Writing 101: eBook Codes

When you're trying to format a manuscript into an ebook, it's helpful to know some html. But there's no reason you should run right out and sign up for a programming class just to get your book out there. If you can use a few simple ebook codes, you can create a well-formatted story -- and nobody has to know that you don't really know what you're doing.

eBook Codes You Need to Know

You don't really have to learn a bunch of html to get your ebook together, because there's a limited number of codes that are actually relevant. Even if you're adding a bunch of different in-text formatting, pictures, links and other fun stuff, the ebook codes you need to use are pretty simple.

• Links. Add links to your book using the <a> tag. Many authors include a link to their personal blogs or websites in the "About the Author" section of their books, which often appears at the end. My link will look like this: Visit <a href=jadevarden.blogspot.com>Jade's blog</a> to learn more. "Jade's blog" will serve as the text for the link. That's very important! Always include the text, and use the full url for the link code.
• Formatting. Bold words will appear inside the <b> tag. For example: The headline read <b>Death!</b> in big, black letters. The <b> tag begins the bold, the </b> ends it. If you use an ebook code, you must always close it in this fashion. You may also use <strong> in place of <b>. Both codes are correct. Likewise, words in italics appear inside <i> tags. The <em> tag may also be used for italics.
• Blank lines. Want to add a blank line of text? You may only be able to do it by using ebook codes, because when you convert a word processor document into .pdf or .html, those blank lines may disappear. Use the <br> code to create a line break. This is the only ebook code you won't need to close; there is no </br> code.
• Paragraphs. All paragraphs should begin with a <p> tag, and end with a </p> tag. This will ensure that your formatting and indentations look correct in the ebook. The <p> tag automatically adds the proper indentation, and will keep your paragraphs at full justification (the only correct justification for books).
• Center. But all text can't be justified all the time. Many authors like to center their chapter headings and book titles, and why shouldn't they? Just slap a <center> tag in front of the text you want to center, and end the center justification with </center>.

Basic ebook codes help you translate what you've written into something ereaders can understand, with no loss of formatting. But going through your html is very tedious, exacting work. Use an online ebook viewer took to check and double-check each page of your ebook several times, and tweak the html as needed to be sure your formatting is perfect. If you notice any problems in the book, there's a problem with the html. Find it, fix it, and make the book perfect.

Writing 101: Helpful Online Writing Tools

Shakespeare did it with quills and candles, Mark Twain did it on a typewriter, but today's authors don't even need paper to tell their stories. We live in a modern age, and the modern writer is more Internet presence than person. Our books are online, our photos are online, our words are online -- it's only natural that we get online to do the writing, too. Use online writing tools to help you get the job done, and maybe even make it a little easier. Paper's totally overrated, anyway.

Writing Tools Online 

Going online to research isn't always easy. It's hard to find reputable sources, and it takes a long time to seek out specific information. But the Internet isn't just a source of information for writers; it can actually help you get the job done. There are lots of writing tools online that will make it much easier for you to get from the first page to the last page of your book.

• Names. In a previous post, I talked about about using certain Internet sites to find different character names -- which can be somewhat tedious. A Twitter friend shared his secret with me, and I love it: a fake name generator. Choose by gender, language and country to get a completely random, computer-generated name.
• Age calculator. I'm horrifyingly bad at math, and I don't think I would ever get it right if I didn't use an age calculator. Just type in your character's birth date, and pick any additional date you like to find out how old that character will be on that day. There are tons of age calculators online, but I prefer this one from Cornell.  
• Mapping. Google maps has proven invaluable to me. It's incredibly easy to use, and if you have any Google account (Blogger, YouTube, Gmail, etc.), you can create and save your own personalized map. I like to take my characters to real places, and when I send them off to new settings I like to know how long it's going to take them to get there. You can even use Google maps to get down to street level, and see with your own eyes what one of your settings looks like -- an amazingly powerful tool for any writer.
•  Words. Don't ever knock the thesaurus. If you're like many writers, you can pull up a site and type in a word a lot faster than you can thumb through the pages of a printed book, sorting through a bunch of different words to find just one. Too much repetition of the same words will make any book boring, and no matter how creative you think you are there are always new words to learn. A quick check on the thesaurus can infinitely improve your writing.

Da Vinci used brushes. Michelangelo used clay. Every artist has tools they use to make their creations come alive. If yours are websites, it's only because you're an artist living in the modern world -- beautifully.

1-Star Reviews? We Should All Be So Lucky

A fair amount of indie writers are at least partially obsessed with the reviews they receive for their books...if indie writer forums are any indication, anyway. Many indies have felt the staggering heartbreak of a 1-star review, of a reader blatantly saying "I hated this," that ugly sting of rejection. No one is so self-assured that they can completely shrug off all judgment all the time, certainly no writer. To be a writer is to bleed on the page -- and when a reviewer knifes you in the back, it might cut deep.

But I happen to be a fan of 1-star reviews, and I'm trying to convert other indies to my twisted way of thinking. In the spirit of embracing all of your reviews -- good and bad -- I'd like to play a game.

What's Your Favorite Book?

What's your favorite book? It crops up in forums all the time, it's an easy topic of conversation, it's something that may change with the weeks for some readers. For me, it is (and undoubtedly will always be) Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. Arguably, some of my affection for this tome could stem from the fact that I adore everything about Clark Gable (who played Rhett Butler in the movie, which I saw before I ever watched the book). But I digress.

The point is, I think Gone With the Wind is just about perfect -- the true Great American Story that so many writers long to pen. And one day, I decided to go take a look at my favorite book's reviews.

Can you see the twist coming a mile away? That's right: Gone With the Wind has 1-star reviews -- and not just a few of them. Some people hate this book so passionately, they've called Mitchell names outright. I'm talking all caps, hate-riddled, strong language, bad reviews.

It's one of the most popular books of all time, it became one of the most popular movies of all time and it's still being sold all over the place to this day. But yeah, it's got 1-star reviews that could reduce many a writer to hysterical tears.

Now, go and look up the reviews for your favorite book, and play along. The next time you get a 1-star review, remind yourself that it means you've got something in common with Margaret Mitchell. It's what I'm going to do.

Look Inside the Deck of Lies

 Love to read? Read a new excerpt from Justice (Deck of Lies, #1) at Loves 2 Read, and meet one of the fan-favorite characters from the series.

Writing 101: What is a Blog Tour?

The publishing industry has changed, and some forecast an end to paper books in the not-so-distant future. Like everyone else, authors are now online -- and so is their publicity. When you get involved in self-publishing, it's likely you'll run into the phrase "blog tour" at some point. When you write and market your own books, the phrase could become pretty important to you.

The Old Way


Book stores still exist. They're going out of business all over the place, but they still exist. Traditional writers still go out on tour across the land, traveling from book store to book store to sell signed copies of their work. But it's started to become old-fashioned. Why should fans travel all the way to a book store when they can connect to their favorite writers on Twitter, Facebook and through their blogs? Self-published authors don't always have the resources, or the paper books, to go out on tour and market their work...so they've found a much more modern way of doing things.

The New Way

Self-published authors can't travel easily between book stores, but they can access a whole lot of book blogs. Blog Tours, like Book Tours, are a very effective marketing tool for writers who want to spread the word about their work. Instead of stopping at stores, indie authors "stop" at various blogs on different dates over a period of several weeks (10 to 20 blogs is normal, but a blog tour can be whatever the author makes it). Fans can "visit" the author at different blogs to find book excerpts, giveaway offers, interviews, reviews and other book-centric fun and games. Because the author and the various bloggers will be promoting the event, blog tours can reach a very wide audience of readers.

But things move quickly on the Internet, and even blog tours -- a relatively new online development -- are continuously evolving. Bloggers can arrange blog tours that are specific to their sites, rather than focusing around a single writer, as well. Bloggers may seek out several authors to feature on different days over several weeks, and feature a blog tour that's specific to that site. This gives bloggers the opportunity to fill their sites with fresh content while giving many indies the opportunity to promote their individual works.

Books are online, authors are online, fans are online, and blogs are just a natural fit. Because there are far more blogs out there than book stores, blog tours give self-published authors a chance to promote to a potentially massive network of readers. The best part of all? No travel expenses.

Exclusive Excerpt

 Visit There For You, a blog that celebrates the written word, to get a look at an exclusive excerpt from Justice (Deck of Lies, #1).

Writing 101: Using Italics, Bold and In-Text Formatting

Sometimes, writers need to make specific words stand out visually from all the rest. By themselves, words are a very powerful tool -- but it's easy for a single word or phrase to get lost in the surrounding sea of text that is a full-length book. But before you start using in-text trickery like italics, bold and underlining, figure out how to use it the right way.

In-Text Formatting

When you start venturing into those buttons on your word processor's toolbars, you're moving into tricky territory. There are extremely specific rules in writing, and anyone who's ever wrestled with grammar and punctuation knows that's true. Plenty of writers have thrown caution to the wind and introduced new ideas, strong language and vivid twists into their books -- but even the most out-of-the box authors stick to certain rules when it comes to sentence structure and word usage.

The rules of in-text formatting are pretty specific, and it's your job to observe them. You want to get creative? Do it with your story, not with your formatting. That said, it's time to find out when, exactly, it's acceptable to use certain in-text formatting in your work.

Italics

The most common in-text formatting you'll find in novels, italics are used only in specific circumstances.

• Emphasis. If your characters want to stress a certain piece of dialogue or a certain thought, italics show that the word or words in particular need to be stressed. Example: Katie couldn't believe Rebecca actually brought up that memory from their past. 

• Inner thoughts. Some writers use italics to show a character's direct inner thoughts -- the inner monologue we all hear in our heads from time to time. Example: She just stared at him, mouth agape. I can't believe he just said that, she thought to herself in the silence that followed his statement. 

• Dreams, Memories. Italics may also be used for large chunks of text to visually separate a scene from the rest of the book. When a character is having a dream or experiencing a memory flashback, for example, it's very useful to use the italics to show that these events aren't occurring in that character's present-day reality. 

• Foreign words. Some foreign words and phrases are so well-known, they are used even outside their own countries. The English language, in particular, is filled with foreign words and phrases that are common in popular speech. Tete-a-tete, savoir-faire, rendez-vous, nom de plume, cul de sac, the list goes on and on. Foreign words commonly creep in if you're writing about food -- particularly cuisine of the gourmet variety. Any time you use a foreign word or phrase, it should be in italics.

• Titles. Italics are also used to denote titles, but it's tricky because they aren't used for all titles. Newspapers, water craft (like the Titanic), speeches, poems, movie titles and book titles should be italicized in books and short stories (this rule does not apply to articles, but we're not talking about articles and you'll find more information on that below). However, you do not use italics for song titles; these must be placed inside quotation marks. 

Bold

But italics look a little weak, don't they? They don't really emphasize the text, they just make it sort of pretty. If you want something to stand out strongly, you may get tempted to hit Crtl-B (that's the shortcut for bold text). Don't do it! Bold text very rarely has its place in books. In fact, there's only a few very specific instances that will allow you to use it at all. Avoid the temptation to use it to lend weight to other words; it'll only make you look like you have no idea what you're doing to traditional publishers and readers.

• Chapter titles. You can use bold to emphasize your chapter titles. It's the most common form of presenting chapter titles, but some authors choose to leave the text plain. Whatever you do, don't use italics for your chapter titles unless you're emphasizing a specific word in the title itself for some reason. 

• Internet articles. Bold rarely appears in books and really has no place within the body of your text, but if you are showing a snippet of a fictional online blog or Internet article, you may use bold for the title and subtitles within that text to show a difference between these types of articles and standard, printed newspaper articles. Newspaper article titles should be italicized.

Underlining

 It's common to use the underlining option in day-to-day writing. Internet links, essay titles, book titles and other specific words are commonly underlined in school papers and newspaper articles. However, underlining really has no place in fiction book writing whatsoever. When you're writing a fiction book, even web addresses should appear in italics; they should not be underlined.

A Word on Using CAPS

 I've noticed that many writers use caps to denote screaming and shouting in their books. Sometimes, this can be very useful -- but I've seen it over-done a lot. Normal, everyday hollering should be put in italics. Only rarely -- very rarely -- should you use all caps to express something truly and utterly extreme. This does not apply if you are using an acronym (a word formed from the initials of a specific group, i.e. PETA stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).

Text Messages and Email

Of course, all the well-established and long-standing rules of writing and in-text formatting go totally out the window if you're showing a text message or email in your book. You should absolutely write and format these in a way that looks real; text messages should read C U l8tr, for example, because that's the way people write them. Above all, you've got to be true to realism when you're writing -- even, and especially, when you're writing fiction. The exact plot, characters and scenes may be pulled from your vivid imagination, but great writing always keeps one foot in reality and realism because every reader needs to be able to relate to every story.

Writing 101: Backing Up and Rescuing Your Manuscript

Spend time on a computer regularly, and it's bound to happen to you: data loss. Power outages, viruses, various meltdowns, there are all sorts of reasons your computer might malfunction and cause you to lose something you'd rather keep. But when it happens to your manuscript, it's the deepest cut of all. Don't lose your work! There are ways to avoid the problem, and ways to fix it when you haven't been avoiding it arduously enough. 

 Saving Your Book

I'm a little on the obsessive side when it comes to saving my work, because I've agonized through more than one crash in the past. But I've learned others aren't quite so psychotic about hitting the "save" button repeatedly. In fact, the computer makes it pretty easy to get lazy. Any word processing program worth its hard drive space will have an auto-save feature that automatically saves your progress, pretty much every time you pause. Even online programs, like blogger and gmail, have this auto-save feature. It's all too easy to watch drafts of your book automatically save themselves.

It's all too easy to grow complacent. But the first time you lose an entire manuscript, an important chapter or even a pivotal scene, you'll start to step over to this side of save-craziness. Don't learn the lesson the hard way. Before you ever worry about backing up your book, make sure you're saving it in the first place. When you pause to think or stop to go get a drink, hit the "save" button. If moving the mouse is too much trouble, you can simply hit Crtl-S on the keyboard (PC users) and save the work that way.

It never hurts to save the book in two different files on the hard drive. After you're done working for the day and everything is nicely saved, go up to the File menu and hit "save as" to store a second copy in an entirely new folder. You're doing this for an important reason: viruses and other corruption. A file you're working on constantly is more likely to fall prey to an unsavory program or problem, and your extra file may be spared from whatever is compromising your system.

Backing Up Your Book

No matter how up-to-date or fancy your computer, it's always susceptible to problems.  All it takes to wipe out a hard drive is a single flash of lightning, and I know because I've been there (here's a free tip: turn your wired machines off during electrical storms). That's why you should back up your book, and all related files you want to keep, every single time you work on it. 

Get into the habit of slapping a flash drive or backup drive into place at the end of every day, when you're ready to shut down the computer. Just copy the files from your hard drive onto your backup drive. It will only take a few moments to complete the entire process. USB flash drives are very inexpensive, and as a matter of fact you can write the cost off on your taxes (because they are a self-employed expense, are they not?). Save the receipt in order to write off the cost. 

Recovering Your Book

Of course, it's not always easy to remember to back up work -- and it's not always easy to make time to do so. When you fail to back up your book, that is the moment when you will lose it, invariably. So if for some reason you find that you can no longer locate your book on your hard drive, and your backup files don't have the new progress you've made, you're going to have to try to recover your work. 

Sarah Marcus wrote a very detailed posted explaining the data recovery process for writers. You may have to access your word processing program's file folders in order to look for temp saved files if your computer is still functioning. Microsoft users can also use the program's Application Recovery tool to look for recently-opened files on the system. You should also check the program's temp files to see if one of them is your book, recently auto-saved to the system. 

But that's pretty much a best-case scenario in data recovery. If you believe your book might be lost due to a huge computer failure, it's most likely because of a serious problem that prevents the computer from functioning normally. 

First, get a new hard drive and install it in the computer with necessary operating system software. Next, re-connect the damaged drive and set it as a slave to the new, non-corrupt hard drive. This will allow you to access any remaining data on the damaged drive that you want to restore. It should go without saying that if you have no idea what I'm talking about here, solicit some sort of help from someone in-the-know when it comes to computer technical issues. If help is out of reach, you can always look for software programs such as GetItBack to aid you in the data recovery process. 

If all else fails, look for professional help before you give up on your book for ever. Paying for data recovery can be costly, but the time you've already put into your book is also valuable. Try to save yourself all of these headaches by backing up your work every single day, and none of it will become an issue.