Before paying anyone to edit your book, you can have beta readers read it to give you advice for free! (Yes, sometimes beta readers are paid. Those ones will probably guarantee better feedback than randoms from Facebook, but it’s up to you.)

Beta readers provide you with advice for the content of your book—yes, it’s that general. If you want them to focus on something specifically, ask them to do that: “Hi, when you’re reading my book, can you look at how the chapters are broken up? Let me know if you think it’s effective or know of another way to do it.” Otherwise, they’ll tell you whatever they think about your book from a reader’s standpoint.

Congratulations on finishing a draft! Now, you know eventually you’ll need to hire an editor, but when will your book be ready for that next step? You’ll always find more things in your book to change, adjust, or fix, but how can you know when it’s time to hand it off to a professional? Here are 5 signs to help you know when you’re ready for book editing.

I work with a lot of Christian authors, and I noticed that most people are confused or don’t know about three particular things. Since these unique aspects only apply to this genre, they aren’t that well known. If you’re a Christian author, refer to God in a religious context, or quote any Bible Scriptures in your book, you’ll want to read this blog post!

Action beats are a replacement for dialogue tags to show the action the character takes during or after speaking.

Most people don’t know the difference between proofreading and editing, but these services are very different. For example, they should be done at different times in the publishing process, they work with different kinds of files, and their scope of work is vastly different. If you’re unsure which one you need, read below to find out the difference between proofreading and editing.

It may seem easier and cheaper to have an all-in-one editor, this way you get all the editing done in one go. Let me tell you why you shouldn’t do this.

There are a lot of things to consider when hiring an editor, so here are eight tips to help you make the right decision.

Imagine someone telling you a story at a party. It would be a hilarious story—except that they suck at telling it. Their words are jumbled, and they’re so long-winded, and they messed up the punchline. It’s just a mess. This is what line editing fixes in your story.