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I decided to make this page to do
something I try not to do— give advice. These are some
experiences I have gone through and some of the things I have
learned that have helped me with my writing. There will also
be a few opinions which you may or may not agree with.
• If you
are a writer just starting out or even if you have been at it
for a while here is the number one thing to do.
• Write!
Have a few dreams of the success, if you must, but spend your
time in front of your keyboard and write.
• Don’t
worry about finding an agent, publishing house or how you will
spend all the money you will make. Just write. Your first
draft is from your heart and mind. There will ample
opportunity to make corrections later. If you need to know a
few of the rules of writing a manuscript then learn the basics
and leave all the details for later. Yes, it will create more
work for you in the end, but at the beginning it will only
slow you down and fill your head with more ‘stuff’.
• A few
simple rules of formatting a manuscript, for a novel, are:
• Double
space each line— not 1.5 spacing. Don’t add extra spacing
between paragraphs.
• Don’t italicize— underline word
that should be italicized when going to print.
• Use an
easy to read font, your choice at this point, 12 points.
That’s it— for now. Punctuation, spelling, misused homonyms,
chapter breaks and the rest are things to do on the
re-writes.
• If you use Microsoft Word, as I do, or
something similar the spelling and grammar check will aid you
a bit, but don’t worry too much with the green underlined
sentences— drive on. A note: do not rely on your word
processor to be your proofreader or editor. Your mistakes will
drive the readers crazy. Use the spelling and grammar checks
on your first sweep but don’t think your manuscript is
finished.
• Try to keep your tenses the same,
but there will be time to correct most anything after the
first draft.
• Now back to the beginning. Write!
If you only have one novel in you then stop after you’ve
written your first draft and learn all the things to make your
manuscript ready for viewing. If you are a writer and have a
head full of ideas; then keep going. Write your next great
novel and the next and the next. Try different styles e.g.
first person, third person, narrative and so on. If after a
few thousand words you don’t like it then change it to the way
you like to write.
• If your story isn’t going anywhere
just save it and start something new. Even while you’re on to
a new project your mind will be evaluating some of the other
things you have been working on. If a major idea comes to you
write it down in a notebook or however you record thoughts but
keep going with what you are working on at the time.
• Speaking
of saving copies; save your different stages of work, but be
sure to give them titles that will make sense to you later. If
you don’t you’ll find yourself editing an older version of
your manuscript and all that work, plus the confusion will
drive you over the edge. I speak from experience. Make copies
to a flash drive as well in case your computer dies. I have
copies in at least five different sources because of my fear
of losing them. That too will drive you crazy— keeping them in
order.
• Don’t leave the flash drive
or other external source plugged into your computer. If you
decide to save your work in several places and are ready to go
back to your writing you may find that you are continuing on
in the external storage. Yep, done that, too. Unplug them
until you are ready to make copies and then unplug them after
the copies are transferred.
• While you’re at it make a
different folder for each project to move the ‘old’ stuff
there to get it out of your way. Don’t throw copies away— who
knows— when you’re rich and famous they may be worth
something. They also may help you follow a process for each of
your manuscripts.
• You may have noticed that I
haven’t written about all the required things you must do when
you want to present your manuscript. The reason why is that it
is very time consuming and presents a whole new batch of
things you must learn if you’re not a computer, internet,
formatting and query writing expert. I find now that I am
trying to learn all of these things that I don’t have a moment
to write, which is driving me crazy. I don’t know how people
do it! If you're one of those who can multi-task without a break
down, then you’re probably not reading advice to new writers
from a new writer.
. When you've finished several manuscript
first drafts then is the time to start learning
everything about formatting your work into a finished
manuscript. You will find it very helpful to come back to your
manuscript with a fresh mind. Leave it alone by writing
another novel. After that it's re-write, re-write...
• To finish
this section
off I will tell you that I wrote four complete novels, from
34,000 words to 160,000 words before I knew that there are
thousands of new and independent writers out there doing what I am
doing. I wrote in three different genres from Fastasy to Young
Adult. I also didn’t know that even if you have written the
manuscript of the century no one, agents and publishers, will
read it unless you can write a totally great query letter or
pitch to get them interested and you have to do it all in one
page. I think that is my downfall. I am a novelist. I’ve tried
to write short stories and I just can’t stop. I write,
re-write, edit and edit these one page things and they just
don’t sing. Now you know why I am an independent publisher. ‘I
had this notion,’ he said with a wry smile, that I would write
a book, give it to an agent and they would take care of
getting it edited, punched up and all the other things that
are needed to present it to a publishing house. Then the
publishing house editor would do it all again and the
marketing would just follow their stream to success. Of course
I would have to make appearances at book stores and hopefully
only make a few speeches and maybe make an appearance on
Oprah. Wrong!
Some things you
should know about the process.
• There are thousands of writers out
there trying to breakthrough so don’t feel alone.
• There are
people out there waiting to rip you off.
• Good
agents won’t even look at your manuscript unless it is near
perfect and they don’t charge you, except for a possible small
fee for mailing, copying and other office functions.
Don’t shell out a big wad of cash to
anyone you want to work for you. That’s the truth about
agents. They work for you and you pay them 15% of your
royalties. They are the middlemen or women to get your
manuscript to the publishing houses. They are, for the most
part, good people who make money by helping you make money,
but remember that they work for you. Listen to them and take
most of their advice, but it is your manuscript. You have the
ultimate word on what happens to your work. I would suggest
that you accept most of the things they ask of you because
they, hopefully, know what they are doing.
After you
re-write, re-write, re-write. I stopped at three but I could
probably continue on for at least fifteen more. Re-write
doesn’t mean you completely change the story line of your
first draft. You go back and check the sequence of events,
make sure the names remain the same, the tense remains the
same throughout and all the things you must do to make it
readable. Don’t think, ‘Oh, these little mistakes won’t really
make a difference.’ You’re wrong. Readers want to read
something that doesn’t make them go back to figure out what
you are trying to say because of errors on the writers part.
They want quality for their hard earned money. In all you do
think about the readers.
Editing is what it is all about! Do it
yourself and try to get it right. Punctuation, spelling,
style, paragraph breaks, chapter breaks and the whole package
should be your main concern. Learn how to read one word at a
time. It’s not as easy as it sounds and you will find
that out when you have found an editor you can trust. Once
you’ve done the best you can then if you are lucky enough to
have a few friends or anyone who would like to read your work--
let them have a copy. Hang on to these people, they are
extremely hard to find. Most importantly; listen to what they
have to say. Let them know you’re not looking for a pat on the
back but honest, good or bad, opinions of what you have
written. Let them mark up things that they don’t understand or
any kind of mistakes they find.
Now
comes the real test of your nerve and your seriousness of
being a published writer. You must, I will say it again… you
must find an editor. They are the most expensive part of your
writing so far. When the editor returns you 'baby' you will be
embarrassed, disappointed, sullen, outraged, and mystified at
the mistakes you missed. One thing you shouldn't be
is angry at your editor. This doesn't mean you have
to make every change they suggest, but think about the items
you disagree with.
If you are using WORD or something
similar have them return your manuscript with the
'track changes' showing you what they have done for you. Always
make a seperate copy to send them to edit and always make the
correction on a seperate copy so you change keep the track changes
to review later.
If you’re on a budget, as I am, then shop
around, asked friends if they know one and do whatever you must
to find one. I don’t care if you are a professor of literature
with letter after letter behind and in front of your name. You
require a set of eyes that aren’t biased. Do they have to be a
copy editor? Not if your budget won’t allow that kind of
expense. I found a friend whose wife was, among other things,
a proofreader for the court system. We communicated and she
was interested in giving it a try. This was her first novel.
She was outstanding! When I write to her I refer to myself as
the ‘comma monster’ because I seem to love commas and put them
everywhere it feels right. She is the opposite and trashed
about 90% of my wonderful commas. Her style of editing is in
readability. I swept through my Chicago Manual of Style trying
to find a reason to retain my commas and to be honest I found
a number of way to make my position, on a few things, but when
I read the manuscript it read so much better and I left it
alone for the most part. I secretly admit that I did add a few
commas where I knew it would help, but to her credit she did
what I needed to make my manuscript better.
I’ll say this
again; find an editor and pay them to edit your work. I’ve
read in some of the on-line discussion group where people
would say things like, ‘I just let Word be my editor,’ or ‘I don’t
think anyone will care about the few mistakes I might have
made,’ or ‘I’m selling my book cheap and it’s good enough.’
The people who say and do these kinds of things should not
publish! I’ve even read, ‘I’m giving my book away for free.’
If you don’t want any of the potential money you might make,
then give it to the charity of your choice— you can do that you
know. I'm not talking about ebooks, but even then you should
charge something. I guess it’s a fear of not selling any of
your works and I and most writers understand that. If you are
proud enough of your works to have them published then ask
people to pay a reasonable price for it.
Don’t send it to
print without it being edited by someone who knows what they
are doing and don’t forget to pay for their service.
Independent
publishing still has a poor reputation because people try to
publish their first draft or a work with only ‘minor’ editing.
Don’t do it.
A good thing about being an Indie,
independent publisher, is your royality income is more per
book than it would be if you go to a big publishing house, if
you price your book fairly and present a good quality
product.
If
you decide to publish on your own then you’re in for a
learning experience if you do it right. I will tell you that I
am far from being a salesman. It’s just not in me. I have a
fear of cheating someone or messing up the deal. As an indie,
independent, you have to learn about marketing, the internet,
building a website and the myriad of other items that will
help sell your book. That’s why I said in the beginning to
write and write until you have several manuscripts
completed.
I
have been spending 8 to 10 hours a day trying to learn some of
this and it is difficult, but rewarding. I want to complete
this part so I can return to writing. I miss it, but at the
same time I would like to sell more than fifteen copies of my
novels.
Well, guess what? I’ve just written over
2000 words without stopping and I feel good. Of course you can
see very well why I need an editor, but I do try.
My experiences
include writing four complete manuscripts, making a start on
at least six more that I will return to when time permits. I
formatted the interior pages of my novels, designed the book
covers, built a website and have a business plan along with a
new publishing company. I have read many books on how to do
all this and I’m sure the writers are happy that I bought
their books. Some books were good and others not so good. I’ve
read many on how to find an agent, how to write a query letter
and they were for the most part not very helpful. If any of
you out there discover the trick to writing a query letter
that doesn’t get an automatic rejection response, please let
me know. I know a lot has to do with the subject material and
choice of agent, but it a hard life out there for a new
writer.
If you plan on doing it all
yourself or just want to know the in and outs of getting a
novel ready for print I will give you the names of a few books
to try.
If
you use Microsoft Word then
Aaron Shepard’s Perfect
Pages is available. I will be honest and
tell you that his book drove me crazy trying glean the
information out of it that I needed. The book is more along
the lines of everything you really didn’t want to know about
Word, but there was a lot of good information as well. It is
advertised as a book on how to format manuscripts to make them
ready for the printer but he completely passes over the front
matter. (the pages at the beginning) It is also written for
Word 2004 and if you have 2007 then you have your work cut out
trying to find some of the things he talks about. After saying
all that, it is one of the only books on the subject.
A must have book is The Chicago Manual of
Style by the University of Chicago Press.
It’s a little daunting but it is filled with need to know
items. For instance: front matter and comma placement, my
personal favorite. It is the standard used by many publishing
houses as well as the writing community.
ePublish by Steve Weber has good
information not only on ebooks, but formatting,'real'
books as well.
You will need a book on formatting a
fiction manuscript.
Additional books and software that is
helpful:
The Really,
Really, Really Easy Step-by-Step Guide to Building your own
Website is anything but easy, but there is nothing
easy about making your own website and this book and
downloadable software does help a lot. It teaches you how to
build the website the book uses for example, but it does leave
it up to your to do most of the leg work for your own website.
Page Breeze website tool
is the software used to actually build a website without a
ready-made template and it is the only one I’ve found that you
can do-it-yourself.
Book Cover
Pro is very good software for designing your book
cover. It works well and produces a quality book cover. Don't
forget about the discount code they offer on Facebook .
Logo Smartz and Banner Design
Pro are good software and easy to use. The one
drawback is it doesn’t have a good help section, but I have
written to Logo Smartz and gotten a quick reply and answers to
my questions.
If you have read this far then I thank
you for your time. Once again you can see my need for an
editor. I truly hope I have given you something to think
about. Feel free to write to me. Identify yourself as a writer
and tell me what you think. Good or bad. I also hope you will
purchase Tyler Hill’s
Decision and In
Search of a Soul, if it’s out when you read this.
Tell me about your book. I hope I have been of some help to
you in your career as a writer.
I wish you much success and fulfillment
in you endeavors. |
