I’ve just released the third edition of The Well-Presented Manuscript: Just What You Need to Know to Make Your Fiction Look Professional (link is to the book’s website, which also functions as a draft/taster for it).

I originally wrote The Well-Presented Manuscript because I could tell, based on the number of authors I saw making simple errors in their prose mechanics, that there was a need for a straightforward guide to give them the instruction that their schools had clearly not provided, or at least not provided effectively. (I recently read a book by an English teacher with an MFA in creative writing who made a number of very basic mistakes in punctuation and vocabulary, so what chance do his students have?) As I’ve continued to read and review books from a wide range of authors and publishers, I’ve gained a clearer view of exactly which issues are the most common, and found a few more that I’d not seen before or hadn’t thought through completely. Hence the new (third) edition.

Compared with the 2020 edition, the 2022 edition is 40% longer, and the popular Commonly Confused Words section has grown by more than a third. (Not sure if you mean diffuse or defuse, crevasse or crevice, gambit, gamut, or gauntlet? We have you covered.)

It’s now based on an analysis of more than 25,000 errors in close to a thousand books from publishers of all sizes: self, small, medium and large. It includes new sections on American versus British English, whether “alright” is all right, “lay” versus “lie,” and the use of singular “they”.

Other sections have been thoroughly revised and expanded, and there’s yet more advice on improving your comma usage in specific circumstances.

Everything is still directed at improving the working fiction writer’s grasp of mechanics and usage, so that your prose reads smoothly and your readers can immerse themselves in your story.

The Well-Presented Manuscript featured in Kevin J. Anderson’s NaNoWriMo bundle for 2020, which is why I brought out the second edition that year, and if you got it in that bundle, you will not get an automatic update with the new edition. If you’ve previously bought it somewhere else, you may well get the update for free – synch your device and see. It will depend on the outlet’s specific policies.

If you don’t get the update automatically, it’s only $3.49 USD, and I think well worth it. If it helps you discover even one thing you’re getting wrong and correct it, my job is done.

Mike Reeves-McMillan

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Mike Reeves-McMillan lives in Auckland, New Zealand, the setting of his Auckland Allies contemporary urban fantasy series; and also in his head, where the weather is more reliable, and there are a lot more wizards. He also writes the Gryphon Clerks series (steampunk/magepunk), the Hand of the Trickster series (sword-and-sorcery heist capers), and short stories which have appeared in venues such as Compelling Science Fiction and Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores.