Month: January 2021

What makes a Self-Publisher?

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We’ve had questions from a few authors about just what is meant by “Self-Publishing”…it seems to be a term bandied about with little regard for what it really means. Many folks use it to refer to any process other than being picked up by one of the Big Five. Actually, there are many ways to be published without following the traditional route, but not all of them are “self-publishing”. One of the common methods that isn’t self-publishing is to go through a hybrid publisher, which amazingly enough can include Amazon!

By definition, if you are a self-published author, then you are the publisher of your work. That’s all that’s needed…but just what does that entail? Before we can understand what it truly means to be self-published, we need to see what the publisher does in the process, so we’ll go over some of the steps and find out.

Steps to be an Author

In our post about First Idea to Printed Book, we went over many of the steps required to get your story into ink on paper, so we’ll review them here:

  • Write: Someone has to write the story, and it’s usually you, though you could hire it out to a ghostwriter if you feel you are a good storyteller…but not a good writer
  • Edit: Even if you are an expert editor, you’ll really want to seek help elsewhere, finding someone not as close to the writing as you are. This includes all the different levels of editing
  • Format: Making each page of a book look good is an involved task. Try it yourself only if you have plenty of experience formatting books
  • Layout: Getting all the parts of your book in the right place requires that you know about all the various parts and where they go, building the Front Matter and Back Matter. Again, hire it out unless you really know what you’re doing.
  • Cover: Beautiful covers aren’t easy to make, so unless you are a graphic artist with plenty of experience creating book covers, find someone else to do it for you. (Ask us for recommendations.)
  • Print and Bind: There are videos online showing how to use your home printer and a few craft tools to assemble your own book, but I’d really recommend that you let a professional printer and binder do it.

Beyond the Basics

Going on past the First Idea to Printed Book chart, there are more steps to be considered if you really want to call yourself an author.

  • Marketing: As a writer, you probably have neither the time nor resources to tell the whole world about your book. Remember, no one can buy it if they don’t know about it, so find someone who has the expertise.
  • Selling: Authors who sell books out of the trunk of their car are serious do-it-yourselfers. Letting retailers do their job will let you reach folks who feel uncomfortable having a clandestine meeting in a car park.
  • Shipping: I’ve heard authors complain about having to stand in line at the Post Office to ship their books. Wouldn’t it be a better use of your time letting a warehousing company do the shipping, after all, they’ve been doing it for years.

So who is the Publisher?

But wait. Where is the publisher in all this? We never even mentioned the publisher in the steps to becoming an author, so where does he fit in? The Big Five publishers have employees to do the Editing, Formatting, Layout, Cover, Printing, Binding, Marketing, Selling, and Shipping. Many other publishers don’t have full-time employees, but to do all those same tasks they hire them out. Well then, what exactly does the publisher do, besides put his name on your book?

Maybe that’s it…just a name on a book. But that name carries plenty of clout. And why does it carry clout? Because the publisher has contacts that can get your book in front of buyers…not the folks who will read your book, rather the ones that buy for stores, to get your book on the shelves that the end customer looks over when trying to find their next book to read. Without those buyers finding your book, it will languish in the slush pile along with all the other “self-published” but invisible books.

So if you’re the publisher, then what contacts do you have to make your book visible? It turns out that you have the same contacts as any of the other publishers, Big Five or not. You have the opportunity to get your book listed in Bowker’s Books In Print, right alongside all those other publishers. All you have to do is register your ISBN.

That means if you want to be really self-published, all you need to do is own the ISBN. That’s it. Everything else can be subbed out to folks with the appropriate expertise.

What’s an ISBN?

We talked about putting the hyphens in the right place in the ISBNs a while back, but we never mentioned why you should have an ISBN. Exposure is why. Associating your book information (title, size, binding, etc.) with an ISBN is known as ‘registering’ it. That ties all the relevant info to a unique number that belongs to only you and that one version of the book. You’ll use a different ISBN for each version: paperback, audio, Kindle, large print, or spiral bound. Although each ‘book’ contains the same information, the way that information is relayed to the end reader is different. If I buy your book for my Nook, I don’t want to get an audio CD.

So, the publisher’s job is to own and register each ISBN for each version of your book. That’s it. Simple enough, right? Apparently not. I’ve heard from some small publishers that the process of registering the ISBNs is so complicated that they are just about pulling out of the publishing market entirely. We’ll go into the whole process in a future posting, so keep your eyes open. We’ll do what we can to make it clear.

Dependent Clauses and Commas

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We’ve had so many questions regarding grammar that we’ve brought the topic back for another go around. This year we will begin with some of the rules that are pretty much set in stone. Later, we may come back to touch on some rules that are still in flux, but first we need to warn you about rules that aren’t really rules.

Don’t Follow the “Rules”

Before we get started going over some of the good rules, we want to discuss a few “rules” that you may have been taught in school but don’t really need to follow. The reason we still have those rules seems to be one of “teach what you’ve been taught”. You’ll even find that the folks who provide the software that you use to write your book have been following those useless rules, often suggesting that you change perfectly valid sentences into something that sounds vague, stiff, or inappropriate.

The whole difficulty started way back in the Victorian times when those teaching and codifying English thought that Latin was the be all and end all of languages. They did their best to transfer some rules from Latin into English. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), English isn’t Latin, so those “borrowed” rules just didn’t fit.

The sad thing is that for the past 200 years or so, English has been taught with those rules as if they were useful—they aren’t, and they just get in the way of effective communication. After all, isn’t that what languages are used for? If they don’t communicate the proper message, then they aren’t worth the time to learn.

We’ve mentioned a few of those “rules” over the past few years: Split Infinitives, Prepositions at the ends of sentences, Singular They, and we even touched on the use of punctuation around quotes. If you come across any other rules that don’t seem right, please let us know, so we can research, analyse, and report back.

When to Use a Comma with Dependent Clauses

Dependent clauses are wonderful things. They help us connect ideas to show relationships. In the examples below, we have two sentences that are both true individually, but they work better when the connection between the ideas is expressed. That is done by using a Subordinating Conjunction, making one clause dependent on the other.

  • Don arrives. I will jump.
    • When Don arrives, I will jump.
    • I will jump when Don arrives.
  • Fred trips. Fred will fall
    • If Fred trips, he will fall.
    • Fred will fall if he trips.
  • It will be warm. The sun shines.
    • It will be warm because the sun shines.
    • Because the sun shines, it will be warm.
  • You go. I will follow.
    • Wherever you go, I will follow.
    • I will follow wherever you go.

You’ll notice that the clauses can be put in either order…depending on your focus. You typically want the more important idea to be the last part the reader encounters. The key here is that when the clause with the subordinating conjunction comes first, we need a comma to show where that clause ends, so the next one can begin. If the clause with the conjunction comes last, then the conjunction acts as the separator between them. In class, you’ll often see the rule written on the board like this:

DC,IC or ICDC

Dependent clause first, use a comma.
Independent clause first, no comma.

Remember that, and you’ll be well on your way.

Writers Write

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  • We have yet to develop enough topics to fill all the slots for the year (blame Corona for that!), so let us know what you’d like to hear about. Until then, we’ll just take on topics as they come to mind.

Welcome to yet another great year at Turner Editing. As previously, we will continue to post interesting and timely topics related to the writing world. We are always available for discussion, so if you have any ideas or questions, please let us know. We’re going to start off this year with the first step in writing: writing itself!

As we mentioned at the end of last year, getting something on paper is the first and biggest task a writer has. Once you have something in fixed form, you can sit back and look at it objectively, consider it, improve it, publish it. Until it’s actually written down, it’s just an idea floating around in the aether, nebulous and indistinct.

As with many tasks in journalism, we are going to address the important information gathering questions: Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How.

The Who is obvious…no one else can write your story except you, so you’d best get to it! Your audience out there is anxiously awaiting your fabulous tales.

And the What is easy, too. Again, only you know what needs to be written. It has been said that if you want to read a book, but can’t find it, then you must be the one to write it. In other words you shouldn’t necessarily write what you know…instead you should write what you want to read.

Tackling the How will take the rest of the year, and that’s our plan, but for now we’ll just focus on the Where, When, and Why.

Where to Write

Where you do your writing can be almost as important as what you’re writing. To get the best benefit from the time you spend writing, you should set aside a specific place to do your work. The location and setting are important, but some writers even have a particular pen and pad they prefer to use…others have a favourite program. Whatever setting you prefer to use when you write, it should be set up just the way you need. Once you get it all arranged, the mere fact of settling in at your designated Writing Area will signal to your brain that it’s time to write…no interruptions allowed.

It’s fine if your location is also used for other things…for instance serving dinner to your family. The only caveat is that you need to make it special for when you are writing. Whatever location you use, change it around somewhat for your writing time. Set up an inspiring picture, put on appropriate music, shoo the kids out and hang a bedsheet over the doorway. That way if you are using the dining room table to do your writing, it becomes your Writing Area when appropriately arranged

When to Write

I could say to write every day…all the time…to the exclusion of all else, but that’s not practical. On the other hand, if you do have large blocks of time to write, that’s wonderful. Unfortunately, most of us have too many other things going on in our lives to set aside an entire eight-hour day just for writing. To help keep your focus, some writers subscribe to the Deep Work philosophy, where you can set aside just a couple hours (or even just a few minutes) and get some intense writing done. The Pomodoro method is also available to avoid becoming burned out by over working yourself.

You’ll want to set a specific time each day for your writing. Don’t just say that you will write for an hour…state exactly which hour you will write, and try to be consistent. If you can only set aside time three days a week, that’s fine. More is better, if you can afford it. If you can manage seven days a week, you’re doing better than most writers. Put it in your schedule, on your calendar, in your social media postings. Don’t forget to tell those around you, those you share your house or your life with, that you won’t be available during that time. If you are truly dedicated to writing, then your friends and family will want to support you in your effort, so keep them in the loop.

Why to Write

The Why is pretty much up to you—if you don’t want to write, then don’t. If you do, then you need to understand why you’re doing it, so you can do it successfully.

One big reason to write is because you have something to share with the world. If that’s the case, then you need to consider who will be reading it: your Target Audience. The best way to aim for your audience is to picture one individual who represents the entire audience. Write as if you were sitting down having a conversation with only him. Picture just telling him the story…then quickly write down what you just told him.

If your reason to write is to make money, then, just as with any money-making venture, the more time and effort you put into it, the more you’ll reap the rewards. Treat it the same as you would any job…but in this case remember that you are the boss as well as the employee. Some of your time will be spent creating, and some of your time will be spent managing. As we just discussed (in The Difference Between Writing and Editing), those tasks require different mind sets, so keep them separate.

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