Inventing Reality Editing Service Blog

My recently released collection of poetry, Love Letters to Sophie’s Mom now is available on Kindle. Passionate and evocative, Love Letters to Sophie’s Mom traces a relationship from the first dance of love at a coffee shop to its tragic demise as mental illness overtakes the narrator’s beloved. Inspired by a diverse array of writings, including the verse of Pablo Neruda, Dylan Thomas, and Bob Dylan, the collection’s 34 poems touch upon an array of themes including nature, and Southern California and Northwoods motifs. If using Kindle Fire, the best way to view my ebook version of Love Letters is in landscape orientation at font size 3. You can purchase the Kindle version at Amazon.com.

Need an editor? Having your book, website, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

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Cherie Bratcher, an editing client of mine this autumn, released her first novel on Thursday. Set in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Chicago, “Twin Identity” tells the story of Nora and Aubrey, two young lovers who come from vastly different families. Their love appears strong enough to endure this obstacle, but then Aubrey's mother blackmails him into breaking off their relationship. Nora’s suicide attempt nearly ends her life, but she finds the courage to move on. Several years later, the loss of a loved one and the truth behind their break-up puts her back in Aubrey’s arms for a week…If they only knew that the decisions they make in that brief affair would twenty-one years later cause their two worlds to collide in a roller-coaster ride of deceit and danger! Can Nora and Aubrey find their way back to each other, or will their lies destroy any chance of happiness? “Twin Identity” is available on sale at Amazon.com and on Smashwords.

Need an editor? Having your book, website, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

Meet the editor. My name is Rob Bignell. I’m the owner and sole editor at Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the editing, proofreading and self-publishing needs of writers both new and published. I’ve helped nearly 50 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams and am a published author.

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All four of my books are now on sale at the Bookends on Main store in downtown Menomonie, Wis. Bookends on Main, an independent bookseller, is located at 214 East Main St., near the Mabel Tainter Memorial Theater. The four books include: my novel, Windmill; both Hikes with Tykes guidebooks, A Practical Guide to Day Hiking with Kids and Games and Activities; and a poetry collection inspired by a Menomonie native, Love Letters to Sophie’s Mom.

Need an editor? Having your book, website, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

Meet the editor. My name is Rob Bignell. I’m the owner and sole editor at Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the editing, proofreading and self-publishing needs of writers both new and published. I’ve helped nearly 50 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams and am a published author.

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The Amazon.com page that sells your book may perhaps be the most important item in your entire marketing effort. All of your press releases, news articles, blog reviews of your book, radio appearances, website pages and more probably will point potential readers to this page. It is where potential readers can purchase your book.

For many potential readers, it is the page where they find out the most information about your book. If your Amazon.com page turns them off to your book, you’ve lost a sale.

If you’ve used CreateSpace to print your book, Amazon.com automatically will create a page for you, uploading your book cover photo, book description, price, and product details (such as number of pages, trim size and so on). If you used a different printer, at least as of this writing you’ll need to apply to sell your product on Amazon.com through its Advantage program.

The format of the Amazon.com page is predetermined for you, so you’re stuck with the appearance, even if you don’t like it. That’s okay, though – a standard format on each Amazon.com page means visitors don’t have to look hard for the information they want when they go to purchase the book.

What you can control is the text and some other gimmicky but useful stuff on the page: 
n Click to Look Inside – This feature allows readers to flip through a limited number of pages of your book before purchasing it. Definitely do this; Amazon.com doesn’t give away enough pages to diminish a sale, and if at a brick and mortar bookstore, readers definitely would look through it.
n Book description – This is the equivalent of your cover blurb. Like a synopsis, it tells readers a little about your book without giving away the ending.
n Editorial reviews (about the author) – This is your author’s bio. Especially if writing nonfiction, you’ll want to show in your bio why you are qualified to write a book about the topic.
n Customer reviews – Marketing research shows that many potential buyers of a book make their decision after reading customer reviews. Rather than pay someone to write them, solicit them from your colleagues and friends who are qualified to comment on your book.

In addition, Amazon.com allows writers to build their own author’s page. Besides a biography of you, the pages lists (with links) all of your published titles. In addition, you can link a feed from your blogs. As with the page selling your book, the author’s page format is predetermined, but it’s still a very useful tool.

Need an editor? Having your book, website, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

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You can’t judge a book by a cover goes the old cliché, but the reality is that people literally do so all of the time. That’s why you’ll want to spend some time coming up with an attractive cover for your volume.

Simply put, a good, unique cover draws potential readers to your book. It fires their imagination of what the book is about – meaning it doesn’t tell them exactly what it’s about, just gets them excited about it. Hence the hunky guys on the cover of romance novels and buxom beauties or space battle scene on science fiction novels.

The cover’s goal literally is to get readers to pick up your book, read the synopsis about it on the backside, maybe page through it for a few minutes, and then take it to the checkout counter and purchase it!

When designing a cover, there are three parts you’ll need to think about:
n Front cover – A good front cover has interesting artwork that draws a potential reader’s attention, the book’s title (and usually its subtitle), and the author’s name. It also may include a quick blurb about why it’s such a great book and some note explaining who the author is (such as “Author of (title of last book she wrote).”
n Spine – This is the side of the book that we see when it’s placed in a bookcase. It typically includes the title, author’s name, publisher and if fiction then possibly the genre.
n Back cover – A blurb or synopsis about the book, aimed at getting readers to purchase it, usually tops the page. The ISBN with bar code and price typically appear in the lower right corner. The back cover also might possibly include an author’s bio with photo, publisher and a website to learn more about the author/book series.

You can use a self-publishing house’s templates to create a cover fairly quickly and inexpensively, but be forewarned that they all look much the same and are fairly unimaginative at that. In addition, a self-publishing house’s templates are a dead giveaway that you’ve got a self-published book, which for a number of readers – especially those in the media who might give your book some attention – means a “lower quality” book (though that perception is changing).

If you lack the talent to create your own cover, you’ll want to get a designer or artist to handle that part of your self-publishing project. It can get expensive, though, so be aware of this when budgeting for your book.

Granted, in today’s digital age, a book cover is not quite as important as days past when the only place to purchase a book was a brick and mortar store. Still, the cover – perhaps wrongly – tells the reader a lot about the pages in between. A poor cover hints at unprofessional writing and vice versa. So invest a little time working on the cover, even though you’re a writer; after all, you wouldn’t dress your child in rags during her first public outing!

Meet the editor. My name is Rob Bignell. I’m the owner and sole editor at Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the editing, proofreading and self-publishing needs of writers both new and published. I’ve helped nearly 50 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams and am a published author.

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