A BLOG FOR EDITORS, PROOFREADERS AND WRITERS

This free booklet offers one example of how an editor or proofreader might approach testing which pricing model works best for their editing and proofreading business.

I discuss how and why I collect data, and the macro and micro insights I've gained that have helped me to grow my editorial income stream.

Hope you find it useful!

Click on the image above to download your copy.

There's a new podcast in town ... or there will be in January 2019! And it's all about editing and writing for indie authors.

What is it and who is it for?
Editing your book is essential, whether you do it yourself or work with a pro. This podcast will explore ways in which independent authors can make their publishing journeys easier.

If you want to learn how to improve your writing and self-editing with tips, tools and guidance, The Editing Podcast is for you.

Who are the hosts?
Denise Cowle and Louise Harnby are your hosts. We thought it would be fun to have two of us talking with each other rather than one of us talk at you. 

Plus, we have different but complementary specialist experience, which means we can cover more topics with authority.

​Why should you bother listening?
Because we really do know what we're talking about!

• We're experienced professional editors who've edited millions of words in fiction and non-fiction.
• We're Advanced Professional Members of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders.
• We're champions of independent publishing, although we both have extensive experience of working with mainstream publishers too.
• We provide training for fellow editors to help them improve their skills and grow their editorial businesses.

We have a lot in common! Having said that, our editing passions have gone in different directions. Denise is a non-fiction editor while Louise is a fiction specialist. That means we can ensure the episodes are balanced, and of value to indie authors regardless of subject or genre.

What we'll be talking about
We currently have over 50 topics lined up for discussion. Here's a selection that will give you a flavour of what's in the pipeline:

• The different levels of editing and the order of play
• The benefits of working with a professional editor
• How much pro editing costs, and how you can save money
• Self-editing tools
• Style manuals: what they are and how you should use them
• Common problems in beginner writing and how to solve them
• Sample edits: costs, benefits and evaluation
• Style sheets: what to include and how to use them
• Working with editors from other countries: benefits and challenges
• Zombie rules: why what you were taught at school isn’t necessarily best for your writing.
• Spelling variations
• Formatting guidance based on industry standards
• The editing you need if you're working with an agent
• Publishing lingo explained

When and how often will we air?
Season 1 of The Editing Podcast will air weekly from January 2019.

Each season will include 10 standalone episodes of complementary topics. That means you can listen to them when you want and in the order of your choosing. 

You'll be able to access the podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, our Libsyn podcast page, and both our websites.
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Get in touch or subscribe
We’re really looking forward to making your writing and editing life easier! To stay in the loop, visit The Editing Podcast’s Facebook page and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

And if there's a problem you'd like us to solve on the podcast, get in touch.

If you're a first-time writer, working out which editorial services you need help with and what you can do yourself can be tricky. Is proofreading enough or do you need additional assistance? A key question is: How does your reader dance?

Here's a free PDF booklet that covers the key issues. In it, you'll find guidance on:

• The different levels of fiction editing: developmental editing, line editing, copyediting and proofreading
• Which services you might need: including thoughts from Silo series author Hugh Howey
• Your readers' perspective: are they free-wheelers or pedants, and how might this impact on reviews and sales?
• What's possible at proofreading stage: why your proofreader isn't a magician

Click on the image below to get your free copy.

If you're suffering from yet another dry spell, this free webinar will help you get editing and proofreading work in the next few days and weeks.

I'll show you 10 steps you can take to move out of famine mode quickly.

​Forget theory. This is all about doing ... step-by-step guidance on short-term fixes that will give you peace of mind in the now, and head space to dig deeper in the future.
​

• AUDIENCE: Editors and proofreaders whose cupboards are bare
• ​PRICE: Free
• RUNNING TIME: 46 mins
• ACCESS: Available instantly – no login or sign-up required
• WHAT YOU GET: Webinar and PDF resource sheet
• CAPTIONS: Subtitles/closed captions are included

​
Click on the button below to access the video and the PDF.

​This tutorial shows you a fast and free method to turn your video’s subtitles/closed captions into text that can be repurposed for blog posts and DIY transcripts.

There are 2 reasons you might want to do this:

1. To generate keyword juice for SEO purposes
2. To respect customer/client preferences

Using the subtitles files in your existing videos means you can create content in a written format without starting from scratch.

That saves you precious time, allowing you to focus your attention on creating words (if you’re an author) and amending them (if you’re a proofreader or editor).

I’ll look at those reasons in more detail below. First, here’s the video walk-through. The written instructions are underneath.

​Instructions

• Go to your YouTube channel and select CREATOR STUDIO, then click on your chosen video.
• Click on Subtitles/CC.
• Under the blue ADD NEW SUBTITLES OR CC button, click on the grey language button. This will open up your subtitles stream.
• Click on ACTIONS.
• Select .srt.
• Now go to your computer’s DOWNLOADS folder.
• Locate the .srt file and rename it with a .doc extension (e.g. captions.srt becomes captions.doc).
• Now double-click on the newly created Word doc.

Now you’re ready to edit the text. And you will need to edit it! As I’m sure you’re aware, we don’t speak like we write. I’m always shocked by how much I mumble, how fast I speak, and how non-standard my spoken grammar is when I see my speech in written form!

Furthermore, while even the auto-subtitles generated by YouTube are rather amazing given that they’re free, it’s no surprise that a lot can go wrong.

Still, the basics are there so we’re not starting with a blank page – the core written material is ready and waiting for us.

If you’re creating a transcript, you might decide to leave in some of the time stamps. This is useful if you want to enable people to return to the video and access key themes, or if there’s more than one speaker.

If you’re creating a blog post, here’s how to remove the extraneous information ...

Removing the junk
So this is a partial screenshot of a subtitles file:

Let’s get rid of the time stamps first.

• Open Word’s FIND/REPLACE tool (ctrl-h on a PC)
• Copy and paste the following string into the FIND WHAT field: ^#^#:^#^#:^#^#,^#^#^# --> ^#^#:^#^#:^#^#,^#^#^#
• Leave the REPLACE WITH field empty
• Click on the REPLACE ALL button

​Now your subtitles file looks like this:

Now let’s get rid of those stranded numbers above the main text, again using Word’s FIND/REPLACE tool.

• Place the following string into the FIND WHAT field: ^#^p
• Leave the REPLACE WITH field empty
• Click on the REPLACE ALL button

If your video is long, you’ll have double-digit numbers too. In that case, click the REPLACE ALL button again. If you have triple-digit numbers, you’ll need to repeat it once more!
​
Now your subtitles file looks like this:

​Now we can remove the extraneous paragraph returns. Again, we’re using Word’s FIND/REPLACE tool.

• Place the following string into the FIND WHAT field: ^p^p
• In the REPLACE WITH field, type a space
• Click on the REPLACE ALL button
• Now place the following string into the FIND WHAT field: ^p
• Leave the space in the REPLACE WITH field
• Click on the REPLACE ALL button
• To tidy up any final double spaces, type two spaces in the FIND WHAT field
• Leave the space in the REPLACE WITH field
• Click on the REPLACE ALL button
• If there are a few double spaces remaining, click REPLACE ALL again

​Now your subtitles file looks like this:

Now you can tidy up your text, and copy and paste it into the text editor on your website. There, you can introduce paragraphs, bullet points, headings and any supporting imagery for your blog article.

Now let’s return to why we might decide to do this.

Generating keyword juice for SEO purposes
Video is compelling. It allows our audience to see our faces and hear our voices. That intimacy can be compelling, and it’s a fast-track to building trust. That’s important for authors seeking to build a readership, and editors wanting to attract clients who need editing help.

However, there are no keywords in a video. Yes, YouTube is a search engine in its own right, but it’s not the first point of search for every member of our audience.

​By repurposing video as blog content, we’re increasing our chances of being found in the likes of Google and Bing too.

Being findable on multiple platforms makes sense in an online world that’s becoming noisier by the minute.

Respecting customer/client preferences
Not everyone wants to watch video, and even if they do, it’s not always the most convenient option. Imagine the following scenarios:

Our reader’s broadband speed is slow
A blog post will load faster than a video on those occasions that the internet seems to be creaking at the seams.

If we’ve solved a reader’s problem in our videos, but they can’t play those videos, they could become frustrated and go elsewhere. If we’ve offered a written alternative, we’re more likely to keep them on our websites.

Video is difficult to scan
Written content is easy to scan and digest quickly. That makes it attractive to busy people. If our visitors can’t work out whether we’ve solved their problem without watching a video in its entirety, we might lose them.

When we provide written content as well, we can quickly show them what’s on offer with headings and bullet points. Our readers can scan this information and decide whether to dig deeper.

Blog posts can be printed
Some people still like to print useful content so that they’re not reliant on digital means to access it. A video can’t be printed; a blog post can. Again, it’s about respecting what’s convenient for our readers, rather than focusing on our own preferences.

Other options
What I’ve offered here is a DIY solution for authors and editors who need to keep an eye on the purse strings when they're repurposing vlog content.

It’s the method I use when I’m starting with a video rather than a blog post. Plus, I rather enjoy the process. However, it’s not everyone’s bag.

If you have the budget, you can commission a professional transcriptionist or content repurposer. They’ll have the tools and expertise to create top-quality written content from video that fits your brand and voice.

Summing up
Editors and authors who are creating valuable content to make their books and editorial services visible can repurpose it in multiple ways. No one method trumps another – audio, video and words all have their place.

However, our audiences will have different preferences. What’s convenient today might not work tomorrow. Repurposing content allows us to respect those preferences.

The trick is to find shortcuts to that repurposing so that we’re not starting from scratch each time. This is one of them.

Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in helping self-publishing writers prepare their novels for market.
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She is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors, and runs online courses from within the Craft Your Editorial Fingerprint series. She is also an Advanced Professional Member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. Louise loves books, coffee and craft gin, though not always in that order.

​Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you're an author, take a look at Louise’s Writing Library and access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.

Here's a treat for PerfectIt users ... a custom style sheet that includes the find-and-replace strings in my free ebook, The Author's Proofreading Companion.

If the Companion has made your life easier, you'll love what my colleague Andrea Kay of Yours Truleigh Editing has done. Yep, she's upped the efficiency game for all of us by creating a custom style sheet that can be imported into PerfectIt.

Thank you so much, Andrea!

For those unfamiliar with either the software or the booklet, I've provided an overview of both, and the benefits of importing the style sheet.

Andrea's also created a style sheet for the Student Proofreading Toolkit. Double thanks!

Below that are the installation instructions and the ready-to-download files for the Companion and the Toolkit.

​How to import your style sheet
Importing the style sheet is a doddle, I promise, Follow the instructions and screenshots below. If PerfectIt is already installed, the process will take no longer than 20 seconds.

1. Unfortunately, I can't upload the files to Weebly, so I'm using my bot Lulu and delivering via Messenger.

​Click on the green button below. That will take you to a post on my Facebook page. There you can comment with the word 'perfect' and Lulu will send you the files. Click on each one to download to your device.

2. Once you've installed PerfectIt, open the Word document you want to check.
3. Launch PerfectIt.
​4. Click on Manage Styles.

5. Click on the Import button.

6. Select the pft from your device and click OK.

7. Click OK in the Manage Styles window.

8. Select the your pft from the Current Style drop-down box.

9. To run PerfectIt on your current Word document using the custom style sheet, press Start.

If you're not a PerfectIt user ...
If you're not yet ready to invest in PerfectIt but still want access to the find-and-replace strings and other tools in the ebooks, click on the images below. They'll take you to the download pages.

​They're free and you won't have to hand over any personal data to access it. Enjoy!

Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in helping self-publishing writers prepare their novels for market.
​
She is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors, and runs online courses from within the Craft Your Editorial Fingerprint series. She is also an Advanced Professional Member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. Louise loves books, coffee and craft gin, though not always in that order.

​Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you're an author, take a look at Louise’s Writing Library and access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.

How do you get fiction editing and proofreading work? This post offers some pointers for newbie freelancers, and experienced editors looking to shift specialisms.

1. Start with baseline training
To be fit for working in any editing discipline, fiction or otherwise, training is the foundation. Even if you’ve been devouring your favourite genres for years, you need to understand publishing-industry standards.

This isn’t about snobbery. It’s about serving the client honestly and well, especially the self-publisher, who might not have enough mainstream publishing knowledge to assess whether you’re capable of amending in a way that respects industry conventions.

It’s about the reader too. Readers are canny, and often wedded to particular genres. They’re used to browsing in bookshops and bingeing on their favourite authors. They have their own standards and expectations.

One of our jobs as editorial professionals is to ensure we have the skills to push the book forward, make it the best it can be, so that it’s ready for those readers and meets their expectations.

And so if you want to proofread or edit for fiction publishers and independent authors, high-quality editorial training isn’t a luxury: it’s the baseline.

What kind of training you need will depend on what services you plan to offer.

Courses
I recommend the Publishing Training Centre and the Society for Editors and Proofreaders for foundational copyediting and proofreading training. I’m based in the UK, and those are the two training suppliers I have experience of so I’m in a position to recommend them.

That doesn’t mean that other suppliers aren’t worth exploring. Rather, I don’t recommend what I haven’t tested. Keep an open mind. Check a range of suppliers and their course curricula. Then choose what suits your needs.
​

• Basic Proofreading: Editorial Skills One (Publishing Training Centre. Despite the word ‘Basic’, this is a comprehensive, flagship, industry-recognized course)
• Essential Copy-Editing: Editorial Skills Two (Publishing Training Centre)
• Proofreading 1–4 (Society for Editors and Proofreaders)
• Copy-editing 1–4 (Society for Editors and Proofreaders)
• See also this list of professional editorial societies; they’ll be able to advise you if you live outside the UK

If you want more information about how the PTC and SfEP courses compare, talk to the organizations’ training directors.

2. Decide which fiction editing services you want to offer
Some beginner self-publishers don’t understand the differences between the different levels of editing, which means they might ask for something that’s not in their best interests (e.g. a quick proofread even though the book hasn’t been critiqued, structurally edited, line- and copyedited).

It’s essential that the professional fiction editor is able to communicate which levels of editing they provide, and recommend what’s appropriate for the author.

That doesn’t mean the author will take the advice, but the editor must be able to articulate her recommendations so that independent authors can make informed decisions.

3. Invest in appropriate specialist fiction training
The next step is to gain skills and confidence with fiction editing and proofreading work. As with any type of editing, the kinds of things the editor will be amending, querying and checking will depend on whether the work is structural, sentence-based or pre-publication quality control.

When deciding what specialist fiction editing courses to invest in, bear in mind the following:

• Even if you have experience of developmental editing non-fiction, this skill will unlikely transition smoothly to story-level fiction editing without specialist training.
• Even if you’re an experienced sentence-level fiction editor, this skill will not make you fit to offer structural editing or critiquing without specialist training.

Courses and reading
Explore the following to assess whether they will fill the gaps in your knowledge. Check the curricula carefully to ensure that the modules focus on the types of fiction editing you wish to offer and provide you with the depth required to push you forward.
​

• Introduction to Fiction Editing (Society for Editors and Proofreaders; course)
• Developmental Editing: Fiction Theory (Sophie Playle, Liminal Pages; course)
• Developmental Editing: In Practice (Sophie Playle, Liminal Pages; course)
• Editing Fiction (Publishing Training Centre; introductory e-learning module)
• Introduction to Developmental Editing (Author–Editor Clinic; course)
• Write to be Published (Nicola Morgan; book)
• The Magic of Fiction (Beth Hill; book)

This isn’t a definitive list but it’ll set you on the right track.

4. Get in the right mindset
Fiction editing requires a particular mindset for several reasons:

Style and voice
We’re not only respecting the author, but the POV character(s) too. The fiction editor who doesn’t respect the voices in a novel is at risk of butchery.

Being able to immerse oneself in the world the writer’s built is essential so that we can get under the skin of the writing. If we don’t feel it, we can’t edit it elegantly and sensitively.

Intimacy
Non-fiction is born from the author’s knowledge. Fiction is born from the author’s heart and soul.

If that sounds a little cheesy, I’ll not apologize. Many of the writers with whom I work are anxious about working with an editor because they’ve put their own life, love and fear into the world they’ve built.

A good fiction editor needs to respect the intimacy of being trusted with a novel. If that doesn’t sound like your bag, this probably isn’t for you.

Unreliable rules
At the recent fiction roundtable hosted by the Norfolk group of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders, guest Sian Evans – an experienced playwright and screenwriter – talked about how punctuation in screenplays is as much about ‘the breaths’ the actor is being directed to take as about sentence clarity.

These ‘breaths’ exist in prose. They help the reader make sense of a sentence ... not just grammatically, but emotionally. And so the addition or removal of just one comma for the sake of pedantry can make a sentence ‘correct’, or standard, but shift tone and tension dramatically.

The fiction editor needs to be able to move beyond prescriptivism and read the scene for its emotionality, so that the author’s intention is intact but the reader can move fluidly through the world on the page and relish it.

All of which is a rather long-winded way of saying that if you want to get fiction editing work, and keep on getting it, you’ll need to embrace rule-breaking with artistry!

Fiction work requires us to respect both readability and style. The two can sometimes clash so gentle diplomacy and a kind hand will need to be in your toolbox.

5. Read fiction
If you don’t love reading fiction, don’t edit it.

And if you don’t love reading a particular genre, don’t edit it.

Editing the type of fiction you love to read is a joy, and an advantage. If you read a lot of romance fiction, you’ll already be aware of some of the narrative conventions that readers expect and enjoy.

I started reading crime fiction, mysteries and thrillers before I’d hit my teens. I turned 51 in March and my passion for those genres hasn’t waned. That stuff makes up over eighty per cent of my work schedule too. Here’s the thing though – my pleasure-reading has supported my business.

I get to see first-hand how different authors handle plot, how they build and release tension, how they play with punctuation, idiomatic phrasing, and sentence length such that the reader experiences emotion, immediacy and immersion. And that helps me edit responsively.
​
Honestly, reading fiction is training for editing fiction. In itself, it’s not enough. But professional training isn’t enough either. Love it and learn it.

6. Learn from writers
​If you want to understand the problems facing the self-publishing author community, listen and learn.

Join the Alliance of Independent Authors. Even lurking in the forum will give you important insights into what self-publishers struggle with an how you might help.

Take advantage of online workshops aimed at beginner writers. Penguin Random House offers regular free online webinars via The Writers' Academy. Experienced writers and instructors take you on whistle-stop tours of setting, dialogue, characterization, point of view, crime fiction writing, children's books and a whole lot more.

Listen to published novelists’ stories. My local Waterstones hosts regular author readings/signings. I’ve seen Garth Nix, Jonathan Pinnock and Alison Moore speak. In April 2018, Harry Brett is chairing a session on how to write crime with Julia Heaberlin and Sophie Hannah.

In May, fellow editor Sophie Playle and I are attending 'Why Writing Matters', an event hosted by the Writers' Centre Norwich in association with the Norwich & Norfolk Festival. And Jeffery Deaver's coming to town too. Ticket booked!

These workshops cost from nothing to £12. That's a tiny investment for any fiction editor wanting to better themselves.

7. Get in front of publishers
The best way to get publisher eyes on your editing skills is to go direct. Experienced fiction editors are sometimes contacted direct but sitting around waiting to be offered work never got the independent business owner very far and never will.

Experienced ... but not in fiction
If you’re an experienced editor or proofreader who already has publisher clients but they’re in a different discipline (e.g. social sciences, humanities) you’ll likely have built some strong relationships with in-house editors.

Publishing is a small world – in-house staff move presses and meet each other at publishing events. It might well be that one of your contacts knows someone who works in fiction and, more importantly, will be happy to vouch for your skills.

With specialist fiction training, you’ll be able to leverage that referral to the max. So, if you have a good relationship with an in-house academic editor, tell them you’d like to explore fiction editing and ask them if they’d be prepared to share a name and email and give you a recommendation.

Newbie
If you’re a new entrant to the field, it’s unlikely that a cold call to HarperCollins or Penguin will be fruitful. The larger presses tend to hire experienced editors with a track record of hitting the ground running.

There are two options:
​

1. Target smaller, independent fiction presses. Ask if they’d consider adding you to their freelance list. Be clear about the training you’ve done and your genre preferences. The fees might not be great, but I recommend you look at this as a paying marketing and business-development opportunity. You’ll be able to leverage the experience, the testimonials and the portfolio entries later.
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2. If the small press responds by saying that they aren’t in a position to hire external editorial work, ask if you might do a one-off gratis proofread/edit for them as a way of gaining experience and supporting their independent publishing programme – mutual business backscratching. Again, you can leverage this experience when targeting paying fiction clients (publishers and indie authors).

8. Be visible online
There’s no excuse for any twenty-first-century professional editor to be invisible. There’s no one way to visibility – take a multipronged approach.

Directories
If you’re a member of a national editorial society, and they have a directory, advertise in it as a specialist fiction editor/proofreader.

If you’re not a member, become one. It won’t be free, but running a business has costs attached to it. If we want to succeed, we need to be seen. That doesn’t land on our plates; we must invest.

If your society doesn’t have an online directory, lobby for one to be set up and promoted. I’d go as far as to argue that a professional editorial society that isn’t prioritizing the visibility of its members isn’t doing its job properly.
​

• The Society for Editors and Proofreaders IS doing its job properly. I rank highly in Google for certain keyword phrases, but it’s not always my website that shows up – sometimes it’s my SfEP directory entry. It thrills me to know that my membership sub is providing me with networking, friendship, training opps, and visibility in the search engines.
  
  If you don’t qualify for inclusion, make doing what’s necessary a key goal in your business plan.

 

• Reedsy – despite what you might have heard – does NOT set low rates that encourage a ‘race to the bottom’. Editorial professionals set their own rates and Reedsy takes a cut of the fee. I receive several requests a month to quote for fiction copyediting or proofreading via Reedsy and have worked with some wonderful authors. Entry in Reedsy’s database is free but you must have a certain level of experience to be invited.
  
  Again, if you don’t qualify for inclusion, make doing what’s necessary a key goal in your business plan.

Create content for indie fiction authors
Any self-publishing fiction writer looking for editorial assistance is more likely to think you’re wowser if you help them before they’ve asked for it.

Create resources that offer your potential clients value and you’ll stand out. It makes your website about them rather than you. And it demonstrates your knowledge and experience.

Doing this might require you to do a lot of research, but what a great way to learn. Don’t think of it as cutting into your personal time but as professional development that makes you a better editor.

And think about it like this: Who would you rather buy shoes from? The shop where the sales assistant tells you all about her, or the shop where the sales assistant helps you find shoes that fit? It's no different for authors choosing editors.
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I have an entire Self-publishers page dedicated to resources for fiction authors. I’m not alone. These fiction editors have resource hubs too: Beth Hill, Sophie Playle, Lisa Poisso, Kia Thomas and Katherine Trail. There are others but I’m already over the 2,000-word mark!

Shout out your fiction specialism
Shout your fiction specialism from your website’s rooftop. Why would a fiction writer hire someone who doesn’t specialize in fiction when there are so many people dedicated to it?​

Related reading
Here are some additional articles that you might find useful if you're considering moving into the field of fiction.

• The different levels of editing: Proofreading and beyond
• How do mainstream publishers produce books?
• What makes a good fiction editor?
• Should a writer hire a freelance editor before submitting to an agent?
• What's a sample edit? Who does it help? And is it free?

Good luck with your fiction editing journey!

And one final thing ... here’s a PDF booklet you can download. That way, you can review the guidance on getting fiction editing and proofreading work at your leisure, and on your preferred device.

Some blogs are poorly right from the get-go. If yours is feeling under the weather, here are 6 treatments that will turn it, and your website, into a vibrant resource centre that drives your business forward.

​I’ve been blogging since 2011 and my blog is the single biggest driver of traffic to my website – around 36,000 page views per month. Given that 99% all of my clients come to me via Google and two online directories, having a strong web presence is the difference between being booked up six months in advance and being unemployed.

Those visitors end up on my blog for three reasons:

• They want to hire me because of the job I do (copyediting fiction books)
• They want to find out how to do the job I do
• They’re already doing the job I do but are stuck

Big-picture focus
This article doesn’t focus on the technical minutiae of whether to use Wordpress or Weebly, filling in metadata, writing great headlines, breaking up text with pictures, adding in calls to action, SEO keywords, paragraph length and so on and so forth.

​That’s not because all the micro stuff isn’t important, but because none of it will amount to anything if the macro issues aren’t in order.

Instead, I focus on six big-picture reasons why blogs become poorly, and offer some medicine that will turn them, and the websites hosting them, into vibrant resource centres that drive our businesses forward.

Problem 1: The blog doesn’t solve problems
Some of the blogs I wrote between 2011 and 2015 are a technical disgrace but they worked – and still work – because the content is helpful and shareable.

A blog that doesn’t solve problems is a written exercise in self-indulgence and won’t make us the go-to professionals for anything. At best, we’ll be instantly forgettable; at worst, people will talk about us for all the wrong reasons.

A colleague recently told me about a piece of video content he’d watched: ‘After 10 minutes I’d lost the will to live. After 20, I’d lost the will for the vlogger to live.’ I trust my colleague, whereas I don’t know or trust that vlogger. Consequently, I didn’t watch the video.

There are a ton of online examples of desperate business owners employing attention-seeking methods to get eyes on their content. It can work once, maybe twice. But if we rely on shock, surprise, upset or gaining  sympathy with our audience, and no solution, our content-marketing successes will be short-lived.

Don’t puke over the reader
We all have problems – that doesn’t mean we have to vomit over our audience with our content. Plus, shock and controversy have a short shelf-life. Today’s audiences are easily desensitized and quickly bored, so high-quality problem-solving content will trump the shock factor every time.

Nothing should appear on our blogs that doesn’t help the reader move forward in some way. And if we can’t solve a problem, we should hold off, research and rewrite.
Only once we have a solution should we publish.

When we do solve problems, we make ourselves valuable. People are more likely to talk about, share, like and comment on our blog content.

And that has huge SEO benefits over time because the search engines love seeing evidence of a great user experience. Focus on solving the audience’s problems from the get-go and we are well on the way to building a platform that puts us top of mind and discoverable in the search engines.

Problem 2: The blog is published irregularly
Lack of regularity is probably the most common reason for blog failure. We do it for a bit, then run out of ideas, or time, or passion.

This is how a reader perceives a blog that publishes content irregularly:

• The blogger doesn’t know their stuff well enough to solve problems
• The blogger isn’t committed or can’t be bothered to solve problems

Those feelings don’t inspire trust. If your window cleaner couldn’t be bothered to clean your windows on a regular basis how quickly would you try to find a replacement? It’s the same with blogging. No one’s going to talk about or share our content if we can’t be bothered to create it regularly.

Earning the rankings and referrals
We have to earn the right to be top of mind for referrals and benefit from our colleagues’ and clients’ SEO-driving activity.

And without those likes and shares, Google won’t recognize us as business owners who are actively engaging. That will impact negatively on our rankings.

Build a blog plan
If you don’t have the time or commitment for blogging, that’s absolutely fine. Don’t do it – focus on making your business visible in other ways. Blogging is just one option.
However, if you do want your blog to be your primary content platform, the solution is to build a blog plan beforehand.

Here are four initial steps for your plan:

• Identify your audience. Consider colleagues as well as clients.
• Create 52 draft titles for problem-solving content. If you plan to publish once a week, that’s a year’s worth of content ideas; twice a month and you’ll have two years’ worth.
• Decide on your publication schedule.
• Draft your promotion schedule.

Here are four ideas for how to generate content:

• Take inspiration from your job. What do your clients and colleagues struggle with? What have you struggled with? Answer those questions on your blog.
• Take note of the questions people ask in your industry’s forums and at conferences. Answer those questions on your blog.
• Invite questions on your website via a box or pop-out.
• Review products, apps, courses, books, tools, forums and conferences related to your industry.

Here are four ideas for how to save time:

• Write efficiently – create batches of articles around a theme.
• Repurpose existing content (e.g. from slideshows, presentations, case studies, reports, guest articles, books, meetings and conferences) as blog posts.
• Update stale content using your existing knowledge base. Blogging is a journey and it’s perfectly acceptable to revisit old topics; you’re demonstrating your readiness to review and adapt.
• Set aside time in your working week for your blogging.

Problem 3: The blog is unnavigable
No one searches online for a blog. They search online for solutions. If they click through to our websites, the first place they’ll head for is unlikely to be the blog tab. And even if is, will our visitor find the answer to their problems in the content that’s visible on the first page of the blog?

If we only have 10 pieces of content, yes. What if we have 40? How about 500?

Second homes
The solution is to create second homes for our blog content – libraries, hubs, resource centres ... call them what you will.
​
I have two on my website – a self-publishers page and an editor resources page.

There is not one single piece of fresh content on those pages. They’re libraries of titled images that depict what problem I’m solving. However, if you click on the images you’ll end up reading the full articles on the blog.

These libraries help my audience find my very best content – the stuff that’s most likely to be talked about, get me known, and make my visitors think I’m helpful and knowledgeable.

I only started creating content for one of those libraries in May; it’s already the fourth most popular page on my site ... and that’s because it’s obvious what’s on offer and whom it’s for.

Few business bloggers funnel their content through to other pages, and it’s the biggest lost opportunity I can think of. Do this and you will stand out from your competitors for very little additional effort.
​
Here, we’re using our blog content to turn our websites into resource centres rather than all-about-me-and-how-great-I-am sites.

Problem 4: The blog is shallow
My marketing coaches Andrew and Pete preach the art of creating content that makes people fall in love with you. I love this idea because it focuses on emotion – of getting under people’s skin, making them feel something.

This sits nicely with the problem-solving principle discussed above. When we solve problems we make people feel something – happy, grateful, relieved, empowered.

Emotion born from solutions
Just to be clear, those emotions should be evoked as a result of our solving a problem. For example, our funnies alone won’t be enough to make anyone subscribe to and share our content in the long term. No one will waste time reading a funny photographer’s blog if he or she doesn’t solve photography problems too. That’s because if all we want is a laugh, Dara Ó Briain and Rich Hall will do it better.

Tone on top of solutions
Even if our content is technically good, we have competition. Readers need to hear our voices and our personalities in our posts so that we stand out. I tend to go for warm and friendly.

Other tone options might include cheeky, funny, blunt, sweary or ranty. All of that stuff is great but bear in mind that it’s just dressing at the end of the day. It should always hang on a body of solutions.

Going deeper with solutions
There are already a bajillion blogs with the basics just,  about everything. Repeating the same old stuff is boring, and boring blogs are a killer. We need to bring our blog posts alive with case studies (made-up ones if necessary), and stories based on our own experiences, so that our readers have gravy on the meat and two veg.

That kind of deeper detail draws people in, makes them feel like we’re really talking to them, not just stuffing our websites with keywords. That is not to say we shouldn’t aim our content at beginners or focus on the basics – far from it. Rather, our content needs to have personality and detail.

When we go deep we make an old subject sound fresh because it’s rich with our voices and our experiences.

Problem 5: The blog doesn’t fulfil audience expectations
I don’t visit a dentist’s website expecting to find a treatment for the verruca on my foot. I’m there to sort out my teeth. A blog needs to have a recognizable and understandable raison d’être too.

We’re busy and none of us has time to read everything, join every group, watch every vlog, listen to every podcast, do our jobs, and have a life. Blogs that don’t give people a very good reason to be there are doomed. They won’t be bookmarked, subscribed to or shared. If a reader doesn’t understand why they should bother, they’ll quickly lose patience and go elsewhere.

There are two reasons why an audience could become confused and disengage:
The content is coherent but isn’t aligned with the business creating it. This happens when the blogger has misunderstood the audience’s expectations even though there are myriad specialist solutions that could be offered.

The content is incoherent and there are too many audiences. This can happen when a business – usually a product-based one – can’t sustain long-term content creation around the product alone. To compensate, the blogger covers multiple topics for multiple audiences whose problems are already being solved in depth by relevant specialist bloggers elsewhere.

Here are two examples where those problems have been solved.

Coherent and aligned: The pro presenter
There’s plenty one can write about presenting, and that content can be targeted at non-presenters who need to tackle the process, and those who want to run a presentations business.

Relevant content might cover the following: dealing with stress, introversion, lack of confidence, speech impediments, organization and planning, which software to use, which venues are best, managing acoustics, scheduling, equipment, payment terms, contract problems, learning resources, apps and plugins to aid preparation, training opportunities, marketing a presentations business, getting published, creating engaging slides, finding and retaining clients, and so on.

The presenter is blogging about topics aligned to their core service and targeting an audience with problems related directly to it. The blog is therefore coherent and aligned.

Coherent and side-aligned: The condom company
There’s only so much one can write about condoms. Durex knows that it will not be able to sustain its audience’s interest in latex and lube, and there are only so many flavours and colours.

However, it also knows that its audience is interested in sex, otherwise people wouldn’t need condoms.

Durex has created a blog called Love Sex that offers all sorts of tips about perfect massages, advice on STDs, relationships, other forms of contraception, orgasms, positions ... you name it, it’s there.

It’s a very clever way of creating content about a related but more interesting issue.
If you can’t sustain long-term content creation around your product or service, shift your thinking sideways but make sure it’s focused on your audience’s problems.
Durex isn’t blogging about condoms, but it’s still focusing on content that’s related sideways to its core product. Its blog is therefore coherent and side-aligned.

Nudging with a name
Naming our blogs can help signal purpose. Mine’s called The Proofreader’s Parlour, which should be an indication that my focus is on words.

I also publish a lot of content about marketing, but it’s marketing for editors and proofreaders. And I offer content about training, but it’s training for editors and proofreaders. It’s not as interesting as the Durex blog but it solves my clients’ and colleagues’ problems and that’s all that matters!

Problem 6: The blog is invisible
Blogging without blog promotion is a supreme waste of time. It matters little that we’ve nailed all of the above if our blog’s invisible. We could spend hours crafting beautiful content for our target audience, but if we don’t invest the time or effort in making it visible it will have no purposeful business or economic value.

Superhero delivery
There are numerous ways to promote a blog, and what works for you might not work for me. One thing’s for sure though – social media is the superhero when it comes to content delivery.

Three huge platforms – LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook – offer a superb suite of tools to help us get seen out there.

What clear is that it’s about more than just posting links and pretty pictures, now more than ever. Indeed, we have to work increasingly hard on these busy platforms with their ever-shifting algorithms.

However, persistence pays and there is no faster way to get your blog content, and your business, in front of people than by embracing social media.

Automating to make space for crafting
Content should be scheduled regularly because on some platforms, Twitter especially, the feed moves so fast that your blog-post links are more likely to be missed than seen. I post on Twitter ten times a day, seven days a week.

Automate your evergreen posts where you can (full automation will shortly not be possible on Twitter via the likes of Recurpost). That will free up time for posting manually on your core platforms. Manual posting allows us to craft our posts with the algorithms in mind.

An example: Crafting for Facebook
Here are some of the ways in which you might promote your blog content on Facebook:

• Upload blog posts natively (direct to the platform) rather than linking.
• Create mini summaries of a blog post on a Page that invite conversations. Place a link to the blog post in the first comment.
• Upload cute, shareable videos that summarize the core themes of a post.
• Run chatbot campaigns that include booklets repurposed from blog content.
• Upload vlog versions of blog content.
• If your broadband connection is stable, go live with a discussion of your content.
• Post links to blog posts in groups if that content answers a specific question. If in doubt check with the admins that this is acceptable practice.
• Join blog carnivals (threads of links to blog posts) in Facebook groups where the practice is encouraged. If it doesn’t yet exist, suggest it to the admins.

Six-tip summary

• Be purposeful with problem-solving
• Build trust with regular publishing
• Spotlight your best content in second homes
• Infuse the key takeaways with deeper stories and case studies
• Align or side-align your content with your business so that it makes sense for your audience to bother with it
• Commit to promotion so that your hard work is visible

​Good luck building a healthy blog!

Here's a free ebook (for those of you who missed it the first time round). Just click on the image to download your copy. And if you're ready to dig deep, take a look below at my new Blogging for Business Growth course.

Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in helping self-publishing writers prepare their novels for market.
​
She is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors, and runs online courses from within the Craft Your Editorial Fingerprint series. She is also an Advanced Professional Member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. Louise loves books, coffee and craft gin, though not always in that order.

​Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you're an author, take a look at Louise’s Writing Library and access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.

If you think there's no place for macros in fiction editing, think again. My friend Paul Beverley has collated a core group of macros that will have any fiction line editor, copyeditor or proofreader drooling! Self-publishing authors will love them too!

I don't use all of these (every editor has their preferences) but some of them are staples and save me oodles of time! 

Some of the macros apply when you’re looking at the whole text of a novel, while others are selective ... for use while you’re editing line by line. Bear in mind that they're designed to be used with MS Word files.

Macros that work with the whole text
These macros are ideal near the beginning of the edit, when you’ve put together the whole book in one single file, and you want to look for inconsistencies.

ProperNounAlyse searches the novel for any words that look like proper nouns; it counts their frequency, and then tries to locate, by using a variety of tests, and pairs of names that might possibly be alternative spellings or misspellings, e.g. Jayne/Jane, Beverley/Beverly, Neiman/Nieman, Grosman/Grosmann etc.

FullNameAlyse is similar to ProperNounAlyse, but it searches for multi-part names, Fred Smith, Burt Fry, etc.

ChronologyChecker is aimed at tracing the chronology of a novel. It extracts, into a separate file, all the paragraphs containing appropriate chronology-type words: Monday, Wednesday, Fri, Sat, April, June, 1958, 2017, etc. This file is then more easily searchable to look at the significance of the text for the chronology.

WordsPhrasesInContext tracks the occurrence of specific names through a novel. You give it a list of names/words/phrases, and it searches for any paragraphs in the novel that contain them. It creates a separate file of those paragraphs, with the searched element highlighted in your choice of colour.

CatchPhrase searches your novel for over-used phrases and counts how many times each phrase occurs.
​

Macros for when editing line by line
FullPoint/Comma/Semicolon/Colon/Dash/QuestionMark/ExclamationMark
These macros change
he said, you know ...
into he said. You know ... 
​or he said: you know ...
​or he said – you know ...
and so on.

FullPointInDialogue and CommaInDialogue
These two macros change
“Blah, blah.” He said.
into “Blah, blah,” he said.
and vice versa.

ProperToPronoun
This macro looks along the line to find the next proper noun, deletes it and types ‘she’. But if you then type Ctrl-Z, it changes it back to ‘he’.

MultiSwitch
You give this macro a list of changes that you might want to implement:
Jane
Jayne

Beverley
Beverly

that
which

which
that

When you click in a word, and run the macro, it finds your alternate and replaces it. It also works with phrases and can also provide a menu of alternates:

he said
he opined
he shouted
he voiced

she said
she opined
she shouted
she voiced

To access the macro scripts, download Paul's book.

Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in helping self-publishing writers prepare their novels for market.
​
She is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors, and runs online courses from within the Craft Your Editorial Fingerprint series. She is also an Advanced Professional Member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. Louise loves books, coffee and craft gin, though not always in that order.

​Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you're an author, take a look at Louise’s Writing Library and access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.

Here's how to convert a Word document into EPUB or MOBI file format. This option certainly won't be for everyone, but if it suits you, you can master it in seconds ... and for free.

Many authors create their books directly in Microsoft Word because of its excellent suite of onboard styling tools and its compatibility with a range of plug-ins and add-ins (including macros). Pro editors love it for the same reasons.

​Once the writing, drafting, editing, and final revisions are complete, it’s time to publish. Is a Word file good enough for epublication? How about a DIY conversion to EPUB or MOBI? It depends on several factors:

• Your freebie plans
• Your budget
• Your sales and distribution platform
• The complexity of your interior design

Editorial assessment and freebies
Perhaps you want to send a review copy to a reader who has a Kindle. Or maybe you want to offer free ebooks for family members and friends. The devices your readers own will determine the required file format. Having your own EPUBs and MOBIs will give you flexibility beyond Word and PDF.

And if you're sending your book file for editorial assessment, your developmental editor might prefer to upload your book to their e-reader. They'll makes notes in the file in preparation for their final report or critique.

Doing the conversion yourself gives you the freedom to distribute your book without having to jump through the distributors’ hoops.

Your budget
How about if you’re making your book available for sale? Should you hire a pro formatter for your ebook interior? Yes, definitely, if you have the budget for it, because a pro formatter will do a pro job. The same applies to commissioning various rounds of professional editing. 

But let’s be honest – not every indie author has deep pockets, and some of you will have to make choices about where to invest your budget. It might be that a DIY conversion will suffice, and in that case Calibre could be your friend.

What is Calibre?
Calibre is free open-source ebook-management software. With it you can convert a Word file to an EPUB or a MOBI.

Go to https://calibre-ebook.com to download and install the software. There are versions for Windows and Mac.

Your sales and distribution platform
Smashwords
If you want to publish via Smashwords, Word is the preferred format. Here's founder Mark Coker:

​Make sure you follow the Smashwords guidelines on preparing your Word file, otherwise your published book will be a mess! Furthermore, you’ll risk not qualifying for inclusion in Smashwords’ premium catalogue, which gets your book in front of some big online retailers including:

• Apple iBooks store
• Baker & Taylor
• Barnes & Noble
• Flipkart
• Kobo
• OverDrive
• Oyster
• Scribd

If your interior is complex, Smashwords will accept EPUB files but they should be professionally designed. There’s further guidance in the Smashwords Style Guide.

Kindle Direct Publishing/Amazon
If you’re self-publishing via KDP, Amazon will create a MOBI for you from your word file. The same principles apply: as long as you follow the formatting instructions to the tee, and your book interior is straightforward, Word will suffice. Here’s where to access KDP’s  Simplified eBook Formatting Guide.

If your interior is more sophisticated, I’d advise you to hire a pro. Neither a Word file nor the DIY Calibre conversion offered in this article will do the job to a high enough standard.

Direct sales
If you’re selling direct from your own author platform, you can offer a PDF. But that’s not what every customer wants. PDFs look fabulous on tablets but awful on e-readers. If your customer wants something different, and you want to maximize sales opportunities, you’ll need another option. Calibre could be the solution.

The complexity of your interior design
​​If you have a primarily text-based Word file that will tolerate a simple heading structure for titles, part titles and chapters – as is often the case for fiction and narrative non-fiction – this quick-conversion method could work well for you.

If your interior design is more complex, I strongly recommend you commission a professional formatter (some editors also have formatting skills) to do the job on your behalf.

In my test, which involved a non-fiction Word file with multiple heading levels, a contents list, boxes, images and other design features, the conversion results for EPUB and MOBI were far from perfect, though I did find solutions when I was prepared to compromise.

Here’s how I messed up ... so you don’t have to.

​If you still think your Word document fits the bill, here's how to create your EPUB or MOBI file.

How to do the quick conversion
Open your Word document and save it as an rtf (Rich Text Format) using the Save As function (select Rich Text Format from the drop-down menu). Close the file and head over to Calibre.

Click on the Add books icon and select your rtf. ​

The file will upload to Calibre. Make sure your book file is highlighted, then click on the Convert books icon.

Now you can select and edit the metadata:

• The type of file you wish to create – I’ve chosen EPUB in this example (yellow box)
• The bibliographic details (green box)
• And your cover image (red box). Use the scroll bar (blue arrow) to scroll down and change the image file

Click OK. In the bottom-right-hand corner you’ll see the Jobs icon whirring.

When the conversion is complete, click on the new file format to check that all is well.

This will open the E-book viewer, and it’s one of Calibre’s top features because you can see at a glance what your reader will be looking at.

If you’re happy with your interior, save your converted file to your computer. It’s ready for upload and distribution.

Summing up
If you have a straightforward interior that’s text-based, this quickie Calibre conversion is absolutely worth experimenting with. And it’s free, so even if things don’t go to plan you won’t have lost any money – you’ll just have learned the basics of a new tool that you might be able to take advantage of another time.

​Poor formatting will earn you nothing but frustrated customers and bad reviews, so:

• Check the output on your own device before you offer it to the world!
• After you've uploaded your ebook to a third-party platform, check it again!

​
If your interior is complex, don't even think about using the method outlined here. Work with a pro. Professional eformatting isn’t a service I offer but I’m more than happy to put you in touch with colleagues who can help.

Drop me a line via my contact page or comment here on the blog.

Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in helping self-publishing writers prepare their novels for market.
​
She is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors, and runs online courses from within the Craft Your Editorial Fingerprint series. She is also an Advanced Professional Member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. Louise loves books, coffee and craft gin, though not always in that order.

​Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you're an author, take a look at Louise’s Writing Library and access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.

How to write children's books: what the experts say
A member of my writing library asked if I’d created a resource hub on writing books for children. I hadn’t, so I did!

Some of the articles and books I’ve listed were published prior to the digital transformations that have taken place in the mainstream- and self-publishing industries, so the technical guidance may be a little out of date. However, the underlying principles behind the craft of writing are just as relevant today as they were a decade ago, which merits their inclusion.

If I’ve missed out something that you think is core reading for children’s book writers, let me know and I’ll add it.

The PDF includes links to the following:

• Guidance on markets and genres
• Books on how to write for children
• Podcasts on children's writing
• Organizations and resource hubs about children's writing
• Courses (distance learning/correspondence and workshops)
• Blogs and articles 

Children's Books: Resources on Writing for Young People is available for immediate download. Click on the image below.

Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in helping self-publishing writers prepare their novels for market.
​
She is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors, and runs online courses from within the Craft Your Editorial Fingerprint series. She is also an Advanced Professional Member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. Louise loves books, coffee and craft gin, though not always in that order.

​Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you're an author, take a look at Louise’s Writing Library and access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.

Countdown to Christmas finishes today and this is your final gift – I hope you find it useful!
​
Click on the image below to get your resource!

Merry Christmas!

Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you're an author, you might like to visit Louise’s Writing Library to access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.

Every day until 25 December, I’m giving you a little gift – a postcard about one of my favourite FREE business tools. Each card tells you what the tool does and how you can access it.

There’s something here for everyone – editors, proofreaders, writers and other small business owners.

​The tools featured will help you with editing, marketing, fact checking and working with images – just lovely things to make life easier.
​
Click on the image below to get today’s resource!

Come back tomorrow for another holiday gift!

Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you're an author, you might like to visit Louise’s Writing Library to access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.

Every day until 25 December, I’m giving you a little gift – a postcard about one of my favourite FREE business tools. Each card tells you what the tool does and how you can access it.

There’s something here for everyone – editors, proofreaders, writers and other small business owners.

​The tools featured will help you with editing, marketing, fact checking and working with images – just lovely things to make life easier.
​
Click on the image below to get today’s resource!

Come back tomorrow for another holiday gift!

Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you're an author, you might like to visit Louise’s Writing Library to access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.

Every day until 25 December, I’m giving you a little gift – a postcard about one of my favourite FREE business tools. Each card tells you what the tool does and how you can access it.

There’s something here for everyone – editors, proofreaders, writers and other small business owners.

​The tools featured will help you with editing, marketing, fact checking and working with images – just lovely things to make life easier.
​
Click on the image below to get today’s resource!

Come back tomorrow for another holiday gift!

Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you're an author, you might like to visit Louise’s Writing Library to access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.

Every day until 25 December, I’m giving you a little gift – a postcard about one of my favourite FREE business tools. Each card tells you what the tool does and how you can access it.

There’s something here for everyone – editors, proofreaders, writers and other small business owners.

​The tools featured will help you with editing, marketing, fact checking and working with images – just lovely things to make life easier.
​
Click on the image below to get today’s resource!

​Come back tomorrow for another holiday gift!

Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you're an author, you might like to visit Louise’s Writing Library to access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.

Every day until 25 December, I’m giving you a little gift – a postcard about one of my favourite FREE business tools. Each card tells you what the tool does and how you can access it.

There’s something here for everyone – editors, proofreaders, writers and other small business owners.

​The tools featured will help you with editing, marketing, fact checking and working with images – just lovely things to make life easier.
​
Click on the image below to get today’s resource!

Come back tomorrow for another holiday gift!

Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you're an author, you might like to visit Louise’s Writing Library to access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.

Every day until 25 December, I’m giving you a little gift – a postcard about one of my favourite FREE business tools. Each card tells you what the tool does and how you can access it.

There’s something here for everyone – editors, proofreaders, writers and other small business owners.

​The tools featured will help you with editing, marketing, fact checking and working with images – just lovely things to make life easier.
​
Click on the image below to get today’s resource!

Come back tomorrow for another holiday gift!

Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you're an author, you might like to visit Louise’s Writing Library to access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.

Every day until 25 December, I’m giving you a little gift – a postcard about one of my favourite FREE business tools. Each card tells you what the tool does and how you can access it.

There’s something here for everyone – editors, proofreaders, writers and other small business owners.

​The tools featured will help you with editing, marketing, fact checking and working with images – just lovely things to make life easier.
​
Click on the image below to get today’s resource!

Come back tomorrow for another holiday gift!

Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you're an author, you might like to visit Louise’s Writing Library to access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.

Every day until 25 December, I’m giving you a little gift – a postcard about one of my favourite FREE business tools. Each card tells you what the tool does and how you can access it.

There’s something here for everyone – editors, proofreaders, writers and other small business owners.

​The tools featured will help you with editing, marketing, fact checking and working with images – just lovely things to make life easier.
​
Click on the image below to get today’s resource!

Come back tomorrow for another holiday gift!

Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you're an author, you might like to visit Louise’s Writing Library to access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.

Every day until 25 December, I’m giving you a little gift – a postcard about one of my favourite FREE business tools. Each card tells you what the tool does and how you can access it.

There’s something here for everyone – editors, proofreaders, writers and other small business owners.

​The tools featured will help you with editing, marketing, fact checking and working with images – just lovely things to make life easier.
​
Click on the image below to get today’s resource!

​Come back tomorrow for another holiday gift!

Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you're an author, you might like to visit Louise’s Writing Library to access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.

Every day until 25 December, I’m giving you a little gift – a postcard about one of my favourite FREE business tools. Each card tells you what the tool does and how you can access it.

There’s something here for everyone – editors, proofreaders, writers and other small business owners.

​The tools featured will help you with editing, marketing, fact checking and working with images – just lovely things to make life easier.
​
Click on the image below to get today’s resource!

Come back tomorrow for another holiday gift!

Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you're an author, you might like to visit Louise’s Writing Library to access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.

​Every day until 25 December, I’m giving you a little gift – a postcard about one of my favourite FREE business tools. Each card tells you what the tool does and how you can access it.

There’s something here for everyone – editors, proofreaders, writers and other small business owners.

​The tools featured will help you with editing, marketing, fact checking and working with images – just lovely things to make life easier.
​
Click on the image below to get today’s resource!

Come back tomorrow for another holiday gift!

Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you're an author, you might like to visit Louise’s Writing Library to access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.

Every day until 25 December, I’m giving you a little gift – a postcard about one of my favourite FREE business tools. Each card tells you what the tool does and how you can access it.

There’s something here for everyone – editors, proofreaders, writers and other small business owners.

​The tools featured will help you with editing, marketing, fact checking and working with images – just lovely things to make life easier.
​
Click on the image below to get today’s resource!

​Come back tomorrow for another holiday gift!

Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you're an author, you might like to visit Louise’s Writing Library to access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.

Every day until 25 December, I’m giving you a little gift – a postcard about one of my favourite FREE business tools. Each card tells you what the tool does and how you can access it.

There’s something here for everyone – editors, proofreaders, writers and other small business owners.

​The tools featured will help you with editing, marketing, fact checking and working with images – just lovely things to make life easier.
​
Click on the image below to get today’s resource!

​Come back tomorrow for another holiday gift!

Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you're an author, you might like to visit Louise’s Writing Library to access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.