Resources for Authors

Discover how Dwight Swain’s concept of scenes (action units) and sequels (reaction units) can transform your fiction. Learn how to craft goal-driven scenes and emotionally rich sequels that keep readers hooked and your story structure strong—from first draft to final revision.

Discover fun, effective boots-on-the-ground book marketing strategies for authors—from author panels and podcast pitches to companion articles and live readings. Real-world tips to connect with readers and boost book sales.

Your book's introduction is key to grabbing attention and enticing readers to continue. Avoid overexplaining and dry, academic openings—focus on creating a compelling hook, promising value, building trust, and providing a roadmap for what’s to come. Craft an introduction that speaks directly to the reader's needs, sets the tone, and sparks curiosity. Whether through anecdotes, bold statements, or thought-provoking questions, a strong introduction is the first step in making a lasting impression.

Want side characters who feel real without stealing the show? Side characters add depth, challenge protagonists, and reveal key themes—but if they overshadow the main cast, they can derail your story. Learn how to write side characters with just the right amount of detail to keep the spotlight where it belongs.

Avoid embarrassing grammar slip-ups! Dangling modifiers can make your sentences confusing—or unintentionally hilarious. This guide breaks down what they are, how to spot them, and the simple fixes to keep your writing crystal clear. Don't let a dangling modifier trip you up—learn how to catch and correct them today!

Unleash the power of storytelling in both fiction and nonfiction! Learn how to craft relatable characters, create narrative arcs, and evoke emotion to connect with readers. Transform dry facts or flat stories into unforgettable writing that captivates and inspires.

Yes, we learn through repetition, but purposeful repetition and redundancies are different. Redundant content annoys readers, so learn how to avoid redundancies and how to fix common trouble spots.

The first chapter of your novel often determines whether the reader will keep reading. It is crucial that this first chapter hook and keep the reader engaged until the very end. Learn the elements to include and the mistakes to avoid in your first chapter.

Matching singular to singular and plural to plural seems basic enough, but when it comes to subjects and sentence complements, either way can seem wrong. Learn how to handle these situations.

Self-editing should involve many revision passes. One or two passes should be reserved for implementing feedback from your beta readers and/or critique partners. Learn how to find these people and how to implement their feedback in this tutorial.

Marketing a book can be tough, but if you become a white hat pirate, it will be a cinch. Follow these 17 tips teaching you how to become a book marketing pirate and sell more books today.

Your main character(s) can make or break your book, so it is worth the time to get it right. Learn how to create a compelling character that will keep your reader turning the pages.

A misplaced modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that is separated from the word it describes. Learn how to spot them and fix them to avoid confusion and unintended humor.

Too many boring nonfiction books exist. Don’t add to the pile. Instead, write a good nonfiction by making your book more reader friendly, using these tips.

Self-help is an oversaturated market so your book may flop, but it also has a built-in audience, which can help your book soar—if you write a good one that is. So learn 6 tips for writing an effective self-help book that will reach audiences and do well.

Save money on your editor and learn to edit for the most common word- and sentence-level issues in fiction. You will learn to be a better writer for having gone through this process and you will save money.

When the organization of your nonfiction book is random and ideas seem disjointed, it impedes flow and makes it harder to follow your ideas. Even if your ideas themselves are clear, the lack of organization can muddle them. So learn how to determine chapter order, use headings and subheadings, and write effective transitions.

Readers want to know your characters even in a plot-driven story. They don’t have to like your characters, but they have to know your characters. So how do you make this happen? By revealing character interiority. Without effective interiority, you hold your readers back from really engaging and immersing themselves in your story. Learn all about one of the secrets to a compelling novel, interiority: what it is and how to use it effectively.

Crime novelists need to make sure they get the details right when it comes to police work. So in this blog, learn the steps the police go through once a theft is reported to find the criminal and charge them with larceny, burglary, and/or robbery. And as a bonus, learn how to spice up detective work, so it isn’t too boring.

Free indirect speech is a powerful tool when writing in third person. It gives you the intimacy of first person but with the flexibility of third person. Learn what it is and why you want to use this tool.

Self-publishing is not for the faint of heart. Because there are a lot of steps in the process, it can be a steep learning curve. Learn how to do each step well and the supporting help available to aid you in your journey.

If you are confident you can’t end a sentence with a preposition, shouldn’t split an infinitive, never should use the passive voice, and more, then, I have news for you: your English teacher may have led you astray.Let’s put those so-called grammar rules to rest, like the zombies they are.

“Show, don’t tell” is popular writing advice, but it can be tricky to understand what it really means. Telling is not always bad. But when it takes the reader out of an immersive experience or seems dry, you want to revise to show, don’t tell. This blog shows you how to do that in a variety of ways with clear examples.

Capitalizing words in titles and headings follows a set of style rules. It isn't as simple as capitalize the "big" words and lowercase the "small" words. This blog will walk you through those rules with clear examples.

While writing is highly subjective, some objective guidelines for good writing exist. For one, if you start too many sentences in a row with the same pattern (not necessarily the same word), your passage can sound monotonous or choppy. This isn't always the case. But it is a general objective guideline that good writing entails varying your sentence beginnings. Learn the various patterns for starting a sentence and when it's fine to have several in a row start the same way and when a rewrite may be in order. 

No story can be complete without some telling. The advice "show, don't tell" should really be know when to show and when to tell. Learn when it is okay and even preferable to tell.

Using narrative distance effectively improves your readers' experience. Its important to know when to close the distance and when to go wide. This tutorial will teach you how to do so.

While editors strive to do their best, it isn't realistic to expect perfection. So you will still find errors, but just know that some of those "errors" you found aren't actual errors. This blog discusses these issues and your options. 

Many authors hit marketing hard during launch, but then stop. Learn eight strategies you can use to continue to market your book post-publication.

“Show, don’t tell” is often repeated advice. This advice can frustrate writers because they believe they are showing when, in fact, they are telling and because no story can be complete without some telling.

This tutorial will focus on the first point of frustration: believing you are showing when you’re not.

I get that a heavily edited manuscript can look like an editor bled all over your work, but it often looks much worse than it is. Tracked changes can look overwhelming, but then when you dive in, you will see that a lot more of your original was retained. Learn how to effectively deal with a manuscript that looks like a battle zone, but really isn't because the editor is on your side.

Using these strategies, you can learn to write more concise, powerful sentences. Learn how to get rid of unnecessary wordiness through a variety of strategies.

Action beats reveal a character’s movement, emotions, and motivations; affect the rhythm and tension of the scene; and can establish the setting. Learn how to write effective action beats and use them purposefully. 

If you can afford full editing services, you should do so. With that said, the more thoroughly you do self-editing, the less your full service editing services will cost you. This blog outlines five self-editing tasks you can do to reduce your editing costs.

Authors sometimes think they need an proofreader when really they need an editor. Learn the difference between proofreading and editing, why proofreading comes last, and what proofreading includes.

Editing is expensive, but it helps if you understand the reason behind the cost. This blog explains why you aren't being ripped off and why paying rock-bottom rates may not be a good idea. It also outlines various ways you can save on the cost of editing if you have budget restraints.

Increase your book sales by creating an author newsletter. This blog walks you through 6 steps to building your newsletter and growing your audience.

Authors often include unnecessary explanations, which can annoy and frustrate readers. Trust your readers to follow your plot and your characters' development without explanations. This blog discusses five types of unnecessary explanations and gives examples so you can avoid overexplaining your novel's plot and characters.

This tutorial walks authors through the process of creating their own style sheets. At the end of the blog, I have included some free downloadable style sheet templates.

When a copyeditor works on your manuscript, they will prepare a style sheet. Learn what it is used for and how it can be helpful if you provide one for your editor.

Before starting the editing process, it helps to know what to expect from your editor. Having realistic expectations sets you up for a sucessful author-editor relationship.

Readers do not enjoy info dumps. Learn what info dumps are, why it is a problem, and how to fix them.

Head-hopping is an easy trap to fall into. If you head-hop, it can pull your reader out of the scene and leave them feeling disoriented. So learn what it is, how it differs from an omniscient narrator, how to avoid it, and how to correct it if you do spot it. 

If too many of your sentences start the same way, your writing can begin to sound choppy and monotonous. This article explains how to vary your sentence beginning sand how to know when to do so.

Word's Track Changes is the industry standard for editing your manuscript, so it's important you know how to use this tool well.

Dialogue reveals character and moves the action along, but poorly written dialogue can have the opposite effect. This article explains how to avoid common dialogue mistakes, when to use internal dialogue, and gives examples of good and bad dialogue.

Many writers tend to overuse "be" verbs. While we need these words, strong writers often reword sentences to eliminate them, choosing powerful verbs instead. This article provides specific methods to eliminate them. Read and apply these strategies to strengthen your writing.

When writing dialogue tags, authors often fall into these common pitfalls. Avoiding these pitfalls will strengthen your dialogue tags, improving the pacing and characterization. So read this blog to discover how you can avoid these pitfalls and write better dialogue tags today.

Editing is essentially broken into four levels. This article will help you make an informed decision on the levels of editing you need, regardless of the term being used, and what to budget for your project.  Click here to learn what type of editing you may need and what to expect to pay for it.

This article will help you see how an editor works with you to make your material the best it can be in the time available. Understanding this will help you have realistic expectations and a better collaborative experience.

When writing an essay or a nonfiction book, it is important to have transitions connecting your topics together. This blog post describes how to do that in easy to follow steps, and then provides examples from essays and nonfiction books.

People often say "good" when they mean "well," and grammar nazis often correct people who are actually using the right one. Learn which word to use.