Cover to Cover: What First-Time Authors Need to Know about Editing - Sandra Wendel

   2021; 215 pages.  Full Title: Cover to Cover: What First-Time Authors Need to Know About Editing - Insider Secrets Nobody Ever Tells You.   New Author? : Yes.  Genres : Editing Reference; Writing Reference; Non-Fiction.  Overall Rating : 9½*/10.

 

    You’ve just finished putting the final touches on your first book!  You knew you had a story inside you, itching to get out, and now there it is!  On the paper right in front of you!

 

    You know the manuscript is perfect because you've read it a second time, and didn’t find anything mistakes – not even small ones like punctuation and grammar.

 

    But your Creative Writing teacher says the next step is Editing.  And you’ve never met anyone who goes around calling themselves an editor.

 

    Maybe your mom can edit it.  She’s one of your most enthusiastic beta-readers and says she thinks your manuscript is perfect as is, and that you should shop it around for someone to make it into a movie.

 

    Or maybe you should pick up Sandra Wendel’s latest book, Cover to Cover: What First-Time Authors Need to Know About Editing.

 

What’s To Like...

    Cover to Cover is divided into 3 parts, consisting of 15 chapters plus bonus stuff.  It’s a relatively short book, just 215 pages, but packed with vital information for any indie author.  The three parts are: I Just Wrote a Book: Now What?, I’m Ready for my Close-up, Mt. DeMille, and After the Edit: What Now?, but in a nutshell, they're witty labels for:

    What Editing entails

    What to do to get your book ready for editing

    What to do after your book's been edited.

 

    Of the fifteen chapters, my favorites were:

05. The Levels of Writing and Editing Explained Once and For All

09. Pet Peeves, Tigers, and Bugbears, Oh, My!

10. Beta Readers – Who They Are They Can Help You Make Your Book Better

14. Don’t Be That Author – A Short Course on Author/Editor Etiquette

Checklist for Authors to Fine-Tune a Manuscript Before Editing Begins.

 

    Some of the chapters are brief, but they all have depth.  For example, here's what the author calls "The Seven Levels of Writing and Editing", given in Chapter 5, listed from most intensive to least, all of which are fully explained:

    A. Book Coaching

    B. Collaborative Writing

    C. Developmental Editing (aka Content Editing)

    D. Editorial Evaluation or Assessment

    E. Line Editing

    F. Copy Editing

    G. Proofreading

 

    I enjoyed learning about the concept of “Book Coaching”; that was new to me.  I liked the tip about developing a ten-question list for Beta Readers, none of which is in the simple yes/no format.  It was sobering to learn that the average indie-published author sells about 300 copies of his work.  That’s all.    

 

    Along with all the helpful information, Sandra Wendel also weaves in just enough humor, to make the reading an easy task.  One example: What does the “N” on the University of Nebraska football helmets stand for?  Answer at the bottom of this review.

 

    Finally, like every other reader of Cover to Cover, I kept a sharp eye out for mistakes.  Can anything be more satisfying than finding typos in a book written by a professional editor?  I spotted four, then realized they had been deliberately placed by the author to make a point.  Outside of those, the book was error-free.  Bummer.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.7/5 based on 81 ratings and 47 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.26/5 based on 35 ratings and 16 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    This book is not about self-editing.  I don’t think you can edit your book yourself.  I don’t even edit my own books.  My mentor is my editor, and she’s tough.  She finds the inelegant phrasing and fixes my twisted logic and pushes me to say what I want to say simply.  She finds missing words, commas, misplaced modifiers, wrong words, and punctuation faux pas that authors don’t have to pay attention to when writing and then completely miss when we revise and revise again.  (loc. 222)

 

    Here is our editorial take on Karen authors: You hired a professional editor to perform a professional service.  Why not let us do what we do best and that’s to make you look fabulous, to help you create a commercial-quality book that can compete in a crowded marketplace?

    That said, I always tell authors this: You will win every disagreement we have.  Your opinion counts more than mine.  You can do whatever you wish with your book.  You decide the fate of your book.  (loc. 2162)

 

Kindle Details…

    Right now, Cover to Cover sells for $2.99 at Amazon.  Sandra Wendel has three other e-books available at Amazon; all of them are non-fiction, and all of them also priced $2.99.  Two of them are medical reference books, and have a co-author.  The third is a Kosher cookbook.

 

How do you know if your writing is effective?  Simple.  Readers understand what you have written.  (loc. 1457)

    Despite not being able to find any typos, there were a couple nits to pick.

    There were seven instances of cussing in the first half of the book.  That’s not excessive, and they didn’t offend me, but that’s still more than I’d expect in a non-fiction reference book.

 

    Also, the “Time Left in Chapter” function in the Kindle version was thoroughly skewed and therefore completely useless.  “1 Minute Left” could mean another half-hour remained in the chapter, but just as easily mean you’d be done as soon as you swiped to the next page.  Fortunately, I rarely rely on that Kindle estimate.

 

    A more serious gripe is with Chapter 4, “What Does Editing Cost?”  First-time indie authors will inevitably have no idea what a typical fee for editing will be, and this will probably be the first chapter they turn to.  Sandra Wendel correctly points out that it varies based on things like the number of pages, the depth of the editing, and the professional level of the editor.  But come on, there’s not even a rough estimate or a range given.

 

    I am not the target audience.  I am not a writer, nor do I have any aspirations to ever be one.  But I do some editing on the side, and I found Cover to Cover to be a treasure trove of information.  First-time authors may not know what to expect from someone editing their work, but that’s also true for part-time editors.  I highly recommend this book to any author, and any editor, who just wants to know what how the Author/Editor relationship works and what is entailed in self-publishing a book.

 

    9½ Stars.  Answer to the riddle: The “N” stands for “Knowledge”.  Full disclosure: the author is from the Midwest, so she is entitled to tell this joke.