About Us

As an editor and author, I enjoy reading, so the idea was to use my voracious reading habit to produce a book review blog and connect with other readers. However, I was distracted by poorly edited or proofread novels produced by many indie authors. It became a common complaint in my book club that the spelling mistakes and poor grammar got in the way of a good story. Tragedy considering the amount of time it takes to write 80,000 words!

I understood the dilemma; writers are so focussed on bringing form to their imagination that constructing sense is often overlooked. Also, we know what we have written, and therefore we anticipate what we read. Plus, spellcheck doesn’t catch all word crimes. That’s why I created The Spellcheck Trap, a resource for writers struggling with word blindness.

Most indie authors have minimal budgets and will have to decide whether to spend on cover design, versus ISBN; or website design versus marketing. Many rely on spellcheck as they don’t have the resources to employ a professional editor yet good presentation makes such a big difference in how a manuscript is perceived. Please see The Editing Process. An editor does more for the document than just catch misspelling. Their intervention can be transformative.

I hope to demystify some of the dark arts of copy editing by presenting you with easy-to-understand articles and useful checklists so that your manuscript can be the best version that meets the world or a commissioning editor. Of course, you can always work with me directly.

Besides my expertise as an editor and prior director of a chain of bookstores, I’ve called upon other industry experts to give their help and advice on the book business. From book cover design (Hazel Alemany) to branding (Steve Girdlestone), there are useful tips and strategies, and we will add more as we receive feedback.

If you are just looking for your next good read, have a look at the reviews. And if you are a book club member, would you like to contribute to our book club bursts?

I’m looking forward to hearing about your journey and perhaps working with you soon. You can keep in touch via Facebook or sign up to the newsletter.