good habit to form.

So when the last several rejections for JANE DOE came back as "This is really good, but I don't love it enough." I decided to go back through and see if I'd relied on some of the bad habits I've been working on in the past half year.

Turns out, there were. Six months ago is a long time in my world. My best work six months ago isn't the same as my best work today and that's how it should be. If you're writing daily, editing daily, working on something every day six months is over 500 hours of work (give or take depending on what your daily work time is). For me... that's about 500 hours of improvement.

So JANE DOE isn't up to standard. Neither is the query.

Both are good, but they are no longer Best.

So, yes, I'm editing again. I'm putting JANE DOE on querying hiatus for a few weeks while I make sure it's up to my current standards, and then I'll look at the painfully short list of agents who rep sci-fi (FYI - there's no way to send 500 queries if you're querying SF, not unless you query each person 5-6 times) and see where JANE will be happy.

I know what I want in an agent. Agents know what they want in books. Now it's a matter of skill and a bit of luck. And if it luck doesn't strike while I query agents I'll turn to the smaller presses and see which editors would be a good fit.

In The Deadline Dungeon

I don't mean to neglect you, dear blog readers. You know I love chatting with you and blogging. But I'm in the dungeon. I have deadlines. I need to finish editing these stories. If you desperately need a dose of Liana in your life (and who doesn't?) I'll be on Twitter off and on - @LianaBrooks - and you can always spy on me on Tumblr (where I don't blog but I do post cute things occasionally).

I hope to be back at the end of the week with good news for you. The Edit That Never End might actually come to an end!!!

Working the Negative

When you lift weights it's not uncommon for the trainer to remind you to "work the negative." This means that you don't let the weight drop on the release movement and instead control the downward motion. This prevents injury and gives you a better workout.

Outside of the gym Working The Negative is the active form of making lemonade with the lemons life hands you, turning a negative situation into something that makes you grow. In writing this means learning to understand why your "failed novel" is actually a good thing.

The Trunk Novel
Never get involved in a land war in Asia. Never go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line. Never tell a published author that your writing sucks and use your trunk novels as proof, they will beat you in that game every single time. Every author of note has trunk novels, abandoned stories lurking in the depths of the harddrive or in a box under the bed. Every single author I know has novels, short stories, and ideas that will never see the light of day.

These aren't a sign of failure. The stories you tuck away were a learning experience. No, maybe they weren't the Next Great Novel, but they are a stepping stone the Next Great Novel. Keep writing them and eventually you will have a story that you can polish and publish.


The Rejection Letter
Is there a tale of greater woe than this of the author sobbing over a well-phrased rejection letter? For too many authors the rejection letter is the epitome of failure. It has become the ultimate proof that the book smells worse than rotten eggs. Authors parade their rejection letters in front of writerly friends, "I suck! I can't write another thing! Look at this rejection letter!" Which is a lot like me sobbing and deciding I've failed at life because I only have one husband instead of an all-star harem. By Rejection Letter Logic you and your writing are only good if EVERYONE loves you.

Hop off that train and get back to reality. Rejection letters are like typos, everyone has them. A rejection is proof you're trying to get your work out there. No, not everything you write will get published. Some of those rejections will turn into trunk novels. There's no shame in that. You're working the negative and learning.


The Bad Review 
Every once in a blue moon I see an author declare their career over because they've received a negative review, or a slew of negative reviews. Bad reviews hurt, we all know that. No one wants to have their hard work vilified. But you're not going to please everyone, and sometimes authors rush ahead with the heady excitement of creation and publish something that isn't one hundred percent ready for the readers. Even if your book is flawless you're going to attract the Review Trolls who hate your book because of the price, or because you wrote a strong female character, or because you wrote an all-male cast, or because none/all/some of your characters are not the same age/race/gender/nationality/religion as the reviewer.

Take the negative reviews in stride. If a book is panned, learn from it. If you attract Review Trolls roll your eyes and be grateful that your life isn't so pathetic that you need to go around insulting authors for fun.


A Bad Day
Some days you are on fire, you hit your goals, your scenes flow from your fingertips like magic, and the whole world is your muse. Other days you stare at the blank screen in horror and the only words to appear are utter dross dredged up from an infantile muse that doesn't understand basic grammar.

Don't stress it. Everyone has ups and downs in their life, it's called having a pulse. When you flatline you're dead. So run with the bad days even when they are consecutive. You're alive. You're writing. You are trying to do something. That's what matters.


When you hit a rough patch this week, as we all inevitably will, Work The Negative. Take whatever good you can find in the situation and put it work making you a stronger, smarter, better person. You got this.

How To Be A Good Critique Partner

Critique groups abound, especially as NaNoWriMo wraps up. The crisp, cold weather of winter combined with the frenzy of writing a novel in a month spawns writing groups like there is no tomorrow. New writing groups are wonderful, but not all critique partners are created equal.

The horror stories about bad critique partners turning a book into a chimera are all over the place. If you have nothing better to do one day, ask me about it on Twitter when I'm in a talkative mood. I have stories. But this post is about how to make yourself a better critique partner.

1) Know the Expectations
Before you start any editing project you need to know what the author wants. The wrong critique at the wrong time will kill many a good book before it's finished. Ask the author before you start what they want. I offer levels...
-- "Just a look" where I read it over and give a thumbs up or down. This is perfect for rough drafts and cheering on an author struggling to complete a project.
-- "Look for plot holes" where I read and point out inconsistencies in the plot line, plot holes, and correct basic spelling and grammar errors with a note (ie - note: comma before proper names in DL)
-- "Shred it" where you nitpick every single word and flaw. This is an edit for a final draft. Every word and movement is under the microscope for nuance and meaning, and I only do this with an author who is subbing the piece in the next 6 months. I wouldn't attack a first draft like this ever.
-- "Final Edits" reading the piece out loud and looking for grammar and spelling errors exclusively. This is for a clean copy that's days away from being submitted. It's not uncommon for authors to add a spelling error while editing.


2) Know the Audience
Before you can critique you need to know where the manuscript is headed. As a critique partner the book isn't written for you, it's written for a reader somewhere out in the great, big world. You need to be the reader's advocate and make sure the book turns out well enough that someone who doesn't know the author can enjoy it.


3) Know the Market
Fuss all you like about artistic rights. If an author wants to publish a book they need to know the market expectations (word count, content, common tropes, ect) and so does their critique partner. A good critique partner is going to red flag a mid-grade manuscript that goes over the 60,000 word limit. You also need to be familiar with the genre your partner writes in. What happens if you and your buddy both write horror and then, one day, your partner decides to write epic fantasy YA? You either start reading epic fantasy YA, or you find your buddy a new critique partner who knows the genre. Trust one who has been mismatched with critique partners before, it's not pretty when someone edits a sci-fi manuscript with YA expectations. *shudder*


4) Trust The Author -or- Don't Cut To Early
Never tell an author a scene doesn't need to exist until you've finished the book. There's a habit in writing groups to rip and shred before reading, and it doesn't work. Yes, that opening line needs to be amazing, but the only legitimate comment you can give about the validity of an opening chapter is, "This works, I'm hooked." or "I'm not hooked yet, I'll keep reading and maybe there's a better opening." (Hint: check chapter 3)


5) Leave The Voice
The novice mistake of critiquing is to rewrite the book in your own words. Resist the urge. Every author has a unique voice, don't squish it into oblivion because you'd compare love to a summer's day and the author compares love to a rosy sunset.


6) React
Ninety percent of the notes on a good critique are reaction notes. "Oh My Gosh!!! I can't believe Character just did that!" ... "Love it!" ... "I laughed here." ... "I'm picturing him naked, which I know is wrong. Rewrite." Reactions let an author know if things are working. A large, and often overlooked, portion of editing is leading the reader down a path of emotions and reactions. If the author wanted a scene to be warm and cuddly and it's coming off with a stalker vibe, the author needs to know. Don't get caught up in the But-The-Author-Told-Me trap. Readers are not going to have a two hour conversation about this scene with the author. They won't know that the author wanted the guy to be authoritative and demanding. The reader will see a stalker scene, not an authoritative male being Alphahole-ish but sweet.


Do you have anything to add? What makes a critique partner great? Hit the comments and tell me all about it.

This is the edit that never ends!

Dear Liana,
  I enjoyed EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE, when's book two come out?

Reader


*curls in a ball and sobs*

*peeks at Reader*

Do you know I wrote a song about Book 2? It goes like this...

THIS IS THE EDIT THAT NEVER ENDS! IT GOES ON AND ON MY FRIEND! I STARTED WRITING THIS, NOT KNOWING WHAT TO DO, AND I'LL CONTINUE WRITING THIS FOREVER JUST BECAUSE.... THIS IS THE EDIT THAT NEVER ENDS!!!!!

If you sing that constantly for three or four hours you might be able to hit the mental state I'm currently in with my EVERY HERO NEEDS A VILLAIN edits. I've rewritten this book twice. I've ripped it's guts out, edited, polished, and then decided to repeat the whole process again.

Why?

Because it's not Right yet.

It's Good, but Good isn't Great. Good isn't RIGHT. Good isn't PERFECT. And I won't be happy until this book is perfect, even if it means I sing THIS IS THE EDIT THAT NEVER ENDS! twenty billion times a day and rock in the corner with superhero action toys while I try to work out the next fight scene (true story).

I think the End is Nigh. Even the Mayans predicted that I would finish the edits by December 21st. Check their calendar if you don't believe me. And I did tell my betas they could yell if I didn't have the edits to them by the 15th. So... if everything goes as planned... Book 2 is coming out in Late Spring 2013.

And, if everything goes according to Liana's Master Plan! you will get Book 3 Winter of 2013.

*throws confetti in the air*

Now, I'm going to crawl back into my deep, dark editing hole while you, Dear Reader, go play in the sunshine safe in the knowledge that there are books in your future. #HaveACookie
-Liana

Editing Out Loud

For years I've heard authors sing the praises of editing out loud. Literally reading the book out loud as they edit. It's been described as the miracle cure for everything from spliced commas to errant detail changes. For all I know, it cures baldness and wandering eye too.

But, no matter the hype, I wasn't willing to convert.

Editing out loud? READING MY BOOK OUT LOUD??? I'm not that kind of crazy. My kids would point and laugh at me! Besides, I can edit just fine reading silently...

Or so my argument went. For years. Literally, years.

This past week I broke down and tried reading JANE DOE out loud as I did a final edit before querying. Can I just say: AWKWARD!

I'd start reading and the baby stared at me like I was going to do flips. Bug repeatedly came up to me, "No, Mommy. No talking. Quiet, Mommy. NO, MOMMY!!!" My older girls checked my temperature and asked me if I was okay, and they started listening, which was even more awkward.

JANE DOE isn't a romance, but it isn't a kid's book either. One of the characters has PTSD and several characters are in adult relationships. There's no on-screen sex, but that's not the same thing as no on-screen thinking about sex, on-screen talking about sex, or on-screen not-quite-sex.

Let me tell you, if you thought kids giggling outside the door when you tried to get hot and heavy with your spouse it's really no comparison to your ten-year-old walking up to you mid-debauchery scene and asking, "What's erotic exhaustion?"

Um... well then. 0.0

She knows the basics of the birds and the bees, but that wasn't a conversation I wanted to have with the rest of the kids listening.

So. Very. Awkward.

However, if you can get past the awkward audience interaction, this is a great editing tool.

It's a lot easier to spot awkward phrasing when you get tongue tied over a phrase. Finding repetition is a breeze. Typos jump out at you. And, though I didn't expect it, I found it was easier to find logic flaws, plot holes, and out-of-sync details while reading out loud. Processing with a different part of the brain makes those things more apparent I guess.

Reading a book out loud takes longer than skimming through. I can polish off a regular novel in a few hours if I'm reading for fun. Out loud... yeah, not so much. I've spent the week reading a 90,000 words manuscript and I'm 73% done. I hope to finish today, but we'll see what SNAFUs I encounter. Chapter 26 was an unholy mess that required a exorcism to fix. Chapter 30 was, quite surprisingly for the content, very well done in my opinion. It read very well and the transition from nightmare to reality flowed well.

Is it worth it?

Yes, despite all the awkwardness of having an audience, yes. But save the read aloud for the final drafts. I'd hate to see how bad a rough draft sounded. Wait until the book is as polished as you think it can be, so very near perfect that you can taste it, and then read it out loud to get the last few bumps smoothed out.

Happy writing!
Liana

How to Get Professional Book Edits For (almost) Free - Formatting

There was some discussion earlier this week on whether or not formatting counts as a form of editing. As a former newspaper editor whose job included doing layout (formatting) for the newspaper I'm going to say it is a form of editing.

Formatting your manuscript for submission (I always giggle when I type that) or publication is a level of editing. It's the absolute last thing you do once your i's are dotted and your t's crossed. You take your perfect, edited, revised, and rewritten manuscript and format it readability.

This is not the time for funny fonts, creative indentations, or impatience. Unless you're publishing a book of poetry, don't get creative. Times New Roman or Courier 12 point font. Double-spaced. No tab indents, use the little arrows at the top of the page.

Step 1: Do Your Research
I can't think of any reason why you should pay someone to format for you. Yes, it can be time consuming and tedious to check everything and make sure you don't have some wonky error on page 297, but impatience is not a good reason to hand over cold hard cash for this. Grow up and do your own work, Slapdick.

The Masquerade Crew has an excellent break-down of why it's better to just do this yourself. It isn't as scary as it sounds.

Step 2: Get Your Ducks in a Row
Before you can format there are a few teeny-tiny details that need to be taken care of. Namely, cover art and a title page with copyright information. If you're not publishing with Smashwords you also need to go buy an ISBN. If you're an author from outside the United States who is publishing in the states you need to figure out the tax laws.

Step 3: Format All The Things
Set aside a couple of hours to do this the first time. With REAL LIES I went back and republished something because I had one line that was still out of place after I uploaded. It's easy to notice on a short story with ten pages, it's going to take more time to clean a full manuscript. But it's worth it.

I recommend using this series to get you started. Don't buy a book, just turn on YouTube and follow along. I found the whole series HERE.

Formatting a Manuscript, Part 1: Page Set Up and Text

Formatting a Manuscript, Part 2: Page Breaks--

Formatting a Manuscript, Part 3: Paragraphs--

Formatting a Manuscript, Part 4: Cleaning things up--

Formatting a Manuscript, Part 5: Page Numbers--

Formatting Your Manuscript for Amazon Kindle--PART 1--

Using Mobipocket to Format Your Book For Kindle--PART 2--

For Smashwords...
For Nook...
And a General Work Shop for Formatting Manuscripts...

Once you've learned how to do this, it becomes easy. It's just a matter of taking the time to do it correctly. Your readers will thank you when they can read without strange symbols or crazy breaks in their sentences.

How to Get Professional Book Edits For (almost) Free - Looking For Line Edits

In my last post I talked about the three kind of edits you need, and how to get content edits for free (or nearly free). Content edits are key if you want a tight, well-written book, but they aren't the edits that the average reader will know you need. No, the average reader who picks up your self-published novel isn't going to comment on Voice or pacing, but they will notice all your typos.

Misspelled words, abused commas, transposing hear for here or mixing up write, right, and Wright are the things that will drive your readers away in droves. Grammar errors in your blurb are going to get you teased on Twitter. I promise. It will happen. I'll probably be the one doing it.

It isn't that professionally edited books are typo free, they aren't. And I've heard plenty of authors excuse their poor editing by pointing out that Big 6 authors have typos. They do have errors, and the errors are glaring because everything else is perfect. What you don't want is to have everything in your book look like it was written by a five-year-old.

Step 1- Know When To Line Edit
Some people get confused on this. I saw someone at my library writing group who proudly announced her second draft was flawless, she'd paid someone to do line edits already and she wanted to share her work with us before she published. It was a nice thought, but she received feedback from the group that made her decide to rewrite a large portion of her story. With the rewrite came new comma errors, and another line editing bill.

Do not line edit until the final draft. Wait until everything else is set in stone, then get line editing help.

Step 2 - Don't Forget Spell Check
Spell check shouldn't be the only editing tool you use, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't use your spell check. When you're done with your content editing, run the spell check and weed out the obvious mistakes.



Know How To Use A Comma
- The best way to make line editing free is to know how to use punctuation and words correctly. If you're the product of the public education system in the United States of America I strongly suggest you take a refresher course in the form of a good grammar book from the library or a free trial of the The Chicago Manual of Style. It doesn't matter if you can write essays, scientific papers, and newspaper articles, that's a different style of writing than fiction and you need a refresher course. Get one.

Find The Grammar Nazi
- Somewhere in your life is the person who attacks state park signs with permanent markers because the missing apostrophe drives them to acts of vandalism. Bake this person cookies, buy them a set of red pens, and hand over your manuscript with the cookies. You've made their day! You get free editing and good karma!

Find An Aspiring Editor
- I'll tell you a secret, none of the family pictures on my walls were pictures I paid for. They look professional, and they were done by professionals, but I didn't pay for one of two reasons. Either I gave the photographer the right to use my family photos as advertising material, or I let my family pose for an aspiring photographer who wanted to get practice.

You can do the same thing with aspiring editors. With the self-publishing boom editing has become a lucrative business. It's time consuming and a little boring for the average person, but there are people who love nothing better then whipping commas into place and fixing my then/than errors. There are people who want to start editing professionally but need a client base to build from. These people may not edit for free (they might if they like you - it doesn't hurt to ask if they can cut you a deal if you've known each other for awhile), but they will be cheaper than the professional editor whose been doing this for ten years and already has a client base.

Go Ahead And Pay
- Editing is usually the most expensive part of self-publishing. Most people are paying for line edits, not content edits. You need these edits. If you can't get them from contests, friends, or aspiring editors you need to pay full price. If you can't pay, start writing query letters. Small presses, agents, and editors will copy edit for free. There is no excuse for putting unedited work up for sale. Pay for the editing, on way or another.


But I don't know any editors!
I've heard that one too. Here's a partial list of editors on Twitter. If you'd like to be added to the final list please leave a comment below.
@sirra_girl
@JLyetGassman
@kristycolley
@JeanJAuthor
@annacowan
‏@Limecello
@RuthDiazWrites
@StaciaSeaman
‏@luannstaheli from Precision Editing Group (first 10 pages free for new clients)
@tmycann (7-21cents per word depending)
‏@CA_Marshall

I'll add to the list as more come in. Before paying for editing see if you can get a few page sample edit. Make sure you know what you're paying for, and sign a contract that defines pay, results, and time. I haven't used any of these editors, so it's Buyer Beware. You can try asking for a list of past clients and checking sample pages, I imagine most reputable editors will be happy to share their past work unless they've signed a non-disclosure agreement of some kind.

Tomorrow: Editing for Formatting

How To Get Professional Book Editing For (almost) Free!

Editing...

For the sake of argument let's pretend that everyone who stumbles onto this post is an intelligent human being who knows what editing is and why books need editing. Next, let's assume you're looking for professional editor because you've decided self-publishing is the right route for you. Also, for the sake of argument, let's pretend you are dead broke and can't afford a few thousand dollars for a professional editor for your manuscript.

Because of the cost many frustrated authors feel that their only option is to muddle along as best they can, publish the book, and then release updated editions as readers point out the flaws. This can work, but it tends to alienate readers and gives you a very bad reputation. Read Krista D Balls' I Ain't Your Beta Reader for the full argument. You don't want to be that author.

Luckily for you, there are ways to skip the expense of a professional editor and the shame of being a slapdick author who wants money for a rough draft.

Step 1: The Lost Art of Patience
I kid you not, this is what kills most self-published authors. This is why you see agents on Twitter reeling in horror because someone is querying with a half-finished novel. You know what happens when the rejections roll in? Slapdick throws up an obscenity-laced post about gatekeepers and publishes the first 1/3 of their novel the very same day.

This won't work.

I could write a whole post on why this won't work, but I won't. Suffice it to say that slapping up your first few chapters of an unfinished work is about as tactically sound as shooting yourself in the foot before a major land offensive. Don't do this. Susan Jane Bigelow wrote about the anxiety of writing sequels a while back. Read up on that if you don't understand what a bad idea this is.


Step 2: What Kind of Edit Do You Need?
There are new authors who think there is only one kind of edit. I try not to laugh at them.

Edits come in at least three forms: Content, Line, and Formatting. Content edits look at what works, what doesn't, and consistency. These are the Big Picture edits, and the chances that you'll find a professional editor who you can pay to do content edits are slim. Especially if you want cheap content edits. Line edits check for grammar and punctuation. Formatting could arguably be something you do yourself, but if you don't know how to format a book you either need the patience to learn or to find someone who has already learned.


Conning For Content Edits
Content edits are the most expensive, the hardest to come by, and the edits that most self-published books need but skip. Honestly, this is the biggest deal breaker for most SP series I've started. I read the first book or two, the author improves a little, but at some point they gain a solid readership, build traction, and their writing flat lines. They start making the same predictable mistakes again and again and again. If you ask them, most will say they have a crit partner who does content edits.

This is great, I love crit partners, but I know from experience that they aren't perfect. There's a good chance your crit partner is your friend, they think like you, and they will miss the same mistakes you will. Case in point: EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE. The manuscript went through two my favorite crit partners before I sent it out, and then my first editor found a line that implied one of the villains was burning people alive. That's not what I meant! And my crit partners knew I didn't, so they didn't mark it as a problem. My editor had me change it.

EVFIL went through those two crit partners, two editors, a line editor, and the formatting editor and, you know what, there's still a typo in one of the chapters. A sharp-eyed reader called me on it and I had hysterics for a good twelve hours.

Now, imagine how bad all of that would be with just one reader who reads all your work and knows how you think. That's the problem with limiting your content edits to one person. The good news is that content edits are some of the easiest to get for free. Here's how...

Join a Critique Group
- Shop around until you find a writing group that meets your needs. If the group is online make sure that it's a password protected site so you don't lose first rights. This isn't a big deal for self-publishing and most small presses, but it will be an issue if you decide to look for an agent and a Big 6 deal.

Author Swap
- If a large writing group isn't your style look for several authors who are in the same boat as you are. Try to build a team of different personalities and writing styles so you have people looking at it from every angle.

Serial Novels
- This will appeal to those without much patience, but just enough not to be a Slapdick Author. Serial novels are only for work that you intend to self-publish, and take advantage of the blogosphere to get readers to help you edit. Most novels that started as fanfiction (like FIFTY SHADES OF GRAY) used this method of editing. What you do is write a chapter a week and post it on your blog. Readers come and read, the comment, they tell you what they want to see, and catch your typos. Once you've finished the novel you take it off your blog and sell it as an e-book.

Contests and Auctions
- This is one of the most under-utilized areas, possibly because it isn't always free, possibly because new authors aren't as plugged in to the publishing community as they need to be. If you follow the right people on Twitter (i.e. literary agents) you'll see weekly tweets about contests where tweeting about their author's book can earn you a free query critique, or first five pages critique, or something similar. Crits for Water and the Brenda Novak charities both offer authors a chance to win critiques from authors, agents, and editors for a fraction of what you would normally pay for a line editor. Yes, it can be pricey, but it's cheaper than the alternative and even a partial critique can give you what you need to whip a book into shape.


Tomorrow... Looking for Line Edits

A 15 Minute Editing Lesson

What if you could change Episode I of Star Wars? Wouldn't that be nice?

As it turns out, someone decided to sit down and see if they could turn the big screen mess into something resembling a good story. After I stopped laughing (because it was that awesome) I started wondering if this guy was free to do a novel critique. All of my early novels look like Episode I in the first draft.

Honestly, most rough drafts look like this. Authors throw everything at the page just to see what sticks. Editing keeps books and movies from becoming junkyards of the imagination. With a little but of editing, and the ruthless ability to kill your darlings, even the worst drafts can become good stories.

Watch...



Did you see what he did there? Let's review the major points...

1) Pick one main character but develop all of them.

2) Get the audience emotionally invested in the characters before threatening them.

3) Stick to established universal truths (laws of magic, the Force, or whatever)

4) Streamline your action

5) Make your antagonist interesting and keep always up the ante

6) Make the story believable. Teen falls in love with grade schooler is just creepy, but teen and other teen falling in love? See, that I can believe.

Content Edits - Behind the Scenes With EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE

Once you announce that you've sold your book you will get one of two questions...

1) How much did you make?
2) What do your editor notes look like?

The first question comes from everyone outside the publishing industry: family, friends, neighbors, the guy in the checkout line that you started talking to because you needed to tell *someone* that you'd sold a book...

The second question comes from all your friends inside the industry, the aspiring authors and the ones struggling through the heaps of rejection letters.

EVFIL is contracted with Breathless Press. They are a small e-publisher which means no royalties. I don't pay anything up front to publish like I would with a vanity press or self-publishing, but I don't get an advance like I would from a Big 6 publisher either. So the answer to Question #1 is... I'll know once I see the first royalty statement and the book starts selling.

The answer to the second questions is this...


My editor has a RTF (rich-text format) draft of EVFIL in Word. After I did the format editing she read through and made comments, moved sentences, and added my missing commas. There were also comments off to the side. All of this is done with the Review function of Word.

I treat edit each draft a little bit differently because the needs of the book tend to change. For the first draft I use my worksheets and try to get a broad overview, for a polishing run I'm looking at minutiae and picking the Best Word instead of the Spelled Correctly word. My usual approach for notes in Word is to open my draft, open the draft of notes, and go page by page correcting everything. This time I did something different.

Content Editing With Notes!

Step 1: Don't Panic
Seriously, the book is under contract and no editor is going to break contract via editing notes. Take a deep breath and move along.


Step 2: Read Everything
Read the notes, the changes, and the text. Before you start editing see if there is anything you disagree with or need clarification on. Beta-readers and editors are there to make suggestions, and 99% of those suggestions are going to be wonderful and make your work shine, but there's always that 1% that doesn't sit right. Also, there's a good chance a comment later in the book will give you an idea for a fix in chapter one.


Step 3: Add Notes
Not to your draft that you'll be working on, but to the same file with the editing notes. Like so:
The editor's notes are in purple, mine are in pink. There were several places where the editor asked me to clarify or describe something better. I used the notes section to respond to those questions, either by making a list of sensory terms that applied to the scene or doing some research so I could explain an aspect of a science theory in better detail.


Step 4: Save Everything
Never skip this step. Save. Back up your files in USB and in the Cloud. Do it. Do it now!


Step 5: Edit
I opened the last draft of EVFIL I'd worked on, saved it under a new name, and started going page-by-page through my annotated editing notes. By this point you'll fully understand what needs to be done and the process should be streamlined enough that you can edit with ease.


Step 6: One Final Read
Before handing your manuscript back over to the editor or your betas run spell check again. It doesn't matter how amazing you are, fingers slip. Run spell check, reread, and make sure you've addressed everything before sending.

Deadline Met!

Excuse me while I collapse into a babbling heap of brainless babbling. The edits for EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE are done and off to the editor.

People, never ever EVER schedule a deadline to coincide with your due date. Seriously. I can't remember the last time I've done something this crazy, and I've done some pretty crazy things over the years. But spending the last twelve hours doing a final read through checking for new typos while I time contractions and wondering if I'll have to finish the manuscript while I'm at the hospital? That's a new kind of crazy.

On the bright side, several of my regular readers, friends, and Tweeps have survived to the final round of editing. As have a few inside jokes that only I may appreciate. I should probably make blog buttons or t-shirts for the survivors: I Survived A Liana Brooks Novel!!!

As an added bonus, trying to figure out some tricky back story for EVFIL led me to start writing the full story of how the main characters met. With any luck, you may see this (currently untitled) project someday. I'm having a lot of fun playing with this superhero universe and I might just stay awhile.

Cover Art Reveal for EVFIL Coming Soon!