Editing Otherwise: Fresh Approaches to Stories and Settings

Editors charge a wide range of rates for editing. The industry is unregulated, so in principle, anyone can claim to offer these services. This means you have to choose an editor carefully if quality is important to you. So how much does quality editing cost? In this blog post, I'll share figures in UK currency, but the vast majority of editors (myself included) work for clients all over North America as well, so the market is roughly the same. Trained proofreaders and editors

Blake Snyder’s book Save the Cat! offers a blueprint for screenwriters on how to draft a successful film script. The book draws on his...

In this blog post, I ask H Noss a few questions about gender in worldbuilding. Here are some details about them, and you can find out...

I recently worked with a French author who used the title “Ser” to roughly mean “Sir” in their fantasy novel. This opened up gender and Game of Thrones-shaped cans of worms. First up, the basic answer to the question is that you can use whatever honorifics you like, as long as you make it clear what they mean to the reader (e.g. through how you use them, or how you define them). Now, in English-language fantasy, G.R.R. Martin famously used Ser as an honorific, probably to sou

The short answer is "it depends". The tl;dr is: no copyediting is needed, but you may require professional content feedback and/or stylistic editing if you want to put your best foot forward. And the longer answer: This is a frequent source of confusion among new authors. To answer it, let's go over what will happen if you do find a literary agent and publisher. What editorial support will the publisher offer? First up, if it's published traditionally, the publisher will take

This trope often appears in film, and in popular culture and novels too. It features a woman who has typically experienced some kind of...

Today's post is about my line/copyediting services. Suppose you've hired me to edit a manuscript for you. How do I return the manuscript...

The standard advice for handling dialect in commercial fiction is to stick to fairly standard forms. Popular advice says that: 1) You can...

What is the difference between a novel and a short story?

“Write what you know” is popular advice often given to writers. That’s because it’s easier to imagine a setting you know well and write...

What problems often emerge when translating fiction?

Many science-fiction and fantasy writers overuse italics and capitalisation in their work. In this short blog post, I’ll cover basic...

This blog post explains basic and more advanced issues linked to head hopping in fiction writing. It explains what head hopping is, and...

Is a comma before ‘as’ ever mandatory? Takeaway: A comma before as hints at a break, which suggests ‘as’ is being used in the sense of ‘because’ A comma before as to mean ‘because’ is not mandatory but can be helpful for clarity BUT: some editors argue that the comma before ‘as’ changes the meaning to ‘because’, despite the lack of editorial consensus on this issue The different meanings of ‘as’ The style guides are quiet on this one, and the Grammar Table’s poll suggested

This post discusses: certain common situations when italics are used the debate over when to use italics for non-English words in fiction...

This post discusses: exposition in fiction, especially in science fiction and fantasy writing contextual distance, a new concept for...

A review of Scott Norton's book on developmental editing. Scott Norton's book is now a classic tome on many editors' bookcases. I first learned about developmental editing many years ago when setting up my editorial business, and this book spoke to me! I read chapters early each morning in bed. My background in fieldwork and anthropology made the case study approach come alive to me, and I quickly started applying this book in my practice and soon offered developmental editi