Hot New Book on Self Editing

The Frugal Editor
By Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Red Engine Press
publisher@redenginepress.comBranson, MissouriCopyright 2007
ISBN: 978-0-9785158-7-4
Paperback, 208 pages, $18.95

Reviewed by Mayra Calvani

The publishing world is so incredibly competitive nowadays, both aspiring and experienced authors who wish to succeed need to make sure that their submissions—be that queries, proposals, partials or complete manuscripts—are as flawless as they can possibly be. It goes without saying that these submissions must be free of spelling and grammatical mistakes; that’s only the beginning. Editors and agents pay attention to a lot of other amateurish mistakes in a submission. In this her latest book, award-winning author Carolyn Howard-Johnson reveals what those other mistakes are, what you can do to spot them on your manuscript and, more importantly, correct them.

Johnson demystifies how to spot dangling participles, gremlins of the passive voice (which stubbornly keep appearing after having edited your manuscript twice), and innocuous agreement errors, among other sneaky problems like overuse of adverbs and adjectives, gerunds, unnecessary question marks and exclamation points, handling possessives and apostrophes, hyphens, double adjectives, and more.

You’ll learn how to make the editing process more effortless, including how to set up your Word program to make markings easier, as well as manual and electronic techniques for spotting errors. The book also includes helpful sidebars with particularly important information on all aspects of self editing.
Johnson also discusses the most common amateurish mistakes writers often make. At the end of the book there is a chunky appendix with lots of pertinent and relevant resources.

One of the things I found more interesting about this book is the ‘inside’ information from the point of view of various agents. I also think Johnson gives very valuable advice when she recommends NOT doing the final two edits on the computer screen, but on printed copy instead. I particularly like the chapters on how to set up Word for optimizing the self editing process; I have read many books on editing but never came upon this practical element before. Moreover, Johnson writes in a friendly, engaging style, making the reading of this book both an enjoyable and enlightening experience.

Ideally, hiring a professional editor is the best way to go, but unfortunately, not every writer has the resources to hire one. Getting a copy of The Frugal Editor and using it as a reference guide is the next best thing. Highly recommended for authors who are serious about their work and willing to beat the odds.