{"id":104,"date":"2014-07-29T19:49:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-29T19:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/blog\/2014\/07\/29\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_29\/"},"modified":"2015-11-25T12:22:15","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T19:22:15","slug":"tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_29","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_29\/","title":{"rendered":"Tactical Tuesday: Advice for Self-Editing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nWhile different editors might wince over certain areas of
\nediting, I believe I can come up with a few items that make a less than
\nfavorable impression upon the majority:<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nTargeting the wrong publisher<\/u>: Yes, we can tell when an author hasn\u2019t done his marketing
\nresearch before submitting a manuscript. How? Manuscripts are over the word
\ncount. An imprint who publishes solely romance receives an action\/thriller.
\nBetter yet, the editor of a fiction publisher begins his review and discovers
\nthe manuscript presented is a non-fiction book on why readers should never read
\nfiction.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nUngodly subject matter<\/u>:
\nWe\u2019re specifically talking editors who edit for Christian houses. It\u2019s safe to
\nassume that most editors in Christian houses are Christian. I shudder to think
\nthey are not, but with some of the subjects published recently, one may never
\nknow. However, as a Christian who happens to be an editor, I don\u2019t want certain
\nwords or situations to come before my eye to enter into my mind, and protecting
\nthe reader is of utmost importance to me. Curse words and taking readers into
\nthe bedroom for explicit scenes is something that the majority of Christian
\npublishers do not allow. Even Christian imprints held by secular houses
\nsometimes hold to a very strict code of conduct. When an author presents such
\nscenes and language, they often cite \u201creality.\u201d The first question to ask in
\nthat regard is whose reality. Yes, Christians face everyday situations, and
\nthey don\u2019t live in a bubble away from the world, but Christian authors ought
\nnot bring the world to Christians or to non-Christians they are trying to
\nreach.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nRacial slurs and prejudicial references<\/u>: An author might feel that authenticity is raised when a
\nderogatory term is used to denote a race or nationality within a novel. Yes, a
\nstory can be layered in such a way that when one character uses a derogatory
\nterm, the reader understands the ugly nature of that character. However, that
\nsort of use should always be kept to a minimum and should be very necessary to
\nthe story\u2014with a lesson to be learned from it. A lack of regard for the
\nfeelings of others (no matter the race or ethnicity) is a sure way to garner
\nthe ire of an editor. As a funny example, I once used the term \u201cFlorida
\ncracker\u201d is a novel to describe a much beloved character. The use highly
\noffended a critique partner who was not familiar with the term. Floridians and
\nGeorgians are proud to be called \u201cCrackers\u201d as it simply states that we are
\nnatives of our state. However, the term has been hijacked, and I was thankful
\nfor the heart of the woman who took offense. If the term upset her, how many
\nothers might it have upset in print? The moral of the story: always be careful
\nand sensitive in this regard.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nLack of Research<\/u>: The
\nbest example I have of this one is a review I did (not as an editor) of a
\npre-Civil War historical in which the KKK was said to be causing
\ntrouble in the area (the key here is pre-Civil War). Another
\nstory was written about the history of a specific locale. The author
\nmisspelled the locale throughout the entry. That\u2019s basic research, but when
\nsubmitting a manuscript for review, especially a historical novel, it is best
\nto have your research well documented. You may not have to present it to an
\neditor, but there are instances when I have researched an event or timeline in
\nthe story, and I\u2019ve come up with different information. How refreshing it is
\nwhen the author writes back and cites the information for this non-expert on
\nthe subject, and I learn something new, but how disappointing it is when I
\nlearn the author did no research at all.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nI’m sure my editor pals could add some more pet peeves to
\nthe list, but I’ll leave it at this.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nHappy editing.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While different editors might wince over certain areas of editing, I believe I can come up with a few items that make a less than favorable impression upon the majority: Targeting the wrong publisher: Yes, we can tell when an author hasn\u2019t done his marketing research before submitting a manuscript. How? Manuscripts are over the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[504],"tags":[21,65,66],"class_list":["post-104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editing-writing-advice","tag-editing-advice","tag-editing-mistakes","tag-editor-pet-peeves"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}