Fiction

Keeping readers engaged: the first ten pages of your novel

Ask anyone and they’ll likely say that writing a book is a hard job. Ask a writer and they’ll likely say that starting to write a book is...

Narrative tense

Writers have a lot to consider when they choose the narrative tense of their novel. Deciding on the right tense for your story has a...

Line- and copyediting versus proofreading

Sometimes, it can be difficult to keep the stages of editing straight and remember exactly what each one includes. From my experience,...

Manuscript evaluations

What developmental editors do can be a bit of a mystery to the uninitiated, so I asked some of my DE colleagues for a broad picture of...

Hiring a beta reader

Beta readers are a pivotal part of the self-publishing process. They read your manuscript with the eye of an “average” reader, helping to...

Lowering editing costs

In the editing world, time really is money. Editors have to strike a balance between setting a rate they can live on and completing work...

Style sheets

One of the first things I learned about that was new to me as a freelance proofreader and editor was style sheet creation. Yet, it’s...

You've written a book. Now what?

Pat yourself on the back, first of all. You wrote a book! Let that realization wash over you, then set your novel aside. It's time to...