Grammar Check – using ellipses – are you doing it right?

Interesting! I always thought it was 3 dots….

Book Club Mom

I’ve always liked using ellipses in casual writing and I’m a big-time user in text messages when I want to show my thoughts trailing off.  But I haven’t written a research paper since college, so my need to use them in formal writing has dropped to zero. It’s always a good idea to stay current on the rules, however, because last week at work, I found myself in an intense conversation about the proper use of an ellipsis.

We were researching its use for a writer who’d called in with a very specific question: “If the ellipsis represents an omission, but it’s between two complete sentences, how many dots are there and are there spaces between them?”

Eeek! My coworker grabbed The Chicago Manual of Style, found the rule, marked the page and we waited for the writer to call back. He called back on my watch and that’s…

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Public Lending Right (UK)

ARE YOU A PUBLISHED UK AUTHOR WITH YOUR BOOKS IN LIBRARIES?

Don’t forget to register for your Public Lending Right.  If your printed books and audio-books are borrowed from UK public libraries you may be eligible for payment through the government-funded Public Lending Right scheme. All you have to do is apply to the PLR office for registration and provide details of your books.  Writers, illustrators, photographers, editors, translators, narrators, producers and abridgers can apply.  Where there is more than one contributor to a book the PLR is shared.  Anyone resident in the UK or in any of the other countries within the European Economic Area can apply.  The amount payable is based on the estimated number of times registered books are borrowed nationally during the PLR year (1 July – 30 June).  Payments are made annually each February. (There were over 22,000 recipients in 2018 of payments between £1 and £6,600.)  There are no joining or membership fees (you are not allowed to apply on behalf of a deceased author).

The website to apply for PLR is http://www.bl.uk/plr

Register for an account, add your bank details, and after a few days when your account has been verified (you’ll need to send 2 utility bills or a mortgage statement) you will be able to add your books.  Also, if you are a UK publisher, then the British Library needs to have one printed copy of your paperbacks within one month of publication.

KDP Select and Kindle Unlimited in 2019

Thanks to Chris McMullen for this interesting post. I’ve tried publishing without going through KU and also with KU. I find that I sell more books if they are registered with Kindle Unlimited. However, for the best of both worlds, I publish about half with KU and half without. Therefore if readers on sites other than Amazon see my books and read my total list of publications inside the front covers, then they’ll realise there’s more books available and then might hopefully look on Amazon. That’s my theory anyway!

chrismcmullen

Image from ShutterStock.

THE KDP SELECT DECISION

Years ago, Amazon introduced KDP Select to authors who publish with Kindle Direct Publishing.

The idea was to create a huge library of Kindle eBooks from which select customers could borrow books for free. Authors are paid a royalty, but not the same royalty as for an ordinary paid sale.

Although the nature of KDP Select has changed over the years, the program has grown tremendously.

Let’s reevaluate the KDP Select decision. Is enrolling your book in KDP Select worth it?

There really is only a single drawback to enrolling a book in KDP Select, but it’s a big one: You’re not allowed to publish the digital version of your book anywhere else (like Smashwords, Nook, or Kobo) while your book is enrolled in KDP Select.

It’s also an important decision because it comes with a commitment. If you change your mind, you…

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Not Everyone Will Like Your Story — That Doesn’t Mean It’s a Bad Story

Absolutely correct. What is awful to one person can be great to another. We writers cannot ever hope to please all readers all the time.

Novelty Revisions

One summer between college semesters, I wrote a book. I had only written several full-length novels before this, so it was not a publish-worthy book by any means. But I was proud of it. And after passing it around to a few friends who were genuinely interested in reading it (and did so — bless them!), I handed the book off to my mom.

She read it (bless her!) and gave it back to me. Of course I asked her what she thought of it, and because I was old enough at that point to handle the truth, she gave me her honest opinion.

“It’s not that I didn’t like it,” she said. “It was just too dark for me. Not my kind of book. But I’m proud of you.”

Aw. Thanks Mom.

This was the first — and certainly not the last — time I learned the difference between…

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Street Teams Revisited

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street team

While chatting to D.G Kaye regarding street teams, I mentioned to her that street teams don’t usually work because nobody (apart from family) in their right mind would want to promote our books day in and day out if there was nothing in it for them.  She agreed, but this got me thinking.  What if there was something in it for everyone who promoted our books?

With this in mind I have a fledgling idea, but wonder how many other authors would want to take part in a new Facebook street team group?  I say authors instead of readers, because it’s usually authors who read my blogs.  Here’s the new FB link:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/StreetsAheadTeam/

Depending on the number involved, each author would get a day’s promotion by the other authors who have joined up ( but no reviews, because this contravenes Amazon’s review policy).  Each member of the street team would promote the book and purchase links of whichever author’s turn it is on one of their social media sites.  They could promote on their website or blog, their Twitter and Facebook pages, Pinterest, LinkedIn or Instagram for instance.  It would probably help if different social media sites were used every time, to avoid spamming.  Authors would need to leave links in the Facebook comments as to where they’ve promoted the book.

As you can see by the link, I have now created a Facebook group for this, and would have specific days for promoting, so that authors don’t have to do this every day, just maybe three times a week.  Therefore 3 authors in the group would get their books promoted every week.  To make it fair I’d start off in alphabetical order.  Anybody who does not promote misses out on their turn until the next time their name comes around.

What do you think?  Is it a goer or a no-brainer?  Do you think it’s likely to fizzle out within a short time, or could those interested commit to promoting three times a week?

How Safe Is Your Online Data? (Infographic)

Thanks to Nicholas C. Rossis for this useful information.

Nicholas C. Rossis

I will conclude this special feature I started with my post, The Fight Against Fake News, with an infographic on online data, courtesy of TechJury. The infographic will show you how big companies that provide free service (read: social networks) get to know you better than your own parents and what they do with this knowledge. It will also help you learn more about the most common tactics used to get your data.

(Hint: if you can’t read the image below, please right-click on it and select “Open image in new tab,” then click on it to enlarge!)

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As an Indie Author – What are your challenges?

Originally posted on Author Don Massenzio:
As an author, there are significant challenges. Finding original ideas and turning them into something interesting…

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Authors & Marketing: Sensitive Introvert to Shameless Hawker – Abandoning Erroneous Expectations

Donna W. Hill gives some sound advice regarding marketing.

The Heart of Applebutter Hill

So, you succumbed to that craziest of temptations and wrote a book. Now, whether you are one of the “lucky” ones who landed a publishing contract or you did it yourself, you’re starting to realize that you’re the one who has to do the marketing. The problem is that marketing is totally foreign to your innermost nature. There are lots of suggestions out there about building an online presence, developing niche markets, mastering SEO (search engine optimization) and snuggling up to industry professionals, but how do you get to a place where you’re at least halfway comfortable doing that stuff?

The Writer’s Mindset

Whether we’re embroiled in research or lost in our private worlds conjuring up scenes and scenarios, the writer is motivated by a few simple principles, and truth is at the bottom of each of them. We stare into our characters, and using our accumulated understanding of humanity’s…

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It Takes 100,000 Viewers to Buy a Book

The covers have never grabbed my attention – it’s always the words inside that matter most to me. Thanks to Nicholas C. Rossis and Chris McMullen for the information.

Nicholas C. Rossis

Chris McMullen recently shared some statistics which gave me pause.

He was making the point that every little bit helps, even the copyright page. But his main argument was that, even though the book title and cover can attract readers to check the book out, it’s the Look Inside that plays a pivotal role in the closing rate.

And then he asked the real question that should be bugging us: what percentage of customers who visit the product page actually purchase the book?

For a typical book, just 1 out of 1000 (or more) customers who see the book’s cover will actually visit the product page, and just 1 out of 100 or so customers who visit the product page will purchase the book.

This is an average book that sells once a week or so to a stranger. You put these ratios together, and it takes 100,000 strangers to…

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Front Cover Denuding.

When my novels ‘A House Without Windows’ and ‘The Daughter-in-law Syndrome‘ won Indie awards a few years’ ago, I couldn’t wait to add the medals to the front covers.

But recently I realised one thing:  All the winning bestselling novels / traditionally published books only have meritorious awards on the front covers such as the Booker Prize or a mention in the New York Times bestsellers’ list for example.  A small publisher I used to be with also implied that it was not a good idea to add the kind of Indie awards I had won to my front covers.  I didn’t agree at first, but now I realise he was right.

Thanks to the Writer Beware website I’ve since found out that many of these Indie ‘awards’ are given by marketing companies very eager to take our money and fool us that we are taking part in bona fide writing contests.  There are always a myriad of genres to pick, so that if your book falls into more than one genre, you get to pay twice to enter the contest!  Some of the ‘winners’ are actually picked out of a hat.  The awards sadly mean nothing to agents, large publishers, editors and readers, and so it was with a little bit of disappointment that I decided yesterday to remove the awards and in so doing I have returned the covers to their original state.

Once you enter these kinds of contests, you are then spammed forever afterwards with emails inviting you to take part in the next ‘contest’, which surprise surprise is not that far away.

What I am now wondering is whether there are any genuine and reputable Indie writing contests where judges sit down and read the entries and then select the best one to the best of their ability?  It would be nice to try and win the kind of contest that actually means something!  What do you think?  Do you know of any?