Jennifer Ellis's Blog, page 11

Front Matter

The time has come for me to consider what I want to include
in the front matter of my book. Front
matter is those pages before the book actually starts. You know, the section with the
title page, some legal stuff, dedications, an amazing photo of moi (not likely). At
least I think that’s what goes in the front of a novel.

But maybe I had better check.

Okay, so as usual, the book designer genius Joel Friedlander
has the lowdown on what you put in the front of your book with all sorts of
fancy titles...

Trim Size and Your Novel

Or everything you thought you wanted to know about trim size but were afraid to ask

Who knew you could spend almost an entire day researching
trim sizes? I didn’t. I didn’t even know what trim size was a month ago. And I
certainly did not know how much variation there is in trim sizes in the
publishing world.

So what is trim size?
Trim size is basically the size of the book. It is called trim size because that
is where the book is trimmed at the end of production.

Trim size affects a lot of things...

Don't be a Badly Behaving Author (or Reviewer)

Don't be a Badly Behaving Author (or Reviewer)

The latest furor of cyber activity over Lauren Pippa’s accusations of
rape and death threats over questioning a bad review of her yet
unreleased novel caused me to look into the larger controversy
surrounding Goodreads Bullies and Badly Behaving Authors (BBAs). The
Pippa case seems to have been warped beyond reason by overreactions,
lies and accusations on all sides and yet it highlights a growing issue
in the world of book reviews. I would post a...

Why do we Stigmatize Self-Publishing?

Why do we Stigmatize Self-Publishing?

Why do we stigmatize writers who self-publish? Other kinds of artists
– painters, musicians and filmmakers – are respected for their efforts to sell their work on their own. Artists sell paintings out of their house and in local galleries. Musicians put out indie records and tour around local clubs and restaurants to promote their work. They have
local followings and fans. We do not refuse to go see a band because a big label has not signed it. We recognize...

Writing Shit

Writing Shit

I’ve
been meaning to rewrite this post for some time. It was one of my first
posts as a blogger and thus I had not yet settled on how I was going to
approach blogging or how much time I was going to put into each post.
Nevertheless, this has probably remained one of the most popular posts
on my blog, and thus I decided it was time to rewrite it, because it was
at best half-assed. At worst, it might have been sh*t.

1) Sometimes you will think your writing is fantastic. Sometimes y...