The Costs of Editing

Good morning everyone,

I hope you've enjoyed your Memorial Day weekend. I did, though there's something to be said about the joy of climbing back into your own bed, listening to the breathing of your dog, and falling asleep with a window open. No cat hair clinging to nearly every surface. No clammy sweat from sleeping in rooms where you could easily bake pottery. Your own space, your own schedule. It feels good to be up on this early morning and writing (and oh, the thousands of words on the docket for the day after this post ...)

Today, we'll take a break from Editing Out In The Open - don't worry, there will be more - to talk about the costs of editing. And while 'cost' is often a loaded word that leads people to clutch their wallets tighter, or feel pangs of guilt about dealing with money at all, even though I am going to talk about the monetary expense, I also want to look at some other costs involved in and around editing. Maybe you've encountered them, maybe you've never thought about them - but that doesn't make any of them less true or less worthy for your consideration.

I. The Financial Cost - Like so many other things in life, there's a financial component. If you want something edited, you're going to pay for it. Yes, I know there are exceptions to this - where you've received offers of free editing, or if you've bullied someone into it, or if you're working in trade, but on the whole those offers and actions are the minority.

Some editors charge by the word, others by the page. There is no one single all-encompassing "right" way to do it. It's likely there are even more ways to price out editing, I just haven't thought of them or heard of them. Again, it doesn't matter what the method is, it only matters how good/helpful the work is. A good editor is a godsend, helping the writer improve not only the specific book in their charge, but also impacting future books by illuminating habits and problems endemic to the author as part of the larger relationship. A poor editor is a hindrance, retarding the process, impending the expression of talent and ultimately doing a disservice to both author and work, all under the guise of collecting a check that may likely have many zeroes in it.

We'll assume for this section that you've hypothetically come to me for editing, and that our schedules have worked out as to make this relationship viable. As I have discussed elsewhere, the first thing I'll do is lay out a contract, explaining the costs and the timetable for doing work together. I want there to be no mystery or confusion about the money that is going to change hands here, how that money is being delivered and when that money transfer happens. I don't do that to feed my ego, I do that so both writer and editor know that this relationship has a transaction component, that even though I may enjoy the work and enjoy the author's communication, this relationship is built on the respect of work, and that I should receive money for my efforts.

The specifics of that cost are based on the number of words in the project, and the timeline for the project going forward. Have a lot of words? Have a lot of words AND you need this done quickly? Expect a higher price than if you have plenty of time or relatively few words.

So I explain how much money you're sending and how much I'm getting, and we have come to an agreement as to when this is happening - so often that means one lump sum at the end of my work, or split up over a period of time and milestones in the project, or split simply in half. Whatever the schedule, it is followed.

You should pay your editor a reasonable amount. Yes, they might price out the work and the number might really make your eyes widen and you might liken their numbers to mortgage payments or months of rent or think about how many steak dinners and milkshakes you could buy. Yes, you might even have the thought that if editors all charge as much as this quote that we're all swimming through large pools of money, cavorting in our wealth and using tens and twenties as kindling in the winter.

We're not. We're so not. Just like you might be a hard working office employee who makes more than a retail clerk and vastly more than a sweatshop laborer, you're not driving a different car to work everyday and employing a cadre of servants to fan you with fronds, peel your grapes and dust your doilies. There are bills and expenses, and yes, there might be 'fun money' set aside for a social life, but that's no different than what you're doing. And no, just because you're paying out several hundred or thousands of dollars, you don't get to dictate what I do with that money.

When you take a price quote from an editor, you may be very tempted to haggle. You may look at the number and it may be several times larger than your expectation. Now you may have experience in stores being able to talk the clerk into knocking the cost of shoes, coffee or clothing down somewhat because it's the last one, or you've had a long day or because the little button on the end is only lashed to the material with six and not seven stitches, but so often that ability leads people to think that everything is negotiable, that there is extensive power in manipulating the costs, and that you can easily grow entitled and spoiled thinking that people aren't going to mind not receiving the paycheck they deserve.

Would you be upset if your boss came to you and said,

"You know [YOUR NAME HERE], you're doing a great job, and we're excited to have you working with us here, but we've gone over the numbers and quite frankly we've decided that for the next 40 hours of your job, we're going pay you half or less of what you're used to. Heck, we might just pay you ten percent. Oh, and there's a chance we won't even pay you at all! But, we look forward to seeing you in the office for the next 40 hours. And you'll likely have to work some overtime. Oh, and hey, I heard you wanted to pay off your mortgage, good luck with that!"

This is something I hear a lot, only without the office elements. And for some reason, because I'm not likely if ever wearing a tie when I edit, and because what I'm editing is something you wrote on weekends and late nights and before the kids got up and in your free time, that I must be doing what I do in my free time, so money's no thing.

Do you know what I do in my free time? Here's a hint: Not editing.

Pay your editors.

II. The Social Cost - An editor is going to help you write better. For me, that ideally means I've not only shown you within the manuscript where the problem areas are, but I've gone even further and explained to you why possibly you're making those mistakes time and again and how you stop doing them for the next project.

This can be frustrating. This can be humbling. You might really think I'm a jerk for pointing out your shortcomings, that I delight in saying you don't know how to use a semicolon or that your sentences are vague. You might even dislike hearing from me because it means you've done something wrong and that people are going to find out and shun you from all the cool tables and events.

I have to tell you, I don't talk much about my clients' problems. If the relationship was a difficult one, I may warily say something to a close friend of mine that I gained a few more gray hairs over it, or I might confide in my companion that she'd probably have a much happier boyfriend if he didn't have to sit down tomorrow and edit a particular section for the umpteenth time, but I don't throw my clients under the bus, and I have the expectation that they don't chuck me under there either.

Yes, you might not like hearing that you are in fact, not a perfect snowflake, that you make mistakes both large and small and that your work has errors to address. This might not jive with everything you've heard since the third grade when your parents told you in fact that your poop smells of roses and happiness and that you're the greatest princess in all the land whose flatulence spreads rainbows.

But you're not going to be ostracized for seeking help. No more than the addict who goes into treatment, or the athlete who seeks out a trainer. You want to improve, you get help. I really don't think that's as stigmatized as it used to be, nor is it a sign of weakness. It's a sign of a desire to be better than you are, which I find noble and courageous. You're to be commended, not chastised.

III. The Educational Cost - In a healthy writer-editor relationship, you're going to learn things about writing, about your own writing and about yourself. You'll learn why you can't just mash twenty words into a sentence or why you need to be more clear about how many 'he's you put into a paragraph. You might even learn about why you're afraid to finish a project, or why you always seem to get stuck when you reach a particular part of a story.

These lessons may be hard fought, these lessons may not come easily, and only after you grit you teeth and wipe away a tear and stop cursing either yourself or someone else. Learning new things can be tough, but there is little else as rewarding as overcoming something that previously held you back or gaining confidence in discovering you can accomplish something previously thought impossible.

Let me tell you a moment about the other side of that coin. Let me talk to you about how the editorial Spidey-sense doesn't shut off, not without a lot of effort or good distraction or something significant. I have been known to edit the menu at the fancy restaurant. I once commented loudly about how a sales flyer would do better if the headline wasn't passive. That's the dark side of editing, once you start knowing the mistakes, you see them. This revelation of the Matrix can be good, because you can catch yourself or maybe help someone else avoid a problem before it starts, but at the same time you can all too easily forget the joy of producing a thing because you're rather locked into looking for a thing's problems. And yes, problems are inevitable. Even after careful editing. Even after several editors. Even after years go by.

Don't forget to enjoy the work you're creating. Love the characters. Love the funny dialogue, and the way character A feels about character B. Enjoy that mechanic you developed for tracking players over time, and relish the opportunity to revisit a character in a sequel or trilogy.

Love your work, then love it enough to get it edited, and love it more when it's gone through hell and come out the other side even better.

***

I've outlined three costs, though I'm sure others exist. Feel free to let me know about them in the comments. Later this week we'll dive back into Editing Out In The Open, and I'll also announce some upcoming chances you have to hear me (and see me!) be interviewed.

Have a good day. Happy writing.

I Produce Books Now, Books Are Cool

I think when we're younger, we draft these big plans in our heads (I'm going to be an astronaut! I'm going to be Batman!), and while some fade out as time passes and interests change, you're always compiling a new list of plans, dreams and goals.

Maybe your goal is to live and work in New York City. Maybe your goal is to play a professional sport. Maybe your goal is to raise beautiful and compassionate children. You have these goals, and you should chase them down, do all in your power to accomplish them, hold hope and faith close to your heart and make what you dream about a reality.

When I was sick, when I was more fully in throes of mental illness, my plans got grandiose (I'm going to prove people wrong, I'm going to change the system!) and the route to those plans seemed light-years away. It felt like I'd never accomplish my goals, that I'd always be thwarted, and incidentally, that it was never my fault that things didn't work out. It didn't matter that I had unrealistic irrational goals, and it didn't matter that I didn't take more than one or two steps towards accomplishing them, it was always the fault of something or someone who wasn't me. This of course led to me staying angry, staying frustrated and making even more grandiose plans that I didn't do squat about. 

Now I'm stable. Now I'm making smarter decisions, setting smarter goals. Goals like straighten out my finances. Attend GenCon. Create new things that people like. Be honest. Be open.

One of the lingering formerly grandiose plans was "publish books", and that often got inflated to this idea that I could crank out a book every 6-8 months for the next thirty years and then stop writing and swim through the sea of money I would have no doubt made.

I should point out that while I wrote and wrote and wrote, I never finished much. Finishing meant I'd have to take that next step, and that felt like work, so I found new and exciting ways to procrastinate.

That time's over. And I'm thankful. Look what I did!

This is a link to my Smashwords page (or library, whatever they call it). You'll see there are two items on it.

86 Things I've Said On Twitter is now a single volume you can read through at your leisure. It's about 40 pages of all different kinds of advice covering writing technique and publishing advice and motivational you-can-do-it-ness. Also, it's TWO DOLLARS. Yes, that is cheaper than a big cup of specialty coffee.

Character 101, Or How To Build Effective Characters is my one-stop guide to character development that is practical, detailed and interesting. It's two dozen pages of easily applicable method and advice to turn your possibly uninteresting character into something memorable. It's $4.99. Yes, that's less than the cost of this silver bar. And may also be less than the cup of specialty coffee.

Did I ever think I'd get this far? Nope. But I'm glad I did. And I hope you stick with me on this ride. I'm excited to see where it goes.

**Note: I could have really easily turned this into a really vitriolic thumbing of my nose at certain people, deriding them, taking shots at them, and generally being a rotten person. I'm not saying there aren't people who weren't negative, toxic, unhelpful around me at various points in my life, but I am saying that the ultimate reason why I didn't do this sooner falls on my shoulders, not theirs. But I'd be lying if this didn't feel a little satisfying to prove those haters wrong. 

Post #100 - Thank You Editors, Writers and Publishers

This is officially the longest I've ever maintained a blog. So I'd like to look back for a minute and sum up things to date:

1. This blog is a pretty good combination of my life and my business, and I'm happy with sharing the things I share.
2. A year ago this time, I was feeling the heat that I was failing professionally, and strongly considered getting a cubicle or retail job - the clients were infrequent, the checks moreso and I was really unsure of what the next steps were. (Note: Some people will step in here and say they are the cause for my upswing and success, and I want to take this sentence to thank them for their support. They were helpful, and I do not minimize their efforts, but I also don't maximize them either.)
3. My personal life has been...well, an adventure. And right now, I'm in some pretty intense therapy. So if you're wondering why I'm handling things differently, thank my therapist, my psychiatrist and the support group. They've helped me figure out more about myself in 2 weeks than a whole load of experiences and failures over 2 years. I look forward to keeping that up and going onward and upward.
4. I cannot claim to be cured, or in remission, but I can tell you that who I was a month ago and who I am now are not the same person - this isn't because I'm conflating things and posting bravado, this is because I finally had no other choice but to stare myself in a metaphoric mirror and get a handle on my shit. Not easy, not fun. But progress.
5. Where this blog goes for the next 100 posts, I don't know. I've got classes I want to teach in the fall. I've got Conventions I want to travel to, people I want to meet, and I'd like this blog to be my record of that.

Now, onto the message of the day.

I want to thank all the editors, writers and publishers I have come to know and work with this last year. I had toyed with mentioning them by name, but felt that such a list was grandiose. I then tried paring down the list, but thought that it was too exclusionary. I have since settled on this statement --

To everyone who has met me, talked to me, shared their ideas with me, hired me, retained me, and paid me, thank you so much for making me one thousand million percent sure that what I'm doing as an editor and consultant is the absolute best course for my life.

To everyone I have spoken with, carpooled with, been to your homes, read your manuscripts, exchanged emails with, laughed with, played games with, ran games with, been supported by, confided in, shilled for, helped, listened to, consulted, advised, amused, chatted with and been introduced to, thank you so much for making my life better.

I know that what I do sometimes becomes more than just my job; that it is a passion and in part an identity, and that I'm not known for my thank-yous or recognizing my friends, peers, employers and colleagues, but I'm making an effort to change that, and I hope that you all can forgive me for how I was, and understand that I'm doing all in my power to get better. For me, for once.

I know that I've not always been the best sort of guy - my tone still sucks, I can be a real jerk and an ass, and that I haven't always been the kind of person people want to be around, or that I haven't always wanted to be around people. To the people I've hurt, I am sorry. I will not air out my laundry for everyone to see, but I will say my apologies publicly - I am sorry that anything I did or didn't do upset you. I'm sorry I lied, I ignored, I stayed quiet, I boasted, I bitched....all of it. I know that for some people this is just more hot air from the jerk, and I know that I'm not going to be trusted or liked and that every word I'm writing is another nail in the coffin that buries me. Whatever. See above statements about being different now. I cannot make you believe it, that's up to you. All I can do is work on being the best me possible.

Editors, thank you for letting me work alongside you, for you, with you and under your expert tutelage. I am a better editor, writer and enthusiast of craft because I can point to the lessons you've taught me. I learn new things every day, and am so lucky and grateful to have the opportunities to do so.

Publishers, thank you for taking a chance on me. A year ago, I was just another guy in a room who happened to know a thing or two about getting books into peoples' hands. (That post is coming...wait for November) And now my name has been on projects, some people even know who I am, and I finally have a use for all these thousands of business cards. Without you, I'd be...well, probably making $35 a week teaching how to write query letters.

Writers, it is to you I owe the greatest thanks. You have brought me such joy, such happiness, such moments of clarity as I face down my preconceived notions, biases, shitty attitudes and nonsense en route to finding and refining my core value of "Help tell the best stories". I am so lucky to count some of you among not only my clients or acquaintances, but also my friends. All three of those things, I didn't have too many of last year. Again, what a difference a year makes.

I really have been #livingthedream this past year. Thank you all for it.

For those that don't know, my birthday is Tuesday. I have to be honest and tell you I don't quite know how I'll feel or what to do, but I can tell you I'm treating it like any other Tuesday (weather permitting) - I'm going to get up early, walk a few miles, then go to therapy and come home and work. There's also a dinner-thing happening. If you see me online Tuesday, please feel free to say hello.

Thanks for reading these 100 posts. I know some of them have been more popular than others. I know some of them have been better written than others. I'll keep being awesome for the next 100, I promise.

I'll be back probably Friday to talk more writing. Happy writing.

P.S. 2 things: Make sure you thank your editors. And please for the love of Pete, if you're not sure you need an editor, talk to one first. DO NOT trust your Aunt Petunia with your manuscript. She may have cooties. Or be an idiot.

Sound the Feasting Horn!

This series of Snickers commercials always made me happy, especially the exuberant Viking and his Feasting Horn. I've heard a lot of authors talk about how hard they work and how much they love their projects, but the conversation so often grinds to a halt with some variation of this sentence coming out of their mouths.

"I just wish people would ask me about the book, or they'd search me out, so that I didn't have to talk to them."

And just after I pick my jaw up off the floor, and just after I explain just how easy (and possibly enjoyable) it can be to talk about something you both believe in and are passionate about, they say something like,

"You make it sound so easy, but I just can't do it."

And usually I have to bite my tongue at this point and say, "Well..." and then go on about my day. But this is my blog, so I don't have to hold back here.

1. Okay, it's not the easiest thing in the world to do, but IT CAN BE DONE. Yes, I'm hugely biased about how easy it is to talk about what I'm doing, because it's my job, I love my job and this is pretty much all I do, unless you want to talk about comics, games, nerdy things or my favorite things to do while half-asleep. I didn't fly out of the womb knowing how to do this, I didn't even really get a good handle on the first ten years I was doing it. But I learned, and that's principally because I tried until I got it "right" ("Right" as in, I got the results I wanted). I didn't get it right the first time, so I kept trying, and the more I tried the easier and more familiar the actions became.

2. No one is going to ask you about what you're doing if you don't tell them. I have met a lot of people. Some of them even claimed to be mind readers. They weren't, and to date I haven't met anyone who's really honed their mindcraft to Professor X levels. So, unless you're talking about what you're doing somewhere (in person, on the internet, via smoke signals, whatever), how are people going to know what you're doing? And as a side note, if you follow this up with "But people do know...." then I'm assuming you should be telling MORE people, because the ones you did tell didn't get as excited as you hoped. Also, it's possible that HOW you told them didn't inspire them to action, so you may want to consider working on that.

3. Face the facts. I'm sorry if this is cold or hard to hear, but there's no way around this:

If people don't know that you've got a book either available for sale or in development, how are they supposed to know that they can get it?

And if you're not talking about what you're doing, either out of cowardice, fear of rejection, or some kind of faux-humility (I don't want to talk about what I do because I don't want people to think that I'm conceited), then why are you even bothering to do a task that expressly creates a product to be shared?

And what sort of lazy coward are you that you to just create things in some vain hope that random people by the truck load will just one day bump into you and say "Gee wilikers, I've been looking my whole life for exactly these things, and I just so happen to have bazillions of dollars I'm not using. We should trade dollars for your product" ?

Is this fear that keeps you from celebrating your successes? And before people can even deem your work "crap", you've gone ahead and done it for them? If so, then you have no reason to bitch that your books aren't selling, that your contracts aren't getting picked up and that you're not the popular kid in the cafeteria.

It is impossible to sell something without people knowing it's available.
If you think your product is shit, it is.
If you think people will hate your product, they will.
If you love your product and you did your absolute best making it and you're ridiculously proud of it and you love talking about the experience and what it's taught you, there is no way it will be seen as crap.

But it won't sell in the bazillions and set me up as being financially comfortable for the rest of my days so that I can sit in my palatial estate and read books while oogling the poolboys, you say.

And that's true. I'm really sorry that in today's world you didn't capture lightning in the bottle and corner the ever fickle market on some concept, taking the pop culture world by storm. And I'm doubly sorry that even if you did, you'd realize that the second something new came along, you'd get put out to pasture.

Now, if you're a one-and-done sort of creator, then you'll be in the esteemed company of Pogs, Pet Rocks, those slap bracelet things that were confiscated at school and the band Los del Rio.

But, let's suppose you want to do the one project and it goes well, but you don't push forward to repeat that success and you forever want to be known as the person who 'did that one thing'. How long is that going to work for you? Look at actors, do you think they like being known forever as what they did when they were 12?

This is a time when you have to branch out, try again, and keep logs on the burning fires of your creativity. Always be working, be producing, be creating. It will keep you happier, encourage you, reduce fine lines and wrinkles and seriously make a difference in the quality of your day.

4. Either do it or not do it. Make your moments, don't wait for them. Fashion is cyclical, and I'm just waiting for grunge to come back into social dress. I've got some flannels and old jeans and my Nirvana playlist all set. While I'm waiting for my high school years to happen again (or at least until Doctor Who swings by for a weekend adventure), I'm not sitting still. There are books to edit, scripts to read, write and revise, a series to try and get off the ground, a whole ton of games that I'm slated to work on and with, and a heap of conventions, interviews and appearances to make. (This summer is going to be SO AWESOME you guys).

Were this ten months ago, I'd still be sitting in a Barnes & Noble Cafe talking to the same five people over and over again about how to write better paragraphs and build better characters and being grateful that they remembered to fork over five bucks to hear me speak. And I'd be working...a little. A little here, and a little there, and doing a lot of wishing / waiting for the stars to align / convening energies over magical altars (okay not really that last one, but damn close). And while some people love to take a lot of credit for making these things happen for me, and while I'm willing to give them thanks for supporting me and encouraging me, what really got me to the position I'm in now is ME DOING these things rather than waiting for them to happen.

Because it's not a bus. There's no timetable that if I just plop down on a bench, my exact goals will be brought to me on a platter (and other mixed metaphors). Some "work" (not always the stressful, tucked-in shirt kind - sometimes it means you just have to leave the house and talk to people, or go to that meeting or mention something to someone on Twitter) will have to done on your part, because every action (and therefore every consequence, thanks Newtonian physics), requires an investment of energy.

You want something to happen? Get started on making it happen. Take the risk. Jump out of the plane. Get off the couch. Transfer your dreams to your actions. Do shit.

If it really matters to you, you'll push past the fears and make your dreams/wishes come true. Otherwise, it's just hot air, and you can go make a good living filling up balloons.

How, you ask? How do I do this? Be brave, make the bold and scary choices, try, don't assume failure or even success, assume that you're going to do your best this time, and every time. When things get heavy and messy, don't give up. Never give up.

Sound your Feasting Horn! Let us celebrate your good news and your soon-to-be-good news!

Happy writing.