Part of my day job involves working with writers to help them strengthen their writing skills. Because these are most often new writers, I tend to see the same issues cropping up across the board. A couple of years ago, I wrote a post discussing a few of those issues, and now I’m back with more. Continue reading “More Newbie Writing Mistakes”
Author: Melinda Clayton
Melinda Clayton is the author of the Cedar Hollow series, as well as a self-publishing guide. Clayton has published numerous articles and short stories in various print and online magazines. She has an Ed.D. in Special Education Administration and is a licensed psychotherapist in the states of Florida and Colorado. Lear more about Melinda at her Amazon author page
A Gift from Us to You Courtesy of Melinda Clayton
Several years ago, I wrote a self-publishing guide titled Self-publishing Made Simple: A How-to Guide for the Non-tech-savvy Among Us. My goal was to help up-and-coming authors avoid some of the pitfalls and tough lessons many of us have learned along the way.
From the Table of Contents: Continue reading “A Gift from Us to You Courtesy of Melinda Clayton”
Where Should I Buy My ISBNs?
One question I see frequently is, “Where should I buy my ISBNs? There are so many companies to choose from!” Well, I’m here with the answer.
“If you are located in the United States, or a territory of the USA (Puerto Rico, Guam, US Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, America Samoa, as well as military bases and embassies), Bowker is the official registration agency of the ISBN.” You can see more here. (If you aren’t in the United States, you’ll need to find out who the official, authorized agency for your country is. This will help you get started https://www.isbn-international.org/agencies.)
“But wait a minute,” you say. “I saw a site on the internet selling really cheap ISBNs. Why can’t I buy one of those?” Continue reading “Where Should I Buy My ISBNs?”
Drop Caps and Quotation Marks: A Workaround
Four years ago, I wrote a post titled “Drop Caps, Indents, and Other Formatting Tricks in Word.” Regarding drop caps, I mentioned that Word drops and enlarges the first character, which, if you’re writing dialogue, means it’s your quotation mark that gets dropped and enlarged instead of the first letter. Some authors and editors get around this issue by simply leaving off the opening quotation mark.
At the end of that discussion, I said: “There are those who believe leaving off the first quote mark is confusing to readers. Luckily, there’s a workaround in Word for those who want the quote mark, but it’s time consuming. More on that in a future post.”
I’m a little late with that future post (sorry, Anthony!). Truthfully, my workaround stopped working momentarily after a Word update, but it’s back now. It’s a wonky sort of workaround, but it does work. Continue reading “Drop Caps and Quotation Marks: A Workaround”