Indie authors have a lot of options when it comes to the tools they work with, and nowadays there are more and more tools that allow for productive collaboration. Below are just a few: Ice. A content editing tool on Github that lets you customize editing styles. The Substance Composer. Includes two-panel editing, DIY publishing, and offline collaboration. Towerbabel. … [Read more...] about Indie Authors: Using Collaboration Tools
editing
Indie Authors: Working with Beta Readers
Beta readers are amazing. They can help find plot holes, grammar mistakes, and other issues with manuscripts. They help save you time and money with editing. And they are part of your fan base, and a great first marketing step for a book. According to Belinda Williams, it’s important to find the right kind of beta readers in order to get the most out of their feedback. She … [Read more...] about Indie Authors: Working with Beta Readers
Poetica, A New Editing Tool
Very recently, a new tool for editing called Poetica (that I've been waiting on for nearly two years, since I first heard about it at Books in Browsers) launched. Poetica was created to bring the elegance and trust of paper editing to the digital world. As you can see in the image above, editors can add annotations, comments, and more in different colors. The interface is … [Read more...] about Poetica, A New Editing Tool
Why You Need an Editor (And How to Save Money Finding One)
After writing a book, the next big step is to edit it. Editing is incredibly important because it helps to make a book the best it can be, by keeping the story flow, making sure all the events are consistent, developing the characters, and even correcting grammatical and spelling errors, among many other things. It can be embarrassing when a book has not been thoroughly … [Read more...] about Why You Need an Editor (And How to Save Money Finding One)
Widbook Guest Post: Don’t Overwrite On
By Mary Ann Lombardo – Widbook blog This post was originally featured at the Widbook blog and written by Mary Ann Lombardo. Widbook is a global community for people who love to share stories. Writers can publish their work in an ebook format and readers meet content and everyone get connected! For the last three weeks Widbook has been my guest. See the other two guest posts, … [Read more...] about Widbook Guest Post: Don’t Overwrite On
Indie Authors: Finding an Editor
J E Henderson, author of the Credara series, has kindly agreed to let me publish an email exchange we had, which provides some insight into why it's important for indie authors to work with editors and how to find the right one. Henderson's editor is Lynette M. Smith of All My Best Copyediting. "I found my editor by a referral," he said. "If you notice, her website says … [Read more...] about Indie Authors: Finding an Editor
Books in Browsers 2013
I went to my second Books in Browsers last week (see last year's recap day 1 and recap day 2), and was not disappointed! For those who many not know, Books in Browsers is "a small summit for the new generation of internet publishing companies, focusing on developers and designers who are building and launching tools for online storytelling, expression, and art." It takes place … [Read more...] about Books in Browsers 2013
A Guide to Grammarly, The World’s Best Grammar Checker
SPONSORED POST I was lucky enough to recently be granted access to Grammarly, to check out all its features. And boy, are there a lot of features. But, first a little background. Grammarly is an automated proofreader, which checks for over 250 types of grammatical errors. This includes parallelism, misplaced modifiers, comma splices, subject-verb agreement, etc., and is … [Read more...] about A Guide to Grammarly, The World’s Best Grammar Checker
Do Editors Really Edit?
My second panel at SLICE Conference consisted of another group of editors. … [Read more...] about Do Editors Really Edit?
Editing: How Much is Too Much?
The more I learn about editing, the more I realize it's like walking a tightrope. And that rope is as thin as dental floss. As a book editor (magazine editors have much more leeway), you have to watch for structure, grammar, and spelling, but you also have to look at stories from both a macro and micro view. Macro things could be the narrative arc, plot, character … [Read more...] about Editing: How Much is Too Much?