Last weekend, I was honored to participate in an Editing and Formatting for Authors panel discussion organized by my friends Nan and Bethany at The Author Encounter. This event was part of The Author Encounter’s Indie Author Day. I was joined by freelance editor Deb Ewing and formatter Tamara Cribley of The Deliberate Page. (You can see my editing services here!)
Often the difference between an amateur book and a professional book is in the details. When it comes to publishing, those details are editing and formatting. In this candid discussion, we talked about the different types of editing and formatting and how to use them to produce a professional published book.
Topics included common mistakes that writers make when working with an editor, how editors decide which clients to work with, formatting trends for different genres, and more. Watch the video below for the replay.
The goal of The Author Encounter is to bring together authors and readers in a unique and intimate setting designed to give authors a chance to connect with their fans, and the fans (readers) the opportunity to spend time with their favorite authors, ask questions, and be a part of the stories and worlds created by the authors. You can learn more about their events and how to join here.
Hi there! I’m Stacy Juba, an author, freelance editor, and the founder of Shortcuts for Writers. I’d love to connect. If you’re a writer, here are a few ways we can work together:Â
You know that feeling of overwhelm when you think of how to revise your novel? Where you wish an editor could sit over your shoulder and keep you from making a ton of time-wasting mistakes? You see the big picture but worry about how to get there. How do you get your book ready for publication or submission to an agent?
Today is the LAST day you need to feel that overwhelm about how to revise a novel. My online course Book Editing Blueprint: A Step-By-Step Plan to Making Your Novels Publishableis now available. If you’re a beginner or intermediate writer, then this course may be the solution you’ve been waiting for to reach the next level in your writing journey.Â
As a developmental editor, I kept seeing my clients make the same mistakes. I knew there had to be a way to break down the editing process into simple steps. I thought about what helped me to tackle my own rewrites and what issues plagued my clients, leading me to create a self-paced online course that streamlines the editing process.
Freelance editing is expensive, and I hate that as an author. But as an editor, I now know that editing someoneâs manuscript is hard, time-consuming work. When you donât charge enough, freelance editing doesnât pay the bills despite the time and effort involved. Thatâs why it can cost you a thousand dollars or more for ONE ROUND of editing.
I wanted to offer a win/win situation: a way to empower beginner and intermediate writers to think like an editor so they can cut down on editing expenses. That way they can do the earlier rounds themselves and only pay to send their best work to a freelance editor. My vision was for writers to save time and money by teaching them how to catch and fix common flaws. Editors could do a higher-level edit rather than act as an expensive private writing instructor.
Editors donât want to charge you outrageous amounts of money. They want to give you their best work, but if you make a lot of general beginner mistakes, itâs going to take them a lot longer to help you make your book publishable. That means you should give them your best writing. Thatâs why I created Book Editing Blueprint, so I could walk you through each of the common manuscript flaws and show you how to find and fix them in your manuscript.
Would you rather spend thousands of dollars to get multiple rounds of one-on-one writing coaching from a freelance developmental editor, or take an affordable online course to learn the exact same thing?
I am a freelance editor, so trust me, you'll learn all the same techniques and how to apply them to your manuscript. I'll tell you everything I've told my paid clients during their early rounds of editing and show you how to find weaknesses in your story, and most importantly, explain how to fix them. I won't edit your book during the class, but I will teach you how to do it.
Who This Revision Course 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 donât 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.
In Book Editing Blueprint, your mission is to learn how to do a thorough developmental and line edit and to create a solid action plan for your work-in-progress. By the end of this course, youâll have prepared a detailed editorial report outlining your bookâs strengths, weaknesses, and strategies to fix the problems, and will be armed with a simple checklist on how to revise a novel.
Youâll learn through 10 easy-to-understand modules that get straight to the point. Itâs a proven system that outlines what every fiction author should do before approaching an editor. That way when youâre ready to hire an editor, youâll get much more value for your money as youâre not paying someone to point out issues you could have easily found yourself. Hereâs what topics youâll see covered:
Module 1: Character
Module 2: Structure
Module 3: Point of View
Module 4: Show, Donât Tell
Module 5: Dialogue
Module 6: Pacing
Module 7: Line Editing
Module 8: Copyediting
Module 9: Hiring an Editor
Module 10: Putting It All Together
Bonus Module: Foil the Frustration - Motivation Strategies for Authors. (Includes an excerpt from When The Timer Dings: Organizing Your Life To Make The Most of 10 Minute Increments by Katharine Grubb of 10 Minute Novelists)
You can binge through it in about 10-14 days, or take as long as you want. The course includes:
28 video tutorials, most between 4-10 minutes
200 pages of transcripts
71-page workbook with worksheets and cheat sheets
25-page Book Editing Blueprint checklist
If youâre a beginner or intermediate fiction or creative nonfiction writer who wants to learn how to revise a novel so you can lower your editing expenses and become less dependent on editors, then Book Editing Blueprint is for you. Learn how to revise a novel, save time and money, and get that book done. Register here.
Hi there! I’m Stacy Juba, an author, freelance editor, and the founder of Shortcuts for Writers. I’d love to connect. If you’re a writer, here are a few ways we can work together:Â