Rob Bignell's Blog, page 292

Use link shortneers for tidier promotions

When promoting your books, of course you want to include links to your website, blog and various social media platforms. Sometimes ��� such as with a paperback ��� you have to write out those links. Often those links have really long addresses or you end up with a list of links that looks like alphabet and number soup.

The solution is to use a link shortener.

A link shortener creates a new, briefer URL for your page. Several link shortener services ���including Triberr, Google, TinyURL, Ow.ly, Bit.ly ��� exist.

The link shortener page is a simple to use. Once you call up the web page for the link shortener service, simply past the long URL into a box that is given. It then will generate a shorter URL that you can copy and paste. For example, using Google���s service, an Amazon.com page for one of my books (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B51QJA8/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_1Cufvb17YJ0FR) became http://goo.gl/h0jQ0A. 

Shortening an URL can serve a lot of other purposes than appearing on your paperbacks or business cards. They can be used at Twitter; indeed, they often are shorter than Twitter links generated at your book���s Amazon.com page (as the above example shows). Further, if using social media sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook, your shortened link will show pictures from your book���s web page rather than a generic Amazon.com photo or page. Finally, many of the link shortener services provide analytics services so that you can see how many hits your link receives as well as where those hits comes from.

If you shorten a lot of links, be sure to create a file listing what those links are. This will save you the trouble of shortening links when you���ve previously done so, and having a single list of them will make copying and pasting them easier on future projects you do.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper 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 San Jose, California, or a small town like Boar Tush, Alabama, I can provide that second eye.

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Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper 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 Oakland, California, or a small town like Goobertown, Arkansas, I can provide that second eye.

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Narrowing definitions: Aisle vs. isle

Oh what a difference a mere letter makes! The difference between these two words are oceans apart.

An aisle is the spacing in which one can between two other objects, such as shelves or pews. Hence, The aisles in Los Angeles supermarkets are wider than those in Boston grocery stores, he thought.

An isle is a shortened version of island. To wit, Alcatraz is an isle off the San Francisco coast. In addition, an isle also can refer to items analogous to an island, such as a kitchen isle.

Just remember: Mix up these words, and your readers may leave your book stranded on an isle, like Robinson Crusoe.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper 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 San Jose, California, or a small town like Boar Tush, Alabama, I can provide that second eye.

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Writing Prompt: Go down another road

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: Should you find your story at a dead end, maybe you need to back up and go down another road. Rather than asking yourself what sentence should come next, think of what other sentence could be written in its place. Does this lead you to other roads?

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper 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 San Francisco, California, or a small town like Nimrod, Oregon, I can provide that second eye.

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Three ebook formatting tips, part VI

Ebooks follow different formatting rules than books printed on paper. That���s because a book made of ink on paper is a different platform for presenting information than a book made of digital bits on an electronic screen. Even though the same content (your book) is being presented, the platforms will need to be handled differently, just as certainly different production methods are used for a play presented on stage and on a television screen.

Because of that, there are a number of things you might do when formatting a paperback but never would do when constructing an ebook. Following are three tips about what to differently.

Page breaks
Adding a page break at the end of each chapter makes your book more readable. When formatting, though, always place the page break on the very next line after a chapter���s last word. Add blank lines between the chapter���s last line and the page break sometimes can result in a blank screen for a page in the published ebook; besides looking unprofessional, the blank page can confuse readers about where they are in the ebook.

Photographs
Limit the size of photographs appearing in your ebook. Most ebook publishers restrict the size of the manuscript that is uploaded, and large photos will quickly push you over that watermark, leading to rejection. Since photographs need not be larger than most ereader or tablet screens, it never should be more than five inches wide by five inches deep in actual size (and probably can be even smaller, depending on who you are publishing your book with). Make sure the photo���s resolution is in 300 dpi. In addition, the image quality usually can be reduced to a six on a scale of 1-12.

Page numbers
There���s no need to add page numbers to your ebook. Since readers can customize the text���s font and font size to their preference, page numbers quickly would become meaningless in an ebook. Instead, most ereaders provide a ���location��� that acts as a sort of a page number for readers.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper 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 Dayton, Ohio, or a small town like Why, Arizona, I can provide that second eye.

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Five Great Quotations about Readers

���It is the writer's fault, not the reader's, if the reader puts down the book.��� - David Halberstam

���There is something in us, as storytellers and as listeners to stories, that demands the redemptive act, that demands that what falls at least be offered the chance to be restored. The reader of today looks for this motion, and rightly so, but what he has forgotten is the cost of it. His sense of evil is diluted or lacking altogether, and so he has forgotten the price of restoration. When he reads a novel, he wants either his sense tormented or his spirits raised. He wants to be transported, instantly, either to mock damnation or a mock innocence.��� - Flannery O'Connor

���Forget your generalized audience. In the first place, the nameless, faceless audience will scare you to death and in the second place, unlike the theater, it doesn���t exist. In writing, your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person ��� a real person you know, or an imagined person and write to that one.��� - John Steinbeck

���When a reader falls in love with a book, it leaves its essence inside him, like radioactive fallout in an arable field, and after that there are certain crops that will no longer grow in him, while other, stranger, more fantastic growths may occasionally be produced.��� - Salman Rushdie

���The public wants work which flatters its illusions.��� - Gustave Flaubert

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper 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 Dayton, Ohio, or a small town like Why, Arizona, I can provide that second eye.

 

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Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper 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 Dallas, Texas, or if you come from a small town Why, Arizona, I can provide that second eye.

 

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Colorado editing client publishes first book

A recent editing client of mine has published his first book, ���The Hardest Climb in the World.��� Thomas Q. Williams' memoir tells the story of an ambitious young rock climber who uses yoga to overcome his lack of talent. It involves descriptive travels of England, continental Europe and India. Everest legend Ed Webster reviewed as "a fantastic read and an unforgettable life journey." Williams is an AMGA Certified Top Rope Site Manager at Longs Peak Mountain Guides in Eldorado Springs, CO. The book can be ordered online.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper 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 an urban area like California's Orange County or a rural area like Loving County, Texas, I can provide that second eye.

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Writing Inspiration: Profound aspirations

Why do you write? To feel more fully alive? To give the world meaning and purpose? If your answer is mundane or egocentric ��� to make money, to achieve fame ��� ask if your writing can serve a deeper, more profound aspiration.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper 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 Los Angeles, California, or a small town like Hell, Michigan, I can provide that second eye.

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Find your way: Lose vs. loose

The grammar of a few writers gets all unraveled where these two words are concerned.

Lose is a verb that is the opposite of win; it also can be a synonym for ���miss.��� For example, Analysts predict the team from New York will lose to the one from Los Angeles or I���m afraid in a big city like Chicago I���ll lose my way.

Loose is an adjective that is the opposite of tight. To wit, One reason the New York team won���t win is because their players��� shoelaces are loose.

Will you now take a bet about getting these two words right the next time you use either one ��� or are you afraid you���ll lose (or is it loose?)?

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper 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 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, or a small town like Dry Prong, Louisiana, I can provide that second eye.

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