Helping a first-time author structure and flesh out his manuscript and improve his writing skills

Service type: Development editing (non-fiction book)

Location: UK, British English

Project length: 3 months

Tools and programs: Microsoft Word

Background

Alex was a first-time author aiming to self-publish a book on personal productivity. He came to me with a 27,000-word draft of his initial ideas and was looking for an editor to take his manuscript to the next level.

Based on an initial review, I offered my time as a development editor to

• help Alex clarify his target readers and their needs,
• flesh out Alex's existing draft to meet his readers' expectations,
• cut out material that was surplus to requirements, and
• work on the structure and flow of the material to create a more rounded manuscript.

The result of this work would be a draft manuscript ready for line editing.

Specific challenges

Writing help

As a first-time author, Alex needed basic feedback on how his writing could be improved to keep his readers' interest and help them understand and implement his productivity framework.

Reader focus

Alex wanted his book to reach as many people as possible, so he’d started out thinking of a very wide target audience. During the project, we narrowed this audience down to a more specific age range and persona. This helped focus his material and made it easier to decide which material was relevant and what could be cut.

Gaps in material