Editing a Professional
Book to Reach a Consumer Audience |
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The Battering Syndrome
is a successful $79 hard cover marketed
directly to professionals by the National Crisis Prevention
Institute. The publisher knew the same information could
benefit lay readers as well. So I was brought in to revise
the book as a $14.95 soft cover. I introduced a conversational
style, cut the length, and simplified the vocabulary and
sentence structure. Even the new title is designed for
the trade market: He Promised He'd Stop: Helping Women
Find Safe Passage From Abusive Relationships. |
Clear and Simple is Best |
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Good Housekeeping magazine
reprinted a chapter from The Safety Minute, telling
its publisher, Safety Zone Press, that they decided to
buy the rights because the book's content was presented
so clearly they could easily select the material most
appropriate to their 5 million readers. Then Mademoiselle
used the book's lists of safety tips as interview points
in creating a new article about the book. Developmental
editing had turned the author's great content into a most
readable book by stripping away excess wording, rewriting
each tip as a direct command for action, and presenting
the text in an inviting format. |
Clear Editing from the
Beginning for Easy Sub Rights Sales |
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The public television series Ancestors
selected the first title from Sonters Publishing, Genetic
Connections, for its companion guide to the series
the only resource picked for the PBS segment on
genetics. The book (a Benjamin Franklin award winner)
was easily condensed in time for the broadcast because
I'd already edited its highly technical content to make
it clear and user-friendly. |
Begin at the Beginning |
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Even authors who market their manuscripts
to agents and publishers can benefit from professional
editing before submission. When Jeanne Dams sent
her first manuscript to Walker & Co., they offered
her a two-book contract (since expanded many times) and
published The Body in the Transept with no changes.
She credits this extraordinary reception for a new author
to having a well-edited manuscript to submit. When this
first book won a 1996 Agatha Award for best first mystery
by a new author, sales jumped and HarperCollins bought
the paperback rights. Thoughtful editing had helped a
very talented new writer withstand intense scrutiny by
editors, publishers, and mystery fans.
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