Touchwood Press Blog

How many copy editors do I need?

Published on by Mike McCandlessLeave a comment

Depends on how long ago you took English. You probably just need one…one good one.

Do copy editors have specialties? In major publishers, there are typically three types of editors, although every house is different and these roles may all be played by one editor or there may even be additional editors that get involved, depending on the project:

  • Acquisition editors find new writers to publish, working with agents, reviewing manuscripts, staying in close touch with the market and with the publisher’s marketing team to find where the market has holes that need books to fill them.
  • Developmental editors work with contracted authors to make their manuscripts better. Better organized, more compelling, in line with the publisher’s style and the things that make books sell and book readers happy. Some of the most successful literary authors of the past hundred years only got that way because they had a great developmental editor, helping to make their near-great material great.
  • Copy editors also work with manuscripts that are in process toward publication, seeing that spelling, grammar, and style are to standard. If a manuscript is in pretty good shape coming in the door, this may be the only editor who touches it. But the work of the copy editor is essential and invaluable.

Search “copy editing” and “book editing” for sources of editing tools and freelance editors of many colors.

Copy editting…don’t publish without it.

Published on by Mike McCandlessLeave a comment

Editor job title on nameplateEffective copy editing removes verbal noise from your manuscript. Great copy editing is invisible and makes you look like a better author. Here’s a good article for self-publishers on the promise and pitfalls of doing your own copy editing. Summary? Proceed with caution. (Yes, we know about the misspelling in the header.)

Ten Reasons for Authors to Blog

Published on by Mike McCandlessLeave a comment

blog word in mixed vintage metal type printing blocks over grunge wood

Elsewhere here, I suggest blogging is a great thing for a writer/self-publisher, both before and after your book is out. This blog post, Anne R. Allen’s Blog: Ten Reasons for Authors to Blog, goes deeper.

Your blog is your sketch book, note pad, diary (of sorts), op/ed column. Take advantage of the free and easy opportunity a blog affords to air out your prose or poetry if you’re really sincere about growing as a writer.

How do I avoid that self-published look?

Published on by Mike McCandlessLeave a comment

A self-published look may result from your selections of fonts, margins, justification, and other simple look-and-feel variables. Your objective is not to try and improve several hundred years of book formatting tradition, unless that is your objective. 🙂 Your deviations from what readers have come to expect will just be noise, loud or subtle, but noise nonetheless. It will distract them from the business of enjoying your writing.

These days, most writers are using Word as their word processor, but these comments will help create a better look anywhere. Here are some simple guidelines to use as you write and edit your book. These are helpful for straight-ahead fiction or even for nonfiction books, which tend to include more complex layouts with photos, illustrations, charts, etc. Makes no difference if your target format is print, e-Book, or audiobook.

Since I first wrote this article, I have started to use Standard Document Format as my default for writing manuscripts. I cover SDF specifically in a separate article.

  • Set your font to Garamond; this is a sure bet. Just this choice alone will make your book look like it came from a mainstream publisher.
  • Use right and left justification, called full justification. Check it out. Most books, regardless of genre or publisher, are fully justified. Yes, you may need to learn in Word how correct for a few widows and orphans (book talk for little bits of text that get hung out in space and need to be brought back together with their precedents and descendants…look it up), but it’s worth it.
  • Insert page breaks (Ctrl-Enter in Word) after every page in your front and back matter and after the last character in every chapter. This will prevent text from getting up and moving to another page and other issues with maintaining your content in decent and good order.
  • Indent all paragraphs EXCEPT the first paragraph in every chapter. I use Word styles to manage this.
  • Use Word Styles. Just a few, to make you more productive and help generate your table of contents. (This is a whole other topic, to be covered later.) If you can’t manage Word Styles, you can do what you need to do manually and with the help of a downloaded template from Amazon or other free source.
  • Don’t copy and paste images, only Insert them.

I sense a new class and book on this topic. Long story short, take advantage of what Amazon, Word and free web resources give you about formatting your book and avoiding the self-published look.

Are there book-writing and self-publishing groups I should be joining or following?

Published on by Mike McCandlessLeave a comment

There sure are! Here are my favorites:

The IBPA (International Book Publishers Association): everything the self-publisher could want in a trade association all about us. News, information, events and awards aimed at helping to build a community of self-publishers. There’s a lot to be learned from our peers.

The ALLI (Alliance for Independent Authors, pronounced like “ally”) is the professional association for authors who self-publish. They work to foster ethics and excellence in self-publishing — and run many campaigns and collaborations that benefit our members. If you feel your book will be interesting for English-speaking readers across the Commonwealth of Nations, this is the group for you!

Ten LinkedIn Groups to Check Out:

These groups on LinkedIn represent a lot of diversity across the writing and publishing community. I’m not endorsing any of them necessarily, but I do think they’re worth a look for opportunities to connect with people like you, people and organizations you may want to target, or service providers you may want to work with. Search for each group on LinkedIn and click their About tab to get started:

  1. Independent Book  Publishers Association (3900 members). Private group. To request membership, click Join and your request will be reviewed by the group manager. The Independent Book Publishers Association, founded in 1983, is the leading professional trade association for independent book publishers. IBPA serves the needs and fosters the growth of emerging and established independent book publishers through education and professional development, cooperative marketing programs, advocacy, and collective buying power. Note above.
  2. Self-Publishing and Book Marketing (550 members) is a networking and friendly LinkedIn Group for Self-Publishers, Authors and Book Business Professionals. In this group Self-Publishers and Authors will learn advanced promoting solutions as well as how to get real results and increase their sales. Book Business Professionals will teach and share their experiences in book business and book marketing – what works and what doesn’t.
  3. Ebooks, Ebook Readers, Digital Books, and Digital Content Publishing (84,000 members). Book Publishing professionals interested in latest industry news and experiments on ebooks (e-books), ebook readers, digital books & content—creating/developing, marketing & sales: what’s working/not, what are you trying, expand your network, improve your resources, discuss business models and more.
  4. Publishing Today (3100 members). With more than 25 years of literary experience, I am the owner of a writing/editing/indie publishing service. I have the knowledge and expertise to direct newcomers to the world of publishing. Note: Obviously, this is one person’s project.
  5. Books and Writers (88,000 members). Private group. To request membership, click Join and your request will be reviewed by the group manager. Book, Writer and Publisher group to network around writing and publishing, marketing and selling your books. Become a better writer and sell more of your books. Learn and network to get more of your books sold into book stores, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, direct sales and even international rights sales. This group is for authors, publishers, editors, book literary agents and even future writers. If you like to write articles, blogs, books, or will write in the future this blog is for you.
  6. Western Publishing Association (453 members, Western USA). Offers education and professional resources to 250+ media/publishing companies and their partners in the western U.S. WPA is renown for its innovative publishing conference in Los Angeles and its prestigious Maggie Awards program. Our LinkedIn Group is now open to WPA members other qualified publishing professionals.
  7. Ebooks, E-learning, Epub 3, HTML5, Fixed layout ebook, Children eBook Apps and Digital Publishing (Phew!, A long title makes their name show up in more key word searches. 12K members.) Book Publishing professionals interested in latest industry news and experiments on ebooks (e-books), ebook readers, digital books & content—creating/developing, marketing & sales: what’s working/not, what are you trying, expand your network, improve your resources, discuss business models and more.
  8. Authors, Writers, Publishers, Editors, & Writing Professionals (No religion or politics, 18,000 members). A moderated group and is open to publishing professionals via an application process. A professional is an individual who is paid for their work(s), who is already published, who has edited manuscripts, or as a publisher, has published works that receive royalty benefits.
  9. Publishing Business (8300 members). Private group. To request membership, click Join and your request will be reviewed by the group manager. Executives in magazine, book and online publishing worldwide, hosted by Publishing Executive magazine, Book Business magazine and the Publishing Business Conference & Expo (NYC in September). Note: Don’t be put off if you’re not accepted as a member in groups intended for “publishing professionals.” You may find the occasional anti-self-publisher bias from those who think they have something to protect, but don’t take it personally. 
  10. Book Marketing (24,000 members). Book authors have to switch from being a writer to a marketer if they want to promote their book in the crowded book space. Book authors need to start with a call-to-action book author website whose URL can be used for all social media profiles. Then book authors need to conduct a book marketing campaign to promote their books.

 

Do I need a new ISBN for every version of my e-book?

Published on by Mike McCandlessLeave a comment

No. E-books don’t need ISBN’s at all. Remember that ISBN’s are essentially universal (at least in the bookseller world) stock numbers. E-books won’t ever be inventoried or accounted by the copy, so no ISBN number is needed. Whoever you publish with, such as Kindle, will have their own internal project numbering system or other method of controlling their internal database. Your book will get assigned some sort of tracking number. But an ISBN? No.

How often can I or should I make changes to my book?

Published on by Mike McCandlessLeave a comment

Here’s an example of something authors can do now that was nearly unthinkable before digitization. E-books can turn on a dime, so authors can revise and re-publish as often as they like…up to the point where readers are annoyed if they must buy the update. For most books, it’s probably worth thinking ahead before pulling the trigger on an update.

If you’ve published a non-fiction, reference-type book, consider a companion website where readers can get updated resources and information. But if you do this, make sure and maintain the website (best to do this according to an announced schedule) or risk losing your audience.

Should I publish my blog before or after I publish my book?

Published on by Mike McCandless1 Comment

Publishing a blog any time can work to your benefit. If you create your blog as you’re writing the book, you have an online notebook where you can try out and refine content. Blog posts can be held as drafts indefinitely, so you don’t need to publish them until you’re ready. When you do, you can promote them in a variety of ways and generate comments that may help you think about possible improvements.

After your book is published, your blog is a great promotional tool and a way to interact with readers.