For the past few weeks, posts on Blog4writers have dealt with grammar and style. This week, I’ve spent some time locating online grammar and style resources and tutorials. Keeping your grammar and style skills in shape is a necessary discipline for writers wanting to publish their work.

Tutorials and Resources:

General Grammar and Style Resources

Easily Confused or Misused Words

It’s Not What It Sounds Like

Clichés: Avoid Them like the Plaque

University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) Style Handout

Free English Grammar Tutorials

Grammar, Usage, and Style Cheat Sheet

Blogs:

Blog for Writers. Kathy Ide, author of Polishing the PUGS, has a blog on her site where she posts grammar and style pointers regularly.

Daily Grammar Lessons. This one features a grammar quiz (with answers) in each post.

I recommend that you subscribe to both of these blogs. Neither offers e-mail subscriptions, but you can subscribe by RSS feed. If you need help with that process, see my article on the subject here.

If you are trying to get your writing published, make sure your work is free of these marks of the amateur.

• Plural for words ending with “st.” Is it guest or guests? It depends on whether you have one guest or more than one. Correct plural example: “We will have about 40 guests at the party.” I’ve seen publishing writing with “guest” where it should be “guests.” Remember, you must add the “s” on nouns like list, request, or mast. The rule for plurals is to add an “s” unless the word ends in “s.” See this summary.
• Exclamation points. Use them sparingly!!!! Many beginning writers think they are adding emphasis by using exclamation points. However, overuse of emphasis defeats the purpose. Rachelle Gardner has a great blog post on the subject here.
• All caps—avoid them altogether. The proper format for emphasis is italics or underline. All caps in a work submitted for publication will mark you as an amateur for certain. It is the typographical equivalent of shouting.
• Spacing after periods. If you learned to type on a typewriter, you learned to space twice after periods or other ending punctuation marks. The computer age has changed that. Re-train yourself to space only once at the end of a sentence. When I point this out to the writers I mentor, they just don’t believe me. That’s because they have no experience in publishing. See the Grammar Girl’s article on this subject.
• Its vs. it’s. The only time you’ll use an apostrophe with the word “it” is when you are using it as a contraction for “it is.” The word “it” may be the only word in the language that does not have an apostrophe in its possessive form. This error is so prevalent that it’s distressing to grammarphobes like me. For one thing, the spellchecker will not catch this error. I’ve seen it on television captions, campaign literature, and advertising signs. I even caught it on a publishing industry executive’s blog. Review the basic principles here.

Rid your writing of these marks of the amateur. It may take some effort, but it will be worth it in the long run.

Links to similar articles on the Web:

Common Grammatical Errors

Five Grammatical Errors That Make You Look Dumb

Magazines and newspapers usually follow Associated Press style. Book publishers, however, use the Chicago Manual of Style. Check out the following style guides, and, if you’re not familiar with them, now’s the time to enlighten yourself. Public libraries might have some of them in their reference sections.

Book publishers (or authors of books or short stories that will be included in books, fiction or nonfiction):

• The Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition available August 1, 2010), online subscription available for $35/year.
• Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th edition, C 2003), also online. The dictionary search is free, and premium services include access to the unabridged dictionary and Encylopedia Britannica.

Magazine publishers:

• The Associated Press Stylebook, updated every year. Online subscription for $25/year.
• Webster’s New World College Dictionary (C 2004)

Some Christian publishers (books or articles):

• The Christian Writer’s Manual of Style (C 2004)

Other Style Guides

• The Little Style Guide to Great Christian Writing

The path to publication will be easier if your writing is “in-style.” The next few posts will deal with grammar and/or style. Subscribe so that you won’t miss anything.

Writing for peanuts—that’s what you’ll be doing if you sell each article, story, or poem only once. You may be tempted to skip this article if you’re still trying to get your first piece published. Resist the temptation, because, once you do sell something, you can sell it again as long as you don’t sell all rights. Keep submitting according to publisher guidelines, and follow this plan.

Avoid all rights and work-for-hire. If you’ve never been published, and an editor wants to buy all rights, you may decide to agree just to get something in print. There’s no shame in that, but you won’t be able to re-sell that piece, ever. Work-for-hire pays pretty well, but, again, you give up any and all rights to your work.

Submit until you’re accepted. Sell first rights or non-exclusive rights only. Once the first-rights piece has appeared in print, you can sell any number of reprints to others. Some publications will accept simultaneous submissions, but you must inform them when you submit. If it’s a first-rights piece that’s being considered, you can sell first rights to the first editor who responds. Then you should notify the others that first rights are no longer available.

Sell reprints (as-is or piecemeal). Once the piece is eligible for reprint, submit it to other editors with no changes. I’ve found that this is not impossible but definitely difficult. Rarely will you find two publications whose guidelines are exactly alike, but you can find publications that are similar enough that you can submit with minimal changes. Most editors want to know when and where the reprint article has appeared, mainly to be sure a competitor has not used it. In the Sunday School papers market, for example, most readers will not see any paper other than the one published by their denomination.

A 1500-word article might be divided into three 500-word articles and sold separately or as a series. Each smaller article would qualify as a single reprint. Usually, you don’t get paid as much for reprints as for first rights, but this approach might soften the blow a bit. Again, you will have to tell the editor when and where the article(s) appeared.

Submit regularly, and always be on the lookout for markets for your reprint sales. You won’t get rich quick writing for publication, but you don’t have to write for peanuts.

Other Resources:

Details on the various types of rights

Submission Tracking Methods

One Article, Many Checks

What does editing have to do with marketing? Well, since the quality of your product will affect its “saleability,” you need some quality control measures. Publishing houses just don’t have the resources to do extensive edits on the mountain of submissions they receive. They routinely reject manuscripts that are shot through with spelling, grammar, and usage errors. So—don’t handicap yourself by submitting your work without thorough proofreading and editing.

Self-editing is the only way to make sure you submit your very best work, short of hiring a proofreader. Here are a few of the methods I use to edit my articles.

• Use the features of your word processor. I use MS Word 2007 which includes a plethora of editing helps that go way beyond the standard spellchecker. Settings appear on the Microsoft Office Button menu under Word Options, then Proofing. You can choose grammar and style as well as readability statistics. My last post on this blog rated 7.0 on the Flesch Kincaid readability scale. That means the reading level is 7th grade. Check here to find out how this is calculated. If you use a different word processor, explore your help section or search online for help on how to use the features you have.
• Perform a screen edit. The spelling and grammar checkers will not catch some errors. For example, I recently caught an error where “pane” was used instead of “pain.” Spellings of people’s names are rarely in the spell-check dictionary. As you read through your work on-screen, sometimes it occurs to you that you should re-order a sentence or shorten run-on sentences. Reading out loud can help you catch awkward constructions, too.
• Print a hard copy. Once you’ve corrected the errors you’ve found, it’s time to print it out. This is a good time to let the document sit overnight, if possible. I was taught to “let it rest” in my high school English classes, and it’s one of the most useful things I learned there. Mark the errors you find on the hard copy. Read it aloud again, and mark revisions to transfer to the electronic file.

If you think this might be more time-consuming that the original writing, you’re right. A familiar writers’ adage is “writing is rewriting.” Resist the temptation to send your first draft after you’ve run the spellchecker. A thorough self-edit might cost you some time but it will earn the editor’s attention when you submit.

Online Helps:

Proofreading Tips

Self-Editing Checklist

You are a writer. You’d like to get your work published. If you are a beginning writer, your best chance to get published quickly is to submit short pieces to magazines. You might produce articles, short stories, puzzles, and poems. If you’ve had your work published, but you’re not getting regular acceptances, perhaps you need a fresh approach.

Think of yourself as a manufacturer. Most writers think of themselves as artists. If you write for your own purposes, there’s no need to worry about what others think of your work. However, if you want someone to publish it, you enter a different realm, the world of business. Imagine yourself as a manufacturer of a physical product. As you plan and manufacture it, are you thinking about your customer? Are you building something you like, or are you creating a product that people need or want?

The publisher is the retailer. Because publishers can’t accept every piece of writing that is submitted to them, they only buy products that they know will interest their readers. You are the producer, and you have to sell your product to the retailer. Publishers have to know their customers—what they need and want. They will not buy your work if it does not fit the specifications for what their typical reader likes. As manufacturer, you have to craft your product to impress two customers, readers (end users) and the publisher’s representative, the editor.

What does the reader want? Find a one or more copies of your target publication. Use the table of contents to summarize the number and subject matter of articles. Read some articles to get a feel for the preferred style. Find the writer’s guidelines for the publication to get specifics on what the publication wants. Usually, you can find guidelines on the publisher’s Web site. If not, you’ll need to find the listing in the market guide and write or e-mail to request guidelines.

What does the editor want? First, be sure that you follow the guidelines to the letter. Some editors toss every piece that does not comply with guidelines. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot by ignoring guidelines. Next, make sure you offer a quality product. Editors do not exist to re-work your writing. Their job is to find pieces that fill their need with the least amount of editing. New writers, consider finding a freelance editor to critique or edit your work before you submit. You might have to pay for the service, but consider it part of your education as you learn to write for publication.

Yes, a writer who is in business to get published must consider his or her customers from beginning to end of the creative process.

Previous posts on on product quality here.

Next post: Editing Your Work

Photo: Morguefile.com

Do you want to appear cool and professional?

If you’re promoting a book to a major publishing company, you probably need to have a professional photographer do your photos. Be sure that he or she can provide digital versions so that you can use your new pics on your Web site or blog.

But—make sure your photo isn’t so touched-up that people won’t recognize you. At a writers’ conference, I sat with a professional psychologist who wanted to write for the Christian market. She gave me her business card. The design was super, but her photo didn’t even look like her. She had sandy blonde hair and a healthy tan with freckles peeking out from under her makeup. Her photographer had air-brushed out all the “imperfections.” She had no wrinkles to show that she had been around for a while (with the experience to show for it). The freckles, one of her most alluring features, were nowhere to be found.

If you spend the money for a photographer, don’t let someone else, even the photographer, talk you into too many touch-ups. Also, don’t settle for photos that you don’t really like. It would be better to have amateur photos that really look like you than to present an inaccurate impression.

Do you want to appear friendly and approachable?

Photos: Morguefile.com

If you’re a freelance editor looking to find critiquing or editing clients, you want your photo to present you as professional but approachable. You can still use a professional photographer, but I’ve seen numerous Web sites and business cards with photos that were taken by a writer’s friend or spouse. Just the fact that the photos are more casual makes the site or card more inviting. Avoid being too casual, though. For example, don’t have your photo taken with your pet(s). The focus should be on you.

Take your photos indoors or out, but try to avoid clutter in the background. I made new photos recently, but I didn’t realize that the tree behind me was so close. See my home page photo. I tried to edit the tree bark effect out of the background, but it just wouldn’t work. We’re planning for a do-over soon.

Sample writer/editor sites photos (you be the judge):

Mary Yerkes

Virginia Smith

Kathy Ide

Donna Clark Goodrich

• Many Christian writers cringe at the thought of promoting themselves in order to sell their writing. Mary DeMuth did a masterful job of describing how it should work. Read the whole thing: The Prayer and Paradox Marketing Strategy by Mary DeMuth
• I’ve recommended T. L. Higley’s Marketing Lessons from the World of Retail series on the Christan Authors Network blog before. Here’s the latest installment on e-mail marketing.
• Believer’s Press has a great blog on their site. This article, Marketing Basics & Fundamentals for Christian Authors and Publishers, is a winner.
• If you’re new to my blog (or Web site), be sure to read these marketing articles that I did write myself.
  • The Marketing Mix for Christian Writers
  • Golden Rule Marketing for Writers

If you have encountered good marketing articles not listed here, please comment on this post and give the URL.

PS—I’ve opened a “store” page on my Web site. Check it out here.

What’s New

My new site and blog development has taken longer than I expected due to several things, including a computer crash. I’ve reconstructed my Web site using WordPress so that I can maintain one blog rather than several. This blog page will combine the subject matter of my two WordPress.com blogs, Wired to Write and Marketing for Christian Writers. All content from those blogs has been imported into this one. At the last minute, I decided also to bring the content of my book reviews on books about writing into this blog, too. To get future updates, you’ll need to subscribe here by entering your e-mail address in the box in the right sidebar. If you subscribed to Wired or Marketing blogs, there will be one more post on each blog to announce the move. After that, I won’t be posting on them anymore.

If I can figure out how to add another blog page to my site, I will bring my devotional journal blog over, too. I’ll continue to maintain my book review blog (personal reading) on Blogger because I have a unique following for that. Also, that’s where I post my reviews for the Thomas Nelson book review blogger program. See BookSneeze.com for details on that.

Making the decision was a slow process, since I am not a technical genius. I looked at Godaddy, EZ Christian Hosting, Hostgator, SquareSpace, and Webs.com. All offer free trials, and I did experiment with all of them. I won’t get into all the pros and cons of the different companies. I’ll just tell you what I decided.

Since I wanted to have a hosted WordPress site to house all my blogs, I ruled out all of the sitebuilders. However, I seriously considered Squarespace because the look and function of their designs is very much like WordPress. When I checked into pricing, though, I decided against Squarespace.  I found that, if I wanted to have my own domain name (which I already have and want to continue to use), I would have to go with the Pro plan at $14 a month rather than the $8-a-month basic plan. See pricing here.

I chose to go with Hostgator with WordPress, and here is the result: www.emilyakin.com. Hosting cost is about half what it would have been with Squarespace, and the WordPress theme was free on WordPress.org.

I’m not done yet, but I will be transferring some of this free blog’s content to my new site. If you are a subscriber, I may be able to change the feed and save you the trouble of re-subscribing. More on that later. Meanwhile, feel free to comment on my new site here on this post.