The Dos & Don’ts of Working with Editors

dos & don'ts of working with editors

National Novel Writing Month has come and gone… next comes the rewriting, and more rewriting, and yet more rewriting, until at last it will be time to send books off to editors!

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But before you do that, here are some DOs and DON’Ts to keep in mind if you are going to be working with a professional editor on your book:

  • DO understand what type of edit you’re looking for before connecting with an editor. Do you want help with the plot and character development,

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10 Writing Prompts for NaNoWriMo

writing prompts for NaNoWriMo

We are into Week 2 of NaNoWriMo! This is a time when the novelty might start to wear off for some writers. If you’ve been jumping around in your novel, like I have, instead of writing in a linear fashion, you might have already written your favourite scenes. Succeed at National Novel Writing Month with these writing tips! This article features 10 writing prompts for NaNoWriMo, or for any time you need a little extra boost for character development and story ideas. ~ NaNoWriMo ideas ~ best writing prompts ~ novel writing ideas ~ story writing prompts ~

…But you still have 2/3 of a novel to write!

That’s why NOW is the perfect time to engage in some writing prompts to get the creative juices flowing and meet that word count. Remember that National Novel Writing Month is about getting your novel on paper—it’s not about making it perfect or going back and polishing up everything that you write.

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Top 4 Ways to Edit Your Own Writing

If you don’t have a background as an editor, it can be a really good idea to hire an editor to edit your work for you. But what if you Get the top 4 ways to edit your own writing in this editing article! Tips from a professional editor for making your writing better when you don't have the budget to hire an editor. ~ editing tips ~ writing tips ~ how to edit ~don’t have the funds to do so? In that case, you’ll want to brush up on your own editing skills!

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Here are my top 4 tips for editing your own work:
1) Print out your writing.

Editing on paper is easier than editing on a screen. Errors will jump out at you much more,

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How to Prepare Your Book for an Editor

Are you close to finishing your book and getting ready to hire an editor? Here’s what you should do to prepare your book for the editing process…

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Find out how to prepare your book for an editor with these 4 writing tips! The editing process can be a wonderful opportunity for writers, so make the most of it by preparing ahead of time. ~ book writing ~ writer tips

1) Have as much of your book written as possible.

This will help to save you money! If the editor starts working on an unfinished book and you end up going back and forth a lot, it can take a lot of time and really eat into your budget.

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So You Want to Be a Writer: Now What?

This is one of the most common questions I receive:

I love to write, and I think I’m pretty good at it. How did you start? How can I quit my day job and write full-time too?

This is a great question—and there are so many potential answers to it for how to be a professional writer!

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Here are two of the key questions you’ll want to ask yourself if you are interested in starting a career as a writer:
1) Am I any good?
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What To Do BEFORE Submitting Your Manuscript to an Editor

what to do before submitting manuscript to an editor

As a freelance editor, I’ve had the great pleasure of working with several indie (and established!) authors on editing their manuscripts.

I’ve done everything from proofreading to developmental editing for authors, in genres from children’s books to crime mysteries, so the types of manuscripts (and the amount that they are ready for editing) that I have received really varies.

By the way—click here to get my step-by-step process for successfully writing and publishing a novel!

However, there are a few things that authors should always do, no matter what their genre and no matter what type of edit they are looking for,

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My Top Five Tips for How to Be a Better Writer

Sometimes you just aren’t in the mood for writing. But if you have a deadline to deal with, or if you are writing content for a client, you don’t really have much of a choice! You might not feel inspired to write, but you have to write anyways.

I have now been blogging for more than seven years. And for most of those seven years, I’ve been blogging at least three times each week (if not more). Besides blogging for my personal site, I’ve also written promotional materials, weekly blog posts, newsletters, and more for clients.

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NEW: Editing Service for Bloggers

It’s the new year! While you might have resolutions or goals planned for you for the upcoming months, have you thought about ways that you can improve your blog?

Save time, focus on what you LOVE to do, and make your blog more professional in the new year! Visit saganmorrow.selz.com for a shop that features editing services, writing services, FREE products for writers and business people, and more!

Whether you want your blog to look a little cleaner and more professional, you’re hoping to turn your blog into a book, or you’re just tired of proofreading and re-reading your blog posts, the brand new editing service for bloggers that I’m launching this month could make a world of difference to your blog!

Let’s face it: blogging takes a lot of work.

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Three Writing Tips: how to use an apostrophe, a comma, and more

As our last Saturday blog post of the year for this blog, I wanted to do a little round-up of a few useful articles written here over the years on using language. These tips are helpful for putting a sentence together and proofreading your own work, so if you’re looking to brush up on your writing skills, be sure to check out the articles that these tips are linked to!

useful writing tips

Three great writing tips:

  • A comma always comes before the coordinating conjunction when linking two or more independent clauses. Find out what exactly this means and learn more about the comma by checking out this Punctuation Matters article.

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Reader Questions: “I want to get into the editing field. Where should I start?”

I recently received an email from someone who is new to editing and wants to start freelancing. They were hoping I could provide some advice – and you know me; I love sharing what I’ve learned (and learning new things from others, too!).

A professional freelance editor's response to the question, "how can I become an editor?"

The question:

I am just wondering if you would be willing to provide some guidance to a newbie in the freelance editing field. Where would you suggest I might start out looking for editing work?

My answer:

Congratulations on your shift into freelancing! As far as where you should start,

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