Preparing a manuscript for an editor can seem daunting, but it’s easy to do once you understand the basics. Here are six things to keep in mind while preparing: Putting everything in one file. I have never had this one, but I’ve heard from other editors how authors will send their work in one chapter … More How to prepare your manuscript for a book editor
Recently, I’ve seen some writers try to up their vocabulary. It feels as if they’re opening a thesaurus and writing the words they find down. Some of these words include specific plant or animal names, scientific words, uncommon verbs, etc. Grackle. Fervent. Reveille. Ostentatious. Imbibes. But it’s better to use plain language. I attended an … More CWM: #12 — Not using plain language
Editors are essential. It’s also important to communicate some information with them when reaching out to get their services. Here are six things to keep in mind: WORD COUNT, NOT PAGE COUNT Knowing how many pages there are isn’t as helpful as one might think. There is a general standard that every page is about … More 6 things editors need to know before editing your work
Years ago at my internship, I got to see what was in the bottom drawer: rejected queries. For over an hour, I read query after query. The rejected queries all had repeated mistakes. Here are some of the most common ones: Misspellings One writer wrote aknolegments instead of acknowledgments. Spelling, especially in the writing career, … More 6 common query mistakes
Besides the gray with an a vs. grey with an e battle, there’s one common spelling error I’ve often noticed while editing: hyphenated words. Sometimes we believe a word needs a hyphen when it doesn’t. Or we forget the hyphen when we actually need one. It could also depend on how we use the word … More CWM: #5 — Misusing hyphens
We type a word. It’s spelled correctly. Microsoft Word isn’t flagging it either. It sounds right too! But I love that Disney fairy tail doesn’t quite look right. It can get more complicated than that. There are long lists of words we think we know, but we don’t. Or we have a brain fart. We … More CWM: #4 — Common misused words
In some cases, repeating words helps. “Please, Elie,” I begged. “You have to do this. You know how much it means to me. Please.” Notice how please repeats? It doesn’t overdo the dialogue since they’re separated out. It feels smooth. On the other hand, I’ve seen writers use the word please about five times in one … More CWM: #3 — Repeating words for emphasis
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