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A Guide to Understanding CMOS Em Dash Rules & Signs of AI Writing

Scrabble letters mixed up on the table with "AI" on the shelf.
A writer sits in front of a computer taking notes by hand

Considered one of the telltale signs of AI writing, Em dashes are hotly debated. Make your human writing stand out by following these simple Em dash rules.

There’s a dialogue right now in many writer communities surrounding em dashes. Ah, these poor misunderstood punctuation, favorited by writers so much that The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) has an entire section of em dash rules (6.91 to 6.100), laying out how and when and why they should be used. But my experience with reading real human writing, in the real world, is that writers evoke the em dash wherever they like, which might sometimes seem random, but at best, is inconsistent. 

Knowing how to correctly use an em dash in a sentence may not be something to add to your resume, but in this age of questions about authenticity and AI-generated writing, an understanding of how to use the em dash correctly will help strengthen your prose and establish your voice and authenticity.

The Current Problem With Em Dashes, AI, and Human Writing

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Language Learning Models (LLMs) are commonly used by many writers (at all levels in the industry) to generate ideas, compose text, edit, and more. Because LLMs have been trained from samples of existing text—online, from books, from marketing copy, and from a variety of other sources—and because there are different em dash rules in different style guides and a plethora of inconsistent existing text, LLM writing shows a tendency to overuse the em dash. 

Because AI-generated writing can only approximate what it thinks human writing looks like, and LLMs don’t understand nuance nor context well, em dashes have been dubbed one of the clear-cut, telltale signs of AI writing and are undergoing an increased level of scrutiny across all writing-based industries (book and journal publishing, journalism, and more).

This high use of em dashes in AI writing is now causing backlash among real writers who compose their text themselves using em dashes (sometimes according to the style rules, sometimes not). Those real writers’ text is being flagged by AI-detection software as AI-written, even when it isn’t! 

First: When and How to Use an Em Dash in a Sentence

Setting aside all the problems with AI-detection software and its evaluations of human writing (the short version: They are inconsistent and inaccurate, at best), the bottom line is that many writers are left with conflicting information about how and when to use em dashes, and these writers are becoming wary of them, understandably wanting to avoid being flagged as AI. 

Additionally, there are also writers who use AI to generate or edit some of their text, who don’t understand why editors remove or correct em dashes to other punctuation. Online, I’m seeing increasing discussion from editors about pushback from writers who use AI. Responses along the lines of “Well, I put it through ChatGPT, and it said…” 

Scrabble letters mixed up on the table with "AI" on the shelf.
Photo by Markus Winkler, Pexels.

Man, that is causing frustration for a lot of trained editors who understand em dash rules, in addition to confusion for a lot of writers who are seeking answers but aren’t finding clear, consistent solutions.

So, let’s clear up some of these misunderstandings! 

There are times and places where em dashes are appropriate or make the most sense as your punctuation of choice. Let’s look at some of the most common uses. Understanding how to use the em dash (but really, all punctuation) properly will give you insight into how to wield it as a tool to better connect with readers and keep the question of AI use entirely out of the comments section (and reviews) of your book. (No signs of AI writing here!) 

Got questions about how to use semicolons? Check out my previous blog,
“Two Common (and Easy-to-Use) Semicolon Rules.”

An Overview of CMOS Em Dash Rules

Em Dash Use #1: To Amplify, Explain, or Expand

Perhaps the most common use of em dashes is to amplify or explain an idea. While commas are also common and appropriate, if you want to place emphasis on the phrase or strengthen an idea, use an em dash in a sentence instead. 

She cautiously tread along the cliffside—the same cliffside responsible for twenty-three deaths the year prior.

In a sentence interjection that typically requires two commas, instead, use a pair of em dashes to emphasize the interjected phrase or clause. However, CMOS em dash rules state that you should be consistent, and whichever punctuation you choose, use them as a pair; do not mix a comma with an em dash here. 

I heard my name called out from the crowd, despite wearing my best disguise, and felt my stomach drop.

or

I heard my name called out from the crowd—despite wearing my best disguise—and felt my stomach drop. 

These same uses apply to parentheses as well. As seen below, where parentheses could be used to set off a phrase or clause without emphasis, you can also use em dashes if you want to amplify or clarify your idea. (Commas here would be a bit confusing because of the list, so one of these alternate punctuation choices is recommended). 

My three cats (Mosley, Tabitha, and Kibble) are my greatest source of happiness. 

or

My three cats—Mosley, Tabitha, and Kibble—are my greatest source of happiness. 

Em Dash Use #2: Amplifying a Noun With a Pronoun

In some em dash rules, only one dash is necessary. This is frequently seen with an introductory noun (or series of them) followed by a clarifying idea or pronoun. This may sound confusing, but I promise, it is less complicated (and more common) than it seems. 

A sword—the greatest weapon he could wield in his quest to defeat the dragon. 

A game board, a pair of dice, and a couple figurines—all that was needed for them to build their dream campaign. 

As you can see, the dash is once again used to expand on a previously established idea. This is especially effective in suddenly introducing a prominent idea (or ideas) to readers before explaining its significance. One of the signs of AI writing is that AI overuses this type of sentence structure and em dash, so consider saving this trick for moments where it produces the greatest impact. 

Em Dash Use #3: For an Example or Pause with Emphasis

Another popular use for an em dash in a sentence is to introduce an example or alternative phrase that emphasizes or renames an idea after a pause. This is frequently combined with expressions such as that is or namely. 

He felt great about his outfit—that is, until someone pointed out the stain on his shirt. 

She always had an extreme fear of dogs—namely, German Shepherds.

Em Dash Use #4: In Dialogue, When a Speaker Is Interrupted

In a scene with dialogue, when a speaker’s dialogue is interrupted either by their own action or by another speaker, use an em dash or a pair.

She began, “I said to her—”

“I don’t care what you said!” he yelled. 

or

“I said to her”—she flapped her hand at the girl—“I didn’t want to hear her complaint.”

Note in the first example (where the speaker is interrupted by someone else), the dash is contained within the quote mark for the interrupted dialogue; however, in the second example (where the speaker interrupts their own dialogue with an action), the em dashes appear outside the quotation marks, without spacing or other punctuation. 

Looking for more tips for writing dialogue? Check out my previous blog,
“How to Write Authentic Character Voice in Dialogue.”

Some Em Dash Don’ts

Humorous wanted posted depicting the punctuation "em dash" as wanted dead or alive for $1 million.
Image from Kramar, “Who gives a f___ about an em dash?”, The Chronicle, Dec. 15, 2025.

Knowing the em dash rules for what to do also means you want to be familiar with what not to do. Online and in book editing, I’m seeing em dashes used because both human writing and AI-generated text confuse some other common punctuation and formatting uses. 

1. Em dashes are not meant to substitute for all instances of commas. For example, use commas in a list instead of Em dashes. 

Incorrect: He went to the store to pick up cheese—eggs—milk—and bread.

Correct: He went to the store to pick up cheese, eggs, milk, and bread. 

2. When it comes to dialogue, DON’T use a dash to indicate a pause or emphasis, which is very common in fiction writing. 

“But—I love you,” she stammered. “And nothing will—ever—come between us.” 

3. To indicate trailing dialogue or a pause in the speaker’s delivery, use an ellipsis. (You know, the three periods: …) 

To emphasize wording, use italics. CMOS prefers using italics for emphasis sparingly, so limit italics to one or two words at a time, not full phrases or sentences. General advice also suggests not adding italics to the end of a sentence or paragraph, which are naturally emphasized because of placement. 

“But…I love you,” she stammered. “And nothing will ever come between us.” 

(^^See how normally that would be in italics, but I left the text roman here to be clear? The CMOS rule states that when an already-italicized word needs emphasis, it is romanized: …nothing will ever come between us.)

4. DON’T use an em dash to introduce a contradictory statement. It is one of the most common signs of AI writing that I see. For example: 

It’s not about being who others expect—it’s about staying true to yourself.  

I have seen innumerable examples like this in the past two years. To me, it’s a giveaway that I’m not reading human writing. Just use a good ol’ semicolon here, or find a way to phrase your idea that doesn’t set up this kind of “it’s not this, it’s that” sentence construction. (Challenge yourself! You’ll develop much stronger phrasing by addressing these.) 

Being who others expect is not the goal; the goal is to stay true to yourself. 

Or better yet

Do not be who others expect; keep the goal centered around truth to yourself. 

Effective Employment of Em Dash Rules Opens Your Understanding of All Punctuation

Paper decorated with question marks lay on a tabletop with an open notepad and pen.
Photo by Leeloo the First, Pexels.

Despite developing a reputation as one of the signs of AI writing, em dashes have specific and important functions. Careful and correct use of an em dash in a sentence can set your writing apart as distinctly human, writing beyond question of the touch of any kind of artificiality. If you feel wary of em dashes, or indeed, any punctuation mark, remember, they are tools for you to wield, to guide the reader through your story, to create drama and tension. 

If the em dash rules continue to elude you, remember, you can always rely on the humble comma. As the most common punctuation (and probably the most versatile), use a comma if you’re not sure which punctuation is appropriate; your editor will clear it up for you. If an em dash works, your editor will add it, and all will be well. For a more thorough understanding, you can also start a discussion with your editor. 

Ready to speak to an editor?

Contact SRD Editing Services
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Announcing: SRD Editor Completes Editing with Macros Course

Black letters spell out "Congratulations" against a white background with colored confetti surrounding.
Black letters spell out "Congratulations" against a white background with colored confetti surrounding.

 

SRD Editing Services is pleased to announce that editor Cortni Merritt has completed the Discover Macros in Word editing course from the Poynter Institute and ACES: The Society for Editing (a.k.a., the American Copy Editors Society).

Cortni joined ACES in 2026 for educational opportunities such as this course, as well as networking possibilities with other professional book editors. When Cortni was completing her MA in English literature in 2014, there were no courses available on the enhanced and automated features built into MS Word, and Cortni was excited to update and upgrade her understanding of the software.

Macros are a coding feature within Word that can be utilized to automate repetitive editing tasks, such as changing font and styling, removing or adding highlighting, correcting extra spacing and indentation, and so much more. They do not use Artificial Intelligence and are separate from AI functions in Word and other programs. Cortni’s integration of Macros into the standard SRD Editing Services process will enhance and streamline all aspects of her book editing.

Find out more about Cortni’s education and editing training experience on the About Me page.

The Poynter ACES Discover Macros for Word course includes two hours of self-paced video instruction and a wealth of exercises, practice lessons, and resources for writers and editors looking to enhance their knowledge and skillset.

Cortni is thrilled to complete this course and sees it as a building block toward improved editing process and results in the immediate future.

Want to know more about Cortni and her editing process?

Contact me
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How to Write a Horror Novel: Tips for Scary Scenes

A dark-skinned woman with red eyes wearing all black on a red background stares menacingly into the camera.

Leave your readers with a proper fright after finishing your unnerving tale.

You’re writing your horror book, and everything is coming together nicely: The characters have depth and intriguing backstories; you’ve staked out a creepy setting; and your stalker, monster, cosmic entity, killer inanimate object, etc., is iconic and menacing. You have the components of a great story, yet can’t help but feel that something is missing. You begin to question if you know how to write a horror novel, until you read your manuscript, and only then does it hit you. You don’t feel… scared.

A spider on its web against a dark background with boca effect
Photo by kaboompics. Pexels.

The Importance of a Scare in Horror Story Writing

A well-constructed scare is as important as characters, setting, and plot in horror story writing. It adds bitter flavor, lingering with your readers long after they’ve flipped through the pages. Every ominous shadow in the corners of any room they walk into, strange bumps and thuds in the night, everyday objects that typically don’t frighten them—all because your book left a lasting impact. Tending to your scares with the love and care they deserve keeps your book faithful to the horror genre, and more importantly, makes your book memorable.

I previously compiled a list of excellent horror novel recommendations with bone-chilling scares that you may find useful!

Tip #1 to Write Horror: Find Your Subgenre

Before you begin sprinkling in jump scares or passages of shock and gore, consider the subgenre of your horror book, as each has its own types of scares. A paranormal story relies more heavily on suspense and unease, whereas a slasher leans into jump scares and bloodshed to frighten the reader. If you are struggling to pinpoint your subgenre, consider the following types of horror:

  • Paranormal: events, activities, and entities not scientifically explainable, e.g., ghosts or telekinesis 
  • Psychological: relating to the protagonist’s mind
  • Slasher: a killer or entity preying on a group of people
  • Gore and body horror: concerned with extreme violence and visceral experience
  • Monster: a creature or one’s transformation into one, e.g., werewolves, vampires, zombies

This article covers a more extensive list breaking down these subgenres further, but these are the broad ones worth considering for the sake of this process.

Tip #2 to Write Horror: Harness Fears Effectively

Now that you’ve identified your subgenre, we can look at the different types of fear. Each stroke of horror utilizes different fears, including fear of Death, fear of the loss of sanity, fear of loss of loved people or culture, or fear of pain. 

Consider two classics: Psycho, written by Robert Bloch, utilizes suspense and sudden violence to startle readers in small bursts, whereas The Shining, written by Stephen King, uses the same suspense to establish dread and anxiety that prolongs until erupting into chaos in its final pages. 

These two books reveal different approaches for how to write a horror novel by relying on different types of fear to frighten their readers. It’s crucial to have a solid understanding of your subgenre to know what fears work best. For example, a gore book sustaining the same suspense as The Shining won’t be as effective as one that prioritizes shock and disgust. (For more on how to use a fear of Death in horror story writing, check out this blog.) 

A young Black woman holds open a book and appears engaged with the text.
Photo by Ron Lach. Pexels.

It’s also worth cozying up with similar books and noting their structure. A suspenseful story may involve leaving a trail of unease throughout, and thus requires a different editing approach than a book with quickly established jump scares. That’s not to undermine the importance of maintaining an eerie atmosphere regardless of subgenre (which can be expertly curated utilizing mood boards), but rather to emphasize how scares are catered to differently in horror stories. A revision of your book centered on incorporating these fears can prove useful to heighten the effectiveness of your book. 

Tip #3 to Write Horror: Consider POV

Lastly, and this may sound surprising, but the point-of-view you choose to write your book in greatly matters in how you approach writing scenes that genuinely feel scary. 

First-Person POV

A first-person POV puts readers in the shoes of the narrator, and thus, they can only visualize the narrator’s senses. Curating surprises may be more effective if it focuses on the character’s sudden reaction and feelings toward a scare, told from their perspective. A psychological horror book can utilize confusion to scare readers. You can lean into what the narrator sees and feels that may be abstract or out-of-the-ordinary to play with the reader’s mind, especially if the narrator themselves doesn’t recognize it as peculiar. 

Third-Person POV

Despite the story not unfolding through the narrator’s eyes, a third-person POV can be effective in staging sudden scares or odd occurrences, while also describing the world outside of a character’s immediate view. Great for suspense, a third-person POV allows you to focus on an object or threat that is approaching a character without their knowledge. A monster lurking in the shadows or a ghost appearing on a monitor when someone looks away: A third-person POV is excellent at staging the world outside a character’s direct experiences. 

Even… Second-Person POV?

An excellent example of POV manipulation in horror story writing is in The Only Good Indians, written by Stephen Graham Jones. (Minor spoilers ahead!) The book is mainly written in the third-person, following a group of hunters tracking a monster. In one instance, a character is scanning his surroundings with a gun when he lands on someone, you, the reader, now addressed in the second-person as the monster they’ve been hunting. It’s a masterful example of producing a scare by exploiting POV before the reader can fully comprehend what’s happening. 

If you’re looking for more effective frights, I previously compiled a list of some excellent horror novels with bone-chilling scares!

Map Out and Curate Your Scares

Once you understand your subgenre, its associated fears, and identify your POV, you can begin to establish your scares. There is an extensive list of tips from published writers on what they utilize to startle their audience, and reading other horror books and identifying what about them scares you will inspire you to implement the same techniques when you write horror. 

Scare Trope Example No. 1: Horrifying "Safe" Spaces

Consider including scares in otherwise-safe spaces. Vividly describing a derelict house or abandoned hospital can be equally valuable in building suspense and unease. Think of Jaws and how the novel (by Peter Benchley) and film (by Steven Spielberg) made an entire generation afraid to swim at the beach, or how the film The Ring (based on Japanese horror novel, Ring, by Koji Suzuki)  recontextualized water wells and TVs as things/spaces to be afraid of. 

Scare Trope Example No. 2: The Unlikely Threat

Another example of a common scare type is an unlikely threat. It could be argued that The Omen (screenplay by David Seltzer) or Children of the Corn (again by Stephen King) largely contributed to a trope in horror involving unease toward children. We assume them unlikely to be a threat, only to be confronted with how horrifying they truly are. Or, how a film like Child’s Play or a novel like How to Sell a Haunted House (by Grady Hendrix) instil in viewers a lurking fear that prompts them to keep their eyes on inanimate dolls…just in case they spring to life. 

Toying with the unordinary and even looking inward at what scares you personally are excellent ways to construct a memorable scare that surprises the reader. You can defy expectations or lean into what already unsettles you and people like you. 

Final Thought About How to Write a Horror Novel

A dark-skinned woman with red eyes wearing all black on a red background stares menacingly into the camera.

A horror book can have intricately written characters or a unique plot, but if it’s not scary (or even suspenseful), readers will feel disappointed. Hopefully, you now feel more confident on how to write a scary scene in your horror novel or short story; hopefully you feel prepared to unnerve and surprise your readers. My final piece of advice for how to write a horror novel is to remember that it is okay to revise and edit until you feel confident your scares are effective. Horror readers love nothing more than the excitement of fear and unease creeping into their daily lives after reading an effective, frightening spine-tingler. Family, friends, colleagues, and professional beta readers can provide valuable feedback that helps you identify what didn’t work and what needs a bit more to really get readers’ hearts racing and keep them up at night.

Ready to speak with an editor about your horror novel?

Contact SRD Editing Services
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Announcing: SRD Editor Completes ACES Editing Certification

Silver and gold balloon and confetti against a black and white background; celebration theme.
Silver and gold balloon and confetti against a black and white background; celebration theme.

SRD Editing Services is pleased to announce that editor Cortni Merritt has completed the Introductory Certificate in Editing from the Poynter Institute and ACES: The Society for Editing (a.k.a., the American Copy Editors Society). 

Cortni joined ACES in March 2026 to become more active in the professional book editing community and seek opportunities through networking and continuing education. Since completing her Master’s in English at Florida State University in 2014, which included a graduate certificate in editing and publishing, Cortni has engaged in various online copywriting and editing courses from Copyblogger, LinkedIn, and the Editorial Freelancers Association. She has also received training from her work with New Degree Press and Elite Editing. However, she felt it was time to refresh her skills and update to the standards of book publishing needs in 2026.

Find out more about Cortni’s education and editing training experience on the About Me page.

The Poynter and ACES Introductory Certificate in Editing is earned through completing seven courses totaling 15.5 hours of self-paced editing coursework that cover fundamental topics such as clarity and accuracy, involving quizzes and practice exercises, and a final graded assessment. 

Cortni is thrilled to complete this course and sees it as a refresher that will prepare her for the Poynter and ACES Intermediate and Advanced Certificates in Editing, scheduled for completion in 2026. 

Want to know more about Cortni and her editing experience and education?

Contact me!
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Announcing: SRD Sponsorship of Editor Cortni Merritt in 10th Annual CommUNITY Rainbow Run (Orlando)

Community Rainbow Run logo
SRD Editing Services is proud to sponsor editor Cortni Merritt in the 10th Annual CommUNITY Rainbow Run, to take place June 6, 2026, in downtown Orlando, Florida. It is Cortni’s sixth 5K run for charity out of seven 5Ks in the past five years.
Editor Cortni Merritt at the Monster Dash 2024
Editor Cortni Merritt at the Oviedo Mall Monster Dash 5K, 2024
Editor Cortni Merritt displays her medal after completing the Monster Dash 2024.
Editor Cortni Merritt displays her medal after completing the Oviedo Mall Monster Dash 5K, 2024.
The CommUNITY Rainbow Run commemorates the 10th anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub tragedy in Orlando, which occurred on June 12, 2016, and during which 49 people lost their lives to gun violence.
Cortni’s goal is to raise $10 per person for each of the 49 lives lost. Please consider donating to the fundraising page to help Cortni meet this goal! All donations benefit the permanent Pulse Memorial scheduled to open in Orlando in 2027.
Cortni has been an advocate for LGBTQIA+ equality and rights since the 1990s. In an effort to best serve all members of every community, she has taken advanced webinars in inclusive language and conscientious editing,  trans allyship for authors and editors, and editing with sensitivity to disability from the Editorial Freelancers’ Association.
In past years, Cortni has run charity 5Ks for other notable causes, including mental health awareness (with NAMI),  funding high school music and PTA programs, and breast cancer research.
A long-time resident of Orlando, Cortni was living in the area in June 2016 and remembers the local reaction and outpouring of support from the community after the event at Pulse Nightclub. With great fondness, she recalls a night in 2011 at Pulse to celebrate a friend’s birthday when she was enrolled as a student at the University of Central Florida: “There was something special about the vibe. People just coming together as themselves, having fun and dancing. What I remember most is the laughter through every corner of the club that continued all night.”
For more information about Cortni, her editing experience and availability in June, her history of running 5Ks, or for any other inquiries, please Contact SRD Editing Services.
To donate to the fundraising page for the 10th Annual CommUNITY Rainbow Run on June 6, 2026, please visit Cortni’s Strengthen Orlando fundraising page.
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Editor’s Advice for Writing a Novel: How to Write the Hero’s “Ordeal”

A broken ladder leads up a stiff cliff; advice for writing the Ordeal in your novel

Emotionally compelling protagonists are at the heart of the best advice for writing a novel.

“If you want to be a writer, you have to be a reader.” So the advice for writing a novel typically goes. And this advice remains solid because there are many things writers can learn by example from exposure to other people’s stories and storytelling. 

If you’ve ever read a book, watched a movie or TV show, or played a video game, you’ve engaged with the story structure known as the Hero’s Journey (possibly even without knowing it, although if you have a background in creative writing, this will sound familiar). The Hero’s Journey is a twelve-step narrative structure from Joseph Campbell in his book of the same name, a structure that most conventional fiction follows. These steps span all three acts of the story, beginning with Ordinary World (the introduction to the setting) and ending with Return With The Elixir (the hero returning to their world, triumphant after completing their task or facing their challenge). 

Diagram of the Hero's Journey
Image by Wikimedia.

 (*also: please note: I intend and use “hero” in a gender-neutral way and interchangeably with “protagonist” throughout this blog.)

If you’re not familiar, or you want a refresher, take a look at the Hero’s Journey structure, and you will think of examples from the hundreds of stories you know. There’s a ton of guidance out there that addresses different steps in the Journey; in this blog, I’d like to focus my advice for writing a novel on the Eighth Step, the Ordeal, which is generally considered one of the most important moments in the conclusion of your story.

Exploring the Eighth Step: The Ordeal

A broken ladder leads up a stiff cliff; advice for writing the Ordeal in your novel
Photo by Théo Cold, Pexels.

The eighth step, The Ordeal, is described as the lowest point of the protagonist at the end of act two. It is their dramatic downfall or defeat, but it also reveals the truth of their character. Maybe the hero lost a battle against the villain, or they failed to save another character from danger. This step sees the protagonist hitting rock bottom in order to return with greater strength and resolve to conquer the main antagonist or conflict. (Not to be confused with the eleventh step, The Resurrection, which is defined as the final confrontation or climax, in book terminology.) 

Define Your Protagonist: Advice for Writing a Novel Lead

When you’re outlining your story or reach The Ordeal when writing, it can be challenging to weave plot points and character arcs together to create an emotional downfall for your protagonist. However, effectively crafting your protagonist makes this step easier to define through the following traits: their goal, their room for improvement, and their inner turmoil. If you find yourself struggling to define your character or build the right emotional tension, Developmental Editing provides that kind of assistance on your book’s character work and overall structure.

#1: What Are Your Protagonist’s Strengths and Goals?

After The Ordeal, ask yourself and outline: 

What strengths does your protagonist currently hold? And what do they still hope to accomplish? 

Return to your story and make note of the knowledge your protagonist currently has after their loss in The Ordeal. Perhaps they are a skilled fighter with a relentless need to bring peace to their city, an insanely knowledgeable detective with a knack for complex cases, or a passionate businessperson at the top of their career. 

A skilled fighter might strive to take down the villain or halt an evil external force to save their city. An intelligent detective might wish to catch an evasive serial killer. A passionate businessperson might dream of completing their life by finding their forever person. Once you have these two questions answered, you will know your protagonist’s mindset after The Ordeal, as well as the endpoint of what they still hope to accomplish. 

Using this arc, connect the necessary plot points (events that must happen) for the hero to grow from The Ordeal in order to navigate The Resurrection (or climax) in your book.

#2: How Can Your Protagonist Improve, and What Can They Learn?

Now ask yourself: where does your protagonist still have room to grow or learn? 

Returning to our previous examples, a skilled fighter might be great at what they do, but perhaps they’re still too hot-headed, which is what caused their problems during The Ordeal. They overestimated their abilities in a showdown with the villain and were brutally defeated. 

A detective might have underestimated the killer or worked themselves to exhaustion, and after The Ordeal, it seems the killer has slipped through their fingers. 

A passionate businessperson might have been shown during The Ordeal that they still have to learn a thing or two about partnership. 

All of these are common (and effective!) tropes for these character archetypes, so experiment with yours to make them unique to your story using specific plot points in your book; twist them into a more refined character. If you are unsure how your protagonist can still improve, examine where you have written them as a flawed, thus more human, character in previous scenes. How have they acted or what decisions did they make that were detrimental to them during The Ordeal? What lesson does it seem they might still need to learn?

#3: What Is Your Protagonist’s Inner Conflict?

Lastly, for your protagonist, you must find their inner conflict. These tend to be external to the main plot and based in a B-plot or the character’s roots. A fighter might have an unrelenting drive to prove himself to his peers. A detective might be on the case after their loved one fell victim to the killer. A passionate businessperson might struggle with commitment, dedicating too much of their life to work. The inner conflict must be unique to your protagonist, as it fleshes out their personality and individual emotions. This conflict drives your protagonist’s motivation in the story, and directly relates to The Ordeal and the lesson they must learn.

Book with handwriting on one page open on a bed of golden leaves

Final Advice for Writing a Novel: The Ordeal Sets up a Phenomenal Climax in Books of All Genres

The Ordeal can be a tricky step in your story, but if you take time to properly craft your protagonist with a goal, room to grow, and an inner conflict, you can create an engaging and compelling character-defining moment that’ll resonate with your readers. My advice for writing a novel using the Hero’s Journey is that it can be helpful to return to your favorite stories for inspiration, or even use a list of examples that clearly define the steps and what comes before and after The Ordeal. Most importantly, remember that this step serves as the most vulnerable point for the protagonist. Constructing an effective Ordeal is more than beating the protagonist to the ground; it’s the pinnacle of their flaws and traits clashing together in chaotic disharmony, and where they must learn to accept or improve themselves to conquer their objective. 

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How to Procrastinate in Writing (the Right Way): Procrastinate Efficiently to Put More Words on the Page Every Day

Young black woman in pink on pink background; staring in space procrastinating

The best advice for writer’s block is accommodating procrastination in your writing process.

Procrastination. In writing, the word alone likely terrifies you. In person, it can be a writer’s greatest enemy, stunting them from producing their work in a timely manner. It can feel debilitating, paralyzing, sometimes even humiliating. It’s likely you’ve come here to find out how to rid yourself of procrastinating entirely, but what if I told you that procrastination is not something to fear? What if I told you it’s a human response to responsibility and dread, and that you should invite it into your writing process? It’s unavoidable. Procrastination, avoiding your writing, is a challenge faced by every writer, a fact of this field. Solely because it’s a real challenge doesn’t mean it has to be a burden.

Young black woman in pink on pink background; staring in space procrastinating

Question Your Writer’s Block: Procrastination Is Caused By Something Deeper

First, you must ask yourself: Why do you procrastinate? It can be insightful to uncover what is stopping you from writing. Some common reasons to consider are a fear of judgment, that your work isn’t good enough, or that your ideas aren’t fully formed. You may worry others won’t like what you’ve written, that your time will have gone to waste. You may find that you’re not in a place to write yet, that you still require time to conceptualize your story. It’s as important to recognize when procrastination is a signal to take a break or allow yourself time to outline your book.

Spend 10 minutes inquiring why you procrastinate, and as you unearth your reasons… write them down. Yes. It may sound like ridiculous advice for writer’s block, but having a tangible list of reasons provides the full, unfiltered scope of your fears. Write them on a piece of paper, a Google Doc, hell, even a napkin. (I won’t judge!) Whatever is most realistic for you to remember and revisit. 

Once you have your list, read them out loud and challenge each one. Let’s say you have a fear of judgment. Why? Do you worry you’ll lose credibility, or that you’ll find out you’re a terrible writer? This exercise forces you to be vulnerable with yourself. It can feel daunting to look inward and question your feelings, but if you’re up to the challenge, it can reveal your deepest insecurities. You’ll find that your reasons are exactly that: your own insecurities. It’s your inner critic ceasing your writing before hearing anyone else’s opinion. 

I recently listened to Mel Robbin’s Let Them Theory on audiobook, and her advice for this situation would be: Let them. Let them judge you. Let them misjudge you. Let them think you’re a terrible writer. It’s frightening, but by facing the idea, you can then move forward to: Let me. 

What will you do if people judge or misjudge you? Will you develop yourself, hone your skills, rise to the challenge? Will you decide/choose only to listen to the judgment of people who have done more or better than you? Frankly, will you choose/decide to listen to the people who know what they’re talking about…including yourself. No one else knows what you went through to get where you are, so let them (mis)judge you, and let you grow from that experience.

Curate Your Ideal Writing Space

Now that you’ve introspected and asked yourself why, create your ideal writing environment to help you break past the writer’s block and procrastination: put together a when and where that sets you up for success in your writing. 

Try writing at different times of the day or documenting when your best ideas come to fruition. You may find your brain is surging with plotlines the second you roll out of bed, or that a rush of productivity hits you late at night. When you’ve found your creativity sweet spot, you’ve found your when. 

Depending on your when, you may find it challenging to designate a block of time for writing. Having a creative burst of energy at work or while cozying up on your couch at home can make it difficult to find palpable motivation to write. Therefore, creating an intentionally inviting where for your writing alleviates some of the difficulty. 

Change your scenery. At work, step out to your car during your lunch break or drive to a local coffee shop. At home, designate a room and put away all distractions. Light a candle, play calming music, brew a coffee or tea. Fill your space with inspiring pictures, quotes, or even a color scheme that gets you in the zone. Anything that effectively eases you into your writing space. The key is to invite yourself into writing. It should feel stress-free, a place you associate with relaxation and creativity. 

Make Room for Procrastination in Writing

Lastly, when blocking out time for your when, allocate time for procrastinating. Yes, you read that correctly. Time-wasting is unavoidable, after all, so invite it into your sacred writing space. Try the following approach, a modification of the Pomodoro technique, and see if this doesn’t help break up some of your writer’s block, procrastination, and anxiety about your craft

Two-Minute Technique to Tackle Writing Time

Give yourself 10 minutes on top of your writing time strictly for procrastinating. So, if you have an hour, 50 minutes is dedicated to writing and 10 minutes to procrastinating. This may feel uncertain the first few times, but with practice, it becomes normal and easier.

dedicate to focused writing time for better writing

Allow yourself 1 procrastination-minute at the start of your writing session to panic, moan at the blank page in front of you, curse and grumble out loud, or whatever you want to do for 1 minute to get out some nervous energy. 

After that minute, when you put your hand on the pen or fingers to the keyboard to start writing, tell yourself you’re only going to write for two minutes before you can take another break. 

You can do anything for two minutes, right? 

Then, set a timer for 10 minutes. And start writing.  

After two minutes, if you really want to take another break, do it. Spend another minute (1 more procrastination-minute) griping and prepping yourself. Then, try again to write for two minutes (but set another 10-minute timer).

What generally happens is that after two minutes, your brain becomes engaged in the activity, and you won’t be ready to take a break. You’ll probably write for the whole 10 minutes, until the timer goes off.

When the timer goes off and you feel like taking a two-minute break, go for it. You’ve built it into your writing time already. But, if the ten-minute timer goes off and you’re in the zone, reset it, and write for another ten minutes. 

You can repeat this process as many times as you want for the length of time you have. Tell yourself you’re only going to write for two minutes, then see how fast ten minutes goes by. 

Limit yourself to two-minute breaks when you do decide to take a break. Blue timer clock; signifies how to time yourself to challenge procrastination

Now, take a deep breath. You’ve prepared the time and space to put off things for a little bit, every now and then, and if it works, then use it. Ultimately, you can see if this approach doesn’t make you more productive overall. 

Tips to Keep Writing When the Urge to Stop Creeps In

Now that you understand your why, have found your when and where, and most importantly, have accepted procrastination as part of your process, you can begin to write. Put words on the page. Allow yourself to be messy. The goal is to get your thoughts and ideas out of your brain and on paper. View your writing space as a place to produce results, not to perfect them. You always have time to make revisions and edits later. 

To maintain your flow and avoid any snares in your writing, leaving a marker where you find yourself stuck allows you to move on and revisit it later. Take it from the journalists, who use the acronym “TK” (to come) to sustain their pace, saving tricky spots for their revision. 

If you come to a detail you haven’t researched, a continuity item to check, or you want to leave yourself a note to revisit later, you can always add placeholder text in square brackets (like this: [text]), which are easy to search and unlikely to show up in your writing otherwise (unless you’re writing a math textbook). 

For example, maybe in a dialogue scene, you don’t know exactly what the characters say to each other, but you know somebody is going to get mad by the end. A placeholder like the following will help you return and revise when the time is right: 

[Character A says something insulting to Character B that causes B to angrily respond, slam his fist on the table, and storm out.]

When your writing time has concluded, find a good stopping point. Hemingway said he stopped when he knew what would happen next (often, midsentence!).

Allow yourself an extra minute if you need to finish up a paragraph or jot down ideas for next time, and welcome the desire for continuation if you find yourself in a groove. Otherwise, following your timeframe builds a healthy habit of writing the entire duration of your time, which will help erode any tendencies to procrastinate in the future, because you’re excited about where you left off and don’t want to avoid writing. 

Conclusion: Final Advice for Writer’s Block and Procrastination

Typewritten letters spell out "The End" after you beat writer's blockIf you are willing to accept and accommodate the fact that all people procrastinate, your fear will diminish over time. Acknowledging its unavoidability is the first step to creating a healthy relationship with procrastination, understanding your why challenges you to combat it, and curating your when and where includes it while building a space for you to thrive. It is also important to grow comfortable with imperfection; allow yourself to simply write. Having that rough draft is the first step to finishing your book, and accepting the mess along the way is equally as important as your revisions. 

Above all, it’s crucial to grant yourself grace. Allowing yourself a day off from writing is not a sign of failure, and in most cases is beneficial to your wellbeing. Only when procrastination in writing becomes a habit should you question it. Inviting procrastination into your writing process is the first step to finally writing that book you’ve always wanted to. 

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How to Write an Authentic Author Bio that Speaks to Readers

Close up on man's hands holding book opened to Author Biography

Unlocking an amazing author bio may be easier than you think.

Whether you’ve finished your book, are starting the writing process, or are somewhere in the middle, chances are you’ve thought about your author bio. You know, the “about me” blurb every author has on the back cover and inside the back matter or on the jacket of their book? Maybe you’ve tried drafting some ideas, and it doesn’t sound right, or it doesn’t quite line up with professional bios you admire. Writing the perfect author bio can be tricky, especially when self-publishing a book and you don’t have a marketing copywriter to help. 

Also writing the back cover description for your book? Check out my previous blog to help you write your back cover copy.

Wooden blocks spell out Author; author bio description

The Importance of a Stellar Author Bio

An author bio allows your reader to connect with you before opening your book. The back cover, as we know, functions as sales copy, and in your blurb, you’re selling yourself. The back cover bio blurb gives readers a hint of who you are, what you’ve accomplished, and why you’re telling the story they hold in their hands. Whether you’ve written a collection of poetry, a full-length novel, or a memoir, a clear, concise, compelling bio can magically hook readers who are deciding which book to invest themselves in. 

It is, of course, equally important to write a bio that fits your genre. An author blurb for a steamy romance novel will differ from the blurb for an author who writes true-crime retellings. Familiarize yourself with the styles, keywords, and tone of successful authors in the genre in which you plan to publish your book. Looking at the author bio examples from best-selling and crowd-favorite writers in your genre will give you insight into what readers, including your future audience, will expect. 

Two Types of Author Bios

There are two types of author bios you’ll want to include in your book. A brief (25-50 words) blurb for the back cover of your book, and a longer (50-250 words) in-depth author biography for the inside of your book, usually located in the back matter, after the main text of the book itself.

General Rules for Author Bios

Before we dive into the structures of your two bios, here are a few general tips:

 

  • Write in the third person. It’s standard practice to compose your blurb and bio using this perspective, especially if you’re a new writer, and even if you’re self-publishing a book. (Pretend you’re that marketing copywriter at the publishing house!)
  • Concision is key. Avoid redundancy.
  • Balance the tone between personable and professional. You want readers to relate to you, but sounding too friendly or, conversely, superior can drive people away.
  • Use a tone consistent with your book. This mainly affects the inside bio. Tone is your secret weapon, as it establishes credibility and contributes to writing style.

Writing a Back Cover Bio

Woman holds orange book over her face showing the back cover copy and author bio
Photo by Polina Zimmerman. Pexels.

The back cover author bio is straightforward, typically 1-2 sentences. Write concisely, and sell yourself. Think of it as a way to establish credibility as a writer on your book’s topic or theme. 

Your first sentence should contain the basics: your name, where you’re from or currently reside, and your occupation. If your occupation is irrelevant to your book or writing career, instead, say why you have written your book. Ask yourself, “What drew me to telling this story?” Then, answer that question for your readers. 

As for the second sentence, list any relevant awards or accolades. Don’t have any? No worries! State your goal for writing the book, or what you hope to accomplish with your writing in general. Avoid the trap of imposter syndrome, believing that less recognition means less capability. A strong bio will draw readers in, regardless of the author’s status. 

Please note: You don’t have to include that you are a first-time author. It typically doesn’t matter to readers!

Back Cover Author Bio Examples

Note the use of third-person POV, the concise word choice and descriptions, and the approachable tone used in these author bio examples. The first two focus on experience and professional credentials with writing in different genres:

Marie Collins is a professor at the University of Central Florida with a love for science fiction. Her work has been featured in the Orlando Sentinel, and she holds the 2024 Orlando Authors award for best fiction story. 

Keenan Reed is an acclaimed journalist from  Los Angeles. He formed Reed All About It in 2012 to platform LA writers and bring insightful, honest news to the forefront of journalism. 

This is the perfect formula to follow for first-time authors self-publishing a book, or writers launching into new spaces from other projects: Who are you, what have you done, what are you about?

But what if you want to add a touch of humor to your author bio? Perhaps that is appropriate to your genre, and you’d like to include a bit of personality. 

The bio for children’s writer Dav Pilkey is as follows: 

In the second grade, Dav Pilkey created a comic book about a superhero named Captain Underpants. His teacher ripped it up and told him he couldn’t spend the rest of his life making silly books. Fortunately, Dav was not a very good listener. 

Playful, tells the story of why he wrote this book, gives an idea of his style and voice. 

The bio inside Trevor Noah’s memoir, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Chilldhood reads: 

Trevor Noah is a comedian from South Africa. 

If you didn’t know who the comedian was before reading the title of his book, the author bio doesn’t give you much more to go on, but it does give you a sense of the style of humor (and humility) you’ll find within. 

Need some help writing or perfecting your back cover copy, including the author blurb? SRD Editing Services offers services for both writing copy for you, or editing copy you’ve written.

Writing the Bio for Inside the Book

Close up on man's hands holding book opened to Author Biography
Photo by cottonbro studio. Pexels.

If you were hoping to give readers a more authentic sense of who you are beyond a two-sentence blurb, your inside biography is your chance to shine. Some authors utilize an entire page, but assuming you are beginning your writing career or self-publishing a book, you may only need a paragraph. 

Your first two sentences will look similar to your back cover bio. Include your name, location, occupation, and qualifications or awards. You have leeway to embellish, but do so in as few words as possible. (Stay on target…)

As for the third sentence, elaborate on what connects you to your book. Why did you write it? What gives you credibility in exploring this topic? Is there an emotional tie you have to your book? This sentence is your chance to tell readers why this book is important to you. 

Finally, close off your bio with a personal detail to humanize yourself. Think of your hobbies, your family, your home; what about you is most interesting that readers can relate to as a human being? Take a look at the author bio examples from writers in your genre; you may find there’s a pattern to the types of details they include and what readers connect with.

Author Bio Examples for Inside the Book

In the following examples, note how the first two sentences could be repurposed for the back cover of the book: third-person POV, concise wording, and approachable tone. The final two sentences give readers deep and unique insight that aligns with the genres for each writer–history and mystery:

Mauricio Betancourt is a historian born and raised in Chicago. His work frequently explores the city and its history, with some of his pieces featured in the city’s American Writers Museum. He traces this deep admiration to childhood trips to museums with his mother. When not writing or strolling downtown late at night, he can be found watching classic movies at home with his wife and their tabby cat, Pepper. 

***

Saki Toshiko is a third-generation Japanese American with a Master’s Degree in Composition & Rhetoric. As a college student, she won several fiction writing competitions in mystery and drama. Growing up in a quaint ghost town, she became fascinated by the supernatural and their wanderings on earth. Saki currently resides in Seattle, where she frequently tours its underground city, preparing for her next novel. 

But what if you don’t have accolades, awards, and credentials to include? That’s OK! Include the details that make you you and what you feel you have to say that readers might connect with. 

The following author bio example showcases how one writer balances between establishing herself as knowledgeable on the topic and providing the reader with a sense of her welcoming style: 

Nooky Bhojwani is a twin mom who writes from the heart about the raw, beautiful, and challenging journey of motherhood. After becoming a mother to twin girls, she embraced the path of spiritual growth, resilience, and unconditional love that comes with raising two little souls at once. Through her writing, Nooky shares honest stories from preconception, pregnancy, and postpartum to the early toddler years, weaving in her own healing practices of yoga, nutrition, and spirituality. Her hope is to encourage and comfort other mothers by showing that they are never alone in their struggles and triumphs. When she’s not writing, Nooky enjoys simple moments of family life, exploring holistic living, and creating supportive spaces for other moms on social media.

Final Polish and Online Uses for Your Author Bios

Of course, proofreading is key. The back cover and interior author bios should both be free of grammatical errors. Consider sharing your bios with friends, family, your editor, and other writers in your genre whose feedback you value. Ask them if the biographies explain you clearly and if there’s anything they suggest adding or removing. This is an excellent practical application to test how effective your bios are with people who know you well. 

One of the key things to remember is that your author bios won’t simply live within your book’s pages. When you are self-publishing a book, you will have opportunities to post your author bio on various websites. Of course, you might have a longer About Me on your own website, but when you create your account on a publishing platform (like Amazon or IngramSpark), you can use one of the author bios you’ve already written. If you market use press releases, podcast interviews, or local speaking engagements or book readings; if you submit poems, short stories, or other items to various publications, they may also ask for your blurb. If you decide to start publishing content on Medium, Substack, or any of the other online platforms, you’ll have a usable, professional, and polished author bio ready to go. 

An open book lies flat on a table next to rocks and a miniature globe; about the author wrap up
Photo by LAYİHA. Pexels.

As you continue your writing career and publish more books, you’ll have chances to update your bios. Revise when you release a new book, and add new honors, awards, or relevant personal details that build your credibility or help to connect with your audience in a new way. Remember, you are selling yourself to readers every time they come across your name. A stellar author bio can lead to lifelong fans along your publishing journey.

Ready to speak to an editor about your book and author bio?

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Using an AI Disclaimer for a Book Copyright Page: What to Include, Whether or Not You Used AI

Close up image of hand holding phone, AI in book; disclaimer for a book

Can’t find a template for AI use? Here’s how to write your own AI disclaimer for a book.

With the rise of AI and its utilization becoming more commonplace, you may find yourself implementing it as a tool for your writing. Maybe you needed help crafting an outline, or perhaps you researched or developed your ideas using AI, or maybe you even requested it write an entire passage when you found yourself stuck.

Whatever the case, you may have questions about copyright. Well, for self-publishing authors, there is a clear, simple solution to creating a copyright disclaimer for a book’s copyright page in these situations. But, please keep in mind that AI is still emerging and growing within US law, so ethics regarding AI and copyright are still…a bit of a gray area.

Close up image of hand holding phone, AI in book; disclaimer for a book
Photo by Sanket Mishra, Pexels

So, What AI Use Is Acceptable?

Legally, no official law in the US requires a book copyright disclaimer about AI use, as the AI Disclosure Act is only in the introduction phase. While the world adapts to this new technology, make sure to keep up-to-date on AI copyright concerns as they develop. 

Chances are, you may have already applied AI to your writing process without knowing it. Services like Grammarly use AI to review your work and suggest the best grammatically correct option. Most readers typically see this use as acceptable, but once you wade into the waters of AI models that generate or revise your text for you, be mindful of how you use AI in your writing process. 

While OpenAI (the owner of ChatGPT) states in their Terms and Services that the user (you) owns the rights to any information given to the AI model, and to anything generated by the AI model, traditional publishers consider any fully AI-generated text as uncopyrightable. As suggested by the Author’s Guild, such AI-generated texts must be edited to fit your own words to be considered copyrightable. It is strongly suggested to only use AI in the form of developing ideas and storylines rather than generating passages or long bodies of text. 

In other words, AI can help you form the pieces, but it’s up to you to assemble them. 

Crafting a Proper AI Disclaimer for a Book

Currently, there is no industry standard wording that must be included in an AI-use disclaimer, so I suggest you construct your own! Crafting your own book copyright disclaimer that explains your AI use (or, lack of) is the best way to ensure your message to readers is phrased how you’d prefer. 

Transparency

First and most importantly, remember your goal is transparency. As a self-published author, 100-percent honesty about any AI usage in your work establishes trust. Even if you merely used AI to develop a character’s background, let others know. AI usage is still controversial, so notifying your audience exhibits respect for them.

Clarity

Use clear language. Avoid confusing or vague terminology, technical or complicated speech and be direct and specific about how AI contributed to your book. If, for example, you only used AI to assist with artwork and visual elements, include that detail. If you used AI in character development, worldbuilding, or plot analysis, you might not need to list out every step at which you used that tool, but you want to include clear wording in the disclaimer for your book explaining to the reader that AI was used in developing the writing.

Human Review

In the past year, I have met some writers who have used AI to generate and edit the text of their book, and they chose to publish it without having a human read it first. Although this may be possible, it may not be the most efficient way to produce a commercially successful product. Readers often have strong negative reactions to AI-written books that have not been edited by a person, and the resulting backlash could prevent these writers from commercial success on any title under their name in the future. 

Of course, I recommend every book be edited by a human professional. (Even if it was edited by AI, having a human proofreader do a final review isn’t a bad idea. *wink*)

Additionally, I have worked with some writers who used AI and wanted to let their readers know, but who also wanted to inform readers that the AI-written text had been reviewed and edited by a human professional to maintain accuracy and integrity. In this case, we added the information to their disclaimers so readers would be clear that the text was reader-friendly and as intended.

AI Book Disclaimer Examples

In the past year, I’ve drafted the two following examples of disclaimers for books by clients who wanted to address their use of AI in different ways.

Book Disclaimer Example 1: Use of AI in Artwork Only

This book contains images that were created with the assistance of artificial intelligence. The author used AI image-generation tools as part of the creative process. All content was reviewed and edited by a human to ensure accuracy and to align with the author’s voice and intent. The author takes full responsibility for the content of this publication.

Here, the author is transparent about AI use, clear about how it was used, and direct in describing what role humans played in reviewing the final product. 

Book Disclaimer Example 2: Use of AI in the Writing Process

The author utilized artificial intelligence tools during the writing process to assist with organization of ideas. All content was reviewed and edited by a human to ensure accuracy and to align with the author’s voice and intent. The author takes full responsibility for the content of this publication.

Here, the author is also transparent about AI use and direct in describing the human role in reviewing the text. Because the author deployed AI to generate and organize her outline, then to review summaries of the chapters as they were drafted, they chose to clarify that AI was used during the organization of ideas. 

To see more book disclaimer examples for text that incorporates AI, check out this article. 

Remember: No matter how you used AI during your manuscript drafting, be transparent, clear, and responsible with your readers.

Woman's hand writing notes while other hand holds an open book; AI copyright disclaimer examples

What if I Didn’t Use AI in My Book? What Should I Put in My Book Copyright Disclaimer?

Luckily, there is a solution for you! 

The Authors Guild provides a Human Authored Certification mark, which can be used to signal to your readers that AI wasn’t used in any capacity in the writing of your book. As AI usage expands and people begin to question what is presented to them, this mark can offer a sense of reassurance that what you are providing them is completely original. 

For Guild members, this certification is provided free of charge once the author agrees to the terms and conditions; for nonmembers, the cost is $10 per title in addition to the licensing and registration requirements.

Make Your Disclaimer for Your Book Your Own

Because you are self-publishing, you have a great deal of freedom with the final book copyright disclaimers in your published book. But as we all know: With great freedom comes…well, options. Sometimes also, errors. 

Before even putting words on the page, remember that fully AI-generated passages are generally not accepted by publishers nor readers. It is your story, after all, and readers want your unique voice and style. Readers want emotion, creativity, and depth; readers want varied language. Readers want writing with soul. From brainstorming ideas to producing cover art, keep your writing human.

Ready to speak to an editor? Questions about using AI in your book or on finalizing disclaimers for your book?

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The Cost to Edit My Book: How Much to Spend, Types of Editing, and What Results to Expect

A white person's hand adjusting a knob that says "cost" from a low to a high position

Congratulations on finishing writing your fiction or nonfiction manuscript! Or, maybe you’re in the middle, or have only finished the first chapter. In any case, you may have read my list of tasks to plan for when self-publishing your book, or found other sources with similar recommendations. In this planning stage, you may have decided that editing is not a task you want to take on yourself, and if so, you’ve come to the right place. You probably have a lot of questions (“How much will editing my book cost?” “How long will this take?” “What exactly does an editor do?”), and that’s completely understandable, as there’s a lot of misinformation out there. 

Now, while you’re finalizing your manuscript, is the time to shop for editors and consider how having fresh eyes on your writing fits with your goals, timeline, and budget.

What to Consider When Hiring an Editor

Regardless of how wonderful your material is, the team you have before going to print can make or break your next queried or self-published book, and your editor is one of the most important components of your team. (Yes, even if you self-edit.) Editing makes sure your message and ideas are crystal clear to your audience, and it’s a nonnegotiable part of publishing a book that grips readers and sells copies. 

Some manuscripts need very little editing, some need much more, and a skilled editor will give you a realistic quote and turnaround time once they have the necessary information about your project.

A few things that a book editor will consider when determining pricing and scheduling will be:

  • Word count
  • Type of manuscript
  • Type and scope of editing requested
  • Steps in the editing process
  • Your timeline

Before you begin talking to an editor only about the cost, determine which of these factors are important to you. Different genres recommend different word counts, for example, and you might want to decide whether you want your editor’s help in shaping your manuscript to fit within the recommended range for your genre.

Shopping for an Editor

Now, where do authors find reputable book editors? There are several ways to find an editor, and each will have its pros and cons. 

First, check in your local community by creating and posting a short ad to share on social media or group message boards. Share it with friends, colleagues, or local organizations, and you may be surprised to learn that a mom of another kid in your child’s school choir or karate class has their own editing business! 

Second, if you are in an area near a university, you might consider connecting with their English or Communications department in your search for the right editor. Sometimes, a member of the faculty is experienced and looking for independent projects, and other times, you may find that graduate students who are in training to become professional editors offer lower rates based on their lower level of experience. (I do not recommend hiring undergraduate students unless they are extremely professional, experienced, and come highly recommended.)

There may be people nearby who would be a great fit for your project, and we all deeply need to build creative and collaborative connections in our local communities.

If you aren’t able to find someone in your current circles or in your city (I’m in Orlando!), of course, the next place you may think to look is the search engine of your choice, although this isn’t always the most accessible way for everyone to find help. There are a ton of scams and overseas companies that promise excellent service at a lower price, but disappear when you have questions or don’t deliver on those promises. 

One of the best places to build your dream team if you’re looking for the highest level of professional quality is Reedsy. All the editors listed on Reedsy have worked on books from traditional publishers and are vetted and verified. Once you have looked through some of their editor profiles and chosen a few to interview, each profile has a link to request a quote from the editors you’ve selected. Of course, because these are professionals at the highest levels, their rates will also often be the highest.

No matter where you are shopping for an editor, make sure they have the experience and qualifications. Just because they fit in your budget or ideal timeline doesn’t actually mean they’re the right fit for you. Consider if it’s important to you to work with someone local, someone who has edited in your genre before, or someone who is willing to “put a rush on it” for an extra fee. 

What “Should” It Cost to Edit My Book?

A white person's hand adjusting a knob that says "cost" from a low to a high positionThe questions around what it “should” cost to edit a book are always a bit tricky. The answer will be unique to you, your project, and your team, and it depends on several important factors.

The old adage continues to ring true: You get what you pay for. 

First, of course, I will always recommend a professional. Someone who has been formally trained, preferably in a formal setting (college or professional), and someone who relies on a particular style guide to inform their decision-making process during editing.

I also recommend someone who does not use AI at any step in their process. Because AI language-learning models are imperfect, they can actually introduce errors into your text. There also are confidentiality or plagiarism concerns that come with using AI to edit your book, and the best protection against those concerns is to not allow AI to be involved at any step of the editing process. 

So, with that in mind, the costs of hiring a professional will vary, but a higher cost also comes with more peace of mind. 

For my pricing, my favorite resource is the Editorial Freelancers Association rates chart, which is based on information submitted by over 1,000 of their members. The EFA has been operating since the late 1970s, brought together by the need for freelancers to share community and support each other. They continue today as a reputable nonprofit, connecting and supporting writers and many types of freelance professionals. 

According to the latest chart from 2024, average pricing for developmental editing, line editing, and copyediting tends to land between $.03-.07 per word, or $40-65 per hour, for nontechnical material, and $.04-.09 per word, or $45-$90 per hour, for technical, medical, and academic editing. Editing legal documents can be as high as $.15 per word. 

For proofreading, you might expect rates ranging from $.02-.05 per word or $40-62.50 per hour.

The EFA website also has a calculator tool where you can enter your unique parameters and find the pricing range for your specific project. There is a disclaimer, of course, that these are averages based on what members have submitted, and each editor will need to provide you their quotes directly.

Remember also that rates often vary based on timeline. If you are pushing to have your manuscript finished immediately and a professional editor’s schedule is already fully booked, they may be willing to accommodate you for an additional “rush” fee. However, if your timeline is a bit flexible or further in the future, an editor may be willing to offer you their lowest rate. 

What results can I expect from my editor?

An “edited” book is one step closer to publication, but it doesn’t mean you’re done after the book is edited. 

Depending on the type of editing, there may be additional steps for revision and another round of editing needed. And of course, after the manuscript document (typically in MS Word) has been formatted into a book layout (usually using a design program like Adobe InDesign), it’s always wise to conduct a round of proofreading before publishing.

Developmental Editing Results

You can expect your developmental editor to help you address the strengths and weaknesses of your material. 

Developmental editing is also sometimes referred to as “content editing” or “structural editing.” If you’re looking for someone to help you assess the strength of your plot, your book’s structure, your characters and world-building, and/or whether your message comes across clearly, then your developmental editor should help you do that. 

If you’ve hired an editor for developmental edits, you can expect they will see you through the development of the manuscript into its final form. Often, this can include two or more rounds of the editor reading through the manuscript and providing feedback. This might also include time for you to make revisions to the draft based on their notes. The developmental editor may provide some guidelines or information regarding technical elements of style (grammar, punctuation, capitalization, etc.), but typically, a developmental editor will not make these corrections in the text for you. 

You should expect that some errors will remain in the text after developmental editing. 

Line Editing or Copyediting

You can expect your line editor or copyeditor to correct all technical errors in your manuscript and align it with the standards of your chosen style guide or authorial preferences. 

In traditional publishing, line editing and copyediting are two distinct steps, performed by two different people. (More eyes on the manuscript means fewer errors make it through to publication!) In self-publishing, many authors prefer to save money by performing one of these steps themselves or consolidating them into a single step. 

If you’ve hired an editor for line editing or copyediting, you can expect that they will read through the manuscript and make adjustments to grammar, punctuation, spelling, word usage, and other in-line errors. Line or copyeditors may also perform light fact-checking for historical accuracy, and they may leave you notes or help you address concerns with continuity, consistency, or timeline within your story. If you have citations and references, a line editor should also help you ensure those are accurate and thorough, as well as adjusted for your preferred style guide. 

You should expect that more than 90% of errors in your text will be caught in the first round of line editing. Typically, this results in a manuscript going from more than 40 errors per thousand words (I’ve seen some at more than 125 errors per thousand words!) to as low as 4 errors per thousand words. 

The standard in traditional publishing is that after a round of line editing and a round of copyediting, a manuscript may contain approximately 1 error per thousand words when it goes to proofreading.

Proofreading

Well then, what does a proofreader do? You can expect your proofreader to correct not only any remaining technical errors in the text (those pesky 1-to-4-errors-per-thousand-word issues that slipped through line editing and copyediting), and you can also expect them to identify any issues with layout, spacing, formatting, and appearance of the text on the page. 

Because a proofreader generally sees the manuscript as a PDF after it has been laid out for publishing by a graphic designer, they should not only read through the text to identify and correct any remaining typos, they should also be able to point out any errors introduced by the design process, such as inconsistent page numeration; consistency with font, spacing, and layout; and issues with images, tables, charts, and graphics that may have been added after the editing process.  

The standard in traditional publishing is that after one round of proofreading, a manuscript should contain no more than 1 error per 25,000 words, on average. This is why most traditionally published manuscripts either enter the market with a few errors that can be corrected on reprinting, or they go through two rounds of professional proofreading. 

Is Editing My Self-Published Book Worth the Cost?

Two open books on a table with a cup of tea and two hands holding one of the books.Yes! Having a professional editor correct your manuscript before you put it out into the world not only makes a self-published book more marketable, it allows you to see the best version of your work. 

It’s like having a professional cleaner come to your house or office once a year for a deep scrub. You’ve put in a lot of elbow grease to keep your space clean to your standards, but having a professional come dig out the ingrained dirt or use professional-level products to lift that stain that’s been there for months really lets you transform the space into something you’re proud to show to guests and clients. 

Embrace your full potential as a writer. You’ve only ever seen your own writing through a lens tainted by error – you’re a great writer, I know, but no one is perfect. A polished, edited self-published book that you share with the world is something to be proud of. I like to remind my clients that they did the hard work, and I am here merely to dig out the dirt and remove those inset, hard-to-get stains. 

Happy writing! 

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Editor’s Pick: Book Recommendations for Veterans Day

Close up of American flag on a blurred background; offering discounts to veterans beginning Veterans Day 2024

Every year on November 11, we honor the veterans who have served and sacrificed for our country. This year, I’d like to offer a short list of book recommendations for veterans you know, or if you are interested in military history and literature.

First and foremost, please, take time to thank and hug a veteran today. Their service and their sacrifice deserve to be remembered every day of the year.

As a daughter, sister, and longtime partner of military service members, veterans from all branches hold a special place in my heart. Whether it’s a story of service by land, by air, or by sea, tales of military life add value to many book genres and categories. Often, when we think of books by veterans or about military life, we think of memoirs of famous generals or wartime leaders, but books that feature our brave men and women in uniform come in many varieties and in practically every genre.

While, of course, I could put together a list of some well-known bestsellers that I recommend, today, I’d like to make some quieter suggestions of books I’ve read in the past couple years, written by lesser-known authors, that both celebrate the many and varied lives of veterans and that touched me deeply and personally.

Of course, due to the nature of some content, reader discretion advised.

Jakovenko: From the Steppes of Ukraine to the US Army Ranger Hall of Fame

 

Jakovenko: From the Steppes of Ukraine to the US Army Ranger Hall of Fame book cover

Jakovenko: From the Steppes of Ukraine to the US Army Ranger Hall of Fame

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

By: Vladamir “Jake” Jakovenko

Veteran Memoir Recommendation

Tagged: adventure, Vietnam, military lit, memoir, special ops, fatherhood, immigrant author

Jake’s tale is a wild one, full of honor, bravery, humor, and incredible resilience during a thirty-year career. As a US Army Ranger, now inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame, Jake completed two tours in Vietnam, was a SCUBA team combat diver, and performed counter-terrorism special operations. His funny and poignant tell-all provides fresh insight and honesty alongside a sense of adventure that kept me guessing what would happen to him and where he would end up next.

If you’re looking for a riveting true-life action-adventure story, check it out.

Eighty-6: My Father, Who Art in Heaven, Hallowed Be Thy Name…on This Dark Path My Father, Allow My End to Be Granted with Light. Amen

 

Eighty-6: My Father, Who Art in Heaven, Hallowed Be Thy Name...on This Dark Path My Father, Allow My End to Be Granted with Light. Amen. book cover.

Eighty-6: My Father, Who Art in Heaven, Hallowed Be Thy Name…on This Dark Path My Father, Allow My End to Be Granted with Light. Amen.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

By Derrick Pickney

Inspirational Veteran Memoir Recommendation

Tagged: veteran, military lit, memoir, Black author, inspirational

A Purple Heart recipient, Derrick shares his stories of bravery and true lessons learned in childhood, on the front lines, and after coming home. As Derrick analyzes, many veterans like himself suffered traumatic experiences in childhood that primed them for their years of military service, and which is then complicated by that service. When those veterans return home, and once their enlistment ends, they may feel unprepared for the challenges of civilian life, including processing of their traumas. Although it is a difficult challenge, Derrick has chosen to attempt to give outsiders an understanding of this complex cycle of trauma in military veterans from his position within it.

If you’re looking for a thought-provoking journey of reflection on hard truths, check it out.

Vietnam From 35,000 Feet: A Stewardess Story

 

Vietnam from 35,000 Feet: A Stewardess Story by Joan DeRosa

Vietnam From 35,000 Feet: A Stewardess Story

By Joan Derosa

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Tagged: romance, military lit, women’s lit, based on true experiences 

At the height of the fighting in Vietnam, one American airline remained assigned to the route of shuttling soldiers to, and body bags from, the battlefields. Based on true experiences, this novel follows Christina as she stewards these soldiers through this moment in history, splitting her time between being airborne and as a volunteer Red Cross nurse. From this unique perspective, she bravely faces it all. With the drama of war around her, she can’t stop herself from falling for a handsome reconnaissance air force pilot, and there’s nothing like danger to fuel the flames of passion and young love. Full of tragedy, heroism, a touch of humor, and a unique perspective on patriotism, this novel will grab ahold your heart.

Do You Have a Book Recommendation for Me?

So that’s it! My short list of book recommendations for Veterans Day 2025.

If you have suggestions for me, I’d love to hear them! Leave a comment below about what you think I should add to my To Be Read list.

Happy reading.

10% Discount for Military Veterans

The service and sacrifice of all military service members should be honored every day of the year. This is one reason why SRD Editing Services offers a 10% discount on all editing services to active duty or veteran military service members from any branch.

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Announcing: New Published Poem from Editor Cortni Merritt

Ballerina by Degas

Congratulations are in order to SRD Editing Services editor Cortni Merritt for the recent publication of her poem “ballerina jewelry box” in The Hootlet’s Nook online magazine.

The poem was inspired by someone close to her and his relationship with his daughter. It centers on themes of loss, hope, and the mixed emotions involved in fatherly love. With images of childhood innocence and adult fears, the short piece inspires us to reflect on our own relationships with our parents and how our childhood dreams grow as we do.

Cortni has been writing poetry casually for more than 30 years and has a selection of poems featured in various publications. She plans to continue submissions in 2025. Subscribe to the blog for future updates!

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Announcing: SRD Editing Services Small Business Saturday Specials!

Cartoon image with phrasing "Celebrate Small Business Saturday with SRD Editing Services"

For the first time, SRD Editing Services is excited to announce special pricing for Small Business Saturday (Nov. 30)! And guess what? It’ll be the perfect gift for a writer in your life.

New clients will receive 15% off their first project (usually reserved for our repeat clients!), and repeat clients will receive 25% off all editing services on their next project!

Whether it’s a single service or a package, writers (or gift-givers!) can take advantage of this limited time offer to secure their spot on Cortni’s calendar. Even if the manuscript isn’t done yet, the editing service can be scheduled in advance through March 2025.

Contact SRD Editing Services through the Contact form on our website, via messaging on Facebook or LinkedIn, or by email at editor@srdeditingservices.com.

This reduced pricing offer is extended only for November 30 through December 2, so send your message, get your Estimate, and secure your spot on the calendar fast!

 

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Announcing: SRD Editing Services Quarterly Newsletter

Candy and tiles that spell "join us"; announcing newsletter launch

Since 2018, SRD Editing Services has helped hundreds of writers in fiction and nonfiction genres turn their dreams of a book into a reality.

For the first time, we’ll bring together and introduce all our writers and interested readers to one another through a quarterly newsletter!

Although the blog and social media channels have been where interested readers could find information about our various authors and their books, readers of our quarterly newsletter will find a catalog of those publications all in one place. Additionally, the newsletter will include brief updates on what’s happening with the SRD Editing Services editors, business news, and even exclusive discounts to subscribers.

The first quarterly newsletter is scheduled for distribution on Friday, November 22, to give readers a chance to review the enclosed booklist and save those great gift ideas for their Black Friday or Small Business Saturday shopping.

Hint: SRD Editing Services will be offering a special deal on Small Business Saturday that you don’t want to miss! 

To begin receiving the quarterly email newsletter in your Inbox, fill out the Form HERE.

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Announcing: SRD Editing Services Offering Discounts for Active Duty and Veteran Military Service Members! 

Close up of American flag on a blurred background; offering discounts to veterans beginning Veterans Day 2024

Exciting news!

Beginning November 11, Veterans Day, 2024, SRD Editing Services will extend a 10% discount to active duty and veteran service members of any branch of the US armed forces.

Founded in 2018, SRD Editing Services began offering discounts to repeat clients in 2019, and discounts to current students and alumni of the schools our editor Cortni attended — the University of Central Florida, Florida State University, and Colorado State University — in 2021. We are proud to extend lowered pricing to anyone who has previously served or is currently serving in the US military.

We do ask for verification of your service, such as a picture of your military ID, to ensure that the discount is being applied fairly and accurately. Personal information can be redacted for security and privacy reasons. 

The discount will be applied to any and all services on the first invoice with SRD Editing Services. Then, if the writer is interested in additional services — whether on the same or a new manuscript — the writer will receive our higher discount of 15% for repeat clients!

As someone who grew up in a military family and has family members active in the US armed forces currently, Cortni is excited to connect with and provide editing services to more service members, helping them tell their stories and turn their dreams into books.

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Editor’s Pick: Horror Novel Recommendations for October (and Beyond)

Cover of the book "One of Us Knows" by Alyssa Cole

The countdown to Halloween has begun! And if the crisp air and pumpkins have you craving a terrifying tale, I have a few horror novel recommendations for you. 

Now, horror isn’t my specialty genre, but every year in October, I binge listen to audiobooks that focus on this oh-so-appropriate genre. Some are fun-time spooky and some are downright nightmare inducing. This month is off to a great start for me – connect with me on Goodreads for real-time updates of my reading list. But this year is the first time I’ve put together a short list to recommend to readers who might just be looking for a good horror audiobook fix. 

I also enjoy a good horror tale in the summer, for whatever reason. The sun is out and shining and I’m lying by the pool. Time for murder and carnage, ghosts and goblins, I guess. 🤷‍♀️ 

Now, generally after I read or listen to something, I post a private and very casual review to my friends on social media, which sometimes makes its way to Goodreads, although not usually. The horror novel recommendations you’ll find below here are reposts of what I tell my friends and family about these books. 

Since October has already begun, and there’s way too many in my reading history for me to keep the list short if I include everything I recommend, I’ve narrowed it down to just three horror sub-categories: fantasy horror, psychological thriller, and horror featuring women of color as protagonists (two appear in this category below: one YA appropriate and one for adults). 

It may go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: Reader discretion advised.

The Salt Grows Heavy

Book cover: Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw; editors picks top books read in 2023

The Salt Grows Heavy

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

By: Cassandra Khaw

Fantasy-Horror Recommendation

Tagged: adventure, fantasy, women’s lit, romance, LGBTQ+, mom lit, short story

I covered this incredible short novel in my blog, Editor’s Pick: Top Books Read in 2023, so you’re welcome to check that out if you want the full (and extended!) review. 

To what I’ve said there, I’ll add this: this is one of the few horror novel recommendations that maintains its place on my list, even as I read more in this genre, and I’m growing to love this author more with each exposure to her work. 

I listened to another short story from this author in October 2022, returned to her to listen to this in October 2023, and have now returned to her again for my horror reading list of October 2024. She continues to impress me each and every time. 

The Last House on Needless Street

Book cover for The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

The Last House on Needless Street

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

By Catriona Ward

Psychological Thriller-Horror Recommendation

Tagged: 21st century lit, LGBTQ, psychology, horror

This incredible book was an Honorable Mention in my blog, Top 5 Books of 2022, so you might want to take a look there for the full review. 

What I can say is that this has stuck with me over the past two years. As someone with a background in psychology, I have to sometimes be careful about what types of psychological thrillers I get myself in — as they tend to hit deeper nerves than other types of thrillers — but as I continue to read more novels with depictions of mental illness, I continue to think about how well done this one is. Since the time of reading this, I have also listened to books by Mary Higgins-Clark and  Cormac McCarthy, who are both superb writers in depicting mental illness, and I would maintain that this book holds up against those larger, perhaps more well-known writers. 

I predicted when I published my Top Books of 2022 blog that this book would “stick with me for a long time,” and here we are, two years after I read it, and it’s showing up on this short list of horror novel recommendations. I love it when a prediction comes true. 😁

Horror Novel Recommendations Featuring Women of Color Protagonists

For the final category of my horror novel recommendations, I’d like to feature two books that star not only female protagonists but women of color specifically. There has long been discussion in the publishing community about how women of color are not featured enough in the  horror genre, and I agree! #representationmatters

The first book is one I read just this past summer of 2024, so it’s fresh in my mind and still haunts me randomly as I go about my life. The second I read in summer of 2023 and is for a YA audience. I particularly enjoyed the narrative’s delivery of the character’s paranoia in the audiobook, and I hope you will too. 

Both these titles include content warnings for hate crime violence and abuse based on race, as well as depictions of pretty severe mental health crises. The first also receives content warnings for harm to a child. 

One of Us Knows

Cover of the book "One of Us Knows" by Alyssa Cole

One of Us Knows: A Thriller

By Alyssa Cole

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Tagged: horror, adventure, psychology, women’s lit, romance, LGBTQ+, 21st century lit

4.5 stars. Oooo! Spooky! A psychological thriller for your summer reading list. Very well done. 👏👏👏 

Disassociative Identity Disorder (previously known as “multiple personality disorder”) is not particularly well understood or depicted in general pop culture media (books, TV, etc.), and I’m certainly no expert, but I’d say this is extremely well done. Our main narrator is one of the two hosts of this person’s system, a queer Black woman in her early thirties, and she is co-narrated by several of her/their other identities. 👉👈 

While people with DID often experience gaps in time due to various personalities controlling the body’s actions and memories, this novel shows how terrifying that really can become when your whole personhood ends up the center of a mystery that urgently needs solving before more people die or disappear under strange circumstances… 😱 

So while one of them must know what’s going on, all of them will have to work together to save themselves using only the pieces of information available to each. 

Terrifying. Funny. Deeply disturbing depiction of true-to-life trauma caused by people of MAGA ilk. It’ll have you cheering and laughing and gasping in the same scene.👌  

Reminded me of The Shining and The Menu and Last House on Needless Street.

Obviously content warnings. No SA but violence, hate crimes, abuse/neglect of children, mental illness, and more. 💔

White Smoke

Cover of the book "White Smoke" by Tiffany D. Jackson

White Smoke

By Tiffany D. Jackson 

⭐⭐⭐ 

Tagged: psychology, women’s lit, YA, 21st century lit

3.5 stars. A mid-summer ghost story that actually felt like fun summer reading. 

A lot of YA tropes mixed with standard ghost story stock that felt like a fresh twist on some classics I probably read in middle or early high school and just can’t remember now, like “Fear Street.”👻 

This was fresh and modern, with an angsty MC who learns a few valuable lessons along the way. 👩‍🎤 Her dad is in an interracial relationship, and she’s learning to adjust to having a White stepmother and stepsister. She’s also struggling with her own mental health in a few different ways. 

At times it was a bit predictable or obvious, but maybe that’s because I’m an adult who is familiar with the formula. And at times I was honestly questioning what would happen next. Generally, I enjoyed it. ❤️

Do You Have Horror Novel Recommendation for Me?

So that’s it! This is my short list of horror novel recommendations for October 2024. 

If you have suggestions for me, I’d love to hear them! Leave a comment below to let me know what you think I should add to my horror To Be Read list.

Happy reading, and have a great/horrific spooky season! 

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Project Semicolon: Your Story Isn’t Over

September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month banner

Semicolons Represent Continuation

You may know the grammatical function of semicolons, but did you know they represent so much more?

If you’ve never heard of Project Semicolon, it’s a cause I greatly believe in. Mental health and self-care are common discussions for writers, and especially for me, who edits psychology and self-help manuscripts.

September is suicide prevention awareness month, per SAMHSA. So if you care about writers and their mental health, consider how you can support both the awareness of suicide prevention and mental health in general.

Why a Semicolon?

When a writer chooses to end a sentence, they use a period. When a writer wants to string together many grammatical elements in a sentence, they can use a comma. However, a writer might choose to use a semicolon instead of ending a sentence; they might extend what they have to say with a simple change in punctuation.

It is with this theory and sentiment that the Semicolon Project continues their mission. People, but especially writers, who have lived through suicidal attempts or ideation might understand the deep symbolism inherent in the semicolon.

A semicolon is sometimes used when the writer could choose to end their sentence, but instead, chooses to continue, to go on, to add to the action of the story.

Related blog: Two Common (and Easy-to-Use) Semicolon Rules.

Semicolons in Real Life

If you are someone or you know someone for whom this symbolism might resonate, someone who is a writer and who may have been suicidal at one time, there are many ways to show your love or support for them and their struggles,

Nearly 50,000 people died by suicide in 2022, which is one person every 11 minutes. The majority (76%) were White; 32% of them were middle-aged adults; 20% of them were women. (According to the CDC statistics.)

Of course, any life lost to suicide can have tragic consequences for the people they leave behind. 

How to Support Writers You Know

First of all, if your friend is a writer and especially if they’re publishing things, you can read them. Leave a review. Leave comments on their social media. Support like this costs you nothing and means so much. 

Big up your writer friends to others — family, friends, and people who you think would connect with their message. There is literally no better way to support your writer friend than to tell people you love what they do.

Second, there’s a lot of semicolon merch out there. If you have the kind of relationship where you can get your writer friend a notebook, or a sticker, or a coffee mug, or something else they’ll love, then there’s shopping options for you my friend. (Check out these search results for “project semicolon” on Etsy!) 

Third, if you’re really hardcore about a writer or if you’re the type of writer who has been in the suicidal boat yourself, there are a range of tasteful and heartwarming semicolon tattoo designs to choose from. Getting a tattoo not only shows your long-term commitment and solidarity with your friend (or yourself) and their (your) struggles, but it’s also a silent form of support for all suicidal people and writers everywhere.

You can check out this Pinterest board for semicolon tattoo inspiration. 

Whatever you do, take a few minutes this month to support writers and spread awareness about suicide prevention. 

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CMS Citation for Nonfiction Writers: Use IMDB for Film Citations

CMS citation example: showing paper with question and footnote joke.

When you’re writing nonfiction, it’s important to cite the sources of your information. Back in the day, it used to only be acceptable to include citations for books and journals, but not any more! Today’s Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) citation references include not only books and journals but websites, magazines, social media, and even film sources.

While you sometimes might want to include a quote or information that you came across in a fictionalized movie, there are also plenty of nonfiction films, such as documentaries or biopics, that you may want to include in your bibliography. When that’s the case, you can use the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) to find out all the details and fully cite your source appropriate to Chicago, MLA, or APA style – although this blog is going to focus mostly on Chicago.

Now: please note, the 18th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style was just released earlier in August 2024, but this blog will continue to elaborate on the specifics of the 17th edition, as that is still the mostly commonly used across many commercial publishers. Subscribe to the SRD Editing Services blog to be among the first to know about the 18th edition updates!

Related blog: Creative Writing Tips: How to Watch Movies to Improve Your Storytelling. Check it out! 

Film vs. Online Video

No matter what style guide you’re using, when you’re citing video, you will want to check whether the format of the video matters. For Chicago citation style, website videos – such as TedTalks, YouTube videos, or videos posted to social media – are cited differently than films that are released in offline formats first. 

For website citations, you’ll include some of the same information, such as the title of the video and the year it was published, but you’ll indicate to your reader that the source is specifically a video by including the word “video” in square brackets. Check the full details on Chicago citation style for websites for examples. 

CMS Citation for Film

When it comes to citing a film, you can think of what qualifies as a “film” by whether it is a production that requires a professional crew, a script, a studio or shots done on location, and other standards of film production that predate the internet and its distribution of film materials. 

So, for example, you may watch a movie on the web browser on your computer through a site like Netflix or Hulu, but if it’s a fully produced movie that you could also have gone to see in a theater or purchased a DVD copy, you wouldn’t cite it as a website video. 

Similar to an online video, the CMS citation for a film will include the title, the year it was released, and some of the production information, but the citation for a film will ask for a bit more than a website citation. 

Here’s what the Chicago manual has to say about including identifying information.

14.265: Video and film recordings

“Citations of video and film recordings…will vary according to the nature of the material….Any facts relevant to identifying the item should be included. Indexed scenes are treated like chapters and cited by title or by number. Ancillary material…is cited by author and title.” 

For both Notes/Bibliography style and Author-Date style, the Bibliography element will be the same. If you are referencing the whole movie, don’t include the “scene title;” that is only necessary to include if you are directing your reader toward a particular scene in the film.

“Scene Title in Title Case,” Title of Movie or Film, directed by FirstName LastName (Year; Location of studio headquarters: Film Studio Name, version date), Media or timestamp. 

Example: 

“Crop Duster Attack,” North by Northwest, directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1959; Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2000), DVD. 

For the Note in Notes/Bibliography style citation, include the director’s name, the title of the film, and, where applicable, a timestamp of the moment to which you’re referring. This is similar to how the Chicago citation for books would include a page number or page range in the note. For shortened notes, include only the director’s last name, a shortened version of the title, and the timestamp. 

For an Author-Date style CMS citation, throughout the text, include only the director’s last name and the date of the film’s publication in the parentheses.  

If you have the DVD, the case may include most of the information you need, but if you don’t have the DVD case or it doesn’t have the details, IMDB is the place to go.

Special Cases for CMS Citation of Films

Of course, there are occasional situations where more or different information may be required. If a film doesn’t have a named director, for example, you could include a producer or lead actor’s name. If the film has been translated from a foreign language or distributed by different companies in different countries or for various editions, you may have to include some details about the translator or which version of the movie you’re citing, especially if you’re drawing attention to differences between the versions. (This is similar to how a Chicago citation for a book that has been translated or reprinted is cited as well.)

Ask Your Editor for Details on CMS Citation

So that’s a quick overview and the basics of CMS citation for films. When you’re writing fiction (especially historical fiction), you don’t need to include sources for material, although you can include information in an author’s note if you’d like. But when your book is nonfiction and you’ve taken the time to do the research, include the sources in a full bibliography. When you’re not sure how to cite, make sure to ask an experienced editor!

Talk to an editor about CMS citations

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How to Get Published: Literary Journal / Literary Magazine Submissions

Background of yellow wood with brown-haired woman wearing black holding a brown umbrella.

Where can you publish short stories, essays, and poetry?

If you’ve ever wondered about the process of literary journal submissions (aka “literary magazine submissions”), this blog may be able to answer some of your questions about how to get published in these types of periodicals. 

Recently, Authors Publish magazine offered a free talk from writer Shannon Mann titled “How to Increase Your Chance of Literary Magazine Acceptance.” (You can view the entire recording HERE). Listening to Shannon speak reminded me of my own days in graduate school, as a fiction submissions reader for Southeastern Review and of my experience submitting poetry to various online and print publications. (You can check out my published poetry on THIS page). 

I am also fortunate enough to remain friends with some incredible creative writers of short stories, essays, poetry, and more, and witness their successes (and struggles!) with publication in journals and magazines. 

In this blog, I’ve compiled an overview and provided some insight into how to get published in literary magazines and journals. I hope it helps you in your journey! 

How to Get Published Tip #1: Register on Submittable

If you’ve done any literary journal submissions already, you’re likely familiar with Submittable.com, but if you’re new to submitting, you will find this platform both common and useful. For many publications, submitting via this platform is required, for others, it’s optional but may perhaps be more convenient for you. If you have a lot of material you want to publish, you ultimately could have many submissions going in many directions. A central hub for managing and tracking them will be a lifesaver.

How to Get Published Tip #2: Start with Research

There are thousands of publications, publishing every type of writing, and you can spend a lot of time and money throwing your best pieces against the wrong walls, hoping they will stick. 

If there are certain magazines you subscribe to and like their stuff, start there in your search of options for literary magazine submissions. If you’re not sure or if you don’t write the genres that your favorite magazines publish, here are a few places you can look to start keeping a list of potential new homes for your words. Consider subscribing to their newsletters (where available) for frequent and easy updates and information on opportunities as well as tips on how to get published.

  • Writers Digest 
  • Authors Publish  
  • The Sub Club and Publishing … and Other Forms of Insanity newsletters
  • The Chill Subs and Duotrope databases
  • The acknowledgments in books, essays, bios, etc. of writers you admire
  • Social media including hashtags (#MSWL) and Facebook groups such as Calls for Submissions Publication Announcements.

How to Get Published Tip #3: Draft a Plan

The thing about literary journal submissions is that it’s a numbers game. The more submissions you send out, the more likely that one (or a few!) of them will get accepted and your work will be distributed. If you choose only one or two targeted publications to submit to, that’s okay, but expect not to be accepted the first time. 

First, understand that knowing how to get published is only part of the battle; you must understand your true why. Ask yourself, why am I submitting? Is it simply because I want to share my words with the world? In her webinar, Shannon discussed common reasons people submit to literary journals or magazines, including a sense of community, for validation, for prestige, to reach interested readers, and/or to build or support a writing career. If you’re trying to make money, she warns and I can confirm, these types of publications are not the way to go. 

Sure, you might win prizes or get paid some (small) fees for some of your accepted submissions, but literary magazine submissions alone (likely) won’t be enough to allow you to make a living off your writing. And if you’re submitting to publications that charge reading fees, you could pay out more than you make back. So factor that into your plan. (You could, of course, target only those publications that don’t charge a submission fee). 

Black background yellow neon sign "everything is connected"
Combine your materials, your cover letter, and your matchmaking skills into a literary submission package.

When you’re formulating your submission plan, I advise asking yourself the three following questions. Consider your true goals and strategy, and follow your heart when it comes to the answers. 

Consideration #1: What am I submitting?

While reviewing potential publications to submit to, be very clear on which pieces of yours are ready to send out. A couple short stories, a batch of poems, an essay or two that might be ready in a few months. You may want slightly different strategies for each piece, but your literary journal submission process will likely look a little different for each genre. 

First: Determine the genre. The number one place you will look for any publication to clarify how to get published with them is their submission guidelines. Look at what they require or what types of pieces they prefer to publish, and tag your work with descriptive keywords/tags to keep yourself organized. Then, you’re basically matchmaking between what you have and what the magazine is looking for. 

If a publication is looking for flash fiction and you have only nonfiction essays to offer, it’s not a good match. Know what you have, organize it for yourself, and make it easy to find when the time comes; this will give you the best chance possible to match up the right piece with the right publication at the right time. 

Consideration #2: What practical information do I need for submitting?

After you’ve created your short list of pieces to submit and your short list of places to submit, you’re on your way! 

First: Consider the upcoming timelines. You might want to schedule a single day once per month to go over upcoming deadlines and send out your submission packages. If you have a lot to submit, maybe you schedule a few hours every week. But whatever your planned schedule, you’ll be far more efficient if you have one, and far more likely to actually follow through on your literary magazine submissions if you make it a regular item on your to-do list and block off time on your calendar. 

Second: Plan ahead for fees that need to be paid. Don’t wait until the last minute to see if you have the money and find yourself overspending. Incorporate that as part of your plan and make sure to budget and have the card you want to use prepared. 

Third: When it’s submission day/time and you sit down to send off your writing to your publications of choice, pay attention to the submission guidelines for each of them. Every publication will tell you exactly what they want you to include in your submission package and how they want your work submitted. If you can’t follow these basic guidelines, expect to receive rejection letters for every submission. 

Don’t spend time formatting your literary journal submissions or your cover letter in any way other than what the guidelines ask for. If there are no instructions, assume that a common font like Times New Roman or Arial is preferred, and stick with a medium-sized font like 11 or 12. I’d suggest 1.5 or double spacing as well. 

However, if they are specific, follow all instructions. If they ask for no more than a certain number of pages or poems, don’t go over the limit. If they ask for all work to be single-spaced, then format it as such. Etc. 

This may seem tedious or nonsensical to you, but they have their reasons, and if you want to play on their team, you’ll just have to play by their rules. It’s as simple as that. The best advice on how to get published: Follow all submission guidelines to a T.

Consideration #3: What do I say in my cover letter?

Many submissions will have you attach your work to an email or upload it to a platform. Either way, it’s appropriate to include a cover letter that addresses the recipient of your message (email or otherwise), providing some basic information regarding your literary magazine submission.

If the publication has a masthead and/or you can identify the name of the submissions reader at the publication, address them specifically. Remain professional, not overly personal, but addressing your message to the specific person is more welcoming and warm than “To whom it may concern.” 

Keep the letter short and sweet. It’s appropriate to open with something you like/admire about the editor’s work in particular or the publication’s work, such as an example of a story they published that you enjoyed, etc. This can help establish a personal connection. 

Include any information asked for in the submission guidelines, and tell the editor you hope they enjoy the attached [insert work here] (five poems, two essays, partridge in a pear tree, etc.).

Special Note!: Simultaneous Submissions

Always pay attention to whether the publication allows concurrent/simultaneous submissions. Many publications will ask you to let them know if you are submitting the same piece simultaneously to multiple places. You may need to include a line about whether any of the pieces included in this literary journal submission package are being simultaneously/concurrently submitted to other publications. If asked to include this information, be sure it’s in there. 

If the submission guidelines ask for an author bio, give them what they ask for. Usually, an author bio is expected to be between 50 and 100 words, written in third-person, and include info such as where your writing has been featured befor, or if you’re a debut/new/emerging writer who is excited to publish their first piece. Use a little humor and showcase your personality here.

How to Get Published Tip #4: Expect Rejections

It’s reasonable to expect that between 0% and 20% of your literary magazine submissions will get accepted. If you’re really good, your stats might be above that, but even professional writers know that not every piece is right for every publication at every time. Maybe your beautiful poem about your mother’s death happens to get submitted a month after they published another poem on the same theme by a different poet, and they don’t want to publish the same type of material in back-to-back issues. So it goes. Timing is out of your hands. Rejections happen for any number of reasons other than just “my work sucks,” so it’s time to get ready to grow some thick skin. 

Related blog: How to Face Rejection as a Writer: https://srdeditingservices.com/how-to-face-rejection-writer/

Consider: What is a Successful Submission?

Now, one interesting thing that Shannon discussed is that a custom rejection letter is a successful submission. Why? Because editors don’t write custom rejections for everyone. They have standard form letters/templates that are sent to most people. But, if you receive something that seems like the editor genuinely liked your piece, or it contains a personal detail that is outside the realm of a form letter, then make note of that in your submission records/notes. You should try that publication again later, with a different piece. Because there’s a chance that editor will remember you, and there’s a chance that your next piece might be more along the lines of what they’re looking for.

How to Get Published Tip #5: Execute Your Plan, Track Your Data, & Adjust Your Approach

Of course, you will not see results from a plan you do not execute. Once you’ve laid out your strategy for a literary journal submission process, you must follow through. Those dates you marked off on your calendar, reserved for sending your materials out in the world? You must sit at your computer on those days, follow the guidelines, and put the plan into action. Send your writing into the world. 

After some time – typically a few days to as long as a year – you will begin hearing back from the publications where you submitted. (Even if you haven’t heard back when your next scheduled submission date comes around, proceed with the plan!) You’ll need to keep track of which pieces were accepted (hooray!) and which were rejected, which means they can now be submitted elsewhere. So now it’s time to choose a new potential home for them and put them back in the submission queue! 

After a few rounds of literary journal submissions, you’ll begin getting the hang of the process and know a bit better what to expect. As you learn more about how to get published in your genres or in your dream publications, make adjustments to your approach. Workshop the materials more if need be, and always update and customize your cover letter. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, so making tweaks to suit your personal style and goals is the only way to reach those goals and fulfill your why. 

Consult with SRD Editing Services for Literary Journal Submissions

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What Does Book Proofreading Include?

Hand holding red pen for book proofreading with typewriter in the background.

What Does Book Proofreading Include?

While many people mistakenly believe all stages of book editing are the same as book “proofreading,” there is most definitely a difference. 

Not sure if your manuscript is ready for a proofread? Asking yourself, “How do I find someone to proofread my book?” Read on for answers!

Traditional Publishing Sets the Standard for Book Proofreading

In traditional publishing, most stages of book editing are done in a word-processing program. As you might suspect, Microsoft Word is the industry standard for document editing. Even if you write your manuscript in Google Docs, Apple Pages, or another word processor with some text enhancement features, expect your editor to convert your manuscript into a Word document to access the fullest range and best editing features available on the market. 

Don’t worry too much about formatting and layout in this software. There are a few things that should be done to make the overall editing process smoother, but don’t get stressed out about making your Word document look like your vision for the final product. For all its wonderful aspects, MS Word is not the best program for finalizing your book manuscript. 

Once all the stages of book editing are complete – which, in traditional publishing, is typically four rounds of edits (developmental, content, line, and copy editing) – a designer at the publisher will use software like Adobe InDesign to convert your manuscript into a “galley proof.” 

This is when your document begins to “look like” a book! The designer prepares your manuscript by adding things like the correct spacing between lines, drop caps at the beginnings of chapters, fancy or final fonts, images with captions, page numbers, headers and footers with your name, the chapter title or book title, and other design elements. At this point, you’ll no longer be working with an MS Word document; your galley proof will have been converted into a PDF file. 

Now, because all these formatting and design elements have been added to the galley proof, it is more difficult to edit and make large-scale changes to it. PDFs are more complex files that hold more information, and making changes to them can require more steps. Once your galley proof has been designed, you are truly ready for book proofreading.

So What Is Involved in Book “Proofreading”?

Different steps in the stages of book editing focus on different concerns. True book proofreading involves a very light touch, where the proofreader focuses on correcting only “true errors.” Your proofreader will review your galley proof PDF and mark up or make specific changes to typos, spacing errors, and style elements. For example, your proofreader might correct capitalization or apply or remove italics where appropriate. Hopefully, your editor has caught most of these, but sometimes during the process of converting your file from a Word document to a PDF, elements get missed or mistakes happen.

Keep in mind, your proofreader is not reading for ideas or content. They are not fact-checking or confirming spellings of names of public figures or other Google-able information. They are not going to give you feedback on character development or plot holes. They, honestly, are not really paying attention to the same things your editor should have paid attention to. They are focused on finding those true errors that your editor may have missed or that could have even been introduced at some point during the editing or file conversion process. They are focused on checking the consistency of design elements and making sure everything “looks right” in addition to the text being as error-free as possible.

Why Is Book Proofreading Important?

Your proofreader is the last set of eyes to go through your manuscript before it goes to the printer. Hopefully, your proofreader finds an error only about once every 1,000 words (or even less often!). By the time the PDF gets to them, it should be mostly clean and polished. Mostly finalized. So close to done that it only needs one more read-through, and that read should catch so few errors that it takes only a few minutes to finalize once they return it to the graphic designer. Then, your approved galley proof goes off to the printer!  

It’s important to understand this process because when you ask someone “Can you proofread my book?,” you’re asking them to pay attention to the smallest details, not the big-picture issues, and you’re trusting them to have a razor-sharp eye to prevent even the smallest error from making its way into the published version. 

Of course, people make mistakes! No one is perfect. And having multiple professionals involved in the various stages of book editing helps to catch as many errors and address as many concerns as possible. Even traditionally published books that have gone through so many rounds of editing and proofreading might still contain errors when they are released to the market. So give a little grace and have a little patience. Proofreaders are doing their best to help make your book as perfect as it can be, but they might miss one or two things if your book is particularly long or dense, or if on a tight deadline.

What Should I Be Aware of When Hiring a Pro to Proofread My Book?

While this blog has discussed the standards found in traditional publishing houses, self-published authors can follow the same process. Some editing might be combined into a single step in the stages of book editing—such as having the same editor perform both content and line edits—but each book should have separate steps for editing and proofreading.

The lesson here is that, as an educated author, you should be aware of the differences between the stages of book editing, including book proofreading. Don’t confuse the two! Of course, there are similarities, and experienced editors can be excellent proofreaders (and vice versa), but don’t tell your editor that your manuscript “only needs a proofread,” unless you’re convinced that it’s so clean and error-free that it’s ready to be put into PDF format. If there are no more changes to make – other than adjusting for true errors – you’re likely ready for a true proofread. Ask a professional for a sample edit or proofread of up to five pages to allow them to determine which type of service your manuscript needs. Once they have evaluated that you’re really ready for a proofread, get excited, because it means that your book’s launch date is just around the corner!

Contact SRD Editing Services

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Excellent Experience at the Read It Write It! Book Festival

Cortni Merritt MA stands next to her table at the Read It Write It book festival in Wellington Florida on June 14, 2024

Read It Write It Book and Writing Festival

Editor Cortni had a wonderful time at the Read It Write It Book and Writing Festival 2024. The event took place at the Mall at Wellington Green on a bright and sunny Saturday, June 15, a perfect backdrop for the sunny group of writers who met to swap ideas and share their stories. While most writers were local to central or south Florida, at least two had traveled from Georgia and South Carolina to connect with other authors.
The most represented genre was romance, with everything from sweet to spicy making an appearance. Additionally, fiction genres of various authors included fantasy, small-town mystery, and science fiction.
Our editor also spoke with authors of nonfiction, including memoir and social/political critique and analysis. Additionally, several authors at the event were showcasing their children’s books as well.
Speaking of a showcase, SRD Editing Services was privileged that several of our own writers were kind enough to send copies of their printed books to display and distribute. Cortni gave away several copies of various books from the display at no cost to interested people. We love sharing and promoting our authors’ work and hope everyone who walked away with a copy enjoys their gift!
SRD Editing Services display table at the Read It Write It book and writing festival 2024
SRD Editing Services display table at the Read It Write It book and writing festival 2024.
Throughout the event, there were several highly interesting panel discussions. Panelists included award-winning authors and publishers of a variety of materials Unfortunately, due to our table placement and the acoustics of the venue, they were sometimes difficult to hear unless stationed near the seats at the front of the stage.
When visiting various writers’ tables, we saw inventive, interesting merchandise from numerous authors, including 3D-printed figurines of characters, colorful and creative stickers, bookmarks, calendars, and notebooks. Several writers described using QR codes to lead readers to Spotify playlists that accompanied their stories.
Perhaps most interestingly, one author of a children’s book explained how he integrated a QR code for readers to scan in order to access augmented reality features designed to enhance the kids’ reading experience. How cool! Can’t wait to check it out.
There was so much talent that the room was bursting with it. In addition to all the writers, publishers, and illustrators, Cortni even chatted with a few future editors who stopped by the table to ask for advice.
At the end of the day, no visitor left empty-handed. Whether you picked up some merch or some swag, you at least walked away with the knowledge that the book reading and writing communities are strong in South Florida.
SRD Editing Services is looking forward to maintaining these new connections and growing these new relationships with all the Read It Write It authors over the next year. In fact, the date has already been announced for 2025, and we’ve submitted our interest form. See you in June next year!
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Tips for Writing a Memoir

Black and white image of typewriter with hands on keys; tips to write a memoir

I enjoy a good memoir. Reading or listening to the stories of real people’s lives, especially told in the person’s own voice and style, can be one of the most pleasant and inspiring experiences. As a long-time and widely read editor of this genre, I have put together the following list of tips for writing a memoir. These should help smooth the process, whether you’re writing your own story or ghostwriting someone else’s.

Tips for Writing a Memoir No. 1: Solid Framework

Step 1: Draft a disclaimer for your imprint page.

Hear me out. Of course, I think you should start with an outline and a basic story structure. But I’m a planner, so that’s my advice for any book. Specifically when you write your memoir, I think you should start by drafting your disclaimers. 

Often, people are nervous that something they say about someone will become a potential problem. This is a very real legal concern. The legal ramifications for libel (publishing untrue and disparaging remarks about another person) can be severe. Of course, I want you to avoid this. 

On one hand, “If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better,” (easy for Anne Lamott to say!), but of course it’s more complicated than that in real life. 

What is generally advisable is to include a disclaimer on your imprint page (copyright page) as well as online excerpts of your material to say that you are telling your story and your interpretation of events that happened in your life to the best of your knowledge and memory. 

You might change people’s names or other identifying details to help protect their identity, if that’s what you choose to do. And if you choose to do that, then include a disclaimer telling your readers that’s what you did. 

Need some examples to work from? Here are some examples of legal disclaimers for your nonfiction book. 

Of course, this doesn’t have to be the final draft. But just to warm up your brain and get you thinking about what you’re going to write and who you’re going to include in your story, spend an hour or so drafting any and all disclaimers you think you’ll need for your memoir.

Step 2: Draft the introduction

I know you want to jump right into telling your story, but make sure you have the framework in place first. My second step in the first of my tips for writing a memoir is to outline and draft your introduction. 

Generally, I’d recommend an introduction that’s two to three pages for the final draft, so for this first draft, just aim for a page. Page and a half maybe. 

In your introduction, you want to grab the reader’s attention at the beginning, which is often done with a “hook” story. An inciting incident. Something that makes them want to know more. If you can tell an interesting, impactful, emotional story in a paragraph or two, you’ll grab them and pull them right into the rest of your book. 

Then, give them a big picture overview. A paragraph or two about who you are and why you decided to write this book. What’s your big idea? The main lesson you learned? What is compelling you to share your wisdom, your humor, your vulnerability (etc.) with them? Spend a little time introducing yourself, but more importantly, be clear and focused about the purpose and intention behind your writing. 

Then, promise them something. What will they get out of your book? What’s in it for them? Promise to entertain, to delight, to inform, to educate, to open a new perspective, to inspire … promise them some kind of verb. It doesn’t have to be over-the-top life changing. But promise them that they’ll know more or have fun. Something personal. 

Now when you write your memoir, you’ll have a clear sense of purpose and a goal to align your content with. Refer back to this draft of your introduction as often as you need to. And of course, after you’ve written the main chapters of your story, go back and revise and finalize this introduction so it not only aligns with what you wrote but so that it says everything you want it to say.

Step 3: Draft the conclusion

I know what you’re thinking: “I came here for tips on how to write my memoir, and you’re talking about framework materials!” 

Look, I know you know your story. You’ll get to that part, I promise. 

But first, draft a page-long conclusion “chapter.” Keep it focused.

Imagine you’re at the end of your writing journey. How do you want to say good-bye to your reader? 

This is your chance to thank them for their time and for joining you on this journey. Tell them how much you appreciate them reading your book. Remind them of the goals and intentions from the introduction and express your hope that they agree the goals were met. 

Then, invite them to connect with you and any other examples of your work online. Include contact information, info for social media and other websites, and anything else you want them to know about where they can find you (events, web courses, other businesses, etc.). 

Of course, if you haven’t set this up yet, don’t worry about it. Put in placeholder text because you’re going to finalize this for real after you write the book anyway. 

Wire framed glasses, dried flowers in a vase, and a handwritten note on a table; use ambiance to write your memoir

Tips for Writing a Memoir No. 2: Balance Truth and Fiction

Second in my tips for writing a memoir is to remember to have some fun with it. Yes, it’s the story of your life, and parts of it may be heavy. But it’s also your time to shine. Your time to tell the world who you are and what you stand for. Your chance to showcase your growth, your talents, and your passion. Take the license to be a bit creative when you need to be…and check out my Tips for Writing Your First Draft. 

Step 1: Prepare your notes

Now that I’ve advised you on how to build the framework when you start to write your memoir, I can give you my best tips for creative writing in this genre. 

The truth is that memory is notoriously faulty. (Oh, I’m sure. Not your memory, of course…) The first place to begin is your own documentation. Old journal and diary entries, correspondence (including emails or message threads), and video or photo archives are good places to start your own research. 

Sitting to look through all of this can be overwhelming and distracting. Don’t start by diving in. Instead, when you’re writing a chapter, scene, or retelling of something that happened, make note of when you can recall something in your archives that will help you confirm the details. Then later, at a separate time, you can dig through and find your source or reference materials. 

For example, let’s say you want to write about your wedding day. (Forgive me, it’s an easy example). You want to include details about what people were wearing and how old certain people were; you want to include some of the drama of the planning process and what happened after the Big Day. 

Well, you write the scene, and you make an accompanying list of all the places you can double-check yourself on the details: photo collections, emails from certain people in the days leading up to or following the event, family members and friends’ social media posts. Now you have a narrow list of places to check for specific details. Of course, in your research, you may find other details you’d forgotten that you wanted to add, or other info you’d like to change. But that’s what revision is for. 

But preparing your notes before you dig into your own archives can save you a ton of time in the research process. 

Step 2: Prepare to interview

One of the richest resources for knowledge and perspective that any of us have in our lives is other people. When writing your memoir, consider who else participated in some of the big (or small) moments of your life, and with whom could you confirm the information and discuss your portrayal of events and experiences. 

You may be thinking, “What? I don’t want other people’s words to write my memoir for me. I want to use my own words.”  

Of course, you want people’s input. You want their enhanced perspective to fill in gaps in your knowledge or inform your reflection and discussions about long-term results of things that happened. But don’t feel obligated to include all the information from every interview. You simply can’t. You’ll have to fine-tune what is said so it weaves into your narrative, and some information or people’s perspectives simply may not fit. 

On the practical side of my tips for writing a memoir, I advise creating documentation of your interviews. Record any in-person or virtual voice-to-voice conversations and have them transcribed so you can edit them in where needed. Otter.ai is an excellent resource for this, and you could certainly hire someone to proofread the transcript for you before you begin working with it.

Step 3: Think of memoir like time travel

Now you have all these notes and you have words from others about what happened or what they think happened. You’re getting closer to having a whole story to tell. 

That’s what makes a great memoir more than just a collection of facts about a person’s life – it’s the story of how those facts and events and circumstances and reactions all came together to result in something (someone) who does things differently and who has something to teach: You! 

The best memoirs creatively retell the most important events and balance between the stories that took place in the past and the current version of the person reflecting on the lessons learned or how that event influenced them in the long term. There are different ways to do this, and among my best tips for creative writing is that you figure out what process and structure works for you. 

Some save all their reflection for chapters toward the end of the book; some have a section at the end of each chapter that reflects on the events discussed in that chapter; some interweave or jump forward and backward in time. It all depends on your style, but make sure while you’re writing that you include some narrative about you now, today, as a writer, reflecting on what happened and telling your reader what you hope they learn from it.

What Are Your Top Tips for Writing a Memoir?

The most common writing advice you’ll read — like, show don’t tell and balance between narration, action, and dialogue — applies to whatever you write, but specifically, these are my best tips for writing a memoir. What are yours? Share them below! Memoir is a unique genre that allows a writer to combine their storytelling talents with a little bit of research into facts of personal history. But when you write your memoir, you get to tell your story your way, which is invaluable. Hopefully these tips make the process a bit easier and even maybe a bit more fun! 

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Advice for Writers: Intellectual Property & Estate Planning

Close up shot of a Last Will and Testament document. The advice for writers is to include all pertinent information in their Will.

The Legacy of You: Writing & Publishing Books

Every now and then, I’ll get a request for legal advice for writers that I don’t know the answer to — but I love learning! When I was completing my BA in English, I was a copywriter at a local attorney’s office, so I learned a few things about legalese. And after nearly 14 years as a freelance writer and editor, I’ve learned a few things about the publishing business and the legal side of writing and publishing books. I don’t think I can answer all the questions in a single blog post, but today, I’d like to try to hit the highlights and explain a bit about copyright, intellectual property, and estate planning for authors.

Disclaimer: Seek Specific Legal Advice for Writers in Your State or Country

While this blog will discuss some general legal aspects to consider as a published author and in the industries of writing and publishing books in general, I am not a legal expert. IP law is complex and can vary by location and other factors. I advise you to seek specific legal advice from a professional for your particular situation.

The Basics: Copyright Laws & Intellectual Property

You worked hard on your writing, your craft, and you should feel a bit protective of it. Because you created it, you own the “copyright” on it. Because it is not a tangible item–it’s an artistic creation born of your intellect–it’s known as “intellectual property” or IP, for short. 

Like any other property, your writing–both published and nonpublished books and all rights associated with them–can be legally protected, passed on/inherited, gifted, insured, taxed, and all those other things that come along with legal properties. You likely do a pretty good job of managing this during your lifetime, but we’re here to answer some basic questions about how your writing fits into your personal estate and post-life legacy.

Copyright Laws

Black copyright symbol on white background; use when writing and publishing booksFirst, a few basics about US copyright laws that you should know if you’re writing and publishing books. When you wrote your document, the copyright was automatically granted to you. So whether or not you ever registered your book with the US Copyright Office, you own the copyright. Registering your book does give you extra legal benefits and protections, so go ahead and visit the Copyright Office website and do that first.  

Generally, copyright protection lasts throughout the creator’s life and for 70 years after their death. At that point, your book will enter the public domain, meaning that anyone can use it without permission. During those 70 years, the copyright can be managed by someone you trust, who can benefit in many ways from holding that copyrighted property.

Access to Your Digital Materials & Archive

It’s important to think ahead about putting together all your IPs into a single organized system. If you’re not the most organized, ask for help! There are a number of legal or publishing business consultants and coaches who can help you not only compile the appropriate paperwork, but they can help you organize your digital assets too. 

The intellectual property associated with your book isn’t just limited to the final print or e-book version, after all! The IP includes your unpublished materials such as notes, rough drafts, correspondence, and literary archives (aka, your scrap heaps). All those random items on your computer or stored in the cloud. 

If organizing all that seems like a daunting task, don’t panic. At the very least, make sure that you specify in your estate documents who should manage your unpublished materials or have access to your computer or cloud storage. Compile all your passwords and give them to the appropriate person or include them in the estate document. It’s the digital version of not organizing boxes of items in your home but giving the right person a key: they have access to rummage through and find what’s useful when the time comes.

Succession Rights

Authors should consider how their literary works will be managed and maintained after their life has ended. This may involve appointing a literary executor responsible for overseeing the publication, licensing, and adaptations of your works. Clearly defining the terms of this role in the estate plan is crucial to ensure a seamless ownership transition. If you clearly outline how your property should be legally distributed, your inheritors will be set up to continue enjoying royalties and residuals for any ongoing or unfinished projects, posthumous publications, and future interests in your work.

More than Authorship in a Self-Publishing Business

Close up of man performing accounting and bookkeeping tasks with calculator and reports; running a publishing business is more than just intellectual property laws. Self-publishing includes both writing and publishing books, which means that it’s more than just authorship and copyright protection to be concerned with as part of an estate; there’s a whole publishing business to consider. 

Tax Advice for Writers Who Self-Publish

Tax laws can get complicated quickly, so American authors should familiarize themselves both with the federal estate tax system as well as any state systems such as probate that could affect their business of writing and publishing books. Additionally, you want to make it as easy as possible for the person who inherits your business to access all necessary tax documents and manage your business’ taxes. When assembling your estate paperwork, be sure to include your most recent tax filing as well as any passwords and login information to digital assets such as accounting software or contact information for tax consultants.

Royalties & Residuals

If you set up a publishing business for your own self-published materials, your work can continue to sell and generate income after your death; make it easy for your inheritors to continue running that business and carrying on your legacy. If your publishing business also publishes and represents work by other authors, the best advice for writers says to definitely consult a reputable business lawyer who can both help your business’ inheritor access and manage all your own assets while also protecting and doing right by the authors whom your business publishes.

Licensing, Permissions, & Translations

Your work is automatically copyright protected and recognized as your intellectual property in the language and medium in which you published it. For example, if you’re writing and publishing books in English that are distributed in the US. But what if, in the future, a publisher wants to translate it to other languages and distribute it in other countries or new markets? What if, after your death, someone wants to turn your book into a movie or a TV show? 

Make sure you consider long-term and alternate uses for your IP beyond what you did during your life. Include your thoughts about what should be done in those scenarios in the instructions for your inheritors! Of course, if the executor is familiar with licensing, permissions, and international copyright, that is wonderful, but if not, provide in your instructions some basic resources that might be helpful to the future executor of your estate. 

Other Publishing Business Items to Consider

Charity

If your business has been involved in a charity during your lifetime, you can include instructions to continue that connection and your support for causes you love as part of your estate. For example, you might leave instructions that a certain percentage of royalties is donated to a specific organization. Or, you might want to establish a charitable trust as part of your estate. Your business and your art can continue to support the causes you loved through legacy donations.

Bottom Line Advice for Writers: Don't Wait, Draft Your Will

Update Your Will Regularly

Like many other things in life, your Will isn’t a one-and-done item. Update your Will whenever a substantial change happens with one of your IPs, your business structure, your overall financial situation, or with one of the people whom you’ve named as inheritor. Some legal professionals suggest updating your Will every five years; if you publish more than one book per year, I might suggest updating it every year when you file your tax return.

Talk to Your Beneficiaries & Executors

Don’t surprise whomever you are going to name as the inheritor for your IP and your publishing business. In the middle of a period of grief, your inheritor may not be in the right headspace to learn about and manage your writing and publishing. Books that are already published may be neglected, and opportunities to publish new materials can be missed. 

Instead – and this is excellent advice for writers but for anyone, really, even if it is difficult – you want to have a serious and thorough conversation about your estate with the person (or people) you’ll name as inheritors. Talk with them about your intentions and your concerns. Give them a chance to ask questions. Clear communication can prevent a ton of hassles and mistakes when the time comes, and even if it becomes a bit emotional, it is well worth the person being prepared to handle any financial obligations or enjoy the benefits associated with the hard work of writing and publishing books that you did in your lifetime.

Last Piece of Advice for Writers: Think Long-Term

Seventy years is a long time. In 70 years, your IPs could reach three whole new generations of fans, be translated into countless other languages, reach global fame, and become the basis for stage plays, graphic novels, or other media you never thought about during your life. Whether you’ve gone through a traditional publishing business or self-published your own works and established your own business entity, there’s great, easily accessible legal advice for writers to make it as easy as possible for their IPs to live on vibrantly and lucratively for those seven decades. (For an excellent article that inspired me to write this blog post, visit this article at selfpublishingadvice.org!) You want to make it easy for your loved ones to benefit from your hard work! When you put together your estate and wishes for your IPs, dream big. You never know what might happen with your work in the future.

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How Long Will It Take to Edit My Book?

Answer to the question how long will it take to edit my book symbolized by woman's hand holding pen and marking up document.

Sometimes a question seems straightforward, like “How long will it take to edit my book?” but the answer can be a bit deceptive. There are a few variables to consider before you arrive at the right answer for your situation. 

In this blog, we’re going to consider what different timelines might look like if you get your book edited by a professional. But if you’re interested in some steps you can take to self-edit your work before hiring a pro, take a look at these blogs for some suggestions: 

“Self-Editing Checklist for Authors”

“29 Words to Cut from Your Novel”

“Self-Editing Tips: Use CTRL+H to Edit Your Novel”

If you’re thinking, “I want to hire an editor for my book, but I don’t know how long it will take,” read on! 

Different Levels of Book Editing

One of the biggest factors in how long it will take when you get your book edited is the level of editing your book needs. If you are an amateur writer who is just getting started, you may not have a clear idea of what these terms mean or what the results will look like after your book has been out through that round of editing. 

Please don’t expect an editor can” fix” everything in a single round. If you have questions about what is included in your editor’s services, you should ask. When you get your book edited, you should always have a clear understanding of what your editor is doing. If there is something specific you want them to do, make sure to address that with them.

Developmental Edit

A developmental edit can take several months. Many people think, “It won’t take that long to edit my book,” and sometimes it doesn’t, but if you want the ultimate package that includes feedback, direction, and coaching, you shouldn’t rush this process. 

Typically a developmental edit happens when you haven’t yet finished your manuscript. Maybe you need help brainstorming or finishing the writing of certain sections. If you’ve got a plot hole you don’t know how to fix, or you’ve written everything except the conclusion, or you’re not sure about big-picture things that affect the whole book (like pacing, structure, and tone)…look at your developmental editing options. 

This level of editing will help you cross the finish line if you haven’t gotten to the goal word count you’re reaching for, or it will help you cut down the manuscript to a marketable length if you’ve overshot the ideal word count for your book’s genre. Think of it like professional “workshopping,” where an experienced editor (who is often also a writer) helps with way more than just the technical elements of grammar, spelling, and punctuation. 

Content and Structural Editing

Content editing can reasonably be expected to take a few weeks to several months, depending on the length of your manuscript and whether you provide your editor with detailed directions for what you want. 

This level of editing most often happens once you’ve completed your manuscript, but often when you get your book edited with a developmental package, suggestions for the structure and content are included. 

Content/structural editing focuses on the storyline and pace, organizing the chapters or sections, and ensuring continuity and cohesion. If you’re not sure if chapters are in the right order, or if you want help from an outsider’s perspective with double-checking content and organization, content editing may be the right option. A content editor may or may not also include line editing and correcting errors as part of their process, and of course, if line editing is part of the process, content editing will take a bit longer. 

Line Editing

Line editing can go quickly when you hire a professional editor for your book. At SRD Editing Services, we estimate one week per 25,000 words for our line editing services, although most are completed sooner.  

A line edit is what people commonly mean when they say, “I need someone to edit my book!” A line edit frequently focuses on line-by-line changes, looking at specifics of word choice, repetitive wording, in-chapter changes, and corrections to elements of style and grammar. A line edit will often include more than merely corrections to typos and grammatical errors; it can also include suggestions for improvement, although these tend to be more focused and less sweeping than what you’ll find in a developmental or content edit. 

Copyediting

The least-intense, and therefore quickest, type of editing—copyediting—can typically be completed by a professional in a week for most manuscripts of 100,000 words or less. If you’re looking to get your book edited by a professional, at the very least get it copyedited, even if you skip all the other editing steps and options. 

People often confuse copyediting and proofreading, so it can be helpful to be aware of the difference. 

Have your book copyedited as an MS Word document before you have it converted into a PDF or epub file by a professional graphic designer. Word has several valuable features that make it easy to search for and correct grammar mistakes, spelling errors, punctuation problems, and more. Once your manuscript is turned into a PDF, making changes can often be more difficult and involve more steps/more work. 

Have your book proofread after it’s turned into a PDF. Once you or a graphic designer has converted the manuscript into “what it will look like” to the consumer, you’ll want to do a final review to catch any small mistakes before the book is available to readers. 

Copyediting will likely involve correcting multiple errors on a page; by the time you’re proofreading, hopefully, your manuscript will need only one correction every four or five pages.

What Other Factors Affect the Timeline to Edit My Book?

While the type of editing you choose for your manuscript will naturally affect the timeline when you hire an editor for your book, there are other factors to consider that will affect how long it takes to edit your book.

Length of the Manuscript

While it seems self-explanatory, longer manuscripts usually take longer to edit. Although it’s not quite that straightforward. While a 10K-word manuscript may take less time than a 50K-word manuscript, if the shorter one needs a more in-depth edit (like a developmental edit) and the longer one needs less editing (like a copyedit only), then the two manuscripts may take approximately the same amount of time.

Genre of Manuscript

Complex or heavily researched manuscripts will take additional time due to fact-checking, reference-checking (whether as Notes or in a Bibliography), character tracking and consistency reviews, or structural analysis. Poetry, fantasy, sci-fi, and historical fiction and nonfiction are some examples of genres that commonly take more time to edit.

Experience and Approach of Editor

Ask yourself: “What’s important to me when I hire an editor for my book?” Editors, like writers, have different processes. If your editor is very experienced, they may have a standardized form or set of questions to help them save time. They will likely have a specific style guide they want to use, and if you are more familiar with those standards, you can save time collectively.  

Avoid an editor who claims to use AI to assist their editing. Amazon and other online publishers are now developing policies to prevent writers from uploading AI-generated materials. There is a fine line between AI-generated and AI-assisted, and mislabeling your content can result in severe penalties. 

Final Thoughts on Hiring a Professional to Edit My Book?

No matter what factors influence the timeline for your book’s edit, it’s prudent to underestimate that multiple factors can affect your personal publishing goals. A professional editor can make a reasonable or general estimate, but snags can always come up during the process when you get your book edited by a pro. 

Whatever timeline you and your editor agree to, it’s wise to add 10% as a cushion, especially if you have additional deadlines to meet after the edit. My book editing schedule includes extra time built in to account for the “unknown unknowns,” and I suggest you take this precaution as well. While it isn’t always necessary, clients (writers) are often happy when I plan for this extra time and end up having their edits completed ahead of schedule. Win-win.  

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Ready to Hire an Editor for Your Book?

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Tools for Romance Writers: Ratings for Spicy Romance Novels

Although writers of all genres should consider how different readers may approach their text, it’s particularly important for writers of romance, erotica, or “spicy romance” novels to connect with readers who are looking for their content. That’s why everyone could benefit from a universal ratings system.  

As a reader, if there were a single standard for rating the “spice level” in books, it would be easier to select, recommend, and review books they love and avoid books that don’t match their preferences. As a writer, a single rating system would make it easier to connect with readers who enjoy reading about what you enjoy writing about. 

Oh! If only. 

While other types of media such as TV shows and movies have standard ratings systems that make it easier for viewers to identify age-appropriate and content-desired material, books are sadly a bit different. While many good romance authors are beginning to include “content warnings” (or “trigger warnings”) so readers are aware of specific content they may find upsetting (or particularly enticing), it’s not required nor a standard practice, although it does seem to be trending in that direction (especially with self-publishing authors). 

But without a universal rating system for books, it remains difficult for readers to have insight into what books are appropriate for them (or their kids, if they’re parents), and it remains difficult for writers to appropriately connect with the right readers. 

Rated Reads helps parents determine if the book their child is reading is age-appropriate (not just because of romantic or sexual content, but for a whole host of reasons.) Our blog last year on the Accelerated Reader Bookfinder tool may also be helpful.  

So what do writers and readers do? Well, here are a few things to consider if you enjoy reading or writing romance, erotica, or erotic/spicy romance.

What’s the Difference?: Romance, Erotica, & Spicy Romance Novels

It’s important to note that reader preferences vary, and what one person considers spicy or erotic may differ from another’s interpretation. The key is to find a balance that suits the preferences of the target audience while maintaining a coherent and engaging narrative.

Hiring some romance beta readers can help you gauge where your novel falls on these scales and help with your marketing and promotion plans. Beta readers in general, but specifically, beta readers who are avid fans of different types of romance, can be invaluable in helping you determine if your content has the “right” spice level for your target readership. 

If you are a romance reader and want to help writers hone and perfect their on-page spice, consider being a beta reader! There are numerous groups on Facebook and hashtags on IG and TikTok (aka “Bookstagram” and “BookTok”) where you can volunteer to be ARC or beta readers for the works-in-progress of all types of romance writers. 

Romance

Woman and man in wedding attire laughing next to table; man wearing hat and woman holding bouquet. Romance novels typically end with happily ever after.
Romance novels typically end with "happily ever after."

To begin with, a “romance” novel typically holds the romance and the developing relationship between characters as central to the plot. The best romance novel tips remind writers to keep the emotions as the story’s focus, and there should typically be a strong narrative arc in the journey of the characters, including challenges, conflicts, and resolutions. True romance novels build an emotional connection as they explore their feelings, and the end result for the reader is a satisfying emotional payoff or a “happily ever after” (HEA) ending. 

While there may occasionally be intimacy, often characters will engage in “relations” through euphemism or off-page action, similar to how movies or TV plots will show characters tumbling into bed, kissing, and then fade to black. Often, there is a fade-in afterward to show the characters’ emotional reactions to the events, but the focus is on the emotions and relationships rather than detailed sexual encounters. Even when sex scenes happen on-page, the characters may speak in euphemism or “softened” sexual language rather than explicit word choice from the author.

In movie-ratings terms, true romance novels can be at any major commercial movie level – G, PG, PG-13, or R. 

Erotica (aka Smut)

To begin with, an “erotica” novel typically places a strong emphasis on sexual content and exploration. The primary goal is to arouse and titillate the reader through explicit descriptions of sexual encounters. While erotica may have a plot, it is often secondary to the explicit content, and as all good romance authors know, the narrative may serve as a framework to connect erotic scenes rather than a central focus that details characters’ emotions and their journey toward a romantic connection. Beware of losing sight of the plot just to get caught up in “the action,” unless you intend to write erotica. While some erotica may explore emotional connections, the central theme is sexual pleasure, and the emotional depth is typically not as developed as in romance.

Erotica is known for its explicit and detailed depictions of sexual acts. The language used is often more direct and graphic, catering to readers seeking a more intense exploration of sexuality. Its content runs the full gamut of sexual fantasies, preferences, and kinks that you can find when reviewing the categories and tags of any website that publishes adult videos.

In movie-ratings terms, erotica is pretty strictly X-rated and higher.

Spicy Romance Novels / Erotic Romance Novels

man and woman in intimate embrace. He is shirtless, she facing away from him, he appears to be kissing her neck and removing her shirt; spicy romance novels balance sexual and romance content.

“Spicy romance” or “erotic romance” falls somewhere between traditional romance and erotica. These subgenres acknowledge and include explicit sexual content while maintaining a strong emphasis on the emotional connection between characters. Here are some key erotic romance novel tips:

Balanced Focus: Spicy or erotic romance strikes a balance between the emotional development of the relationship and explicit sexual content.

  • Narrative integration: Unlike erotica, which may prioritize sexual scenes over the plot, spicy romance integrates intimate moments into a broader narrative that includes emotional tension and character development.
  • Reader expectations: Readers of spicy or erotic romance are seeking a more sensual experience than traditional romance without necessarily delving into the more explicit and purely sexual nature of erotica.
  • Varied Heat Levels: “Heat levels” are often used to classify the level of explicit content in romance novels. Spicy or erotic romance can encompass a range of heat levels, allowing readers to choose the intensity of sexual content they are comfortable with.

Like the best rated-R movies can have very graphic, enticing, titillating sex scenes without losing sight of how those scenes play into the overall narrative arc and important relationship-building between the characters, spicy/erotic romance novels walk the fine line between turning on both their readers’ bodies and minds. 

Spicy Romance Novel Tips: Popular Ratings Systems & Resources

There are several tools and systems that readers and writers can use to assess the spice levels or explicit content in novels, especially in the romance and erotic genres. These tools are often referred to as “heat levels” or “sensuality ratings.”  Good romance authors would be wise to understand readers’ expectations and make the most of these rating systems and reader feedback to strike the right balance to connect with their audience. 

All About Romance (AAR) is a popular romance-focused website that provides sensuality ratings for romance novels. The ratings range from “Kisses” for books with no sexual content to “Burning” for those with explicit scenes.

Smart Bitches Trashy Books is a romance book review site that provides heat ratings for the books they review. The ratings range from “Sweet” to “Scorching.”

Romance.io is a fairly new (2 years old) book review site that provides a “steam” or “spice” rating for a variety of romance books and invites site members to add their own reviews and ratings. They offer a “similar book finder” so if there is something you liked and want more of, you can find it easily. 

Is the Book Spicy? blog focuses just on the spice ratings. No reviews. No spoilers. Just letting you know how steamy the book gets and what the tropes and triggers are for different titles. 

Goodreads, a popular book review platform, allows readers to tag books with descriptors like “steamy,” “erotic,” or “clean romance.” Reading reviews on Goodreads can also provide insights into a book’s heat level. (Connect with our editor, Cortni Merritt, on Goodreads!) 

Readers can use these tools to find books that align with their preferences, and good romance authors can refer to these and other online spice-rating systems to navigate the varying levels of sensuality expected from readers in romance and erotic novels.

How Writers of Spicy Romance Novels Promote & Connect with Readers

One of the most common ways to connect with readers of spicy romance is through newsletters. It’s a great way for writers to find both romance beta readers and eventually promote their finished books for sale. Many newsletters target in on specific subgenres, character types and tropes, and content that’s close to their heart, but here are a few ideas where writers of spicy romance novels can start brainstorming for promotion and marketing:  

  • Book retailer newsletters (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc.)
  • Book review sites (Goodreads, BookBub, BookSends, etc.)
  • Book subscription services (Book of the Month, Romance Reveal Book Box, etc.) 
  • Blogs for romance, spicy romance, or erotica books/writing.
  • Social media groups (Facebook, IG hashtags, BookTok, etc.)
  • Forums such as Reddit r/RomanceBooks

By becoming a subscriber to a few newsletters or forums for the genre in which you write, you become familiar with the expectations, including the spice levels and standard ratings, for your spicy romance novels.

Writers of Spicy Romance Novels: Do Your Research

Among all the advice out there on how to write a solid romance novel, tips about incorporating spice are in no short supply. If there were a universal rating system, it would certainly be easier for writers, but since there is not, it is worth the time for a writer working to establish themselves or better target their readership in the romance genre to review several sources of reader feedback about spice levels. 

There’s a reader out there for every book! Don’t feel like you have to force your book to become too spicy if you don’t want it to be, but if you want to turn up the heat, just connect to readers who are looking for that level of burn, and your spicy romance novels and readers will enjoy the perfect match-up.  

Ready to talk to a romance novel editor?

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Erotica, Romance, & Spicy Romance Novels Edited by SRD Editing Services

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