Keywords: A writer’s guide to attracting more traffic to your blog

Ten Reasons To Keep Writing

Surprising Truths From Richard Nash’s Publishing Talk

The Book Shelf Test or How to Research Your Market Part I

Publisher Tips: Gylphi

Q and A with Faber editor, Sarah Savitt

How My Mom Landed on Oprah and Launched a Publishing Career

What Motivates the Book Buyer?

Is this useful? The plan is to do the same each Friday with a list of the links we have posed on Twitter and Facebook that week. Do you want to see it again, but in full next week?

All writers know that if they are to stand any chance of successfully pitching their book to an agent or publisher, their book needs to be perfect (or as close to perfect, as possible). To do this, a writer must learn how to self-assess their own work. This article looks at why self-editing is so important and offers tips on ways to produce the best results.

Stiff competition makes self-editing essential

Agents and publishers are inundated with manuscripts on a daily basis. In fact, they see so many manuscripts, and have so few publishing slots available, that they are in fact looking for reasons to so no, not yes. It is easier for an agent/publisher to discover fault with a book and find an excuse to reject, than it is to say yes. This means that it is your duty, as a writer, to give the agent/publisher no reason to say no!

In reality this means getting the basics right. Correctly identifying your book’s genre, and precisely targeting the correct agent/publisher is a good start. However, standing out from the crowd of manuscripts can be difficult.

This puts agents/publishers in a very strong position. A few years ago, you would often hear of an agent/publisher working closely with an author. They would nurture the writer, working on the novel, moulding it into shape. However, these days are quickly disappearing. For an agent/publisher, any time spent editing a book simply costs money, and cuts into profits. (You could blame booksellers insisting on major discounts for this position, but that is another blog post.) As it stands any time spent working with a writer, is time that could be spent publishing books or negotiating deals. The result is that agents/publishers are looking for books that are as close to ‘publication ready’ as possible.

This means that a well edited book, which needs little in-house editing input, is a very interesting prospect for any publisher. Therefore, all other things being equal, a well edited book stands a far better chance of publication over a book that needs work.

This may not be fair, and may not be good for the industry, but it is the current situation. It means that it has become a writer’s duty to make their book as close to ‘publication ready’ as possible.

Understanding the editing process is key

If your book was to be prepared for publication by a publishing house, it would pass through a four editing steps process prior to printing.

• Structural editing,
• Stylistic editing,
• Copy editing,
• Proofreading,

The aim is simply to produce a book that is accessible and readable. Yet, the editing process is as much an art as a science and includes a large amount of ‘gut feel’. This said self-editing (and even professional editing) hangs around three key questions. These questions are constantly posed in the editor’s mind (be that the writer or a third party). Only by consistently applying these questions can a good edit be performed.

• Is the book’s organisation and content suitable for the intended audience, medium, market, and purpose? [Structural]
• How can the book’s meaning be clarified, the flow improved and the language smoothed?[Stylistic]
• Have you ensured the correctness, consistency, accuracy, and completeness of the document? [Copy]

Tips for self-editing

This post about editing your own novel gave some solid outlines on which to build your self-edit. However, as an addition I wanted to offer some boarder advice.

Perhaps the biggest problem writers face, when editing their own work, is simply getting too close. Even when holding the questions listed above in your mind, writers can still find it just too hard to detach themselves. But this is understandable, in fact I would go as far as saying this is essential. Just how a writer detaches themselves from the tangle of their own narrative is hard to explain and I suspect it is very personal skill. I would be interested to hear any writer’s experiences or tips on doing just this.

The essence of any COPY edit is grammar and spelling but this is NOT an edit. An edit is so much more. It is important that a writer avoids becoming obsessed with spelling. Yes, spelling is important, and yes you must be as accurate as possible. However, grammar is just part of the puzzle. A good edit consists of all three questions listed above – spelling is just one aspect.

One potentially powerful option open to writers is to use friends and family to help with the edit. My advice here is clear. Firstly, be very precise with friends and family in just what you require from them. They can act as great proofreaders, but if this is the job you want them to carry out, then be clear. Tell them all you want is feedback on grammar and spelling only. Secondly, be selective about what you implement from friends and family feedback. Even the best intentioned feedback can be damaging and ill advised. Be prepared to listen, but also be prepared to ignore. After all, it is your book.

My penultimate snippet of advice is consider to professional help. Of course you would expect that kind of advice from a professional editing company, but I say it with the best of intentions. If you want your book to be the best it can possibly be, then a professional edit will help you to do just that. Yes, I agree that a writer having to pay to help get their book published is not a great situation for the industry, but that it is the situation that exists today. After all, agents/publishers see books as products, so you, as a writer, should also. Once you have this mind set, you can begin to see why gaining professional help to make your product saleable is just sound business practice.

Finally, I offer one last piece of advice. Don’t pitch your book too early. A poor pitch will result in rejection. Most agents keep track of the submissions they receive and once they have rejected a book, they will not look at it again. So, please, please, resist the temptation to submit early, and take that extra few weeks to make sure everything is just right.

I would be interested in reading your own tips, hints and experiences of self-editing. Just pop them in the comments.

I recently had a conversation with a non-writing friend regarding my own writing. As the conversation progressed I explained that I wrote children’s history books, aimed mainly at boys, aged 9-12, who were reluctant readers, but could hopefully be inspired to read more.

This got me thinking… Just how many writers know their audience this well?

I am not talking about a general understanding, but a real in-depth, get into their heads, kind of knowledge.

There are three key reasons why an understanding of your readership is essential.

Writing

I would be the last person to suggest the marketplace should fundamentally influence the content and topic of a book. However, I do feel that an acute awareness of the readership, a knowledge of the current market and a feel for the ‘type’ of books your reader is already reading can only be an advantage.

Pitching

When submitting your book to a potential agent or publisher, pin pointing the correct agent/publisher is part of the battle. Correctly placing the book in a genre and matching this genre with an agent/publisher is just the start. As a writer, who has an in-depth knowledge of their reader, you will be able to go beyond this, picking out the perfect agent/publisher and presenting a focussed and tailored pitch.

Marketing

Creating buzz about your book is often achieved by targeting a small market niche and dominating until it spills out into the wider market. For example, children’s books are mostly sold, in the first instance, with writers visiting schools and talking directly to the children. The problem is that until you know your reader, where to find them and how to access them you have no market plan.

The aim of this post was to just get you, as a writer, thinking. A secure and in-depth knowledge of your reader will make you a better writer, a better prospect for an agent/publisher and a better marketer.

What tips do you have to identifying your reader?

Do you think readership is really as important as I suggest?

Editing your own book can be a stressful and for many writers, a frankly daunting task. At BubbleCow we edit writer’s work for a living. So to help you out I pestered our editors to produce this list of top tips for editing your own book:

Be consistent

Writing a book is a long process that often spans over years. During this period it is easy for writers to lose track of some of the minor plot details. However, it is vital that a writer makes every effort to maintain consistency throughout the writing process. The problem is that readers will notice mistakes. If you tell your readers that a character has blue eyes in the opening chapter, and then six chapters later you say they are brown, the reader will remember.

My tip is to use character reference sheets. These are simply lists of the key aspects for all of your characters. On these sheets you should record all the key facts – age, description, eye colour etc. Also include any details that might be important such as relationships with other characters, home address and other details you develop. One additional tip is to get into the habit of updating your sheets as you build the characters.

Use simple grammar

Not all writers are grammar experts. In fact the reality is that many writers struggle with grammar. Our tip is to keep it simple. The correct use of the period (full stop) and comma will get you out of most tough spots. Learning the rules of the correct use of the apostrophe is also crucial, as is the grammar of speech. However, beyond this you are getting onto dangerous ground. If you are unsure of the correct usage of the semi-colon, then don’t use it (even if Microsoft Word insists otherwise).

Formatting

Consistent formatting is an important, but often overlooked, part of editing. By this we are talking about titles, subtitles, indenting, text font etc. In fact you need to pay attention to anything that appears on the page. One way to get around inconsistencies is to use the ‘style’ function of your word processing package. Another way is to simply pay attention each time you start a new section, type in a header or change font. Being aware is half the battle.

Narrative arc

Your story needs to have a clear start, middle and end. We are all aware of this but it doesn’t always come across in writer’s work. My tip is to read your work with the three phase structure in mind. Can you pin point the three sections of your book clearly?

Here’s a couple of sites that explain the narrative arc well: here and here.

Tense usage

When talking to our editors the issue of tense was highlighted as a common problem. The switching of tenses (past to present/present to past) is something that happens to all writers. It is for this reason that you must pay particular attention to this problem. This is one of those things that readers tend to spot. This blog post might help.

Read out aloud

This is a tip that I think every editor worth their salt will pass onto writers. Once your work is completed read it out aloud. Personally I use a software program called TextAloud. This allows me to follow the text as the computer reads it out (in a robot voice). Reading your work out aloud will help you to spot silly mistakes but also the sentences that don’t flow. Another tip is to print your work out and read it from paper. I am not sure why (something to do with screen resolution?) but this seems to help spot mistakes.

Let a ‘trusted’ third party look at your book

The emphasis here is on the word trusted. The key is to find someone who will give you constructive feedback. You don’t want someone who will simply say the book is good or bad, you need critical and detailed feedback. It is also important that you TELL the reader that you want critical feedback. Make it clear that you can take the rough with the smooth. Give them guidance in what to look for when reading. They are looking for mistakes and inconsistency.

Using critical feedback

This follows on from the point above. As a writer you must learn to apply the correct feedback. Typos and grammar errors should be corrected without any real questioning. However, big issues need to be considered carefully. Sometimes a reader will not like a certain section or suggest changes that go beyond simple sentence structure. In these cases you need to consider the feedback carefully and only make changes that you feel improve the book.

Be harsh – cut the dead wood

All of our editors agreed that this is one area that many writers find very difficult. Cutting back is a vital and very powerful skill for writers to develop. The foundation to the exercise should be for the writer to look at each section and ask ‘do I need this?’ Over wordy sentences, extended paragraphs and repetition should all be removed. In addition, ANY section that fails to move the plot forward should be cut. I have seen novels where whole characters have been removed. Cutting back the work is painful but if done correctly will improve your book tenfold.

Read each line as a line, then a paragraph, then a section, then a chapter…

If you have carried out all the steps above, and you are happy with your novel, then it’s time to start again. This time you need to go through the novel on a line by line basis. You may find it helps to wait for a couple of weeks before you try to re-edit. This time around you need to scrutinise each sentence in turn, fine tuning as you go. Then, when finished, go back and look at the text paragraph by paragraph. Be critical. Next examine each section, then chapter and so on….

Beta Readers

The concept of beta readers has been developed by a few different blogs. The idea is to have a core of trusted readers with whom you can develop an ‘editing’ relationship. How this differs from simply asking a third party to look at your work, is that you are to build up trust and understanding over time.

I am hoping this post will act as a jump off point for writers to suggest their own ideas for self-editing. Nothing in this post is really that new (beta readers aside), and I have probably suggested each of these tips before, either on this blog or on Twitter (@bubblecow).

So what tips would you offer?

I am always a bit too obsessed by these ’20 books you should read before you die’ type of blog posts. However, I often wonder if they have any real value. The list below has been constructed using a number of other lists from other blogs. I have tried to keep my personal preferences out of the equation and simply the pose the question:

Is it possible to really produce a list of value?

• The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
• Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
• To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
• The Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
• The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
• The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy
• The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
• Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
• Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
• Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
• One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
• Catch-22 – Joseph Heller
• Gone with the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
• The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
• Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand
• The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
• The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje
• Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
• Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
• Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell
• War And Peace – Leo Tolstoy
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being – Milan Kundera
• The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
• Dune – Frank Herbert
• Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
• Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
• Lord of the Flies – William Golding
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis
• Crime and Punishment – Feodor Dostoyevsky
• The Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood
• East of Eden – John Steinbeck
• The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco
• Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
• Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
• Animal Farm – George Orwell
• Watership Down – Richard Adams
• Magician – Raymond E Feist
• Middlemarch – George Eliot
• The Magus – John Fowles
• The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
• The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
• The Colour Purple – Alice Walker
• Doctor Zhivago – Boris Pasternak
• The World according to Garp – John Irving
• Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides

I positively encourage you to criticise, agree and suggest additions and subtractions to this list. I will add and remove as you suggest and post a revised list in the near future

It is lazy blogging to suggest that there are two types of anything (though it has never stopped me before), but I do believe that writers can be roughly split into two groups.

Writers Who Write

The first group is writers who simply must write. These are writers to whom writing is second nature, it is like breathing. These writers will write no matter what. The simple act of placing words on a page, conjuring up worlds and passing ideas, is like a drug and they need their fix every day.

Writers Who Deliver

The second group is writers who write for a goal. These writers write because they are looking to produce an end product. For this group the final book, manuscript or essay is the payoff, not the actual process of writing. This group can goes days without writing, but will write every minute possible if the deadline for a project demands.

I fall into the second group – what about you?

My recent trip to American to witness the launch of the Xbox Kinect was a truly mind altering experience.

I was lucky enough to spend a week in California and was exposed to a lifestyle radically different from that I normally live in the UK. This got me thinking about what we writers consider to be normal.

I feel that we are all prone to seeing the world through our own eyes. We readily assume that what we see and experience is representative of everyone else’s viewpoint. This can be illustrated by such social media platforms as Twitter and Facebook. The chances are your followers and friends will have a similar life experience to yourself, seeing the world in a similar way to yourself. This means that on a day-to-day basis your most intimate contacts are re-enforcing what you consider to be normal and common place. The fact is that for most people this is not the case. Your normality is abnormal for most other people.

This presents a writer with a paradox. How can a writer present thoughts and ideas that they consider common place to readers with little similar experience or framework of understanding? Yet, it is the exposure of ideas alien to ourselves that makes great literature.

I now wonder if this is one of the great unspoken paradoxes of writing. Is the character of a great writer one who is simultaneously aware of their own place in the world, whilst recognising, and being able to express, the uniqueness of their common experience…

Any thoughts?

As a professional editor it is very common to come across manuscripts that use double spacing between sentences. This is wrong and here’s why:

The habit of double spacing developed with the common use of the typewriter. The general thinking was that a single space between sentences left them too close together, but by adding an extra space you produced a more pleasing effect.

However, even in the 19th century a debate raged as to the correct approach. The English Method called for two strikes of the space bar between sentences, whilst the French Method asked for just a single space.

The debate was finally ended with the introduction of the word processor. The development of proportional fonts meant that the spacing between sentences was automatically adjusted, and therefore, just a single space was needed.

So for all you English spacers out there – please stop the French single method is the future.

Read more about single vs double spacing here…

I have noticed a growing trend for blog posts encouraging writers to write every day, and this worries me.

Writers are already bombarded with a plethora of writing and ‘get published’ advice, most of it repetitive, unoriginal and frankly unhelpful. To be honest, the feedback I am getting from writers is that this advice leaves them feeling guilty that they are not writing in every spare moment and then building an on-line platform in their sleep.

But let’s face it – I don’t care what anyone says, writers don’t need to write every day.

I don’t and I am a professional writer with an agent, multiple publishers, writing deadlines and a list of future proposals.

So if I don’t write every day, why should anyone?

Don’t get me wrong, I understand the argument regarding a writing rhythm and developing the ‘habit’ of writing, but this is NOT the same as writing every day. This is just self-discipline.

The way I write is to create windows of time that I dedicate to writing. The number and length of theses windows is adjusted to meet my writing demands.

But so what? Why does this even matter? This my system. It is the way I write. It is not your system. You need your own system, your own way of writing. Forget the rules, break them and make up your own.

So please gentle writer, ignore all the ‘write every day’ rubbish, relax and write when YOU are ready.

p.s. DO blog every day though!

Copy editing is a bit like visiting the dentist – we know it needs to be done but we also know it’s going to be painful!

As a copy editor, who runs a copy editing company, unsurprisingly, I have pretty strong views about copy editing. However, I just want to open a debate on the value of copy editing and why all writers can benefit from a good old edit..

What Is Copy Editing?

This is a question that is open to some debate. For me (and BubbleCow) a copy edit is a structural edit. It is an edit that looks at the way the story is put together. The focus of a copy edit is on plot, pacing and narrative. It is not focussed on grammar and spelling, that is a proofread. To cloud the water even further here’s another definition of a copy edit from Mpub.

But rather than get bogged down is what a copy edit is, or is not, I would suggest it is more fruitful to consider the goal of a copy edit.

For me the aim of a copy edit is to do three things:

• To improve the document,
• To improve the writer’s understanding of the structure their own book,
• To make the book more publishable.

When Should You Consider Copy Edit?

A good solid copy edit will improve your book. It will make it more publishable and, therefore, more attractive to potential agents and publishers.

I often come in contact with writers who feel their work is beyond a copy edit. My response is always the same. Firstly, I have never read a manuscript that didn’t benefit from a copy edit. Some may benefit to a greater extent, but all will benefit. My second point is always to consider publishers. The editing of a manuscript is an essential part of the pre-production process. A publisher would never publish a book without an edit. However, for publishers cost is critical. If this was not the case why would they waste time and money in editing if it didn’t produce a more saleable book?

The publishing world has become so competitive, that most agents and publishers are looking for books that need as little work as possible prior to publication. This means that if a writer can edit their book BEFORE they submit, then they will improve their chances of publication.

So in answer to the questions when to consider a copy edit, I would say the moment you are happy with the book and feel ready to submit. That is the point you should be thinking about an edit.

Can You Do It Yourself?

Well, errr… no! The whole point of a copy is that something new is being brought to the book. The very nature of a copy edit is that it is a third party looking at the structure and content of the book and focusing attention on areas that require further development.

Writers become so engaged in their work, they sometimes become ‘blind’ to the most obvious mistakes. This happens to us all, it is an essential part of the writing process. It is just important that you, as a writer, see this and understand what an external editor can bring to your work.

Does It Have To Cost

No! It is not essential that you employ a third party company or freelance editor. You can ask a friend to carry out the work for you. However, PLEASE remember editing is a skill. Would you ask your friend to remove your teeth, just because they had been to the dentist?

Editors possess a certain set of skills that make them very good at assessing other people’s writing and drawing attention to the areas of concern.

These are:

• Professional understanding of narrative and book structure,
• An in-depth understanding of the marketplace,
• An understanding of the publishing landscape,
• Attention to detail,
• Ability to teach not lecture.

What’s The Benefit?

At the end of the day the benefit of a good copy edit is a better book and a better writer. Yes, the process may be painful but if you have picked the right copy editor you will come out of the process with a new understanding of your work, but most importantly you will have been directed to develop a new set of skills that will mean you can write better and more publishable books.