Twitter Tattle, revisited

By:  Kimberly Hitchens is the founder and owner of Booknook.biz, an ebook production company that has produced books for over 750 authors and imprints.

This week's entry is a mainly repost of a post here on CFC from June of 2012,  but I have added new material at the end, about various twitter/social media platforms.  From what I've seen, is still sorely needed.  This is from our Social Networking Genius  extraordinaire, Steve (Stephanie) Nilles, who holds down the fort on Tweeting and Facebooking, Pinteresting and other "stuff" over at Booknook.biz, and has taught me all I know about Twitter, et al.  So, yes, please feel free to blame her for all the annoying twaddle I inflict upon you as you try to pluck pearls from the muck on Twitter.  And, yes, I'm one of those  horrible people that post CAT PICTURES on Pinterest, too.  This article appeared on our website at Booknook.biz, also in June of 2012.  It is, however, as informative now as it was then. 

1. Create an informative, concise, and unique bio.

You want potential followers to know who you are, what you do, and why you do it, without appearing arrogant, hasty, or a bore. Think like a (micro)journalist: answer the obligatory who? what? when? where? and why? as briefly as possible. Alternatively, think like you're filling out an online dating application. What kind of followers are you trying to attract? Bloggers? Reviewers? Agents? Readers? Ex-cons? Marine Biologists?

Example of a good profile bio:

Ellen Jones   @ellenjones
Oakland-based motorcycle rider and author of the Jane Smith YA mystery series. Read more about Jane's latest adventures: www.janegoestowashington.thebook.com

Why this bio is good:

It tells us that a woman (presumably) named Ellen lives in California, likes to do crazy things like ride motorcycles (without obnoxiously proclaiming "I'm wild! I ride motorcycles!"), and writes a mystery series of young adult novels about a girl named Jane who most recently took on Washington. If I'm curious, I can click on her link for more information. Short and sweet.

Example of a bad profile:

Joe Smith   @joesmithcool
My name is Joe Smith. I am an author. I have written 4 books. Two were published with Book Publishing, Inc. One is self-published because I'm trying to stick it to The Man! My books are, without a doubt, some of the bestest books in the whole wide world!!! Read more about "The Awesome Series" (including tons of 5-star reviews) on Amazon!!

Why this bio is bad:

It tells us that an author named Joe Smith has written 4 books, is bitter about the fact that only 2 of them were traditionally published, and is (likely unfoundedly) convinced that he's an extraordinary writer. The extraneous exclamation points take up unnecessary space and suggest he might secretly be a 6th grade girl. I know the title of his book series, but if I want to read it, I have to search for it on my own. This bio is long-winded, immature, and ineffectual.

2. Self-promotional tweets

When tweeting to promote to your followers, be it an event you're publicizing, a blog entry you'd like them to read, or a product you'd like them to buy, tread carefully. In a world ripe with bombarding advertisement, it's difficult to convince people that your self-promotion is any different from or better than everyone else's self-promotion. Make it your goal to pique interest. Promote creatively, humbly, and concisely. Come up with 140-character phrases that would make even the busiest, pickiest reader just have to know more.

And... Never underestimate the value of hyperlinks and hashtags.

For the uninitiated, a hashtag consists of a # sign followed by a word or words that categorize a tweet (no spaces in between). #books denotes a tweet about a book or books. #Obama2012 denotes a tweet about Obama's reelection campaign, including event listings, press coverage, and commentary. Anyone can employ any hashtag at any time. Hashtags that are trending as I write (you can find trends on the left hand side of your Twitter home page) include #MayWeather, denoting tweets about thunderstorms and sunshine, and #AJBurnett, denoting tweets about whatever sport that dude is playing right now.

Hashtags authors commonly use:

#books
#ebooks
#kindle
#nook
#amreading
#mustread
#read
#bookclub

Hashtags useful in promoting KDP free days:

#freekindlebook
#freebooks
#freeebook (that's "free ebook")
#free

Why these hashtags will help you:

If I'm searching for a new book to read, I can type "#books," for example, in the search field located in Twitter's upper right hand menu. Twitter will send me to a page listing all tweets including the hashtag #books, whether I'm following those users or not. If I'm looking for a replacement for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which I've just finished reading, I can search for #thriller, #crimenovel, or #SteigLarsson.

This search feature works for promoters as well. If I've just written a crime novel I would compare to Larsson's series, I can run searches for those books in Twitter and use hashtags I find in my own future tweets, such as #MillenniumTrilogy.

Apart from using by the book (no pun intended) categorical hashtags, use your imagination in your tweets! Don't be afraid to be funny.

Bad self-promotional tweet:

Back to Basics is free today! Please Retweet you guys! I love you!

Why this tweet is bad:

It's lacking information. Remember that people use Twitter for various reasons, not just to find books they'd just like to buy and read and share with their friends. We have no idea what "Back to Basics" is. A book? A work-out video? Even if I were to assume Back to Basics is this author's book, there's no link to it, which means I'd have to search for it. Then he asks me to retweet to my followers with the additional qualifier that he loves me. Not only am I annoyed, I'm a little creeped out.

Good self-promotional tweet:

#freekindlebook: Back to Basics www.amazon.com/backtobasicsbook A case for resuscitating the electric #car. #books #nonfiction #amreading #green #energy #algore #hybrids #free

Why this tweet is good:

Right off the bat, it informs followers that the tweet is about a free kindle book. It gives the book's title, a direct link to where it can be purchased, and a phrase explaining what the book is about. Hashtags in the tweet explain that the product is a book, is nonfiction, and pertains to energy policy, green energy, that it is related to hybrid vehicles, and that it is a free product.

More examples of good self-promotional tweets:

Now out on #kindle: #Murder in #Miami, the 2nd #book in the Jan Austin #mystery series: www.amazon.com/janaustinbooks #chicklit #femalesleuth #romance #florida #mustread

Is #Twitter REALLY an effective tool for #selfpromotion? An interview with #selfpub #author @JackieJCollins www.interviewjackie.com

"Joe Jones does it again. Before There Was #Coffee is #hilarious & #moving. A page-turner to the last drop." www.link.com #books #satire #humor #capitalism #starbucks

Non-promotional tweets:

Don't use Twitter only to sell yourself! Think of it as a bar conversation with an acquaintance. Retweet (denoted by "RT") tweets you're interested in by large publications and individuals, ask your followers questions, find common ground with other Twitter users, start conversations with those you follow, make small talk about day-to-day happenings. You wouldn't talk incessantly about your job or divulge gory details about your recent divorce to the stranger sipping a beer on the bar stool to your right; don't do it on Twitter, either.

3. Quick Tips:

Twitter now has a built-in link shortener, which automatically codes your hyperlinks to take up no more than 20 characters. This means you can copy and paste links without having to worry about losing precious characters.

Running out of room in a tweet? Can't figure out how to shorten it any further? Replace "and" with "&," and compound words w/ (hint!) contractions.

4.  Platforms: (New 2013 content)

In my own search--akin to a Grail Quest--for the perfect social networking platform, I've somewhat settled on HootSuite for power users.  It has a lot of functionality for the average user.  Other platforms should not be overlooked; Composer.io is coming along nicely and Sendible is extremely popular.  The formerly-popular Seesmic has been purchased by HootSuite, so they are gone the way of "Friendster" and "Myspace." Some platforms, like OnlyWire, can update 52 (yes, Fifty-Two!) social networks at once, and while I originally "pooh-poohed" the idea, I know that while I was testing it, I got a lot of hits to my site from odd places like Deviant Art, where I would not have expected viable visits.  You can also use it to post to del.i.cious, and StumbleUpon.  I personally think that OnlyWire has become a bit too caught up in the number of sites to which you can post, rather than the sort of super-friendly HootSuite package, but both platforms have highly-usable browser widgets, which make tweeting, FB'ing, etc., a blast.  Try them all--and get over that fear of social networking as a tool.

======================================================

Thanks, Steve!  For those of you that like jazz, our Steve is a smokin' musician.  Warning:  ADULT lyrics and music, don't go to the page with your kids in the room, but her lyric, "facebook is a gateway drug to stalking" should be used in a bestselling  novel!   Visit her site at:  http://www.stephanienilles.com .

Early Summer Releases

I can't wait to read these books, to be released in June and July, 2013:


If You Were Here  by Alafair Burke (Harpercollins hardcover, 4 June 2013).

Manhattan journalist McKenna Jordan is chasing the story of an unidentified woman who heroically pulled a teenaged boy from the subway tracks. When she locates a video that captures part of the incident, she thinks she has an edge on the competition scrambling to identify the mystery heroine, but is shocked to discover that the woman in the video bears a strong resemblance to Susan Hauptmann, a close friend who disappeared without a trace a decade earlier.

What would have been a short-lived metro story sends McKenna on a dangerous search for the missing woman—a search that will force her to unearth long-buried truths much closer to home…


Blood Orange by Karen Keskinen (Minotaur hardcover, 4 June 2013).

Santa Barbara private investigator Jaymie Zarlin has built her fledgling agency on finding missing people. Still struggling with the death of her troubled brother, who died in police custody, Jaymie is determined to help others in similar situations find their way home.  Homicides are not in her repertoire.

But when Lili Molina, a local teenager chosen for the coveted role of Daphne in the annual solstice parade, is murdered, Jaymie is urged to take on the case. Reluctant at first, she soon learns police are mishandling the investigation and can’t refuse. In a town where some people are filthy rich and some are dirt poor, Jaymie finds herself slipping into the fault lines between privilege and race. Her investigation turns up an array of suspects, including con artists, spoiled rich kids, and an eccentric oil heiress. Jaymie must move fast  to unravel a twisted conspiracy - before she becomes the next victim.


Clare DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway by Sara Gran  (HMH hardcover, 18 June 2013).

When Paul Casablancas, Claire DeWitt’s musician ex-boyfriend, is found dead in his Mission District home, the police are convinced it’s a simple robbery. But Claire knows nothing is ever simple.

With the help of her new assistant, Claude, Claire follows the clues, finding hints to Paul’s fate in her other cases—especially that of a missing girl in the gritty 1980s East Village and a modern-day miniature horse theft in Marin. As visions of the past reveal the secrets of the present, Claire begins to understand the words of the enigmatic French detective Jacques Silette: “The detective won’t know what he is capable of until he encounters a mystery that pierces his own heart.” And love, in all its forms, is the greatest mystery of all—at least to the world’s greatest PI.


The Last Word: A Spellman Novel by Lisa Lutz (Simon & Schuster hardcover, 9 July 2013).

After Izzy's hostile takeover of Spellman Investigations, her parents simply go on strike. Her sister, Rae, comes back into the family business with questionable motivations. Her other employees seem to be coping with anxiety disorders, and she has no idea how to pay the bills.

But her worst threat comes from someone who is no relation. Within months of assuming control of the business, Izzy is accused of embezzling from a former client, the ridiculously wealthy Mr. Slayter, who happens to have Alzheimer’s, which Izzy and he are diligently trying to keep under wraps. Not only is Slayter’s business and reputation on the line, but if Izzy gets indicted for embezzlement, she’ll lose everything—her business, her license, and her family’s livelihood.


A Dangerous Fiction by Barbara Rogan (Viking hardcover, 25 July 2013).

Jo Donovan always manages to come out on top. From the backwoods of Appalachia, she forged a hard path to life among the literati in New York City. At thirty-five, she’s the widow of the renowned author Hugo Donovan and the owner of one of the best literary agencies in town. Jo is living the life she dreamed of but it’s all about to fall apart.

When a would-be client turns stalker, Jo is more angry than shaken until her clients come under attack. Meanwhile, a biography of Hugo Donovan is in the works and the author’s digging threatens to destroy the foundations of Jo’s carefully constructed life. As the web of suspicion grows wider and her stalker ups the ante, she’s persuaded by her client and friend—FBI profiler-turned-bestselling-thriller writer—to go to the police. There Jo finds herself face-to-face with an old flame: the handsome Tommy Cullen, now NYPD detective.

Paul Casablancas, Claire DeWitt’s ex-boyfriend, is a popular musician in the San Francisco scene. When he’s found dead in his apartment, his cherished guitars missing, the police are convinced it’s a simple robbery, but Claire knows nothing is ever simple. With the help of her new assistant Claude, Claire follows the clues, finding hints to Paul’s fate in her other cases—especially a long-ago missing girl in a gritty 1980s East Village and a modern-day miniature horse theft in Marin. As visions of the past reveal the secrets of the present, Claire begins to understand the words of the enigmatic French detective Jacques Silette: “The detective won’t know what he is capable of until he encounters a mystery that pierces his own heart.” And love, in all its forms, is the greatest mystery of all - at least to the world’s greatest P.I. - See more at: http://www.hmhco.com/shop/books/claire-dewitt-and-the-bohemian-highway/9780547429335#sthash.wCjsRhdC.dpuf

Paul Casablancas, Claire DeWitt’s ex-boyfriend, is a popular musician in the San Francisco scene. When he’s found dead in his apartment, his cherished guitars missing, the police are convinced it’s a simple robbery, but Claire knows nothing is ever simple. With the help of her new assistant Claude, Claire follows the clues, finding hints to Paul’s fate in her other cases—especially a long-ago missing girl in a gritty 1980s East Village and a modern-day miniature horse theft in Marin. As visions of the past reveal the secrets of the present, Claire begins to understand the words of the enigmatic French detective Jacques Silette: “The detective won’t know what he is capable of until he encounters a mystery that pierces his own heart.” And love, in all its forms, is the greatest mystery of all - at least to the world’s greatest P.I. - See more at: http://www.hmhco.com/shop/books/claire-dewitt-and-the-bohemian-highway/9780547429335#sthash.wCjsRhdC.dpuf

Gaming the Amazon System

by L.J. Sellers, author of provocative mysteries & thrillers

Writers are by nature creative people, and while pursuing marketing and success, they can be quite inventive. But some practices are more like gaming the system, and it's hard to tell where the line is between clever and deceitful. 

The newest trend I've noticed is the republishing of the same book. What I see happening is that familiar books that were competitive on Amazon's crime fiction list, dropped off the list, then came roaring back with a new pub date and a high profile.

What's the advantage in unpublishing an ebook and republishing it? If you price it at $.99 and list it on a bunch of promotional sites and newsletters—or do an Amazon giveaway—the book will jump in sales and get picked up by the algorithm. And because the publishing date is new, the book will likely get ranked in the "hot new releases" list...despite the fact that it was available for years and has a hundred reviews. The reviews stay attached to the print version (which stays published), then the author just emails Amazon and asks them to link the print version with the "new" ebook.

Thus, several of the top "hot new releases" on Amazon's police procedural list are not new at all. This seems like gaming the system, and now that I've mentioned it, I'm sure more authors will try it. But I suspect Amazon will catch on and find a way to stop it.

And maybe they should. The practice seems deceptive. We all have the ability to upload new versions of our stories at any time without unpublishing them, so there's no good reason to click that unpublish button. (Or none that I can think of.) But in the digital world, unpublishing is just a matter of pausing, or taking the file off the market for a while, so in theory, you could keep your book "new" all the time.

What do you think of this practice? And if I'm wrong about what's going on, tell me.

They're all such characters

By Gayle Carline
Author of Mysteries and Humor - Sometimes Together!

After getting to know the authors in this collective, one thing we have in common is the need for our characters to carry the story. We all love a good “what if” story, but we need real people to ask that question.

So how does a writer give life to these folks in their head?

One way is to use physical characteristics and personalities of people you know. I don’t recommend it, but you can do it. Here’s the thing: if you start down that path, you are forever hounded by friends and relatives asking you if Kim Patterson from Hit or Missus is really their snooty next-door neighbor.

No. No, she’s not.

This is Kim Patterson in my head.

A better way is to find a stranger who looks interesting and spend the day stalking them. Okay, not really… but almost. Any time you are out in public, there is the opportunity to observe human behavior. I like to keep a notebook handy, and if I have any kind of sit-and-wait errands (getting the car washed, doctor’s appointments, etc.) I will jot down descriptions of people that pass by. These little lists come in handy when I start creating new people.

As far as personalities, I love reading advice columns. When I was little, I got hooked on Dear Abby and Ann Landers. I’ve since branched out to include Dear Prudence, Ask Margo, and Carolyn Hax. Even Miss Manners gives me an idea of how people perceive both their own actions and others’.

There are people who write in because they are being abused and don’t recognize it. There are those who write in because they don’t understand why they can’t control their environment. People are incensed, they are hurt, they are confused, and they pour their feelings onto Prudy, Margo, and the rest.

It’s better than a psychology textbook, and fertile ground for giving your character a believable background for who they are in your story. I'll even say that some of the questions they ask can trigger storylines and subplots.

I’ll leave you with a very appropriate advice vlog from Dear Prudence.

 

What do YOU think the writer should do? And (a bonus question for writers and curious minds) can you see a story here?

* * * * *

Speaking of Hit or Missus, mark your calendars: This weekend, the Kindle version of my second Peri Minneopa Mystery will be free for the taking. I figure since Monday is Tax Day, I'd give everyone a break and let them have something for nothing. God knows the IRS won't.

Justice...

By Jenny Hilborne
Author of mysteries and psychological thrillers

How far would you go to get it? For many, the answer is not so black and white. Any time someone gets away with murder, or some other heinous crime, I'm sure we all wonder how far we might go to get the justice we seek. More than one high profile murder cases comes to mind where the perpetrators got away with it. Money, fame, whatever it was that got them off the hook...how do the families of the victims deal with their anger over the injustice? How do they ever move on when the criminal seems more protected by the legal system than the innocent victim? I can’t imagine.

We have prison overcrowding with federal prisons urged to grant early releases for inmates. How likely are they to reoffend? Who knows? Many released prisoners commit another crime.

A while ago, I read NO JUSTICE by Darcia Helle. While this is a work of fiction, it asks the same question and provokes thought about how far a civilian might actually go for justice when denied it through the legal system. Darcia's book explores the difference between revenge and vengeance, and the affect an injustice might have on a person's character. Intrigued and impressed by her novel, I invited Darcia to discuss her book, and how injustice and revenge changed her main character, Michael Sykora.

 

               
We’ve all heard of criminal cases where justice did not prevail. Stories range from the wealthy man getting away with murder to the rapist being let out early on “good behavior”, only to rape again. Most of us proclaim our outrage, then turn off the TV news or toss the newspaper aside and return to our lives. These cases are relegated to the back of our busy minds.

The same isn’t true for the people whose lives are touched by violent crime. They can’t turn off the TV and forget. They live with the horror each and every day. And they know they won’t always get justice.

How far would you go to right a wrong?

Michael Sykora, the main character in my novels No Justice, Beyond Salvation, and the upcoming Killing Instinct, asks himself that question when his fiancé is brutally raped and murdered. He wants justice, and he doesn’t trust the system to work. He also wants revenge.

The need for revenge sets Michael on a lifetime path of vengeance. While the words revenge and vengeance are often used interchangeably, there is a subtle but marked difference. Revenge is a deeply personal act of retaliation through physical and/or psychological trauma or murder. Revenge is less about justice and much more about getting even, inflicting pain, and lashing out against the person or people you were hurt by. 

Vengeance is an act of retribution in which a person is attempting to achieve his/her idea of justice. The goal here is not so much to lessen your own pain by hurting the other person, but to achieve some sort of balance in a flawed world.

One act of violence by a career criminal shatters Michael’s world in a way he can’t reassemble. He can no longer be that quiet, law-abiding guy who sees good in the world. Now he sees injustice all around him, and he makes it his mission to try to balance the scales. He gives victims and their families peace in the only way he knows how; he eliminates the threat from their lives. He ensures no one else will suffer at the hands of that murderer or rapist or pedophile. The act of killing gives him no pleasure, but does give him a vague sense of peace.

Maybe you don’t agree with his methods. Maybe you think our flawed criminal justice system remains our best option. Or maybe, like me, you stand somewhere in the middle. The truth is, until our own lives have been touched by this kind of violence, we can’t honestly say how we’d react. Hopefully, none of us will ever have to answer the question that derailed and now defines Michael Sykora’s life.

*

Darcia Helle lives in a fictional world with a husband who is sometimes real. Their house is ruled by spoiled dogs and cats and the occasional dust bunny.

Suspense, random blood splatter and mismatched socks consume Darcia’s days. She writes because the characters trespassing through her mind leave her no alternative. Only then are the voices free to haunt someone else’s mind.

Join Darcia in her fictional world:

http://www.QuietFuryBooks.com

http://www.QuietFuryBooks.com/blog
http://www.Twitter.com/darciahelle
http://www.Facebook.com/quietfurybooks

http://www.Facebook.com/darcia.helle

The characters await you.

Great Writing....and Stagger Lee

Tom Schreck, author of the Duffy Series

As a semi-professional writer I often get asked about what constitutes great writing.

Hard to say but it's kind of like that Supreme Court judge said about porn, that is; "I know it when I see it." (I'm still trying to get him to send me the links to those specific sites.)

I recently came across a piece of what I think epitomizes super great writing. (not sure if "super great" fits into the great writing category or not.)

It wasn't Shakespeare, Faulkner, Hemingway or Sellers. It was Lloyd Price.

Here it is, his version of the iconic rock and roll song, "Stagger Lee."

And why I think it is great.

The night was clear, and the moon was yellow
And the leaves came tumblin' down. . . 

(Perfect description of a setting in very few words. "The moon was yellow." -Can't you just see that? The moon isn't usually described as yellow--but it is, isn't it?)


I was standin' on the corner
When I heard my bull dog bark.

(He's got a bull dog--not a dog, not a hound dog, which would be the appropriate cliche considering it was the fifties. A bull dog is different and therefore it catches the reader's eye.)
He was barkin' at the two men
Who were gamblin' in the dark.

("Gamblin' in the dark." Isn't that all you really need to know? It sounds seedy and you know what's going on in three words.)
It was Stagger Lee and Billy,
Two men who gambled late.

("gambled late'--again tells you everything you need to know in two words.)

Stagger lee threw a seven,
Billy swore that he threw eight.

(Great craps reference. As a crap player myself I think what happened was Stagger Lee crapped out by throwing a seven but tried to screw Billy by claiming it was an eight. We're left to assume that Stagger had bet on eight.)
"Stagger Lee," said Billy,
"I can't let you go with that.
"You have won all my money,
"And my brand-new Stetson hat."

(Stagger Lee cheats and wins not only all the money but the poor brother's STETSON hat. A damned STETSON! You know that means trouble.)
Stagger Lee went home
And he got his .44.

(Not a gun, not a shotgun, not a pistol...a 44. Much more descriptive word.)

He said, "I'm goin' to the ballroom
"Just to pay that debt I owe."

(Short, tight dialogue. fantastic!)

(bridge)
Go, Stagger Lee

(Here's the verse that the sociologists examine. The background singers are CHEERING Stagger Lee who not only is a cheater but now wants to murder over being accused of cheating. From a writing standpoint it's great because it goes against cliche.)
Stagger Lee went to the ballroom
And he strolled across the ballroom floor.
He said "You did me wrong, Billy."
And he pulled his .44.

"Stagger Lee," said Billy,
"Oh, please don't take my life!
"I've got three hungry children,
"And a very sickly wife."

(More great dialogue tightly written.)

Stagger Lee shot Billy
Oh, he shot that poor boy so hard
That a bullet went through Billy
And broke the bartender's bar.

(Stagger Lee shoots the guy even though he gets begged not to. Man, this is a bad MFer! And how about the bullet going through Billy and smashing the bartender's glass. Hold it--the BARTENDER'S glass? He's not supposed to be drinking--now we know more about how seedy the place really is!)
Go, Stagger Lee, go, Stagger Lee!
Go, Stagger Lee, go, Stagger Lee!

(And the back up singers cheer Stagger on! Great Stuff!)

Rolling Stone writer Greil Marcus wrote that this song inspired the Black Panthers, influenced Sly Stone's swagger and was responsible for every image of a tough, street-smart Black man in every motion picture and literary depiction.

I don't know about all that. I do know that different versions of the song have been recorded by 400 different artists and that it is based on a Christmas Eve murder in St Louis in the 1800's.

i don't really care--I just now that it tells a story in very, very few but descriptive terms and that it ignores cliches and how stories are "supposed to be."

Which to me is the essence of great, great writing.

Go Stagger Lee!

Basic Formatting of Your Manuscript (Formatting 101)

by Jodie Renner, editor and author

Often, the first thing I have to do when I receive a manuscript for potential editing, before starting my sample edit, is to reformat it, so it’s easier for me to read. Here are some guidelines for formatting your manuscript before submitting it to a freelance editor, a formatter, a contest, an agent, or a publisher. Most of these instructions are for Microsoft Word, 2007 or later.

1. For editing, your manuscript needs to be in Microsoft Word (Microsoft Office). This is a must, as almost all editors use Word’s Track Changes. 

2. Send the manuscript as a .doc or .docx, unless instructed otherwise. Some contests prefer or require rich text format (.rtf) or even plain text (.txt), but most submissions want .doc or .docx documents.

3. The preferred font is Times New Roman. It’s easier to read than many other fonts.
The font size should be 12-point.

4. To change the font and size for the whole manuscript instantly, click Control + A (for All) at the same time, which highlights the entire manuscript, then change the font and size by using the toolbar on “Home,” and then click “Enter.”

5. Left-justify the text, rather than justifying both sides. That way, it’s easier for the editor to spot spacing errors. That means the text is lined up straight down the left side (except for indents), but the right side is jagged, depending on the length of the last word in the line. To do that, click Control + A, then click the left-justify icon on the toolbar along the top (Click tab for Home first). You can also do that by clicking on the little arrow to the bottom and right of “Paragraph,” then click on the down arrow beside “Alignment” and click on “Left.”

6. Use only one space between sentences, not two. Two spaces between the period and capital went out with manual typewriters.

7. Do not press “Enter” at the ends of the lines to add an extra line-space between the lines. This is a HUGE no-no! It causes major headaches and a lot of frustration. As soon as a few words are added or deleted (which is what editing’s all about), everything screws up. So make sure that when you’re typing and you come to the end of a line, do not press “Enter” unless it’s for a new paragraph. Let the text “wrap” around on its own.

8. A quick and easy way to double-space your whole manuscript: Control + A (for “all”), then Control + 2 (Click on Ctrl and on 2 at the same time). Voilà! It’s done! To change the whole manuscript back to single spacing later, click on Ctrl + A, then Ctrl + 1.

9. To see at a glance all kinds of formatting errors, click on the paragraph symbol on the toolbar along the top. It’s called a “Pilcrow” and it looks like a backward “P”. Here it is: ¶. You’ll see dots where spaces are and a ¶ for every hard return (Enter), at the end of a paragraph or for an empty line space between paragraphs.

10. Correct spacing between sentences. Click on that ¶ symbol again to see a dot for every space (click of the space bar). If you have two (or 3 or 4) dots instead of one between sentences (between the period and the next capital), you need to take out the extra spaces and just have one space between sentences. You can fix that for the whole manuscript in a second or two by using Find and Replace. Click on “Replace,” then after “Find what” hit the space bar twice (if you have 2 spaces). Then after “Replace with” click the space bar once. Then click on “Replace all” and Voilà again! All fixed! (Unless of course you sometimes have 3 or even 4 spaces between random sentences, as I occasionally see in my editing - a heavy or over-enthusiastic thumb, I guess.)

11. Correct line-spacing and paragraphing: Click on that ¶ symbol in the toolbar again. You’ll see the pilcrow symbol ¶ at the end of every paragraph, to indicate a hard return (“Enter”), and then again at the beginning of a line-space. If you see the ¶ at the end of every line, all down the right margin, that’s a real problem – the biggest formatting mistake of all! You need to remove those pilcrows (returns) at the end of every line, either by using your “Delete” or “Backspace” keys before or after them, or by doing a “Find and Replace.” After “Find” you type in this: ^p (for the pilcrow or paragraph mark). After “Replace” you just hit the space bar once, to replace the carriage return with a space.

When you click on that pilcrow sign ¶, also look for extra dots at the beginnings of paragraphs, before the first indented word, and take them all out. There should just be the indents, with no extra dots in front of them. (I see that quite a lot in manuscripts I edit.)

Note that you should only see the pilcrow ¶ in two places – at the end of a paragraph, and on any blank line. If you see a ¶ anywhere other than those two locations, it’s misplaced and will probably cause some type of inadvertent mischief. 

12. Paragraphing for fiction: For fiction manuscripts, don’t add an extra line-space between paragraphs. Just leave it at your normal double-spacing. Press “Enter” at the end of the last paragraph, then indent the new paragraph (0.3 to 0.5 inch) using the built-in paragraph styles, rather than tabs or spaces. (See #15 below for instructions on how to indent the right way.)

13. Paragraphing for nonfiction: Nonfiction usually uses block formatting, with no indents for new paragraphs but instead an extra space between paragraphs. 

14. General rule for indenting and spacing paragraphs: If you indent your paragraphs, don’t leave an extra space between paragraphs; if you don’t indent, insert the extra space between paragraphs.

15. How to indent the first line of each paragraph: 

Do not click repeatedly on the space bar to indent! Click on that pilcrow again ¶ and if you see 2-6 dots at the beginning of the paragraph, you’ve used the space bar to indent. That’s another big no-no, and a bit of a headache to fix, especially if you don’t always use the exact same number of spaces. Using the “Tab” key to indent paragraphs is also not the best. By far the best way to indent for the first line of a new paragraph is to use Word’s formatting. To do this for the whole manuscript at once, use Control + A (for All), then, in the toolbar along the top, click on the little arrow to the bottom right of “Paragraph” (in Word 2010), then under “Special” click on “First line,” then 0.5" or 0.4" or 0.3". Don’t go for less than .3" or more than .5".

And by the way, by popular current convention, the first line of a new chapter or scene is not usually indented - don't ask me why!

16. To center your title and chapter headings, do not repeatedly click on the space bar. Again, if you click on the pilcrow (¶) and you can see a bunch of dots in front of the title, you’ve used the space bar to get it over there in the middle. And don’t use the Tab key for that, either. Instead, highlight the title with your cursor, then click on the centering in the toolbar along the top, under the “Home” tab. Or go to “Paragraph” below that, and click on the arrow in the lower right corner, then go to “Alignment,” then click the down arrow and choose “Centering.”  A quick trick for centering a word or phrase is to click your cursor in the middle of it, then click Ctrl + E. (Thanks to Hitch for this one!)

17. For extra line spaces between chapters, do not repeatedly click on Enter or Return. To force a page break at the end of a chapter (in Word 2010), place your cursor at the end of the chapter, usually on the line below the last sentence, then, in the toolbar along the top, click on the tab “Insert” then click on “Page Break.” In Word 2007, click on “Page Layout” in the toolbar, then click on “Breaks”, then on “Page.” Another quick trick? Press CTRL+Enter. This will give you a forced page break for the end of each chapter. Do not do this at the end of a normal page, only for the end of a chapter. (Thanks, Hitch, for another trick!)

18. Your next chapter heading (chapter name or number) should start at least 3 line-spaces down from the top of the page. 

19. For more advanced, specific formatting, read the guidelines set out by the agent or publisher. Or stay tuned for “Formatting 102,” to appear here at some future time. And of course, formatting for publication, for example on Kindle, involves a lot more that's not discussed here! Especially if you're writing nonfiction like I do, with subheadings and lists.

20. And a few quick notes about formatting for dialogue:  

Make a new paragraph for each new person talking. Also a new paragraph for someone else reacting to the previous speaker.

Comma after “said”: He said, “How are you?”

Comma at the end of the spoken sentence, where a period would normally go, inside the last quotation mark: “Come with me,” she said.



Jodie Renner has published two books to date in her series, An Editor’s Guide to Writing Compelling Fiction: Writing a Killer Thriller and Fire up Your Fiction (Style That Sizzles & Pacing for Power), which has won two book awards so far. Look for her third book, out soon. For more info, please visit Jodie’s author website or editor website, her other blogs, Resources for Writers and The Kill Zone, or find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. And sign up for her newsletter.

Thank you, thank you, thank you

by Peg Brantley


Last October I asked writers in a few groups I'm associated with to donate books to support a worthy cause. I'm very proud to belong to this community. You came through beautifully!

The Shaka Franklin Foundation's primary purpose is to provide education on mental health issues with a strong focus on teen suicide and prevention. Their annual fundraiser luncheon will be April 26th at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Denver, and this is the first time books will be included as part of the auction.

The presentations were courtesy of A la Carte Gifts and Baskets.

Thank you all so much!

From Sisters In Crime:

Patricia Batta, Sally Carpenter, Carola Dunn, Sandra de Helen, Susan Santangelo, Lane Stone and S. D. Tooley

From Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers:

Mariana Damon, Marni Graff, Laura Haley-McNeil, Nina Romano, Lauren Small, and Mark Stevens

From Indie Chicks:

Heather Adkins, Donna Fasano,
LK Gardner-Griffie, Sibel Hodge,
and Tonya Kappes












And (drum roll please)….

From Crime Fiction Collective:

Gayle Carline and L.J. Sellers