Dear Novice Author

Dear Novice Author,

When you pay an editing service to edit your manuscript, it is probably best to allow them to do their job. Why would you pay a professional editor, and then not heed the edits to your work, because, you like it better like this, or so-and-so said, I should write it like this, and totally ignore your editor?

If you are not a pioneer in the urban industry, exercising your creative control is probably not in your best interest. (Actually, I've never seen the urban pioneers making up new rules. I do see them doing their best to be as professional as the other genres.) It actually defeats the purpose of you hiring a professional service. If you want to make up your own rules or not abide by literary industry standards or Style Guide rules for fictional writing, here is what you should do. Go huddle with cousin Pookie and 'em, or the 99-cent-I'm-an-editor-but-my-own-work-is-unedited-editor, and share your great new method of how words, sentence structure and stories should be relayed, and have them complete your edits for you, much quicker, and for a much smaller fee.

Ask a trendsetter in the industry, someone who has been successful in book sales and is a career author, do they ignore their editors advice. Go ahead, ask them. I have worked with authors in the urban industry such as K'wan, Al-Saadiq Banks, Vickie Stringer and many others who have award winning, best selling books and they listened to my suggestions, once the rule or the reasoning behind it was explained, and applied it to their work. Why wouldn't you do the same? Are you more knowing than established professionals in the industry? If so, share your secret with all of us so we can all raise the bar.

It always baffles me how some novice authors know better than the editors they pay, but when the book is criticized for the blatant errors, poor structure, and many other issues - the author, the editor, and ALL of the urban industry is judged. It is a guarantee, for sure, the author is not going to shout that creative control theory when them book clubs and critics get to slammin' their arses for poor editing. They will however, whisper to anyone who listen, "Well I paid so-and-so to edit it." They will forget all about the unacknowledged/refused changes the editor suggested they make.

Another important thing the author must do is have your work proofread! Just because your manuscript has went through the editing process, you MUST have it proofread after typeset and before going to print. 

The bottom line is, if you want to be respected as a professional in the literary industry, you must adhere to professional standards. I am disgusted by the lack of professionalism in the process of self publishing in the urban genre, as well as the lack of accountability. I see everyone being blamed for the lack of respect of urban fiction, other than the unprofessional author who is continuously behaving and putting forth unprofessional work. I suggest if you want the respect, YOU behave professionally in regard to critique, go through the proper process in order to self publish, and accept accountability and learn from mistakes as opposed to defending them. 

21st Street Urban Editing & Publishing: Self-Publishing Package

21st Street Urban Editing & Publishing: Self-Publishing Package: Want assistance Self-Publishing your book? All you have to do is provide us with the manuscript... Allow us to take it from he re . We ...

Self Publishing & Professionalism… The two CAN co-exist!

Everyone is saying it. “The market is over saturated with NON-professional self-publishing authors and it gives us all a bad name.” 

Whether that is true or not is for debate but I’d like to share some things I think can help the novice author.

It is important to use social networking for promoting. Whether it elicits even one sale is not as important as the exposure and familiarity you can create regarding your name, brand, title, etc. These are all ways you are going to get that recognition. Of course you want to be yourself; no one wants to be fake or phony. However, there is a time and place for everything and your ‘Author John Doe’ page is not the place for intimidation, disrespect, political or religious views (unless this is what your books are about), etc.  I’m not saying you don’t want your character to shine through. I am saying be mindful that other professionals in your industry may also be viewing these posts. You might say, “I don’t care what anyone thinks of me…” and that may possibly be the way you feel which is fine. But when you are not respected in your industry amongst your peers, it will only hurt you.  All of my blogs are just my opinions unless I state something as a fact and in my opinion; this is just not a good look. I know I personally will not bother reading anyone’s work that has been offensive on social networking and I may be missing out on some great stories but I don’t feel like it is a loss because they are many other great stories out there by people with pleasant positive attitudes who I am honored to support.

Respect those before you. I’ve heard it say several times how this established author or that established author thinks they are all that or they are stuck up and so on and so forth. That may be your opinion and that may actually be the case as well. Here comes my ‘however’… However, you have got to respect their hustle and when you have been in the business and the industry for as long as they have, people may be saying that about you as well. Unfortunately, this is not an easy industry to be successful in and it may harden a few people at times but the hustle, grind and hard work they have put in still deserves respect. You ain’t gotta like ‘em, but you should respect them. (And when you’re in the game as long as they are, see if your attitude isn’t a little different.)

Be leery of who you associate yourself with in the industry.  Don’t make someone show you who they are directly. If they show your neighbor, take heed. Anyone can be anyone they want to be on the internet.  Just because I holler out this or that authors name all the time doesn’t mean that author likes or respects me so don’t be misled by these people who holler every name in the industry on their tweets and FB posts like they are best friends.  Actually ask that person whose name they are hollering about them. You might have a whole different outlook after that. I see it all the time where someone is name-dropping another person’s name just to lend themselves some credibility. Don’t fall for it. Do your research.

Now for my favorite part of the process. Editing, proofreading and typesetting are all soo important to put out a professional product. Of course, I suggest 21^st Street Urban Editing & Publishing (www.21StreetUrbanEditing.com ) *shameless plug* however even if you don’t use us, you have to use someone so here are a few things you need to do when searching out your editor.

The first thing you will want to do is figure out exactly what you are looking for in an editor. Once you do that, you need to contact them and get specific prices and details of the service they are providing. You will also want to check references by not only contacting the references they provide, but also view the work as well. Also ask around, this industry is very small and even people who haven’t directly used the service, may know someone who has. Make sure there is some type of formal training. Just because you can spot a typo in a book, doesn’t make you an editor. It is an extremely difficult, most of the time thankless job that takes a special person to do successfully. Research is very important and should be something you are doing to all of your service providers throughout your publishing endeavor.

You should also ask for a sample edit. I think pretty much any editor will provide you with a short sample edit so that you can get a feel for the process as well as their editing style. You need to know what the process is before it begins so you know what to expect.

Allow your editor time to work your script. If you are giving an editor a short period of time or constantly emailing them to find out how much longer, the work is going to reflect that. It may not necessarily mean they are sloppy or not competent to do the work, but more of them wanting to please the customer so the process may turn out a rushed finished product.  Schedule at least four weeks at a minimum for your books to be in edits but allow up to eight weeks if need be. If you are looking to use a well-established editor, you may not be the only one and she may be booked out for months so schedule ahead of time and don’t rush it for your own sake.

Some manuscripts (especially first time authors) need way more work than others and you need to have that time allotted. DO NOT schedule your book release party before your book is at the printers. Scheduling a release date is great, as long as you have also scheduled that time period for proper edits and typesetting to take place. Nothing is more annoying or a more telling sign of a novice author than someone trying to go to edits three weeks before their scheduled release date. I never like to give an exact release date until I get it the delivery date confirmation from the printer. There is nothing wrong with saying Fall/2011 or Summer/2012. This way, you are not looking like a dumb ass when your date comes and goes and you have no book or worse yet, you have a sloppy, unprofessional book.

I will revisit this again with more suggestions. I look forward to the urban genre getting the respect it deserves and that starts with us.