Book Editing Tips | Self-Publishing Review

How To Get An Agent For My Book – Part One: The Submission Letter

Thousands of writers submit their books to literary agents every year, but only very few are chosen. Why is this, and how can you give yourself the best chance?

Part One: The Submission Letter

Literary Agents are jumpy as all hell. Slip up on one aspect of your submission and you’re written off forever. Sounds dramatic, but it’s true. Agents are like this because they get literally hundreds of crappy submissions every week. They can only sign one or two people a year. That is why you must follow their submission guidelines to the letter because they will probably only […]

Cate Baum2020-08-25T05:19:05+02:00August 18th, 2020|Categories: Features|Tags: Book Editing Tips, Book Promotion Articles|

Ten Reasons Your Book Is Not Ready To Publish

You’ve had the line edit and worked on the notes your editor gave you. You’ve had the manuscript proofread. Then why is the biggest issue with self-published books is that they get published too early in the process? Editor Cate Baum gives you ten reasons why your book may not be as ready as you think it is.

Lately, I have been editing books for authors who have already paid for edits, some with reputable editors. I have seen a sharp rise in remedial edit work coming my way. The issue is that their edits just were not aggressive enough, […]

Cate Baum2019-05-14T10:48:51+02:00May 14th, 2019|Categories: Features|Tags: Book Editing Tips|

Self-Publishing: What Not to Do

There is some degree of impatience that goes along with self-publishing. Why wait around for a publisher when you can have a book now? That’s one of the bigger fallacies of the industry, because if you choose to do everything yourself it can (and should) be more work. Writers are still driven to cut corners because it can be so difficult to handle every side of the business. So long as you understand there’s difficulty every step of the way, you will hopefully give each step in the process the attention it deserves.

Here’s a primer on the common […]

SPR2020-02-21T03:47:02+02:00April 18th, 2019|Categories: Features, Resources|Tags: Book Cover Design Tips, Book Editing Tips, Book Formatting Tips, Book Promotion Articles, Writing Tips|

Self-Editing Your Book And Why It’s A Bad Idea

It’s tempting to convince yourself, as a native speaker of the language you just wrote a book in, proffering your English degree perhaps, that you are in fact exactly the right person to edit your own book. What does it mean to have your book edited, and why is it that nobody can edit their own words? Editor Cate Baum discusses.

Your brain literally cannot do it

You’ve heard the phrase “wood for the trees.” This is precisely what happens to you when you try to re-read words you have written and read many times over. Instead of actually making […]

Cate Baum2017-08-21T08:07:10+02:00August 21st, 2017|Categories: Features|Tags: Book Editing Tips|

Authors – Use This Cunning Trick To Protect Your Book From Plagiarism!

There’s a clever way to find your pirated book online if you follow this simple trick, sometimes used by dictionary and reference book publishers. All you have to do is use a Mountweasel.

Yes, that’s right. A Mountweasel. A Mountweasel is a made-up word that is unique to you, and makes it entirely easy to Google your book’s contents to see if has been pirated or plagiarized. Lillian Mountweasel was a fountain designer and postbox photographer whose fame was eternalized in the 1975 New Columbia Encyclopedia. The thing was, she was fake, and entirely a Mountweasel herself!

The word Mountweasel […]

Cate Baum2016-12-13T08:20:51+02:00December 13th, 2016|Categories: Features|Tags: Book Editing Tips, Copyright for Authors|

A Conversation With EAC Past President and Publaunch Founder Greg Ioannou

Greg Ioannou is the past president of The Editors’ Association of Canada, and has been editing books for almost 40 years. He’s also president of Iguana Books, a hybrid publishing company in Toronto. Cate Baum talks editing, eggcorns, English, and about Greg’s new crowdfunding platform for authors, Publaunch.com.

What’s your background in editing?
I’ve been a freelance editor since 1977. I’ve worked on books, magazines, government and corporate documents, board games … pretty much anything that’s editable.

Tell us about The EAC.
The Editors’ Association of Canada held its first formative meeting in 1978, and started up […]

Cate Baum2016-05-27T02:06:45+02:00May 25th, 2016|Categories: Interviews|Tags: Book Editing Tips|

What Exactly Is Excellence in Editing?

Cate Baum laments the human condition of a humble editor and the unwavering indie author who demands 100%.

When I proofread for authors, sometimes, not often, (most of my authors are lovely) a client will come back to me declaring my gross ineptitude.

I ask what the issue is, and the answer always goes something like this, “After you edited my book I found x number of errors you didn’t catch!”

This accusatory tone, and the certain list of errors “I missed” lasts a few emails before I give a perfunctory nod of sorts, and try to explain proofreading statistics, […]

Cate Baum2016-02-01T16:12:57+02:00February 1st, 2016|Categories: Features|Tags: Book Editing Tips|

Ten Easy Steps To Get your E-Book Ready For Editing

As an independent author, there’s no getting away from the fact you will need to get your e-book edited professionally by the sort of editor who knows the differences between e-book and print book. However, these quick ten steps will help you prepare your book for the edit and final publication early on in the process. This is a ragbag of formatting and grammar tips, but trust me, your e-book editor will love you forever if you prep your book this way!

1. Strip out styles and fancy formatting

E-books don’t need styles manually applied in Word. The first thing […]

Cate Baum2015-12-08T06:28:48+02:00December 8th, 2015|Categories: Features|Tags: Book Editing Tips|