Auntie Deborah’s Writing Advice
What would you do if you found out that someone had stolen your idea for writing a book and published it under their name?
First of all, ideas can’t be copyrighted, but I must add—with
emphasis—that there are vanishingly few original ideas. What makes a book
uniquely yours is what you do with that idea. The vision and
skill in execution that make it personal.
So what would I do? I’d cheer them on for having a great idea and for
having gotten it in print. And then I’d write my own interpretation.
The best short story rejection I ever received was from a prestigious
anthology. The editor loved my story but had just bought one on the same theme
(mothers and cephalopods, although mine was with octopodes and the other with
squid)—get this, from one of my dearest friends, a magnificent writer. Did I
sulk? Did I mope? No, I celebrated her sale along with her! And then sold my
story to another market.
In other words, be generous. If you do your work as a writer, this won’t
be the only great idea you get.
How can you tell if a book needs an editor or a proofreader?
It does. Trust me on this. It doesn’t matter how brilliant the story is or how many books you’ve written. None of us can see our own flaws, whether they are grammar and typos or inconsistent, flat characters or plot holes you could drive a Sherman tank through. Or unintentionally offensive racial/sexist/ableist/etc. language. Every writer, for every project, needs that second pair of skilled, thoughtful eyes on the manuscript.
How do I get a self-published book into libraries?
If your book is available in print, the best way is to use IngramSpark and pay for an ad. Libraries are very reluctant to order KDP (Amazon) print editions. Same for bookstores.
If your book is digital only, put it out through Draft2Digital (D2D),
which distributes to many vendors, including a number that sell to libraries.
Submit review copies to Library Journal. Consider paying for an ad if
your budget allows.
Now for the hard part: publicizing your book to libraries. Besides
contacting local libraries, assemble a list of contact emails for purchasing
librarians (there may be such a thing already, so do a web search). Write a
dynamite pitch. Send out emails with ordering links.
Is it better to title my chapters, or should I just stick to numbering them?
There is no “better.” There are conventions that change with time. Do what you love. Just as titles vs numbers cannot sell a book, neither will they sink a sale. If your editor or publisher has a house style, they’ll tell you and then you can argue with them.
That said, as a reader I love chapter titles. As an author, I sometimes
come up with brilliant titles but I haven’t managed to do so for an entire
novel, so I default to numbers. One of these years, I’ll ditch consistency and
mix and match them. Won’t that be fun!
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