What would I have done without Catherine Nobel in my book life? My first novel, Evil in the Mirror, needed to be proofed and edited. Thanks to my friend and high school classmate, Nancy Bradley, she led me to Catherine (Cat). Cat agreed to whip my novel into shape for a very fair sum of money. Of course, I had no idea what she had in mind, but let's face it, when you have no clue, lose the ego!
Dear Cat, I stand before you naked in my stupidity. I barely graduated high school, and the rest of my education is from the School of Hard Knocks - you can bet she was impressed with those credentials!
One of her first e-mail questions was if I had a Thesaurus. My response to her was simple, "No, I don't own one. That's why I hired an editor to make it all better. I thought a Thesaurus was a pre-historic dinosaur until you ruined it for me." It was at this point I think she might have been reconsidering her assignment, but since Cat is a schoolteacher, she took pity on me and continued with the challenge.
In the same email, Cat stated that my book was at the seventh-grade level and would appeal to many adults. What a coincidence! I graduated from high school with a seventh-grade education and then joined the ranks of construction workers who were undereducated and overpaid. As soon as the construction industry recovers from the current recession, there will be plenty of people to buy my book...
Even best selling authors have their books proofed and edited. Always have your work polished like a fine diamond if you intend to sell books!!
Friday, March 5, 2010
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1 comment:
Book sales are at a an all time low, and so it means more work for everyone involved...But everything you say is spot on and I hope people are listening. Go get 'em, Tiger!
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