Rob Bignell's Blog, page 363
July 21, 2013
Rice Lake, Wis., library hosting editor reading/signing of 'Headin' to the Cabin'
The Rice Lake
(Wis.) Public Library 
is hosting a book reading/signing for my recent book, Headin’ to the Cabin: Day Hiking Trails of Northwest Wisconsin, on Saturday, July 27 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Headin’ to the Cabin describes more than a 100 day hiking trails in Ashland, Barron, Bayfield, Burnett, Douglas, Polk, St. Croix, Sawyer and Washburn counties, including several in neighboring Superior. The library is located at 2 E. Marshall St., in Rice Lake.
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. I can provide that second eye.
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July 20, 2013
To eliminate exposition in story, ‘film it’
When
editing a draft of your novel or short story, one self-test you might use is to “film it,” a term coined by CSFW’s Steve Popkes. To do this, as reading the manuscript imagine that it is a movie or screenplay being played out in front of you.
When you come across parts of the story that you wouldn’t see in a movie, you probably have run into exposition. That’s because movies are all about constantly moving a story forward to keep the audience interested. Exposition would bring the film to a halt, leaving you with just a screen shot. After a few seconds, the audience would get bored. Likewise, you don’t want your story to suddenly freeze on a single frame.
When you come to a freeze frame in your story, give serious consideration to revising it.
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. I can provide that second eye.
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July 19, 2013
How to construct your website’s home page
The first 
page of your website that most potential readers and the media likely will see is your home page. This page serves as an introduction to your book.
Because of this, your home page should aim to get readers and the media interested in your book. If they don’t click “Order this Book” after visiting your home page, then they ought to at least click onto another page to find out more about the author or to read free, sample pages from the book. Hopefully this in turn will get them to either purchase the book or to write a news story or a blog entry about you (which in turn hopefully will get other people to buy your book!).
Generally, text that acts as a blurb for the book works best for the home page.
To that end, consider including these elements on your home page:
g Header – The goal of every header is to tell the reader exactly what the page is about. A simple title often will suffice (see the home page of the website for my book “Hikes with Tykes” as an example). You may want to go for something splashier, however, such as “‘The Letters’ – Bro Craig’s Stunning Debut Novel”.
g Dramatic quotation – If you’ve written a novel, reprint some lines from the book that capture what the story is about. The quotation shouldn’t go longer than eight lines of type on the web page.
g Synopsis – For a novel, write a plot summary. For a nonfiction book, describe what the volume is about, specifically explaining how it offers what readers can’t get anywhere else. For either a novel or nonfiction book, go no longer than 10 lines of type on the web page, however.
g Author’s bio – If writing a nonfiction book, readers will want to know why the author is so qualified to write such a book. Your bio should answer that question in no more than six lines of type on the web page.
g Closer – This is a one or two line appeal to purchase the book. For example, “THIS IS YOUR FIELD MANUAL TO HIKING WITH KIDS!” or “NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.COM!”
Vary the size of the text for these various elements of your home page. The header should be the largest type and in boldface. The dramatic quotation, synopsis and author’s bio should be in the same type size and type face as the rest of the text on other pages at your website, though you might set off the quotation by italicizing it. The closer should be a larger text size than the synopsis but smaller than the header; it should be in boldface as well and perhaps set off by capitalizing it.
Don’t feel that you have to get everything about you and the book on the home page. Visitors to your site will see that you have other pages on the website and are more likely to navigate to them if intrigued with brief, interesting text than they are to wade through a long article on a single page.
Finally, this method hardly is the “only” or the “right” way to construct a home page to promote a single book, though certainly all of the elements listed above should appear on every home page. Remember, the goal here is to construct a website quickly and easily. After all, while you want to promote and market your book, you also want to get on to writing your next one.
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. I can provide that second eye.
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July 18, 2013
Factors to consider in selecting a self-publisher
Now that
you’ve decided to self-publish your book, you need to find an on-demand printing house. Also known as a self-publishing company, this business only prints a copy of your book “on demand” – that is, when someone orders it. Most such companies are online.
Before selecting a self-publishing company, do your research. Simply type “self-publishing companies” into a search engine. In addition to reading through each company’s website pitch, check out postings by bloggers and the news media that review and compare these companies, grading them on varying criteria.
Remember, however, that there are quite a number of self-publishing companies out there, and the names of the players in this young industry are constantly changing. In addition, to remain competitive and find a business model that works, these companies frequently adjust their policies, procedures and services. Last year’s review listing “The 10 Best On-Demand Printing Companies” probably is already out of date.
Some key factors to consider when selecting a publishing house include:
g What services do they provide? If you need help anytime during the process, do they have staff who can format your book, create a cover, or proofread the book? Most importantly, do they have timely and useful customer service?
g What is the range of their distribution efforts? Do you merely get to post a description of your book and its cover on your website or do they ensure your book can purchased through book store websites?
g How much do they charge? Is there a membership fee? What are the hidden costs of printing with them? What will be the total cost of publishing with that company?
g What royalties do they offer? How much will you earn for each book sold?
g Is there a contract? If there isn’t, you can bet you’re dealing with a snake-oil salesman. If there is a contract, read it. You will have to decide if you will agree to it, after all.
Most authors simply look at the royalties question, but all of these factors must be taken into consideration and balanced against one another. If a self-publishing company offers high royalties but requires a large membership fee, those two dollar amounts ultimately may cancel one another out, leading to zero profit. If a self-publishing company has no membership fees but limited distribution channels, you may never be able to get your book in front of enough potential readers to make much of a profit.
Rather than go to an on-demand printing company to print your book, you may want to consider having a printing company (say one in your hometown) do the book for you. You almost certainly will find the per unit cost of printing a book less expensive at a local printing company than you will from a self-publishing company. The downside is a local printing company will make you buy in bulk, and you may find selling that many books is difficult at best. In addition, most on-demand companies allow you to keep correcting typos in your book for a small fee. Since you bought in bulk from the local printing company, you now have lots of books with unfixable typos in them.
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. I can provide that second eye.
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July 17, 2013
Constructive tip: Build up vs. build-up vs. buildup
You can 
bolster your reputation by using these three words correctly in your next writing.
Buildup (no hyphens, please) is a noun or an adjective: A buildup in troops along the border could be a sign of impending war.
Build up (with a space) is a verb: To build up his reputation in his new community, the young doctor joined the local Kiwanis Club.
Sometimes you’ll see build-up with a hyphen used as a noun or adjective. You’re probably reading some by a Brit, as the hyphen is chiefly British; no hyphen/no space is chiefly American.
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. I can provide that second eye.
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July 16, 2013
Five style issues to watch for in your story
As editing
fiction manuscripts across the years, a number of style issues tend to appear over and over in the manuscripts of novice writers. You can make your story more presentable to readers if you address them before publishing.
Five style problems to watch for in your story include:
g Dialogue – Use quotation marks and other standard punctuation rather than dashes.
g It – All too often sentences are structured so that readers don’t know what “it” refers to. By rewriting these sentences, you’ll make that clear and tighten the story as well. For example, rather than writing “It took about a week to make a plan and to start advertising the block for this poor girl” tell what “it” is, such as “They spent a week planning and obtaining advertising for the blog.”
g Active voice – Rewrite passive voice sentences (those using being verbs) so they are in active voice. For example, instead of using the passive “They both were working on this project days and nights” change it to the active “They worked on this project night and day.”
g Show don’t tell – Replace exposition with descriptions that infer a person’s emotional state and response. Instead of telling us “Her mother was hysterical,” let the reader infer it by writing “She could hardly catch her breath as pacing the room.”
g Begin fallacy – Writers rarely need to tell us that some action “begins”; just go ahead and say what the action is. Rather than saying “She began crying again” write “She cried again.”
Making these revision will make the stories flow more smoothly and more appealing to 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. I can provide that second eye.
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July 15, 2013
Basic guidelines for your story’s rising action
When
developing the rising action section of your story, there a few simple guidelines to follow. Ensuring these guidelines aren’t violated will help keep the story moving forward and increase the dramatic tension:
g Our hero never can give up – If he stops trying to overcome the central problem, the story would end. There may be moments where he doubts his abilities or the solution, but he cannot stop his counterthrusts against the protagonist until overcoming the central problem.
g The plot must thicken – With each level of rising action (or each effort to overcome the antagonist) ultimately solving the problem should become more difficult. This is known as a “thickening” of the plot. If each level or effort becomes less complicated, then the reader will know the story’s outcome and become less invested in the main character. Facing the biggest, most powerful monster first then a less powerful dog-sized monster and finally a virtually powerless bug-sized creature is anti-climatic.
g Good plotting involves “planting” – As developing the rising action, the author should reveal certain facts that later allow for plot twists. If this isn’t done, then the twist probably will appear artificial or forced. The trick to planting is ensuring that the upcoming twist doesn’t become so obvious that the reader knows it’s coming. It wouldn’t be a twist then.
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. I can provide that second eye.
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July 14, 2013
Aim to simultaneously publish paperback, ebook
Writers sometimes
wonder which version of their book they should print first – the paperback or the ebook. Ideally, both would come out at about the same time. After all, you are selling one product – your book – and you want all the different platforms that it can appear in to be available as soon as you tell everyone you’ve released your title.
Currently, though, if using the two most popular print on demand services – CreateSpace and Kindle Direct Publishing – there is some lag time between these versions. Still, that can be limited to within a 24-hour period.
As your ebook for the Kindle version can go through the self-publishing process faster than the paperback, to get both to come out at the same time, you’ll probably want to start working on your paperback first (This presumes that you’re submitting a version of your manuscript to Kindle Direct Publishing separate from your paperback to CreateSpace.). This occurs because the vetting process for a paperback is more involved than for an ebook.
If you instead decided to use your published paperback version via CreateSpace for your ebook, once you approve the paperback for publication, your Kindle ebook usually can be available for sale within a day. However, using this process often requires that you tweak your submitted manuscript, creating more lag time than a day. Typically, this tweaking involves fixing the lines you tweaked to make the paperback look right. For example, any forced hyphenation you did in your paperback will show up as a word with a hyphen in the middle of it in your ebook. Sometimes tabs won’t convert either.
Because of this, you may want to consider going the previously mentioned route of creating two formatted versions of your book – one for the paperback and one for the ebook.
The formatted version for your ebook can eliminate all of these tweaking problems. Further, if done to Smashwords’ formatted standards, this ebook version for your Kindle then can be used to submit your ebook to Nook, iBook, Kobo, Sony Reader and various other formats (though you may need to add a copyright note on your title page to these non-Kindle ebooks). As the vetting process for your Smashwords book can be as lengthy as for your paperback, this formatted version will allow you to more quickly get your book for sale in a variety of ebook platforms.
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. I can provide that second eye.
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July 13, 2013
Editing client releases adopting orphans memoir
A recent 
editing client of mine, Scott Oatsvall, has published his first book, “And 1…” Partial autobiography, the book tells the story of how a college basketball coach gave up his dreams of leading a championship team only to find something far more fulfilling: He and wife adopt several orphans from overseas and discover that true freedom comes only when one accepts God into his life. Though a slim volume, it’s an inspiring read. You can purchase “And 1…” 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. I can provide that second eye.
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July 12, 2013
Ensure your book’s website is navigable
A major 
factor to consider about constructing your website promoting your book is how visitors will be able move between all of the pages you’ve constructed for them. The ability to do this is called navigation.
There are two general areas that you’ll want visitors to your website to be able to navigate to:
g Page to order your book – With one click, a visitor should be able to reach a page where he can begin purchasing your book. You might call this link “Order this Book”. A reader who clicks it might be sent to the Amazon.com page that advertises your book.
g Pages on your website – You’ll want to have links that can take readers to any page on your site. Each link should use the same wording as the header on the page that you’ve sent them to.
These links should appear in one location on each of your pages. A good spot to place them is on a thin column either on the right or left side of your page. Place a picture of your book cover or your author’s photo at the top of the column. Link these pictures to a page where visitors can purchase your book. Navigation links are arranged this way in the right column of the website promoting my Hikes with Tykes book.
Not all of your pages necessarily need to have the same set of links (though the majority should). For example, if you have a page about your publishing company on your website, you may only want to send visitors to pages that offer catalogs of other books your company has printed. You also want to be careful where the links go or some will come to realize that you and your publishing company are one in the same. On other pages, you might only want to point readers in certain directions. For example, a page meant for the media might include your resume and a list of awards and honors. While you wouldn’t mind if anyone looked at these pages, you know that reporters and bloggers probably are particularly interested in them.
Tutorials on each website can show you how to make these links, but generally it’s simply a matter of:
g Copying the full URL for the page you want them to go
g Highlighting the word on your page where the link can be made
g Clicking a “chain” picture on the command ribbon
g Pasting the URL into the “web address” option of a pop-up box
g Hitting “OK” or “Update”
Building each page first then adding this collection of navigation links to each page will save you the most time. After you’ve built the complete set of navigation links for a single page, you can cut and paste it onto every other page of your website.
Links to your pages or other websites can occur within the text as well. Generally, you want to limit these to just a few per page or your text will become difficult to read as it’s littered with multi-colored words.
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. I can provide that second eye.
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