Tag: Published

Top Revision Tips Before a Manuscript Overview from the desk of David Beaumier
You’ve arrived at the last page of your story and written those crucial, beautiful words: “The End.”

Finished at last!

Well done! You deserve some time to rest before you dive into the next step of editing your story.

Now, one key piece of advice here is there isn’t a wrong time to put your work in front of a professional for feedback. While this article will take you through steps that will bring your book to be as strong as you can possibly make it on your own, we all are of different skillsets, so if something isn’t for you, that’s when you bring in a professional editor.

To start out with, what is a Manuscript Overview?

Perhaps the easiest definition can be pulled from our page on providing Manuscript Overviews (MOVs).

It is an objective evaluation of a story idea that is fully formed with a beginning, middle, and end, but still in an early draft stage. The MOV comes before Line Editing and Copy Editing.

No matter who you pick to perform a Manuscript Overview for your book, you should get one. The amount of time and money it saves on editing by being more general and help you go further with your own writing is on thing, but the most important part is it helps keep your book focused and your narrative strong. Traditional Publishing Houses use them, and it makes sense to follow suit.

Typically, an MOV will cover
- compelling nature of story
- dialogue
- character development
- does the scenery and setting work with the story
- backstory issues
- professionalism of editing & formatting
- continuity of storyline
- plotting and plot-hole issues
- writing craft
So, the question remains, how do you get your book to that point: fully formed with a beginning, middle, and end. How do you get it to the best point you can do on your own?

The Reverse Outline

Once you’ve finished your manuscript, even if you already have an outline, you can create one that reflects the actual book you’ve written. From this point, you can edit that outline of your book as is. Working within the outline to create a roadmap to revision often feels much more approachable.

Next off, we have a recommendation from Matt Bell, author of Refuse to Be Done.

Rewrite your book.

You can have the draft you wrote printed out, off to the side, on a separate monitor, whatever feels comfortable, but rewrite it using your new outline as a guide.

Bell’s theory behind this is that you will copy and paste a bad line (or duplicate scene). But you won’t rewrite a bad line.

Not sure where to start in creating your outline? Jessica Brody’s beat sheet from Save the Cat! Writes a Novel can help. Brody breaks down the story into actionable beats you can aim for to keep your book flowing along. Check out her breakdown of story beats here!

Once you’re done rewriting the book, it helps to go through and check to see if you’ve met the goals of a new outline. Ask yourself if your story has a beat and if you can dance to it.

After all that work, you’re probably ready for a Manuscript Overview.

What to do while you wait

A standard Chanticleer MOV takes 6-9 weeks to finish. While that’s going on, we recommend following D.D. Black’s critical advice whenever you’re in writing limbo: Write the next thing.

D.D. Black presented at CAC24! Check out his incredible series here!

Not only will that get you out of your head and allow you to be more objective with your manuscript when it comes back, but it will put you ahead of the game for the next book.

What do our authors say about our MOVs? Read recent testimonials here!

Wow, huge thank you for this second review! It’s so detailed and very much what I was hoping for. The specifics about moving content and clarity are spot on. I knew it needed structural improvements but I was too close to do it. Please pass on my sincere thanks for this work! I’ve only started some of it & already feel a better flow. I’m hoping to possibly even cut about 10k words to make it tighter. – Sheridan Genrich author of REWIRED: Optimise Your Genetic Potential

I’m writing to gratefully acknowledge receipt of the Manuscript Overview of my book. I am so pleased to have this close reading and incredibly helpful insights. These comments are far more beneficial than anything I had expected. It will be a pleasure addressing the editor’s critiques and trying out his concrete suggestions. Please extend to him my genuine gratitude. Chanticleer crows again! – John Feist, author of Edged in Purple and many more

I finally got this copied and read. It’s just what I wanted it to be—a skillful job. I knew there were the kind of holes the editor mentioned, but he’s given me a plan for the revisions. Please pass on my thanks. – Linda Brugger, columnist and accidental author

Please thank the reviewer for a very relevant and detailed review of my manuscript, ANKANAM. I plan to incorporate all his notes! – Vee Kumari, author of Ankanam.

This was just what I needed. I am looking at the book with a new focus and have already started working up the suggested changes. The first thing I did was remove those items the editor mentioned should be deleted. It was a bit painful but necessary. There was plenty of meat in his review, which took me a while to digest, but changes are on the way. These will take some time, but I will likely be interested in the Manuscript Reconciliation process. I can tell the editor spent quite some time researching some of the issues raised in the book, which I greatly appreciated. It helped me see the book more from the reader’s perspective than mine. Please pass along my sincere thanks. – Jim Leonard

Thank you for joining us for this Writer Toolbox Article

There is so much to learn and do with Chanticleer!

From our Book Award Program that has Discovered the Best Books since the early 2010s to our Editorial Book Reviews recognizing and promoting indie and traditional authors, Chanticleer knows your books are worth the effort to market professionally!

When you’re ready, did you know that Chanticleer offers editorial services? We do and have been doing so since 2011.

Our professional editors are top-notch and are experts in the Chicago Manual of Style. They have and are working for the top publishing houses (TOR, McMillian, Thomas Mercer, Penguin Random House, Simon Schuster, etc.).

If you would like more information, we invite you to email us at info@ChantiReviews.com for more information, testimonials, and fees.

We work with a small number of exclusive clients who want to collaborate with our team of top-editors on an on-going basis. Contact us today!

Chanticleer Editorial Services also offers writing craft sessions and masterclasses. Sign up to find out where, when, and how sessions being held.

A great way to get started is with our manuscript evaluation service, with more information available here.

And we do editorial consultations for $75. Learn more here.

Writer Toolbox Helpful Links:
The traditional publishing tool that indie authors can use to propel their writing careers to new levels? Check it out here!
June 25, 2024
MailChimp 101: Level Up Your Mailing List from the Desk of Rochelle Parry

An Introduction to MailChimp

MailChimp may be no Rooster, but it’s a great way to start email marketing. With a very low barrier to entry (free!), you can build your audience before your book is published!

Why Use MailChimp?

Your personal email is great for sending messages to a small group of people, but once you get a higher volume of recipients, limits will apply. For instance, Gmail will only allow 100 contacts per outgoing email, with a limit of 2000 emails per day (source). Your email account can be suspended if you go over their limits.

Signing Up

To sign up, just go to MailChimp.com. Of course, there are paid plans, but assuming you’re starting out with fewer than 500 contacts, free will work! They also offer free email support for the first 30 days, so make sure to get your questions in early. Paid accounts can provide 24/7 technical support, add additional users to your account, and would allow more than 500 subscribers (source).

To sign up, create an account with your email, and be prepared to verify. A surprise for most users is that to sign up you have to provide a physical address. This address will appear at the bottom of every email! Make sure it’s not going to give away your location if you’re working from home and are concerned about safety and privacy. Read up on MailChimp’s ideas to provide a less personal address here.

I’ve signed up, now what?

Once you’re in the Mailchimp site, you’ll see a dizzying array of choices. If you have a website, you’ll want to create a signup form. Click the “create” icon, and select “embedded form.” The form includes name and email by default, but other fields are available too.

You can see our Newsletter sign-up as an example here

Once you’re happy with your form fields, hit ‘continue’ and you can copy the code and place it directly into your website. If this is all Greek to you, consider working with a webmaster to get the form to appear correctly. They also have a pop-up form option. If you create a pop-up form, you’ll need to provide your website address to connect it, then add some provided code to your site’s header, which MailChimp explains here.

Your Audience

Get your audience excited!

Once people sign up, they’ll be added to your Audience. “Audience” is where you manage your contacts. If you already have a list of emails you want to market to through Mailchimp, you can add them manually or by uploading a spreadsheet. Make sure you have the email owner’s permission first! The anti-spam laws can work against you if you get a lot of people marking your email as spam (learn about the importance of permission here). If they sign up via your form, they’ve given their consent!

Campaigns

Marketing Campaigns rather than D&D Campaigns

Your outgoing emails are called “Campaigns” in MailChimp. You create your campaign to go out to your audience or to a section of your audience. MailChimp’s design tools are a bit rudimentary, but they do provide templates to help you get started. You can use uploaded images, different fonts, texts and links, and style it to be consistent with your brand. While designing your email to send, you can send test emails to yourself and others to see how it appears in your inbox. Just remember that once it’s finalized, you can no longer make edits. Once sent to your designated audience, you’ll be able to see how many people opened your email in your dashboard via Campaign Reports. You can learn more about Campaigns in Mailchimp directly here.

Thank you for joining us for this Writer’s Toolbox Article, and good luck out there on the web!

Writer’s Toolbox

Writer Toolbox Helpful Links:

Gmail sending limits in Google Workspace

MailChimp Website

Pricing Options for MailChimp

Alternative Physical Address Ideas

How to Add a Pop-Up Signup Form to Your Website

Email Consent and The Importance of Permission

Getting Started with MailChimp Campaigns

Rochelle Parry – Creative Director

Rochelle Parry helps authors and small business owners with their digital marketing efforts by creating custom websites, setting up social media, and publishing print and online materials including magazines and art books. You can learn more at her website: www.megabite.com

I hope you enjoyed this quick introduction to using MailChimp and found some useful tips! There is much more to this service, and hopefully this is enough to get you past the blank white page and into creating some fantastic emails! — Rochelle

Looking for more quality time with Chanticleer?

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Join us for our 11th annual conference and discover why!

December 13, 2022