Inventing Reality Editing Service

Editor appearing at Northwind Book and Fiber

You can meet more than 20 regional authors, including yours truly, at the Northwind Book and Fiber Book Fair in Spooner, Wis., on Saturday, July 6. The fair is hosted by Northwind Book and Fiber, an independent bookstore. You’ll be able to purchase my books, get them autographed, and chat if you like with many great authors from northwest Wisconsin. The fair runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the bookstore, which is located at 205 Walnut St. in downtown Spooner.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Madison, Wisconsin, or a small town like Possum Grape, Arkansas, I can provide that second eye.

Hey author, don’t forget your reader!

All too often when writing, authors forget their readers. This is somewhat understandable. In nonfiction an author typically is an expert who knows more about the subject than the reader; in fiction, an author is akin to a god creating a world and so knows more about that universe than anyone else. Given this, a book’s organization and explanations often seems obvious to the author.

Every act of writing assumes a reader, however. To be a successful writer, the author almost always must recognize the reader’s level of knowledge, reading skills and even their cultural background. To further complicate the matter, no reader is exactly alike.

As writing, authors ought to consider who their audience generally is. If for children, this may mean using shorter words and sentences. If writing for teens, this may mean being aware of their social and maturity issues. If writing for an adult, this may mean understanding the level of their technical prowess and adjusting accordingly. Always ask yourself, “Will my reader be able to understand what I’m saying?”

That’s difficult enough when writing textbooks, technical manuals and magazine articles. Where fiction is concerned, there’s an added element: Readers are “participants” in stories. Readers typically want to arrive at some place “interesting’ via your story. Because of this, readers are willing to be “deceived” by you as they surrender themselves to your world in which the main character saves a city from terrorists with a nuclear weapon, as an elderly retired lady solves a murder, or as a spaceship encounters aliens on another planet. Regardless of the world the author has created, readers are only willing to be deceived if the author presents a plausible lie. That requires being aware of just how much the reader is willing to accept.

Regarding the “plausible lie” in genre fiction, reading always involves “protocols.” That is, there are certain expectations of how the story will be structured and of what is permissible. For example, in science fiction set during a future time, there almost always will be the use of new words that indicate the world is different. “Star Trek” crew members, for example, don’t use phones but “communicators.” This wouldn’t fly in a murder mystery set in modern day Cabot Cave, Maine. Authors who write genre fiction need to be cognizant of these protocols to best reach their niche audience. In addition, they should be aware that such protocols often make a work less assessable to non-readers of the genre.

Considering this, readers picking up a story from any genre – or when picking up a nonfiction piece, for that matter – are aware that the reality they’re engulfed in is different than their own. This requires a different degree of attention when reading, and for authors, an awareness of it when they’re writing.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from an urban area like California's Orange County or a rural area like Loving County, Texas, I can provide that second eye.

How to write a press release for your book

If you’re trying to promote your book, you’ll almost certainly want to write a press release.

A press release is an article you send to mainstream media (such as newspapers, magazines, and radio and television stations), bloggers and website editors to bring attention to some newsworthy event. In your case, that event may be the release of your book, an award it receives, or your scheduled book reading at the local coffeehouse.

Should you want to increase book sales, you’ll need to find ways to reach a great number of people in one shot. A newspaper article or interview on a blog is an excellent way to accomplish that. But to get a write-up about you or the book, you need to let the media, bloggers and others know that you exist. A press release helps you achieve that.

Unless you actually send a press release promoting your book and you, you’re very unlikely to receive any attention. Why? Because almost nobody knows about you or your book.

A well-written press release general contains these basic elements:
• Contact information – This lists how the press release’s recipient can communicate with you. It gives your name, snail mail address, telephone number, email and website address.
• Release date – Sometimes you want to advise the media of an upcoming event but ask that they withhold the information until a certain time; the media often appreciates this as this gives them time to write a news story and plan coverage. If you want reporters to wait to release information, write “EMBARGOED UNTIL (GIVE DATE).” If the media is free to use the release as soon they set eyes upon it, write “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE)
• Headline – In four or five words, tell exactly what the press release is about in a compelling manner. Try to connect the wording to the media outlet or reporter you sent it to by listing a geographical area or topic that they cover.
• Subhead – This is a second headline that either elaborates on the main headline or adds information that would be of interest to the media person reading it.
• Dateline – Appearing at the beginning of the press release’s opening paragraph, the dateline gives what city the news originated from and the day it was written.
• Lede – This is the opening paragraph of the news article you’ve written. It typically gives the who, what, why, when, where and how of the news article
• Text – This is the bulk of the press release. It tells what the book is about, biographical information about the author, and offers quotations from the author or others relevant to the news even being covered, such as the bookstore manager where you’re having a book reading or the head of the organization that is giving the book or the author an award.
• Book specs – This is a bulleted list that tells the following about your book: date it was published; publisher; ISBN: 978-0-615-51220-4; price; pages; cover: (hard or paperback); trim size; website URL
• End – Center the “###” after the book specs list to indicate the press release is finished.
• Captions for any photos – Also known as cutlines, these tell about any photo that was sent with the press release. Make sure the name of the photo given in the cutline matches that of the sent photo.
• Contact information – This repeats the contact information provided at the press release’s beginning. This is done to ensure that the media can easily find how to reach you (which is what you want them to do!)

For a sample press release (in this case, announcing the publication of a book), see the one I wrote for my book, “Hikes with Tykes: A Practical Guide to Day Hiking with Kids.” The release itself was published exactly as written by several media outlets and generated reporter phone calls from as many more.

Remember that each time you send a press release to a different reporter or media outlet, you probably need to revise a little of it. Media and bloggers look for releases that are very specific to their markets, whether that be geographic in the case of newspapers or topical in the case of bloggers. Gearing each release to the recipient increases your chances of garnering attention. In addition, update the date provided in the dateline as well, using the day of the week that you actually send the press release.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Atlanta, Georgia, or a small town like Atlanta, Idaho, I can provide that second eye.

How your text should appear in a formatted book

Once you’ve examined some potential typefaces for your book, it’s time to commit to one.

You’ll want to select a single typeface family to use throughout the book (and it should be serif type for your paper edition). For example, if you pick Cambria, then that is the typeface in which regular, boldface, and italicized forms of your text will be used. Sticking to one typeface family will help give your book a unity of appearance. It’s a subtle effect. Adjusting point sizes and using headers or section titles that are in boldface or italics will be sufficient to distinguish titles from text.

Another matter to consider is the various point sizes (called “font size” in MS Word) of your headers and text. This is expressed in numbers, 1 being the smallest; with each subsequent number, the text grows both taller and wider. Usually 10-12 point is a good point size for your text, though each typeface varies a little.

You’ll also want to consider the spacing between the letters, also known as tracking or kerning. If formatting your book in Word, you’re probably stuck with a predetermined tracking. If using design programs, such as InDesign, however, you can adjust this. Generally speaking, you don’t want to adjust the tracking more than 3 points, or you risk having letters run into one another.

Line spacing, or the amount of white space above and below lines of text, also should be considered. In Word, the line spacing size of 1 or 1.15 generally is good. Any more or less creates difficult to read lines of type.

Generally, paper books have no extra spaces between paragraphs. Instead, new paragraphs are indicated by the traditional indentation. An indent of two/eighths to four/eighths of an inch usually is sufficient for the first line, though this varies depending on the typeface. Ebooks can use this method as well, though because they are seen on a screen, no indentations and an extra space between paragraphs frequently is used.

Alignment also needs to be determined. Most books are “justified,” mean that the text (except for indentations where new paragraphs begin) always begins at a pre-set line on the left and ends at a pre-set line on the right. This can be problematic in Word, which unlike design programs does not nicely adjust the tracking between the letters to ensure lines look their best. The result in Word will be extra spacing between words, which looks odd. You can cheat by hyphenating words on the next line so that part of that word goes to the previous line, helping to eliminate the extra spacing. If doing this, though, watch carefully when correcting for typos, which then push hyphenated words to the next line without taking out the hyphen.

Also, watch for how the text ends at the page’s bottom. For the most professional appearance, you want the last line of text to end at the same spot on facing pages. If using Word to format your book, you may have to fiddle with the text a little, hitting returns in the middle of paragraphs and then fixing the ensuing alignment issues by deleting tabs and/or adding spaces between letters. If using headers with different point sizes, getting the bottom lines to line up will be problematic. The solution is to highlight an empty line of text and adjust its point size to either bring up or down that bottom line.

If you have a standard or smaller paperback size for a book – say anything 5.5 x 8.5 inches or smaller – the text should appear in a single column on the page. Trying to include two columns makes the short width text too difficult to read. An exception is the index, where single words on a line of text would leave simply too much white (or empty) space on a page, making it difficult to read (and wasting trees as well, as you probably will have to add pages to your book).

Next, you’ll need to consider what color to make the text and the background. For most books, black type on white paper is a no-brainer. It’s simply the easiest to read. However, if creating a more complex work, such as a picture book, you’ve got the latitude to be more creative; photos could appear on a black background with text in white, or the text could be superimposed over the pictures. Unless you have experience doing picture books, you’ll probably want to consult or hire a professional designer for this.

The half title page, the title page, the table of contents, and the index probably should look a little different than the main part of the book, just to help set them off. For example, on the half title page, make the title and author’s name in a point size that is larger anywhere else in the book. On the title page, however, make the text’s point size smaller than it appears in the rest of the book. The table of contents will use a variety of point sizes and fonts to help distinguish the name of “Part 1” from “Chapter 1” and so on. Sometimes the index appears in a smaller typeface as well. We’ll discuss these matters more in a future entry about page headers and numbers.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Washington, D.C., or a small town like Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, I can provide that second eye.

Editing client releases short story anthology

“Century’s Endings,” the latest book by a long-time editing client of mine, Oliver Frances, went on sale this week. The book is an anthology of several of Frances’ short stories, all of which narrate the social problems of man and his drama with life. Among them is “Faith,” in which a Soviet peasant finds that an unfortunate event changes his life…twice. “Century’s Endings” is available online.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Lakeland, Florida, or a small town like Hygiene, Colorado, I can provide that second eye.

Cabin Coffee Shop hosting book reading/signing

The Cabin Coffee Shop in Amery, Wis., is graciously hosting a book reading/signing for my recent book, Headin’ to the Cabin: Day Hiking Trails of Northwest Wisconsin, on Saturday, June 29 from 10 a.m. to noon (An appropriately named place for the reading, isn’t it?). The coffee shop serves breakfast, lunch and great sweet treats. Headin’ to the Cabin describes more than a 100 day hiking trails in Ashland, Barron, Bayfield, Burnett, Douglas, Polk, St. Croix, Sawyer and Washburn counties, including several in the Amery area. The Cabin Coffee Shop is located at 1300 110th St. (just off of U.S. Hwy. 8) in Amery.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Ogden, Utah, or a small town like Rake, Iowa, I can provide that second eye.

Improve story's pacing by deleting authorisms

Sometimes when writers just can’t think of what to put on the page, they resort to an inappropriate technique known as an authorism.

An authorism – coined by American writer Thomas M. Disch – occurs when the writer places his or her physical environment, mannerisms and prejudices into the story. For example, while thinking of how to pace a scene, the author pours herself a cup of coffee. In the story, the character then also pours a cup of coffee.

The problem with an authorism is that the character may have absolutely no reason to pour a cup of coffee as far as the story is concerned. She might, of course, be trying not to face a person who is talking to her and so turns away and uses the pouring of a cup of coffee as an excuse to avoid looking at him. Possibly the pouring of the cup of coffee is part of the description intended to show the reader that the character has just awakened.

But where an authorism is concerned, there’s no point to the action.

You want to excise all wordage that serves no use in a story. Including it only slows the piece and drains it of its vitality.

You may get lucky in that an authorism is not always apparent to readers. But they will sense the poor pacing and think less of the story for it.

A reader may just give up on the story, though, if the authorism is extremely obtrusive. For example, the character starts a scene by staring at a blank wall (a metaphor for staring at a blank page) or even worse complains that they don’t know what to do (a metaphor for the author not knowing what to write).

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Boston, Massachusetts, or a small town like Boston, Georgia, I can provide that second eye.

Base story on overcoming emotional disturbance

Often a story is not about defending the world from some outside menace (out-of-whack event) or about obtaining some item (macguffin) but is about overcoming some internal, man vs. himself struggle. In science fiction writing workshops, this type of storyline is called an emotional disturbance.

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. define an “emotional disturbance” as “when a character’s inner state is unstable and he must do something to restore equilibrium.” In short, to solve the main problem of the story, the main character must undergo an inner journey of self-discovery and change.

A common example of an emotional disturbance is Luke Skywalker’s journey from self-doubting farm boy to a confident Jedi knight, as seen in “Star Wars IV-VI.” Skywalker garners skills and a deeper understanding of the universe – and himself along the way – through the mentoring of Obi-wan Kenobi and Yoda. These experiences cause him to grow intellectually and spiritually.

Often stories that center on an emotional disturbance include an out-of-whack event or a macguffin. Skywalker wouldn’t have experienced an emotional disturbance if not for an out-of-whack event – the rebel theft of the Death Star blueprints – that set the movie series into motion. In quest novels, such as “The Lord of the Rings”, the seeking of an object often sends the main character on a journey that parallels his internal struggle and growth. Usually the main character must overcome some internal flaw in order for the out-of-whack event to be resolved or for the object to be recovered.

Sometimes, however, the emotional disturbance is the reason the out-of-whack event occurs. This typically occurs in stories where he main character falls, and we learn through his descent about the nature of good and evil. Such is the case in “Star Wars III” in which Anakin Skywalker’s gradually shift to the dark side helps cause the collapse of the Republic.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, or a small town like Boring, Oregon, I can provide that second eye.

Idlewild Outfitters hosts editor's meet-the-author

Idlewild Outfitters graciously hosted my Meet the Author session at its downtown Cumberland store Saturday afternoon. I met lots of great local residents and cabin owners, and sold 20 of my hiking books! I'm currently promoting Headin’ to the Cabin: Day Hiking Trails of Northwest Wisconsin, which lists 100-plus day hiking trails in Ashland, Barron, Bayfield, Burnett, Douglas, Polk, St. Croix, Sawyer and Washburn counties. Idlewild Outfitters offers quality apparel, equipment and unique home accessories at its store in downtown Cumberland. Here are more pictures from the event.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Toledo, Ohio, or a small town like Gnaw Bone, Indiana, I can provide that second eye.

How to find time to write your next book

If you want to be a published writer, you’ll need to write regularly. After all, you can’t publish a novel, a short story or a how-to book if you haven’t finished it.

That’s easier said than done, of course. Most of us must balance our writing time against career, family, friends, house chores and more.

But hours at the office and the needs of children at home need not prevent us from completing our dream book.

So how do you create that “balance”?

First, you must establish a routine, a time every day when you will write undisturbed, if only for a half-hour. That period should occur at roughly the same time every day. It may mean getting up a half-hour earlier or going to sleep a half-hour later. It may be your half-hour lunch break at work. It may be during the half-hour nap your preschooler takes every afternoon. If your children are older or you’re an empty-nester, require others to build their schedules around you for this time. After several weeks of writing a half-hour every day, you’ll soon amass quite a number of written pages.

Some authors have told me that if they write for a specified time period, they spend most of their time thinking about what to write rather than actually getting words on a page. If you face the same obstacle and have a little more leeway with your time, instead write to a specific word count or page count.

At the risk of sounding contradictory, some authors say if they write to a specific word or page count, they write a lot of junk that later has to be trashed, and so it seems like a waste of time and effort. Don’t worry about “wasted” writing, though. Consider that football players don’t complain about tackle drills and running plays in practice as “wasted” time since they’re not playing a real game – they’re simply developing their skills.

Regardless of which approach you choose, don’t stop “writing” when your time period is over or once you’ve reached your word count goal. Keep thinking about your story when jogging, vacuuming, folding laundry, commuting, changing a diaper, waiting for the next meeting to begin, sitting at the doctor’s office and so on. Ask yourself what will happen next in the story, imagine a scene, build a character’s background. Carry a notepad with you to jot notes or to make outlines.

Once you sit did again to write again, you’ll then have something to work with so you can make your limited time even more productive!

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Boston, Massachusetts, or a small town like Boston, Georgia, I can provide that second eye.