Hello Readers,
As you remember, there were two winners for the recent trivia contest: Brianna and Born Buckeye. The winners got to choose the topic of one of our blog posts. Born Buckeye asked what advice we have for aspiring authors and editors. Usually, Bethany writes the books and Mika edits and publishes them. Thus, Bethany will write from the perspective of an author, while Mika writes from the perspective of an editor and publisher.
Advice for future authors:
1. Get yourself a notebook to write down your book ideas. On days when you want to write but can't think of any ideas, you can check your notebook for inspiration.
2. Read lots of books. When you read other people's books, you get inspired, and stories might start to rush into your brain. You should also go on lots of adventures, that way you have interesting experiences to write about.
3. Don't be in a rush with your books. Make sure you don't work on multiple books at a time, or you'll get very stressed out. By just writing one book at a time, you can be more focused and less stressed.
4. It's easier to work in a team. For instance, if you want to have a book that includes lots of real-life pictures, you should hire an experienced photographer. If you are publishing ebooks, it is good to have someone in your team who is good with technology.
5. Before you start writing, you need to find your style. You can read different kinds of books and decided which ones you like best. You might love writing long chapter books, or you might like making nature books, or beautiful drawings in children's picture books.
Advice for future editors and publishers:
1. The first step to editing a book is finding an author who needs an editor. Try to find an author who writes interesting books, that way you have more fun.
2. Communicate with the author about what you both would like from your partnership. Does the author want you to give constructive criticism about the plot or characters or do they just want you to do spellcheck? How much control does the author want in the process of publishing the book? By talking about what you want, you can avoid conflicts and have a more productive relationship.
3. Before publishing your book, make sure you have reviewed it with several methods. Use spellcheck on your computer, read it out loud to yourself, and have a trusted friend read it for more feedback. As more sets of eyes look at a manuscript, you are more likely to notice what needs to change.
4. Publishing an ebook on Amazon is very easy! You can self-publish using KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). You do not have to pay the company upfront; they just take a percentage of the profits you make from book sales. This way, you don't have to worry about losing money by paying to print a bunch of books that might not sell. For more information, check out this link: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G202172740). Amazon has an application called Kindle Create that you can download to your computer that will help you format an ebook for kindle. For more information, skim through this https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GYVL2CASGU9ACFVU.
We hope this advice is helpful. The most important thing is to have fun!
Sincerely,
Bethany and Mika
