'Any bibliophile will find many enjoyable nuggets in this compendium of book chat' Stephen Poole, Guardian

'An engaging little eye-opener about the publishing business, full of tasty nuggets about books, writers and their editors' Sunday Times

'Enjoyable... engaging... insightful' Independent

Once upon a time, a writer had an idea. They wrote it down. But what happened next?

Join Rebecca Lee, professional text-improver, as she embarks on a fascinating journey to find out how words get from an author's brain to finished, printed books. She'll reveal the dark arts of ghostwriters, explore the secret world of literary agents and uncover the hidden beauty of typesetting. Along the way, her quest will be punctuated by a litany of little-known (but often controversial) considerations that make a big impact: ellipses, indexes, hyphens, esoteric points of grammar and juicy post-publication corrections. After all, the best stories happen when it all goes wrong.

From foot-and-note disease to the town of Index, Missouri - turn the page to discover how books get made and words get good.*

* Or, at least, better

• We started tracking this book on September 28, 2021.
• This book was £13.01 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 14 times in the past 1,101 days.
• The current price of this book is £8.49 last checked one day ago.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past year is £5.49.
• The lowest price to date was £5.22 last reached on April 13, 2023.
• This book has been £5.22 one time since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was £13.01 last reached on September 28, 2021.
• This book has been £13.01 one time since we started tracking it.

• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 382 Pages
• File Size: 20,100 KB