When people are looking for new books to explore, there are three elements that get their attention: The cover The text at the back of the cover The introduction You’ll think about the first two elements after you write the book. The introduction, however, has no time to wait. All great books start with greatness. Do you remember the first sentence of Anna Karenina? “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” After reading that first sentence and the entire introduction, you just know that something extraordinary will follow. You know it’s more than just another love story. How do you get there? How do you craft the perfect introduction to hook the reader? We have few tips to offer. 1. Don’t Skip the It Your first chapter may be the introduction. May writers do that. Tolstoy did it. Does that mean you should do it? Not necessarily. An introduction is where you make the case. You tell the readers what this book is about and you explain why it’s an important book to read. It’s what convinces the readers your book has value. Do you know how George R.R. Martin started A Game of Thrones? With a prologue. The author gets straight into the story, but this feels like an introduction we definitely need for the complex plot that follows. 2. Find the Hook Your first sentence is a hook. When a book’s cover gets someone’s attention in the store, they will skip through the text on the back of the cover. Most people will then get to the first page of the introduction. They will read the first sentence. Will it make them pick up the book? Let’s check out an example: Please Look After Mom by Kyung-sook Shin. This is how… read more →
You’ve written a book, and it’s the best thing ever! So, now you want people to read it. How do you get it to them? In our current publishing world, there’s three major options. You can contact a traditional big publisher, who – if everything goes well – will buy the rights to your book, edit it, put a cover on it, market it and send you money when it sells. You can contact a smaller independent (indie) press, who have the flexibility to take chances on unusual work, and who are more likely to involve you in the details of publishing – but who don’t have the same marketing reach as the big publishers, and won’t sell quite as many as the big traditionals. Avoid anyone who asks you for money to publish (known as ‘vanity press’) with the promise of royalties in the future – it’s very likely that you’ll pay a lot and not get nearly as much back. A publisher should always cover things like editing and cover art for you, even if that means your royalty share is smaller. Or you can self-publish. This means you’re the one responsible for everything – editing, cover art, formatting, releasing, marketing, selling – so you’re putting the book out under your name, and you keep the profits from it. You can sub some of the work out (eg. hire a proofreader, purchase cover-art) but it’s down to you to sell your book to the world. And the great thing is that there are plenty of ways to do that! In this article, we’re going to briefly cover some alternative methods of getting your writing out there to your readers. While we tend to think of self-publishing as being a hard copy or ebook version of a book, that’s… read more →
We all know the saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, but it’s a truth that a lot of us do. They’re eye-catching and make us look, but they’re also a shortcut: they give us an indication of what the book is about, and what’s inside. Swooning lady not wearing much? I don’t do romance. Spaceships and lasers? Ugh, sci-fi. Plain text and plain color? Hmm, boring. Unfortunately book covers are a major, major part of the marketing of your book. They’re also hard to get right, but you know when they are – or when they’re just not quite what you want! So, here’s some thoughts on how to make sure you’ve got an eye-catching and marketable cover for your writing. A book cover needs to do two things: give information about the book make the reader curious And that’s basically it. Simple eh? Hard Information This is definite, precise information that you need to have on the cover. There’s usually a place allocated for this – for example, you’ll look for the title in large letters, the author’s name in smaller ones, the ISBN on the back…although the format can be varied, it’s usually within fairly standard guidelines. Your name This is the name you want to be known by as an author, and the name that might be used elsewhere – for example, on your personal website, or in any promotional materials. It’s quite confusing if you’re calling yourself “Tommy Smith”, and the name on a cover is “T Smith” – I’ll be searching for books by “Tommy”. Make sure everything matches so people can find your work The title of the book A blurb The ISBN (find out more about ISBN’s here) You can add some optional extras: Reviews or taglines: “the best book in… read more →
In this article, we’re going to briefly cover the printing options for self-publishing – that is, if you want a hard copy of your book. Step 1: The Finished Text This means the book needs to be edited and proofread, with all the chapter headings in the right place, a preface and acknowledgements (if you want them) and any copyright disclaimers done. Make the text as perfect as you can. However, you don’t need to make sure the layout is perfect – if fact, it’s easier if it’s not! Make the margins all standard, and the font standard. This makes the next stage a lot easier. At this point, you can either turn the text into a print book or an ebook (or both!) Step 2: Typesetting This is the point that the text is put into a printable format. The important thing here is that typesetting is not word processing; it’s closer to artwork than it is to writing. The text positioning needs to be exact, and word processors (such as Microsoft Word or OpenOffice) tend to skip the little details that make the text look nice on a printed page. There are several different pieces of software that can be used for this; one popular one is Adobe InDesign, but there are various free systems available as well. You can actually now use Word, but it’s a very different process to writing, and you usually need to use a template. Alternatively, there are a number of professionals out there who offer a typesetting service to self-publishers, often with additional services such as cover creation or proofreading as well. If you’re not too sure you want to get into the details of the typesetting process, it’s worth paying for this stage. Step 3: Thinking About The End Result There… read more →
What is Self-Publishing? You’ve written a book, and it’s the best thing ever! So, now you want people to read it. How do you get it to them? In our current publishing world, there’s three major options. You can contact a traditional big publisher, who – if everything goes well – will buy the rights to your book, edit it, put a cover on it, market it and send you money when it sells. You can contact a smaller independent (indie) press, who have the flexibility to take chances on unusual work, and who are more likely to involve you in the details of publishing – but who don’t have the same marketing reach as the big publishers, and won’t sell quite as many as the big traditionals. Avoid anyone who asks you for money to publish (known as ‘vanity press’) with the promise of royalties in the future – it’s very likely that you’ll pay a lot and not get nearly as much back. A publisher should always cover things like editing and cover art for you, even if that means your royalty share is smaller. Or you can self-publish. This means you’re the one responsible for everything – editing, cover art, formatting, releasing, marketing, selling – so you’re putting the book out under your name, and you keep the profits from it. You can sub some of the work out (eg. hire a proofreader, purchase cover-art) but it’s down to you to sell your book to the world. And the great thing is that there are plenty of ways to do that! Over the next couple of articles, we’re going to look at options for printing, ebook and online self-publishing. But first…. Things to think about if you’re considering self-publishing Have you written the best book that you… read more →
When you send a submission, different publishers ask for different things. However, it will usually be at least the first 10,000 words, which should be your first 3-5 chapters. This is what the editor will read and what they will use to decide if your book is any good, and then decide if they want to read the rest of it. And it’s not just the editor; later on, the reader will do exactly the same thing. Ever flicked through the first chapter in a bookshop or read it on Amazon? What made you want to continue and buy the book? What made you put it down and move on? It’d be your impression from the first chapter or two. Basically, the start of your book is pretty freakin’ important for giving a first impression. Have a think about the first five chapters of your book. Have a think about any critique you’ve received. And if you’ve ever uttered any of these phrases or you think they might apply to you, please take a long, hard look at your work… “It gets better later…” I can and will stop reading. If you haven’t hooked my attention in the first five chapters, then you’ve lost me. The same goes with the longer view; if you don’t grab me with the first book, why am I going to read until Book 5 of your series when the ‘real’ action starts? You need to get me interested now. “This is just the prologue…” So why are you starting here? Start with the action! Start with the story! Tell me the parts you find fascinating! When you become a millionaire best-seller you can always do a “pre-story” novel or novella or something, but for now – get to the interesting bits. “Oh, you’ve got… read more →
So, for the second post on “giving your writing to the outside world“, we’re looking at how to take feedback. Feedback is one of the most important parts of writing, and one of the hardest things to find and to accept. Your work is personal; it’s your talent, your soul, that goes into something…and then to hand it over to someone else and ask them to point out the flaws? Eeek! But you can’t write in a vacuum; you need other points of view. Your work is better for having outside opinions, and your writing will improve. If nothing else, you need readers – your work is going to be read at some point! It’s better to have the comments while you’re still able to change things than after it’s been published and you see the comments on Amazon… So, some things to remember when you’re looking through feedback: Not every reader is right for you and your work Some people don’t like a certain genre or style; some people simply don’t give the kind of feedback you need; and some people unfortunately see “critique” as “criticism”, and therefore tend to be very negative. It’s ok to pick and choose who reads your work. Be specific about what you want If you only want to know about the plot, let your reader know. If you’re planning on re-writing huge sections, say. If you consider the writing finished and just want a proofread, tell them. You’ll get more out of it, and you’ll avoid frustrating your reader when they’re reading something you’ve already planning on changing, or definitely don’t want to change. They are not attacking you! They are trying to improve your work. Critique is a learning experience, and is aiming to tell you both what you’re doing well and what… read more →
I’ll start with a disclaimer and some credentials; I’m involved in the submissions and editing process for Grimbold Books, my publisher. It’s a small indie press, which in many ways is wonderful – anyone involved get to do a bit of everything! But it’s really made me realise that when I first started submitting writing to publishers, I had absolutely no idea of the process that goes on once your writing has hit the submissions inbox. Surely they just…read it? And then publish it? Well, yes…sort of. But it’s a bit more complicated than that. So, before you do any of this, go and read 5 Questions to Ask Before Submitting a Short Story. It applies to novels, too! Stage 1: Submission Read the subs guidelines! I know they’re annoying and it’s a pain to have to format (I submit too, so I have a lot of sympathy for the never-ending task of re-formatting things) but it really does make reading easier. And on the same note, please send the amount asked. If the guidelines wants 10,000 words, a little under or over is fine…but don’t send your entire manuscript. Having a synopsis is nice; it gives us some idea of how the story unfolds. We often won’t have time to read the entire thing, so the first 30 pages and a synopsis is excellent. Tell us something about you; you don’t have to seem quirky, but just some insight into who you are is nice. However, your work will speak for itself, so if (like me) you’re fairly self-conscious when it comes to showing off, you won’t miss out by not giving a huge bio. And lastly (again) – read the guidelines! You want to make the publisher’s job as easy as possible – and that means sending what… read more →
I used to get pretty confused by the random terminology that publishers and writers use to describe the editing process. What’s the different between an edit and a copy-edit? Do I really need all of these stages? What on earth is everyone on about? Step 1: Writing the book This is Draft 1 to Draft “I lost count”, and then Edit Version 1 to infinity…and you’ve written the ending! It’s done! Now what? Step 2: Alpha read When you’re ready, you hand it over to someone (either a friend or an editor) to have a first read. This is usually the plot holes, “does this make sense?” and “is my story any good?” This can be a complete change of plot, or entire sections deleted; or this can be smaller details, where you’ve got most of it right already. The story might go back to draft versions at this point, or may go on to the next stage… Step 3: Beta read This is the character motivation, minor plot holes, small details; where the gun got left in the house yet is suddenly to hand; you forgot to mention that the hero has any skills at animal-taming yet is suddenly amazing at it; they’re in completely the wrong sector of space to have seen that star formation; and why on earth is he talking to her? He hates her! This is where the story and plot are ok, with no major holes, but there might be some smaller flaws. That said…I’ve had stories at the beta-read stage that have needed chunks added or even complete re-writes! Every reader brings something different, and you might find that even when a story is finished…it’s not. So these two stages can be interchangeable, but you’ll usually find things have a flow; your first… read more →
Have you ever toyed around with the idea of submitting your short story to a publication, but felt too overwhelmed or uncertain to actually send in your manuscript? Creating a strategy for myself based on the five questions below helped me prepare one of my short stories (which I’ll lovingly refer to by the alias of Fantasy Story #1) and ready myself for the submission process. First, I had to ask myself: I. Have I made my story the best it can be? The rest of this post continues under the assumption that you have already gone through the steps to thoroughly edit your short story. Whether you’ve hired a freelance editor, consulted with your beta readers, or participated in your critique group, make sure that you’ve got at least one other pair of eyes to look over your story. Even if the thought of having your work critiqued isn’t exactly fun, you’ll be thankful later on for the chance to improve your story before you start sending it out. When I was preparing Fantasy Story #1, I submitted my draft to a writer’s critique group that I had joined a few months prior after doing some self-editing to my manuscript. I received valuable feedback from around 6 other members of the group, which I then reconciled and used to improve my draft. Specifically, my critique group caught a plot hole that I was able to fix in my second round of editing. II. Have I created a solid organizational system? Before moving onto the next step and looking for markets to submit your work, I would recommend creating a system for recording details of the stories that you plan to submit and information on the publications you are interested in. I’ve experimented with a some submissions tracking software, but… read more →