Thursday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

THE TOP 10 ELEMENTS OF A BOOK PEOPLE WANT TO READ

By: Helga Schier, PhD

Aim for High Readability

People enjoy books with a high level of readability—books with a captivating story and memorable characters, books we can’t put down, books that stick with us long after we’ve read the last word.

As an independent editor, I’ve come across my fair share of readable books, and all of them are well crafted on three distinct but intricately connected levels.

• The surface structure of the words on the page, which includes spelling, grammar, and punctuation
• The level of style and voice, which is defined by the choice of words, the sentence rhythm, the use of literary techniques and images, and the tone or approach
• The content level, where the fictional world comes to life.

Highly readable books are polished, refined, sophisticated, and mature on all three levels. To fulfill the potential of your book, develop and sharpen the following top ten elements.

1. Your Words Are Your tools; Make Sure They Are in Working Order.

Avoid typos, sort out commonly mistaken words such as die/dye or there/their/they’re. [Like this quote? Click here to Tweet and share it!] Watch your grammar—make sure your nouns agree with your verbs and the personal pronouns fit. If a paragraph begins in the past tense, it likely ought to end in the past tense, too. Figure out where those commas go to help your readers make sense of your sentences. Sounds basic? It is. So run that spell-check and get it right.

2. Check for Inconsistencies.

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Read the full article HERE!

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If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again:

1. The Top 10 Elements of a Book People Want to Read | WritersDigest.com http://ow.ly/LX4Fj
2. How to Prioritize Your Creative Calling | ArtistThink http://ow.ly/LX5jA
3. Don't get lost trying to keep the story simple. - Venture Galleries http://ow.ly/LX5F1
4. Fiction University: Day Fifteen: Clean Up the Description and Stage Direction http://ow.ly/LX5Mv
5. How to Promote A Book: 3 Steps - Write Hacked http://ow.ly/LX5Tx
6. 7 Reasons Writing a Book Makes You a Badass | WritersDigest.com http://ow.ly/LX575
7. How to Create a Character Arc from Plot » Writeonsisters.com http://ow.ly/LX6ag
8. Writability: How Important is Originality? http://ow.ly/LX6hh
9. Business Musings: The Importance of Routines | Kristine Kathryn Rusch http://ow.ly/LX6zv
10. From the Write Angle: Meaningful Connections: The Semicolon http://ow.ly/LX8m0
11. Different Ways to Brand Book Covers for Series - Rocking Book Covers http://ow.ly/LX8sP
12. The Writer Diaries: Dear Diary: Emotion Sucks http://ow.ly/LX8Cj Here are five tricks to bringing emotion to life in your books
13. Karen Woodward: Terror vs Horror In Gothic Fiction http://ow.ly/LXa6e
14. Increase Blog Traffic & Subscribers: 8 Tips! | Molly Greene: Writer http://ow.ly/LXac6
15. 6 Tips For Effective Online Book Promotion | Molly Greene: Writer http://ow.ly/LXakD
16. 3 Tips for Writing Heavy Emotional Scenes | Jami Gold, Paranormal Author http://ow.ly/LXawc
17. How To Record Your Own Audiobooks For ACX | The Creative Penn http://ow.ly/LXaD5
18. Marketing Your Series: a Plan for a Solid Launch and Sales for Years to Come | Lindsay Buroker http://ow.ly/LXaZ4
19. The 3+ Hats Every Indie Author Must Wear by Nina Amir — The Book Designer http://ow.ly/LXb5U
20. Are You Capturing Your Share of Audiobooks Sales? - Where Writers Win http://ow.ly/LXbhe
21. How to Find Images for Your Book Marketing Campaigns http://ow.ly/LXboM
22. Give Your Readers a Ride They’ll Never Forget | Live Write Thrive http://ow.ly/LXbua
23. Writers, protect your health & your BACK | @Belinda_Pollard http://ow.ly/LXbBu
24. How to Improve Your Amazon Book Description & Metadata | Jane Friedman http://ow.ly/LXbIv

Happy writing and running, Kathy