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I found it surprising how hard it is to write fiction, even after years of technical writing, including a thesis.

You can also check out Fiverr for freelance editors. I decided to submit my first two chapters ($100 for 10,000 words) as a trial. Turnaround is approximately 10 days. I'll let you know how it turns out. There are multiple editors on the site with different levels of experience, although not all edit fiction.

In surfing around for editor prices, I found that a comprehensive line edit will cost about $0.02 per word, or $2K for a 100K book. The price is higher or lower depending on the type of editing you need (developmental editing, line editing, or copy editing). Be careful about the definitions of these terms. Line editing is sometimes referred to as copy editing on some sites I visited.

https://nybookeditors.com/2015/01/copye … e-editing/

A potentially useful site: https://kindlepreneur.com/book-editors/

Below is a link to another book editor that landed in my lap recently. He charges 2 cents per word for a thorough edit, which equals $2,000 for a 100K book. Her charges more depending on how deep you want the edit to be. If you have a prologue, you may want to steer clear of him. He has a number of rules spelled out on his site, including the fact that "prologues suck". He offers a trial edit for $250 for 5K words. I would definitely recommend a trial edit before going with him.

https://thejohnfox.com/book-editing-services/

Hear! Hear!

Character names:

Those keeping up with this thread know that my main character in the new trilogy will be Connor, which I decided is short for Constantino, a common Italian name.

Connor has an uncle who works in the Vatican police, the Gendarmerie. His name is Michelangelo, but he goes by Angelo, which is also a common Italian first name.

The names are tributes to the two characters in the vampire TV series, who inspired the trilogy. I bet most people won't even make the connection.

Thoughts?

Language question. The Lord of the Earth is partially set in Rome and includes numerous Italians. Even Constantino ("Connor") De Luca is Italian. I'm debating how best to handle the language spoken throughout the story. Technically most of it should be in Italian, although I'm naturally writing the whole thing in English (except for the names of Italian people, places, and things). However, I want to avoid having to constantly repeat that people are speaking in Italian. The best option I can think of is to slip in the name of the spoken language only when it changes. New characters entering a scene would be expected to speak whatever language I last referenced. Some people in the Holy Land may speak English, so there may be a little back and forth there.

Edit: Basically what this means is that I say once, in the first scene, that they're speaking Italian, and then I don't name the language again until they start speaking English in act two in the Holy Land. There will be a few phone conversations between Father Romano, who accompanies Connor to the Middle East, and a cardinal in Rome. Those will be in Italian, but I doubt I'll mention it.

Thoughts?

Now I get it. Thanks.

I can't delete the first comma in the sentence since that would cause a misread.

Chapter 37 of v3, entitled Caligula!, is up. It's all minor changes from v2. However, I previously borrowed from this chapter to write v3 of the act I chapter Attack on New Bethlehem, primarily regarding the how the starlanes work. It needs rethinking. I like star-hopping as a concept and the natural interconnectedness of stars, but not the way the starlanes are described for the reader. I'm leaving it to v4 to properly define the starlanes and remove the redundancy that currently exists between this chapter and the aforementioned battle in act I.

Only four chapters to go in v3!

Quick, go read!
Dirk

NJC, is photobucket free to use, or do you have to pay for storage?

Here's my opening line:

I'm almost certainly going to self-publish, so I take the editor's comments with a huge grain of salt. He says prologues suck, but it's okay to have flashbacks. Same damn thing in my opinion, just organized differently. The advantage of the prologue is that it comes at the beginning, before the main story starts, and then you're done with the past. Flashbacks require forcing your reader into the past one or more times in the midst of the main story. Both have their uses, but I prefer the former.