Change The World With Words

Today’s post is a guest post by Greg Walker. Greg reminds us of the importance of proof reading carefully, and makes us all feel better about ourselves by pointing our a few proof reading errors that are probably even worse than some of the ones we’ve made ourselves.

Think Proofreading Isn’t Important? Think Again…

By Greg Walker

Proofreading. The word alone is enough to bore the socks off most writers. After going through the whole creative process and editing your work down to a work of art bordering on the sublime, you’re presented with the wearisome process of taking a magnifying glass to your sentences and going on a hunt for misplaced commas.

And yet… misplaced commas can be very costly indeed. About as costly as futile full stops, pointless paragraph breaks, and using grandiose-sounding words in completely the wrong places (which can be spectacularly embarrassing—I speak from experience).

They are costly because mistakes get noticed, especially by eagle-eyed clients who are only too happy to point out each tiny error you make (you know the sort). That might lead to nothing more than a bruised ego but, egos aside, the cumulative effect of too many trivial errors can be devastating.

No matter how small the mistake, if the client decides that they would not have made the same error then they inevitably begin to question why they are paying someone to write for them in the first place. But if you had any doubt about the seriousness of proofreading, here are some of my all-time favorite mistakes where even the most basic of final checks would have been enough to prevent monumental embarrassment.

1. It’s Welsh, But It Ain’t Right

We’ll start with the best of the lot. This mistake occurred in Wales a few years ago, where road signs are written in both English and Welsh, meaning translations are a frequent requirement.

After writing out the content of one particular sign, an anonymous official then sent it off to be translated. The email was returned soon after containing a sentence in Welsh. Job done.

It was only when the sign was put up in full public view that the full extent of the mistake became apparent.

The sign was split into two halves. The top half read: ‘No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only’. And below it, the Welsh translation. It looked all well and good… unless you could read Welsh. For although the translation was certainly Welsh, it was not exactly a faithful translation of the English above it.

Instead, it read: “Am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated.”

It has since become the most famous auto-reply in the world. Or in Wales, at least.

2. Bad Advice from the King James Bible

The Bible. A source of inspiration and guidance to millions of people across the world. So here more than in any other book you’d think that careful proofreading was essential.

Unfortunately, the 1631 version of The King James Bible ended up providing some particularly bad advice to the faithful.

Most of it was fine, but if you happened to read Exodus 20:14, better known as the Seventh Commandment, you may have found the advice slightly conflicting with what you had been taught in church:

“Thou shalt commit adultery.”

The printers received a fine of £300 for their error, and the version, which became known as the ‘Sinners Bible’, was soon withdrawn. Eleven copies apparently still exist after nearly 400 years to remind us all of the potential perils of proofreading failure.

3. Red Faces on the Blue Side of Manchester

I’ve got a friend who supports Manchester City, now one of the biggest soccer teams in England. They have a fierce rivalry with Manchester United, who have seen far more success over recent years. So when Manchester City made it to the FA Cup Final in 2011, it was their moment to shine.

However, the event very nearly proved disastrous when some anonymous worker in the flag factory made a very bad mistake indeed.

It is customary on such occasions for the Football Association to print out tens of thousands of flags to give away to supporters on the big day. But just days before the event, the flags were delivered only to reveal that they all bore the name ‘Manchester United’.

Luckily they got changed in time, but heads had to roll over that blunder.

4. ‘Embarrassing’ Parker Pens Mistake

Translation mistakes make for some of the funniest proofreading blunders, and sometimes you really do have to wonder how such obvious mistakes were never caught out.

Parker Pens is one of those firms which is clearly not paying its proofreaders enough money, as was revealed so spectacularly when it decided to boldly enter the Mexican market.

The mistake arose due to one of the most notorious ‘false friends’ in English and Spanish translation. False friends are words which sound the same but mean very different things. The verb ‘to embarrass’ sounds a lot like ‘embarazar’… but ‘embarazar’ means ‘to become pregnant’.

So the company certainly made an impression, but perhaps for all the wrong reasons, when it made the surprising declaration that its pens ‘won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant’.

Anyone who knows Spanish would have easily spotted the error, so it’s a wonder that this one managed to get through the net. Or maybe it was all just some elaborate marketing ploy to make headlines?

Always Proofread

No one is foolproof. Writers will always make mistakes, and even careful proofreading is sometimes not enough to prevent errors from getting through. In fact, I’m almost certain someone will pick up on at least one mistake I’ve made in this article, even though I’ve proofed it twice.

Some writers hire professional proofreaders to check over their work before handing it in. Personally, I don’t do this. But I have built up my own little system to help me catch the real humdingers.

This involves writing and editing as early as possible, and then putting the work aside for a few days before proofreading it just before handing it in. I also have a list of the most common mistakes I make (‘their’ and ‘there’ seem to get mixed up on an embarrassingly frequent basis), and I do a quick check for these mistakes on every piece of work I deliver.

This catches most of the mistakes I make, and I’m certain that a few of my clients would not still be clients if I had regularly missed these errors.

So always proofread. It’s not fun, and there is no way to make it something that you look forward to doing. But it can prevent you making minor or major mistakes that can not only prove to be very embarrassing, but can also cost you clients.

Proofreading effectively is just one way to improve your writing and enjoy more success as a freelancer. For more information and tips on taking your writing even further and winning better clients, head to http://prowebwriting.com where Greg Walker has written a free ebook providing details of a few ways to make money from your writing.
Image courtesy of Fail Blog.

I mentioned the great new writing book  The Writer’s Workout, in a  previous post. The book has 366 “tips, tasks and techniques” to give you something to do every day even if you happen to be reading it on a leap year. So we’re celebrating leap day with a Q & A with author Christina Katz and a Twitter conversation about the book. (Just use the hashtag #TWWCoach to tweet about the book and see what others are saying.) Many thanks to Christina for the following Q & A session.

So, what’s The Writer’s Workout all about?

The Writer’s Workout contains 366 ideas—one idea per day—intended to encourage writers into prosperous action. It reviews critical skills for every writer such as improving craft, learning to sell work, how and when to specialize, ways to keep learning and growing, self-promotion from the basics through advanced topics, and how to balance traditional publication with self-publication.

What makes The Writer’s Workout different from your first two books?

Like all my books, The Writer’s Workout is a mashup of various types of writing instruction. However this book contains a distillation of my experience, my students’ collective experiences over the past decade, and the universal experience of being a writer across the ages in the form of what I hope are 366 timeless quotes. This is my third book and it differs from my first two books quite a bit in focus, objective, and format.

How is The Writer’s Workout different from other writing books already out there?

One thing that makes The Writer’s Workout unique is that the rise and fall of the how-to curve is set against the backdrop of the seasons of the year. The seasonal backdrop helped me deliver advice for writers on four levels: beginner, intermediate, seasoned pro, and veteran—each paralleling a season: spring, summer, fall, or winter. The result, I hope, is one idea every day that will help writers find and maintain literary momentum all year long in these highly distracted times.

Some people say these are tough times for writers. Others say there are opportunities around every corner. What do you say?

I say we are living in a gig economy, where professionals are stringing freelance jobs together into creative careers. We’re all doing the best we can, finding and maintaining our momentum. Not only can The Writer’s Workout assist folks who are just getting started supplementing their income with writing, it can help people who have already been writing professionally recognize that there are more opportunities to build income streams writing than any of us have realized. And then it’s just a matter of choosing the goals that will best suit your goals. 

How did you come to write The Writer’s Workout?

Prior to landing the deal for this book, I was offered the opportunity to write a different book about how to be an organized writer—a topic that, unfortunately, did not feel like a good fit for the way I work.

I recommended a former student for the job and started asking myself, if not that book, then what book did I want to write? Jane Friedman, then publisher at Writer’s Digest, and I sat down in an airport restaurant after the Writer’s Digest conference in January 2010, and brainstormed the idea that evolved into The Writer’s Workout. Basically, I wanted to encapsulate everything that I’d learned from working closely with hundreds of writers over ten years. Two years and many thousands of words later, here it is.

I understand your book is almost 400-pages long, yet you offer classes on writing “short stuff” and “micro-publishing.” How do you reconcile this apparent double standard?

You have to look at it this way: the book is 366 short pieces collected and placed in an order that creates a longer movement. That’s exactly how I was taught to write fiction in graduate school. This write short before you write long school-of-thought is also how I teach writers to draft and polish publishable work. We start short and then extend the jumps until, next thing you know, the writer is writing long pieces like features, e-books and even books. How? By pulling together shorter pieces to create longer pieces.

You have been called a “gentle taskmaster” by your students. What does this mean and why would writers need this kind of help?

A coach is a person who trains others to perform better. Every writer needs a kick in the pants now and then. This book has plenty of boots in the caboose and also acknowledges the challenging times we’re living in. Reading this book is like having a personal coach for your writing career, who holds you accountable to your potential, every day of the year. Get this book if you would like to have your own personal coach without the massive expense of paying for one. You’ll be your own best writing coach by the time the book is done.

Our workdays are constantly disrupted these days. What do you say to the writer who has trouble focusing and following through?

I rarely hear students in my training groups complaining about dramas or distractions in their lives. If something upsets their focus, it’s a major life disturbance like a trip to the emergency room, a spouse’s job loss, or a death in the family. That’s life calling, not a distraction.

Our attention can be hijacked by one hundred and one meaningless distractions per minute. I say turn up the focus and the distractions will fall away. Drama and distraction are not necessary for self-expression but they sure can impede it. I say keep the drama on the page. You can get hooked on making grounded creative progress just as you can get hooked on chasing every distraction and fanning the flames of every potential drama. The cure for discouragement is accomplishing a short-term objective every day.

I understand The Writer’s Workout originally had a different title. What was the original title?

The Writer’s Workout actually had three previous titles. I’ll share them if folks, who have read the book, will tell me which they think is the best match with the final version.

1. The first title was: Read. Write. Grow.
2. The second title was: The Everyday Writing Coach.
3. The third title was: The Anyday Writing Coach.
4. And the fourth and final title was: The Writer’s Workout.

Personally, I prefer The Writer’s Workout. But what does everyone else think?

Any final comments you would like to make in closing?

At the end of the day, it does not matter if you are self-published or traditionally published, blogging or not blogging, a book-sniffer or a digital diva, a social media maven or a social media deer-in-the-headlights—what matters is that you cultivate the creativity that wants to be expressed through you. That’s your job. Go do it!

Christina Katz is the author of three books from Writer’s Digest: The Writer’s Workout, Get Known Before the Book Deal, and Writer Mama. Her writing career tips and parenting advice appear regularly in national, regional, and online publications. A “gentle taskmaster” over the past decade to hundreds of writers, Christina’s students go from unpublished to published, build professional writing career skills, and increase their creative confidence over time. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Columbia College Chicago and a BA in English from Dartmouth College. A popular speaker on creative career growth, Christina presents for writing conferences, literary events, MFA writing programs, and libraries. She is the creator and host of the Northwest Author Series in Wilsonville, Oregon, where she lives with her husband, her daughter, and far too many pets. Learn more at ChristinaKatz.com.

Join the conversation about The Writer’s Workout on Twitter today.  The twitter hash tag for discussing the book is #TWWCoach, and if you don’t have your copy yet, order it here.

Today’s post is a guest post by author and self-publisher, Shelley Hitz. I’ve been considering the possibility of re-purposing some of the content here at Change The World With Words into book format, so I was really interested to hear what she has to say about turning your blog content into a self-published book. Hope you find her insight useful.

How to Self Publish a Book in 8 Easy Steps

By Shelley Hitz

It might not be as much work as you think. In fact, if you already own a website or blog, you can seamlessly transform your most popular content into a book.  Think about it: you can take the same great content you’ve already written for your site and reformulate it into a printed book, PDF eBook or audio book to make the most of all your hard work.  Follow these steps and you’ll be well on your way to becoming a self published author, like me!

8 Simple Steps to Self Publishing Your Book:

1. Create an outline and chapter layout using the best articles from your website or blog.
2. Enter your content into a template formatted for your desired book size (i.e. Microsoft Word).
3. Save your book as a PDF file.
4. Select a designer for your book cover or design it yourself.
5. Select a self-publishing company.
6. Sign up for an account with your publisher and upload your documents.
7. Begin promoting and selling copies of your book online, via your website or blog and in person.
8. Finally, convert your book into various formats to get the most out of your work (i.e. PDF eBook, audio book and Kindle eBook).

That’s it!

I stumbled upon the concept of self publishing books in the fall of 2008 when one of my colleagues, a fellow speaker, showed me a copy of his self-published book. Not only were his books affordable-they only cost him $2-$3 each, even though their quality was excellent. It seemed that he had gained the instant credibility of being a “published author.”

Meeting him, I thought, “I can do this!” And believe it or not, after about one month of hard work, I was ready to publish a 190-page book based upon my website, Teen-Beauty-Tips.com. How did I do it? I followed the eight simple steps listed above!

The Nuts and Bolts of Publishing My First Book

Step #1:   To get started, I assembled my first draft based on the best articles from my website. Once I selected the articles, I decided on an outline for my book and formatted the content into chapters.

Step #2:  I then decided on a book title, “Mirror Mirror…Am I Beautiful? Looking Deeper to Find Your True Beauty,” and began the process of copying and pasting the text of my articles into a Microsoft Word template.

Step #3:   Next, I converted my Word document into a PDF file using the free edition of PDF995 (to do this click on properties, then advanced option and select the “statement [5.5 X 8.5] ” from the drop-down menu for the paper format).

Step #4:  Since I was working on a very low budget, I decided I would use a DIY design approach and used Photoshop to create my book cover.

Step #5:  After more research on self publishing, I decided to use CreateSpace (affiliated with Amazon), to publish my book. Why? Well, there are no up-front costs, you get listed quickly with Amazon, and you can buy copies of your book for less than $4 each (to sell at events or for other purposes).

Step #6:  Finally, I was ready to upload my files and order my proof copy! My 190-page black and white soft cover book cost a mere $3.13 + shipping, with the help of the Createspace Pro Plan. Although the Pro Plan requires a one-time fee of $39, followed by a $5 annual fee, these small fees are well worth it! With the Pro Plan you gain significantly higher royalties and can also buy copies at a much lower cost.

Step #7: What a great feeling to self publish my first book! I immediately began selling copies online through my website and at speaking events.

Step #8: My final step was to create other versions of the same book. I chose to offer it digitally as a PDF eBook and to give a free copy away to my newsletter subscribers. I also recorded an audio version of my book using the free software, Audacity, and a $30 microphone. Once the audio files were completed, I began selling the MP3 downloads of the book through ClickBank and the CD version of the audio book using Kunaki. With Kunaki, authors can buy CDs for as little as $ 1 (+ shipping).

Finally, I expanded my book’s influence by making a version available for the Kindle. To convert my book into the Kindle format, I removed all of the pictures embedded in the Microsoft Word template and saved it in as a HTML document. I then uploaded my book to Kindle Direct Publishing, text and began offering the Kindle version from my website as well.

Do I Make Money Selling Books?

I’ll be honest. In such a small and specialized niche, I’m not getting rich by selling books from my website. However, I do receive regular paychecks from both online and offline sales. And as my website traffic increases (now over 1,000 visitors per day), my sales also increase.

If you want to “make it big” in publishing, I recommend that you hire a professional to design your interior book template and your book cover design. I also recommend hiring a professional editor. After taking the DIY route initially, I did eventually decide to hire a designer to update my book cover.

And finally, if you want to truly self-publish, I recommend that you start your own book publishing company and use Lightning Source. Be aware that it does require more time, money, and effort upfront. However, in the end, you can earn more in royalties by self-publishing through Lightning Source, especially if you want to sell books to international audiences or in bookstores. If you’re interested in using Lightning Source, I recommend reading a book by Dan Poynter called, “The Self Publishing Manual” to help guide you step by step.

You Can Do It!

Since you’ve already invested so much time and energy into writing your website or blog, why not take a little extra time and get the most from your content by repurposing it into a self-published book? Follow my eight simple steps and, like me, you can soon be selling physical products like paperback books, audio CDs, and digital downloads from your website.

Are You Ready to Get Started?

If so, I recommend that you go and download my free book templates at Self-Publishing-Coach.com and then sign up for a free Createspace account. It costs you nothing and yet provides you with an easy action step toward achieving your goal of getting published.

And have fun…soon you’ll be a published author.

Shelley Hitz is an entrepreneur, author and speaker.  Her website, Self Publishing Coach, provides resources and tutorials that help you publish and market your book.  Her series, Book Marketing on a Shoestring Budget, allows you to expand your book marketing efforts and sell more books without going broke.  She even offers one of her reports free! Go get more information now: Self-Publishing-Coach.com 

While you’re here, grab a copy of Shelley’s free report Book Marketing on a Shoestring Budget: Guest Blogging for Success.

The following is a guest post from Maija Haavisto, who has just paticipated in National Novel Writing Month.

When I did my first NaNoWriMo in 2008 I had written four novel manuscripts already, but none in the previous six years, as I had been very ill. Now I was much better and felt ready for a new journey. I spent a lot of time outlining my novel, constructing character bios etc. I also froze plenty of meals in advance.

Doing NaNo in Finnish meant I had to write about 50% more to reach 50k than those writing in English, but I was aiming for publication in Finland. As if that wasn’t enough of a challenge, the story required lots of research. Bad idea!

My novel was about life extension, but it felt like if anything, it was going to shorten my life. I often needed to spend five hours a day working on my manuscript just to reach the minimum wordcount. That year I didn’t really have time to post on the NaNo forums nor attend any NaNo meetings, but I did connect with some other writers on Twitter.

I finished on the evening of the 30th, writing the last 500 words with very limited eyesight because of a migraine aura (I hadn’t had a migraine in a year or so). I swore to never participate in that madness again.

After editing for some 3-4 months I submitted my manuscript to 25 publishers, but the farthest I got was some lengthy non-form rejections and a letter telling me my book was enjoyable, but not marketable (!). In the fall I found myself again planning for NaNo.

My last year’s NaNo was also done in Finnish, but the concept did not require much research. As such the process was much less painful and on most days took me 1-2 hours of writing. I also attended some NaNo meetings in Helsinki, though found myself a bit out of place with my “cripfic” (disability-themed fiction) when everyone else seemed to be writing fantasy. I even finished one day early.

Again I edited from December to April, while also working on a medical textbook. The crazy work schedule paid off and three small publishers showed interest in my novel. I signed a contract with one of them a few weeks before this year’s NaNo. I thought I would be the first published Finnish WriMo, but apparently some YA novelists got there first.

This year it was almost obvious that I would participate in NaNoWriMo. One thing was different though: I had moved from Finland to the Netherlands. The NaNoWriMo meetups had an added dimension being the very first meetings I had with Dutch people. The folks have been great and I’ve felt I fit in better than in Finland.

The latest NaNo, my third one, was both the easiest and hardest. Every year I panic with the same problem: my novel doesn’t look like it will be 50k (my pre-NaNo novels were all just about 35k words, which in Finnish is a reasonable length – my 2009 novel was 45k after editing) and this year was no different. Luckily, with enough “padding”, visits from Captain Obvious and his cousin Captain Repetition and a super analytical and rambling main character with a tendency for flashbacks I’ve made it through.

Weirdly enough I have been able to write faster than before, even though some problems related to my disability have reared their ugly heads, and finished three days early. I have more pressure than ever to write a novel that can be published, but I feel like the quality of this manuscript is lower than in my previous first drafts. I am frightened that the amount of editing required will be massive.

The most important thing I have learned to win NaNo is not to write a book that requires a lot of research, unless you can do it all in advance. Other than that, the only thing to do is to write. Don’t think about writing, don’t think about not writing, just write.

As for how NaNo can be useful, it can help you finish your manuscript and make you realize you can write a lot more than you think. It helps you shut down the inner editor and take more risks with your writing. You may well ditch the experimental hallucination scene when editing – or you might find it is going to stay, it might inspire another scene elsewhere in the book, or turn into a short story. You never know. In the creative process taking risks and doing things in a different way never hurts!

My husband doesn’t really “get” NaNo. “Why undertake a project when you’re just waiting to finish it and not have to think about it for another 11 months?” But writing is both about the journey and the destination. Sometimes it’s fun, sometimes not, just like everything else. There must be something addictive about NaNo, because I and so many others find ourselves doing it year after year. Yep, I already have something planned for NaNo 2011!

Maija Haavisto is a 26-year old journalist and the author of two published textbooks. Her novel Marian ilmestyskirja (Maria’s Book of Revelations) will be out in early 2011. She is also a firm believer that the world can be changed with words. Her website is www.fiikus.net, but sadly her writing blog www.ilmestykset.net  is in Finnish only.