Victor Medina
“A special, special thanks to my editor, Michelle Isenhoff. In one of the biggest games of my life, when my team was down 2 points with 3 seconds left in the game, all bruised and beaten with nearly no hope of turning the game around, you were called to the field. With the odds against a win, you showed up and joined us in battle, and kicked a 67-yard field goal to save the game…and me. I’m forever grateful fate led me to you. Thank you for all your help and wisdom.”
Project Overview
Victor contacted me with a nearly finished manuscript that needed a full copyedit as well as formatting for digital and paperback editions. He also requested some guidance on how to self-publish and had me look through his back-cover blurb. His book was unique, a fairly lengthy volume of fiction that divided into four distinct sections (Book I, Book II…), each broken down into “Parts,” which made for a slightly more challenging format. It also had several main characters, all with their own storylines. I had to up my game as I helped Victor make them as focused, sharp, and memorable as possible for his readers.
My Work
I have included an email I sent to Victor that illustrates my communication style, the type of explanations I give while formatting, and the kind of self-publishing information I volunteer. It is followed by portions of the critique that accompanied his finished manuscript, along with part of the outline I refer to in the critique. Finally, I added a few images from the formatted paperback interior.
Hi Victor. I’m playing around with the look of the front matter—all the important pages at the beginning of the book. It’s all adjustable. On your copyright page, I included what I use for my own digital books, but everyone does it a little different. We can make it read however you want.
Also, some general formatting notes. Fonts choices are not very important in the digital version. (They will be in the paperback version.) Most e-readers have the option to change text to any font and size a reader prefers, so chances are, they’ll never see the fonts you pick. Therefore, I usually just use a plain one like Times New Roman. Besides, every special font you embed makes your download cost slightly higher per sale (which you pay every time someone purchases and downloads your book). If you’d like, though, we can create the chapter headings in a particular font and preserve them as images. This also will make your download cost slightly higher. Both instances, the costs are pretty negligible. We’re talking nickels vs pennies, but it all adds up, so that will be your decision.
Your Table of Contents (TOC) will be autogenerated in this digital version so it will show up and function correctly on e-readers. I’ll set it up to have the same basic look you created for it, with the nested headings. However, there are some quirks regarding that that I’ll work through with you later. It’s way easier to talk through if we can do a quick video conference. Meanwhile, I’ll lay chapters out in a general format as I edit and send it to you in a day or two so you can see what it will look like. Then we can talk about any changes you want when we video chat. Sound like a plan?
Victor, I’m impressed for a first-time story! You have a great plot arc here. I wasn’t sure at first. It’s a little non-traditional, the way it starts by focusing exclusively on Ryan in “The Constant” and then shifts to so many characters in “The Variable.” But then Ryan joins that cast in prison and it makes sense. After Mandy’s death, we see him degenerate, but he still retains a nobility that comes out in his final sacrifice…
…You’ll also see that your pacing is a little uneven. I plotted the entire book as I edited (outline below). The outline has additional notes, and I bolded scenes that were particularly intense either in action, emotion, or suspense. They’re need to be scattered pretty evenly to hold reader attention, which you do. In particular, each section should end on a high note. I also kept track of word counts. You’ll see your divisions are a little lopsided, which is fine. I’m just noting. But there are some chapters that should probably be moved around. You’ll see those notes in the manuscript.
A few of the things you struggle with: 1. PUNCTUATION. You need to study my corrections and learn how to punctuate dialogue. 2. Tense. You skip from past to present tense quite often. Keep it consistent. 3. Wordiness. Mostly you have really crisp, easy-to-read prose, but on occasion, especially toward the back of the book, you make your prose too complicated. The words are too grand and too many. Details get repeated…
…I brought some consistency to the way you use numbers (written out or in numeral form for various situations), the format you use for thoughts (italics), for texts (italics), for signs or placards and such (italics). That kind of thing…
…And finally, there was a LOT in here that needed modifying. Particularly all those quotation punctuation errors. So my use of Word’s tracking feature may not be fool proof. They can also be really hard to see. For the most part, you’ll just be clicking on “accept” for the punctuation, but read through where I make changes to your words and make sure you like how I tweaked them. I try to never change meaning, just make it clearer. But feel free to reject any of those you dislike. When you are done with all the tracked changes, send it back and I’ll run a final grammar and spell check for you.
On the whole, you have a solid story here. Holler if you need anything else, and I’m always available for publishing information. Just shoot me an email!
