How To Get Book Reviews

This post originally appeared on the Alliance of Independent Authors site on 9/19/12.

Trying to get readers to write a review is like getting your two-year-old child to take a horrible-tasting medicine, says ALLi member and regular contributor, Giacomo (Jim) Giammatteo. But it is possible and it is worth it.  In the first of a three-part series on reviews, he explains how he gets more than twenty reviews a month.

The Process of Getting Reviews

I launched my book in mid April 2012. Since then I have managed to get seven editorial reviews, 77 reviews on Amazon, and another 44 reviews on Goodreads. No matter how you look at it, that’s a lot of reviews (more than 20 per month) so how do you get that many reviews?

I can tell you it’s not by having a big family. I didn’t have my wife write one (mostly for fear of what she’d say) and I didn’t have either of my sons write a review. A few family members did write reviews—the ones who read the kind of books I write. And guess what, one of those reviews was not a five star. (Yeah, I know. Tough family)

For what it’s worth, here’s the secret—work your butt off and put in a lot of time. Here are my suggestions.

  • Your Book—In the back of your book put a statement about how important reviews are, and ask the readers to please leave a review. Don’t ask for a good review, just an honest one.
     
  • Internet—Spend time scouring the internet for sites that review books, and then send out emails asking them to consider your book for a review. There are a lot more sites than you might think. (I am in the process of putting together a comprehensive list of reputable review sites, so check with me in a few weeks if you’re interested.)
     
  • Bloggers—This one is perhaps the most important. Do your research. Find the bloggers who read and review in your genre. Follow their instructions and guidelines. Most of them have their policies posted on the site. Read them. Did I mention, Read the Review Policies?
  • Make sure you send your book to reviewers who are interested in your kind of book. I made this mistake, resulting in three of my worst reviews. These reviewers were appalled at the violence and use of language in my book. I don’t blame them; it was my fault. I should have done more checking.
  • Giveaways

 

 

Read the rest of the post on  the Alliance of Indepedent Authors site.

Are Apps The Future Of Book Publishing?

This post, by Alex Knapp, originally appeared on Forbes on 3/30/12.

We’re at the dawn of the tablet era now. Earlier this month, Apple sold 3 million of its new iPad during the opening weekend, with some analysts expecting over 60 million of the tablets to be sold worldwide. What’s more, e-book readers are selling even more briskly than tablets. People are using those e-readers, too. On Amazon.com, books for its Kindle outsell its paper books.

What’s more, the explosion of e-books is putting pressure on publishers between demands for price cuts on one hand, and competition from independent authors like Amanda Hocking, who earned over $2 million selling e-books on her own before signing with a major publisher.

It’s no surprise, then, that publishers are turning to the app as a possible product for books moving forward.  This has led to another movement towards enhanced books, particularly as apps for iPhone, Android, and other tablets. Are tablet apps the book of the future? In order to find out, I talked to authors, publishers, and app programmers, and read more than a few book apps.

The Varieties of E-Book App Experiences

Perhaps the most wildly divergent book app I’ve encountered so far is Chopsticks, which is another Penguin book, but one that’s vastly different than their amplified editions. It’s described as a novel, but it’s vastly different than a traditional novel. As you turn the pages, you aren’t confronted with a traditional narrative, but rather interact with different pieces of the lives of Glory, a teen piano player, and the boy who moves in next door. The story’s told through newspaper clippings, pictures, songs, and more.  It’s a rather fascinating way to tell a story.

 

 

Read the rest of the post on Forbes.

The New World of Publishing: Pricing 2013

This post, by Dean Wesley Smith, originally appeared on his site on 9/14/12.

 

Yup, I am going back into the pricing wars one more time. Why would I do that? Simply put, I’m nuts. And again, things have changed all over the map, so indie pricing of ebooks needs to be talked about.

Again.

All over the news sources right now are articles about the settlements going on with the government and major publishers on the agency pricing issues. Some of it is very complex, most of it will not make much difference at all to most indie publishers.

However, some changes will happen in pricing of ebooks.

Since this is not a legal blog and I will do my best here to not get too deep into the silliness of the boring details. In fact, let me say this. If you are interested in the details of all the legal aspects of the pricing lawsuits, followThePassiveVoice.com. He does wonderful takes with great opinions on the different aspects of the battles.

My opinion is pretty much with other people who have followed these lawsuits. Pricing for customers of electronic books will go up as this settles out over the next few years. Even with stores discounting some titles, ebook prices really can’t do anything else but go up.

There are a number of good sides of this for writers.

First, it means authors who are publishing through traditional publishers will get more money per sale because publishers will make more money from increased prices. And they do pass on, sometimes, a tiny fraction of that amount.

Second, if indie publishers are smart, they will bring their prices up slightly, but stay under the traditional discounting ranges. I will talk about this before, but it will make us all more money.

Some Basics

 

 

Read the rest of the post on Dean Wesley Smith’s site.

Ebook or Paper?

This post, by Deborah Reed, originally appeared on the New Wave Authors blog.

Ebook or Paper? How much longer will we need to debate this question? 

As a previously self-published author I have to say that the ebook is responsible for starting my career. Without it I’m not sure I’d be where I am today. In fact, Jeff Bezos just showed a taped interview with me at the Amazon press conference two weeks ago. Here is a link to an edited version of what was used. Keep in mind I’m Deborah Reed—Audrey Braun is the pen name I use for mystery/thriller writing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaXR6ew3vwg 

For the reader, there is no denying the convenience of an ereader. Being able to carry thousands of books with you wherever you go, not to mention purchase a new book no matter where you find yourself, is a gift to readers everywhere. I don’t know about the other ereaders (though I suspect they are the same) but Kindle owners are reading 4.6x more now than before they owned a kindle. This is great news for writers, too. 

There is also the price point to be considered. A significant gap in price exists between paper and electronic books. During difficult economic times the ebook is not only more convenient, it’s more affordable, even when you factor in the price of the ereader. From a writer’s perspective, a more affordable book is also great news. It is far easier and more profitable to sell 10,000 copies of a novel priced at $4.99 or less, than it is to sell 100 copies of a book priced between $9.99-$25.99. Lower price means the author has a better chance to build a larger readership and make a better income at the same time. 

One very important point I want to make is the fact that print books eventually go out of print, and long before that they are removed from bookstores due to limited space, sent to a warehouse, and if they’re not purchased by a certain time they are literally destroyed. An ebook will never go out of print. Readers will always be able to find older, more obscure books with a simple search, and begin reading them immediately. For authors this is a huge factor in sustaining a career. A book that came out years ago can suddenly be made relevant again, by something as simple as being featured in a discounted deal of the day or week or month.  

 

Read the rest of the post on the New Wave Authors blog.

How To Read A Publishing Contract

This post, by Stroppy Author Anne Rooney, originally appeared on Stroppy Author’s Guide to Publishing.

So, you’ve got a contract – congratulations. Now it’s time to argue about it. Here is the whole series of posts on how to read a publishing contract. The series works through one of my publishing contracts, clause by clause, explaining what it means and what you should argue about. You can see it as a series of lessons in how to be stroppy, or in how to protect your professional and financial interests.

Every so often, I’ve included a clause from a different contract. This means we can cover mutually exclusive positions, such writing for royalty and writing for a fixed fee. It might be useful to work through your contract comparing it with this one. Yours may be very different, but a lot of the same issues will be covered.

Don’t assume your contract is non-negotiable. And don’t be so pathetically grateful the want to publish your book that you accept any outrageous terms they offer you. Publishing is a business and no matter how friendly and reassuring your editor, they want to make as much money out of the deal as they can.

Don’t take any notice of arguments like ‘we never use that clause’. If they don’t use it, it doesn’t need to be there. If ‘it’s just the standard contract’ you say that’s fine as a starting point but now you are going to make it suitable to you and your book. If they say ‘no one has ever objected before’ that means either they’re lying or no one has read the contract properly and taken a professional approach. So  – put your angry eyes in and let’s look at that contract!

Introduction to the series and preamble to the contract

Delivery of the manuscript

Illustrations 

Permissions 

 

Read the rest of the post, which includes links to posts that cover over 20 more contract sections, on Stroppy Author’s Guide to Publishing. 

Spelling and Grammar Comics From The Oatmeal Will Sharpen Your Skills And Make You Laugh

The Oatmeal is the wonderful site that features clever, informative and insightful comics. Perhaps you’ve heard of the Nicola Tesla comic there that attracted enough attention to allow The Oatmeal’s owner, Matthew Inman, to raise over a million dollars to fund a Tesla museum

Herewith, we share links to The Oatmeal’s excellent grammar comics, which are also available for purchase as posters (purchase options are listed on the site).

 

Ten Words You Need To Stop Misspelling

Flesh Out An Idea vs. Flush Out An Idea

When To Use i.e. In A Sentence

How To Use A Semicolon

What It Means When You Say Literally

How To Use An Apostrophe

The Three Most Common Uses Of Irony

 

 

Konrath's Sales [an update]

This post, by J.A. Konrath, originally appeared on his A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing blog on 9/21/12. In it, Konrath shares his latest, cumulative book sales figures, both self-pub and "legacy" (mainstream-pubbed) titles, in both hard copy and ebook formats.

While this is useful information that definitely bolsters the argument in favor of going indie, it’s important to remember that Konrath’s numbers are exceptional, in part because he didn’t begin to self-publish until after he was well-established as a mainstream-published author. Konrath also has many, MANY titles in print. 

 

So I’m working with an incredible woman who is an MS Office tutor. She knows Excel like she wrote it herself.

Over the past few weeks she’s been compiling my sales data. ALL of my sales data.

For the very first time, I have total counts of all my sales from every platform. My legacy titles, Amazon published titles, and everything I have on KDP, Nook, Smashwords, Overdrive, Createspace, Kobo, Sony, and Apple.

And now I’m going to share those numbers with you.

These are based on my 8 legacy titles (the Jack Daniels books, Afraid, Timecaster) and my 40+ self-pubbed titles (which include 6 solo novels, 3 collaborative novels–Flee, Draculas, and Serial Killers Uncut, and the rest shorts and compilations and collaborations).

So what are these numbers? (For fun, compare them to my numbers from 2009.)

EBOOKS

Since 2004, I’ve sold 126,366 legacy ebooks, earning me $130,916 (prior to 15% to my agent.)

Since 2009, I’ve sold 632,501 self-pubbed ebooks, earning me $912,138. Some of that is shared with my collaborators, but not the lion’s share by a longshot.

 

The majority of the money I’ve made on ebooks are on six of my novels, The List, Origin, Disturb, Shot of Tequila, Endurance, and Trapped. These six novels–all rejected by legacy publishers, have sold 362,783 copies, earning me $600,501.

I’m not at liberty to discuss the sales of my Amazon published books, Shaken and Stirred, because Amazon prefers I don’t. But I’ll say that I’ve sold more ebook copies of Shaken and Stirred in less than three years than my eight legacy titles of sold in ebooks in eight years.

PAPER

My eight legacy titles have sold 60,993 hardcovers, 190,213 paperbacks, and 9828 trade paper since 2004, earning me a total of $264,527.

I’ve used Createspace to make my self-pubbed books available in print. Since 2010 I’ve sold 12,711 self-pubbed paper books and made $37,519.

Again, can’t talk about Shaken and Stirred. Shaken, released first, did pretty well in print, as this was when Borders and B&N carried copies. Now Borders is gone, and no brick and mortar bookstore will touch Amazon pubbed paper books, so Stirred didn’t do as well.

TOTALS

Since 2004, I’ve sold a combined ebook/paper total of 387,400 legacy books, earning $395,443, or $336,126 after my agent’s commission. This includes all advances. That’s $42,015 per year. Not bad, but anyone who is a longtime reader of this blog knows how much I busted my ass to sell that many, and how much I spent on promotion and travel. If I took home $30k any given year, I’d be very surprised. It was usually less than that.

Since 2009, I’ve sold a combined ebook.paper total of 645,212 self-pubbed legacy books, earning $949,657. That’s $730,282 on my own, and another $109,687 for my share of my collaborations, for a total of  $839,969. That’s $210,000 a year, average.

Stirred has made a little more money than Shaken, due to Blake Crouch’s brand, but I had to split that money with him. Again, I’m not disclosing how much I’ve made, but I’ve made more on Shaken than I have on any one of my legacy titles. This is the reason I continue to sign with Amazon publishing, and why at the end of this year I’ll release three books with them, co-written with Ann Voss Peterson, Flee, Spree, and Three.

However…

Some of my self-pubbed novels have made more money than Shaken.

Now my calculations don’t take certain things into account, including: 

 

Read the rest of the post on A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing.

 

Are We There Yet?

This post, by Steven Ramirez, originally appeared on his Glass Highway site.

 

I watched a snail crawl along the edge of a straight razor. That’s my dream; that’s my nightmare. Crawling, slithering, along the edge of a straight razor… and surviving.

— Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, ‘Apocalypse Now’

Pretty gruesome stuff but I believe it describes beautifully the hell writers face every time we get ready to publish something. The question lingers. Are we there yet? On the one hand, more revisions. On the other, we publish, dammit, we publish.

 

 

The Writing Life

Stepping back, let’s look at the process. Writers write because (a) we have a burning desire to get certain words on paper that we hope will inspire or (b) we’re too lazy to do honest work and we figure we can support ourselves writing what we believe people will pay cash money to read.

If you’re in the latter category, good luck. Though I’d like nothing better than to earn a living at writing, I am currently more interested in publishing stories that get to people. What do I mean? I mean that instead of the polite smile your Aunt Fern gives you when reading your “witty” birthday card, I want the person’s palms to sweat and their heart rate to get dangerously close to myocardial infarction. I want drama, people, pure and simple.

Personally I do this by writing mostly horror and suspense. To be completely frank, sometimes I succeed and sometimes I don’t. Which leads me back to my question—Are we there yet?

Walk Before You Run

When is my story ready to publish? Okay, there are obvious hurdles that have to be overcome—Rubicons to be crossed. First of all the thing has to work as a story. It has to have someone we care about who has one helluva problem and we can’t for the life of us see how they’re going to solve it. It has to have well written dialogue that rings true because we’ve all read the drivel that sounds like some kind of ninth grade English assignment. And it needs a hook.

Say you’ve done all that. Now you have to polish the story and, more importantly, you’ve got to answer in advance all those niggling questions your reader is going to ask. Why did the hero make that choice when his girlfriend already gave him a way out? How can someone kill a guy using nothing more than toenail clippers? Since when do bears ride the subway?

Fine. You’ve answered all the stupid logic questions. Now you send the thing off to the editor and they clean up your less-than-perfect grammar. You end up with—wait for it—a story. But are we there yet?

I don’t know about you but I spend a lot of time agonizing over a comma. True story. My guts churn as I wonder whether I am inventing future clichés. I beat myself up over the fact that everything—I mean everything!—has already been done—and probably better. And guess what. It’s normal—I’m a writer.

But say I dismiss those sweat-stained, paranoid delusions and press ahead. Does that mean my story is ready to publish? I mean, what gives me the right to unleash a malformed, Frankenstein’s monster pile of primordial ooze on an unsuspecting public when there are far better writers out there churning out gold?

 

 

Read the rest of the post on Glass Highway

Paid and Free Editing Software For Manuscripts

I’m stuck in the writer’s cave right now with yet another round of edits. It’s tedious and often boring, but, considering I’m not sure I’ll have enough money later to hire a professional editor, it’s worth it. That’s why I’m doing this round with free editing software.

Using software to help you edit your manuscript isn’t an easy cheat. You’ll still need to do the work of re-writing and you’ll still need your beta readers. However, editing software can make self-editing a little less worrisome.

There are a lot of different online options, both paid and free.

Paid versions

If you’ve got the money, you might be interested in AutoCrit Editing Wizard. I didn’t find the demo useful because the 1,000 words I chose always came back with an error. That could have been because my WIP is a fantasy with mages and magical cats who use incantations the software couldn’t read. If that’s the case, it makes me wonder just how useful this software is in its full version.

Also, in order to use AutoCrit for more than just 1,200 words per day (that’s 400 words 3x per day) and receive more than 3 reports, you have to spend a lot of money. There are 3 memberships: Gold (1,000 words for $47), Platinum (8,000 words for $77) and Professional (100,000 words for $117). You get more goodies  the more you spend, but if I’m going to spend that much money for my WIP I think I’d rather hire a human being.

Free versions

I’m happy to say I’ve found 3 online self-editing programs that are free (or inexpensive). I use all three together because each program catches something the others miss.

I use EditMinion first because it highlights adverbs, weak words, said replacements, sentences ending prepositions and passive voice in different colors. It wasn’t until I ran my first couple scenes through this free editing software that I realized I was in love with adverbs and had a real problem with passive voice.

Next I use Pro Writing Aid. This free editing software catches things like sticky sentences(sentences with too many glue words), vague and abstract words, overused words, repeated words and phrases, complex words and pacing. Like passive voice, I have a real fondness for sticky sentences, and this program finds those with ease.

Last of all, I use ClicheCleaner. It’s great for finding cliches and redundancies. You can download a free demo version that lets you scan up to 20 documents before needing to pay $12.95 to do any more. I downloaded ClicheCleaner because I always thought I had issues with using too many cliches. After using this free editing software, I was surprised to find I don’t have a big problem after all. Of course, even one can be too many.

Whether you choose to pay for your self-editing software or use a free version, remember that a program cannot replace a human being. The great news is, after running your WIP through the programs and correcting all those errors, you may find you can afford a human editor after all.

How do you self-edit your manuscript? What paid and free editing software have you used? 

 

This is a reprint from Virginia Ripple‘s blog.

Eight Resources for Ebook Cover Design

This post originally appeared on Blurberati Blog Tips and Tricks on 4/19/12.

 

We covered the top things to consider when making an ebook cover in an earlier post. But if for some reason you don’t want to make your own ebook cover, you have a few options. Here are some resources to check out for ebook cover design.

Take a look at 99Designs for 100% custom-made covers. Here’s how it works: You post what you’re looking for and what you’re willing to pay for it, the site’s community of artists will submit options, and at the end of a selected period of time, you choose a winner. The more you offer to pay, the better quality work you will receive.

DeviantART runs on a different model, in that it’s a community for artists, rather than a marketplace of for-hire creatives. You can find an existing piece of art to purchase that you may use as a cover, and many times you can get the artist to customize the art for you.

Then there are actual book cover creators for hire. I like Carl Graves’ ebook covers a lot, and he often does fire sales where he will offer up pre-existing templates for sale at a discount price. He’ll only sell each template once – so you know your cover is unique – but it is pre-created art with minimal opportunity for customization. KillerCovers  and CoverGraphics are other cover creation services for hire.

As for free options…

 

Read the rest of the post on Blurberati Blog Tips and Tricks.

The Truth About Finding Time To Write

This post, by Jennifer Blanchard, originally appeared on Better Writing Habits.

Writers are always complaining they don’t have enough time to write.  In fact, that’s the main complaint writers have and one of their biggest barriers to getting writing done, as well.

Finding time to write when you’re already busy as hell may seem like a huge challenge. It may even feel impossible at times. But here’s a little secret that may help put things into perspective: It’s not about finding time to write; it’s about making time to write.

Writing is a choice.  Just like cooking at home instead of eating out is. Or like watching a re-run of your favorite TV show instead of doing something more productive is.

Life is all about choices. You get to choose. You get to decide how you spend your free time.

But many writers forget that writing is a choice.

They’ve been trying to find time to write for so long they forget that they don’t have to write. Writing is an option.

Making Time Vs. Finding Time

Once you’ve made the choice to be a writer; once you’ve committed yourself to the act of writing; then there’s really only one thing you can do: Make time to write.

Finding time means you’re trying to squeeze in writing between other activities. And based onhow packed your schedule is you may or may not ever actually find that time to get writing done.

But making time to write, that has a whole other connotation. Making time means you’re being proactive. It means you’re building your schedule around your desire to write, rather than building writing into your schedule.

See the difference?

Making time is based on you choosing writing. It’s based on you saying that writing is more important to you then other activities you could be pursuing in your free time. And it’s based on writing being a priority for you.

How To Make Time To Write

Making time to write isn’t as hard as it sounds. It really only requires three steps: 

 

Read the rest of the post on Better Writing Habits. 

The Biggest Secret of Book Marketing Success

I love the enthusiasm of authors who are new to book publishing. After months or years of work on their book, many are rightfully proud of what they have created.

It’s no easy thing to finish writing a solid, salable book. Pretty easy to start, not so easy to finish, and you should be proud of that accomplishment.

The problem comes in when, after publishing the book, authors start to wonder why they have sold so few copies. Don’t other people realize how great the book is?

Well, the fact is that most authors don’t intuitively understand why books sell. This leads them to start thinking about:

  • Buying advertising
  • Hiring publicists
  • Printing bookmarks

Or other things that usually mean you’ll end up with a lot less money in your pocket than when you started, and no guarantee of any book sales, either.

There’s nothing wrong with ads, publicists or bookmarks when they are part of a plan you have for marketing your books. But all too often we feel like we just have to do something.

There’s a Secret

Here’s the secret that savvy book marketers understand, and that most authors don’t:

No one knows in advance which books will sell and which won’t sell.

Of course I’m not talking about books by niche-market publishers who research and test their products before publication. But by and large, most trade publishing happens with absolutely no guarantee of what the sales of any particular book will be.

This is just as true for big traditional publishers with huge marketing departments as it is for huge Hollywood movie studios and big conglomerate television channels, so don’t feel too bad about it.

All the advertising, promotion and marketing in the world cannot guarantee that real actual people will buy your book.

For example, a long time ago Donald Trump, the real estate investor and television reality show host, published his first book, The Art of the Deal. It was a huge hit.

Of course Trump wanted to follow that up with another blockbuster. A book was created and rolled out in anticipation of huge sales. Books were stacked in huge pyramids of expectation in bookstore display windows.

Problem was, nobody bought the book. The return rate must have been shocking, because they all went right back to the publisher.

No Guarantees

Why is is that no one can guarantee a book will sell? I bet you can find the answer in your own book-buying habits.

It’s because most people buy books based on the recommendation of someone they know and trust. And you can’t buy those recommendations, can you?

This is the holy grail of book marketing, the “word of mouth” influence that travels directly from one individual to another.

By extension, it can also work for trusted book reviewers or others in the media who have earned readers’ trust, but it rarely extends past that.

For instance, I just read Lynne Truss’ Eats, Shoots & Leaves, a fantastic and very funny book about punctuation that I had known about for years but never read. It hasn’t been on television, I haven’t seen a book trailer about it, nor have I seen an ad for it anywhere.

But a friend mentioned it recently and told me I “just had to read it.” Doesn’t that happen to you all the time? And don’t you recommend books exactly the same way to people you know? I know I do.

What Next?

This leads to a big question for authors, and that is how do you get that word of mouth marketing working for you?

Of course, if I had scientifically worked out how to do that, I’d be selling it to some big publisher for a gazillion dollars, wouldn’t I?

But there are things we, as self-published authors, can do to get word of mouth started. You might boil it down to this:

  1. Write the best book you possibly can, and get an editor to make it better.
  2. Make sure the book speaks to the audience you wrote it for, and let readers judge whether you’ve hit your target.
  3. Get your book in front of enough people who don’t know you to get the ball rolling.

Figuring out how to do this is why people hire professional book marketers, and that’s a smart move.

It also pays to really understand how to match up what you have to say with what readers really want to buy. Whether you call it “marketing” or “thinking deeply about the people who read my books” doesn’t much matter.

What does matter is getting the best book you can create in front of the largest number of people who are likely to love it. As an author and a publisher, you can’t do any less.

Because then at least you’ve put it where word of mouth can take over.

 

 

 

This is a reprint from Joel Friedlander‘s The Book Designer.

Haiku & Tanka

dreams swirl

in a snow globe on the desk…

for a while

I am a child again

and you are shoveling the drive

 

 

meditation…

the tea picker’s song

in my cup

 

country graveyard

a hummingbird

she would’ve loved

 

were all the cranes

to forsake the temple,

would the shadow

of something you said

still dwell in me?

 

                                Darrell Lindsey’s haiku and tanka have won awards in the United States, Japan, Croatia, Bulgaria, Canada, and Romania. He is a Pushcart-Prize nominated poet and the author of Edge Of The Pond ( Popcorn Press, 2012). The book is available at Amazon.com ( including Kindle), BN.com ( Nook Book), and from the publisher at www.popcornpress.com

 

 

 

 

Editing With The Kindle

Editing is one of those processes that can go on forever, and I must admit to being a little addicted to it lately!

 

I have been working through a number of edits from my agent on Pentecost, my first novel in the ARKANE series.

Yes, this book is out and published (and available on all ebook stores!) but it is also being pitched to New York publishers by my literary agent in Sept/Oct. It’s a book I know well and have read several times so editing it again is difficult.

It has already had a number of edits:

 

editing on the kindle

Screenshot of editing on the Kindle

* Pre-publication – multiple drafts, self-editing, editorial review, and then a full line edit and then a proof-read, plus beta readers. More articles here about all that editing.

* Post-publication – fixing up

 

 

I have been working through a number of edits from my agent on Pentecost, my first novel in the ARKANE series.

Yes, this book is out and published (and available on all ebook stores!) but it is also being pitched to New York publishers by my literary agent in Sept/Oct. It’s a book I know well and have read several times so editing it again is difficult.

It has already had a number of edits:

* Pre-publication – multiple drafts, self-editing, editorial review, and then a full line edit and then a proof-read, plus beta readers. More articles here about all that editing.

* Post-publication – fixing up of some minor errors/typos found by the first readers

So I am absolutely happy with the book as it stands now.

BUT when I re-read it again, as I work on the 3rd novel in the series, there are things that I want to improve.

Danger zone: every time you read a book you will find things you want to change!

There were some changes I wanted to make, plus some edits from Rachel, my agent so I have spent a few weeks going back through the book and tweaking. Here’s my process:

editing ARKANE

Editing on paper

(1) I printed it out on paper and went through it with a pen, writing on the pages and then updating the master file in Scrivener.

(2) I went through it again directly on Scrivener with the changes that Rachel, my agent wanted.

(3) Then I was sick of the book but I wanted to re-read it once more to make sure I was entirely happy. So this time, I exported it to Kindle format and read it on the Kindle device itself, adding annotations with the Kindle commenting functionality (see above left picture). It was amazing to see what popped off the page when reading in this different format. For example, repeated words were more easily spotted. Check the above example, where the word ‘tried’ appears twice near the number 35. In the edit, I changed one of these words to attempted. I have also changed some of the sentence structures to vary the rhythm.

(4) Then finally I went through making those changes in the Scrivener master file and exported it for submission.

Of course, if the book/series is bought by a publisher, I will have more edits based on what they want, so it is truly an ongoing process.

What do you think about editing books that are already published?

How do you edit your books, especially when you know them inside out and need new eyes? Please do leave a comment [on the original post] as this is such an important topic for authors.

 

 

This is a cross-posting from Joanna Penn‘s The Creative Penn.