I’m Dave Bricker,
MFA: author, editor, graphic designer, interactive developer, and design educator. I help writers turn well-crafted manuscripts into beautiful, high-quality books. My website offers straight talk for writers about producing and marketing excellent books, eBook technology, book design, typography, writing, literacy, and the publishing business.
Thank you for reading. Enjoy your publishing journey and get in touch if you want help making your book excellent.
—Dave Bricker
This article discusses the pros and cons of traditional publishing. Abandon your biases, study the business of publishing, and choose the publishing method that best suits you and your book.
Perhaps the biggest myth in publishing is that as a writer, you simply choose a path: self-publish or find an agent. You can certainly choose to self-publish, but traditional publishing is a bit more like running for public office—you have to get yourself elected. Don’t plan on writing a manuscript, sending it off to a few publishing agents, and finding yourself comparing offers a few weeks later—even if your book is fantastic.
Traditional publishing houses are remarkable businesses. Understand the demanding world they succeed in and you’ll have no choice but to admire what they do. Here’s a short list: Continue reading →
21st Century Literacy: IntroductionThe traditional concept of literacy was built on the assumption that the written word was confined to the printed page, but this is no longer the case. Text is accompanied by images, video, interactivity, and technology. “21st century literacy” requires the skills to not only read and write, but to consume and publish content across a range of media.
This standard for 21st century literacy is admittedly idealistic. The scope of the suggested literacy skills is too broad for any one person to master as it encompasses a range of left- and right-brained tasks and perspectives. The goal of this proposal is not to suggest that anyone who lacks ability in one or more of these areas is “illiterate.” Rather, the 21st century literate is someone who has studied a spectrum of communication challenges that require solutions rooted in written language, graphic design, interactive and motion graphics, code, and other relevant media. Students who learn what the solutions are need not learn how to implement them all. “Literacy” comes with an understanding of what skills are required to meet the challenges of communicating ideas and building communities around them. As such, when this article discusses the “skills required of the 21st century literate,” implied is that students learn to recognize what solutions and talents are required to solve a given problem—not that they should necessarily be capable of personally delivering work that requires teams of professionals in the “real” world. Continue reading →
This survey aims to reveal trends in eBook production. How did you produce your last eBook and how much money did you spend? Did you do it yourself, submit your manuscript to a conversion service, or hire a freelancer? Are you happy with the results? Where are your eBooks available?
If you’ve published multiple books, base your responses on the most recent one.
Results will be made public. Subscribe at the bottom of the survey page to be notified when results are posted.
Thank you! Continue reading →
This article explores the simple art of essay writing and how its principles can be applied to most any kind of written work. Even if you never write an academic paper again, the techniques discussed here will help you write more focused and powerful prose. Time spent outlining your assertions and supporting principles makes faster work of the book creation process. Following the principles of essay writing ensures that readers can follow your plot, see the relevance of your examples, and understand your lessons and conclusions. If your goal is to teach or transform your reader in some way, essay structure helps break your book down into discrete and digestible blocks of information.
As an editor, one of the most common flaws I find in manuscripts, especially in nonfiction writing, is a failure to “keep the writing on the rails.” A section may start off talking about one topic, but one story leads to another until the subject drifts. Very often, at the end of a chapter or section, the writer fails to offer a conclusion that reminds the reader what the topic at hand is, and explains how the stories and examples support the chapter’s point. Good storytelling is always engaging, but it can be distracting. Remind readers what point you’re making often enough to keep them focused without getting lost in your anecdotes. Essay writing techniques help keep your writing and your readers focused.
I was fortunate to have been given a strong grounding in 5-paragraph essay writing in high school. One of my old teachers is still around, and I never fail to thank Mike Stokes when I see him at a reunion or a function at the school. Years later, when I taught thesis writing, I’d have my graduate students start with a simple exercise: Write the topic paragraph for an essay called “The Art of the Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich.” If you want to test yourself, take 5 minutes to try the exercise before reading on. Continue reading →
Rose Sneeringer, The Book Nurturer, invited me to join her panel of experts in the publishing portion of her summit, “Creating Your Dream Business: How to Follow Your Calling, Fulfill Your Purpose, and Succeed at the Work You Love!” The publishing telesummit is part of a broad selection of entrepreneurial discussions designed to promote creative entrepreneurship. The online event begins on February 15, 2016.
Publishing offers great opportunities for writers who pursue it as a business, but those who pursue writing as an art are often frustrated with their business results. In the publishing summit, we discuss some of the important challenges that face indie writers, how indie publishing is different from traditional publishing, common publishing pitfalls and mistakes, and how to adjust your expectations (or your writing and strategy) to achieve success.
The publishing telesummit covers such topics as:
Sign up to attend the free publishing telesummit to hear my conversation with Rose and expert book publicist, Penny Sansevieri, along with publishing, marketing, and business advice from the rest of the panel of business and publishing professionals at http://yourdreambiz.net.
The following publishing advice is based on my own experiences and those of my clients. I hope you find it valuable and encouraging, even if it changes your expectations.
I’ve written and published 6 books, and I’m working on my seventh. I’ve guided many remarkable people through the process of telling their remarkable stories, and served as editor, typesetter, cover designer, web developer, and marketer. I love writing, publishing, and book design, but the least pleasant part of my work involves delivering “straight talk” that has popped many a shiny bubble. My experiences in publishing have been overwhelmingly positive, but I routinely hear from writers who have made expensive mistakes. Others are frustrated and stuck in the writing process. The good news is that with a bit of research, the right resources, and a few reality checks, problems can be avoided. You probably can’t do it yourself, and you probably can’t do it for free, but you can publish an excellent book and find the process rewarding.
Here are few snippets of writing, book design, and publishing advice:
Of course it sucks; that’s why it’s called a “rough” draft. Keep writing.
Many great books are terrible products. Many terrible books are great products. Write for the marketplace or write because you have something to say, but know where your book lies on the spectrum between art and business. Adjust your expectations accordingly.
Some writers struggle to generate ideas. “What will I write about?” Trying to have an idea is like trying to fall asleep. It doesn’t happen until you stop trying. But once you do fall asleep, a river of ideas flows through your head—characters, settings, conflicts, colors. Sit at your keyboard. Close your eyes. Take a deep, slow breath. Write something—anything. Don’t judge it. Don’t worry if it’s “good.” You don’t have to use it. Hold the pen for God. Just write something. You don’t even have to know consciously what it’s going to be. You may have to try this exercise several times before you “let go enough to flow.”
Given the low profit you make on an individual book and the quantity you have to sell to break even, it’s difficult to justify the costs of editors, typesetters, and cover designers. But given the time, care, contemplation, determination, and love that go into writing a book, it’s as difficult to justify presenting your book in any way that undermines the value and sincerity of the ideas it contains. Excellence is not always practical, but mediocrity contaminates everything it touches.
Find your favorite writer and give them this message: They no longer have to mire their writing down with awkward “his or her” and “he or she” and “he/she” usages. According to The Washington Post, the singular they/them has been adopted as officially correct English by over 200 linguists at the American Dialect Society. The Washington Post has already integrated the new rule into its style guide.
Traditionally, they and them have been plural, referring to groups of more than one person. When referring to one person of unknown gender, the generic masculine served well until feminists took issue with practice.
Find a teacher in the hall and give this gift to him. I'm sure he'll appreciate it.
became:
Find a teacher in the hall and give this gift to him or her. I'm sure he or she will appreciate it.
Speed bumps? No. You know those tire shredders they have at car rental facilities that prevent drivers of stolen cars from driving out the entrances? What a quandary! Is eviscerating our sentences truly a sign of respect for women? Good prose is music. This is noise. Some settling of contents occurs during shipping and handling. Not good. Continue reading →
Book cover design tells the story of the story. It must convey the spirit and intentions of the author authentically, and it also has a few practical chores to perform. If a book cover design is to accomplish these things in a world of publishing “climate change,” old approaches must be both embraced and questioned. Books are marketed in ways that authors and publishers could never have imagined only a few short decades ago; a new approach is needed. At the same time, a study of the history of printing and design affords powerful opportunities to communicate in fresh new ways.
The notion that a book will be found in a bookstore, picked up, and perused is sadly obsolete, especially as it relates to indie publishers. If you don’t have a contract with a big publishing house, your book will probably never see a bookstore. It makes no sense to design a new cover to fit an old merchandising model. Consider how prospective readers will be exposed to your book, and what information will be presented in that context. The title, byline, synopsis, reader reviews, author pages, and other data are part of every book’s online listing. The cover art occupies only a small portion of the page. And all that data won’t be visible on the tiny, digital cover even if you do pack it into a book cover design.
It makes sense to rethink cover design. If your book is commercial, the cover should convey its practical value. But if your book is literary art, an artistic, uncluttered cover might convey that as well as any blurb or list of testimonials. As a designer, I find that liberating. Continue reading →
Selecting a book font seems simple enough, but important subtleties and fine points of typography are not obvious to the average writer. This article offers insights into fonts suitable for book typography. Though it won’t turn the average author into a professional typesetter, it will inform indie publishers about the kind of guidance they should expect to receive from one. And if economic constraints force you to typeset your own book, the information offered here will help you make informed choices.
Book typography is an unusual art. Its success is best measured by the invisibility of the final result. The reader should not notice the type, and the type should not obscure or dilute the author’s intentions. Yet, the reader should be affected by the type. Reading is an aesthetic experience, and book font selection lies at its foundation. Continue reading →
My friend Toni Ressaire over at Pub.ink offers a reliable source for self-publishing straight talk. Her latest email newsletter offers useful insights about print vs. eBook trends, the importance of mobile-friendly author sites, and more. Consider how to best use evolving social media to market your book. New channels like Periscope offer opportunities for authors to build communities around their work. Are you building an email list yet? Toni offers a strong list of sound strategic marketing ideas.
Toni addresses web-based eBooks on her blog, and shares two webinars we did together that demonstrate my own PubML eBook technology. PubML empowers you to make your own beautiful eBooks for the web with WordPress, and it also exports to ePub format which can be uploaded to Kindle for conversion or posted directly to eBookseller sites.
Add Toni Ressaire at Pub.ink to your list of publishing resources, and be sure to subscribe to her mailing list.