Editing Books

"Never ever use repetitious redundancies."
 - William Safire
Clients say it best …
Thank you, Connie!

"When my husband and I decided it was time to put in writing our theories about building a multimillion-dollar financial advisor practice, we were both traveling extensively, consulting with clients–a situation not conducive to writing a book.

Peter and I dictated the entire book while on planes, in airports and hotels. Then we handled it all over to Connie Anderson of Words &Deeds, Inc. We had worked with her on other writing projects so she really knew our business and our philosophy.
First she transcribed the hours and hours of recordings, putting it into some initial format. She told us when we were redundant, or where there were holes needing important information. Before long, we had a first draft of our book, “Building Your Multimillion Dollar Practice.”

After we added what was needed, Connie also developed the chapter-end summary points, as well as selecting 26 significant pull outs we called “Multi-Million-Dollar Principles.”

Without Connie’s understanding of our business, and what it takes to make a book successful, we would never have our book, now in its second printing. Connie did such a great job, our publisher made very few changes and got the book out in record time.

Thank you, Connie, for getting us moving on our project, and encouraging us along to completion. Yeah! What a rewarding process when you are in Connie’s most capable hands. We like Connie’s work so much, we have referred her to many of our top clients."

Katherine Vessenes, JD, CFP®, RFC
and Peter Vessenes, co-authors,
“Building Your Multimillion Dollar Practice.”
www.VestmentAdvisors.com
Conscientious Editing…with a Quick Turnaround

"My company has used Connie Anderson’s remarkable skills to edit two complex books, and she completed both challenging missions on time and with professional accuracy. I highly recommend her and her conscientious work as editor.

Should anyone wish, you can telephone me personally. I can be reached between 9 am and 3 pm (California time) at 805-777-7920."

Sincerely
Jack Marlando
 
Tom Dubbe - Nightmares and Secrets: The Real Story of the 1984 Child Sexual Abuse Scandal in Jordan, Minnesota

"Without astute editing by Connie Anderson of Words and Deeds, Inc., my book “Nightmares and Secrets: The Real Story of the 1984 Child Sexual Abuse Scandal in Jordan, Minnesota,” would still be a huge collection of file folders, loose-leaf notebooks, first, second, third and many more drafts, numerous re-writes and revisions, boxes of reports, charts, graphs, statistics, photographs, book proposals and transcribed interviews and tapes.

Connie resurrected a wounded project. She cut out the fluff and baloney and organized and condensed my twenty years of research into a very reader- friendly text. Working with Connie was a pleasant educational experience. She was always upfront and honest in her critiques and communications.

Most important: Connie did not dilly-dally or permit me to drag my feet and procrastinate. She sets deadlines and the work gets done in a timely manner.

Connie Anderson, Words and Deeds, Inc. provides common-sense editing along with a lot of encouragement and enthusiasm."

Tom Dubbe, author
Nightmares and Secrets: The Real Story of the 1984 Child Sexual Abuse Scandal in Jordan, Minnesota

Mary O'Keefe - Thin Place: Where Faith Is Affirmed and Hope Dwells

My story is a very personal story shared by my siblings and I as we sadly experienced the death of our father and then mother, both within three months.

I am from a large Irish Catholic family. Our parents, especially my mother, believed in the power of the Catholic saints. Both believed in the Irish concept of “thin spaces,” those experiences where something happens that is a SIGN.

When I wrote my book, I had in mind of doing it just for my siblings. However as people started to read it, they thought the message was important for others. But the initial writing of the story contained way too much detail for the average reader.

I had already had my book edited by someone else--but it didn’t feel right. I handed it to Connie and asked her to edit it. Immediately she “got it,” that I had to remove a ton of family-only information to make it a more reader-friendly book.

Together we removed 12,000 words, including stories that I loved but didn’t add anything to the book’s theme of Thin Places. As an editor, Connie was very sensitive to the fact that this was a very personal family story, and she carefully explained why she felt certain parts had to go.

In the end, I got the tight story I wanted, a book that others can read and gain insights without being waylaid by intimate family stories. I was very pleased with both her editing skills, the little writing tricks she showed me, and of course, the end product. I’d recommend her editing to anyone who has a story to tell--and needs help telling it well. She cared that I had a good book.
--- Mary Treacy O'Keefe
 
Bob Vosburgh - LIFT: Leadership That Soars Above and Beyond

"Connie Anderson has been of incredible worth as we have worked through the editing of my book. I sincerely believe that Connie had my best interests at heart throughout the project.

"We settled on a give-and-take process that proved valuable and effective. Whether interview transcripts or wordy biographies, Connie was able to boil them down to succinct manuscripts.

"In every case she found an appropriate balance between constructive feedback and getting the job done in the right manner.

"Based on the partnership and productivity we found in editing LIFT: Leadership That Soars Above and Beyond, I¹ll definitely utilize Connie¹s skills in the future."

Bob Vosburgh, author
www.9gs.org

Pam Lillehi, author of Every Step of the Way

"I am so thankful that I had the expert advice of Connie Anderson, my editor. Because of the extensive reading and writing she has done, she was able to make my book much richer by pointing out clearer ways to saying things. Connie suggested more effective placement of quotations (I had interview material from eight women) and offered advice on cover styles and typeface. She was so much more than a personal spell checker.

"Probably the most helpful hint came when she advised me to think of my audience. Who was I writing for? Because of Connie, I expanded my book to include guidelines for prayer, and suggestions for family, friends and caregivers, as well as the person in crisis.

"When I write my second book, I will definitely use Connie’s services again."

Karen Rowinsky, author of Come Alive, 50 Easy Ways to Have More Energy NOW!

"Connie, thank you so much for being on my team. As a first time author, I really appreciated and needed your editing skill. Working with you not only built my confidence in my book, but taught me a lot about the writing and editing process. I don't think I would have been so happy and proud of the end result had I not had your help in fine-tuning what I had written. I felt you were really invested in making my book the best it could be. I also feel that I have made a new friend in the process!"
Connie believes an author should not just publish a book, but make the book more marketable and saleable. When authors, especially those who are self-publishing, put all that blood, sweat and tears … and lots of money into making their dream come true, it should be the best it can be.

These four authors are examples of how Connie's copyediting of their books took their excellent content and made the book better through:

  • Reducing prepositional phrases
  • Eliminating redundancies
  • Suggesting new material
  • Providing clarity to content
  • Editing with the reader in mind
  • Providing impactful marketing ideas

Here's how it works!
Editing Fee:  $45 an hour - equivalent to 10 pages an hour for each first and second run through. To be safe, industry standard suggests a third and final edit after author has made other changes and before formatted galley goes to the printer.
Cost:  Divide number of double-spaced manuscript pages by 10 to determine cost for each edit run through.
Process:  Editing using the “tracking” tool on Word doc is preferable as it saves the author time. Easy to make changes and comments or suggestions. If you prefer, can edit hardcopy.
Turnaround Time: Depends on workflow. Prescheduling your project "gives it Priority!"
Sampling of book types edited:
  • Novels
  • Personal stories
  • Professional speakers' "back of the room"
  • Humor and self-help

List of satisfied authors - just ask.

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Call 952-835-4731- Fax 952-960-2433 - E-mail connie@wordsanddeedsinc.com

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