🚀 go-pugleaf

jdm@Cadence.COM (Joe Mastroianni) writes:

>  I will pay real money.  How much real money?

FWIW, the going rate for a good copyeditor hired by a publisher is about $15
an hour. If you're really interested in having someone squeegee your
manuscripts clean, I can get exact rates and a couple of names you can
contact.

>  Neither my agent nor I can afford to spend so much time on stupid mistakes.

I will say this. I don't believe you can afford NOT to, because I think it's
crucial that authors learn to edit themselves. It's a learning process, but
it's an important aspect of learning the strengths and weaknesses of your
own writing, which is ultimately how you become a bettter writer. 

If you always depend on outside sources to correct your flaws, you'll never
learn how to stop introducing them in the first place. It might be
worthwhile to work with someone once or twice identifying problem areas for
you to focus on (but if you were doing that, I'd recommend a good workshop
or working with someone who does manuscript critique and evaluation, which
is different), but ultimately, the key to becoming a better writer is not to
throw money at the manuscript flaws, but to learn how to write those flaws
out of the manuscript. 

IMHO.


Just IM
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