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?

You’re writing your book, making occasional references to other books, experts, and information sources. Now you’re wondering whether you need footnotes or if there’s an easier alternative. Good news: most of the time, there is. Typically, academic, trade, and technical papers employ footnotes, while popular writing does not. That means if you’re writing a self-help or inspirational book, footnotes probably ... 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

‘The Chicago Manual of Style’: What Authors Need to Know

If you’re an author writing your first book, you’ve probably heard the terms “stylebook” or ‘The Chicago Manual of Style’ and wondered what people were talking about. ‘The Chicago Manual of Style’ is to book editors and publishers what the Bible is to preachers. More about that formidable tome in a moment, but first let’s talk about stylebooks in general …

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