An editor hard at work! What makes a good editor? Is it their knowlege of grammar, punctuation and spelling? That's an important part of it, for sure, but correcting grammar, punctuation and spelling is only one part of editing. That's what a copy editor does. But the developmental editing and line editing are just as important in the production of quality writing, and different skills are required for the different areas. A good editor in one area is not necessarily a good editor in all areas, and it takes more than a fancy piece of paper from a top university to make a good editor because in all but the copy editing and proofing, good editing relies on artistry and intuitive understanding of the author’s intentions as much as knowledge. So what makes a good editor? What makes a good structural/developmental editor? This is the person that does your manuscript appraisal and tells you how to improve the big story elements - the plot, characterisation, pacing, structure, … [Read more...]
A different kind of book trailer
We all know what the usual sort of book trailer looks like (see the second video below for an example) but here's a different kind of thing. It's the really soft sell, aimed to grab people's attention with humour. Why am I posting this as part of the Celebration of Indie Excellence? Because I just put it together, think it's really cute and figure you would enjoy it. Also because perhaps it symbolised the kind of creativity that Indies authors represent. The video is just for fun. I'm not really expecting it to sell books. It's shot in my garden, using the animals that live there in the staring roles. I'm the voice-over. I hope you enjoy it. It's 1 minute and 20 seconds. Here's the revamped traditional style trailer for You CAn't Shatter Me. This one is 1 minute. Do you like them? If so, could you pop over to You Tube, click the like button and share them. Since they are both new and so have no views and no 'likes' yet (at the time of writing), they look a little unloved. So … [Read more...]
