Second Novel Arriving Soon. Be Patient.
Been three months since my last post but thankful the Most High has preserved my life/health and given me the strength and spirit to endure this year’s lessons, despite constantly falling short and falling behind on what i should have done. My second novel I am reviewing and the cover is near completion so am predicting a 2024 release.
Some weeks ago I was impressed to meet another writer, at my workplace. Michael Wilson, has a string of children’s books so I would appreciate those reading to go over to his link and support.
Hunting for Editors
I am struggling to find an editor for my second novel as the one I used before has done a disappearing act in spite of previous conversations with her that she would be happy to go through the second novel, so I have had to spend considerable time in searching for a new one and it hasn’t been pretty. Finding an editor is never pretty and rather an expensive affair. I looked at Reedsy, where there is a list of authors. Did my due diligence and read the reviews then posted my brief to a selection of editors. Essentially I wanted the editing to be done by November with a reasonable budget. My preference was a professional whom is UK based. I received quite a bit of rejection with these editors declining to work on my book outright. So I tried some from the US and they also declined the project. Some even giving reasons.stating they couldn’t work within the deadline and of course my budget is too low. I know what the real issue is — money. These professionals want a four figure sum, a sum I cannot afford so I went back to Fiver! I am slightly gutted in not being able to find the editor whom did the first novel even so I have had to raise the price of the book as Amazon have risen the cost of printing and I don’t think I should be paid peanuts. It’s not like I am having sales each day as they are rare. And the most I have paid is roughly £1,200 collectively for two edits, one being a proofread.
So there we have it. Reedsy is clearly not for everyone and every author is not going to chip in $1,500 for their book to be edited. It may be unnecessary to spend large sums of money, and money you don’t have, for multiple edits. You may not have the capital and I do not suggest using credit for this, however your book does need to be seen by another pair of eyes, someone you do not know. It needs to be corrected by others, whom are qualified, as you can miss things. So getting an edit for a novel is necessary but expensive.