The Concierge (Blog)

I’m often asked, “For beginning editors, do you recommend doing some edits for free to get a start?” To answer, I want to distinguish between a beginning editor who has no idea what they’re doing and needs to learn and a beginning editor who knows what they’re doing but doesn’t have a lot in the…

Setting expectations from the start helps keep the project you’re doing from becoming never-ending. If you agree to do one round of editing, that does not also include three hundred hours of personal coaching while the author is trying to finish the revision. So, you have to define the project parameters clearly. If one round…

Readers like to see character change, even if the change is small, and even if the change is negative. Often a character will be just the same at the start of the story as at the finish, and generally this is less satisfying to the reader than when a character is confronted with the need…

To help your author develop strong GMC, try to identify the goal and motivation for each important character throughout the arc of the story. You’ll often find that goal-motivation is clear for only some of the characters or for only part of the story. Conflict is usually sharpest and most compelling when all of the…

Many freelance editors are interested in getting editorial work from book publishers and packagers, and often they’re so focused on landing the client that they don’t think about setting expectations for their work. Then the first project is assigned, and they have less time than they normally have with indie authors, they’re asked to sit…

What do you do if an author has a manuscript isn’t ready for development—where you can’t find the plot or the ms has other really significant problems? A developmental edit is for a manuscript that generally contains a clear plot, at least somewhat developed characters, in a setting that makes sense. You typically wouldn’t perform…

A question I’m often asked is, “Authors can be confused by what kind of editing their manuscript needs. How do you handle that? Whenever an author reaches out to me, I ask them a bit about their past experience – have they published before, and if so, did they have a traditional publisher or did…

In any profession, having contacts can help you succeed. Yet most of us don’t start off knowing anyone who can help us get published. I’ve often said, “It isn’t who you know, it’s who you get to know.” Successful writers read books and blogs, join writers’ groups, attend conferences, and somehow eventually connect with the…

When I talk about the author’s work of addressing areas of concern, I call it revision to distinguish it from what an editor does, which is editing. Most people writing and speaking on the subject don’t distinguish between the two but since I write a lot about the interaction between the editorial process and the authorial process, I…