The Queen of King Street: Part 4

Susan Pierotti, Creative Text Solutions Lola's autobiography, The Queen of King Street, was sitting on the desk of another editor for some time before it was handed over to me to work on. The editor checked out my LinkedIn profile and my website which mention my involvement in the arts sector and chose me to take over the project because she thought my experience in Melbourne's music scene would qualify me to edit Lola's story about working in theatre. Local knowledge is helpful Naturally I was gratified that such a juicy book fell my way. On reading through the over 401,000 words of her memoirs (! – see previous blog [caption id="attachment_331" align="alignleft" width="107"] Lola Russell[/caption] about word length), I could see why having local knowledge and working for so long in the Melbourne arts scene were  advantageous. Lola's memoirs are geographically specific, with innumerable names of actors, schools, television shows and  place names on every page. I knew what was important, what was peripheral (i.e. deletable), the correct spelling of names  and where to look up information to fill in some gaps. It saved time and made it a more cohesive memoir.    No experience necessary! However, Lola's is not the only autobiography, or even the only book, I have edited. I don't  even need to know the subject  matter in detail in order to craft the words into a better text. To give an idea of the diversity  of topics I have worked on, I  have edited books on digitising tangible family mementos, trees and first aid, as well as a  considerable amount of fiction and autobiography. In no case did I know anything about the topic beforehand, nor did I need to. [caption id="attachment_330" align="alignright" width="101"] Didn't need to know about trees to edit this lovely book.[/caption] ideas and the words come from you, the author. I merely reorganise them so that your ideas flow better, crafting them into something more compelling, into something that makes you sound great. If you've thought of writing a book, are you afraid an editor will laugh at you? I love partnering with authors to bring the book to publishing quality. At Creative Text Solutions, I make your writing ZING! Contact me for you book idea and let's work together!