A. This course is designed to help you cut down on editing expenses, not eliminate them. Experienced authors typically need 1-2 rounds of developmental editing before they hire a copyeditor or proofreader. Less seasoned writers usually need at least 3-5 rounds of developmental editing. The writer makes the suggested changes and sends a new version to the editor. You could be paying from several hundred dollars to a thousand or more per round of editing.

Most writers will only invest in 1-to-3 cycles due to the expense. This leaves them with a manuscript that has potential, but isn’t ready for submission to an agent, and definitely isn’t ready to share with the world.  

Since everyone handles their fees differently, some editors might charge a larger amount upfront which include multiple editing passes. Either way, it still adds up to hundreds of dollars per round unless you’re fortunate enough to have found a talented editor who has set low rates while getting established.

By taking this course and doing the work, you will have a great foundation in self-editing. You can do the earlier rounds on your own and ultimately submit a much stronger manuscript to your freelance book editor. Then the editor can focus on the meat of your story and help you to put it over the edge rather than send you an overwhelming letter outlining a bunch of flaws you could have caught yourself.

I don’t recommend publishing a book without getting professional editorial feedback, even if you’ve taken the course.

A. Book Editing Blueprint is for:

* Beginner writers who have just finished, are working on, or are thinking about writing a fiction or creative nonfiction manuscript.

* Intermediate authors who have had a couple of books published, but their editors keep sending them back to the drawing board for multiple rounds of rewrites and the editing process still feels overwhelming. You want to turn in well-developed, polished manuscripts and get to a higher level.

* Authors who find hiring an editor too expensive and feel they might be skimping on the editing process.

* Authors who don’t want a crazy-intensive course that will take months to get through and that they might give up on. They want a simpler way to get there.

If you’re a seasoned author who has been working with editors for a while and your manuscripts are clean and well-developed for the most part, then you probably don’t need this course.

If you’re considering becoming a freelance developmental editor, then it could be beneficial as it will review everything you should be looking for in your clients’ manuscripts and give you a step-by-step checklist to follow.

A. Yes, but I charge a higher price for new clients who haven’t taken the course unless they are established authors. Book Editing Blueprint students receive a steep discount. You can see my rates here.  I wish I’d had this course when I was starting out as a writer, and even now I use the blueprint when revising my own books. My years of working as an editor inspired me to create this course as nearly all my clients could have saved time and money if they’d had this baseline training.

If we worked together, I’d tell you the same stuff anyway, except it would be crammed into a long editorial letter. Trust me, you would be overwhelmed. That’s what made me create this class as I don’t like overwhelming my clients. Short video tutorials, written lectures, examples, quizzes, and practice exercises are a much more efficient way for you to master these concepts, and the worksheets will help you apply them to your manuscript. Then you’ll be in a much better position to work with an editor, either me or someone else. 

Note: If you enroll in the class, I can’t guarantee taking you on as a client as at certain times I’m booked or closed to submissions. You’re welcome to check in with me, but please be assured that having this course under your belt will help you when working with any developmental editor.

A. If you’re in the early stages of writing a story, Book Editing Blueprint will teach you to put all the foundational pieces in place from the very beginning. You’ll learn how to develop your theme, flesh out your characters, craft your plot, maximize each scene, and improve your writing technique.

While the final blueprint is geared toward editing a book, the lessons are applicable regardless of what stage the project is in. If you’re still writing your first draft, the course will give you valuable tools to keep you on the right track. Get a solid foundation now, and then come back and review once you finish your draft.

If you’re starting from scratch, in a way you’re lucky because you’ll be able to avoid the mistakes a lot of people make. By catching weaknesses early, you’ll save time on rewrites later. Wherever you are in the process, the course will give you the solid foundation that your novel needs. 

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of writing a book and fear you don’t have what it takes, that’s perfectly normal. That’s why I’m going to teach you these concepts step by step and give you the tools to work through the overwhelm.

A. This course is appropriate for beginning and emerging novelists regardless of genre and style.

If you’re a seasoned author who has been working with editors for a while and your manuscripts are clean and well-developed for the most part, then you probably don’t need this course. If you’re considering becoming a freelance developmental editor, however, then it could be beneficial as it will review everything you should be looking for in your clients’ manuscripts and give you a step-by-step checklist to follow.

If you’re a children’s book writer, I’d recommend it for middle grade and YA fiction, but not for early chapter books or picture books.

Nonfiction writers: This class probably isn’t for you if you write academic, technical, or self-improvement books.

If you’re writing a book filled with people and places such as a memoir, biography, or essays, and you’re depicting events through scenes, the course will inspire you to take a creative approach with your nonfiction. You’ll learn to write vivid descriptions, make the people you’re writing about three-dimensional, and use an engaging style, as well as write tighter. Bear in mind, however, that the course is geared toward fiction authors, so you should only take it if you are interested in enriching your project with fiction-writing techniques. You’ll find a helpful bonus lesson in the welcome section: How to Apply Creative Techniques to Your Nonfiction Book.

As a reminder, I won’t edit your book during this course but will teach you how to do it. This course is not for you if you’re expecting feedback from the instructor and/or a critique group. I would have to charge a lot more to give personal feedback to every student.

Also, this course isn’t for you if you are expecting overnight results with little effort. I wish I could wave a magic wand and have your book rewrite itself, but unfortunately you have to put in the effort. I have made the learning process as simple as possible, but you still need to have the drive to complete the lessons and follow the blueprint to edit your book.

A. As far as getting support, I will absolutely be there to answer questions and be your cheerleader! You can post questions in the private discussion forum and I will be sure to respond. However, there is no instructor editorial feedback. If I were to give critiques on every student’s writing, I’d have to charge a lot more for the course due to the time commitment, and I wanted to keep it affordable.

The goal is for you to develop your self-editing skills so you can save time and money on unnecessary rounds of editing. After going through the class, you’ll be amazed at how many flaws you’ll see in your manuscript. You’ll also have the tools to fix these weaknesses and escalate your project to the next level.

Regarding peer critiques, this is not a critique group. Since students sign up at various times and it’s self-paced, each person is working on a different lesson. In the bonus Facebook forum, (a special unit inside the Shortcuts for Writers Facebook group), there are threads where class members can network and connect with partners for outside critiques, but a connection isn’t guaranteed.

A. Not in depth. It will give you a broad overview. This class focuses on developmental big picture concepts such as plot, characterization, and point of view; scene level tips such as improving dialogue, description, and pacing; and line editing tips like word choice, style, and conciseness.

We discuss the most common grammar and punctuation mistakes, and I’ll share the best resources I’ve found for cleaning up your manuscript, but delving too much into it would be overwhelming. Copyediting could be a whole separate course, and it’s best taught by a copyeditor. (which I am not.)

As a novelist, your priority should be on writing an evocative, compelling story with a strong backbone. Once you’ve done that, you can focus on fixing the nitty gritty grammar and punctuation. If you focus on those errors too soon, before you rewrite and revise, then your copyedits could become obsolete.

My goal with the copyediting segment is to give you some tips and help you to evaluate your skills in this area. Some writers have a strong grasp of grammar and can manage without a copyeditor and/or proofreader if they have a good developmental editor and eagle-eyed beta readers. Many writers, however, have trouble with grammar and punctuation, and no class or self-study will replace their need for a good copyeditor and proofreader—at least not for their first few books. This class may save them some money though if they can find basic mistakes themselves and submit a cleaner manuscript to the copyeditor.

A. You could take the time-consuming DIY approach and gather information from different resources, or you can cut through the clutter and let me tell you exactly what you need to know and how to apply it to your book. Not only that, you’ll also get a proven system to follow.

Books about writing, articles, podcasts, and YouTube videos can give you helpful hints (and hey, I write articles, give advice on podcasts, and create informative YouTube videos myself!) but if you want to transform your manuscript and escalate your writing to a higher level, you need to learn how to apply what you know. That’s what Book Editing Blueprint will do for you. It’s full of tips, examples, and activities that will equip you and inspire you to apply the concepts to every aspect of your novel. I’ve had many clients who tried to learn on their own before hiring an editor, but they still had trouble recognizing weaknesses in their own work and needed multiple rounds of editing. 

As one of my students said, “Hearing your voice creates a teacher-student relationship that I don’t get out of books. It was more like being in the classroom. Everybody has a preferred style of learning—voice, text, or graphics. You had video, text, recaps, bullet items, tests that you can take over as great extra reinforcement . . . I think the way you’ve done it will help the material stay with students. They can print it out and save it for reference, but the goal is to learn and absorb.”

The hints you gain from books, articles, podcasts, and videos will be much more useful once your writing and editing skills have reached a certain level. 

So, how does the course differ from other self-editing courses on the market?

It’s more thorough than some. Many writing and revision courses don’t use video, interactive quizzes, or worksheets to reinforce the concepts and help you apply the lessons to your book.

It’s also much less intensive than some revision courses. If you search online, you’ll find expensive self-editing courses that are a lot more complicated.

I’ve polled students who took these intensive classes and they had comments like, “I’d spend hours doing some of the lessons. One lesson could take me a month. The course helped me, but I’d never do anything like that again.” However, if you’re extremely disciplined and don’t mind doing multiple time-consuming homework assignments, then a super-intensive course could be a great option.

Others will get overwhelmed with such a course and give up. My mission is to make editing simple, so if you’re seeking the simpler path, that’s where I can help. 

If you had time to focus on Book Editing Blueprint, putting in a couple hours per day, you could finish it in a week or two. You can take as much time as you want, so there’s no rush if your schedule is busy, but in theory you could block off 10-14 days and get it done.

A. You would get much more overwhelmed if an editor tried to condense all this advice into one letter. I know what an editorial letter looks like. I’ve received some as a writer, and I’ve written a couple hundred of them as an editor. An editorial letter will have a paragraph or two on each weakness, such as Show Don’t Tell. The editor will give you a couple examples, but there is only so much detail we can go into in a letter and in your manuscript’s margins. Then we’ll tell you to read a bunch of writing books and articles when all you want to do is fix your story, not wade through a stack of textbooks.

That’s why I created this course. I knew there had to be a better way to help writers, and once I discovered the world of online courses, I found the answer. 

My 20+ years working as a newspaper reporter, publicist, and health writer taught me how to break down complex information into an engaging, easy-to-digest format. I’m hired to write medical articles about surgeries and cutting-edge new treatments as the editors often tell me, “This is really involved, but you always make it so easy to understand.” Plus, I’m married to a high school teacher who has given me lots of insight on teaching strategies. I’ve deliberately made the lessons short and simple to follow.  

You’re not going to tackle everything all at once. You’re going to follow a step-by-step implementation plan, rack up small wins, and gradually get all the tools you need to skyrocket your manuscript to a higher level. As long as you promise to follow the lessons in their proper order and complete the worksheets and exercises, I promise to keep you on track. You’ll want to keep going as you’ll see the progress you’re making. 

Editing becomes much less intimidating when you know exactly what you need to be doing to get results without any wasted effort. Maybe you’ll even grow to love editing like I do, and this course will set you down the road to becoming an editor!

A.  You will receive login information to the private classroom which you can access on any device that’s connected to the internet. 

This is a self-paced program which means that you can schedule as much or as little time as you want. Some people want to do one or two lessons a week. Others dive in and binge on the lessons, Netflix style. If you binge, I’d suggest blocking off 10-14 days to get it done. I want to make sure you have the opportunity to learn how you want to learn. The lessons are available 24/7 on any device, so you can access it anywhere that’s convenient.  

Once you register, you’ll be able to use this resource over and over and will receive any future updates. There’s a survey at the end of the course where you can give feedback, so I’m always looking for ways to make improvements, and I like to surprise students with occasional bonuses in their in-box.

A. I’m 100% committed to Book Editing Blueprint being the only course you need to see drastic improvement in your self-editing skills. You will experience a transformation with your manuscript if you do the work. But if you’ve gone through the material, put it into action, and it still hasn’t given you a different perception, aha moment or made you go ‘Yes, I’m getting the hang of this now,’ then I insist that that you reach out within 30 days for a refund.