Just as stammering halts speech, stammer verbs halt the flow of a written sentence. The author uses these verbs as if stammering around while searching for the genuine words she’s intending. Two verbs in particular are repeatedly used in a stammering way by many beginning novelists. Let’s take a look at these little suckers and identify why they pose problems for your story …
Read MoreBeta Readers: The Step Before Professional Book Editing
Before you pay for professional book editing, there’s a step you may be tempted to skip. I’m talking about beta reading: having friends or members of a writing group read and give you feedback on your manuscript. Why is this important, if an editor’s going to look at the manuscript anyway? Because the more you can do to perfect the ... Read More
Writing Your Book’s Back-Cover Copy
So you’ve written your book, you’ve chosen your title and cover design, and you’re breathing a sigh of relief. Now you have to decide what goes on the back cover. New authors sometimes rush this decision, writing the first thing that comes to mind. After all, it’s the back of the book. How important can it be? A lot more important than a person might think. The first hundred …
Read MoreProfessional Book Editing: Lots More than a Grammar Check
If you are an author seeking professional book editing, you need to know there are several kinds of editing to choose from. If you're confident that your content is well-organized and beautifully written (and if your assumption is correct), all you need is a copy edit: essentially, a grammar and punctuation check. Some people call this a proofread. Different Kinds ... Read More
Novel-Editing Services: What to Expect, What to Watch Out for
So you’ve finished writing your novel, and now you’re in need of novel-editing services. What should you, as an author, expect a fiction editor to provide, and what do you need to watch out for? First, make sure you hire someone with professional training in fiction editing specifically …
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