So You Want to be an Author?

By Jim Woods and TBD

English usage and grammar textbooks, at least those volumes when in paper print, are so big, so heavy… so complete. Students toting books and laptops in backpacks need relief, just as home authors can use more space on their reference bookshelves. So You Want To Be an Author? takes up little space and weight but most importantly provides

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gypsy Shadow Publishing
• Release date: Mar 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9781619505155

Jim Woods

Jim Woods is the co-author of two bestselling books: Ready Aim Fire and Focus Booster. He is a productivity enthusiast and loves helping others reach their goals and live great lives. When not writing, you can likely find Jim at a coffee shop curled up with his Mac watching Youtube videos or reading a book.

Book preview

Contents

Copyright Page

Intro to the Real World of Publishing

Part 1

(General Rules of Good Writing)

Part 2

(Punctuation)

Part 3

(Wrapping it Up)

Who’s Your Editor?

Writing Your Synopsis

The Mechanics

Shipping Your Manuscript

Writing For eBooks

Why We Write

The Accidental Author

The Last Word

About the Author

So You Want To Be An Author?

by

Jim Woods

All rights reserved

Copyright © June 2011 James Woods

Cover Art Copyright © 2011, Charlotte Holley

Gypsy Shadow Publishing

Lockhart, TX

www.gypsyshadow.com

No part of this eBook may be reproduced or shared by any electronic or mechanical means, including but not limited to printing, file sharing, and email, without prior written permission from Gypsy Shadow Publishing.

ISBN: 978-1-61950-515-5

Published in the United States of America

First eBook Edition: June 5, 2011

Author’s Notes

Excerpt from Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott, 1966, published by Avon Books, used with permission of Harold Ober Associates.

Excerpt from Random Harvest by James Hilton, 1942, used with permission of Little, Brown and Company, publisher.

Excerpt from Pleading Guilty by Scott Turow, 1993, used with permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, publisher.

Excerpt from Frank in the Woods by Harry Castlemon, 1865, comes from material considered to be in the public domain.

Excerpt from Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving, 1832, comes from material considered to be in the public domain.

Introduction To The Real World Of Publishing

Acquisition Editors at the book publishing houses, and literary agents, big and small, are overloaded with work. Thanks to the computer age, thousands upon tens of thousands of manuscripts are submitted to them every year, and the numbers continue to grow. While the publishers are reducing their payrolls by cutting down on staff just to stay afloat in a tenuous economy, the agencies, many of which are single-staff proprietors, simply cannot handle the increase of prospective work that crosses their transoms. Reduced editorial staffs and inundated agents coupled with the ever-increasing numbers of submissions to those offices have resulted in a logjam of manuscripts that seems to grow in quantum leaps.

It doesn’t take much of a perceived problem with a manuscript to cause it to be tossed out as unworthy of the editor or agent’s already crowded work schedule; they look for reasons to diminish the backlog. It may be the cover letter; it could be the paper stock on which the manuscript is printed; but more than likely it’s the grammar, punctuation, spelling, usage and structure of the first two or three pages… and that’s all that will ever be read!

The first strategy in combating the problem, to allow the editor or agent to get further into the story to find out how really great it is, is to ensure that grammar, punctuation, spelling, usage and structure are as perfect as they can be made to be, by double and triple pre-editing before submitting the manuscript.

We’re not talking style or storyline here; no amount of diligent copy-editing will build a stronger plot or develop more interesting characters. Those must come first with talent (which, of course, we all have in abundance), then guidance from qualified instructors and critics (not your spouse or best friend), and then the tedious re-write(s).

It could appear to some that the answer to getting published is simply to circumvent the overcrowded, overworked system, and become your own publisher. The proliferation of information technology has spawned numerous avenues for self-publishing. According to which publishing newsletter or website to which you subscribe, there are perhaps half a million or several million self-published or vanity-published or web-published book titles on the market. However, the buying public can be just as critical if not more so than the professional editor or agent. A poorly done book, poorly written and poorly edited, will quickly get the bad name that will inhibit future sales. Self-publishing is not altogether an ill-conceived idea, but putting out a nonprofessional book, regardless of the publication and distribution media, is bad for the industry and the author.

Subsequent sectors in this book will offer tips and insights on, and examples of, those little glitches and gremlins that can turn an editor or publisher away from your own potentially great article, short story or novel. Of course, any advice treatment must include a disclaimer:

This book is not an English, grammar, spelling or punctuation textbook for the classroom. It does, however, serve as a useful adjunct to those textbooks, and reflects the practical side to all those literary disciplines as viewed by an author/editor who has worked both sides of the editorial desk for a lifetime. Teaching professionals will view the lessons presented here as incomplete, and that would be true if it were intended to be a course-study textbook. It does not pretend to contain all the answers to writing in the English language, but rather is designed, by use of examples and referral to the author’s personal experiences as both editor and author, to make writers think on their own and produce manuscripts less likely to be rejected prematurely. If you remember no other rule of commercial writing, it is this: The Editor is always right.

Part 1: General Rules Of Good Writing

Abbreviations

Abbreviations: Unless you’re writing your grocery-shopping list, to be seen and referred to only for yourself, avoid them. There are a few other instances where abbreviations are acceptable, but not in your article, short story or novel. First, look at the reasons for abbreviating. If you are a sign painter, you could run out of board before the message is complete if you don’t compact some of your words. Okay. Sign painters are excused. The rest of you, the ones who are printing-out on paper or submitting e-files, stick around.

Just how much ink or file space can you save, how many keystrokes, if you write U.S. instead of United States? Or Can. instead of Canada? Not enough for your editor to appreciate the economy when he views abbreviations as interruptions to your narrative. Will the example, U.S., result in one word instead of two, ensuring that your contest entry doesn’t run over the allotted word count? My computer’s spell-checker recognizes two words in U.S. just as in the fully spelled version.

How much thought and copy can the abbreviation, etc., save you? Probably more than it saves your readers; they can’t know what and so forth means to you, the writer, even if you don’t abbreviate et cetera. Shortened or spelled out, the word is an abbreviation of words and thoughts, and simply means that the writer has little to say.

Are there exceptions to the no-abbreviations rule? Of course. Acronyms in common usage, like NASA or NATO are acceptable, as are agencies that are known universally by their initials, FBI or CIA. Forms of address, Mr., Mrs., Dr., and Jr., for example, are proper abbreviations—in your business letters but not in your dialogue—no one speaks in abbreviations. Use St. properly for Saint for the city of St. Louis; but not for 7th Street along the city’s water-front—unless, as with the sign painter’s short board, you simply run out of space on your manuscript-mailing label.

But in noting abbreviations in street addresses as above, those two-letter postal codes in lieu of state’s names are not abbreviations. The real abbreviations for the names of states is a topic to be covered later here, but just as preview, use a postal state code in print only if it’s followed by a Zip Code.

In text, there are few good reasons to abbreviate. Spell it out; commonly or popularly used acronyms are exempt from the rule; remember that in dialogue, people do not speak in abbreviations. Think phonetically; sound it out; spell it out; if the abbreviation itself spells another word (figure, fig.; gallon, gal.), follow the abbreviation with a period to indicate that it is an abbreviation.

Quick Reference Rules:

1. In text, there are few good reasons to abbreviate. Spell it out.

2. Common acronyms (FBI, NATO) are exempt from the rule above.

3. Remember that in dialogue, people do not speak in abbreviations. Think phonetically; sound it out; spell it out.

4. If the abbreviation itself spells another word (figure, fig.; gallon, gal.), follow the abbreviation with a period.

Capitalization

The most common use of capital letters is to start a sentence. Almost without exception, every new sentence in every new paragraph of your story, article or book will start with a capital letter. When I qualify almost without exception, I’m not weaseling. Read on.

Capitals usually, though not always, are applied to proper names including names of people, names of well-known events (example: the World Series), and names of commercial products (trademarks or trade names—Coca Cola, Kleenex). The exception is when the personal name or the commercial name is written in all lower case by intent, by design, or by copyright. Certainly, the widespread use of all-lower-case company and site names on the Internet will get us accustomed to proper names written without benefit of capital letters.

One capitalization problem-word that springs to mind for me, though, one I have edited and corrected on occasions, is Catholic vs. catholic. The former, of course, relates to the religion; the latter means general or broad. (Example: He has catholic tastes in books, but collects histories of the Catholic Church.)

I know of only a few public