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Special Young Adult Sale: 50% Off Full Edits for YA Manuscripts

October 1, 2018 By Judi Lauren Leave a Comment

I’m really super excited to be able to run this sale! One of the first writers that I ever mentored wrote a gorgeous YA that’s coming out in one month! I loved working on this book with Lynn, and I’m so proud of her! To celebrate, I’m offering full manuscript edits for ANY young adult book at a 50% discount. Don’t have a young adult manuscript? I’m offering any partial edit at 33% off for every age category.

What I do:

I can help you polish your manuscript and get it publication-ready. I work on big-picture issues, such as goal, motivation, conflict, character development and growth, plot structure, tension, and stakes. But I don’t just spot these problems, I also offer ideas on how to fix them, so that when you send your book to an agent or editor, it’s the best it can be.

The discount runs for this week only, meaning there are ten spots available. These spots typically go pretty quickly, so if you want one, send me an email at judi@judilauren.com today.

A bit about me:

I’m an assistant editor at Entangled publishing, working with Stacy Abrams, where I help make writer’s dreams come true. Some of the books I assisted with at Entangled include:

  • Kiss of the Royal by Lindsey Duga (July 2018)
  • Garden of Thorns by Amber Mitchell (March 2017)
  • Playing Her Secret Crush by Casey Griffin (2018)
  • Hiding Lies by Julie Cross (2018)

I’ve also been a PitchWars mentor, where I worked with promising writers to make their manuscripts shine. One of my mentees recently signed a two-book deal with Liz Pelletier at Entangled Teen. My first mentee sold his book to Candlewick Press. The mentee whose book is coming out next (!!!) month sold her book to Owl Hollow Press. You can add it on Goodreads here!

Testimonials and a full list of my editing services are below!

Judi was amazing at seeing where I needed to develop on big picture area (character development, theme), the craft of my words (I think she had ‘show, don’t tell’ pasted on repeat) to mechanics of the English language. My manuscript wouldn’t be what it is today without her help.

-Adam Schmitt (Author of SPEECHLESS, Candlewick Press, 2018)

The best thing I ever did was submit my ms to Judi during Pitch Wars! She took my work on outside of the contest, something I never expected and fully appreciated! Judi has an eye for plot and character, and she really helped dig into my ms and find exactly what I couldn’t see. Working with her was an amazing experience, and she truly loves helping writers become stronger. I recommend her services to everyone!

-Lynn Vroman (Author of INTO THE HOLLOW, Owl Hollow Press, 2018)

Judi is an extremely talented editor. She has an almost eerie knack for knowing what edits will make a book stronger. When I received my edit letter, I was amazed by how on point all her suggestions were. Things I hadn’t even considered suddenly made so much sense, and I couldn’t imagine my book without her great ideas being included. She doesn’t force any of her suggestions on you, but they’re so good that you’ll most likely want to use them all anyway. She won’t shy away from telling you what isn’t working, but she’ll also praise what is working so much you’ll be blushing behind your computer screen. She taught me so much, not just about my novel, but about writing and revising overall, and that’s knowledge I have under my belt now for future projects. I’m genuinely so happy I got to work with her and build a relationship with her not just as her mentee but as a friend. She helped me find my enthusiasm for reading and writing again, and when someone believes in you as much as she does, it’s impossible to give up.

-Danielle Thurby (2017 Pitch Wars Mentee)

Partial MS Edits:

Query Edit-$35 (Sale Price: $23)

Working on queries is one of my favorite parts of editing. It’s the first thing an agent or editor will see, and it’s incredibly important that you’re not missing anything crucial. For this service, I’ll go through your query, including bio, and give suggestions on where to cut or add, and also what might be missing. I work with the voice, stakes, motivations, goals, and more, making sure they get into the query.

Query and First Chapter Edit-$60 (Sale Price: $40)

Along with edits on your query, this package includes your first chapter too. If you’re getting a lot of rejections on the querying front, it may be time to get feedback on the query and first chapter. With this, I’ll be able to give you insight on what might be the reason behind rejections.

Query and First 50 Edit – $95 (Sale Price: $62)

Many major problems of manuscripts can be caught in the first fifty or so pages. I offer critique and editing on your query and first 50 pages.

For this, I read over both and make suggestions on what to cut and what to add, where you need to up the tension, input on your characters’ overall goals, motivations, and conflict. I also proofread during this process, looking for typos or any other grammatical errors.

Full MS Edits:

Edit Letter Only — $275 (Sale Price: $137.50)

If you’re seeking edits on plot, characters, goal/motivation/conflict, tension, dialogue, and more, this service focuses on the big picture. My edit letters outline your strengths and weaknesses, as well as ideas on how to fix them. My edit letters are usually between 4-7 pages in length, but may be longer depending on the shape your book is in.

This service doesn’t include in-line comments in the MS.

Submission Package — $550 (Sale Price: $275)

If you’d like this full MS edit WITHOUT the query and synopsis, I offer that for $420 (Sale Price: $210).

For those looking for the whole package critique: query, synopsis, edit letter, and in-line comments, I have a submission package.

I will read the manuscript over once for content editing, where I’ll make in-line comments and suggestions. I will also work on the query and synopsis.

This submission package doesn’t focus on grammatical errors. The main focus of edits is to be certain your plot is structured, your characters are three-dimensional, and your dialogue is fresh. During an edit and critique, I focus primarily on your story and making sure it’s the best it can be before you start sending it out.

This edit will contain an edit letter, usually between 4-7 pages where I will detail some of the bigger problems the story has and some thoughts on how to fix them.

The overall thoughts focus on whether or not your story holds attention, where things can be cut or added, and suggestions for how to make the manuscript tighter.

-Contact me to book a slot today.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: publishing, Queries, Reading, Writing

Favorite Books I Read in 2015

December 30, 2015 By Judi Lauren Leave a Comment

 

I only managed to read 62 actual books this year. I read many others as part of my internship, but they’re not technically published books and can’t be counted on Goodreads. (Pictures link to Amazon so you can see the full summary).

Blood of My Blood

This was my favorite book I read and one of the first I read this year. It’s the conclusion to the I Hunt Killers trilogy, which is my second favorite book series of all time. I went in expecting really great things from it and it was even better than I imagined. So if you have a tough stomach and don’t mind blood, guts, and gore, check it out.

Falling for His Best Friend

I didn’t know a lot about this book going into it and I was really surprised by how much I liked it. The characters were really rounded out and I thought the story was super cute.

Eleanor and Park

Some of you may be surprised that I haven’t read this. I actually read Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell before reading Eleanor and Park. I really liked this book and I loved Eleanor. She’s one of my favorite heroines I’ve read through the year and the love story was so realistic.

Awakening

This was another one I didn’t know much about before going in. The pacing is fast and it’s really unique. I loved the characters of this one, especially Darian. I’ve heard it might be getting a sequel so I’m really excited for that!

Make It Count

And for the final one, it’s actually a slew of books by one author. I read my first book by Megan Erickson this year and I read three others of hers as soon as I could. She’s written the Bowler University series, the In Focus series, Mechanics of Love series, and the Gamers series. I love the dialogue in Megan’s books and really can’t pick only one of hers to recommend, so just go check them all out!!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Reading

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