Writers Tricks of the Trade Vol. 6 Issue 1

PRESS “CONTROL” THEN CLICK “BUY” TO PURCHASE ANY BOOK Last Minute Tweaks (Cont’d) CURRENT NYT BEST SELLERS 1/10/16 COMBINED PRINT & E-BOOK FICTION 1. ROGUE LAWYER, by John Grisham 2. THE MARTIAN, by Andy Weir 3. CROSS JUSTICE, by James Patterson 4. THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN, by Paula Hawkins 5. ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE, by Anthony Doerr Complete List You have to remember that even though I can do the same thing to others, being an editor myself, and can also do it to my own writing in a limited amount (I’m too close to it), I need that outside eye to see it (forest through the trees). Through multiple edits and so much red ink, when the final draft came down prior to printing there were bound to be slip-ups and things we all missed. True to what I figured, I found pages of errors on my error sheets (there are 25 lines per page). In total, the count came to almost 300 line items. LAST CHANCE I finally had the last proof before it went for the first printer galley. When it gets to that point, it is the time to do as many tweaks as humanly possible. I wanted this book to be perfect before any readers got hold of it. Though I always strive for perfection, I knew deep down I’d probably missed something. That goes with the territory. The more I was able to catch, the less I would be embarrassed about later. GOAL COMBINED PRINT & E-BOOK NONFICTION 1. KILLING REAGAN, by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard 2. THOMAS JEFFERSON AND THE TRIPOLI This is a difficult process to get right, or as close to right as one can. I’ve read books out there that were essentially perfect. Others looked like they were skimmed over with Spell Check and the author/publisher/editor(s) didn’t even catch all of the red-lined words! My publisher is small, right now. I wanted to do them proud. I’ve seen some of the big ones put out total crap. I wanted to do much better than that. My goal is for the reader not to be able to tell the difference in editing between my book and one from any of the big houses. PIRATES, by Brian I don’t consider that a lofty goal. It’s just a matter of effort. Kilmeade and Don Yaeger 3. HUMANS OF NEW YORK: Happy writing! STORIES, by Brandon Stanton 4. BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME, by Ta-Nehisi Coates 5. THE BOYS IN THE BOAT, by Daniel James Brown 6. Complete List JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2016 PAGE 4 WRITERS’ TRICKS OF THE TRADE

Writers Tricks of the Trade Vol. 6 Issue 1 | Page 12