2 Basic

Discussions at a Beginner level

Using Styles

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One of our readers recently pointed out that although we mention in a couple places about how to access style shortcuts, we never really discuss just what, or how important, Styles are, so we’re going to rectify that right now. In Word (and many other writing programs), paragraphs can be set to specific styles…allowing for consistent appearance. The best thing about using styles properly is that if you change a style, it changes all paragraphs of the same style instantaneously…saving you from having to search out and change each one manually.

Seeing Styles

Before you can adequately use styles, you need to be able to see them. Two places where Styles become visible and useful are the Navigation Pane and the Style Area Pane (only in Draft or Outline). Turn on the Navigation Pane by selecting the View Tab, and in the Show Group, check the Navigation Pane box. You should now be able to see it to the left of everything. It may not show much, unless your document is already using styles. The Heading Styles listed in the Navigation Pane can be individually expanded or collapsed by using the small triangles or you can globally show headings of any level by Right-Clicking and choosing Show Heading Levels. That will show the level you pick and any higher.

Accessing the Style Area Pane is more involved. First click on the blue File tab, then select Options (near the bottom). Once there, click on Advanced and scroll down to the Display section. There you’ll find the “Style area pane width in Draft and Outline views:” Set it to a number between 0.5 and 0.75. You can adjust it later, but you need to be able to see it before you can move it around. Click OK to make it happen. Now, when you’re in Draft View (Ctrl-Alt-N) or Outline View (Ctrl-Alt-O), you’ll see the style name for each pgph in a column to the left of the content. Now you can drag the vertical line next to it to adjust the width.

Applying Styles

The most common styles are the built-in Heading Styles. Heading 1 through Heading 9 are each a subheading of the proceeding one, but you can create custom styles—in fact, I recommend it. My typical novel file has styles named Chap Num, Chap Name, etc. I set them up so that when I type a Chapter Number, the next paragraph is automatically Chapter Name, and Body follows next. When I start a new chapter, I just type, no thinking, no formatting, no issues.

You can use any of the styles shown in the Home Tab, but sometimes you don’t want any of those. Good news: You can add to or remove styles in that list. I suggest you remove the ones you aren’t going to use and add in any custom ones you’ve created.

Creating new styles is easy enough…just make formatting changes to a paragraph, then Right-Click, point to Styles ►, and choose Save Selection as New Quick Style… Then give it an appropriate name, and you’re ready to go. Once you have a few styles defined, changing the style of any given paragraph is straightforward. Just click in the paragraph, then click the appropriate Style in the Home Tab. If you’re using the Heading 1, 2, or 3 Styles, you can apply them with a quickie key press: Ctrl-Alt-1, 2, or 3. (Apparently they decided that the other heading styles aren’t used often enough to warrant a shortcut.)

In your haste to be stylish, be careful to not create too many. It defeats the purpose if you have a different style for everything, but do style all the major sections appropriately. It will help you keep focused on your content when the Navigation Pane shows your headings—you can see right where you are in the overall document.

Use Style

Now that you can see, apply, and create your own styles, you need to remember to use them. If you save a blank file with all your styles in it, you can use it as a template whenever you’re starting up a new project. Have fun!

Creating an Author Website

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There are only a few things that you must do in the writing world…and even fewer that everyone agrees on, but if you plan to actually sell your book to folks you don’t know, you’re going to have to let them know it exists. To do that, you’re going to need a website where you can promote your wonderful works, call it your ‘home’ on the Internet—a place to focus your marketing efforts.

What to Name Your Site

Only a few things seem to be required no matter who you ask. The first, and most important one, is getting a Domain Name that matches your Author Name. If the name on the cover of your books doesn’t guide folks to your site, then most likely, they’ll never find you. If you find your given name is too common…or matches someone else (search the web to see who comes up), you may have to opt for a pen name, a nom de plume, a pseudonym. Many famous authors have chosen to use a different name for their writing to hide who they are. For example if they already have a non-fiction following and are now branching out into fiction (Charles Dodgson wrote as Lewis Carroll) or if they are writing an exposé and want to remain safe from persecution (Steven Billy Mitchell used the pseudonym Andy McNab to hide his connection to a failed military mission).

Other reasons to pick a new name is that your given name may not feel right for the topic you’re writing. Pearl Gray didn’t feel his name fit the western genre that he wrote, so he dropped his first name and changed the spelling of his last name to become Zane Grey. Then there are the gender issues where some female writers will hide their gender with either a pseudonym (like Alice B. Sheldon who published under James Tiptree, Jr.) or just initials (such as D. C. Fontana, J. D. Robb, and of course J. K. Rowling). Another reason may be that you’re trying out a new genre and you don’t want to confuse your readers. For example, Isaac Asimov used the name Paul French for a series of juvenile science fiction that didn’t fit into the rest of his writing.

What to Put on Your Site

The first thing visitors should see is your latest book (you do have more than one by now, right?). They aren’t there to find out about you…they want something to read, so show them what you have. As they scroll, they should find your other books, either listed vertically or just a horizontal row of covers. Each one should have a short blurb and should link to a page with more details (and a purchase link).

If you have a Mailing List, you could ask them to sign up for it…offer them some kind of reward for doing so…maybe the beginning of a new story or a short that hasn’t been published or a newsletter that will let them know what’s going on with you. You want to keep them informed and get some kind of response from them. A Call to Action is required if you’re going to get any good out of this site.

Next on the list should be your events page. You’ll want them to find you, either on line or live at a book signing or author promotion. If you team up with other authors in your local area, you could find a bookstore where you can all set up tables to sell signed copies of your book. That’s always appreciated by your readers.

Picture of Westley in Victorian outfitThe last thing every author site should have is the About the Author page. That’s where you put your contact info (via a form instead of publishing your email address). That makes you seem more approachable. Any links to social media would be good, too. And don’t forget a good picture (unless you’re in hiding!) like the one of me to the right. Although it’s a bit old, I really like this shot—it has the right attitude.  🙂

Share Your Page

That just about covers all the needed items. If you have other ideas, go ahead and add them in…after you’ve gotten the basics. Send us the site address, so we can see how you’re doing. We might just feature you and your work in a future posting!

Head Hopping

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Although Head Hopping sounds as if it could be some kind of children’s game, in writing, it’s a problem many newbie authors aren’t even aware of—despite being a logical mistake. After all, as he is creating his characters, he is all of them, in all their heads, feeling for all of them. He may balk at trying to keep in just one character’s view, because he then runs into the difficulty of letting the Reader know what the bad guy is planning—without letting the MC know. Some editors are rather touchy about POV slips, and some even judge it to be an amateurish mistake, so many stories come back from critique all marked up: Head Hopping. Once you’ve become serious about writing, you’ll probably discover that, other than Show Don’t Tell, you hear mentions of Head Hopping often…and wonder what it is.

Well, Head Hopping is related to Point of View—the perspective of the character through whose eyes and ears we experience the story. If the story suddenly switches from one character’s viewpoint to another, it disrupts the flow of the story…confusing readers, making them stop to figure out where they are. That means we need to understand just what Point of View is.

What is POV?

We have a post dedicated to POV, so here we are just going to hit the high points. First Person—in the head of the MC. Second Person—in your own head. Third Person Limited—in no one’s head…just a Fly on the Wall. Whatever the fly sees, the reader sees…whatever the fly hears, the reader hears—only in that room, at that time—no internal thoughts or emotions at all, just faces scrunched up or tears running down cheeks.

Third Person Omniscient—in everyone’s head, but only from a distance. We lose the opportunity to know any of the characters up close. The Omniscient Narrator, far removed from the story, sees all, knows all, and can report on the thoughts and emotions of anyone, but we don’t get to hear those thoughts or feel those emotions from the characters themselves. This technique avoids head hopping by taking a bird’s eye view, removing the reader from the story, from the action, from the characters—not telling the story from any one character’s perspective, rather from the perspective of some unidentified, all-knowing, massive, floating entity who is not even involved in the story. In some stories that may work, but most readers want to be in the action (picturing themselves as the characters…you know, escapism).

So, Where’s The Problem?

Most of the levels of POV are safe from Head Hopping. The issue only pops up when we use Third Person Close. In that POV, we sit on a character’s shoulder…listening to his thoughts, feeling his emotions, seeing the world through his eyes. Now although that’s a fine and dandy way to pull a reader into a story, because you are actually in his head, you can’t be in anyone else’s. In most cases, that’s satisfactory. The only difficulty is when you have some information that the POV character doesn’t have or isn’t supposed to have. How do you get that information to the reader?… Or do you?

Sometimes a lack of information is a good thing. Suspense can keep the reader interested, and instead of giving everything away, you can let the Reader (and the MC) figure things out for themselves based on what has been revealed—a technique known as Sub Text. Just remember that bouncing around in multiple points of view can not only be confusing to the reader, but also kick them out of the story, reminding them that they are reading something…rather than being there. As with an Omniscient Narrator, the reader can’t be in the story, experiencing it first-hand. The head hopping prevents them from suspending their disbelief. Let your readers become part of your story—keep them happy. Keep the POV tight, and your readers will develop a strong, emotional connection to the character…unbroken by lazy writing—they’ll care about him and what happens to him.

Revealing Information

Sometimes, there are things happening out of the view of the POV character, but he needs to know about them. The quick and easy way to handle this situation is to have a Witness. Some other character can come running up and tell the MC all about what just happened down the street, around the corner, in the building. If the information isn’t urgent, then finding out later may work, via a news article or a message.

On the other hand, you may have some information that the MC isn’t supposed to know (such as what the bad guy is doing). The only way to reveal that info to the reader is by switching to a new POV…and that can be done only at a break—a section break, a chapter break, or a scene break (don’t forget to use *** to show a change in location, time, or POV).

Avoid Head Hopping

When you list out your scenes and their purpose, always include the POV character…the character who has the most to gain or lose in that scene. That will also allow you to see whether all your key characters are getting a turn at presenting the story. Then, just start the scene with their name and write on!

Adjective Order

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This is a basic level post because there isn’t much we can teach you about it…you already know how to do it, whether you realise it or not. Adjective order is one of those things that we all absorb as we are learning and using language. In fact, the only time linguists discuss it is in upper level classes as they analyse grammar. They study it, but mostly out of curiosity. There are no firm rules, so there’s nothing to get wrong…but if you do it incorrectly, everyone will know.

In English, we have ‘little old ladies’ but not ‘old little ladies’. We also have ‘old white hankies’ not ‘white old hankies’. Also consider ‘the big new square blue wooden house’ as opposed to ‘the wooden blue square new big house’. The jumbled ones aren’t necessarily wrong, they just sound strange. So, what is the correct order? Most linguists agree that it is opinion, size, condition, age, shape, colour, pattern, origin, material, and purpose.

Adjectives in order with examples

  • Opinion
    • Limiting
      • a real hero, a perfect idiot
    • Subjective measure
      • beautiful, ugly, interesting, silly, horrible, difficult, nice
    • Value
      • good, bad, costly
  • Size
    • tiny, big, extensive, large, enormous, little
  • Condition
    • broken, cold, hot, wet, hungry, rich, easy, difficult, dirty, tattered, rusted
  • Age
    • young, old, new, ancient, six-year-old
  • Shape
    • square, round, sharp, swollen, flat, rectangular, long
  • Colour
    • white, black, pale, blue, pink, reddish, grey
  • Pattern
    • striped, spotted, checked, flowery
  • Origin
    • American, French, Greek, eastern, volcanic, extraterrestrial, lunar
  • Material
    • woollen, cotton, metallic, brick, linen, wooden, paper, cloth, silk
  • Purpose (sometimes forms part of a compound noun, often -ing)
    • rocking chair, hunting cabin, sleeping bag, frying pan, curling iron, book cover, passenger car

So you could put a bunch together and sound like this:

  • A nice, little, old, round, white, brick house
  • The beautiful, big, wet, new, flat, blue, checked, French, linen, writing papers
  • The ugly, small, rusted, ancient, long, grey, spotted, eastern, metal, curling iron

Keep in mind though, if you do use such a long string of adjectives in front of any noun, you’re likely to be accused of Purple Prose, so don’t do it. Just remember that when you have two or three adjectives, they need to be in the right order…UNLESS you intend to put them out of order.

Fronting adjectives

One of the nice things about knowing the rules is that when you break them, you do so with purpose. It won’t be an accidental mistake, rather an intentional contravention. For example, if you need to add emphasis, you could use a different order. Let’s say that there are several dogs running around the yard, some large and some small, and you wanted to point out a specific one, so instead of saying, “the large, brown dog”, you could say, “the brown, large dog”, as opposed to the black one or the white one.

You may also have a situation where your character isn’t a native English speaker, so he might not have noticed the subtleties of English adjective order—when he uses a slightly different order, what he says might sound awkward, but it will just serve to reinforce his individuality.

Book Sizes (Trim)

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Recently we covered a bunch of info about Paper Sizes—now we’re going to tackle books themselves. As with paper, the origin of the standards in the US seem to be lost in history, but book manufacturers have established some traditional sizes. If you want your book to fit into bookshelves, either in the store or at someone’s home, you really need to stick to the norms. Of course, if your book hits the international market, you’ll find that a completely different set of book sizes is customary.

Genre Specific

Before you can pick a size for your book, you need consider what’s inside. Children’s books are often a 7×10 format. YA is 5×7. Mass market fiction is a little over 4 by a little under 7 (it has to fit into a pocket). Comic books are 6 5/8 x 10 1/4 (to fit into those plastic sleeves).

Text books or technical manuals (cook books included) use a full 8.5×11 with spiral binding to make room for double columns and lots of illustrations…and it will stay flat when in use (on either the workbench or kitchen counter).

Novels, of multiple sorts, come in a range of sizes, with the width running from 5.5 to 6 and the height going from 8.5 to 9. At the small end, 5.5×8.5 (Digest size), you’re printing two pages per normal Letter size paper. (You could actually print those at home—of course, binding them would be a whole different ball of wax.) The larger end, 6×9 (also known as US Trade), is a rather popular size, so unless you have some specific reason to go with a different size, you may as well stick with this one.

If your book is short, rather than having a thin, floppy book (with not enough space on the spine for your title), try for a trimmed version of Digest: 5.25×8. It’s just a bit smaller, but with less space on the pages, you’ll have more pages, so your book will be thicker—an advantage that gives the reader a sense of worth.

International Market

When you hit the big time, and are being distributed internationally, you might consider other sizes. There aren’t as many choices here, but that’s good news. A bit smaller than Digest is the British Paperback size B (129x198mm or approx. 5 1/8 x 7 3/4). A taller, skinnier book, with larger pages, is the British Paperback Trade size C (135x216mm or 5 3/8 x 8 1/2).

On the other hand, for a longer book, you’ll want much larger pages, so you’d use paper size B5 (176x250mm or almost 7 x 9 1/2). If your book is really short, then use paper size A6 (105×148 or 4 1/8 x 5 5/6) to make it thicker. The other A size book you might look at is A5. It sits between US Trade and Digest, so it’ll feel right in your reader’s hands.

We hope to see you hit the big time soon. Keep at it!

Extended Keyboard Shortcuts

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In earlier posts, we covered some Essential Keyboard Shortcuts (and I hope none of you fell asleep when reading that one) as well as More Essential Keyboard Shortcuts, but now we’re going to continue with some more involved ones. As before we’ll start off with how to move around in Word.

  • Down one screen (scrolling) – Page Down
  • Up one screen (scrolling) – Page Up
  • Top of current window – Ctrl+Alt+Page Up
  • Bottom of current window – Ctrl+Alt+Page Down
  • Go to last edit location after opening – Shift+F5
  • Repeat Find or Go To action – Shift+F4
  • Top of next page (scrolling—not after find) – Ctrl+Page Down
  • Top of previous page (scrolling—not after find) – Ctrl+Page Up

As previously, you can hold Shift as you do the above moves to select the text, but here are a few more ways to select:

  • Select all text – Ctrl+A
  • Enter regular Selection mode – F8
  • Extend Selection mode – F8 (1 additional time word, 2 sentence, 3 paragraph, 4 document)
  • Reduce Selection mode – Shift+F8
  • Exit Selection mode – Esc
  • Enter Column Selection mode – Ctrl+Shift+F8

The F8 Selection mode may need a bit of discussion here. As it seems to be the only real way to select a sentence in the middle of a pgph, it can be handy for that, but the Column Selection mode is rather strange. You may find that you will never have a need to select text vertically when your lines of text run horizontally, but it could be fun to play with. If you find a good use for it, please let us know. Thanks!

Here’s a few more ways to cut and move text around…this time we will explain how the Spike works, too, so read carefully.

  • Copy format only – Ctrl+Shift+C
  • Paste copied format only – Ctrl+Shift+V
  • Copy text – Shift+F2 (use Enter to paste in new location)
  • Cut text – F2 (use Enter to paste in new location)

The Spike

  • Cut additional text onto Spike – Ctrl+F3
  • Copy additional text onto Spike – Ctrl+F3, Ctrl-Z
  • Paste all copied text from Spike (and clear Spike) – Ctrl+Shift+F3
  • Paste all copied text from Spike (and keep in Spike) – “spike” Enter

Copying just the format of one section to paste on another could be helpful, and the F2 cut-n-paste takes fewer keystrokes, but the Spike…ah, the Spike…that is a different beast. What it allows you to do is consolidate a bunch of different parts together in one place. (Probably more useful for non-fiction, but who knows?)

When you select text and hit Ctrl+F3, it gets added to the Spike. You can do that multiple times, collecting together info from various locations throughout your document. When you’ve collected them all up, you then paste all of them in at one time! That could allow you to take the first (intro) pgph from each section, and put them all together into a summary…even into a new document.

Story Elements (Plot)

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Today we are going to examine the shape of your story…how the plot guides the structure. If you are looking for a discussion of the different types of plots, we will cover that in a later posting on Theme that covers much of that topic.

As you may know, some writers prefer to have the entire story outlined before beginning to create the content—then there are the pantsers who write by the seat of their pants…not knowing what’s going to come next until it happens (my style), but even those of us who don’t outline before writing at least have a clue of how the story is going to go. That basic idea is shaped like a skewed bell curve (remember statistics class??). It starts out low, slowly builds up, then reaches a peak before heading back down for the end. There are five points that determine the shape of the story and divide it into the classic three act structure.

Graph showing Standard Bell Curve and Plot Curve

Act I is the beginning, consisting of the Introduction (first point). In this part we get to know who our characters are, where they are, and something about their boring lives. It ends (hopefully quickly) with the Inciting Event (second point), kicking the story into full gear and creating the Story Question. This is the question in the back of your reader’s mind which he looks forward to solving by the end of the story. You don’t want to spend too much time in this act, rather try to hook the reader with the big change right up front, then move directly into the next act.

Act II is the main part of the story, where all the Rising Action takes place. This act should take up at least half your story, with the Hero trying and failing, again and again, each time with greater and greater peril to his life (or the lives of his friends). The threats can be physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual, but our Hero can only seem to succeed as the tension increases with each attempt. This act ends with the Darkest Point (third point), where the Hero has obviously been defeated, all is lost, no way out. You can also include a suggestion of the climax, a bit of a cliff hanger to get the reader back after the commercial break. (Oh, wait, this isn’t on the tele yet…or is it?)

Act III starts off with the Climax (fourth point), quickly followed by a bit of Falling Action. The Climax is where the Hero decisively overcomes the ultimate crisis. Make certain that what he does seems valid from all the work he’s done—nothing magic here to rescue him. The Falling Action allows time to clean up a few loose ends, tie up subplots, and understand the results of our Hero’s actions.

The story finishes up with the Resolution, or Dénouement if you prefer (fifth point), where life gets back to the new normal, but nothing can be as it was before—the Hero has a new life to live.

What is a story?

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Time once again for an Extra topic, and as with the previous Extra: Story Essence, we’ll be focusing on the content of your work, rather than the production. In fiction, we try to tell a story…and in non-fiction, we have some knowledge to share. Both can use similar concepts to get the message across, though in fiction we are appealing to the reader’s emotion, in non-fiction, intellect.

So…what really is a story? We’ve heard it described as a narrative of events…with a beginning, middle, and end. It that it?

Consider this:

  • Bill woke up. He ate breakfast. He left for work.

Is that a story? It has the requisite three acts, a protagonist, some form of choices, and it’s a natural progression, but something is missing. It’s a news article, not a story—there is no passion, no crisis, no struggle, and most importantly, no change. The main character ends the same as he started.

Let’s step through the process of creating a story. Right up front, we have to get the reader’s attention, create a connection, and set the scene (build the world). In other words, we need to entice the reader to continue reading—we need to set the hook.

Starting the story:

Question: But when do we start the story? Answer: When something extraordinary happens. We don’t care about boring lives—we want to break that routine. Ask yourself: Why is this day different from all others? That’s where you start the story, and it sets up the Story Question asked in Act I: Will things get back to normal? We’ll have to wait for the resolution to get that answer.

Once started, we need to introduce the rest of the characters. There are two kinds: Pebble and Putty. Pebble people don’t change over the life of the story, bouncing back from whatever acts on them, set pieces, not interesting. Putty people are the central ones. We’re interested in watching them to see if they’ll ever get back to the shape they were in the beginning…but they won’t.

Middle of the story:

The middle part of the story is where all the action takes place, but anything that happens has to be the result of our hero doing something…no happenstance allowed. Don’t forget to throw in a few clues and red herrings for the end of the story.

“If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.”—Anton Chekhov

The bulk of the actions should be the hero trying to solve the problem created at the beginning, and though all attempts need to make sense (something logical, something you might try in that situation), none of them work—things just get worse.

Tension is created by unfilled desire, so give the hero something to crave, then prevent success. What is wanted? What is to be avoided? Focus on external struggles that need to be overcome or internal ones that need to be understood—the more intimate, the more personal, the more devastating they will be.

End of the story:

When the end finally arrives, it needs to follow from what happened earlier, almost unavoidable, but not obvious until it happens. Tie up loose ends, show us how the hero has changed, and answer the Story Question. Remember, the entire story is one of transformation—no change, no story. Don’t worry…we’ll cover details of Transformation later.

Comparatives and Superlatives

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Some things are good and some are bad. But some things are even better than that…and others worse. Then there are the ones that are the best…or the worst. How do we know the difference? We use Comparatives and Superlatives. English has two ways to relate objects, ranking them according to some (often unspecified) scale in quality, quantity, or degree. The Comparative balances one item against only one other. The Superlative evaluates one item against a bunch of others. Remember to use the Comparative if you have only two things to compare.

Two Ways to Form Comparisons

There are two constructions for comparing: Morphological and Syntactic. In the morphological system, we morph (or change) a word. In the Syntactic, we use syntax (the rules of sentence construction) to show the level of comparison. The morphological comparison is usually used with short words of Anglo-Saxon derivation by adding ‘er’ for the comparative and ‘est’ for the superlative, but there are some irregular forms to consider as well. The positive word ‘good’ becomes ‘better’ or ‘best’ and the negative word ‘bad’ becomes ‘worse’ and ‘worst’, so it still seems to follow a pattern.

Using the syntactical technique, we would add words instead of changing them to make the comparison, and the words we usually add are ‘more’ and ‘most’ for an increasing attribute (or ‘less’ and ‘least’ for a decreasing one). This method is often used for longer words, or words of French or Latin origin. For example, when ‘beautiful’ grows, it becomes ‘more beautiful’ and ‘most beautiful’. On the other side, when ‘wide-awake’ is reduced, it becomes ‘less wide-awake’ and ‘least wide-awake’.

Null Comparatives

You’ll sometimes see a Comparative used with only ONE item…often in adverts or political comments. What is being compared isn’t always clear…and that seems to be the intention. Consider these statements:

  • Our bread is softer.
  • The display is sharper.
  • We give you more.
  • More doctors recommend it.

The bread is softer than what? A rock? Of course it is, and the display is sharper than what? Last year’s model? Probably. They give you more than…the other guys? Maybe so. It is recommended by more doctors than sewer workers? I would hope so, whatever it is!

These Null Comparatives are intentionally used to convince us that something is better, trying to get us to buy (or buy into) whatever it is that they are selling. Be careful to avoid such empty comparisons in your writing…even if you are writing advert copy.

Comparing Absolutes

Another thing to watch out for is trying to compare absolutes—something that is either all the way on or all the way off. If one of the buckets is full, it can’t be fuller. If another one is empty, it can’t be the emptiest. There is only one unique gem, so there can’t be a more unique gem. And a funny one is trying to consider one lady to be less pregnant than another—it just doesn’t work.

Basic Layout of a Book (cover)

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Most readers are familiar with what a book looks like, but from an author’s point of view, there is much more involved in putting one together. Let’s go over the basic parts:

  • Obviously there is the cover first, made up of the front, back, and spine.
  • Then there’s the inside, but that’s just a bunch of pages, right?

Not quite, but we’ll get to that part in a post about the layout of the inside—we’ll examine just the cover in this post.

Front:

Focusing on the front of the cover, the reader will expect to find a title and possibly a subtitle (especially for non-fiction). Then there’s the author’s name, and of course some wonderful image that will catch the reader’s eye—but when the cover artist lays out the words and pictures, make certain enough room is left somewhere for that wonderful sticker you get when you win the book contest!

Back:

The back cover also has a few items that are expected. The genre is specified, typically in the upper left corner, along with the appropriate BISAC code. The middle has a paragraph or two with enough information for the reader to make the decision to buy the book—here is where you put your hook. You may also have a few blurbs from advance readers or reviewers. The lower left area is where you put your own picture, along with a bit of info about you. (Some readers will buy the book based solely on the author’s credentials.) Publisher info goes just below that. The lower right corner (near the spine) is where the ISBN goes with its bar code.

Spine:

There isn’t much room on the spine, so the only things expected are the title (possibly shortened), the author’s name (usually just the last name), and the publisher’s logo.

Although it’s usually the spine that the reader sees first, it’s the cover that gets the book get picked up, and the back gets the book opened—that’s where you have to convince the reader to buy it.

That pretty much covers the cover. The inside is a whole ’nother matter.