Saturday, July 27, 2013

The Editor's Eye / Stacy Ennis


Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Non-Fiction/Writing

Approximate word count: 55-60,000 words

Availability    
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: YES  Smashwords: NO  Paper: YES
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

“Stacy Ennis is a book and magazine editor, writer, book coach, and speaker. Her greatest joy is helping people achieve their book-writing dreams, and she has had the opportunity to work with a diverse group of authors in varied genres, editing several chart-toppers.”

For more, visit stacyennis.com.

Description:

“The Editor's Eye: A Practical Guide to Transforming Your Book from Good to Great shows you how editing can help you write your best book. In this no-nonsense guide, book coach and editor Stacy Ennis takes you through the ins and outs of the often bewildering book-editing process. As you begin to understand how writing and editing complement each other, you'll become more confident as a writer, finish your book faster, and move toward the ultimate goal: publication.”

Appraisal:

Regular readers of my reviews or ramblings elsewhere, primarily at Indies Unlimited, know that where copy editing and proofreading are concerned, I tend to come down hard on indie books that are deficient in this area. If a book falls short here, I see it as an unambiguous indication that the author or publisher failed to put the proper polish on their product in a way that is easily measurable and has nothing to do with personal taste, other than how forgiving a reader’s inner editor is. If I start picking apart a book with lots of specific examples of shoddy writing, plot holes, or scenes that did nothing to move the story forward, the book has even bigger problems. All of these are indicative of less than adequate editing at some point in the writing and preparation of the book. All of this is a lot of words (that with proper editing would be many fewer) to say that I believe every author needs an editor (and a copy editor and a proofreader). Being indie doesn’t give anyone a pass.

In this book (well edited, BTW) Stacey Ennis explains for the current or wannabe author (or the interested reader) each stage of the editing process, what is involved, and how each will make your book better. In her words, how to take your book from good to great. She also tries to straighten out some misconceptions associated with editors, what they do, and gives advice on finding and hiring the right person (bad editing might be worse than no editing).

Although I had a basic idea of what each phase of editing involved, I felt like I came away from reading this book with a deeper understanding of the details. The only complaint I have is minor, that at times it felt like the fine line between informing about editing and making a hard sell might have been crossed, at least for some people. However, the discussion of the various modes of publishing (self-publishing, small press, Big 6, and variations) largely made up for it in its evenhandedness in explaining the pros and cons of each, while including an appropriate disclaimer to beware of and steer clear of the predatory vanity publishers.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.


Rating: **** Four stars

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