Do you want to be taken seriously by editors, readers or reviewers? Do you make errors in your fiction writing? This book is for you.

Mike Reeves-McMillan is a fiction author, reviewer, and former copy editor and technical writer. He's analysed the errors he's found in hundreds of books, both indie and traditionally published, and written a simple, clear guide to avoiding the most common issues.

Learn:

• Why editors reject 90% of what's submitted to them—and how to increase your chances.
• How to get punctuation right every time.
• The special conventions of dialog.
• The most common word confusions, typos, and research errors—and how to check for and eliminate them.

The fourth edition (2025) is 20% longer than the 2022 edition, and has been completely restructured to focus on the 10 most common types of errors:

1. Vocabulary. Now almost 200 entries on pairs, trios, or single words that are easily confused with each other or used incorrectly.
2. Apostrophe usage. Two simple rules will enable you to get the apostrophe in the right place every time.
3. Narrative tense. How to stop jerking your readers around in time so they have a smooth reading experience. Revised and expanded.
4. Commas of identity (vocative and appositive commas). How to fix one of the easiest ways to spot amateurish writing.
5. Commas of sequence (coordinate commas and lists). How to avoid an error that even some good writers still make. Revised and expanded.
6. Commas of grammatical structure (phrasal commas). How to know where—and where not—to put a comma, without having to guess.
7. Capitalization, hyphenation and other punctuation marks. Many different errors described and corrected.
8. Dialog punctuation. A persistent problem for a minority of writers, with a few easy rules.
9. Clarity of reference (number agreement, pronoun errors, dangling modifiers). Make sure your readers understand exactly what you're talking about without having to stop and work it out. Revised and expanded.
10. Research and knowledge. Common slip-ups that are easily corrected. Revised and expanded, including an extensive guide to differences between British and American English for authors who speak one, but whose characters speak the other.

At the back of the book is a simple reference for grammatical terminology and concepts, and a resource section for further reading.

Everything is still directed at improving the working fiction writer's grasp of mechanics and usage, so that your prose reads smoothly and your readers can immerse themselves in your story.