Forum: Story Discussion and Feedback

Luckily the story was completed before it was posted and just needed a final edit and breaking up into chapters before the posting started. It's also available via Lulu as the full story for those who can't wait.

Thanks for the heads up on the publisher.

You're welcome, that's who I publish through and I also publish the stories by The Scot and Thornfoote through Lulu for them with their permission because they don't want to bother with the extra work of making the epubs.

whilst on another it is being edited before being posted for free, a chapter at a time.

My understanding from talking to Lazlo in the middle of last years was the story was finished then and edited by a few editors so he posted it on Lulu and started posting it on SoL, then some missed typos were spotted and reported so he asked TeNderLoin to do a further edit and repost what was posted and post the rest of the chapters. Since he also needed the rest of his stories edited due to reported typos he also asked TeNderLoin to edit and repost all of his stories. I've no clear information, but guessing from discussions with Lazlo in the middle of last year, he'd like to have the edited versions of all of his stories posted on Lulu as well, and he intends to leave them up on Sol / FS etc as freebies too.

It seems a little odd that a completed story is available to buy on one site, whilst on another it is being edited before being posted for free, a chapter at a time.

I finish all of my stories before I start posting them on Sol / FS /SciFi but that's after they've been through my editors. However, some typos and other errors do get by us all, so when I get reports of them I update the story on both Lulu and SoL etc. My usual routine is to have the full story available on lulu the same day as the first chapter appears on SoL etc. then the other chapters follow one every 2 days.

G'day joyR,

The term editor covers a whole list of activities which have changed a lot over the last couple of decades. Few, if any, of the major publishers have editors like they used to have. Forty years ago the editors would go through a story while working with the author to fix plot holes, polish wording, and spot typos, but not now. This is especially true for independent authors like we have here. Publishers like Amazon and Lulu are nothing like the publishers of the past who had editorial staff. Today if you want a professional old style editor to go over your work you have to pay for it, and pay them well, as all the publisher does is make available a place to advertise you book and establish a process for print on demand print book copies to be made available to purchasers via their network of printers.

The process I go through with my books is nothing at all like the editorial process I went through years ago when I did a few tech manuals and such things. Heck, even important reports for the senior politicians etc went through a through editorial process much different to what is used now.

Now I've several editors that I pass my books through as they look for different aspects of the story. Between them all they pick up plot holes, little known factual errors, sentence structure for smooth reading, word choice, clarity, typos, spelling errors and appropriateness, mix of narrative and dialogue. The problem with all this, apart from the time delays as each checks the story as it is when sent to them, is that they recommend changes and I have to rewrite sections of the story to resolve the issues they point out to me (often caused by my eyes seeing what my mind was saying but my fingers didn't type right), and last through is a proof reader. Now, some stories require more input with some stories than others - e.g. in Playball every baseball action scene was pulled apart and rewritten a number of times while being discussed in depth with one editor who umpires baseball, and has done so for years. By the time I'm ready to publish a story is likely to be up to version 200 but never below version 50. Much of what is changed is minor, but even then I often later see where a section would flow smoother with a minor word choice change or adding an extra word. However, the biggest post publication issue is where a typo has been made and missed by us all due to what we expect to see being what we read and not what's there. The biggest discussion point with any editor is the placement of commas, and in the past I've bowed to what my main editor says about commas, but over time I've learned to use a lot less than he recommends, thus a lot of my current revision cycle is removing commas which i think a breaking up the smoothness of the sentence flow.

As to Lazlo, I know he used editors in the past, but some of them ceased being available to him and he didn't replace them, then last year he hooked up with TeNderLoin and now has him reworking all of his works to pick up the things that were missed in the past. I know from personal experience TeNderLoin does not change the story line of his own accord, but he will recommend to the author where he thinks the author should rethink what they're saying. He will correct typos and spelling and some punctuation, but that's about it without direct author input.

I hope this helps you understand the situation in place here.

although the idea that whole chapters would be added is somewhat far fetched.

I know for a fact the story Emend by Eclipse was finished back in Sept 2018 because Lazlo sent me a copy of the epub on 10 Sept 2018 to do a beta reader check for him after his regular editorial run. However, I found I couldn't get into the story because I like to get engrossed in a story and I was having a severe problem with one of the characters. When I discussed it with Lazlo he said he thought I might have an issue with that character as he knows me quite well from previous communication exchanges. I did suggest he get TeNderLoin to edit it as I had seen a couple of minor typos, and I know Lazlo spoke with him about editing the story around that time as well.

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On a slight divergence, but addressing the addition of chapters I was in that position with Shiloh when Mike asked me to finish the story for him. However, before I could pick up where he left off where the aliens appeared on Crossroads I had to go over all of the earlier chapters to make a number of changes to avoid some legal issues with the story because the original violated a number of trademark and copyright issues. Also, some of the descriptions were extreme purple prose ones which were cut right back, but only after I spoke with Mike about them in detail. He had a direct input in the changes to every one on the existing changes and also the first of the new chapters up to chapter 33 when he didn't want to be involved in it at all, anymore. The biggest problem I had with the story was the way Mike presented some of the military aspects early in the story which wasn't exactly right as far as the US military were concerned but he didn't want to change it when we made the changes to those chapters, so I had to make the best of it I could later. So while Mike wrote the first 23 or 25 chapter, not sure which from memory, and I massaged them with his approval and assistance, everything after the group of aliens appeared on Crossroads is all my work within the framework Mike had already established in the first chapters, including the existence of the fancy mineral in the story. That was harder work going over the original chapters than adding to the story.

is it completed on lulu i don't wanna buy it if its missing all the chapters TeNderLoin is adding

To the best of my knowledge the version on Lulu is the complete version as Lazlo wrote it and it does not include the edits that TeNderLoin is doing. he isn't adding or removing any part of the story, just editing it by fixing typos and the like.

When originally posted to Lulu a chapter was missing so that chapter was posted as a freebie so any who had bought a copy could get the last chapter. Also a revised version was posted with the missing chapter included and that is what is now available on Lulu.

I don't know, but I suspect Lazlo will update the Lulu version after Jim finishes with the edits and he's upto changing the copy on Lulu.

This story is cursed!

That type of curse is not too unusual for someone who does as much work with others as TeNderLoin.

His work is probably recoverable and will cause just a delay. If it isn't, he will redo it, which means an even bigger delay. But he is fast.