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Monthly blog posts about writing, editing, and publishing
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Every format of a published book needs an individual ISBN. Although you can acquire one for free through sources like Amazon KDP, there are benefits to purchasing your own.
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How to get an ISBN in Canada
Every format of a published book needs an individual ISBN. Although you can acquire one through sources like Amazon KDP, there are benefits to applying for your own (plus, in Canada, it’s free!).
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What A Literary Agent Wants Writers to Know
I asked a literary agent to sit down for an interview—an anonymous one, so they could speak with full frankness: How do you impress a literary agent? What are they really looking for in a query? In a manuscript? What…
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What it’s Like to Work with a Professional Book Editor
So you’re considering having your manuscript edited, but it’s a daunting decision to make. I know I can’t fully erase the anxiety that goes with handing your book over to someone else, but I hope that I can ease it…
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How to Become an Editor in Canada
In Canada, there are a few routes you can take to an editorial career, involving a bachelor’s degree (or relevant work experience), continuing education programs and workshops, internships, and optional certification.
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Writing a Rhyming Picture Book that Publishers Actually Want
In today’s publishing landscape, rhyme is usually reserved for specific kinds of picture books. What’s more, it’s difficult to get right. Let’s dig into your questions: What kinds of picture books should rhyme? How long should a rhyming book be?…
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Why Your Picture Book Manuscript Got Rejected
Before I was a freelance editor, I worked in house and was often the first pair of eyes reviewing manuscripts. Frequently, I knew within a few lines that a picture book manuscript wasn’t going to be suitable.
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The REAL way to handle “said” when writing dialogue
You’ve been taught the wrong approaches to deal with the too-frequent use of the word said in written dialogue. Having too little variety in your dialogue tags is only a symptom of a deeper underlying issue: too little variety in…
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Find Comp Titles Faster with These Publishing-Industry Tools
The same advice is often given over and over to querying authors who are seeking comp titles: talk to librarians and independent booksellers, and leverage recommendations from Goodreads and Amazon. As a publishing professional, I can suggest some tools to…
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Juvenile Fiction: Understanding Lower Middle Grade, Upper Middle Grade, Chapter Books, and More
New sub-categories of juvenile fiction keep emerging to help kids find the right books for every developmental stage. We can break them into two main groups: simple chapter books for emerging readers, and more complex middle grade novels for independent…
Erin Alladin 