Editing and More
Wrapping Up Pub U 2015
My final summary of the Independent Book Publishing Association’s Publishing University 2015 has been posted in the May newsletter of the Small Publishers, Writers, Artists Network. SPAWN is an affiliate organization of IBPA, and I was fortunate this year to be...
Finding Your Niche
Who will read your book? Who will purchase your book? Who will refer your book? Writers who don’t know the answer to those questions may find themselves with a wonderfully written, carefully edited, beautifully designed book that never sells. But writers and...
The Ultimate Niche Product
Books are the ultimate niche product. And they’re getting “nichier” every year, according to a number of people I heard and talked to at the Independent Book Publishing Association’s Publishing University 2015. Peter Hildick-Smith of Codex-Group opened Pub U 2015 with...
Learning the Worth of Editors at PubU 2015
PubU 2015 was jam-packed with information and interaction, giving me a chance to learn from publishing veterans with expertise in every facet of book publishing, including design, printing, distribution, copyright, and marketing. There will be more details about what...
Looking forward to 2015 Publishing University
I’m super excited about attending the Independent Book Publishing Association’s Publishing University next month. And I'm even more excited about the trip because I’ve been granted an affiliate scholarship on behalf of the Small Publishers, Artists and Writers...
Editing Harper Lee
By now, anyone who pays any attention to the world of words knows that Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, is releasing a new book. The stature of To Kill a Mockingbird, which was published in 1960, can surely be measured by the number of news outlets around...
Ode to the Squiggly Red Line
I’ve been proofreading on paper this week, and I've missed my squiggly red line. You know the one: the thin red line that pops up on the computer screen when Microsoft Word thinks it has detected a misspelling. I’m a good speller—and a good editor—so I can spot most...
The Words Behind Selma
I went to see the movie “Selma” tonight, and I loved it. The movie is a powerful portrayal of events so recent that they were never included in my history schoolbooks but so distant that I can scarcely believe they happened in my country in my lifetime. The movie,...
Voice of a Writer
As an editor, I pay a lot of attention to a writer’s voice. Any corrections I make or any revisions I suggest need to fit seamlessly into a piece so that they sound just like the author originally wrote it that way. I just finished reading a book that took the concept...
Lowering the New Year’s Pressure
New Year’s Day has never been one of my favorite holidays. Too much pressure involved—beginning the night before, when I’m supposed to find a way to ring in the year in style. Then there’s the issue of making resolutions that are somehow going to help me create a...