Hello Reader!
Does it feel like summer where you live yet? New York has had its first official heat wave (which here means 3 or more days over 90) and as I write this (June 26) I can hear the neighborhood kids outside enjoying their first day without school.
I've spent June working on two big projects. One was setting up a new service (more on that below). Yesterday I spent more than 3 hours updating my website with the new service page, when it probably would have taken my website builder Regine less than 30 minutes. And she'd probably have done it better, and defintely with less swearing and frying of her brain! But at some point it became me against the machine and while it was close, I'm pretty sure I won.
I've also been working hard on finishing the rewrites for Part 1 of my butlers book. I think I'm actually going to make my goal of sending it to two beta readers next week! I'll work on finishing Part 2 and starting the rewrites for that while they read Part 1 so I won't have a chance to worry about what they think of it. Hopefully Part 2 will be in their hands by the end of August. And depending on what their feedback is, we'll go from there. Both exciting and terrifying to actually be moving forward with this project I've been talking about for so long!
Summer Sale & I'm Offering a New Service!
You've heard me talking about it here before, and now it's official! I'm now offering manuscript evaluations as a new service!
So to celebrate summer (and my new service), I'll be offering a 10% summer discount when people book now through the end of August for any of my services. But you're my special newsletter friends, which means you get extra! How does 15% off when you mention you're a newsletter subscriber sound? Book for any time in 2025!
Editing Insights Club
Welcome to the Editing Insights Club! Here I'll introduce you to editors and other professionals from all over the publishing world. You'll see we're all here as part of the community that supports writers in their journey to success.
Meet: Michelle Miller
Proofreader
βhttps://michellemillerproofreading.com/β
What type of content do you edit or proofread?
I specialize in proofreading clean fiction and Christian content, including devotionals, Bible studies, nonfiction and fiction manuscripts, journals, planners, and similar materials.
What's your favorite thing about your work?
One of my favorite things about my work is helping writers share their message with clarity and confidence. I love knowing that the final product is clean, professional, and free of distractions so the reader can fully engage with the story or content. I also love when a writer tells me how excited they are to see their work published. Those moments remind me why I do what I do.
What is one tip you like to share with writers searching for (or working with) an editor?
Make sure your manuscript has been thoroughly edited before hiring a proofreader. Proofreading is the last step in the editing processβit's not meant to fix big-picture issues like structure, clarity, or content or rewrite sentences. A proofreader's job is to catch the small but important details: typos, grammatical errors, punctuation mistakes, and formatting inconsistencies.
What are some of your favorite things outside of work?
Outside of editing, I love to crochet, read, and work on projects around my home, especially repainting and repurposing furniture. It's fun to see something simple turn into something beautiful and useful and know that I did it.
What's a book you're reading for fun right now?
βIf the Cardinal Flies Home by Corrine Dalton. I love the main character (Alaina) because I can really relate to her.
You can also find Michelle on her LinkedIn page!
Writing Tip: Who is your audience? What do you want your book compared to? Popular fiction? Popular nonfiction? Dense academia? Knowing these answers (and maybe knowing some comparable titles) can help you in finding your writer's voice and writing style- especially if you're trying out a genre that's new to you.
What's a Manuscript Evaluation?
A manuscript evaluation is like a developmental edit in the sense that they both look at the overall big picture of your book. The plot, the structure, character arcs, pacing. Both handle these instead of looking at things like grammar, word choice, centence structure, etc. If you're wondering whether you need to even hire a developmental editor, a manuscript evaluation can be a good start. While it's usually a good idea, not every manuscript needs a developmental editor. Sometimes small suggestions provided by manuscript evaluations are enough for an author who's been writing long enough to figure out the rewrites on their own and they can then go straight to hiring a line editor.
Manuscript evaluations tend to be broader and more general in their analyses than a developmental edit. Both may look at the same things, but the feedback you get is different. For example when I do a developmental edit, I send back a letter with multiple specific examples an author can use to deal with any one issue (like hooking a reading better in chapter 1, if that's an issue) where in a manuscript evaluation the broader concern of needing a stronger hook in the first chapter would still be there, but the multiple specific examples of what you might try to hook the reader would not be included.
One way to look at a manuscript evaluation vs. a developmental edit is: are you ready for everything that could be involved in committing yourself to the rewrites needed in a full developmental edit? Or do you just want to sample the idea and see what it might be like working with an editor and having someone read your work for the first time? If you aren't ready to commit to working on your draft rewrites with the work your developmental editor may hand you, try a manuscript evaluation first and see what might be involved. The time, money, and commitment should be less than a full developmental edit, you'll get a feel for the process and working with an editor. Decide after that if you're ready to move forward in your publishing journey or need to wait until you have a little more time.
Reading Update
If you're looking for a "hysterical historical" read this summer, Christina Dodd's Thus With a Kiss I Die is for you! Rosaline, daughter of Romeo & Juliet (tales of their deaths were greatly exaggerated) is stuck in a betrothal to the Prince of Verona. Now his father's ghost wants her to solve his murder from 20 years ago, and Rosie's discovering maybe her fiance isn't so bad after all. A slow burn, laugh out loud, summer read.
β
β
Full of the latest archeological research exploring the ancient world, DNA from ancient Greek burials, and other recent insights into what it was like to live as a woman in the ancient Greek and Asian world, Emily Hauser's Penelope's Bones is an interesting look behind Homer's epics. A bit of a stretch sometimes, but overall good research into the world that we sometimes take for granted we know all there is to know already. There is in fact, a world of women still waiting for their stories to be told.
β
β
β