English is Hard

     No matter how well you spell, how much you've written, how much you've read, how much you've studied grammar, or how much you've edited other people's work you are going to make mistakes.  English is a tough language.  It's hard to rank it compared to other languages because the difficulty will vary depending on what your native language is, but English is always ranked among the hardest languages to learn for non-English speakers.  It's because of rules like the I before E rule, homonyms, homophones, homographs, and the inconsistencies of word meanings (there's no ham in hamburgers, no apple in pineapple, etc.)  And all of that doesn't even touch the evil monster... grammar.  How, where, and why you say something completely alters the meaning of a sentence, not to mention punctuation.  English is just plain hard.

     This is a concept I'm oh so familiar with.  I am horrible at grammar.  I'm not the best speller either, but that's what auto-correct and spell check are for.  I am more of a creative, conceptual type of guy.  I think I have great ideas, and I love to spin a yarn.  Problems come when other people have to read those yarns, and can't decipher my hieroglyphics which have way too many commas.  That is why I need help.  We all do.

   

     I've been told time and time again that I need an editor.  When I finished my first book I thought I was done with the hard part.  Boy was I wrong.  The whole writing world was new and intimidating to me, and I had no idea where to start.  I first tried a few query letters with no success.  Then I wrote a second book in the series and tried querying that one... No luck.  I felt discouraged.  I'm sure some of you have felt the same way.

     There are already 130 million books in print, so book stores have a lot to consider when stocking their shelves.  Of course, some of the classics have to be available for students studying them in school and whatnot.  There are also the well established authors whom the bookstores know will sell, so they must stock any new book they write.  So, what are your actual chances of being picked to take up those other spots?  A lot of it is simply luck, but luck is just when preparation meets opportunity.  I guess the real question is not so much how good your book is, but how do you prepare for that time when opportunity knocks?

     In 2013, in the U.S. alone, there were almost 300,000 new titles published.  Literary agents get over 5,000 query letters per year, that's almost 14 a day.  And the agents have existing clients to maintain because just getting your book on paper doesn't get it on the shelves.  

     You need to make an impression.

     I made the classic mistake of going it alone.  I never had anyone beta-read my books, let alone edit them.  I never had anyone beta-read my query letters.  Quite frankly, what I sent the agents was crap.  When you are writing a story, you know what you are trying to say.  That does not translate into the reader knowing what you are trying to say.  A content editor/copy editor needs to help you to make sure your story flows and makes sense.  This starts with beta-readers.  Make friends who like to read and write, and do trades where you read each other's work.  It's best to do this with people in your same genre.  So you need to network.  This is something I'm working on now.  I have two books self-published, but I'm almost embarrassed to advertise them because they are not edited.  (I just learned all of this recently.)  

     The second step is to clean up your work.  You can have a beautiful story, but there are a lot of "grammar nazis" out there, and I can guarantee that those agents you are querying are among the ranks of those "grammar nazis".  They read hundreds, thousands even, of books, and have seen it all.  If there is a mistake, they will likely be put off immediately.  Some may look past it, but if there are 2, or 3, or heaven forbid... 4... They simply will not read your work.  It needs to be clean.  You need a "grammar nazi" on your side.  You will likely have to pay for this service.  It doesn't matter if you want to self-publish or publish traditionally, you need clean work.  You need an editor.  You may not be able to afford one.  I know that was a big concern for me.  But if you don't believe in yourself enough to spend a couple hundred dollars to edit your own book, how will someone else believe in you enough to publish you?  There are ways around this.  Go to a college and get an English student to help.  They have assignments for this type of thing, and you can even offer them acclaims for their resumes for after they graduate.  Some English professors will do this to get their name out there.  Some writers, who are also editors, will do trade work for you.  Be creative, but get it done.

     You need help.  Don't try to do it alone like I did.  You will regret it, trust me.  Now, I'm trying to clean up the mess I made, but my mistakes have already been released to the public.