Oh, the things our copy go through when we aren’t looking! My dear client, whom I love like a sister, sent me a note regarding her plans to trudge forward into self publication with the ghostwritten material I had prepared. The ROUGH DRAFT, remember? However upon viewing the copy she presented to the publisher, I was hard pressed to recognize what she had there. In fact, it had many more pages, and the beginning was something I’d not come across in our time together. Hmm. It would seem dear client has been listening to the voices of well-meaning-but-erroneous friends who were telling her it’s a great story, but not quite long enough. Hmm again. It’s so hard saying goodbye to your best efforts as it is; why oh why are clients compelled to try doing what they oughtn’t? It will cost my dear client oodles in editing fees, for the copy now resembles a rambling, overemphasized pile of strung-together stories, where before she had a fast, easy, great read. Alas, we must allow our birds to fly the nest and fall a few times. I shall, but I shall also mourn the loss of good prose.
October 26, 2007 at 5:04 pm |
How stupid! Isn’t one of the points of self-publishing so you can do things on your own terms, without regard to silly standards like total word count getting in the way of effectively and compellingly telling the story? Her well-intentioned friends obviously need a crash course in “less is more.” This is one of the reasons why I’m often reluctant to have my name mentioned in a book’s acknowledgments. You never quite know what an author’s going to do with the work once it leaves your capable hands.
October 26, 2007 at 8:17 pm |
Her friend is a “published” author who self published a few years back. Suddenly, he’s the expert. Alas, we can lead them in the correct vicinity, but we cannot make them walk the path….
November 13, 2007 at 9:26 am |
It’s situations like these that make me wonder why people bother hiring a professional ghostwriter in the first place. If you want to write it yourself, write it yourself and save yourself thousands of dollars in writer fees. If you can acknowledge your lack of ability enough to hire a professional trust the professional judgement and go with what they give you.