The Complete INDIE Editor Review

I recently read The Complete INDIE Editor - 55 Essential Copy-edits for the Professional Independent Author by Kev Heritage. This book is an excellent little guide that works great as a checklist for polishing your novel before sending it to your editor. Succinct with just enough examples to get the point across, this book not only tells you how to edit your manuscript, but why you should do it.

The eight sections (chapters) cover copy-edits for adverbs and adjectives, overused words, italics, quotations and capitalization, showing (not telling), speech, tricky words, and word pairs and homophones. Each section provides examples of common errors and suggestions on what to look for in your novel and ways to correct the problems. The Complete INDIE Editor also provides tips on writing numbers and time properly and includes lists of overused words and phrases and a glossary of the 55 copy edits.

On the down side, at $7.99, the price may be a little high on the cost per page ratio, but in defense of the price, I envision it as a resource I refer to multiple times. In addition, one Amazon reviewer points out that for a book on self-editing, it suffers from a lack of proofreading. I did check out the reviewer's claims, and the examples she mentions are still present in the version I own. Personally, I find the advice useful, even if the presentation is not flawless.

Have you read The Complete INDIE Editor? If so, what did you think?

Author Update:  I'm currently writing the first draft of Warlock & Wyrm, Book III of The Oxbow Kingdom Trilogy. My word count at the moment is around 30,000 words, so I'm inching toward roughly the half-way point.


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