EditQuest at your Service
The moment you’ve all been waiting for (at least, the moment I’ve been antsy-pants waiting for) has arrived!!
EditQuest is now live. There may be a bit of tweaking still that has to be done, but we’ll play along and find that stuff out as we go. For now, the place looks so great I feel as though I’m in a dream. This weekend has been a very full three days of non-stop work and chatting with Harry, my husband, and Brett, and now I am able to present you my baby. My new venture.
Oh My GOD!!
I almost can’t believe it, honestly.
As much as this is suddenly going to sound like a corny awards speech, I feel compelled to mention a few thanks. Without Harry, this site would not look the fantabulous way it does. From the excellent and very fun RSS button that I can’t stop mousing over for fun to the sexy customized ad space and ad banner I can advertise with myself to pretty much everything else, Harry has put out what I think is his finest work and, best of all, exactly what I was looking for. Much labour went into this site, and Harry spent a good deal of time being patient with me and making sure everything was okay. I am so grateful for his insight and expertise. His business partner, James, turned me in the right direction as to what I needed to do and how I needed to think as a business person. Without his suggestions, patience, and leadership, I wouldn’t be doing this right at all.
Tei Lindstrom wrote the majority of the web copy for me. The copyeditor as guide to the writer hero was her concept, and I am so grateful for her ideas, coaching, writing skills, and flexibility. I was especially impressed by her knack of pulling out just what I was trying to say and her ability to refine it and make it consistent.
Brett Legree has been by my side in the online world pretty much every step of the way. From his unconditional never-ending encouragement to his techie guidance and constant offers to help tweak or upload or resize images to our exciting business venture ideas over virtual cups of tea, Brett has been the Sam to my Frodo. I feel indebted and very blessed. I owe much thanks to him, as well, for the name of EditQuest.
To Sean, aka Writer Dad – for his enthusiastic cheering and especially for his very excellent tagline, which has caused reactions like “Ooohhh, I loovvvve the ‘your words bring adventure, we bring the map!’ Positively brilliant!!!” (That’s a real quote, from my sister Anne.)
To all of you readers here and to those who don’t frequent here but whom I treasure in the “real world”: to my friends. Thank you so much for understanding my intermittent silence, my freak outs, my self-doubt, my fear. For being interested in this. For fielding my questions on what to do or pre-reading my text or ebook. Thanks for your encouragement, support, and knowledge. For those who do read, In Other Words won’t go away with the birth of EditQuest, as you’ve so nicely requested; I’m very happy to be here and privileged to have such wonderful people on my side. Please, do let me know what you think of the site, if you have any problems, if you find any errors, etc. You will notice the ebook is not up yet – but that’s what I’m working on today. It’s not finished, and I’d rather not rush it.
Never least, to my hubby, Colin, who has been through and heard every little idea, frustration, triumph — every single detail of the process of EditQuest, from conception to now. Thank you for listening, for being patient, for sending me constant emails on how to do stuff and what to do and what to focus on and how to price things, etc. Thank you for cheering me on, letting me be, knowing when not to let me be. Thank you for sitting with me for hours to figure out how to upload stuff. Thank you for being excited with me. For expanding my vision of this, for wanting me to succeed. For pushing me to do it. For everything. You and Lucy are my reason.
Without further ado, then, I give you all
I’d love to hear what you think or to answer any questions you have.
THANK YOU.
Filed under: freelancing | 35 Comments
Tags: EditQuest, venture
I wish congratulations had more than five syllables. You deserve at least a dozen. Great job, Steph. I can’t wait to get lost in EditQuest this evening.
Thanks, Sean!! but it’s I who owe you thanks. The tagline is truly awesome. I LOVE it! — and crap!! — I KNEW I forgot something! I meant to say that you and Brett came up with name and tagline. DAMMIT!
There. It’s in.
It looks great so far. Congratulations on all the hard work. I hope it turns out to be successful!
Struggling: me too!!
And thank you very much for your well wishes!
I have just visited EditQuest. What a smashing site! And the pictures are just beautiful. Congratulations, Steph and I wish you all the success you can have!
It looks great Steph! I’ll poke around a little more later.
But just wanted to let you know that the EQ URL at the end of your post isn’t ‘click-able’ (at least for me). You also might want to make the logo image at the top click to your new site too.
Just a little FYI to get more folks to your new biz. Congrats and good luck!
Hey Karen,
Thanks!! Consider those two things done!
Steph, the new site is absolutely perfect – CONGRATULATIONS! The design absolutely captures fantasy writing and feels like one is entering a different world. I know that great success will meet you there. Go forth and conquer!
Thanks, Karen! I’m happy you like it.
I’m really excited!
Oh Steph, I love it. Absolutely love it. The graphics are awesome, and the RSS button is the coolest thing ever. I’m going to need to carve out fifteen minutes a day to play with that.
Are you going to keep the white text on black for the blog? I found that a bit hard to read. I think it works well for the main page, because that’s not too much text to take in all at once, but I might go blind reading that much white on black for the blog.
Steph,
what a beautiful site! I think I’d like to have your web designer redo my site.
By the way, the prices on your site, are those in US or Canadian dollars.
Good luck with your new venture!!
@ Amy – I know! Isn’t that button cool? I’m so glad you like the site. As for the white text…some say it’s fine, but you’re the third person to say it’s hard to read. I’m not sure how so I may have to play a bit. Perhaps I could make it thicker and/or, yes, try another colour.
@Beth – Harry does do an excellent job! I do recommend him. The prices are the same in either currency, whichever you prefer!
@ Paul: Thanks very much!
Steph – you are welcome, and thank you for the nice words, and the chance to help out a friend on something truly important to her.
Congratulations – your new site is *the best* I’ve ever seen.
(Comic Book Guy) Best. Blog. Evar.
Go get ‘em!
-Brett
Brett and Comic Book Guy:
Coming from you, those are some fine words!
You. Guys. Rock.
Thanks!
SOOoooo PRECIOUSsssss!!!
(Sorry, I HAD to say that!)
But on a more sincere note, I agree with Brett, though. The layout and design DOES look a cut above the rest.
Very professional looking.
Wow, just absolutely amazing. It does feel as if you are entering a brand new world. And I wish you all the success in that world, and in this one!
What a great start! I know you’ll do *great*!
Em : )
Yay to the launch!
Very professional but very down to earth as well. I do love the RSS button – it’s awesome.
BTW, are you going to join “Preditors and Editors”?
Good luck!
Cheers,
Alex
Friar: LOL! Glad you’re here. I missed you yesterday, though your ma and I had a good chat! Thanks, bud, I’m happy you like it.
Em: Thank you! You know what? I could say the exact same to you about your writing, and I do!
Alex: Glad you like it!
I’ve come across Predators and Editors in my travels and am actually composing a list of sci-fi and fantasy places to join. I have to choose wisely…
What are your own thoughts on that particular site?
So happy for you and your inevitable success
Thanks, Rebecca!
Btw, if anyone has anything they want to comment but prefer not to do it on either this blog or over at EQ, just shoot me an email! I want to make this the best it can be.
Congratulations! I’m in the processing of developing a new site as well, and I can appreciate how excited you must be! The site looks great at a quick first glance – I will take a longer look later today. Again, congratulations and best of luck with EditQuest!
Thanks, Stacey! Same to you with your new site! I look forward to seeing it.
Thanks Steph, for your compliments on my writing. : ) I just hope the universe isn’t mixing up the name Emily Dickinson with Emily Murdoch, so I may perhaps publish, say, before I die? : P
Preditors and Editors (P and E) is very highly regarded in the online writing community, with an A–Z listing of agents, editors, etc., for querying writers to refer to when researching the agencies and people they send out queries to — I never send out a query without checking out the recipient on P and E, first.
P and E helps us queryers to find legitimate busineses, and not get scammed.
I think you just submit your name, and that’s it.
I forgot to say how much I like the RSS goblet of fire. I even called my husband over, and he was playing with it, too, lol!
I plan to take a longer look at your site tonight, after the horses are tucked in.
Em
Hey Em,
I’m familiar with P & E, but have been wary of them, esp. since they’re being sued (I didn’t check the details, but I imagine it’s for alleged slander or something, since they publicly recommend and don’t recommend sites, and that could ruin a person’s rep. Granted, the reasons are given for not recommending, but that seems to be in general, and you don’t find out specifically what happened with the particular editor or agent. Also, why do they highly recommend a particular someone? Might be good to get second opinions on agents and such. I prefer to be more direct, as well, in my own research.
Nevertheless, I wanted to hear from a person who actually uses them to see what they think, so thank you very much for your input! I may just register. I believe I already offer what they condone, and I don’t do what they don’t like, so I should be all right!
You made me laugh aloud reading about you and your hubby playing with the torch! That’s so funny! And it really makes me happy.
Thanks for looking over the site. Feel free to email me if you don’t want to comment there directly.
I agree, Harry totally rocks!
Jamie – He does indeed! Your site looks great!
Hey Alex and Em,
The EditQuest listing on P & E should be up very soon. Had a lovely chat with David, who liked the site very much! He said it was nice to see something so original in scope and approach. Yayyy!!
ooooooo…..It’s pretty!!!!! I wish you all the success in your new venture! YAY Steph!!!!!
Steph,
Very nice. I like the white on black as a concept, but you’ve heard it a million times, it’s hard to read. At the very least, increase the point size of the type. Not as pretty, but helps readability, and this is a business site where you want folks to hang a round and remember what you have to say!
I had to go back to check out the RSS after Amy mentioned it. I was so concentrating on other stuff that I didn’t notice it. How could I forget Harry would have put an Easter egg there! Very cool.
Two tiny critiques, and hopefully you’re still thinking about them: One, about SEO and keywords. Of course you don’t want the copy to be stilted, but you do want to make sure that things folks might query in Google are on each page. I saw some but I think that could be pumped up.
Two, about breaking up the copy with h2, h3, tags etc. If everything’s the same size it’s hard for folks who scan copy to find what’s relevant to them. Especially on the Services, Rates, and FAQs pages, make those subheads pop so scanners can find their answers in a hurry.
Love the feel of the site. It looks like you are conveying just what you want and your target customer ought to feel quite at home when they find you. Congratulations, and good luck with it!
Regards,
Kelly
Hey Panther – LOVE your enthusiasm!! Thank you!
Kelly: EXCELLENT suggestions. I am SO GLAD, really, that you’ve given them. It’s what I was looking for. I’m ecstatic that everyone loves the site, but I also wanted to find out what needed to be done yet.
When I figure out how to make certain text pop, I’ll totally get on that. I have no clue how to play with code. I also want to fix the spaces in between paragraphs to be more like those in the blog. And yes, bolded and larger headings, and in some places, like on the home page, a paragraph space or two is totally needed, it just didn’t take. So all that stuff I have to figure out.
Can you shoot me an email and elaborate on the SEO point you made?? Pretty please? I also have the task of doing meta text and I have no idea as of right now where all that goes, but I do have a friend who will help me once I find out.
As for the black and white text, I find it much *easier* on the eyes! LOL! But listen, it’s an easy fix. Because there are quite a few others (over email) who’ve said it’s fine, try this instead (until I get to experimenting): go on the site and press control on your keyboard and scroll up with your mouse at the same time. That should automatically increase the text size. If you scroll down while pressing control, the text size will decrease. Nice trick, huh?
Thanks again very much for your suggestions!
Steph,
The control/scroll thing must be a PC trick. On a Mac, it’s command and “+”. Still, not quite what you want readers to have to do, eh?
About SEO: nothing fancy, just think like a prospective client. What do you imagine are the terms they’d type into their search engine? Use those terms on darned near every page. You’re much more familiar with your clients than I am, but I suppose “help getting published,” “publishing fantasy fiction,” and things like that are what they type. Take some time and rather than thinking of what you wish they’d type in a search (you’d like them to type “fantasy editor,” but do they? probably not), think of what they probably DO type in a search. Try to specifically think of the trouble they’re having at the moment you’d like to capture their interest, and then work those terms into your very nice copy.
Oops, you said email. Well, here it is in the comments. Rebel Kelly.
Until later,
Kelly
I think Command & scroll works on my Mac (hmm, must double check – though I could write a script to do it…)
Makes me think though too (here I go hijacking Steph’s blog, I never do that anywhere else, do I Kelly…) – something we’d chatted about at MwP. With the population aging, perhaps a lot of blogs will be going to larger text.
Eventually that larger text may become annoying to the *younger* people, because they have better eyes, and also because they surf on small screen devices like iPhones.
So we’ll have the younger generation doing a click-scroll to size the text smaller!
(hijack complete)
-Brett
Hijack away, peeps! In fact, I love it. Don’t forget, I don’t consider
@Kelly: Thank you!!
@ Brett: I hear an idea behind your words!