Publishing Experts Partner for Best of Publishing Advice

Because of ethical conflicts, I rarely review books. Occasionally I make an exception when a book that can help the publishing industry in some way comes along. This is one of those times. As you will see, authors interested in publishing have needed new jump-start kind of  input for some time, the kind of input that comes from experience!  So, may I present The Nonfiction Book Publishing Plan that I believe will be useful no matter what kind of a book a writer is thinking about writing. Besides, it's perfect for New Year's giving!

CHJ

TITLE: The Nonfiction Book Publishing Plan
SUBTITLE: The Professional Guide to Profitable Self-Publishing

AUTHORS: Stephanie Chandler and Karl W. Palachuk

PUBLISHER: Authority Publishing

ASIN: B07H39LPSX

ISBN:  978-1-949642-00-1

PRINT LINK: https://amzn.to/2Jq5Sic 

GENRE: Nonfiction

CATEGORY: Publishing

Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, 

author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers

My first serious introduction to self-publishing was at a SPAN conference in Atlanta (Small Publishers of North America); it was there I was introduced to a very fat volume on self-publishing by Marilyn Ross that included the idea that real publishing includes marketing. That was nearly 20 years ago, and I have been recommending that book ever since because nothing else has been as all-encompassing and based so thoroughly on personal experience (and personal experience is generally much better than research). 

Now, so many years later, Stephanie Chandler and Karl W. Palachuk have written The Nonfiction Book Publishing Plan. Stephanie founded the Nonfiction Authors Association and is this decade’s expert. Today there are many go-to experts, but no one can exceed her experience. Paluchuk is an ideal partner for such an all-encompassing project! 

This Book Publishing Plan (it will work just as well for creative works as nonfiction!) says it all. I always suggest that authors read more than one book on any publishing topic, but this is the perfect place to start for anyone considering publishing of any kind. In the first chapter it takes the reader through some of the trials experienced by anyone approaching the publishing industry with the old model in mind. I have a few horror stories of my own, but Chandler and Palachuk quickly move into how nonfiction authors in particular will benefit from self-publishing and takes them well beyond—starting with titles and subtitles, bylines and moves on to giving an author enough information to get a great start on a marketing plan.

I believe in reading books to get the expertise needed for publishing—even traditional publishing. Don’t be fooled that readers can get what they need piecemeal from the Web (it is hard to ascertain credibility with so much conflicting advice!) or even to choose what to read from extensive tables of contents (which would be better titled “Contents” to avoid redundancy). This is the place to start. These authors complement one another. It is full of memorable experiences and anecdotes you won’t forget as well as specific advice. At the beginning of this review, I said it is the place for new authors to start, but seasoned authors in any genre (seriously!) will find inaccuracies they have come to believe gently corrected and comfort knowing that many of their instincts have been right all along. 

Hint: Notice how Palachuk and Chandler weave their biographies—read that experience—into the first chapter and how well that works in a book covering a difficult and far-ranging genre like a how-to for the publishing industry! 

MORE ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Carolyn Howard-Johnson brings her experience as a publicist, journalist, marketer, and retailer to the advice she gives in her HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers and the many classes she

taught for nearly a decade as instructor for UCLA Extension’s world-renown Writers’ Program. The books in her HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers have won multiple awards. That series includes both the first and second editions of The Frugal Book Promoterand The Frugal Editorwon awards from USA Book News, Readers’ Views Literary Award, the marketing award from Next Generation Indie Books and others including the coveted Irwin award. How To Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethicallyi s her newest how-to book and her newest poetry book is Imperfect Echoes.

Howard-Johnson is the recipient of the California Legislature’s Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award, and her community’s Character and Ethics award for her work promoting tolerance with her writing. She was also named to Pasadena Weekly’s list of “Fourteen San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen” and was given her community’s Diamond Award for Achievement in the Arts. 

                  

The author loves to travel. She has visited nearly ninety countries and has studied writing at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom; Herzen University in St. Petersburg, Russia; and Charles University, Prague, as well as USC, her alma mater. She admits to carrying a pen and journal wherever she goes. Her website iswww.howtodoitfrugally.com. 

The WEB: Your Writing at Risk

How The Web Can Kill Your Writing Career

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning The Frugal Editor

I recently read a grammar and editing column in my local newspaper, the Glendale News-Press. In  June Casagrande’s “A Word Please,” she groused about the problems so many writers having with hyphens. She noted the sad (or not so sad) influence of the Web on our grammar, punctuation, and style choices and there are enough of them to give the average author who pulled down As in English a big headache!

June mentioned the disappearing hyphen as one of the things we authors must contend with. but that is just the beginning. The Net also encourages us to push all kinds of words together. Let’s call that the "domain name influence" or, perhaps the domainnameinfluence or maybe #hashtaginfluence. Do we write “book” or “bookcover?” “Bookfair” or “book fair?” “Backmatter” or “back matter?” “Hard copy” or “hardcopy?”

You’ll never know because generally the trusted Chicago Style Guide doesn’t weigh in on these trends and dictionaries haven’t caught up with the quickly changing domainnameinfluence or the #hashtaginfluence either. And the spell checker in Word? Well, it doesn’t put a red squiggle under either “Hard copy” or “hardcopy.” That leaves the writer—whether she’s writing fiction or a resume in a style-choice pickle.

In The Frugal Editor, I suggest the zero-tolerance approach to keep authors out of hot water with agents and publishers (and therefore make it more likely they'll get published).

Still, I admit I love to stick words together. It isn’t really a new thing. I mean, word-bonding is a time-honored tradition in English. The word therefore is an example. We’ve been using words like that for eons. Word-gluing goes back to the English language’s Germanic roots. German is a creative language. The Deutsch do things like push the words for finger and hat together to make the word for thimble (fingerhut).

Poets have pushed words together for ages, too. So, except when I am trying to get something like a pitch or a query or a book proposal past a gatekeeper, I make combined-word style choices for myself and let the so-called rules be damned.

We authors can have it our way—we just need to be careful where we choose to exercise our independence!

Back to the zero-tolerance thing. If you want to impress a literary agent or prospective boss, please don't put hyphens in words they are convinced are correct only one way. If you think your contact believes it's nonfiction, not non-fiction, there is no point flaunting your style choice.

You won’t get a red squiggle with either version from your Word spell checker (or spellchecker), but that doesn’t mean your run-of-the-mill agent or future employer won’t be more judgmental.

I could go on and on about the way the web has mislead us. It practically coaxes us to overuse ampersands and most don’t have the faintest idea we’re being misled. We see question marks and exclamation points and caps and titles overused.

What if we emulate those affectations because they start to become so familiar we think they’re being used correctly?

Agents and publishers will hate it, that’s what. And that can be disastrous for our careers.

Then there is improperly punctuated dialogue. We see it on the web and even in books. There are many other grammar idiosyncrasies that your English teacher never told you but that are sure to annoy the feature editor at The New York Times or the powerful agent you want to impress.

The list is endless. Lucky that writers have June Casagrande's grammar books like Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies (Penguin), and my multi award-winning book, The Frugal Editor,  to help them through the grammar and syntax swamps, isn’t it.

Note: June's column may be read in the Glendale News-Press's website and she is the author of two of Carolyn’s favorite grammar books, Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies, and The Best Punctuation Book. Period.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND A COUPLE READING TIPS

Carolyn Howard-Johnson brings her experience as a publicist, journalist, marketer, and retailer to the advice she gives in her HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers and the many classes she taught for nearly a decade as instructor for UCLA Extension’s world-renown Writers’ Program. All her books for writers are multi award winners including the first edition of The Frugal Book Promoter, and the second. Her The Frugal Editor, now in its second edition, won awards from USA Book News, Readers’ Views Literary Award, the marketing award from Next Generation Indie Books and others including the coveted Irwin award. Her most recent book in series is , How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically: The ins and outs of using free reviews to build and sustain a writing career

Howard-Johnson is the recipient of the California Legislature’s Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award, and her community’s Character and Ethics award for her work promoting tolerance with her writing. She was also named to Pasadena Weekly’s list of “Fourteen San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen” and was given her community’s Diamond Award for Achievement in the Arts.

Writing and Perfection - Is There Such a Thing?

As with life, some people think everything has to be perfect before they start their writing journey.

It may be they don’t think they’ve mastered the craft of writing to perfection.

Or, maybe the writer has started her story, but can’t seem to achieve the perfection she’s looking for.  She believes what she’s written isn’t worthy of submissions. So, she keeps pecking away at it, hoping one day it will be perfect.

Well, if you fall under either of these scenarios, you’ll be waiting a very long time. In fact, your time of action may never come.

Meriam-Webster defines perfection as “the state or condition of being perfect” and “something that cannot be improved.”

So, perfection is something that you can’t possibly make better.

Kind of makes you think, doesn’t it?

What on earth can’t be improved upon? What is actually perfect?

Keeping this in mind, here’s what a few famous authors/artists and others have to say about the illusive perfection:

“Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.”
~ Salvador Dalí

“If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.”
~ Margaret Atwood

"If you look for perfection, you'll never be content."
~ Leo Tolstoy

"The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing."
~ Eugene Delacroix

"Strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection."
~ Kim Collins

"Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence." ~ Vince Lombardi

“Striving to be the best person we can be and striving to do the very best we can in all our endeavors is the closest to perfection we can ever get.”
~ Karen Cioffi

“I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God's business.”
~ Michael J. Fox

My favorite is what Michael J. Fox says: “Perfection is God’s business!”

GIVE YOURSELF A BREAK!

So, if you have these perfection tendencies, try to overcome them. Don’t let an unrealistic viewpoint stop you from achieving writing success.

But, what if you just don’t’ trust your own judgement or can’t overcome that perfection tendency?

One of the best ways to get some guidance on whether your story is at the point of submissions is to become a part of a critique group in your genre.

Having other writers go over your story can pick up lots of trouble spots and help you improve your manuscript. And, they’ll have a much more objective view of the story.

After you get all you can from a critique group, you might want to hire a professional editor.

While every author can continue revising a story, there comes a time when you have to let go.

If your critique group and editor believes it’s good to go, take their advice.

Don’t let the illusion of attaining perfection in your writing stop you from submitting your manuscript or achieving a writing career.

Karen Cioffi is an award-winning children’s author and children’s ghostwriter as well as the founder and editor-in-chief of Writers on the Move. She is also an author/writer online platform instructor with WOW! Women on Writing.

You can check out Karen’s e-classes through WOW! at:
http://www.articlewritingdoctor.com/content-marketing-tools/ 



MORE ON WRITING

Tips on Adding Flashbacks to Your Story

Three Ways to Stand Out to Editors

Writing - Are You an Outliner?

16 Reasons Why You Should Publish a Book

HAPPY NEW YEAR

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

New Year Wishes

Wishing Everyone a Healthy, Safe, and Prosperous NEW YEAR!

As a thank you for being a loyal reader of our blog and to start the New Year off right, here are two gifts:

HAPPINESS

HOW TO BUILD YOUR AUTHORITY STATUS

Hope you get some benefit out of these ebooks!

Begin Stories with your Character: A Workshop with Lois Ruby

Who will your character be?

Are your stories plot-driven, or do you begin with a character? Lois Ruby’s stories don’t take off until she has gotten to know her main character. At a recent Albuquerque Chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, SCBWI, meeting, Lois shared her technique.

And what terrific characters Lois creates! One look at her books, and you will read a “heart-pounding romance about a contemporary girl, Lori, who falls crazy-in-love with Nathaniel, a soldier in the Battle of Gettysburg.” The only hitch is that she’s very much alive, and he’s a ghost. (Rebel Spirits, Scholastic/Point, 2013); an Austrian brother and sister who survive World War II in Shanghai, China (Shanghai Shadows, Holiday House, 2006; a Bank Street Book of the Year, 2007, and a Kansas Notable Book, 2007; a homeless girl who can communicate with a police horse in New York, and many more vivid characters. (Visit www.loisruby.com to learn more about Lois and her books).

How does Lois create such intriguing characters?

Begin with What’s Going on Inside
Lois likes to know her character’s description, but before she gets to that, she pins down:

• When they lived—where they fit into the context of history.
• What is their backstory—doesn’t show up in story, but we need to know it.
• What is their emotional status. For example:
• Saying one thing and doing something else.
• Laughing when not appropriate.
• Quick to anger—how character expresses anger.
• Tension when internal thoughts contrast with verbal response.

• How the name fits the character. For example:
• Molds the personality
• Ethnicity
• Geographical area they came from
• Nicknames
• Station in life

What’s on the Outside Comes Next
Lois arrived with armfuls of portraits (photos) of people she finds intriguing, cut out of magazines and kept in clear plastic sleeves. Each portrait raises questions. Each answer opens a window to develop and round out the character.

•  Girl or boy
•  Where does h/she live?
•  Contemporary or historical?
•  What is the family like?
•  What does her voice sound like?
•  What is the conflict in his life?
•  Adventurer or not?
•  Any annoying habits?
•  Who is his greatest hero?
•   Powerful or powerless?
•  What are the moral limits? Skin Deep, Scholastic, 1994, currently out-of-print, is about a boy who is drawn to a hateful white supremacist group. His personality changed, and his girlfriend Laurel sees this and wonders if he can ever return to the boy she loved. Lois said she interviewed three skinheads to answer this question and was horrified, but she needed to know.

Our Turn
Lois ended the workshop by displaying random words on the projector screen:
High school yearbook
Dr. Dowd
Chocolates
Camera
Laundry
$60
ID bracelet
Umbrella
Baseball uniform
Barn animals
Application

Participants were given a short time period to create a character-driven story using as many words as possible. It was fun to hear the different takes. My story evolved around a young man in his 30s flying to see his dad in the hospital after he had a heart attack, working on his job application, taking his dad’s ID bracelet to him (will he remember it?), etc.

Raised in California, Lois has called Texas and Kansas home, and now, lucky for us, she lives in Albuquerque. Her portrait-study technique has certainly yielded a solid collection of intriguing and diverse characters in her books.

A parting word about Lois’s only nonfiction book (so far), Strike! Mother Jones and the Colorado Coal Fields War, Filter Press, 2012. Mary Harris (Mother) Jones, was so concerned about the poor working conditions of a wide range of people from the 1870s through the 1920s—including, street car operators in New York and San Francisco, female bottle washers in Wisconsin, copper miners in Arizona, and the deplorable conditions of children working fourteen-hour days in the textile mills of Pennsylvania—that she called meetings and made speeches, urging workers to go on strike and fight for their rights. Authorities and industry leaders labeled her a troublesome agitator, and the story goes on. (Book is available on Amazon prime at a very reasonable price). Even in nonfiction, Lois has done it again: delighted readers with her knack for creating fascinating characters, and in the case of her nonfiction book, uncovering the story of this incredible woman.
Clipart courtesy of: http://worldartsme.com

Linda Wilson, a former elementary teacher and ICL graduate, has published over 150 articles for adults and children, and several short stories for children. Her first book, Secret in the Stars: An Abi Wunder Mystery, a mystery/ghost story for children 7-11 years old, is hot off the press and will be available soon. Currently, she is hard at work on The Ghost of Janey Brown, Book Two in the series. Follow Linda at www.lindawilsonauthor.com.

Write for Magazine Publication - series #8

Writing for Magazine Publication is a great way to monetize your writing and test the interest level of your topic. This series has offered tips for magazine publishing. (Topic archive below)

Essays are all about the writer; articles are all about the reader. An essay is an opinion piece. An article is non-fiction text.

Today, we’ll talk about Letter of Agreements and Copyright.

Letter of Agreement:

An informal outline of all the terms you agree to is a Letter of Agreement (LOA). It is in the format of a letter with signature lines at the bottom. The agreement covers the following and acts to clarity the agreement:

1.      Annotates the services provided, and those not provided

a.       High level editing with “track changes” using Word

2.     The due date for the publishers receipt of your article or essay

a.       Delivery as a Word.doc with “track changes” active

3.     The delivery terms detailing the manner in which the publisher wants to receive and edit your piece:

a.       Format, electronic delivery or otherwise

b.      Style choices determined by AP Style Guide and client’s house style

c.       Editing shall preserve the author’s tone and style

4.      Payment rate per word or flat fee

5.      Payment terms (check/PayPal etc.)

This link may be helpful:

https://www.thebalancesmb.com/sample-contract-a-letter-of-agreement-1360549

Copyright:

A Copyright is the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, sell or distribute a piece of writing.

The best thing I can offer you are links to the technical aspects of the Copyright Law of the United States.  

Helpful Links for Copyrights:

https://www.copyright.gov/title17/

https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/index.html

https://www.copyright.gov/title37/

This series offers tips and ideas for magazine publishing: a list of genres or categories and where we find ideas (posted 5.25.18), research tips (posted 6.25.18), standard templates for essay and article pieces (7.25.18), query letters (informal known to editor 8.25.18) and (formal query tips 9.25.18), guidelines for submission (posted 10.25.18), and contracts (posted 11.25.2018), and LOA & copyright tips (posted 12.25.2018).

Deborah Lyn Stanley is an author of Creative Non-Fiction. She writes articles, essays and stories. She is passionate about caring for the mentally impaired through creative arts. Visit her web-blog: Deborah Lyn Stanley : MyWriter's Life .

Write your best, in your voice, your way!