Category: Rules For Authors

Rules For Authors

Melodee’s Rules for Authors — Number Eleven

Number Eleven Most Promo Companies Only Promote Themselves This is not aimed at all promotional companies…just most of them. It is also not aimed at any particular company or companies…just general observations and comments. What is it that most of the promotional companies do? In a nutshell, they send out notices about your book…most of …

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Melodee’s Rules for Authors — Number Ten

Number Ten Generally Speaking, Writing Experts Aren’t I want you to think about something totally unrelated to writing for a minute… How many people are there professing they are “experts” in social media or search engine optimization (SEO) or various other subjects related to online marketing? Millions? More? Why are there so many? Because there …

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Melodee’s Rules for Authors — Number Nine

Number Nine Final Drafts Are Still Pretty Rough OK, maybe they’re REALLY rough. No matter how carefully you read your manuscript, there will be errors. Grammar, spelling, syntax, and all of the rest will creep in and entrench the errors so deep that you, as the writer, can’t even see them. Logic and flow errors …

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Melodee’s Rules for Authors — Number Eight

Number Eight Don’t Fear The Editors This Rule is a rough one for most writers, no matter if they are a seasoned professional author with decades in the business or if they are a new writer struggling with their first story. Editors can be intimidating, and that’s a good thing. It is the editor—at least …

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Melodee’s Rules for Authors — Number Seven

Number Seven Never Underestimate The Power Of The Backlist As frightening as it might be, some writers don’t even know what the backlist is. So, let me quote from Wikipedia… A backlist is a list of older books available from a publisher, as opposed to titles newly published (sometimes called the front list). Building a …

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Melodee’s Rules for Authors — Number Six

Number Six Odds Are The Style Manual Is Wrong Does anyone really know how many different style manuals are out there? It must be in the hundreds, if not thousands. Every major university has one. Every major publication has one. Pretty much every industry has their own. Some publishers have one they use that they …

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Melodee’s Rule for Authors — Number Five

Number Five Agents Who Represent Single Titles Instead Of The Author Are Con-Artists Do you have an agent? If no, you need to look into getting one. To make it to the real big time in the writing industry, you really need representation. Yeah, you can make some money on your own, but not much. …

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Melodee’s Rules for Authors — Number Four

Number Four If Your “Publisher” Wants Money, They Are A Printer, Not A Publisher See also Rules One, Two, and Three as they are closely related to this Rule. This Rule summarizes the previous three rather nicely. Honestly, this is just common sense, and needs very little in the way of expansion. On the other …

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Melodee’s Rules for Authors — Number Three

Number Three Never Pay For Cover Art See also Rules One, Two, and Four as they are closely related to this Rule. As outlined in Rule Number One, cover art is a part of the cost of doing business, but that cost belongs to the publisher, NOT the author. Just like with editing as detailed …

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Melodee’s Rules for Authors — Number Two

Number Two Never Pay To Have Your Book Edited See also Rules One, Three, and Four as they are closely related to this Rule. As outlined in Rule Number One, editing is a part of the cost of doing business, but that cost belongs to the publisher, NOT the author. The biggest reason is Rule …

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