I’ve helped numerous clients by creating customizable cover letter templates specifically for their job searches. You’ll be able to personalize each letter you send, and it’ll only take a few minutes—I’ll do the bulk of the work by creating the structure and writing most of the content.
Show, Don’t Tell
Whether you’re enrolled in Creative Writing 101 or you’re working on your tenth novel, you’ve probably been told to “show, don’t tell.” But what does your teacher/editor/agent/critique group actually mean when advising you to show rather than tell?
Why aren’t “Mom” and “Dad” always capitalized?
Most of us intuitively understand these rules. It just seems foggier with mom/Mom because we use the same word for both the name and the generic descriptor. However, when we examine how the word functions within the sentence, capitalization becomes clear.
What is “Reflection” in Creative Nonfiction?
For the most part, novelists and memoirists use the same set of tools to tell their stories. They both create vivid scenes, develop three-dimensional characters, and evoke a strong sense of place. They rely on dialogue, effective pacing, and themes. But there is one tool that is used almost exclusively…
Why I Don’t Edit in Google Docs
Introduction Earlier this month, a client contacted me about a lucrative editing job—one that would account for nearly half of my monthly income. When I worked with her on a previous project, she was the ideal client. Her writing was clear and precise, she was quick to answer questions that…
Should You Pay to Submit Your Work?
Am I being cheap to resent paying $3 to submit to a market that only accepts 1% of the submissions received? What do you think of markets that charge to submit? This question was recently posted in a Facebook group for fiction writers and editors. The responses were both swift and…
#whyeditors: Why Editors Matter
Last week, the New York Times announced a baffling decision to eliminate its stand-alone copy desk (and, therefore, a huge chunk of its copyeditors). In the days that followed, NYT reporters and editors sent strongly-worded letters to executive editor Dean Baquet and managing editor Joe Kahn explaining why copyeditors are so crucial to the Times’s operations, especially in an era when…
Memoir vs. Autobioraphy
In the past few months, I’ve been approached by several clients who were interested in working with me on a “memoir” only to discover—either through conversation with the author or by reading the manuscript—that, in fact, they were looking for someone to edit/assess/develop an autobiography. (Or vice versa.) Memoir and autobiography both involve…
Deadlines Matter–for Both Editor and Client
I, like nearly all editors, require my clients to sign a contract prior to beginning work on a new project. Contracts vary greatly from editor to editor, and a single editor might even use different contracts for different types of work. There is one thing that all contracts have in common, however: deadlines. An editing contract typically…
Project Pricing: Flat Fee vs. Hourly Rate
Hourly contracts work well because my clients don’t buy time that I don’t use, and I am compensated for all the time I spend. Everybody wins.