All About Copy Editing: 55 Easy edits to improve your writing skills Forever

by K.J. Heritage, Kev Heritage (also writing as)

Want to add punch to your prose? Follow these 55 simple edits and improve your writing forever!

Getting readers past page one, despite your ‘explosive, fast paced hitting-the-ground-running opening’, is what this guide is all about.

Applying the 55 easy editing steps to your fiction will allow reviewers and readers to evaluate your novel purely on the strength of your story and not on clumsy and weak prose, overuse of adverbs, repetition, and flabbiness. And in the process, you will learn to become an experienced and competent editor.

Use these 55 steps to:
Find redundant adjectives and overused adverbs
Banish boring words
Learn dialogue writing
Write characters more effectively
Discover over thirty overused words and phrases such as that, it, up/down, was/were, had, even, got, etc.
Reduce overuse of exclamations and the ellipsis
Use italics, quotations, and capitalisation properly
Target word pairs and homophones
Improve your proofreading and editing skills
Handle numbers and time effectively

...And discover more about flow, show not tell, writing tenses, dialogue handling and more.

All About Copyediting will not tell you how to write a novel, nor how to write like Tolstoy, or any other author. It will certainly not explain how to write bestselling fiction, how to make money, or guarantee you marketing success. What it will guarantee, is to give your novel the best chance it can get in a tough, competitive, and new publishing world.

Genres: Writing

Kindle Edition

First published June 7, 2013

About the author

"K.J.Heritage's uncanny sense of pacing and story puts him at the forefront of today's speculative fiction writers." Samuel Peralta, Amazon bestselling author and creator of The Future Chronicles

TO ENJOY a K.J.Heritage starter book of his short stories and more, join his Mostly Reader's Club at: http://kjheritage.com/join/

I'D LIKE to thank you for visiting my page. I’ve been amazed by the reaction to my novels and stories, and by the many emails, tweets and posts (not all abuse!) I've received since my first release. In many ways, it’s a dream come true, to write, publish and get such wonderful feedback.

A BIT more about me...

I'M AN international bestselling author mostly writing mystery sci-fi, crime and fantasy.

I WRITE books that I love to read. From science fiction action and adventure mysteries to contemporary thrillers and paranormal fantasy.

MY FIRST sci-fi short story, ‘ESCAPING THE CRADLE’ was runner-up in the 2005 Clarke-Bradbury International Science Fiction Competition.

MY STORIES have appeared in several anthologies with such self-publishing sci-fi luminaries as Hugh Howey, Samuel Peralta and Michael Bunker.

I HAVE worked all the requisite ‘writer jobs' such as driver's mate, factory gateman, barman, labourer, telesales operative, sales assistant, warehouseman, IT contractor, Student Union President, university IT helpdesk guy, British Rail signal software designer, premiership football website designer, gigging musician, graphic designer, stand-up comedian, sound engineer, improv artist, magazine editor and web journo... Although I don't like to talk about it. Mostly.

I WAS born in the UK in one of the more interesting previous centuries. Originally from Derbyshire, I now live in the seaside town of Brighton. I am a tea drinker, avid Twitterer, and autistic (ASD) human being.

FOR ALL media enquiries, event/booking information, signed copies, etc. please email: contact@kjheritage.com

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, is this a helpful book? Yes, I think that it has some good advice for authors when self-editing their books.

But this book is also an example of what not to do--meaning that it suffers from a lack of proofreading. Obvious typos throughout the book should have been caught and fixed. For example, "There are countless resources to find this out this information." The first "this" should not be there.

That example brings me to another point: this book doesn't always follow its own rules. For example, the "there are" construction is one of the 55 edits to remove (as it creates a weak sentence), yet "there are" and "there is" constructions are used in multiple places throughout the book.

And a couple of statements in the book are flat out incorrect. For example, this sentence is used: "John had a feeling Bill was watching him." The author states that the use of "had" in this sentence is the Deep Past (pluperfect) tense. But that is not true. This sentence is simple past--"had" here is used as the past tense of "have." For this sentence to be in pluperfect, it would need to be written as "John had had a feeling Bill was watching him."

Finally, the biggest grievance of them all: "Jane Austin"? Really? Come on. It was almost enough to make me stop reading the book in the first chapter but I decided to give it another chance (and then found Jane "Austin" used again in a later chapter. Argh!).

[Dixie Conley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title leads me to believe that this guide is essential to being a successful independent author. I can agree with that -- if by essential, you mean, the ABCs are essential to learning English.

While the book's tips are useful, they're also the same tips everyone gives you about writing. Perhaps the most useful thing about this book is that each hint has one or more examples, as well as suggestions on what to correct in your novel.

However, an experienced writer who has had any education in how to write well would not need this guide.

I received an electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Jay Storey · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extremely useful guide for editing manuscripts, written as a set of editing tips. Some of them I already knew, some I knew, but the book shed new light on their importance, some were new to me, and I was glad to be made aware of them.

I'm sure I'll be referring to this book for many years to come. Highly recommended.

[C.M. Skiera · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent little guide that works great as a checklist for polishing your novel. Succinct with just enough examples to get the point across, this book not only tells you how to edit your manuscript, but why you should do it.

[Garfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is great for anyone who wants to make their writing more enticing. Whether you're trying to publish your first novel or you want to improve the way you present your final drafts, this book is for you. It's easy to read and concise. It helps you through the process without trying to stir you into using a certain language. This is a guide to writing better and having a better flow of the words so you're book can be described as "easy to read" and your story can be more easily followed. It can be a great gift for writers that are just starting. I recommend it for anyone who wants to improve the final impression on their work. It made me want to start writing and catching the flaws of my book.

I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book.

[Amber Christiansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I don't think using this guide would make a professional editor unnecessary, I think it is pretty helpful. There are a few places where I think more clarification about why would be better. For example, I don't understand why it's suggested to replace the word however with multiple words, especially when a lot of the other edits involved removing excess words. To me, however seems like a perfectly normal word to use and the other versions feel off. But in general, I think this works as a useful guide. I like that it is short and easy to read.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review, but my opinions are my own.

[Kirsten McNeill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too simplistic for me.

This book may be good if you need a quick guide for some general editing tips.I found the author to be very negative towards the reader continually talking about "bad" writing which can get very discouraging if you're still learning. The examples were very surface level and the author even said himself multiple times how the examples weren't that good. He used very flowery language and not a lot of exploration on how an edit can be useful and improved on. There were a few good grammar tips on here, but it's mostly just a list of words you might consider deleting from your manuscript.

[Chris Kora · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a perfect must read for all of the people that want to write a fiction book and need assistance with copyediting. It has valuable information and tips that will help any writer.

It goes deep in explaining why it suggests the tips it suggests, overused words, common mistakes and misused words and their differences, suggestions for time (present vs past), suggestions for numbers, tips for dialogues, when to use italics and many many many more tips.

I received a free ARC copy of this book but that did not affect my review in any way.

[Trixie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found myself laughing while I am reading this book because I am guilty of the things the author describes. It’s seems simple but it’s the truth and they made a lot is sense and the examples shows the difference between the “old” and the “new”.

I may not be a novel writer but I can certainly used the tips offered here in writing my reports.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Eliza · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice reference guide with plenty of good clear examples that can trip writers up.
I would recommend this to new and younger writers, creative students and ESL learners looking to elevate their skills

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I give this book 4.5 stars because there was a lot of good in this book that I will definitely use for editing my books in the future. I liked that it was so easy and not hard to understand at all

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I voluntarily reviewed an arc of this book.

Wow, there is plenty to process in this book, quick and easy to follow, definitely makes you realize how often you use repetitive words. Definitely an eye opening educational read.

[Thomas Kung · Rating 5 out of 5]

the essential guide to editing your work, before anyone else is subjected to your raw manuscript. very helpful tips and tricks to navigate you through the darkness that editing can be. a must have for any author or editor

[Frank Arundell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great tool

Every writer should scan this book before giving to their editor. It saves time and effort. I keep it handy.

[Juli · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s hard to take this book seriously when the author doesn’t spell Jane Austen’s name correctly.
Many times too.

[Gyula · Rating 4 out of 5]

Go Sub Yourself is a useful book on how to avoid lazy writing. It's condensed, straight to the point, without unnecessary ranting about writing - what other books sometimes do. It's a kind of handbook you come back to. I highlighted the summaries at the end of the chapters, and made a nice checklist what to watch out for when editing.
I have read or heard of two thirds of the subs (see Kev, I already use italics to emphasize), but it doesn't make them less important. If you are new to editing I certainly recommend this book. If you aren't you still easily can compose a useful checklist for yourself as I did.

[Graham Kershaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this last year and have since used it to edit one of my novels, yet again. Despite good advice to the contrary I was, and am, determined to put my novels online – and in printed form without involving professionals. ‘Go Sub Yourself’ – which I believe has since been renamed and re-vamped – was a terrific help to me with that tricky subject: - self-editing.

Working through these subs has sharpened my writing considerably. I found it difficult at times but ploughed on, and am glad I did. No doubt I’ve missed or have misunderstood something or other, but on the whole ‘Go Sub Yourself’ has, and will probably continue to be a necessary part of my writing from now on.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great reference for anyone who writes. The author seems to have done a thorough job of identifying possible snags that make one's writing less than stellar. How to find these snags in your writing and what to do to correct them (rather than thinking spellcheck is the answer!) is the important message.
I will keep this as a reference, for sure.