Should you use volunteers to proofread your book?
What if you skipped paying for a professional editor and crowdsourced your editing instead? Or what about your neighbor who’s a retired English teacher? She says she’d only charge $200 …
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File names that show your manuscript revision status
When your whole story lies ahead of you, it’s easy to naively assume you’ll name your manuscript file TheGirlWiththeFuzzyManuscript_Orig, then go to FuzzyGirl_Revised, and maybe finish with TGWTFM_BetaFeedback. What you …
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The writer’s solution to beating perfectionism and procrastination
Every writer wants to become that noteworthy debut author who’s the darling of the bestseller charts and book blogs. With that kind of pressure, it’s no wonder so many authors …
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Are you overusing character names in your novel?
Some of the most common edits I make at the sentence and paragraph levels have to do with overusing character names in a story. These edits arise from a single …
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Kick-start your own career development program for new novelists
What if everything in the world went right for your book, and now you may actually have a writing career? The thing that many emerging authors neglect to plan for …
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Develop your writing muscle through imitation
Modeling and imitation are time-tested techniques used by athletes, artists, and skill-builders of all stripes. One of the best ways to stretch your writing skills is to draw inspiration from …
Affordable ways to study the craft of writing
Are you still struggling with where to put the comma in a dialogue tag (or was that a period)? Forget mixing up peek/peak/pique; are you still struggling with it’s/its or …
12 reasons to learn how to write a brilliant synopsis
You can quit holding your nose now—this whole synopsis thing is going to take longer than a single breath of air. Writing your synopsis is a must-have writing skill for …
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Is your book ready for editing?
Nothing makes an editor sadder than slogging through a manuscript that isn’t ready for editing yet. Let’s not embark upon a journey your manuscript isn’t ready to take. Really. As …
Why your first book should not be part of a series
Writing a series is standard operating procedure for self-published authors seeking to grow their catalogs. The formula is simple: stretch a story concept across two, three, four books or more, …
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10 ways a book editor can help besides editing
An editor can give you a hand out of all sorts of tight spots in your book’s development, not just writing and editing. A seasoned outside eye can help you …
Help! My edit is choking my computer!
Bad news: You just got your manuscript back from the editor, and your computer has collapsed in a fit of pique. Every time you open the document, Microsoft Word stalls …
The cost and value of developing as a writer
Your daily Starbucks fix: it’s today’s point of comparison for all things reasonably considered “small change.” But did you realize that the bill for a daily cup of joe in …
How to revise the early drafts of your novel
Nobody wants to scale the stony gray wall of revision. Nobody. Not even those crazy Spartan racers. (You go, Spartans.) A novel revision stares you down with the same inscrutable …
The parts of being an author that aren’t writing
Do you want to be someone who’s published, or do you want to be an author? Self-publishing makes it easy for nearly anyone to publish a book. Hundreds of people …
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Should you query an incomplete novel?
Quick, what’s the fastest way to sabotage your efforts to get an agent for your book? Answer: query your novel before it’s ready. If you’re a novelist, you’re not ready …
The editing and revision flowchart for self-publishers
Whoa, just look at that flowchart! That’s way too many steps! Why, yes. Yes, it very likely is. Few self-published authors can afford all of these editorial production steps. Few …
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How to develop your story revision skills
Are you guilty of trying to put lipstick on a pig? As my colleague Jami Gold confided via email, “I’ve seen far too many authors consider themselves ‘edited’ just because …
How to cope when your manuscript query is rejected
Writers have this thing about rejection. It seems edgy or romantic somehow to count rejection notices, to clutch them to your breast like the beads of a diabolical rosary with …
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How to read like a novelist
If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.—Stephen King Did you hear the one about the songwriter …
Series Writing 101: Resources for planning and writing a series
The very first decision a series author has to make is what type of series to create. Are you telling a single story across many books, or are you writing …
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Updated: Author’s survival guide to Track Changes
If you’ve never used Microsoft Word’s Track Changes feature before, the idea of getting your manuscript back from an editor filled with all sorts of lines and squiggles you have …
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