Linda Rae Blair's Blog, page 2

A Reminder To Indies

Recently I received a very kind review from a gentlemen who praised the good formatting and lack of "errors" in one of my books. The reviewer stated that he had come to find too many indies who put out work with errors and poor formatting and was surprised to find mine so well done. Well, good for me–I'd found a fan and was so proud to be a good indie example. Then days later, I read the work of one of my fellow indies and was shocked. I knew that this was exactly why the reputation of indie writers as a whole have taken a hit! And we can fix it!

What a shame! To think that poorly formatted books filled with grammar and punctuation errors enough to drive a reader to drink–hopefully remembering to put down that paperback or shut down the reading device first! Why do these writers continue to do so? Why don't they learn to do a better job? Are they not using decent editors? Perhaps no editors?

Oh, I'm certain there are some that simply don't care. Those who just want to make a fast buck or two out of sucking in a few poor souls before the quality of their work is known. I say a daily prayer that their computers go down or their links to Amazon, etc. suddenly explode upon a system-fatal "click" of the mouse. In my heart, I know they will always be out there.

Then, there are those that seek help from others but, as soon as you move on to help someone else, put out more garbage. It's sad, but these are much more interested in getting free help than in learning anything they have to use on their own. They are like the kids in school that paid somebody to do their essays or–depending on the availability at the time–take their tests.

Hopefully, the third group, those who just don't know any better, learn and learn quickly. Hopefully, they find qualified help from amongst us to bring up the quality of their work. For this last group, here's a list of helpful hints:

- BEFORE sending your book to an editor (whether it's your one-and-only editor or first of several), be sure your book is absolutely, positively the very best PRODUCT you can make. (Yes, your pride and joy is going to be a product for sale on the open market.)

- Read and re-read your epic, making sure every line says what you wanted it to say.

- Make certain every sentence has, to your knowledge, the correct punctuation and grammar. (I'm not talking about the grammar of your characters, who may not be able to string two or more 5-word sentences together.)

- Make sure that voice changes–no, not tenor to bass–but that pesky "point-of-view" (POV), are clearly defined for your reader via use of some literary tool such as my all-time-fav, ye olde " * * * ". I'd be lost without that one! Your characters should never get into one another's heads. It's the same as doing a scene change mid-chapter. Somebody had better warn the reader–bump in road ahead.

- Check your spelling! Did you even bother to use spell check? It won't  catch everything, but it'll sure cull out a huge amount of errors you apparently hadn't noticed earlier! So run spell check first, then do a read-through to see if you find any others. If your eyes are starting to haze over, and you catch yourself daydreaming–read it out loud with a friend. This will not only catch spelling errors, but wrong word usage (porn vs. pawn, to/two/too, they're, their, there, Mother vs. mother, genius' vs. geniuses), but it will also show you places that make the reader's attention hitch! You know what I mean. You're reading along and all of a sudden your brain says, "Say what?", and you find yourself rereading that sentence or paragraph before you can move on. An out loud, read-through is great for catching those.

Once and only once all of the above are done, your pride and joy is ready for the eyes of an editor. If you do it any sooner, you're shirking your job as a writer! Will you catch everything? NO! (Was that resounding enough for you?) Will you be absolutely certain that you've done your best? YES! And that, really, is what the reader is looking for–your best! It still may not be perfect, but it won't be a disaster–unless, of course, you simply cannot write–and we aren't going there today!

Now, once you've got it in formats for varying devices, download your own work to your Nook, or your Kindle, or whatever device you have and read your own book. This will tell you whether or not it has formatting issues due to conversion that must be fixed immediately.

This read-through, you'll find, is entirely different from reading it on your PC. This one will tell you if it shines! This is the one where you can begin to feel really proud of your work. It's your best, it's worth selling, it's worth reading and it's worth reviewing!

 

The Preston Andrews Mysteries Video

I'm really excited to have my very first YouTube video out where the whole world can see it! Yes, I did it all by myself, which I what I used to always tell my poor mother when she tried to help me. Was it easy–no, it took an entire day and learning to use three new programs to do it.

But I DID IT!

Now, won't you take a look and let me know what you think?

The Preston Andrews Mysteries Series Trailer

Sharing What I've Learned, Asking About What I Question, Commenting on What's Important to Me!

Welcome to my site!

I'm so glad you've decided to  check out my blogs.

I read somewhere that a blogger should never "over-do" adding new blogs–add them only when you have something worth sharing. I've taken this to heart–as you can tell from the posting date of my blog (August 18, 2011) and the small number of the new ones added since.

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Linda Rae