Avoid Writing Bifurcated Story – Inventing Reality’s Newsletter for Dec. 9, 2025

Plotting Your Book: Avoid Writing Bifurcated Story
Does your story belong in therapy? Perhaps one portion of it appears to be in conflict with another portion, maybe over tone or theme. READ MORE

Self-Publishing Advice: How to Design Your Paperback Cover
Most potential readers of your paperback will see its front cover before anything written about it. It may be the thumbnail of your book cover that’s online or the cover facing forward on a bookstore shelf. If that cover compels them to read the book blurb or opening lines, you are a step closer to making a sale. How do you create a great cover for your book? My book Design Your Paperback Cover answers that question. It starts with what software/apps you need to design a cover, moves on to the cover’s various elements, and finally looks at uploading it to a print on demand company like Kindle Direct Publishing. SEE BOOK

Writing Tip: Avoid Microwaving the Soufflé in Your Story
In real life, achieving a goal and obtaining a possession usually is more satisfying when a lot of hard work went into it. The delay in gratification as the desire for and anticipation of success grew simply results in a greater release of emotion and tension. Storytellers are wise to utilize this strategy in their fiction. READ MORE

Self-Publishing Tip: How to Purchase an ISBN for Your Book
Every book that is printed for sale needs an International Standard Book Number, aka an ISBN. This is a 13-digit number given to each book; no two books have the same ISBN. You can find it near the barcode on the book’s back cover and also on the title page. READ MORE

This Week’s Podcast: Limit Number of Key Characters in Story
Can your story have too many characters? Probably not – but your story can have too many key characters. LISTEN TO PODCAST

Book Marketing Tip: Steps in Organizing a Book Presentation
When organizing a book signing, reading, or other presentation related to your title, you might want to break down your effort into several smaller steps. Doing so will allow you to better tackle what is a much larger endeavor that most imagine. READ MORE

Client Spotlight: “Soul Therapy” by Tamika Oneal
A recent editing client has published her second book, a collection of poetry. “Soul Therapy,” by Tamika Oneal, contains two dozen poems about setting free and cleansing the soul, and about acknowledging and expressing our suppressed feelings and thoughts. The book is available paperback or ebook 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. 16, 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.