Showing posts with label Sarah Kolb Williams. Show all posts

Congratulations!

Finishing a book is a huge accomplishment. You’ve invested time, emotion, and tears for months if not years on end, and the fruit of your labor is now complete. Now, what do you do with it?

Whether you traditionally or self-publish, your book needs professional editing. Without it, your chances of success in the marketplace are very slim.

Why Your Book Needs Editing

It's rough out there for new authors. Publishing houses have less and less money to spend, and it's absolutely crucial to put your best face forward and show the publisher that it won't have to invest in heavily developing your manuscript.

And wouldn't any author want to show his or her work in the best shape it can be, under any circumstances? The amount of submissions publishers receive every day is astronomical. Don't give them an easily avoided reason to pass on yours.

What to Ask Your Editor

When you both know what to expect of each other, the writer–editor relationship can be a beautiful thing. But the Internet is crawling with scammers trying to make an easy buck, and finding a freelance editor without a recommendation is daunting.

To help you sort through all the posers and find the legitimate editors, here are 5 questions you can ask so you can find a qualified editor who can take your book to the next level.

1. “Can you give me a reference?”

Not every editor has been in the game for decades, and most authors needn't expect this. But it shouldn't be difficult—or unexpected—for your editor to furnish you with the names and numbers of people familiar with his or her work.

If your editor cannot offer you a single professional contact from his or her entire career, it’s due either to a lack of experience or a lack of favorable review. Take your manuscript elsewhere.

2. “What style guide do you use?”

With novels, The Chicago Manual of Style is industry standard. But this isn't a deal-breaker; a skilled and knowledgeable editor will be able to work under another style guide's conventions with little difficulty.

But while there isn't necessarily a right answer to this question, there certainly is a wrong answer: "Huh?"

Don’t write off a qualified editor who is more familiar with AP than CMOS. Do write off an editor who can’t tell you what they are.

3. “Where do you fall on serial commas?”

This is, admittedly, a bit of a trick question—but I wouldn't ask you to push your editors any harder than I would expect to be pushed myself. And I’ll talk about serial commas any day.

Serial commas are universally cherished among both Chicago enthusiasts and the word-nerd population at large. They look like this:

Kirk, Spock, and Bones remained on the bridge.

There's a comma before the “and”—you know, showing that “Spock” was just another list item like any other. As is logical.

But don’t worry. You don’t have to give your editor a written exam on serial commas—you just have to make sure the understanding is there. The consistency of your manuscript depends on it.

4. “Can you give me a style sheet?”

Quick disclaimer: "style sheet" isn't necessarily CMOS terminology, so don't slam any doors if your editor doesn't recognize the phrase. But it should eventually be determined that your editor can provide you with a list of notable words, phrases, and style conventions he or she encountered in your manuscript.

Basically, a style sheet is a list of terms the editor refers to while working through the manuscript: hyphenated terms, proper nouns, special rules pertaining to numbers, and other editorial shorthand.

Whatever your editor calls it, it's important that there is some sort of a system by which terms in the manuscript can be checked for consistency on the editor’s way through.

5. What do you charge?

Editing is a valuable skill that deserves professional rates. It takes focus, concentration, an excellent grasp of grammar, sensitivity to an author’s unique voice and perspective, meticulous care, and vast patience. I speak to people who shudder in horror when I tell them what I do for a living; it’s not for everyone.

There will always be someone who can do it cheaper. But those who fall over backward to meet a price far below professional rates only reveal that there are no more tempting offers for them on the horizon. Smart authors ask why.

Go Forth and Prosper

These are just five arbitrary questions that can help a new author wade through the sea of potential editors out there and settle on one that is qualified, experienced, and professional. Make sure you prepare a list of your own, and make sure you’re comfortable with your final choice!

A good editor won’t make your writing career. But a bad one just might break it.

Guest post by Sarah Kolb-Williams, a writer, editor, and serial comma enthusiast from the Twin Cities. Find her at kolbwilliams.com.

Pseudonyms—or pen names—are nothing new; authors have been publishing books under assumed identities for centuries. And according to copyright law, whatever you're calling yourself, you automatically own the copyright to your own book just by having written it.

But what happens if you face a situation where you have to legally claim ownership of your intellectual property—in a copyright infringement lawsuit, for instance? If you've been publishing under a pseudonym, how will you prove that pen name is really you?

[Note: The author is not a lawyer, and this article is not intended as a substitute for professional legal advice from someone familiar with your unique situation.]

What does copyright law say about claiming ownership?

According to copyright law:

"Copyright protection subsists from the time the work is created in fixed form. The copyright in the work of authorship immediately becomes the property of the author who created the work." (source: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf)

This sounds simple enough, right? As long as the book has made it past the idea stage and onto paper or screen, the person who wrote it owns it.

Of course, copyright law being a complex and convoluted creature, it's never quite that simple.

Under ideal circumstances, an author can go right along enjoying his or her automatic copyright indefinitely (or, at least, until the copyright has expired). But what happens when someone infringes on your work, and sending a cease and desist letter doesn't do the trick?

Again, copyright law:

"Before an infringement suit may be filed in court, registration is necessary for works of US origin."

There's the kicker: while it's free and automatic to *own* a copyright, *protecting* that ownership is another matter.

What does copyright registration have to do with pseudonyms?

Quite a bit, in fact—depending on what you're actually trying to accomplish by using a pen name.

Pseudonym for a whim

There are many reasons an author might decide to use a pen name for no deeper reason than personal choice. These reasons might include:

To hide or neutralize the author's true gender from the public in a field perceived to be more welcoming of the opposite sex (such as J.K. Rowling, a gender-ambiguous handle)
To create a new child-friendly persona (as Theodor Geisel did when he became Dr. Seuss)
To avoid oversaturating the market between major releases (which, rumor has it, is one reason the prolific Stephen King published as Richard Bachman for several years)

Copyright registration requires certain information about the author and the owner, and this information is a matter of public record. But an author publishing under a pseudonym for any of these reasons may not have a need for complete security, especially pen names used by children's authors.

For many authors, the fact that anyone can access their copyright records and learn their real identities is not a cause for concern and may even be a welcome benefit. (It's difficult to agree to movie treatments when producers don't know who to ask!)

The copyright registration process makes it easy for an author to provide a pseudonym in conjunction with his or her legal name—and, of course, the copyright certificate is all the official proof the courts might require of the author's connection to both pseudonym and intellectual property.

Pseudonym for security

Of course, other authors may have very different reasons for using pen names, reasons that do require publication to take place in absolute secrecy. Two might be:

To publish political material without fear of government retaliation, especially in totalitarian countries
To keep opponents of controversial issues from seeking out and harassing an author's family

In these cases, obviously, creating a public record connecting the author's real name to the work would defeat the pseudonym's entire purpose. When security is an issue, further obfuscation is required.

It's perfectly legal for an author to register a copyright under a pen name without revealing his or her true identity—but this brings us back to our previous question: How can legal ownership be proved if the author's true legal name doesn't appear on the copyright registration?

The bottom line: There are a number of ways to prove the use of a pseudonym, but they are external to the copyright process itself. In these cases, it's important to speak to a lawyer about drawing up the necessary paperwork that connects your name to your pseudonym so that your connection to your pseudonym is legal and undeniable.

Sarah Kolb-Williams

Guest post by Sarah Kolb-Williams, a book editor, writer, and copyright specialist. She blogs about intellectual property protection for authors and other creative professionals at http://www.clickandcopyright.com/blog.

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