Whose English is it, anyway? Spelling for an international audience

Posted on4 Comments

Updated 31 May 2014 When publishers distribute a book internationally, they will often change the text to meet regional spelling conventions; thus one will find, for example, that the U.S.-published Harry Potter uses American spelling, while the British and Canadian versions use British spelling. For the self-publisher distributing a single file worldwide, this is not an option. Which spelling, then, should you use? I have heard it argued that authors hoping to appeal to an American audience should only use American spelling because, it is alleged, Americans are less tolerant Read More …

Tips for writing an effective book description

Posted on2 Comments

A well-written book description (also called a synopsis) is an essential marketing tool for your novel. Its purpose is to lure the reader in with just enough of a teaser that they feel compelled to crack open the cover and start reading. An alluring synopsis is the gateway into your book, yet too many authors don’t give their synopsis the respect that it’s due, and as a result they let their novel — and themselves — down. A good fiction synopsis: always starts with attention-grabbing, descriptive words. Avoid beginning with Read More …

One space or two after a sentence?

Posted on1 Comment

For those of us old enough to remember typewriters and the convention of adding a double space between sentences, the question of one space or two often arises. The answer now is, unequivocally, one space, but why the change? The convention of adding two spaces between sentences arose because this rendered text easier to read when typed out: with only one space, sentences would appear to run into each other. However, when typeset into a book where paragraphs are usually justified, this convention becomes irrelevant: words, and sometimes individual characters, Read More …