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July 11, 2013

Blogiversary Winners & an Announcement

Magic wand with text: Writing Worksheets: What's Your Wish?

Ta da! I made it to the three year mark for blogging. Appropriately, we had enough comments on the Blogiversary Contest post to earn three winners!

Yay! Or boo… Depending on if you’re one of the winners or not. *sad face*

I wish everyone could be a winner. Seriously. But random.org does its random thing without caring about what we want. *sigh*

What’s on Your Writing Worksheet Wish List?

You all are the reason I blog, and I’m so grateful for your friendship and support over the years. I’d love to do something for everyone as a thank you for being here.

So in the comments below, let me know your wish list for any writing-related worksheets or checklists you’d love to see. If I can work my magic wand…

*waves wand* Ffffsssbt. Er, let’s try that again. *smacks wand and waves again* *sparkles*

As I was saying, if I can work my magic wand, I’ll see what I can do about creating your wish and posting it here on my blog in the coming weeks. Think of me as your writing worksheet fairy godmother. *grin*

To Edit or Not to Edit—The Conversation Continues

The entries for the Blogiversary Contest weighed heavily toward requests for a beta read, and some of the commenters mentioned they’d be willing to pay for my services. That reinforced a post from last month, when I mentioned that I have an uncommon talent for identifying the broken pieces in stories. In that post, I wondered if people would be interested in my editing services.

The encouragement in the comments of that post—especially from those who have received my in-depth feedback in a beta read—along with the comments in the contest post, helped me reach a decision. As my time allows, I’d like to help others with their stories, so I’m launching editing services.

Announcing: Editing Services!

I’ll be offering several levels of developmental edits: editorial letter only, editorial letter and in-manuscript comments, and a full edit along with book doctor assistance for broken stories (which includes a follow-up phone call). My prices are in the normal range, but developmental edits are never cheap. On the other hand, I wouldn’t want to do this if I couldn’t take the time to do the edits well.

To help with budgeting, I’ll also be offering several levels of book doctor story analysis: synopsis (includes critique), story outline, and an all-of-the-above-and-beat-sheets-too feedback session (which includes a follow-up phone call). These story analyses won’t find every issue, but they’re a more economical way to receive high-level feedback identifying many of the broken elements of a story and suggesting ways to fix them.

I’ll be honest, this latter category is an experiment. I’m not aware of other editors or book doctors attempting to diagnose and prescribe fixes to broken stories based on other documents. The quality of my analysis will completely depend on the quality of the material provided by the author.

I’m willing to try this experiment so I can offer some lower priced services too, especially for broken stories. Ideally, the author would be able use the analysis to fix many of the major issues before spending a lot of money on a developmental edit.

And Now… The Blogiversary Winners!

And finally, the news you’ve all been waiting for. Here are the winners of my Third Annual Blogiversary Contest:

Christina Chambers

Pauline Baird Jones

ChemistKen

Congratulations to you all! You should receive an email from me within the next day, so start thinking about what prize you want. Should I be worried? *smile*

What’s on your wish list for writing worksheets or checklists? Do you have suggestions for improvements to my current worksheets? What do you think about my plan for Book Doctor Story Analysis services? Do you think it can be done—and be helpful? Do you have questions about my editing services?

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Martina Boone
Martina Boone

Congrats on the anniversary, Jami! That’s fabulous! And even better is the announcement that you are going to offer editing services. Your grasp on craft is epic, and you are great at breaking down complex concepts into smaller bites. Also, I’ve heard from several little birdies that you are an OUTSTANDING editor.

Writers, get on this! It’s a a fabulous opportunity! 🙂

Julie Glover

Congrats to the winners! And best wishes with your editing services. Finally, happy blogiversary!

Christina @FaerieWriter

Excited to be a winner! Congrats on your new venture. I look forward to working with you Jami! 🙂

Kathryn Jankowski

Congratulations to the winners and best of luck with your new services, Jami!

Teresa Robeson

Hooray for the winners and I am very excited for you, Jami, about the start of your new editing service! As thoughtful and detail-oriented as you are, I know you will make a great editor. 🙂

Pauline Baird Jones

I’m so excited! I won Jami! (insert evil grin here) Thank you so, so much! What a fun idea!

Widdershins

Congrats, one and all!

Melissa Maygrove

Congrats to the winners!

I’d love a checklist for cover reveal and launch marketing – when to do what, what graphics and other items one might need to prepare ahead of time, etc. If that’s not your thing, maybe you could wrangle a guest post. *grin*

Piper Bayard

Congratulations!!! What a great contest, Jami. Happy Blogiversary!

Aidee Ladnier

Congratulations to the winners and to you Jami for branching out and sharing your skills.

If you’re taking worksheet requests, I’ve never seen one on world-building. Is that too kooky?

Thanks so much for putting out such a stellar blog!

Melissa Sugar
Melissa Sugar

Hi Jami,
Congratulations to all of the winners and to you for launching your editing and book doctoring services. Your post are so detailed and thorough that I know you will offer excellent editing services. I am very excited about your knew service and look forward to retaining your critical eye. I’ve used many of your worksheets in the past for my novel and so far my absolute favorite has been your Larry Brooks beat sheet template. It was super helpful. I hope you include mystery/suspense and thriller genres in your editing options.

chemistken

Congratulations again, Jami. And I may be looking you up for editing in the future–assuming I can start making progress with my story again.

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[…] I’ve run enough posts here about beat sheets—and have even created beat sheets to help novelists—that it’s obvious I’m a fan of them. In fact, yesterday I guest posted at Pauline Baird Jones’s blog about how I became addicted to beat sheets. (Pauline chose the guest post prize for her win in my Blogiversary contest—yay!) […]

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[…] time we touched on beat sheets because of a guest post I wrote for one of my Blogiversary winners. Today we’re going to talk about a subject that came up with one of my other Blogiversary […]

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[…] another prize winner from my Blogiversary contest, ChemistKen, chose to have me over to his blog for a guest post, where I’m sharing tips on […]

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[…] I hope that by sharing my knowledge and making it more accessible, I’ll be helping the next set of writers. As Kristen Lamb has said about the MyWANA community, this is an attitude of serving others. For that same reason, I asked last week for suggestions of other writing worksheets. […]

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