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Jim Cox Report: October 2025
Dear Publisher Folk, Friends & Family:
Online tools, strategies, and editing software for writers is the subject this month. It's also something not usually taught in most Creative Writing classes and workshops. But editing it is a set of absolutely vital skills for authors and novelists who aspire to commercial and literary success.
The good news is that there is a wealth of constructive and instructive DIY information about the subject of editing (and in particular the 'tools, strategies, and editing software') that are now available to anyone online in general and the Midwest Book Review website in particular.
In evidence I present the following email I received last month:
The Midwest Book Review (Writing Help)
9/11/2025 7:37:27 AM Central Daylight Time
Thanks for sharing such a helpful collection of resources for writers on the Midwest Book Review website! They've been great additions to our Writing Tips & Techniques reference materials as we begin the new school year. (I can't believe we're almost halfway through September!)
Earlier this morning, my student teacher Kim came across this collection of Online Tools, Strategies and Editing Software for Writers, and it was a big hit with our staff: www.qualtrics.com/blog/online-tools-for-writers ...Have you had a chance to check it out? It offers a wide range of tech-based tools to support writers with everything from publishing and grammar checks to brainstorming, editing, formatting, and more. Would it be possible to add it to your list of writers resources for us? (www.midwestbookreview.com/bookbiz/writers.htm)
Kim is just starting her teaching journey, and I know she would be thrilled to see her contributions are making an impact. I know from experience how encouraging this can be when you're just starting out. The early days can be tough!
If there's any chance to have it added by Monday, that would be perfect, as I'll be working with Kim again then!
Thanks so much!
Danny
And then we have AI newly arrived on the scene:
Grammarly: Free AI Writing Assistance
https://www.grammarly.com
ProWritingAid (self-editing)
https://prowritingaid.com
100% Free AI Writer by Typefully (no login required)
https://typefully.com
Write anything you want with AI Writer, a tool powered by artificial intelligence and large language models. Choose the topic, length and AI model, and get unique and engaging texts in seconds.
Wordtune - Express yourself with confidence
https://www.wordtune.com
Wordtune is a free AI writer that can help you express yourself with confidence by paraphrasing, rewriting, correcting your grammar, and more. You can choose from contextual suggestions, switch between formal and casual tones, translate your writing, and summarize any text or video with
Next month's subject will be the increasing criminal use of AI to scam writers and what you can do to protect yourself as an author.
Quote of the Month
People think that writing is writing, but actually writing is editing. Otherwise, you're just taking notes. -- Chris Abani
Website of the Month
Online tools, strategies, and editing software for writers
https://www.qualtrics.com/blog/online-tools-for-writers
Now here are reviews of books with a special relevance for authors, publishers, and dedicated bibliophiles:
The Screenwriting Sensei
Paul Chitlik
Michael Wiese Productions
www.mwp.com
9781615933631, $27.95, PB, 224pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Screenwriting-Sensei-Complete-Writing-Script/dp/1615933638
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-screenwriting-sensei-paul-chitlik/1146911509
Synopsis: Award-winning screenwriter and legendary UCLA and Loyola Marymount professor Paul Chitlik has taught thousands of students how to write their first script -- and now with the publication of "The Screenwriting Sensei: A Complete Guide to Writing Your First Script" he has reated is a one volume DIY style film school class instructional textbook that takes the aspiring screen writer step-by-step from first idea to final page.
"The Screenwriting Sensei" successfully recreates the classroom experience at a top film school, guiding you through each phase of the writing process with clear lessons and practical assignments.
Critique: Exceptional, comprehensive, thoroughly 'reader/user' friendly in organization and presentation, "The Screenwriting Sensei: A Complete Guide to Writing Your First Script" is the ideal DIY instructional guide for the novice and aspiring screenwriter wanting to produce scripts that will result in movie and television productions. While also available in a digital book format (9781615933686, $27.95, Kindle), this paperback edition of "The Screenwriting Sensei" from Michael Wiese Productions is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, college, and university library Screenwriting instructional reference collections and supplemental Cinematic/Screenwriting curriculum studies lists.
Editorial Note: Paul Chitlik (https://paulchitlik.com) is an Award-winning screenwriter and legendary professor of screenwriting at UCLA and Loyola Marymount University. He has written for all the major studios and networks and taught at universities around the world. He was a story editor for The Twilight Zone (1985-1989), a staff writer on Showtime's Brothers, and the writer-producer on UPN's Alien Abduction, among hundreds of hours of working on television and film. He has overseen the development of more than 2,500 scripts both professionally and academically.
Unabridged
Stefan Fatsis
Atlantic Monthly Press
c/o Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
www.groveatlantic.com
9780802165824, $30.00, HC, 416pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Unabridged-Thrill-Threat-Modern-Dictionary/dp/0802165826
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/unabridged-stefan-fatsis/1147370073
Synopsis: Words are the currency of culture -- and never more than today. From selfie to doomscrolling to rizz, our hyper-connected digital world coins and spreads new words with lightning speed and locks them into mainstream consciousness with unprecedented influence.
Journalist and author Stefan Fatsis embedded as a lexicographer-in-training at America's most famous dictionary publisher, Merriam-Webster, to learn how words get into the dictionary, where they come from, who decides what they mean, and how we write and think about them.
As he recounts in "Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary" he discovered the history and fascinating subculture of the dictionary and of those who curate and revere "one of the most basic features of our collective humanity".
Fatsis also reveals the little-known story of how the brothers George and Charles Merriam acquired Noah Webster's original American dictionary and reshaped the business of language forever. Merriam-Webster became America's most successful and enduring compendium of words, withstanding intense competition and cultural controversies -- only to be threatened by the power of Google and the phenomena of artificial intelligence.
Additionally, while delving into Merriam's legendary archives and parsing its arcane rules, Fatsis learned about the painstaking precision required for writing good definitions. "Unabridged" also examines how the dictionary has handled the most explosive slurs and the revolutionary change in pronouns.
Fatsis votes on the annual Word of the Year, travels to the legendary Oxford English Dictionary, and visits the world's greatest private dictionary collection in a Greenwich Village apartment stuffed with more than 20,000 books. Fatsis demonstrates how words are weaponized in our polarized political culture (from liberal to woke to DEI) and, in a time of insurrections and pandemics, how they can be a literal matter of life and death. Along the way, he manages to write a few definitions that crack the code and are enshrined in the pixelated dictionary.
"I fell in love with the dictionary on my eleventh birthday," Fatsis writes about the full-color college lexicon he received on that day. "The dictionary projects permanence, but the language is Jell-O, slippery and mutable and forever collapsing on itself."
"Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary" takes readers to the heart of an industry in flux, celebrating as it does the sheer thrill and wonder of words.
Critique: An exceptional, seminal and groundbreaking study, "Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary" by Stefan Fatsis is fascinating, informative, original, and thoroughly 'reader friendly' in organization and presentation. Enhanced for the reader's benefit with the inclusion of a six page Bibliography, sixty-six pages of Endnotes, and a sixteen page Index, "Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary" is a truly exceptional and unreservedly recommended pick for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Linguistics/Language collections and supplemental Communication/Media curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for students, academia, linguists, writers, authors, bibliophiles, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that this hardcover edition of "Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary" from the Atlantic Monthly Press is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $28.50, Amazon).
Editorial Note: Stefan Fatsis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Fatsis) is the author of "Word Freak", about the world of competitive Scrabble; "A Few Seconds of Panic", about life in the National Football League; and "Wild and Outside", about minor league baseball. In four decades as a journalist, Fatsis has written and talked for Slate, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, and many other outlets.
A Bookshop of One's Own
Jane Cholmeley
Bloomsbury Academic
c/o Bloomsbury Publishing
www.bloomsbury.com
9798881806217, $34.00, HC, 386pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Bookshop-Ones-Own-Group-Change/dp/B0DJC677N9
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-bookshop-of-ones-own-jane-cholmeley/1143608948
Synopsis: What was it like to start a feminist bookshop, in an industry dominated by men? How could a lesbian thrive in Thatcher's time, with the government legislating to restrict her rights? How do you run a business when your real aim is to change the world?
Silver Moon was the dream of three women - a bookshop with the mission to promote the work of female writers and create a much-needed safe space for any woman. Founded in 1980s London against a backdrop of homophobia and misogyny, it was a testament to the power of community, growing into Europe's biggest women's bookshop and hosting a constellation of literary stars from Margaret Atwood and Maya Angelou to Angela Carter.
While contending with day-to-day struggles common to other booksellers, plus the additional burdens of misogyny and the occasional hate crime, Jane Cholmeley and her booksellers created a thriving business. But they also played a crucial and relatively unsung part in one the biggest social movements of our time.
"A Bookshop of One's Own: How a Group of Women Set Out to Change the World" is a fascinating slice of social history from the heart of the women's liberation movement, from a true feminist and lesbian icon. Written with heart and humour, it reveals the struggle and joy that comes with starting an underdog business, while being a celebration of the power women have to change the narrative when they are the ones holding the pen.
Critique: Unique, deftly crafted, informative, insightfully thought-provoking, and an inherently fascinating read from first page to last, "A Bookshop of One's Own: How a Group of Women Set Out to Change the World" is an extraordinary account that will be of immense value and appeal to readers with an interest in the role of the bookshop to a community. While a special and unreservedly recommended pick for community and college/university library collections, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of dedicated bibliophiles, authors, publishers, and aspiring independent bookstore proprietors that this hardcover edition of "A Bookshop of One's Own: How a Group of Women Set Out to Change the World" from Bloomsbury Academic is also readily available in a British paperback edition from Amazon (Mudlark, 9780008651077, $12.30, 384pp).
Editorial Note #1: The Silver Moon Women's Bookshop was a feminist bookstore at 68 Charing Cross Road in London, England, founded in 1984 by Jane Cholmeley, Sue Butterworth, and Jane Anger. They established Silver Moon Bookshop to promote women's writing, serve a community of readers and encourage discussion of women's issues. The shop served both as a safe space for women to participate in literary events and a resource centre to learn about local feminist initiatives. Jane Cholmeley and Sue Butterworth also founded Silver Moon Books, publishers of lesbian romance and crime fiction. In Autumn 1986 Sue Butterworth created the shop's newsletter Silver Moon Quarterly, reaching out nationwide and internationally. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Moon_Bookshop)
Editorial Note #2: Jane Cholmeley is a key figure in British feminism and books, the co-founder of Silver Moon Women's Bookshop, which became the largest of its kind in Europe. Silver Moon created a safe space for women and proudly made women's writing central and visible on the best bookselling street in the world. It quickly came to play a vital role in the second-wave feminist movement. Operating in a male-dominated space, the stop was often subject to threats of arson but maintained a safe space for customers, with community activism at its core. The bookshop frequently hosted writers such as Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, and Margaret Attwood. Sandi Toksvig nominated Jane Cholmeley as a Gay Icon in the National Portrait Gallery's exhibition of that name in 2009 and Jacqueline Wilson named Jane her feminist icon in Stylist, 2018.
"The Midwest Book Review Postage Stamp Hall Of Fame & Appreciation" is a monthly roster of well-wishers and supporters. These are the generous folk who decided to say 'thank you' and 'support the cause' that is the Midwest Book Review by donating to our postage stamp fund.
Steve Leyse
Gary Laipply
Mirjana Slater
Rachel Meinel
Patricia Sparks
Manon Wogahn
Corrine Pritchett
Pamela Shadrick
Simone Deblasio
Connie L. Hamm
Deborah Brosseau
Patricia Gayhall -- "Framed"
David Case -- "Chicago Justice"
K. A. Wesorick -- Lucky Enough"
Robin Murarka -- "The Pedophile"
Gail Kuhnlein -- "Into the Thicket"
Joseph Crew -- "Great Slave Lake"
Nordean Baxter II -- "Black Power"
Sam Galanis -- "Rational Thoughts"
Morris Hoffman -- "Boy of Heaven"
Kee Kee Buckley -- "Seeking Shama"
Gabriel Kennedy -- "Chapel Perilous"
M. J. Slatker -- "Falling on Southport"
Steve Monier -- "No One Has To Die"
Manon Wogahn -- "Before the Launch"
Jo-Anne McClean -- "The Never Witch"
Kimberly Lee -- "Have You Seen Him?"
Carol Nicodemi -- "Make a Happy Face"
Tess Manchester -- "Echoes in Snowfall"
Sherri Dodd -- "Hummingbird Moonrise"
Bennett Barouch -- "Eat the Strawberries"
Eric T. Reynolds -- "Chester's Moonscape "
Maria Stylianou -- "How to Say Good-Bye"
Carol Nicodemi -- "It Goes This Way" (CD)
Jonathan DeCoteau -- :Motherless America"
Anna Binder Reardon -- "Wethersfield Road"
Aryn Van Dyke -- "A Roommate for Christmas"
Marion L. Thomas -- "What Loves Leaves Behind"
Katherine Schweit -- "Women Who Talk to the Dead"
Jason Saltoun-Ebin -- "The Reagan Files 2025: The First Term"
Justin Bocock -- "On Call: Case Files from a Career in Homicide"
Anthony O'Keefe -- "A Brief History of the Last 2½ Million Years"
Eric Reynolds -- "Hive to Horn: Beginner’s Guide to Mead Making"
Malve Von Hassell -- "The Price of Loyalty: Serving Adela of Blois"
Robert Scott Leyse -- "Adoration and Affliction: Novellas and Short Stories"
Melanie Vitalli -- "Not Logan: How I Accidentally Became A YouTube Star"
Diane Hartman -- "Getting Lost On My Way: Self-Discovery on Ireland's Backroads"
Gabriel Kennedy -- "Chapel Perilous: The Life & Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson"
L.B Publishing
EBOOKS2GO Inc.
ASRM Enterprises
Planert Creek Press
McCall Media Group
Arbor Books Incorporated
Elizabeth Frazier -- Waldmania! PR
In lieu of (or in addition to!) postage stamp donations, we also accept PayPal gifts of support to our postage stamp fund for what we try to accomplish in behalf of the small press community.
Simply log onto your PayPal account and direct your kindness (in any amount and at your discretion) to the Midwest Book Review at: SupportMBR [at] aol.com (The @ is replaced by "[at]" in the above email address, in an attempt to avoid email-harvesting spambots.)
If you have postage stamps to donate, or if you have a book you'd like considered for review, then send those postage stamps (always appreciated, never required), or a published copy of that book (no galleys, uncorrected proofs, or Advance Reading Copies), accompanied by a cover letter and some form of publicity release to my attention at the address below.
All of the previous issues of the "Jim Cox Report" are archived on the Midwest Book Review website at www.midwestbookreview.com/bookbiz/jimcox.htm. If you'd like to receive the "Jim Cox Report" directly (and for free), just send me an email asking to be signed up for it.
So until next time -- goodbye, good luck, and good reading!
Jim Cox
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive, Oregon, WI, 53575
www.midwestbookreview.com
James A. Cox
Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive
Oregon, WI 53575-1129
phone: 1-608-835-7937
e-mail: mbr@execpc.com
e-mail: mwbookrevw@aol.com
www.midwestbookreview.com
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