Cait Spivey's picture
Cait Spivey from Portland, OR is reading I Don't, a Contrarian History of Marriage by Susan Squire November 24, 2014 - 9:35am

Hello out there, you brave NaNoWriMoing souls!

I love NaNo. It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s buoyed on a glorious ocean of support and inspiration from writers all around the world. It’s about having fun and following your dreams. For some of you, the dream ends with the draft. You will have finished a book, and that will be awesome. Seriously. Congratulations in advance!

Some of you, however, will want to take that baby places.

To that end, my freelance editing company, Bear and Black Dog Editing, is offering a 10K, 10% promotion! For every 10,000 words you write in this year’s November NaNoWriMo, we’ll give you 10% off one of our full manuscript packages: our Reader Report, already an amazing value, and our intensive line and developmental edits, including our two-round, two-editor Twice Tried option!

Write 10K, get 10% off.

Write 20K, get 20% off.

30K, 30%. 40K, 40%. Make it to 50K, and we’ll give you 50% off a full manuscript critique.*

This is kind of a big deal.

RULES
To be eligible for this discount, you must:

  • participate in NaNoWriMo in November 2014
  • track your progress through the official NaNo website and provide us with your NaNo username
  • contact us anytime between now and March 31st, 2015 to reserve your place (we need a signed contract and agreed-upon deposit to reserve slots)

We’re offering this promotion through March to give you time to self-edit your NaNo manuscripts (perhaps even during National Novel Editing Month) before sending them to us–we highly recommend doing this, because that’s how you’ll get the most out of our feedback. But please: do not email us to reserve a slot until after you have done a round or two of self-editing. We reserve the right not to accept your project if you email us tomorrow but tell us you want a slot in April of next year so you have time to edit. That’s an extreme example, but basically it’ll work nicer for everyone if your manuscript is pretty much ready to go when you email us.

We’ll apply this discount to qualifying writers who reserve their place before 11:59 pm on March 31st, so you have plenty of time to revise and still get the discount.

Not sure about the fate of your NaNo novel, but have another manuscript that’s ready for another set of eyes? We’ll apply this discount to those projects too! You still need to show us your word count for this year’s November NaNo, but we invite you to share any completed, unpublished manuscript with us. Self-publishing? Stuck in the query trenches for way too long**? Get a revise-and-resubmit**? We can help.

*Discounts will be capped at 50% off.
**For those who are querying, it’s probably better if your manuscript is not actively being read by any agents or editors when you send it to us.

All you writers out there are an inspiration to us. Hat’s off to you for your dedication, and good luck with the final week of National Novel Writing Month.

Please feel free to post here, messge me, or check out our website for more details! 

Chacron's picture
Chacron from England, South Coast is reading Fool's Assassin by Robin Hobb November 24, 2014 - 2:06pm

Hi Cait,

That's an amazing offer and it's got my attention. I bookmarked your website earlier and I've now got 31/3/15 as a deadline on my calendar as well. If I get a manuscript where it needs to be in time, I'll think about dropping you a line. I already completed the 50k but there's going to be plenty more work to get the whole thing complete. 

Only thing I'm wondering is whether you open this offer to any style and genre. Having looked at your website I concluded that what I do generally isn't what you prefer to edit, but it's such a good offer I'm hoping you might be open to anything. If you've got time to take a quick look then here I am on the Nano page and this is what I'm working on. There's also a better description of it on my latest Blog post.

Thanks, -C.

Cait Spivey's picture
Cait Spivey from Portland, OR is reading I Don't, a Contrarian History of Marriage by Susan Squire November 24, 2014 - 3:35pm

Actually, [I was going to put a name here but I'm not sure whether you want to go by your username or the name on your blog?], this sounds really interesting. Your excerpt on the NaNo page is fantastic and I definitely would like to work with you on this in the future! 

But to specifically answer your question, yes, we have some limits (those are explained in the FAQ on the site), but otherwise we're pretty much open to any style and genre. Speculative fic (under which sci-fi falls) is just where the bulk of our experience, and our personal reading preference, lies. :)

Dwayne's picture
Dwayne from Cincinnati, Ohio (suburbs) is reading books that rotate to often to keep this updated November 25, 2014 - 7:20am

Thank you for sharing this.