I’ve edited a fair amount of fiction over the years, but I’ve never edited horror. I’m not a horror reader and I don’t understand the genre. But ever since I started teaching at Club Ed, I’ve wanted to add a horror class because I know it’s a hugely popular genre and it feels like a…
AI is going to kill routine jobs. But it won’t kill jobs that require expertise and human judgment. That’s why it’s important for editors to move beyond basic skills like proofreading. It’s not enough to say, “But homophones!” Most people will accept a small error rate if it means they can save three thousand dollars….
Let’s discuss why book editors need a content strategy in order to market their business effectively. Why Book Editors Need a Content Strategy A while back, I mentioned on a LinkedIn post that for years, my best-performing content for my personal website had been a screed about how I hated wind chimes. That post drew…
Our upcoming Beginning Copyediting for Fiction class will educate anyone wanting to fix the errors seen on a daily basis in the real world! Over the past week or so, I’ve caught the following typos and grammatical awkwardness in major news media: USA Today: “publically released” USA Today: “could cause driver’s to crash” USA Today:…
A close call on the highway got me thinking about all the ways freelance editors can accident-proof your business. How to Accident-Proof Your Business A couple of weeks ago, the steering column on my car broke as I was driving down the highway! Fortunately, it was the 405, so I was only going about two…
My excuse-busting marketing method has been highly successful in helping potential author clients decide whether to get their books edited and published. Excuse-Busting Marketing: How to Help Authors Get Ready for Editing If you’ve hung around here for a while, you know that I’m a big fan of finding clients who already know they want…
When writing fiction, you’re likely to encounter problems with conflict—so the question is how to create conflict in a story. How to Create Conflict in a Story Conflict, as you probably know, drives the narrative. Consider this: Just now, I wanted a cup of tea, so I went and made one. So what, right? You…
A challenge for newer editors is feeling like you’re competing against hundreds of people for the same few clients—you have to figure out how to stand out from the crowd. But believe me when I say you’re not. A Little Ditty About How to Stand Out From the Crowd Here’s a story. My daughter is…
Developing a book editor mindset is as simple as understanding a few basic principles, including how to read a manuscript like an editor. Developing a Book Editor Mindset Beginning developmental editors sometimes ask me how “awful” books make it onto the New York Times bestseller list, and how can we worry about what makes a…
One tool authors have when developing plot and storyline is using maps in story setting. Laying out the various places characters will go in the story will strengthen a manuscript with concrete details. What a Map Can Show When Using Maps in Story Setting Such a map helps me see logical inconsistencies in the layout…