I’ve finished the last of four rounds of edits for “Tall, Dark and Slayer”, my January release from Champagne Books. I’ve taken out em dashes, fragmented sentences and lots of question marks. I’ve read the manuscript approx. twenty times. I have to make one more pass and send it back to my editor. She’ll bump it up to her editor then I’ll have to go through her line edits. Then it’s done, set in stone.
You’d think, after twenty passes, and three or four from my editor, we would have caught all the errors. I still find them, though they’re getting smaller and smaller. The biggest one was using “going to her play as” instead of “going to her place as”. I’m sure someone would have emailed me on that one.
All this reading and editing emphasizes the need to polish, polish and polish your manuscript. This is especially important when sending out a query to an editor or agent. You’re an unknown, your query is picked out of the slush pile and they have no time to overlook basic errors. If you’re sloppy with your one page query, what will your manuscript look like?
I’m now editing “Robert’s Rules Undone” the sequel to “What Do You Say to a Naked Elf?” Both books will be epubished this fall. If you ever wondered what happened to Tivat the Shapeshifter in “Elf”, he teams up with Jane’s sister, Sheila Perfect, in an adventure that takes place approx. one year after Jane and Charlie find their happily ever after.
I’ll post the covers soon.
Take care,
Cheryl
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