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Finding an Editor for ‘The Eagle Order’ Addendum

In a recent blog post, I spoke about my venture in finding a new copyeditor, seeking a new partnership for my novel The Eagle Order and the other books in the series. In that post, I detailed the reasons why I said, "No," to certain editors who applied for the position—and it was a range of reasons.

Because of the nature of the post, I decided to share the post not only with the writing community, but with my editing networks too. There were people who laughed at some of the reasons, amazed at how "off" things were. But I also encountered significant pushback regarding my comments about no website.

Many editors came forward, insisting that having no website hasn't harmed their business in any way, and that I was discounting experienced editors because of my viewpoints.

I will concede that this is indeed the case: I am discounting experienced editors because of my viewpoints. BUT on a first glance, how do I know for certain that they were experienced editors and not just someone who knows how to use AI tech to make them look good on paper?

In today's post, I want to take a deeper dive into the no-website arguments and explain why I feel that having no website could be working against you if you are a service provider.

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Finding an Editor for ‘The Eagle Order’

Normally, I'm the one sending out quotes and commenting on prospective clients' work, trying to showcase what I can do. However, for the first time in a long time, I was on the other side of the search for an editor. And I will gladly admit that it highlighted a few things that were a bit concerning about my sector of the publishing industry.

In today's post, I want to describe the process that I went through to find an editor for my own work, explaining how I was able to weed through the noise, and how I came to my final decision.

I feel this post will be insightful for writers and editors alike.

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Social Media: Is it the end of society?

Walking through the mall and heading to the grocery store, one thing has become blatantly obvious to me: smartphones are everywhere. And it's not just the youth.

Some years back (when my daughter was in her early teens), my husband, my daughter, and I decided to enjoy a nice lunch out together. At the table next to us was a couple in their 60s, and both of them were busy texting—or doing whatever—on their smartphones. Even my daughter commented on how they weren't talking to one another.

"Don't they like talking with one another, mum?"

I just shrugged in response and continued on with my conversation with my husband.

But that interaction got me thinking. Are smartphones and social media the end of our society?

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Private Message Marketing Reeks of Scams

If you’ve been around on the internet long enough, you have likely received unsolicited messages via direct messaging, be that through social media or email. It seems to be a rite of passage, telling you that your profile is starting to garnish attention. But after you get a few of those messages, you start to see the patterns of those who are pretending to be interested in what you are doing, only to try to sell you something.

I don’t know what it is about the publishing industry, but we seem to accumulate a lot of these. Some of them are obvious scams. And some of them are from people who are just starting out in whatever support role they have chosen to take on board to support writers. But those who are starting down the new business road, they clearly don’t understand marketing or how their tactics are making them look like a smarmy used-car salesman.

In today’s post, I want to discuss this type of marketing tactic and explain why it reeks of a scammer. And I want to explain why we should avoid using it ourselves, regardless of what we’re selling (be that books or services).

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