by Emilee Newman Bowles Congratulations! You've written your true story or breathed life into characters who once existed only in your imagination—now what? Whether you’ve got fiction or nonfiction under your belt, now it’s time to take a look at your sentences, to...
by Emilee Newman Bowles Hello, “dear reader” As a young English Lit student, I laughed to myself when a story addressed the reader like this. It used to be common to tell the “dear reader” the moral of the story. These days it’s passé. Even if you know you should...
by Sabine Berlin The other day I was sitting in a critique session as the words show, don’t tell went off like sirens about my latest submission. This wasn’t the first time I’d heard those words, nor—I’m certain—will it be the last. But they did get me thinking. If I...
by Kathy Gordon, guest blogger To start with, let’s be clear what we’re talking about. The national market is just what it sounds like: a market that includes every reader in the nation. When you publish to the national market, your book could be picked up, read, and...
by Sabine Berlin The other day I was sitting in a critique session as the words show, don’t tell went off like sirens about my latest submission. This wasn’t the first time I’d heard those words, nor—I’m certain—will it be the last. But they did get me thinking. If I...
by Kathy Gordon, guest blogger To start with, let’s be clear what we’re talking about. The national market is just what it sounds like: a market that includes every reader in the nation. When you publish to the national market, your book could be picked up, read, and...
Okay, so these are technically grammar, spelling, punctuation, and usage mistakes, but saying all that would have made for an non-catchy and possibly coma-inducing title. Nonetheless, they are some of the most frequently made mistakes editors have to face down each...
