Comments on: Five Things Your Editor Hates About You

By: Cathy Cade

Cathy Cade — Sun, 20 Sep 2020 09:56:53 +0000

I recognise ALL those hates – and I’m not even getting paid. I proofread and tidied up the stories from my writing group when we published our anthologies, and I started my blog in the hope that certain of our writers would pick up some punctuation tips. (Nope.) I have now been asked to ‘look over’ someone’s novel before self-publication. Since then, I’ve circulated numerous relevant blog posts to the group – all to no avail. I have specifically suggested that the novel-writer studies the latest returned, Mark-upped chapter, to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest before sending the next. Nope.
I’m tempted to send the group a link to this article, but it’s maybe a little TOO obviously targeted.

By: Oliwia

Oliwia — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 10:50:49 +0000

In reply to Liz. Preach!

By: Oliwia

Oliwia — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 10:38:46 +0000

I loved this article. Was just nodding through the whole thing, being like “A-men to that!”

I’m amazed (and ridiculously worried) at the overwhelming amount of writers who believe that editing is just running through suggested changes as well as the amount of editors that offer that up as real editing!

I really don’t get why writers run around complaining that no one gives them constructive feedback and that it’s just soooo hard to find a good editor who will actually help, and then constantly turn to $5 Fiverr editors because they’re on a “budget.” This just hurts more when those same people will sell a kidney to have “amazing” cover artwork. For real, which one do you really think is worth more money? What’s fantastic cover art going to do when the inside of your book, the actual story, is just sad?

I’ve also noticed that with the rise of self publishing, some authors are asking for an edit in the pre-order stage O.O Like what the *&#$?!

I took a look at the first page of a YA novel that is scheduled to be published in a month- three mistakes in the first sentence. By the end of the page, I didn’t know whether to laugh or just simply throw myself out the window to at least end my misery. Poor readers…

By: robintvale (Jessica)

robintvale (Jessica) — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 18:26:42 +0000

I hate these mistake and after letting my book rest I’ll look for them again. I stopped offering to help on the website I’ve talked about before simply because all the errors were driving me nuts. These could have been easily fixed.

I was so bad when first starting out. I still can mess up there and their if I’m typing too fast. But that’s in part due to my annoying dyslexia. Not an excuse mind you just another hill to climb. 😛

My pet peeve is misplaced paragraphs or even worse none at all. !@#$ I won’t even read it. A giant wall of text that goes on for 3k words (sometimes more) on every chapter? Fix that mess. The rhythm and flown just isn’t there and there’s a ton of errors to boot. Get the flame torch!

Anoter thing that irks me is that the site I like to write my stories in, it won’t let us use smart quotes and replaces then with the idiot quotes, and will often replace em dashes with en dashes. *Screams* So I get to have the fun of c/p everything into WordPad and replacing every single quote and dash. yay. Just another reason to get the heck out of there.

By: Talena Winters

Talena Winters — Sun, 08 Jul 2018 04:07:09 +0000

Haha. This is hilarious, awesome, and true. Thanks for the fun read. Hopefully it saves some editors some grief. (And I agree that prices need to be raised. I have never paid that little, and I still thought I was getting a good deal.)

By: Laura Elizabeth – Design Fundamentals Blogger – Marketing Seo 3

Laura Elizabeth – Design Fundamentals Blogger – Marketing Seo 3 — Thu, 28 Jun 2018 15:42:31 +0000

[…] Five Things Your Editor Hates About You – I’m not even going to talk about how authors will pay $500-$800 for a custom cover design but want that $200 editing job. […]

By: Sam Thorne

Sam Thorne — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 12:17:47 +0000

After completing a rather arduous manuscript featuring:

* Countryfile Syndrome (characters endlessly contemplating the cosmos while walking through intimately-described fields for no obvious reason)
* Puppy-pile syndrome (wherein all the MC’s best friends appear in every scene for no obvious reason other than to confirm the MC’s marvellousness)
* A hero who’d rather throw himself into a combine harvester rather than say ‘please’ or ‘thank you’

I felt rather exhausted. Much like the pigeon in your meme.

So this gave me a much-needed laugh. Thank you. And yes, I do believe it’s time to get a bit of sunshine.

By: Top Picks Thursday! For Writers & Readers 06-21-2018 | The Author Chronicles

Thu, 21 Jun 2018 17:02:02 +0000

[…] break your story. Nick Wilford examines the benefits of reading your work aloud, Kristen Lamb lists 5 things your editor hates about you, Nathan Bransford warns to watch out for empty gestures in your novels, and Jami Gold shares how to […]

By: Kristen Lamb

Kristen Lamb — Thu, 21 Jun 2018 01:34:09 +0000

In reply to T.S.Adrian. ROFL *high five* YES!!!!

By: T.S.Adrian

T.S.Adrian — Wed, 20 Jun 2018 14:55:30 +0000

Excellent article. (I am proud to say I checked your “lead/led” list and I made none of those mistakes–yet.)

One I can’t believe you left off the list (or I read the article so fast, I missed it) is: sending your MS to an editor, making corrections over the next few days, and then sending an “updated” MS…and then making more corrections the following week, and sending an “updated, updated” MS.

I think an editor is legally permitted to send Vito and Icepick to break your kneecaps for that.