Detective Col...

If you're an author, you should know that your purpose is to create books that are as concise as possible. (After all, that's my number-one goal as your book editor: To help you create incredible, well-written books!) What does that mean? That means cutting out whatever words don't propel your book forward. 

An...

To determine what your writing voice is, take a look at your writing. What words do your readers use ...

As a book editor, I've seen fiction novels take place in a variety of settings and even a variety of times, from Tanya S.M. Kennedy's The Terarch...

Although I mostly specialize in fiction editing, I make an exception in the world of non-fiction books when I work with memoirists. Although most memoirs focus on a piece of the author's past, especially those that are poignant and meaningful, other memoirs are fun and exciting in a different way: travel.

I don'...

One mark of a talented author is rhythmic writing, but this can be a difficult writing strength to master. Rhythm in writing is defined as the way the words and sounds come together, usually to create a beat. Long sentences might sound smoother but more rich and complex, and short sentences are snappier and easier to understand. When these two types of sentences are combined, they can create an incredible rhythm to your writing.

Many times, I’ve checked back with a client on the progress of their manuscript only to find that they haven’t made much progress at all.

“What happened?” I ask them, expecting something major—like a house fire, a financial catastrophe, or a death in the family.

Usually, it’s none of the...

Every time I go through an author’s manuscript, I find words or phrases that don’t always lend themselves to making the author sound eloquent. To put it a different way: Too much wordiness in a sentence can make an author sound amateurish.

As a

I’ve often written about how the most prolific authors are those who have written many books. In the world of self-publishing, this is especially true. Almost all authors who have risen to the top of Amazon bestsellers lists have one thing in common: they’ve built up a massive following by publishing many, many books

As an experienced book editor, I can definitely help with improving your manuscript once it’s written. Once you’re done writing it, please reach out to me and I’ll get you on my schedule.

But what if you're in the p...

Dialogue tags! These little monsters can sometimes be tricky, but you can't avoid them: Dialogue should make up about 20% of your novel. When approaching the subject of dialogue and dialogue tags, there are a few things that should be kept in mind in order to create powerful scenes.

First, let’s define dialogue tags so we’re all on the same page. Take a look at the sentence below:

So you want to improve your writing. But how do you do that? You can take extensive writing classes and dedicate X amount of hours every day pounding on the keyboard. Or, you can read published w...