DIY 101

Hello, and Welcome to The DIY Editing section of our Squawk Space! Here you'll find all the tips and tricks you'll need to polish your own work without paying for a professional editor. Most places might feel like this is shooting ourselves in the foot, but we at ShadowQuillsInk don't believe in hoa

Our role as editors will help you polish your writing and develop your prose. But our services don't help you with the biggest struggle facing young authors in today's times: Should I get an agent or self-publish? The answer is very complicated. And very simple. Get an agent if you can, self-pub

After fixing the the big glaring plot-holes in your novel, you'd think the hardest part would be over, right? Wrong. The hardest part is about to begin. As you get more and more refined in your editing, there's more pressure to have perfection. The better it is, the more the faults become glaring. E

What's the difference between a Beta Reader and a Beta Reviewer? One Reads, the other Critiques. As a writer, there can be no more important step in your career than finding a reader. I know when I started writing it was like pulling teeth to find someone who'd actually sit down and READ the thing!

Getting a Literary Agent (LA) is one of the hardest steps a young author can take. Many consider landing an agent a filter that separates the newbie authors from the professional elite. The problem is, so many people actually believe that, we've turned it into today's reality. An agent does filter t

So, you've decided you need a professional editor. But now you've got yourself a problem, who do you go with? Obviously, you need a big name, top quality editor, right? Someone who's name will immediately grab the attention of agents and book publisher's alike. We're talking the Tom Cruise of editor

Congratulations, you've passed from the simple polishing into the meaty, sweaty, grinding part of the Editing process! This stage is one that makes or breaks newbie authors. On one hand, mastering this aspect of writing and editing can fundamentally change how you consume and produce media. On the o

Everyone has to start somewhere. Ideally, that would be your first draft. But what do you do once that first draft is finished? How do you go from Writer, to Published Author? These are questions that every young writer has to ask. This is the 101 forum. Here our expert authors, editors, et al will

If you've never published a book before, it can get a bit confusing. There's many steps and different processes involved with the traditional publishing route. In order to be thorough and help you set your goals accordingly, we decided to break down the many steps involved with publishing a book thr

The fourth stage of editing is neither the hardest nor the most intensive. This is the Formatting Edit, also sometimes called the Copy Edit. And of all the services we provide, it's the least intensive edit we do. The Format Edit is the last check. Here we clean up typos, we set all the margins, ad

The worst feeling in the world is finding someone to read your book, but they never finish. How do you avoid this problem? Well, you can try the underhanded method of just pestering them to death until they keep up their end of the bargain. But this might not be the best option for you. A better pla