The Difference between You and John Grisham

A client recently sent me a business book to edit that was disorganized and full of repetition. It jumped back and forth between topics. It was in this shape because he had written it piecemeal over a period of years. If he had begun with an outline (or table of contents) and had written to that, the book would have ... Read More

How to Reduce the Money You Pay Your Book Editor

People are usually surprised at how much professional book editing costs. A lot of time goes into any book edit, but the time and cost are greatly reduced when the writing is polished. When authors take the time to make their manuscript the best they can make it before sending it off for editing, that shortens the hours the editor ... Read More

Does Your Nonfiction Book Need Footnotes? Endnotes?

You’re writing your book, making occasional references to other books, experts, and information sources. Now you’re wondering whether you need footnotes or endnotes or if it's okay to leave them out. Good news: most of the time, it is. But before we get to that, let's clear up any confusion you might have about the difference between footnotes and endnotes. ... Read More

How to Form the Possessive of Words Ending in ‘S’

If you found this blog page, chances are good you’re struggling right now with how to spell the possessive form of somebody’s name. The problem is, the name ends in ‘s,’ and it looks weird to add apostrophe ‘s’ after that. Besides, you’re pretty sure you’ve seen it both ways, but can’t remember for sure. So here we are: just ... Read More