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EBOOK HINTS IN WRITING TEXT,
FORMAT AND MORE
I have written now three nonfiction books and have just completed a
fiction novel. I find some things similar and some things different. In
several ways, I found fiction harder - due to text, format, avoiding
names of other people and places, and English issues.
OVERALL EBOOK FORMAT
In general I find that for books I write, they should have several
sections to be complete. The order can vary a bit, but the below is the
order I use for both fiction and nonfiction books:
* Cover photo, 1400 pixels wide, 2100 pixels high
* Book Title and Author Name
* Copyright Notice and associated words
* ISBN number reference
* List of other books by same author
* Dedication (optional - if dedicating the book to someone)
* Table of Contents - active table if eBook such as ".epub"
* Fictional Names - Fiction books, optional - Notice that Names used are intended to be
fictional and apologies if not
* Character Names - Fiction books, optional - List of Main Characters,
can be a handy customer reference
* Forward (your thoughts on what is in the book)
* The Book itself, and all of its chapters, I tend to start new chapters
on a new page always
* Epilogue (if you wish to give readers last thoughts or add an unusual
second ending to the book
* About the Author - optional photo and or very short life biography
EDITING HINTS
Most likely you are doing your book on a word processor. If so, you
might recall that one of the biggest features of most word processors is
the "find" function, often "ctrl f" to find places in your book. And of
course there is often "find and replace" which is often "ctrl h." Those
two functions I find can help fix common errors that I may have made in
the text of the book. I would not suggest under find and replace though
to "replace all" unless you are completely certain that is safe.
Sometimes a word can also be a portion of another word and can lead to
very odd issues. As an example, trying to replace "sever" can also
damage a word like "several." But there are many instances of that.
Therefore I always examine each replacement.
EDITING IN GENERAL, "THE JOYS OF"
As I recall, Dean Koontz a very
popular fiction author, once had something to say about editing.
He said something to the effect that the greatest days in his life were
when he began a new novel, and that his worst days were when he was
editing a novel. I agree. And some could say that they
should just get an editor other than themselves. But good luck
finding a good one. I have worked with a number of editors on
resumes and on written works and only met one good one, my older son
Ken. And what made him great? Ken helping on my first book
stuck to the editing process and did not go further. And so he
worried about format, grammar, spelling, punctuation, consistency,
things like that. But he stayed out of style. And style is
where many editors who want to "help you" go wrong. If you have
1000 people write an article, you will get 1000 different styles on how
they approach it. Some will say that some are better than others.
Perhaps. But too often it is just a silly preference that gets in
the way of real editing. I once had someone edit a resume, and not
only was it dramatically changed, but what it said no longer made sense,
and in fact often was not even true. The issue was that I had a
technical background and the editor did not. And so, my suggestion
is that unless you can find a great editor, do the editing yourself.
How to edit yourself? Of
course spelling checkers help, but there are just a start. I
continue to read references about grammar rules, and then I go through
the entire book editing perhaps at least four times. The first two
times I may make large changes or even add additions. I have at
times had chapters double in size or even had new chapters added.
I sometimes find that I may have talked too quickly and/or too
concisely, assuming the reader knew some preliminary ideas. But
then later I realize that no, some areas need to be expanded for
understanding. Some areas also need to be fixed due to bad
grammar. And of course I always find things to add on the first
few passes.
Edit passes for the third and fourth
time for me generally are not major changes. But I tend to find
things like a verb used in past tense that should be present tense, or
perhaps confusion of the word "there" with "their" or with "they're".
Or I might find errors in the quote rules. But I would recommend
four passes at least, unless you are far better than me, which you could
be. Sometimes after the second edit I will load the book into an
ePUB format and read it on my hand held pad for editing runs the third
edit or fourth and beyond. Then when I find a problem, I can
simply highlight the word or area with the problem in the ePUB reader
that I use. And then later, I can have my pad search for
highlights as I sit in front of my computer making the real changes.
But I would not advise that on editing passes one and two where larger
changes may be in order.
Otherwise, common errors are too
many blank lines at the end of one chapter and before another which
could even cause a wrong blank page in the middle of your ePUB book.
I am now finding that I should ensure that there are zero blank lines
that I do not need. My ePUB composer requires one blank line at
the start of each chapter before the chapter heading, but that is all I
try to give ... now. But of course, errors are where you find them
and can be many different types.
OTHER PEOPLE NAMES OTHER COMPANY NAMES
I find it best to avoid those as much as you can. Even if you believe
you are saying nice things about a person or a company or a group say in
Chapter 3, a person may object to something you said in Chapter 17 and
not wish to be associated with your book at all. So I try to avoid most
references to real people or real companies.
SEARCHING THE INTERNET FOR COMMON NAMES
When I think I am selecting a totally unique name for a fiction
character or company, I will often at least do a search on the internet
to find who else might also be using that name. It is incredible some
days on how hard it is to come up with a name no one else has thought
of. Of course at times you might use a similar name and try to cover it
at the book start that "all names are meant to be fictional," but best
to try and avoid as much conflict as possible.
PLAGIARISM and QUOTES
Of course it should go without saying that an author should avoid any
direct usage of another's work or images without their approval. I do
admit that for quotes from mostly famous people I will give the quote
and also credit the person who authored it. Also note that it is
sometimes a good idea to check the internet to see who really authored
what. For example, the famous Bobby Kennedy quote which was something
like: "You see things; and you say 'Why?' But I dream things that never
were; and I say 'Why not?” Well, the main part of all of that came from
George Bernard Shaw I believe. Also, some people claim that Mark Twain
never said "Rumors of my death were highly exaggerated." Of course I am
not certain that those people were around Mark Twain 100% of the time to
be certain of what they say and what Twain said. So some research is
suggested on quotes to be safe.
FICTION QUOTES and GRAMMAR
I find fiction can be harder than non fiction, mainly I felt because of
the rules surrounding quotes, imbedded quotes, multiple paragraphs of
quotes, and also capitalization. A good grammar book will help. I
referred to grammar help often when doing my novel. I also at times used
"find" to locate problem areas in my book. Here are two online
references, the first for quotes and the second for capitals. And yes,
sorry, these locations can change:
http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/quotes.asp
http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/capital.asp
FICTION CHARACTERS
Note that under format I suggest an optional thing to do is to have a
list of main characters in your book. I did that. But even more than
your customers, the writer, you or I, may need that the most. Doing
fiction work I would often ask myself - what was that characters full
correct name again? Even if you decide to not put the character list in
your book for your customers, you might wish to keep a list for
yourself.
FICTION CHARACTER NEEDS
One way to approach fiction humor I find is to create characters first,
and then write down their names and their oddities. I find it a good
idea for fiction to have a character list at least for you the author so
as to not keep changing the character names by accident, or their
attributes. And if you want to write down oddities next to the name, not
in the customer list but in your own private list, that could be
helpful. Even if your theme is not humor, a comment such as:
John Jones - main character - tall Chinese fellow, limps on left foot,
has red hair, smokes a pipe. is 52 years old
A comment like that in your own personal characters list might keep you
from making the person a Samoan Islander the next time, who does not
smoke and has black hair and is a teenager. Just a thought.
SUMMARY
Hope this helps, at least a little. These are things I believe I found
out mostly "the hard way." Best if others get a chance perhaps to see
them ahead of time.
Ronald J. Plachno
July 21,2014
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