copy editing
Turn your blogs in to ebooks for marketing and profit
5th March 2020 | Posted in Blogging, Small business
Have you been blogging away sharing your expertise with the world? Do you have numerous pieces of advice and information published in your name on your site or social media that could be pulled together into something more substantial and authoritative? Either as a downloadable profit-making project or as a marketing tool? I’ve just been […]
Tips for creating a consistent writing style
2nd July 2019 | Posted in Editing, Marketing communications
When you’ve got multiple contributors to a document, it can be tricky bringing together different writing styles into one coherent piece. If you want just one style, which of your authors wins? And how do you explain your edits to the others who have ‘lost’? It’s their hard work that you’re altering. And people who […]
When you ask me to edit or proofread, what exactly do you mean?
14th January 2019 | Posted in Blogging, book, Editing, Marketing communications
You know what you want. But do I? “Editing” and its sibling “proofreading” are words that mean everything and nothing. So it pays to make sure we agree. Let’s take the examples of Jack and Susu (who are not really called Jack and Susu but they are real customers). Jack is way out of […]
How do you say ‘I’m sorry but your book is dire’?
15th November 2018 | Posted in book, Editing
As editor of the When They Get Older website, I’ve been reviewing gift ideas for grandparents. It’s a regular list we compile for holidays and special days, and I often get sent books to review. Generally, they’re worth a mention. But this one, this year. Oh dear. The joys of self-publication. I don’t want to […]
Quick tweaks for consistent newsletters
20th May 2016 | Posted in Marketing communications
Congratulations! You’ve encouraged and beguiled enough people around your company to gather enough content for a newsletter. Now all you have to do is drop it into a template and you’re done. Uh oh! And that’s when you notice that while you thought you were encouraging variety, what you’ve actually got is a bit of […]
6 tips to get your contributed content accepted
25th June 2015 | Posted in Content creation
I’m the commissioning and content editor of a web site that’s all about information. We’re the place that a niche audience goes when they want advice, facts and support – often urgently. How we work with content providers We’ve clearly reached a tipping point in the past few months. There’s been a very noticeable rise […]
Going with the flow – copywriting that gets your reader from start to finish
28th August 2014 | Posted in Web content
A quick five tips for you to help you write words that ease your readers through your content right through from the introduction to moving to the next step in the customer journey. 1. Tell a story. Story-telling for brands is high profile right now. But everything we write about our company and our products and […]
Clients, copywriters and correct writing
29th November 2012 | Posted in Editing
Now here’s something I never thought I would write. It’s certainly something that my children would be disturbed to see me say, given their strict use of English upbringing. The truth is I now believe it is possible to be too correct about grammar. This is a bit of a revelation, as I also believe […]
The return of the red pen
2nd November 2011 | Posted in Editing
Never sure whether to reveal my longevity in this business, but when I started editing copy, there was no Microsoft Word or markup highlights to turn on. What we used was the red pen. Big, fat, inky, satisfying red pens. And we would whizz through hard copy content, using the standard copy-editing and proofreading marks […]