A handbook for aspiring editors and indie authors

A handbook for aspiring editors and indie authors

Reviewed By Randeep Wadehra

Editing Bootcamp Part 1 (Writer’s Toolkit Series)

Author: Dola Basu Singh 

The Book Club

Pages: 46

Price: Rs. 180/-

Available on Amazon

We are living in a world where professional excellence is routinely expected in every field of work. Writing is no different. In fact, whether you are writing a novel, a dissertation or an analytical article for a publication, you have to go beyond excellence to catch the publisher’s eye and hold the reader’s attention. This is where an editor’s role comes into play.

Before talking of this slim volume, I would like to emphasise that an editor does not merely check grammar and spellings, although these two elements are indispensable to quality writing. An editor’s role is far more sophisticated. She has to have the knowledge of the subject she is editing, should be thorough with structuring of sentences and the narrative. Creative inputs that add substance to the narrative have become indispensable today – something that no editing or writing software can provide. In fiction writing, the editor’s role includes polishing of characters, plot, dialogues and overall structure of a story. Since fiction comes in a wide range of genres – romance, chic-lit, thrillers, historical novels etc, we get a fair idea of the importance of quality editing.

Dola Basu Singh has kept the above in mind while coming up with this slim but invaluable volume on editing of fiction. Aspiring editors and indie authors of fiction will find chapters on the types and processes of editing useful. The volume provides useful information on genre and structure. It takes into account what readers expect from the author and seeks to equip the authors to meet those expectations by focusing on various elements in a novel. The editing checklist for a novel’s structure is an extremely useful addendum.

Singh’s chapters on treatment of characters, POVs, plot, setting of a story, conflict and its resolution, dialogues along with their respective checklists offer lucid and useful insights into the art and craft of writing and editing.

This volume is a must read for every aspiring author and editor, whether they want to self-publish or go through the traditional publishing process. If you aim at becoming a professional editor, this volume ought to be a part of your reading collection. 

I can personally vouch for the usefulness of this volume because I have availed of Singh’s editing services via her firm, the Shiuli Editing Services. The benefits to my novel were immense.