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  Category Archives for Editing

Course Review: Editing for Point of View and Perspective

The self-paced Editing for Point of View and Perspective class from Club Ed delves into finer editing considerations of particular benefit to developmental editors and line editors. As with all Club Ed courses, the materials and exercises are first-rate. After having taken many quality courses from Club Ed creator Jennifer Lawler, I’d picked up this […]

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Five Reasons Copyediting Takes More Time Than You Might Think

People are often surprised by the time it takes to copyedit manuscripts, probably because they have a sense of how long it takes to read a book of similar length. But copyediting does take longer—much longer—and authors and readers benefit from the hours upon hours copy editors dedicate to their craft. (This post refers largely […]

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Editing Is a Conversation

Too often people view editing as a one-way service in which the editor “corrects” the author’s prose. To get the most out of the author–editor relationship, however, it’s important to remember two things: • Editing is a conversation. • Edits are suggestions. (Though general principles still apply, the following is geared toward the relationship between […]

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Blocks spell out the word "Thanks."

January Thanks

This January I tweeted daily thanks for helpful things in my editing world. The following tweets offer useful resources and provide insight into my editing life. I missed the first two days, so I’ll send a special thanks to authors everywhere and to The Best Punctuation Book, Period from June Casagrande, with honorable mentions to […]

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I’m Now a Fictionary-Certified Editor

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve completed my Fictionary certification and am now listed among the program’s Fictionary-Certified StoryCoach Editors.     The training program entailed two months of text and video lessons, biweekly Zoom calls with Fictionary founder Kristina Stanley and other members of the class, and the completion of an entire developmental edit [...]
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Someone works on a report

My First Annual Report for Castle Walls Editing

I finally did it. For the first time since committing to full-time freelancing at the end of 2017, I’ve drafted an annual report for Castle Walls Editing. While the report is for my eyes only, putting it together has been tremendously helpful, and I’ve already started my 2022 report, which I’ll be updating throughout the [...]
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A wide array of books

Books Edited by James Gallagher

The following are books I’ve edited, either through Castle Walls Editing or other editing agencies. I look forward to editing your book as well!   An Invincible Summer by Mariah Stewart (Copyedit) Straight Answers by Dr. Christopher Chung (Final Manuscript Proof) Blindsided by Erica Hilary (Manuscript Evaluation) From These Broken Streets by Roland Merulla (Proofread) […]

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The word "study" appears before stacks of books

Training and Its Many Benefits

Professional associations such as the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) and ACES: The Society for Editing offer many resources that help editors excel in their work and run successful businesses. I particularly appreciate the access to quality training provided by these organizations, which offer courses at discounted fees to members.  Courses are generally either learn-at-your-own-pace (where […]

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Ingredients sit next to a slow cooker

Don’t Lift the Lid! Slow Cookers and Editing

Lifting the lid on a slow cooker, even for a second, supposedly adds thirty minutes to cooking time. In much the same way, there seems to be a disproportionate amount of time lost when an interruption takes editors out of their editing groove. If I’m editing a manuscript and have to stop to address a […]

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Over 3.5 Million Words Served

The other day I summed the word counts on my books-edited spreadsheet and saw that in the last two years I’ve edited over 3.5 million words. That’s a big number, the kind of number that’s impossible to fully imagine. Most of the books I copy edit or proofread range from 70,000 to 100,000 words, so […]

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