Writer Spotlight: Shannon Dittemore

There’s this idea that once you sign your first contract, that’s it, you’re in! You’ve found a publisher and now you get to write stories with them forever. But the industry changes and publishers get bought out; the marketing support you hoped for gets lost in the shuffle, and then sales aren’t what they should be. And like that, you’re on the outside looking in once more. What do you do when the reality of publishing doesn’t quite live up to your dream of being a published author?

The Writer’s Toolbox: Critiques, Developmental Edits, and Copyedits

One of the things I’ve discovered that writers struggle most with when looking at hiring an editor is trying to figure out what sort of help their manuscript needs. Terms like “substantive edit” and “developmental edit” and “proofreading” and “copyediting” can be confusing if you don’t know what they mean. This can be especially challenging…