on Anne R. Allen:

With so many authors self-publishing these days, the best freelance editors are in high demand. So if you’re looking for a knowledgeable, experienced professional editor to help you make your manuscript the best it can be – and improve your overall writing skills in the process – be sure to take some care with how you seek out and approach them.

Due to the high volume of requests, sought-after freelance editors turn down many more writer clients than they can accept. So it’s important to make a good first impression.

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on Writers Helping Writers:

All right, hands up: What’s the one thing we can’t get enough of in fiction but we avoid like a screaming toddler in real life? Conflict.

It’s ironic that something we try to avoid in the real world is the very thing we can’t get enough of in books. Psychologically speaking, though, it makes perfect sense. Books do not significantly trigger a reader’s fight-or-flight instincts, making it safe for them to experience conflict—after all, that bad stuff is happening to someone else. Yet, if the story is well written, it draws them in so they’re right there with the hero or heroine, feeling some of that dread, anger, and confusion. They identify with the character’s experiences because their own real-life ones have taught them the agony of uncertainty and fear and what it’s like to feel completely outmatched.

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on The Book Designer:

If you’ve never formatted a book before, you might not know exactly how much work goes into it. It might seem easy and uniform—it just needs to look like a book, right?—but you’d be surprised just how many decisions you’ll need to make if you’re formatting on your own. Among the most important of these will be the font you choose for your book.

Think of it like this: picking a bad font for your book is much like picking a bad cover. Even if you’ve got the best content in the world, a reader is much less likely to buy or read it if it looks cheaply or badly made.

Let’s talk a little about fonts, why they matter, and how to pick the perfect one for your project.

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on Nathan Bransford:

Hello writerly people!

I’m back with another guest post to take you behind the scenes in the sometimes all-too-mysterious world of book publishing. In my first post last month, we talked about the acquisitions process: how an editor acquires a book for a publishing house/imprint. Now let’s pick up where we left off and discuss what happens next with that acquisition: the journey from the contract to bookstore shelves.

It’s a longer journey than you might think! One common misconception about publishing is how fast books come to market or go on-sale. People are often surprised that this process typically takes a year or more. (There are exceptions for books that may be newsworthy and have to be rushed out, which is called a “crash” schedule.)

Why does it take so much time? Well, a lot is happening behind the scenes over the course of…

on Just Publishing Advice:

It’s very easy to self-publish a book written by your child.

There are many online services available to self-publish your child’s book in either an ebook or print book.

Children are often blessed with a fantastic imagination. If you are the parent of a budding storyteller, you have plenty of options.

I’m sure that you will make your child very happy, and at the same time, you’ll be a very proud parent.

In This Article

on Self Publishing School:

All writing is made up of literary devices.

Literary devices, like the good ‘ole flashback, intentionally uplevel your writing, make it better, more impactful, and craft your writing to hook readers from the introduction.

Literary devices are used to:

• guide your readers in a specific direction to interpret your words the way you want them to
• add color to your words to get more readers hooked from line 1
• help you sell more of your self-published books (if you want to get serious about it).

Although the term “literary devices” can be a wee bit intimidating, they’re actually pretty simple.

In fact, you’re likely using a ton of these elements while writing your book and you don’t even realize it…(hint: your favorite TV shows use these all the time).

Continue reading HERE