Inventing Reality Editing Service

How to set up a bank account for your book sales

If as a self-published author you wish to separate your book sales from your personal income, you’ll need to keep separate bank accounts. Getting a bank account for your royalties, however, is a bit more complicated than simply going to the bank and opening one.

Generally, you’ll need to ensure your business has a different name than you. You can use your name as part of the business, however. So, if your name is Jane Doe, your business can’t be “Jane Doe” but it could be “Jane Doe Publishing” or “Jane Doe Press.”

Next, you’ll need to complete and file a Fictitious Business Name Statement; in some jurisdictions, this is known as a Doing Business As form. Most banks or county/city clerks offices have these available for you to fill out. Once you complete the form, you’ll need to file it either with your city, county or state.

Then bring the FBNS to your bank and set up an account. You may need to deposit some of your own personal money for the minimum balance to get an account started.

Once that is done, you then can set up PayPal or credit card accounts using your business’ bank account, presuming that they are needed.

Remember that every state and bank deals with creating a business account a little differently. Typically a bank official or information provided online by your state, county or city will explain the process as well.

The advantages of keeping separate accounts are primarily for taxes. If you’re earning a ton of money from book sales, you want the separation so you can take advantage of various tax benefits. You also may want to keep separate accounts for your own personal comfort so you can better track your book earnings or to use only those dollars for book-related expenses, such as paying for editing services.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript 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. I can provide that second eye.

Editing client publishes dating/relationship book

A recent editing client, Cindy de la Garza, has published her first book, “Things People Don’t Tell You If You Marry After 30.” In the book, de la Garza lays out the arguments as to why women shouldn’t ignore their biological clock if they want to have children. The book, which can be read in one sitting, shows how to get serious about finding your soul mate without having to compromise your professional career. de la Garza includes a number of her own experiences to make the case for marrying sooner rather than later. The book is available online in paperback and ebook.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript 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. I can provide that second eye.

Four Writing Prompts - Inflexibility

Good stories center on the clashing of characters’ goals and motivations. Sometimes a character’s goals and motivations arise from their inflexibility. Here are four writing prompts for stories that involve the trait of inflexibility.

Man vs. nature
An explorer of a great wilderness area refuses to give up the trappings of civilization/his military organization despite that it’s hampering the journey. Why won’t he give up his notions of civilization/hierarchy? Will his inflexibility ultimately doom him, given the wilderness’ unyielding stressors?

Man vs. man
Our main character cannot understand why his spouse wants him to be something he isn’t (or even wants to be). How does he handle his spouse’s criticism, and what can he do to get his spouse to acknowledge his wants and needs?

Man vs. society
The main character – a younger man – wants to do something/go into a career that his parents and those around him in society – neighbors, former teachers, parents’ coworkers, even his friends – object to. Will he cave to their pressure or become what he wants to be, even if it means being on his own?

Man vs. himself
Our main character discovers something that a loved one – perhaps his child – that he cannot forgive/accept. Why is he so inflexible? Can he find a way to be accepting of his loved one, or will he live a life in which both suffer from the isolation of one another?

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript 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. I can provide that second eye.

Build rising action scenes around conflict

Anytime you’re writing a scene in the story’s rising action, you’ll want to treat it as a short story in and of itself. That means focusing on conflict.

All too often when editing such scenes for my clients, I find that it’s written a bit too much like first-they-did-this-then-they-did-that, focusing a lot on the setting and the reason for the story to occur at that location. For example, perhaps in a story is about a couple having difficulties in their marriage the scenes would unfold as “couple must sign a house title, so they are at the title office; next, they go home, so they are at their new home.” Such scenes will read very slowly and if kept up will send the reader to another book with a quicker pace.

Instead, always think conflict-conflict-conflict. Before writing, ask yourself: What is the scene’s primary conflict? What is the best way for characters to experience this conflict? And where is the best place for this conflict to be experienced?

As drafting, the writer could start the scene by asking what is the central problem the husband faces in it. Perhaps it’s growing tension with his wife because of his discomfort that she is making decisions without him. Infer that conflict immediately to the reader, right in the opening sentence.

Next, think of the rest of the scene in terms of how can the husband overcome that central problem, that is, how can he dampen the tension. So he tries to do that. It helps a little. But the wife does something or he sees something she’s done that upsets him without his input, and he’s back to square one.

So the husband tries again, in a different way. Except maybe this time the wife is still upset about him just getting angry with her. So the tension increases; maybe harsh words are exchanged. Then she takes a deep breath, realizes she’s losing her temper and stops. She tries to make up. But the harsh words still sting for the husband, and despite the opportunity to make up, he won’t.

Now something occurs that brings delight individually to both husband and wife. He notices this, decides to try again at decreasing the tension. It works. They apologize to one another, mutually decide to put behind them the harsh words they exchanged, to make decisions together. The husband feels as if he knows what he has to do to make this work. The scene appears to end well.

But at the very end, give just a hint of the wife doing something that annoys the husband, hinting that their problems aren’t really over. After all, if all ends rosy, there’s no need to have another scene or chapter.

The conflict need not make the characters sound like a jerk (husband) or a bitch (wife). They want to get along but don’t know how (Perhaps because they don’t realize that their own inner flaws are getting in the way). When they figure out the latter in the story, they’ll get along and the conflict will be resolved.

Related articles:
• General guidelines for constructing a scene in a story
• Ways a main character can try but fail to resolve a central problem

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript 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. I can provide that second eye.

Five Great Quotations about Writer’s Block

“If you let conditions stop you from working, they’ll always stop you.” - James T. Farrell

“I think the best advice on writing I’ve received was from John Steinbeck, who suggested that one way to get around writer’s block (which I was suffering hideously at the time) was to pretend to be writing to an aunt, or a girl friend. I did this, writing to an actress friend I knew, Jean Seberg. The editors of Harpers forgot to take off the salutation and that’s how the article begins in the magazine: Dear Jean...” - George Plimpton

“Talent is a faucet. When it is on, one must write. Inspiration is a farce that poets have invented to give themselves importance.” - Jean Anouilh

“Man, wow, there’s so many things to do, so many things to write! How to even begin to get it all down and without modified restraints and all hung-up on like literary inhibitions and grammatical fears...” - Jack Kerouac

“Writer’s block, I just drove around it four times. All my favorite writers live there.” - Jarod Kintz

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript 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. I can provide that second eye.

Writing affirmation: Every page counts

All too often the enormity of writing a novel or a nonfiction book overwhelms writers. They may have spent a week writing an hour each day, come up with only 2500 words, and think they’ll never finish the task. It’s akin to driving through rush hour traffic and wondering if you’ll ever get through this.

At such times, remind yourself not to focus on the final project. While that ultimately is your goal, instead center your attention on the little goals – a paragraph, a section, a chapter – needed to reach that big goal. It’s like focusing on the mile markers rather than the final destination when driving.

Consider that there really are two types of goals you can have in writing (or any other project, for that matter). An outcome goal is the end result; a process goal is an individual step taken to reach that outcome. So in writing, an outcome goal would be “I will write a novel”; a process goal would be “I will write twice a day.”

Always concentrate on achieving a process goal, not the outcome goal. This shifts the focus from success/failure to taking small steps needed to achieve your goal. If you focus on the outcome, every day until you actually publish your book will be a “failure.” Instead, celebrate your success at accomplishing a process goal, which always is easier to achieve.

Indeed, if you do “less” (a process goal), you can do something more slowly, deliberately and completely. Your mind will not race around trying to think of how to describe the setting in the next scene or what a character will do four chapters from now.

And ultimately, after you’ve achieved each process goal, you will achieve your outcome goal. Every page – just like every nudge forward in a traffic jam – counts!

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript 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. I can provide that second eye.

Get a hashtag for your book to generate sales

Especially if you have a series of books, you should create a hashtag for them. Doing so is a great way to increase your number of followers, which leads to increased book sales. Hashtags are easy for others to remember, and whenever your tweet gets retweeted, your post shared, or your photo perused, the hashtag – and an entry to your books – is shared with many others who may know nothing about your books.

A hashtag is easy to create. Simply come up with some short wording (such as your series’ title), place a hashtag in front of it, and in every social media posting your make that relates to your books, include it. For example, with my hiking guidebooks I use the hashtag #dayhikingtrails on every single tweet, Facebook post, Pinterest pin, Twitter post, Instagram photo and more related to my titles.

Always be sure to include this hashtag in the descriptions on your home page at each social media platform you use. Then, when someone clicks on the hashtag, your page likely will come up as an option. Those who are interested will follow you and even explore further – which means they’ll come across your books and hopefully make a purchase.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript 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. I can provide that second eye.

Report piracy of your books at Amazon.com

Among the most significant problems for self-publishing authors is book piracy. In the digital age, such piracy is more common than you might expect, and you probably will need to deal with it, especially if you distribute your books at Amazon.com. 

I disagree with self-publishing experts who piracy of your books is “good.” Besides duping a purchaser of your book – which hurts the buyer and keeps money out of your pocket – pirated books undercut your marketing efforts. Readers take a lot of routes to locating a book, and their search easily can lead them to the pirate’s page for your book rather than the one you’ve spent a lot of hours building, tweaking and promoting. Further, if pirates do even bother to deliver your book to the buyer, it usually is an inferior version, which hurts your reputation.

A common book pirating scam is to set up their own page for your book at Amazon.com. They obtain a copy of your book through an app and sometimes even by downloading it through other vendors, such as Smashwords. Next, they assign their pirated version of the book a new ASIN. The pirate then charges several times the retail price that you set for your book. Sometimes the pirate isn’t even selling your book but merely using it to defraud customers out of money by having them pay and then not sending the book.

You can determine if pirates have done this to you simply by going to Amazon.com and searching for the name you use as an author. Don’t place your name in quotation marks, as sometimes pirates switch the order of your first and last name. Another option is to type the title of your book (again without quotation marks) and look for one that is way overpriced.

Once you find a pirated book, immediately complete Amazon.com’s legal team’s online form (www.amazon.com/gp/help/reports/infringement) notifying them that your book has been pirated. Amazon.com will need you to send:
• An electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest (that’s you the author)
• A description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed upon (this is the book's title)
• A description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on Amazon.com’s website (this is the URL where the pirates have their page)
• Your address, telephone number, and e-mail address
• A statement by you that you have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law
• A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf

Don’t bother to contact Amazon.com’s customer service department. It will merely offer moral support and send you an email about how to contact its legal department to have the issue remedied.

You also can contact the book pirate and ask them to remove the page; Amazon gives you the ability to do that on the page selling the pirated book. This is problematic, though. Most pirates don’t remove the page but simply change the name of who is selling it and list it at a different price. Some will simply send an automated email that you can’t respond to and will do nothing. Others will remove the book for sale but not the page, meaning there’s now a web page at Amazon.com for your title that says it’s “Out of Print.”

During the last two days, I’ve had trouble with the following “booksellers” pirating my books. I’d urge you to not purchase books or any items from these “businesses” and to check that they are not pirating your books (If they are, report them immediately to Amazon.com):
AquaPeniel
DreamReaders
EasyGlobalBuying
Greenlife Store
JB World Books
kingmakerbooks
Lambelë
Lionkingbooks
Melbournekber
Oak Tree Brands
oz24shop
ReachTheGoal
Sophia Bookstore
Xian's Store
ZENBOOKSTORE

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript 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. I can provide that second eye.

Stuck in a rut with startup vs. start-up vs. start up

This appears to be one of those words in flux, as different spellings and punctuation rules are followed by different reputable sources.

Start-up works as a noun (a start-up business), verb (“Start-up the car!”), and adjective (start-up costs), according to merriam-webster.com. The Chicago Manual of Style, which is commonly used in book publishing, agrees.

The Associated Press Stylebook, however, dispenses with the hyphen. So almost all American newspapers and magazines use startup.

And while both oxforddictionaries.com and dictionary.cambridge.org list start-up, they also acknowledge that startup is an acceptable alternative spelling.

No one, however, gives start up as acceptable.

Bottom line: Stick with start-up unless you know the publishing house handling your manuscript uses Associated Press style, then go with startup.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript 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. I can provide that second eye.

Four writing prompts: Removal

Good stories center on the clashing of characters’ goals and motivations. Sometimes a character’s goals and motivations arise from the need to remove some danger or threat. Here are four writing prompts for stories that involve the goal of removal.

Man vs. nature
What if your main character were sent to capture or destroy some beast in the wilderness – a challenging task for sure, yet one he is well-suited for handling – but the creature turns out to be something more terrifying and powerful than he initially was led to believe? How does he defeat this beast? To make this more than a run-of-the-mill science fiction or fantasy tale, can the beast symbolize some element of society that our hero must metaphorically tame and subjugate?

Man vs. man
The main character needs to get rid of someone, such as an unwanted roommate or an annoying coworker. What is the motivation for doing this? How does he achieve this goal despite his opponent’s efforts to thwart him?

Man vs. society
Your main character needs to get rid of a new company/venture that has come to town or perhaps to unveil the unjust actions of a prominent family in town – both are popular with the locales, however. Why does he want to get rid of this new business/respected family? How does he change the minds of the townsfolk?

Man vs. himself
To fill his inner emptiness, our main character engages in a life of decadence – parties, alcohol or drugs, indiscriminate sex – and with increasing speed it’s spinning out of control. Our main character begins to sense this but finds the distraction at least a temporary relief. How does he regain control of his life and address the inner emptiness that actually even further consumes him, as he falls deeper into the pit of decadence? Can he even remove himself from it?

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript 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. I can provide that second eye.