The Frugal Editor: Put your best book forward to avoid humiliation and ensure success (How to Do It Frugally) (Perfect Paperback)

~ Howard-Johnson Carolyn (Author), Trudy McMurrin (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"To the rescue comes acclaimed author Carolyn Howard-Johnson with The Frugal Editor, the latest in her How to Do It Frugally series. This little gem is a must-have for any writer, published or not, bestselling or unknown." ~Christy Tillery French -- Midwest Review

...the vital ingredient needed for any author to experience publication success... . Very highly recommended. ~ Suzie Houseley --MyShelf Reviews

To the rescue comes acclaimed author Carolyn Howard-Johnson with The Frugal Editor, the latest in her How to Do It Frugally series. This little gem is a must-have for any writer, published or not, bestselling or unknown. ~Christy Tillery French --Midwest Book Review

Product Description

Book Description A nitty-gritty how-to book about editing. Howard-Johnson, a writing and editing instructor for UCLA Extension Writers' Program, gives writers the information and tips they need to get their work ready for submission. It's practical, detailed and easy to read. It is the winner of USA Book News Best Book 2007 (Publishing Category), Reader Views Literary Award and the New Millennium Award for Marketing.

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Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Red Engine Press; 1 edition (October 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0978515870
• ISBN-13: 978-0978515874
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #751,985 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Editor is IN - and easy to use, September 28, 2007

By	Billie A. Williams "Accidental Sleuths Solve ... (Amberg, WI United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

THE FRUGAL EDITOR,
Put your best book forward to avoid humiliation and ensure success.
by Carolyn Howard-Johnson
ISBN 978-0-97851-7-4
Red Engine Press
Reviewed by Billie A Williams

In this day an age, when according to some studies, over 81 percent of Americans feel they should write a book and more than six million of them actually have at least written the manuscripts. What are your chances of getting published when that is just over two percent of the population? Most of these manuscripts however, are doomed to failure because they don't understand the intricacies of polishing (read that as editing) their manuscripts before sending them out, and/or hiring an editor to give it the final tweak before they send them off.

According to a recent article by Robert McCrum in The Observer and I quote,
"...according to the New York Times, there's a new book published in the United States every half an hour, and - wait for it - that's just fiction. RR Bowker, the company that compiles the Books in Print database in the USA, has calculated that no fewer than 175,000 new titles were published in 2003. That's one book roughly every 20 seconds." And as you can imagine that trend has only increased since then. As McCrum says, the new books have the shelf life of yogurt, but that quality will always stand above the rest and will persevere. So how do you bring that quality to your own work?

The Frugal Editor by Carolyn Howard-Johnson is like having an editor in a box, or more correctly, between two covers of a book. Concise down-to-earth advice about how to edit your manuscript before you even begin to think about sending it out into the red pencil world of publishers, where their editors get the first chance to evaluate your hard work.

Frugal Editor is a veritable thesaurus of how to spot the gremlins that can mess up your prose. If edits and editors paralyze you with fear, take heart. Carolyn Howard-Johnson makes the whole process palatable. She intersperses her directives with light hearted humor making the whole process nearly enjoyable.

If there is an error your manuscript could contain, you'll find the method for search and eradication in this delightful book. You'll want to read it cover to cover, but then you will keep it by your side as you write, rewrite and edit so you can be frugal when you do decided to hire that editor to give it one last polish before you submit it anywhere. As Howard-Johnson says; "The lesson here for all of us is that attention to detail and craft counts, and that even experienced writers can flub an opportunity if they don't pay attention to the last great step toward publishing, a good edit."

Howard-Johnson explains the difference between and editor and a typo hunter. She also cautions that "...no matter how skilled an editor is, the author needs to know a lot about the process too. The cleaner the copy you hand over to your editor, the more accurate she can be and her edit may cost you less in time and money." When Howard-Johnson says frugal in her book titles she means it and she goes to great lengths to insure the reader gets her/his money worth by providing resources with links, examples of the often scary Query letter construction, and more. She doesn't leave the reader high and dry at any point. Further advice or learning is a matter of using the comprehensive index to find the detail you need and then following the advice, link or resource mentioned to guide you in your search for excellence.

The twenty plus pages of appendices is not mere fluff or padding of book length or word count, it is more than a bibliography of recommended reading (though it also contains that). You will find samples and links such as the query letters mentioned above, helpful groups to investigate, grammar helps and books. It's hard to believe more could be contained in any book on your shelf. Spare no gremlin--search and destroy, polish and perfect before you send out your hard work. This book is the tool to help you do that. I highly recommend this power house of methods and means that will not only enhance your chances of publication, it will help you make any publishing house sit up and take notice - perhaps even pushing your book to the coveted best-seller lists faster than you ever imagined.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reviewed for Midwest Book Review, September 4, 2007

By	Christy Tillery French "reviewer/writer" (Powell, TN) - See all my reviews

As the literary market continues to tighten its proverbial belt, today's writer must assume more of the responsibilities surrounding book publishing than ever before. No longer can a writer depend on a publisher or agent to accept a manuscript in need of editing, and submitting a manuscript that isn't as near perfect as possible will, in all probability, result in rejection. To the rescue comes acclaimed author Carolyn Howard-Johnson with The Frugal Editor, the latest in her How to Do It Frugally series. This little gem is a must-have for any writer, published or not, bestselling or unknown. Filled with valuable tips, The Frugal Editor touches on all aspects of self-editing, such as how to spot common grammatical errors, from superfluous adverbs to confusing dangling participles, as well as how to organize the workspace, format the manuscript, and use Word's tools to the fullest. Also included are sample query and cover letters, and pointers on correcting intrusive taglines, when to use an ellipsis, and correct spacing, to name a few. The book takes the reader step-by-step through the editing process, from rough draft to galley. No questions are left unanswered, no topics left uncovered. This generous writer goes so far as to recommend resources through other books and websites, with plenty of advice from agents and editors.

The Frugal Editor is one of those reference books every writer should have by their computer for constant use and study. Highly recommended.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Frugal Editor: Put your best book forward to avoid humiliation and ensure success (How to Do It Frugally), September 7, 2007

By	Frances Lynn "Author, Crushed and Frantic" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I used to think I knew everything about grammar until I read "The Frugal Editor". If I'd read Carolyn Howard-Johnson's new book (her previous one was the invaluable "The Frugal book Promoter") before I edited the manuscripts of my novels, it would have saved me a lot of time and anguish.

If I had read this tome before attempting to edit my last manuscript before submission, I would have avoided making several glaring hyphenation mistakes, which Carolyn writes about in depth. 'Quick test for Hyphenating double adjectives,' she headlines. Similar to a lot of the topics in her book, her helpful text is backed up by a relevant link for further in-depth details.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson stresses that "The Frugal Editor" doesn't focus on the craft of writing or revision. She assumes that all authors have done revision before they edit their books.

'A good editor will help a writer to find her voice, remain true to it and still move the manuscript from a tough rock to a polished gemstone,' she says.

She even gives practical advice on how to find a good editor, like asking professors in the writing department at one's local university to recommend a good one. And to always ask for references in order to avoid charlatans.

I thought it was particularly interesting that Carolyn edits every document as if it were a manuscript. She stresses it's imperative to carefully edit query letters, cover letters and book proposals. It makes sense as these documents are sent to agents and publishers.

For writers who are confident they know everything about grammar, the book also acts as a useful grammatical refresher course. Howard-Johnson is practical and advises authors not to lose any sleep if a writer doesn't spot a typo or a grammatical mistake. Even experienced writers make glaring grammatical mistakes, so Carolyn gives practical and humorous advice on how to search for 'gremlins', especially adverbs in one's manuscript.

'You may have wondered why in the world-of-writing I would want to search for adverbs, which we all know are perfectly good parts of speech used frequently by the most scholarly among us.

They're ugly, that's why. They're often redundant. They cloak weak verbs. In fact, they are probably first cousins to the gremlin you usually want them out of there. The good news: You can use your Find Function to root them out.'

Carolyn explains each grammatical point in explicit detail. She is also a humorous writer which makes her advice seem entertaining. For instance, she talks about 'gremlins' as 'very clever guys bent on a writer's destruction.' Her nonfiction prose is full of gems like, 'editing your adverbs is like mining metaphor gold. Death to Gerunds, Participles and Other Ugly ings, Gerundings can keep you from laughing all the way to the bank and Participle ings are not a gerund's twin.'

'I want you to learn from this book,' she says, 'but I'd also like you to enjoy the editing challenge.'

She gives useful tips on Revision, Editing, Line Editing and Proof reading and insists that your editing will go more smoothly if you've thoroughly revised your manuscript first. Her invaluable book is about making the editing process easier and gives innovative tips on how use both manual and electronic techniques (like the Find Function) for eliminating errors.

She also advises the reader to get useful reference books like "The Chicago Manual of Style", and "Garner's Modern American Usage" (Hardcover).

"The Frugal Editor: Put your best book forward to avoid humiliation and ensure success" is worth buying alone for the numerous links, especially those of the literary agents who 'care enough' to comment on the submitting process.

This is an invaluable book for writers, aided by a comprehensive Appendix to help the reader focus on vital information like battling those dreaded gremlins!

Authors will do themselves a disservice if they don't have Carolyn Howard-Johnson's bible within reaching distance of their desks. If nothing else, it will (re)educate them about the English language.