How to carry out a developmental edit of your book?
I discuss how to carry out a developmental edit of your non-fiction book, touching upon what developmental editing is, its purpose and its four components: content, structure, clarity and flow.
How to structure a non-fiction book?
In this post, I walk you through how to structure a non-fiction book, starting with the working outline of the content, then the introduction, conclusion and, of course, all the chapters in between.
How to write a non-fiction book proposal?
This post opens the series of guides for non-fiction authors (academic and non-narrative non-fiction writers will find it most useful); it discusses how to prepare to write a book proposal and what it should include when you finally sit down to it.
How to use inclusive and bias-free language in scientific writing?
Writing inaccurately about age, disability and disease, race and ethnicity and sex and gender may create bias and be offensive or dehumanising. In this post, I discuss how to use accurate language in a scientific setting to report the findings while describing people involved respectfully and without bias.
How to ask for constructive feedback on your writing?
At some point, asking for feedback on your writing is inevitable, and more so, indispensable. Bringing in an outside perspective can enrich the text and generate ideas for improvement. In this post, I address how to avoid the unhelpful and instead ask (and receive) constructive feedback on your writing.
How to reduce word count?
Taking a step back and looking critically at one’s work is always challenging, so in this post I discuss how to reducing word count with a proviso. My intention is that nonfiction, academic, business and popular science authors, writers and bloggers will find the following tips helpful when exceeding the word limit without reducing the content or sacrificing the correctness, clarity and cohesion.
How to improve the readability of text?
There are lessons that writers can learn from the digital community to promote their books online, reach and interact with the readers and, above all, improve their prose. Read this post to learn how to use content writers’ readability strategies and make your text clearer.
A cheat sheet for self-publishing authors
Here’s a cheat sheet of the main elements of the self-publishing workflow that writers should consider ahead of time. Below I discuss each key process that comprises the self-publishing cycle, along with some practical information and pointers to helpful resources.
What mistakes will the spellchecker not find?
Spellcheckers are great tools for easy and quick fixes. But you should not depend on them as the only method of correcting your text. Since they do not consider content, style, target audience and many other elements that influence language, they have a minimal scope. Let me show you some most common examples of mistakes (but there are many more!) that will slip through the spellcheckers’ cracks.
5 easy tricks to polish your writing
There are several ways to improve your text before it undergoes editorial intervention. In this blog post, I walk you through a few simple tweaks that do not require you to have particularly savvy computer skills or knowledge of the editorial practice.
