The Motivational Editor

Helping Writers Go from Unpublished to Published

Debra

7 Manuscript Formatting Programs

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Formatting programs for book publishing

Writers ask lots of questions, and the writing community pays it forward quite well.

I see many questions on a regular basis. One is “what program do you use to format your manuscript?” These writers aren’t talking about how to format their manuscript for presenting to agents, editors, or publishers, but programs to format the manuscript for actual book publishing.

Amazon accepts several file formats for ebooks. Here’s a list. Now that they accept epub files, writers don’t have to fret over converting their files to mobi. That makes things a lot easier!

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Scaling the Cliff aka Starting Again

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Starting again
Image by Aravind kumar from Pixabay

Last year while I was stumbling around in the midst of having my blog shifted to a new domain, my blog fell off the cliff.

In early 2020, I decided to shift my writing website from one domain to another. I hired Marta Goertzen (Trail Guide Webworks) to do all the migrating and such, and just as she got started the world went into COVID lock down.

Long story short, Marta hit some snags, and it took months to resolve because of the lock down. During this migration time, I got out of the habit of writing 2-3 posts a month and failed at starting again.

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Getting Your Debut Book Published

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MJ Scholz, a good friend of mine and part of my writers critique group, just published her debut book, Connecting Colors, Feelings, and Words. I’m so excited for her because this book was 2 years in the publishing process—from contract to finished book, with lots of questions in between! This unique children’s book—a coloring book with a purpose— took a lot of work from start to finish, but its a terrific book!

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Doing Research for Your Book

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Doing research for your book

Doing research for your book isn’t restricted to those who write nonfiction. It’s just as essential for fiction, even more so if you are writing historical fiction or have set the story in a region of the world you are unfamiliar with.

Later this month, I’ll be making a trek to Montana for just this purpose. I need to get more familiar with Montana because that is the setting for my Her Inheritance series. When I started book one, I visited the Montana tourist bureau online and requested items they offered for free. I got more than I expected, and it included a detailed map of Montana that I have referenced many times as I’ve been writing.

So this prompts the question, How do you do book research?

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The Eternal Perspective on Building a Platform

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concert platform

Updated August 16, 2021.

You mean I have to build a platform at the same time as I write my book? you ask.

Yes.

And as I look at what September, October, and November hold for me—teaching at 3 writers conferences, a trip for book research, finishing book 2 of my Her Inheritance series, maintaining two blogs, launching new CrossRiver books, and somewhere in between all that, paying the bills, cooking meals, shopping for groceries, doing laundry, and keeping my apartment clean—I totally understand the writer’s dilemma of finding time not only to write, but also to build one’s platform.

The publishing world demands authors have a platform. Without it, it’s almost impossible to get picked up by a traditional publisher. They want those numbers up in the thousands, because after all, those numbers represent potential book buyers, and for most publishers that’s really what it’s all about—selling books.

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Quoting the Bible – Doing It Correctly

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Quoting the Bible is a frequent occurrence for Christian writers. But do you know your limits on what you can quote, understand how to format your verse(s), and the know the copyright credit you must give?

As I edit writers’ manuscripts, I find errors in all these areas, so let’s dive in and look at each one.

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Has Your Story Time Line Jumped the Tracks?

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Train engine has crashed through a building. Keeping your time line on the tracks.

Updated July 5, 2021

Have you ever been reading a story and suddenly found yourself saying, “Wait a minute, in that last chapter spring was just beginning and now suddenly it’s wintertime?”

I know I have. And it’s like a train crashing through the middle of the story.

Sometimes it’s not that stark, but I notice when things are out of sync even by mere hours. Yes, that can be drawback in my pleasure reading, but in editing, this ability to track the story’s time line is an asset.

Not all stories are this linear, but most are. And whether you are aware of it, you track the story time line as you read. Even movies give us clues as to the passing of time—usually through a night scene that transitions to a day time scene.

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Creating Your Story World

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Creating Your Story World with author Jane M. Tucker

(Updated June 2021).

Jane M. Tucker is the author of the Lottie Braun series, which released as a kindle box set earlier this month. Janes series came about much like my own–unintentionally. The series includes Lottie’s Gift, Lottie’s Hope, and Lottie’s Freedom.

Jane is a lifelong reader and writer who has a deep love for the art of storytelling. And that storytelling carries us along effortlessly in the story of Lottie Braun.

Jane hails from Kansas and blogs weekly at Postcards from the Heartland about her life in the Midwest.

Grab a cup of coffee or your favorite herbal tea and sit back for a marvelous interview as she tells us how she created the oh-so-real and engaging stories of the Lottie Braun series.

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