Price List

For those who have inquired, I will be posting my price list for editing services, very soon. Sorry for taking so long.

Discovery News is One of My "Worst Proofreading Offenders"

Today, there was not one, but two, articles with glaring spelling and editorial gaffs.

The first, from the article, For the Spy on Your List: Gift Guide 2011 which you can access at this link: http://news.discovery.com/tech/spy-gadgets-gift-guide-111123.html, I offer up this little gem:

Piece of mind for $99.99

Piece? Really? Now this would work IF you're actually going to give someone a piece of your mind. However, this sentence is talking about an emotion - i.e., PEACE. If you want "peace of mind," then $99.99 doesn't sound like such a bad price. But if someone is going to give me a "piece of their mind," then I expect to get it for free.

The second article, Early Humans Were Skilled Deep-Sea Fisherman, found at this link: http://news.discovery.com/history/ancient-human-fishermen-111128.html, has an egregious grammatical error.

The site where the discoveries were made, known as Jerimalai cave, is a small rock overhang hidden behind in foliage, a few hundred meters from the shore.

Did you spot the error? If you did, you get a gold star for today. For those who can't find it yet, "is a small rock overhang hidden behind in foliage" is horrible phrasing. What this says, is that the cave was hidden in the foliage behind something. But, we are not given an answer to our question, "What was it hidden behind?" Seriously, the word "in" should have been left out of this sentence, which then would have made sense: "is a small rock overhang hidden behind foliage," It's simple little errors like this which will make your writing appear haphazard at best, and unprofessional at worst. And honestly, that's not the only error going on in this sentence. The writer obviously didn't listen when sentence structure was discussed in class. This is how I would have written it:

Jerimalai Cave, where the discoveries were made, is a small rock overhang hidden behind foliage, just a few hundred meters from shore.

Even News Providers Need an Editor

This doesn't come to my attention just once in a while. No, this happens every single day when I read various online news providers, bloggers, and others. No one seems to take the time to proofread their articles for grammar and spelling errors. But if these people do have proofreaders - they need to be fired.

I can be reading an article, like this one,  http://news.discovery.com/animals/squid-same-sex-swingers-110921.html#mkcpgn=rssnws1 and BAM! There it is, an obvious and glaring mistake that someone should have caught, but didn't.

This one was in an article from Discovery News:  "You may not be sure who's arm you're planting...... Who's, who's, who's? Everyone should know that "who's" is a contraction for "who is." The correct spelling usage is: whose. Ten points for those of you who already knew that.

Congratulations to Erosa Knowles

Congratulations Erosa! #1 in Bestsellers in Multicultural Romance. Woo hoo! Way to go! Check out her book at this link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/68262/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_b_1_3_last

Erosa Knowles is a great writer and a good friend. She and I first met online over two years ago as members in a Meetup writers' group. Now she heads up another Meetup writers' group. I followed her when she started up her own group and became the group's first member. She's also a client. I don't view her manuscripts as just work. It's a joy to watch her grow as a writer, and I love reading her manuscripts even as I'm editing them.

Finally, Affordable Editing and Proofreading

Many new writers would love to have their work edited. What's stopping them? Price. Editors charge by the page and it isn't cheap. For a full novel, which usually runs 80,000 to 120,000 words and is 120 to 300 pages in length, you can expect to pay anywhere from $1,200 to well over $3,000 for one manuscript. If you're like most people, the $10.00 cost per page charged by most editors leaves you with only one option - edit it yourself.

Unfortunately, no matter how many times you go over your manuscript, you're going to miss something. Or, what reads clearly to you, isn't clear to your reader. Now you have another option.

I provide editing services at a very affordable price with quick turnaround. I have a fixed price for short stories. For longer manuscripts, I charge on a sliding scale depending upon what type of editing you want and how many pages are in your manuscript.

Let me edit and polish your work. Please email me for pricing at: vickileaz@centurylink.net