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 ...

Book Trailer for Betrayal. The sequel to 21st Street's best seller, Loyalty and the Bed You Lie In by Author TR Nairn

Have you got your copies?

"Betrayal" by Author TR Nairn. 

The Sequel to Loyalty and the Bed You Lie In also by Author TR Nairn

Free Shipping at www.21StreetUrbanEditing.com but available for purchase where ever books are sold. Make sure to get "Loyalty and the Bed You Lie In", as well!

Diamond, Rae and Meko started out as three with an unbeatable female empire, but once jealously reared its ugly head the trio quickly became two. Diamond's love and loyalty to her husband landed her in jail behind his battle.

T.O., Diamonds husband, has heat on him from every direction and it's time for him to step things up and find a way to get to his enemy first without getting his self killed before he's able to put all the pieces together.

Rae is left behind by Diamond to fulfill the needs of their empire. With her own drama unfolding, her back is against the wall and she needs help. Will her choice of help pose a threat to them? Will Diamond be freed from the belly of the beast? Will T.O. find out everything he needs to know before it's too late?

Get ready for another ride of suspense, surprises, in this murderous tale and learn the true meaning of the weak and the strong, as you read the sequel to the best seller, “Loyalty and the Bed You Lie In” by Author TR Nairn appropriately entitled “Betrayal”.

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 here. We will apply for your ISBN Number, Priced Barcode, LCCN Number, Professional Editing, Typesetting, Book Cover, (Front Cover, Back Cover and Spine).  


We will also provide you with 100 copies of your final product and all of the completed files so you can continue to do print runs for the low price of $1799.00. Individually, the cost for all of this averages around $2700.00...


Payment arrangements are available as well as excellent references. 


Contact us. info@21StreetUrbanEditing.com 

Professional Editing Tips for Self-Publishers

I know you don't want to hear this but it needs to be said (again)...
You should have your book edited by more than one editor! I've said this in the past and upset some people who think because they gave Joe Editor $300.00 their book is now perfect. Here are some real facts...
*Publishing a book (correctly) is expensive and a large part of that expense is EDITING. Even more so for first time authors or if you have no formal training in writing properly. Your work is going to need much more extensive editing.
*Proper editing TAKES TIME. Coming with a deadline of 3 weeks or a short, strict timeline is foolish. It's not because the editor is lazy or not working on your work. This is a timely, tedious process when done properly.
*Learn the difference in editing and proofreading. Did you know that Random House's proofreaders catch an average of 200 errors and if they don't catch at least 150 errors when proofreading an average length manuscript, it is sent to another proofreader to be gone over again. This is AFTER being edited by 2 of their on staff editors.
*Do some research instead of waiting for your FB friend to tell you about it.
*One person can not successfully edit and proofread your book. You need an editing team (of at least 2 people but preferably more).
*You get what you pay for. If you pay $600.00 for typestting, book cover, editing and business cards or whatever else is thrown in there, that is going to be the quality of your work. Don't then complain about the outcome, that's what you paid for.
*If you pay Joe Editor to edit your book, then go to print, don't blame Joe Editor. It is your responsibility, as an author/self-publisher to go through the proper steps to put out a proper product. Now- if you've had at least 2 edits and a proofread and your book is still filled with errors - then you should sue the hell out of those 3 people but if you're not doing what you need to do as a professional by following all of the steps, then take the blame your self.
Obviously, as a service provider and not a client, I am on the editor's side today but I also follow these rules. Our editors don't work for us for free. As publishers, we have to pay them to edit our books we publish as well. It sucks to own an editing service and have to pay for editing, however, I know that to put out a professional book, I must pay 2 (or more) of our editors to get it right as well as proofread it myself when it is done... If I, as the owner of an editing service have to pay for edits, why wouldn't you? Or, you can keep blaming the editor for your un-professionalism in following through the proper steps to self-publish and continue putting our sub-par (Not measuring up to traditional standards of performance, value, or production) work.
THAT BEING SAID, our editors are the bomb :) I appreciate you all, Jason Rashon Scott, Jill Alicea, Shannon Fields, Aquila Butler, Jason and Windy Goodloe. Check us out and let us help you complete this project professionally.
Friend us on FB http://www.facebook.com/twentyfirststreet.urbanediting or follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/21streeturban
You can also visit our website at www.21StreetUrbanEditing.com

Self-Publish - Getting Your Book Ready To Print

So you have completed your manuscript and you want to self-publish. There are many steps that now need to take place. A lot of the steps in order to successfully  self-publish properly you are probably not even aware of. There is more to it that just getting an ISBN number, book cover and printer. 

In this particular post, I am just going to go over the things necessary to get your book to the printer. In future posts, I will elaborate on each of these steps I am referencing, as well as additional helpful tips and information. I am going to share with you what has proven to work for us. This was definitely learned via lots of money, frustration and research along with trial and error.

Let me get started...

The first thing I suggest after completing the manuscript is to get your book cover if you haven't already done so. This is so that while you are completing the rest of the steps, you can begin advertising your book and getting people familiar with the title to your book as well as your name as an author. There are hundreds of terrific book cover designers out there. One of them is Vonda Howard with Cupcake Creative Studios www.cupcakecreativestudio.com/. She has done a phenomonal job on our book covers and we have been very happy with her work.

The next step is to have your manuscript edited. Of course, I suggest our editing service, 21st Street Urban Editing & Publishing www.21StreetUrbanEditing.com however even if you do not use us, USE A PROFESSIONAL! This is not a service you want to skip or try and find the cheap way out of. Make sure you get a sample edit from the editor, references that you ACTUALLY CHECK and a contract that has a confidentiality clause included.  There is no committee that governs editors such as the American Medical Association for doctors or The Bar Association for attorneys. Anyone can throw a website together and start claiming they are an editor. There are no tests to take and nobody regulating their conduct. It is very important to check their references as well as view their published work. Friends and references are two different titles so make sure the person verifying is actually a reference and not just a friend. Also, it is imperative to hire more than one editor AND a proofreader if you want it done professionally and correctly.

Now that your book is off to the editor, the next steps are easy. It is at this time we apply for the Copyright, www.copyright.gov ISBN Number www.myidentifiers.com and LCCN Number http://pcn.loc.gov/. All of this can be accomplished in an hour or two via online and you will feel totally accomplished when it is done. The copyright certificate will arrive quite some time later. The ISBN Number you will be able to get immediately upon applying for it and the LCCN Number they say takes up to two weeks but usually is sent via email with in a week.

Upon your manuscript being completely edited, you should then have it typeset. By this time, you should have all of the required numbers and information for this process to be completed. (Remember, I will be posting individual blogs about each of these steps later on.) Once your manuscript is typeset, you are ready to find a printer.

These are just the steps we take to physically get the book printed. There are lots of other things we do that make for successfully publishing the book. Stay tuned to find out what those other things are.