“I’d like to give a quick shoutout to Brad Vance, who has helped me get a couple of books out this summer. Brad’s service as a proofreader and editor is fast and professional and I would recommend him to any romance novelist.” — Krista Lakes, New York Times and USA Today Bestseller

“Brad Vance…I love reading your stories, but LOVE how you edit my story!!! I came to you feeling insecure and worried that you may not want to work with me because I write in Turklish…but you took me under your wings. You don’t know the instant relief I felt when you agreed to work with me. You edit while you teach and explain, and that is one of the best things about you, but you also do not miss any small plot holes and help me to correct them. I love the way you suggest and use humor when you work. You notice small issues in the dynamics between the characters and point them out, and that is wonderful cos I would’ve never pick them up on my own…. You get me and help me. I cannot thank you enough for that.” — Lily Adile Lamb

Who are you?

I’m Brad Vance, and I’ve been self publishing gay romance and erotica for almost three years. I’ve been my own editor, copy editor, blurb writer, promoter, and most everything else. I’ve been a professional writer for over twenty years under my legal name, Orland Outland. I’m now branching into editorial services, to share my expertise with other aspiring writers.

Why should I hire you?

Well, that depends. Ask yourself the following questions and you’ll get a pretty clear answer.

I just need help with the basics — syntax, spelling, grammar and punctuation. Do you do that?

Absolutely. If you read Amazon customer reviews, you’ll see that the most frequent criticism is about the number of typos in a book. If “poorly edited” is a frequent comment, it can kill a book’s sales.

Even if you’re an English major who’s “done all this before,” we all go snow blind looking at our own work. Having another pair of eyes on it, someone who will take the time to correct any errors, can make a world of difference in the quality of your book.

Depending on your comfort level, I can do a light copy edit, in which I fix only major errors, or I can do a more intensive copy edit that reconstructs your sentences for proper syntax, grammar and flow. It’s up to you.

In official formal editing terms, there are “copy edits” and “line edits” with each defined here. But when I do a copy edit, I can’t help but call out anything I see that could benefit from a quick fix. For instance, if I’m copy editing and I see something repetitive, I’ll comment it out for you, even though that’s not “officially” a copy edit.

What if I’m not self-publishing? I’m going to submit to a mainstream publisher. Don’t they fix all that?

As “Orland,” I published a number of books with major publishing houses, including Putnam Berkeley. And I’ll be honest with you. The sales weren’t that great on any of them. But…what editors said time and again was, “your writing is so clean. I hardly have to lift a pencil.” In the end, I got more books published than the economics alone justified, because my manuscripts were easy to edit. Make an editor’s job easier, and they’ll love you for it. They’d rather do a contract with someone whose fundamentals are solid than with someone who has a great idea but poor execution.

Someone said I’d need different services depending on whether I’m a “plotter” or a “pantser.” What are those?

A plotter works up a solid outline on the day she starts writing. She knows how the book is going to end before she starts it. For instance, “Jesse takes the fall for the leaking of the stolen data, and flees the country. Marc and Jesse are reunited in Andorra for a HFN (happy for now, as opposed to a HEA or happily ever after). But, a new twist opens the door for the next book.” Each scene is then outlined to progress the book to that end.

A pantser says, “Marc gets hacked and hires Jesse to fix it, but I don’t know how that’s gonna work out other than that they get a HEA.” That author is working “by the seat of his pants” and making it up as he goes along.

If you work from an outline, an editor can evaluate it and see if it’s viable.

Viable how?

That depends on what you’re looking for. Are you looking to write highly successful commercial fiction? Say, romance? There are tropes that you should know about before you start. That doesn’t mean you must adhere to them, but you should know them. For instance, how much time do the main characters (MCs) spend together on the page? Is there cheating? How many sex scenes? How much backstory? I personally deviate wildly from the “standards” of a successful romantic novel, but I do it deliberately and with conscious knowledge of why I’m doing it – and how it can impact my bottom line to do so.

Maintaining control of your story from the beginning is easier when you have a strong outline. Have you added an extraneous character who only slows down the narrative? Can she be converted into someone who contributes, or should she be deleted? Are there any totally unrealistic scenes? (For instance, there’s an episode of “The Blacklist” where Red meets a contact in a restaurant – there are hordes of FBI agents in black SUVs out front, cameras in the restaurant…and Red escapes because there’s nobody guarding the back door. Right.)

What if I need a deeper edit, a real plumbing of my manuscript at a fundamental level?

I can help with that. You want your characters and their actions examined for continuity – would this person really do that, based on what’s happened so far? Would these characters really fall in “instalove” when they first meet? Is this ending satisfying and believable? If I’m planning a series, have I set up other characters or secrets that will carry the following books?

What if I totally disagree with your suggestions?

It’s your book. You paid me to give you my advice. If you don’t want to take it, it doesn’t hurt my feelings. I’m not going to get upset if you throw out what I give you.

Can you write my blurb?

I sure can. I’ll distill the essence of your story in a way that’s appealing to the reader. The worst blurbs are flat synopses of the plot, or have too many Exclamation Points! About how Exciting This Book Is! There’s a place and a time for that but it’s rare.

Are you mean or nice?

I’m nice. I’m not the asshole professor who takes joy in ripping people up in front of the class. You’re paying me to help you, you’re paying for constructive criticism. Yes, if there are deep flaws in what you’re doing, I’m going to be honest and tell you. But I’m going to do my best to help you fix it.

Any genres you don’t work with?

I don’t do anything religious, but that’s about the limit. If you write paranormal, historical, western, science fiction, mystery, BDSM, any or all of those with or without romance elements, gay or straight or flexisexual, I’m up for a look.

Also, I seem to suck at formatting. My books come out all wrong when they’re published to different sites. Can you help me?

I sure can! It’s something I’ve been doing for myself for three years now, and I’ve got the methods down pat. I’ve also done a handy-dandy CreateSpace MS Word template you can find on my CreateSpace Help page…or, of course, you can pay me to do it for you.

What can’t you do?

I can’t do your covers, unless you want a very basic cover (see, for instance, Would I Lie to You? as the kind of cover I do for myself) and you select the image yourself. I can’t promote your book, I can’t find you an agent or a publishing house. But I can get your book to the point where, when you’re ready to do all that, the story itself is good to go.

Okay, bottom line. What do you charge?

Right now it’s about $350 for a 50k edit. Your mileage may vary – if a manuscript needs major line editing for grammar, spelling etc., that’s a labor intensive process that costs more.

But I don’t have any money! How can I afford this?

It’s a long term investment, to be sure. If you self publish, how much royalty income would you lose if you published something that wasn’t the best it could be? If you submit to a tradpub house, how many rejection slips do you want to collect, and how much time collecting them do you want to lose, before you need to seek help after all?

Okay, I want more info. What do I do now?

Contact me at [email protected]. Tell me what it is you’re looking for, and we can go from there!