The Proofreader's Parlour
A blog for editors, proofreaders and writers
 Online writing courses Just a quickie ... a member of Louise's Writing Library asked me if I'd put together a list of online writing courses. It's a work in progress and I'll be adding new resources as I become aware of them. If you think I've missed something, drop me a line at louise@louiseharnbyproofreader.com. You can access the current list via the Self-publishers page on my site, where all the library resources live. Just look for Online Tutoring for Self-Publishers: Writing Courses and click on the image to download the free PDF. Until next time ...  For instant access to more self-publishing and indie-author resources, visit my Self-publishers page. Or join the library to get monthly updates. Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.
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 I'm so, so grateful to Ray Greenley for taking the time to write a comprehensive primer on audio-book creation for me! It's absolutely brilliant. Ray's a professional voice artist (he's the narrator behind, among other audio books, Philip K Dick's The Unreconstructed M and Other Stories) but he's a fab writer as well. I love listening to audio books, but creating them? That’s quite another matter. And yet I wanted to know more, and I figured some of you would too. And because it’s one of those aspects of self-publishing that’s just too expensive to get wrong, I felt that my writing a guide to the process simply wouldn’t do. I wanted to offer you something that would give you in-depth, honest and usable insights. That way, if you do decide to create an audio book, you can do it right. I hoped a professional narrator could furnish you with those insights, and Ray hasn’t disappointed. The following article is an excerpt from the full 26-page primer. At the bottom of the post there's information on how to access Audio-book production: A primer for indie authors from an audio-book producer. Enjoy! (And thank you, Ray!)  An introduction from the voice artist, Ray Greenley Hello, dear author! Congratulations on your latest book! Have you considered having an audio book of your work produced? If not, you should! More and more consumers are buying audio books for a variety of reasons, and audio-book sales are booming compared to digital print sales (see Resources: Kozlowski). As an author, you absolutely want to be a part of that growing market. But audio books are an entirely different beast from print books. Getting into a new market is always intimidating. Where do you even start? I’m here to help. I’m an audio-book narrator who has worked with indie authors to produce audio-book editions of their work. In Audio-book production I give you a high-level look at what you need to know to get your book produced as an audio book. In this post, we're focusing on platforms and prices. There’s work to be done, but it’s probably not as difficult as you might think. Read on! ‘So how can I get my book produced as an audio book?’ It wasn’t all that long ago that virtually all audio-book production was handled by a few big publishers, and getting your book produced was probably a similar feat to getting a big print publisher to publish and distribute your book. That’s all changed. Getting your book produced as an audio book is easier now than it’s ever been. Probably the biggest factor in that change is a site called ACX. That stands for Audiobook Creation Exchange. It’s run by Audible.com (the world’s largest distributor of audio books, and owned by Amazon.com). It’s essentially a meeting place where rights holders (that’s you!) can list their books in order to find producers (like me!) who are interested in producing the book as an audio book. Producers (that’s the term used by ACX; consider it synonymous with narrator for the sake of this discussion) can see the listed book and submit an audio audition for it. The rights holder listens to the auditions and can offer a contract to the producer they think will do the best job. Once the producer accepts the contract, they produce the book and submit it through ACX. The rights holder can then listen to the book, and if they approve it, it gets prepared for release. ACX manages the contract, the payment of royalties, and distribution to the associated platforms (Audible.com, Amazon.com, and iTunes.com). ‘That doesn’t sound so bad, but cut to the chase: How much will all this cost me?’ Cost is, of course, always a factor. With ACX, there are multiple options that allow virtually anyone to have their book made into an audio book. But as with many things in life, you often get what you pay for. First a quick note that there is no fee from ACX for registering on their site or for listing your book. They get their money on the back end once the book goes up for sale, so they just want to encourage as many books to be produced as possible. ACX allows rights holders to offer producers two types of contracts: Pay for Production and Royalty Share. Note that regardless of the type of contract, the rights holder always gets full ownership of the audio produced. A Pay for Production contract means that you’re paying the producer a flat fee for their work. Once you’ve paid the fee, the audio book is published and you’ll receive royalties from sales of the audio book. So what’s a typical fee? Well, first off, the fee is based on the length of the completed audio book. When you offer a contract, you agree to pay a certain amount Per Finished Hour (PFH) of the audio book. So if the audio book ends up being 10 hours long, you’ll pay the agreed-upon amount times 10. What sort of PFH rate can you expect to pay? Well, it depends on the type of talent you’re looking to attract. If you want a top-rate, full-time professional narrator, you can expect to pay around $300 PFH, or even more. ‘Wait, what!? That means for my 10-hour book …’ … you’d pay around $3,000, yes. Sounds like a lot, right? Well, it is a lot, and I touch on why that number is what it is in the full ebook. But for now, let’s get back to the discussion on cost. Because you don’t have to offer that much for a Pay for Production contract. You can offer less, and are likely to get producers willing to record your book for less. Just keep in mind that as you go lower in what you’re offering, so the caliber of producers you attract to your project will change. I’d say that once you get below $200 PFH you’re pushing out of the zone where most quality producers feel like they can get a reasonable return on their time, but that may not always be the case. A quick note: There absolutely can be an aspect of negotiation with regards to the contracts you offer. ACX doesn’t care what the final number is. That’s entirely something to be worked out between you and the producer. ‘I really don’t want to put up that kind of money. Is there another option?’ Yes, there is! It’s the Royalty Share contract that I mentioned above. In this contract, you don’t pay the producer anything up front, but instead split the royalties on sales of the book with that person. ‘Hang on – I can get my book produced as an audio book without having to actually pay anything?’ Yes, that’s pretty much it! Sounds great, right? ‘It sounds too good to be true. What’s the catch?’ The catch is that the top producers are VERY selective about the Royalty Share contracts they’re willing to accept. It takes lot of time and effort to produce an audio book, and producers who are trying to pay their bills and feed their families with money from their work won’t take a second look at your book unless it has a record of strong sales. Even if your book isn’t breaking any sales records, you can still list it and are likely to get some auditions. Just be realistic about the kind of producers who are going to be sending those auditions. They may be low on experience, talent, or both. That’s not to say it’s a hopeless case. We all have to start somewhere. Once upon a time, I was that producer who was low on experience and sending out my first auditions. The author who picked me to narrate my first audio book was an indie author who had just written his first book. While I’ve learned quite a bit since that first book, and there are definitely things I would do differently now, I’m still proud of my work on it and the critical reception has been overall quite positive. But it’ll be entirely up to you to make that determination. Just as ACX allows rights holders to sign up and post their book for free, they also allow anyone to sign up as a producer and send in an audition for free. And I do mean ANYONE. Do NOT assume that just because someone is a Producer on ACX that they actually know what they’re doing. In the full edition of the ebook, I offer guidance on how to assess whether the narrator/producer is doing a good job. For now, thanks for reading! Resources
Contact Ray Greenley Website | Facebook | Twitter Audio-book production: A primer for indie authors from an audio-book producer This 26-page primer includes over 5,000 words of guidance from Ray, a professional voice artist, on the following:
 It's available free to members of Louise's Writing Library. To get your copy, simply join the library. Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. For more self-publishing resources, visit my Self-publishers page. Or join the library to get monthly updates.  Managing the process of book cover design So you’ve written, edited and prepared your book’s interior for your preferred distribution channels. Now you need the cover. And, as I know all too well, being able to write in no way qualifies one for being able to design. When we’re self-publishing, there are some parts of the process that are, for most of us, best bought in. When it comes to book jackets and digital covers, that means talking to a designer. Whether you decide to do it yourself or hire a designer will depend on your budget. Either way there are some design basics that are well worth bearing in mind to help you make your book wow itself. Great words compel your readers to finish your book ... A great cover compels them to start it. Chris Hamilton-Emery, design director of The Cover Factory and co-founder of the gorgeous independent publisher Salt (based here in mostly sunny Norfolk!) has been kind enough to share his expertise (and his fantastic sense of humour!). The advice below will help both the self-publisher and those looking for publishing contracts. Chris's core mantra? Avoid being dull.  Design by committee For authors with a publishing contract, it’s not uncommon for a team to be involved in briefing a designer – they may not be acting as a team, but there’s often one involved. ... A sales manager who has her eye on that cover that’s on display in Book Bonanza’s shop window. ... The marketing manager who keeps up with the new trends and the language around covers: ‘It needs some spacy calmness for the furniture to show up the title text.’ ... Perhaps the bookseller: ‘Put a snake on it in a herby sort of border.’ ... The managing director: “We don’t do serifs or colour at Gubbins & Potsdamer.” ... And then there’s the production manager, the print buyer, the design manager. Everyone has something to add to the sauce, not least an expectation of stellar sales. Then someone rings the author. “He says blue reminds him of his dead mother, and the goat is the wrong breed.” Which all goes to say that cover design has its contexts. The person that truly matters is, of course, the reader – yet a cover has many important audiences before we reach that goal. That’s because it’s the chief means by which people make their investments in the book in the supply chain long before the bound paper book block (or its digital sister) touches the shelves. A cover signals commitment from the publisher (even if that publisher is you, the author); it signals desire among booksellers; it signals prospects among the supply chain, and its critics and reviewers. Many will be spending their money before anyone has read a word. For those with publishing contracts, it’s entirely possible that the author will have no contractual say in the matter, though few publishers would be brave enough to go to press with a cover that an author despised.  To boldly go? Many covers are compromises and copies, and covers, like many parts of our modern lives, are influenced by fashion. A cover that breaks ranks and stands out has as much chance of failure as success and so many covers play it safe. Being bold can also mean being ignored. As one friend put it, ‘The cutting edge is also the bleeding edge.’ Some markets have their own design universes, like crime, or romance – and it will take a brave soul to depart from the conventions of the genre. Yet we all aspire to good cover design, and we all recognize that in the fiercely competitive environment of today’s global book trade, a cover can really help make a book work, by which we mean, distinguish itself. Whomever compiles the brief has no easy task; they will be serving the multiple masters listed above and trying to find a way forward to inspire a designer to deliver a pot of gold in the shape of a small rectangle. The brief Do provide a synopsis, but not necessarily the entire book List three powerful visual moments. List one or two key visual themes. If the book had a palette, of which colours would it be comprised? How would you like readers to react to it? Do not ask for your entire book to be illustrated on the cover ‘There must be a gold sky with twenty-six ravens, and a golf house, a small bus, traffic cones and a trifle, but no jelly. And on the trestle tables, bunting. And a seal. There are two main characters, one tall, the other taller, each has a mole. They are wearing jacquard ties. They must be shown in front of the thirty-seven villagers, all attempting to get into a train. The train is going to Doncaster.’ Hmm. Detail is the great enemy of good design. Yet so, too, is needless abstraction. ‘Can it be wavy green with splashy washy bits? Except blue.’ Inspiring a great design can frequently be found in seeking out the monolithic and iconic message a successful cover often presents, ‘If she had eyes, they would be stones.’ Leave plenty of room for the designer to imagine, to take risks, and above all to surprise you with their own art. Never ask a designer to work up your own ideas. If you have ideas, especially strong ones, express them as visual journeys. Don’t offer destinations. Ask questions Perhaps the best way to ask questions is to show things that you believe work for you – other covers that appeal, especially ones relevant to the text. Create a visual space for the designer to work in, and add your brief to provide context and challenges. Good questions expose the problem, good questions get to the central, even the reductive, theme of the book. ‘If there was ever a home like this, it would be a songless house on a wet hill with a red rat at its heart.’ So, again, ask for three visuals, perhaps some early sketches, to see where things are leading. Or be bold and say, I am prepared to be surprised.  Consider the compulsion factor It’s also important to know the mechanics of a cover – once it’s passed through its committees and is en route to the bookstore, its role really comes into its own. Among the tens of thousands of books being put in front of readers, in stores or online, the cover’s job is simply to attract the browser, that momentous millisecond of compulsion that makes someone pick the book up, read the blurb and break open the spine. Or scroll down a page and click Look Inside. Think of it. You spot something, your eye stops its movement, you lean forward and pick up the book, you turn it over and read an endorsement, your eye flickers, you read down. Ah, it’s about the last water mill in a land of drought ... You open the book and a journey begins (one that starts at the till). Think back. The cover merely had to stop you moving on and its work was almost done – such a simple and perplexing thing. Would something more complicated have worked better? Something less fussy? Something less drab? The essentials ... Not everyone can afford a £3,000 cover budget; nor are they willing to have a six-month internal circulation list for everyone to argue over within a publishing house. You may be going it alone; you may be self-publishing. The problems are still the same – your cover must be distinctive, distinguishable, memorable, singular and arresting.
Free fonts can help in devising sketches. Test your ideas out with professionals. Don’t test them out with friends. Look at your cover in the context of your competitors. And give it time. If you’ve spent years writing your book, at least give a few months to considering the cover. Be aware of your own prejudices. Be aware of your own tastes. Pay attention to space and position, to colour and clarity. And if your book is to be printed, above all, remember the spine, for this is what most readers will see. Don’t mistake a poverty of design as the representation of authenticity. Don’t over elaborate, either. Look at your cover from twelve feet away; can you recognize it, read it?  Working with the designer ... Let’s roll back through these notes towards a design. If we’re using a designer, we want to enthuse and inspire, we want to ignite not instruct. We want to understand the context in relation to other covers. We want to be aware of those who will put our book in front of readers. We want the readers to pick it up or click on it. Whether we use a designer or produce something ourselves, we are all chasing something singular, clear and memorable. We are avoiding complexity. We are signifying the book more than illustrating its contents. Above all we are branding it. Remember that brands symbolise and represent complicated relationships and stories by simple means. Simple doesn’t mean dull. In fact, perhaps the best mantra is, don't be dull. The world needs its little moments of glamour. Chris Hamilton-Emery is Design Director at The Cover Factory: Web: www.thecoverfactory.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheCoverFactory Twitter: @thecoverfactory Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/thecoverfactory/
Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.
Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. In my latest guest article for the BookMachine blog, I take a look at how publishing professionals, from the freelance editor to the mainstream publishing house, can stretch their marketing budgets by repurposing one in-depth piece of amazing content. The fabulous Gordon Graham, otherwise known as That White Paper Guy, was my inspiration, and I'd recommend you take a look at his guidance on ways to create brilliant resources to make your clients' lives easier. Click on the stretchy guy to read the article in full!  Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.  How to make a living from self-publishing fictionThis week's post is a cracker. Self-published author Jeff Carson has kindly agreed to discuss his writing journey. Jeff's a mystery and thriller writer from Colorado. Writing is his full-time job and he makes a living from his self-published series. That's a dream for millions of independent authors; below, Jeff shares 11 tips on how he turned that dream into a reality. If you're at the start of your self-publishing adventure, this is definitely for you! My name is Jeff Carson and I’m the author of a series starring David Wolf, a cop living in the fictional town of Rocky Points in the Colorado Rockies. Right now, I’ve written ten books in the series.  When I first started out writing, I remember being tormented at night by questions swimming in my head (and by mosquitos … at the time, we were in Italy for a year, and they were thick that summer, I tell you). Questions like: Can I really do this? Can I make a living at it? Is this just a waste of my time? What if everyone hates the books? By finding a few people online who’d made a success of becoming a self-published author, I was able to get a lot of my questions answered and some inspiration that propelled me towards making a living as a fiction writer. I despise playing the guru, and I’m cringing a little as I write this, but I have accomplished the goals I laid out five years ago. So I have to say that I feel l’ve succeeded in the self-publishing realm. There are others, many others, who would scoff at my level of accomplishment, but this blog post isn’t for them. This is for those who are in the position I once was, in that sweat-soaked Italian bed. Here are 11 things that have helped me succeed as a self-published author. 1. I want to make a living doing this That’s been the over-arching goal from the beginning. I wanted my paycheck to come from writing. I wanted to make money twenty-four hours per day from people reading my books. I’ve met many people who approach writing as a therapeutic tool for their lives. That’s fine. But 100% of people who write get the therapeutic benefit. One only makes money from it if it’s a goal. You don't wake up with a horse one day by random accident. There’s a lot of intention and action that goes into suddenly having a hay-eating animal roaming around in the back yard. Same thing goes with earning a living from writing. 2. I wrote a book series I learned that if you want to make money from writing fiction, the odds of success go up dramatically by writing a series. Since my goal was to make money with this gig, naturally I wrote a series. Harlan Coben is the exception, not the norm. On this note, I learned the hard way to not leave books ending on a cliff-hanger. I'd done this with book one and received a lot of negative reviews. I’ve since fixed the novel so that all story goals are resolved and it ends completely. In my series, my characters grow and their lives change from each book to the next, but I try to make each book a stand-alone. This helps with marketing, too, since anyone can pick up one of the David Wolf novels at any point in the series and feel grounded and up to speed. 3. I over-estimated, or realistically estimated, the level of work it would take to achieve my goal (of making a living writing) I knew that one book in a series, the first book I’d ever written and published in my entire life, would make no money. Pessimistic? It’s not. First, I was learning how to write a story. Second, I wasn’t expecting to gain a wide audience with a single book taking up a single slot in the vast Amazon universe. I knew book one was the hook – the mouth of a funnel – that would lead to the rest of the books in the series. In fact, I knew I was probably going to offer the first book for free. I needed multiple books in multiple categories grabbing people’s attention, all of them leading readers to the other books sitting in other categories. The series would act as a big net. I figured that after three books I’d be making some ‘extra money’. I hoped that after five I’d be making enough money to quit all other work and concentrate on writing only. Then I doubled that number. Therefore, I created a goal of writing ten books; then I’d judge the venture one way or another. In reality, after five books I was able to write full-time and make a full-time living wage. Now that I’m on book eleven, my goals, expectations, and earnings have elevated.  At the beginning, I felt that if I set my work expectations too low, I’d become discouraged, and fast. Because if after, say, four books I was still irrelevant and making nothing, then my hopes would be dashed. Some people would call a ten-book ‘realistic expectation’ pessimistic, but in my mind it’s the reason I kept going when, after three books, I’d known months that wouldn’t have paid for a week’s worth of groceries. 4. I concentrate on what I want every day I’ve filled two college-ruled notebooks with lists of my goals. Every day (or most days) I open up a notebook, list the writing goals/life goals with specific deadlines, such as when I’ll finish the first draft and when I’ll publish, and then I get to work. I learned this technique by reading this Brian Tracy book on goal-setting: Goals! How to Get Everything You Want – Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible. That book definitely changed my life. I'd never even had goals before reading that book. Now I always set goals. Deadlines always get pushed back, which would be depressing if I let myself to think about it. But the system doesn’t allow for that. Each day is a new sheet, and a new list of goals with either the same deadlines or adjusted deadlines. Looking back on previous lists of goals is not permitted. 5. I read the bad reviews This is a biggie. I’ve heard some authors say, ‘I just ignore the bad reviews.’ I adopted that stance for quite a while, actually. But there’s always something to learn from a bad review. In fact, I think it’s dangerous and irresponsible if you ignore the one- and two-star shellacking some people take pride in giving out between hangover-induced trips to the bathroom, the sons of bitches. Some people get specific – ‘Nice try. A Sig Sauer P226 doesn’t have a safety! Amateur writer at best. I will not be reading another piece of filth by this author.’ So, fine. You skim past the amateur comment and go fix the book so that the special agent DOESN’T flick off the safety as she steps out of her SUV. I think my books are orders of magnitude better because of the bad reviews. I figure that if somebody came up to me on the street, pointed, laughed, and criticized my outfit, I’d shake my head and move on, not in the least worried about that person a few steps later. But if her criticism is, ‘Your fly’s down … oh, yeah, and your pants are on backwards. Idiot,’ well, then, I want to know that. 6. Screw it. I don’t need social media Early on, I adopted the stance that I needed to write my way into relevance as a writer, not tweet, post, or whatever my way into it. Once I adopted this mindset, a weight lifted off my back. I hated it for some reason. I couldn’t get a grasp on social media, so I just let go of it. My investigation leading up to my decision showed a correlation between how much an author published books and how successful they were, between how many positive reviews a book had and how successful it was. I could check an author’s success by looking at the rankings of their books on Amazon and other market places. There was no correlation, however, between how present people were on social media and their book rankings. In fact, more often than not, I saw that people who were successful had all but abandoned their social media accounts. In contrast, there were people all over Twitter and Facebook, with hundreds of thousands of friends/followers, and books lost in obscurity. Clearly there are exceptions, and some people have great success with social media, but my reasoning was: you write your way into being a writer. I rarely post on Facebook, and when I do, it’s usually a link to my new books – classic poor social media behavior. Screw it. I don’t care.  7. I am accessible I respond to every communication sent to me. I think this is huge as a writer, or as a person in general. Nothing irks me more than somebody simply not responding to something. The most surprising thing about writing, and that I sometimes get all teary-eyed about, is the amount of love people will send your way after they’ve read your novel. People will click on the email address (which I put in the back of the book) and contact me, telling me how much they like my book. For me to not say thanks is plain psycho. Plus, it’s just good business. People who like you are more likely to share the news about your work. 8. I have a newsletter email list This is one of those things I heard people preaching – you have to have an email list of readers – but never did anything about. It took me four freaking books to finally put my email list in place. But I finally did, and that’s when I was finally able to write full time. It only took two days to write and publish a short story, which I give away on my blog as a thank-you if somebody signs up for the new-release newsletter. Now, when I have a new release, I launch the book to thousands of people, versus dropping it into a field of crickets. 9. I write in sprints first, edit later This is one of those huge game-changers for me. I was getting upset sitting in front of the computer every day but only coming out with one or two thousand words. Now, I write in sprints, which means I write in thirty-minute blocks, take a five-minute break, and then do it again. Using the backspace button is not allowed (a rule I break all the time … my OCD won’t allow David Wolf’s name to be Wols for more than a few seconds). It took me six or so books to employ the sprint tactic, and now I’ll never write any other way. 10. I have a self-editing PLAN After tapping out a real crappy draft of a terrible book, then going back through a few times, editing, ironing out inconsistencies, tightening up descriptions of dead bodies, etc., I have in the past simply read and re-read the book, then tweaked until I felt it was ‘as good as I can get it’. I’m ashamed to say, it’s only been recently that I’ve implemented a self-editing plan. The plan is something like …
11. I hire an editor who does it for a living, for a rate that allows her to do it for a living After seven books, going through three editors, and becoming frustrated with the service I was getting, I realized that I needed to hire an editor who was an editor and only an editor, and who charged a rate that clearly allowed her to feel properly compensated. The alternative is hiring somebody who does the work on the side for cheap. They’re pressed for time. They’re secretly (I imagine, because I would be) pissed off about being underpaid for a job that deserves more money. The equation adds up to a poor editing job on the finished product … suspicious stretches of pages – five, ten at a time – without a single mark on them. The saying goes, ‘You get what you pay for,’ and it can get tricky when paying for editing services. For years, I tried to get away with paying less. And I definitely got less. ... In today’s publishing environment, I know that, for me, every bit of advice helps. I hope at least one of the tips above helps you on your journey to becoming a successful self-published writer.  Where to find Jeff and his books
For instant access to more self-publishing and indie-author resources, visit my Self-publishers page. Or join the library to get monthly updates.  Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.  If you’re at the beginning stages of your writing career, you’ll still be navigating your way through the world of publishing. And you probably have a ton of questions. One of those will likely be: What kind of editor do I need to help me get my book ready? The natural follow-up to that is: How do I find that person? I offered guidance on what kind of editor to hire and when in ‘The different levels of editing. Proofreading and beyond’. Today, I’m focusing on how you should source that person. So as not to muddy the waters, I’m assuming you’ve already decided what kind of help you want: developmental, copy/line editing or final prepublication proofreading. If you’re still not sure, I’ve included a PDF that summarizes the different levels of editing at the bottom of this article. Now let’s look at how to find the right person. My recommendations fall into two categories:
 Search (1): Professional associations Your national editorial society is a great place to start, for four reasons:
The UK’s professional editorial association is the Society for Editors and Proofreaders and there’s a global list here: Professional societies and associations. A limitation of national professional editorial societies is that they’re national. There’s absolutely no reason why you should source editorial help from someone in your own backyard. Many editorial pros work with clients from all over the world. Search (2): The internet The internet is the biggest and most amazing directory on the planet so it’s a brilliant place to search. Your perfect-fit editorial pro is out there, just waiting for you to touch base. There’s a problem, though: the internet is the biggest and most amazing directory on the planet so it’s a terrible place to search. Your perfect-fit editorial pro is buried, waiting for you to dig her out. Go too broad with your keywords and you might miss her. Go too narrow and … yep, you might miss her. Of course, you might find her, too. As Google sometimes prompts us: are you feeling lucky? And there’s something else to bear in mind – and I say this as someone with page-one Google rankings for the term ‘proofreader’, so it’s not a case of sour grapes – being high up in Google doesn’t mean the proofreader or editor is necessarily the best fit for you; it means they’re an effective marketer. And, conversely, just because someone’s website is ranked highly for niche long-tail keyword searches doesn’t mean that another person who didn’t pepper their website with those particular terms isn’t worth considering, too. That means you need to do a lot of Google legwork to find the best fit and to get a really good batch of potential people to work with. I’m not saying don’t use the internet. Its global nature is an appealing feature, one that the national editorial societies can’t compete with. I’m saying recognize its limitations. It’s amazing but it’s crowded, so you’ll need to invest some time to make it work for you. And that’s why I’ve given professional associations the number-one slot in this list of search options. Search (3): Your network If you’ve developed a solid network of fellow writers, that could be a super resource from which to get recommendations. Bear in mind, however, that the best fit for your writer pal is not necessarily the best fit for you. It’s a small resource given the size of the decision. You might be writing in a different genre, or you might need help with a different level of editing. Some professional editors specialize in one or two levels (e.g. proofreading and copyediting; or developmental editing and manuscript evaluation). Others offer all of the levels but still feel most comfortable in one or two. So tap your network for advice, but back it up with other searches. Search (4): Social media Social media platforms can be useful. They’re global but they have their limitations:
Here's a summary of the tools you might use to search for an editor or proofreader:  Now let’s take a look at how you might refine your initial searches. You’ve found 37 developmental editors or copyeditors or proofreaders … whatever you need. All of them look great – they all have experience; can spell properly; are well educated and professional; and have a keen eye for detail and the appropriate training and qualifications. How are you going to narrow that down to something manageable? Refine (1): Genre experience One way is to look at their portfolios, which tell you whether they’re used to working with books in your genre.
Refine (2): Best versus best fit – samples Best versus best fit is worth considering when it comes to choosing third-party editorial help. At proofreading stage, you need precision; it’s all about quality control. At the earlier stages of editing (e.g. copy/line) emotional engagement will come into play. It’s therefore a good idea to ask for a sample (either free or paid for). A sample will allow you to see who ‘gets’ your writing. Sentence-level tweaking is subjective to a degree (when it comes to suggesting minor recasts, for example) and it may be that five editors all spot the same typos and grammar errors but handle the wordiness rather differently. It’s not about right or wrong, but rather about responsiveness. Refine (3): Endorsements A third narrowing-down technique is to look at what other writers say about a proofreader or editor. Take a look at their testimonials. Have other writers been prepared to publicly endorse the editorial pro? Have mainstream publishers stuck their necks out and praised the work? Testimonials aren’t a foolproof way of determining excellence; like portfolios, they give you a glimpse of what the editors have done, whom they’ve worked with and the impressions they’ve made. They’re just one way of evaluating what’s on offer. So that’s it – a potted guide to finding a proofreader, copyeditor or developmental editor. I wish you luck with your search and with your writing journey! Here’s the information on the different levels of editing I promised. Just click on the image to download. 
Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. How do mainstream publishers produce books? And should you mimic them? Help for self-publishers15/5/2017  How do mainstream publishers produce books? A lot of my self-publishing clients tell me they don’t understand what happens in the mainstream publishing industry’s editorial process. So when I advise them that – if they have the budget – they should do their best to mimic it, they’re in the dark. Today’s post aims to switch on the lights by offering you an overview of the editorial production chain. It should give you a sense of why books take so long to get to market and what some of the costs are (to the publisher and even to the author!). Every press’s editorial production chain is slightly different but the broad principles apply. A note on scheduling … and marketing In the mainstream publishing industry, books are commissioned and scheduled for publication often up to a year and a half in advance, sometimes longer! That time frame isn’t down to the publisher being busy with other stuff; rather, it’s about giving the relevant team members the necessary time to take the book through a rigorous editing process and carry out a staged prepublication marketing campaign. TOP TIP: When self-publishing, instead of promoting your book at the eleventh hour, plan and implement your marketing campaign well ahead of launch. That way, you can create a fan base and generate excitement about your novel before it goes to market, even pulling in some pre-order sales.
3. Design #1 When the key members have agreed that the correction stage is complete, the raw-text files are handed over to a typesetter (if the book is to be printed). This is where the first proofs are created. The typesetter formats the book so that the layout conforms to the agreed house style and is designed so that maximum use of the page space is made. Printing is very expensive so minimizing wasted white space is a key factor in the process. The typesetter needs to balance costs against aesthetics. This is the FIRST PROOF stage. The first proofs are essentially a first draft of what the finished product will look like when it’s picked off the shelves in a bookshop. The completed first proofs are delivered back to the production manager. KEY MEMBERS: Author, production manager, typesetter 4. Proofreading The production manager sends the first proofs (perhaps a chunk of paper but increasingly a PDF) to the author and the proofreader (usually a freelancer). Both will check them carefully. The proofreader may be asked to proofread blind or against the original raw-text files worked on by the copyeditor (the latter is much slower). The proofreader’s job is not to make extensive changes, but rather to draw attention to any final spelling, punctuation, grammar, consistency or logic problems missed at earlier rounds of editing or introduced during the typesetting stage. Every change the proofreader makes or suggests needs to be handled carefully in case it has a knock-on effect on the design, the page count and, consequently, the printing costs. It’s demanding work that requires experience and judgement about when to change and when to leave well enough alone. Some publishers even pass some of these costs back to the author – eek! This is the QUALITY CONTROL or CHECKING stage. The proofreader does not amend the raw text but annotates the paper or digital pages, often using proof-correction markup language (a kind of shorthand that looks like hieroglyphics to the untrained eye!). KEY MEMBERS: Author, production manager, proofreader, typesetter 5. Final revision: Design #2 Now the proofreader’s corrected file and the author’s version go back to the production manager, who has to collate all the final amendments and instruct the typesetter to make the necessary corrections. The typesetter creates a revised file and returns it to the production manager for sign-off. This the SECOND PROOF stage. We’re nearly there! KEY MEMBERS: Author, production manager, typesetter 6. File creation and distribution (print, digital or both) The final countdown! The production manager works with the typesetter and printer to create the final print book that will be delivered to the relevant distribution channels. In the case of e-books, the production manager will commission a digital formatter to create e-Pub files that are compatible with the market’s major e-readers and other digital devices. This is the PUBLISHING stage. The book is delivered to market! KEY MEMBERS: Production manager, digital formatter, typesetter, printer The elusive publishing deal and the editorial process As you can see, there are a lot of stages and a lot of people involved. And that’s why it takes so long and why it’s so expensive to publish. It also explains, in part, why writers can find it so hard to get a mainstream publishing deal; if the book bombs, there’s no return on all that investment. For publishers, novels that need a lot of work, or that don’t fit neatly into an obvious and currently popular genre, are difficult to sell (the high-street bookshops don’t know where to place them to grab readers’ attention). Should you mimic the mainstream publishing industry's editorial process? Mimicry will bring you quality – there’s no doubt about that. It’ll also require a major investment in time and money. We all have to make difficult choices about what we do to make the things we create the best they can be. But there are limitations. I’m passionate about the independent author’s right to write, and I know that your pockets aren’t bottomless. I hope this has shed some light on the mainstream publishing process! Until next time …
Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.  If you’re new to writing and self-publishing, I have a tip for you – one that will save you a major headache as you work through the initial writing and later redrafting stages of your novel ... Create your own style sheet! Honestly, you won't regret it. Building a style sheet is like holding hands ... but with yourself. It'll help you keep track of what’s going on in your novel – who’s who, what’s where, and when X, Y and Z happens. At the same time, you'll be able to record your preferences for the micro elements of your book ... things like spelling, punctuation, the rules about the way your fictional world works, and how you treat the various elements of the text (from paragraphs and headings to narrative, speech and thoughts). Want a template to help you get going? No problem – there’s one at the end of this article. It’s in Word so you can add, delete or tweak to your heart’s content. Ready-to-go downloadable handholding! To help you out, I've added some of my own recommendations (based on industry-recognized conventions) and offered choice where appropriate. What’s included in a style sheet? You can include anything you want but a solid, usable style sheet that'll really help you keep an eye on what's going on will include at least the following:
Some writers like to have everything in one place; others prefer to have several documents, each of which records different types of decisions, and toggle from one to another. It’s your choice – whatever helps you work most productively. So, for example, you might create different sheets for the following:
Additional uses A style sheet really comes into its own if you're writing a series. Not only will you have a reminder of the places, people and events in the previous book(s), you'll also be able to prevent accidental inconsistency or repetition. I've proofread series for both indie writers and mainstream publishers. The authors hadn't kept a written record of what had gone before, and different copyeditors had been used for each book.
Copyeditors and proofreaders can spot these problems when they occur within a single book, but if they weren't hired for the previous novel(s), they'll be ignorant of inconsistency or repetition across the series. Your style sheet will enable them to flag up potential errors. In other words, a style sheet won’t just help you. It’ll help those who assist you, too. And the more we know about what you want, the better the service we can provide for you. Rules versus preferences Your decision is final at the end of the day. And while I and my colleagues can give you advice based on industry-recognized style manuals such as The Chicago Manual of Style or Oxford’s New Hart’s Rules, those resources are not the law (though they are excellent!). Rather, they’re reference points that help writers and editors bring clarity, consistency and readability to text; they’re usually based on preference and convention, not rules (despite the title of the Oxford guide mentioned above!). If you're not sure which particular element of style will suit your book best, talk to an editor.
The thing to keep in mind is this: inconsistent styling will distract the reader and move them away from what they should be engaged with – your story. If you have any questions about issues of style, drop me a line in the comments. Even if I don’t know the answer off the top of my head, I’ll know where to find it and advise you accordingly. Here’s your style-sheet template as promised. Simply click on the image below to download it. I hope you find it useful. Until next time ... 
Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.  Polishing your text and building fans Readers who've enjoyed your book are more likely to leave positive reviews and come back for more. Readers who've been frustrated with aspects of your book are more likely to leave negative reviews and reject further opportunities to engage. One way of thinking about these groups of readers is in terms of zones. The happy readers are in the green zone, the grumpy ones in the red. Thinking in terms of these zones can help writers to decide which editorial services to commission, when and why. Readers have different expectations and levels of knowledge. If there are problems with the text, some won't realize. Or they will realize but won’t care. Others will care very much and be frustrated by the lack of polish.  Copyright Louise Harnby | Proofreader 2017 It's about putting your readers front of mind because they're your fans, the people who'll rave about you and tell everyone to buy your book. Fans hang out in the green zone. Let’s assume for simplicity that the readership is split evenly between those who don’t know or care that there are problems in the book and those who do know and care. Who’d want to alienate 50% of their readership? If you’re self-publishing, you’ll want to stay out of the red zone. That means getting your book in the best shape you can before you publish. Mimicking the mainstream publishing industry What you need to do to stay out of the red zone will depend on whether you’re a mature, developing or emerging writer and the degree to which you've mastered your self-editing skills.
These are the stages, broadly speaking, that the mainstream publishing industry takes its books through to keep its authors in the green zone. In reality, the production process varies from press to press, but it gives you an idea of the traditional approach. It’s not just publishing-house processes that vary. The terminology that independent editors use to define their levels of service provision differs widely too. For example, my pre-publication proofreading service is called Proofreading Standard. My copyediting service falls under the rubric of Proofreading Plus (and I include line editing when required). It’s therefore advisable to discuss what you want and what the editor can offer before the editing starts. The table below gives you a broad idea of the different stages (S1, S2 etc.) of professional editing and what they include. As you can see, I’ve allowed for a fair degree of overlap.
 Artistry versus wizardry Gandalf isn’t an editor or a proofreader; he’s a wizard! If he did my job, he’d be able to carry out all of the editorial stages above and find every single niggle, error and inconsistency in just one pass. That’s because he has magical powers – unlike publishers and independent editors! In the real world, though, you’ll have a budget, and some of you will have to make difficult decisions about which services to commission and which to omit (or how you're going to save up for everything your book needs). It’s not for me to tell you here where to invest your budget – universally applicable advice is impossible given the number of factors to consider. What I can tell you is that I've never been able to undertake a final proofread for a book that hasn’t been copyedited first. Proofreading is the stage where 90% of the sentence- and word-level problems (and 100% of the big-picture work) should have been fixed – it’s a final level of quality control. Furthermore, I've never finished a copyedit and told the author, 'That's it. It's perfect!' In a nutshell, good to go is unlikely to be where you’re at if you hire an editorial professional for just one pass. Good enough will have to suffice. I'm not being grouchy, just honest about what's possible. I'm a genuine advocate of the independent author's right to write and publish. I think it's brilliant that anyone can put their storytelling out there. My young daughter was publishing her own stories on WattPad before she was celebrating a birthday with double digits! How marvellous is that? As long as you understand what's achievable, that's fine with me! Guidance on making the tough decisions
That's it for this week. I hope you've found the advice here useful. Enjoy the green zone!
Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.  Can you proofread your own book? Truly, nothing beats a second pair of eyes on a piece of text, short or long. I know this all too well because I’m a professional proofreader and copyeditor, but I also write – books (yup, I've self-published four times), guides, booklets and blog posts. And I miss stuff – not because I have a problem with grammar, punctuation or spelling, but because I’m too close to the text. I see my own writing in terms of the ideas I want to convey rather than the text in front of my eyes. That’s why I hire fellow proofreaders and editors to help make my written materials the best they can be. I don't expect those people to guarantee perfection but I do expect to them to ramp up the quality (and they've never failed me). Here’s another thing I know – the better shape the file's in, the better the price. Editors and proofreaders are professionals and, though we love what we do, we have bills and mortgages too. So, very broadly speaking, the more intervention needed, the higher the fee. There are things every writer can do to tidy up a piece of text by themselves, though. I’ve compiled them in one handy resource: The Author’s Proofreading Companion. The steps in this toolkit won’t replace a rigorous professional developmental edit, line edit/copyedit and final prepublication proofread, but they will help rid your file of some of the nasties! Here’s what the Companion shows you how to do:
Just click on the image below to get your FREE copy!  Hope it helps! And come back soon for more handy tips and advice designed especially for beginner writers.
Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.  A potted guide to the different levels of editing ... If you’re a beginner writer and you’re planning to self-publish, you’ll be thinking about getting your book fit for market. Some of you might not realize that there are different levels of editing. And even if you do, you might be fuzzy about what distinguishes each service or what it’s usually called. No shame in that, believe me – even among professional publishers and independent editors the terminology differs. Consensus be damned! The irony that this lack of clarity and consistency exists in a profession that prides itself on, well, clarity and consistency isn’t lost on me or my colleagues! In an effort to untangle the issue, I’m offering you a potted guide to the different levels of editing – what each one deals with, what you might expect it to be called, and the questions to ask when you’re sourcing editorial help. At the bottom of the article is a PDF that you can download to your preferred device and refer to whenever you want. The basics Think of the editorial process like a play with several acts: writing, drafting, sourcing feedback from beta readers, self-editing, developmental editing or manuscript evaluation, line editing, copyediting, proofreading, publishing. The elements in bold are what we’re focusing on today. In a nutshell Basically, there are two levels of work going on – the macro and the micro.
What terms should you use when sourcing editorial help? There’s a question! My advice is that you explain what you want rather than worrying too much about what it’s called. This is because different editors define their services in different ways. Here are some examples:
Sorting out what you need
So, that’s it for now. I hope you’ve found this discussion of the different levels of editing useful. If there are particular questions that you want clarification on, drop me a line and I’ll do my best to answer them. As promised, here’s your potted guide! Just click on the image to download it to your device. 
Louise Harnby is a professional fiction proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.  Keeping your costs down I’ve worked with many independent authors. Some are experienced, some are developing, and some are absolute beginners. If you're in the early stages of your self-publishing journey, you'll probably welcome any help you can get. So in this article I'll summarize the problems I most often come across in beginner writing, especially in novels, so that you can raise your game and lift your writing to the next level more quickly. Also, paying attention to these issues at draft stage will reduce your third-party editing costs further down the line. Don't forget to claim your free copy of my Guidelines for New Authors booklet, which includes this article and a wealth of additional information for beginner writers. You can find the link at the bottom of this post! 1. Rushing to publish rather than hushing to polish Some new authors are so desperate to publish that they omit the drafting stage. Hush time means putting the book aside for a while and revisiting and self-editing with fresh eyes. If you don’t go through the drafting stage, you’re less likely to spot problems with plot, pace, readability and repetition. And that means your book will not be ready for the later stages of editing like copy-editing and proofreading. Editor and writing coach Lisa Poisso has some excellent advice on managing the drafting process strategically: How to revise the early drafts of your novel. 2. Overwriting Too much detail Some beginner writers don’t trust their readers to fill in the gaps. This results in writing that gives too much detail. The narrative becomes laboured, boring even. There are some excellent examples in Christina Delay’s 5 Steps to Avoid Overwriting (Jami Gold blog); it’s what Gold calls ‘giving too much stage direction’: Imagine if an author described a character traveling from a store to their home by listing every single action: ‘She inserted the key into the ignition. Turned the key. Waited for the engine to engage. Slipped the engine into reverse. Expertly maneuvered the car out of its parking spot …’ Gold recommends getting straight to the point – unless, of course, something important happens in the detail that’s key to moving the story forward. If it’s just detail that mimics the mundanity of real life, strip it out. Repetition Watch out for repetition, especially ‘wow’ words. If Jo thunders down the hallway, her face like thunder, you have a problem. If the reader is told that Mike is ‘in agony’ and ‘agonized’ several times in one paragraph, trim the fat (and think of some synonyms!). High-intensity scenes of fear, danger, desire or confusion are those most prone to repetition and over-explanation in beginner writing, usually because the author is worried that the reader might not understand what the character’s experiencing. Gold calls these ‘emotionally overwrought passages of purple prose’. When drafting, consider creating a list that features key moments of disclosure and emotion/response. By mapping these moments, you can see whether the descriptions lie in close proximity to each other, and whether you’ve already provided enough detail earlier in the book. Then you can cut accordingly. Less is more. Telling twice Telling twice is another consequence of not trusting the reader to fill in the gaps.
3. Logic flop Logic flop happens when writers try to avoid conjunctions (probably because they’ve been told that conjunctions are boring and shouldn’t be overused). This can lead to grammatical hiccups that disfigure the writing and trip up the reader.
The second, edited version introduces a conjunction that brings logic and clarity to the sentence. Conjunctions are a perfectly natural way to join connecting action clauses that happen one after the other, and don’t need to be avoided simply on principle. Don't be afraid to embrace them! 4. Reluctance to use contractions The use of contractions isn’t always appropriate, particularly when the writer wants to introduce formality (e.g. in a historical setting or in academic non-fiction) or emphasis. However, in contemporary novel writing, the narrative can feel laboured if contractions are excluded, especially in dialogue. In real life, people don’t say things like ‘we are going’ and ‘I would have liked to’ so it’s often better to offer the contracted form. If in doubt, say the words out loud. If the likes of ‘we’re going’ and ‘I would’ve liked to’ sound more natural in the context of your book, then use contractions. Readers won’t notice if you do, but they might stumble if you don’t. 5. Overuse of exclamation marks Take care not to overuse exclamation marks. Too many can be distracting and overwhelm the text. Exclamation marks can detract from the gravity of a statement, making it sound upbeat when a different mood was intended – tension, fear, anger, danger. If you’ve used the right words to convey the mood, the exclamation mark will often be superfluous. If you do decide that an exclamation mark is necessary, don’t use more than one. Compare the following:
6. Speech tagging problems – sighing, smiling, laughing Arlene Prunkl’s ‘Dialogue in fiction’ series is my recommendation for independent authors who want free, detailed guidance on managing fiction dialogue effectively. Part III addresses speech tags (among other things), though the whole series is well worth reading. Beginner authors can be reluctant to overuse he said/she said constructions, even though they’re the most discreet way of tagging. Prunkl says, ‘Your job, as a newer writer, is to show emotion through the dialogue words themselves, not through the tags.’ She therefore recommends avoiding tags such as ‘hissed’, ‘sighed, ‘laughed’, etc. – not because they’re not good words but because they’re not words that describe the action of speaking. To hiss is to make a sharp sibilant sound; to sigh is to emit a deep, audible breath that expresses relief or sadness; to laugh is to express amusement through spontaneous sounds and movements of the face; to say is to utter words – and that’s why ‘said’ is an effective speech tag. Take a look at these examples; the bold versions are clean, effective examples of dialogue tags that won’t trip up the reader.
7. Formatting too early Focus on making your book look beautiful after the bulk of the editing has been done. Fancy fonts and heavily designed text are difficult to work with at editing stage. Furthermore, the layout might have to be reworked if there are major additions or deletions to the text during structural editing and copy-editing. Word’s styles palette is sufficient prior to the design stage. You (or your copy-editor) can introduce consistency to the different elements of the book (chapter titles, headings, quoted matter, main text, captions etc.) in a way that’s clear and simple. 8. Unrealistic expectations of what’s possible in one pass Some beginner writers think that one pass – a ‘final proofread’ carried out by a third-party professional – is enough to guarantee absolute perfection. It’s not. The mainstream publishing industry doesn’t believe it’s possible, and nor should the independent author. If you hire a professional to proofread or copy-edit your Word file, and that file has not been through previous rounds of extensive and meticulous editorial revision, there will likely be thousands of amendments – spelling, grammar, syntax and punctuation errors and inconsistencies; layout problems with regard to spacing and paragraph indentation; inconsistency with regard to character names and traits, and across word forms. Don’t expect your editor or proofreader to say, ‘I’ve made 8,000 revisions to your document, compiled 67 queries, spotted four problems with character-history consistency, noticed two character-surname changes, offered 200 suggestions for alternative wording, and I guarantee that, in spite of this, I have not missed one single literal or contextual error.’ Get as many fresh eyes on your work as you can afford. If budget’s an issue, that’s fine, but make sure your expectations reflect this. Good luck with the self-editing process! And as promised, here's your freebie! It includes lots of useful guidance and links for newbie writers. I hope you find it useful. Click on the picture to get your copy. 
Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. BookMachine kindly invited me to write about proofreading and copyediting for independent authors who've already gone live with their book. In 'Post-publication editing for self-publishing authors', I discuss why some authors make the decision to work with editorial professionals post-publication, and how we might support them, all the while taking 'a tone that focuses on solutions, not criticism'.
Louise Harnby is a professional fiction proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. Here's an overview of just some of the resources available to writers in Norfolk (and East Anglia more broadly). It's quite a treasure trove, but perhaps that's not a surprise given that in 2012 Norwich became England's first UNESCO City of Literature. Festivals and events
Groups and organizations
Courses
Editorial support: proofreading, editing and indexing If you are looking for an editorial professional in Norfolk, you can find a qualified member by visiting the Norfolk Proofreaders and Editors Network (NPEN). Members offer a wide range of services including proofreading, copy-editing, structural and developmental editing, manuscript critique and evaluation, indexing, formatting, translation, and publishing consultancy. Independent publishers
Louise's Writing Library for Self-Publishers For more self-publishing resources, visit the library on my Self-publishers page. Or join the library to get monthly updates.  Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.  My new free PDF resource for independent authors is out now: The Mechanics of Self-Publishing Print Books: 10 guidelines in 10 minutes. Aimed at writers who want to do their own print formatting – using Word – this PDF toolkit helps the independent, self-publishing author to deliver a professional-looking book to market. The guidelines are based on my own experience of publishing three print books, and my previous career experience within the publishing industry. And, because time is precious to us all, I've designed it so that each of the 10 sections can be read in a minute! If you'd like to download this booklet's sister PDF, visit: The Mechanics of Self-Publishing Ebooks: 10 guidelines in 10 minutes Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.  In my guest article on The Book Reviewers, I take a look at how independent authors can make their mark in the publishing world by branding themselves as professional writers. The article includes a real-world case study featuring the creator of the Nathen Turner supernatural thriller series, Andrew Langley – ‘an independent author who exemplifies professional independent publishing practice’. To read the article in full, visit ‘The marks of a professional independent author’, The Book Reviewers.  My new free PDF resource for independent authors is out now: The Mechanics of Self-Publishing Ebooks: 10 guidelines in 10 minutes. Aimed at writers who want to do their own eformatting – in Word – this PDF toolkit helps the independent, self-publishing author to deliver a professional-looking ebook to market. The guidelines are based on my own experience of publishing three ebooks, and my previous career experience within the publishing industry. And, because time is precious to us all, I've designed it so that each of the 10 sections can be read in a minute! Complementary guides – on the mechanics of self-publishing print books, and on the benefits and challenges of self-publishing – will follow in due course. Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.
Proofreading for independent, self-publishing authors To date, I've never received a style sheet from a self-publisher. I suspect this is for one of several reasons:
Why create a style sheet? Professionalism: I make a promise to my independent author clients that I’ll professionalize their work to publishing industry-recognized standards. However, I can’t assume that my clients know what these are – after all, it’s not their job to know. Some of my clients write full time but most have day jobs; many are producing their first books so the world of publishing is new to them. They need to be able to rely on the editorial professionals with whom they are working to amend their writing in a way that does no harm and that can be defended by reference to understood and industry-recognized conventions. The bigger picture: Even if the author worked with a copy-editor before the proofreading stage, a proofreader’s style sheet shows that I am still looking at the bigger picture – making decisions based on publishing standards, or author choice, or consistency, or for ease of readability. It's not just about finding spelling errors – it’s about providing a professional service that acknowledges that the client is publishing a book, and that their book should look professional. Clients appreciate them: I've had positive feedback from indie authors about my style sheets. Clients have told me that the style sheet helped them to understand why I've amended as I have; that it acted as a reminder of the decisions they can implement in future projects at the self-editing stage; and that it's a useful template for recording their own style preferences. At-a-glance: The style sheet provides the author with an at-a-glance summary of what I've done and why I've done it. This provides clarity as well as an understanding of the proofreading process. Appropriate focus: A style sheet allows the author to focus on what they’re good at – the writing – and me to focus on what I’m good at – the proofreading. Tracking: Style sheets help me to keep track of decisions and spot any problems. I may be the first person to work on the project – proofreading for indie authors can turn into more than a prepublication check, and the boundary between copy-editing and proofreading can blur. And, even if the text appears to be in great shape (in terms of spelling, punctuation, and grammar), there may still be logic flaws that everyone else missed. Laying things out in our own way: We all design our style sheets in ways that make sense to us – so even if I'm using a copy-editor’s as the foundation, creating my own (and embedding my colleague’s decisions into it) sharpens my senses and enables me to lay out the decisions in a way that makes the best sense to me. Reducing queries: The style sheet shows my author why I've made certain decisions. I can validate my amendments by citing the resources I've used. Authors won’t ask themselves, or me, why I removed the quotation marks around the name of a pub, or why I changed a set of nested single quotation marks into doubles – I've already told them. What is a style sheet? Those new to proofreading, or who are considering whether it is a viable career choice, may not be familiar with what goes into a style sheet. And if you’re an author, you might not be either. Broadly speaking, a style sheet is a record of preferences – the author’s or their publisher’s; a style manual's; or some other agency's. In many cases, authors are happy for me to make the decisions based on my publishing knowledge and my use of recognized style manuals (e.g. New Hart's Rules and The Chicago Manual of Style). Ultimately, style sheets aren’t about rules but rather about tracking choices for the purposes of consistency and professionalism. They enable the editorial professional to keep track of decisions about spelling, punctuation, grammar, text layout, idiom usage, and (in the case of fiction) characters’ key features. Tracking these elements helps the proofreader to minimize inconsistency, spot flaws and attend to problems with regard to how the words in the book actually work on the page. What might a style sheet look like? You can see a sample of a style sheet by visiting my dedicated Self-publishers page. Scroll down to the heading “Want to see a style sheet?”. And if you’re a new proofreader or writer and you’d like a Word template for your individual use, feel free to download my sample style sheet. You can tweak it so that it meets your own needs. (I'm happy for this sample to be shared, too, as long as the appropriate url-linked attribution is given). My style sheets can be fairly comprehensive, so I include embedded links to enable the author to move between the various elements (language preferences, formatting and layout decisions, main character names and key features, reference sources, and spelling preferences) with ease. Resources
Louise Harnby is a professional fiction proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. 
Today, Philip Stirups sheds light on his experiences of in-house editorial production.
To be clear, Philip’s contributions are from the point of view of a publishing professional, broadly speaking. So while some of the things he has to say are informed by his experiences within the UK company for which he currently works, his residency here is not in the capacity of a representative of that particular publishing house.
Louise: Hi, Philip. It’s great to have you on the Parlour! First, can you tell us a little bit about yourself? It would be useful to have an overview of your daily responsibilities – many of our readers haven’t worked in-house so they may be unaware of what in-house editor does. I understand that different presses work in different ways, but it would still be handy to know what you do.
UE: Hi Louise. It’s equally great to be contributing to your blog. So, a little bit about myself. I started working in publishing straight out of University back in 2010. I studied English and German at the University of Reading – and since my passion is language, publishing seemed like a natural career choice. I have been working in the editorial department of an academic publishing house for the past five years. It’s absolutely incredible how quickly time flies. You are completely right – every publishing house operates in slightly different ways, so I can’t say the experience is representative of the role of in-house editors up and down the country. And, even after five years, I am still rather new to the industry, compared with some of my colleagues, so I don’t speak as the one true voice of experience either. So, about my role … As an editor, I am responsible for the project management of up to fifteen social science/humanities titles at any given time. My ultimate responsibility is ensuring the standards of the final product are in keeping with company and author expectations. One thing that makes my role unique is that I, as an in-house editor, am responsible for typesetting my own projects. It is absolutely fantastic to feel so involved with a project from day one to the nerve-wracking day the book is ready to be sent to print. There is nothing better than having a satisfied author! Louise: Which editorial services do you currently contract out to freelancers? Structural/development editing, copy-editing, proofreading, indexing? Anything else? UE: We have three routes to print.
Louise: Today, I’d specifically like to focus on the commissioning of new freelancers. One question that comes up a lot in the freelance editorial community is: How does one get noticed by publishers? So do you use particular directories when you’re looking to source new suppliers, and if so which ones? Or do you consider freelancers who’ve contacted you direct (by email, telephone, letter)? How about referrals from colleagues working for other presses? UE: In collaboration with my line manager, I am responsible for curating the freelancer pool and enhancing freelancer processes, so I feel I can answer this question definitively. The best way to get noticed by a publishing house is simply by finding out who the relevant in-house contact responsible for the freelancer pool is, and then sending them a quick message to enquire about the process. If you don’t ever ask, you’re never going to know. Granted, a lot of publishers have established pools of people they use. However, I feel that you can never have too many freelancers in your pool – especially law proofreaders, who understand OSCOLA referencing. A CV and covering letter is a good base from which to start, but I’ve met freelancers in person to whom I have offered work. For example, I made new contacts off the back of attending the Society of Indexers (SI) conference in Cirencester last year, and I hope to meet many new freelancers at the joint Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP)/SI conference in York in 2015. As an in-house editor, I would offer the following two key pieces of advice to any editorial freelancer:
Louise: When you read a CV and covering letter, or view someone’s listing in a membership directory, what are the key stand-out points that you're looking for? Here, I’m thinking about the skills, experience, training, and other qualifications that make you think, “Yes, that person’s someone we want in our freelance bank.” When I announced the launch of this column, two of my colleagues asked specific questions that relate directly to these issues. Just as a reminder I’ve included them here:
UE: It is a combination of different factors that determines whether a particular person is suitable for our freelancer pool. Since we have a quite full freelancer list, freelancer specialities tend to be significant. A good freelancer should be able to work on a variety of different material, but it is always good having somebody who really understands the text. Law, for example, tends to be one of those lists with a lot of subject-specific terms, and it is always good when these are understood in context. Having professional accreditation is desirable. For example, with indexing we look for membership of the SI, and with proofreading we look to the SfEP. Louise: How important is prior publishing experience, broadly speaking? If a freelancer has worked in-house, is this a strong selling point for you? Even if they haven’t worked in-house, is it important that they’ve worked for other publishers? I’m interested in your views on this because I’m often asked by new entrants to the field whether a lack of publishing experience means it will be more difficult for them to secure work with publishers. UE: In general, prior experience is important to in-house editors. If I see that a freelancer has worked for a particular client with similar lists to ours, then I will assume some level of familiarity with the subject matter. Professional accreditation is great, but experience is what can bring these qualifications to life. I understand that this is often one of the hardest things for new freelancers. They want to gain experience, but in order to do so they have to be given work. And to be given work, they need experience. You see where the problem is! I do therefore respect the fact that everyone has to start somewhere. You can often get a feeling from initial exchanges with freelancers whether your work together is going to be fruitful – call it editor’s intuition. Since all publishing houses work in different ways, it generally takes a couple of projects to get freelancers up to speed with working processes, but, by and large, the results are very pleasing. Louise: Finally, do you have any further advice you’d like to share with freelancers who want to acquire work with publishers? UE: Great question – I would say the following are points to bear in mind for anyone looking to acquire work:
Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.
Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. 
One of the trickiest issues for the inexperienced self-publishing author is choosing an appropriate editorial service.
Self-publishing is technically quite easy. However, when we self-publish we have to take responsibility for all of the things that a traditional publisher would handle. Among these responsibilities are various levels of editing. In truth, most manuscripts require professional intervention. When I self-published two how-to guides for my editorial colleagues (Business Planning for Editorial Freelancers and Marketing Your Editing & Proofreading Business), I didn't rely on my best mate and my husband to help me knock my writing into shape. I hired editorial professionals – copy-editors and proofreaders – whom I could trust to sort out the problems that my own eye couldn't see. Because my colleagues are professionals, they weren't worried about offending me or saying what they thought I wanted to hear; instead they got on with doing the job they specialize in: making writers' writing better. For the novice self-publisher, working out which editorial service to choose can be daunting. My colleague Sophie Playle has produced an excellent infographic to make the job easier. I liked it so much that I sought her permission to include it in my free booklet, Guidelines for New Authors. You can download the Guidelines here if you want to access all the introductory advice on navigating your way through the self-publishing process.
Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.
Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.
Nick Lewis kindly asked me to share my experiences of self-publishing, using the tools I already have on my desktop, in a 3-part series on his blog. Here's an excerpt from part 3, in which I summarize the benefits and challenges of going down the self-publishing route ...
FIRST STEPS – TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OTHERS’ EXPERIENCE
You can read the full article over at the Nick Lewis Communications blog ...
Louise Harnby is a professional fiction proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.
Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.
Nick Lewis kindly asked me to share my experiences of self-publishing, using the tools I already have on my desktop, in a 3-part series on his blog. Here's an excerpt from part 2 ...
Providing a printed version of your book is just good business practice, pure and simple. Why? Because different customers have difference preferences. [...] the writer who decides not to offer the customer the option of print is actively cutting out a sales stream. Since most of us who self-publish want our work to be read by as many people as possible, it makes sense to increase choice, not restrict it.
You can read the full article over at the Nick Lewis Communications blog ...
Louise Harnby is a professional fiction proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.
Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.
Nick Lewis kindly asked me to share my experiences of self-publishing, using the tools I already have on my desktop, in a 3-part series on his blog. Here's an excerpt from part 1 ...
Having self-published three books, and worked with a number of independent authors on their own self-publishing journey, I was delighted when Nick Lewis asked me to share my experiences on his blog in a three-part series on the subject.
You can read the full article over at the Nick Lewis Communications blog ...
Louise Harnby is a professional fiction proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.
Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. One of the most popular articles on The Proofreader’s Parlour is a guest post contributed by my colleague Shani D’Cruze [find her on LinkedIn) in 2012: “Can you proofread my thesis by tomorrow?” – Editorial Freelancing in the Student Market. It’s not just popular; it’s also professional – its content addresses an important issue that many editorial freelancers wonder about (the ethical issues of working with students); and it’s well researched and cites its sources to professional academic standards. Shani’s a scholar as well as an editor, and it shows in the way she presents her ideas and in the way she backs up those ideas by linking to evidence from other sources. Whether every reader will agree with her is not the point. The point is that her article has rigour. Just how original are we, really? How many of us have ever had a truly independent thought or idea that no one else has considered? We’re social creatures. Our ideas and opinions are always shaped by those with whom we work, live, socialize, learn from, and engage with face to face and online. Whatever we think, say, write, blog about – it’s all moulded by our interaction with other people. For example, I’ve considered the issue of editorial rates here on the Proofreader’s Parlour. But Rich Adin, Erin Brenner, Melanie Thompson and Adrienne Montgomery are just a few examples of colleagues who have rich and valuable material in print and online to help editorial freelancers think about the money questions. If I want to improve the quality and integrity of my articles on editorial pricing, it makes sense to ensure I refer my readers to these or other appropriate resources when I’m blogging. Why? Corina Koch MacLeod of Beyond Paper Editing explains: [C]iting your sources lends your writing credibility ("Hey! I’m not the only one who has raised this issue"), and it’s important to give credit to the author, even if you disagree with his/her position. Your readers will then see that you give credit where it’s due, and that you trust them to come to their own conclusions, therefore incurring the reader’s trust in what you have to say. The blogosphere is a conversation, and it’s good manners to address speakers.” (You've Got Style, Douglas and MacLeod*) Trust, credibility, manners – three great reasons to cite others. And what’s to lose? There’s no disadvantage to offering readers access to other resources that can help them to see the bigger picture. There’s no disadvantage to demonstrating an awareness that ours isn’t the only voice. Why we sometimes drop the ball I know why I’ve not been as diligent with sourcing other views on a topic I’m discussing (it’s not an excuse but an explanation) – blogging is something that I do in my spare time, squashed hastily into the small space left over once I’ve attended to work and family commitments. It’s much the same for many of my editorial colleagues who blog. Writing regular content, and maintaining the passion for doing so, means blogging is often a fast-and-loose process (unlike writing a book, for example) – we get an idea and try to take it from brain to blog when we find that spare half hour. There’s a sense of informality to it, of sharing a stream of consciousness. For me, that’s the danger point – I’m so busy trying to get the ideas out that I know there have been times when I’ve not just stopped, stepped back and considered waiting for yet another spare half hour in a few days’ time to help me go that extra mile and research what else our community is saying that’s relevant to the readers of my article. But there's another issue – and for me it's a much trickier one to come to terms with. I recently published an article that was inspired by two authors – one with whom I agreed and one whom I felt had given bad advice. I chose to cite and link to the author with whom I had sympathy and omit any mention of the author whose advice had irritated me. I simply kept the point general. My justification at the time was that I didn't want to drive traffic towards information that I thought was poor. But in doing so, I took the choice away from my readers. I didn't trust them to come to their own conclusions. A few weeks ago I was convinced I'd made a good decision. Lately I've been questioning that decision. I've realized that I don't always write my blog articles in the same way I write my books. And that's got me thinking ... did my decision mean I sacrificed trust, credibility and manners in order to control my blog, my space, for my ideas? Have I compromised respect for my readers and their ability to judge for themselves? Sticky questions. When one has put a lot of effort into building a vibrant blog, the idea of giving attributed, linked space to those with whom we disagree can be testing. Balancing the feeling that we reserve the right to publish and cite what we like with a readiness to trust our readers' ability to make their own decisions is so very hard! But academics do this every time they write a book or a journal article. For me, that's something worth paying attention to. Doing better Have my past blog articles been as rigorous as they could be in terms of citing other relevant sources, other voices? Sometimes? Often? Nearly always? I’m not sure of the answer to that. Certainly the I case cited above has given me food for thought. What I am sure of is that I want to do better. I know I can do better. Just making a commitment to stopping, stepping back each time and thinking about what else is out there that’s relevant to what I’m saying means it should be better. As will having the courage to give linked/cited space to viewpoints with which I disagree. One thing's for sure – when we commit to rigour, we take an important step towards substantively improving the quality of what we do. Given that most bloggers are passionate about their blogging, embracing rigour is a no-brainer. Yes, blogging is fast and loose. Yes, it’s informal. Yes, there’s bound to be an overlap of ideas. Yes, there's bound to be a difference of ideas. But don't I owe it to my colleagues and readers to ensure that I cover the bases? Don't we all as soon as we decide to carve out a space for ourselves in the blogosphere? If you’re thinking of setting up a blog as part of your editorial business communication strategy, you might like to take a look at Corey Eridon’s useful guidelines on internet etiquette and attribution (How Not to Steal People's Content on the Web, 2012), including citing blog articles, social media content, guest and ghost writers, and images – all the recommendations are sensible and digestible. Eridon emphasises that sharing is good for business, but attribution is key: "Share content; share links; share ideas; share data; you name it. In fact, the inbound marketers who love to share usually see fantastic results because of it! ... You're supposed to share content, but you're also supposed to give credit where credit is due" (ibid.). A commitment to a more rigorous search for alternative viewpoints, and the appropriate attribution, takes more time and effort, but actually not that much more when one’s dealing with 1500 words of copy. Academics are required to carry out these searches (and attribute accordingly) as standard. Many of us in the editorial community are paid to check that they are doing it well. With that in mind, should editor/proofreader bloggers aspire to the same standards as a matter of course? Should we, in a bid to give space to alternative viewpoints, always seek to include links to others' relevant content, and are we obliged to do so even when we don't agree with the author's line? Or is the blogosphere a space that should embrace more flexibility, where the blogger reserves the right to control their space more tightly? More sticky questions, no doubt with sticky answers! Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. Blogging, if you have the time and energy to commit to it, can be an excellent way of adding value to your business. You can share ideas and information in a space that you control, and you can create a focus and a mission of your own choosing, depending on what your interests are. Perhaps you want to focus on editing advice for independent writers; or maybe you’re interested in the small-business ownership element of your editorial career (like I am); one of my colleagues creates content geared towards academics working within the sphere of journals publishing; another focuses on developmental/structural editorial work; and yet another focuses on how to get the best from online media. And yes, if done regularly and with fresh content that is relevant to your niche community, there can be terrific SEO benefits that will enhance your search rankings and increase the number and types of opportunities that come your way. Given that some new entrants to the field may be considering exploring the world of editorial blogging, I thought I’d take a quick look at some of the joys and challenges that the blogger can be confronted with.
The good … The good makes up the largest chunk of the blogging experience for most of us. Those who want to contribute, either by writing guest articles or by commenting on existing posts, understand our blogs’ mission statements and primary audiences. They may be colleagues who do what we do (in my case that means they are fellow editorial freelancers) or they may work in a field that complements our own (for example, editorial software developers, publishers, editorial project management agencies, or authors). I’m all for organic two-way linking between websites that complement each other. If a fellow proofreader writes for me, I expect them to include a link to their business website in their bio. If an independent author submits a post that informs others like me what it’s like to work with editorial professionals, of course they can link to their author website so that they can improve their own SEO and promote their works. If a project management agency or publisher creates a piece that discusses the world of working with words from their side of the fence, I want them to include a link to their business website. All these links are good for the host, for the contributor and for the reader. The links are relevant, and the content that embeds them provides new information for the blog’s primary audience. However, things start to go bad when the drive for SEO overshadows the quality of the content. The bad … The bane of most bloggers’ lives is the spammy commenter. Here’s a sample of some of the nonsense I’ve had to delete from my blog recently:
The ugly … The higher one’s blog ranks in the search engine results, the more likely one is to be approached by individuals, agencies and organizations who are NOT interested in submitting high-quality, relevant content to your blog that expands your readers’ knowledge base, and engages with and contributes to the ideas and resources that you’re committed to exploring. The aim is purely to grab a piece of your SEO by using your blog as a way to embed links and drive traffic to an external website. In these cases, the external linked-to websites will not be relevant to your blog’s mission or primary audience, though the authors will provide content that pretends to be. An example: quite often I’m approached by student essay-writing services. The author will offer an article of 500 or so words that’s not particularly original in its approach, probably not directly relevant to my primary audience, but contains some relevant key words (proofreading, editing, etc.). The link in the bio will be to a service for students that helps them walk their way through an expensive college career without having to actually do any of the required writing or research. University policies on the hiring of external editorial services differ markedly. Some don’t even accept external proofreading. Copy-editing is usually not allowed. Getting someone to write your essay for you is cheating. And the consequences can be serious – suspension or expulsion from the institution, and a fail awarded. What’s more, the editorial freelancer is considered to have colluded.* Those of us who run editorial businesses cannot be seen to be offering such services; but nor can we be seen to endorse them by driving traffic their way. Summing up … If you’re considering setting up an editorially focused blog, and are excited about the idea of sharing ideas, tools and resources in a space of your own design – either as part of your marketing strategy or because you love to communicate online, or both – do take care with both the commenting and the contribution elements. While most of those who engage with your blog will be genuine (and will deserve that SEO-rich link you allow them to embed in your site), there will be those who are looking to exploit your space as a nothing more than a traffic driver. Always check links in comments and articles – are you happy with the content on the sites they take you to? Does linking to a particular site reflect well on you and your business? Is the content on that site relevant to your blog’s mission and primary audience? If you’re not completely happy then delete the comment or decline the guest article. It’s better to have low number of high-quality comments and guest articles than a spam-riddled site that links to businesses that bring yours into disrepute. * For more information about issues related to providing editorial services for students, readers might like to take a look at what some of my colleagues have written about the issue:
 About Louise Harnby Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and the curator of The Proofreader's Parlour. She is the author of Business Planning for Editorial Freelancers and Marketing Your Editing and Proofreading Business. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, follow her on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or find her on LinkedIn. |
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 All text on this blog, The Proofreader's Parlour, and on the other pages of this website (unless indicated otherwise) is in copyright © 2011–17 Louise Harnby. Please do not copy or reproduce any of the content, in whole or part, in any form, unless you ask first.
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Featured in The Book Designer's Carnival of the Indies: Joel Friedlander's collection of 'outstanding articles recently posted to blogs'.
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