Originally posted as the Dun Writin’—Now Whut? series on this blog, EDITING 101 is a weekly refresher series for some of you and brand new for others.

Courtesy of Adirondack Editing

Dashes

Many authors have trouble with dashes. It’s hard to know which one to use and when to use it. There are several different kinds, and they all have different usages.

Qualification: Since I deal with mostly United States fiction, my style guide is The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS). Other style manuals have different rules for dashes, especially if you live in another area of the world, such as the UK or Australia. This international blog is actually based in the UK, so feel free to ask questions in the comments (letting me know where you’re located) and I’d be happy to give you individualized answers. The following information is taken from the sixteenth edition of CMOS…

As the months pass, I still feel satisfied with the publication of The Tales of Draco: Rise of the Dragon. This was a big step for me. However, like every author, there are some aspects in the novel that I wish I could change. The biggest frustration I have with the book is how many misprints I find now and again. To tell you the truth, misprints in books are more common than you think. I see them in even the most popular of books, but it seems there are more errors than there should be in Rise of the Dragon, and there are a few reasons why. Just to be clear, I am not pointing my finger at anybody or criticizing whatsoever. Accidents happen and the best thing we can do is learn from them.

The biggest cause of misprints is because the book is self-published. Being in school…

by Jordan Jolley

If you devote time for the quality of your story, then your book’s potential can go far.

There are two very common questions people ask me: “How long did it take you to write your first book?” and “Are you done with your second book?”

Video games have always played well with other media. Can word-based interactive fiction do the same and maybe help you promote your novel or other work? Absolutely. But first some history.

Many early games were, if not outright adaptations, heavily inspired by popular franchises of the time. The licensing could be a bit dodgy. But games complemented  other media and vice versa, and creators learned to use tie-ins in both directions to flesh out imaginary worlds.

As early as 1984, the cult-classic war game Lords of Midnight, by the late Mike Singleton, came bundled with a prequel novella that detailed the game’s premise and backstory, written by the same author. It is an auteur game.

More recently, the original Myst prequel trilogy of novels sold pretty well, if not nearly as briskly as the game. And if you look on Scribd these days, books set in the Warcraft, Halo or Mass Effect universe…

DAN ALATORRE gave me a lot to think about when he asked, “…if you were going to write a story like Harry Potter, how would you do it?” 

The HP books are some of my favorites. I mean, who wouldn’t want to write like JK Rowling?

Dan’s post discussed the art of layering a story. Layers add mystery, intrigue, and magic which keeps the reader guessing.

Ms. Rowling opens her first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, adding a sense of mystery in the thirdparagraph with a secret.

Does the character in your WIP (work in progress) have a secret?

Do you agree that a secret, mystery or illusion gives a story layers?

Is it enough for the main protagonist to have a secret or should there be multiple secrets scattered throughout the story?

Read the rest of Dan’s post and tell me what you think about…

There are so many choices for an author to make when embarking on a novel. What time period? What setting? What structure? What genre? What characters? What events? How true should it be to real history? What is the time frame? What is it all really about?

Many of these need to be answered before even starting out. No wonder so many potential novelists are put off at the first hurdle.

And as soon as you’ve made those decisions, (assuming you haven’t given up in despair,) another wave of questions immediately comes hurtling towards you.

How are you going to tell the story? Whose point of view? First or third person? What tone? What voice? Where should it start? What is going to kick the whole thing off? Where is it going to end? How are you going to layer in the clues to make that ending satisfactory? And, horror of horrors…

By Eva Lesko Natiello  on The Book Designer Site:

In today’s article, written by Eva Lesko Natiello (@EvaNatiello), indie authors are reminded of the importance of the decisions we make publishing our books. Enjoy, and be sure to comment below if you can think of other “staff” available to help self-published authors market their books.

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Yesterday an author contacted me to arrange a marketing consultation. He told me he was disappointed with his marketing team. He liked what he saw I’d done with my book, and thought my team was doing a much better job. He was different than the other authors I’ve worked with—this author was traditionally published.

Here’s another example of “the grass is always greener…” We indie authors think the traditionally published benefit from something we don’t: a roster of professionals that comprise:

a sales team
a marketing team
and a P.R. team