Alana Woods

This is an incredibly informative guest post from published author and professional editor Alana Woods.  She gives tips on how to successfully proof read your work.  This post is one in a series on being a professional editor.  Subscribe to her blog to get all her great advice.

——————————————————
This is week six in my series What editors do.

And this week I’m giving away a secret.

It doesn’t matter what you read about getting out a quality book all advice seems to say this: that you must have an editor go over your final copy. Not only to pick up all the typos but also because they will point out any shortcomings. I couldn’t agree more with this.

But because I know that authors like to go over their work ad nauseam whether they have an editor or not, I am going to add my tip, one that I gave you in week four on proofreading. And that is to print out your document and use a ruler when you are proofreading it.

But that’s not the editor’s secret I promised you.

The professional editor’s secret is this.

When a manuscript has been edited and typeset, in a publishing unit they will then do a one-on-one read.

That consists of one editor reading out loud from the last copy before it was typeset.

The text will mirror the text in the typeset document.

This read includes everything: capitals, paragraph breaks, widows/orphans, etc. It also includes formatting—by that I mean bold and italics, indents, justification, spacing etc.

The second editor will check the typeset document against what is being read.

They both use rulers to focus on the line being read.Try it. In my experience you find heaps of typos.

My books on Amazon

———————————————

Simone.

© Simone L Woods 2012

Don’t miss out on a post.  Subscribe and have posts delivered straight to your inbox.  

Simauthor Alana Woods on Editing: The Editors Secret

The future depends on what we do in the present – Mahatma Gandhi.

I keep this quotation next to my computer. If I am ever feeling in the slightest way ‘unenthusiastic’ about knuckling down and doing the doings – i.e. writing, then I take a quick look at this quote and it’s enough to drive fingers to keyboard and the tap, tap, tapping to begin.

I will admit that guilt is usually the motivating emotion! My natural inclination is to enjoy working under pressure – tight deadlines and small lead times. I believe it’s the adrenalin rush of working under such conditions that gives me a natural high and who wouldn’t enjoy a natural high? It is one of the reasons I loved working as a chef. You don’t get many more stressful situations than a Michelin star kitchen during service.

Working to a schedule that apportions work well in advance and allows completion with time to spare is a process that I must consciously work at.

Hence my motivational quote. It reminds me that if I want something done, then the best time to start is now. So stop procrastinating Simone and stick to the schedule!

It usually works.

How do you motivate yourself to write when you feel your enthusiasm waning? Leave a comment as I would love to know.

Simone.

© Simone L Woods 2012

Don’t miss out on a post.  Subscribe and have posts delivered straight to your inbox.  

Simauthor How Do You Motivate Yourself To Write?

I came upon this post today and became mesmerised by the sheer joy of speaking these beautiful words out loud.  Join me and annunciate with pleasure!

Which is your favourite? 

Ailurophile: A cat-lover.

Assemblage: A gathering.

Becoming: Attractive.

Beleaguer: To exhaust with attacks.

Brood: To think alone.

Bucolic In a lovely rural setting.

Bungalow: A small, cozy cottage.

Chatoyant: Like a cat’s eye.

Comely: Attractive.

Conflate: To blend together.

Cynosure: A focal point of admiration.

Dalliance: A brief love affair.

Demesne: Dominion, territory.

Demure: Shy and reserved.

Denouement: The resolution of a mystery.

Desuetude: Disuse.

Desultory: Slow, sluggish.

Diaphanous: Filmy.

Dissemble: Deceive.

Dulcet: Sweet, sugary.

Ebullience: Bubbling enthusiasm.

Effervescent: Bubbly.

Efflorescence: Flowering, blooming.

Elision: Dropping a sound or syllable in a word.

Elixir: A good potion.

Eloquence: Beauty and persuasion in speech.

Embrocation: Rubbing on a lotion.

Emollient: A softener.

Ephemeral: Short-lived.

Epiphany: A sudden revelation.

Erstwhile: At one time, for a time.

Ethereal: Gaseous, invisible but detectable.

Evanescent: Vanishing quickly, lasting a very short time.

Evocative: Suggestive.

Fetching: Pretty.

Felicity: Pleasantness.

Forbearance: Withholding response to provocation.

Fugacious: Fleeting.

Furtive: Shifty, sneaky.

Gambol: To skip or leap about joyfully.

Glamour: Beauty.

Gossamer: The finest piece of thread, a spider’s silk.

Halcyon: Happy, sunny, care-free.

Harbinger: Messenger with news of the future.

Imbrication: Overlapping and forming a regular pattern.

Imbroglio: An altercation or complicated situation.

Imbue: To infuse, instill.

Incipient: Beginning, in an early stage.

Ineffable: Unutterable, inexpressible.

Ingénue: A naïve young woman.

Inglenook: A cozy nook by the hearth.

Insouciance: Blithe nonchalance.

Inure: To become jaded.

Labyrinthine: Twisting and turning.

Lagniappe: A special kind of gift.

Lagoon: A small gulf or inlet.

Languor: Listlessness, inactivity.

Lassitude: Weariness, listlessness.

Leisure: Free time.

Lilt: To move musically or lively.

Lissome: Slender and graceful.

Lithe: Slender and flexible.

Love: Deep affection.

Mellifluous: Sweet sounding.

Moiety: One of two equal parts.

Mondegreen: A slip of the ear.

Murmurous: Murmuring.

Nemesis: An unconquerable archenemy.

Offing: The sea between the horizon and the offshore.

Onomatopoeia: A word that sounds like its meaning.

Opulent: Lush, luxuriant.

Palimpsest: A manuscript written over earlier ones.

Panacea: A solution for all problems

Panoply: A complete set.

Pastiche: An art work combining materials from various sources.

Penumbra: A half-shadow.

Petrichor: The smell of earth after rain.

Plethora: A large quantity.

Propinquity: Proximity; Nearness

Pyrrhic: Successful with heavy losses.

Quintessential: Most essential.

Ratatouille: A spicy French stew.

Ravel: To knit or unknit.

Redolent: Fragrant.

Riparian: By the bank of a stream.

Ripple: A very small wave.

Scintilla: A spark or very small thing.

Sempiternal: Eternal.

Seraglio: Rich, luxurious oriental palace or harem.

Serendipity: Finding something nice while looking for something else.

Summery: Light, delicate or warm and sunny.

Sumptuous: Lush, luxurious.

Surreptitious: Secretive, sneaky.

Susquehanna: A river in Pennsylvania.

Susurrous: Whispering, hissing.

Talisman: A good luck charm.

Tintinnabulation: Tinkling.

Umbrella: Protection from sun or rain.

Untoward: Unseemly, inappropriate.

Vestigial: In trace amounts.

Wafture: Waving.

Wherewithal: The means.

Woebegone: Sorrowful, downcast.

From Deshoda.

Simone.

Do you have any words you would add to this list?

Don’t miss out on a post.  

Subscribe and have posts delivered straight to your inbox.  

Simauthor Beautiful Words…

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me.
All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

― Ira Glass

Does this resonate with you?  Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Don’t miss out on a post.  Subscribe and have posts delivered straight to your inbox.  (See top right hand menu.)

Simauthor For Beginners to Remember…

Writing is a craft and learning how to write is a matter of honing your skills and building your tool base.  As a writer, I have a natural tendency to use the same words, again and again (see!)  I am guilty of littering every paragraph with the descriptive ‘lovely’, ‘wonderful’ or ‘cool’. I have lost count of the number of times I have re-read a newly written piece and been exasperated as the same adjectives crop up.

For me, it has to be a conscious process to use a different word to describe the same thing. There is nothing more boring, or more revealing as a writer who does not know the meaning of ‘synonym’.  It is a cornerstone in your foundation of ‘How to Write Well’.

One of my favourite tools is a website called Synonym Finder. Plug in your well worn word and it will divulge a universe of undiscovered or unremembered words to tantalise and intrigue. In fact, I spend precious writing time playing with the website; entering word after word and marvelling at the response. It is quite addictive.

Today for example, I entered ‘great’. I was composing an email to a friend who had just received some happy news. In the first 4 sentences I used ‘great’ 3 times. Very poor writing. So little imagination!

So off to Synonym finder I clicked and entered the offending 5 letter word. Look at what was returned…..

Synonyms!

Superb! How peachy to use ‘corking’, ‘bully’, ‘bang up’ and ‘cracking’ in the same short email. It certainly makes for a more entertaining read!

What sloppy writing habits are you guilty of?

Simone

© Simone L Woods 2012

Subscribe via email to my blog and have every new post delivered to your inbox. (top right hand menu).

Simauthor How To Write – The Power Of The Synonym

How to blog successfully, how to write successfully and most importantly for writers, how to make a living successfully writing, are all questions we grapple with on a day to day basis.

Understanding which knowledgeable and respected writers, editors and bloggers to read, subscribe to and learn from, is key in my strategy to be the best writer I can possibly be.  As I have said before – quality content, whether it be in the form of a book, blog, magazine, newspaper or advert is paramount if you are to build a loyal following.

One of the best writers blogs I subscribe to is ‘Make a Living Writing’ by freelance writer Carol Tice.  It is a blog stuffed full of really useful information for those who want to know how they can possibly do their most to write full-time and be paid for it.  The advice contained in posts and articles is practical and readable – a boon for those that crave common-sense strategies to improve their writing and their chances of making a decent living there from.

As a starter, if you subscribe to her blog, she gives away a free 40 page PDF entitled ’40 Ways To Market Your Writing’.  For this report itself it is worth subscribing.  It is US-centric – but the tactics and strategies described are transportable across borders.  The subscription field is prominent on Carols’ home page and throughout her site.

As well as all the great free advice Carol offers through her blog posts she has two other helpful services.  Her writers community called the ‘Freelance Writers Den’ which has about 300 members.  It offers advice from well respected industry professionals, ecourses, podcasts, personalised advice, bootcamps as well as a ‘junk free’ job board.  All for $25 a month.  Certainly a community to consider if you can afford the subscription.

Her other service is a personalised writing mentorship of different levels.  There is a cost involved and I imagine not everyone can afford it – but if you can, I think it would be well worth it.  Carol also lists her book recommendations and has recently published her own ebook ‘Make a Living Writing – A 21st Century Guide.’

You can probably sense from this post that I am impressed with the wealth of information and guidance - both free and paid for –   available to the aspiring or experienced writer on this site.  Yes I am and think you would be too.

Simone.

Let me know who you think offers great advice.

Don’t miss out on a post.  Subscribe and have posts delivered straight to your inbox.  (See top right hand menu.)

© Simone L Woods 2012

Simauthor How to Blog – Helpful Resources for the Writer

As a working mother of 2 young children I have lots of competition vying for my writing time.  It is always very late at night, in bed next to my ever suffering fiance, that I am tapping away on the keyboard.

And I know, as a blogger, that content is king. Quality content and lots of it if you want to attract any sort of numbers when it comes to readers.  Readers who will find what I write enjoyable.  Entertaining and educational.  And they may also discover my books and like those enough to purchase them.  After all, its a symbiotic relationship writer and reader.  The writer gives and the reader can give a little too.

But you know, juggling all of my different roles can often leave me exhausted and un-motivated to write.  I know my 13 month old is going to wake, just as I finally sleep.  So sometimes I need a little inspiration.  My hero – Chris Brogan’s newsletter arrived at precisely the ‘write’ moment today.  Thank you Chris for reminding me what I’m doing and why.  And I hope my readers thank you too!

Here is Chris’s newsletter.  If you would like to subscribe to his newsletter too,  do so here.  I recommend it.

Trotting Out My Overnight Success Story

I wrote a post today at chrisbrogan.com where one line seemed to resonate with people. “It took me 8 years to get my first 100 subscribers.” The outpouring that came back from people was that it really helped them feel validated that things weren’t exactly raging and roaring on their own quest for media dominance just yet. It dawned on me that we should talk about that again here. We should talk about success and how we perceive things versus how they are.

Overnight Success

Where does success come from? My parents were very loving and supportive of me. Did that help? Yes! But then, I know people who were hated by their parents and they succeeded. Was it my education? Well, I didn’t finish college. Did that matter? (Kinda: everything took more time, but then, I have no student loans). Did I know rich and influential people? Not really, no. Now I do. In droves. They don’t really do much for my success. They’re just swell people who are also successful.

Everything that should be an indicator of success isn’t, until you make it. You have had all the same opportunities as me. Maybe you’ve had more. Let me just talk about me for a moment, as a model for all this.

I am successful because I worked every single day, because I iterated, because I tested, because I was helpful as often as I could be, and because I was everywhere I could be to build presence.

I’m successful because I don’t brag, because I don’t ever believe the hype, because I had to learn how to not care about the praise every bit as much as I don’t care about the hate. I’m successful because I know who is my marketplace/buyer and I know who is my community.

Working On Your Success

Success for me meant sometimes not paying the mortgage. It meant not going to the crazy all night party. It meant flying places when I couldn’t afford lunch, so that I’d hide in my room if they weren’t offering meals at the event. It meant working hard. It meant that I had to try new things. I had to improve.

What was the magical formula? I found a way to be helpful and to make money from that. This is the magic success formula that everyone follows. Do something awesome. Learn how to make money. That’s it.

Dogfish Head, Sam and Mariah and everyone? They did it that way. Was it easy? Hell no! Earning shelf space is the fight there. Grocers barely give the craft category a chance. Sam and team earned it every step of the way. They’re making decent(ish) money now. Someone might buy them at some point. It will all work out.

Seth Godin. He made something remarkable, sold it to Yahoo! , and has lived ever since by teaching people how to be remarkable, too.

By the way, everyone you hold up as a potential model of successful? They were hungry. They were starving. They were under the gun to deliver. All of them.

Sir Richard Branson wasn’t born wealthy, plus he has dyslexia. Super Model Kathy Ireland didn’t make a billion dollars for her company by being beautiful, and even she slept on some airport benches on the way to that success. Tony Robbins couldn’t pay the bills. Skrillex was couch surfing and had over 60,000 in debt.

The Really Super Big Secret?

Refuse excuses. As of today, don’t permit yourself any excuses. “I can’t be successful because I have kids. I can’t be successful because I have a debilitating disease. I can’t be successful because someone has already done what I wanted to do.” Okay, on that last one? Lady Gaga. That’s all I will say about that.

You are Already Successful

Every day that you move things forward, you’re successful. Every day that you wake up and consider bathing, you’re successful. Every day I’m shuffling. (Okay, just wanted to say that.)

But to get to where you really want to be, there’s a tiny little map:

Define success clearly. On paper. Write it the hell down.
Accept no small story. Your story was destined to be big, if only for you.
Work every day. Grind harder every day. Never coast. Never accept that you’ve done all you can do.
Get over yourself. (I’m writing this while feeling very depressed, stressed out, under appreciated, and many other emotions. Know what? Who cares? The work still needs doing.)
Put others first. The MOST successful people all have service of others as a core tenet of what they do.
Yes, there are rich people who don’t do that. They’re not successful. There’s a difference.
Oh, and if you think there’s a rulebook or a permission slip, stop it. You are writing this book. What you set down is what happens. This is YOUR own adventure.

You in?

Simauthor Writing – Those Hero’s that Keep Us Inspired

This post is the second in my series on ‘Publishing How To’ and in particular focuses on the journey of self-publishing my journal companion set for the home - ‘This House – The Story Of’ and ‘Our Homes – The Story Of’.

You can find the first post in the series here – ‘Self Publishing, Amazon, Social Media Marketing On A Non Existent Budget’.

Publishing How To – Should I Self Publish?

Clicking on that small link at the bottom of the Amazon page led me into a whole new world of ‘publishing how to’.  Reading Amazon’s tag line on Createspaces’ home page I was immediately excited and intrigued.  ’Publish Your Words, Your Way’ it proclaimed. And the hook – ‘Tools and services that help you complete your book and make it available to millions of potential readers’.

Well, for some-one that believes in her book concepts 100 per cent but was so frustrated by my inability to have it published by a traditional publishing house, then those tag-lines were madder to my eyes!  But deep inside I could hear a small voice whispering.  ’Self-publishing?  Everyone will know it is self published and who buys a self published book?’

This was several years ago, and self-publishing hadn’t attained its funky ‘indie author’ title yet.  Publishing a book yourself was seen as vanity publishing; poor content published and paid for by an author who was not up to scratch and therefore was not able to be get a publishing contract with a traditional publishing house.  Was I up to fighting against this stigma?  Would everyone know that my book was self published?

Ignoring my derogatory inner voice, I registered for the site and began to explore the tools and all the accompanying help in an attempt to understand exactly how CreateSpace worked.  I quickly understood that this was a Print On Demand service (something new to me.)  That is, CreateSpace charge no fees for the service.  They print the book when it is purchased and take a percentage of the selling price as payment.  Therefore, as the author you have no upfront fees to pay at all.  Fantastic!

It all looked easy and legitimate.  It is Amazon after all!  But still I was unsure so I asked my Mum (always a good person to turn to) Alana Woods, who is an award winning and published author, familiar with the ins and outs of the publishing game, to take a look and let me know what she thought.  Her reply was positive and in fact, she was intrigued.  One of the most attractive points of CreateSpace for authors is the royalty distribution.  With a traditional publishing house, a novice author’s royalty is surprisingly and shockingly (for the uninitiated) very low – around 8-10% of the books selling price.

CreateSpaces’ royalty distribution looks a whole lot better.  Depending on what channel you authorise CreateSpace to use to distribute your book, the royalty ranges from an incredible 80% to an also fantastic 40%!!  That is a whole lot better than 8%.  It really did look too good to be true.  But I can confirm that it is the real deal.  Don’t forget we are talking about Amazon here – they have their self made distribution channel with Amazon.com.

So two big pluses when it comes to using CreateSpace – no upfront fees and very good royalties.  The one downside I discovered on my initial overview of the process is they do not offer hard back printing.  This was a blow and at that point I made the decision not to go ahead with the idea.  I wanted my book marketed as luxury gift item and I could not envisage them being soft cover.  Disappointing for me to say the least.

After turning the idea over for a couple of weeks I re-thought my decision.  Publishing the book in soft cover was not such a bad option if it was the only option.  I would have a product to market and sell and I would gain an idea of market interest and demand.  So I decided to look at the process in more detail and understand exactly what was involved.

My next post will detail my experience with the physical process of putting the book together using CreateSpaces’ tools.

Subscribe via email to ensure you don’t miss out on a single post.  (See Right Hand Menu)

Simauthor Publishing How To – Amazon CreateSpace

This is the first post in a series I will be publishing detailing my journey to self publishing and self promoting my books using Social Media – all with a non existent budget.  I will also share the resources that have helped me most in realising my goal.  Hope you enjoy my story.

The Journey to Self Publishing Begins.

Way back in 2007 while renovating our new home, I had a book concept idea.  It had come to me as my fiance and I were ripping up the floor in our bathroom.  Ok, he was ripping up the floor and I was watching.  I was 8 1/2 months pregnant so I couldn’t have been much help.  Even if I wanted to be!

The idea had germinated as I read some sheets of very old newspaper that we found under the floorboards.  As houses go in the UK, our house is not ancient, but built in the 1930′s it was old enough to have seen many families come and go.  It is these families that I thought of as I read that newspaper from so long ago.

I felt connected to those that had lived in our home before us, simply by the physical act of being here.  Touching the wooden stair bannister that so many other owners must have touched; cooking in the kitchen that had seen so many other meals prepared and lying in bed, watching the fire as other owners had done before me.  I could almost feel their presence.  But how could I ‘see’ them?  Or have the privilege of knowing something about them and how they felt about living in this lovely house?

These are the thoughts that went through my mind and germinated the seed that led to my two journals for the home – ‘This House – The Story Of’ and ‘Our Homes – The Story Of’.  I spent the next few months (in between feeds!) putting together the concept.  Everybody I spoke to said the book ideas were fantastic and wasn’t it amazing that no-body had thought of it before?  This spurred me on.  I did research to see if anything similar was published and discovered that low and behold nothing was.

Frightened now that I would be beaten to the post by somebody else, (my naivety was staggering!) I researched over 100 literary agents and publishers that I believed would be interested in the concept, sent out my proposals, crossed my fingers and waited for the one acceptance (because surely there would be one?) to come in.

Replies starting coming back.  Every single one was a decline. But encouragingly, several actually took the time to write comments instead of sending the usual stock refusal.  Great idea they said, but not what we are looking for at the moment.  One publisher wrote that she and her parents had had a similar idea, but after investigating had decided not to pursue it.

I was disheartened.  This was not going to be easy.  I wasn’t foolish enough to think that it would be.  I had grown up with an awareness of the difficulties of being published.  My mother, Alana Woods is an award winning writer and published.  From her, I knew of the years of sheer hard work, perseverance and talent that it takes.

One night, while purchasing a gift on Amazon, I noticed a link at the bottom of the page – ‘Self-publish with Us’.  Self-publishing – there is a distinct stigma attached to that I thought.  But my interest was piqued and by clicking on that link I began a journey that I never would have thought I would make.

Post number two will explore my experience with self publishing a book with Amazons’ POD arm ‘CreateSpace’.  

Subscribe via email to ensure you don’t miss out on a single post.  (See Right Hand Menu)

©Simone L Woods 2012

Simauthor Self Publishing, Amazon & Social Media Marketing on a Non Existent Budget

Social Media Mags.com

SocialMediaMags.com aim to help small business owners understand and make the most out of social media. The four magazine titles include Tweeting & Business (Twitter), FB & Business (Facebook), The Big G & Business (Google) and LI & Business (LinkedIn).  They are available in print and a variety of electronic media.

The magazines contain lots of adverts as you can imagine, but also some good articles on related social media.  I can put up with ads, especially if it’s free!

Usually $49.99 a year for subscription to all four magazines, they are currently offering a year’s subscription for free.  But hurry up as the offer ends mid April.

Social Media Mags.com.

Simauthor Free 1 Year Subscription to Social Media Mags.com