Jan Nathan, Executive Director of the Publishers Marketing Association, tells of an author/publisher who had his book professionally designed but decided to cut corners on proofreading. He relied on his computer's spellchecker. After printing 5,000 copies, a colleague pointed out some misspelled words, both on the cover and inside. For example, the spellchecker did not catch the misspelling of "Foreword." All 5,000 covers announced the "Forward" by a very prominent person. By the way, this is a very common spelling mistake.
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Book Publishing Tips of the Day
Daily words of wisdom from Dan Poynter and other publishing industry experts. (Search on "tip" in archives for complete list.) - Today's Tip from Poynter: "Get Reference Books."
PUBLISHING TIP OF THE DAY"Get Reference Books."
Look it up.
Even though your computer does a pretty fair job with spelling, grammar, and the thesaurus, every writer needs some reference books. The computer is not infallible when it comes to language use and it usually does not answer the question "Why?"
The least expensive places to buy dictionaries, style manuals and other reference books are used book stores. See your local Yellow Pages. Some references, such as the Microsoft Bookshelf, are available on CD.
"The best writers' thesauruses are dog-eared and worn with use." -Ardath Mayhar, author, in the Portable Writers' Conference.
(c) 2000 by Dan Poynter. For more tips and information on book writing, publishing and promoting, see the Para Publishing Web site.
MARKETING TIP OF THE DAY
THEME: COPYWRITING Before a media contact will say "yes" the best publicists are asked "could you send me more information on that?" Don't forget. Media people are journalists. They are writers. The materials you send them had better be well-written. Here are a few . . .
Rules for Powerful Copywriting
Any time you refer to a person, they are a "who," not a "that."
She is the one that ate the cookies.
She is the one who ate the cookies.
(c) 2000 by Tami DePalma. For more tips and information about "Marketing with a Twist," visit the MarketAbility Web site. Don't your books deserve MAXIMUM EXPOSURE?