Nathan Bransford | Writing, Book Editing, Publishing

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Helping authors achieve their dreams.

I'm Nathan Bransford, author, editor, and former literary agent at Curtis Brown Ltd. I'm dedicated to helping authors find their voice, hone their craft, and pursue successful publication.

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Book Editing You Can Trust

I've been in your shoes.

As a published author and former literary agent who has worked with NY Times bestselling authors, I bring a unique perspective to the book editing process, combining insider industry experience with an author's sympathetic ear.

My services include

Manuscript editing & critiques
Query critiques
Social media & marketing consulting
Coaching on navigating the publishing process
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A few authors I've worked with...
Shadowshaper
by Daniel José Older,
a NY Times bestseller
Rock Paper Tiger
by Lisa Brackermann,
one of Amazon's top 100 novels of the year
Try Not To Breathe
by Jennifer Hubbard,
received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and Kirkus
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Recent Posts

My blog is a free resource for everything you need to know how to write, edit, and publish a book.

WGA conquers the studios (This week in books)

This week! Books! In a huge victory for writers, the leaders of Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers reached a deal to end the strike and send a contract to members for ratification. Studios misjudged writers' willingness to stick together through a strike, and writers made sweeping gains and had many of their…

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Literary needs to feel literary (query critique)

If you’d like to nominate your own page or query for a public critique, kindly post them here in the discussion forums: Nominate Your First Page for a Critique on the Blog Nominate Your Query for a Critique on the Blog Also, if you’d like to test your editing chops, keep your eye on this area or this area! I’ll post the pages…

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Let characters' emotions spill in unpredictable ways

One of the strangest things about writing fiction is that it often needs to make more sense than real life. In real life, people fall into grief-stricken states of paralysis, wander around aimlessly without knowing what they're looking for, and endlessly endure unpleasantness without trying to change anything about their circumstances. It's extremely difficult to make those things interesting in…

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Drew Barrymore finds a resolve for her scab controversy (This week in books)

This week! Books! After first releasing a now-deleted defense of bringing her eponymous show back despite an ongoing writers strike, Drew Barrymore summoned every bit of astute humility she possessed and found the hoped for resolve by pausing her talk show until the strike is over. And about that strike: WGA and the studios have been holding marathon talks of…

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Playing "neener neener" with the reader (page critique)

If you’d like to nominate your own page or query for a public critique, kindly post them here in our discussion forums: Nominate Your First Page for a Critique on the Blog Nominate Your Query for a Critique on the Blog Also: I’M LOW ON QUERIES TO EDIT. If you post your query in the query critique forum, there’s a good chance I’ll…

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My Books

Check out my guides to navigating the writing and publishing process!

How to Write a Novel

The most important thing to know about writing a novel is this: you can do it. Here's How

How to Publish a Book

Ready to pursue a book deal with a Big 5 publisher or try self-publishing? Get Started

I'm also the author of the Jacob Wonderbar novels, a space adventure series for middle-grade readers.

Jacob Wonderbar Cosmic Space Kapow Jacob Wonderbar For President Jacob Wonderbar and Interstellar Time
About My Books

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