Nink Archives

June 5, 2020 by Laura Resnick

Nink: Be Your Own PR Person ~ The Real Secret To Writing A Good Press Release

This article, written by Michele Dunaway is from the June 2020 edition of Nink, the monthly newsletter of Novelists, Inc. (NINC). Nink, which is packed each month with informative articles for career novelists, is a benefit of NINC membership.

In a previous installment, we worked on the idea of your “Home Base” or your key message. This concept revolves around the idea that you don’t have to hire an expensive public relations firm to be able to stay on message with the media, and that with a little work, you can develop and disseminate your own talking points.

In this article we’re going to focus on what really matters when you write a press release. What we won’t focus on is stuff you can learn when you go online and Google “press release samples.” When you do that, dozens of images are going to pop up and they will tell you exactly what needs to go where. They’ll tell you what you need to include and give you sample formats where you can slot your words right into the fields of headlines and body copy and contact information. Easy peasy. Poof.

You’re done… only to have your hard work sent off and immediately deleted and discarded. After all, how many pieces of email come into your inbox only to be deleted unread? How many newsletters do you send to your readers that do not get opened, or if opened, are not really read or converted into sales?

Before we go on, I’m going to send you to this site. Seriously. Go read it. Or give it a quick skim.

While all that information is relevant and important, you probably overlooked one line that seemed like a throwaway: “Don’t waste the journalist’s time with a long-winded, self-absorbed introduction to yourself or your business. They probably don’t care.”

I’m going to repeat that last part: “They probably don’t care.” It’s tough to hear, but true.

What’s in it for them?

I ask my high-school journalists two critical questions when I’m coaching them on writing their news and feature stories: “Are you bored writing this?” and “Why should the reader care?”

Think about it. Every year there is a homecoming dance. Every year there’s a varsity football team. Every year there are final exams. School starts sometime in August. Graduation is always the first Saturday of May. For 17 years, I’ve guided my students through the creation of award-winning yearbooks. We know, every year, we’re going to cover the exact same stuff.

So do newspapers. There will be the sweet stories published on Valentine’s Day. There’s all the election coverage that ramps up every two and four years. 2020 was a leap year, and of course a story on leap year babies ran. The same principle applies for magazines. Fashion follows a cycle, so does sports, so does gardening, etc.

Your book release is one of all the other book releases out there, and with the advent of self-publishing, the noise of those wanting to be noticed is even louder. In order to get the press you want, to get to that interview stage or to get your press release to simply be printed almost verbatim if the media doesn’t have time for anything else, the content has to make the reader care. In Part I of this series published last month, this all boiled down to answering the simple question the consumer wants to know: “What’s in it for me?”

Your message map keeps you on point. However, when you looked at the sample, were you bored? Did you care? Most likely no, you didn’t care.

Pretend you’re a journalist. If University of Missouri Extension sent you a press release about one of their programs, you would look at it because you had to look at it, not because you think it’s the most exciting thing on the planet to receive.

As much as our latest book is the most exciting thing on the planet to us, it’s not necessarily the most exciting thing for everyone else. So, as the next part of your media message, you have to figure out how to make your message the most exciting thing.

Making them care

Let me digress with an example that I promise will make sense, so bear with me and please keep reading. I teach Walt Whitman, who is considered one of the most important American poets ever. Except if you’re a high-school junior in regular English III. However, I usually introduce Whitman in the last week of January/first week of February, right around the Super Bowl. Spoiler: high-school kids are into the Super Bowl. So I ask how much does a Super Bowl commercial cost for 30 minutes? (Someone will know. They always do.) Okay, I say, Apple made this commercial a while ago and not only paid for a minute and a half or airtime (we calculate that amount in today’s dollar value), but then they had to get the rights to the voice-over you’ll hear and then film and edit it.

Then I play the commercial. Take a minute and a half and go watch how Apple introduced the iPad Air.

Kids all know Apple. They have iPhones and iPads. Some may know Dead Poets Society, and most still know Robin Williams. And let’s face it, it’s a pretty awesome commercial with excellent visuals.

By the end of the commercial, it’s clear that Apple made Walt Whitman cool again, and I let my students know that when this commercial came out, all over Twitter people were like “That’s Robin Williams’s voice” and others were “That’s Dead Poet’s Society.” We talk about how Apple built an entire campaign around the slogan “What will your verse be?” (which excites all the kids who like business class best) and how the campaign went beyond the Super Bowl. Suddenly Whitman is relevant again, and “O Me! O Life!” suddenly matters.

To get people talking, you have to make them care. You have to show them why it matters to them. The secret to making them care all comes down to this: Stories are about people, not things or events.

Your book launch is an event. Your book is a thing. You are the real story.

So how do you make the story about you, while still talking about your book and its launch? You have to find the hook that makes the reader care.

Your company has its message, but now that message must translate into newsworthiness. When editors decide what to cover, they look at various elements that make the story newsworthy.

Newsworthy elements include but are not limited to:

Celebrity and prominence: How famous or important a person is. The more famous, the more attention.
Conflict and impact: As writers we understand conflict and how it will impact or effect people.
Emotion: Emotion means the story pulls on your heartstrings. Think of the old adage “if it bleeds, it leads.” Blood, tears, and laughter get attention because we feel them in a visceral way.
Proximity and timeliness: Proximity means we care because it’s close or local, while timeliness means the story matters now and has a sense of immediacy.
Novelty and unusualness: Novelty means it’s different, while unusualness might mean it’s weird or odd—like the guy who at ate 20 hot dogs in one minute.
Human interest: Human interest is a bit of a catchall, but it’s understandable as to why we love stories about puppies, kids with lemonade stands, a girl who conquers cancer, or why we want to help when we read about those who need help.

Looking at each of these elements is how my yearbook staff and I find a new and different angle for the stories that are essentially the same event each year. Like the books you write, the characters are different. Stories are about people, not events or things.

The unique hook I often use is “teacher by day, romance writer by night.” It’s novelty. When I spoke at the Kirkwood Public Library, the press release played up I was a local native, so proximity. The article began: Twenty years ago, author Michele Dunaway was shelving books at Kirkwood Library for $2 an hour. Now the library has all seven of her books on hand and Dunaway is the library's June "Author of the Month." You can read the rest here.

Finding your hook

Now go back to your message map. Your hooks, your newsworthiness, should come from your positive, proof-positive, and more specifically, your distinguishing points. Your distinguishing points should explain how you are different from everyone else. This is your newsworthiness. What can you do to hook the person who will receive your press release? What can you do to make them care about you? Or be intrigued? Or curious?

Your uniqueness is what makes the reader care and why they will want to know more. There are tons of authors putting out books. So what makes your story the one that should be told? How can you sell them that writing about you is a different approach to the same old story?

Here’s an example from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Jan. 19, 2018, the fifth anniversary of the death of Stan Musial, baseball Hall of Famer, the first million-dollar player, and a St. Louis icon. The challenge for the reporter was how to find a new angle to commemorate the day of his death. Ben Frederickson started his story like this:

Swap a Stan Musial story today.
If you don’t have one, hear one.
It’s not hard.
You can’t throw a four-seamer in this city without hitting the glove of someone with one to share.
On the five-year anniversary of the day we lost “Baseball’s Perfect Knight,” find a moment to remember what made him so much bigger than the game.
I’ll go first.
Leo and Jane Garvin can’t forget their Musial story, because without Stan, there wouldn’t be a Leo and Jane.

Trust me, go read the rest of the story, hyperlinked under the word read. I’ll wait.

Now that you have, I’ll let you in on a little secret. Jane is my late father’s sister. Leo’s my uncle, and Patrick is my cousin. I don’t know Ben. I knew about the birthday party, but not about the fact there wouldn’t be Leo and Jane without Stan.

I had a reason to care when I read this article. But did you care? This story has emotion, human interest, and celebrity. If you said yes, if you kept reading even if you didn’t know Leo and Jane, or if you found yourself finding yourself thinking “this was cool,” even though you aren’t a St. Louis Cardinals fan, this is because the story is about people (Stan, Leo & Jane), not events (in this case, the anniversary of Stan’s death).

When you craft your press release, when you write your story, if you are bored, the person reading it will be, too. The secret to a successful press release is figuring out how to make the reader care, so don’t be afraid to dig deep and focus on you. Trust me, your story is worth telling.

________________________

Michele Dunaway is in her final year as the Nink editor. Writing press releases and giving interviews don’t scare her. The fact that her term is almost over and she’ll really miss doing Nink does.

May 20, 2020 by Laura Resnick

Nink: Going Retro in the Digital Age with Paper Planners (a.k.a. You Got This)

This article, written by Patricia Burroughs is from the May 2020 edition of Nink, the monthly newsletter of Novelists, Inc. (NINC). Nink, which is packed each month with informative articles for career novelists, is a benefit of NINC membership.

* * *

“It’s for writing something down. Then doing something about it.”
—Merlin Mann

In 2004, American writer, blogger, and podcaster Merlin Mann decided that the Blackberries and PDAs so many people lived with 24/7 were harder to use than a simple stack of index cards clipped together with important info on them — a way to write stuff down so that later you could do something about it. For him, it was just easier to whip out the index cards and scrawl on them rather than deal with the PDA. Oh, and he called this the hPDA — the hipster PDA. His explanation, bottom line, of the hPDA: It’s for writing something down. Then doing something about it.

Despite the size of his audience, this suggestion did not kill the electronics business or even put a dent in the PDA market. In fact, most people didn’t ditch their PDAs. But some thought he was on to something: a pen and something small and portable to write on was simply faster and easier.

Now, some 16 years of tech-explosion later, there are more people using paper than there were before. In fact, AP News even featured a story about this “digital detox” in January.

Which brings up one simple question: Why paper? (By the way, if the idea of using a paper planner has no appeal for you at all, time for you to bail on this article. Just saying.)

Benefits of paper planners

You don’t just plan your future, but you also have a diary-like record of your past, which can come in handy. Most importantly, the time you spend with paper and pen helps you get the most out of the present because you are able to bring together differing demands on your time and resources before they are on top of you. You can create a schedule or set aside specific days for specific tasks. Once you’ve done this, your tension will ease because instead of carrying around the stress of All the Things, you can focus on what is in front of you, knowing that you will be addressing the other needs on Thursday, or next month. Sometimes you even recognize that you can’t do everything and that it’s time to be more realistic about priorities and the demands you’re making of yourself.
Studies show that the physical act of writing instead of typing engages your whole brain, resulting in deeper comprehension, increased focus, and unleashed creativity. This effect can be strengthened by enhancing your planning time with a scented candle or music that calms or energizes you. And whatever else you do, don’t forget to take a few deep cleansing breaths before you begin!
The act of transforming thought through hand and pen and onto the page, watching the words appear, is textural, sensual, and an act of creation. Some have even compared handwriting to sigil magic, where the act of putting an intention in writing gives it more power. (Sigil magic, however, involves symbols rather than text.)
Paper planners don’t provide the temptations and distractions digital ones do, since almost anything you use digitally also has social media, email, internet access, etc.
There’s just something intensely satisfying in lining through a task when it’s completed or giving yourself a gold star as a reward!

But with so many options to choose from, where do you begin? Follow your gut.

Choose tools that make you want to use them

The number one thing you should look for in a planner is that makes you want to pick it up. Choose a planner that makes you want to open it, one that pleases you. This simple yet vital aspect will make the difference in how much you use it. And the more you use it, the more you’ll want to use it.

By the way, the same goes for the instruments you plan with.

If writing in purple ink means you enjoy looking at your planner more than if it’s a totally business-like grid, don’t second guess yourself. Buy a pen with purple ink. A fountain pen, if that’s what you want. Or the sharpest pencil you can sharpen — an entire tin can full of them — if that’s what floats your boat. Ballpoint pens or gel pens or an 18th century dip pen — never underestimate the motivating power of loving your tools.

How do you want to use your planner?

From bullet journals to to-do lists and daily calendars, there are as many ways of using your planner as there are people. When considering which planner to buy, ask yourself:

Do you want something you can carry with you everywhere? A desk-sized planner that stays open beside you on your desk all day? Both?
Is it specifically for your writing business and projects, or do you want to keep all your life’s appointments and organizing under the same cover with your writing?
Do you want a planner that helps you set goals and work toward them or a business planner that is primarily for schedules and organizing?
Do you want a daily, weekly, or monthly planner?
Do you want to have room to doodle, sketch, or decorate in the margins?
Do you want a planner that is decorative right out of the box?

If all these questions make you dizzy, you can narrow down your choices by surfing websites and watching videos. Some planners will excite you and make you want to try them. Others may overwhelm or bore you. But either way, you’ll begin to see which aspects you love and which ones mean nothing to you. Jot down the terms for things you like so you’ll be able to find them when you get ready to do your serious planner shopping.

The great news is that you can find just about any type of planner you want available for all budgets.

Want to DIY it?

Videos and websites, like the one linked in the subhead above, will provide many ideas for creating the system that is perfect for you.

You can easily customize loose leaf binders or discbound systems. Even if you buy a complete planning system kit, you may decide you would prefer your sections to be in a different order, or you may want to leave some out, or create sections that are specific to your project.

Bullet journals [aka bujos] are the ultimate DIY, a spiritual descendant of the hPDA, in that instead of bulging with everything you might ever need, these small pocket-sized notebooks will only contain what you think is important.

And don’t forget the printables! Whether from Etsy or planning blogs, an array of printable planning pages are available, many specific to the business and creative sides of writing. Many are free, though you’ll often have to sign up for a newsletter to get them. Print out the type you’re drawn to for a test drive. Once you see what you like the best, you’ll shop with more confidence and knowledge.

To decorate or not to decorate

Many writers will know if they want to decorate or not. If you wonder if decorating is frivolous, the answer is an emphatic no!

The time spent setting up the week with stickers, washi tape, or stamp-art is an activity that slows us down, releases tension, and allows the brain to work in the background. Doing one creative thing can stimulate your writing. If you’re artistic you may want to use watercolor pens and markers to create your own designs. But those of us who aren’t artistic can get just as much a creative satisfaction by choosing colors, stickers, tapes, and themes for the day, week, or month.

Don’t be afraid to experiment. If you’re in love with an expensive binder and system available online, check out Walmart, Target, or any discount store near you. You’re likely to find one similar enough to take for a test run to see if it’s working for you. Then invest in the more expensive brand.

Before I invested in my first Franklin Planner back in the early 1990s, I bought their one-month trial. I loved it so much that not only did I dive into the complete system, I also bought one to use for each trip I took overseas for research. It was an amazing organizer and I also treasure it for the running commentary and notes I jotted down.

One last tip

Don’t get overwhelmed by All The Things!

Isolate one thing, The Thing. The Thing that is the one overwhelming you, or The Thing that seems the easiest place to begin. Start there.

Whether you end up using a broad-strokes system with a few lists and schedules or a detailed system that holds all your needs in one place — planners work.

Finally, remember the first rule of planners: You’re the boss of the planner. It works for you.

You end up building trust and faith in yourself. You’re telling your brain, “We got this.”

And you do.

________________________

Pooks (a.k.a. Patricia Burroughs) is a novelist, screenwriter, occasional short story writer, and short story anthology editor. She is also an Academy Fellow, having received the Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting (awarded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences). She and her high school sweetheart husband (a.k.a. The Resident Storm Chaser) are living happily ever after in Dallas. She loves Pratchett, Aaronovitch, Dunnett, and Heyer and is unable to contain herself within a single genre.

May 5, 2020 by Laura Resnick

Nink: Four Ways to Building an Online Community

This article, written by LaShaunda C. Hoffman is from the May 2020 edition of Nink, the monthly newsletter of Novelists, Inc. (NINC). Nink, which is packed each month with informative articles for career novelists, is a benefit of NINC membership.

Building an online community takes time, consistency and knowing it’s not going to happen overnight. Below are some ways I used to build my online community over the years.

Website/blog

Your website is yours, and you can share whatever you want or when you want on your site. Even if you hire an assistant or have someone or some company maintain your site, never let someone else have full control of your access to your readers. You should always have final control over your content as your website is your asset.

When I started building my online community for my magazine, Shades Of Romance Magazine (SORMAG), I started with a website. It wasn’t the most beautiful website, but it did its job to showcase the magazine.

Your website should at the minimum host information about your books and about you. I recommend keeping the readers on your site as much as possible versus sending them to various social media sites to interact with you. You can do this by adding a blog, forum, or membership area to your website.

Give your readers a reason to visit your site daily, weekly or monthly. What you share on your site is what brings the readers back. Here are a few ideas:

Share what you share on social media, like what’s going on with you and your writing. Put this also on your site.
Share resources such as tools you use to write or podcasts you listen to.
Share tips like articles on world building or how to plot your next book.
Host workshops on topics that appeal to your audience. If they are aspiring writers, you might offer a workshop on how to write your first book.
Host events. Monthly book discussions and interviews with writer friends are popular.
Host contests. Readers love to win prizes, so you might want to choose a Reader of the Month or give a prize to the first person to post a review or buy a copy of a new release.

One of the things that hurt my promotion of SORMAG was when I focused more on social media instead of the blog for the magazine. The blog used to have a lot of engagement, but when I focused on social media, the blog slowly started to only have visitors and no comments. Having visitors was good thing, but I know now that the interactions and engagement was what made the blog work for the magazine. I learned the hard way that when you when you move your readers off your website, they usually don’t come back mainly because it’s easier to be on one platform instead of visiting multiple sites.

Social media

Even though I’m a fan of websites, I know many writers choose to use social media as their home base because it’s easier to maintain. It’s also a fun way to build your online community — and you don’t have to leave home to do it! I tell my clients to find the platforms where their readers hang out and go have fun. I recommend starting with one or two platforms.

In this article, I will focus on one platform — Facebook. I’m a fan of Facebook because it lets you create communities with your profile, fan page or group. I call my FB community my FB Fam. Some of the people who follow me I’ve known over 20+ years when I first started online.

There are three main ways to interact with your fans on Facebook:

Profile page – You can build a community with your profile page. However, you are limited to 5,000 followers, so you might have to be picky on who you let follow you.
- Your profile is more for building relationships, so be careful with doing a lot of selling posts or you could end up in Facebook jail or worse, kicked off Facebook.
- One of my favorite ways to engage my community is to ask questions. I ask at least three questions a day. This keeps my engagement up and often introduces me to new people.
Fan pages – If you can get the engagement started on your fan pages, this is a good way to build your community. It’s open to everyone to see and you can have unlimited followers.
- I see this as more of a billboard to showcase who I am and what I do.
- I invite people to like my pages which helps grow my following.
- I post at least three times a day. This helps my posts show up in my follower’s feed. I also try to ask questions to get the engagement going.
- Your fan page is where you promote your book by using boosts or ads. Look at your results to see if you reached your promotion goals for your ads.
Groups – My favorite way to build a community using social media is groups because you can make them private and be selective of who is in your community. I like that I can see who is inside the group and who is engaging or not.
- I use my groups for learning, networking and sharing content.
- The downside to groups is that they are time consuming and a commitment you must be ready for. It’s your duty to keep your members engaged.
- I create promotional campaigns to invite new members to the group.

I’m a huge fan of using social media because it’s a fun way to build relationships with your readers and to make book sales. I use it to get to know my readers by asking questions and sharing things about myself. I’ve learned it is an important part of my promotion plan but it’s not the only thing.

Videos

If you aren’t camera shy, video is another way you can build a community. My favorite form of video is live streaming because I enjoy the live interaction with my fans. They can ask me questions and I can do the same with them.

You can go live on many social media platforms (like Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram) and engage with your community. Each one has time limits so check each platform for specifics.

Another option is to record your videos and post them on your social media platforms and wait for views and comments. It’s helpful to be able to record in batches and create a bunch of videos you can schedule for later.

You can use videos to teach workshops, read excerpts from your books, conduct interviews or just share news about your writing.

Make sure to add the link to your email list to your videos. You can also put this in the written descriptor and comment section of your video platform, so you can get new subscribers.

I'll be honest, at first I was intimidated by video. I thought I had to be perfect: hair done, face flawless, and my words not tumbling out of my mouth.

But when I started doing it, I learned that I missed one key point. With video that’s not live-streamed, you get a million takes to get it right. Editing is your friend. If you’re like me, don’t be intimidated. Get your hair done, your make up flawless and get in front of the camera and do your thing, then get a good video editor (or become one yourself).

Recognize & reward your community

Who are the people engaging with you?

Do you have someone who opens all the emails you send?
Do you have someone who engages in all the social media posts?
Do you have someone who shares all of your videos?
Do you have someone who is highly engaged in your group?

These are the people you offer a thank-you gift to — gift certificates, free books, or book swag. Let them know you appreciate them and their support.

I’ve learned over the years how important your community is. As I grew SORMAG’s community, I saw how loyal the readers were to the magazine. They attended the events and joined the social media community. They enjoyed the SORMAG goodies I sent out. I always wanted them to know they were appreciated. For the last few years, I’ve hosted a free online book festival for readers and writers with workshops, panel discussions, book discussions and prizes. Consider doing a Reader Appreciation Day or event for your readers.

Readers are loyal to writers they enjoy and these readers will stay a part of your community if you treat them like you appreciate them. Make time for them — respond to emails, reply to comments, and answer direct messages. Get to know them and you will see your readership grow.

Now, are you ready to start building your community? Go showcase your wings, social butterflies.

________________________

LaShaunda C. Hoffman created Shades Of Romance Magazine (SORMAG) and published it for 20 years. In 2015 she wrote a book about book promotion, Building Online Relationships — One Reader At Time, featuring lessons she learned while promoting SORMAG Digital. Join her community and receive a copy of SORMAG’s Literary Directory.

April 17, 2020 by Laura Resnick

Nink: Serving Your Reader Through Editing

This article, written by Lindsay Randall is from the April 2020 edition of Nink, the monthly newsletter of Novelists, Inc. (NINC). Nink, which is packed each month with informative articles for career novelists, is a benefit of NINC membership.

For author and professor Denny Wilkins, editing is this: defending your reader—from error, inaccuracies, a confusing story.

Any discussion of it being a mix of rules and artistry doesn’t hold much interest for him.

“Editing is just work. It’s thoughtful, meticulous, persistent work,” Wilkins said. “Debate about the art and science of it all you want. You have to want to defend your reader, right down to its and it’s.”

Wilkins, who has spent the past 20 years teaching journalism and mass communication, said the “search for the right word is a moral imperative for a good writer.”

But the evolution of language, especially recently, has narrowed the ability to create fine distinctions in meaning. Added to this is the fact that while the English language has by far the largest number of words, the working vocabulary of the average person is decreasing. Too, words can cause distance and division, perhaps more so now than ever before.

All the more reason for novelists to have fresh eyes on their work—both conceptually and line by line, Wilkins noted—to ensure serving today’s reader.

Benjamin Dreyer, author of the bestselling Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style, has devoted nearly three decades to “making skilled writing better.”

He began his publishing career as a freelance proofreader and copy editor and today serves as vice president, executive managing editor and copy chief, of Random House.

Dreyer defines copyediting as “the act of doing one’s best to make an author’s text into the best possible version of itself that it can be.”

He does this by ensuring that sentences are grammatical, words are spelled correctly, and punctuation is error-free.

He also asks questions “carefully and respectfully” and makes suggestions on “more subjective, nuantial issues of style,” which is, in other words, “a great big blanket term covering everything an author sets on a page,” he said.

In the past 20 years, Dreyer has noted a decrease in the use of punctuation from all kinds of writers, but the biggest change in written English, he said, “derives from the awareness on the part of writers that the default reader—and the default human being—are not male, are not white, are not heterosexual.

“This appreciation of a larger world is reflected, I’d say, in the near disappearance of the supposedly genderless use of the pronoun ‘he,’ and the rise of the singular and nonbinary ‘they,’ to any number of changes in perspective and assumption that writers bring to their work in all sorts of ways,” he said.

Dreyer's English, named one of the best books of 2019 by O: The Oprah Magazine, the Strand Book Store, and Shelf Awareness, details the many tips and tricks Dreyer has gathered through the years, plus features his fun sense of humor and true delight in all things word related.

Special to this edition of the newsletter are the following excerpts from the book.

From Chapter 7, The Realities Of Fiction

Putting aside the extensive mechanical work of attending to the rudiments of spelling, punctuation, grammar, etc., the styling of prose is very much about listening. An attentive copy editor should become attuned to and immersed in a writer’s voice to the point where the copy editor has so thoroughly absorbed the writer’s intentions that the process turns into a sort of conversation-on-the-page.

Nowhere is this conversation more crucial than in the copyediting of fiction, where artistry, however you want to define that slippery concept, can outrank and outweigh notions of what might conventionally be deemed “correct”; where voice—eccentric, particular, peculiar as it may be—is paramount; and where a copy editor, however well-intentioned, who can’t hear what a writer is doing, or at least attempting to do, is apt to wreak havoc. Unfortunately, havoc is occasionally wreaked: I cringingly recall an instance in which one of the finest copy editors I know—so attentive, so sensitive, so adept that editors clamor for her service—crashed and burned on a job in which for some mysterious, unhappy reason she didn’t understand what the writer was doing generally and, specifically and perhaps worst of all, didn’t get his jokes, which she proceeded to flatten as if with a steamroller. Happily, this sort of calamity is exceptionally rare, and it was easy enough, in this case, to put the writer’s nose back in joint by having his manuscript recopyedited, tip to toe, by another copy editor.

Though I can’t here demonstrate in any practical fashion the elusive art of empathic listening, I can certainly let you in on some of the methodology—scrutinizing everything, taking nothing for granted, asking lots of questions, taking lots of notes, and performing scores of little tricks—a copy editor employs in the act of copyediting a work of fiction. I can, as well, point out to you some of the glitches that, since I’ve repeatedly come face-to-face with them over the years, you may well find in your own work.

The Real Reality Of Fiction

Fiction may be fictional, but a work of fiction won’t work if it isn’t logical and consistent.

Characters must age in accordance with the calendar—that is, someone asserted to have been born in May 1960 must then be twenty-five in May 1985, forty in May 2000, etc.—and at the same pace as other characters: Two characters who meet at the ages of thirty-five and eighteen cannot, in a later scene, be fifty and merely twenty-six. Grandparents and great-grandparents, I’ve occasionally noted, are often said to have lived decades out of whack, in either direction, with what is reproductively possible.
Keep track of passage of time, particularly in narratives whose plots play themselves out, crucially, in a matter of days or weeks. I’ve encountered many a Friday arriving two days after a Tuesday, and third graders in math class on what, once one adds up the various “the next day”s, turns out to be a Sunday.
Height; weight; eye and hair color; nose, ear, and chin size; right- or left-handedness; etc., mandate consistency.
Stage management and choreography: Watch out for people going up to the attic only to shortly and directly step out onto the driveway; removing their shoes and socks twice over the course of five minutes; drinking from glasses they quite definitively set down, a few paragraphs earlier, in another room; and reading newspapers that suddenly transform into magazines.
While we’re here: I recall one manuscript in which fully half the characters had names beginning with the letter M. You may not be surprised to learn that the author’s given name also began with an M. This is not a good thing.
I don’t know why or how writers end up laboriously and lengthily describing restaurant meals as if they—the writers, that is—have never experienced one, but: Pay better attention.
I don’t know why or how writers end up laboriously and lengthily counterfeiting newspaper articles as if they—the writers, that is—had never read one. At the least, remember to establish the whowhatwherewhywhen you were taught in high school, and terse it up a bit too.

Fun tip for counterfeiting newspaper articles with verisimilitude and panache: Yank out all the series commas.

From pages 123-124: A Few Pointers On Unfinished Speech

• If one of your characters is speaking and is cut off in midsentence by the speech or action of another character, haul out a dash:

“I’m about to play Chopin’s Prelude—” Grace slammed the piano lid onto Horace’s fingers.

• When a line of dialogue is interrupted by an action, note that the dashes are placed not within the dialogue but one either side of the interrupting action.

“I can’t possibly”—she set the jam pot down furiously—“eat such overtoasted toast.”

Writers will often do this:

“I can’t possibly—” she set the jam pot down furiously “—eat such overtoasted toast.”

and that floating, unmoored narration is, I’m sure you’ll agree, spooky-looking.

• If one of your characters is speaking and drifts off dreamily in midsentence, indicate that not with a dash, but with an ellipsis.

“It’s been such a spring for daffodils,” she crooned kittenishly. “I can’t recall the last time…” she drifted off dreamily in midsentence.

• When characters self-interrupt and immediately resume speaking with a pronounced change in thought, I suggest the em dash-space-capital letter combo pack, thus:

“Our lesson for today is— No, we can’t have class outside today, it’s raining.”

• “Furthermore,” he noted, “if your characters are in the habit of nattering on for numerous uninterrupted paragraphs of dialogue, do remember that each paragraph of dialogue concludes without a closing quotation mark, until you get to the last one.

“Only then do you properly conclude the dialogue with a closing quotation mark.

“Like so.”

Excerpted from Dreyer's English by Benjamin Dreyer. Copyright © 2019 by Benjamin Dreyer. Excerpted by permission of Random House, A Penguin Random House Company. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Lindsay Randall writes historical romance and most recently served as assistant editor of Nink.

April 5, 2020 by Laura Resnick

Nink: Authors Can’t Do It All Alone… Luckily They Don’t Have To: How & Why All Authors Should Grow Their Publishing Team

This article, written by Kate Tilton is from the April 2020 edition of Nink, the monthly newsletter of Novelists, Inc. (NINC). Nink, which is packed each month with informative articles for career novelists, is a benefit of NINC membership.

When publishing a book, an author has a whole team of people to help them take that manuscript from first draft to finished product. Both traditional and indie authors will have a variety of professionals—agents, editors, formatters, cover designers, and early readers—to help the author along the way.

These days, however, everything else that goes into being a career author ends up on the author’s plate, including managing the website, social media, book events and travel, career planning and strategy, business admin and accounting, and so much more.

Whether an author publishes with a traditional house or goes indie, or does a little of both, much of the job of an author is left up to the author alone. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Authors can and should grow their publishing team, as a well-rounded team will help an author with the business side as well as the craft side. Doing this can save authors valuable time and help authors earn more in the long run.

Why hire help?

Just because authors can do a task does not mean it is cost effective. This is not as cut and dry as other industries, as authors do not make an income based on hourly services but by selling their products (books). The more quality books an author produces, the greater their income can become. Hiring others to take on things that keep them from writing can mean a bigger income at the end of the year.

Teams also offer support and encouragement. Publishing, no matter what route an author takes, can be tough. Unlike family and friends, having business professionals on the team offers a different kind of support. They know what it is like to be a part of this industry and can relate better to an author’s struggle.

These professionals may also be better than the author—at least when it comes to certain things. Having insider knowledge makes publishing professionals better suited to offer guidance and problem-solve for an author’s particular needs. A consultant may be better at planning a launch strategy. An assistant may be able to make better looking newsletters or promotional graphics. A social media manager may understand policy changes better.

Avoid common pitfalls when hiring help.

The common pitfalls when hiring help boil down to one big pit with many ways to fall into it. But in essence, it’s about hiring the wrong person.

Pay attention to the five pitfalls below to help avoid this.

Pitfall 1

The author hires a consultant when they need an assistant (or a publicist when they need a consultant, or an assistant when they need a consultant, and so on).

To avoid this trap, when an author decides to hire help, first they should figure out what things they need help with.

If feeling overwhelmed by all the publishing advice out there and not knowing what to do, a publishing consultant may be the right fit.
If an author has admin and basic marketing tasks (i.e. managing a launch team, newsletters, social media), an assistant or social media manager may be who they need.
If an author wants to get on TV, radio, and/or other traditional media, they likely need a publicist.

Before beginning any search, authors should write down where they are struggling so they can identify the right type of service provider needed. Make a list of specific action items or goals, For instance, one could be to release a monthly newsletter and build a street team. Seeing the list in full will help avoid wasting time contacting the wrong type of professional and makes the entire process easier.

Pitfall 2

The author hires a person who doesn’t have the skills they need.

There are different types of professionals, but in each profession there are also different skill sets.

For example, there are a wide variety of tasks assistants can do. However, some assistants do not work on marketing strategy. If marketing is something the author needs, they may do better by looking for a consultant who can help with creating the strategy and then hire an assistant to execute the strategy.

Another example—if an author wants someone to manage their Instagram account, the author should look for someone who can post photos that will attract readers of their genre.

With the list in hand from pitfall number one, authors should take a few minutes to research the skills of each potential team member and look for those who match their needs. Most service providers will list their skills on their website. Authors can use these lists to compare the offerings of each service provider. Doing this will help an author avoid hiring someone who can’t provide the services needed, saving everyone time, money, and the headache.

Pitfall 3

An author hires someone without enough or the right kind of experience.

If a potential team member lists the skills the author is looking for on their site, the next step is for an author to see if the team member has the experience needed.

If the author needs someone who can do a task without much direction, they will want someone with more experience.

Authors should also consider the experience in terms of what type of books and authors the professional works with.

For example, an indie author may want someone who works with indies. In another example, if an author is looking for a publicist, the author will want someone with media connections relevant to the author’s genre. A publicist who works primarily with business books is probably not a good fit for a romance author. It seems like a no-brainer, but is a common pitfall.

Authors can avoid experience issues by asking other authors for recommendations, and then ask the potential team member about both current and past work experience, and any book acknowledgments. It is also a good idea to check references if possible.

Pitfall 4

The author hires a “bad apple.”

There are many wonderful professionals in publishing. There are also some bad apples. Authors should do due diligence to avoid hiring someone who is not a professional.

Authors can check the professional’s website and social media to look for red flags such as lots of errors or poor formatting. There are also resources like Writer Beware and the Alliance of Independent Authors’ service ratings. Not every professional is reviewed, but this step can help authors avoid bad apples.

Pitfall 5

After hiring, the author and professional do not get along/cannot communicate well.

Working with a professional is a partnership. For a successful team, communication is crucial. Authors should also want to build a team of professionals they enjoy working with.

This can be difficult to figure out before starting to work with someone, but there are steps an author can take:

Is there a written contract? If so, what does it spell out for each side? Make sure you are comfortable with the terms.
Before hiring, check out the provider’s social media, website, and newsletter to look for any similar interests and if the provider seems like someone worth working with. Is the provider professional?
If wanting to start small, consider doing a smaller project or consultation before hiring long-term. Some professionals offer free consultations, others have paid one-time consultations (often this depends on their demand and experience). This could be a good litmus test.
Make communication expectations known. Discuss how communication will happen (email, phone calls, Skype, text, messenger) and when (what days are work days). Discuss how a professional can get in touch in case of something urgent and vice versa.

How to find help to hire?

Once an author knows the kind of help they are looking for, they can begin their search by:

Asking their author friends for recommendations.

Picking up a copy of The Self-Publisher’s Ultimate Resource Guide by Joel Friedlander and Betty Kelly Sargent, which is a directory of publishing professionals.
Using online resources like Author E.M.S. (a list of different professionals), Reedsy (an online marketplace connecting authors with professionals), Kate Tilton's author assistant resource page (for more information about assistants).
Getting connected with a free mentor through MicroMentor.
Getting free small business coaching through the SBA. Check out the Small Business Administration for more.

Please note, hiring a team is a process and can take time. Professionals, depending on experience, will have different price points and hourly/weekly rates, retainers, and billing. Be sure to discuss each before hiring.

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Kate Tilton has been helping authors since 2010. Founder of Kate Tilton’s Author Services, LLC, Tilton helps authors of all stripes navigate the publishing world and connect with readers. She is a contributor to The Self-Publisher’s Ultimate Resource Guide and appeared in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Novelists Inc’s Nink, Kobo Writing Life and The Book Designer. Tilton presented at Book Expo America, Penned Con, Novelists, Inc., among other venues.

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