Nathan Bransford | Writing, Book Editing, Publishing

Helping authors achieve their dreams

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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.

Writers are storytellers, not theme-tellers

If you've ever taken an English course in high school or university, you're taught to care deeply about what books mean. You may have been compelled to write papers of various lengths about the way certain themes and motifs and all sorts of meanings can be gleaned by analyzing books. Whether the book you're reading is actually, you know, any…

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WNDB moves away from #OwnVoices (This week in books)

This week! Books! We Need Diverse Books announced this week that they are moving away from the term #OwnVoices, which had been used to refer to authors writing books and characters that reflect their background, citing the vagueness of the term and lack of safety for authors. As others have noted, the phrase had already been diluted pretty significantly: https://twitter.com/justinaireland/status/1401573138723491845…

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Utilize your protagonist's perspective in a query (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 BlogNominate 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 and…

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How will you publish your work in progress? The results! (2021)

Before we get to the results of this year's poll, first, the caveats. This is unscientific, the poll audience changes from year to year and, because I'm a former literary agent known for my advice on query letters in particularly, the traditional crowd is probably over-represented relative to the book world as a whole. Still... it's an interesting snapshot! Here's…

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The backlist is hot (This week in books)

This week! Books! It's now officially summer in the publishing world, and happy Summer Friday to all who are celebrating by shutting their laptops around lunch time. Just a few links for your weekend pleasure Publishers Weekly hosted a virtual U.S. Book Show, and BookBub has a good roundup of some of the marketing and sales trends that were discussed…

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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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