by Caroline Hiley, editor There is no rigid rule about how long a novel must be to get published. Indeed, length trends come and go in the industry like hemlines do in fashion. Currently shorter is better, with a commonly accepted range of 40,000 to 120,000 words for commercial fiction. Novels of 40,000 to 50,000 …
Ana Howard Book Editing Associates Ana Howard specializes in developmental editing of memoir and fiction for both children and adults. Literary agents and editors at publishing houses are deluged with manuscript submissions every day. More and more, they have to make quick decisions about a manuscript, and rarely do they sit down …
By DJ Braxton Many very earnest and efficient writers like to start at the beginning, providing not only the protagonist’s first and last name but birth time and birth place. I’ve encountered books that will literally describe a hero’s entry into the world … via the birth canal! Starting a book off like this is …
by DJ Braxton Somewhere along the lines, writers mistakenly decide that “purple prose” (the phrase used to describe ornate, flowery, or eloquent passages of writing that resemble 19th-century Royal English tea parties) is the way to go, that lots of big words and multiple descriptors in one sentence trumps simple sentences. Since it’s no …