AUTHOR ASSITANCE & RESOURCES
Five Ways to Improve Your Manuscript:
Revision is an intricate and important part of the writing process, and one which many writers would rather ignore. After the initial excitement of finally finishing your book, the thought of going over the manuscript again and again can seem tedious. But books that have not been carefully revised will almost always be rejected, so spending the time now can save you frustration in the long run.
1. Put the manuscript away for at least a couple of days.
2. Read the whole book from start to finish in one sitting. Don’t make any changes now, but jot notes to yourself in the margins of the manuscript if anything pops out as needing work.
3. Cut, condense and tighten. Once you have the major elements of your book in place, you’re ready to cut.
4. Look at the details. Now you’re going to go through the book, paragraph by paragraph, and fine-tune your prose.
5. Watch out for weak spots. Know where your weaknesses are as a writer and learn to spot them in your manuscript.
- Big Noodle Books. Thanks to member Linda Roberts, Big Noodle Books might be of benefit to our Group members.
- Book Marketing Network is a place on the internet specifically for book authors, self-publishers, book publishers, publicists, marketers, and others involved in writing, publishing, and marketing books.
- Thinking of self-publishing? Check out Mystic Publishers, where their motto is: “Your Book, Your Vision, Your Way.”
- Unsure about split infinitives? Want to brush up on the difference between active and passive voice? Don’t always know when you should use a comma? Worry no more! The OWL (Online Writing Lab) at Purdue is here to help.
- Preditors and Editors lists information about literary agents, publishers, and writing competitions based on a standard criteria. This site is an invaluable resource to the serious writer.
- Author and Book Event Center (this is an internet link where you can list your book(s) and obtain lots of good information on just about everything about writing.
- Book Club Queen is a place where you can receive a FREE webpage to list your pubished books. You can upload the cover and author photographs. You can also network with other Authors and more. Each time a new Author joins you receive a message listing their new website.
- Funds for Writers Newsletter is Hope Clark’s Blog where you can sign up for her FREE weekly Newsletter about assistance getting paid for your writing. Additionally, there is a considerable amount of FREE information to help writers in nearly every way. One of our members said “Extremely good info here” to include: contest listings, pay rates for writing magazine articles and much more each week. This is a “must join” for Authors who want to get paid to write.
- Jeannie’s Book Reviews and More… is where you can get books and manuscripts reviewed, become a reviewer, receive help with writing projects and much more.
Plagiarism Checkers can be found at the following internet links:
- Dustball (used mostly by teachers to check students’ homework for plagiarism)
- Duplichecker (to check that you aren’t plagiarizing anyone)
- CopyScape (to check that nobody is plagiarizing YOU!)
- 10 Big Myths About Copyrights Explained
Hastings Stores Contacts
(ask for “the Book Manager”). Specific names of individuals are not published here as the person who fills that position often change.