Last week here, I presented the parts of a book which appear in the front of the book. Today, we look at the elements which make up the back matter. After the last page of the manuscript’s text, pagination continues in numerical sequence into the back matter. The front matter is paginated using lower roman numerals, however, the back matter is not. The specific elements… [Read More]
Coaching a writer to become an author involves more than writing. I’ve had the good fortune to work with writers for 30 years and I’ve discovered one secret to an author’s success that has nothing to do with their writing talents: professional behavior. I see too many good writers make mistakes without knowing they inflict self-injury to their publishing efforts. Here’s a list of things… [Read More]
Go ahead, file your complaints! Starting now, we’ll be blogging only once a week here. And we’ll be posting on Friday mornings instead of Saturday. Swenson Book Development llc provides custom services to a select clientele and this change in blogging schedule reflects our commitment to serve these authors first and foremost. We plan to continue to provide helpful information and links to resources to… [Read More]
Saving history one story at a time, Military Writers Society of America is a national organization dedicated to helping veterans, their families, and historians inscribe the complexities of military life and encourage writing to heal. Membership is open to anyone interested in books about military issues and the experiences of men and women in uniform. Membership benefits include monthly dispatches, listings and reviews of your… [Read More]
Yesterday was a rough day for those whose online presence is the lifeblood of their business. Authors, included. Early on Friday, August 2nd, a datacenter in Provo, Utah, experienced an outage. Millions of sites came crashing down. Including this one. Perhaps yours, too. Endurance International Group, the parent company of the largest webhosting firms BlueHost, GatorHost, HostMonsters, JustHost, and 50 others, experienced a cascading crash… [Read More]
Facebook is important to your marketing strategy, but don’t use Facebook to sell books. Facebook is an online site that extends your social networks beyond face-to-face interaction. Despite the IPO (initial public offering) of Facebook and many attempts to monetize the site, most users ignore commercial advertising on the site. Don’t think of Facebook as a megaphone to try to sell your books or you’ll… [Read More]
Kindness becomes weakness as boys become men in a place where violence is the solution to every problem. In Shawn Goodman’s new novel, 15-year-old James finds himself in an upstate detention center after his brother recruited him into drug trafficking. It’s a coming of age story set in a second chances plot. More Fight Club than Catcher in the Rye, Kindness for Weakness captures the… [Read More]
Memoir is a genre of non-fiction written in the first person about a slice of life. There are subgenres of memoir and literary narrative non-fiction with which a writer should know and see where their own writing fits. These subgenres are rather fluid and change across time with readers’ interests and current trends. Celebrity, athletic, political or public figure Travel Spiritual Food Grief Farmsteading Mommy… [Read More]
The 29th Austin Jewish Book Fair was held October 28 through November 1 at the Dell Jewish Community Campus. It was a pleasure to sit with my “sistahs” again at the fair (Sisterhood members of Congregation Agudas Achim), but the contrast between last year and this was noticeable. Last year the fair opened with the book lover’s luncheon, and this year it closed with it,… [Read More]
Should the “f” in Facebook be capitalized? The icon, logo and brand identity of this popular social networking site use the lowercase letter. Brilliant marketing by breaking the style rule. But what is a copyeditor to do? Of course, I googled it. (Notice as a verb, Google is not capitalized). My research revealed lots of posts and comments regarding the marketing genius behind NOT capitalizing Facebook…. [Read More]
