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

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

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

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