Magic Words Editing | Shawna Hampton
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magicwordsediting.bsky.social
Magic Words Editing | Shawna Hampton
@magicwordsediting.bsky.social
Freelance editor @ Magic Words Editing & Macmillan (Tor, St. Martin’s) | fantasy, sci-fi, horror | 🚫 AI
📖 Manuscript evals, line editing, copyediting
🌎 www.magicwordsediting.com
✍️ magicwordsediting.substack.com
📍 STL MO
Pinned
👋 Now that Bluesky will be one of my only social media "homes" for a while, hi there! I'm a:

✍️ Freelance book editor
#fantasy #sciencefiction #horror lover
🧠 AuDHD
🖖 Star Trek > Star Wars
🐾 Cat fanatic
📝 Slow writer
🎵 Lazy musician
🏃‍♀️ 13.1 runner
🧙‍♀️ Witchy woman
📍 St. Louisan

#writers
#editors
Reposted by Magic Words Editing | Shawna Hampton
We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.
October 1, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Reposted by Magic Words Editing | Shawna Hampton
[Exit King.]
June 14, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Reposted by Magic Words Editing | Shawna Hampton
I once again want to remind all writers: When you’re starting a new chapter in MS Word, do NOT press the return key until you reach the next page. Use Insert > Break > Page Break instead. Your editors, copy editors, & typesetters will thank you!
May 1, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Copyediting malpractice is real, full stop.
I have been doing copyedits forever and there are so many and it is because this particular copyeditor seems INTENT ON LITERALLY REWRITING MY BOOK like... imagine having to reject something like this 2000 times

I SAID WHAT I SAID why are you trying to put 'feel' when I wrote 'think'
April 22, 2025 at 2:15 AM
Reposted by Magic Words Editing | Shawna Hampton
No edit is perfect—and that's okay! I explain why a 95% correction rate is excellent, how to evaluate remaining errors, and what to do when they're discovered: zurl.co/jcdXD #WritingTips #WritingCommunity
A Quick Guide to Dealing with Errors in Editing - Right Touch Editing
It’s tempting to think that hiring an editor means your manuscript will be completely free of errors. But no editing job is perfect.
www.righttouchediting.com
April 17, 2025 at 7:05 PM
And this is why I noped out of Substack right as I was getting my newsletter there off the ground. Any media channel I don't control directly is fodder for these tech bros' fever dreams.
📄 NEW: "The Substack Dilemma: How Creators Are Inadvertently Fueling America's Failure"

Many don't realize that Substack's purpose is to advance 'The Network State' concept. Here's what creators + readers need to know.
america2.news/the-substack...
The Substack Dilemma: How Creators Are Inadvertently Fueling America's Failure
Creators have flocked to Substack because of its ease of use — but that simplicity comes at a steep price.
america2.news
March 23, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Reposted by Magic Words Editing | Shawna Hampton
The EFA is committed to standing by DEI; we re-affirm the principles of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Learn more about our commitment: The-efa.org/diversity-equity-belonging #DiversityEquityInclusion #DEI #InclusionMatters #EquityForAll #DiversityMatters #Freelancers #EquityInAction
March 17, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Reposted by Magic Words Editing | Shawna Hampton
And no, genuinely top-tier copy editing can't be done by "AI," because, like with translation, there are subtle bits an LLM isn't going to pick up on, because it's not actually intelligent. There's more to copy editing than just grammar. A good copy edit can make a story better. Brains are required.
February 17, 2025 at 12:49 AM
AAAHHH!!!! *screams in GENX with glee* AAAHHH 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
January 20, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Just gonna drop this here . . . 😁
I keep saying this but copyeditors are the most important people you never hear discussed in the publishing world, and if you doubt what I say, go try reading any Harry Potter book post goblet of fire when she got her own way with the edits
January 16, 2025 at 11:40 PM
Who is your celebrity “Birthday Twin” (born same day as you)? Answer with pic or gif only.
January 13, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Reposted by Magic Words Editing | Shawna Hampton
👋 Now that Bluesky will be one of my only social media "homes" for a while, hi there! I'm a:

✍️ Freelance book editor
#fantasy #sciencefiction #horror lover
🧠 AuDHD
🖖 Star Trek > Star Wars
🐾 Cat fanatic
📝 Slow writer
🎵 Lazy musician
🏃‍♀️ 13.1 runner
🧙‍♀️ Witchy woman
📍 St. Louisan

#writers
#editors
December 17, 2024 at 3:10 PM
2024 Wrapped, Editor Edition:

📚 53 books 😲 (yes, I'm tired)

✍️ 5,035,000 words (so, so tired)

🔥 Genres: fantasy, horror, sci-fi, romantasy, mafia romance (!), thriller, middle grade kidlit (!!)

🥳 Accepted on Reedsy

😍 New clients: 19

🥰 Returning clients: 7

2024 rocked! Time to sleep, lol. 😴
December 17, 2024 at 3:35 PM
👋 Now that Bluesky will be one of my only social media "homes" for a while, hi there! I'm a:

✍️ Freelance book editor
#fantasy #sciencefiction #horror lover
🧠 AuDHD
🖖 Star Trek > Star Wars
🐾 Cat fanatic
📝 Slow writer
🎵 Lazy musician
🏃‍♀️ 13.1 runner
🧙‍♀️ Witchy woman
📍 St. Louisan

#writers
#editors
December 17, 2024 at 3:10 PM
Reposted by Magic Words Editing | Shawna Hampton
clause =📝

Claus = 🎅

claws = 🐈
December 12, 2024 at 8:30 PM
Reposted by Magic Words Editing | Shawna Hampton
Chicago Manual of Style editors dish on the changes they wanted that didn't make it in, why the stylebook is yellow, and how a printing problem during the pandemic led to some rare editions of the book.

Watch: youtu.be/d2pJVGkf9No

Listen: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...

#AmEditing
Why the new CMOS is yellow. Pandemic collectors editions. And more. Grammar Girl Episode 1038
YouTube video by Grammar Girl
youtu.be
December 12, 2024 at 5:19 PM
Reposted by Magic Words Editing | Shawna Hampton
I'm obviously obsessed with this whole thing but want to note that this has been an excellent distillation of why boiling traditional advanced-based publishing down to just "gatekeeping" is erasing the knowledge, expertise, and experience of the legion of folks who labor to "publish" a book.
December 4, 2024 at 4:50 PM
Reposted by Magic Words Editing | Shawna Hampton
If you'd like to publish your book without enriching four entities that emerged from the bio-jelly of a thousand pulped tech-bros, you could scan this writeup I put together on self publishing Legends & Lattes, which cost less than 5k and involved human artists and editors
medium.com/@travisbaldr...
November 25, 2024 at 2:22 PM