The Concierge (Blog)

There’s a fast-casual restaurant I walk by every day that has a sign in the window: Pick Any 3, Get 1 Free! That sounds clear enough, right? But below the offer, they list what you can pick from: – 1 dinner (grilled chicken, burger, ham-and-cheese sandwich) – 3 large drinks (Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Dad’s…

How can I provide effective copyediting to authors? The most effective copyediting must include an improvement and be intended to address an important issue. Sometimes when you’re copyediting a novel, you’re asked to do a medium- or heavy-level copyedit, which means you’ll be doing more than just the basics of ensuring the ms conforms to…

In my inbox: “I’ve coached a first time writer from outline to first draft completion. Along the way, I explained concepts like show vs. tell and point of view. Last month, I helped him to draft questions to solicit objective feedback about his story and recommended some beta readers. Now he has lots of feedback…

I’m not talking about those resolutions we all make on January 1. I mean the way a story ends: how the plot comes together, and the character arcs are ended. Authors often struggle to end their stories in a way that readers will find satisfying. As a developmental editor, you can help. What is a…

If you’ve ever taken a class from me, you know that I have a pathological hatred of using questions in editorial queries. By this I mean asking questions like, “What is Joe’s motivation?” where you are, or think you are, asking the author to address the problem of Joe’s lack of motivation. Use statements instead…

Line editing (LE) and copyediting (CE) are related skills, as they both focus on the sentence level. Obviously there is significant overlap between the two skills. Basic Definition of Copyediting But copyediting is about ensuring consistency across a manuscript, correcting egregious errors, making sure the manuscript conforms to a specific style guide, and otherwise smoothing…

“How are you?” Jane asked. “I’m fine,” said Sandy. “Do you have any plans for the weekend?” Jane asked. “No, I do not,” Sandy replied. If your red pen is itching to do something about that terrible, terrible dialogue, you might be a line editor at heart. How to Line Edit Dialogue It’s common for…

Most of my work comes from referrals and word-of-mouth, and that’s true of most of the experienced freelance editors I know. I also solve a lot of problems that arise by talking them over with my colleagues. Because of that, I’m a strong advocate for having a network of colleagues. But I know networking intimidates…

If you have clients who offer ongoing work, such as publishers and packagers, there will occasionally come a time when you have to fire them. Sometimes this is because you ignored a red, red flag. Other times it’s because you’ve moved on to higher-paying clients, less demanding clients, more fulfilling work. Don’t Burn Bridges with…