I went to the World Fantasy Convention!
 
Yes, I took my northern ass to the very southern reaches of our shores and had an amazing few days in windy, rainy Brighton. Set in The DoubleTree by Hilton hotel, the conference spanned four days and cost me £200 for a full event ticket, but with hotels, trains, food and drink, the total cost was rather a lot more, maybe £600+.
 
Yes, it’s a lot, isn’t it?

Was it worth it? I think so; here’s why.
 
The conference started on Thursday, and I arrived in time for the welcome brief to first-timers like myself. I was given a quick low-down on what to expect during the convention, mainly from an administrative and practicalities point of view – nothing I probably couldn’t have figured out myself. But like so many things I attended during the conference, the benefit wasn’t in what the presenters said, but in the people I met.
 
Sat around a table of fellow first-timers, after the brief we were encouraged to chat. And as well as learning lots of interesting things about my fellow attendees, I also learnt that a couple of hours later, there was the chance to pitch your novel to a small press publisher – somehow I’d missed this in the programme.
 
Ever one to jump on any and every opportunity as it arises, I went to the pitching session and despite not pre-registering, like I was supposed to, I blagged myself a five-minute slot with one of the two owners of the press.
 
I gave a spiel about The Stolen Throne Trilogy – and I got an invitation to query! Yay!
 
Granted, I’ve never queried the latest iteration of this trilogy, but I have queried versions of the first book in the past. That soul-destroying ritual of researching agents or publishers, tailoring your query package until it’s just how they want it, then hitting send. And hoping someone gets back to you.
 
Most of the time they don’t.
 
If you’re lucky, you get a soulless standard rejection.
 
If you’re really lucky, you get a personalised rejection – I think I had one of these, once.
 
If your query is the one in a thousand that pricks the interest of whoever you send your query to, you are asked for a full manuscript – which may or may not lead to a publishing deal later – then maybe it's time to start playing the lottery, as you've just been blessed with a big dose of luck!
 
So, having someone in the industry say my trilogy pricked their interest was really nice.
 
Would I trad-publish the trilogy I’m on the verge of self-publishing? Maybe. I guess it depends on what the offer looks like. But I’m not holding my breath that there will be one.
 
Later in the conference I spotted the guy I delivered my proposal to, and we had a good twenty-minute chat. I explained why I didn’t think he’d go for my novel – that sounds a tad self-defeating, I know, but frankly, I’m happy to self publish at this stage. We also talked about how his small press worked; how he goes for only one book a year – one book a year??? Yeah, that’s a tiny number, isn’t it? It’s not the first time I’ve chatted to small presses, so it wasn’t a massive surprise. But in the early days of querying, I really had no idea they took on so few books.
​
The next three days were filled with various panels and launches. At least four events were held at any one time, so there was lots to choose from. There were things like panels with titles like Politics in Fantasy, Blending the Genres and Writing Fighting. These are where four or five people sit on a table in front of an audience and discuss a topic.

One of the great things about World Fantasy Con and its smaller sister event, British Fantasy Con, is that members of the British Fantasy Association are invited to sit on the panels. Ever happy to share my thoughts in public, I of course I volunteered, and I ended up on two of them: Inspired by Tolkien and The Role of Class in Fantasy. I happily chatted away with my fellow panel members (some of whom were actually successful authors!) about said topics then answered questions from the audience. I’ve long been comfortable talking to crowds, so this came naturally, and I really enjoyed it.
 
There were also talks. A highlight was Andrzej Sapkowski in conversation with David French. If the name doesn’t ring any bells, you might be familiar with his books – he wrote the Witcher series, and David French translates Andrzej’s books into English.
 
I read several of the Witcher books before they were even televised, and I really enjoyed them. I find famous authors often mean little to you unless you’ve read their work.
 
The two of them chatted, and Andrzej came across well. A down-to-earth realist who doesn’t waste words on unnecessary waffle or flowery language. Like many Poles I’ve met, he showed a dry sense of humour and a no-nonsense personality, which I really like. I’m yet to meet a Pole, or any eastern European for that matter, that I didn’t like.
 
New books were launched (often with free food and drink) and authors read their work. Throughout the convention there were 39 reading groups – 45-minute slots where three authors read an excerpt from their work.
 
I was sure I’d signed up to read my stuff, but I couldn’t find the details in my inbox. So, I scoured the programme, looking for my name. I didn’t spot it, so I guess I hadn’t signed up…
 
Turns out I had.
 
I found my name around 7:30pm on Saturday just as I was thinking about leaving. I was due to read at 9pm.
 
Um, looks like I wasn’t going just yet then!
 
Far more people turned up to my reading than I expected for that time of day on a Saturday, and I read chapter one of Path to Power to my crowd. I write to be read, or to have my work consumed in any form, so getting the chance to deliver my writing directly to fantasy enthusiasts really was an enjoyable experience.
 
On top of all this stuff, there’s the dealers room. This is where indie authors peddle their wares, along with a few artists and people selling other things linked to the genre. This is where I plan to be when I attend the convention next year (just the British version though – the world version is in California next year). I wanted to take a look at other indie authors’ stalls and chat to the authors selling their books. I talked to many of them, some of them at length. And gosh, did I learn a lot.

I learnt how much a stall costs, where to print your banners, and how to make your books look good on your table. I got an idea of how many books you might sell at an event like this, and what kind of figure I should sell them for. And best of all, I got invited into a Discord group. This is a group for indie authors who attend these kinds of events. Many visit several, and so they see each other time and time again. It makes complete sense that they should try to help each other out. The group includes details of all the big conventions that happen every year, and from conversations I had with the authors, I now have an idea of which ones might be the most lucrative.
 
Here's the guys who helped me out the most. I bought a copy of their books, too, of course. They more than earned those sales.

​Outside events and stalls and readings, there was the social side. I managed to overcome my fear of talking to strangers and chatted to quite a few different people over drinks. Many were interested in my writing: as an author who has no author friends, and no close friends who are interested in my writing, it was amazing to be able to talk about my books with people who cared. And I learnt so much about them, too. I discovered how unusual I am to have written six books. Most people seemed to be on the first or second. I learnt about the huge range of backgrounds of the lovers of fantasy. But most of all, I learned that my kind of people are out there; I guess you just have to know where to look!

Observation Vessel B801, 400km above Planet Geo-84A 
 
Zark slumped forward onto her control panel, knocking an empty cup onto the floor. She rolled her large black eyes at the shattered mess on the shiny grey tiles and glowered. Stupid cup.

She gazed past the buttons and flashing lights and through the enormous glass window. She scowled at the planet filling the view—a mass of purple seas and red land, dotted with orange patches and shadowed by swirls of bluish clouds. It was certainly a pretty planet to look at—perfect dorm room- poster material—had she known it existed during her academy years. But almost no one knew Geo-84A existed because it was boring, and even fewer cared.

The orange patches might have looked pretty, but they were just masses of bacteria. Geo-84A was home to nothing more than single-celled organisms.

Zark sighed. The sound of a hatch zipping upwards broke the silence in the ship’s control room. She rolled her eyes toward the hatch, watching as a small droid emerged and floated towards the broken cup. It hovered over the shards, vacuumed up the mess, then vanished back into the hatch.

Her gaze slid to the poster above the hatch. She knew it was childish to have posters on her ship, but who cared? She was alone, and this poster made her smile. It was a picture of the planet she used to study, Aura-14G—a world with advanced lifeforms and a magic field. A smile crept across her small, lipless mouth. She sat back in her chair and dropped her arms on the armrests.

‘Ship, show clip 1 from my favourites file,’ she ordered.

A holographic screen materialised above the control panel.

‘Clip 1 from My Favourites, playing now,’ the ship’s artificial intelligence replied.

The black screen erupted into colour. A cobbled street crowded with people appeared. Terracotta roofs crowned whitewashed buildings that hemmed in the throng of cheering humans. Guards in red uniforms formed a chain, holding back the crowd and making space for the gold-plated carriage that trundled down the street.

Zark flicked a switch on her control panel, and the room filled with noises. Cheers erupted, hooves clattered, and a man’s voice bellowed. ‘Make way for the king!’ The speaker, a man in pristine livery with a silver belt and polished sword, strode ahead of the carriage. Four white horses, their hooves oiled and manes plaited, pulled the gilded vehicle.

This video originated from a Zargon observation drone, one of many assigned to monitor interesting specimens on the planet she’d once studied. Inside the carriage sat the king, his wife, and his daughter: the precious young princess who had brought Zark both joy and strife.

The princess waved to the crowd, her dimpled cheeks and sparkling brown eyes delighting every citizen who saw her; their cheers exploded at the sight of the girl.

A red circle appeared on the screen. The ship’s artificial intelligence had picked up an anomaly. A label appeared; it was a dwarf. Hooded and cloaked, he was hiding amongst the crowds of cheering humans.

Zark read the caption at the bottom of the screen. Non-native specimen detected amongst human crowds. She had typed those words herself as she’d watched the scene unfold live all those cycles ago.

Her attention shifted to the queen. Zark watched how she studied the crowd without waving, her eyes darting from face to face, searching for something. But Zark hadn’t noticed back then. Why didn’t I suspect her? Zark kicked the control panel.

‘Ship, report aura of Specimen Lila.’ Zark heard her own voice play over the sound of the crowds.

‘Specimen’s aura is seven point three and rising,’ replied the AI from her previous ship.

‘Ship, aurometer on screen,’ her younger self ordered. A red bar appeared on the bottom corner of the screen. She watched as the bar continued to grow, seven point four, seven point five. The aura is rising, for Zarg’s sake, if I’d just put an isolation field around the queen!

With resigned indifference, Zark relived the moment the queen locked eyes with the dwarf, the moment her vital signs jumped, the moment the dwarf launched the blue orb over the heads of the crowd. The aurometer bar surged as magic shot from the queen’s hand and collided with the orb with a mighty blast.

‘Abduction successful,’ her old ship announced.

Zark’s stomach clenched; this was the moment she had destroyed her career.

The screen filled with dust and debris as the blast shredded the carriage. Shards of wood and chunks of mangled horse shot from the explosion. Humans screamed, soldiers shouted, and chaos consumed the view.

Zark slammed her fist onto a red button. The holographic screen vanished.

She slumped back onto the control panel again and resumed staring at the pretty, but boring planet.

A musical chime pulled her from her daze. Zark sat up with a jolt.

‘Ship, answer call,’ she ordered.

A new holographic screen appeared above her control panel. The beaming face of her old captain filled the display.

‘Captain Darkle!’ Zark straightened her back, tugging at her blue and green uniform and suddenly wishing the creases in it away.

‘Zark, how are you?’ Darkle leaned forwards and scowled. ‘You’ve not been eating properly, have you?’

Zark looked down at her baggy uniform, then back at her previous captain, her rounded white teeth nipping at the rim of her mouth. Her large eyelids blinked with a quiet popping sound.

‘And your uniform is a mess. It takes very little effort to have the droids iron your uniform.’ Darkle slipped her hands to her hips.

‘But there’s no one to see me,’ Zark muttered.

‘Does your supervisor not check in on you?’

‘Um, only every so often.’

Darkle sighed. ‘And to think the Intergalactic Discovery Institute wants you back on my ship …’

Zark shot to her feet. ‘The IDI wants what?!’

A wide grin spread across Darkle’s small mouth.

‘But you have a first mate!’ Zark felt her heart pound in her chest.

‘Ah, I did have one, but I’ve been without one for a while now. The Zargon who replaced you was nice enough, efficient enough, and competent enough, but her heart wasn’t really in fieldwork. She went back to the IDI’s head office for a desk job.’

‘So why haven’t they sent you a replacement? You surely can’t be managing on your own.’

‘Mmm,’ Darkle adjusted her pearl captain’s brooch and cast a mischievous look at Zark. ‘I might have been delaying a little.’

‘Why?’ Zark scratched her bald, grey head.

‘To give them time to conclude I needed you back, of course.’

Zark’s jaw flapped open; her words choked as she tried to take in what she’d been told. ‘Why would they conclude that?’ she managed to blurt.
‘Well, do you remember Specimen Lila?’

There was no way Zark could forget that human. ‘She’s the queen of the colony of Vorn on your planet.’

It would be Zark’s planet again soon—she could barely believe it.

‘Correct. She’s also a human with a genetic profile that suggests she’s actually from Geo-33G.’

Zark knew that too—she could hardly forget the details of the specimen who was the primary reason she’d been stuck studying amoebas for two decades. She shuffled to the edge of her seat. ‘What about her? What has she done? Has she murdered more people?’

‘I suppose you could say that; she’s um, launched a genocidal campaign against the goblins.’

‘What?’ Zark’s small mouth stretched wide. ‘She’s trying to wipe out an entire race?’

‘Correct. She never forgot her encounter with them as a young woman, the one where she—’

Zark cut her off. ‘She wants to kill an entire race because a small group of them killed her lover?’

Darkle frowned at Zark’s interruption.

Zark shrunk back into her chair. ‘Sorry, Captain.’

Darkle pursed her mouth rims. ‘It’s okay, Zark. You have been alone for a while. I imagine it’s easy to forget to be polite at times.’

Zark’s face flushed a deep shade of blue.

Darkle cleared her throat. ‘As I was saying, it seems Specimen Lila has long held a grudge against the goblins for that particular incident and now seems determined to kill them all as a result.’

‘It’s so sad that she never let go of her anger,’ Zark said.

‘Indeed. I often wonder if her extraordinary magical powers have exacerbated her hatred.’

‘Quite possibly,’ Zark replied. ‘And perhaps her hatred has been amplified since the death of the king. Without him to challenge her, she is alone to stew in her own hatred.’

Darkle tapped her chin. ‘An interesting hypothesis, Zark.’ She smiled. ‘I’ve missed your observations.’

Zark beamed. ‘So what has Specimen Lila’s attack on the goblins got to do with the IDI agreeing to let me return to your ship?’

Darkle straightened. ‘It seems that Specimen Lila does not plan to stop at the goblins; she aims to wipe out the elves and dwarves too, and the IDI aren’t terribly keen on that happening. They want to interfere, Zark.’

Zark almost fell off her chair. ‘What?’ Her head began to spin. ‘The elves and the dwarves too? And the IDI want to interfere?’

‘Correct. It appears Specimen Lila’s historic grudges do not stop with the goblins.’

‘But what about the IDI’s interference? They have a strict no-interference policy. It was my unauthorised interference that saw me put on punishment duty!’

‘You are again correct. However, in this instance, the IDI see their proposed interference as a simple reversal of a previous abduction.’
Zark gasped. ‘They want to send the princess home?’

‘They do. She is the rightful heir to the throne Specimen Lila occupies. If the princess returns, she could supplant her stepmother and halt her genocidal campaign.’

‘Right.’ Zark furrowed the space where her eyebrows would have been, if Zargons had them. ‘But the princess is just an ordinary Aura-14G native. How the heck is she going to defeat a powerful sorcerer?’

Darkle smiled. ‘We send her with backup.’

‘Huh?’

‘She’s married to a Geo-33G native. If he goes to Aura-14G, he has the same magical potential as Specimen Lila.’

‘What? This doesn’t make sense. This isn’t just reversing previous interference; it’s interfering further. How has this been authorised?’ Zark leaned forwards, propping herself up on the control panel.

Darkle’s face turned grave. ‘Let’s just say things in the IDI are changing …’ A mischievous smile crept up her cheeks. ‘And I’ve been pleading non-stop for months for this to happen! I was also insistent that I’d need you to help me if we were going to make this work. You were very good at your job, and I can’t risk having a substandard first mate at such a critical time.’

‘I’m returning to your ship? Back to study Aura-14G?’ She could still barely believe it.

‘Yep. The IDI agreed that you had been punished long enough and decided to give you a second chance.’

‘I-I don’t know what to say.’

‘Say you’ll start eating again and sort out your uniform. Then get your behind to Geo-33G. You’ve a princess to collect.’

​Are you an expert on editing?  Could you talk for at least ten minutes on the differences between a developmental edit, a line edit, a copy edit and a proof read?  Are you the kind of person who reads other people’s blogs and gets pedantic about their technical accuracy? Then please don’t read on, this blog post isn’t for you.  This post is for idiots – like I was four years ago when I started writing.
 
 
Why I started writing
 
In 2021 I was working in a job where I worked from home, and had some work to do, but it wasn’t enough to fill my day.  I had of course tried to use my initiative to think outside the box and come up with projects I could work on to fill my time – I did this on a few occasions, but after being told something along the lines of that’s a problem that doesn’t sit within our department to solve, I gave up trying to use my initiative, and hence, I was bored.
 
In the autumn of that year, I went on holiday and spent a week reading books – something I struggle to find time for when not away from the many competing priorities of modern life.  My time spent reading made me recall a story that had been rattling around my head for years, and I had an epiphany – I could write stories while bored at work!  I was glued to my desk in case anyone Skype called me, but that wouldn’t stop me from writing.  And so when I returned to work, the writing of draft one of The Queen of Vorn began.
 
 
The writing begins
 
In October 2021, I started writing.  I didn’t really have a plan beyond an outline for a story that was in my head, I just let the words flow.
 
By Christmas 2021, draft one was done.  Of course I was an idiot back then, so I had delusions that it only needed a few tweaks to be polished.
 
I gave it a quick proof read, and threw it at a few friends and family members to give it a read-through.  Meanwhile, I cracked on with the sequels.
 
Soon I had three books drafted and the friends and family feedback for book one came in.  They all said they enjoyed it.  They maybe suggested minor developmental points, but nothing meaty.  Nothing that someone who writes themselves, or who reads shed-loads of fantasy with a critical eye, or who has even an ounce of knowledge about plot, structure, characterisation or themes might flag up.
 
I thought my books were great, and was eager to see them published.  I hoped to get a traditional publishing deal (I’ve since given up on that aspiration), and so I planned to query literary agents. I’d had some very basic feedback from some unqualified people and was deluded into thinking that was sufficient. They liked it, why shouldn’t a literary agent?
 
Err…
 
So I started querying.  But at the back of my mind, doubt began to niggle.  I kept thinking about the disjointed structure of my first novel and wondered if it really was as good as my readers had told me. So I got a manuscript review from a professional editor.  And it didn’t make for great reading.
 
My book stank.
 
I’d written a book.  It hadn’t been edited, not really.  Not by me, nor by a professional editor.  I’d done something that might resemble a combination of a basic line/copy edit combined with a proofread, but beyond that, it was basically a bunch of words vomited into a laptop. The crucial thing I’d neglected to do was a proper developmental edit.  In my experience, most books, especially books by new authors, need a decent amount of sleeves-rolled-up, axe-wielding, slash-and-burn editing to even start to get them on the right track.  Followed by a good amount of careful cultivation to rebuild them into something that looks less like a mangled pile of disjointed weeds, and more like a lovingly tended garden.
 
But I was an idiot back then, and I thought I knew what I was doing.
 
By the summer of 2022 I’d come to the conclusion that my first novel needed so much work that I couldn’t face it just then, so I cracked on with the sequel trilogy.
 
After writing three novels I was a much better author so I think the first draft of my next trilogy came out in a much better shape than my earlier trilogy.  They were certainly better books, but I was still a very inexperienced writer who was yet to fully appreciate what constitutes sufficient editing. Hence, I drafted them, got more unqualified people to read them, made some basic tweaks before sending them off to an editor for a line/copy edit. 
 
Editing done, now what?
 
Simples, I just address all the comments left by my editor, ask my mum to proof read it then publish, right?
 
Wrong!!!
 
I’d missed out a very important edit here – the developmental edit!
 
I drafted, tweaked a bit, then started polishing my book.
 
Was my book perfect?
 
No.  It will never be perfect no matter how much work I do on it.
 
Ok, so was my book something close to perfect?
 
No!!!  I hadn’t done a decent developmental edit.
 
 
What is a developmental edit?
 
This should be the first round of editing you do. It’s where you have a “big picture” look at your manuscript and try to identify any significant structural changes that you need to make. You will consider things like plot, character development, pacing and overall structure.  You should also try to identify any weaknesses like plot holes or character inconsistencies, as well as considering if you have redundant bits that don’t need to be there, parts that are too waffly or perhaps just generally irrelevant.
 
I’ve recently done yet another developmental edit on The Queen of Vorn.  It now sits at version 5.1 after being chopped and changed so many times there’s virtually nothing left of the original manuscript. 
 
When I write books, I plan them out in an Excel spreadsheet.  I write a few lines to describe what each chapter will look like and then as I write them, I tweak my descriptions in accordance with how they actually turn out.  I also add in details of whose point of view the chapter is written in, and what is the relevant date of the chapter.
 
Having written seven books over the last four years, I’ve developed this method so I end up with a neat spreadsheet plot tracker for all of my novels.  It also provides a great template when I’m doing a developmental edit.
 
When I went from version 4 to 5 of The Queen of Vorn, I did the high-level developmental edit on my plot tracking spreadsheet.  I added an “editing plan” column and a “other notes” column which expanded on any points I’d put in my “editing plan” column.  I colour coded these columns too, so I could see at a glance the extent of the work I needed to do.
 
Red = delete chapter
Orange = substantial changes
Yellow = minor changes
Green = no significant changes
 
Here’s a screenshot of my spreadsheet:

I’m not an editor.  I’m a sciences graduate who stopped studying English at sixteen years old.  I’m no expert on how a pro does a developmental edit.  And yes, you can pay people to give your manuscript the once over, if you like.
 
Personally, I think it’s an author’s job to conduct a developmental edit – I don’t like the idea of someone else making structural changes to my novel, but that’s not to say I don’t employ professional help.  For a number of my novels, I’ve paid an editor to conduct a manuscript review.  This is basically an in-depth book report.  It will flag any of the key issues you might want to address in a developmental edit of your own. If you want to pay for this, expect to pay in the region of £300 for a 100,000 word novel.
 
For The Queen of Vorn, I employed an editor called Rachel to do the first manuscript review, then I made loads of changes.  But it was in such a bad place to start with, that I ended up getting another manuscript review when it was at version 3.  Version 4 followed.  The changes I made between versions 4 and 5 were as a result of further feedback I got from beta readers.  But these were good beta readers.  These weren’t the family and friends that had read my early books, these were strangers I’d met online (sounds a bit creepy, but we only every chat books if you’re wondering).  They were people in the writing community, most of whom are writers themselves and they are far better and giving you objective feedback than casual readers.
 
Good beta readers can be used instead of professionals, but I suggest you get several of them to read your work and when you get their feedback, look for common themes.  I’ve had some rather critical feedback from some beta readers which might have made me bin my work, if it wasn’t for the more encouraging constructive criticism I had from the majority of the others.
 
 
Back to The General’s Son…
 
The General’s Son was a hell of a lot better than The Queen of Vorn in almost every way.  As reminder, this was book one of my second trilogy and hence, was written later when I’d had more practice at writing.  But it was never properly developmentally edited.  I never had a professional manuscript review nor did I ask any decent beta readers to read it.  Any tweaks I made were largely based on my own opinion.
 
You can very easily become blind to your own work.  You can convince yourself that certain bits of your story simply have to be there.  You tell yourself that certain chapters provide important character development that simply couldn’t be achieved in other parts of the book, even though your gut tells you a particular section is a bit boring.
 
That’s what I did with The General’s Son.  Hence it ended up being published without being as good as it could have been. 
 
That being said, it did ok.  My star average on Amazon sits at 4.5 from a total of 39 reviews – which is pretty decent.  But a year after publishing, despite quite a lot of effort to market my book, my sales numbers were dwindling and it seemed few people read on to book 2.  I had a suspicion that it’s beginning wasn’t quite strong enough and maybe had a few other flaws as well.  So I decided this novel needed a pro manuscript review, too.
 
Granted, the results of this review were nowhere near as scathing as the review I’d had for my first draft of The Queen of Vorn, but it did confirm my suspicions. I'd released it in March 2023.  After reading the manuscript review, I unpublished it in February 2024, along with its two sequels. These had been released at six week intervals after the first book.
 
 
​Now what?
 
Time for a Condor moment.
 
I wanted to tweak The General’s Son and give it a fresh start.
 
But I also wanted to release my first trilogy into the world.
 
I therefore bit the bullet and spent the next year and a half working on my first trilogy to try to make it publishing ready. I released version 4 of The Queen of Vorn in May this year and unpublished it in June (long story – I explain why I did this later). And after yet another round of developmental edits, I have just sent off version 5.1 off for a line/copy edit.
 
  
What the hell is a line/copy edit?
 
A line edit and a copy edit are slightly different.  A copy edit deals with consistency, spelling, grammar and punctuation, while a line edit will improve language and wording and clarity. They are often done at the same time and I personally recommend that anyone who doesn’t have a keen eye for detail combined with a very in-depth knowledge of literature and the English language pays someone to do this for them.
 
Here’s a screen shot of the edited version of the original opening of The General’s Son (which has now been completely axed in a later developmental edit).
 

There’s quite a lot of overlap between the two types of editing, and because I’m an idiot, not an editor, I wouldn’t like to say exactly where the copy edit ends and the line edit starts.  What I can say is that if you’re going to pay for one type (i.e. just a line edit), you should pay for the other (a copy edit) too, as this combination of edits will improve your writing by leaps and bounds.
 
I’m hoping my screenshot paints a thousand words, as it shows all the kinds of changes that a good editor will make, as well as leaving lots of comments about things that you might want to consider tweaking.
 
This edit was done by a lady called Rachel Rowlands, a different editor called Kelly Urgan has worked on some of my other books.  Both of them are professionals who work to similar high standards.  If you want to get an idea how much this kind of editing costs, expect to pay somewhere in the region of £2000 for a 100,000 word manuscript.  You can pay less, but there’s a good chance you won’t get as good an edit (more on that later).
 
 
What next?
 
The Queen of Vorn will be back from Kelly in a few weeks’ time, after that, I’ll address all her comments and then give it a proofread.
 
 
What does a proofread involve?
 
The answer is probably obvious to most, but as this is an idiot’s guide to editing, I’ll explain.
 
A proofread is the final check of your manuscript to find any errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation, and formatting before it is published. It focuses on small but important mistakes that could distract readers, ensuring the text is clear, accurate, and professional. 
 
Sound’s simple enough, right?  If you have a good eye for detail, you may well be able to do this yourself.  Personally, my eye for detail sucks, as the many people who pull up my work for typos will tell you.  In the past, I’ve had my mum proofread my work as she has an English degree and is pretty good at that kind of thing.  But we don’t talk much these days, so that avenue is out of the window. 
 
I have recently subscribed to Pro Writing Aid, which is great for drawing your attention to any errors like this.  It’s a bit like Word’s spelling and grammar check on speed. This software will cost you less than paying someone to do this, but clearly it takes more effort from yourself.
 
Finally, I find a great way to pick up any errors you might have missed is to read the whole thing out loud.  I made an audiobook for The Queen of Vorn – the process of doing this allowed me to find a host of errors and typos that had previously lain hidden…
 
I made my audiobook after I published, so these typos went to press when I published.

How I ended up publishing a flawed copy of my book
 
I mentioned earlier that in May this year, I published The Queen of Vorn.  A month later, I unpublished it.  My last blog post explains why I did this – it was primarily as a result of it being review-bombed.  But this little debacle was perhaps a blessing in disguise.  I unpublished because my books were trashed online for something that had nothing to do with my writing.  However, amongst all the hate that was thrown my way, there were some nuggets of truth.  People flagged how my book was riddled with typos, had formatting errors, and that the plot had issues.
 
So how did I end up publishing it with so many flaws?
 
Quite simply, I didn’t get the editing right.
 
Despite the book being published after three rounds of developmental editing, it still wasn’t polished.
 
Despite me paying two different editors to work on the line/copy edit of this book, flaws still remained.
 
Despite me giving it a final proofread, I missed lots of errors.
 
Basically, it turns out that after almost four years of writing, I’m still an idiot.
 
Or I was – hopefully, I’ve now turned a corner.
 
It was published with sub-standard editing because I rushed it out of the door.  I’d had a publishing date planned for the best part of a year, and I had over forty pre-orders. I was determined that I would release it on time.
 
In the time that followed Rachel’s work on The General’s Son and its trilogies, I built a relationship with a different editor, someone who had a lot of knowledge and promised the world for half the price of Rachel, but he didn’t deliver.
 
I sent him my manuscript ready for a line/copy edit late in October 2024, and was told it would be done in a month.  The end of November came and went, and nothing.
 
Lots of excuses followed, I was promised it in January.  January came, no finished manuscript, however I did get the first few chapters back.  These were drip-fed at a rate of a few a month until in March, I was starting to get rather worried that my book wouldn’t be done anywhere near my deadline.  So I employed another editor.  Another cheap editor.  He edited the remaining chapters but he didn’t do a very thorough job. It was more like just a copy edit without the line editing bit.  And he missed stuff.
 
While my second editor under-edited, my first editor had over-edited.  He went beyond what you’d expect of a line/copy edit and re-wrote whole sentences and in some cases, paragraphs.  But he also used some kind of software that screwed up the formatting and much of what he handed over was riddled with typos.
 
By the time my publishing date arrived, I had a manuscript that had been edited, but not well.  And because I was determined to hit my publishing deadline, I never gave it a decent final proofread.  I didn’t have Pro Writing Aid then and no one else cast their eyes over the finished manuscript.
 
That’s why it had typos and formatting issues.  But what about the plot problems?
 
They were due to a failure to conduct a proper developmental edit.
 
But it was on version 4, how could it need more developmental editing?
 
Good question – the simple answer is that the developmental edits to date had been so severe, that the book had ended up a little like a patchwork quilt that hadn’t been ironed or trimmed properly.
 
Sure, patchwork quilts can be beautiful if done well.  But if done sloppily, they can be very rough around the edges.
 
My book needed finessing – I needed beta readers.
 
I’d missed these people out.  I'd had a second manuscript review, addressed the points that were raised, then thought it was good to go.
 
I was wrong.
 
Some of the comments that were made during my review-bombing experience flagged some of the issues.  But after it was unpublished, I recruited a group of decent beta readers who gave me invaluable feedback.  Hence, version 5 followed.  Version 5.1 is a refined version which I have sent to my editor, Kelly (Kelly was recommended by Rachel, when I went back to her with my tail between my legs – she was too busy to work on my books when I got in touch).
 
 
Now what?
 
All my developmental editing is done.  Wehoo! But my books still need work.  Here’s the rundown:
 
The Homecoming Trilogy (soon to be renamed, along with the other books in this trilogy)
 

1. The Queen of Vorn – Line/copy edit underway.
2. The Prince of Vorn – Line/copy edit completed, review underway, awaiting final proofreading.
3. The King of Vorn – Lind/copy edit completed, awaiting review and proofreading.

 
The Offspring Trilogy
 

1. The General’s Son – awaiting line/copy edit and proofreading.
2. The Queen’s Daughter – in a good state, just needs tweaks.
3. The Prince’s Nephew – in a good state, just needs tweaks.

 
 
So, right now, I should be working on reviewing all the comments Kelly has left following her line/copy edit of The Prince of Vorn.  But I’m writing this blog instead.  I’ve not written a blog post in a while, and I had the urge to write rather than tweak.
 
After my first three books are polished I’ll get their covers sorted, finalise their new titles, and set a publishing date.  I plan to publish all six of my books next year, on dates TBC.  This time, I’m not going to rush.  This time, I’ll only set deadlines I know I can meet.  This time, my books will be published when they’re as good as they can be, and not before.