Why do you need InkScratch?
Posted by: inkscratchediting on: April 14, 2011
“Typos cloud communication, which is the primary purpose of writing. If your text has typos, it’s going to take your readers longer to read it. If typos get in the way of your text, it’s going to cause a problem, especially today, where you often only have a second to grab your reader’s attention. It can also be a warning sign that whatever text you’re looking at was created by someone who might not be paying that much attention.” - Jeff Deck
Just like you, we are writers here at InkScratch and we understand how sensitive the writing process is. When you spend days, weeks, months, or years working on a piece, you put a lot of yourself into it. Hours upon hours are spent pouring over each word, but after a while it’s easy to miss mistakes. When you put so much time and care into something, you deserve to get the best out of it. InkScratch strives to help you get the best. The writing industry can be brutal and many authors have had wonderful manuscripts turned away due to poor spelling, formatting, and grammar. When you are serious about your work, you deserve to be taken seriously. Don’t let errors get in your way – we are here to help!
While your word-processor’s spell-checking tool will take you a long way, it will not alert you that there is a typo when you say that someone is “a master of marital arts” instead of “martial arts” – unless, of course, he or she is a master of marital arts. Hey, we don’t judge. But, we take proofreading a little bit further. InkScratch editors offer an array of services that spelling and grammar checks can’t touch! We will tell you if a sentence sounds strange, and then how to fix it. We can help you to organize your ideas to keep continuity and consistency in your work, and we can work with you to target problem areas (hey, let’s see Spell-check do all that).
During our editing and proofreading stage, we work very closely with you to keep your satisfaction a priority. Because InkScratch is a company of writer-editors, we understand your needs and know how helpful it can be to have a fresh pair of eyes look over written work. You can be certain that your wishes come first as InkScratch works with you to help you create a polished, more professional piece before you publish! If you are interested in working with us, please see our services page or email us at inkscratchediting@gmail.com.
(Photo by Chris Greene)
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Samples
Posted by: inkscratchediting on: April 13, 2011
We understand that you will want to see just what we can do before you hire us! Below are a few before-and-after snippets of work we have done for some of our clients. We do all levels of editing and the degree to which we edit is entirely up to you, the writer! Take a look at these examples of what we have done for some others.
The “before” examples are shown exactly the way that they were sent in. The editing style for each work is in parentheses.
R. Jenkins Before Sample
R. Jenkins After Sample (“In-depth” editing package)
This writer speaks English as a second language (her first language is Spanish). In this instance, the basic package edit included making the story read more like traditional English by rewording in addition to only correcting grammar, spelling, and punctuation that is part of the basic package. *This is our standard for any non-native English speaking client.
Wali Before Sample
Wali After Sample (“Basic” editing package)
Remember that we are editors/proofreaders, not co-writers! Your writing is yours, and we will not insert creative changes – as in, those that only an author should make. We will offer suggestions based upon which package you choose, but will not insert them ourselves. Ultimate creative control always belongs to our clients!
See our testimonials section for more of what we have done for our clients!
Writing Resources
Posted by: inkscratchediting on: April 12, 2011
Here are some great online resources for tips to help with your writing!:
When to use apostrophes
This is a very simply formatted article that takes you through the rules of apostrophes – when to use them, when not to use them, and examples of everything along the way! There are even a few great free quizzes available to put your new knowledge to the test.
Affect vs. Effect
Quite possibly the biggest nuisance in the English language, the “affect vs. effect” conundrum trips up beginners and veteran writers alike! This is a great site to explain the difference between the two words (that’s right, they’re not interchangeable!) and how to use them appropriately.
Accept vs. Except
This is similar to the affect vs. effect mix-up, but jumps out at readers much faster because of the bigger difference in spelling. Sneaky homophones. The website linked is intended for those who are ESL (speaking English as a second language) and learning English, but that doesn’t mean that native-speakers can’t learn from it, too! This is a great, easy to understand page that lays out the uses of each word very carefully.
“Y-O-U-R means ‘YOUR.’”
This is a funny, no-nonsense approach to explaining the difference between “your” and “you’re.” It is a pretty common mistake, and it can’t hurt to understand the difference, right? (Includes a nice clip from the show Friends for any Ross fans!)
If you need a proofreader, contact an InkScratch editor at inkscratchediting@gmail.com!
Self-Publishing: Quantity Trumping Quality?
Posted by: inkscratchediting on: April 10, 2011
Self-Publishing: Quantity Trumping Quality?
(written by Kate Lynn)
Maggie Weaver sat at her desk, hammering away at the keyboard. The keyboard was almost invisible, swamped beneath crunched up napkins, crumpled draft pages and the half-eaten remains of her French toast from hours earlier. Her sleepy brown eyes were beginning to cross as she scanned the seemingly endless stream of rejection letters in her e-mail’s inbox. Around her feet were neatly stacked piles of various sections of her manuscript, each rejected. Maggie’s face remained stoic. “It seems like you have to sell out and write vampire smut if you want anyone to give you a contract these days.”
But she had no intention of selling out, or of writing vampire porn. However, after 15 consecutive rejections, her contract-landing potential was going down and it scared her to death. Maggie wasn’t without other options, though. “Look, I have a lot of faith in this story. But I would rather eat the manuscript than vanity publish it.” Looking around at the hundreds, maybe thousands of rejected sheets of paper, her stance becomes quite clear.
Vanity publishing, or self-publishing, is a new phenomena in the writing and publishing industry. Traditional publishing (also called professional publishing) is what most people are familiar with. Let’s say that you are an author with a great story. You write your manuscript, or at least a good chunk of it, and submit it to a publishing house along with a “query letter” that briefly explains what the novel will be about. An editor at the house reads it, and if he or she decides that your writing doesn’t suck and has the potential to sell, you will be offered a contract in which you are paid in royalties as you finish the book.
Sounds pretty simple, right? Well, that simple process can take years. Not sounding so great now, is it? But recently, a new process on the market allows anyone to be an author. It gives anyone who thinks he or she has a great idea, to turn that idea into a book and to have it published—no jumping through hoops. No editorial ass-kissing. No waiting. Self-publication is becoming more and more popular as authors choose to shorten their trip to the finish line by publishing on their own terms.
If it sounds so great, then why are so many people against it? “The biggest hurdle for the self-published is lack of quality control. I read them and cringe. An editor could save them.” Says author Thaddeus Howze. The self-publishing industry has a severe lack of checkpoints. Anyone who wants to be an author, can be an author. But unfortunately, that’s a double-edged sword. While everyone is on equal footing, someone with a hackneyed plot and terrible grammar has as great an opportunity as the person who has worked for months perfecting and editing an original manuscript.
“The other issue will be the explosion of wannabe writers who will not make the effort to learn their craft well.” Howze raises another good point: if you can yield the same results and not work yourself to death, why would you? Writers get into frenzies; we want to get all of our good ideas out, on to paper, and off into the hands of the masses in as little time as possible. Nevertheless, as with any profession, some writers are inexperienced. Some are downright lazy. It’s still a skill that needs to be worked on in order to improve, but if there is no penalty for not improving, then why bother working so hard to do so? Self-publishing markets such as Amazon’s CreateSpace and Lulu leave the editing in the hands of the writer, and not every writer is an editor. Says Weaver of the situation, “In many self-publishing cases, not even every writer is a writer.”
The debate on whether or not self-publishing is a viable platform is a murky one at best. Triptych author J.M. Frey believes that there is a time and a place for self-publishing. “Both have their advantages and disadvantages. It’s just a matter of the professionalism on the part of the author. Do they work with a meticulous beta-reader? Can they handle their own marketing, design a great cover, get their books into stores and amass an audience? If so, then why share profit with an editor, a publisher, or an agent? I’ve seen some really questionable stuff out there in Professional-Publication Land, stuff rife with typos and with grossly unprofessional authors, and really abysmal covers,” says Frey, “So, mistakes can happen anywhere.”
Professionalism is a major arguing point in the self-publishing versus traditional publishing debate. Many who have gone through the traditional process and faced rejections have learned from their experiences, and have handled rejection and criticism professionally and positively. But those who skip steps and go straight to self-publishing never experience any kind of rejection dialogue in a professional setting. However, in an open forum, criticism is inevitable. “Most of the people I’ve seen vanity publish are late-in-life, newer writers. The second they get a negative review, the defenses go right up. I’ve seen some nasty arguments.” Weaver laughs, “But they can’t handle it with a level mind. They lash out, because they have never dealt with anything like it before.”
The concept of self-publication is hardly a new one, but the influx of online self-publication houses over the past five years has created an entirely new facet of the industry. But this new phase of the game has presented major problems with quality control. Howze suggests that serious budding self-publishing authors consider upping their marketing skills in order to be the diamond in the rough. “I think writers might want to consider their own marketing: online, websites, tweets, Facebook. You have to ensure your work stands above the crowd.”
Weaver offers a different approach. “I hardly think that these companies should disappear. But, they should consider employing safeguard editors to review books before they are published and judge the work for grammar, spelling and typos at least. Maybe if the books fail, the author could be given the opportunity to fix their errors and resubmit the work after two weeks, or 30 days, or some other pre-determined chunk of time.”
“Times have changed, definitely. It used to be that jumping all the hurdles to get your stuff published was like a badge of honor. All these online publication avenues may be great for some authors in very particular circumstances, but it feels like the badge doesn’t shine as bright anymore.”
***
Where do you stand?
