Category Archives: Uncategorized

If you’re a little anxious about speaking in front of a crowd for a book presentation, that’s understandable; public speaking is one of the biggest fears people have. But with a little preparation – and after you’ve made a few public appearances – you’ll soon find that it’s actually a lot of fun! Preparing for aContinue reading “Preparing Your Book Reading, Presentation”

Before making coffee in the morning, you’ve got to have grounds to put in the pot. Before grilling a steak for dinner, you need to have a thawed T-bone. Before self-publishing, you’ve got to have a completed manuscript. If you haven’t yet finished writing your novel, anthology or nonfiction book, stop reading now. Bookmark this pageContinue reading “Is Your Manuscript Ready to be Self-Published?”

Sometimes writers structure their book so that the third-person limited point of view alternates from scene to scene between major characters in a book. However, within each scene, only one of those characters’ point of view is used. This literary device is known as third-person multiple or third-person rotating limited. I used this technique in my novel Windmill. Each scene switchesContinue reading “Advantages of Using Third-Person Multiple POV”

One you’ve created your ebook cover, the next step is to upload it. Before doing so, save the cover as a .jpg. The cover should be no more than 50 MB in size. Next, go to your Kindle Direct Publishing account. We’ll presume you’ve already started uploading your manuscript to KindleDP. The cover uploading occurs on theContinue reading “How to Upload Your Ebook Cover at KindleDP”

Rarely in real life do people get to give long speeches during conversations. When people talk to one another, there are frequent questions that “interrupt” or exchanges of brief stories to show the other that you share a similar experience. After all, you’re not really in a conversation if one person is doing all of theContinue reading “Avoid Speeches and Soliloquies in Dialogue”

When designing your book cover, you’ll need a byline. The byline is the author’s name.  Generally, the byline is in smaller type than the title and often is in the same font and color. There are plenty of exceptions to this rule, though. If you’re a big name author, the byline may be equal in sizeContinue reading “Guidelines for Placing Your Book Cover’s Byline”

Too many details in the text surrounding dialogue can distract readers from what the characters say. This common dialogue mistake may seem to have less to with what is spoken than the words around it, but that’s not exactly the case. In fact, the problem usually a sign of poorly written dialogue. For example: He heldContinue reading “Don’t Overdescribe in Text Surrounding Dialogue”

When indie authors design their book cover, usually they place a lot of time and thought in he illustration or photograph that will appear in it. Just as important as the artwork, though, is your book’s title. It is, after all, the way people refer to your book. Given this, you want it to be visuallyContinue reading “Guidelines for Placing the Title on Your Cover”

One of the two most common point of views, first-person occurs when a character in the story narrates the tale. If the protagonist is the narrator, you have first-person major; if a character who is not the protagonist is the narrator, you have first-person minor. First-person is an exceptionally good idea for stories in which theContinue reading “When to use first-person point of view in a story”

Sometimes when self-publishing, the artwork you’ve selected doesn’t fill the entire cover. In that case, the background of your document that you’re building the cover on will show. You’ll want to select a background that works well with your photo and allows readers to easily see your title and byline. Begin by ensuring the background complementsContinue reading “How to Design Your Cover’s Background”