Open for Content Edits

I will begin doing content critiques again in the month of October. This means that you have from now until October 1^st 2016 to get your manuscript and payment to me. (I've been told that I need to give some of you more notice so here you go). 

Anyone who sends their manuscript and payment by October 1^st will have their critique back before Thanksgiving.

How can I do this and why would you want to be told horrible things about your manuscript?

Maybe, because you want to find an agent or editor?

Why do you think you're any good at this at all?

I've been beta reading since forever, not only for unpublished authors, but for agented and published ones as well. Quite honestly, I was a terrible reader for the first ten years or so. I was worried about hurting people's feelings, and didn't say when a passage stunk or when something made me go what?! Now I do. This is what you need to improve your writing.

Also, I remember thinking, "I wish someone would just tell me what I'm doing wrong so I can fix it." Seriously, some of you guys are wonderful writers, you have a voice, your sentence structure is strong. But your pacing sucks, or you just can't quite make your characters come alive for the reader. I can help you with that.

Why would you want to use your time like this when you could be watching Dr. Who or Supernatural?

Quite honestly, I have six kids. Five are in college, and one is in private high school. I'd like them to stay there. Also we like food. Food is a good thing.

Why would I want to pay for a critique when I can get one free from my own critique group?

Unless your beta readers are published, or are working with a traditional agent or editor, they don't have the experience to help you. I do.

What do I get for my money?

I'll post notes throughout the manuscript using Word and Track Changes. I'll tell you where, when, and why you're messing up. I'll tell you what you're doing right, and what you shouldn't change. I'll also provide a detailed letter of what I think will improve your work.

Every writer is at a different stage of development. All writers (including me) have problems actually seeing their story because what they've written is colored by what they see in their own mind. The reader doesn't have the benefit of your imagination.

What won't you do?

I don't critique erotica. (For all I know I could be doing it wrong.) I have friends who are experts at critiquing erotica and romance. Email me and I'll recommend you.

I don't offer edits on picture book manuscripts because I am not qualified to do so.

I will not correct your punctuation. You need a line editor for that.

How do I contact you?

You can email me at juliebutcheredits@yahoo.com
You can check out recommendations and *like* my editing page at https://www.facebook.com/JulieButcherEdits
On twitter you can find me at https://twitter.com/Julie_Butcher

What does this cost?

First Chapter (up to 20 pages)  $50.00

First Three Chapters (up to 50 pages) $100.00

Entire Manuscript Critique $1.00 a page minimum of 200 pages.

These prices are for Times New Roman 12pt font double-spaced Word documents. Nothing else.

I look forward to working with you.

Need New Eyes on Your Manuscript?

I will be accepting clients for manuscript critiques from now until May 1st. So what this means is that if you get your payment and manuscript to me by then you can get a critique. If it is not here by that time, I will be starting a new manuscript myself.


Why do you think you're any good at this at all?
I've been beta reading since 1990, not only for unpublished authors, but for agented and published ones, too. Quite honestly, I was a terrible reader for the first ten years or so. I was worried about hurting people's feelings, and didn't say when a passage stunk on ice, or when something made me go WTF?! Now I do. This is what you need to improve your writing.
Also, I remember thinking, "I wish someone would just tell me what I'm doing wrong so I can fix it." Seriously, some of you guys are wonderful writers, you have a voice, your sentence structure is strong. But, your pacing sucks, or you just can't quite make your characters come alive for the reader. I can help you with that.
Why would you want to use your time like this when you could be watching Dr. Who or Spiderman?
Quite honestly, I have six kids. Five are in college, and one is in private high school. I'd like them to stay there.
How much will this cost?
First Chapter (up to 20 pages)  $50.00
First Three Chapters (up to 50 pages) $100.00
Entire Manuscript Critique $1.00 a page minimum of 200 pages.

For anything else, email me at juliebutcheredits@yahoo.com
For more information please go here.
I look forward to working with you.

Writing Teenagers and Food

Okay people let’s get something straight. Teens eat more than burgers and fries and pizza. They don’t drink only fizzy drinks. In fact, they eat pretty much what you do.

Coffee is a big thing now. There’s a Starbucks almost everywhere. Maybe you weren’t allowed to drink coffee as a child, but that isn’t the same as other people. Kids have favorite brands of coffee. They like flavored coffee, and regular, and have a special creamer they prefer. My kids are allowed to drink coffee or tea when they turn 10. A lot of my friends have kids who drink coffee. IT IS A THING. Give it up that they sound too old because they drink coffee. It isn’t liquor. Geez.

When my kids go to the bookstore, they get a coffee. It isn’t only adults who drink coffee. Just like you adults eat pizza and burgers. There isn’t an age limit on food, okay?

My children’s grandmother didn’t drink caffeine for years because there were rumors that it wasn’t good for you. You know how the health waves go. One year a certain thing will kill you, and the next it is good for you and you should have it every single day. You need to keep up and not date your writing with what you were taught as a child. (I didn’t know what gluten was as a teen—now everyone knows.)

The point is that you need to pay attention to the changes and trends in society as a whole. Gluten is bad now, so you’re going to have teen characters who don’t eat gluten. Coffee is cool now so you’re going to have middle grade and young adult characters who drink coffee. You’ll also have kids who don’t eat processed food, and characters who read every label for peanut allergies.

Food is a thing, guys. Pay attention to the world.

Social Media and Social Responsibility

Writers everywhere are trying to create a social media platform. They join every single big site. They pimp novels. (This totally does not work people) They push their friend’s books. (Also made of fail unless it is a release day). And generally, they make a nuisance of themselves. Scroll through your Facebook or Twitter and see how far you need to go to see a real person talk. They get the whole social media but they forget social responsibility.

I was looking at Facebook the other day and a lovely woman posted a picture of her friend dressed up for an event. Her friend was beautiful. She had obviously taken a lot of time with hair and nails and an outfit. Do you know what people were saying? NOT ONE THING.

 How mean was that?

Isn't it tough enough to have a positive body image in today’s society without totally ignoring a lovely person? I can guarantee you that this woman could not possibly feel as lovely as she looked. I know this because when I was younger, I was a very pretty woman but I didn't think so. Thank God that there wasn't social media then to confirm what I suspected was true. I would have never left the house. I wouldn't have met my husband or ever had my six children.

You are never going to give offense with an honest compliment. I told the woman that she looked beautiful. She did. Someone else being lovely, or wearing a pretty dress, or even showing off a new manicure does not take one darn thing away from you. Take a second of your precious time and say so. Your comment might be the one positive thing in their day. You won’t ever know if what you said mattered because you can’t know the horrors they may face in their everyday life. But maybe, just maybe, your words will turn their day around.

Everyone is all against bullying. We teach our children to be nice and not to judge or harass people. But I am here to tell you that this isn't enough. Teach them kindness and caring and start by being supportive of others and their interests not only in your real life, but online.

I think we all want to leave the world a better place. Hopefully how we act will make a mark on people and places that we love. If you’re using social media, then you have the responsibility of making the virtual world a better place, too.

We can’t all buy someone in need a car, or pay off their hospital bills, but we can all take the time once a day to give someone a compliment. It’s a little thing. But sometimes the little things are what matter the most and what make the biggest difference.

The Four Reasons You are not Published

I'm over at Buzzy Mag explaining all ot the things and wearing ranty-pants. http://buzzymag.com/four-reasons-published/

The DH, the Evil Chainsaw, and Bears

This is the Dear Husband

He is always busy and has all the things to do. (Here he revamped our old swingset for my nieces and nephew.) He was busy with a tree trimming project when the worst thing imaginable happened.

With his mighty chainsaw he was standing in a huge pile of small branches. His right foot was in the brush and his left was on the log. He'd cut almost all the way through and pushed with his left foot to move the log and finish the cut.

Unfortunately there was a stubborn spot there. The chainsaw bounced back and into the calf of his left leg. The brush he was standing on collapsed, he fell, and the chainsaw did what they do--it cut through his calf.

He yelled to youngest son who almost carried him to the truck, and then the DH drove himself to the emergency room because he worried about bleeding out before an ambulance could get there. Meanwhile, while holding his dad's leg together, youngest son calls me and in the calmest voice imaginable says, "Mom, I don't want you to be upset but Dad had an accident and we're on the way to the emergency room."

I told youngest son to run in when they got there and yell for help. Then I did what I do, jumped into the car, and drove like a bat out of Hell. (Youngest son informed me that when he opened the door to get the DH from the truck, blood poured out. I believe it because I had to scrub it.)

When I got to the emergency room, the DH was on the table and it looked like someone had put a giant piece of raw liver on his leg. The entire calf was open. The nurse was so amazed at our joking around the she said, "You guys are sure calm about this." To which the DH responded, "We have six kids." (Evidently this fact is enough for anyone to believe that we're as nutty as fruitcakes.)

He'd cut all the way through the large calf muscle and half-way through the smaller one.

Anyway, after three very long surgeries, six days in the hospital, and two weeks on bedrest we went to the doctor's office yesterday. He removed the stitches on the skin side, put his leg in a full cast, and sent us home for four more weeks of bedrest. After that he will have a walking cast for at least another six weeks.

The DH is very unhappy with this order, but I get it because the scar is huge and C-shaped, and luckily, his name starts with a C so we won't have to change that. (Also he says don't tell people that he almost cut his leg off with a chainsaw (which also starts with a C) because this is an embarrassing fact. So if you see him, it was a bear.)

We do have end-of-the-world insurance so we won't lose the house. (We pay $10K before it kicks in and then they pay 80% up to $100K)

Luckily for us, writers, editors, and agents are amazing and kind people and I want to thank each person who donated such awesome things to the Indiegogo campaign, and also to thank everyone who bought these wonderful items. So many people offered to help that they're adding new stuff everyday.

You have no idea how much it means to us as a family, and to me personally. I don't feel alone in this. Sure it will be hard, and a very long recovery, but not facing it by myself is such an wonderful feeling that I can't explain it without a million adjectives. (I know how you feel about those.) So I won't try except to say that you warm my heart and I won't ever forget. Not ever.

They'll run the fundraiser until the end of April so if you want to check it out, the Reader Edition is here and the Writer Edition is here.

I honestly believe that all of the prayers and good thoughts from you got us through the surgery without needing a skin graft. Thank you. Any extra during his recovery are very much appreciated.

I love you guys.

Yes You Do Need an Editor

When I finally got to the place in my writing where my future agent of awesome had asked for revisions, I was ambushed by fear. My beta group at that time was at the same writing level as I was. None of us had an agent and none of us were published.

So I hired an editor.

She saw all the bits that I thought were good enough but that were still at a lower level of professionalism. She pointed out where she went all WTF IS THIS??!!  A new pair of eyes saw all of the flaws that my crazy writer brain missed. There were a lot—like hundreds or maybe thousands.  I fixed them all well enough to sign with my dream agent.

Guys, there is no way under heaven that you can write your own book, and edit out the flaws without another opinion. (Family doesn’t count. Of course your momma loves your book.) The problem is that we seldom have friends who are at a higher writing level than we are. Published authors tend to hang together. (Mostly because they don’t want to be harassed for an introduction to their agent or editor.)  Uber- ginormous published authors have beta readers that they can trust and they have tons of deadlines so you can’t bother them. Seriously, don’t do it because RUDE.

But what you can do is to either BEG someone better than you to read or, you can hire an editor.

After you have worn out your Beta group, you need a content editor first. A content editor points out the best ways to make your characters shine. They tell you where you’re wandering off into the swamp of the muddy middle. They also tell you where you make their brain go into a seizure trying to figure out WTF is going on. They fall into the plot-holes so your readers don’t.

If you’re serious about writing, hire a content editor. You’ll learn stuff. If you absolutely can’t afford it then find every contest, drawing, and auction you can and get a professional edit.

There are a lot of agented writers who do editing work. I do and you can see all of the prices and things here. http://jrbutcher.blogspot.com/2013/04/i-can-tell-you-why-your-manuscript.html or you can email me at juliebutcheredits@yahoo.com

 The lovely Authoress Anonymous does and you can find her rates here. http://misssnarksfirstvictim.blogspot.com/2007/01/authoress-edits.html  She is awesome and has been my critique partner for a while. You’ll love her.

After you’ve fixed all of the things that your content editor pointed out, you need a line editor.

Don’t argue with me because YES YOU DO. Unless you are a professional editor, you absolutely will not find all of the problems. Even if you are an editor your own brain still sees your story as it wants it to be, not as someone else sees it. Habits sneak up on the best of us, bad habits, evil habits. The comma fairy will come when you are asleep and poop all over your manuscript and you won’t even notice.

I use Richard Shealy  as a line editor and you can find him at http://sffcopyediting.com/index.php/who/  Even if you’re not writing scifi or fantasy, give him an email.

So let’s review the order of how we edit our finished manuscript.

1.       Have a beta group of readers

2.       Hire a content editor

3.       Fix all of the things

4.       Hire a line editor

5.       Submit your work to agents and editors.

6.       Get an agent or a publisher

Start all over again

Back to the Future or Past or Whatever

When I was in first grade, a substitute teacher started reading us Little House in the Big Woods. The next day, our regular teacher was back, and I didn't know what had happened to Ma, and Pa, and Mary and Laura!

I was devastated until my mother ordered the books. That series turned me into a reader.

Today I took the log cabin my dad built for me, and a new copy of Little House, and visited my nieces and nephew. They loved it, and me.

It was awesome!