Got a professional critique on my hist-fict manuscript today in the mail... at least it wasn't all bad.
Who am I kidding, it was so brutal I was embarrassed. So I'm considering if it's worth it to pay someone (Does a professional editing service offer such a thing) to read my manuscript and check it for historical fact errors.
Sure, you could say, write what you know about, or do more research... but yeah, I thought I had done the research and did know! The subject itself is difficult to find facts on, as well as being debatable facts.
The novel is 18th C. Historical sea fiction. And I think Long John Silver himself edited my work because he knew more about nautical seafarring, ships, sails and rigging, seamen, seagoing lore and speech than any person I've ever met, heard of, or of my critique reader group who all thought I was a pretty salty dog.
So where does one find, or hire, an expert? I sure don't know any... hell, I thought I was one
Who am I kidding, it was so brutal I was embarrassed. So I'm considering if it's worth it to pay someone (Does a professional editing service offer such a thing) to read my manuscript and check it for historical fact errors.
Sure, you could say, write what you know about, or do more research... but yeah, I thought I had done the research and did know! The subject itself is difficult to find facts on, as well as being debatable facts.
The novel is 18th C. Historical sea fiction. And I think Long John Silver himself edited my work because he knew more about nautical seafarring, ships, sails and rigging, seamen, seagoing lore and speech than any person I've ever met, heard of, or of my critique reader group who all thought I was a pretty salty dog.
So where does one find, or hire, an expert? I sure don't know any... hell, I thought I was one
When you say a "professional critique", A.Rex, how do you mean that? Did you pay for the critique or was it a professional editor who offered to look at it for you for free, or did you win it in a contest? If you paid for it, then the "opinion" should be backed up with resources that you can use to correct it. Remember that a lot of history texts disagree, so if your own research says differently, then find out what books the critiquer used. If it was a gift, take it with a grain of salt and move on. It may well be that the critiquer was full of . . . well, saltwater, and you need to find someone else to look at it. 