Today I happened to be reading a few blogs on how us—the indie crowd—are destroying the joint. I can only feel pity for those bloggers, for many different reasons that are irrelevant to this post. All the same, I’ll come back to ‘indie-haters’ in the near future. Stay tuned!

Good writers, indie or not, would be committing structural, grammatical and stylistic suicide if they don’t employ a reputable editor. Repeat after me: good writers, indie or not, would be committing structural, grammatical and stylistic suicide if they don’t employ a reputable editor. I had the serendipitous fortune of becoming WordWatcher‘s graphic and web designer, and took the wise decision of discussing my novel with him. The watchful eyes of Paul Mattingly had a good look at the first two chapters of ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ and gave me detailed feedback using track changes and comments that I could either accept or reject. ‘This is how I work,’ he said. He also uses specialist software, as well as his in-depth editing and proofreading knowledge.

Paul gave me a very detailed proposal of what his services would consist of: a project plan with specific stages, the timeframe, the exclusions and inclusions, plus the fees and payment schedule. We only needed to sign on the dotted line and start working! 🙂

I would have never imagined that having my novel edited and proofread would be such a wonderful learning experience! Not only did Paul not kill my darlings, but helped me turn them into better ones! His feedback was detailed and precise, and for someone like me, prone to flights of fancy, easy to follow. I’m happy to recommend Paul to all and sundry, and I look forward to more WordWatching in the near future!

Right now I look forward to dinner. I’m ravenous! Catcha later, FFJ