Beta Reading service

We are now offering a beta reading service:

BETA READING SERVICE:  This provides a single read-through for overall flow and consistency from the reader's perspective.  We will provide a one page report with our impressions of the story, identifying any issues we feel impede its telling (e.g. inconsistencies).  All manuscripts should already be professionally edited and proofread prior to submission for beta reading.  Although we may highlight any typos or editorial problems we notice, we will not be seeking them out.  This is NOT an editorial or proofreading service.

BETA READING:  $.0035 per word

Current commissions

We've just finished working on The Ebon Staff (Derek's new release) and have now started on two projects:

1) A literary edit for the third book in M.R. Mathias's Wardstone trilogy. This is a huge book with a vast dramatic personae and lots of locations. The series has been hugely enjoyable thus far, and this one looks to be at least as good. The edit is really interesting too -- lots of sifting the text, organising lists of characters, titles, locations etc even before the preliminary read through.

2) Paula has just started work on a copy edit of Versim by the talented Curtis Hox. We've had the pleasure of working on a number of Curtis's projects, including the novel Bleedover, which is getting some good reviews.

We'd to say a big thanks to N. Gemini Sasson for sending a paperback copy of The King Must Die, the historical fiction we worked on earlier in the year. Another excellent book by a talented writer.

Just as a reminder, if you would like to discuss/book a copy edit, you can now contact Paula directly (see her profile in the righthand sidebar). Derek is handling all literary edits.

Please feel free to contact us with any queries. We are always happy to provide no obligation quotes.

Updates

We've now finished copy edits for Rex Jameson, The Goblin Rebellion, and N. Gemini-Sasson, The King Must Die.

Updates

We've now finished Chris Dietzel's Camelot's Last Days. This is a really original and interesting work. I look forward to seeing the revised version. Highly recommended.

Currently working on Rex Jameson's The Goblin Rebellion and revisions for Curtis Hox's short story, Transmission.

Next up: The King Must Die (N. Gemini Sasson)

Editing Updates

We're close to finishing the copy edit for Chris Dietzel's Camelot's Last Days, redrafts for Curtis Hox's Transmission, and have started work on the copy edit of Rex Jameson's The Goblin Rebellion.

On the 20th we'll be starting a copy edit for N. Gemini Sasson's The King Must Die.

Changes to Services

We've had some time to restructure a little since the last post and are happy to be able to once more offer the Single Read-Through Copy Edit. Paula will now be taking sole responsibility for these copy edits and may now be contacted directly at paulamprior@yahoo.co.uk (you may also continue to book via derekprior [@] yahoo.co.uk if you wish).

Derek Prior will remain chief editor for all Literary Edits and Paula will act as assistant editor for these commissions (a second pair of eyes).

There has been a slight price increase for the copy edit (now $0.007 per word), and the literary edit is $0.021 per word).

Please refer to the righthand sidebar for full details and email us if you have any queries.

Thanks for your patience during this very busy period.

Editing and Hair Loss

When I started working as an editor, this is what I looked like:

This is what editing has done to me:

What is it that makes me pull my hair out?

Things like:

1. Use of the word "couple." I've lost count of how many times I've corrected this, but it's currently top of my list of naughties. "I'm going to get myself a couple beers." Yikes!!! Imagine if your character was called Queen Elizabeth II and she said, "My husband and I are having a couple friends over for high tea."

It's "couple of" always, and without exception (except!!! in dialogue or when using idiomatic voice for narration). Yes, people speak that way in the US, but it's never, never, never to be written, barring the exceptions above.

2. Word repetition: "I went to the door and opened the door. I saw a zombie standing outside the door with his rotting stump of an arm resting on the door. I shut the door on his stump, which was resting on the door, and trapped the stump between the door and the door frame." I think this one speaks for itself. Be careful, though, as it's almost never a good idea to just drag out the thesaurus and find synonyms for "door". Rephrasing, Governor, is what you need.

3. Capitalising every use of the word "king". "King Henry V" is fine. "I wondered if he might be a King" is not nice. Not nice at all.

4. Using "I" when you mean "me". I blame the schools for this one. We all thought it was terribly posh saying, with Her Majesty, "My corgis and I", but it's just plain wrong to say, "Would you like my gibbon and I to come to dinner?" Why? Take away the gibbon (yes, please do!). That leaves you with, "Would you like I to come to dinner?" Speaks for itself.

5. Not using a comma and a conjunction to join two independent clauses. Noooooooooooooh! If the clause could stand alone as its own sentence, with a subject and a verb, then it's independent. You could write two sentences, or you could join them using ", and", ", but" etc.

6. Using hyphens for em dashes, and en dashes for hyphens. I mean, I ask you!

7. Subject confusion. "The wizard tried to cast a spell. He hit him before his spell could affect him."


There are plenty more reasons for baldness, things like dangling participles, verb/noun confusion, pronoun avoidance, improper prepositions, inconsistent spelling and capitalisation.

I thought it might be fun, and perhaps even helpful, if I posted a few tips here, all of which are open to discussion. Most of the above are part and parcel of copy editing, which is what I'm paid for. It's actually rather enjoyable work.

Now I really must go pick up a couple bottles of Chateau neuf du Pape.