A Free-Reprint Article Written by: Larry Belle Article Title: Do-It-Yourself Editing - Book Budget Basics: Go Organic
See TERMS OF REPRINT to the end of the article. Article Description: Editing your own manuscript isn't difficult, but it requires time and energy, and the payoff can be enormous. The following article will help direct you successfully through the editing process... Additional Article Information: =============================== 564 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line Distribution Date and Time: 2010-01-12 14:15:00 Written By: Larry Belle Copyright: 2010 Contact Email: mailto:[email protected] For more free-reprint articles by Larry Belle, please visit: http://www.thePhantomWriters.com/recent/author/larry-belle.html ============================================= Special Notice For Publishers and Webmasters: ============================================= HTML Copy-and-Paste and TEXT Copy-and-Paste Versions Of Article Are Available at: http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/db/b/do-it-yourself-editing.shtml#get_code --------------------------------------------------------------------- Do-It-Yourself Editing - Book Budget Basics: Go Organic Copyright (c) 2010 Larry Belle Penny A Word Editing http://www.pennyawordediting.webs.com/ Editing your own manuscript isn't difficult, but it requires time and energy, and the payoff is enormous. Self Editing Cost? Zero Dollars. First, you save a ton of money by doing the edit yourself. Second, even if you end up using a professional editor, fees will be significantly reduced since your manuscript will be that much closer to perfect. Do a quick on-line search for do-it-yourself editing books. You will soon discover they have one weakness in common: They assume that you already perfectly know grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Thus, with most of these guides, you are back to square-one. It doesn't have to be that way. Go Organic! Organic Editing is a much simpler, budget-friendly way to improve your manuscript. Touted as new-age by many, organic editing is a process that combines the oldest and newest methods of correcting the written word. Reading Aloud Is The Key. In order to do a complete organic edit, there are some basic requirements. First, find a few friends who are willing to help. Second, be sure to use a simple spell checker and grammar program. Many are available on-line for free. Finally, be willing to read your book out loud to yourself and others several times (this is the most critical step). The time you spend at this endeavor is worth its weight in gold. The final product will be a flowing, tight, virtually error-free document. Quick-FAQ on Organic Editing. Do spell checkers and grammar robots work? Answer: Yes and no. It depends which ones you use. Modern spell bots are pretty good, but they miss lots of common like-sounding words; their/there, rose/rows, too/two, etc. By working with a list of fewer than 100 common sound-alikes, you'll weed out 99 percent of the problem. Grammar checkers are satisfactory provided you know their limitations. Yes, they are pathetic when it comes to suggesting corrections, but remarkable in finding awkward constructions and areas of text where mistakes lurk. Best to look at underscores, circle questionable passages, then totally rewrite those particular segments. Again, the key to organic editing is the "aloud" component, something which is irreplaceable, and absolutely cannot be done by a robot. Does Organic Editing make my book perfect? Answer: No. Nothing will make your book perfect, not even a professional editor. An organic edit will find many more errors than the typical self-edit, which goes something like this: Re-read the document, proof it for grammar and spelling, possibly have a friend look it over for mistakes. That's that. Easy. Boring. Ineffective. Organic editing is an alternative method, as it relies on your own innate ability to hear things as they should be. Most of us are much better writers than we think we are. We tend to ignore our inborn, subconscious language skills. Hearing is the key. That's why a thorough self edit of your book, resume', term paper, or business document can generate vast improvement by reading aloud, as well as listening to someone else read the text aloud. Is there a "system" for this style of self editing, which follows specific steps? Answer: Yes, a successful organic edit consists of several steps, which should be done in a specific order. No single facet of this method is difficult. If you spend time getting to know your manuscript, you'll be shocked at how much better you can make it before it goes to press. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Larry Belle is a freelance editor. He holds an MBA degree, has worked as a speech/technical writer. His service offers fast turnaround, low prices, a 5% discount for first-time authors, and a free 500-word sample edit. Contact: http://www.pennyawordediting.webs.com/ --- END ARTICLE --- Get HTML or TEXT Copy-and-Paste Versions Of This Article at: http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/db/b/do-it-yourself-editing.shtml#get_code ..................................... TERMS OF REPRINT - Publication Rules (Last Updated: May 11, 2006) Our TERMS OF REPRINT are fully enforcable under the terms of: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.2281.ENR: ..................................... *** Digital Reprint Rights *** * If you publish this article in a website/forum/blog, You Must Set All URL's or Mailto Addresses in the body of the article AND in the Author's Resource Box as Hyperlinks (clickable links). * Links must remain in the form that we published them. Clean links should point to the Author's links without redirects having been inserted into the copy. * You are not allowed to Change or Delete any Words or Links in the Article or Resource Box. Paragraph breaks must be retained with articles. You can change where the paragraph breaks fall, but you cannot eliminate all paragraph breaks as some have chosen to do. * Email Distribution of this article Must be done through Opt-in Email Only. No Unsolicited Commercial Email. * You Are Allowed to format the layout of the article for proper display of the article in your website or in your ezine, so long as you can maintain the author's interests within the article. * You may not use sentences from this article as an input for any software that steals sentences from others in order to build an article with software. The copyright on this article applies to the "WHOLE" article. *** Author Notification *** We ask that you notify the author of publication of his or her work. Larry Belle can be reached at: [email protected] *** Print Publication Reprint Rights *** If you desire to publish this article in a PRINT publication, you must contact the author directly for Print Permission at: mailto:[email protected] ..................................... If you need help converting this text article for proper hyperlinked placement in your webpage, please use this free tool: http://thephantomwriters.com/link-builder.pl Would you like to learn how to improve the performance of your article marketing campaigns? Download our F.R.E.E. 108-page Article Marketing Ebook at: http://thephantomwriters.com/ebooks/advanced-article-marketing.html ***************************************************************** * * This email is being delivered directly to members of the group: * * [email protected] * ***************************************************************** ===================================================================== ABOUT THIS ARTICLE SUBMISSION http://thePhantomWriters.com is a paid article distribution service. thePhantomWriters.com and Article-Distribution.com are owned and operated by: Bill Platt 3010 E Raintree Stillwater, Oklahoma USA 74074 Learn more about our article distribution services by visiting: http://thephantomwriters.com/x.pl/tpw/info/article-distribution/index.html The content of this article is solely the property and opinion of its author, Larry Belle http://www.pennyawordediting.webs.com/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX ---------------------------------------------------------------------
