Five Reasons You Should Self-Publish

There will always be arguments from all sides about the value of self-publishing. There are traditionally published authors who complain that self-published authors are sloppy and lazy. There are self-published authors who complain that traditionally published authors are snotty and elitist. Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion when it comes to the pros and cons of publishing.

At the end of the day, your writing career is yours alone. You are in charge of your own career. You can steer it in whatever direction you desire. And these days, you can be in full and complete control of every step of your writing career if you so choose.

Many authors choose to self-publish because they don't want to wait months or years for agents, editors, and publishing houses to get back to them. Others are impatient. Others want control.

There are dozens of reasons you should self-publish your book just as there are dozens of reasons you should NOT publish your own book. However, here are five reasons that some people use when they choose to self-publish.

1. You are in control of your own content. 
No one is going to tell you to remove chapter sixteen because it sucks. No one is going to tell you that the story doesn't have a proper ending. No one is going to squash down your idea of telling your story from three points of views in one paragraph. No one is going to tell you that your choice of genre is dead. You can tell your story in whatever manner you desire in as many words and chapters as you want.

2. You are in control of your own cover.
Gone are the days when authors freak out over cover art that doesn't reflect their books. You can hire and fire as many cover artists as you desire in your quest for the perfect vision for your opus. You can even save money and design your own cover. Many of the self-publishing platforms provide templates to do just this. Your book cover art, author blurbs, and book description are under your complete control. You no longer have to suffer with cover art that you hate.

3. You don't have to wait years for your book to be published.
The minute you type "The End" you can upload that baby and have a published book within a day or two, depending on which platform you use. You don't even have to invest any additional money for the print version if you use a platform such as CreateSpace.

4. You earn a way bigger royalty.
You will discover that if you self-publish you can earn huge royalties. If you publish e-books, you have virtually no overhead except for hiring your developmental editor, your copy editor, your proof-reader, and your cover artist. After those expenses, every penny you earn goes back to YOU! No publishing house is scooping the majority of your royalty money. No agent is scooping up 15 - 20% of your earnings. Nope, you get to keep every single shiny penny for yourself! Forever. Unlike traditional print publishing houses, your e-books and p.o.d. books will never go out of print until you unpublish them.

5. You are in control of your own career.
If you burst awake in the night with an idea for a sequel to your book, you can spend a few weeks writing it, send it off to your favourite freelance editor for a month of vigorous editing while your favourite cover designer works on your new cover, and boom, your sequel is ready within weeks. If you wanted to write a sequel with a traditional publishing house, you would have to pitch it, wait for the sales team to crunch your numbers, your editor would decide if it's financially viable, and then you would have to wait for a contract IF you passed all the financial hurdles. After the contract, you can get started on your sequel which likely won't see print for another year or two. When you self-publish, you can get your work out to your fans at your own pace without wasting time for others to dictate your fate.


Self-publishing isn't for everyone but it can be way for authors with entrepreneurial spirit and a bit of money in the bank to get their work out into the world. If you approach your writing career like a business, you will likely have some measure of success. As long as you write the best book that you can, and get it professionally edited and proof-read, you have as good of a shot as anyone else for a long and possibly even financially successful career as a writer.

If you need a developmental editor, copy editor, line editor, or proof-reader, please contact us today at Scarlett Editing.  sephgiron @ gmail.com

Proofreading: A Fact of Life

Sometimes when we're in a hurry, simple things can be overlooked. We forget our keys, we leave our coffee cup on the counter, the kids forget their lunch, and we overlook grammatical errors in our communication materials.

A Fresh New Look
A simple proofread by a fresh set of trained eyes can often catch those last minute typos that weary editors and copy editors may miss in their own corrections.

A proofread can catch missing sentences and paragraphs that may be out of order from other manipulations the text may have gone through in the revision and formatting process.

Proofreading may be that last chance to notice that Jimmy's name is spelled Jimmie for half the book.

Why Can't the Editor Proofread?
Editors do proofread their own work. When they send the work back to the author, they believe they have found everything they can find at that time. An editor who has gone through the developmental and copy editing process with the author may become as blinded to the story as the author when it comes to catching random typos and grammatical errors.

A developmental editor helps the author shape the story and create engaging characters. Grammatical corrections aren't performed as the work is still mutating.

The copy editor and/or line editor, (depending on how many editors with whom you work), will go over the manuscript with a fine tooth comb. If you want a quick turnaround, you can expect a few things may be missed. Even when a editor has time to do several passes there are ways that errors can occur once the manuscript leaves his or her hands.

How Can There Be More Mistakes?
When the author receives a corrected manuscript from an editor, there will likely still be revisions that the author needs to perform. Even very simple revisions can result in more errors, depending on the skill of the author.

If the author is self-publishing, he will have to put the story into the correct format if it isn't that way this far into the process. Sometimes when work is reformatted, words can be dropped or punctuation can be changed. The author should check the work himself for errors and correct them before sending the work on to the final proofreader.

The best person to proofread a book is someone new to the story. Most proofreaders don't actually read the book for the story, so they don't get bogged down in details. Some read the book like a book but most treat the book like a text book. They are looking for mechanical and technical errors.

Some proofreaders even read work from the end to the beginning to really search for errors.

A proofread is the very last service to be performed after a work is deemed complete and ready to publish/send/upload.

Keeping Your Reader Engaged
Your number one job as a writer is to tell a great story or share information.

Your next job is to be certain you are using the best presentation possible.

Readers fall out of stories or get bored with information if there are too many typos or formatting issues. Don't irritate your readers with missing words, wrong spelling, and irregular formatting.

There is fierce competition out there for your attention created by millions; from other talented artists to corporations with deep pockets. Think about how you're going to compete for that attention whether it's with your book, your website, your brochure, or your essay.

Everyone has a story to tell. Be certain that your reader can understand it. Show your respect for your reader by presenting a clean and easy-to-read document. Editors and proofreaders can shine up your product to its full potential and give you the confidence to share it with your audience.

Contact Us!
If you'd like your story, book, website, email, or any other document proofread, please see our rates and email us.  sephgiron @ gmail.c om

Spring Forward with Your Book!

Spring is the time of new beginnings, new growth, and for some, renewal.

Spring is a booming time for writers to fling themselves into the editing process of their masterpieces...or not.

For most people who live in chilly climates, winter is the time to hibernate, to work on books and stories, to read, to write, to rewrite.

Once spring arrives, the writer is excited about getting out into the world, and likely doesn't want to be bothered with all that pesky editing and proofreading that opus needs.

Don't start running down the wrong path!

Give your work to the professionals. Here at Scarlett Editorial Services, no project is too large or too small. We've worked with all genres and project sizes from blog posts to novels.

Need a book doctor?

Need a ghost writer?

We handle all of that as well.

Do you need content for your website?

Do you need someone to proofread your content before you put it on your website?

Scarlett Editorial Services will handle any of your needs when it comes to making your work sparkle and shine.

Email us today for rates!  sephgiron @ gmail.com

Now accepting new clients for book manuscripts. We work with all genres from romance to horror!

We've worked on over 1000 books!

Tell us about your project and let us work with you to determine your needs. Check out our rates! Contact us for your own personal quote. We are willing to work with your budget!

sephgiron @ gmail.com

Remember, we don't know  you need help unless you ask! We don't know your budget unless you tell us!

Expiration Date Launch and Spring Editing!

On Thursday April 9, author and editor Sèphera Girón will be signing autographs in Toronto at the Sellers & Newell Bookstore for the Expiration Date Anthology. If you've had questions for Sèphera about her editorial services, feel free to ask her at the launch.

Sèphera will also be attending Ad Astra April 10 - 12 and will be on several panels as well as attending the mass autograph session from 2 - 4.

It was a very long and cold winter in Toronto. In fact, it's snowing right now on Easter Sunday!

The great thing about long, cold winters is that a lot of books and stories get written.

After you've written your book or story, you will need an editor.

Scarlett Editing has over ten years experience with hundreds of clients. Services range from a general reading of your work with general comments to very specific editorial services.

If you're not sure what kind of editing you need, don't be shy. Pop us an email and describe your work. We'll let you know what you need.

Our rates are very competitive and reflects our years of professional work and satisfied customers.

When you purchase two or more services, you will receive a discount.

We encourage you to book your spot in advance if you have a specific deadline, otherwise we work on a first come, first serve basis.

We take great care and detail in our work. Turnaround time varies per project but we work as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Scarlett Editorial Services looks forward to hearing from you!

Contact us today for rates and availability.

sephgiron @ gmail.com

Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday Discounts

The holidays are fast approaching. Will so much to do and so little time, editing your opus is the last thing you feel like doing!

Don't worry, you are in safe hands with Scarlett Editorial Services.

We love to edit. We work in publishing. We understand the market.

If you need a quick overview of your work, you can order a book report.

If you need a thoughtful, thorough examination of plot, characters, tone, narrative structure, and  style, you can order a developmental edit.

If you require a line edit, we are here for you!

To take advantage of our Small Business Saturday/Cyber Monday holiday specials, just pop us an email at

sephgiron@ gmail.com


Tell us a bit about your project, the length, if it is a rush job, and so on. We can work with you to determine which service or combination of services you require.

Between now and December 3, you will receive 10% discount if you book with us and provide a down payment. The manuscript doesn't need to be ready until you are happy with it enough to send.

Happy Shopping!

School Daze

It's back to school time for many people. For others, there is great rejoicing as with the kids away, there is finally time to get to work on your new novel!

Writing a novel, a book, even a story, is great fun but also a lot of hard work.

Many people don't realize how much work is involved in taking a piece of work from your mind and turning it into a published piece that others will buy.

Your best friend can be your editor.

Most books that go through traditional publishing routes will see one to five editors along the way. This is a lot of people who will look at your work, disect it, and "make it good;" good enough to expect others to pay hard-earned money to buy it.

Self-published authors need to think carefully about their own route to the bookstore shelf. The savvy  self-published author will hire a team to "make it good" and it can be daunting to decide who to hire for these many and varied tasks.

A self-published author at the minimum should have the expertise of a professional working editor for at least one draft. This should be someone who isn't related to you and who has experience in editing. Sure, your friends can share if the story is funny or scary or makes sense. An editor will help you understand how and why a scene may or may not work. An editor will help you keep your tenses consistent, and keep "head-hopping" to a minumum. An editor can point out where the tension gets lost or if there are lot of "facts" that simply aren't necessary.

Scarlett Editing offers many services for the self-published author.

We can prepare a book report, which is an overview of your work.

We can do line-editing which is the most detailed and expensive service that we offer.

We can do a variety of edtiorial services that fall in-between.

Scarlett Editing focusses primarily on editiorial services but we are happy to provide leads from our professional network for other services.

You may also need to hire book designer, a cover artist, and publicist and there are a great many talented people who are ready to help you with those services as well at a variety of companies aimed towards the self-published author.

An editor is not a publisher.

An editor is not a publicist.

An editor is not a formatter.

An editor is not a lawyer and can't give you legal advice.

An editor is not a cover artist.

An editor is not an agent.

An editor can not guarantee that your book will ever sell at all but we're going to try our best to give it the best possible chance to fly off the bookshelf.

You can contact Scarlett Editing with any questions: sephgiron@gmail.com

Starving Artist Editing Discount:Limited Time Offer

You've spent weeks, months, perhaps even years writing your book. You've typed "the end" and now wonder what's next?

Showing your work to your friends and family is an excellent way to get feedback from your average reader.

However, most friends and family aren't professional publishers and editors. They will not be able to spot grammar errors, or they may find that something doesn't "feel" right but they can't help you correct it.

Editors can help you. Whether it's a quick "book report" overview of your work, or thorough word-by-word line-editing, shining up your work to its absolute best shows your readers you respect your work and that you respect the time they put into reading your work.

Some writers write full time. Some writers have day jobs. Some writers have spouses who pay the bills.

The reality is that professional editing by an experienced editor is not cheap. Editing is a real job and can make a huge difference to the quality of a manuscript. Whether it's finding plot holes, removing repetitive information, finding spots where names change, or hacking out those unnecessary commas, an editor can make your work excel.

From now until midnight July 8, 2014, Scarlett Editorial services is offering a 15% discount on all editing services. 

To take advantage of this offer, you must make a deposit by July 8, ensuring your spot for editing.

You don't have to have your work ready by July 8.

All you have to do is reserve your spot for future editing by making a small deposit today that will go towards your fees and you will be locked into the 15% discount rate.

For instance, you are working on a 100,000 word manuscript and you know you'll want line editing for it when it's complete. Secure a 15% discount by reserving your spot with a deposit today. The deposit goes towards your final fee.    

Even if your book isn't ready for editing until December, you will still receive the 15% discount as long as you've paid your deposit by Paypal by midnight of July 8, 2014.


100000 x .02 = $2000 x 15% discount = $1700 


You would enjoy a $300 savings on this project if you take advantage of our offer by July 8, 2014.

Timelines for editing vary by project and service. Expect a book to take from one week to four weeks to be edited.


We look forward to working with you. Now go outside and enjoy the summer while we take care of your work for you!