Jane gasped as two eyes glared at her like hot coals from the very depths of hell. Her blood chilled as the thing slithered toward her. In the hills behind the house, a wolf-pack whimpered, cringing at the energy of ultimate evil emanating from the house. Punctuation We all sat through interminable English classes learning the rules of punctuation. If you re one of millions of Americans who ve forgotten all about commas, colons, hyphens, quotes, and parentheses, buy a book to refresh your memory.
Few things damn a good manuscript like poor punctuation.
Publishers take a dim view of a writer that has not mastered even the basics of the craft. For most authors, working with editors is like having a root canal necessary but agonizing. In all my years, I have yet to meet a writer whose work does not need editing, contrary to what most of those writers believed and told me at great length and with great passion. Developmental editing- rarely happens. Ideally, an author sits down with an editor and they outline the book, starting with testing the main theme and partitioning the material into chapters.