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Books could almost be immortal

I have seen many debates over that last few years about whether the introduction of the eBook has killed the publishing industry. Many have asked whether books are a thing of the past. It's a valid question, but this is not the first time the question has been asked.

Think about all the old doomsday stories. In many of them, society has been left to flounder, and the knowledge of the past is frequently lost. Reading becomes a lost skill or something that only a select few know. Languages evolve and unless certain knowledge is passed down from generation to generation, history becomes this mysterious thing that none of us understand.

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Bios: One Size Won’t Fit Me

While writers are often into their own worlds of fire-breathing dragons or sexual encounters with that dark knight, there is one topic that many writers struggle to write about: themselves. It's ironic... Here we are, words flow easily on the page when discussing some fictional character, but writing about the one person that we know the best... You have got to be kidding.

However, writing a bio is not something that a writer should shy away from. There are so many ways to spinning what might seem like a boring hum-drum life and making it sound glamorous. We're writers. We can do this, right?

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Length matters, but story matters more

Every writer that is serious about publishing, particularly those attempting the traditional publication path, will know that agents and editors put a lot of weight on word counts. The acceptable limits vary depending on the age category and genre of the book.

(By the way, Young Adult is NOT a genre. It's an age category. And Fiction is NOT a genre either. You can find more information about the various age categories here. More information about the main genre classifications can be found here.)

It's incredibly important to have a good understanding of the average word counts for the type of story that you are writing, but it's just as important to understand word counts are not an excuse for poor storytelling.

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Woman reading on a tablet

We can tell you didn’t edit your book.

There are many out there now self-publishing. Their decisions to head down this path have come about for a variety of reasons, and there is nothing wrong with it. There have been many successful writers who have self-published, just as there has been many writers who have been traditionally published thatĀ  bombed.

In some cases, writers elect to push for self-publishing because it's the fastest way to get your book out there. For time-sensitive, non-fiction books, this is likely the path you'll take. However, there is a HUGE difference between (1) producing a quality product that was self-published and (2) self-publishing because you want it out there.

In a previous post, I spoke about rushing the process. One flavor of the rush-the-process beast is the publish-without-editing variant.

Iā€™m self-publishing, but I canā€™t afford to get it edited right away. I think Iā€™ll just publish it on Amazon. After a few reviews come in, Iā€™ll take it down, then edit it.

This is a MASSIVE mistake for any writer to make.

Time to take a look at the reasons why.

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