Hello everyone, My name is Mindy, I'm new here, but I was hoping to find some writing help. I have what will be my first novel written and I was told by the professional ghostwriter/editor that I had hired that I should just go ahead and submit it to publishers, but she never finished editing/ghostwriting the entire second draft and so that has me worried. Also, The publisher I would most like to submit to at this time only allows novels to be 95,000 words and mine is currently 118,486 words. I know I can get the word count down, but I would really like help in doing this and possibly have somebody go over the entire manuscript with me chapter by chapter to see what can be done with it and if it is worthy of being submitted to a publisher. I cannot afford to pay anyone as I am not currently working do to health issues, but if there is anyone here who would like to help me, please let me know, thank you! -Mindy
Mindy, I wish I had better news, but I think you may have been conned. When it comes to fiction there are editors, but not ghostwriters. And editors are seldom writers. Think about it. If they could take less than professional work and edit it into shape to sell, wouldn't they be writing and selling their own work and making a lot more money? Ghostwriters primarily do memoir and nonfiction work. An editor is an educated pair of eyes, and looks at your work to find the things you're capable of doing but miss because you're too close to the work and see what you expect to see, not what's actually on the page. They fix grammar, of course, but if they see passive writing that's what they point out, that it's passive, or needs tightening. They don't rewrite it for you. I love my editors because they keep me honest, and save my ass. Their comments bubbles congregate so thickly on the page that I constantly find myself shaking my head that I can be so stupid. But they do not rewrite the story for me. Think in terms of a painting. A critic might say that picture is unbalanced because of a problem on the lower left. What's said is perfectly valid because that's the impression the critic got. But the fix might be to place a group of clouds in the upper right, or something else that, on the surface seems unrelated. What the artist needs to do is figure out why that impression was given and how to eliminate it. That's why, in writing fiction, the fact of the comment is often as important as what was said, perhaps more. What I'm getting at is that if you are not now writing on a professional level that's what you need to address. And it's a lot cheaper than hiring an editor. I suggest you post a thousand words of so of the story for reaction here. And if you message me when you do I'll take a look. I would suggest, though, that if you haven't yet done so, do a little digging into the basics, the nuts-and-bolts of what a story is, and how presentation of fiction for the printed word is different from screen writing or verbal storytelling. One article I favor, on presentation, is found here. Your local library's fiction writing section can be of huge help, too. My personal suggestion is to seek Jack Bickham's name on the cover.
of course there are fiction ghostwriters! how do you think so many non-writer celebs get their novels written?... even famous novelists hand their story ideas over to ghostwriters these days... and who do you think wrote all those nancy drew books?... GHOSTWRITERS! james patterson uses them, tom clancy uses them, and bob ludlum's estate uses them, just for a few... mindy: i mentor new writers and take on a ghosting job now and then... i'll be happy to give your ms a look and provide a free assessment of the writing quality... it may be ok as is, or may just need a bit of editing, that you can do on your own... how much did you pay that writer and why didn't she finish the job? email me if you'd like me to take a look at it... love and hugs, maia maia3maia@hotmail.com
And Robert Parker's estate, Janet Evanovich and even (sob) John Sanford. This is an greedy, insulting trend that will drive readers from fiction even faster than they're leaving already.
It's easy enough to see how publishers and then writers, after establishing a name, use said name to every advantage possible. Fact is, if you want to write books under my name, and pay me a healthy percentage, I'm game. PM me the contract. Given work of equal genre and merit, the famous-author-here will win out on sales every time. I don't need to know the industry very well to know this.
mindy... sorry about having kicked off the digression from your question... getting back to it, i'll be happy to help you in any way i can... hugs, maia
