Athelstone

  • Just a quick note to all Denizens: if you’ve missed the “Room with a View” challenge, take a quick trip to the group “A Room with a View” and read up on this short story extravaganza. You have until 22:00 tomorrow (Sunday 30th September) to join the group and make choices as explained in the Welcome Topic. It’s great fun and lasts until FEBRUARY…[Read more]

  • Athelstone posted a new activity comment 7 years, 8 months ago

    And that’s a fact?

  • 5 days to enter A Room with a View

    If you don’t get in this challenge, you’ll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.

  • Athelstone posted a new activity comment 7 years, 8 months ago

    Mine covered the structure, story, development etc. in some depth with recommendations and critique and an assessment of good and bad features and marketability. There was copy-editing but this was not the primary purpose.

  • Athelstone posted a new activity comment 7 years, 8 months ago

    If you go to their site, there’s a drop-down table of charges for a range or word counts.

    • I did the same as Ath – several times over. Price is often based on the length of your manuscript, and varies from editor to editor/company to company.
      But a good editor is definitely worth paying for – just be absolutely certain that your MS is as polished as you can get it before you send it (use trusted beta readers for eg) to save doing it…[Read more]

      • I paid ~£600 for a 109K ms via the Cloud, but have since learned it is cheaper, by ~30% to approach an editor direct.
        You may find that authors in the genre you write in are willing to edit – there’s certainly loads on the crime circuit.
        I have to say I got far more help from beta readers.

  • Athelstone posted a new activity comment 7 years, 8 months ago

    I had a detailed editorial report a few years back from Writers’ Workshop. 85,000 words cost £457. Today, Jericho writers will charge you about £547 for the same work. (I say ‘about’ because they quote $720 – which is odd for a UK based firm)

    • If you go to their site, there’s a drop-down table of charges for a range or word counts.

      • I did the same as Ath – several times over. Price is often based on the length of your manuscript, and varies from editor to editor/company to company.
        But a good editor is definitely worth paying for – just be absolutely certain that your MS is as polished as you can get it before you send it (use trusted beta readers for eg) to save doing it…[Read more]

        • I paid ~£600 for a 109K ms via the Cloud, but have since learned it is cheaper, by ~30% to approach an editor direct.
          You may find that authors in the genre you write in are willing to edit – there’s certainly loads on the crime circuit.
          I have to say I got far more help from beta readers.

    • Ah yep, thanks. There I am looking at £782. Was yours a copy edit or developmental, or something else?

      • Not sure who you are asking, but mine was development, ‘does this have legs?’ (In hindsight, I think I might’ve been robbed.)

        • I’d also recommend that before submitting to an editor, you have someone proofread it properly – get the punctuation right (if that’s not your strength) and typos sorted.

      • Mine covered the structure, story, development etc. in some depth with recommendations and critique and an assessment of good and bad features and marketability. There was copy-editing but this was not the primary purpose.

  • Athelstone posted a new activity comment 7 years, 8 months ago

    Oh Gosh, you’re 100% right. I remember now. Also, no biting, gouging or spoon scooping action. That last one almost got through if I recall, but was thrown out on a recount after somebody was shown to have voted for it 17 times. Can’t remember who that was now.

  • Athelstone posted a new activity comment 7 years, 8 months ago

    Not something I imagined would happen when we were chewing over it a few months back

  • Athelstone replied to the topic Getting an Agent. in the forum Blogs 7 years, 8 months ago

    My experience of Twitter is that the impression one gets of its nature, for example whether there is a particular faction behaving in a particular way, is very much dependent on where you go and who you follow but also what you regard as appropriate or excessive. Personally, I have never noticed that I am not followed back; if anything I am the…[Read more]

  • Athelstone replied to the topic A Room with a View in the forum Blogs 7 years, 8 months ago

    It’s not. The chit chat thread is over in the Challenge Group “A Room with a View” but as all votes count – so does yours!

  • Athelstone replied to the topic A Room with a View in the forum Blogs 7 years, 8 months ago

    OK – this is really important. This is NEW, this is a TWIST and this is IMPORTANT.

    The choices you have made, are making and are still free to change can have an impact on the way you write your story. However, one of the choices may have a surprising effect depending on whether I am GENEROUS or MEAN. And the surprise may not be expected. So –…[Read more]

  • An update is a comment that isn’t part of the thread of a forum topic. Somebody can reply to it or add a further comment. Replies and replies to replies are indented below whatever they are a reply to, comments are not but they all follow in sequence below the original update. Comments on updates are made by clicking on the black speech bubble…[Read more]

  • Athelstone posted a new activity comment 7 years, 8 months ago

    Ah – and it doesn’t work 100 percent.

  • Athelstone posted a new activity comment 7 years, 8 months ago

    Did somebody in this thread alter or delete a reply? Just curious because a lot of it seems to have disappeared

  • Athelstone posted a new activity comment 7 years, 8 months ago

    At least I had the courage to quit and go to university. Ah! The world of grants and state-paid fees.

  • Athelstone posted a new activity comment 7 years, 8 months ago

    I wish I had been inspired at art school. I allowed myself to be ‘shaped’ into a worse artist than when I arrived.

  • Athelstone posted a new activity comment 7 years, 8 months ago

    collected ‘poems’ not works

  • Athelstone posted a new activity comment 7 years, 8 months ago

    embarrassed to admit that I said I would, but I didn’t. However…I have just bought his collected works and am looking forward to some light and delightful reading if these words from ‘the poet’ are typical: When all the dancers and masks had gone inside
    His cold stare
    Returned to its true task, interrogation of silence.

  • Athelstone posted a new activity comment 7 years, 8 months ago

    I’ve been reading a bit more lately. The resurgence started after I bought Alan Bennett’s ‘Six Poets’ selection for the Orkney break. I remember thinking ‘Blimey, I wouldn’t have chosen that’ and never looked back

    • Ath, Did you ever get round to reading Orkney’s no.1 poet, George McKay Brown?
      The anthology I’m currently reading is 1992-2001.

      • embarrassed to admit that I said I would, but I didn’t. However…I have just bought his collected works and am looking forward to some light and delightful reading if these words from ‘the poet’ are typical: When all the dancers and masks had gone inside
        His cold stare
        Returned to its true task, interrogation of silence.

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