1.
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What can I do to break my writer's block?
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2.
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Should I send chapters for editing as
I write them or wait and send everything at one time?
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3.
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Should I have my manuscript edited before
or after I've done everything to it that I can?
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4.
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To have you edit my manuscript, what
should I be sending you?
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5.
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Why do editors want a retainer? I pay all my bills on time.
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6.
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What do all those odd-looking symbols
on my manuscript mean?
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7.
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I'm overwhelmed by the number of edits
written on my manuscript. Yet I keep hearing that I write well. What gives?
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8.
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What if I don't agree with all the edits?
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9.
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How do you want my corrected text returned
to you for the next step?
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10.
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Have you ever heard of X Company? They
seem interested in publishing my book.
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11.
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Why do you want to know a self-publisher's
marketing plan?
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12.
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I can't find an agent who'll agree to
represent me, though their rejection letters praise
my writing. Are they snowing me?
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13.
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How do I find a small press?
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14.
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How can I learn more about the mystery
writing groups you belong to?
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15.
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What's the biggest problem for writers?
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16.
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What resources do you recommend to help me improve as a writer?
Click here for a list of recommended books and experts in their fields.
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Q.
What can I do to break my writer's block?
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A. Some people say there's no such thing as
writer's block. But if you find yourself always "preparing
to prepare to write," try the following tips. They
work for me and for writers I've coached.
- If you're a clear-the-desk-first procrastinator,
simply pick up all the piles of stuff and move them
to the floor or to another room and deal with them
another time. Or pick yourself up and move to a place
that's already free of distractions. If there's any
procrastinating to be done, let it apply to all that
other stuff, not to your writing. If the stuff were
so important, you wouldn't have put it in a pile to
begin with.
- Some writers get stuck because they don't know where to begin, but they've been told to begin at the beginning. Really helpful. Instead, write a first draft of the rave reviews you'd like a future publisher to put on the back
cover of your book. Add a list of all the ways your readers will benefit
from your book. Pick one promised benefit and let it determine
what you begin to write. Books do not have to be written in the order they will be read.
- Use 3x5 cards (or recycled business cards)
to jot down random phrases or ideas that float through
your mind about the book you are writing. Use separate cards each time you want to expand
on a thought. Take a supply of
blank cards and a pencil or pen wherever you go. Later,
"play cards" — that is, rearrange them as you look
for ways to connect the thoughts. The act of physically
moving your thoughts around and noticing connections
among them stimulates creative thinking. And the resulting
pattern offers an outline that gives you a head start.
- Go for a walk to clear your head, but put a short
pencil and a supply of blank cards in your pocket.
- Imagine yourself on Oprah discussing your book before
a very supportive audience. You'll find this an effective
motivational exercise if you act out the interview
scenario instead of merely thinking it.
- Phone a writing buddy or coach and start chatting about
your book or about one part of it. You'll be
surprised by how much you have to say and how enlightening
you'll find the process. But stop talking and start writing well before you exhaust the topic or tell too much.
- Tape record your side of the above conversation.
Later, play it back and make notes. Since you're not
taping your buddy's words, only yours, you don't need
permission to record.
- If you've prearranged a reciprocal support system,
ask your writing buddy or coach to make notes during
the conversations you have with each other. Another
person's interpretation (or misinterpretation) of
how you see your work can be a powerful motivator
to get you writing again.
- Explain your book to a child. Having to oversimplify
gives you a great jump start.
- "Map" your project on a large sheet of
paper or a chalkboard. Write your central idea
in the middle, and around that write a few words representing
each point that you want to develop. Extending outward from these word clusters note other ideas or subtopics that each
point suggests. Draw lines suggesting a preliminary route for developing one point from another, and although
the route will change as you go, the map
will get you started on your trip. It's a variation
of the index card method above (#3). And you don't have to follow a logical sequence to jump-start your writing day.
- Be a reviewer: Write a list of criticisms about
other books that a prospective agent or publisher
will see as competing with yours. Then draft a rave
review of your book that quotes a few of your best
points. This exercise not only unblocks your writing
but also gives you a head start on the marketing section
of a book proposal.
- Pick the most controversial idea in your book and
write a brief defense of it. Focus on proving your
point — without whining.
- If nothing about your book sparks controversy, you
may need to create some, thereby making your book
more interesting to you as well as to others.
- After you've walked, talked, napped, snacked, cleared
your desk, and gotten ready to write, start any place
except "chapter 1" and just write. If you
type your writing, stare at a blank wall or at your
hands, not at the words forming on your monitor.
- Make a hasty table of contents for your book (also
on cards). Then add the words "Sex and"
in front of each entry. Wherever the inspiration moves
you, start writing.
- Be good to yourself. Call a professional writing
coach or freelance editor and ask about consulting services or coaching.
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Q. For editing, should I send chapters as I write them
or wait and send everything at one time?
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A.Send everything together so the various
parts of your job dont get separated, causing
delays and rework. See the checklist What
to send at the end of the article, How
to Take Advantage of an Editor.
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Q.
Should I have my manuscript edited before or after
I've done everything to it that I can?
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A. It depends on your genre and your disposition.
For nonfiction, you are likely
to benefit from early developmental editing to ensure
that you are heading in the right direction for the
audience you want to reach. A developmental edit takes
into account your market, content, scope, organization,
language level, and other large-scale issues that can
save major rewriting later.
For fiction, you might want
feedback on the opening chapter to see if it hooks the
reader and sustains interest. But if your novel is well
underway, complete it before having it edited. You don't
want to break your momentum.
Your disposition or personality is
also a factor. If you reach a point where you can't
stand to look at your work any more, that's the time
to put it away for a few weeks and then revise it before
sending it off to someone else. Revision is part of
writing frequently said to be the most important
part of writing. If you genuinely enjoy tinkering, the
more you do, the less an editor has to. Most important,
the more polished the manuscript when sent for editing, the
more clearly your editor can see its underlying structure
and help you with the broader issues of organization,
sequence, and development of ideas.
However, save the tinkering for after
you complete your first draft, because once you don
the self-editor's hat, you might have a harder time
keeping your internal editor's voice from interfering
with the spontaneous flow of writing.
Whatever you decide, the greatest
contribution you can make to your book is writing it.
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Q.
To have you edit my manuscript, what should I be
sending you?
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A. Please see the form that appears when you
click READY?
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Q.
Why do editors always want a retainer? I pay all my bills on time.
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A. When publishers and published authors find
an editor they like working with, they want to reserve
time on that editor's schedule many weeks or
months in advance. The purpose of a retainer is to
ensure that once an editor agrees to work with you,
you've actually reserved a place for your book in that
editor's busy production schedule.
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Q.
What do all those odd-looking symbols on my manuscript
mean?
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A. Those are standard editorial symbols. You
can find a complete list of them at the back of most
dictionaries under the heading "Proofreaders' Marks."
The marks I use most frequently can be found on this
Website by clicking definitions, abbrev. in the
sidebar.
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Q.
I'm overwhelmed by the number of edits written
on my manuscript.
Yet I keep being told that I write well. What
gives?
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A. Everyone who receives a thorough editing
feels overwhelmed. But there's little relationship between
the number of edits and a writer's ability. After all,
if you've written a 100,000-word book, it's not unusual
to get back 1,000 or more separate responses, especially
when they apply to an extremely wide range of elements,
from plot to punctuation, scene-setting to sentence
structure, voice to vocabulary.
Remember when you confronted your
first computer? You were overwhelmed then, too. By approaching
this new challenge being professionally edited
in the same spirit of discovery, you might actually
learn to like it.
Please know that editing is not a
criticism of the writer or a judgment about the writer's
ability. Editing reflects the reading experience of
a professional who is working alongside you to help
you produce the best book possible.
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Q.
What if I don't agree with all the edits?
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A. Edits are essentially suggestions
and recommendations. You aren't expected to agree with
all of them. As author, you are the authority, the ultimate "decider." Use what works for you;
don't use what doesn't. But even the "misfits"
among those suggestions when analyzed objectively
can reveal what it is that made your editor so
thoroughly miss the point you were trying to make.
Before eliminating all traces of a
comment that you disagree with, take a moment to think
about what might have prompted it and come up with your
own solution. If you don't see the problem, ask, because
doing nothing could cause your next reader (a prospective
agent or publisher, for example) to similarly misinterpret
your words. Keeping a positive frame of mind helps you
replace the editor's suggestion with a remedy that you
like better.
(If you would like
a copy of my article "Edits Aren't Edicts,"
which appeared as the lead article in the October 2000
issue of Publishers Marketing Association's newsletter,
either e-mail me or send a SASE to Chris Roerden, 3683
Waterwheel Court, Greensboro NC 27409.)
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Q.
How should my corrected text be returned
to an editor for the next step?
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A. Let's say you've had the first pages of your manuscript edited and you agree with the editor's suggestions. Revise those pages accordingly, then apply what you've learned in the process to the rest of your manuscript. Save the original marked-up pages for future reference.
When I edit a sample, if we mutually agree to continue I estimate the turnaround time and the cost, minus part of what you previously paid.
For the second phase of editing, send a hard copy in SMF of the latest
version of your full, self-corrected manuscript. Include the sample pages with my original edits. Wherever you decide to take no action on a particular suggestion or question, write STET (Latin for Let it stand) in the margin and draw a dotted line under the words to be kept as is. You can also draw a line through an editorial comment that you considered and decided to reject. If you don't mark what you don't revise, your editor won't know whether you missed seeing the comment or whether you saw it but didn't make the meaning clearer. You will probably be asked about it again, which wastes time for both of editor and writer.
It helps if you mark up the original editing to indicate what you might have questions about, using color or sticky notes for your reactions. But there's no need to
write out the answers to questions I'd raised
or to explain why you are handling a problem differently
from the way I might have suggested, because the revisions you make to the completed manuscript
speak for themselves. In other words, let your revised text clarify whatever it is that prompted your editor's original comment.
If you previously arranged for self-publishing and are ready for typesetting and layout or final proofreading of text that I previously edited, we'll discuss the process.
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Q.
Have you ever heard of X Company? They seem interested
in publishing my book.
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A. If I haven't heard of them, it's because
no one can keep up with the hundreds of new publishing
ventures that are constantly making an appearance. More
than 50,000 companies and individuals are currently
doing business as publishers.
One way to check the legitimacy of
a publisher who offers you a contract is to contact
an agent listed with the Association of Authors' Representatives,
P.O. Box 237201, Ansonia Station, New York, NY 10003;
www.publishersweekly.com/AAR/
Another is to join more than one online
group of writers, ask lots of questions, and listen
to the answers. Check out the links on the AAR Website
(also read their FAQs) and if you are up for the results,
try the keyword "writing" on the Internet
to get you started.
In addition to the sheer number of
companies and individuals who are defining themselves
as publishers, there's a nearly infinite number of publishing
arrangements they offer.
In general, publishers fall into
three broad categories:
1. |
Risk or royalty publishers these
are the traditional publishers who gamble on what
they think will return a high enough profit to
them in relation to all their costs including
the cost of production, marketing, distribution,
returns, overhead, and a royalty to the author.
(One notable exception is the cost of the initial
edit, which the first-time author is usually expected
to have gotten before an agent or publisher sees
a submitted manuscript.)
Whether the traditional risk
publisher is very large or very small, the cost
of launching each book is a major investment,
so the publisher has to be extremely selective
in choosing which manuscripts to publish. That's why acquisitions
are influenced by far more than the merit of a
book's content or the writing talent of its author.
Acquisitions often depend on the ability of the
author to market his or her work and generate
impressive sales figures.
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2. |
Self-publishers these are the authors
who publish their own work, bearing all the risks
and costs but keeping all profits and enjoying
the freedom to make their own decisions. Self-publishers
act as general contractors, performing some tasks
themselves and subcontracting those that they
haven't the time, skill, or inclination to do
themselves. Many specialists are available to
handle those specialized functions, from production services
(design, editorial, typesetting, layout, printing
and binding) to marketing (the whole campaign
or any part of it), to distribution (warehousing,
order fulfillment, returns, and so on). There
are many advantages for the self-publisher in
having all these functions performed under the
direction of an experienced general contractor,
project manager, or managing editor; however,
the quality and the cost can vary considerably.
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3. |
Cooperative publishers this category
includes most everyone else who agrees to help
an author get published. The agreements, costs,
and benefits vary widely. Here are a few examples:
Various online publishing arrangements,
which cost relatively little but offer the author
a modest royalty after all costs have been recovered and no ownership of the reprint
rights or the ISBN. Technically, because your
electronic book never goes "out of print,"
the reprint rights do not revert to the author,
as they do when a traditional print publisher
decides that sales are too low to continue marketing
and reprinting the title.
Vanity publishers, who take no
risks themselves but publish almost anything
for the large fee they charge, promising all
services but in reality providing very few;
namely, a cursory typesetting, a formulaic layout,
printing of the manuscript, and the binding
and delivery of a small quantity of the actual
print run. (If you want the rest of the books
you think you already paid for, you usually
have to pay for their binding and shipping.)
Historically, vanity publishers
perform no real marketing or editorial functions.
In a well-documented class-action lawsuit against
one of the oldest vanity publishers, the courts
determined that TWO criteria distinguish the
value-added legitimate publisher from the bogus:
editorial and marketing. Running a manuscript through
a spell-checker and a grammar checker is not
what's meant by "editorial."
Every sort of other arrangement
one can imagine from the job shop that
adds minimum editorial and marketing to the
mix (thereby taking a small step up in the eyes
of the law from the scam artist), to the truly
cooperative arrangement with fellow self-publishers
dividing the work and sharing the costs.
The key to knowing which publishing
method is right for each author is the word
that appears at the beginning of this discussion:
RISK. Who takes how much risk and what kind?
Today, with the rapid proliferation of every
imaginable variation of publishing arrangement,
it's difficult to tell the good guys from the
not-so-good and the outright baddies. Moreover,
dealing with even the not-so-bad often takes
a literary agent or attorney who specializes
in entertainment law to (a) interpret the fine
print in a publishing contract and (b) identify
which rights and privileges you are getting,
which you are giving away, and which you're
at risk for losing.
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Q. Why do you want to know
a self-publisher's marketing plan?
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A. Unless you intend to give your books
away, you may want to recover some of your investment.
You might even want to make a profit. Whatever objective
you have in mind, a plan helps you get there.
In asking you for your plan, I want
to see how realistic the concept is and evaluate for
myself how likely your methods will help you reach your
defined audience. If I feel you have no chance of meeting
your objectives, I don't want to take your money. There
are plenty of other editors, book consultants, and "publishing
managers" out there who will gladly do that for
you, whether you have a good chance at succeeding or
are highly likely to fail.
When I speak of "failing"
as a self-publisher, I'm not talking about the merits
of your book; I'm talking about the soundness of your
plan for marketing and distributing it. For all authors,
especially self-publishers, writing the book is the
easy part; marketing it is the challenge.
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Q.
I can't find an agent who'll agree to represent me,
though
their rejection letters praise my writing. Are
they snowing me?
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A. Probably not — unless they praise your writing
AND suggest they would be interested in representing
you only after you pay for having it edited by a certain
editor or editorial service. Agents who take no
reading fees (and who thereby remain eligible for membership
in the well-respected Association of Authors' Representatives)
and no kickbacks from editing services (thereby
obeying anti-kickback laws) have nothing
to gain by praising your writing while admitting, in
effect, that they can't sell it. Legitimate agents get
paid only when they sell something.
As you might imagine, agents increase
their chances of selling a book by focusing on publishers
who buy a large number of manuscripts. However, the
number of those publishers is diminishing and the number
of manuscripts being circulated is extremely high. So
you might consider contacting smaller independent presses that publish
in your genre. Depending on how small a particular press
is, the number of manuscripts that it acquires in a
year can be minuscule. The good news is you can approach
the smaller presses directly, without first acquiring and agent, because agents are rarely
interested in such limited odds for making a sale. Nevertheless,
you have to do your homework to unearth the right small
press. Should you receive a contract from a small press, find an agent or intellectual property attorney to vet that contract and negotiate on your behalf.
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Q.
How do I find a small press?
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A. I presume you've already surfed the Net and
scoured the bookstores and libraries to compile lists
of all the presses currently publishing in your genre.
Below are the two resources I like to use for identifying
the presses that have published books on a particular
subject. (Today, "Press" refers to a publisher, not
a printer, although the term "small press" originated to refer to "alternative" publishers who had to also print their own books when commercial printers refused to handle politically controversial and sexually explicit materials.) When you research the following sources for your
own niche, be sure to look up how many titles and how
many different authors a given publisher publishes.
Be prepared to do your homework so you can narrow down
the many possibilities to only the likeliest publishers
for your subject matter. Do not contact more than a few publishers at a time, so you can continue to refine your efforts as you go.
International Directory of Little Magazines
and Small Presses
published by Dustbooks, P. O. Box 100, Paradise, CA
95967
http://www.dustbooks.com/
Your own copy will cost you about $40, but you should
be able to find this in a library. Ask.
Books in Print
published by R. R. Bowker
http://booksinprint.com/
This is a multi-volume set kept at the reference desk
of any library. Bring a laptop or lots of index cards
for taking notes. Start your search by subject,
then look up each publisher's name in the appropriate
volume. Avoid publishers whose titles are all written
by the same person.
Once you zero in on a likely batch of publishers in
your genre, search their Websites for the titles they
publish or write or phone to get your own copy of their
catalog (it's free). Catalogs let you analyze what a
publisher is investing in, thereby helping you identify
the most likely prospects. When you've narrowed your
list, send a SASE to each publisher's editorial department
asking for writer's guidelines, or visit each publisher's
Website to see if submission guidelines are posted.
Pay particular attention to what publishers say they
are looking for and what their stated mission in publishing
is. Follow each set of guidelines to the letter.
Even though you might not want to
self-publish (and you'll surely want to avoid vanity
publishing), it's not unreasonable for a legitimate
publisher to expect you to do a significant amount of
pro-active marketing to promote your book. It's unrealistic
to think your role is limited to appearing at whatever
events your publisher sets up for you. Just be
sure you don't have to pay for production as well as
the opportunity to do most of your own marketing.
If you succeed in getting a contract
offer on your own, it's wise to ask a literary agent or intellectual property attorney to review the contract. A professional's
ability to negotiate better terms for you is often worth
the cost.
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Q.
How can I learn more about the writing organizations
you belong to?
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A. You can contact them directly:
Mystery Writers of America (MWA)
17 East 47th Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10017
(212) 888-8171
http://www.mysterywriters.net/
To contact the SouthEast Regional Chapter of MWA,
or SEMWA:
http://www.SEMWA.com
Sisters in Crime (SinC)
P. O. Box 442124
Lawrence, KS 66044
(785) 842-1325
http://www.sinc-ic.org/ My local chapter in the Triad of N.C. is MurderWeWrite.com
Romance Writers of America
16000 Stuebner Airline Rd. #140
Spring, Texas 77379
http://www.rwanational.org/
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Q.
What's the biggest problem for writers?
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A. In my experience the answer is "Supermind."
To explain that answer, I've typed an article about
it in SMF Standard Manuscript Format so
you'll have a sample of what manuscript pages should
look like when you submit your work to an editor, agent,
or publisher.
Click
here to view or print "The Biggest Problem for
Writers" (a pdf file)
(Adobe Acrobat automatically downloads this file, but
if you have any difficulty opening it, please contact
me by e-mail or regular mail and I will send it to you.)
TO RETURN HERE after viewing "The Biggest Problem
for Writers," use your browser's BACK symbol [<]
at the top of your screen.
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Q. What resources can help me improve my writing and market my book?
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A. 1. BOOKS ON SELF-EDITING
Roerden, Chris. Don't Murder Your Mystery: 24 Fiction-Writing Techniques To Save Your Manuscript From Turning Up D.O.A. Rock Hill SC: Bella Rosa Books, 2006. Winner: Agatha Award for Best Nonfiction Book. Finalist: Anthony Award, Macavity Award, and ForeWord Magazine Reference Book of the Year. Click here
Roerden, Chris. Don't Sabotage Your Submission: Insider Information from a Career Manuscript Editor to Save Your Manuscript From Turning Up D.O.A. (This is the expanded all-genre edition of the same Agatha Award-winning Don't Murder Your Mystery listed above). Rock Hill SC: Bella Rosa Books, 2008. Winner: 2009 Benjamin Franklin Award for Literary Criticism. Finalist: ForeWord Magazine's Writing Book of the Year. Click here
Bell, James Scott. Revision & Self-Editing. Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books, 2008.
Bickham, Jack M. The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes (And How To Avoid Them). Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 1992.
Browne, Renni, & Dave King. Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. New York: Harper Perennial, 1994; revised 2005.
Christmas, Bobbie. Write in Style: Using Your Word Processor and Other Techniques to Improve Your Writing. New York: Union Square Pub., 2004.
Lukeman, Noah. The First Five Pages: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.
Obstfeld, Raymond. Fiction First Aid. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2001.
2. BOOKS (and CDs/DVDs) ABOUT WRITING
Bell, James Scott. Plot & Structure: Techniques & exercises for crafting a plot. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2004.
Bickham, Jack M. Setting: How To Create and Sustain a Sharp Sense of Time and Place in Your Fiction. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 1994.
Block, Lawrence. Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers. New York: William Morrow & Co., 1981.
Emerson, Kathy Lynn. How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries.
Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books,2008.
Ephron, Hallie. Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel: How to Knock ’Em Dead with Style. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2005.
Grafton, Sue, ed. Writing Mysteries: A Handbook by the Mystery Writers of America. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2001.
Hayden, G. Miki. Writing the Mystery. Philadelphia: Intrigue Press, 2001.
Highsmith, Patricia. Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction. Boston: The Writer, 1966; New York: Writer’s Library, 1990.
King, Stephen. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. New York: Scribner, 2000; Pocket Books edition, 2002.
Lukeman, Noah. The Plot Thickens. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002.
Maass, Donald. The Fire in Fiction. Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books, 2009.
Neri, Kris. Writing Killer Mysteries: 8 Lessons to Get You Into Print. Valencia CA: T2G Productions, 2006. (Format: DVD)
Orr, Alice. No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2004.
Pickard, Nancy. Seven Steps on the Writer's Path. New York: Random House, 2003.
Provost, Gary. Make Your Words Work. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 1990; Author’s Guild Backinprint.com edition, 2001.
Smith, Julie. The Great American Novel Track. A 2008 class on writing from Edgar® Award-Winning author. (Format: Three 2-hour audio CDs, currently available only from the author, www.writerstrack.com.)
Stein, Sol. How to Grow a Novel. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999.
Tapply, William G. The Elements of Mystery Fiction: Writing the Modern Whodunit. Scottsdale: Poisoned Pen Press, 2005.
Wheat, Carolyn. How to Write Killer Fiction. Santa Barbara: Perseverance Press, 2003. Outstanding comparison of mystery and thriller, plus a useful guide to genres and subgenres.
3. BOOKS ON CHARACTER BUILDING & BEHAVIOR
Ballon, Rachel. Breathing Life into Your Characters: How to Give Your Characters Emotional and Psychological Depth. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2003.
Douglas, John E., and Mark Olshaker. Anatomy of Motive: The FBI’s Legendary Mindhunter Explores the Key to Understanding & Catching Violent Criminals. New York: Scribner, 1999.
Groetsch, Michael; ed. Chris Roerden. He Promised He’d Stop. Brookfield WI: CPI Publishing, 1997. Profiles the types of men who abuse women and how the courts respond.
Kress, Nancy. Dynamic Characters. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 1998.
Samenow, Stanton E. Inside the Criminal Mind. New York: Crown Publishing, 2004.
Tannen, Deborah. You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation. New York: Ballantine Books, 1991.
4. BOOKS ON CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION
Brown, Steven Kerry. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Private Investigating. New York: Penguin Group, 2003.
Budewitz, Leslie Ann. Books, Crooks and Counselors: How to Write Accurately About Criminal Law and Courtroom Procedure. Fresno, CA: Quill Driver Books, 2011.
Campbell, Andrea. Making Crime Pay: The Writer’s Guide to Criminal Law, Evidence, and Procedure. New York: Allworth Press, 2002.
Lee Lofland. Police Procedure & Investigation. Cincinnati: Writers Digest Books. 2007.
5. BOOKS ON COPYRIGHT FOR WRITERS
Kozak, Ellen. Every Writer’s Guide to Copyright and Publishing Law, 3rd ed. New York: Henry Holt, 2004.
6. BOOKS ON MARKETING THE MANUSCRIPT
Brogan, Kathryn S. Guide to Literary Agents. Cincinnati: Writers Digest Books, 2005.
Herman, Jeff. Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Literary Agents. Waukesha WI: The Writer Books, 2005.
Maass, Donald. The Career Novelist: A Literary Agent Offers Strategies for Success. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann, 1996.
Page, Susan. The Shortest Distance Between You and a Published Book. Broadway Books, New York. 1997.
Sands, Katharine. Making the Perfect Pitch: How to Catch a Literary Agent’s Eye. Waukesha WI: The Writer Books, 2004.
7. BOOKS ON MARKETING THE PUBLISHED BOOK
Howard-Johnson, Carolyn. The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't. Star Publish, 2004.
Marks, Jeffrey. Intent To Sell: Marketing the Genre Novel. Frederick MD: Hilliard Harris, 2005.
Horowitz, Shel. Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers. Hadley MA: AWM Books, 2007.
Kremer, John. 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, 6th ed. Fairfield IA: Open Horizons, 2006.
Levinson, Jay Conrad; Rick Frishman; Michael Larsen. Guerrilla Marketing for Writers. Cincinnati OH: Writer's Digest Books, 2000.
8. RECOMMENDED EXPERTS
www.LawandFiction.com Attorney and novelist Leslie Ann Budewitz, author of Books, Crooks and Counselors, offers resources, research, and answers to your questions about the law and its effect on you as a writer or on your characters and their actions.
http://leelofland.com/ Former cop, author of Police Procedure & Investigation, Lee Lofland blogs daily and answers your questions on The Graveyard Shift, leelofland.com/wordpress
http://inspirationaleditor.com To edit your romance novel, contact Susan Lohrer.
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