Terry Odell's Blog, page 87

Cover Mockups – No Hassle and No Cost

Cover Mockups – No Hassle and No Cost

Whether you’re an indie author, traditionally published, or a combination of the two, marketing is a part of the job, and not always a pleasant one. One thing that seems to carry over to any kind of marketing, be it a blog post, or something on the social media platforms is that visuals are important.

Today, I’m sharing a couple of sites that offer free, no-strings ways to create cover mockups of your books that you can use anywhere you like.

A while back...

Keeping Track – It’s in the Details

Keeping Track – It’s in the Details

When I was trying to decide where to go next after turning in my manuscript for Personal Assignment, my muse decided I should go back to Pine Hills and see what had transpired since Saving Scott. I tried to tell her that after Nash had his turn, T-Bone wanted his story told, but she would have no part of it. Pine Hills it was, then.

As I started to write, I learned a lesson. Keeping track of details is a major plus. No matter what, keep a series bible, a ch...

Tips for Working in Word.

Tips for Working in Word.

I still prefer to use Word for my manuscripts. That format is still the industry standard, and although I’ve tried other software, I’m more comfortable using my old standby.

I’m working through the first round of edits from my editor, and I have a couple of tips for working in Word that I’ve found helpful.

The first is the Navigation Pane.

Click on any image to enlarge.

This option adds a column at the left of your manuscript that shows all your chapter headers. This...

Cacophony and Frequency Illusion. Coincidence or Real?

Cacophony and Frequency Illusion. Coincidence or Real?

My daughter and I used to take walks through our neighborhood, and one day there was a flock of birds squawking in the trees. I pointed them out to my daughter, using the word cacophony. Several days later, she reported that she’d seen or heard cacophony several times since then—and that she didn’t much care for the word.

Have you ever noticed how “new” things, things you’ve never noticed, seem to appear more often once you do notice them...

Make Things Happen

Make Things Happen

We’re two weeks into the new year. How many of your resolutions have you broken? It’s my turn over at Booklover’s Bench this week, and I’m talking about a more reasonable approach to staying on track for the new year.

 

I’m giving away a copy of my Silver-Falchion Award-winning short story collection, Seeing Red. Just hop over to “The Bench” and leave a comment to be entered. Print or digital; winner’s choice.

The post Make Things Happen appeared first on Terry Odell.

Reading Levels for Fiction

Reading Levels for Fiction

A while back, I was talking about word choices, and whether writing “beautiful sentences,” to quote James Scott Bell, was a worthwhile goal. Bell’s goal is not to call attention to the words, but to the story. “Don’t write to impress your readers; write to distress your characters.” Beautiful sentences, he said, are like caviar. Okay once in a while, but the majority of the population prefers salted peanuts. You can read his article here. He gives links to lots of e...

Cover Reveal – Personal Assignment

Cover Reveal – Personal Assignment

Getting a new cover is always exciting, even if you’re an Indie author and responsible for most of the choices. Given this book is part of my Blackthorne, Inc. series, a lot of the design is already established, which did make things a little easier on Kim of The Killion Group.

Back when I was with traditional publishers, the amount of cover input varied, but once the cover was finished, it was a done deal as long as they got the book title and your name rig...

Editing – Make Every Word Earn its Place

Making Every Word Earn its Place

Earlier, I talked about fine tuning the manuscript. One of the advantages of using a program like SmartEdit (I gave examples here) is that while you’re looking at words or phrases it’s flagged, you discover places where you’ve used more words than necessary. You want your manuscript lean and mean before sending it to your editor. Every word needs to earn its place. It should be the strongest word possible. Fillers and filtering words should be zapped. Verbs sh...

Release Day for Volume 2 of the Blackthorne, Inc. Novels

Release Day for Volume 2 of the Blackthorne, Inc. Novels

Today, anyone who preordered The Blackthorne, Inc. Novels, Volume 2 should find it waiting on their e-readers.

For the rest of you, you can find links to all your favorite e-stores here.

What do you get? Three complete novels: Danger in Deer Ridge, Dangerous Connections, and Windswept Danger. At the same time, you’re doing some bonus “good” because I share my royalties with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society for all of the first mo...

Editing: Fine Tuning the Manuscript

Editing: Fine Tuning the Manuscript

After the major surgery is “done” (there will always be changes with each subsequent pass), I start looking at fine tuning the manuscript. I print out the manuscript again, again in my columns format (saves a lot of paper, as you can see—the thick stack is the printout of my nightly read-throughs of each chapter, and I don’t reformat.)

Doing another full read of the manuscript helps find errors I might have created in that first major culling pass. If I del...