When you open up any book, you’ll notice that a couple of pages in will normally be the copyright page, now, most of us will completely overlook this and go straight to the table of contents, introduction or chapter one, but as a writer this is something that you should be familiar with and definitely have within your own book.

So, what goes into this page and what details should go there?

​Well for most books there are standard details which you should include, this can differ between non-fiction and fiction (and again with memoirs too), but you should give some thought to and ensure you have the details ready when preparing your manuscript for publication.

One – Copyright

The first line of detail normally is quite simply letting your reader know that you have the copyright to the book, this normally reads quite simply as:

Copyright © Your Name Here, 2020

It shows the word ‘Copyright’ the copyright symbol, your name and then the year of publication.

​Two – All Rights Reserved

This part of the page indicates that the copyright holder reserves all rights to reproduce the book or elements within the book. You can simply place the words ‘All rights reserved’ or expand upon it, as below:

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form either by electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.
 
Three – Disclaimer

This element is proving popular with most authors and again, is something you should also consider, here are some basic examples, but we would recommend seeking legal advice before you add yours to your book:

For fiction books, the disclaimer looks similar to the following: This is a work of fiction. Characters, Names, incidents and locations are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is completely coincidental.

For Non-fiction books the disclaimer looks similar to the following: The publisher and author are providing this book and its contents on an “as is” basis and make no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to this book or its contents. The publisher and the author disclaim all such representations and warranties. In addition, the publisher and the author assume no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or any other inconsistencies herein.

Again, we would advise seeking further legal advice regarding your disclaimer, for example, a disclaimer for a book on new age thinking will be very different from that used in a book about fitness and diets.
 
Four – Edition

Here you should state which edition this specific copy of the book is and the year of publication
 
Five – Credits

Here is where you acknowledge the people and services that helped to produce your book, you’ll also need to have certain copyright notices placed here too, these will be for any copyrighted images, artwork, illustrations, excerpts from other material and forewords etc.

Six – ISBN & LCCN

Your ISBN (International Standard Book Number) should be printed next followed by the LCCN (Library of Congress Control Number) should you have a LCCN.  
 
Seven – Publisher details

Here is where you’ll add the details of who published your book, if your self-publishing (even if you’re using KDP or Ingram Spark) this will be your details, please note that you don’t necessarily have to place your address here if you don’t want to.
 
Eight – Website and contact details

At the very bottom of the notice you should use the space for your author website and contact email (it’s worth keeping social media addresses to your bio and not on the copyright page).
​

Copyright © John Smith, 2020
 
This is a work of fiction. Characters, Names, incidents and locations are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is completely coincidental.
 
 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form either by electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.
 
First Paperback Edition Feb 2020
 
Book Design by JD&J Design
Foreword by Jennifer Roberts
 
ISBN: 978-1-1234-5678-9 (Paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-9876-4321-9 (eBook)
Library of Congress Control Number: 00000000000
 
Published by JD&J Publishing,
​123 Book Street,
Novel Town, FL 32100
www.jdandj.com
​

The way in which we both read and write books has changed so much over the past 25 years, for those who write, the landscape has shifted and the tools now available for you to be able to create is growing very quickly. This is not to say that writers don’t use pen and paper and there may be some who still use a typewriter, but on the whole, we have adapted to new technology and embraced the new options it has given us.
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And this leads on to our obsession with cell phones, we have them with us at all times and use them for more and more tasks, so why not use them to help with your writing and publishing?

Now we know that most of you won’t want to try and write a 90,000 word book upon your phone, I’m sure after an hour of typing, your hands would cramp up and you’ll wonder why you ever started! But there are apps out there (many of which are free) that you can download and use to help with your journey as an author.

Here are ten apps that you might find useful:

Writer Plus
​This App allows you to capture and write ideas down wherever you are, the app has been designed to be simple and easy to use without the fuss of standard word-processing software (which doesn’t always transfer that well to a cell phone). 

The Brainstormer
This app is a story and idea generator created to help you focus towards your next book/short story, it uses a wheel which gives three random ideas for you to think about with your writing, these individual ideas have been carefully chosen to challenge creatively and get the best from each writer.

Werdsmith
Is a free app for Apple users (both phone, tablet and even watch), it gives you options to put your saved documents in to categories, it gives details on word counts and even the time you’ve spent writing, it allows you to create small documents and up to novel sized works.

Novelist
Completely free and currently without ads too, it gives you the tools to plot, outline and organize your story, you can schedule goals with dates for when a specific word count is due. It will allow you to back up to Google drive and also create templates for you to use.

JotterPad
This is a plain text editor which keeps things very simple (as you’re using a smaller device to write with), again, this app can sync to your cloud storage (such as Google drive, Dropbox and OneDrive) keeping everything backed up for you. They offer a free version, but the paid app gives more for the author.

Cold Turkey
This great app will temporarily block everything on your phone, so if you are easily distracted when trying to write, this is a must.

White Noise Generator
With this app you can slip on your headphones and let the noise of the outside world slip away as you write, you can mix their chosen sounds to your own preference, choosing from the sound of rain, wind, ocean, night, forest and many others.

Dictionary.com
The leading free English dictionary for Android, this app also offers a thesaurus and you can search for words using your voice, they offer a paid version which will give advice and tips on grammar, a rhyming dictionary, idioms, phrases and more. 

Grammarly Keyboard
This works throughout your cellphone/tablet and ensures what you’re writing looks great, it also works with swipe typing (if you use this), it’s used by millions of people and integrates smoothly with your other apps.

Calm
If you’re struggling with writer’s block, this app could be for you, Calm offers guided meditation sessions for countless situations, it gets you to relax and leave stress behind, they have a free version of the app, but of course you will get more services for the paid one.

The beginning of a new year always makes us think of resolutions and goals for the next twelve months, for many this will involve diets and maybe the search for a new job, but for an author (or those who want to become authors) it fills us with the inspiration that this should be the year of publication.

They say that we all have a book within us, so what’s stopping you from completing yours?

But the key in starting any resolution or goal is in keeping the momentum and making it past a very enthusiastic first week, as with those who take up a new form of exercise, the first couple of weeks is full on, then you tire, lose interest and go back to sitting on the sofa watching TV.

So, trying to complete your book in a month (unless you absolutely have to) is not always the best idea, overburdening yourself when you may well have a full-time job or others to take care of is a fast track to failure. And this is important to remember when you have other priorities, if you can’t write full time, don’t try to. 

This is all about setting realistic goals for yourself, there is a great method of goal setting with the acronym of SMART it stands for Specific, Measured, Achievable, Realistic and Timed, this standard of goal setting is used within the business world and is done so for a reason….. It works!

But how would a SMART goal look for an author? Below we have a great example that you might want to consider for yourself.

Specific

This is what you want to complete, for most authors it will be the obvious of wanting to write a book and then have it published (either through traditional means or by yourself and print on demand). Set your Specific along the lines of ‘I want to publish a book on ………….’.

​Measured

This is how you’ll acknowledge if you’ve completed the goal or not, your measurement here will be a target of having a book of no less than 60,000 words (or however many words you want as a minimum), having this book edited, formatted, proofed, a book cover designed, advertising created and published. This section should be of elements that you either complete to achieve your goal or don’t to miss it, setting tangible measurements puts things into black & white, you either complete them or you do not, making it very clear on what needs to be done.

Achievable

Having a goal which is achievable is so important, there is nothing worse than setting an unsustainable target, if you overburden yourself you will burnout and your goal will not be achieved. So be realistic, if you can manage to write for just 30 mins per day then commit to that (or to a time frame to honestly suits YOU), it may take a little longer to write your book but you will get there.

Realistic

This is similar to the Achievable target, you should look at the goal your setting and honestly ask yourself if it achievable for YOU, yes you should definitely push yourself and be optimistic, but if you set a target of writing eight books in one year that will all make the New York Times Best Sellers list you may be setting yourself up to fail, so set clear goals that (with focus and work) you have a chance of achieving.

Timed

Set yourself a deadline for your book, you don’t have to tell anyone else (although if you do it will increase your chance of completing it), but set a specific date when your book will be complete, now you may set this date for when the draft is ready and this is fine, just set a date and then stick to it.

Setting SMART objectives do work, we use them ourselves and have done for many years, so why not give them a go and let us know what your goals for 2020 will be.

​Following on from last week’s post on publishing eBooks, this week we continue with the spotlight on the more traditional printed book. Here we have a list of five of the most popular self-publishing services that offer indie authors a route to publication in paperback (and in some cases hardback too).

One - KDP

KDP – Top of the list in terms of popularity, Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing allows you to sell both your eBook and paperback to Amazon, if you select their Expanded distribution then it opens your book up to other distributers and makes it available to buy in many other locations (although, many bookstores tend to purchase books from other locations to KDP’s higher margins for them). KDP is free to use and offers royalties of up to 70%, they offer their own free ISBN for books, but you should really consider buying your own (if you want to be taken seriously within by the publishing industry).

Two - Ingram Spark

Ingram Spark – The second most popular self-publishing service that we design for, they offer more in the way of printed options for authors, along with paperback they offer hardback (dustjacket) and hardback case laminate. From a production aspect their books always great once printed and tend to have a higher quality feel to them (in comparison to some other self-publishing services). Ingram is the largest book distribution company and one of the largest self-publishing services within the US, so you should give them a look, they do have a small set up fee and you will need your own ISBN, but their quality and distribution make them a great choice.

Three - Lulu

Lulu – Another big name within the self-publishing world, they offer a great many services to help the indie author along with self-help guides that are worth looking at (even if you don’t print with them). They don’t offer the range of trim sizes that both KDP and Ingram offer, but they cover the most popular sizes (which is great for the majority of authors). Their service is free to use and their distribution is global, distributing through Amazon, B&N, Lulu and retailers through the Ingram Spark channels.

Four - Blurb

Blurb – Offering self-publication in traditional printed trade books, eBooks, magazines and even photo books, Blurb offers printed options for paperback, dustjacket and case laminate. Their distribution is through their own Blurb bookstore along with selling your book on Amazon and in over 39,000 stores using Ingram Spark’s distribution channels too.

Five - BookBaby

Bookbaby – Along with eBook publication BookBaby publishes printed books too, they also offer lots in the way of advice and resources for authors. Their publication services for print currently break down into two print on demand options, the first is $299 and makes your book available through Amazon, Powell’s Books, Books-A-Million, B&N, Ingram Spark’s distribution channels along with many other distributors giving your book lots of options to be purchased. Their other option (currently $99) places the focus more on their own bookstore, it still comes with great control and their royalties are at 50% of your retail price.

There are of course many other services out there, but we wanted to bring a list of the top five publishing companies we use and design for when creating a book for an author, it has to be said that the most popular service used by authors has always been KDP (formerly Createspace) and then Ingram Spark, both of these companies are ones that you should consider, but do take a look at the others, they still of great options for the indie author which will make your book available to as many readers as possible.
​

It has never been easier than it is today when it comes to self-publishing your book, and this is especially the case when it comes to eBooks, they’re still a highly popular way to reach an audience and in most cases more flexible when it comes to promotions (and this can really help in raising awareness along with promoting your other titles).
​
The good thing is that there are plenty of places (other than the key players) where you can self-publish your eBook, this gives you more choice and flexibility, which can only be a good thing. Here we have some eBook publishers that you may or may not know about.

​KDP
No surprises that KDP are on this list, being Amazon’s publishing wing they offer a free to use service which gives authors up to 70% royalties on their book sales, their service is easy to use, popular and of course works seamlessly with Kindle and Amazon.
 
Ingram Spark
One of the other most popular print on demand publishers used by indie authors, they have great distribution (Amazon, Apple, Kobo and Barnes & Noble) and compatible for pretty much every eReader available, their prices start from $25 per title.
 
Nook Press
Nook (if you don’t already know) is the eBook service and device from Barnes & Noble, their service is currently free to use and works beautifully with their Nook eReaders and on any device that has the free Nook app
 
iBooks
This service is from Apple and makes your eBook available through their iBooks Store, if you have a Mac then you can simply download the iBooks Author app where you can edit and prepare your book for their platform.
 
Google Play – Books Partner Center
Google’s eBook publishing service allows your book to be available on Android devices and from Google books, their website allows you to upload your work and set which countries you want to sell to (currently from a list of just over 50), you can of course set your own prices too.

​Smashwords
A great service which allows you to sell your eBook through a variety of other platforms along with their own Smashwords store, they currently distribute through Apple Books, B&N, Kobo and Scribd, offering 80% commission from sales through their own store and 60% commission from sales in the others.
 
Lulu
They currently sell their books through Lulu, Amazon, B&N and even Ingram, free to set up and they have some great training videos and downloads to help with the process
 
Blurb
Blurb offers more in the way of self-formatting your eBook (if you are using Adobe InDesign or the BookWright Software to create the original manuscript that is), they distribute books through their own store (which is pretty big) along with Apple Books and Amzon.
 
Kobo
Fairly straightforward to use with some great tools for getting your eBook ready, once uploaded and for sale your book will be available to the millions of Kobo device users around the globe.
 
BookBaby
BookBaby offers everything that an author could need to get their eBook ready for publication, they have distribution through Amazon, Apple Books, Kobo, Scribd along with some smaller outlets too.

The book cover design is the face of your advertising and packaging for your work, as we all know, people do judge books (and pretty much everything else) initially by first impression, this is why advertising is such a massive industry and why you should take it seriously too.

So, having a professional book cover is important if you want your work to be taken seriously, we all know that reviews help with this too, but you need to sell books before you’ll even get these (genuine reviews that is, and we all know that the first handful are friends and family).
​
If you are taking your life as a professional writer seriously then you’ll understand that your journey is one similar to starting (and running) a small business, again, this is if you are looking to sell copies of your work (and why wouldn’t you be) reaching a larger audience than those who dabble in self-publishing for fun.

Along with a great book cover design you will need to have a platform to promote your book, the advertising to show to your viewer that you have a professional book and that really is worth their time and money.

Social media for authors is very easy to get started with, creating new accounts will be free and you can be up and running within minutes. Some authors do use their own personal social media accounts as their author platforms, but we would advise you to set up separate pages and keep them apart from each other.

You may also set up your own website, these too are very easy to start, maintain and use, the fees are normally very reasonable and you’ll not need any previous experience to create (the majority of self-build website platforms have great tutorials if you do get stuck).

With your online presence you will need to take the same approach used with your book cover, having some form of branding that shows the viewer that they’re in the right place regardless of your sales page, social media or author’s website will confirm that you are a professional author.
​
Consistency throughout your online presence is important, if you look at some of your own favorite authors and their social media pages, website, advertising and book covers you’ll see that they show continuity, you know that when you go from their website to their Facebook page that you’re still in the right place. 

Having continuity with your branding displays a level of professionalism which will help to associate you with the big players within the publishing industry, if you are self-publishing, you’ll understand that competition is high, you need to give your book every chance you can, so maintaining your brand is important.

The same goes for the posts that you make, every author will share videos, memes, links and offers, but when it comes to self-promotion these social media posts should look professional, before you post anything, go to another successful author’s page and see what they post (you may find that a lot of these posts come from their publishing houses, but the standard will normally be consistent, well designed and professional).
​
The main thing to remember is that even with a great book and a great cover design you still need to work at self-promotion, keep the standards high, consistent and professional, you can still compete with the best of them! 

Successfully promoting your new book can be a full time job in itself, and with over one thousand books published every day you’re up against some stiff competition if you want to achieve sales.
​
But there are lots of things that you can do to self-promote and many great services out there which will help you in bringing your book to a larger audience, here we have brought together some services that you may (or may not) know.

1- New Free Kindle Books

The service hosts a site which promotes free books on Kindle, you can pay to promote your book and prices start from as little as $5, they do also have a free to list option, their average monthly visits to the site are currently up to 12K visits.
https://newfreekindlebooks.com/
 

2- Digital Book Today

Founded in 2009 this service helps authors to promote their books through both paid and free options, they maintain a top 100 free books on Kindle and require that to enter your book it needs to have more than 18 reviews and be four stars and above.
https://digitalbooktoday.com/
 

3- eBook Stage

eBook Stage is a free (and daily) email which tells its readers about free and discounted eBooks (and audio books), promotional packages are available to authors and prices currently start from $10.
https://www.ebookstage.com/
 

4- Indie Book Lounge

This a large catalogue of books from independent authors and currently is free to list your own book upon, however, you can pay/sponsor for advertising and these fees start from $4 up to $20
http://indiebooklounge.com/
 

5- Book Rebel
​
With larger monthly visits to their website they offer daily emails recommending books to their subscribers (these are based on genre preferences etc.), you can pay to partner with their service to promote your book, the fees start from around $20.
https://bookrebel.com/

6- BookDealio

Another site with larger viewing figures, they provide an eBook newsletter giving info on the latest deals, you can pay for advertising (both eBook and print), their prices start from $70 and work their way up.
https://www.bookdealio.com/
 

7- Book Doggy

Book Doggy promotes free and discounted books from most of the major online bookstores, it gives details on the author with links to your book and even Facebook page, prices start from $18 for free books and $20 for discounted ones.
https://bookdoggy.com/
 

8- Book Bongo

This is a book promotion service which starts off with a completely free package, from there prices start from $9.99 and currently go up to $149. Your book doesn’t have to be either free or discounted to promote here either
http://bookbongo.com/
 

9- Red Feather Romance

With a mailing list which (currently) is over 100,000 they offer a service to promote your Romance book to their readers, packages start from $80.
https://www.redfeatherromance.com/
 

10- Book Bub

Book Bub is a very popular and great way to promote your book, they have several million on their email list and their monthly site visits are currently over seven million, promotional packages start from $55+
https://www.bookbub.com/welcome

Becoming a professional author is a dream of many who sit pen in hand (or more likely, fingers poised over their keyboards), you may have a great story to tell and have always longed to get it out to the public, but for whatever reason haven’t made that leap.

So, if not now, when?

There are lots of reasons why people don’t follow through on their dreams, it can be lack of time, fear of failure, lack of resources, lack of confidence (again, fear), too many distractions and lack of motivation. But if this is important to you (and I assume it is), why would you waste time in not moving forward with your goal?

For many, the primary reason for not working towards your goal is fear, fear of failure has stopped many people and robbed the world of some amazing books, services, ideas and businesses. This fear ensures that you give weight to the many reasons why you shouldn’t proceed, not having time, not having the resources, that you need to learn something else before making a start etc. 

Fear WILL hold you back and if you don’t recognize this you WILL let it.

When you think about writing a book and then publishing it, many will worry about rejection, this could be from a publisher, reader or even a critic, you can think that you’re simply not good enough and that once your book is completed you’ll be called out as a fraud. This ‘Impostor’ syndrome is held by countless authors, many of which are highly successful and regarded as great writers, it is far more common to think like this than you may realize, knowing that pretty much everyone else feels the same should help you to realize that you’re not alone.

If you are thinking of writing a book, the best way to do so is to simply stop thinking about it and start doing it. If you’re waiting for the perfect time to start, understand one thing…. It doesn’t exist.

Having said this, some planning will help, those excuses as to why you ‘can’t’ write your book right now should be addressed. So look at them individually: 

​I don’t have the time right now

if you haven’t the time to write, look at where you spend each hour of your average day, then look at your average week, how much time do you spend on Facebook/social media, how much time do you give to watching TV? Could you cut back by just one hour per week on staring at your phone or TV? When you review an average week, you will normally find a small chunk of time that you can use to write, if it’s just an hour per week, that’s great, your book may take a little longer to write but no one said it was a race.

​I don’t have the resources 

You can start with a pencil and a sheet of paper, just go to your local dollar store, you can technically write a book on a tablet and Google’s Chromebooks start from $150. The point is, you don’t need a top of the range MacBook Pro to write a book.

​There are too many distractions

If you are writing from home (and you don’t have kids), turn off your internet, TV and phone, only for the period that you’re writing, the less temptation the better. Or if you live with others, can you get out and write in a café for an hour? This is how J.K. Rowling wrote her first book, and it worked out very well for her. If you do have kids then the only time you may have will be when they’ve gone to bed or are at school, remember, you’re not trying to write the entire book in one day, even if you can just spare 30 mins per week, it’s better than not writing at all.

​I haven’t written for awhile and can’t seem to get back into it

Just open up Word on your laptop or grab a notepad and pen, and now just write. Write anything, it really doesn’t matter, free-writing is great in helping you to blow the cobwebs away and begin to slowly get your creative flow back. You don’t have to keep what you write (unless you’re really happy with it), the focus here is in just getting some words down.

​Regardless of what’s holding you back right now, there is always a way to achieve your creative goals, so finally, what’s stopping you?

The process of creating something such as a book, art, design or photography is a very personal process for any artist or creative, the transition from vision to execution to result can be a long path and certainly one where motivation and belief will play major roles.
​
For many creatives the journey can feel lonely, your stamina to keep going can fail over time and passion turns to routine, suddenly what you’re working on feels harder to complete and you find yourself full of doubt, next a creative block kicks in and you stare at a blank page wondering what to do.

Sometimes when a block or lack of passion hits you it’s because you’ve forgotten some of the basic reasons why you started in your chosen field. You have to go back to basics and remember why you started in the first place.
​
Trying to force your way through a lack of passion or creative block is the worst way to get past it, if you’re working on a project and don’t seem to be getting anywhere, stop, walk away from it and commit to looking at it again the following morning, recharging your batteries with a good night’s sleep works so many times.

But you should also consider going back to the basics of your craft, if you’re into photography for example, instead of trying to make your next shoot something big, try something more minimalist. I know of a photographer who spent several hours on a beach just photographing rock pools within section no longer than one hundred yards, if forced him to look very differently at his current location and find the art in what was in front of him.
​
The same goes for writing, instead of trying to complete a chapter in a week, commit to writing just one page, but make the promise to yourself that this one page will be as perfect as you can make it, enjoy the process and believe in it.

If this still seems like too much for where you are right now, go even more basic, just free write, it doesn’t matter what it is, just write whatever comes to mind and do NOT judge it, it is what it is.
​
Another way to bring passion and motivation back to your craft is to seek inspiration from others, look at the celebrated greats, look at what they have created and study it, this could be from books, art galleries, blogs and YouTube videos, you have so much inspiration at your finger tips (via cellphones, laptops, tablets etc.) there is so much information that can help you if you just look.

YouTube is a great source of inspiration for individuals, if you simply look for motivational or inspirational videos and just watch a couple of them, you’ll find some of your passion coming back to you, they can act like the your very own motivational coach prepping you for the day, if you don’t believe me, just give it a try.

The main thing to remember is that you started doing what you do because you believe in it, you do have a passion for your craft (otherwise you would have never started), you just need to reconnect.  If you’re struggling at this moment just stop, relax and make sure you sleep on it, go back to basics, revisit those who inspired you and believe.

You’ve got this 

Your book is complete... but is it?

Now that you have finished your first draft, you’ll want to go back and edit what you’ve written, and at first this can seem like an overwhelming and very daunting task. This is where procrastination can set it, ‘I’ll do it next week…….’ many will say, and the book sits in a file on your laptop, its launch date creeping further and further away.

But it shouldn’t be this way, fine tuning your manuscript is vital if you want to succeed, many authors will use the services of a professional editor (we even know authors who use multiple editors in order to polish their book prior to launch), the main thing is that your manuscript should be edited once you have stopped writing.
​
As mentioned, many authors will use an editor, and some will do it themselves, it is of course recommended that you get a fresh set of eyes to look at your book in a constructive manner (this is where an editor would really help), but you can edit yourself, you need to be objective and to some degree separate yourself from the obvious personal connection to the book, but if you really want to do it yourself, here are some tips to try and make it a little easier.
​

Break it down in to smaller pieces

If you intend to sit down and edit the book in one continuous go you may well struggle, break the process down into reviewing/editing one chapter at a time, you will need to pay attention to the overall outline of the narrative, plot & structure, but focusing in on one section of the book makes it a great deal easier to see where changes should be made.

Check your editing

Once you have made any edits make sure you go back and review them properly, in most cases this is worth leaving until the following day, you should give it some time and then re-read what you have just edited, you’ll find that with the element of time your edits will either stand up or you’ll see where you should tweak further.

Scrutinize your content

The process of editing isn’t just about checking for spelling and grammar errors, editing your book is about checking the overall story and ensuring that it makes sense too, so you should ask some questions of the book while working on the edit.

The first and obvious one is… does it make sense or do the plot and subplots go off at crazy tangents that add nothing to the overall narrative of the book?

Are your characters believable? Will your readers be able to connect with them on a real level? Great books have characters who have depth to them, the readers can connect and relate, will they do the same with yours?

Check the structure of your sentences for length, if they are too long (or too short) it can make the reading of your book disjointed or cumbersome, it’s always good to review a couple of best sellers within your genre to obtain an idea of how the big publishing houses prepare their books prior to working on yours.

Look for overused words and phrases within your manuscript, it can be easy (especially when writing a book over a long period of time) to use the same phrase over and over again, this should become obvious when you’re editing and something you should look to adjust within the edit itself.

Get someone else to read your book

Having another person read your book in an objective and unbiased manner is incredibly helpful for the editing process, even if you ask them to read the edited chapters as you complete them (so you don’t swamp your reviewer). The other person’s perspective on your work will help to find elements you may have missed that need adjusting.