Nice little memoir snippet, Danny. I wouldn't sweat the copyediting
that much at this stage, despite the nitpicking you're getting from
others. I've been a professional writer for more than twenty years and
I would rate your copy as fairly clean for a one-recheck draft.
Contrary to the expectations of non-professionals, fiction editors
don't discount submissions unless the grammar and spelling errors are
well into the low end of egregious. If it's a saleable yarn on first
glance, they won't chuck it into the slush pile.

Editing for the sake of pace, focus, character development, etc.,
however, can be very, very valuable. Unfortunately, an editor who can
provide you with feedback with that level of insight and engagement is
much more rare--and expensive.

As to the biz aspects, Ed's already given you the low-down. I would
especially heed his trenchant comments on what it takes to land a book
contract in the niche market of military aviation memoirs. I would
only add that--and I suspect that Ed was being nice in not mentioning
this--if your flying tales don't include combat experience, they're
going to be real tough to sell. Might want to aim for placing
individual stories with the slicks.

Be ruthless with yourself. Edit like a mofo. And always remember, a
writer is never "through" until the first shovelful of dirt hits
his/her coffin lid.


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