'Jan is a writer, editor and artist par excellence. Working with me on my first novel, he adapted seamlessly to my own writing style and transformed a rough cut stone into a polished gem with a multitude of splendid facets. From start to finish his literary passion poured into my story. His response to editing new chapters was swift and crafted, always adding a dimension of professionalism that would not have been possible without his input. It is without question that his contribution to Into the Lion's Den elicited the most enthusiastic response from publishers seeking to bring my novel to market and for its early success online. Now with work underway on the sequel, Jan is my co writer and we share the joy of the craft and its success as partners.'
Martin Chimes, author of Into the Lion's Den, Mira/Harlequin
Editing can mean a lot of things. In its simplest form it is proofreading, finding typos and fixing up punctuation. No only don't you need me but I'm not the best person for that. If there are typos on this website, that's not an anomaly but par for the course as I proofread it myself.
What I am really good at is understanding story and being able to tell a good sentence from a bad sentence. If you're already a professional writer who is only after a tidy up on a finished manuscript then you can spend your money better elsewhere.
Many manuscripts, however, may be quite accomplished in terms of their prose but badly in need of structural changes. They're too slow to get moving or they have major holes in the plot or the characters aren't working. Others are brilliant with plot and character but the author still struggles with writing vivid or clear prose. Sometimes, no matter how good you are, you need another eye. Jason Franks is a fantastic writer, but his novel Bloody Waters just needed cutting back and I was able to help him with that. It went on to be nominated for an Aurealis Award.
Sometimes I wind up doing a lot of rewriting on books in the process of editing. I may start off mentoring an author but they just can't get the hang of a certain type of scene and I write it for them to speed up the process. The mentoring and editing processes are closely related, however, and if you are thinking of getting your book worked on, you should also go and check out my page on mentoring and decide which you really need. Or talk to me abou tit.
