Size Matters with Bar Codes on Books

I don't mean to scare you, but publishing a book yourself takes you out of the realm of writer and into a new business as fraught with dangers as a war zone. One such minefield concerns what appears on your book's cover. No, I'm not talking about the front of the cover this time as previously. I've hit that topic every year: 2004, 2005, 2006.

On the back of your book, in addition to an enticing blurb and endorsements, certain information is required so that others can order and sell your book. These items are generally referred to as the "bar code". Yes, literally a bar code like the ones that appear on products in the grocery stores. This one, however, is the Bookland EAN, a series of electronically readable bars and numbers incorporating the book's 13-digit ISBN and often the book's price. For background and details about this bar code, see the Book Industry Study Group.

Book cover designer Cathi Stevenson offers an article focusing on issues about the size of the bar code in The Truth About Bar Codes--Size Matters. She warns:

It should also be noted that Barnes and Noble will not accept books from small publishers that do not comply with their format, which is slightly smaller, although it's always better to cover all basis and go with the larger format, and the following is from the Barnes and Noble website.

Editor's Bugaboos in Writing

When clients send me documents for editing, I always warn them that not all editors are created equal. We don't agree on every element. We have individual quirks, mainly in our notions of what constitutes good/bad creative writing. If the writing must follow a particular style guide, then that is the reference I'll use in editing. However, left to my own preferences and in ambiguous situations where style guides conflict, these elements I will usually flag as needing elimination or rewriting:

* the verb to be
* sentences beginning with "there [to be]"
* passive construction
* avoidable ellipses and dashes

"Why?" braver clients whine. Depending on what kind of a day the editor is having, the response may range from "because I say so" to an explanation that using strong, action verbs and sentences causes clearer, more colorful, exciting or readable writing. If the document under scrutiny is for business, ellipses and dashes have no business in the text, anyway. Academic writing is another animal entirely with its own restrictions and formats. My thesis chair described that form of writing as "constipated".

Time and Dates for Writers

What time is it?

Digital clocks might label noon "12:00 PM" and midnight "12:00 AM", but this is incorrect, and readers might be confused. It is better to simply write "noon" or "midnight" when that's what you mean. "AM" comes from the Latin phrase "Ante Meridiem", meaning "before noon". "PM" is the abbreviation for "Post Meridiem", meaning "after noon". In formal writing it is still preferable to capitalize them, but the lower case "am" and "pm" are gaining in popularity and use.

What's the date?

"A.D." means anno domini ("in the year of the Lord" or the year Jesus was born). It isn't an abbreviation for "after death". "B.C.", however does stand for the English phrase "before Christ". Coming into more popular use are the terminologies used by academics and archeologists, B.C.E. "before the Common Era" and C.E. "the Common Era". As with the abbreviations designating time, these can also be used in lower case.

Whichever format you choose, be consistent throughout a piece of writing, as I hope I have been about punctuation inside and outside quotation marks. (I choose to follow the rule of letting the punctuation appear with its logical content.)

Books for Writers

One of the most spot-on listing of resource books for both fiction and nonfiction writers is Lisa Gates' Top Ten Books for Writers from her blog, "design your writing life". Indeed, many of her selections appear on my Amazon Wish List and my Listmania, which you can see in my Amazon Profile . Hmm. It appears that I should update some of the selections. The 2008 editions are probably becoming available.

Duct Tape Your Halloween

"There's Nothing Duct Tape Can't Do!" according to the Duct Tape Guys (and please note: that is not duck tape.) Straight from the website, some funny writing and an even funnier video:

Jim and I always loved Halloween - it's the only time of year when people don't stare at us and think we are dressed strangely. And, having raised five kids between the two of us, we have a lot of Trick-Or-Treating under our belts (yes, that Halloween candy may have added some to our expanding middle-aged girth as well). At any rate... here are some of our favorite Halloween Costume Ideas using Duct Tape. For even more than what's listed here, check out our Halloween Costume Video.

Virtual Book Touring How-To

Several times I've written about virtual books, signings and tours, even hosted a touring guest recently. However, I've neglected to direct your attention to a great resource on how to arrange a virtual book tour. Book Authors Tour the World with Virtual Book Tours by Cheryl Kaye Tardif, author of Whale Song, in John Kremer's blog about marketing bestsellers explained the process. Tardif provided multiple links to services, sites and other resources to assist the neophyte virtual traveler. She offered detailed, step-by-step instructions -- way too much to even try to recap here.

The author prepared this article after completing a successful one-month virtual book tour. She wrote from first-hand experience. In a reply to an anonymous skeptical comment, Tardif said, "I found that it was a wonderful way to connect with readers, and I tried to make my VBT exciting and fun for everyone."

Yoga for Writers' Block

Let's see if I can get my mind in gear today to contribute something useful, especially because I missed writing on Writer's Block earlier in the week. Yoga exercises are another technique for relieving the types of blocks that come when you've sat too long, staring at a blank page or the computer screen. Blood pools in our feet, breathing may slow or become shallow with anxiety, muscles go slack (or worse, cramp). The body pumps out stress chemicals which do not enhance creativity.

Yoga asanas (poses) involve gently stretching out muscles and adopting body positions we might not ordinarily assume. The benefits for a blocked writer are relaxation of any built-up bodily tension and getting the blood circulating better, especially to bring oxygen to the brain. You also simply get a break and interrupt a negative pattern of behavior (remember developing habits?) Gioya (pronounced Joya) McRae, a black writer who bills herself as "Mocha Mind", blogs at Writer Outta My Mind. In her post, Yoga for Writers, she suggests three poses to help keep "hands, arms, eyes, and mind, in top writing shape":

Downward Dog Pose: This pose stretches muscles and tendons in wrists, arms, shoulders, and back, as well as legs. Begin on your knees with palms on the floor in front of you. Slowly raise your rear, while pushing your heels into the floor, and hold for as long as possible.

Warrior Pose: This pose calls on your balance, while stretching palms and forearms. Stand with your legs wide apart, and stretch arms out to either side. Palms should be parallel to the floor.

Eye Exercises: Focus on a point middle distance away from you. Without moving your head, move your eyes to the top left corner of your periphery. Return to center, refocus your eyes, and blink several times. Repeat with top right, bottom left, and bottom right corners. End by closing eyes for a few minutes to relax.

Blogs for Aspiring Writers

Bear with me for another day of conflagration crisis mode. I'm still in my home, but the threat to my community is somewhat less as the weather conditions improve a bit.

Here's another post about a compilation of resources for writers. I'm not certain who runs the Online Education Database, but I discovered A Writer's Edge listed as number four on its 150 Useful, Educational, and Inspirational Blogs for Aspiring Writers.

What do they say about this place? "Write, write correctly, write anything!". Well, thanks for the plug, OEDB folks, back atcha!

Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites

Last week we looked at 100 More Tools, and today it is Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites. These are a gift from PC Magazine. Some are humorous, others technical and limited to a particular system or gizzie, but many appear to have the potential for being a resource for writers, especially for researching. Now, I must admit, my favorite is I Can Has Cheezburger?, but after the harrowing time I spent yesterday on the verge of evacuation, I feel entitled to all the comic relief I can find.

About the fires? Oh. Officials say the worst may be yet to come. Stay tuned. I'm trying to hang loose. Thanks for every comment and personal email. I'm still in my home, still threatened, and there's no comfortable place to go (all hotels full).

Writing About Wildfire

For my birthday yesterday, I got great fires! It's almost the fourth anniversary of the terrible Cedar fire that killed several people and destroyed much property, including 10 homes in my community. The fire burned within two blocks of my house that year.

I've been sneezing for 14 hours. Last night, Ramona, a quaint town of 36,000 people, was evacuated. This Witch fire (named for a creek) started in the same region as the Cedar fire, split into two parts around Ramona again, and one of them is headed for my community, just like four years ago. Only the timing differs. I was up all night with maps and TV, trying to gauge the course and speed of the flame wall and whipping embers. Hurricane-force (75 mph) Santa Ana winds are pushing the burns quickly from the mountains to the coast (west). It jumps highways, sometimes sparking again a mile away. I saw 200-foot high flames jumping up and licking at the stars.

When live coverage began again at 4 a.m., we learned we have eight fires burning San Diego County from the north boundary with Riverside across the border into Mexico. It's as if a god dropped a handful of burning matchsticks on this county which is the size of the state of Connecticut. The winds didn't calm down over night as they usually do. By now my throat hurts, my eyes burn -- and my windows are closed! The temperature is expected to hit 94 degrees here near the coast. Humidity is 12% and less. All night I debated evacuating myself to a motel with air conditioning to relieve my allergies as well as the anxieties. The fire moves so fast, authorities sometimes can't get the word out to evacuate fast enough ... and one admitted they didn't want everyone to leave at once. Where would we go, anyway?

In addition to the smaller evacuations near the border, fire officials just called for everyone between I-5 and I-15 north of SR 56 and south of Lake Hodges/Del Dios Road to get out, run for your lives. That's a huge amount of people and some of the most expensive homes in the area -- Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Santa Fe, Olivenhain and Fairbanks Ranch. That means the roads are gridlocked, so when/if they call for Tierrasanta to evacuate, we won't be able to get out. The community is a cul-de-sac anyway, but fire can come at us easily from three sides. Stay tuned.

Punctuation and Quotations

The rhyming title was not deliberate on my part. I try for succinct declarations about the content of posts, not always with an eye to attracting search engines (but sometimes). Beginning writers and English learners are often befuddled as to where to place closing punctuation marks when associated with quotation marks. Quotation marks (or "quotes" as is often heard) can delineate a quotation, but they have other uses as I just illustrated. The previous sentence could be written with the expression as is often heard set off by commas, but where would you place the first one--inside or outside the second quotation mark? (Answer: outside.)

Let's see what the GrammarCheck people say. They have three rules about quotation marks and punctuation marks. I find the lack of reference to a period puzzling:

Rule #1: Place colons and semicolons outside (or after) quotation marks.

Rule #2: Place question marks, dashes, and exclamation points inside (or before) question [sic] marks if they are part of the quoted text.

Rule #3: Place question marks, dashes, and exclamation points outside (or after) quotation marks if they are NOT part of the quoted text.

I'm pretty certain they meant to write "quotation" instead of "question" in the second rule where I have noted a possible error.

Basically, the placement of punctuation in relation to the latter set of quotation marks usually depends upon whether or not the punctuation is part of the wording inside the quotation marks. If it is, place it inside. If it ends the phrase or sentence, outside. I can't think of an example where the period would be correctly placed inside the last quotation mark. Can you?

How to Read a Book

Bonnie Boots rooted out a perfect video for writers, especially authors, at YouTube. See Help Desk Matters | The Internet Wizards Blog for an hilarious lesson on "How to Read a Book".

100 More Freelancers' Tools

Gems from the email bag:

Hi Georganna,

We recently published The 100 Tools Freelancers Can't Live Without. I figured I'd bring it to your attention in case you think your readers would find it useful.

Either way, keep up the great blogging!

Cheers,

Rich McIver

Writing for Book Packagers

Can't get an agent? Disappointed about recurring rejections of your novel? There's another way to write a book and perhaps attain a byline. Sneak in the back door by writing for book packagers. I personally know two novelists who write books that others conceive--one westerns, the other action thrillers--and receive authorship credits as well as pay. Sometimes they write under pen names and are prohibited from talking about their work. Often packagers fulfill publishers' intentions for a specialty book or a series, finding writers, editors, graphic artists and designers to assemble the final product and deliver it as a turnkey project to the publisher.

You can apply directly to the packagers for consideration, but I must admit they like people who bring some expertise (education, experience), especially for textbook writing. The writer must fit the book in consideration, so be prepared to market yourself with vigor. This is the time to apply the catch phrase "shameless self-promotion". Find packagers through Internet search engines or by reading publishing industry newsletters and magazines. The American Book Producers Association also maintains a directory.

Participate in Writing

You can interpret this title in several equally applicable ways. One was demonstrated on Oct. 15 with the Blog Action Day post. Another is way is simply to participate in writing, by writing. The act of writing can be therapeutic to the self and/or beneficial to others. The type of participatory writing I have in mind, however, happens when the writer takes part in the subject/event/topic being written about. This could get a little dicey for murder and horror writers, so don't get carried away like the Mexican Arrested in Dismemberment Case.

When I was writing a novel with occult elements, in addition to research, I performed some of the tamer rituals with benign intent. Summoning up feelings a character might experience enabled me to write more effectively. Similarly for articles I've gone to sea with treasure divers and on a mercy mission with the Coast Guard, meditated walking on a path Franciscan friars traveled before the this country existed, eaten rattlesnake and wild foods, watched a recovery of drowning victims' bodies, and had many other experiences most people don't ordinarily take part in.

The saddest example was writing the obituary for a friend. I like to think that event is balanced by my documentation of the joyful natural birth of my first child. Women can totally participate! As long as it injures no one or you understand any risks you might be taking, I encourage you to get out and experience in person, in reality. Your writing will take on more vivid hues and a depth not possible otherwise.

Use Discussion Groups Effectively

One of many tactics to promote yourself and/or market your writing is to participate in discussion groups. These are variously called forums, boards and lists. They evolved from the first Internet groups, listserves and BBS (bulletin board systems). Guerilla marketer Jay Conrad Levinson
says, "Discussion group participation is the most effective way to locate and develop a relationship with your online customers."

Find groups appropriate to your writing specialty. Look for ones that attract the readers you want to reach: horror, biography, fantasy, education, romance, etc. Plug your topic and "groups" into any search engine, or better, visit the directories for the biggies, Google Groups and Yahoo Groups. You may have to register first.

Once you're in some groups, DO NOTHING for several visits. Observe the topics, interplay, and others' signatures. Your signature will be your opportunity to advertise your book, services or other product. Never use the body of a message to advertise! This activity is an investment requiring time and willingness to "give away" some of your expertise. Start responding to topics with thoughtful offerings. If you don't have an answer to a question or something pertinent to say, keep quiet, at least until the others get to know you and recognize your name/photo/avatar. Hit and run tactics don't work in discussion groups, neither does barging in with mouth blazing or an authoritative attitude. Humor always helps.

Get Journalism Jobs

One of my favorite resources for jobs in journalism has been Ed2010.com. The site does not limit itself to newspaper-type journalism, however. See Ed2010 | Next stop: Your magazine dream job for tips on dealing with all types of editors and job hunting. Writer's Digest editor Maria Schneider discovered the site and praised it in a blog post, saying:

Ed is a collective of young magazine editors (and wannabe magazine editors) who have created this website to help young journalists get jobs, mentors, and support, both emotional and financial....One of my favorite things on their site, though is their 60-minute mentor program, in which they attempt to match you (the just-starting-out journalist, job seeker) up with a working magazine editor for a 60-minute conversation.

I think the most useful section is the detailed job listings, called Whisper Jobs for a good reason. Most real and good employment opportunities aren't advertised. You hear about them by word-of-mouth and get them often by recommendation.

Writing on Blog Action Day

GEORGANNA & THE ENVIRONMENT

1960s

Soon after I started married life in 1965, I began paying attention to the impact my purchases had on the environment. It didn't take me long to begin preaching water conservation, eschewing disposable paper anything, and disapproving the use of plastics. Avoiding synthetic fibers and advocating natural foods quickly followed, especially when I had a baby. My peers thought I was weird. O.K., so maybe I was a little misguided on a couple of points, like not using paper products so much.

1970s

One of my first freelance magazine sales was an article about the comeback of the brown pelican. The bird species almost died out from people's use of DDT. There followed a string of environmentally-oriented successes about the land, water and other natural resources for magazines about outdoors topics. I did not limit my creations to nonfiction, either, winning a spot on the cover of "Living Off the Land" with a poem.

1980s

By this time, the Back to the Land movement caught my fascination. I had all of Euell Gibbons' books (and still do, although they're pretty useless in California!) I was firmly in the conservation/ecology/environmentally-sensitive pocket. My car's back windows were littered with decals from supportive organizations. I moved to California and joined the Sierra Club.

An so on. An old friend paid me a great compliment years later. She said, "Georganna, we thought you were so weird, but you were just 20 years ahead of your time!"

Folks, our time is now. And it's green. Do all you can, and write about it.

Find Book Agents Fast

Book Connector is a site that helps you to find book promotion resources on the Internet that are a good match for your book. The featured service, Connect to Book Review Sites, matches a book's genre and other characteristics to online book review sites that are most appropriate. The website offers a free basic service and a more advanced level for a fee.

According to Paul Petrucci, founder of Book Connector, the gunshot approach to requesting reviews wastes time, energy and money: "... authors have limited copies of their books to give away. They have to pick the few, critical sites that match their book characteristics (ARC vs published, e-book vs printed book, etc.), genre, willingness to accept small press or self-published books, and enjoy a large enough readership to make an impact. Their dilemma is they don't have time to read a hundred submission guidelines on a hundred web sites."

Book Connector's service solves this problem by intelligently matching a book's characteristics to the submission guidelines of over 500 book review sites. In addition to returning a list of appropriate book review sites, the service marks the ones that give interviews and post book signings and reading events. "Authors save time sending review requests to those reviewers who will give them the best bang for their book," Petrucci said. "And since authors themselves make the decision, they keep control of their campaigns."

Napkin Fiction

I could scarcely believe Esquire's Napkin Fiction Project.

We put 250 napkins in the mail to writers from all over the country--some with a half dozen books to their name, others just finishing their first. In return, we got nearly a hundred stories. We present most of them here--from lush to spare, hilarious to terrifying.

Freelancing Takes Discipline

You gotta love the freelance writing life! No clock to punch. No dress code. No one telling you what to do. Freedom to goof off if you feel like it. Who wouldn't want the good life? And it is a good life, make no mistake. It can have all these bennies and more.

Just like all the other freedoms adults enjoy, freelancing has its flip side, where responsibilities rest. First, it is a business which means keeping track, keeping records, keeping financially afloat and paying taxes (if you earn enough). No one else is going to perform all these business-related tasks for you, unless you hire them. And then you have to pay them, and with what? Well, the fruits of your labors, of course, when you choose to work.

But where does the work come from when you have no boss? Another catch! You must promote yourself and market your skills, go out and find the jobs. They won't come to you, usually. Or you must sell your creations, and see to it that you are paid so you can pay your bills. When you develop the discipline to operate your freelance writing business effectively, you just might find yourself working more than ever before.

Listen to the Writers

Like to listen to authors talk about themselves, their writing and sometimes read from their works? Then you'll love the unedited full Don Swaim recordings available at Wired for Books. Swaim worked with CBS in New York, which broadcast monthly two-minute excerpts from 1982-1993. You can also hear them at Book Beat. The Wired for Books MP3 Page: Essays, Interviews, Stories, Plays, and Poems contains priceless materials, too. It's a free service of the WOUB Center for Public Media at Ohio University.

Google Spells for Writers

This close to Halloween forgives any misunderstandings -- I am not referring to incantations or magic you can perform with Google products, although I've see mysterious search strings produce fantastic results. I am referring to literal spelling help via the Google tool bar. See? There! It just did it. I typed "toolbar", being prone to iSpeak, and a faint dotted red line appeared under the word as I am creating this message within a posting box at Blogger. If I right click on the underlined word, I am presented with a menu of actions and suggested variants or correct spelling. Something similar happens automatically when I key a word into the Google tool bar's search window within my browser. In this case, I'm using the one for Firefox, but Google also provides a version for Internet Explorer and a few other browsers/systems, including Mac OS X 10.2+ and Linux. I didn't even know about this spelling feature when I downloaded the program, but it is listed along with many others. I just love it. I think it is better than sliced bread!

Reading in Stores for Writer's Block

When you have Writer's Block, especially the "no idea at all!" type, treat yourself with a dose of reading. Read anything and everything, not necessarily about writing. Reading something from which you learn is especially helpful, but whatever you choose, it should be an enjoyable experience. One method to accomplish this has a bonus: visit a big book store, the type that also has a newsstand. Read some of the books, but also look through a few magazines. Maybe buy a different newspaper and read all of it. Leads for articles or bookish thoughts will creep insidiously into your mind and wrap themselves around your creativity, waking it from slothful slumber.

And you can people-watch! See what others are reading. Maybe strike up a conversation with someone who looks like a fellow scribbler. Even if they aren't writers, chances are they'll have interesting stories to tell. One of them could become the nubbin of a story you'll tell. And all because you went to read when you couldn't write.

Amazon's POD CreateSpace

As if one publish on demand service wasn't enough, last August Amazon.com began CreateSpace, which seems to be more for audio and video projects than the paperback book publishing they advertise. Apparently the only way to easily discover costs and benefits is to register and begin a project, although a FAQ exists specifically about books, and you might glean some insight from a pricing page. I love the example they use--a 100 B&W book priced at $25 "would earn a royalty of $14.85 per sale." Whee! Oh, wait--who would pay $25 for a 100-page trade paperback?

Currently free CreateSpace services are dangling before writers entering the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest:

the winning author will receive a publishing contract from Penguin Group, including promotional support for their book on Amazon.com, and a media suite from Hewlett-Packard. All entrants are eligible to self-publish their novel with CreateSpace and sell it on Amazon.com. Enter your manuscript for consideration by November 5, 2007!

An overview on the book service is available.

8 Facts About Me Meme

In the same week both Michele who is Writing the Cyber Highway and Matt the Writing Frump tagged me with the Eight Random Facts About Me meme. So, this is a twofer!

The Rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. List eight (8) random facts about yourself.
3. Tag eight people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving them a comment on their blogs.

Welcome to The Most Boring Post of all time:

1. Wherever I fall asleep, there I am when I wake up.
2. My feet are long and skinny.
3. I started kindergarten at age four.
4. My first pet was a black cocker spaniel, Spooky.
5. Time rushes past so fast that I expect to grow younger.
6. Agnosticism is my religion (karma ran over dogma).
   
7. I attended 7 grade schools.
   
8. Blue is my fave color.
   

Pass it on: John, Damian, Karen, Bonnie, Nicolle, Thorn, Pauline and Amanda. And that is the end of the tagging and memes for me, please!

Writers Make Up Words

Verbotomy! "Every day we create a new definition and matching cartoon. Your challenge is to create a word -- a verboticism -- that matches the definition. After you create your verboticism, you can vote for other authors's [sic] words to help select the winning verboticism for the definition."

When I visited, the word was:

EARJACULATE

DEFINITION: adj., Pertaining to the sound quality emanating from someone else's earbuds. n., Second-hand sound (i.e. previously heard), which has escaped from a headphone or other perso