Reviewer Tami Brady Weighs in on the Frugal Editor

TCM Reviews
The Frugal Editor
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Red Engine Press
ISBN: 978-0-9785158-7-4
Non-Fiction, Writing, Editing

Reviewed by Dr. Tami Brady for TCM Reviews



Editing is my absolute least favorite part of being an author. Like many writers, I find that my work flows more naturally if I type without really paying attention to all of the little details like grammar mistakes, typos, or redundancy of certain words (my biggest challenge). Unfortunately, at some point, I have to go back and fix the mess.

To help with this overwhelming task, I have collected a variety of books on editing, proofreading, and critiquing. I have now added The Frugal Editor to the most helpful of these resources. A good many of the books I already have on my shelf drone on endlessly about proper grammar, sentence structure, or the correct usage of commonly misused words without really guiding me towards solving any of my problems. Instead, they tend to lead me directly to confusion and frustration.

I believe that the problem is context. Most of these resources are made for school curriculums. The Frugal Editor knows that as writers we aren’t trying to impress our teacher for a grade. We are just looking to improve clarity so that we can share our best efforts with our readers. To this end, The Frugal Editor gets right to the point with straightforward suggestions and the most common mistakes made by writers during the editing process.