Like a print book, you should always start an ebook chapter on a new page. It gives a reader an expected break, which is part of making ebook reading as natural as possible. However, pages in an ebook are not fixed like a printed book. They are flexible and depend on a reader’s device to…
Yes, Always Start An Ebook Chapter On A New Page Read More »
The term squinting modifiers refers to a word or phrase that can appear to modify words or phrases on either side of it in a sentence. Because of this, readers may find it confusing to understand which words the modifier is intended to modify. The name is quite apt because squint can mean to look…
Squinting Modifiers: A Misplaced Modifier That Confuses Readers Read More »
When you publish your work online, do you think about who can use your writing? I’m not referring to copyright ownership, but to practical uses of your content that you may not be aware of or fully understand. If you publish an article or essay on a public platform or social media site, can the…
Who Can Use Your Writing When You Publish Online? Read More »
You know that repetitive sentence starters make for poor writing and, worse, poor reading. A quick scan down your draft can reveal repeated sentence starters, particularly at the beginning of paragraphs. With a little more proofreading, you’ll probably find more. Luckily, it’s a pretty easy problem to overcome. All you need to do is change…
Are You Hiding Your Repetitive Sentence Starters? Read More »
Yes, you can certainly use AI to design your book cover. But should you? For authors, AI can complete almost any task now, from outlining a story, writing the manuscript, to producing a book cover. Is that what you want to do? And more importantly, is it what readers want to read? Yes, it’s all…
Most advice on wasted words in writing focuses on removing weak modifiers, unnecessary adverbs, and empty sentence starters. The usual targets are words like just, really, very, and actually, along with phrases such as “With that in mind…” or “Just to be clear…” When I use my writing checker, it highlights plenty of words and…
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A character list is an optional section in a novel. Whether you should include one depends partly on the genre and the complexity of your story. While a list of characters is usually unnecessary in most fiction, it can be useful for certain types of stories. The number of characters is another factor to consider.…
Plot holes are one of the most annoying parts of writing a novel. It takes so long to write a book that it’s easy to get events or timelines wrong when the details might be chapters apart. The problems can be simple things, minor details, or a glaring inconsistency that readers will definitely notice. But…
The biggest self-publishing mistake, especially for new authors publishing their first book, is being impatient. It takes a long time to write a book, but then being in a hurry to publish as soon as the first draft is complete is a recipe for disaster. Rushing to publish can be the primary cause of a…
The Biggest Self-Publishing Mistake New Authors Can Make Read More »
When you’re preparing to self-publish a book, one of your very first tasks is to add a table of contents. But do you really need a table of contents for your new book? Perhaps not, because it’s not a necessity for every genre. It depends on the type and version of your book and sometimes…
