Bobbie Christmas, editor and owner of Zebra Communications, explains why publishers want professionally edited manuscripts. In the past, publishing houses would keep full-time manuscript editors on staff. That’s grown less and less common. Most traditional...

Many new writers believe that self-editing or having a friend review their manuscript is enough to get it ready for submission to agents and publishers. While some writers get lucky with this approach and are able to land a publishing contract, most...

Writing a well-crafted manuscript is important, but it won't happen in the first draft. Thorough editing and revision are required to make your story readable. Editor Helga Schier explains the levels of editing needed to take a manuscript from messy...

Many new writers believe that self-editing or having a friend review their manuscript is enough to get it ready for submission to agents and publishers. While some writers get lucky with this approach and are able to land a publishing contract, most...

The publishing path you choose will determine the degree of “perfect” your manuscript should be in before submission. A fiction manuscript must be complete before you query agents or publishers, but there will be some final editing done by the publisher...

Many writers believe that self-editing their manuscript or having a friend or family member review it is enough prior to publication. It’s usually not. Without professional editing, your manuscript will likely contain several grammatical errors and maybe...

Many novice writers think they don’t need to worry about submitting their manuscripts to agents and publishers until they are done. This is not true. In fact, the earlier you know what distinguishes a publishable manuscript, the better. In this session...

Editing your own work can be an arduous and painstaking task. Not every writer is cut out for it. For some writers, editing is their favorite part of the writing process. In this video, editor Helga Schier teaches how to edit your own manuscript using...

As an Associate Publisher with the W Publishing Group, a commercial nonfiction imprint of Thomas Nelson, Stephanie Newton reviews many manuscripts. In the manuscript submission process, there are three common writing and editing mistakes she sees authors...