Are You Looking for Professional Help with your Nonfiction Book?

SUBSTANTIVE/STRUCTURAL EDITING SERVICE 

for NONFICTION WRITERS

by Jodie Renner, editor & author

Are you an expert on or passionate about a topic and want to share your knowledge about it in a book? And add to your resume and make some money at the same time? 

Maybe you’ve made a good start but reached a roadblock with your project. Now's the time to find some professional help with rewriting, revising, and restructuring your book so it will appeal to your target readership and sell well.

 

I’m accepting nonfiction books for substantive/structural editing or rewriting on these or related topics, aimed at a general (not academic or scientific) audience:

 

personal growth, healthy living, self-help, wellness, lifestyles, nutrition, health, senior living or issues, relationships, or alternative healthcare and wellness.

 

I will work with you on your nonfiction book to do a detailed  substantive/structural edit, as well as a thorough copyedit and final proofread, which will include:

 

·         Helping you define your target readership

·         Clarifying your goals with this book

·         Discussing the scope of your book (maybe too narrow or too broad?)

·         Helping you, if needed, to develop a “voice” and style that will appeal to your target readership

·         Discussing the overall organization and flow of your book, and transitions between chapters

·         Helping you with an enticing opening (first paragraphs)

·         Checking for overly technical phrases and jargon your target audience may not easily understand

·         Rearranging, adding, or condensing chapters, topics, and subtopics to make the whole structure more appealing and cohesive

·         Moving, adding, rewriting, or deleting details, sentences, and paragraphs

·         Watching for any inconsistencies and discrepancies

·         Flagging and helping you rewrite any confusing statements

·         Asking for clarification and examples if needed

·         Suggesting anecdotes, interesting facts, or a bit of humor, if needed

·         Noting repetitions or redundancies within a sentence, paragraph, or elsewhere in the book

·         Flagging digressions and off-topic references

·         Rewriting overly long, overly formal, or convoluted sentences

·         Fixing spelling, grammar, capitalization, punctuation, spacing, and typos

·         Clicking through any references to make sure they lead to the intended source

·         Checking your references, using an acceptable style guide

 

I'm a former English teacher and librarian with a Master's degree. I edit American and Canadian English, and my main two reference sources are The Chicago Manual of Style and Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.

 

Finally, I will format your book for publishing, including creating proper chapter headings, subheadings, and a Table of Contents (made clickable for an ebook).

 

Fee Structure: For info on fees, please visit the Editing page of my website.

 

My process is interactive, so the manuscript goes back and forth several times, with plenty of input by the author. 

If your manuscript, article, or webpage only needs a basic copyedit and proofread, I can do that too, at a considerably lower fee.

 

Contact me at info (at) JodieRenner (dot) (com) with your topic, target readership, projected number of words/pages, ideas and/or table of contents, and your first 10-20 pages. If your project interests me or I have time to take it on, I’ll get back to you with some ideas and a sample edit/rewrite.

Jodie Renner is a freelance fiction editor and the award-winning author of three writing guides in her series An Editor’s Guide to Writing Compelling Fiction: FIRE UP YOUR FICTION, CAPTIVATE YOUR READERS, and WRITING A KILLER THRILLER, as well as two clickable time-saving e-resources, QUICK CLICKS: Spelling List and QUICK CLICKS: Word Usage. She has also organized and edited two anthologies. Website: https://www.jodierenner.com/, Facebook, Amazon Author Page.

How to Snag the Best Freelance Editor for Your Novel

 

How to Snag the Best Freelance Editor for Your Writing Project

by Jodie Renner

With so many authors self-publishing these days, the best freelance editors are in high demand. So if you’re looking for a knowledgeable, experienced professional editor to help you make your manuscript the best it can be – and improve your overall writing skills in the process – be sure to take some care with how you seek out and approach them.

Due to the high volume of requests, sought-after freelance editors turn down many more writer clients than they can accept. So it’s important to make a good first impression.

Don’t Send a Rough Draft to a Freelance Editor

First, make sure your manuscript isn’t still in rough draft. Try to find time to hone your craft by reading writing advice by experts such as James Scott Bell, Donald Maass, and Elizabeth Lyon. (Also check out my three award-winning fiction-writing guides on Amazon.)

Then go over the manuscript several times, looking for issues you read about and those listed below.

Use Beta Readers First

Enlist 3-5 voluntary beta readers who read in your genre to give you feedback on what excited, confused, or bored them. Also ask where plot points, dialogue, or character reactions didn’t ring true or make sense for them. Here are 15 questions for your beta readers.

If grammar and sentence structure aren’t your strong suit, make the first volunteer you send your manuscript to someone who excels at English. It helps if they are willing to proofread it for typos and grammatical and spelling errors.

That way your other beta readers won’t be distracted by those kinds of errors and can get right into the story. ...

For the rest of this post, go to Anne R Allen's blog at:

https://annerallen.com/2021/09/how-to-snag-best-freelance-editor/

Jodie Renner is a freelance fiction editor and the award-winning author of three writing guides in her series An Editor’s Guide to Writing Compelling Fiction: FIRE UP YOUR FICTION, CAPTIVATE YOUR READERS, and WRITING A KILLER THRILLER, as well as two clickable time-saving e-resources, QUICK CLICKS: Spelling List and QUICK CLICKS: Word Usage. She has also organized and edited two anthologies. Website: https://www.jodierenner.com/, Facebook, Amazon Author Page.