Guest blogger: Mattie Gorman

There are many rules of good writing, but the best way to find them is to be a good reader.—Stephen Ambrose

As a result of my recent studies at the Denver Publishing Institute 2010, I reached a deeper understanding of areas that I already knew a little about such as: editing, proofreading, book design and book marketing. I also became exposed to areas of the business that I knew nothing about—the creation of a book, magazine publishing, subsidiary rights and copyright laws—all things that are incredibly important when joining this business. But, the most important thing I learned, which I will never forget, is the importance of reading, reading a lot, and reading everything. 

I have always been an avid reader and also a writer on the side, so it was good to hear that I was on the right track. I learned that, as readers, we pick up certain grammar and punctuation rules that can be very helpful to know when editing your own work before submission to an agent. This is especially important if you are submitting a work of fiction. Novels, when submitted to agents, need to be as perfect as the author can get them for the novels to be accepted (99.9 percent of the time). It is also very important that writers read anything they can get their hands on, be it blogs, newspapers, magazines and books,  and step out of your comfort zone because the more you read, the more you learn.

So here’s the advice that I have to offer for writers, new and old, looking to improve their craft…. It’s always a possibility to contact a writing coach, but I think that the best way to get something done is to do it yourself. So, start reading books in the same genre of your writing. It’s possible that you will be able to revise your own writing based on your new-found knowledge. Then, start reading everything else and take what you learn to apply to your work. Who knows what could happen? I think that no person should discount the option of joining a writing group, either. This is a great way to get instant feedback on the work you’ve done, but to also read stuff that hasn’t been published that you may not have access to otherwise.

So basically, all I have left to say is… Read!

Note: Mattie Gorman is a recent graduate of the prestigious Denver Publishing Institute. She also has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English professional writing and book publishing from the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater. She has varied experience, including stints as interns for the East Troy Times and Congressman Steve Kagen. As a new intern for Self-Publishing Resources, she has much to offer. Hopefully, I can teach her a thing or two as well. — Sue

I live in South Africa and I am published in the USA. Distance has made it impossible for me to go the traditional marketing route. Online is all I have open to me. I have worked very hard to go from “Fiona Who?” to not quite “Aha, Fiona Ingram, the famous children’s author,” but to a point where I have a healthy Google profile, a nice author site, with lots of links to interviews, book reviews, articles, etc. When I began researching (as is my wont) the concept of book marketing, I still had the silly notion that as a writer, all one did was write and people would automatically rush out and get one’s books. Not at all. Nowadays, even the traditional publishers expect their authors to do their own marketing as well.

An author cannot just be an author. He or she has to be a product or a brand. Publishers are also more interested in someone who has more than just books to offer. Readers are greedy for information about the author, what inspires them, what new books are coming up, etc. Your marketing will incorporate your author online platform which leans heavily on Social Media.

The online author platform consists of: your book/s; your website; your author profile/bio; an e-zine or newsletter; a blog; a video interview (vlog); a podcast radio interview; a video preview on sites like YouTube; articles you’ve written; articles about you.

Your website is your biggest asset in your author platform. You can put up information on your book and purchasing details, as well as your press release, your bio and a good pic, your reviews, and anything written about you and your book. When you reply to people, include your website in your signature so interested parties can track you back to your site, thus creating a good stream of traffic. Been interviewed on the radio or a local television station? Ask for a copy and put these up on your site as well. The more electronic information people have available for easy access, the better. From here, you can also launch your blog or fan club, set up your Twitter and other options, and link your social network sites, such as Facebook, Myspace, Squidoo, etc, back to this. You can also launch your website on many social sites simultaneously. These create coverage and alert the industry to your presence.

Google is a fantastic tool. You can load your articles, get a Google Alert to notify you every time something comes up about you and your book, link other sites back to your own to increase your ratings and give you credibility, set up a Blogger alert, join Google’s Library page, keep track of your site’s performance with Google Analytics, and much more.

Blogging and blog tours. You can “chat” to eager readers by going on a Virtual Book Tour. Virtual book tours are a promotional tool for authors to connect with readers via book blogs. Tours usually include a minimum number of tour stops over the course of one month on a variety of blogs. Some companies offer to feature on each tour stop a photo of the book, a review, links to the author’s website and blog, and will include your purchase information. Authors who interact with tour hosts and make themselves available for guest posting, interviews, Q&A sessions with blog commenters, and who respond to comments will have the greatest success from their tour.

Book competitions. Why should you enter? It’s not so much about winning as being seen. Competitions broaden your author profile because people in the industry will read your book. Organizers also post results online to market their contests. Even if you don’t win, you may get a Best Runner-Up mention, and that’s the kind of detail you will put in your press release. You don’t have to be in print yet to enter some competitions.

Do not stop marketing. Even when your book is out there and you’ve sent off your press releases, don’t stop spreading the word! Do something every day (either online or physical) to continue your marketing thrust. Penny Sansivieri of AME says: “Remember—marketing doesn’t sell books … marketing gives you exposure and exposure sells books.”

To get something done … you have to do it yourself. You only get reviews if you ask for them; you have to make a huge effort to engage with potential readers through blogs, tours, tweets, Facebook, all the social media tools freely available at every writer’s fingertips. There is so much free information that there’s no excuse for writers to moan about not getting publicity. Author sites abound, and if you’re not sure what to do, many marketing newsletters and e-zines offer load of free information. 

* * * * *

Fiona Ingram (B.A., Hons. (Natal), M.A., (Wits)) was born and educated in South Africa. Her interest in ancient history, mystery, and legends, and her enjoyment of travel has resulted in The Secret of the Sacred Scarab, the first in her exciting children’s adventure series—Chronicles of the Stone. The first book was inspired by an actual trip the author took to Egypt with her two young nephews (then aged 10 and 12).

Please visit Fiona’s author site http://www.fionaingram.com/ for more articles on marketing. For her book site, visit http://www.secretofthesacredscarab.com/.

Guest blogger: Dana Lynn Smith

This post, the third of a three-part series on building an author platform, highlights the importance of connections. Part one of this author platform series covers branding, while part two discusses reputation.

When selling your book, it’s not just what you know, it’s who you know!

To sell books in today’s marketplace, you need to be connected. Here are some examples of the type of connections that are valuable to authors in promoting their books and themselves:

 Contact Database – Clients, prospects, colleagues, friends, and family.

Opt-in Mailing List – People who have given you permission to contact them.

Influencers – Celebrities, well-known people in your field, book reviewers, media, and bloggers.

Online Networks – Connections on Facebook, Twitter and other online networks, groups and forums.

Blog Readers – People who read your blog or subscribe to the blog’s feed.

Professional Associations – Fellow association members and leaders. Serving in a leadership position enhances your visibility within the organization.

Other Groups – Alumni associations, civic and service organizations, hobby clubs, etc.

What can you do to increase your connections and leverage the connections that you have? How can you partner with others to extend your reach?

Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of several book marketing guides, including The Savvy Book Marketer’s Guide to Successful Social Marketing. For more tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter, visit Dana’s blog at www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com, and get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free newsletter at www.BookMarketingNewsletter.com.

The blog wasn’t cooperating with my comment addition, however, so I’m going to put it right here:

“…the industry is now experiencing a “true self-publishing” movement that argues a “real” self-published author is one who eschews the use of services like AuthorSolutions.

“I find the distinction to be nonsensical and elitist. It’s like saying you should never hire an expert or contractor to do your taxes, fix your car, or repair your plumbing.”

There IS a distinction between self-publishing and subsidy publishing, which is what Author Solutions provides. And it’s neither nonsensical nor elitist. True self-published authors work hard to ensure their book is a quality product that is virtually indistinguishable from others on the bookshelf that have been produced by traditional publishers. Subsidy published books tend to be of lower quality–both from an editorial and design standpoint–and sell fewer than 100 copies.

Truly self-published authors–and by that I mean they start up their own publishing imprint and purchase their own ISBNs–frequently DO hire experts to help them through the process. But lumping subsidy publishers such as Author Solutions together with those who provide services to authors who are truly self-publishing misleads authors who do not understand what they are getting into with subsidy publishing.

I don’t believe Author Solutions and the like are evil; but I sure wish they would stop calling themselves “self-publishing companies.” They are pay-to-publish services–ie, vanity presses.

http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/2010/03/think-hard-before-self-publishing.html

from a literary agent, who basically thinks self-publishing is a bad idea for the vast majority of authors. Because I disagree with so much of what she says–from the standpoint of authors who are truly self-published (and this is an important distinction!)–and wrote a lengthy comment to the post, I thought I would post it here as well.

Here’s my comment to her blog post:

I have to disagree with much of this article from the standpoint of truly self-published authors. And by that, I mean authors who start up their own publishing company imprint, obtain their own ISBN prefix, and oversee that all aspects of editing and design are done professionally. Books published in this way cannot readily be identified as “self-published.” They are “independently” published. For authors who go the Lulu or iUniverse route—yes, much of this article is true; these books really don’t have a chance in the book marketplace, and they sell very few copies.

Self-published authors who do it correctly CAN get into traditional distribution channels. Through membership in such groups as IBPA, independent publishers are able to work with Baker and Taylor, for instance. Of course, it is up to the publisher/author to create demand for their books from the consumer level because distributors/wholesalers do little to market books. Marketing and promotions by the author are key—whether books are self- or traditionally published. (It usually comes as a shock to traditionally published authors that publishers do little to market most of their titles.)

As far as promotions publishers have access to—“purchasing space on front and center tables in Barnes & Noble—how many of their authors are getting this? The James Pattersons of the publishing world will get this treatment; the average midlist author likely will not anyway.

I would also venture to say that the odds of any published book becoming a NYT bestseller are staggeringly slim. Most authors—whether self- or traditionally published—should have more realistic goals. And there are certainly plenty of other “bestseller lists” to which they can aspire.

As far as selling a self-pubbed book becoming a full-time job—well, wouldn’t this be true for any book that needs to be marketed? Again, most publishers do little to promote the majority of the books on their list, focusing on the few moneymakers; it is primarily left up to the authors.

I do agree with the recommendation for authors to self-publish if they have some decent channels through which to sell books—and if they’ve got a good platform already established. (Of course, platform is becoming more and more important to traditional publishers as well.)

As someone who has worked with self-publishing authors for more than a decade (and who was involved in trade publishing for a decade before that), I am truly bothered by the fact that POD “self-publishing” is now being lumped together with true self-publishers. They are not one and the same—no matter how many times these “subsidy” presses say it is so. Paying to publish and publishing by starting one’s own publishing company are two different things. I work with authors who are doing the latter; these authors make thoughtful decisions about all aspects of production of their books, and these books stand up to any other on the bookstore shelf—because yes, their books are available in brick and mortar bookstores.

As self-publishing continues to grow in popularity (and I believe it will), we must educate people so they understand the POD digital publishers are really just vanity publishers masquerading as self-publishers. Unfortunately, they are also trading on the respectable reputation legitimate self-publishers have created.

Overused
Commas. Commas should only be used when grammatically correct and to emphasize a comfortable pause in text. Do not use them simply because you think one might go there; always have a good reason. When in doubt, leave it out!

Quotation Marks. Quotes draw attention to words. Many words do not always need to have attention drawn to them, and do not need attention drawn to them more than once in a text—and especially in the same sentence. Never use them to indicate overused terms; this is simply bad form and bad writing, and it draws attention to both the quotes and the term. Use quotation marks sparingly to indicate direct quotes, titles of articles, and words that require emphasis to help the reader understand a point.

Bolding. Often overused, bolding should be reserved for headings and words that necessitate emphasis. Avoid bolding words in sentences when bolding is also used in headings as it tends to diminish the importance of headings. Avoid using boldface for emphasis in books; it looks amateurish.

Overall. Trust the reader to use his or her intelligence to understand what is important in text.

Parallelism. When developing items in a series, ensure that all components are parallel, such as using sentences or fragments, beginning with verbs or nouns, structuring as questions or not, and the overall structure of the line item.

Beginning Lists. Be sure to always begin each item in a list the same way, i.e., with active words, with verbs, “How to,” etc.

Consistency. Be consistent with your use of subjects and verbs with items in a series and with bulleted items.

Introducing Items in a Series. Sometimes you use a colon, sometimes you use a complete sentence, and sometimes you use a fragment. This is okay; just be sure to do it consistently. Variety is not the spice of life in all situations.

Punctuation
Apostrophes. Pay attention to the differences between plurals and possessives.

Colons. When introducing items in a series within a sentence (not a bulleted or numbered list), it is often better not to use a colon to prevent breaking the flow of the sentence.

Hyphens and Dashes. Study the various uses for the hyphen, en dash, and em dash, and use them consistently.

Semicolons. Note how these are used most often. They should not be used interchangeably with em dashes; both have unique and specific uses.

Serial Comma. Always use a comma before the “and” in items in a series. You will see this not done often because it is usually a matter of personal preference rather than grammatical protocol, but in business writing it is always best to use it to avoid confusion regarding whether or not the last two items go together as a pair or are as separate as all other items. For pairs, go ahead and use two “ands,” such as “For breakfast I had ham, grits, biscuits, hash browns, and bacon and eggs.”

Quotation Marks. Always be sure to have “smart quotes” activated in MS Word. You do not want to use the foot and inch symbols for quotes (although they are used automatically with sans serif fonts such as Arial).

Quotes. Ensure all quotes are accurate and verbatim. Otherwise, they are not quotes.

Redundancy
Acronyms. Avoid using acronyms or initialisms in titles. It may not be a standard grammar rule, but it is a good practice to avoid redundancy. Reserve in-text references for spelling out acronyms and initialisms. However, you may want to use the acronym if it makes headings fall on two lines in the Table of Contents. For instance, use “ES” for Editorial Services, but use it consistently.

Terms/Phrases. Avoid terms such as “free of charge.” It is just “free”; what other kind of free can it be.

References. These are tricky, but you need to ensure you are following a standard format, such as The Chicago Manual of Style, when listing references.

Show/Hide ¶. Try using the “Show/Hide ¶” activated when typing. It takes a little getting used to (just like using a trackball mouse) but you will catch many format problems along the way.

Spacing, Line. Be sure not to leave two or three spaces between words instead of the correct one space. (Many people who learned to keyboard on a typewriter still use two spaces between words; this is no longer correct.) This is noticeable in printed text and looks a bit unprofessional like you had a sloppy typesetter. Also, avoid inconsistent spacing between paragraphs. Although you are depending on your layout person to clean this up, you should get into the habit of using consistent spacing while writing. This would help to eliminate the potential for problems and mistakes later, and would reduce your production costs.

Spacing, Between Words and With Punctuation. The standard now is to use one space between words and after colons.

Subordinate Clauses. Avoid beginning sentences with subordinate clauses unless it just flows better, which it usually does not. Write “I have evaluated publishing operations for two major nonprofit member organizations” instead of “For two major nonprofit member organizations, I have evaluated publishing operations.”

Symbols
Auto Symbols. Be careful when using such automatic symbols such as ellipses. They are displayed in a way that is not in compliance with s
tandard style guides. (See “Ellipses” above.) Also, sometimes it is better to use boxed bullets from Format, Bullets and Numbering…instead of the Bullets icon, the latter of which may not apply the correct size and font.

Money. It is not necessary to include the period and double zeros if there are no cents.

Symbols such as @, #, %, &, +, =. Reserve symbols for tables or figures where space may be at a minimum. Otherwise, spell out “at,” “number,” “percent,” “and,” “plus,” and “equals.”

Time. When indicating before or after noon as well as before or after Christ, use periods and small caps: A.M., P.M., A.D., B.C. Type in lowercase, then format to small caps; otherwise, you will get uppercase small caps. Also, it is not necessary to include double zeros if no minutes are indicated.

Tables. Tables are a great way to display information. Just be sure that all items are parallel with or without subjects and verbs in each line item, are or are not complete sentences, and are punctuated appropriately and uniformly. Also, unless line items in a table are multileveled, you do not need bullets.

Tables of Contents and Indices. Think about generating these automatically; they will save you time and money later.

Take the Time Needed. I believe most good writers think faster than they write, and you are probably no exception. But if you want to save time and money, slow down. If you focus more while writing and proofing, it will take the editor less time to decipher your meaning and to offer suggestions that may or may not be correct, and this can reduce your costs in time and money to respond.

Use Standard Style, not British/Scientific Style. Standard style mandates that the writer put periods and commas on the inside of quotation marks all the time; British/scientific style places these punctuation marks contingent on the use. Colons and semicolons are placed contingent on use in both styles.

Use/Utilize. You “use” something for its intended purpose; you “utilize” it for something other than its intended purpose.

Voice. Although active voice is preferable, in some cases it is acceptable to use passive voice as in examples when the writer is trying to avoid using personal pronouns. In most cases, though, opt for “identify” instead of “the identification of.”

Weak Words. Avoid all words that really don’t add anything extra such as “very,” “thing,” and “there” as in “there are.” If you really feel a quantifier is needed, think of more descriptive words. Also, subjective words such as “good” usually can be replaced with a more objective term.

Which/That. “Which” commonly is used to introduce a subordinate clause; “that” is used in all other cases. Also, in most cases you should use a comma before “which.”

Who/That. Use “who” when referring to people; use “that” when referring to groups.

You also may have learned to type on a typewriter and thus put two spaces at the end of a sentence. In the computer age one space is preferable. Otherwise, it looks awkward when typeset. No problem, though. Simply do a search and replace, and change the two spaces to one.
Even the best writers can benefit from good editors working behind them. Editing is a special skill the average author doesn’t perform well. And since, in spite of their expertise, editors are notoriously poorly paid, the expense of getting professional help for your work won’t normally be too large. By the way, please, please don’t submit an e-book without editing. Most sites will simply take what you give them and put it up. If our industry is to prosper, every author must take personal responsibility for presenting a quality product.

A poorly edited book is harder to read, harder to believe, and less likely to be reviewed. It is shameful to see a good book cut to ribbons by a reviewer because of poor grammar or spelling. In a recent review, while the plot of a particular book was praised, the reviewer noted, “Unfortunately, the reader also has to detour around some disasters in editing and proofreading.”

Because authors know their subjects so well, they are usually too close to their material; objectivity is lost. A professional editor can help detect passages that are unclear, poorly organized, or overwritten. This is called content or creative editing. During a second reading your editor will do copyediting, whisking out grammar, spelling, usage, and punctuation errors. The job of an editor is to hone and polish your manuscript to a fine edge, not to impose his or her style on it.

Where do you find such folks? There are several options. Look in Literary Market Place under “Editorial Services,” or contact the Editorial Freelancers Association at www.the-efa.org or (212) 929-5400.=. If you wish to hire help with editing—as well as retain complete services for design, production, and marketing for your book—you can also contact us at www.SelfPublishingResources.com or (720) 344-4388. (Shameless self-plug, yes–but I would be remiss in not mentioning it!)

Be sure the person you hire has had experience editing books. An article or book writer is often not experienced or qualified in the editing process and typically has an editor going over his or her manuscript.

Short of hiring a pro, which is best, enlist the help of several literate friends or associates to go over your work. It’s a good idea to give them some instructions. Ask that they underline any misspelled or questionable words, circle unclear passages, and note rough transitions with a question mark. Also recommend they jot any suggestions in the margins. Encourage them to be specific. Distinct constructive criticism is like surgery; it cuts out the malignancy and spares the rest of the body. Vague criticism is like chemotherapy; it causes the copy’s hair to fall out and makes the whole thing look sick.

Even best-selling authors use others to refine their work. James Michener said, “I invite four outside experts—a subject-matter scholar, editor, style arbiter on words, and a final checker—to tear it apart . . .. Should you do any less?