Certificate program classes (fiction)
Starting Your Editing Business
$79. How to start your editing business. This four-lesson, self-paced 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 inventory gaining more experience setting fees using letters…
Evolution of a Novel
How the novel revision process works. 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 what you, as a developmental editor, coach, or critique partner, could…
Explorations: Editing Literary Fiction
$79. How to edit literary fiction. Self-paced, four lessons. 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 uses of a narrator, character arcs, and…
Naked Editing: Self-Paced Version
$49. Learn what a developmental edit looks like. This self-paced 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 me to point out that there is no actual…
Class Package: DE 1 through 6
$325. How to become a developmental editor. This class 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 Queries DE 4: Writing the Revision Letter DE 5: Manuscript Evaluation…
DE 1: Foundations of Storytelling
$79. How to edit novels. This self-paced class contains four lessons and 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 and you’ll understand what editors…
DE 2: Principles of Developmental Editing
$79. How to edit novels. This self-paced, four-lesson 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 basics of writing editorial queries working with authors…
DE 3: Writing Effective Editorial Queries
$49. How to write editorial queries. 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 querying practices, a sample manuscript edit with ineffective queries for…
DE 4: Writing the Revision Letter
$49. How to write a revision letter. 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, overwhelming the author with the wrong details. This self-paced class…
DE 5: Manuscript Evaluation
$49. How to do a manuscript assessment, evaluation, or critique. This self-paced 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 some overall guidance about where their ms is going…
DE 6: Evaluating Your Effectiveness as an Editor
$49. How to evaluate your editorial skills. 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 ways for you to do your work? In this self-paced…
Developmental Editing Practicum
$500. How to edit a novel or nonfiction book. This self-paced class is intended for those with some developmental editing experience. For fiction editors, it is ideal to have taken the Beginning + Intermediate DE for Fiction classes or the self-paced DE 1 through 6 classes. For nonfiction editors, the Basics + Principles of Developmental…
Essentials of Conflict
$79. How to edit novels for conflict. This four-lesson, self-paced class digs into what story conflict is, how authors create it (or don’t), and what you, the editor, can do to fix it. It covers: how character development impacts conflict and how conflict impacts story structure the eternal trifecta (goal, motivation, conflict) to help you…
How to Edit Query Letters, Synopses, and More!
$79. How to edit query letters, synopses, and more. This four-lesson, self-paced 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 the traditional publishing path elevator pitches for authors…
DE Detective
$79. How to use sentence-level clues to track down developmental problems. This four-lesson, self-paced 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 to head, it takes three chapters for the…
Editing the Romance
$79. How to edit romance novels. In this self-paced, four-lesson class, you’ll learn the basics of the developmental editing of romance. The class is meant for editors who have either some experience editing fiction or who have taken a developmental editing of fiction class. Each lesson includes an assignment for you to do to practice…
Editing for Point-of-View and Perspective
$79. How to edit for point-of-view and perspective. This four-lesson, self-paced class is intended for those with some developmental editing experience or who have taken the Beginning + Intermediate DE for Fiction classes or the self-paced DE 1 through 6 classes. This class goes beyond the basics of head-hopping to dive deep into problems in…
Editing Mystery/Thriller/Suspense
$79. How to edit mystery, thriller, and suspense novels. This four lesson, self-paced 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 Common problems in crime fiction Character development…
Editing Novels in a Series (self-paced)
$79. How to edit novels written as part of a series. Three lessons. 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 siblings in Book 2, without any explanation of…
Editing Science Fiction and Fantasy (self-paced)
$79. How to edit science fiction and fantasy. This self-paced, four-lesson 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 have why the “what if?” matters and how…
Advanced Developmental Editing for Fiction (June 5 – July 30, 2023)
$450. Eight weeks, instructor-led, intermediate/advanced level. You’ll perform a complete, actual edit of a full-length fiction manuscript. The instructor will provide a class manuscript for you to work on or you may use a manuscript of your own (for example, a client’s project or a friend’s work) instead. Please do just get the author’s permission…
Getting Editorial Work from Book Publishers/Packagers (Jun 7 – Jul 4, 2023)
$275. How to get work from publisher clients. Four weeks, instructor-led. This highly popular class is meant for editors with some experience who would like to branch out from working primarily with indie authors. The information and assignments are meant for both copy editors and developmental editors. Face it, much as we love working with indie…
Beginning Copyediting for Fiction (July 5 – Aug 1, 2023)
New! $275. How to copyedit fiction. Four weeks, instructor-led. 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 various levels of copyediting you may…
Editorial Toolkit: Book Doctoring and Ghostwriting (Jul 5 – Aug 1, 2023)
$275. How to perform book doctoring and ghostwriting. This four-week, instructor-led 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 fiction editors/writers as well. We’ll talk about: how book…
Editing for Character Development (Sep 6 – Oct 3, 2023)
$275. How to edit for character development. Four weeks, instructor-led, intermediate level. In a well-written novel, the characters – especially the main character – will seem like real people who engage the reader’s attention if not the reader’s empathy. Authors often need our help in figuring out what to do about flat characters or unengaging…
Beginning Developmental Editing for Fiction (Sep 11 – Oct 8, 2023)
$275. How to become a developmental editor. Four weeks, instructor-led. 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 specifics of developmental editing in fiction (for example, the types of problems and…
Editing for Plot and Story Structure (Oct 4 – Oct 31, 2023)
$275. How to edit for plot and story structure. Four weeks, instructor-led, intermediate level. 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 there is only one type…
Intermediate Developmental Editing for Fiction (Oct 9 – Nov 5, 2023)
$275. How to become a developmental editor. Four weeks, instructor-led. This highly popular class is meant for anyone interested in working with novelists to develop their work. The instructor strongly recommends taking the Beginning Developmental Editing for Fiction class before attempting this one, even if you have some developmental editing experience. The two classes are meant to…
Editing for World-Building and Setting (Nov 1 – Dec 5, 2023)
$275. Four weeks, instructor-led, intermediate level. 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 can help authors create story worlds the reader will happily enter into—not…
