Number Nineteen Between The Quotes, Grammar Doesn’t Count I’m a Grammar Nazi. I admit that freely and fully. Bad grammar—and other associated issues like slang, syntax errors, and all the rest—drive me absolutely bonkers. Ask my kids. But the simple fact of the matter is that between the quotes—that is to say, in dialog—grammar doesn’t …
Category: Rules For Authors
Rules For Authors
Feb 14
Melodee's Rules for Authors — Number Eighteen
Number Eighteen Never Listen To English Majors…Most Aren’t Published The short version of this is that an English major knows a lot about the English language, like how to build a proper sentence, but by and large, they don’t know jack-shit about how to write a book people want to pay for and read. Now, …
Feb 07
Melodee's Rules for Authors — Number Seventeen
Number Seventeen Family Comes First…Most Of The Time Family is very important, and there is no denying that. In your day-to-day life, no matter what your occupation is, family should come first. But, just like if you’re a firefighter, police officer, military member, banker, lawyer, machinist, bus driver, or flipping burgers at the local fast …
Jan 31
Melodee's Rules for Authors — Number Sixteen
Number Sixteen Good Books Take Time This is an important rule and it applies 100% of the time. The question is, “How much time?” Well, that part gets a little fuzzy. The real answer is that a good book takes as much time as it needs. Not a moment less, and not a second longer. …
Feb 22
Melodee’s Rules for Authors — Number Fifteen
Number Fifteen Agents Only Care If Your Current Book Sells Also see Rule Number Fourteen. Just like publishers, traditional agents only care about your current book. That’s all. On the other hand, a representative cares about all of your books—past, current, and future—and about you as a professional in order to reach their goals. It …
Feb 15
Melodee’s Rules for Authors — Number Fourteen
Number Fourteen Publishers Do Not Care If You Succeed This is a sad fact of the publishing industry. What the publishers care about—and the ONLY thing they care about—is if your latest release succeeds. There are a few publishers who worry about your backlist sales success (see Rule Number Seven) because backlist sales can make …
Feb 08
Melodee’s Rules for Authors — Number Thirteen
Number Thirteen Your Great New Title Is Already Taken Titles are a problem for all authors. You want a title that will say something about the story and catch the potential buyer’s attention. Sometimes, that’s hard to do and most of us struggle as much with the title as we do with the story itself. …
Feb 01
Melodee’s Rules for Authors — Number Twelve
Number Twelve As Soon As A Book Is Released, You Will Find 100+ Editing Errors Murphy’s Law: If anything can go wrong, it will. O’Toole’s Corollary: Murphy was an optimist. Yes, Murphy is alive and well. He works in the publishing business. Just a couple of my own experiences in this area… I once released …
Jan 18
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 …
Jan 11
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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