Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion

Libby wrote: "Ken wrote: "I say they can take my comma when they pry it from my cold, dead hands."

OXFORD COMMA FOR LIFE. I have very strong feelings about this."

Me too!

As for having errors pointed out--I'm grateful. I may be slow in fixing them, but sooner or later I will do it.

For my part, I truly appreciate when readers for ARCs let me know about typos. Even copy editors miss things so thanks for those of you who let us know about mistakes.

Anna wrote: "As a new author, I am so hungry for reader feedback."

We all are even those of us who have multiple books out with multiple publishers so don't feel left out or ignored.

It doesn't happen often, but I love it if readers spot something my editor and copy editor miss...unless they tell me to get rid of Oxford commas in which case they are just plain wrong.

Nancy wrote: "It doesn't happen often, but I love it if readers spot something my editor and copy editor miss...unless they tell me to get rid of Oxford commas in which case they are just plain wrong."

Agreed. The Oxford comma eliminates a lot of misunderstanding for the reader. Without it, the last two elements are wedded to each other (sometimes that's the case and the comma is left out).

When I edit a manuscript, I'll insert the Oxford comma if the author has "forgotten" to use it. They can remove them at their own peril. :-D

Al "Tank" wrote: "Nancy wrote: "It doesn't happen often, but I love it if readers spot something my editor and copy editor miss...unless they tell me to get rid of Oxford commas in which case they are just plain wro..."

love my Oxford commas and the clarity they lend to the reading. When I'm editing, I slip them in when necessary. If the author chooses to remove them, that's his business.

I love my commas too. Commas - or the lack of them - can change the meaning of the sentence. They split a long sentence into digestable bits and add clarity.

What a relief to read this! Pretty new to this all still. A reviewer pointed out some mistakes in my first book and I've been beating myself up about it ever since! Getting second ready for publication and am still finding little problems. It's so frustrating to find mistakes even after three copy editors have reviewed it, but I guess this is normal. Have to take Susan's attitude about it. :)

As an independent author, I would appreciate typos pointed out to me, even if my book is already published. I can release a new edition later to make the fixes and stop losing sleep over knowing I have a book with errors. :)

I've altered my copy when I discovered typos or someone else did. It's one of the great things about self-publishing. You can upload a new file any time.

Isn't that what the ARC's are for. I handed them out and asked for people to pay attention for typos.

This is a great thread for pedants like me, and as someone above says, it's good to know other authors think punctuation matters. I stop reading novels if I start mentally correcting the author's grammar; it becomes so tiresome. My other beef is the misuse of 'lay' for 'to lie (down)'. Hens lay eggs, but they rarely do it on a bed. Oh, and when authors mistake closing speech marks ("") after the full-stop or comma when they are actually quoting a word or phrase - so the '' go inside the sentence. That really bugs me. "What a sad little person," do I hear you say? Yes, 'sad'.

Fellow pedant and word-lover, have you joined the language and grammar group on Goodreads? :)

J.G. wrote: "This is a great thread for pedants like me, and as someone above says, it's good to know other authors think punctuation matters. I stop reading novels if I start mentally correcting the author's g..."

I'm determined to remove punctuation errors - and others - from my writing. There are different schools of thought, and the Brits do it differently from the Americans, but a writer should pick one of the major systems, and then stick with it consistently.

It gets easier the more often you take the time to look up a usage you're not sure of. My reference is The Handbook of Good English, by Edward D. Johnson, plus a few choices of my own when he doesn't have a preference. It saves grief.

Only cause I don't know the answer, but once a book is released how hard is it to change spelling mistakes/typos? As I listen to books I hear typos I know most people's brain would auto correct, but when you hear against read you notice them, I'm not so pathetic to point the out....if fact I don't unless I'm BETA/ARC reading.... I am however aware of the little ***** that would pull an author up on it

J.G. wrote: "This is a great thread for pedants like me, and as someone above says, it's good to know other authors think punctuation matters. I stop reading novels if I start mentally correcting the author's g..." I am of a like mind with you. I have had to give up on a book or two because of very bad grammar and punctuation. The story lines of the books were wonderful but I just could not force myself through them. So sad.

Established standards and rules pertaining to writing and language are not the result of a whim. They have been developed, tested and improved upon over time. The vast majority of best-selling, commercially successful authors have adopted and utilized them to consistently produce quality books. Every author should strive to be unique and independent; however, they must also strive to continuously improve upon their technical writing and narration skills.

Karen *constant listener* yes a blind book listener, just love accessibility functions wrote: "Only cause I don't know the answer, but once a book is released how hard is it to change spelling mistakes/typos? As I listen to books I hear typos I know most people's brain would auto correct, bu..."

Traditionally published books are pretty stuck unless and until a second edition is released. Self-published (print on demand) books can upload a corrected MS any time, and have it live within a day.

Hi Rebecca, I thought that once an ISBN has been assigned to a book (on Createspace and Ingram), you cannot change the interior file unless you get a new ISBN and release a 2nd edition (book covers can be changed though). Have you been able to change the interior file?

I have no problem with it at all. However if the reader focuses solely on a couple of typos when reviewing and ignores the whole story, I have a problem with that. I've had people point out minor things and I've read books with minor typos or misspellings, etc. It happens. The nice thing about self-publishing is I can quickly and easily fix the problem and re-upload the book.

Marie wrote: "Hi Rebecca, I thought that once an ISBN has been assigned to a book (on Createspace and Ingram), you cannot change the interior file unless you get a new ISBN and release a 2nd edition (book covers..."

You can't change the number of pages or the cover, but you can make minor changes. I've even re-done the fonts so I could add a sample of the next book to the end of the first book after the fact :)

Thank you for the reply :) I did not know you could do that!

I found several typos after publishing. Some that were pointed out to me by friends and a couple by readers. even though i'd gone over the MS a hundred times and had it professionally edited, there were still typos. I had my inside formatter make the changes and she sent me a new file to upload.

Rebecca wrote: "Marie wrote: "Hi Rebecca, I thought that once an ISBN has been assigned to a book (on Createspace and Ingram), you cannot change the interior file unless you get a new ISBN and release a 2nd editio..."

Thank you! I have few typos, but one annoys me - I'd love to fix it.

Read just about any book from one of the big NY houses. You'll find a few copy editor errors in all of them. As long as your error rate is fairly low, no one will get excited about that except for a few anal personalities.

The only book I can remember reading that didn't have any grammar and punctuation errors was the Bible (they edit the "hell" out of it).

how do you deal with writer's block?

If you find out, tell me.

Al "Tank" wrote: "The only book I can remember reading that didn't have any grammar and punctuation errors was the Bible (they edit the "hell" out of it)."

Okay. This made me giggle. Just saying.

Hmm. I don't have a publisher or editor or anything, and just do it all myself (I know, I know, for shame!). So I LOVE it when readers let me know about typos and whatever else they find lurking around. Truthfully, I would appreciate it anyway. Oh, and I actually invite people to do that, because I think many would be afraid to offend, otherwise. But I'm totally not offend-able. *smirks*

I had one reader who emailed me asking if I'd like for her to make note of errors. I was like, "You totally don't have to, but, YESSSS! Of course!!!" She highlighted the shizz outta my little gremlin with a ton of comments, and sent it back to me. I am forever in her debt!!! She got a personal thank you in the book :D

As for writer's block. Heh. I've never had it before. Typically have the opposite problem. Like, right now I'm supposed to be writing book 2 and... *grins sheepishly* ...keep getting distracted by ideas for book 5. Have written two chapters for it already hahaha...haha...ha...for reals. I need help.

Hugs,
Ann

❄️Kavy etc. wrote: "how do you deal with writer's block?"

I have many projects going at once. If one is not flowing well, I jump to another.

I don't force my writing, I let it flow naturally. If I only do eighty words today, fine. Tomorrow I will likely do ten thousand.

If I need a three hour break to goof off, I do it.

I trust myself to know what I'm doing and don't give much thought to the reader. I write for myself.

Basically, I think writers that experience writer's block would see it go away if they boosted their self-confidence and stressed less about their writing.

Does any of this help? If not, could you explain what's going on? What are you working on and how stuck are you?

Bottom line and most important, writer's block will go away. It's not forever.

Annie wrote: "Al "Tank" wrote: "The only book I can remember reading that didn't have any grammar and punctuation errors was the Bible (they edit the "hell" out of it)."

Okay. This made me giggle. Just saying.
..."

Dwayne wrote: "❄️Kavy etc. wrote: "how do you deal with writer's block?"

I have many projects going at once. If one is not flowing well, I jump to another.

I don't force my writing, I let it flow naturally. If ..."

Denise wrote: "❄️Kavy Fullbuster❄️~ Sister of Percy Jackson, Twin sister of Natsu Dragneel, Wife of Gray Fullbuster (Anime Character), Anime is Life, I am NOT normal wrote: "how do you deal with writer's block?"
..."

Thanks

Dwayne wrote: "❄️Kavy etc. wrote: "how do you deal with writer's block?"

I have many projects going at once. If one is not flowing well, I jump to another.

I don't force my writing, I let it flow naturally. If ..."


I've been taking a break from my writing for a few months, because of school and stuff, and now that it's summer, I'm just now getting back into my writing. I've finished writing the 1st chapter, but I'm still working on the 2nd chapter. I am currently writing a book about the Mages. And I'm also trying to match up two of the characters together in the book, but I don't want to make it too romantic. Like I want them to be together, but I also want to stick to the plot, and I don't want the book, to be too much about the romance, if you know what I mean. And I also trying to make it a little emotional, so that it can affect the readers' emotions. And I am currently stuck on this one part in my book. This is my very first novel, so..

❄️Kavy Fullbuster❄️~ Sister of Percy Jackson, Twin sister of Natsu Dragneel, Wife of Gray Fullbuster (Anime Character), Anime is Life, I am NOT normal wrote: "how do you deal with writer's block?"

I have a few projects all in the air at the same time. So if I'm stuck on my domestic terrorism thriller (which I recently was), I go back to a fantasy short story about the dragon in my basement. If that doesn't help, I turn to my speculative fiction story about the young woman on a quest to retrieve a plant that will end her people's infertility. Changing gears like this almost always helps.

I have a general question for all other authors: What proportion of time do you spend on publicity?
Dennis via mybookchain

mybookchain wrote: "I have a general question for all other authors: What proportion of time do you spend on publicity?
Dennis via mybookchain"

A good question! Publicity/aka marketing can really eat up our time, but it's an important part of getting the word out there about our stories and books. I think I've spent as much time in the past week on publicity as I did writing my latest short story. It can be frustrating, but with the first few, it's all about getting your name out there.

It depends. If the book is just out, then you should PR a lot -- books are like yogurt, with a shelf life.
If you are writing, and you're hot -- if the Muse is with you and the words are pouring out onto the page -- then the hell with it. The Muse is not always going to be your best friend; when she moves on and gets back together with George RR Martin then your writing will be what they call the 'shitting a brick' process. And that'll be plenty of time for you to do PR.

I have a question due to the shock of what I learned yesterday from CreateSpace. I paid way more for my ISBN through Bowker than some other authors I know who paid a lot less, but I'm told do not own that ISBN. Yesterday, I asked about CreateSpaces' Distribution worldwide I agreed to and why weren't there any books in libraries, even the Library of Congress, which I thought all published books with an ISBN automatically went into. No so. It appears that because I chose to pay more to own my ISBN, my distribution did not include libraries or academic facilities. Did you know that?

I had the same thing happen to me and I'm trying to see what I can do about it. when I published my debut novel I had an author friend guide me. She told me to buy my own ISBN so that I would have complete control should I get picked up in the future by a publisher. I took her advice because all of her other guidance was golden. I wish I had looked into it further. I am eligible for all modes of distribution except the libraries. I called createspace to see what I can do and they said that I should publish the book with a new ISBN. Bothe would be for sale and they would be exactly the same but they would have different ISBN. I want to speak to them in more depth about this. Are the books linked? Does the book with the new ISBN get the rating the other one has or do I start from scratch with ratings and reviews? That all needs to be considered. Plus, can I leave the other book on all the other distribution sites and only put the new one on the library distribution?

How long does it take everyone to write a book? If you're writing a series, which one of the books ends up taking the longest? For me, the final book of my trilogy is taking the longest. Just curious :)

"If you are about to launch your book then you should be saying so on twitter on an hourly basis! "

I respectfully disagree with the 'hourly basis' part of this statement.
Nothing will make people turn away faster than authors hollering/reminding/nagging folks about their books. Put yourself in their shoes...what reaction would YOU have if someone ran up to you every hour clamoring about their book that is coming out or is for sale soon?
You'd turn away after awhile. It's an honest reaction.
Don't do it.

The wisdom of the better-selling than I says you should adopt an 80/20 approach on Twitter. 80% of the time you should be reaching out and making connections with others, WITHOUT pushing your book, and 20% of the time marketing your book.

You may have a fascinating and thrilling story, but if you drown your followers every hour shouting about it, no one will care after a day. They'll ignore you or drop you faster than you can say "But..."

There are a good many authors I have dropped from my Twitter feed because that's all they did, holler about their book every day, all day.
Your time would be better served trying to find those who would read your work. Not easy, but less offensive.
Just my two cents worth.

L.C. wrote: "How long does it take everyone to write a book? If you're writing a series, which one of the books ends up taking the longest? For me, the final book of my trilogy is taking the longest. Just curio..."

I know it takes me about an entire year from jotting the story down on paper, to the untold number of drafts and proofreading afterwards. That's why I'm working on two projects right now.

I agree, Carolyn. When you're on a forum discussing a topic trying to reach out and connect, and someone comes on and just says, 'Here's my book read it', or 'My book is coming out...', it's a big turn-off.

I can write pretty quick, but it is interesting to me that each book has taken me longer. The 1st and 2nd book took the same amount of time, but the 3rd took me much longer, and the fourth, twice as long as Book 3, haha. I find it amusing!

L.C. wrote: "How long does it take everyone to write a book?"

My first real novel will be out next month. I started working on it in May. So... just over three months?

Gippy wrote: "...why weren't there any books in libraries, even the Library of Congress, which I thought all published books with an ISBN automatically went into. No so. It appears that because I chose to pay more to own my ISBN, my distribution did not include libraries or academic facilities."

Effie wrote: "I am eligible for all modes of distribution except the libraries. ..."

Your ISBN doesn't include distribution anywhere. It's a unique number that's used in catalogs and databases to identify this edition of your book. That's all it's meant to be. Distribution is an entirely different matter.

Many outlets refuse to accept CreateSpace books because they know it's owned by Amazon. Others -- like Baker & Taylor, one of the largest library distributors -- refuse to accept indie-published books. That's a reason why your book isn't showing up in libraries.

The other reason is that you have to market to libraries, the same way you have to market to any other audience. This is harder because librarians have been slow to warm to indie publishing. Many won't look at any book that hasn't been reviewed in Library Journal or another of a very small number of review outlets, most of which won't look at indies. My original business plan included selling to libraries; I found out how hard that is.

I'm told it's getting easier for indies to get into libraries. I hope so. In the meantime, remember this has absolutely nothing to do with your ISBN.

Is it possible to formatize an eBook a bit differently from its print version? I have recently published my first book (poetry eBook) with Lulu but their acceptable fronts, headings and paging don't meet my initial pick. I published it with their acceptable formatting (in order for the book to be accepted on other online book stores, as they claim) but was wondering if can use my initial format with print version or I should keep it in line with its eBook.( Content is all the same)

Nizeyimana wrote: "Is it possible to formatize an eBook a bit differently from its print version? "

Not only is it possible, it's necessary in most cases. Remember that both MOBI and ePub are subsets of HTML; you can't do everything in an ebook that you can on a website, and certainly not everything you can in Word. This may become a problem for you if you use non-traditional typography or line formats in your poetry.

Depending on why Lulu changed your text block, you may want to investigate other POD services, such as Ingram Spark or CreateSpace. Unless you were going for an oddball form factor for your print book, I can't imagine why Lulu would change your fonts or headings.

The ebook format has to be completely different because it has to be flowable, i.e. the reader can set any font they like on their reader so you can't rely on things being in particular layouts as you would in a print book. Smashwords have a free guide to how to layout the book in Microsoft Word for electronic publication though you have to plough through as it isn't a simple checklist.

CreateSpace are the print arm of Amazon and may have a different approach to Lulu?

Pam wrote: "The ebook format has to be completely different because it has to be flowable, i.e. the reader can set any font they like on their reader so you can't rely on things being in particular layouts as ..."

Excellent comments in this thread. Very helpful. I have an illustrated children's picture book that I want to turn into an ebook - and a Print on Demand one too. Are there issues similar to the ones you have outlined that will occur with my images?

Dennis via mybookchain

Karen *constant listener* yes a blind book listener, just love accessibility functions wrote: "Only cause I don't know the answer, but once a book is released how hard is it to change spelling mistakes/typos? As I listen to books I hear typos I know most people's brain would auto correct, bu..."

There have been several good responses on this thread. It's true that if you have a Bowker ISBN number, you have to get a new ISBN number for the edited version of the book. That's one of the reasons I have chosen not to use their ISBN numbers. That and they are a bit expensive.

Amazon, Createspace, and Smashwords will allow you to put up a newly edited version of a book as many times as you need to without having to have a new ISBN number.

The hardest part is going back in to fix the errors, trust me, I know. I have found that using Grammarly.com and Natural Reader have helped me catch a lot of errors before and after I've published. Hope this helps.

mybookchain wrote: "Pam wrote: "The ebook format has to be completely different because it has to be flowable, i.e. the reader can set any font they like on their reader so you can't rely on things being in particular..."

If you follow the Smashwords guidelines for formatting to the letter, it will work. IIRC (I have one picture book out, but it's several years ago now), I had to use a lower-resolution version of the photos in the ebook to make sure it would work on any device. Main thing I remember: never, ever, size an image by grabbing the corners of the box in Word and dragging. Set the image size and leave it, and I'm pretty sure the ebooks will make it fit on a page. Otherwise--a mess.

L.C. wrote: "How long does it take everyone to write a book? If you're writing a series, which one of the books ends up taking the longest? For me, the final book of my trilogy is taking the longest. Just curio..."

I'm only on the third chapter of my first book rn, and I started writing it in february. I might publish it later, after I'm done with it, but it might take some time to finish it, because of school and stuff, and this is my first book with chapters, so I might need a little help, and feedback, I'd written some short stories for school, and stuff, and I'm taking Creative Writing next year, but I've never actually written a book with chapters before until now.

Do you guys ever listen to music while you write sometimes? And what was it like when you first started writing your first novel?