Self-Publishing – Page 25 – Self Publishing Advisor

5 Writing Tips on the Road to Self-publishing

The most common mistakes are minor, for example incorrect word use (their, they’re, there) and simple misspellings. Check with your publisher regarding about their copy editing services which are designed to catch common errors while identifying mistakes related to tense, consistency, and punctuation. How long does it take, and what is the cost?

2 – Get a second (and third) set of eyes

Even if you don’t want to pay a professional, anyone who reviews your document will find mistakes you invariably miss. The fact is, you’re much more familiar with your manuscript than anyone else, and as a result, apt to miss obvious mistakes simply because your eyes glaze over them.

3 – Read your manuscript backwards

This allows you to become instantly unfamiliar with your story. When you read your manuscript backwards, it’s just a bunch of words, and those mistakes literally jump off the page.

4 – Read your manuscript out loud

When you’re forced to say the words your brain is forced to slow down and concentrate on the material. Bonus – you may discover stumbling blocks like awkward sentence structures and choppy dialogue when hearing your book read aloud.

5 – Use the right kind of publisher

Go on-demand. On-demand publishing offers you easy editing post-publication to fix any mistakes that may have found their way in to your book. What’s more, books aren’t printed until their sold, so you don’t end up with a garage or basement full of books with errors in them.

Self-Publishing, Self-Publishing Book Review of the Week

Self-publishing Book Review of the Week: Devil Dogs and Banana Slugs

Devil Dogs & Banana Slugs
by Will Selling
9781432752383, $18.95

At the forefront of a protest usually lies the disciples of academia. “Devil Dogs & Banana Slugs: Cultural Battles Between the University and the Military” is a personal recollection of one Desert Storm Veteran’s own account of his experiences with both sides of the coin. While academia emphasizes individuality, the military pushes unity, and these meet an obvious conflict. “Devil Dogs & Banana Slugs” is a fascinating read, highly recommended.

Michael Dunford
Reviewer

Self-Publishing

Kindle versus iPad. Or, not really at all…

At the recent Self-publishing Book Expo in New York City, Amazon’s Jason Kuykendall admitted to owning both a Kindle and an iPad.

(Don’t tell Jeff Bezos!) He already knows, and should because this is a good thing for Amazon, and for self-publishing authors. As Jason pointed out, the Kindle is more than a device among the various available – it is a distribution channel. As a reader, you may have a preference, or as can be the case with Apple an open prejudice. We’ll let Bezos and Jobs worry about those manufacturing and marketing details.

As an author, these devices are much more than readers, they are distribution channels from the Espresso Book Machine all the way up to Ingram. Instead of being readers, the Kindle and iPad are for authors important distribution channels.

Be sure to check with your publisher about options distributing through as many as possible.

Book Doctor, Self-Publishing

Guest Post: Ask the Book Doctor

Style advice for the self-publishing author…

Q: When mentioning an album name in my book, like song titles, do you lowercase conjunctions (and), prepositions (of, for), and articles (a, the), even when they appear capitalized on the album covers?

Actual cover: Wheels Of A Dream

In my book: Wheels of a Dream

A: You have hit on a style issue. Advertising, labels, and such often capitalize things at will. Advertising style is not the same as Chicago Style.

Chicago Style, the standard for the book publishing industry, has specific rules for when things should be capitalized, written out, abbreviated, or punctuated. It says, in part, the following: “In title capitalization, the first and last words and all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinating conjunctions (if, because, as, that) are capitalized. Articles (a, an, the) and coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, for, nor) are lowercased unless they are the first or last word.

What you have in your manuscript, Wheels of a Dream, is correct as far as capitalization goes, but I’m not sure if it is an album or a song title. Chicago Style calls for putting quotation marks around the title of a song, but it calls for italicizing the title of a long musical composition, such as an opera or an album.

Bobbie Christmas, book editor, author of Write In Style (Union Square Publishing), and owner of Zebra Communications, will answer your questions, too. Send them to Bobbie@zebraeditor.com. Read more “Ask the Book Doctor” questions and answers at http://www.zebraeditor.com

Self-Publishing

By virtue of the term: Self-publishing

Digital democracy. iTunes changed the record business forever. Blogs have reshaped the landscape of traditional print news. YouTube challenged the way television and advertising CEO’s communicated with the viewing public. Who would have thought even ten years ago that a majority of users would value a user-generated encyclopedia over Britannica?

Technology has quickly and powerfully changed the way we think, enjoy, communicate, and create. Across each industry one thing holds – a democratization effect – where artists make the rules.

On-demand and digital self-publishing is equally shaking things up. As the WSJ notes, “once derided as ‘vanity’ titles by the publishing establishment, self-published books suddenly are able to thrive by circumventing the establishment.”

“Playing God” in his book Mickey Mantle is Going to Heaven, former Yankee pitcher opted to self-publish in order to maintain his content control. A wise move that is rumored to have been opted into a movie project reuniting Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: