So, I Read This Book Today . . .
Editing Fees and Guidelines
As my editing jobs have become more numerous, I have updated my Editing Fees and Guidelines. My editing and proofreading includes checking for grammar, sentence structure, misspellings, and pointing out plot inconsistencies, etc. At this time, my base charge is $0.008/word, with a minimum of $50, payable via PayPal. Editing jobs I am currently working on, received before May 1, 2014, will continue to be edited at the old rate.
If your manuscript is less than 5,000 words please let me know and we can work out pricing. I prefer to set up appointments for your manuscript, but please, send your manuscripts to me as early as possible. I can often work them in sooner than they are scheduled, but advance notice is much easier.
I use Microsoft Word 2013. I use the Track Changes application while I edit and leave the decision as to whether or not to accept those changes to you. I also tend to leave extensive notes outlining the reason for specific changes, noting uneven or awkward sentence or paragraph flow, or even if I noticed something that just doesn’t feel right.
Full editing is completed in one of two ways. The first choice is that I completely edit the book and provide you with a corrected copy, highlighting changes and corrections and making when appropriate extensive notes. Your second choice is full editing. I take the book in hand, do all corrections and changes and provide you with print ready copy. The charge for print ready copy is $0.010/word.
Please note: Books from authors who speak English as a second language, hence requiring a great deal more correction for grammar, or books with extensive re-write may be significantly more. You may send me your book for pricing if you feel there may be extensive work needed on the book. Pricing available upon request.
After I have edited a manuscript, I will send it back to you. Once you have made changes, you can always send it back to me for a second pass at no charge. Please note: If second-pass changes are truly extensive, I will reserve the right to bill a second payment for the second pass. I want to be fair to you, but I also want to be fair to myself. Just as writing is difficult, though rewarding, editing a book in a manner that will make you proud of your final product is a lot of work.
For available books on which I have worked, please see my “i-edited” shelf on Goodreads. You may contact any of the authors with whom I’ve worked for a reference. I am also very willing to provide you a sample of my work to see if we are a comfortable fit. I can be easily contacted through Goodreads or by e-mail at soireadthisbooktoday@centurylink.net
I look forward to working with you!
Love Me If You Must (Patricia Amble Mystery Series #1)
What a shame it is to have to give a two star review to a book with potential. Tish is someone I truly wanted to like. A home restoration specialist, she has a good life after a horrific youth. Moving into a run-down Victorian to restore it, she finds herself surrounded by truly strange townspeople, missing women, and a possible ghost haunting her house. Being a home restoration nut myself, I thought this would be a great little book to read, especially as it was a mystery with a paranormal slant. Sounds great right? Uh. Not. So. Much. Truthfully? I was being generous giving it two stars on Amazon. If it weren’t a freebie, I would have asked for my money back. Honestly, I kept reading it hoping it would get better. Instead, it wound up circling the drain, and I kept reading simply because it was like watching a fifty-car pileup on highway 70 during a snowstorm.Our erstwhile heroine immediately meets the Brit expat from two houses down, then the cop from the house behind her and down one, and both of them immediately fall for her, frizzy hair, Goodwill reject clothes and all. This when the Brit is rebounding from a marriage to a centerfold beautiful woman no less.
After knowing the Brit for a total of “about three hours” he asks her to marry him . . and she goes over to his house to accept the very next day to accept, having fallen in love with him when, as before stated, they have known each other for about three hours and had one dinner together. Something should have set the red lights off, right? Riiiight…. The cop is, of course, crazy about her also, and she was just with him the night before fantasizing about being married to him and having kids, then the next day she decides she is in love with the Brit and is fantasizing about being married to him? That immediately had me rolling my eyes . . .
Then there is the “body in the cistern” aspect – (this is the part I was really hoping to have fun with . . . buzzzz!) If she really thinks there is a body in there, why doesn’t she get off her backside and break apart the concrete? Especially when yet another body, that of the historical society leader who refused to let her remove the cistern shows up in the cistern (dead) – and she is sent to jail for the murder. Then immediately starts running for his position once she is out of jail? Her whole attitude is deeply bipolar and totally bizarre.
This is a “Christian Romance” sort of thing, which I didn’t know when I picked it up. I tried to keep that out of my thought processes with the story line, but even that was over the top unbelievable. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes so hard that I gave myself a headache.
As I said, I truly wanted to like this book, based on the ghost story, of course, but I wanted very much to like Tish based on what she had been through in her life and what she has accomplished since that time. Sadly, poor writing, overwrought story lines, and I was disappointed to realize that I truly couldn’t care less what happens to her from this point on. She is simply too bipolar and creepy to be likable.