My editing reading list

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Dear all

I have been thinking a lot about editing this week and how I can learn as much as possible about editing the type of writing I’m interested in, which is memoir, life writing, creative non-fiction, narrative non-fiction, essays and purpose-driven fiction.

Although most of my freelance work in the past 20 years has been editing or related work, I really want to shift my emphasis to working with individuals with full enough lives that are driven to write books despite everything. I would love to work with people whose voices are currently underrepresented in the world of publishing and for me, the most interesting, vital books I’m reading right now fall into the broad life writing category. As I’ve mentioned before (and this was the impetus for My Book Writing Adventure), I’d like to work in a holistic way with a combination of editing and book coaching or mentoring.

So as well as rewriting my website and letting people know what I’m open to, I want to update my skills in a systematic way. I was going to do this training course on developmental editing for non-fiction with the CIEP (Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading), but it is now fully booked.

There doesn’t seem to be an editing course for exactly the type of writing I’m interested in so I’ll be considering doing a mix of training on fiction as well as non-fiction editing with CIEP or the Publishing Training Centre. BUT courses can be expensive and I am not new to editing (though I’m sure I have much to learn), so I decided to create my own reading list. I thought you might be interested too.

In no particular order:

Scott Norton - Developmental Editing: A Handbook for Freelancers, Authors and Publishers

Karin Cather & Dick Margulis - The Paper It’s Written On: Defining your relationship with an editing client

Barbara Sjoholm - An Editor’s Guide to Working with Authors

Amy J Schneider - Chicago Guide to Copyediting Fiction

Helen Corner-Bryant & Kathryn Price - On Editing: How to edit your novel the professional way

Erin Brenner - The Chicago Guide for Freelance Editors

Janet Burroway - Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft

Jane Friedman - The Business of Being a Writer

Michael Larson & Jody Rein - How to Write a Book Proposal

And I’m halfway through both of these excellent books on memoir writing:

Mary Karr - The Art of Memoir

Vivian Gornick - The Situation and The Story

Is there anything I don’t have on my list that has helped you with editing or the business side of writing and publishing?

Leave a comment below to let us know :)

Creative Writing Workshops with me (Mel Parks)

Tuesday afternoons on Zoom (2-3pm UK time)

£8 per month or £80 per year with a paid Awen Substack subscription.

You can come to as many as you are able to. The new season began on Tuesday 10 September 2-3pm (UK time) but you can join in at anytime.

If you are not able to subscribe (or don’t want to!), then please email me for alternative ways to join.

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My Book Writing Adventure - Support Group on Zoom

Thursday 17 October 1pm-2pm (UK) for paid subscribers:

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Becoming a Writer
Monthly Tuesday evenings in East Grinstead (7-9pm)

A monthly creative writing workshop for beginners. Plenty of fun writing prompts, games and activities to get your creative juices flowing.

12 November

Each session costs £30.

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Storying Ourselves in Nature | A Creative Writing Day at Emerson College, Forest Row, Sussex.

Saturday 9 November

Until next time…