Developmental Editing: It’s All About Baby Steps!
Clients will often send me a finished manuscript of 40,000 or 60,000 words, which, for various reasons, they’re not happy with. A non-fiction manuscript may be outdated, not well organized, incomplete in its arguments, or just plain boring. A novel … Continue reading
“The Retirement Remix” by Chip Munn
Congratulations to my valued client Chip Munn on his groundbreaking book, “The Retirement Remix: A Modern Solution to an Old School Problem.” With so many Baby Boomers heading towards the biggest wave of retirements in American history, there’s greater urgency … Continue reading
Why Do People Who Use a Ghostwriter Need to Hire a Second Ghostwriter?
On Upwork the other day I saw a job posting entitled “Book Edit/Rewrite.” Part of the job description read, “I’m looking to hire a ghostwriter/editor to rewrite my completed manuscript. Rewrite would include add, delete, and recreate scenes. I worked with … Continue reading
The Length of Your Book: The Word Count Rules
As a professional ghostwriter and editor, a significant part of my work involves helping professionals write and publish books that will establish them as thought leaders in their fields. Lawyers, doctors, realtors, CPAs, and business consultants have found that publishing … Continue reading
Book Formats and Word Counts – An Overview
Before you look for a ghostwriter, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the basic nuts and bolts of books and how they’re put together. The more you know about the product you’re going to be making, the more … Continue reading
Self-Help Books: Prescriptive and Aspirational
The biggest market sector in publishing consists of nonfiction self-help books. They exist to serve one function: to help the reader to live a better, happier life. Self-help books are exactly as the name suggests. You read the book and … Continue reading
Beyond Grammarly – How a Pro Editor Will Elevate Your Book Above the Ordinary
In the past few years, various software applications have emerged that automatically correct basic issues of spelling, punctuation, and grammar. The most popular is Grammarly, an online grammar checking, spell checking, and plagiarism detection platform developed by Grammarly, Inc. First … Continue reading
Please Allow Me to Brag a Little Bit….
I don’t post many client testimonials because when I see them presented on other sites they often seem facile and, well, untrustworthy. But recently an Upwork client posted a five-star review of my services that went above and beyond what … Continue reading
Should Your Editor Take One of Those Online Grammar Tests?
On the job site Upwork, I recently saw a job posting by a gentleman from France. As part of the qualifications to bid on his book project – which he did not describe in any detail – he wanted all bidders to take the Upwork “English sentence structure” … Continue reading