{"id":2910,"date":"2023-09-06T01:02:13","date_gmt":"2023-09-06T09:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/?p=2910"},"modified":"2023-08-29T17:05:12","modified_gmt":"2023-08-30T01:05:12","slug":"auntie-deborahs-writing-advice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/2023\/09\/06\/auntie-deborahs-writing-advice\/","title":{"rendered":"Auntie Deborah\u2019s Writing Advice"},"content":{"rendered":"

What would you do if you found out that someone had stolen your idea for writing a book and published it under their name?\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

First of all, ideas can\u2019t be copyrighted, but I must add\u2014with emphasis\u2014that there are vanishingly few original ideas. What makes a book uniquely yours is what you\u00a0do<\/em>\u00a0with that idea. The vision and skill in execution that make it personal.<\/p>\n

So what would I do? I\u2019d cheer them on for having a great idea and for having gotten it in print. And then I\u2019d write my own interpretation.<\/p>\n

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)\u2014get 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.<\/p>\n

In other words, be generous. If you do your work as a writer, this won\u2019t be the only great idea you get.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>How can you tell if a book needs an editor or a proofreader?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It does. Trust me on this. It doesn\u2019t matter how brilliant the story is or how many books you\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>How do I get a self-published book into libraries?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

If your book is digital only, put it out through Draft2Digital (D2D), which distributes to many vendors, including a number that sell to libraries.<\/p>\n

Submit review copies to Library Journal. Consider paying for an ad if your budget allows.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is it better to title my chapters, or should I just stick to numbering them?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is no \u201cbetter.\u201d 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\u2019ll tell you and then you can argue with them.<\/p>\n

That said, as a reader I love chapter titles. As an author, I sometimes come up with brilliant titles but I haven\u2019t managed to do so for an entire novel, so I default to numbers. One of these years, I\u2019ll ditch consistency and mix and match them. Won\u2019t that be fun!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019t be copyrighted, but I must add\u2014with emphasis\u2014that there are vanishingly few original ideas. What makes a book uniquely yours is what you\u00a0do\u00a0with that idea. The vision […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14,20,19,18],"tags":[752,553],"class_list":["post-2910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays","category-nonfiction","category-process","category-publishing","category-writing","tag-book-editors","tag-publishing-self-publishing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2910"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2912,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2910\/revisions\/2912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}