It’s the last lap now, doing the last that I can to make ‘The Stalking of Rosa Czekov’ as good as I can..
It’s so difficult to be objective about something I am so familiar with, I must have read it tens of times, I have watched it in my head, lived with it… but to gain objectivity, to spot the grammatical errors that spellcheck doesn’t throw up, to notice the accidental repetitions, to polish the awkward phrase… I could do this forever but I must come to a stop otherwise it will never appear on anyone’s Kindle. I’m living it night and day at the moment!
So now I am reading it aloud, declaiming it as I would read any other story, my poor family, hearing me talking to myself! However, reading aloud does throw it into a different perspective and I have managed to cut out quite a lot of unnecessary verbiage…
Definition: verbiage – overabundance or superfluity of words, as in writing orspeech; wordiness; verbosity.
This is where I want to be:
Lois Elsden 
Reading aloud is a good editing strategy. I am a very good copy editor(I found 162 errors in the “final draft” of the high school’s 150 page annual report). So much for today’s English majors who had reviewed it. This old history teacher had to fix it. Despite that, I always let someone else proof read my stuff because we often don’t catch our own errors and the mind sees what it wants to see and often a helpful suggestion is offered about word choice as well.
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So true, Carl… my husband reads mine for me… but even so little mistakes elude me and it is infuriating once something is published to see those naughty little errors shining like beacons!
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Completely empathise Lois! You can get so boggle eyed with editing nothing looks sensible any more. But don’t worry – if it’s any consolation I’m always finding errors, even in books published by the big houses! Good luck and best wishes. x
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Thanks Ross – boggle eyed is right!
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Hi Lois. Have you seen the article on self-publishing in today’s Guardian? It’s called, “A 10-step guide to becoming a self-publishing ebook star” and it’s by Patrick Barkham. I think you might find it interesting. I’ve treated myself to a Kindle for my birthday, which isn’t till next week, but I’ve been busy loading it with books to take on holiday, also next week. Of course the first novel I got was “Farholm” which I’m looking forward to reading in France.
By the way an old friend of mine from school, Jim Williams, has recently published his latest book, in print though not as an ebook. It’s called “The English Lady Murderers’ Society” and I enjoyed it very much. It’s lighter than his other books, eg Recherché and Scherzo. He has also written under the name of Alexander Mollin and Richard Hugo.If you type in Jim Williams, author it’ll come up with his website and blog
Isabel
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Thanks Isabel – Jim’s books sound very interesting! And thanks for buying mine -please excuse the typos, I blame the Kindle!
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So true! Like everyone else commenting, I’ve spent time proofing and editing and copy-editing and as you say, that last typo wears its stealth cloak until the work is published — and then shines like a beacon. Sigh. Reading aloud is a good trick. So is proofing hard copy, not on-screen. Sounds like you’re almost there, bravo. (I’ve just reread this comment three times, searching for typos…)
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Thank you … I like “that last typo wears its stealthy cloak!” Indeed!
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