Don’t Let a Rhinoceros in the Room Smash Your Plot – Inventing Reality’s Newsletter for Nov. 25, 2025

Plotting Your Book: Don’t Let a Rhinoceros in the Room Smash Your Plot
When describing the setting in your story, be careful not to place a “rhinoceros in the room.” This term is some item or attribute that is obvious to everyone except the people closest to it. READ MORE

Everything You Must Know to Self-Publish Your Ebook
You’ve written a book and want to publish it as an ebook. But how do you do that? Maybe you’ve watched a video about it, but your self-publishing house keeps rejecting what you’ve created. Or maybe they’ve accepted it, but its appearance is less than adequate, especially compared to all of the other books out there. My book Self-Publish Your Ebook Bundle addresses all of those problems and more. A collection of guidebooks in the popular Storytelling 101 Quick Read Series, this bundle includes Format Your Ebook, Design Your Ebook Cover, and Upload Your Ebook to KindleDP. Those three titles take you through the entire self-publishing process, answering all of your questions in a brief, easy to understand format. SEE EBOOK

Writing Tip: Avoid White Room Syndrome when Writing
Rather than fully imagine a world for a story, some writers instead create a quick, unformed facsimile of their own. For example, they start the story with the line, “She awoke in a white room.” The white room is the white piece of paper facing the author. This is known as white room syndrome. READ MORE

Self-Publishing Tip: Why You Should Turn Your Book Into a Business
Rarely can an author make a living solely on book sales. However, authors can achieve their dream of independence by building a business around their books. READ MORE

This Week’s Podcast: How to embed fonts in a pdf of your manuscript
Sometimes when uploading a pdf of your formatted book to a print on demand company, you’ll get a warning message that fonts are not embedded your file. Most of the time, this won’t be a problem. But there are other times… LISTEN TO PODCAST

Book Marketing Tip: Try Bluesky for a Saner Social Media Experience
Don’t feel like you’re reaching many people on Xitter (X/Twitter) anymore? Tired of your Xitter feed being filled with mean-spirited political propaganda? Then come over to Bluesky for an invigorating, friendlier experience with fellow writers. The new social media platform works like Xitter used to function before the Russian bots took over and you-know-who bought it. So far, we’re at 40 million plus users and growing. Yeah, that’s still small compared to Xitter, but with every person who joins Bluesky after leaving Xitter, the larger we grow and the smaller they get (See how that works?). GO TO BLUESKY

Client Spotlight: “Adventures in the School Drop-Off Line” by A.S. Huffman
A recent editing client of mine has published her second children’s book! “Adventures in the School Drop-Off Line,” by A.S. Huffman, tells the story of a school’s morning drop-off line runs perfectly. Move. Stop. Move. Stop. Move. Stop. Everything in perfect timing. Then one day a family slows the line with antics that get wilder and crazier with each passing morning. Can the principal, Mrs. Tack, get this family to behave so that the line moves again in an orderly, efficient manner? The book is available in paperback at Amazon. CHECK IT OUT

$25 Off Your Next Edit!
For being a newsletter subscriber, please take $25 off your next edit with Inventing Reality Editing Service. When scheduling your edit, be sure to mention you’re a subscriber and give the email where you received this newsletter. Minimum order of $200. Offer expires Dec. 2, 2025. SCHEDULE EDIT

My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of both aspiring and published writers and offers a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of a novel, the Storytelling 101 Quick Read series, four children’s books, more than 25 bestselling hiking guidebooks, and even a book of poetry. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.