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Welcome to the cyber home of Jodie Renner, author Welcome!

Let’s take your manuscript up a level or two!

Welcome to the cyber-home of Jodie Renner, MA, independent editor, blogger, speaker, and award-winning author. I specialize in editing fast-paced, popular fiction.

WRITING GUIDES

I’m the award-winning author of three Editor’s Guides to Writing Compelling Fiction, Captivate Your Readers, Fire up Your Fiction, and Writing a Killer Thriller, available in print and e-book formats. These books are all reader-friendly, with lots of bolded subtitles and before-and-after examples. They’re designed to help busy writers get in, find what they want, and get back to their writing, quickly and effortlessly.

CAPTIVATE YOUR READERS is all about engaging readers through techniques like deep point of view, showing instead of telling, avoiding author intrusions, and generally letting the characters drive the story. This book has won several awards, including a Silver Medal in the Florida Authors & Publishers Book Awards for 2015.  Available in trade paperback or e-book form.

FIRE UP YOUR FICTION  – Multi-award-winning guide to revising and editing your novel so it zings. “This should be on the booklist for Master’s Programs in Writing for Publication.” ~ Judge, Writer’s Digest Self-Published e-Book Awards for 2013.  Available in trade paperback or e-book form.

WRITING A KILLER THRILLER – Essential strategies for supercharging your stories! Respected editor Jodie Renner offers indispensable advice for adding tension, suspense & intrigue to any work of fiction. Available in trade paperback or e-book form.

Also, look for my handy, time-saving, clickable e-resources, QUICK CLICKS: WORD USAGE – Precise Word Choices at Your Fingertips and QUICK CLICKS: SPELLING LIST – Commonly Misspelled Words at Your Fingertips (American spelling), which you can read on your e-reader, computer, or tablet. You can also purchase the clickable PDF version for $2.99 (or both for $4.99) by emailing Jodie at info@JodieRenner.com.

I’ve also compiled and edited two anthologies for charity, VOICES FROM THE VALLEYS – Stories & Poems about Life in BC’s Interior, with proceeds to Doctors Without Borders, and CHILDHOOD REGAINED – Stories of Hope for Asian Child Workers, with proceeds to SOS Children’s Village. Childhood Regained is also available in school editions (for grades 4 to 9), along with a teacher’s guide. For more info on the school editions, go to the For Teachers page. These anthologies are all available in trade paperback and e-book form.

Although I have cut back significantly on public writing-related activities, in the past I have judged many short stories for contests, including several times for Writer’s Digest, and have presented numerous workshops to writers’ groups and at writers’ conferences on various techniques for writing compelling fiction, as well as tips for editing and publishing your own book.

EDITING

Thanks to Kindlepreneur for listing me among their Best Book Editors. I edit POPULAR FICTION, specializing in thrillers, suspenseful mysteries, romantic suspense, and crime fiction (nothing too gory, though, and no horror). I also edit HISTORICAL FICTION and some fantasies, YA, and middle-grade fiction. I accept novels of up to about 97,000 words, as well as short stories and novellas; and also offer detailed critiques and edits of up to 50 pages (up to the first 12,500 words). I also offer substantive/structural editing for certain nonfiction topics.

Is your novel over 97K words? Check out this article: How to Slash Your Word Count by 20-40% — and tighten up your story without losing any of the good stuff!

Also, see “How to Save a Bundle on Editing Costs — without sacrificing quality.”

SUBSTANTIVE/STRUCTURAL EDITING for NONFICTION WRITERS: Are you an expert on or passionate about a topic and want to share your knowledge about it in a book? Maybe you’ve reached a roadblock with your project and could use some professional help with rewriting, revising, and restructuring it so it will appeal to your target readership. I will work with you to do a substantive/structural edit (rearranging, adding, or condensing chapters, topics, and subtopics; moving, adding, rewriting, or deleting details, sentences, and paragraphs; etc.), followed by a thorough copyedit (help with voice and style that will appeal to your target readership, checking for jargon, inconsistencies, repetitions, overly long or rambling sentences, confusing statements, etc.), and proofread (spelling, grammar, typos) of your nonfiction book, then format it for publishing. My process is interactive, so the manuscript goes back and forth several times, with plenty of input by the author.

I’m accepting nonfiction books for editing or substantive editing on these or related topics: healthy living, self-help, wellness, lifestyles, nutrition, health, relationships, food, senior living or issues. If needed, I can even rewrite your book on a related topic. Contact me at j.renner.editing (at) hotmail (dot) (com) with your topic, target readership, projected number of words/pages, ideas, and your first 10-20 pages, and I’ll get back to you with some ideas and a sample edit/rewrite.

WHAT I FOCUS ON FOR FICTION: If you’re looking for someone to help you create an intriguing, engaging opening; bring your characters and scenes to life; add more tension, suspense and intrigue; create authentic dialogue that zings; pick up the pace; smooth out your prose; and tighten up your writing, you’ve come to the right place!

I also address any “head-hopping” and other point-of-view issues, point out too much “telling” where there should be “showing,” flag any plot holes, consider character motivations and decisions, alert you of any time-sequence discrepancies, and ferret out those lurking logistic issues you may not have noticed as you were busy crafting your story.

And finally, I go over your manuscript with a fine-toothed comb to check for logical sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization.

*****

“Jodie Renner is the real deal. In a world awash with sketchy advice for writers, Jodie cuts through the darkness with the piercing light of her expertise. Her editing, advice, and suggested revisions are concrete, practical, and produce compelling prose. Jodie skillfully helped me navigate from the shores of my nonfiction through the treacherous waters of thriller writing. She helped me take a manuscript that was not ‘there’ yet to one that was. I feel fortunate to have found her and look forward to working with her on my next project.”

– Peter Eichstaedt, Sept. 19, 2014, journalist and author of thriller, Borderland. www.petereichstaedt.com

*****

“Jodie Renner is a 5-star thriller editor with the eye of an eagle and the skill of a surgeon. She goes beyond copy and line editing to target even the most elusive content issues. A pleasure to work with—highly recommended.”

~ Lynn Sholes & Joe Moore, Dec. 2012, #1 Amazon and international bestselling authors of The Phoenix Apostles and The Grail Conspiracy

Jodie’s blogs: 

Resources for Writers (offering advice to fiction writers since 2010; also The Kill Zone (alumna); Crime Fiction Collective (alumna)

Click here to visit Jodie on Facebook and Twitter

Jodie Renner’s Amazon Author Page

Click on the EDITING tab for more info on Jodie’s editing process and fees.

Please click on the REVIEWS tab to read testimonials from authors on my editing and critiques.

For more information about Jodie, visit the About Jodie page.

Let’s work together to enhance and empower your writing — and get your book published!