Practical guidance for authors who want polished, professional books in every format. Learn workflows, tools, and best practices that keep projects moving forward. — The Wicked Lantern
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How to Hire a Book Editor in a Market Without Standards
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No licensing board, no standard terminology, no guaranteed quality — the freelance editorial market has none of the consumer protections other professional services take for granted. What can you do before you write the check?
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Design the Print Book Your Low Vision Readers Can Finish
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The decisions that make a book readable for low vision readers are the same ones that make it readable for everyone. They cost nothing to get right before you finalize your layout.
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Your Reader Starts at the Back
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The fastest way to lose a reader’s trust is to build an index that looks complete and delivers nothing.
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Your Printer Wants a PDF/X File. Now You Can Give It One.
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Most PDFs that look perfect on screen fail at the printer. Learn what’s causing it and how to produce a press-ready file without wrestling with Ghostscript.
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Your Brain Runs Out of Room Mid-Sentence
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Your brain runs out of working memory mid-sentence. See what fails first, why it survives revision, and how to find it before your readers do.
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How to Edit Like Columbo: An Investigative Approach
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Most editors start fixing before they’ve finished reading. Columbo would keep reading. Learn how to investigate a draft the same way he works a case.
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The Book Pages Most Authors Don’t Think About
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Most self-publishing guides tell you what goes on the copyright page. Fewer explain what a colophon is, why the bastard title exists, or what a long dedication does to a page.
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Do Your Ebooks Fail Millions of Readers?
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Over 2.2 billion people live with vision impairment. Learn to build accessible ebooks for every reader — with headings, alt text, and EPUB metadata.
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Most Publishing Tools Forget the Reader. I Built One That Doesn’t.
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Every publishing tool I tried asked me to give something up. So I stopped compromising and started building.