The secret of success as a writer is simple, and in the pages of this web site, my goal is to pass on some of this insider knowledge. You've heard the cliché, "Ninety-nine percent perspiration and one percent inspiration."

It's not enough to know that you have to work hard to succeed in your writing goals. With your limited time and energy, you deserve to know where to apply yourself. I've spent the last twenty years teaching writing and mentoring perhaps 1000 writers in classes, critique groups, and through my editing services.

At any given time, we writers must deal with three different areas of the writer's life: craft, marketing, and the self. By far, the most difficult of the three is the last area. Truly, we are each our own worst enemy. Toward helping you eliminate self-sabotage, I'll post articles and essays to the Tips page and to the archives.

All writers work on craft forever. My goal since I became a writing teacher, author, and editor has been to find and share the good advice out of the flood of not-so-good advice. My editorial associates and I, through my company, Editing International (www.4-edit.com), take pride in giving my clients a sophisticated foundation in craft. I urge you to visit this company site to read about my Client Successes. I also urge you to consider, at the right time in your career, professional editing to give you a quantum leap forward in your writing. Go shopping to find your best match. I compiled profiles of 530 freelance editors and ghost-writers in National Directory of Editors & Writers, published by M. Evans & Co (NY) in 2005.

My two books in the skill-based Writer's Compass series continue to gain recognition for their comprehensive clear how-to instruction and my down-to-earth style (always the farm girl). Published by Perigee, an imprint of USA Penguin, they are A Writer's Guide to Nonfiction ('03) and A Writer's Guide to Fiction ('04). My prior two books, revised and reprinted by Perigee, reduce the overwhelming task of marketing into a step-by-step science. Nonfiction Book Proposals Anybody Can Write continues as the preferred guide and standard for writing proposals, and no book to date matches the quantity of models and examples offered in The Sell Your Novel Tool Kit. Also look for marketing shortcuts in this website's "Tips."

What's on my publishing horizon? I will be promoting Manuscript Makeover: Revision Techniques No Fiction Writer Can Afford to Ignore throughout 2008 and 2009. It is my sixth and final book for writers. It is certainly my magnum opus, a distillation of most of what I have learned as a professional book editor of novels over the last 20 years.The standard I have always held for myself in writing any of my books is to contribute to the literature, craft clear and practical instruction, use examples that are current and classic, and set a gold standard for comparable books.

Interested in taking one of my workshops or seminars? "I'll Come to You" is the title of my traveling workshops where I travel to your location and customize workshops for your writing group or organization. My itinerary for conference appearances is posted on the Workshops and Seminars' page, and you'll find links to all of the organizations where I have spoken on the Links' page.

Need inspiration? Be a tortoise and you will win the race. Send e-mail to me at elyon123@comcast.net to let me know if there is any way I can help you realize your own writing success.