Category: Editing and writing

Bill was thinking about a mid-life career switch and wondered if publishing might be the right thing for him. He knew conventional wisdom says that you should move into expanding industries. But since he likes books and ideas, editing came to mind. So we talked.
Continue reading “Authors Are Like Pioneers. Editors Are Like Settlers.”

When I was young, a movie was based on a novel, a lecture was based on research and a joke was based on current events. But now movies are based off novels, lectures are based off research and jokes are based off current events.
Continue reading “Based on Past Experience”

Charlie Hummel was president of Barrington College for ten years, director of faculty ministry for InterVarsity for another fourteen years and the author of several IVP books. While his most famous IVP title is Tyranny of the Urgent which has sold over a million copies, he also wrote several larger tomes including Fire in the Fireplace and The Galileo Connection.
Continue reading “Faithful Are the Wounds”

With short attention spans growing shorter due to so many distractions from iPhones, social media and our own to-do lists, how do writers keep readers with them all the way to the end?
Continue reading “One Way to Keep Readers Reading”

When I was new to the editing game, just a green, wide-eyed youth, my already grizzled boss, Jim Sire, told me, “When editing something, you can almost always improve it by throwing away the first three paragraphs.” It’s a bit of wisdom I’ve carried with me and applied many times for over thirty-five years.
Continue reading “Wisdom from a Grizzled Editor”

At the end of last month Postmedia Network, Canada’s largest newspaper publisher, announced layoffs that targeted copyeditors. The next day, Canada’s National Post published a crossword puzzle that was completely filled in.
Continue reading “Don’t Tick Off Your Copyeditor”

I know how to edit print. Been doing it all my life. But what are the differences when editing digital content? That’s something I’ve been giving thought to.
Continue reading “Editing an E-book”

One of Hungary’s great gifts to the United States was Joseph Pulitzer, founder of the Columbia School of Journalism and the Pulitzer Prize. On October 29 we mark the 100th anniversary of his death.
Continue reading “The Pulitzer Legacy”

How do you keep a reader reading? Inquiring writers and editors of nonfiction want to know. There are many ways to do so. No one single formula should always be employed, but one that many writers and editors use effectively is to provide takeaway.

What’s takeaway?
Continue reading “Giving Them Takeaway”

Here is your proof.

(Thanks to Dave in Tucson for alerting me to this.)