It’s Friday. Another week has come and gone. Before we say thank you for this week and welcome the weekend, here is a word from the Publishing Manager Lilith
I am listening to Stephen King’s audiobook On Writing right now, and in that book, he says that he couldn’t write books without his editor.
You would think an author as experienced as Mr King doesn’t need an editor for his excellent books. But he does. It is not enough with imagination and writing skills.
When you write your own stories it is easy to get blind. To don’t see errors in the story that must be edited. But when a new pair of eyes look at it, they can see what the story is lacking. They can also see what is amazing in the story and give you feedback that supports you as a writer.
I am too an author, and I also run a publishing house. I have read stories all my life and also made a bunch of movies. I have been writing all my life and won literary prizes for it. But even though I work as an editor, I need someone else to work with my own texts. Isn’t that ironic?
When I write my own stories I get oh so easily blind, and it happens that I think I am clear enough for everyone to understand when I might not be.
So my first and foremost tip is if you are a writer, even if you are a published writer or not, make sure you have a professional editor working on your text. That will make all the difference. And when you have that, you also show the publishing houses that you are committed to making the best work possible and not trying in vain to edit everything yourself, because mistakes will slip through.
At Lange Publisher we publish stories after they are edited and worked on for a long time. We do not publish stories that are not as great as they can be. This work takes time, and if the author lets us, and they agree to change things, we can release a book that is ready to be read.
Often a writer thinks that when they are finished with the story, the work is done and the publishing house just needs to read it, accept it and publish it. It is not that easy. Your story may be done for you, but now it must be edited over and over again and after quite some time, it is ready for release. It is so important to allow enough time for that. And it is also very important that you as a writer take the editor’s knowledge into account and really make the changes that are needed, so both parties do what they can to release a book that would be loved by readers. You as a writer deserve a great book after your hard work. But as an editor, we can only hope that our feedback will support the author, and they apply the changes to the text, we can’t force it. The script is owned by the author and it will be the author that has the foremost responsibility for the text ultimately.
At Lange Publisher we work with four pens.
When you send your manuscript to us you get a First Impression of the story in writing for free, that pen is called the Bronze Pen. That will be your first impression of what a professional publishing house thinks of your story and if we want to work with it or not. Everyone that sends us manuscripts gets one of these. We take the time to read your story. That is something we think is important. We respect your time.
If you get accepted we can move on to the Silver Pen, and here we read your story again and more carefully and work out a solid dictum full of feedback on your story and a plan to make it even better. The author gets the scripts back with the dictum and makes the necessary changes to it.
Step 3 is the Gold Pen, where we work with the script that the author has sent us back, together in close collaboration with the author and make all the necessary edits on it.
The last pen is called the Diamond Pen and that includes, proofreading the scripts, creating book covers, translating the scripts, recording it as an audiobook and making pictures if needed for the book. We also work with the production of the script and turn it into a printed book, eBook and audiobook.
The release itself with Lange Publisher is free of cost. We release, translate, produce and do the marketing for free. We give the author royalty for the sale. The only thing we take a fee for is the edit of the text, the Gold Pen. If you already have a professional editor on your scripts when you send them to us, and we accept the scripts for release without the need for further editing, the Gold pen will not be charged.
Already in the first impression, the Bronze Pen, and if we want to work with the script, you will receive a price for the Gold Pen for your script, but note that sending your script and having it go through the Bronze Pen does not mean you have to pay us anything. Once we send you the price your script would cost, you can choose whether to continue or not. We never have and never will release anything without the consent of the authors, and we never charge you anything without an agreement from all parties.
–
Lilith is an Author and Publishing Manager at Lange Publisher