RESOURCES
Useful Resources for Writers and Editors
The amount of information available on the topic of working with the written word can feel overwhelming. Here's a tiny taste of some of my favourite resources.
Books
The Elements of Style William Strunk Jr. & E. B. White
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain George Saunders
The Art of Writing Fiction Andrew Cowan
On Editing Helen Corner-Bryant & Kathryn Price
Websites
The Empowered Author site is so useful and the newsletter is great too, with excellent links.
https://theempoweredauthor.com
Louise Harnby is Chair of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading and her website has lots of helpful information for both freelance editors and writers. www.louiseharnbyproofreader.com
Jane Friedman's website and newsletter are packed with interesting publishing and writing know-how. https://janefriedman.com
If you're a writer who would like to understand more about publishing contracts, try this site: https://alexsbradshaw.com
Industry news can be found at www.bookbrunch.co.uk.
Blogs
PDF mark-up can feel very clunky compared to a traditional paper mark-up. That’s partly because currently there’s no one single accepted methodology for editors, typesetters/designers and publishing houses. Here’s a useful introduction to the topic from the Publishing Training Centre website.
On introductory copyediting courses, students often ask me whether or not to italicise a character's thoughts. Here's a blog post from Jane Friedman's website that gives some context to that decision.
New writers and editors might find author and website designer Charlotte Duckworth’s blogs interesting and enlightening. Here she shares 5 mistakes I made after getting a book deal.
If you need to hire a freelancer – whether that's an editor, designer, publicist or anyone else – this article (Jane Friedman again) is a useful reminder that there's no 'one-size-fits-all'.
Podcasts and Substack are also rich seams of information – writers, editors and publishers share knowledge generously. I love the podcast Write-Off. Journalist and writer Francesca Steele interviews a whole host of (now) successful authors about their experiences of being rejected. Rejection is an unavoidable part of a writing career and it’s fascinating to hear how different bestselling authors deal with it.
There are so many good Substacks packed with treasure and insights it can be hard to know where to start. Please do follow me on Substack as though I'm not very active on the platform I do share great newsletters/posts that I come across. Agents + Books (Kate McKean) and Publishing Confidential (Kathleen Schmidt) are both excellent publications.
Organisations
The Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) promotes excellence in English language editing. www.ciep.uk
Jericho Writers https://jerichowriters.com
The National Centre for Writing https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/writing-hub/
The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) is a global membership association for self-publishing authors. Their mission is ‘ethics and excellence in self-publishing’. I am an author member of ALLi and have found their advice and support invaluable. If you join after clicking on the link below I will receive a commission (at no cost to you).
Book a session with me
If you have a manuscript you would like to reach readers but you’re not sure how to go about it, you can book an hour’s online one-to-one consultancy session with me.
I will read 3000 words of your work in advance of our conversation. Then we can talk through the options based on what your project/book is and what you are trying to achieve.
Topics we might cover include: stages of editing; traditional publishing (pitching and querying); self-publishing. We can work through what these involve so that you can decide on the best next steps for you and your manuscript.
Reading recommendations
Find some of my favourite poetry books, guides and inspirations on the Poetry Pharmacy's store on Bookshop.org.