I always preach that a writer needs to “find their audience” before writing a book, simply to be sure there actually is an audience for their work—I’m no exception. Since all of the visitors to this site are either writers, authors, or want-to-be authors, I would guess this is the best way to explore my own potential audience.
I hadn’t planned on writing another book, but as usual, I thought I sensed a need out there (LOL). Last time I felt this way, I put together 100 Ways to Market Your Book For Free (or really cheap). The book sold, but wasn’t as popular as I had anticipated.
So I’m considering the gamble once again with a book on simple editing; basically punctuation and sentence structure. If completed, Period A Quick-Guide to Basic Editing would be released in 2011. The new book is designed to provide all writers, including students, want-to-be authors, and the common work force, with the tools and information they need to present a more polished and well-written piece of work. Its format is easy-to-follow and presents much of the information we all learned in our high school and college English classes—but forgot! Even educated writers should find this book to be a useful tool. We all make editorial mistakes, but presenting a better manuscript can give us an edge when submitting work to a traditional book publisher or ?. The perfect aid for self-publishers as well.
Okay, so I’m sure your first thought is, “But Carol, you’re not an editor. What’s up?” Yea, yea, I know I’m not—far from it! I will be co-authoring this book with an acquaintance of mine who is a professional editor; and a very good one at that.
So there you have it. E-book ($4?) and paperback ($10?), very inexpensive, and written as a step-by-step guidebook (75-100 pages?). Please give me your thoughts. Is this something that would appeal to you as a writer? Or will I be wasting my time? Please be honest—I can handle it!
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12 comments:
It certainly would have been helpful if I had a book like this when I was writing my book; however, I doubt that I would have bought it.
Thanks for your comment Karen. Why do you think you would not have bought the book?
Me personally? Probably not, but I'm married to an English professor.
Put me down for a copy. I'm braindead when it comes to commas. And every once in a while I'm not sure whether to place a question mark at the end of a sentence or not. Because...? Well, I'm not sure.
Well, there are a TON of editing for fiction books like "Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, How to Edit Yourself Into Print" by Renni Browne and Dave King (Apr 13, 2004). Does your editing buddy have a degree in English?
Sorry,
Like Mystery Writer said there is a ton of editing books out there and $3.99 is a high price point for a 75 page book in a full market.
Bring it down to $2.99 for Kindle, and $.99 for other formats and it might sell.
To Mystery Writer:
Yes, she has a Masters in English. Believe it or not, I have read a lot of poorly edited self-published books by authors with a simple degree in English. Hard to imagine!
Thanks for your comment!
When starting out, I would have found this very useful.
It sounds like something I would find useful. Different viewpoints are always a help.
I've seen quite a few editing/grammar reference books around. What is yours offering to stand out?
Honestly, I've thought about buying such a book, but most of the time I just Google whatever my question is. Hope this helps! :)
Thanks for all your comments! I'm still tossing this idea around in my head and on paper.
Personally, I would have never bought a book on editing, especially a LONG one! But my idea is to simplify the process with a step-by-step method to follow. I'm just still trying to figure out the best way to compose that. Will let you all know if I succeed!
I have a pile of self editing books. There are many problems with them. The first is that they often say different things, and I'm not just talking about the differences between US and UK. The next is that they seem to have been sprayed with that stuff that makes your brain slide off the page.
What would be really cool would be a book that included how to set up your word processor so that it did what the book said.
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