The first thing a reader or an editor — whether acquisitions or content — sees when they open your book to page one is your best effort at what you are trying to say. Fiction or nonfiction — doesn’t matter. If your writing is weak, sprinkled with grammatical errors, and plagued by shifting points of view, most readers and editors will not turn to page two. In this short book, best-selling and award-winning author Eva Marie Everson explains how to:

* Fix weak introductions
* Find grammatical errors
* Remove irrelevant details
* Replace weak words
* Understand and write to your target audience
* Avoid big words
* Create a sense of place
* Understand the difference between "rules" and "styles"
* Avoid POV shifts

and much, much more.

"I don't claim to be the final authority on all the issues, but I know what I know. This book is but a small collection of editing mistakes I often find in the work that comes across my desk (and sometimes by my own hand). It shouldn't take long for you to read it, but when you reach the end, I hope you ll have had some aha moments. My writing is conversational, because I pretend I am speaking directly to you as I write, my friend. I'm basically telling you what I think I know." ~ Eva