Ujjvala
Once I get my chapbook manuscript proofread (not edited; each poem has been revised quite a number of times), I will ask my writing coach for honest feedback. Do you have anyone like that? Do you have someone who will give you the straight scoop, knowing that it might hurt your feelings? This person is not necessarily your friend. I believe it’s more beneficial to writing development to work with someone or a group of people with whom you are not emotionally intimate. Thus, my writing coach and writing group.
I pay for membership in Zona Rosa, a monthly writing group lead by Rosemary Daniell, the eminent poet, journalist, and writing teacher. I’ve been writing poetry for thirty years, yet her critiques and those of my fellow members have helped me grow far beyond where I was when I slogged forth on my own. They have been both kind and honest.
Writers join MFA programs and writing seminars, anything for objective feedback. What about you? One option is to join free writing groups that chain and independent bookstores host. Another option is to start your own. Either of these can be done in-person and/or online. In addition, there are some features in these groups you should look for and others to avoid.
But whatever you do, don’t read your precious words only to your family and friends. They love you and they know what you’re about, and in any case they don’t want to hurt you.
Joe and I will take turns blogging, and this week is my turn:
On an irregular basis, I buy self-published books, mostly to support the efforts of writers. However, these works continue to confirm what I’ve suspected: they are not actually edited.
Now, many of these books have been proofread, although more than a few errors slip though, for instance “then” instead of “than.” Another is “to” when “too” is intended. A third error is the confusion between “compliment” and “complement.”
An author would tell me that the self-publishing outfit had edited the book, yet I find word choice problems, ambiguous references, unnecessary passive construction, clumsy language, and worst of all, boring text. That’s right. This stuff can be boring, although the author herself may be quite engaging. Often her personal charm persuades me to take a chance on the book. But even with a compelling story, too many editing problems can make it hard to read. I would never recommend such a book to anyone I know. So mucs mh for word-of-mouth.
Everyone, editing is not the same as proofreading.
A proofreader finds the spelling and grammar errors, although “then/than” continues to crop up, even in commercial publishing. She might also uncover errors in pagination and chapter numbering. If all she is doing is using Microsoft editor, she may well miss more subtle errors, such as “compliment/complement.”
An editor points out the verbosity, the illogical sequence, the vague language, the better word choice, and the cliches, as a few examples. In an independent publishing company like Mason-Dixon, an editor may suggest changes to the structure of a paragraph, a chapter, or even the whole book.
For instance, here is a much too common phrase: “I was beside myself.” What does it actually mean? We have to understand the situation to interpret this sentence as an expression of anger, terror, or joy. As an editor, I would tell you, “Be direct already! Just say it: ‘I was terrified/enraged/overjoyed.’ ”
Does it sound like I would interfere with your creative process? Here’s the thing. A self-publishing company takes your book because you pay them to take it. Proofreading is relatively quick and cheap. Editing is serious work that requires expertise. Did you think they didn’t change your book because they believed it was perfect?
The editor pores through each page. She may not be easy on you, but that’s because the editor truly believes in your book. She sees the greatness in your writing, that you went through numerous drafts to get to the final version you sent. She wants to help you and the company succeed. She can help you polish your art.
Till next time - Ujjvala
Well the last few weeks have been quite an adventure for us here at Mason-Dixon Publishing. Our first commercial products are finally ready. Anyone will be able to purchase them directly from the website!
One of the most interesting products we will be offering is a series of adventure videos done in ASL-American Sign Language. Tony DeMare is a recent graduate of Gallaudet University, the national university for the Deaf in Washington, D.C.. He is already a world traveler, having visited Russia, Sweden, Italy, and many other countries. He’s climbed mountains, gone rafting on white water rivers, and explored deserts. Tony is hard of hearing, and has created a video without a sound track, entirely in ASL, specifically for a Deaf audience. “On a Live Volcano” documents his recent trip to Mt. Aetna in Sicily. We hope it is the first of many such videos.
Ujjvala and I have also each produced a book of poetry. Her book, Gemini, contains many beautiful poems that she has published previously in a variety of journals and magazines. My book, Nine Horses Nearly Trampled Me, is a book of poems that are direct responses to the poems in Billy Collins’ book, Nine Horses(published by Random House copyright 2003). Some are satirical, some are direct responses, many are simply the poems that should have been written on the subject he chose.
Finally, we are offering a collection of my short stories entitled Venusification. It includes the story “The Old Spaceman” which won the Marcon national short story competition. All the books will be available as either traditional books or e-books.
So, Mason-Dixon Publishing is finally actually publishing. It’s a great feeling. We hope that you enjoy these products that we’ve worked so hard to bring to you.
Well,
We’ve reached the deadline for the second round of contest entries. Last time we had three. This time, it looks like we’ll have none. In other words, our basic strategy of relying on contest entries for content that we will publish needs to be revisited. So, we are planning to become a more “traditional” online publisher, providing content that people will find so interesting that they’ll pay to download it.
This is very exciting because both Ujjvala and I have written many things over the years. Some have already been published or won awards, many have not. Now we have an opportunity to share them with the world through a venue that we’ve created.
We are also revamping our website again. Thanks to some invaluable feedback from the lovely people at Zona Rosa, we’re going to take the focus off of Obama and politics and make this website much more personal.
So, wish us luck in this latest revamping of Mason-Dixon Publishing, and thanks for your interest and support.
—-Joe
In the Pre-Order box on all our web pages, you will now notice that you can read excerpts from some of the entries for our first contest. This is significant for us because it marks the very first time that we are fulfilling the basic function of a publisher—printing the works of our contributors in a form that others can see. I know we’re still a long way from publishing our first book, but we can finally say that we’ve published something. If you’ll read the excerpts, you’ll see that both Monique and Adam have very different styles, but they both manage to capture the intense excitement of Inauguration Day, 2009. I can’t wait until we print their entire essays in our book, so that you can read them, too!
Check out our Original ASL Videos, Poetry and Fiction
Mason-Dixon Publishing's first paperback book is finally here! These provocative short stories will challenge you and take you to exotic places and times.
Click here to see an excerpt from the book and to make your order.