I do mostly online writing and editing. Recently someone contacted me about
proofreading and copyediting the manuscript for a non-fiction book he wrote
about a journey. He's looking for a publisher for the manuscript. In the
samples I read, I saw only a few minor copyedits I'd make.

Question #1: Is it worthwhile for this person to hire an editor to proofread
and do a few minor edits to his manuscript before he submits it to
publishers? It should look good before it's submitted, but it already looks
good. And if a publisher accepts it, an in-house editor will go through it
anyway.

Question #2: What are the pros and cons of self-publishing vs. finding a
publisher for a non-fiction book for armchair travellers? I'm thinking about
something like what trafford.com does.

Thanks for your help,
Lois

I quite my day job three days ago.

In a crazy leap of faith, I have decided to become a freelance writer
to support myself, a college student, through the next three years of
my life. The first trick will be to get past these first two months,
and scrape up next semester's tuition using only my pen.

Come read http://www.theveilaway.com/blog">my blog, as I
continue the daily chronicle of my freelance adventures!

http://theveilaway.com/blog

Robert M.D. Minto

The Corpus of American English is the first large corpus of American
English, and it is freely available online. It contains more than 360
million words of text, including 20 million words each year from
1990-2007, and it is equally divided among spoken, fiction, popular
magazines, newspapers, and academic texts (more information). The
corpus will also be updated at least twice each year from this point
on, and will therefore serve as a unique record of linguistic changes
in American English.

The interface allows you to search for exact words or phrases,
wildcards, lemmas, part of speech, or any combinations of these. You
can search for surrounding words (collocates) within a ten-word window
(e.g. all nouns somewhere near chain, all adjectives near woman, or all
verbs near key).

Do you keep notebooks?

MOLESKINE -- DETOUR: SPECIAL EXHIBITION OF ARTISTS' MOLESKINE NOTEBOOKS
<http://detour.moleskine.com/>

Intriguing what folks have done with their Moleskine notebooks.

Eric Hoffer used Boorum & Pease Memo Books, 4 1/2 x 7 1/4, 98 pages.
There are 131 notebooks in the archives, dating from 1949-1977. Hoffer
used his notebooks as places to stash his thoughts, which he would later
retrieve and craft into his published writings. In all, the Hoover
Institute, which holds the Hoffer archives, has seventy-five feet of
Hoffer work.

Paul Madonna uses yet another type of small notebook, sketchbook.

"I am an obsessive note-taker, carrying a book on me at all times. I
have a theory that we have only so much space available in our brains to
remember thoughts. A small percentage of ideas are realized, and if we
waste energy holding onto what may later turn out to be a trite idea, we
may have missed or forgotten the one of gold." he says.

<http://www.coasttocoastam.com/gen/afterdark_submissions.html>

"After Dark is currently seeking non-fiction articles and essays which
reflect the general subject matter discussed on America’s largest
overnight radio program in history, "Coast to Coast AM." A list of past
guests and programs is listed on coasttocoastam.com."

PAYS: up to 20c/wd "for rights to publish in After Dark and to reprint
on the web or for other promotions relevant to the publication and the
radio program promotion. You will not otherwise publish the article for
a period of six months after its first publication in After Dark .
Payment is made upon publication only."

<http://bookcatcher.blogspot.com/>

Bookcatcher: Book Deals for the Book Publishing Industry

and scuttlebutt about new publishing enterprises &c. Not a complete
listing of every single book deal out there by a long shot, but a nice
wrapup of interesting news. 5-10 posts/mo

"Each 52-page issue takes kids on a journey about how people around the
world live today by exploring their livelihoods, traditions, and pastimes."

Themed issues. See guidelines for calendar. Query with writing sample.
Features, supplemental nonfiction and fiction pay 20-25c/printed word.
Buys all rights.

<http://www.cobblestonepub.com/guides_FAC.html>

<http://www.wordharvest.com/index.php/contests/novelcontest>

Hard copy only. 60K wds. minimum. No fee.

"The Competition is open to any professional or non-professional writer,
regardless of nationality, who has never been the author of a published
mystery (as defined in subparagraph 2(a) below) and is not under
contract with a publisher for publication of a mystery. Only one
manuscript entry is permitted per writer."

"GUIDELINES
a. Murder or another serious crime or crimes is at the heart of the
story, and emphasis is on the solution rather than the details of the cri
me.
b. The story’s primary setting is the Southwestern United States,
including at least one of the following states: Arizona, Colorado,
Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah.
(The decision of the Competition's judges as to whether or not a
manuscript qualifies will be final.)"

Winner gets standard author's agreement from St. Martin's Press/Thomas
Dunne Books with an advance against future royalties of $10K.

<http://arcaedia.livejournal.com/139537.html>

[via Scalzi's Whatever: <http://scalzi.com/whatever/>]

Words of advice from writer John Scalzi:
<http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/004023.html>

And his blog's a good read too: <http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/>