Editor's Note

Reviews will return in about a week. Between now and then the blog will consist primarily of short thoughts and (possibly) rants about what is going on within the Facebook Application community. There are some new features coming in about two weeks that will be of interest. We are pretty excited. Stay tuned.

Yesterday was the first day working with the new copy editor. I made the decision to go ahead and hire a copy editor because I wanted this site to grow into something more than an online version of my diary. For some reason it seems that authors are generally reluctant to trust their writing to someone else. The words become too precious. They think they have found the one special way of writing something. This is typically incorrect, and worse their pride gets in the way of better writing. When I was running the Texas Journal of Oil, Gas, and Energy Law I found this to be the case over and over again. Our staff had far more time than the primary authors to spend making the writing better, yet they often were met with strong resistance to obvious changes. Sometimes common sense prevailed, sometimes it did not. At times I attributed this to finicky lawyers, but it is probably a universal phenomenon. Professional editing at Is it Contagious is currently limited to full reviews. The editor has gone back and fixed a number of issues with grammar and sentence structure that was present in the original reviews. I could not be more happy. It's impossible (you may have noticed repeated confusion between "its" and "it's"). Unless I was having the entire site edited. Oh well for now. Everything else on the site will continue to be written without a net, but hopefully the writing will improve just from seeing the reviews edited.

I bring this topic up because this site is read primarily, from what I can tell, by the application development community. Here is a suggestion: spend a few dollars and have a professional copy editor review your application's copy. At the very least get a professional to proofread every word that appears within the application. That will eliminate any typos that slipped through. While typos are a relatively big deal, the real benefit to be gained is with better writing. No where is good writing more important than the one sentence description of the application. Because users have to install the application before they can see what it does, the description that appears is essentially the only way someone has to understand what the application does. I look at dozens of application descriptions every day trying to decide which ones are worth checking out, and eight times out of ten the description leaves me clueless. Sometimes I will go ahead and check the application out, but usually I do not. A good editor is going to shine most when faced with a situation where words are very important, and space is limited. They will turn the description into an asset. They will turn people deciding between ten applications that do the same thing, into your users.

The other important area where words matter, and should be entrusted to a professional, is the news feed. Inside Facebook's Justin Smith has a must read article on the importance of the news feed. He calls it News Feed Optimization (NFO). In terms of importance, he makes a persuasive case that it is the Facebook application equivalent. to SEO. He is probably correct. They generally do not teach headline writing, persuasive writing, or how to use the English language effectively in computer programming classes. That means (generally) the people who know how to build Facebook applications will not be the best people to do NFO. Get some help. People who are good at writing Google Adsense ads will likely be excellent sources to consult for NFO.

Is it Contagious is on a trial basis with freelance editor Abby E. Alderman. Visit her site at www.freelance-editor-writer.com. Abby seems to have a real feel for the kind of words needed in the online community. In addition to typical editing she can help with SEO, web copy, and press releases. Her rates are very reasonable, and she can turn a project around quickly. I thought she offered the best combination of experience, affordability, timeliness, and understanding of what the site is all about. Hopefully things will work out and editing will expand to cover the entire site.

Help Sources:
1. Me. I am free, and enjoy working with others in the Facebook user community. That is why this site exists to some degree. Unless your application is a gift giving application I am happy to give some input (I have my own gift giving application about to debut). I have written for a several different publications, run a sixty person law review, and understand exactly what a Facebook application is.
2. Get a friend. Anyone with another set of eyes can give a different perspective. They are removed from the development, and in most cases are the type of person the application is targeting.
3. Get professional help. There are a plethora of freelance sites out there, and a shocking number of highly qualified copy editors in the freelance market. Some are full-time freelances, and others work for companies that take on small editing jobs. Prices will vary across the board with some charging a flat fee, others charging by he word, but most have an hourly rate. Find someone who is a bit tech savvy. They do not need to know exactly what Facebook or social networking is. These are smart people, they will figure it out quickly. Elance and Guru are my two picks. You will get a warm reception, not just because you are a potential client, but because this is a fun project for them (would you rather edit technical manuscripts or Facebook applications? ).

Here are several professional editors to consider (in no particular order) who are all tech savvy, reasonably priced, and will make your application better:
A.) Amber Goddard
B.) Mary Ellen Schutz of Gentle Editing, LLC
C.) Robyn Jasko of Red Ink Editorial
D.) Catherine Van Herrin

Tags: quick thought, copy editor, freelance, guru, elance, blog editors