Category: Rules For Authors

Rules For Authors

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 Rules for Authors — Number Five

Number FiveAgents That 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. (While …

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Melodee’s Rules for Authors — Number Four

Number FourIf 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 hand, …

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Melodee’s Rules for Authors — Number Three

Number ThreeNever 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 in …

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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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Melodee’s Rules for Authors — Number One

Since we are starting over on a new website and blog, I decided to reset my Rules for Authors back to the beginning so as to keep things straight. Please feel free to comment…I may or may not answer, but I do read every comment. I more or less have to since most are held …

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