A Last Look Worldwide Online Proofreader and Text Editor or Copyeditor
Use a "wordwright" in your write-right rites!
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Advice and Links for Manuscript Writers
Fledgling writers dream of someday receiving huge advances from prestigious publishing houses for books yet to be written. It's a great dream, but in the meantime, reality bites. What any determined writer wants to know is, "How do you know if you've got it together, and once you're sure you have it together, where do you put it?" In an attempt to help answer that monumental question, this page is always under construction. It will contain information and blue, underlined text links to sites that are useful to writers. If you know of other links that aspiring writers would find helpful, please send an e-mail message to inform me of those links. If you provide a description and I use it on this page, you will be given credit.
HOW THIS PAGE WORKS>
Links to other "A Last Look" pages will open in the current window; however, you can click on the "Links for Writers" link at the bottom of those pages to return here. Links that lead away from this site will open in another window while the current window remains open. To return to this page, just close the new window.
Some of these links will take you to affiliates of A Last Look, which means that we send potential clients back and forth to each other. In some cases they even pay me a nominal finders' fee if a client signs up with them or makes a purchase, so, if you decide to do business with some of the companies found on this page, please make sure you click on their links on this page to start the process. With some sites, if you explore their pages first and then sign up, the site that referred you to them doesn't get credit; however, if you come back here, click on the link again, and then sign up, whether they pay me or not, A Last Look will get the credit for linking you to them and they will continue to send potential clients to A Last Look.
I thank you in advance for going to this extra bother to support those of us who are trying to keep our services to you free. Making money through other income streams (such as affiliating, increasing traffic, and selling advertisment space) is the only way a free site can remain free. Of course, some companies sell their clients' or networkers' personal information to support the site; however, A Last Look supports personal privacy and will not sell or share any personal information unless instructed by the client or networker to do so.
GENERALLY SPEAKING
The first step in publishing is to make sure you have a publishable commodity. That is, make sure your writing project is the best it can be, so those you want to buy it or those who will be reading it for free will see its worth and recommend it to others. That usually means acquiring the help of a proofreader or copyeditor (or copy editor, depending on which dictionary you use). In years gone by, a proofreader was a person who compared the original manuscript and the first copy (proof) of the typeset version against each other, line by line, looking for typographical errors. Nowadays, a proofreader is thought to be anyone who reads a typewritten (or word-processed) manuscript, article, or document to find spelling and grammatical, as well as typographical errors. A copyeditor, on the other hand, checks for style, flow, consistency, confusing constructions, and other things that can make a written project "irritating" to the reader or even self-destructive.
It's Your Image Every writer needs an editor, someone to look over the project and see if there are any problems with it that the author didn't catch. Why? Because only the most experienced of writers can author and market a manuscript or even an article without overlooking one or two things that will trip-up, if only momentarily, the reader. If you don't believe me, read "It's Your Image" and see if you should investigate further. Don't forget, publishers are very unhappy about and likely to turn down any project that they determine needs extensive editing (the operative phrase being "THEY determine").A Last Look's Network Directory If you don't yet have an editor, check out the Network Directory page at A Last Look. You can ask for a free estimate from as many networkers (proofreaders and copyeditors--or copy editors, depending on which dictionary you use) as you wish. The only requirements are that you really desire your writing to be well-received by those who will read it and that you notify those networkers you've decided against of your decision, as well as the one you choose to be your "partner" for writing projects.
HINT: Your query or cover letter is every bit as important as your manuscript. To enhance your chances of publication, team up with an editor who can at least make sure your queries aren't trashed before your manuscript is given a fair chance.
PUBLISHING ROUTES
You can opt to use a traditional publisher or to publish and market your book online. Traditional publishers will decide whether to publish your book based on how much money they think THEY can make off the deal. They publish only those manuscripts they think they can keep production costs down on and they think will sell. If you present them with a good product, they will estimate how much they can make off the product and may offer to buy the rights to the book from you or give you a royalty for each copy they sell. How much they offer you will be based on how many copies they think they can sell minus the costs of producing the book. Those costs include editing, which brings us right back to step 1, above. If you shop for an editor, you can significantly reduce the costs of editing by the publisher's editor, who almost certainly receives a higher hourly wage than a freelancer, and for whom that publisher is likely paying medical and retirement benefits as well. The less time the "company" editor spends on the book, the higher the offer to you from the publisher is likely to be.
Of course, if the "traditional" publishing companies don't like your book at all, you can opt to send it to a "vanity" publisher. For a fee, usually the cost of publishing a certain number of books, you can get your book published and sell or give away the books that are produced. These publishers do no promoting or distributing for you. This is a great avenue if you're producing something for a professional group or club or classroom, if you don't mind the expense. It's less attractive if you're trying to sell the product, because you still have to hire someone, or maybe several someones, to publicize, market, and distribute your book, and deal with who gets what percent of the price of the book.
Online publishing can be a way to keep the cost of your book down for your readership while not cutting your own return on the book. You can offer the book online as an electronic download, and have no printing costs at all, or you can offer it for sale as a paper book with each copy printed separately in response to the each sale. While I don't know how many, if any, traditional publishers do e-book publishing, some e-book publishers do publish paper books, giving you two venues for your book sales. Of course, if you have the time and temperament, you can publish and market your book yourself. The bottom line is how you wish to spend your time and money resources, not to mention how talented you are at writing, publishing, marketing, and distributing.
TRADITIONAL & ONLINE PUBLISHERS
I could list the URLs of publishers who have web sites so you can check them out online, however, I would be duplicating work you can easily do yourself through the search engines. Search Engines are updated much more frequently than I will be able to update this page, so I really wouldn't be doing you any favors. My favorite search engine happens to be Dogpile, where you can search several sites at the same time with one query. It'll keep you busy for a week, at least!
What I will list below are various publishers that seem more "user friendly" than others. Exploring their services will help you compare the various publishing routes mentioned above.
GreatUNpublished.com exists to serve both readers and writers. Whether you're a novelist with aspirations to become a best-selling author or the writer of a book with a very specific niche market (you have just compiled a family cookbook, or a book of verse), if you have any finished manuscript, this site can benefit you. Read your deal!PUBLISHING YOURSELFGreatUNpublished archives your book and formats it to be sold to readers, anywhere at any time, as a handsomely designed, quality trade paperback OR as an instant download to readers who want an electronic copy. You will receive 30% royalties on books, and 70% royalties on downloads, much higher than the traditional royalties for books. And for the first three months you are a member, you'll receive 100% royalties on downloaded books!
Best of all, when you sign up with GreatUNpublished.com, your work will be in print in 48 hours, you'll receive a free copy of your own book plus a GreatUNpublished.com T-shirt and bumper sticker, and they'll send a press release announcing your book's publication to your local newspaper, as well as a copy of the book if the paper is interested in reviewing it.
This just may be the comprehensive package you've been looking for!
Last, but certainly not least, is the time-consuming (but satisfying) route to publishing yourself. With the proper software and know-how, you can set up your own Web site, use a desktop publisher to format your book for printing and send it off to a printer and binder, format your book for electronic downloading, and market your Web site and your book.
There is a lot of information on this site. Different visitors will find different information useful, and I'm sure no visitor will care to read it all. For that reason I will attempt to provide clearly identified links to information of interest to specific classes of readers. If you want to contact me, please follow the instructions below. If you find this site useful, please tell your friends using the popup form triggered by clicking on this button:
Navigation and Contact Info:
Contact Person: Lynda Karr (FYI: Mrs., but we don't stand on ceremony around here.)
Contact Preference: E-mail--see instructions below.
Confidentiality
All communications of any type with A Last Look are private and confidential, and may not be stored by any means or shared in any manner with anyone else without the written permission of Lynda Karr. Communications from you are accorded the same rights. Your e-mail address is never shared with anyone else without your express permission except as demanded by the law. If you receive a communication from me by mistake, you may not use anything in it for your personal gain or for the personal gain or detriment of others, and you should notify me at once, delete the communication, and ignore its contents.Message Instructions: I'm eager to hear from you, but thanks to UCE/SPAM and address-harvesting robots, I had to devise a method of masking my e-mail addresses and/or weeding out serious inquiries from junkmail. My method is to (1) provide a new e-mail address whenever spam overtakes me and (2) provide subject lines for you to use that robots can't use.
(1) If you don't need me now but think you might in the future, bookmark this page and come back here to click on the current e-mail address when you need me. Once you become a client/networker, you'll be given my permanent address.
(2) To enable my e-mail program to filter your message properly, please type or copy-and-paste one of the following subject lines into the subject line of your message. I look at messages with these subject lines first and the rest of my messages when I get around to it. Once I become familiar with your address, you won't need to worry about this step.
I may need a proofreader and/or copyeditor.
I am a proofreader and/or copyeditor.
I'd like to be a proofreader and/or copyeditor.
I have a comment about A Last Look and/or your Web site.Then click on the "Send e-mail" link.
Once you've clicked on the link, your e-mail program will pop up. Right-click in the Subject line, and click paste to enter the subject line you chose from those above (or just type it in). Then, compose your message including how I should address you in my response, at least your general location (city, time zone), a phone number at which you can be reached in case e-mail ceases to work, and a short outline of what you are hoping to accomplish. If you are requesting a free estimate, please attach your project file(s) or a file containing a few pages from the middle of your project.
Send e-mail
To send a personal message, write a subject line that includes the name I would know you by, like "Do you remember Lynda Sandford, from Maple Shade, NJ?", and click on the following link: Hi, LyndaHaving trouble? If mailer daemon returns your message or if the links above don't appear to work for you, send your message directly to me at dzntwrk (means the link or your e-mail "doesn't work") @alastlook.com, but please don't forget the subject-line instructions above.
If you are a potential client and do not receive a reply from me within one business day, it may be because your e-mail host treats mail from Yahoo.com as spam. Check with your provider to see if placing my yahoo address in your filters or address book will negate that block. If so, send me a message telling me that, and I'll send you the yahoo address to put in your filters or address book (via my ISP e-mail, currently handtechisp.com). If putting my yahoo address in your program won't work, please resend your request, and tell me your e-mail host won't accept yahoo mail. Hopefully your e-mail host will accept mail from my ISP. I move around a bit and my ISP can change, so I prefer to use stable, continuous, able-to-be-reached-from-any-computer Yahoo.
If you are a potential networker or newbie/wannabe, you won't hear from me until network activity increases and I am once again accepting applicants or I have new pages on the site that may be of interest to you. I will keep your information on file for that purpose and that purpose alone.
Thanks so much! I look forward to hearing from you, even if it is to complain about my site (grin)! If you know what you want and I know who you are, you can use the following buttons to fund your retainer.
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