These 7 editing tips improve ANY copy

And a quick quiz that will show you whether or not YOU might want to consider making money editing copy too. [The Writer’ s Life]( September 22, 2023 "Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler's heart, kill your darlings." – Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft Hi {NAME}, The advice for writers to "murder your darlings" has been floating around in some form or another since 1916. Essentially it means you have to get rid of any words, phrases, or concepts that aren't working in your copy, regardless of how much you love them or worked hard to create them. Easier said than done, I know … Sometimes we become so immersed in what we're writing … so close to it, that we struggle to see what should stay — and what should go. I can't tell you how many times a copyeditor has cut the words I was MOST pleased with. But I know it's for the best … because in the end, I want the copy to WORK. That's why a good copyeditor is invaluable. They use their skills to trim, reorganize, and elevate copy to another level. [Copyeditors]( may be behind-the-scenes in the writing process, but their skill is important to the success of any piece of copy or content. NOTHING goes out here at AWAI without a copyeditor taking the final pass … Including this newsletter, which is edited by my #1 copyeditor and secret weapon, Nan Hughes. 🤩 Now, there are three ways training in copyediting can make a big difference in your career. 1. Your own copy will be better if you give it a good edit before submitting it to your clients. 2. You can take on as much work as you want as a professional copyeditor. The demand for your services will not slow down! 3. You can use your copyediting skills to get your foot in the door and "sidestep" your way to copywriting projects like blogs, e-letters, articles, case studies, and much more. Case in point, I asked Nan to write the article for today's issue, and happily paid her an additional fee for it. After all, she knows this topic inside and out. And today she'll share seven tactics you can use to strengthen any piece of copy — whether you wrote it or you're working to improve someone else's. It's like a mini copyediting lesson and checklist! Interestingly, I would hire Nan to write anything she wanted, not just about copyediting. After more than 15 years of working together, she knows the AWAI style, tone, and content as well as any copywriter. But for Nan, copyediting is her jam! You'll see how passionate she is about it in today's issue. Before I hand it over, just a quick reminder that today is your LAST CHANCE to get your copy of our self-paced training program, [How to Use Copyediting for Career Advancement and Side Profit: Simple Techniques to Elevate Your Writing Value and Your Income](, at a massive discount. Imagine transforming another writer's "good" copy into GREAT copy … Being seen as a hero to anyone you work with … And collecting great fees while working less than the writer did. 😉 If you're looking for a way to start making money … Or you want to add extra income to your current writing business … [You can't go wrong with copyediting.]( But hurry — your LAST CHANCE to get it at this special price ends at midnight. After that, it will be too late! Hope you have a great weekend, Rebecca Matter President AWAI CLOSING: Now Accepting New Members
 Your new life as a well-paid and in-demand writer is just one click away … A life that offers freedom, lots of fun, no more money worries, and so many unique, high-paying writing opportunities. But the clock is ticking … The discounted new-member pricing disappears in a matter of hours! [Get it before midnight tonight!]( Use These 7 Editing Tips to Make Any Copy Stronger By Nan Hughes [Female freelance copyeditor working at desk with cat] I'll never forget it … The word was "Association." No, it wasn't a spelling bee failure. Instead, I'd misspelled it once in my copy on a direct-mail flyer. My boss was shocked, and rightfully so. I'd produced a 144-page annual catalog for him with zero reported errors … so his expectations of me were high. Unfortunately, the misspelling also went unnoticed by quality control at the printers and mailed out with the typo. The discovery was so embarrassing, I can still recall where I was when my boss yelled at me about it while I was on vacation at Walt Disney World. That was a long time ago. And I still absolutely loathe mistakes in copy. That dedication to accuracy serves me well in my writing career … Especially in my role as a copyeditor. My clients tell me my value is very high — I could make a typo and they wouldn't even bat an eye (let alone yell at me!). You see, copyediting is so much more than catching typos, fixing punctuation, or adhering to best practices in grammar. Those tasks are often a part of thorough proofreading. But copyediting is a step beyond. It's about making sure the copy works — that it's effective, polished, and will achieve its goals. Where proofreading is often about checking what's there in the copy, copyediting is about what isn't there too. Is something missing, incomplete, or inexplicable? Is everything presented in the best order, or does the sequence defy logic? Answering those kinds of questions helps an effective copyeditor elevate a sales message from good to GREAT — and that difference shows up in the bottom line. Better results, more clicks, higher sales. All tangible benefits of publishing copy that is excellent, not just adequate. That ability to elevate makes the copyeditor a valuable part of the team. An important partner to the writer … a protector for the company … and an advocate for the reader. Juggling the needs of those three people makes copyediting a "human" function. The inroads of AI into the copywriting industry will not change the need for companies to publish information that is correct, high-quality, and engaging. Readers demand it — and so does Google. So the adoption of AI will actually increase the need for good copyeditors to verify the information and ensure the text is not too linear, too boring, or too repetitive to be of value. You May Be a Copyeditor If … Curious if this might be a path to the writer's life for you? (Yes, you can get there even without writing any original copy!) Here's an informal test with three ways to know if you may be a good copyeditor … A. Your family and friends tell you they're afraid to write you a note in a greeting card for fear you'll notice any mistakes … 2. Your book reviews on Goodreads rival a critic's breakdown in The New York Times … d. You notice typos on everything from menus to social media. (Every "Your an idiot" you see online makes you cringe, hard.) The 'A-2-d' is a joke from the movie Home Alone … but if the incongruent alignment caught your eye, you might be a copyeditor. Being passionate about words and the clarity of a message are great attributes of a copyeditor. Critical thinking, a fairly wide (even surface-level) knowledge of pop culture, and an ability to deeply research the validity of statements will serve you well. A decent memory is another useful trait. Here's a very basic example … if the writer says a car is blue on one page, is it still blue in any additional references? That kind of tiny detail may seem trivial, but the minute your reader catches a mistake, it's a tiny chink in their belief in whatever else you're saying. Now, let's look at some copyediting secrets … 7 Copyediting Tips to Strengthen Any Copy Here are seven tactics you can use to improve any copy you or someone else writes: 1. You've got style. Ask your client if they have a Style Guide they follow. That one question will make you look like a pro right from the outset. If you're not familiar, a Style Guide is a document containing company guidelines for official spellings and formatting of proprietary product names, commonly used jargon, font styles, and much more. Following a Style Guide is essential if you're on retainer to write ongoing materials, like a blog, e-letter, or series of articles. Your client will be thrilled to receive copy that is closer to a finished product. If they don't have a Style Guide, you could start building one of your own. 2. "Assumes facts not in evidence." Lawyers use that phrase to describe information that has not previously been established or for which no evidence has been shown. In copy, you may see phrases like, "remember," "as I mentioned," or "we talked about," followed by a concept. But the catch is … Was the idea really mentioned previously? Or is this actually the first mention of the concept? (Extensive editing by multiple reviewers often leads to this error.) Verify those references and edit the text if needed. 3. That's enough of that. One word you can remove from copy to add another level of polish is "that." How do you do it? When you're editing copy, read a sentence containing "that," and read it again mentally skipping over the "that." If the sentence still makes complete sense without the "that," you can delete it to create more readable copy. 4. Know thy client. Learn your client's copywriting foibles (or your own!) — it will enable you to better copyedit the work. For example, say one client types "you" instead of "your" on a fairly regular basis. You'll know to double-check for that typo. Or, another example might be a client who skips words while they're typing. They're probably thinking quickly to get an idea down, but it means those missing words need to be filled in during the copyediting phase. One trick is to read the copy backwards. Your brain will be less likely to subconsciously fill in the missing words. Or highlight or underline each word of the text on a hard copy as you read it to pick up more mistakes. 5. "Trust, but verify." Check everything … - Company URL, phone numbers, addresses. - Name spellings. Titles. Background, if mentioned. - Calculations: percentages, totals, statistics. (I recently read a book where the author was off by 10% when the percentages were added up. Poor editing!) - Details. (For instance, verify if the product really got invented in the year stated.) - Common words that are often misspelled. In our industry, gold mine is an example — it's two words, not one. 6. Making a list, checking it twice … Obviously, the copyeditor should check things like whether a numbered list contains all the numbers, and in the right order … But beyond the obvious, are the points listed in a logical order? Does the sequence make sense or do they need to be reorganized? If bullet points do not need to be in a specific order, are the most important points in the beginning and end positions? Are there key points buried in a paragraph that would be better emphasized if they were changed to bullet points or a numbered list? Watch for opportunities to make ideas clearer for the reader. 7. "Don't bring me problems, bring me solutions." To increase your value, don't just point out problems, errors, or weaknesses in copy. Offer solutions for how to fix the issues. Suggestions for how to strengthen a sentence … alternative words or phrases … substitutions for examples that aren't clear … recommendations for how copy could be moved around and why … and so on. Be proactive. Copyediting doesn't involve so much original writing as a lot of rewriting. Reorganizing. Verifying. Fixing and polishing. It's actually a great "sidestep" into the writer's life. It can also be a faster path to your "dream" clients too … Once your foot is in the door, there's every likelihood the day will come when you'll be offered the opportunity to write original copy for them as well. After all, who would know their products, style, and voice better than you do? The demand for effective, high-quality copy is constantly growing. To get started, all you need is some proper training in the art of copyediting … The tactics, secrets, and insights that will give you the know-how to hit the ground running. Luckily, AWAI has created a self-paced training program that teaches the craft of revising any writing project to improve its value, readability, and style. If you're looking for a lower-stress path to the writer's life … Or the thought of improving copy sounds more approachable than writing original copy yourself (at least for right now) … [>> You should definitely check it out!]( As a copyeditor, you can be as busy and booked as you want to be. Plus, you'll form strong associations (note the proper spelling!) with your clients — and they won't ever want to let you go. Hurry, today's your last chance to grab the copyediting program at a discount. [Don't miss it!]( What's Hot at AWAI … 👉 LAST CHANCE: [Get started with our copyediting program for just $59.40!]( 🤔 Do you know what your "why" is? [If not, read this.]( 💰 [How to monetize your writing skills — without writing a word!]( 👀 Why AI is driving demand for this specialty. [Find out here.]( 🙌 [From $5 Content Mill to Copywriting Pro: Mastering the 3 Ds!]( 🤩 [From zero to a full slate in six months: Connecticut mom reinvents career after layoff.]( Editing Wins [Social media post about still working a 9 to 5 job while editing a book and helping a client self-publish their first book] Congratulations, Michelle! Being able to balance your 9-5 day job with your passions is a big accomplishment. Kudos on the publishing too! (If you'd like to get your foot in the door with clients by copyediting, this training will provide all the know-how you need to get started. [Check it out here.]() Have your own story to share? Email us at mysuccess@awai.com, or [post it over in the Facebook group](, so we can celebrate your win too! TODAY! Get all this for $1 … [PWA Product Spread] The Professional Writers' Alliance (PWA) takes the stress out of running your writing business. With ready-to-use business forms, templates, and checklists … VIP job board access … networking opportunities … and a mountain of tips, tactics, and "been there, done that" advice from working freelance writers … You'll minimize the "unbillable" hours you spend working on your business and maximize your time writing — and getting paid. [Claim Your $1 Access Here]( Featured Jobs You can find these jobs and thousands more on [WritersWanted.com](: --------------------------------------------------------------- Senior Content Editor — Tendo Communications Full-time, San Francisco, CA The senior editor is responsible for the execution and hands-on management of assigned client content programs and plays an editorial leadership role with both clients and Tendo content team peers. --------------------------------------------------------------- Junior Proofreader — Uline Full-time, Pleasant Prairie, WI Ensure accuracy of content, spelling, and grammar for a variety of printed material, including Uline's 800+ page catalog. --------------------------------------------------------------- Scientific Writer and Content Creator — BioSkryb Full-time, NC Effectively partner with multiple stakeholders to write, edit, and proofread clear and concise written materials to deliver scientific publications and presentations. --------------------------------------------------------------- Trouble viewing this email? [View in your browser, here](. For questions or requests: [contact us online](. --------------------------------------------------------------- ©2023 American Writers & Artists Institute Do you know of someone who would benefit from reading The Writer's Life? Simply direct them [here](. --------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- American Writers & Artists Institute 220 George Bush Blvd, Suite D Delray Beach, FL 33444 Ensure your subscription delivery. AWAI Whitelisting info available [here](. --------------------------------------------------------------- You are subscribed to this newsletter as {EMAIL}. To unsubscribe from any future issues of The Writer's Life, please click here: [Unsubscribe from The Writer's Life](. To unsubscribe from all AWAI broadcasts click here. [I want to permanently unsubscribe from all AWAI emails](.