Completing a book is a monumental achievement in a book journey. You successfully navigated the Draft Marshes, no simple task. Perhaps you’ve even braved the Range of Revision or hiked the Line Edit Foothills. But it’s possible to make that journey and choose not to continue to Publish Bay. Not every book is meant to be or needs to be published. [Read more…] about Try Something New
Publishing
The Querying Sands
After you’ve hiked the Line Edit Foothills, you come to a crossroads: Do you try to entice a traditional publisher to edit, design, produce, and market your book; do you do that work on your own to self-publish; or do you start a new writing project?
If you want a publisher to put out your book, you’re going to trek through the Querying Sands, a hostile-looking path. [Read more…] about The Querying Sands
Publish Bay
You’ve trained, toiled, and triple-checked all your gear. It’s time to launch your book into Publish Bay to explore the expansive waters of a broad audience here at the end—or an end—of your book journey. [Read more…] about Publish Bay
Proofreading Boulders
After your trek through the woods of design and copyediting, pause and catch your breath. Now is the time to proofread your work before you launch your voyage into the sea of publishing. Proofreading is a final check to make sure your gear (your words, design, etc.) is in order before publishing. [Read more…] about Proofreading Boulders
Reunite the Party: Typesetting & Ebook Formatting
It’s time to get the gang back together! Earlier in your book journey, you split the party to tackle initial design work and copyediting at the same time. Now you need to bring your polished text and your design tools together to create print-ready files and distribution-ready ebooks. This is where the Design Pines and the Red-Ink Woods meet. [Read more…] about Reunite the Party: Typesetting & Ebook Formatting
What You Need to Know Before Hiring an Editor
Before you hire an editor, it’s important to have some foundational knowledge about the process. Here are five key bits of intel to get you started.
1. There Are Different Types of Editing
Many writers get to a stage where someone tells them to hire an editor (or comes to that decision on their own). But it’s important to know there is more than one type of editing, and those types usually need to happen in separate passes (and sometimes with different editors). Editing for character and pacing is difficult to do if you’re also correcting commas and hyphenation. [Read more…] about What You Need to Know Before Hiring an Editor
Where Are You in Your Book Journey?
Especially if you’re new to the book-writing process, all the different types of editing and the steps for publication can be confusing. Now there’s a map for that! This map covers the main steps and phases for writing and self-publishing a book. (It also lets you know when to turn off to go the traditional publishing route via querying agents and publishers.) Once you know where you are in your process, it’s easier to get the help you need, whether from a writing group and critique partners or from professional editors and designers.
The Familius Christmas Anthology 2012
Remember not too long ago when I mentioned I had a book coming out? Well, now it’s out! Actually, it’s been out for a few weeks now, but it took awhile for it to post to all the major stores. I give you The Familius Christmas Anthology 2012, compiled by yours truly and Rick Walton:
Christmas is a time for family and there’s no better way of helping your family enjoy the Christmas spirit than by taking time each night to explore the annual Familius Christmas Anthology. Filled with stories, poems, recipes, and activities to make Christmas time enjoyable, this collection is literally stuffed with feel-good content and activities that will bring your family together. The stories include such favorites as the “The Gift of Magi” by O’Henry to the moving “The Child Who Had Everything But—” by John Kendrick Bangs. The anthology also includes favorite poems like “Long Ago” by Christina Rossetti and, of course, “God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen,” among many others. And delicious family favorite recipes provide an invitation to spend time at the family table, whether you’re enjoying Spiced Sugar Cookie Truffles or a simple pot of White Hot Chocolate. And don’t forget to round out your Christmas holiday with family activities like building Graham Cracker Cottages or playing Jack Frost Tag. The Familius Christmas Anthology is a fantastic way of enjoying this wonderful holiday and making sure your family enjoys it, together.
I love Christmas, and I’m happy to have been a part of putting this anthology together. The whole point of the anthology is the help families enhance the holiday time they spend together. I’ve always loved spending time reading stories and baking with my family around the holidays. (When I lived at home we used to light candles and read a Christmas story every night in December.) This year, I’m looking forward to starting some family traditions of my own with my husband and my son (even if the little guy will only be a couple months old by the time Christmas day rolls around). Maybe this little book can help you with some traditions of your own.
The book is currently available as an ebook from all major ebook sellers.
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