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  • The Importance and Limitations of Beta Readers

    So you’re feeling good about your current draft. It’s shiny, you’ve corrected the most glaring goofs, and you’re ready to move forward. But before you make any big decisions, consider farming out to beta readers. A great beta reader can give you an early preview of how your intended audience might react to and evaluate…

  • 8 Ways to Vet Potential Editors

    A self-published writer recently confessed that while he doesn’t mind investing in a good editor, he finds it difficult to determine what constitutes a “good editor” before writing the check. I get it. Why fork over hundreds or thousands of dollars to someone who will only skim your work and correct glaring grammatical errors? Why…

  • What type of editing do you need?

    In early 2014 I attended (and accidentally helped lead) a freelance editing panel at ConFusion. The indie authors understood they probably needed an editor to move forward, but they weren’t entirely sure what they’d be paying for. It became clear that each of us—aspiring authors and seasoned editors alike—defined editing differently. “What’s the difference between…

  • What’s in a name?

    Like many children of the 1980s, I grew up playing Nintendo. I started out with a small stack of mother-approved game cartridges that included Excitebike, Super Mario Bros., Final Fantasy, and Tetris. If left to my own devices, I'd spend hours parked in front of the TV until inevitably, my mother would appear and shoo me outside. I…