{"id":2358,"date":"2025-03-24T14:10:56","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T01:10:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csidemedia.com\/gryphonclerks\/?p=2358"},"modified":"2025-12-31T10:35:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T21:35:53","slug":"well-presented-manuscript-fourth-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/gryphonclerks\/2025\/03\/24\/well-presented-manuscript-fourth-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Well-Presented Manuscript Fourth Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’ve just published the fourth edition of my nonfiction book for writers, The Well-Presented Manuscript: Just What You Need to Know to Make Your Fiction Look Professional<\/a><\/em>. I’ve added some material, as I have in each new edition (it’s now twice the size of the first edition, but still the same price). The big change, though, is a complete restructure around the ten most common types of errors I see authors making in the books I review: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Vocabulary.<\/strong> Now almost 200 entries on pairs, trios, or single words that are easily confused with each other or used incorrectly.<\/li>
  2. Apostrophe usage.<\/strong> Two simple rules will enable you to get the apostrophe in the right place every time.<\/li>
  3. Narrative tense.<\/strong> How to stop jerking your readers around in time so they have a smooth reading experience. Revised and expanded.<\/li>
  4. Commas of identity<\/strong> (vocative and appositive commas). How to fix one of the easiest ways to spot amateurish writing.<\/li>
  5. Commas of sequence<\/strong> (coordinate commas and lists). How to avoid an error that even some good writers still make. Revised and expanded.<\/li>
  6. Commas of grammatical structure<\/strong> (phrasal commas). How to know where\u2014and where not\u2014to put a comma, without having to guess.<\/li>
  7. Capitalization, hyphenation and other punctuation marks<\/strong>. Many different errors described and corrected.<\/li>
  8. Dialog punctuation<\/strong>. A persistent problem for a minority of writers, with a few easy rules.<\/li>
  9. Clarity of reference<\/strong> (number agreement, pronoun errors, dangling modifiers). Make sure your readers understand exactly what you\u2019re talking about without having to stop and work it out. Revised and expanded.<\/li>
  10. Research and knowledge<\/strong>. Common slip-ups that are easily corrected. Revised and expanded, including an extensive guide to differences between British and American English for authors who speak one, but whose characters speak the other.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    At the back of the book is a simple reference for grammatical terminology and concepts, and a resource section for further reading.

    Everything is still directed at improving the working fiction writer\u2019s grasp of mechanics and usage, so that your prose reads smoothly and your readers can immerse themselves in your story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    For the first time, the book is available as a print volume as well as an ebook, but it should be available wherever you get your ebooks<\/a>, including all the major stores and many libraries. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I’ve just published the fourth edition of my nonfiction book for writers, The Well-Presented Manuscript: Just What You Need to Know to Make Your Fiction Look Professional. I’ve added some material, as I have in each new edition (it’s now … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/gryphonclerks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2358"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/gryphonclerks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/gryphonclerks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/gryphonclerks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/gryphonclerks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2358"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/gryphonclerks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2363,"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/gryphonclerks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2358\/revisions\/2363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/gryphonclerks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/gryphonclerks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/gryphonclerks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}