Lynette McClenaghan

Beware the Editor

Whether you self publish your work, are preparing a manuscript to send to a publisher or the publisher has your manuscript beware of the sloppy editor. I engaged an editor to do a proofread and light edit of my next novel Who’s Watching Samantha due for publication early 2015. The first 60% percent of the work was properly done; 40% was amateurish revealing many missed proofing errors. More alarming the editing style differed suggesting that the editor had passed the work onto someone else for completion. Doing business with this person was frustrating as she was difficult to communicate with and very touchy. When the work was completed she solicited for further work even though my brief was clear. Beware publishing services providers and treat them as a necessary evil until they prove otherwise – at least this has been my experience. The publishing industry is full of self-appointed experts. For my previous works I engaged a reliable, experience English teacher who provided a much better result.

If you would like more information you can contact me by personal message.

Nosferatu

November 2014 I presented a workshop at The Victorian Association for the Teachers of English (VATE). The focus of the presentation was as teacher to teacher about creating an Ebook and self-publishing. Within the cohort an academic booked into another workshop jumped ship to attend my presentation. This group were delightful to work with, because most of them wanted to learn more about self-publishing primarily for the benefit of their students. This workshop was pitched to assist teachers to collaboratively publish digital and print anthologies of students’ work. At the close of the session I was given a warm round of applause.

On a sourer note, since self-publishing and beginning this endeavor over four years ago, I have received numerous requests from people who want to pick my brains. They don’t read my work and I suspect don’t read my BLOGS or SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS which give advice based my experience. I return polite emails of either encouragement or useful tips. More irritatingly, I normally receive no thanks. No writer should feel at the mercy of these VAMPIRES. The best was a request from a horror writer who asked me to buy his book and review it. He attempted to flatter me by noting a good review I posted for another writer. I was willing to do this in exchange for him doing the same for me – it wasn’t reciprocated. I bought the book anyway; it wasn’t very good therefore I posted a negative review.