The Concierge (Blog)

Typically in a manuscript evaluation or developmental edit I focus on what I perceive to be the three-to-five most important concerns I’ve noticed in the ms. This is the approach I teach my editing students. In any given ms, there may be ten or fifteen developmental problems but not all of them are equally important and…

Some editors ask authors questions in the editorial queries (the comments an editor makes on a ms.) For these editors, a typical query/comment might be, “What are you trying to accomplish here?” or “Do you mean for Martha to sound so cruel?” Often such editors feel that they’re prompting their authors to think about what…

Club Ed started out as a place to take editing classes, but over time it has morphed into a community. To support that community, I’ve launched a membership program for anyone interested in developmental editing and book coaching, whether for fiction or nonfiction. Through April 30, 2023, enjoy a special introductory price ($12/month or $100/year)….

There are two kinds of freelance editors: those who have pissed off a client and those who will piss off a client. It’s inevitable. No matter how competent you are, someday you’re going to have a client who’s unhappy with your work. This can feel awful, even soul-killing, the first time it happens. It can…

I’m re-running this blog post because Lisa will be talking with Club Ed members (Tuesday, March 7, 2023) about landing and working with indie author clients. For more information on becoming a Club Ed member, click here. I asked several experienced editors to weigh in on three of their top tips for succeeding as a…

Just a few days ago, I had the idea that a service I could offer is “positive manuscript evaluations” – that is, ms evaluations that focus on affirming and supporting an author instead of critiquing their work. For someone who has spent her entire editing career telling people where they’re going wrong, this was a…

A questions I’m often asked is, “What are some of the biggest challenges people have in learning to become developmental editors?” This is usually from someone interested in developmental editing (particularly of fiction) as a career. The biggest challenge for people who are already working as copy editors or proofreaders is being able to let…

Authors often write novels in a series, and this poses a special problem for developmental editors. One of our jobs is to make sure a novel has internal consistency – what we might call being in charge of continuity.  If Jeremy is bald in Chapter 2 he should be bald in Chapter 5 as well,…