Certificate program classes (fiction)
Class Package: DE 1 through 6
$350 (Members: $315) | How to become a developmental editor | 15 lessons | Self-paced | Beginner This class package bundles together all six self-paced Essentials of Developmental Editing classes for a lower price than purchasing each class individually: DE 1: Foundations of Storytelling DE 2: Principles of Developmental Editing DE 3: Writing Effective Editorial…
DE 1: Foundations of Storytelling
$90 (Members: $81) | How to edit novels | 4 lessons | Self-paced | Beginner This class starts at the beginning: what a novel is, how genres work, how readers read. You’ll learn not just the definition of story conflict but how to identify it when you see it. You’ll learn what GMC stands for…
DE 2: Principles of Developmental Editing
$90 (Members: $81) | How to edit novels | 4 lessons | Self-paced | Beginner This class covers the ABCs of the practice of developmental editing of fiction: understanding the developmental editor’s role how developmental editing differs from other types of editing and feedback questions to ask when developmental editing the mechanics of developmental editing…
DE 3: Writing Effective Editorial Queries
$60 (Members: $54) | How to write editorial queries | 2 lessons | Self-paced | Beginner In developmental editing, much of the guidance we provide to authors takes place in the editorial queries. This self-paced class provides information about best practices for developmental editors, particularly for fiction. The class includes a thorough description of effective…
DE 4: Writing the Revision Letter
$60 (Members: $54) | How to write a revision letter | 3 lessons | Self-paced | Intermediate The revision letter, which provides the overview of your main editorial findings and suggestions, is a crucial component of the developmental edit, but they are easy to get wrong – including the wrong information, prioritizing the wrong revisions,…
DE 5: Manuscript Evaluation
$60 (Members: $54) | How to do a manuscript assessment, evaluation, or critique | 3 lessons | Self-paced | Intermediate This class teaches you how to add the additional service of manuscript evaluation to your menu of offerings. This is a great option for authors not ready for a full developmental edit who just need…
DE 6: Evaluating Your Effectiveness as an Editor
$60 (Members: $54) | How to evaluate your editorial skills | 2 lessons | Self-paced | Intermediate As a freelancer, you don’t have a boss or coworkers giving feedback about your performance. If you work primarily for indie clients, your clientele may not even know what effective editing looks like. What if there are better…
Editing Science Fiction and Fantasy
$90 (Members: $81) | How to edit science fiction and fantasy | 4 lessons | Self-paced | Intermediate This class discusses the basics of the developmental editing of science fiction and fantasy novels. The class covers: basic conventions of the genre (reader expectations)—what to do when authors violate these and how to tell when they…
DE Detective
$90 (Members: $81) | How to use sentence-level clues to track down developmental problems | 4 lessons | Self-paced | Intermediate This class is meant for working with fiction authors. When a manuscript has obvious problems, they’re, well, obvious. The overemphasis on backstory has slowed the pacing to a crawl, the POV hops from head…
Editing Mystery/Thriller/Suspense
$90 (Members: $81) | How to edit mystery, thriller, and suspense novels | 4 lessons | Self-paced | Intermediate This class walks you through the principles of developmentally editing the related genres of mystery, suspense, and thriller. It covers: Understanding genre conventions Helping authors create a strong central conflict Keys to building tension and suspense…
Editing Novels in a Series
$90 (Members: $81) | How to edit novels written as part of a series | 3 lessons | Self-paced | Intermediate Editing series work is complex. You need to edit for all of the usual issues as well as series-related issues, such as the protagonist being an only child in Book 1 and having four…
Editing the Romance
$90 (Members: $81) | How to edit romance novels | 4 lessons | Self-paced | Intermediate In this class, you’ll learn the basics of the developmental editing of romance. The class covers: basic conventions of the genre (reader expectations)—what to do when authors violate these and how to tell when they have differences among various…
Evolution of a Novel
$90 (Members: $81) | How the novel revision process works | 4 lessons | Self-paced | Intermediate For writers, editors, book coaches, and critique partners interested in learning about the revision process. Follow along as an author shows how her vision for a novel changes from the original draft to the final published version. Identify…
Explorations: Editing Literary Fiction
$90 (Members: $81) | How to edit literary fiction | 4 lessons | Self-paced | Intermediate This class explores the concept of literary fiction and what to consider when editing such novels. It discusses what we mean by “literary fiction” and how it differs from genre fiction (if it does). It looks at perspective, the…
How to Edit Query Letters, Synopses, and More!
$90 (Members: $81) | How to edit query letters, synopses, and more | 4 lessons | Self-paced | Intermediate This class is meant for editors who would like to offer additional services to authors beyond manuscript editing. In this class, you’ll learn how to edit: query letters and story synopses for authors planning to follow…
Naked Editing: Self-Paced Version
$60 (Members: $54) | Learn what a developmental edit looks like | 3 lessons | Self-paced | Intermediate This class is meant for writers and editors, new and experienced, who are interested in following along as a developmental edit unfolds on a complete fiction manuscript. It is a reading-intensive class. Note: Recent current events force…
Understanding Goal-Motivation-Conflict for Editors
$80 (Members: $72) | How to edit for goal-motivation-conflict | 4 lessons | Self-paced | Intermediate When it requires three cups of full-strength coffee to get past the first chapter of the novel manuscript you’re editing, you’re probably dealing with a story that lacks goal-motivation-conflict (GMC). Unlike in our personal lives, in fiction we need…
Starting Your Editing Business
$90 (Members: $81) | How to start your editing business | 4 lessons | Self-paced | Intermediate This class helps new editors start and grow their editing business, whether copyediting, developmental editing, coaching, or some combination. Each lesson includes information on topics such as: finding your purpose identifying your potential clients conducting a personal skills…
Beginning Developmental Editing for Fiction (Sep 4 – Oct 1, 2024)
$300 (Members: $270) | How to become a developmental editor | 4 weeks | Instructor-led | Beginner This highly popular class is meant for anyone interested in working with novelists to help them tell better stories. We’ll discuss the basics of developmental editing (what it is and isn’t), the methods of developmental editing in fiction,…
Beginning Copyediting for Fiction (Sep 30 – Oct 27, 2024)
$300 (Members: $270) | How to copyedit fiction | 4 weeks | Instructor-led | Beginner In this class, we’ll discuss the basics of copyediting fiction, including: understanding the primary goal of ensuring consistency throughout a ms how copyediting is different for fiction versus nonfiction using The Chicago Manual of Style to make editorial decisions the…
Editorial Toolkit: Book Doctoring and Ghostwriting (Oct 7 – Nov 3, 2024)
$300 (Members: $270) | How to perform book doctoring and ghostwriting | 4 weeks | Instructor-led | Intermediate This class shows you the basics of book doctoring, coauthoring, and ghostwriting, which go beyond editing to actually writing and/or rewriting an author’s work. Though much of the available work is in nonfiction, there are opportunities for…
Intermediate Developmental Editing for Fiction (Oct 2 – Oct 29, 2024)
$300 (Members: $270) | How to become a developmental editor | 4 weeks | Instructor-led | Intermediate In this class, we’ll cover the more in-depth concerns of developmental editing, diving deeper into issues like perspective and subtext. We’ll cover issues that crop up often: intensive developmental editing, editing more experienced authors who need guidance to…
Editing for Plot and Story Structure (Oct 9 – Nov 5, 2024)
$300 (Members: $270) | How to edit for plot and story structure | 4 weeks | Instructor-led | Intermediate Plot and story structure (also called narrative structure) are the big-picture elements of storytelling that we might call “what happens” and “the framework within which the plot (what happens) is shown.” Authors (and editors!) sometimes think…
Beginning Line Editing for Fiction (Oct 28 – Nov 24, 2024)
$300 (Members: $270) | How to line edit | 4 weeks | Instructor-led | Beginner This class introduces you to the main concepts of line editing, which is sentence-level editing intended to help polish an author’s prose. Line editing is in very high demand among indie authors, so it’s an excellent skill to learn. But…
Editorial Toolkit: Creating Classes & Info Products (Nov 4 – Dec 8, 2024)
$300 (Members: $270) | How to create and sell classes and information products | 4 weeks | Instructor-led | Intermediate This class will introduce you to a whole new set of money-making opportunities! I’m not going to pretend that there’s any such thing as “passive income” unless you’re super-rich and can live off the interest…
Editing for World-Building and Setting (Nov 6 – Dec 10, 2024)
$300 (Members: $270) | How to edit for world-building and setting | 4 weeks | Instructor-led | Intermediate Though writers and editors have borrowed the term “world-building” from the science fiction and fantasy genres, creating a believable story world is important for any author writing fiction in any genre. This class shows how developmental editors…