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Midwest Book Doctors

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Midwest Book Doctors

We are independent editors for authors seeking representation or publication. We also help self-publ How to Edit It; and the soon-to-be-released Saving Ceci.

Midwest Book Doctors "Chief Surgeon," Gretchen Hirsch, is author of Womanhours: A 21-Day Time Management Plan That Works; Talking Your Way to the Top: Business English That Works; The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Difficult Conversations; Your Best Self-Published Book: How to Write It. She is the co-author of Helping Gifted Children Soar: A Practical Guide for Parents and Teachers (2nd Edition); A Love for Learning: Motivation and the Gifted Child; From Stress to Success: A Handbook for Parents and Teachers of Gifted Children; Bud Wilkinson: An Intimate Portrait of an American Legend. She is also the editorial consultant on In the Meadow, a children’s book written by her grandson, Ryan Huntley. Hirsch(gretchenhirsch645@gmail.com) offers editorial services for fiction and nonfiction writers seeking representation or publication. She speaks at professional meetings and writers’ conferences on a variety of issues ranging from time management for writers to effective communication to developing a writing brand.

05/01/2023

Egad! What's up with FB?
I'm seeing nothing from people I know, but hundreds of recipes, constant updates about dogs and cats who love many states away from folks I don't know, real estate listings from across the entire country, and countless to accept Christ, which I did when I was baptized. Anybody else dealing with this?

05/03/2021

A major roadblock to a good writer/editor relationship is confusion about what type of editorial help is required. Too many times I’ve been given a manuscript the author says “only needs to be proofed,” but the entire project is a mess. It needs everything; however, the author wants to pay only for proofing. That leads to disaster. The manuscript will be proofed, but reviews will be brutal because the author has written a bad book, and someone who’s only proofing cannot save the project. Let’s look at the types of editing in order of complexity.

Proofreading means checking for minor errors after all other editorial duties have been completed. Spelling, punctuation, typos, and other issues are weeded out here. It’s painstaking, detailed work.

Copyediting is a clean-up of your already carefully written book. The editor is serving as the last pair of eyes to make sure mistakes haven’t slipped by; you haven’t written antidote when you meant anecdote. She looks for errors in grammar, spelling, word usage, and punctuation. She ensures the book is consistent in any technical details, and she checks facts throughout the manuscript.

Line editing means either you sit together with your editor or you burn up the internet sending drafts back and forth, going line by line, chapter by chapter, until errors are eliminated, all questions put to bed, and the book is edited. Line editing deals with problems such as awkward dialogue, redundancy, transitions that don’t move the story forward, pacing, weak word choices, and more. It’s the heavy lifting of writing a book.

Developmental editing means you and the editor work together to build the book from an idea. You decide together on subject matter, structure, style—all the things that go into creating a book. You may, in fact, write together and collaborate for a book or series, but often the editor does the tasks required, steps back from the final product, and is mentioned in the acknowledgments.

Editorial consultation is not an edit per se. It is a top-level read in which the editor gives her impressions of the manuscript’s plot, style, characterization, readability, marketability, and other factors. She provides comprehensive notes and opinions, but there’s no manuscript correction.

All clear now? Knowing the difference enables you to choose the right kind of editorial assistance, and that makes you look more like a professional, even if it’s your first book.

04/24/2021

Overheard on the news: "Currently right now, it's 46 degrees."

Call me silly, but I think that's a repetitious redundancy (It's a joke. Don't call me out for it.)

What interesting things have you seen or heard lately on the web, TV, radio, blogs, vlogs, podcasts, or all the other inventive ways we torture the language?

04/18/2021

If you've gone so far as to look for an independent editor for your work, it's important you treat the editor you choose with respect. It's also critical your editor provide the same kind of respect for you. Publishing being what it is today, independent editors can't guarantee to make your project saleable no matter how hard they try, and you should run like a rabbit from anyone who says he or she can make such a guarantee. However, a good editor will collaborate with you to provide a manuscript you'll be proud to submit.

As you seek out an editor, remember we are professional people providing a professional service. Although we might love books and the people who write them, we are in business to make a living, not to be a charity. The fees we set are generally well-considered. We research professional associations, unions, and pay scales to set rates, and most of us are willing to negotiate and even offer terms if necessary.

It's best to think of the two of you as a team. There’s give and take in the editor/writer dyad. You’re not some acolyte, serving at the altar of your editor. On the other hand, you’re also not the editorial expert, and it pays to listen to the one who is. Each of you comes to the project with different perspectives. Share them. Talk things through. If you’re fighting instead of discussing, this isn’t the best use of anyone’s time, but it's okay to disagree as you try to find common ground.

Years ago I worked with an author with whom I had a disagreement about the structure of his book. We tried to find a way around it, but we couldn't. It wasn't a deal-breaker, and I finally decided it was his money and his book. We ended up with a great collaboration and a wonderful friendship. Although we had agreed on the fee, at the end of our time together, he upped it. THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN. The book sold very well to its target market.

With another author, I also had ideas about structure, and this time the author acquiesced. The process was fruitful, and the book went on to be a best-seller in its category. We've since revised that book and collaborated on two more.

Disagreements can ultimately make a book better. Don't be afraid of them. If you work through your issues with courtesy and respect, you usually can come to common ground. That's the ideal relationship.

04/12/2021

Editors have myriad ways they charge for their services: by the word, the page, the hour, or the project. You can save yourself some money by providing your editor with a manuscript that's as error-free as you can make it. If it looks good, she can work much more efficiently than if she has to slog her way through a swamp of errors. And efficiency can add up to savings.

Invest in some resources to help you offer her the manuscript she wants to see. Surround yourself with dictionaries, style books, writing advice, and grammar guides. There is no reason to hand an editor a book that's replete with mistakes in issues such as spelling, hyphens, dashes, apostrophes, commas, and quotation marks.

Also, please don't ever submit an unpaginated, single-spaced manuscript. If the editor is charging by the hour, you don't want to pay for the time it took her to reconstitute your submission after a gust of wind blew pages off her desk or she dropped it. Yes, it happens.

These mistakes brand you as untrained and inexperienced. There's nothing wrong with that. We all start that way, but professionals take the time and make the effort to overcome what stands in the way of being taken seriously.

04/05/2021

If you want to be a professional writer, find yourself an editor. Even the finest writers benefit from someone who will challenge the characterization, dialogue, flow and style, and provide ideas for improvement.

My next few posts will deal with what you can and should expect from a skilled, seasoned editor, and the last post will help you find the one you’re looking for.

First, expect honest feedback. If you want praise and adoration, give the book to your mother, your sister, or your friends. If you want to make the book better, give it to your editor, and expect the editor to be truthful.

A fiction writer should expect to hear about gaps in the plot, dialogue that doesn’t ring true, sloppy transitions, character issues ranging from changing the name of a character in the middle of the book to writing caricatures instead of characters to telegraphing the plot and forgetting to provide meaningful conflict or motivation.

Editors of nonfiction writers will ask their clients to fact-check, cite sources, back up contentions, correct errors, bring research up to date, and be inclusive.

For all types of work, welcome the editor who points out your writing tics. We all have them. Mine is the word “just.” I overuse it in everything and later expunge it relentlessly. Others may use the word “simply” or start too many sentences with “and” or “but.” The word “that” often can be eliminated. You may not notice these errors as you are writing or even as you proofread, but your editor will. Say thank you.

03/19/2021

For those of you who couldn't wait for tomorrow, here are the answers to the quiz.

1. The monokini was introduced in 1964. Editing is fixing the facts as well as the grammar.
2. The correct word is averse, not adverse.
3. The right word is homed, not honed. Amy’s not sharpening anything. I don't how many times you hear honed, you know better.
4. Her and her daughter is correct. Would you say “Here’s a picture of she”? I hope not.
5. The Depression ended in the late Thirties. Your grandfather was born in 1950. Doesn’t work.
6. “Purple mountain majesties” is correct. And the comma’s in the wrong place, too.
7. Fazed is the proper word here.
8. Apprised, not appraised.
9. Misplaced modifier. We pave the street with asphalt, not trustees.
10. The capitol is the building, but it’s the capital city.
11. Things are not comprised of other things. They comprise other things, so “The division comprises three departments.”
12. The quote is from Einstein, not Watson.
13. The war was WWII, the general was Patton, and he was censured, not censored.
14. Her slacks do not stand up by themselves. Misplaced modifier.
15. The word is ordnance, not ordinance.
16. Foreword, not forward. Words that come before the text.
17. Literally? Then how are you sharing your story?
18. Interred, not interned. Interred is buried. Interned is imprisoned.
19. Jibe, not jive.
20. Wrap-up does not require a hyphen in this case.
21. Liable, not libel.
22. Originally? Was he later born in Paris, Rome, and London? He was born in Sweden. Full stop.
23. If you think, and you’re wrong, you have another think coming.
24. Dog eat dog, but you’d be surprised at the number of people who think it’s doggy-dog, which makes no sense at all.
25. Rein, not reign. She’s probably not a queen.

03/17/2021

I promised you a test. Here it is. See how you do. Answers forthcoming in a couple of days--or maybe three.

Put on your editor’s hat and decide which sentences are correct.

1. In 1962, Rudy Gernreich’s monokini was a scandal everyone
talked about.
2. I’m not adverse to trying new foods.
3. Amy really honed in on her character’s motivation.
4. Here’s a great picture of she and her daughter doing yoga.
5. My 71-year-old grandfather has told me about his experiences
during the Depression.
6. I love the song “America the Beautiful”, especially the part
about the “purple mountain majesties”.
7. Nothing ever phased Jenny.
8. Please keep me appraised of what’s going on at home.
9. At the last meeting, we discussed resurfacing the streets with
the township trustees.
10. We drove to the capitol city to protest the legislators’ actions.
11. The division is comprised of three departments.
12. Watson said, “Not everything that can be counted counts, and
not everything that counts can be counted.”
13. During the Korean War, General George S. Marshall was
censored for slapping a soldier.
14. Standing up, her slacks were too short.
15. The armory was crammed with ordinance.
16. I wonder if I could get John Grisham to write the forward to
my book.
17. I was so angry my head literally exploded.
18. Frank was interned at Union Cemetery.
19. Kylene’s story didn’t jive with the facts.
20. Let’s make sure to wrap-up the meeting by 4 p.m.
21. Paul was libel for the damages to my car.
22. Originally, John was born in Sweden.
23. If you think I don’t mean it, you have another thing coming.
24. Life is tough; it’s a doggy-dog world out there.
25. We need to reign in her tendency to gossip.

Good luck!

03/16/2021

After being away from this site for years because of long, terrible family illnesses and heart-breaking unexpected deaths, I've come back to talk about what I love: writing my own work and helping others make theirs better.

Whenever I give a workshop, one of the first questions I always hear is, "Why can't I get my book published?" Lots of reasons. Publishing is contracting, and agents and editors are swamped. There is another reason, though, and it's the one most people are not eager to hear. Perhaps your writing isn't good enough yet.

In the work I've seen during the last decade, I've found spelling that's unrecognizable, word usage that's interesting to say the least, sloppy reseach, holes in the plot large enough to accommodate a herd of elephants, proofreading that suggests the author submitted her (or his) first draft, and some fascinating punctuation.

In the next few days, I'm going to publish some fun and perhaps illuminating quizzes you can take--and grade--yourself. Maybe they'll help you see where your strengths are and where there are areas to improve.

I hope so. I'm happy to be back!

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