Your book is finally finished. It is available for purchase, and you’ve had your book launch party. Now it’s time to relax and let the profits come rolling in, right? As you’ve probably suspected, it’s not that easy. Marketing is the most important factor towards achieving a profitable book. How do you make sure that people hear about your book?

There are a multitude of ways to answer that question, but one of the key ingredients to your book’s success will be the reviews it earns. Grandma will buy your book, but will a stranger do the same? Reviews earn a reader’s trust. When selling your book online, positive reviews are essential. It not only assures the buyer that the product they are purchasing is quality, but detailed reviews can help a reader realize that a particular book fits their needs.

There are many types of reviews in the publishing industry, and you should be be familiar with each type and how to get them. We will be covering four of the most common: endorsements, trade, reader, and editorial reviews. It is important to note that any one of these reviews can help your book become a success but using a combination of all four will give you the best chances.

Endorsements: Hand-picking Relevant Reviewers Before Your Book is Published

Endorsements are a powerful tool that you can use before your book has been released. To earn an endorsement, you can send a copy of your manuscript (finished or unfinished) to a notable name in the field your book represents. This is called an “advanced reader copy” or ARC. If this person is willing, they can write a short review of your book and send it back to you.

This is especially useful for non-fiction or business books, because it lends authority to your book right from the word “go”.  You can take quotes from the review and include them on your cover design as an immediate representation of the quality of your book.

You do not have to know the endorser personally. If you write them a killer email to request an endorsement, you can get lucky. Make sure the person you are sending the request to is a respected/well-known figure and is preferably related to the content of your book in some way. Endorsements are an opportunity to control who reviews your book first and having a strong endorsement can be marketing gold.

Trade Reviews: Publishing Professionals May Advocate Your Book To The Industry

What kind of reviews most interest booksellers and librarians? That would be trade reviews, which are reviews that are penned by established publishing industry professionals. Trade reviews have become an industry within an industry, since there are quite a few companies that are dedicated to the service. The heaviest hitters in this category are Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews. Blue Ink Review is another popular choice, as they specialize in self-published/independent books.

There are two slight downsides to trade reviews: that they charge a fee in order to review your book, and there is no guarantee that it will be a positive review. However, these are respected voices within the publishing industry. If you plan to market your book to retail distributors such as Barnes and Nobel and Tattered Cover, or if you would like to see your book in the local library, trade reviews are a good place to start.

Each of these companies also feature some books that they have reviewed on their websites, which is yet another marketing opportunity. Some individual readers will also follow these reviews, so it is certainly an option to keep in mind. Fair warning, it is possible to get a negative review from them, so proceed with caution. It can be particularly painful given how expensive these reviews can get.

Reader Reviews: Individuals Recommending Your Book To Each Other

When you heard of “book reviews” this is probably the type that you thought of first. Reader reviews are provided by individuals who purchased your book and left a review of it online. These can either be positive or negative, and come from anyone. The most common places to find them are either on the Amazon page where your book is listed, or on Goodreads.

Reader reviews are trickier than they sound. Amazon has extremely strict guidelines regarding which reviews are accepted. These policies come from an effort to keep reviews as honest as possible. For example, Big Brother – I mean Amazon knows who you’re Facebook friends with and will often remove reviews from your friends and family. They are also very particular about paid reviews. Paying for a reader review is often frowned upon. Reviewers must reveal upfront if they have been paid to leave a review or if they were given a free book in exchange for their feedback. Even then, there is a strong possibility it will be removed. We will explore the intricate maze that is Amazon’s review policy in a later post.

The good news is that Goodreads does not seem to have the same stringent policies. It is a fun website where friends can follow each other’s reading progress and book reviews. It does seem to be more focused on fiction, but non-fiction books make an appearance too.

Editorial Reviews: Third Parties Publishing Reviews About Your Book

An editorial review is when a third party, professional entity reviews your book. This is typically in an article or a blog. The term can sometimes be used interchangeably with a trade review, but in this case we are using it to denote an entity that does not solely provide publishing services. An editorial review can come from a local blogger, news station, or The New York Times. Some authors consider it “hitting the big time” if a review about their book appears in The New York Times.

There are plenty of bloggers out there who would be more than delighted to post a review of your book. Like trade reviews, they can either be paid or free. Before requesting for your book to be reviewed by one, be sure to look through their website to determine the size and demographics of their audience. You will want to make sure their readership falls into your target audience and consists of the readers who are most likely to buy your book.

If you actively pursue editorial reviews, you can earn them with the same laser-focus as an endorsement. But, as always, be prepared for the possibility of a negative review.

Need some more ideas about where and how to obtain more reviews for your book? Speak to a My Word Publishing consultant for more insights.

The post 4 Types of Book Reviews appeared first on My Word Publishing.

By Alexandra O’Connell, writer, editor, and writing coach.

A smart writer works with an editor. A smart writer who is looking for assistance during the process of writing considers working with a writing coach.

I see a lot of manuscripts that could have benefited from coaching. Unfortunately, many of these are from first-time authors, who don’t always realize the stumbling blocks they’ll hit, or they’re determined to plow through on their own anyway, certain that their “editor will take care of it.”

Let’s be blunt for a minute: your editor will help improve your manuscript, sure. But you’re the one who has to make the revisions. And if we need to start from zero, your chances of reaching Level 10 are much less than if we started from six or seven.

The number one problem I see with manuscripts such as these is structure and organization. There’s no clear through-thread, the transitional elements are a mess, the story doesn’t have focus, or the manuscript has obviously fallen prey to a polished first chapter at the expense of everything that comes after it. This makes for much more work in editing, as you might imagine, and unfortunately often a hefty revision or rewrite for the author. You can avoid this pain (not to mention loss of time and additional financial cost). Save yourself writing chapters you’ll never use and time and money you’ll never get back—work with a writing coach.

What Writing Coaches Do

The work of a writing coach is several parts craft and several more emotional support. A writing coach can give you:

• Help with your book’s structure and ways to organize your material, so you know where you’re going and have a plan to get there
• Insight into your book as you write, saving you the frustration of wondering what in the Sam hill you’re actually doing
• Feedback on your writing, what works and what doesn’t, so you “level up” your writing craft more quickly
• Answers to questions you have about your manuscript, so you’re not wondering what your best friend means when s/he says, “I dunno, it didn’t really grab me.”
• Emotional support as you go through the ups and downs of writing a book draft (they can be wild)
• Accountability, so that you actually get this project done, instead of talking about it for the next 5+ years
• Suggestions for changes in one chapter you can apply to the full manuscript, saving yourself headaches in editing
• Guidance to help you craft a better beginning, a killer conclusion, and reasons for your readers to turn pages through the so-called “muddy middle”

At root, a writing coach acts as a guide, cheerleader, and objective sounding board so you can make your book the best it can possibly be.

Alternatives to a Writing Coach

Now, you may say, there are alternatives to hiring a coach. Yes. These include taking writing workshops to improve your craft, working with a critique group to get feedback from a group of writers, and using beta readers so you can hear what potential readers (and purchasers) of your book think before you publish it. Let’s take a look at these, and their pros and cons.

Writing workshops

Pros: These are awesome for helping you with craft questions, especially if you have a skilled instructor. They’re also usually less expensive than coaching.

Cons: Anyone who has taken a writing workshop has encountered the folks who are there mainly for socializing, or those who don’t give useful feedback. Beware the workshop vultures. Also, you don’t get a deep dive on your work, usually, since the time only allows for you to submit one or two chapters for the duration of the course, max.

Critique group

Pros: Support from a group of writers who are (presumably) invested in improving their work and contributing to the literary community. Feedback on your work in progress. Usually fee-free.

Cons: Potentially, a rotating cast of characters. Also, your readers are only looking at a portion of your manuscript, rather than the work as a whole. Unfortunately, workshop vultures may also visit this group. You may need to do some work (or start your own group) in order to find an excellent set of critique partners—though this may well be worth it.

Beta readers

Pros: You are getting feedback from potential readers of your book’s genre, who provide you with commentary you might not have thought about as you sink into the rabbit hole of our own mind while writing. Outside commentary from your market is hugely helpful.

Cons: Usually best when you have a mostly final draft of your book, which you’ve revised several times. Not useful for an early draft, trust me: nine times out of ten, they’ll get distracted by your messy revision artifacts and neglect to comment on the story.

Despite what look like a lot of negatives for workshops, critique groups, and beta readers, I truly believe in their value for writers. I encourage you to make use of them yourself, so that you can assess their benefits as part of your own experience. They are budget-friendly and—this I believe is their most important role—can lead you to your own community, who provide you with support, both writing and emotional, and leads to other resources.

Like Editing, Coaching is an Investment

While workshops and critique groups typically only work with a portion of your manuscript, and beta readers come into play when you have a more refined draft, a writing coach gets the overview on your whole book project and can be there from the first word you write.

Coaching is a highly flexible arrangement. You can work with a coach in the way that best suits you: perhaps you wish to have phone or personal contact, or you prefer email-only; perhaps you want to have an ongoing, tight schedule to keep you accountable, or you prefer to touch base wth your coach on a more “loose” basis, to answer questions as needed. Your needs and preferences might change as you write your book, and coaching accommodates these changes as well.

Writing coaching is an investment in your writing, just as editing is. There are costs associated with working with a coach, just as there may be (delayed) costs of choosing not to work with one. Investing in a coach will save you a lot of work (and money!) on a developmental edit. Your editor will be able to give you higher-level and more nuanced feedback, rather than wading through the weeds on basic questions with which your manuscript is entangled. And you’ll have a resource to turn to when you want to bang your head against the wall, saving you time and emotional anguish.

Ultimately, the decision is yours, as you consider your goals, your ability to invest, and what support you want and need for your book. Remember, while you write alone, you don’t have to be alone with your writing.

Alexandra O’Connell is an award-winning editor, writer, and writing coach, and Immediate Past President and former Marketing Chair of the Colorado Independent Publishers Association. Find her at www.alexoconnell.com.

The post Why Hire a Writing Coach for Your Book? appeared first on My Word Publishing.

By Polly Letofsky, Publishing Consultant, owner of My Word Publishing

There’s hardly anything more fabulous than having a book launch party with plenty of wine, music, and you signing your books, surrounded and being celebrated by close friends and family. But there is now another way—launching your book into the world via Facebook.

Many people have done a launch via Facebook before—full of posts and questions and interaction—but now we have an even better means, an upgraded Facebook launch, and that is via Facebook Live.

There are pros and cons to a Facebook Live launch—cons being that there is no food or photographers. But the pros are that you can reach a much broader audience across the country and around the world.

Here are 13 Steps to hosting a fabulously fun book launch via Facebook Live:

1. CHOOSE

You get to decide on a date and time. You might consider a Tuesday or Wednesday night with a two-hour event span. 5pm – 7pm is always a good bet.

2. CREATE

It looks “polished” to create a matching banner and invitation for the various social media platforms we will advertise your event from. You can use Canva.com to create your own banner or find someone on Fiverr.com to create it.

3. ANNOUNCE

You’ll want to send a “Save the Date” as soon as you know the date for your event—maybe 6 – 8 weeks in advance. Then, post it as a Facebook Event, Eventbrite.com, Evite.com, and via a good ol’ fashioned email or newsletter.

4. SEND INVITATIONS

Four weeks in advance, send a more detailed invitation to all your friends, family, colleagues, neighbors, etc. You’ll want to explain what your Facebook Live Book Launch is, how it works, and where to find you. Facebook Live events are new to almost everyone, and most people don’t necessarily know where to show up, so you’ll want to make it clear to everyone. Your link will be your Facebook Event page.
NOTE: You should also announce it at your live-in-person book launch, if you’re going to have one, and ask for their help to spread the word.

5. ADVERTISE

Send out your invitations once a week, the day before, the day of, and the hour before. Announce the event on social media even more frequently.

OPTIONAL:

On your event pages, announce that the event is $20 (the cost of your book plus shipping). They can buy a ticket to the event, which is essentially the cost of buying one book. During the event you will have your list of who bought “a ticket” and announce that you’re signing a book for each person live, e.g., “Jimmy Bloggs ordered a book. Jimmy, here’s a shout-out to you, and I am signing your book right now, live!”

6. PREPARE

You’ll want to have a lot of things to talk about, your list of books to sign, and questions to ask in order to engage the attendees. You’ll want a stack of your books next to you, and you can also have prepared posts to post on your social or book Facebook pages during your event.

7. GET HELP

You should engage the help of a friend (or three) to tweet and post about the event—before and during the event. Give them the hashtags you want to use for the event. They can help keep track new book orders coming in, the winners of the giveaways, and be your sidekick.  This is a team event!

8. SETTING

You should create an eye-catching setting. Have a banner behind you, or nice-looking bookshelves, maybe even some guests surrounding you.

9. BRANDING

Dress in your branding colors and have a signing pen in your branding colors.

10. HOW TO RUN THE EVENT:

• Sign books live.
• Greet people as they arrive into the event.
• Have questions ready to engage with the attendees. Announce their answers as they come in.
• Have a giveaway—or many!
• Tell people live how to get your book: your website, Amazon, or order it right then and there so you can sign it for them. You can watch orders come in via your PayPal—and announce them!
• Talk about the process of writing a book, encourage questions about it.
• Read a very short excerpt from your book. Ask questions afterward.
• Talk about your topic. If your book is about healthy eating, ask your attendees about their favorite foods, restaurants, recipes, etc.
• Tell attendees to tweet about the event and to use the hashtags you have chosen.
• Ask your attendees to please leave an honest review after they’ve read the book.
• Sign more books! Give shout-outs to those who have bought!

SIGN-OFF the event with gratitude and directions one last time for how to connect with you: website, title of your book, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook addresses, etc.

LEAVE THE EVENT ON YOUR PAGE after the event. People can still see it and entertain themselves with the posts from the event well after your event is wrapped up.

PLEASE NOTE: I personally don’t think it should replace your local live kickoff event, with all your local family and friends, so a good idea might be to have your local hometown book launch, live and in-person, at a local party joint, then have your Facebook Live Book Launch a day or week later.  In fact, at your live event you could ask everyone to save the date, and help you promote and share your Facebook Live Kick-off.  Win-Win!

Polly Letofsky is a publishing consultant, and owner of My Word Publishing. Together they have published over 300 books, and to date, 60 best sellers. She began with her own award-winning book, 3mph: The Adventures of One Woman’s Walk Around the World. To schedule a free publishing consultation, reach out to her here to start your own publishing journey.

The post 13 Steps to Hosting a Book Launch on Facebook Live! appeared first on My Word Publishing.

Your book is finally ready for the world. For the past several months (or possibly years), you labored over your content, survived the editing process mostly in one piece, and chose the perfect design flairs that say, “this is MY book.” Now it’s time for one of the more exciting parts – the part where your book because an actual, physical thing that you can hold in your hands. You have a product that you can hold up to someone and say, “I made this.” Let’s make that happen.

Throughout the publishing process, there are a slew of decisions to be made. When it comes to printing your book, you will be faced with another. In terms of volume, there are three types of printing processes to choose from: print-on-demand (POD), short-run, or long-run. Each has their own pros and cons, and each will fit different marketing and sales strategies you will employ. With these plans in mind, consider each of the following options.

When to Use Long-Run Printing

Long-run printing is when you send your files to a printing business (known as an “offset printer”) and they print your book in a large quantity. The accepted benchmark for long-run printing is about 1,000 books and above. This is rarely recommended for self-published authors who are just starting out. Only use this option if you already have a large following and are confident that they will all sell at some point. Authors who might consider this option are those who have published more than one book previously and have a large, established audience. Another author who could benefit from a long-run print might be someone who is a well-known public speaker or local celebrity – someone who’s name or brand does half of the marketing for them already.

Pros to Long-Run and Offset Printers

The biggest benefit of a long-run print is the cost. The more books you print, the bigger discount you receive. Think of it as if you were buying your own book in bulk. But just like those bulk-oriented retail warehouses, this is only profitable if you can move your product quickly.

The quality of your book is also easier to control with an off-set printer. There will be a professional keeping an eye on the end result to ensure accuracy. There is less room for variance in color, positioning.

Cons to Long-Run Printing

One thing that you will want to keep in mind about using a printing company is the cost of shipping. Some printers will not ship your books for free, so you will want to either factor this into your budget or pick the books up yourself. Here’s to hoping you have some cargo space in your car. And if, after having them shipped to you, you sell your books online, you will have to ship them to your reader yourself. You just paid twice for shipping your book.

You don’t want a garage full of books that you may or may not sell. That discount might look nice in the beginning, but if you end up only selling a couple hundred copies or worse, you might be operating at a loss. Then you must decide what to do with all those books in your house. Those are some expensive coasters.

What happens if you find a mistake? Perhaps there is an errant semicolon that is intruding on a sentence it wasn’t invited to. If you are using pre-printed books (either short or long-run), you will either have to forgo selling the copies with the error and eat the cost or hope no one notices before you can order another run. This is significantly worse for a long-run, because you will have more volume of books that include the mistake.

When to Use Short-Run Printing

Short-run printing is similar to a long-run except it is the term used for books printed in a quantity less than 1,000. Though, of course, if you’re printing 999 books, you’re not kidding anyone. Some printers will produce a short-run as small as 10 books. If you decide to do a short-run, My Word Publishing typically recommends printing 100 to 200 books.

Pros to Short-Run Printing

Short-runs work well for authors who want to begin in person hand-sales of their book as soon as possible. If you are working with a My Word Publishing consultant, they advise that you host a book launch party. At this event, you will invite their family, friends, associates, pets, etc. to not only celebrate your success, but to possibly get your first sales under your belt. You will want to have books on hand – which short-run printing is perfect for. Similarly, short-run printing can be used if you have an upcoming speaking event and would like to have some copies available for purchase.

You will get the same quality with a short-run as you would with a long-run. This means you will have a consistent, high quality product.

Cons to Short-Run Printing

One downfall of a short-run is that you do not get to enjoy the same discount that you would get with a long-run. Additionally, you may have to pick up the book yourself and ship the book yourself if you make an online sale just like a long-run.

If you want to know more about short-run printing, here’s an excellent article from our friends at Steuben Press.

When To Use Print-On-Demand

The question “When should I use print-on-demand” is pretty easy to answer. If you have any plans to put your book into distribution, it is a smart path to take. Print-on-demand is the term used when a book is automatically printed when purchased online. The POD service provider (such as Amazon’s KDP Print) will print the book according to your specifications and ship the book to the purchaser directly from the printer. Simple, right?

Pros to Print-On-Demand

POD is fast becoming the preferred method of printing books for self-publishers. You do not have to store pre-printed books in some musty corner of your house and you do not have to worry about overstocking.

Mistakes are also easier to correct if you are using POD. With POD, you can fix the error right away and all future copies will have the correct text.

Cons to Print-On-Demand

Why wouldn’t you use POD? The answer may depend on whether you want your book in distribution. If this is something that you only want to sell by hand at events, or if it’s a book that you intend to give as a gift to your family (a “legacy” book), you might not want to use POD.

There isn’t quite the same level of quality control with POD either. This ranges from color quality (which can be determined by ink vs toner) to the “positioning” of the design elements of your book. You should expect a 2% variance in these elements – practically unnoticeable, but a headache for designers to account for.

With all these benefits to weigh, which is the best option? Ultimately, it depends on your individual book’s needs. However, My Word Publishing will often use a combination of short-run printing and print-on-demand. The short-run will ensure that you have copies available before your book is fully live on POD and for your launch party. The print-on-demand will take care of most of your online sales afterward, but the short-run will always be available for restocking for your next event. If you have any reservations or questions about what type of printing is best for you, your My Word Publishing consultant has answers.

The post Print-On-Demand, Short-Run, and Long-Run Printing: A Comparison appeared first on My Word Publishing.

One of the few downsides to self-publishing is the cost. Every detail from the editing to the cover is paid by the author before the book is published. This is the biggest hurdle that stands between many potential authors and their dreams of being published. It can often drive authors to independent presses or vanity presses in order to bypass the cost – which is a shame. Don’t be discouraged by the cost of self-publishing! The amount of care and attention to detail that is poured into your book is what truly counts. It can give you the chance to recoup your investment and more. Cost ranges for self-publishing can range from $0 to $tratosphere. Ironically, this does not mean that the more you spend the better it will be, but if you want to put out a professional book you need help from professionals. Having said that, if you must take shortcuts, here are some options.

There is a lot to cover here, so the main focus is on the higher ticket items in the publishing process. Short disclaimer here: these tips will certainly help you stretch your budget but be aware that they are not always the best recipe for a flawless publication.

Use Tools to Design Your Book Yourself

Much of the cost of self-publishing comes from the variety of experts you’ll need to produce a professional-looking product. But if you have the time, confidence, and technical skill, there are some tasks that you can complete yourself. Important note: this is not referring to editing. It is inadvisable to do all the editing by yourself. However, there are tools available for you to use for the interior layout and the cover of your book.

A haphazard layout is one of the first signs that a book was self-published by an amateur author, so you will want to be careful with this one. There are many self-publishing experts that will caution against doing the design by yourself unless you spend plenty of time researching and educating yourself on best practices and industry standards. There are a lot of ways to go wrong here, but designing the book yourself is certainly not impossible.

Design Your Cover For Free

Some budget-conscious self-publishers are familiar with the website Canva. For publishing purposes, this website is primarily used for ebook covers. It is free to create an account and they have countless templates to choose from. There is a proper way to use Canva and the wrong way to use Canva. Don’t be afraid to use some of the advanced features and tools in order to customize your cover and hide the template. Canva offers both free and paid stock photos to add as the background to your cover – but don’t overlook the option to upload your own photo. A word of caution, however: You might notice that the free version doesn’t allow you to resize the image, which severely limits your options for trim size and makes it nearly impossible to design the spine of the book (which is why it’s mainly for ebooks). You can opt for a 30-day free trial if you are interested in exploring Canva’s tools.

Amazon’s KDP service also includes a cover creator that is similar to Canva – except this one is for print books and does give you control over the spine. You can also upload your own images into KDP’s cover creator. You may consider using a combination of Canva and KDP’s cover creator. Canva is a service for multiple design needs, but KDP’s cover creator is specific toward books. Using both will give you more flexibility than using one by itself.

Format Your Own Interior Layout

Amazon’s KDP needs to be mentioned again, because they also provide tools for your interior layout. This time, KDP offers downloadable templates that are specific to the standard trim sizes found in KDP Print, the print on demand service.  The template is a word document that is pre-formatted and you should be able to carefully copy and paste your content into it. Additionally, Amazon is working on a Kindle Create Add-in for Word that appears to be similar to their cover creator. This program is only in Beta, so it might not be a complete program at the time of this post.

There are a few paid software programs that are available for this task as well. We mentioned Scrivener in a previous post, but only gave an overview of the program as a word processor and outline creator. Scrivener is much more than that. Using the advanced tools, you can also format the book and use the “compile” feature to create either a PDF or a Word file that can be uploaded to whatever printing service you are going to use. However, Scrivener is not easy to use right away, and you may have to spend some time looking at tutorials to get the most out of the experience. Scrivener costs $45 and its high level of difficulty is matched by its flexibility and complexity.

Vellum appears to be a happy medium. It is intuitive and easy to learn like KDP’s cover creator, but has far more options. The biggest downsides to Vellum is that it requires a Mac computer and the license is quite spendy – about $250 for the version that accommodates both ebooks and paperbacks. This might be a good option for you if you are likely to design more than one book or if you simply want to do it yourself.

Pay Less For Designs Using Crowdsourcing

A basic definition of crowdsourcing is when you allocate specific tasks to different individuals in order to get something done more quickly. Sounds pretty similar to what you would get with a consultation company like My Word Publishing – except for a key difference. Crowdsourcing is usually the term used when you hire individuals for a single project and your entire interaction with them occurs online.

Consultants at My Word Publishing typically advise against using untested strangers for your book. This is because our vendors have been strictly vetted to ensure that you will get the best quality for your dime. But crowdsourcing can still be considered if you are on a tight budget.

The riskiest place to find freelancers for your project is Fiverr. The best advice for getting the most out of a Fiverr freelancer is to closely read their profile. Make sure they not only have the experience in your project of choice, but that they have plenty of reviews. You’ll find a mixed bag of talent, but you also have a chance to get a steal of a deal on covers, logos, or editing. Editing comes with a slight cringe, because you really do not want to skimp in this area. But do what you gotta do – with extreme scrutiny.

Cover and layout crowdsourcing are a little safer than editing. 99designs and CrowdSpring have similar rates of $299 for book covers. On these websites, you create a project and multiple designers submit a variety of designs for you to choose from. CrowdSpring estimates that the average number of choices you get from them is about 60. Alternatively, 99designs has a similar model and offers interior layout projects as well. DesignCrowd is the cheaper of the three with a minimal package of $99 for three different choices.

Find New Professionals Offering Discounted Services

Everyone must start somewhere. The self-publishing industry is skyrocketing. New professionals are drawn into the fold with fresh ideas but might lack the experience. In order to build their portfolio, many of these new faces are discounting their services in order to entice clients. So where do you find them?

As the new professionals expand their networks, they will often acquaint themselves with more established vendors or with consulting agencies such as My Word Publishing. Many of our consultants offer a variety of services including editing, cover design, and layout. Feel free to schedule a free consultation to hear more about them.

New professionals can also be found on Reedsy, which is a freelancing website that specializes in publishing.  Again, these service providers may not have been vetted by My Word Publishing, but if you are bargain shopping it can be a good place to start.

Bonus Tips for Publishing On a Budget

Now it’s time to throw out some bonus tips. The beginning of this post mentioned that the focus is mainly of the “big ticket” items like cover and interior design. You may have noticed that we do not advise using these strategies for editing. However, if you are a fiction writer and are looking for some ideas on how to save on editing, check out the post Beta Readers vs Manuscript Review.

There are plenty of smaller tasks that weren’t mentioned. These include purchasing your ISBN, setting up your KDP Print and Amazon Author Central accounts, compiling the metadata for the frontmatter, etc. If you have published before, you might be able to tackle these tasks yourself. But you don’t have to.

My Word Publishing consultants can be hired by the hour to complete these tasks. Or, if you are a do-it-yourself kind of person but don’t know where to start, we also offer Spot Coaching. For $150, you can ask a My Word Publishing consultant 10 questions over the course of a year.

Still confused by the options? Schedule a free consultation to discuss what is best for both your book and your budget. This is your publishing journey – you have control over which vendors you use. If you prefer to do it yourself, we have your back.

The post Self-Publishing Your Book On A Budget appeared first on My Word Publishing.

The court of public opinion can be a scary place. Writers spend an inordinate amount of time and resources putting their thoughts onto paper. It would be heartbreaking to reach the end of that long journey and discover that your character is unlikable, your plot doesn’t make sense, or that you have an unsatisfying ending. These things should be caught in the editing process, but massive overhauls of your narrative can be costly in both time and money.

Fiction writers have found that an effective way to resolve these issues is to identify them before the editing process. Many fiction writers have turned to the “beta reader” to solve this problem. Some editors also offer a “manuscript review” that occurs before the official edit for the same reason. But what are they? What benefits do writers obtain from a beta reader or manuscript review? What is the difference between the two?

What Are Beta Readers?

Many products on today’s market are assessed by “beta testers” before they are available to the general public. A beta reader uses the same concept. Beta readers are people who volunteer to read your book before publication so they can critique your book. After they have read your manuscript, they will tell you which parts worked, which didn’t, and possibly make suggestions for improvement.

Beta readers can be anyone – your mom, your dad, your boss, or a stranger you found online. For the most part, beta readers do not request any sort of monetary compensation for their time and opinion.

What Is A Manuscript Review?

A manuscript review is a service that is sometimes offered by editors or other service providers within the publishing industry (including My Word Publishing). It is sometimes referred to as a “professional beta read” because it serves much of the same function. You are paying for a professional opinion about the development of the content of your book.

The key difference is that you are engaging a professional who is active in the publishing industry. This person is up-to-date on industry standards, expectations, and specific audiences. Since many of them are writers themselves, they are aware of what sort of feedback is useful and are better equipped to give meaningful suggestions. The amount of feedback you receive from a beta reader will vary wildly, but a manuscript review will provide you with about 3-5 pages of professional insight.

How to Use Beta Readers

Because they are so diverse in expertise and experience, using beta readers is a surprisingly controversial topic. Many service providers will use the same phrase when talking about beta readers: “take their opinions with a grain of salt.” There is no guarantee that you will receive quality insights from a beta reader. Overusing beta readers is risky as well. No two beta readers will have the same opinion of your book and can significantly slow and befuddle your progress. However, My Word Publishing consultant KB Jensen says “There’s definitely a place for them – if you are careful and use them right.”

One of the biggest mistakes you can make with a beta reader is if you use friends and family. Because you are close to them, they will be biased. They might not be truthful about their perception of your book. They could attempt to spare your feelings and give you encouragement instead of constructive criticism. Of course, I don’t mean that a beta read should be discouraging, but some beta readers might exchange honesty for tact.

One of the ways to avoid this is to choose your beta reader carefully. As KB Jensen says, “evaluate who is evaluating you.” This entails researching your beta reader’s background. Are they an avid reader of your genre? Are they a writer themselves or do they have experience in the publishing industry? Do they fall within your target audience? The answers to these questions will assist you with assessing the quality of this person’s feedback. That is not to say that a person who falls outside of this category can’t give quality feedback, but it will certainly give you better odds.

Lastly, set expectations for your beta reader. Tell them what kind of critique you are looking for or what questions you want them to answer. Some writers provide forms to fill out that highlighted areas of concern the writer wanted help with. This can be immensely helpful in the sense that it filters out information that you might not find useful.

How to Use A Manuscript Review

Frankly, it is a lot easier to use a manuscript review from an editor or a publishing services provider. Because they are professionals, it is much more likely that they will give constructive feedback you can trust. You can spend a lot less time worrying about the quality of their suggestions.

This can give you room to experiment a little. KB Jensen explains “You can use it as an opportunity to test the relationship with your editor.” Using the same editor for your manuscript review and your developmental edit gives the editor an insight into the evolution of your narrative. This can give you a higher quality of a developmental edit and possibly shorten the lengthy process.

However, it is not required that you use the same person for the manuscript review and the developmental edit. More than one pair of trained eyes on your narrative will give you more diverse opinions. If more than one person identifies an issue in your manuscript, it is more likely that your readers will see it as an issue as well.

When Not to Use A Beta Reader or Manuscript Review

It might not be necessary for you to use either of these options. Most of the issues that can be identified by a beta reader or a manuscript review will be caught in the developmental edit. So why use these services at all?

Beta readers and manuscript review are most commonly used by fiction writers. This is because of the length of their manuscript and how long it takes to write the first draft. They might start their book with a completely different vision than what they end up with. The editing process for these books can be significantly longer than it is for nonfiction. Beta readers and manuscript review should be used as a tool to possibly shorten or improve the editing process.

Because nonfiction is shorter than fiction, service providers will rarely recommend these services. The only genre of nonfiction where a manuscript review or beta read could be beneficial is for a memoir. This is because memoirs focus on a personal narrative where real people become characters. Overall, nonfiction writers do not need to worry about this at all.

Finally, you do not want to conduct a manuscript review or beta read after the editing process has begun. This is because your manuscript is now subject to change. The beta reader or reviewer might comment on a passage that is not going to exist soon. You especially do not want to use a beta reader or manuscript review after editing is complete. Once editing is finished, your book should be considered “done.” At this point, beta reads will only confuse you and cause you to write more content that needs to be edited again. It’s a costly mistake.

Ultimately, the decision is yours. You have the artistic license over your book and can decide whether a beta reader or manuscript review is right for you. If you have any more questions about these services or would like to request a manuscript review, contact your My Word Publishing consultant to learn more.

This post was written with assistance from KB Jensen, a bestselling crime novelist and a publishing consultant with My Word Publishing.

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Before I started my own self-publishing journey, I used ISBNs as a tool to search for and purchase textbooks I needed for school. Those who underwent the College/University experience might know that the college bookstore is not always the cheapest option. I would write down the ISBN of the book I needed and searched online retailers to find the cheapest copy I could find. I didn’t really understand what an ISBN was, but I knew that using it as a search term always pulled up the edition that I needed.

At the time, that was all I needed to know. But an ISBN is so much more than that. Some might consider it to be the first sign that your book is officially published. With that in mind, what is an ISBN? Do you need more than one? Where can you get them?

What is an ISBN?

ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. It’s an internationally recognized identification number for you book that contains metadata. This metadata includes the publisher of the book, author, title, edition, and format. Consider it to be a sort of registration for you book similar to how the government uses driver’s license numbers or social security numbers to identify individuals.

It’s primarily used by publishers, book sellers (both brick-and-mortar and web based distributors), and libraries. An ISBN is required in order for these agencies to distribute your book. Each ISBN is unique to the book it is assigned to, and it is possible for a book to have more than one ISBN during its lifetime in print.

Do I Need an ISBN?

Absolutely. There are a few exceptions, but if you are planning on selling your book online, through bookstores, or want your book to be available to libraries, you must have an ISBN. Distributors use the number exactly like a SKU on a product – it’s for stock keeping purposes.

The are only two ways that you can avoid using an ISBN. Either you give your book away for free or you sell it direct to consumer. And by “direct to consumer” I mean in person. By hand. Maybe out of the trunk of your car.

Who Assigns and Distributes an ISBN

Since an ISBN is an internationally recognized registration, there is more than one agency that distributes them. The agency you use is determined by the country the book is published in. For the United States, all ISBNs are distributed by Bowker. There is a fee for obtaining an ISBN, and that fee is determined by how many numbers are purchased at once. They are either purchased one at a time, as a pack of 10, or a pack of 100.

The person who is responsible for obtaining the number from Bowker is the publisher. This is because the entity that owns the ISBN owns the distribution rights to the book. This is particularly pertinent to self-publishers who want to maintain complete autonomy in regard to where and how their books are sold. Vanity or Online Subsidy publishers will provide you with an ISBN free of charge, but this means that they own the sales and distribution rights to your book.

When To Accept A Free ISBN and When To Avoid It

Some Print on Demand (POD) services (such as CreateSpace, KDP Print, and IngramSpark) will offer you a free ISBN so that you can submit your book to their distribution channels. In certain circumstances, this can be a good deal. But this might depend entirely upon what your plans are for your book.

As I mentioned previously, the entity that owns the ISBN is the “publisher” of your book. If you are self-publishing, that should be you. However, if you use a free ISBN from one of these services, they will automatically become the “publisher” of your book. Instead of your own company name and logo, the POD service’s name and logo will appear on your book instead. For third party distributors (such as bookstores and libraries), this is one of the easiest clues that your book is self-published. Considering the stigma that still surrounds self-published books, this is not exactly desirable. As unfortunate as it may be, this can cause a snap-judgement about the quality of your book that you will want to avoid. On these grounds, the distributor may reject your book and refuse to stock it.

Alternatively, if you are publishing your book without intending to submit it to wide distribution, it may be a cost-effective option. Some may choose to publish their book for personal reasons and only intend to distribute it to friends and family. Perhaps you only want to sell your book at company events or speaking engagements where your expertise is already validated. These are perfectly legitimate reasons to accept a free number.

When Do You Need Multiple ISBNs?

Because ISBNs are unique to the specific edition and format of your book, it stands to reason that you need a new ISBN for each subsequent format and edition. The trick, of course, is determining which formats need unique ISBNs and what qualifies as a “new edition.”

Types of book formats include paperback vs hardcover, multiple sizes, audiobooks, etc. The ISBN is what the distributor uses to find multiple copies of your book that are the exact same. They do not want to type in your ISBN expecting to receive a 5×8 paperback and instead obtain an audiobook CD.

Recently, distributors are starting to accept an exception to this rule – ebooks. It is still common practice to use a new ISBN for an ebook, but large distributors such as Amazon are starting to accept one ISBN for both an ebook and printed version of your book. I would highly recommend reviewing the distributor’s policies regarding ebook ISBNs or asking a service provider such as My Word Publishing before making your decision.

If you need to correct a spelling error, typo, or adjust the formatting of your book, it is not considered a new edition and you do not need a new ISBN. You want to consider publishing a new edition of your book if you have made significant changes to the text. If you added or removed entire sections of the content, rearranged the chapters, or updated illustrations and tables to include new information, you will need a new number for a new edition.

Do you have more questions about ISBNs? Feel free to contact a My Word Publishing Consultant for more information.  Want to know more about other identification numbers you’ll need for your book? Check out Jen Kolic’s post about the difference between ISBN, LCCN, and CIP.

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While your title is important to your book marketing, that doesn’t mean you should go overboard either. Your title is not the place for your impeccable SEO skills where you throw keywords at the wall and see if they stick like spaghetti. You should not consider it an opportunity to optimize for a search engine but rather a people-engine. It is your first opportunity to create the desire to buy.

Research Titles Before You Begin

Researching what other authors have done before you is a wonderful practice. Not only does it inform you of current industry trends, but it gives you a chance to test out what you do or do not like. Visit your local bookstore and pull some titles that interest you. Ask yourself questions about them.

How long is this title?

Is it interesting?

Do I want to know more?

Can I tell what this book is about without reading the blurb?

Take note of your favorite titles and think about what attracts you to them and why.

Titles Should Be Unique

Did you know that in terms of plagiarism and copyright, titles are exempt (trademarks aside)? It is entirely possible and acceptable to have more than one book on the market called How to Make Cheese. You cannot claim common phrases or individual words in the English language as your own intellectual property. For the most part you could just as easily call your cheese book Great Expectations as How to Make Cheese. Regardless, this is strongly ill advised.

If your title is too similar to an already well-known title, you run the risk of putting your book in front of the wrong audience. The amount of people looking for Great Expectations who are also crafty cheese enthusiasts is probably rather small (although I’m sure they know how to party). You don’t want any doubt that your book is listed first among the appropriate search results. When your book does appear, you want the buyer to be confident that this is the correct selection.

Titles Should Be Short and Easy To Spell

This might seem like common sense but be careful not to get too unique with your title. Say, for example, you met someone at a cheese convention and you casually discuss your book. The person you are speaking with seems interested in reading it, but they don’t have a pen and paper or a phone with them to jot down the title. You were just telling them that you learned the secret to your cheesy ways on vacation in Wales, so naturally you put the name of the town in your title: How I Learned the Art of Making Cheese in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch and How it Changed My Outlook On Life (that is a real town name by the way).

Don’t do that. You will make people cry.

This is obviously an extreme example but try to make your title easy to memorize. It will make your book easier to find and easier to talk about.

If there is more information that you need to convey about your book, feel free to use a subtitle depending on the genre. Subtitles are a great way to give more information about the content of your book without expanding your actual title to unreasonable limits. They are more commonly used in non-fiction and are rarely seen in fiction, so you may want to take that into consideration.

Your Book Title Should Give An Indication Of What It’s All About

Your title is the first piece of marketing your buyers see, so it should set the expectation of what the buyer will get from reading your book. This part it a little easier for non-fiction than it is for fiction. For the example that I am using, the title just needs have something related to cheese in it for you to recognize the purpose of the book.

Fiction books can be a little trickier. This is where that trip to the bookstore can come in handy. One of my favorite titles is A Mango Shaped Space by Wendy Mass. A Mango Shaped Space is a YA novel about a girl who has synesthesia – a neurological condition where your senses (sight, touch, taste, etc) are swapped in your brain. Certain sounds have a specific color, a picture can taste like ice cream, and so on. When reading the book, you discover that Mango is a cat. However, the title already gives you a sense of unusual perception.

For non-fiction, you can describe the type of service the reader can expect from you book, but don’t be afraid to get a little creative and specific too. A famous example would be David Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. The book is about building successful interpersonal relationships, but more importantly, you are winning friends.

Use Your Title For A Hook

Why should someone read your book and not someone else’s? There are so many voices on the market nowadays. How can you make yourself heard? Your title gives you your first opportunity to create a mystery that the buyer can only solve by reading your book. Unlike the last section, this is where things might be a little easier for fiction than nonfiction. Here are some of my favorites:

If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino (What does the traveler do?)

Mrs. Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (Why are they peculiar?)

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (What did the mockingbird ever do to you?)

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (Why was it strange?)

This is possible for nonfiction as well. First you must acknowledge what your book is about and then ask yourself how your book is different. Then see if there is a way to create a question with your title. Here are some more examples from my bookcase:

Eat Yourself Calm by Gill Paul (What am I eating?)

The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea (Why does it belong to the devil?)

What We Knew by Eric A. Johnson and Karl-Heinz Reubank (Who knew what?)

It is important to note that two of these three books (Eat Yourself Calm and What We Knew) also used subtitles to specify exactly what their book was about and used the title for the hook instead.

Title Barfs and Focus Groups

How are you feeling? Are you ready to barf? That’s good.

Practice free-writing or “barfing” out a list of possible titles. Write down as many titles as you can and compare them with the criteria above. Pick ten favorites. Then pick five favorites. Then three. Narrow it down as much as you can and if you still feel stuck then remember one of the most important tools a marketer has: a focus group.

Once you have about three to five titles left, you have the option of creating a poll on your social media networks. Use you friends and family as a pseudo-focus group and see what attracts people more. You might be surprised by what they pick.

The post A Quick Guide to Writing Your Book Title appeared first on My Word Publishing.

The best writing advice I ever received was to practice, practice, practice. This may not sound fun, but it can be passionately fun—and highly rewarding. A consistent writing practice will make you a better, faster writer. It is also the best way to develop a career, whether you want to write award-winning novels or freelance for magazine and websites.

Here some tips to get you started:

How to “warm up” to write

I have published over 1,000 paid articles and two award-winning novels, and still “practice” writing every day. I start with a ten-minute warm-up session based on a random writing prompt. (You can find thousands of writing prompts by Googling “writing prompt”.)

In this practice, I write continuously without stopping to edit or correct grammar, punctuation, or spelling. This is sometimes referred to as freewriting, and it’s a great way to get into the writing zone and minimize writer’s block. Over time, you will also develop speed. I regularly write 300 words or more in ten minutes in my warm-up.

Warning: Your freewriting warm-up will be rough and full of errors, and that’s great! Great?! Yes, because perfection is not the goal. The practice is designed to take the anxiety out of writing and allow your creative flow to happen. This writing isn’t for anyone’s eyes but your own, and you don’t even have to read it yourself, so there is no pressure.

On the other hand, this stress-free writing experience often leads to creating some truly inspired gems, especially when you practice consistently. This discovery was pivotal for me, and I have transcribed many choice passages created during freewriting into my novels and articles.

Always be writing—even if it’s not exciting or paid

I have always wanted to be a writer, but when I was younger, I convinced myself that my day-jobs got in the way and ate up my writing time. In the 80s and 90s when I was working as an ER nurse, I realized that opportunities to practice writing were everywhere. I had an epiphany—combine my nursing skills with my passion for writing. ER nursing may not be a typical path to a professional writing career, but I made it one.

First, I volunteered for every writing-related task in the hospital. There are many, such as writing discharge materials and hospital policy and procedure. How boring is that? I did it on my own time, without pay—but there was a payoff. The practice built my writing skills and helped me land my first job as a writer and editor for a nursing magazine.

I also jumped on any other writing opportunities that came my way, from contributing to newsletters, to ghost-writing other people’s Christmas letters, to editing their college papers. I soon became known in my circle as “the writer”, and people sought me out for writing help.

In today’s online world, the opportunities to “always be writing” are endless, such as blogging and writing emails and social media posts. Yes, well-crafted emails and social media posts count as writing practice.

Write to your passion

Writing professionally for publication is extremely challenging and one of the most difficult things you can do. Professional writers usually have an intrinsic drive to write and are passionate about it—whether they get paid or not. For us, this is fun, even though there are far easier ways to make money. If this sounds like you, I would advise you to write to your passion. Don’t limit yourself to projects you think will pay or boost your career. All writing practice counts!

What lights you up? Do you dabble in poetry? Do you find journaling rewarding, or have you thought about starting a cooking blog? Working on these types of passion projects will expand your writer’s vision and improve your writing skills in other areas, such as writing for paid publication.

Today, I am both a historical fantasy writer and a freelance healthcare writer. The two may seem totally unrelated, but they’re not. I submitted a historical short story as part of my application for that first writing job for a nursing magazine. I did not have a journalism degree or any professional publications to my credit at the time. I had little hope of landing the job, but the editor loved my short story so much she hired me based on it and the unpaid, “boring” hospital writing I had done.

That first job led to a freelance writing/editing career, which led to consulting, including writing coaching and advising fiction authors who include medical content in their books—and of course, authoring historical fantasy novels.

Write to your passion and practice, practice, practice, and the rest will follow. You never know where it will take you.

Catherine Spader, RN, is The Story Crafter, a multi-award-winning author and an editor, consultant, and writing coach. She is the owner of Quillstone Press based in Littleton, CO. You can contact her at cathyspader@yahoo.com or through her website, https://catherinespader.com/.

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October is one of my favorite months. As a lifelong procrastinator, October will forever be highlighted in my calendar as the time that I begin to create my fiction outline before November. To writers, November can be the most hectic 30 days of the year. November is National Novel Writing Month (more well known as NaNoWriMo). If you are a fiction writer and a “Planner” like me, October is your last chance to pull together your overall plot and characters before the big event. This is the time to create your fiction outline. In this context, October becomes affectionately known as “NaNoPlanMo” or “Plotober.”

Of course, I only mention NaNoWriMo because it is October. Outlining is an immensely useful creative tool for any time and for any book. Not only can it be used to solidify your ideas during the planning stage, but it can give you direction during the writing process and reduce opportunities to get stuck. With an outline, you do not have to write your book in chronological order. You can approach your book with the confidence of knowing where it is going.

For some, the most difficult part of the writing process is getting started. Now that we know one of the best ways to begin your novel is with an outline – how the heck do you outline?

Outlining Tools

Your first step is to decide where you are going to create your outline. You can be “old school” and scribble it out by hand inside a notebook, or you could decorate a blank wall with post-its, note cards, or a whiteboard. Alternatively, you could use software such as Microsoft Word or Scrivener.

These days, most of us will be writing our manuscript in Microsoft Word or a similar word processing program. With Word, you can keep the formatting simple and easy to follow using bullet points for each section and plot point. Since virtually all computers are compatible with Word, you have access to cloud storage opportunities with One Drive, Drop Box, etc. Keeping your outline in the same place as your manuscript is probably the safest option. I would suggest keeping your outline in a separate file from your manuscript so that it is easy to find, easy to read, and most importantly, easy to edit.

If you are looking for something a little more advanced, you might want to look into using website and see if it would be a good fit for you. In the context of outlining, Scrivener allows you to break your manuscript up into sections. You can have a folder for “Part One” and then smaller sections that contain the text of your scenes. To make an outline, you can pre-make these sections with a synopsis of what needs to be accomplished in that particular chunk. When it is time to compose your manuscript, you can write directly in these sections and still view the structure of your outline on the left side of the program.

Character Development

There isn’t a rulebook that tells you exactly where you should start or in what order you should create your fiction outline. Personally, I like to create my main character first. Your plot is going to be influenced by this person and the choices that they will make. There also isn’t a right or wrong way to create your character per se, and not all novels will follow the format that I will be describing. You will be able to make the decisions about keeping or rejecting these elements while crafting your manuscript. For outlining purposes however, I believe it is a good starting point.

In a traditional plot, the events and the main conflict of your story should transform your character in some way. This is called a “dynamic” character. They start the story with a distinct personality, goal, and beliefs. By the end of the story, one of these things should change. While there may be some “static” (unchanging) characters in your novel, main characters are almost always dynamic in traditional storytelling. You want your reader to stay invested in your story and to understand your purpose in writing it. If your main character does not have some sort of transformation by the end, your reader probably won’t either (if that is your intention).

What motivates your character and what do they want? Your character should have a goal – even if that goal is for things to stay exactly as they are. This makes the character relatable if not likeable. Your reader should have an interest in whether that goal is achieved.

Next, you’ll have a reason why the character can not attain that goal – at least at first. Something is in their way. What is it? This is the “conflict” of your plot. It could be some external force that prevents your character from getting what they want, or it could be an internal flaw with the character themselves.

Flaws are what make your characters real. You may have heard the term Mary/Gary Sue – this is a character without flaws and is laden with clichés. Everything goes perfectly for them and the reader is wondering why they are in this story in the first place. Avoid Mary/Gary Sue at all costs. Flaws are often the main cause of the conflict in your story – and never forget that a story without conflict is not a story at all.

If you wish for your novel to be character driven in such a way, you can consider creating character sheets as a part of your planning process. Scrivener has some character sheet templates pre-built into the program that can assist you with this, although it is customizable so that you can include information that is relevant to your story.

You can create a similar sheet in Word. Another classic technique is to conduct an “interview” with your character to discover their motivations.

These are only the raw basics of character development, but hopefully it is enough to get you started. While your character’s goals might change over time, it will give you something to explore in the opening of your novel.

Section One: Introduce Your Character and Set the Events In Motion

Now that you have a general idea of who your character is (and possibly a rough idea of what you are going to do to them) your first section should go a lot smoother. There are a few milestones that you should tap along the way. Each of these milestones should be a bullet point under the first section of your fiction outline.

Both readers and writers view the first chapter as the most important. The first chapter shows the reader why they should care about your character and the things that they have to say. If you are writing in an unusual setting (such as fantasy or science fiction), you need to introduce enough of your world to have a functional understanding but leave room to reveal more later.

Once this is established you can move on to the “inciting incident.” This is when you disrupt your character’s everyday life and force them down the path of change – the beginning of the conflict. Don’t give them the option of returning to their previous life. As much as we would like to think so, the human psyche (or I should say humanoid for those fantasy/scifi folks) does not change easily.

Section Two: The Middle Part That Few Actually Like Writing

It might be just my own experience, but the middle of the novel is the hardest part. Planning a new novel is exciting. There’re new characters, new places to explore, and of course, the big reveal at the end. Documenting the beginning and the end but neglecting the middle is like eating dessert first – and who doesn’t love dessert?

Without a doubt the middle of the novel is the juicy steak and creamy potatoes. It can be bland if you don’t treat it right. Give it some spice, however, and it’ll be your favorite part of the meal. This is where the drama happens. The Sturm and Drang. You know, the good stuff.

Your character reacts to the inciting incident and it all goes wrong. This section is full of plans which are subsequently destroyed. This constant stress is what forces your character to slowly realize their flaws and consider the change that is needed to attain their goal.

In your outline, create a few bullet points or sections with separate, smaller incidents and think about how your character will react to each one. Start small and build the intensity. Add some peaceful moments to create an emotional roller coaster. Make your reader feel like they should put their hands up as they wind their way through the narrative.

The section finally ends with the last torment – the lowest point of the book where all plans have failed, and your character is faced with only one choice: change. Literary scholars often refer to this point as “the bottom of the well.” Once you have reached the bottom, the only direction to go is up. The low point will allow you to smoothly transition into that ending you’ve been so excited to write.

Section Three: Metamorphosis and The Conclusion

By now your character has (hopefully) overcome or at least recognized their flaw. It is time to revisit their original goal. Can they still achieve this goal? Has the goal changed too? You should now be able to resolve the conflict of your plot.

Even if you plan to write a series, there should be some question from the beginning of the book that is answered by the end. If this is truly the end of the journey, give your reader a chance to reflect on how much your character has grown.

Because of this, reread the first section of your outline before or during the conclusion. Find the loose ends and fix them. If this is a series, fix enough of them that the reader will be satisfied that progress was made, but leave enough to continue the journey in the next installment.

This doesn’t always mean that your ending is going to be happy. There is as much to be gained from your character’s failed plans and unrealized goals – perhaps they never deserved their goal, or it was not meant to be. Your character is free to discover that what they wanted was not what they needed.

Here is a fun thought: everything that I just described is not law. There are no stone tablets telling you what you can and can’t do with your plot, and there isn’t a governing agency enforcing this structure. It is up to you to find your individual style and preferences. Hopefully this is enough to inspire you to get started.

Creating an outline is only one of many tools that are available to you, but it is certainly one of my favorites. I sincerely wish you a successful NaNoWriMo season and I hope to see you on the other side of a completed manuscript. My Word Publishing is here for you at any stage of your fiction writing journey.

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