by Lora Doncea After two decades of computer programming and college teaching, I switched careers to be a freelance book editor. When I did, I was excited to discover all of the opportunities available. I jumped into content editing, copy editing, proofreading, book formatting, graphics, creating websites, and mentoring novice writers. Whew! I had training…
by Iola Goulton The comma is one punctuation mark which even editors don’t agree on, and it’s one of the areas I most often discuss in my editorial letters. Today I’m going to introduce two basic rules of commas. I will also look at how we use a comma in a compound sentence. There are…
by Sue A. Fairchild “Would you be willing to look over my manuscript quickly—it only has a hundred thousand words—and let me know if there is anything I’d need to fix?” These are the words editors cringe to hear from their writing friends. Yet, all too often we’re faced with this dilemma. After all, our…
by Rebecca Florence Miller In my previous post, I shared some important preparatory work you need to do as you begin your new career as a freelance editor. In this post, I plan to share more about how to develop your business after you have put those foundational pieces in place. Once you have adjusted…
by Rebecca Florence Miller When I began my first halting steps into the world of freelance editing in 2011, I had a good grasp of grammar, punctuation, and spelling, but not a lot of the professional skills I needed to develop a thriving business. In those early days, I was able to move to a…
by Karen Saari You finally get a paying client and he has sent his manuscript to you. The excitement is real! You can’t wait to dig in and start working on those words. Well, that was my experience anyway. I’d been dragging people off the streets, begging them to let me edit what they’d written,…
by Sue A. Fairchild As I began to think about what we could post today that would relate to both editing and Valentine’s Day, I began to consider how much love and affection we must provide our authors as we edit their words. Most often, authors have spent months, sometimes years, writing their novels. They…
by Lora Doncea When we are physically, mentally, and spiritually strong, we can accomplish almost anything. However, there are times in life when we are completely overwhelmed. The responsibilities, demands, and problems of life seem impossible to keep up with. What can we do to regain our strength? In Psalm 61, David describes a time…
“Dear Editor, can I use song lyrics in my novel?” is a question I hear often. Song lyrics are covered by copyright, an asset with monetary value. Copyright is the right to copy, distribute, and display copyrighted works. Copyright covers original works, whether words, sounds, or images, and whether published or unpublished. These can be:…
by Lora Doncea In our work, we encounter a wide variety of people with diverse personalities. The ability to work with different types of people well is an extremely valuable skill. Here are some tips I’ve learned over the years. The most important thing is to sincerely ask God to help you with every project.…
