Grammar Gremlins have invaded your book!
Confusing sentences, overused words and phrases, unneeded speech tags, and cumbersome crutch words could be hiding within the story you created, and they’re completely invisible to you because you’ve spent so many days/weeks/months staring at them.
Your readers, on the other hand, will notice them. Some will ignore them and keep on going, but some will delete your book from their e-reader and put you on their ‘never read again’ list.
But it doesn’t have to be that way, because I can help tame those Grammar Gremlins, removing them before the readers, publishers, and agents get a chance to see them.
I’ve been providing editing services for independent self-publishing fiction authors since 2017. I have worked on over 300 titles in a wide variety of genres, and I would love to help you offer your readers the best form of your story possible. Find out how Picky Cat can help you get your work ready for publication or submission.
What authors are saying about Picky Cat…
I’ve used Picky Cat for copyediting since 2019. Marty is picky in the best way you’d want an editor to be picky, especially in regards to finding all of my grammatical errors, misplaced punctuation, and nonsensical word choices. If you need a reliable, experienced editor, look no further than Marty at Picky Cat. —USA Today bestselling author Iris Morland
Marty Shaw was a great asset to the project. We had a 7-book series (6 full novels and a novella prequel) that required his strong attention to detail. Not only did he clean up the content with his proofreading, but he also pointed out potential continuity issues across the entire series that we were able to fix before publication. Any comments he left within the manuscripts were insightful and appreciated. It was a job well done and I’m thankful he was on the team. —Grace Hamilton
Marty/Picky Cat has been my main editor for years, and for good reason. He is easy to work with, delivers reliable results, and is fast.
He is exceptional in tailoring the level of his editing to my personal workflow, and what I do and don’t want in terms of services. My current process relies on his editing for inconsistencies in character names and other action, as well as grammar catches.
Working with him on book series in particular is a pleasure. He creates style sheets for the books, which we can both refer back to, as well as keeping records of my preferences, which reduces the time and the mental energy required on my end to keep things consistent from book to book. I highly recommend! —Alex Linwood
Marty has been a saving grace for me. Picky Cat is fast and affordable, which is a combination I greatly appreciate. I return, again and again, because I know I can rely on Marty to catch my mistakes and send me back a cleaner, polished manuscript. In fact, I keep running appointments. It was an easy choice to keep working with Marty once I started. Picky Cat is where it’s at! —Kate Satori
Picky Cat catches everything—and I mean everything! I’m a serial mis-user of hyphens, and he’s kept me from making a cake of myself on more than one occasion. And since I write Regency romance, the fact that Marty also knows his on-dits from his barouche-landaus has made all the difference. —Lorea Hartwell
Marty is a wonderful editor who is polite, professional, helpful, and he always turns the work in on time. I have used him for a few projects and have been satisfied with each one. He helped me out of a last minute jam on more than one occasion, which is always nice to have in an editor! I highly recommend his services! —Olivia T. Turner
Picky Cat Editing 