I wrote a book a few years ago

[Kevin]

The only editors which are worth their salt, are editors which will charge you $300- $800 per page. These editors will read each one of your pages over 50 times call you up, speak with you, and get it right.

However, the price is outrageous as far as I'm concerned. Unless you have the money to devote to such an enterprise, the best bet is for you to sit down, take out an English Grammar book, read that, then read a book of essays written by one of the fathers of Modern English:

Mark Twain
Isaac Asimov
Jane Austen

etc...

People like that are literally the people whom modern English Scholars base the English rules. Pay attention to the Sentence Structure. Practice breaking down Sentences.

Mark Twain / Samuel Clemens wrote some very prolific pieces on English Language.

If you do it yourself I advise you do these steps:

1. Unless you scored in the upper 90% of English Literature/Reading Comprehension, buy a Samuel Clemens book of essays. Make sure you buy his essays which speak explicitly about Language.

2. Take individual sentence you don't understand. Look at the punctuation. Do the Sentence Deconstruction Method. Identify these major facets of sentences:

Clause Structures
Independent
Dependent

Nouns
Verbs

Listing functions

After a few exercises like this, you will be able to identify similar sentences in your writing. Compare both your sentences and the other sentences.

3. Do not use the official grammar books from anything more recent than the 60s. More recent grammar books, such as the "MLA" or the "OXFORD" or the "CHICAGO" style are published for news reporter. And, if you really look hard, you can find MASSIVE errors in all three of these leading stylized books. It's become a "competition" to produce newer versions - by incorrectly changing each version so teachers are never "happy" with the previous edition. And yes, they do this very thing.

4. Beware the so called "Oxford Comma". It DOES NOT EXIST. It's a bullplop rule invented by the British stating that every time you have a listing sentence, you must use a comma before the final "and" in the list.

The "Oxford Comma" never existed, ever, in English.

It was an erroneous comment made by the head of Oxford University some years ago, in which in incorrectly identified an independent clause function as being a single listed item.

Here's an example of the Oxford Comma:

He went to the store to buy bread, milk, and eggs.

It is wholly incorrect.

This looks like an Oxford Comma but is not:

He went to the store, then he went to the video store, and finally he visited his grandma's house.

This is not a listing function, but rather a conjoining of otherwise independent clause structures. Commas join clause structures or replace the functioning of the word "and" in a sentence. In this sentence both "then"/"and"/"Finally"are creating listing functions (making the independent clauses dependent), but the comma itself is conjoining clause structures.

Here' I'll highlight the individual clause structures for you:

He went to the store, then he went to the video store, and finally he visited his grandma's house.

5. Commas are also used as breathing pauses. Spoken sentences differ from written sentences more times than not, depending on emphasis. Samuel Clemens / Mark Twain, demonstrated this repeatedly (he even wrote phonetically).

6. Finally, know your "Whose" "Who's" "Who"(s) and "Whom"(s). This are the four most commonly mixed up and misunderstood word functions in the English language.

[Rock's Sunglasses]

Wow...that borders on more than I deserve--thanks! I think your post would be of use to everyone else in this topic as well.

Step 1 ...but I think it's a good idea for ANYONE and will pick up something by Clemens when I get the chance.

I think your step 4 relates to step 5, just as an observation--I catch myself using the dreaded Oxford comma more often than I should, and it's always because it sticks out as inappropriate for a sentence where one doesn't need to breathe.

6 is a good one. I must do it before giving my grammar, etc, a final check once I finish the crazy, plot-related editing I'm on.

The violating party in my case was not an editor, and what he gave me was a coverage report, which looked at my work from a marketing perspective; I'd been told that I needed one to get an editor at all. If you know me, you know something like that is bound to rub me the wrong way somehow, but...with easily avoided errors and laziness...? Yeah, a shame.

Has anyone else here sent for a coverage report before? Because I don't want to do it again unless I have to.

[Kevin]

You absolutely 100% do not need a coverage report. A Coverage Report is only used if you are trying to impress editors of local publishing houses.

If you are self publishing, you don't need it.

If you submit to a major book company, most of them don't accept coverage reports.

Any idiot that tries to force you to pay him for a coverage report, is just trying to rip you off.


I hope my post does help you a lot ^_^ It is not easy to edit your own work. Never consider your work ready for print if you haven't self-edited it at least 6 times. Any fewer than that and you will wish you had waited longer and re-read your novel more times.

I am technically on my 8th edit, and only now am I comfortable with the grammar. I think I've finally caught 99.9% of all the errors in my sci fi novel.

[Rock's Sunglasses]

On the coverage reports--lol, that is no less than what could be expected from the people I was dealing with. If I see 'em again, I'll ask them to clarify their claims that it's so necessary.

And I'm just about done with edit 5. Number 6 I've known for a while will be quicker, focused on grammar alone instead of being based around rewriting.

[Princess Sapphire]

I'm very blessed. I had an excellent editor recommended to me. She's a joy to work with.

[Kevin]

If you find a great editor then keep him/her

[Princess Sapphire]