Scare Quotes and Why You Don’t Need Them

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According to Wikipedia,

Scare quotes are quotation marks placed around a word or phrase to imply that it may not signify its apparent meaning or that it is not necessarily the way the quoting person would express its concept.

They are quite popular with writers these days, especially bloggers. Problem is, they are rarely necessary. Editors and publishers are encouraging (even requiring) authors to get away from using them. For example, I could write,

  • My boys were so loud during “quiet” time.

What I mean is they were loud when they were supposed to be quiet. If I take out the scare quotes, you still understand I mean they were loud when they were supposed to be quiet. Nothing is really added to the sentence by using scare quotes.

F. Scott Fitzgerald said, “Cut out all those exclamation marks. An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own jokes.” I want to encourage you to cut out all those scare quotes. Write what you mean and trust your reader to understand what you write.

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Get Beyond the Basics: 30 Tips for Better Writing for Free

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Today is National Grammar Day! Grammar hasn’t been this exciting since back in college when the chalkboard fell off the wall and onto the back of my advanced grammar professor. It couldn’t handle the complicated sentence diagramming we were doing. (Don’t worry–she was safe. We rescued her and got to leave class early as a reward.)

We’re celebrating all week on the blog, and to kick off the fun, you can download a free PDF copy of my book, Beyond the Basics: 30 Tips for Better Writing, by entering “freebook” at checkout. Let’s honor National Grammar Day by learning some new tips, like how to format em dashes and when not to use apostrophes. Your readers will thank you and the time and money I invested in taking advanced grammar will pay off!

To download your free copy, click on “add to cart” below and fill in “freebook” in the box for “discount code.” Then click “update cart” and your total should be $0.00!

Add to Cart
Come back tomorrow and help me crown the king of National Grammar Day. Keep coming back and you just might win the perfect accessory for every writer.

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Year in Review for Next Step Editing

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I love end-of-the-year reflections. It’s encouraging to look back and give thanks for the blessings, lessons, and opportunities 2012 brought.

Professionally, 2012 has turned out to be more fulfilling than I ever expected. Here are some of the highlights, both big and small:

Five years ago these opportunities didn’t even exist. There wasn’t a way to get your indie book into the hands of thousands of readers. Now, it seems everyone is writing a book (at least in the blogging world that seems true). And all those book writers need an editor. I can meet every professional goal I have for myself sitting in my sweatpants, at my desk, after the boys are asleep. I can help each client see her dream of a book come true. As I book clients into 2013, I’m excited about what I will learn, the friends I will make, and the goals I’ll help clients meet.

What writing or publishing goals did you meet in 2012? What goals do you have for 2013?

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Five Questions Your Editor Should Ask You

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In addition to talking about your budget, the size of your manuscript, and your time frame, I have five more questions I like to ask clients.

  1. Where do you blog? I want to familiarize myself with your writing style.
  2. How will you be publishing this book? Kindle? PDF? Print-on-demand? Different formats require different editing (for example, you can’t do footnotes for the Kindle, only end notes.)
  3. I’m going to follow The Chicago Manual of Style for your book, are you ok with that? You need to understand we aren’t following the AP rules you may use for blog writing, or the MLA rules you may have learned in school. Book writers follow CMS rules so that’s what I’m going to help you do.
And, if you’re writing for a Christian audience:
  1. What Bible translations do you use and which one do you use  most? I’ll help you get the copyright information you need and make sure each verse is cited correctly.
  2. Do you want to capitalize pronouns referring to deity? It’s up to you, as long as you’re consistent.
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Book Writers: Follow The Chicago Manual of Style

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At the Allume conference in October, there was a session with a panel of writers. They answered questions about everything from self-publishing to writing with honesty. One of the writers said she hired four editors to fix her book before self publishing. She said it was the worst mistake she made. Why? Because each editor made different suggestions and only one of the editors followed The Chicago Manual of Style. Her advice? Hire one good editor and make sure he/she follows The Chicago Manual of Style. 

There are some rules book writers have follow that blog or article writers don’t have to follow. An ellipsis is a prime example. In the Associated Press Guide, you type the ellipsis without dots between each dot. As the picture to the right shows, you treat an ellipsis like a three-letter word. But that’s now how The Chicago Manual of Style tells writers to type an ellipsis. You are supposed to put spaces between each dot and between the ellipsis and the words that surround it.

Before you hire an editor for your self-published work, make sure he/she follows the guidelines for book writers from The Chicago Manual of Style.

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