BIO

The Editor-in-Chief of Open Book Editors is Chris Guthrie. Chris has edited 17 Amazon bestsellers over the last several years and helped countless writers convert their writing aspirations into publication success. Chris is also an accomplished fiction writer. Please see our Facebook and Open Book Editors website to learn more about Chris and Open Book Editors.

Manuscript and Book Editing

Levels of service:

 Open Book Editors offer two levels of service. Our basic editing services provide flawless copy in terms of grammar, punctuation, spelling, usage, redundancies and basic consistencies.  Our premium editorial critiques analyze style, voice, tone, narrative movement, character development, and market receptiveness, in addition to basic editing.  We rely on intense passion for the novel medium and years of publishing experience to help writers find success.

Writers need a publisher to be captivated by their writing, not assaulted by a litany of mistakes. Literary agents are not book editors, but they appraise your submission with a critical eye and will not submit to any publisher a manuscript that isn't ready. An ethical literary agent will instead return it to you and suggest you retain a professional book editor.

Many manuscripts need more than error correction. Substantive editing of a fiction manuscript includes structural and organizational editing with regard to character development, plot, exposition, dialogue, and other critical literary elements. Nonfiction books may also need additional levels of reorganization or rewriting for clarity and logical flow, along with other important aspects beyond simple copyediting.

We make sure that a manuscript gets noticed for its content and quality. Being noticed for wrong word choices, fuzzy thinking, convoluted sentence structure, stiff and unrealistic dialogue, and point of view flip-flops is not the way to find the publishing success your hard work deserves.

Writing A Book Proposal

A strong book proposal is critical to the marketability of a manuscript. Literary agents and publishers need to see concise, engaging text that keeps manuscripts off the slush pile.

We’ve written many book proposals. Experience has taught us what literary agents and publishers are looking for, and we know how to pique their interest in a book.

Writers have only one chance to make a good first impression with top-tier literary agents and publishers. Don’t squander that chance by sending them an anemic or misleading book proposal. We can help you avoid making that mistake.

Let us craft a strong book proposal from your completed manuscript, and we’ll give you the names and addresses of the right literary agents for your book. We’ll also be there to lend a helping hand if you encounter a problem or need advice during the querying process.

The

anatomy

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an

Open

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Editors

book

proposal

A typical book proposal consists of four elements:

a one-page query letter a two- to four-page synopsis of the book a chapter-by-chapter outline a one-page author’s bio

These are the elements you’ll need when querying literary agents and commercial publishers. Most require that you submit the query letter and brief synopsis first. If they like what they see, they’ll ask for a more detailed chapter-by-chapter outline of the book, and either sample chapters or the entire manuscript.

Editing/Book

Proposal

Package

No one is better prepared to write a comprehensive book proposal than an editor who has been through your manuscript multiple times. We offer editing/book proposal packages to writers who have completed their manuscript and are looking for the next step toward publication. Contact us today to learn more about how we can provide packages that can help take your manuscript across the finishing line.

Success Stories

Through the years, we’ve been fortunate to work with many talented and dedicated writers. Most of them were men and women who couldn’t rest until they arrived at the top of the manuscript mountain. As a result, our bookshelves are filled with the titles of great authors we’ve been able to guide properly until their manuscripts were published. Here are a few of the success stories we’ve been able to cultivate in the last year…


Dr. Raafat Georgy, Absolution
Raafat knew he was onto something special when he contacted us. His utopian manuscript about an Israeli prime minister and a Palestinian politico whose love helps forge a two-state solution in the Middle East was too academic and stilted. He needed characters that leaped off the page in order for the book to work. We set about fleshing out the characters and making the text more accessible, and his manuscript took off from there. Set to be published later this year, Absolution is a great read for anyone interested in the intersection between politics and love.

Peter Ochs II, Eyes of the Sage
Rarely have we worked with an author who was more well-researched than Peter Ochs II, whose book about an astrophysicist who leads an investigation of a lost civilization on the Arabian peninsula was nearly ready for publication. Peter’s command of the history and geography of the region is spectacular, but he needed a sharper point on the human aspect of his narrative, along with another pair of eyes. As always, the combination of a passionate author and our fine-toothed comb editing paid great dividends for this book.

Shawn Inmon, Feels like the First Time
We have a special place in our hearts Shawn Inmon and his memoir about love and rock n’ roll in the ‘70s. We knew Shawn had a great story to tell after providing a manuscript evaluation, and it was clear he was targeting a specific niche of readers. What we didn’t know was how dedicated he was to completing his great story and selling the heck out of it. Shawn’s transformation from a guy writing a story into professional author has been truly incredible to watch.

Michael Robinson, The Violent Offender
Some of our best work comes from helping people with great stories to tell. Michael’s ficitionalized account of a young man locked away for ten years is a startling account of violence, abuse, and neglect. Few writers we’ve met were more determined than Michael was to get his story on paper and onto publication. He had the personal history and passion, but he lacked the industry knowledge and editorial skills. Together we fine-tuned his story, while keeping the raw edge he craved.

Randal Lanser, The 22nd Secret
One thing we’ve learned over the years is that everybody has a story to tell. But some of them take the reader on an unbelievable journey. This is definitely the case with Randal Lanser’s epic story of espionage and romance, which combines top-secret undercover operatives and futuristic computer science, with a passionate love story in the dead of an Alaskan winter.  I knew Randal had a great book after the first page, and our goal was to sharpen the text and get the hiccups out of the way of the great story.

Isaac Yoryor, Giving Life Meaning
Isaac’s story of his 15 years spent inside a Liberian refugee camp was one of the most tragic personal accounts we’ve ever read. We knew from the first paragraph that his story needed to be heard by as many people as possible. His commitment to turning his experience into life wisdom was something we wanted to see to its best possible conclusion. There is no doubt Isaac’s story – and that of the Liberian people – will be read by thousands eventually.

Frank Layman, Success through Logical Thinking
Frank is a lifelong physical therapist and Army reservist, who compiled the best of his wisdom and never gave up on his path to publication. We knew from the start that Frank’s manuscript needed sharpening and organization. But it was also clear that his homespun wisdom could benefit people from all walks of life. We were proud to help make his text as strong and lean as his message.

Margie O’Connor, Return Your Sword
We love fine-tuning a great story into a lean, sharp manuscript that lets the characters and narrative arc shine, and this was the case with Margie’s book. This futuristic tale of two friends drafted into war was nuanced and complex when we received it. But Margie’s work needed to be clearer and leaner to let her characters shine. Margie knew she was onto something good and needed a good push to get over the hump.

Manuscript Evaluations

Is your book good enough to earn a publishing contract from a major commercial publisher? This is the most vital question that writers must ask upon completing their manuscript.

Don’t squander your chances of landing a top-tier literary agent or publisher for your book. Before sending it to agents and publishers, make sure it lives up to its full potential.

Our manuscript evaluations start at $300. We’ll read your novel, nonfiction manuscript, memoir, or biography and give you a written summary of its strengths and weaknesses, as well as an appraisal of its marketability. We’ll also give you an honest appraisal of your strengths and weaknesses as a writer. If we feel that you and your manuscript will benefit from a critique or other editing help, we’ll tell you exactly what the work will cost and when it will be completed.

Contact us today for your written evaluation!

Dissertation and Academic Editing

Congratulations on reaching this part of your dissertation process. Perhaps you’ve already combined your best efforts at research, analysis, and writing, and you’re ready to put the final touches on your dissertation. Or perhaps you’re not quite that far along in the process.

In either case, professional dissertation editing is likely going to be necessary to create the end result you need. As professional dissertation editors, we’re familiar with every element of a professional academic dissertation. We work with hundreds of students each year and we know what separates an average dissertation from a great one, and what secrets are guaranteed to get yours accepted.

The professionals at Open Book Editors are intimately familiar with the research and writing processes. We understand what an excellent dissertation looks like and what types of mistakes lead to rejection. In the end, professors and students agree that professional editing is the most important step in turning your work into an excellent research paper.

Great editing is not simply about clean copy or proper grammar. A great dissertation requires countless standards of research, analysis, expertise, and composition, all combining to raise the level of the literature on the subject. The experts at Open Book Editors are passionate about those standards and dedicated to helping students like you produce excellent dissertations that get great results.

This One Cool Trick

How many links have you clicked on that promised a new body or a million dollars by following one cool trick? Of course, you wouldn’t click on those. Nobody does that. Nothing worth having could ever be the result of following one cool truck, right? Strong, marketable writing is no different. There are no easy tricks to make your writing jump off the page. If there were, we’d all be lining up with the next American novel.

But in fact, there is one cool trick most writers could use to make their text shine: starting sentences with strong nouns and verbs. In my years as an editor, the failure to employ this one trick – which really isn’t a trick at all – is one of the most common mistakes emerging writers make. It is very common for writers to want to pack sentences with thoughts and ideas, dazzling the reader with command of the language and a lofty narrative arc.

In fact, the best writers make sure that their best words are the nouns and verbs that start their sentences. If your writing seems to not be as crisp as you’d like it, or if some of your sentences seem convoluted, it might be time to focus on this one simple trick. Avoid the $20 adjectives and abandon the similes. Make your focused nouns and your strong action verbs the star of the show and watch what happens to your manuscript.

In the strong, lean text that sells, every single word has meaning. This is what professional editors are for: to get rid of the fat and tighten up a manuscript. But if you’re looking to make the most progress as a writer with the least amount of work, start by committing to strong nouns and verbs. You might be surprised how this one simple trick and transform your text.