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Stunning Price Points: Authors, Screenwriters, Dreamers, etc. was originally published on Volo Press
If you get the Volo Press monthly newsletter, you’ve already seen this. This cover was voted as the best option for the release of The Genician coming up in June. Thanks to all those who participated in picking this cover! Reserve your copy of The Genician today at a discount!
New Cover Reveal: The Genician was originally published on Volo Press
If you have been searching around for a proofreader lately, you may have found that many are outside your budget (like, waaaaay outside). At the same time, knowing that you’re human and all, you understand that you need someone with even a little expertise and experience to look over your work to make sure it’s as clean as possible. Here are some cost-effective alternatives to hiring a proofreader that can work for you as long as you’re willing to put in a little bit of elbow grease and time.
Showing off your skills when it comes to proofreading can be difficult. You can stage some markups, but it’s not quite the same as being able to show someone what that last Toni Morrison book looked like before and after the proofreader got their hands on it. Try asking the proofreader if they would be willing to take on your project with the understanding that they can use your original, error-laden text as part of their marketing for their business. They still may not proofread your work for nothing, but you may be able to work out a significant discount, or at least a flexible payment plan.
If you are a Volo Press Proofer reading this, you know what’s coming!
Another option for lower cost proofreading is simply to recruit avid readers who can help review your work for mistakes. All I did was put up a Craigslist ad and I had over 10 people sign up within about a week. You could ask friends and family members (the ones that don’t kiss your ass just because they know you) and co-workers as well. You’d be surprised–I know I was–at how many people are not just willing, but excited to help you with your project. Don’t underestimate the kindness of strangers!
And while I mail printed manuscripts to my crew, you could also email a digital version to them, or share a Google Doc with them and let everyone read and comment throughout the day. If you have a little bit of money to offer them, I’m sure they would appreciate it. I have so many, there’s no way I could pay them all more than, say, a dollar! But I do my best to offer my Proofers a worry-free experience by giving them everything they need to complete the project without them having to buy their own tools (i.e., an extra envelope, return postage, a highlighter, and a red pen that are theirs to keep), offering prizes for various project-related accomplishments (such as a quick turnaround or finding the biggest mistakes in the piece), and making sure that I credit them in each book. Play around with these ideas until you find something that works for you.
It’s not impossible to do your own proofreading, it just usually isn’t as effective as having someone else look at your work. This is because, psychologically, you always understand what you meant to say because you’re the one who wrote it. This means that it’s easy for things like missing words and commas in strange places to slip right past you. However, when someone without your brain reviews a piece, it is a lot easier for them to spot certain kinds of errors.
If you think you really have no other option than to proofread your own work, there are a couple of ways you can make that endeavor more successful.
One method it to read aloud. When you have to read the words out loud, you’re more likely to catch when a passage is unclear or a word that you used in a sentence doesn’t quite fit.
The other is to read at about half your normal pace. Slowing down makes it a little easier to find the mistakes you would normally miss because you’re reading too fast.
One more strategy is to read the piece multiple times. I usually try to take at least a 48-hour break between readings. I’ve found that stepping away from a piece allows me to come back to it with eyes that are more fresh.
Of course, the triple threat is always the best. If you read your piece slowly and aloud at least twice, no one can fault you for whatever mistakes do slip through the cracks. These methods take a level of patience and commitment that would drive most people up the wall. But, being the literature freaks we are, it’s a labor of love that we gladly engaged in.
If you are ready to do any or all of these, kudos to you and good luck! If I just stressed you out by telling you what it might take to side-step hiring a proofreader, I’m always available to help with your blog posts, dissertations, resumes, or novels. Visit my proofreading page to learn more about proofreading at a penny per word!
Happy writing!
What to Do When You Can’t Afford a Proofreader was originally published on Volo Press
On any given day, there are millions (if not billions) of book ideas floating around in people’s brains. Unfortunately, they’re not always popping up in the mind of someone who loves to write, has the time to write, or has the skills to write well. Fortunately, there are people who will write your book for you: Ghostwriters.
You Get to Focus on Your Business
I can tell you as confidently as the next small business owner that owning and maintaining any business venture is not the easiest thing in the world. I’m lucky that most of my business transactions take place while I’m sitting at a computer in the comfort of my home. However, many businesses still have physical locations that must be stocked, promoted, insured, cleaned, maintained, and secured. When you’re in charge of all that, when in the world would you have time to write a book about your ancient methods for getting stains out of carpets or your philosophy on high-fidelity recruiting?
The answer for many is “I don’t.”
You Hire a Ghostwriter
A ghostwriter takes your concept and turns it into a finished book. You’ll need to have an initial conversation regarding pay, project length, book content, style, and other parameters. After that, there will be occasional phone calls or emails related to the progress of the book. Depending upon the length of the book and what other projects the writer is working on, you could have you book finished in as little as 30 days. Compare this to someone who sneaks in a few hundred words on the back of a meeting agenda once a week and takes years to even write enough content to fill a book. A ghostwriter is a faster means to a finished product.
You Continue Living Your Life
Because the ghostwriter you hired is handling about 98% of the heavy lifting, you can still run your business, spend time with your family, and enjoy outings with friends–all while your book is being written in the background. Think of how surprised everyone you know will be when they realize that you have produced a book–your name on the cover and everything!–and they don’t remember you having to lock yourself in the basement for six months to get it done. They’ve still had the benefit of your company at home and your management at work. Everybody wins!
Use Your Book to Grow Your Business
Not only do you now have a new product to market and sell to your current customers, you may have turned other people on to your business by “writing” a book.
Let’s say Joan loves to read. At the doctor’s office one day, she picks up a copy of your book, Vitreous China: A Resilient Plumber’s Tale of Overcoming Anxiety, in the waiting room. As she starts to read, she finds herself relating to a lot of what you went through. She decides to download the eBook version so she can finish it at home. Once she’s done with the book (keep in mind that you just made money off of that download), she sees that your plumbing business is just a few miles from where she works. She decides to visit, she’s greeted by you or a member of your helpful staff, and you’ve just gained yourself a new, lifelong customer.
It’s not always fancy slogans, sparkling signage, or low prices that cause someone to want to do business with us. Many times it’s about forming some sort of social connection with our customers. When we do that, regardless of what our prices or marketing methods look like, we’re more likely to gain loyal customers who will brings us even more business through word-of-mouth.
Beyond the Covers
Just like people don’t all always read printed copy, ghostwriters aren’t restricted to writing just whole books. A writer can help you with your company newsletter, invoice formatting, web page copy, and blog posts. Ordering regularly from a few writers helps you maintain consistency when you’re requesting articles for your business’ blog. It also allows the writers you get work from to become increasingly familiar with the choice of topics and style of writing that your readers enjoy.
There’s No Excuse for Waiting
Reach out to a writer today. You may know some in your circle of friends, your staff, or your family. If not, visit Volo Press Services for the support you need to help you and your business prosper like never before.
Upgrade Your Business: Hire a Ghostwriter was originally published on Volo Press
Besides the window situation, this wouldn’t be the worst place in the world to set up shop! 😀
New Video Shows Great Vampire Bookworm Spot was originally published on Volo Press
Though I’m early in my writing career, I’ve run across many authors who are not. And, in seeing their experiences, I’ve come to the conclusion that more people may benefit from self-publishing than I once might have thought. These two issues are puzzling (and somewhat alarming) reasons why self-publishing may be a better way to go than waiting on a traditional large publisher or even a small press (with or without the help of an agent) to decide to publish your work for you.
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I know this may sound strange, but I’ve found that about 90% of the people I know of who have gone through a traditional publisher–mostly small presses–were not provided with proofreading or editing services of any kind. They either had to edit the book themselves or come out of their own pocket to hire someone to read their work. I would have thought that fast and accurate proofreading services would have been one perk of involving a third party to publish your work. But if the publisher isn’t ensuring that your copy is clean, why work with them? If you are thinking of going the traditional route to publish, do your homework and be certain that this service is part of the deal.
As a self-publisher, you will have several options related to how you can get your work proofread for cheap or even free ( I discuss this in my online self-publishing courses) because you will have complete control. While there is nothing wrong with reviewing your own work for mistakes, I believe it is critical to get other people involved in reading your drafts. I don’t see any other way to fill in your own mental blind spots. We tend to get comfortable with believing our work is acceptable because we insert what we MEANT to write into what we ACTUALLY put down on the page. Getting various outside perspectives on your work is the only way that I know of to circumvent this.
Just as dumbfounding as seeing people have works published that so obviously have not been proofread or critiqued by anyone, is the fact that many authors working with a publisher still have to do the bulk of their own marketing, especially promotion. You would think that, with multiple outlets at their disposal (pod casts, social media accounts, blogs, etc.) a publisher would be able to help you take your marketing to the next level. If an author still has to do all of the event coordination, social media announcements, etc. what exactly was the benefit of hooking up with a publisher?
Again, should you decide that you want to work with a publisher, talk to them about how much work you’ll be responsible for, versus how much they’ll be responsible for. Take a look at how well some of their other artists are being represented. If possible, have a conversation with some of the authors that they represent in order to get a more fair representation of what working with that particular press is going to entail.
On a consistent basis, I get the impression that a self-published writers (like an independent singer or a free agent in athletics) is a more empowered writer. If you’re on the fence about self-publishing, I hope you’ll attend Self-Publishing 101 to learn a little more about the process to help you make your decision about it.
2 Alarming Reasons You Should Self-Publish was originally published on Volo Press
I sincerely hope that the end of your year is going well and that the start of the new one is exciting, healthy, and lucrative!
Season’s Greetings! was originally published on Volo Press
Volo-Press.com now has over 2.500 registered users. Every single one of you, through your book purchases, retweets, likes, comments, and shares shows appreciation for businesses that are small, independent, female-owned, and minority-owned. Thank you for your support!
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2,500 Subscribers: Thank you! was originally published on Volo Press
With a document that’s 1,101 pages long, it can be hard to sift through to the “good stuff” (i.e., what will directly impact the average author). Here’s one piece: The removal of the individual mandate from the Affordable Care Act.
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In case you missed it (please email me and let me know how you could have, as a citizen of the United State of America, missed any reference to the individual mandate because that is probably an amazing story), the individual mandate was a provision of the Affordable Care Act that penalized you at the end of the year if you had not had ‘approved’ health insurance for any number of months during the previous year.
For example, if you couldn’t afford to pay both your premium and your mortgage, you might have skipped on the insurance premium and gone without coverage for the last three months of the year. This would have resulted in you having a penalty assessed and multiplied by three months.
For some people, my younger brother was the example in my life, this wasn’t a big issue. He was being charged $220 for individual, catastrophic health insurance. However, since he is one of those people who never seems to need any medical treatment or hospitalization (Alien? Demi-god? Who knows!), he opted to not get coverage. He was penalized for it with a whopping…$300 fee. So, as most intelligent people would, he decided to keep $2,640 in his pocket throughout the year and just pay the measly $300 out of his tax return.
Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (T’Caja? ^_^) this mandate will no longer be in force as of January 1st, 2019. This means that my brother could keep his main $2,640 AND not have to pay a $300 penalty for not purchasing something he didn’t want / need.
As authors, this means that we’ll need to prepare to shop around for insurance products that will protect us (and, indirectly, our family members) as well as fit our budget. Don’t just buy the first policy you come across. From what I’m hearing in my writing groups, some people have already been policy-shopping with the ACA, and others have not. Shopping policies is the only way to make sure you get the best possible deal.
My hunch is that, because people won’t be mandated to get insurance any more, there will be more of a push for insurance companies to provide competitive health insurance arrangements for individuals. So, pay attention to the prices now and compare them to prices this time next year and in the early months of 2019. Look for the cheapest coverage you can get that still protects you as you need to be protected. For us, this specifically means finding policies with affordable coverage for orthopedic and vision issues, such as carpal tunnel syndrome or eye exams, and offering incentives for doing things like losing weight (since writing is a sedentary activity).
It also means that, if you want coverage, you’re going to have to remember to get it. There won’t be a penalty hanging over your head any more. You will have to take the initiative to get out there, shop, and make a final purchase of a policy. If you’re like me, this can be difficult because our brains are going 10,000 miles a minute with thoughts ranging from cover design, to final scenes, to characters, and proposed release dates. I put reminders like this in my paper planner AND on my phone, just to be safe.
Page 153. I’ve copied the basic text for you below, but you can click this link to view the entire document yourself (including citations and references to other parts of the T’Caja)!
H. Elimination of Shared Responsibility Payment for Individuals
Failing to Maintain Minimal Essential Coverage
(sec. 11081 of the Senate amendment and sec. 5000A of the Code)Present Law
Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act352 (also called the Affordable Care
Act, or “ACA”), individuals must be covered by a health plan that provides at least minimum
essential coverage or be subject to a tax (also referred to as a penalty) for failure to maintain the
coverage (commonly referred to as the “individual mandate”).353 Minimum essential coverage
includes government-sponsored programs (including Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP, among
others), eligible employer-sponsored plans, plans in the individual market, grandfathered group
health plans and grandfathered health insurance coverage, and other coverage as recognized by
the Secretary of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) in coordination with the Secretary of the
Treasury.354 The tax is imposed for any month that an individual does not have minimum
essential coverage unless the individual qualifies for an exemption for the month as described
below.The tax for any calendar month is one-twelfth of the tax calculated as an annual amount.
The annual amount is equal to the greater of a flat dollar amount or an excess income amount.
The flat dollar amount is the lesser of (1) the sum of the individual annual dollar amounts for the
members of the taxpayer’s family and (2) 300 percent of the adult individual dollar amount. The
individual adult annual dollar amount is $695 for 2017 and 2018.355 For an individual who has
not attained age 18, the individual annual dollar amount is one half of the adult amount. The
excess income amount is 2.5 percent of the excess of the taxpayer’s household income for the
taxable year over the threshold amount of income for requiring the taxpayer to file an income tax
return. The total annual household payment may not exceed the national average annual
premium for bronze level health plans for the applicable family size offered through Exchanges
that year.Exemptions from the requirement to maintain minimum essential coverage are provided for the
following: (1) an individual for whom coverage is unaffordable because the required
contribution exceeds 8.16357 percent of household income, (2) an individual with household
income below the income tax return filing threshold, (3) a member of an Indian tribe, (4) a
member of certain recognized religious sects or a health sharing ministry, (5) an individual with
a coverage gap for a continuous period of less than three months, and (6) an individual who is
determined by the Secretary of HHS to have suffered a hardship with respect to the capability to
obtain coverage.House Bill
No provision.Senate Amendment
The Senate amendment reduces the amount of the individual responsibility payment,
enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act, to zero.
Effective date.−The provision is effective with respect to health coverage status for
months beginning after December 31, 2018.
Conference Agreement
The conference agreement follows the Senate amendment.
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: Author Edition: Individual Mandate was originally published on Volo Press
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Now Hiring Bookworms: Join the Volo Press Proofers was originally published on Volo Press
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