Blog
21 Tips – How to Write a Self-Help Book
If you want to write about a topic and can dumb it down (i.e., simplify) enough to appeal to an idiot (i.e., a curious reader), follow these guidelines.
Hiring A Book Editor: 9 Reasons To Trust Your Gut — And Wait
Finding a professional book editor How long should you wait? What's reasonable? There comes a time in every good editor's life when they build up a backlog that's weeks or months deep, with customers waiting patiently (or not) for their services to become available. I...
A Self-Publishing Tale: Part 1
My self-publishing journey: A case history.
Elements Of A Manuscript Critique
Manuscript critique services The three primary reasons you want to hire a book editor for a manuscript critique and evaluation: You want to know: 1) Is it salable? 2) Is it good enough to offer to a literary agent or publisher? 3) Should you go through the expense of...
3 Tips for Selling a Book On Amazon
Back in the days of typewriters and carbon copies, publishing was a riskier financial business. Books were typically printed in runs of thousands for economy of scale, and then all those copies had to be stored somewhere, requiring renting or buying warehouse space....
How To Write A Novel In 10 Steps
Turning an idea into something other people will read and buy involves ten steps in three phases.
6 Best Young Adult Books Of 2019 … so far
Throughout my childhood, my uncle would ship books to us several times a year. It seemed essential to read those books, classics and contemporaries both, into my adolescence and adulthood. I came to favor the controversial, hot-button, balls out titles that compelled discussion, that ripped away boundaries. Uncle John wrote those kind of young adult novels and I knew when I read them that I would write them too. My picks for 2019, January to March.
Science Fiction Writing – Choosing a Sci-Fi Book Editor
The challenge of writing good (even great) science fiction.
Self-Publishing and the Cost – A Conversation
Writer and graphic artist explain how they self-published a book and the costs involved. Beth Bruno, is part of the Book Editing Associates network.
8 Best Romance Novels (March 2019)
A recent curiosity for how things were going in Romancelandia had me perusing a sampling of March 2019 bestseller lists. The New York Times has done away with the Mass Market Fiction Best-seller List (which many of us former Big 5 editors took as our holy grail for all things successful Romance), so the new list is referred to as a Combined Print and EBook Fiction Best-seller list.
10 Questions To Ask Before You Hire A Book Editor
Even for those people who’ve established themselves with successful careers outside the publishing world, editing is a brand new and unfamiliar experience. For this reason, it’s important to find an editor whose experience closely matches your needs.
Why Produce A Book Index And Who Should Do It?
Book Indexing Quiz Time for a quick test of your knowledge of back-of-the-book indexing. Would you say the following statements are true or false? 1. The index can be created by a computer. 2. Creating an index is a simple job. 3. A good index adds value to the book....
Why Book Editors Need Samples Before Quoting A Price
The #1 question we get is: “How much will it cost to edit my book?” Here's why book editors can't give you a blind price quote: The Writer Is English your first language? Did you ace every English class you took? Do you write in dialect or “proper English?” Are you a...
Book Editing & Proofreading: Can You Trust Grammarly?
I took 5,000 words of an unedited novel and uploaded it to Grammarly. I edited those same 5,000 words employing eyes, brain, fingers, and 48 years of professional experience.
How to Enter and Win Book Award Contests
Contest Tips from Indie Book Awards Judge If you are a published author, whether published in the mainstream or independently, the marketing and promotion of your title(s) will be your responsibility. Unless you are a celebrity or are very well connected, you will be...
