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Book Review: The 2018 Author’s Journal by Audrey Ann Hughey

About The 2018 Author’s Journal

“In this hybrid planner for authors, the writer is guided through comprehensive workflows which address both the creative and business aspects of authorship. It is designed to maximize productivity, implement effective goal-setting practices, and maintain the author’s focus on achieving their writing, marketing, and publishing goals in 2018.”—Amazon description


Disclaimer

I received a free PDF version of this planner in exchange for my honest review. I am also a current member of Hughey’s Author Transformation Alliance, which is a paid-membership support group for authors that focuses on the business, marketing, and social media aspects of being an author. Therefore, I participated in a few polls about preferences for the cover and what might or might not be included in the journal, but I did not see any of the content until I received my review copy.


What Is The 2018 Author’s Journal?

The 2018 Author’s Journal is a combination guide and business planner for authors who have come to realize that they really do need to get a handle on the business end of writing if they are to succeed in today’s market.

If anything can be said about The 2018 Author’s Journal, it is that for the most part, it is ambitious. It covers many of the issues that authors face, especially those who are self-publishing or planning to do so.

Outside of the planner part, the book’s major sections cover author goals and goal refinement, works in progress, editing, story ideas, reading for relaxation and self-improvement, expenses and marketing, blog plans, and advertising. There is even a section for “squirrels” called My Musings.

What’s Great

There are several wonderful things about this planner.

Comprehensiveness

The sheer number of topics that it covers makes it clear that Hughey’s goal was to be as comprehensive as possible, to make this an all-in-one stop for all your writing ideas, plans, goals, and achievements. This is the first such planner I’ve had the chance to look at, and it’s impressive and massive at 356 pages in an 8.5 × 11 inch trim size.

I doubt you’ll find so much author-friendly content and support in one planner, and it definitely has the potential, if used faithfully, to cut the number of sticky notes and miscellaneous notebooks that writers tend to accumulate. That in itself is a worthy accomplishment.

I doubt you’ll find so much author-friendly content and support in one planner. It has the potential…to cut the number of sticky notes and miscellaneous notebooks that writers tend to accumulate. (Review, The 2018 Author's Journal) Click To Tweet

Honoring the Process

Unlike other planners, which might give you spaces to write your goals, Hughey’s gives you space to define, map, check, and evaluate refine your goals. She realizes that goal setting is like writing. We don’t usually get the plan right the first time. Our goals, like our words, sometimes need to get onto the page before we can properly evaluate them and make them better and truer to our style and abilities.

Honoring the Writer

The journal is available in several cover options (five at the moment, with possibly more to come). Hughey decided to offer the different styles as a hat tip to the different preferences of authors and their personal styles.

2018 Author's JournalDigital Resource Guide

Purchase of the print journal grants access to a specialized digital resource guide, which includes videos, checklists, and spreadsheets to supplement the journal and guide the author through its use and adaptation.

The digital resource guide also includes videos from special guests on topics such as mindset, time management, and overcoming self-doubt and fear.

Space for Your Squirrels

The planner includes a whopping 40 pages dedicated to My Musings, space for you to write down all those ideas, plans, or just notes that might not fit anywhere else. As I mentioned earlier, this might just replace your pile of spiral notebooks, notepads, and sticky notes.

Some authors might be willing to pay the roughly $30 price of the planner for that feature alone.

Gellinger / Pixabay

Where You Were and How Far You’ve Come

In the marketing section of the planner, there is a section on visibility. This is something authors often don’t think about as many (not all!) are introverted and prefer instead to think of invisibility.

I found the table for tracking social media in terms of current and target followers helpful. We often don’t take the time at the beginning of the year to see where we are and then compare the same number at the end of the year to see how far we’ve come.

social media for authors, followers
Social Media Goals, p. 56, The 2018 Author’s Journal

Hughey does this in many places in the planner, and this is just one example.

Although there is a quarterly follower breakdown, I would have loved to see a month-by-month breakdown of social media plans and followers in particular. This would be helpful for keeping track of what one has done with social media and how it has affected the number of (hopefully quality!) followers.

Blog Planner

As an extension of having all of your writing stuff in one place, the journal includes space for up to 52 ideas for blog posts (or one per week).

I love this! Coming up with blog post ideas for both my editing and author websites is the bane of my existence. Losing ideas to some random sticky note purgatory is even worse. So, having this section is just icing on the cake.

I do wish there was more writing space here, however (more on this later).

edar / Pixabay

Opportunities for Enhancement

I do hope this is not Hughey’s only year to produce this journal. With the growing number of author–entrepreneurs that has come with the expansion of the self-publishing industry, the need for something like this is significant.

However, there are a number of items that could be tweaked for maximum usability and convenience.

Writing Space

The great thing about The 2018 Author’s Journal is that it’s so comprehensive. The worst thing about this journal is that … it’s so comprehensive.

Unfortunately, there is so much text and content that the planner is very dense textwise.

In many areas, it seems that room to write—which is the point of a planner after all—has been sacrificed to “fit it all in.” (The exception to this is the My Musings section, which is basically 40 pages of blank lines for dates and notes.) There are many areas within the calendars themselves and after leading questions where you would have to write very small to fit any reasonable amount of text.

From the perspective of a book designer, it seems that less thought went into these practical aspects of actually using the journal day-to-day than to the content and guidance provided within. For example, some intro text was repeated monthly and could have been left out to offer more space for writing.

Alternatively, this journal might better serve authors as a two-book set: a business guide with all the content and instruction and a separate planner—the one that you carry around—with all the space you need to write.

Skitterphoto / Pixabay

Areas for More Focus

The Editing Process

Although most sections of The 2018 Author’s Journal are devoted to author marketing and promotion, not writing craft, there is a section devoted to the editing process. Anyone familiar with me or the Wordy Speculations blog knows I am 100% behind multiple rounds of self-editing and hiring a professional editor. Oddly, more focus is given to editing apps and software than the self-editing process itself or what one should expect from an editor.

However, with the exception of the place to take notes on pricing and evaluating editors, this section felt out of place amidst the business content of the rest of the journal. Also, by its very presence, it highlights the lack of any coverage of how to deal with cover design and interior book design, which, along with editing, are both part of the book production process and often entail hiring a professional.

Postrelease Business

The coverage of the author business that takes place after release is spread out and less organized than other topics in The 2018 Author’s Journal. To balance the Planning My Release and Preparing My Release sections, I would have loved to see something similar for marketing and managing your books after launch.

Author Newsletter

Given the importance of author newsletters, as stressed by Hughey herself, a planner or map for newsletter content, similar to what she includes for blogs, would have also been a great addition.

JuralMin / Pixabay

Binding

As it stands, The 2018 Author’s Journal is perfect-bound. With its sizeable length, this might make it difficult to write in for some, especially toward the middle of the book where the bulk of the monthly and weekly planners are. Coil, or spiral, binding would allow the journal to lie flat and would greatly add to its convenience.

This, unfortunately, is a limitation of self-publishing because most of the major print-on-demand services do not offer coil binding. However, one service does offer it, and Hughey has expressed interest in this binding for the future and/or for possible undated editions of the journal.

Recommendation

If you are looking for something to help guide you through all of those little business aspects of writing and publishing that your creative mind refuses to rein in, I highly recommend The 2018 Author’s Journal.

If you are looking for something to help guide you through all of those little business aspects of writing and publishing that your creative mind refuses to rein in, I highly recommend The 2018 Author’s Journal. Click To TweetWhile there is certainly room for improvement for future editions, overall, it’s a great planner, and it fills a very real need in the author–entrepreneurial space.

Check Out My Other Book Reviews

Book Review: Dictate Your Book: How To Write Your Book Faster, Better, and Smarter

Book Review: Outlining Your Novel by K. M. Weiland

Book Review: Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes

Book Review: Self-Publishing for Profit: How to Get Your Book Out of Your Head and into the Stores by Chris Kennedy

Book Review: The Successful Author Mindset by Joanna Penn

 

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5 Hidden Problems Copyeditors Fix

“My manuscript is pretty clean. Probably won’t take you long. As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure it just needs a proofread, not a whole edit.” Like other copyeditors, I get this a lot.

The biggest problem is writers don’t see their own mistakes. Then, an editor like me comes along and surprises the author with red lines and corrections on their story. The sheer number of them makes their manuscript look like it’s getting ready for Valentine’s Day.

This inability to see the mistakes in your writing can be called author blindness. Author blindness can be lessened with some time away from your story but never fully cured. It is a condition caused by overfamiliarity with your words. You’ve seen them many, many times, even in your head before they were formed on the paper or the screen. Once they’re out there, you see what you expect to see on the page—your vision of the story—instead of what is actually there. Often, these issues exist even after you’ve self-edited.

When author blindness kicks in, you see what you expect to see on the page—your vision of the story—instead of what is actually there. Click To Tweet

An Aside on Self-Editing

And you should self-edit before you send your book to your editor. Think of it this way. You have the choice of giving your editor an unshaped lump of clay or a mostly sculpted piece that still needs some polishing. Given time and money constraints, which one could she most likely refine into something that is both a superb work of art and on par with your vision?

If you don’t believe me, watch this video by Garret Robinson.
You have the choice of giving your editor an unshaped lump of clay or a mostly sculpted piece. Which one could she most likely refine into a superb work of art that is on par with your vision? Click To Tweet

Mistakes Copyeditors Catch

Self-editing aside, here are some very common problems copyeditors fix while editing. In fact, I see them in nearly every manuscript I edit. Are they hidden in yours?

copyeditors, fix, problems, mistakes

 

Related Resources

The Process of Copyediting Fiction

Past or Present? Using Tense Effectively in Fiction

The Importance of Point of View: Part I: The Types of POV

Head Hopping and POV Slips

Resources for Fiction Writers: Read, Watch, and Listen

Free Self-Editing Checklist

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Ask the Editor Episode 3: When Should I Hire an Editor?

Welcome to another episode of Ask the Editor. In this video, I discuss at which point in writing process you should hire an editor.

Have an Ask the Editor Question?

You can send me your questions and comments in several ways.

  1. Comment on this post.
  2. Comment on the YouTube video.
  3. Contact me on my contact form.
  4. Email me at janell@speculationsediting.com.

I can’t wait to hear from you!

All of the Episodes

Find the Ask the Editor playlist here. It’s only two episodes long now, but I plan on adding a new one every couple of weeks.

Transcript to come. Check back here later!

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Ask the Editor Episode 1: What Kind of Editor Do I Need?

A New Feature

Welcome to the first episode of Ask the Editor, a feature where I—the editor, of course—answer your questions on writing, editing, and self-publishing. I’ll be doing this via YouTube but will be posting all of the videos here on the Wordy Speculations blog as well.

Our First Question: What Kind of Editor Do I Need?

Do you ever get confused about all of the different kinds of fiction editing that are available? Do you wonder where in your process you need each kind, if at all? I answer those questions and more in this episode. Enjoy!

Have an Ask the Editor Question?

You can send me your questions and comments in several ways.

  1. Comment on this post.
  2. Comment on the YouTube video.
  3. Contact me on my contact form.
  4. Email me at janell@speculationsediting.com.

I can’t wait to hear from you!

Episode Transcript [a.k.a. Not Grammatically Correct. I think I need a Speech Editor. ☺]

Hey, writers! My name is Janell, and welcome to Ask the Editor!

I am a fiction editor, and I am here to answer your questions about writing, editing and self-publishing.

Today, we’re going to start out with a very common question among writers and that is: What kind of editor do I need? Everybody tells me I have to get an editor, but what do they mean? I see a billion names out there for editors, so I don’t know where to start.

And did you know that edit is a very hard word to say? Especially editor and editing.

Anyway, let’s get to the point. There are three main types of fiction editor you’re going to be looking for.

The first one is a developmental or structural editor, and they all have a second name, so just forgive me. Sometimes a third name because one of the issues in editing is that a lot of times people can’t decide which name should be which.

So bear with me, and when you’re looking for an editor, always check their web page or even send them an email or a message through their Facebook page and say “What does your developmental editing include?” That way, you’re always clear, and you don’t get back something you didn’t expect.

So, we have developmental editing, we have line or copy editing, and we have proofreading, so let’s get into each one of those.

#1:  Developmental or structural editing. This is story editing. It’s big picture editing. It’s saying, does my story work, are my characters flat, is the ending believable or does it feel contrived? And what can I do about it? “My timing is all off.” “My readers hate my flashbacks.”

So those are the kind of questions that a developmental or structural editor will approach, and they will give you suggestions. They should give you resources. They cover pacing, chronology, characterization, plotting, all of those things, theme, if those are the problems in in your book or your short story. (Editors edit short stories too.) If those are your problems, then you need a developmental editor.

So the second kind of editor is what most people think of when they think of editing, and they think, “It’s the grammar police!” They’re talking about copy editing. Line editing is often wrapped in with copy editing, and it’s sort of a more deep sort of copy editing, but I’ll get into that.

So, copy editing is grammar, punctuation, style, things like that. A lot of people use the Chicago Manual of style as their guide because they give you answers to questions like “Should I capitalize captain here?” and they’ll say, yes, capitalize captain if it’s in front of a name like “Captain Murphy” but not when it’s all by itself. So that’s copy editing.

Now line editing is a little deeper because it includes fixing sentences, not because there’s something

technically wrong but because they sound better, so fixing flow. [Making sure that every] like maybe this sentence would go better at the top of this paragraph than in the middle.

So those are things that a line editor would cover.

And lot of editors, including myself, usually do them together because it just works, you know. But you should definitely ask your editor, so you know if you just want copy editing: you only want the very—you like your sentences just the way they are, that you don’t care what they think about your flow—and you just want to make sure that you don’t have typos or actual errors in there.

Okay, so not to get too deep into that, but the third kind of editing (3) is proofreading. Proofreading is probably the most misunderstood type of editing. This is a good way to remember: proofreading actually means reading the proof, and the proof is your formatted book. It is formatted for ebook, or it is formatted for print, and it is almost ready to go. You know, you have a cover ready and everything.

So proofreading is reading that proof to check for last-minute errors like, you know, maybe the copy editor missed something. It does happen.  Because your copy editor can make twenty thousand, a hundred thousand changes to your manuscript because we’re talking about commas and spaces and all kinds of things, but they might miss one, or maybe [errors were introduced] when you were putting corrections in from the editor because you should always have a choice whether you accept a change or not.

That’s why I always use track changes. So maybe you’re putting in those changes, and you make another mistake. It happens to the best of us, so proofreading catches those kind of things. They should be last-minute light edits.

So, if you ask somebody, if you finish your first draft, you haven’t done any revisions, you never sent it to a beta reader or anything, and then you send it to somebody, and say “I need a proofread.” And they’re thinking of what I was just talking about, but you’re thinking of actual copy editing or even story editing, then you’re probably gonna get it back with a note about “Excuse me, but you really need a copy editor, not a proofreader.” That’s what they mean. Yeah, it’ll catch little things like, you know, typos.

So, those are the three types of editing you’re most going to commonly see for fiction books or short stories and even memoirs. They pretty much cover creative nonfiction as well. So there’s developmental and structural editing, line or copy editing, and proofreading.

So, I hope that helps you to clarify what the stages are. Often, people will have all three; sometimes they’ll just have one. Sometimes, they feel like most of the edits were caught during copy editing. They can’t afford another stage, or you know. Sometimes people have all three. Some people just have one. It’s up to you, really, and where you want your story to go.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this video and to find out more about me please see the links in the description. And also you can find out more about my own book because you know, we all have one. We’re writers; that’s why we’re here, right?

But my nonfiction book is Saving Money on Editing & Choosing the Best Editor. It’s actually one of my nonfiction books, but the other one does not apply to writing, so this book will help you clean up your manuscript, just make it a better manuscript before you send it to the editor. Because we all want our books to be the best they can but also how to find an editor without getting scammed because, in the age of the internet, you know, [we’re] there’s a lot of people out there hanging up their shingle and saying “I’m an editor,” which means/translates into “I got an A in English,” which, you know, does not mean that they’ve been working for publishers and authors for 20 years or something like that. You really need to find out who your editor is, and this book is a great guide for that.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below or send me an email or hit my contact page or send me a question on Twitter or Facebook.  I will leave all those links below. Thanks for watching! Bye-bye.

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Free Self-Editing Checklist

My newsletter has been available for a while, but now you get something extra just for signing up: a completely FREE copy of the Self-Editing Checklist for Your First Draft: The Developmental Revision.

This checklist guides you through the first self-edit, covering general principles as well as specific topics such as audience, characterization, and dialogue just to name a few! Take self-editing to new depths with this comprehensive miniguide for revising your novel.

Sign up today!

 

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