Competition

As a writer, do you compete against yourself?

Every time you set pen to paper you should be competing with yourself; this is the only way to eliminate stagnation in your writing.

By competing with yourself, each new piece should be better than your last.

Readers expect to read a story that resonates with them on some visceral level. They want their emotions to ride along with the roller coaster ride of the characters in the story.

This is what writes do. By writing and competing against your last piece, the writing should improve.

For example, when you were younger did you ride a bike like an expert the first time you sat on the seat, and used peddles for the first time? Most of us would say no. it takes practice to improve.

As you learn more, write more, you are practicing writing. We all improve by doing, not just going through the motions.

Your readers will let you know how you’re doing by either purchasing your books or not.

If you are a writer, you want people to read what you have written unless your writing is a hobby and you just write for yourself.

Most writers write so others will read them.

Nathaniel Hawthorne said, “Easy reading is damn hard writing.” This is very true.

Writers work hard so that readers will have an easy time reading our work and escape the outside world during the time we take them on a journey through our words.

Work hard to make your reading easy.

Robert Medak

Freelance writer, editor, proofreader, book reviewer, marketer

StormyWriter.com

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What I have seen

This may sound like a rant, but this is not my meaning.

As of late, I have been doing some editing and manuscript evaluations.
I must say that I am appalled at some of the stuff that authors deem fit for publication.

Where to begin, I am not going to tell you that I am a grammarian, and am perfect. No one is perfect all of the time. I do however, know that grammar and punctuation are important when it comes to writing and not turn the reader off but things a blind person could find.

Recently having read two different manuscripts, the overuse of ellipses incorrectly, which only shows the author as being either lazy, ignorant, or an amateur; perhaps a combination of all three. As someone who considers themselves a professional, this is unacceptable and the manuscript is doomed to the round file for posterity.
Over the years of reading, there have been wrong word choice, typos, spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors in books that are the responsibility of the authors to correct as much as possible. It is not the task of the publisher to correct manuscript errors in today’s publishing environment.

Now we come to another phase of publishing, that is self-published, or creating a manuscript for the Kindle and other E-readers.

Authors need to edit their work, hire an editor, or at least have someone they trust to read the work and see if there are the basic concepts of consistency, cohesion, believability, POV, flow, and a good hook that makes the reader want to read on.

Any author that wants to sell more books should work hard not to bore their reader.

As Nathaniel Hawthorne said, “Easy reading is damn hard writing.” Also quoting Mark Twain, “The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter–it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”

These are two principles of writing that I feel writers need to adhere to; just my opinion for what it is worth.

Ok, off the soapbox now.

Robert Medak

Freelance writer, editor, proofreader, book reviewer, marketer

StormyWriter.com

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What not to market

If you choose to self publish your book, before you send it out, proof the book as a reader reads your book.

As a professional book reviewer, I hate seeing books that have formatting errors, typos, the wrong word choice, and more.

If the only reason you are publishing is to see your name on a book and stroke your ego, than forget about errors and look like an amateur, that’s up to you. If you take writing and your book seriously, than you need to make sure that what you make available for readers is as error fee as possible.

How to make you best book the best book possible:

• Have an error free manuscript
• Before you print the book en masse, get a copy to proof
• Have a second person read the book
• If you notice any errors, have the printer fix them
• If the book is reprinted, check it again for any errors
• Repeat steps to ensure that you book is as error free as possible

If you follow these steps, your readers will enjoy your book more than if you don’t. Most authors want to have readers for subsequent books; you won’t if you turn them off by errors and wrong word choice.

Mark Twain said about articles, which is also true for book authors, "The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is that you really want to say." Just substitute book for article.

The idea of a story is for the reading pleasure of the person who spends money on your book.

Do you have a marketing plan?

Once you’ve written your book, how do you plan on marketing it? Today’s publishers will be asking about your following, various platforms that you use for promotion and sales. This is part of the process that will be part of your advance from publishers. The better your marketing plan the more money, it’s that simple.
An author must wear several hats in today’s publishing environment. The author is marketer, PR person, promoter, and book seller. It is up to the author to do all of this today. The publishing houses won’t. In fact, they may not work with you at all if you don’t have some platform in place.

You will also have to begin establishing a following before your book is completed. The time to begin promotion and marketing is before you begin writing your book. There are social media sites where you can begin, but consider creating a website for the book and promote the website everywhere you can. Network with people; establish relationships, and market, market, market without being pushy of salesy.
Welcome to the publishing world. Bet you didn’t know that you need to be a salesperson as well as an author, did you?

You must also ask yourself if you want to go the route of a publishing house of self-publish. This is the author’s decision. There are numerous places to self-publish or POD to get your book on the market.

Amazon has be playing hardball with printing houses as far as having a buy button for your book if the particular house doesn’t want to follow Amazon’s rules; Amazon also has their own publishing brand.

One of the problems with self-publishing is how much the author is willing to spend for an editing package. Also, some of the publishing houses for self-publishing create books that are sub-par in design, illustration, formatting, and printing. The books are easily recognizable as self-published and that will make them hard to sell in bookstores.

Whoever you chose to publish your book, make sure you have a marketing plan and followers to entice the publishing house if you choose to traditional route to publication, and if you choose to self-publish be wary of who owns the ISBN when publishing via this route. The person that owns the ISBN technically owns the printing and how/when the book is published.

Good luck with your book.

What Writers Should be Doing Today

You can't worry over what may or may not happen, the important thing to do right now is write and market. Even though you may be unpublished or published with few sales you have to share your work with readers. It is very important to write articles, blogs, or anything that will allow readers to read your work. Building an audience via social media specifically and the worldwide web in general is the best and least expensive way to market your writing.

If you are worried about piracy, as I've told many that attend my presentations, the bigger concern should be obscurity. You do not need to copyright everything and you certainly do not need to concern yourself with someone stealing something you have written. Like myself, I'm the author of this piece and have stated that "all written material is Copyright 2010 Jerry D. Simmons." If you add the universal copyright symbol "©" with your name and year you should be protected, as far as this protection allows. No one is completely protected from piracy even with a certified copyright from the US government.

Once the gates of acquisition again swing wide open, publishers will be searching for more quality content than ever before. However, the key will be how much content and how well written and edited. As the industry reinvents itself the single most important thing for writers is to create content. Work with a professional editor to refine, revise and rewrite your work making it the best it can possibly be. Then market yourself and your writing to as many web sites as possible. Place yourself in a position when the call finally comes that you are ready and have a lot of material to be published.

We will see a transformation and those that prepare will benefit the most.

By Jerry D. Simmons
www.WritersReaders.com
Your Source for Information About Book Publishing

Edit before submission

As a professional reviewer I find that many books crossing my desk are in need of editing for simple errors such as word choice, verb tense, verb subject agreement, spelling, and punctuation.

When writing a story, the author is too close to the piece to notice errors in the manuscript. A second pair of eyes is always good to check for any possible error such as writing about something in a time period when the item mentioned hadn’t been invented yet. Facts need to be precise.

When the author receives their copy of a book, they should look at the formatting closely. Review copies I have received have had many formatting error is spacing, possible typos, and more. Any formatting errors should be brought to the attention of the printing house and corrected.

Errors in books by new authors reflect on the author and not the printer. With more authors opting for self publishing this becomes more of a problem. Nothing yells amateur and self published as do errors because the author didn’t have someone edit the manuscript or check the book for any errors before the book goes on sale.
We all know that you only get one chance to make a first impression. What do you want that impression to say; accomplished or amateur? It is up to the author to create a quality manuscript and a quality book for the reader to experience.

Ultimately, the book is the author’s responsibility. Many publishing houses no longer have editors, proofreaders, and people double checking as in years past.

In today’s book publishing industry the author is also responsible for marketing their book. Do you want to market something to be proud of or just something with your name on it?

Be sure that all of your writing is the best you can make it and edit it before it is submitted for publication. Your readers will appreciate the added effort.

How to create a good Manuscript

To some this may seem easy. Think again. Writing a proper manuscript takes work, dedication, and some perspiration.

There are submission guidelines to follow, and proper formatting to consider. Anyone can put down words on paper; but do they tell a story? Is there a plot, setting, believable characters, and do the words make the reader want to read it?
These are only a few things to think about as you write your story. Some other things to think about are the basics like grammar, spelling, punctuation, verb subject agreement, tense, point-of-view, and more.

When writing your story, do not rely on the spell-check and grammar checker that comes in your word processing program. They are not good or precise enough to aid you in your writing to the degree necessary to create a quality manuscript.
The spell checker only tells you if spelled a word correctly, but not if it is the right word. As Mark Twain put it, “The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter–it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”

Creative writing is much different from business writing or writing a letter to someone. In Creative writing requires to break a rule at times, but you must know the rules before you can break them. If you are unsure of the rules, learn them before you break one.

As Nathaniel Hawthorne said, “Easy reading is damn hard writing.” He got it right. There is much more to writing than just putting down some words. Using another quote to illustrate a point, “They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But let me tell you, a story is worth a million pictures.” — Randall Ingermanson. This is what every story needs to do. You must take the reader on a journey and your words are the magic carpet upon which the reader sits while taking the journey the writer has prepared for them.

If a writer is not emotionally into the story, the reader won’t be either. As a writer “You’ve got to love libraries. You’ve got to love books. You’ve got to love poetry. You’ve got to love everything about literature. Then, you can pick the one thing you love most and write about it.” — Ray Bradbury

Create a good manuscript that tells a story someone wants to read.