Including dialogue in your memoir is a great way to bring those pages to life and add authenticity to your account. While the topic of memory and conversations in memoir is important to consider, this post focuses solely on the mechanics of punctuation in the dialogue, covering the basics to get you started. Where does the comma go? When do you use capital letters? What’s a dialogue tag? You’ll have the answer to these very questions by the end of this post! Certainly one t

Yes, I am mentioning Christmas in August. But seeing as Christmas is a popular deadline for launching books (who doesn’t love getting a book for Christmas?), let’s see what’s involved to get your book published for Christmas. I imagine you’re thinking that August to Christmas gives you LOADS of time for publishing, but if Christmas is a deadline you’re working towards, there are several factors to consider. While I am referring to self-publishing your book in time for Christm

When you’re writing a book, at some point you will need to review its structure. This approach varies from writers who do this at the very start of their book process and continue refining it as they write their book, to those who just start writing with a very loose agenda. A well-structured book is crucial to its readability: too much jumbling and flitting from one point to the next and your reader will have a hard time keeping up – at worst they will stop reading the boo

Think of this as my take on the National Trust’s ‘50 things to do before your turn 11¾’, but for 40-year-olds. And backwards. Most people set themselves a list of things to do before turning a certain age, and then set out to achieve it, but this isn’t one of those lists. This is me looking back on my 40 years on this planet and cataloguing what I’ve achieved, without even realising it. Me at 40 I’ve tried not to turn this into a list of brags, but I also don’t want to shy

I’m going to start by saying working with an editor doesn’t mean you’re a terrible writer or you are failing with your book. All the best authors out there work with an editor (just take a look at the acknowledgements: the editor(s) is often one of the first people an author thanks!). Taking that first step to work with an editor is a huge one, so well done if you’re thinking about working with an editor to shape and hone your book. Having your book professionally edited wi

Copyediting is your book’s final edit. It’s the line-by-line edit that amends any grammatical or spelling errors, and makes revisions to improve flow and readability. This means once you receive your book back from the copyeditor, you are expected to focus on which revisions you agree with, rewriting or deleting huge chunks of your book. Once your book has been copyedited, the next stages in the publishing process are typesetting (formatting your manuscript into a book) and

When you think about punctuation, do you ever think this applies to bullet points? It took me a while to love copyediting bullet points. I used to get easily flustered by the varying options for punctuating them, especially when the style guide for punctuating bullet points is down to me (as I work with self-publishing authors). But I’ve now honed my bullet point punctuation, so punctuating bullet points is something I now look forward to! Now I’m sharing my perfected pun

Knowing you want to write and publish a book is one thing, working out how to get your book published is another. These days, there are three routes to publishing your book: 1. Traditional 2. Self-publishing 3. Hybrid There is no ‘right’ way to publish your book. It all depends on the goals for your writing and book, along with your lifestyle and spare time (I know, I know, what’s that??). I advise you go through each of the publishing options in turn

Do you write the book you want, or the one you think you should? I hadn’t planned it this way, but the start of a new year (January 2026) is a natural time to think about writing or publishing a book. New year, new goals might be a bit of a cliché, but we just can’t help setting new or revised goals for the year, and for many aspiring authors, this will be the year you write your book. But before you start on chapter one, there’s an important question to consider: are you g

It’s back for 2025! My book wrap-up of the year, where I share my favourite books from the past year (December 2024 to November 2025) and come up with my own awards for certain categories. I share this at this time of year for anyone wondering what to add to their own book Christmas wish list or if you’re wondering which book to buy someone for Christmas this year. The great thing about my list (I know, I’m so modest) is that these are all books I’ve read in 2025, not books

When it comes to publishing your book, I bet you’ve heard of editors (hi!), book cover designers, proofreaders, and marketers. But have you heard of beta readers? You’re not alone if you haven’t. Most first-time authors I speak to haven’t heard of beta readers, but it’s something I recommend any self-publishing author adds to their publication timeline. By the end of this blog post, you'll know: - What a beta reader is - Why you should use beta r

Self-publishing is a tricky balance between rushing and procrastinating. It’s all about setting realistic deadlines and understanding how long each part of the publishing process takes, such as how long editing a book takes. Once you’ve found a book editor you want to work with, you need to work out when your manuscript will be ready for editing. Submit it too soon, and you’ll end up paying for extra services like more time needed on the first round or paying for additional

Microsoft Word is still regarded as the industry standard for writing and editing. There’s nothing to stop you using the likes of Google docs or Apple’s Pages, but they won’t have the full capability offered by Microsoft Word. However, it’s important to stress here that writing and editing is not the same as publishing. When it comes to formatting and getting content ready to publish, you need to remember that Microsoft Word is a word processor. So it’s top dog for writing

Self-publishing a top-quality book involves more than just writing great content. One crucial element that could make all the difference to producing a professional and polished book is including the right front and back matter – from the contents page to the acknowledgements, and how to get those wonderful reviews for your front cover. Executing this with finesse will elevate your book so it’s on an equal footing with traditionally published books. This blog post will guide

The amount of time it takes to self-publish your book will depend on many factors, including word count, budget, and deadline. One element that is constantly underestimated is how long it takes to edit a book. That’s why understanding what’s involved in the editing process from final draft to published book is imperative for self-publishing authors. The editing process is the longest stage of self-publishing a book (after writing it, of course!) Knowing exactly what’s involve

Have you ever wondered when you’re supposed to use digits and when to write out numbers in non-fiction? Perhaps this isn’t something you’ve considered before, but now you’re wondering whether your manuscript contains an unintentional mixture of the two and you have no idea how to put it right. I can help with that! I’ll guide you through the standard principles for how to write numbers in non-fiction − with a special section dedicated to memoir. Why am I treating memoir

A global running magazine recently ran a blog post (no pun intended, but let’s go with it) that recommended 9 books all about running. Brilliant! I can’t get enough books about running. Then I spotted that only ONE book was written by a woman. So now I present 12 books about running, ALL written by women. These are 12 books that I have on my bookshelves – there are countless other books out there! They’re presented in the order I got them off the shelf because they're all

Autobiography is not the same as memoir I’ve noticed a growing trend with celebrities writing ‘memoir’ when they really mean ‘autobiography’. I imagine this is because it sounds more literary or even trendy to say memoir rather than autobiography. Before I go into the detail of the differences between an autobiography and memoir, let me clarify one crucial point. There is nothing wrong with writing an autobiography! If you’ve written an autobiography, then call it that (said

Does your writing bank comprise various blog posts, journal entries, letters, sheaves of thoughts and notes? And are you now struggling to come with some sort of structure or arc to turn these into a book? One option is to STOP forcing this content into some sort of structure and instead let its power come from the composition, message, and intention of each entry. There are two further options within this approach: 1) turn them into a book of essays or letters 2) create a hy

3 news stories that prove you need to write and publish your book NOW Did you say that in 2024 you’d write a book, but never finished it? Perhaps you got a little further: you finished the first draft but then convinced yourself there’s no point publishing. I’ll bet you’ve told yourself a whole host of reasons why you shouldn’t publish. “Self-published books never do well”; “I’m too old or young to be writing a book”; “no one will want to read it”; “it doesn’t fit into a spe