Rob Bignell's Blog, page 275

Five Great Quotations about Fiction

���It's for getting at the truth when the truth isn't sufficient for the truth.��� - Tim O'Brien

���Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.��� - G.K. Chesterton

���Humanity lives in its fiction.��� - Blaise Cendrars

���Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.��� - Albert Camus

���Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.��� - Jessamyn West

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

 

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Writing Inspiration: Your personal interest

When giving a gift, knowing what the receiver may need or want can help you decide what to get. As a writer sitting down for a session at the journal or keyboard, ask yourself what are your interests or on your ���wish list��� for books to pen. Writing about a personal interest or attempting to achieve a personal goal can result in a more productive and fulfilling session.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

 

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Organize blog tour to promote your book

Setting up a series of book readings and signings at bookstores, libraries and retailers carries a lot of risk. Primarily, you have to sell enough books to cover the cost of driving to the locations and probably for dining and lodging. Yet, even with a good promotional effort, very few people may show up for the event.

A much less risky alternative is to do a blog tour. Such an event involves you appearing on a different blog on several consecutive days. Each blog gets its own unique ���presentation��� from you ��� one might run a guest blog written by you, another might be a Q&A interview of you, another might be a news story focusing on some aspect of your book.

This virtual tour immediately eliminates the cost of gas, meal and hotels. Even better, it focuses on hundreds of people who would be specifically interested in your book; blogs attract like-minded people internationally whereas a reading at a brick-and-mortar store���s audience is limited to those who live in that locality.

A blog tour will take some effort to organize. You���ll have to identify and then contact blog owners to determine if they���re interested, nail down topics and dates that don���t overlap, create unique written material, and then cross-promote one another. You���ll want to start arranging the tour at least several weeks before the tour is to take place, which usually coincides with you book���s release.

Ideally, you want readers of each blog to follow you through the other blogs. This gives each blog owner an incentive to participate. The benefits of the blog tour then will be two-fold for you ��� more book sales and more followers of your own blog.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Charlotte, North Carolina, or a small town like Butts, Georgia, I can provide that second eye.

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Wait to format text until editing is done

One rookie mistake made by many self-publishing authors is that they start formatting their manuscript before it is completed. 

Formatting when writing to a small degree makes some sense. Many authors want to get a feel for what their book will look like in print. Or perhaps to get a ���head start��� while waiting for a proofreading to be completed, they start formatting.

Almost invariably, though, this actually will create more work.

Before formatting, you want to be absolutely done writing, fact-checking, editing and even proofreading the book. If you format in MS Word and then make changes to the text, you���ll likely run into one or more of the following problems:
��� Page numbers change ��� Book design traditionally places the first page of a chapter on the right-hand (odd-numbered) page. When text is added or deleted, this can alter the locations of headers and chapters, forcing you to add empty lines to the page or even entirely new blank pages.
��� Table of contents and index change ��� Usually regenerating the table of contents is easy enough���but editing after page numbers have been set requires you to redo this step. With indexes, you may recheck every entry.
��� Hyphenated words shift ��� To get wording to space properly across a line in MS Word, sometimes hyphens are manually added. Delete or add a single word, however, and usually those hyphens no longer appear at the end of a line but its middle.
��� Page breaks shift ��� Especially with MS Word, you might place artificial breaks in the text to ensure it is justified on the page. Changing a word can result in an empty line of text or push text to the next page.
��� Images and text boxes get cut off ��� Adding or deleting text also means that images and any text boxes (such as for drop caps or breakout boxes) will shift on the page. They may no longer appear next to captions or only parts of them may appear on the page.

This is not to say that you shouldn���t make changes to a formatted manuscript. If you notice a typo, by all means fix it. Usually a lone misspelling won���t cause major problems, as its impact on the formatted text is localized (such as throwing off hyphens within that paragraph). But the fewer typos you have to correct, the less likely corrections will mess up the formatting.

Of course, some minor formatting can begin the moment you start writing. Selecting the font, the font size, and the line spacing, as well as boldfacing the chapter titles and headers (presuming you want them boldface) makes perfect sense. But any formatting that might be impacted whenever you revise the text ought to wait.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.



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Forever confusing: lifelong, life-long, life long

Here���s a set of words that have perplexed some writers their entire lives: lifelong vs. life-long vs. life long.

Most grammarists agree that lifelong ��� meaning lasting through one���s existence, as in a lifelong friendship ��� should be one word rather than two words or hyphenated.

Confusion over the spelling arises because punctuation rules say that compound words, when used as an adjective, usually require a hyphen, as in well-known man. ���Usually��� is the operative word here, as lifelong is an exception. The same applies to other ���long��� words that show a length of time, such as daylong, monthlong, weeklong and yearlong.

Life long is never correct. Typically compound words with a space consist of two nouns, such as ice cream.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.



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Writing Prompt: Focus on social issues

Suffering from writer���s block or need to add some spunk to your writing? The problem may be that you need to change up your routine.

To that end, try this tip: List a half-dozen social issues that you feel passionate about. For the next few days, write journal entries about each one. Do any lead to ideas for stories or books that you might write?

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Ventura, California, or a small town like Big Ugly Creek, West Virginia, I can provide that second eye.



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Score story plot points with head fake

Many readers enjoy books in which they attempt to solve the story���s central problem before the main character does. To add to such readers��� pleasure, authors sometimes will create ���diversions��� when plotting the book.

These diversions are known as head fakes, as they���re plot actions that appear significant but really aren���t. The term is borrowed from sports when an athlete moves his or head one way to signal direction but then actually goes the other way. It was coined by CSFW���s David Smith. Head fakes often are used in mystery stories or whenever the reader is solving the story���s puzzle alongside the main character.

Any head fake in a story ought to fit into the plot, though. Usually it���s an avenue that the main character explores but later realizes or decides is a dead end. At least one clue should be dropped into the plot to suggest that avenue will go nowhere.

Limit the number of head fakes in your story. Using too many of them is like crying wolf. The reader will feel that you don���t really have a plot and frustrate with the story might quit reading it.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Raleigh, North Carolina, or a small town like Strong, Maine, I can provide that second eye.



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Five Great Quotations about Good Writing

���My aim is to put down what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way I can tell it.��� - Ernest Hemingway

���Writing for me is just like building a chair, making an artifact. The idea is that you build, create a story and cobble it together. If it stands up, that's good. If it stands up, it's comfortable, it's a good story, a good chair.��� - Scott Smith

���A great story is life, with the dull parts taken out.��� - Alfred Hitchcock

���Easy reading is damn hard writing.��� - Nathaniel Hawthorne

���Good writing is more about graft and craft than inspiration and aspiration.��� - Johnny Rich

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Nashville, Tennessee, or a small town like Turkey Creek, Louisiana, I can provide that second eye.

 

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Editor���s book focuses on national parks��� top sights

My newest hiking guidebook, Best Sights to See at America���s National Parks, was released Friday. Describing more 200 day hiking trails, the book answers two questions every visitor to a national park asks, ���What should I see, and how do I find those spots?��� With the trails listed in this volume, you���ll never have to worry about missing waterfalls, inspiring mountain views, wildlife, incredible rock formations, or any of the other top sights at our national parks. It is available in paperback and on Kindle ebook.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.



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Steps in organizing a book presentation

When organizing a book signing, reading, or other presentation related to your title, you might want to break down your effort into several smaller steps. Doing so will allow you to better tackle what is a much larger endeavor that most imagine.

Among the steps to consider are:
��� Determine if a book presentation is right for you ��� Any book event you participate in has its own unique set of advantages and disadvantages for your sales. Sometimes a book event isn���t worth the effort���other times, it can yield more than you ever anticipated!
��� Decide the type of book presentation you will deliver ��� The kind of book you���re promoting and your sales goals can help you select the best kind of presentation to give.
��� Choose where to give your presentations ��� For varying reasons, some venues are better than others. And there are more places than bookstores and libraries to promote your book!
��� Arrange the presentation ��� You probably will give a presentation in a public setting; knowing how to set that up with the right person is necessary to ensuring the event is real rather than something being thought about.
��� Promote your presentation ��� People will not just magically show up at your event. You will need to market your marketing effort!
��� Prepare for a presentation ��� Few people can just show up at a presentation and wing it. You should have a plan for what you will do at your event.
��� Deliver the presentation ��� A presentation always consists of three parts: set up at the location before the event begins; delivering the presentation before an audience; and interacting with the audience after the presentation.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

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