Do You Need an Editor? |
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Hiring an editor that will not change the emotion, the message or the message that you intended is paramount. An editor is to find and fix mistakes, verify accuracy and possibly perform formatting tweaks. When an editor is finished with your book, it should still be your book!
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eBook Formatting Help |
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Contact Me: |
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Located in Central Florida
I am looking forward to discussing your challenges, sharing your vision, and working with you on your exciting new eBook!
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Reviewing & Editing Your eBook |
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Editing and Formatting Case Study, The DAO of SEO As an editor and a formatting specialist, allow me to give you a quick snapshot of before and after images of my work with Ken Sproul, author of “The Dao of SEO”. |
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Table of Contents (Before) |
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Table of Contents (After) |
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The Table of Contents was system-generated versus hard-typed. All Heading were tagged so that we could have control on its size. Once we went live with the book, we decided to use only 2 Heading levels.
Pagination was restarted at the number 1 at the beginning of each section, and disclaimers were added on each footer. |
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Foreword (Before) |
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Foreword (After) |
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I created a logo for the header to use throughout the document which gave it an elegant look. A lot of white space was purposely used to make the pages easier to read. Ken provided me with his own photos, which were perfect for the book. The style was easy-to-read and the photos gave the pages beauty.
Remember, this book was a technical book, describing the internet’s search engine optimization, yet it combined Chinese philosophy. This gave us the freedom to take what is usually a very dry subject into an exciting and delightful how to manual. |
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Summary (Before) |
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Summary (After) |
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By now, you should be able to notice the consistency and continuity of the book itself; each page complimenting each other.
In Ken’s original book, he used a watermark that I opposed. The watermark itself was lovely, but I felt that since we were going to convert this into an eBook, the watermark might annoy his readers if they decide to print his book in strict black and white.
Redesigning a logo for him, from scratch, and using it in the header of each page cave us the perfect solution. |
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Epilogue (Before) |
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Epilogue (After) |
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Placing the famous quotes that are used throughout the book in strategic places made a big difference. We placed each quote on the main Chapter Pages and surrounded them with plenty of blank lines to make them look elegant. Ken’s original book surrounded the quotes with boxes, which made the page unattractive. |
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Summary:
Ken’s book was phenomenal when I read the first draft. By making the Table of Contents self-generating, we were able to see our mistakes. We re-ordered sections, broke apart sections, and added new ones, until the Table of Contents flowed like water!
What I did, to be honest, is take Ken’s ideas, writings, photos, and personal preferences with regard to style, and turn them all into reality. This project alone should prove that you can be a wonderful writer, and still not have the skills or experience to convert your book into an attractive, easy-to-read, and professional masterpiece. |
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Update:
One year after Ken self-published his book to sell on his own website to his clients in PDF format, he decided he was ready to have it hard-copy published. Here are just a few things we had to do to get the book ready for hard-copy publishing:
I reformatted his PDF version to be double-sided reformarted it to include odd and even headers and footers coordinated the book cover’s specifications to accommodate the number of pages reorganized the order in which certain sections appeared in the book Submitted the book online to LuLu.com for approval.
There was a list of other things we had to achieve and decide when publishing the 2008 version of his book, however, because of my experience with self-publishing companies, the process took just a few days. |
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You must wear many hats to be a first-time author, especially if you’re on a tight budget. You may find that you need eBook Support. Here are a list of questions you should ask yourself: I want to write a book, but where do I start? How will I market my eBook? How will I design my website introducing my eBook? How will the search engines find my new book? Can I optimize my website so Google searchers will find it? What is a resellers submission? How much money can I expect to make on an eBook? Can I sell an eBook in PDF and hardcopy format? What is Mobilpocket Creator software? Can I sell my book on Amazon without converting it to Mobilepocket Creator? How do I convert my Word document to PDF? How much does it cost to have my book cover designed? Where can I find a cover designer? Can I design my book’s cover myself? How much does it cost for someone to edit my book for me? Do I need a ghost writer? Is my book a technical manual? What’s the difference between a technical book and a how-to book? Where can I find a technical writer? Should I hire a technical writer? Who can create a table of contents for me? How do I format my book for double-sided printing? How do I create odd and even headers and footers in my book? How much does an ISBN Number cost? How do I get my book Copyright protected? How much does it cost to copyright my book? Do I have to copyright my book? How do I market my book once it’s published?
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eBook Editing Help |
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There is no technology that can make you a great writer. Technology itself changes too quickly for any busy person to keep up with. Software doesn’t solve your challenges… people do. Books are written by story tellers. Story tellers are people. If the human factor is not lost, any book can find its audience and be enjoyed. |