Bring me your Tired, Your Muddled Manuscript Messes
I’ve been working in the book editing, production and publishing area for 13 years now, going back to a small consumer-focused book on the human immune system (published by the CEO of a Florida nutraceutical company, Allera Health).
Like many books, the ideas and concepts were way ahead of their time. My editorial partner John Miller pitched the book at a Super Bowl party in Feb, 2008 and by Thanksgiving we had a book completed.
Next came Hey! You! Get Onto My Cloud, with Mike Lingo, the then CTO of the venture-backed global systems integration firm Astadia. By our estimates, this is the first business book on the topic of Cloud computing, written for the C-Suite and the board room, and not for the Vice President of Information Technology, who wanted nothing to do with Software as a Service. Now, that same VP is on the bandwagon and leading the Cloud parade through the main street of the Data Center.
John Miller pitched this book in February, 2010, I interviewed Mike Lingo in Orlando for two days in April, and by Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce event in November, 2010, we had the book published as a marketing asset in the Astadia trade show booth. The book is no longer in print, unfortunately, but it did the job it needed to do.
I mention both books, because they represent a blank page-to-published paperback arc, which we now have tightened from 10 months to about five to six months depending on the motivation of the author/client.
What I also see frequently is an author who has already done the heavy lifting and has a book manuscript that they believe is “fully-baked,” and ready for readers.
In many cases, the book is a mess, but they won’t admit to it. They are equating Subject Matter Expertise with good writing. Many business experts have deep training in a specialized field, but that does not make them authors.
At the macro level, the book is not structured in a compelling way. Often, the ideal opening chapter is buried, as the fourth or fifth chapter, or maybe the ideal opening chapter is buried inside another chapter.
It is my job as a developmental editor to sort through the “hairball,” the giant plate of pasta, and pull out the meaningful editorial strands in a logical order. I spend a lot of time looking at plotting and story arc, even in a non-fiction business title.
My job is to be a lawyer for the reader.
What might a reader want to learn at this particular juncture in the story?
When has the author over-written and muddied the waters, and when has the author under-written and needs more elaboration on a topic?
I see this in overly-long paragraphs, which drone on for half a page without a visual break, or in overly-long sentences, of 40 or 50 words in length, that would cause you to run out of breath if you read them aloud.
Without meaning to, novice authors obscure their most compelling points with opaque, inaccessible prose. This is where I step in, looking at individual word choice. But I do this in a nice way, with recommendations and suggestions, not ultimatums.
The result? Not necessarily a best seller or a trade publisher contract, but at least there exists a clear, concise and compelling work that establishes the authority of the author. And believe me, the reader will thank you for it.
Jon Obermeyer runs Write Now, a virtual writing center that assists author clients who are writing and publishing a first memoir or business title. To review a list of client books available on Amazon or to discuss a book project, please contact him at jonobermeyer@gmail.com
