Blog Entries - July 2007

50 great tools/tutorials to improve your writing

stevenl

Here's a fantastic selection of tools for writers of any style. This is a list of tips aimed at improving your writing skills that I cribbed from another site here. Before you start firing off submissions to publishers or you embark on that eBook writing project, do yourself a favor and review.

Writing Tool #1: Branch to the Right
Writing Tool #2: Use Strong Verbs
Writing Tool #3: Beware of Adverbs
Writing Tool #4: Period As a Stop Sign
Writing Tool #5: Observe Word [...]

Great Book Cover Design Sells Books

ebookguru

According to the Financial Post, "The average skimmer who picks up a book spends eight seconds looking at the front jacket and fifteen seconds skimming the jacket." You can't judge - but you can sell - a book by its jacket. Here are several suggested book jacket design techniques that the great designers use:

The necessaries for your front jacket: The front jacket should provide your book title, subtitle, and author name. Potentially, and often missed are including blurbs and/or [...]

Whitley Strieber's interesting history!

scififan

Well, I was re-reading a cool book - one that I remember from my early 20s called "Nature's End" by James Kunetka and Whitley Strieber, lo and behold I discover that one of the authors, Streiber, has revealed the greatest unknown fear from his life with a book published back in 1988 called Communion: A True Story.

I didn't know this, but it was on the New York Times bestseller list for seven months after publication.

It is the implausible story of his having bee [...]

How to sell your books

rkelly

Born, raised and a resident in Illinois for most of her life, Valerie Connelly now lives with her husband, Michael, in Wisconsin north of Milwaukee. She divides her time between publishing, writing, teaching, painting landscapes and waterscapes, and traveling to visit her grown children.

Valerie shares her experience as a publisher:

I am a realist. As a publisher of books, this is an essential personality trait. So many of the authors I work with and for are purely dreamers that [...]

Masako's Story; Surviving the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima

ahadadabooks

Masako's Story; Surviving the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima
by Kikuko Otake
Ahadada Books, 96 pages,
Perfect bound Paperback, $12.50
ISBN 978-0-9781414-6-2
Soon to be available from SPD.

For a downloadable PDF of this Press Release, click here.

On August 6, 1945, when the world's first atomic bomb [...]

Thirthy-three Names of Things You Never Knew had Names

stevenl

Thirthy-three Names of Things You Never Knew had Names: AGLET-The plain or ornamental covering on the end of a shoelace.ARMSAYE-The armhole in clothing.CHANKING-Spat-out food, such as rinds or pits.COLUMELLA NASI-The bottom part of the nose between the nostrils.DRAGÉES-Small beadlike pieces of candy, usually silver-coloured, used for decorating cookies, cakes and sundaes.FEAT-A dangling curl of hair.FERRULE-The metal band on a pencil that holds the eraser in place.HARP-The small me [...]

Publishing EBooks

ebookguru

While normally paper books and literature resources still have the greater market in terms of status and market share, publishing eBooks continue to encounter growth and technological progress that make it apparent that this type of publishing is here to stay and perhaps will accrue more strength in the future. As you probably know, the Internet is all about information and automation. Internet users want information and they want it right now. That's why eBooks are considered to be the &quo [...]

The joys of (not) being published

dsendecki

Via Ron Silliman comes this opinion piece from the Guardian:

Self-publication of a neatly produced, high quality (the paper is never less than 100 gram, preferably 120 gram) booklet with a smart Photoshop cover professionally folded and stapled makes a great gift, or maybe a summary of a good year at the writing group, a fundraiser for a school, or a memorial for a special person.

Why bother to go through all the heartache and hassle of fighting to get your precious memories [...]

Coming soon from Ahadada: Masako�s Story

ahadadabooks

Coming soon from Ahadada Books — Masako’s Story: Surviving the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima

On August 6, 1945, when the world’s first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the Furuta family was living about one mile away from the hypocenter. Five-year-old Kikuko, her mother, Masako, and her two brothers barely escaped with their lives. However, their soldier father was not so fortunate. Masako never talked about her family’s experiences on that day and the da [...]

Designing Book Fair Promotional Literature

rkelly

Although your promtoional handouts should have relatively little text - your Book Fair literature should be engaging and informative. The pronotional literature you distribute at your next show will probably be the only part of your press that follows your prospective readership back to their home. Make sure that your literature is well-designed and easy to understand.

What to Include in your Literature

Every publisher is different, so be sure to tailor your literature to the part [...]

Small Press Contracts

rkelly

Just happened across a good post that's pertinent to the small press, in regards to contracts, etc. It's from 'Miss Snark' — an unidentified blogging literary agent:

First, anyone who writes to me and says "I have a contract in hand and I need an agent" gets a call back that day. Many times I've not taken the author on, but I've looked at the contract and given a few pointers. It's the very least I can do - sort of like banking some good will [...]