Put Me out of a Job

[adamdray]

If you're not reading Monica Valentinelli, you probably ought to be. Her blog, Words on the Water, probes topics germane to writers, editors, and publishers of fiction and games. I've syndicated it on LiveJournal. Just add mlvwrites_rss to your friends list.

Today in her post, Fiction Editing: the Do's and Don'ts of Editing Professionally, she says, "good

Comments

[elissa_carey]

Everyone who writes needs an editor. Authors are too close to their work to see mistakes.

Oh hell yes. Even your favorite authors, commercially successful or not, need editors. Anyone who says they don't is utterly delusional.

[matt_m_mcelroy]

Awesome. Very cool of you to set up the feed.

[adamdray]

No problem.

[marcochacon]

JAGS Revised Archetypes clocks in at around 600 pages. I'd be interested in having it edited. What would it cost me?

-Marco

[adamdray]

My god, that's a big book. Nearly half a million words?

I generally won't give a quote till I've edited five sample pages. That way, both of us know what we're getting into.

My price depends on:

• how deeply you want me to edit / rewrite
  
• how long I think it will take me to edit based on the sample
  
• how soon you want it vs. other commitments
  
• how much I enjoy reading the text (the "this is cool to me" discount)

My main concern with a project so large is that I won't be able to commit to it right now. I have a full plate for the next few months (Dresden Files and Tenra Bansho Zero).

Email me about 3000 words typical to the book and I will send it back to you edited (no charge), let me know when you'd like the full book edited, and then we can talk money. Preferably MS Word (for Change Tracking) but Google Docs will do in a pinch. Send to adamdray@gmail.com, please.

[adamdray]

Once I've done, say, half a dozen projects, I'd be interested in writing a post on common mistakes RPG writers make. Right now, I'm feeling very much like a fledgling whose wings aren't strong enough to leave the nest.

[macklinr]

I have to say that your list of projects has impressed the hell out of me. I'm looking forward to checking out some of your final product.

Maybe us neophyte editors could get together at GenCon and talk shop?

[adamdray]

Please do share advice about editing craft, process, or business.

And I'd love to get together with you at GenCon, put a face to the name, and get past the stupid things I've said to you in blog posts. <=)

We ought to start a LJ Community for RPG editors. If there isn't one already.

[macklinr]

Is this where I embarrass you by saying we met face-to-face at Dreamation, in Rob's game? ;)

[adamdray]

Yes.

By the way, I created a new community for RPG editors. It's called, surprisingly, rpgeditors. Come on over.