Castle Gate Press has published using a traditional model from 2013-2018. One of our books is an Amazon genre bestseller, and another won a Selah Award for Christian fiction in the speculative category. Yet another was a finalist for Selah, and another a finalist for the Grace Award. In short, we provide award-winning editing. We […]
Our approach to editing your book
Castle Gate Press is unusual in several ways. One of them is in our team editing approach. The contests where we’ve been entering our books often ask who the editor of the book is, leaving space for the name of one editor. This is apparently the common way for the big publishers to do it, with […]
The Answer Place: How can I proofread a book well?
Proofreading for small errors is not easy. Your mind gets tied up in the story and may just jump right over small errors, especially if you have read the story before. Here’s my best advice: Read the story backwards, paragraph by paragraph. This removes you from the flow of the story, and you’re more likely to […]
What’s a fiction author to say on social media?
I have always wondered what a great topic would be for engaging the public on social media, for an author. I had an “aha” moment when I was listening to a podcast recently. Tom Corson-Knowles, a successful indie author, had a suggestion. He said novelists should post excerpts of their work that they’re not too […]
Revision Prompt – Author Intrusion
You’ve heard of writing prompts, now we have revision prompts! Each prompt will give you a specific writing issue to check for in your WIP, along with tips on how to fix each. Going through this process one issue at a time will not only help polish your current novel but will also teach you specific ways to […]
Watch out for Weasel Words
They may be different for each author, but we all have our weasel words. Like the animal they’re named after, they pop up in unexpected places. They often slip past our awareness when reviewing our work. We are so used to using them that they often don’t even register in our brain as a problem. […]
The Editor vs. the Writer
Editing and writing are two sides of the same coin. Both manipulate the written word to craft a story, yet they are very different. Writing creates words and stories. Editing takes words already crafted into stories and fine-tunes them. As a matter of fact, the two activities are so different they even use different sides of the […]
Revision Prompt – Replace Generic Verbs 1
You’ve heard of writing prompts, now we have revision prompts! Each prompt will give you a specific writing issue to check for in your WIP, along with tips on how to fix each. Going through this process one issue at a time will not only help polish your current novel but will also teach you specific ways […]
Six questions for your beta readers
Perhaps you are an author who uses beta readers to help you hone your work. A beta reader is, of course, someone who tests the beta version before it becomes the alpha version (terminology borrowed from software testing). Your beta readers may be other writers, who have some idea of what kind of feedback you […]