Bobbie Christmas, owner of Zebra Communications, a literary services firm in metro Atlanta, has spent more than 30 years as a professional writer and editor. She has edited countless dozens of published books for several publishers and many individuals and has authored hundreds upon hundreds of articles for periodicals.

Q: What is the first job in revising one's first draft of one's novel? -R. Harris

A: Sol Stein, author of "Stein on Writing" recommends triage: take care of the biggest items first. I agree with Stein. First, check the word count and make sure it's in the right range for your type of book.

Novels should be between 50,000 and 100,000 words, by rule of thumb. If you have only 40,000 words, your second draft should address how to add exciting, plot-related scenes that bring the word count up to 50,000 or above. If your manuscript has 150,000 words, look for useless chapters and scenes you can delete, to bring down the word count.

No matter what your word count, look for anything that detracts from the plot, such as a character who is overly developed for the minor part he or she plays in the story. Delete scenes that do not move the story forward. Delete as much narrative (telling) as possible without losing all the background information. Change it into action and dialogue, whenever possible.

Think big in your first revision. Ponder whether the concept hangs together or if anything diminishes the effect of the plot. Make sure all the elements tie in and the conclusion is believable and in keeping with the rest of the story.

After you tackle the big slashes and/or additions, you can get down to the minor details and technicalities in your next draft.

Q: If a story has a good plot and strong characters, what writer tendencies can still cause an agent or editor to see the author as an amatuer? -Nochipa

A: The very first thing agents and editors see--long before they know the plot or characters--is the format of the manuscript. Your manuscript, like you, must dress for success, to avoid looking amateurish.

Use only standard manuscript format. Standard manuscript format calls for 12-point Courier type, double-spaced, with margins of one inch to one and a half inches on all sides. In proper format, every new chapter begins at least one-third of the way down a new page. Chapter titles are in all caps. The author name, manuscript title, and page number must appear at the top of every page. Learn to format a proper title page, too, one that includes all the contact information and the word count.

Although format is the first thing that professionals notice, errors in the technicalities jump out next. I may embarrass you with my honesty, but when the query letter, cover letter or manuscript has typos (such as "amatuer" instead of "amateur" in the question we received) or other errors in grammar, punctuation and syntax, those errors mark the author as an amateur. If you do not have someone who edits your work, at the very least, run a spell check on every e-mail, letter and manuscript you send out.

Q: I'm frustrated concerning a question on tense. I completed a serial-killer novel in 12/02. It was edited by a professional freelancer. My use of the present tense was okay with her.

Charlie Spicer at S&S read it along with marketing. He had much praise for the manuscript, but marketing had too many similar works in the pipeline. Not a word on tense.

A friend of mine asked to read the book. She was in publishing for 20 years, and now has her own firm: editing, illustration, etc. She says I can't use present tense in fiction; it's been done successfully only a few times.

Could you give me your considered opinion? Thank you. -Gordon

A: When book doctors and acquisitions editors think in terms of marketability, we lean toward the highest percentages. Yes, you can write a novel in present tense, but only a low percentage of those manuscripts ever get published, and only a few of those become bestsellers. Don't buck the odds or work against the system. If you want a higher chance of selling your novel, go with the numbers. Novels in past tense sell better, so seriously consider writing novels only in past tense.