So you want to submit your fantastic novel to a publisher, but discover you are a few thousand words short of their lower limit for submissions. Here are some ways to add words and strengthen your work at the same time.

With the book industry bursting at the seams with multi-book collections, it is important to know what you are writing and how to take advantage of the strengths of your chosen format. Are you writing a series or a serial? Why does it matter?

How do you write a scene where your reader is as emotionally affected as you are writing it? The secret is in setting up the scene carefully, preparing your ground and most importantly putting the emotions into the characters.

Find yourself using smile, nod, shrug as two word beats? Falling into the temptation of alternative speech tags, like whimpered, howled, farted? Running out of synonyms for walked? Nuance is what you need. Taken regularly before and during writing, Nuance is known to increase the readability and interest of your writing. Side effects may include learning obscure words not just to impress your friends, but you are hooked on the idea of shades of meaning. We tackle boring beats, ways to show emotion beyond the usual half-dozen, and now, for your edification, how to tame Thesaurus Rex. Warning: Not to be taken by the faint of heart.

What do you do when a critique points out that you have way too many sentences starting with pronouns? How about those dreaded filter verbs? Or the passive voice? One solution is to go through each instance and play around with names, or rewriting the filter and passive verbs. The other solution, which will take your writing to an whole new level is to look at your Point of View and focus on getting tighter and digging deeper.

Editing can be expensive and take a long time. Here are a few tips to do a lot editing yourself. It will still take a lot of work. These tips focus on particular words that cause problems in writing. Use the search function in your word processor to find and change problematic words.

It is time to add some description to your scene. Likely you are filtering your story unnecessarily by telling us what how the character is experiencing the scene, instead of letting us go along for the ride.

A good book review will go a long way to helping you sell your book. It is important to go about getting reviews in a professional manner.

The Blurb is often the first thing that your reader will see. Write a blurb that will captivate the imagination in 50 words or less.