Be Your Own Editor: A Writer's Guide to Perfect Prose
Sigrid Macdonald
CreateSpace
Nonfiction, Writing
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Description
Any author knows that editing makes all the difference in writing, be it an Internet article or a multivolume epic. But hiring a professional editor can be time-consuming and costly. Learn how to edit your own works with this guide, written by a professional editor.
Review
As the title implies, this eBook offers advice from an expert, covering everything from punctuation and grammar to structure and content. Macdonald's tips work for fiction and nonfiction alike, no matter the length or intended market. She even offers a timely section on e-mail etiquette, as well as a chapter on when it's okay to set your inner editor aside. A fast read, the advice seems sound. My only real complaint is with the formatting of the eBook edition; Macdonald should have been able to link her footnotes, instead of sticking in distracting, unlinked numbers. (At the very least, she might have put footnotes at the end of the relevant chapter, instead of shoving them all at the end - long past the point when I remembered just which note went with which section.) All in all, this is a handy guide for any writer.