Learn how best-selling authors proofread their manuscripts to avoid typos, inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and errors in punctuation, usage, grammar, and spelling.

Proofreading Secrets of Best-Selling Authors, by professional freelance author, editor, and proofreader Kathy Ide, is the essential go-to tool for aspiring and experienced writers and editors. This book includes all of the material from Ide’s popular Polishing the PUGS book (now out of print), with added PUGS guidelines and helpful tips from multi-published authors on how to catch typos and other common mistakes.

In Proofreading Secrets of Best-Selling Authors, Kathy Ide identifies the industry-standard references for books, magazines, and newspapers (which are different from the guidelines for other types of writing, such as college term papers). Using these official references, she highlights the most common mistakes writers make in the areas of punctuation, usage, grammar, and spelling (for which she uses the acronym PUGS). She also includes guidelines from The Christian Writer's Manual of Style for authors and editors who work in the inspirational market.

Successful writers spend a lot more time editing than they do writing. They know that first drafts need extensive revisions to ensure their stories or messages come across clearly and effectively. In this book you’ll find a wealth of suggestions from best-selling authors who have studied editing techniques and implemented them in their books, which have touched the hearts and lives of readers around the world. If you’re an aspiring, beginning, or intermediate writer, this book will help you polish your manuscript and get it ready for publication. If you’re an established author, these tips can help you edit other writers’ manuscripts, either in a critique group setting or as an editorial freelancer.

“Do I capitalize north or not? When should church be capitalized and when should it be lowercased? What about earth? Or master’s degree?”

If you often find yourself asking such questions while proofreading your manuscript or someone else’s, you’ll find the answers right here. Kathy Ide’s Capitalization Dictionary is an alphabetical list of words that writers and editors often wonder about when it comes to capitalization rules.

Different reference books sometimes have different guidelines, so the Capitalization Dictionary identifies whether a word is capitalized or lowercased according to these industry-standard reference books:

• The Chicago Manual of Style
• Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary
• The Associated Press Stylebook
• The Christian Writer’s Manual of Style

Your manuscript editing will be quicker and easier with this handy resource at your fingertips!

21 Days of Grace is the first book in the Fiction Lover's Devotional series—collections of short stories followed by brief life applications, each written by a different author. If you love fiction and devotionals, this series is for you!

Don't you just love reading fictional stories about characters you can relate to, who experience situations similar to your own, and learn from those examples how to live out your faith? Don't you find that life lessons are more easily absorbed that way?

But when you have your quiet time with the Lord, you want something with a bit more depth ... and a little bit shorter, right?

21 Days of Grace fits that need. This first book in the Fiction Lover's Devotional series is a collection of engaging, inspirational short fiction stories written by new, intermediate, and well-known authors including Angela Hunt, Deborah Raney, Cindy Woodsmall, Tracy Higley, Cecil Murphey, DiAnn Mills, Robin Bayne, and more.

21 Days of Christmas is book 2 in the Fiction Lover's Devotional series--collections of short fictional stories followed by brief Life Applications, each chapter written by a different author.

Christmas is more than just a holiday. It is a time to recapture the joy and wonder of God s greatest gift: His Son, Jesus.

This book offers engaging, inspirational short fiction stories written by new, intermediate, and well-known authors including Lena Nelson Dooley, Joanne Bischof, Jan Cline, Lynn Kinnaman, and more.

21 Days of Love is book 3 in the Fiction Lover's Devotional series--collections of short fictional stories followed by brief Life Applications, each chapter written by a different author.

Love can be found in many treasured relationships: boyfriend-girlfriend, husband-wife, parent-child ... with a special friend, teacher, or pet ... in the kindness of a stranger. We even have a national holiday to celebrate love.

The greatest love ever known is God's abundant love for us, His children. And He often demonstrates that perfect love through imperfect people.

This book offers engaging, inspirational short fiction stories written by new, intermediate, and well-known authors including Cindy Woodsmall, Susan May Warren, Sherry Kyle, Renae Brumbaugh, and more.

21 Days of Joy honors mothers of all varieties. Biological moms. Adoptive moms. Stepmothers. Grandmothers. Godmothers. “Second moms.” Even men who “mother” children when circumstances put them in that position.
Whether you are a mother, have one, or know one, these heartwarming fictional stories will touch your soul and help you see that you are not alone. The work you’re doing will have an impact for eternity. And those rewards will make the trials all worthwhile.

God knows every sacrifice you make for the children He has brought into your life. So take a few moments out of your busy schedule to read this book, and get a glimpse of your daily routine from a divine perspective.