As an editor for mostly self-published authors, I often give out complimentary sample edits and price quotes to those requesting my services. I think it’s a nice way to let the client know what they can expect and how much their project will cost. Most of the time, though, the author will be shocked at my quoted price. They’ll love the edits, but because most writers believe their manuscript is already perfect, they can’t believe how much it actually costs to professionally edit a book.

Now I’m going to focus on the operative word here: professionally. Sure, it’s easy to produce a book that your Aunt Sue proofread, after all, she is an English major, but to produce a high-quality, error-free book is a whole other story.

Take this recent post from the Chronicle of Higher Education blog (May 2, 2008):

“Princeton U. Press Recalls Typo-Filled Book and Says It Will Reprint
Princeton University Press has recalled all copies of one of its spring titles after discovering more than 90 spelling and grammar errors in the 245-page work. The book, Cop in the Hood: My Year Policing Baltimore’s Eastern District, by Peter Moskos, was published on Thursday in an initial press run of 4,000 copies.”
(Link to full story
http://chronicle.com/news/article/4427/princeton-u-press-recalls-typo-filled-book-and-says-it-will-reprint#comment)

Yikes! Ninety spelling and grammar errors in 245 pages! What happened here was a clear case of cutting corners and what can happen when an author (or publisher) doesn’t make the necessary financial commitment to create a book that sells. In the long run, the author and/or the publisher pays for it in the end.

I will preach and preach until I’m all preached out: Don’t skimp on one of the most important steps in producing your book–editing and proofreading!

Virtual Book Tours (VBT) also known as Virtual Author Tours (VAT) are fast becoming the best way to market your book online. Here are 10 tips to help you create a successful virtual book tour:

1.   Create a Web page

Set up a Web page specifically for the Virtual Book Tour (VBT). This is where you will send potential tour stop hosts so they can sign up to join your VBT. This site should also capture contact information and put it in your shopping cart system for future email promotions.

2.   Create a book trailer

Create a dynamic book trailer. Don’t skimp on this step. This will be one of the main reasons people sign up for the book tour. A good book trailer acts along the lines of a movie trailer. It’s your hook to draw people in, get them curious and asking for more.

3. Do your research

Spend a lot of time carefully doing Internet research to find areas that fit your target market. (Are you writing about self-help, women’s issues, business, a fantasy novel?). Search more than just blogging sites. Search for web radio, newsletters, article submissions, and social networking sites.

4. Create a killer pitch letter geared to your target market

Create a pitch letter, stating who you are, what you are doing, and add links to the Web site and the book trailer. Personalize the letter and specifically gear it to your target audience, and make sure it doesn’t sound canned or come off as a mass email.

5.   Offer more than blogging

Again, offer more than just blogging as a means for your tour stop hosts. Podcasts, Q&A sessions, live interviews, phone interviews, articles for newsletters, Internet radio interviews, all work, as well as blogs. The easier you can make it for your tour stop host, the better response you’ll receive.

6.   Create a tracking spreadsheet

Create a spreadsheet including all the sites you’ve found, the contact information, when you contacted them, what you can offer that particular contact (i.e., will you blog for them, do a Q&A session, live interview, podcast?) and make a column for responses. Then use an online calendar (Outlook, Google, Yahoo all have calendars that will work just fine) to see who’s doing what, when, and where.

7.   Follow up at least four (4) times

Once you have all these steps in place, you are ready to start contacting each person on our list along with their personal pitch letter. If you don’t get a response right away, follow up (at least four times) with a different pitch letter each time. (It’s not as necessary to personalize these follow up letters.) And, don’t waste time with those that don’t respond after the fourth try. Move on to a new group of contacts. If you’ve written a good pitch letter, most of your responses will come in after the first or second try.

8. Start your own blog

Post what’s happening with your VBT in your blog. Add each tour stop date and plug the tour stop host’s company, their Web site and their contact information.

9.   Send Goodies

Offer to send a copy of your book to your tour stop host along with other possible freebies, (i.e., a workbook, a report, an audio CD, etc.). And don’t forget a thank you note.

10. Ask for referrals

Ask your tour stop host for referrals of people they know that would benefit from your book. You’ll find that if you offer quality content and are passionate and enthusiastic about your book then others will be too.

In fiction, the writer’s job is to entertain, to draw an emotional response from the reader. The reader is often looking for suspense, action, and to go on a journey they have not been on before, one they will not easily forget.  Readers want to get drawn into and experience the story for themselves.  They want characters they can relate to and form a personal connection with.  But most importantly, they want a good book.  One that leaves them anxiously awaiting each turn of the page.  Here are three crucial elements of a good fiction book: 

Well-developed characters:  The characters in the book must be well developed and believable.  The characters should remind you of your teacher, your lawyer, your doctor, or maybe even your best friend.  Even though they are fictional, they come alive for us in the story. 
Action:   A good fiction book needs to be filled with action.  The good guys are after the bad guys, the doctor needs to find a cure.  From the beginning to the end, the reader can’t bear to stop reading because the action just keeps coming.   

Great Plot:  The writer keeps the reader guessing right to the end by using surprising, realistic plot twists.  Just when we think we know “who done it” – bam – a new twist creeps up and a story involves more.  As we near the end we wonder if there is time to solve it?  Will it have a happy ending?  Most readers long for a good ending to their story as they grow fond of the characters in the book and want to see the best happen to them.

For those looking for a good fiction book to read, one that stands out is the fiction thriller, Sledgehammer, by Paulo J. Reyes, M.D (http://www.pauloreyes.com).  This book has a well-developed story that takes place in an ER in Los Angeles.  The author, an ER Doctor himself, depicts the ER setting perfectly as patients appear and seek treatment and case after case of medical drama unfolds. The story takes you hour by hour through life in this ER until the unthinkable happens and one of the patients appears with smallpox symptoms.  What happens next is fiction at its finest and leaves you eagerly asking, “Could it happen today?” Writers write about what they know.  They can bring the sounds, colors, and images of their world to life in their story. 

Fiction is where writers get the opportunity to bring you into that world and keep you there until, “the end.” 

  **Diana Ennen is the Publisher of the fiction book, Sledgehammer, http://www.pauloreyes.com and http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com.  Article is free to be reprinted as long as bio remains intact.
 

Over the last few weeks, we’ve learned how to add energy, clarity, and succinctness to our sentences. I’d like to end this series with some tips on writing rhythm. What does that mean?

Writing with rhythm is how your words and sentences sound. It’s a subtle aspect of writing, that’s not normally talked about because it’s hard to teach, but that doesn’t lessen its importance.

It’s the difference between hearing an instrument play the same melody over and over again and listening to a symphony. Of course, everyone should have their own writing-rhythm style but use these four tips as a guide on how to improve your rhythm.

1. What’s the pace. Pay attention to the flow of your writing when you read it aloud. Does it roll along smoothly, without long, unbroken torrents of sound, awkward pauses, and tongue-twisting miscues? If not, tinker with the syntax to improve the pace.

2. Look for alliteration. If your first draft sounds clumsy, see if you can rewrite sentences that repeat a key sound. Can you turn “dewdrops sat on the flower’s petals” into “dewdrops danced on the day lily’s leaves”?

3. Vary the length. Like the speaker who never varies their pitch, sentence after sentence of the same length is a guaranteed snooze fest. Mix it up by following long sentences with short ones, or create paragraph patterns with progressively shorter, or longer, sentences. And do the same thing with your paragraphs. Sometimes your paragraphs may contain a dozen sentences, sometimes they can be condensed to only one.

4. End with a bang. Like the crescendo of a musical passage, build the final sentence or paragraph of your chapter with intensity or excitement and then crash the cymbals. In other words, end with words that pack power and punch.

Reference: Hart, J. A Writer’s Coach, 2006, New York: Pantheon Books