New Book: Major Progress!

So now all but one chapter of the new book is done. It’s starting to look pretty good. IMHO, of course.

A friend who agreed to read a draft asked who is this book written for? And that was a great question! It not only pointed the way toward what to delete and what to keep, it also told me what to put in the introduction and it suggested a title: The Compleat Writer: A Scribbler’s Guide to Writing, Publishing, and Living the Writer’s Life.

How about that?

Here’s a draft of the intro, pleasingly short & sweet:

Who is this book for?

• Anyone who wants to write articles, books, or blogs at a professional level
• Writers of nonfiction
• Writers of fiction
• Business owners who need to create books or blogs for marketing or personal purposes.
• Book authors deciding whether to self-publish or to seek a traditional publisher
• Individuals who hope to make a living as freelance writers or independent publishers

When I came up with the idea for The Compleat Writer, my plan was to create a book that I could give (maybe even sell?) to my editorial clients at The Copyeditor’s Desk. At the outset, most of my clientele consisted of academics, nonprofits, and small businesses. Over time, though, more people have asked me to help prepare books, fiction and nonfiction, for independent publication on Amazon and waypoints.

Many of my clients secretly dream of making a living at writing. I’ve lived that dream myself, and I can assure you: it’s not wise to quit your day job. For most people it’s not the path to a middle-class lifestyle, especially if you don’t live in one of the big coastal cities that are publishing centers.

Other clients have more salient reasons to launch self-publishing enterprises, ranging from a simple ego boost to marketing strategies for their businesses.

Whatever you crave to do with your writing and publishing dreams, you must be able to write clearly. You need to understand what makes a publishable document, and you need to know how to edit and revise your work to make it publishable. Maybe even more than that, you need to understand that the only person who will market your product is you. This is true whether you write a blog or newspaper and magazine features or books or copy for some other business. I say “other” because all publishing activity is a business.

Over the years, I’ve published in many venues—magazines, newspapers, websites, academic journals, websites, and books. I’ve helped innumerable authors and small businesses perfect websites, journal articles, and books. I’ve published my own and clients’ books through mainline publishers,[1] and out of curiosity, I’ve also self-published a number of my own squibs through Amazon and waypoints, under the Plain & Simple Press imprint.[2] I also have operated one of the top 100 personal finance blogs in the English language,[3] plus a few others.

The Compleat Writer brings brings 25 years of writing, publishing, and academic experience to bear on issues that most concern people who want to be writers:

• How to write better
• How to write articles, websites, and books
• How to write nonfiction
• How to write fiction
• What to do about writer’s block
• Whether to self-publish or to seek a traditional publisher
• How to prepare a book for publication
• How to market books
• How to manage a freelance writing business

Obviously, no book can answer all the questions or solve all the challenges that arise for every writer. But I hope this one will give you some insight into what you can expect if you decide to dive into the writing life, and how to go about it. If you have any specific questions, I invite you to visit Plain & Simple Press[4] or The Copyeditor’s Desk[5] and send them to me through either site’s Contacts page.

[1] The Life of Robert Sidney, Earl of Leicester, Folger Shakespeare Library; The Essential Feature, Columbia University Press; Math Magic, with Scott Flansburg, William Morrow.

[2] Slave Labor: The New Story of American Higher Education; FireRider, a saga in three volumes; 30 Pounds/4 Months, a diet plan and cookbook for people who love to eat.

[3] Funny about Money (https://funny-about-money.com)

[4] http://plainandsimplepress.com

[5] http://thecopyeditorsdesk.com

Hee! Lookee there, WordPress can now engross Wyrd’s code for footnotes! Who would ever imagine?

Beyond tired. After the usual four hours of sleep, the day began with a system crash.

Took 45 minutes or so to bring the computer back online and recover all the files.

Cleaned the pool. Washed three weeks’ worth of neglected laundry. Scrubbed more pans than the human mind can comprehend, all left to soak after the weekend’s cook-fest. Repaired the computer, more or less. Responded to new prospective client. Arranged repair (or at least disguise) of cracked kitchen tiles. Organized a new box to hold collected colored pencils for the drawing class. Failed to practice drawing. Paid a bill. Engineered breakfast locale for tomorrow’s meeting; made reservation. Moved on to the book. Wrote until I was blue in the face. Cooked and packaged dog food. Wrote some more. Purchased new layout template in 7 x 10 trim size. Discovered sources of crowd-funding for wannabe publishers. Sent word of that to novelizing client. Fed self and dog. Found self unable to work another minute.

And so…to bed!