Self-Publishing Ebooks: The Absolute Beginner's Step-by-Step Guide by Stephanie Zia with Mark Binner

CHAPTER 1

COPY EDITING – WHY THE END IS ONLY THE BEGINNING

‘Add freshly ground black people.’ Cookery book misprint, 2010

 

So, you've written The End and your manuscript is perfect and ready to publish.

Are you sure about that?

   Before publication, all print books go through two vital stages: copy editing and proofreading. If it's to look professional, your ebook must do the same. But first, have a close look at your writing one last time.

   • Are there any long, rambling sentences that could be shortened or split into two? Large, intense sentences and big blocks of paragraph aren't so easy on the eye scanning a page. With an electronic screen this is even more relevant and especially important for ebooks. In any medium, short sentences and simple words are more likely to keep your reader engaged. Look for 'ands' and 'buts' which could be replaced by full stops.

   • Look at the length of your paragraphs. Have you missed any natural breaks that could be split?

   • Can you break up the page by taking a list that may appear in a sentence and turn it into a linear list that scans down the page, with one subject on top of the next one, rather than running along horizontally?

   • Are there any lists like this one that would benefit from bullet points?

   To give you the professional perspective on copy editing and proofreading, I'm handing over to Blackbird Digital Books' Associate Editor Sarah Tomley. Sarah has worked as a copy editor and commissioning editor for some of the UK's largest publishing companies and has edited hundreds of books.

 

The Difference Between Copy Editing and Proofreading

   ‘Copy editing comes at an earlier stage than proofreading. When you've finished writing, a copy editor will read your book and make sure that it will work from a reader's point of view. Often authors are so expert in their subject that they assume too much knowledge on the part of the reader, and skip into discussions on new subjects without introducing them clearly.

 

The copy editor's first task is to check the structure of the whole book:

   Is it logical?

   Is it the best way to guide a reader through a new subject?

   Does it include everything that the reader needs to know?

   Does it need an introduction, or explanatory section at the beginning?

   Non-fiction books, especially ‘how to’ books, often benefit from having a separate ‘key skills‘ area before the main chunk of the book, which readers can refer back to easily at any time.

   Does the book need a glossary?

   Or index?

   The second thing a copy editor does is to focus in on each section or chapter one at a time. This involves the same kind of structure checking as above, but now focuses only on one section, to make sure its structure make sense, is easy to follow, and includes everything necessary.

   Then comes the detailed read, correcting grammar and spelling mistakes, checking that facts, names, dates, references and so on are correct. During this ‘pass‘ over the text, the copy editor will also smooth out the tone and rhythm of the text, in line with the publisher's style. If you're self-publishing a printed book or an ebook, you'll need to decide – as the publisher – what this style is. Some publishers opt for a very detached, authoritative style; others for an expert but friendly approach; a few for an irreverent, cheeky one; and so on.

   How closely do you want to speak to your readers?

   The two things to consider here are what image you want to project (are you a detached expert or the reader's friend?) and who your audience is (do they want detailed information, a humorous rough guide, or just to read your story?).

   The copy editor also keeps an eye out for consistency, and works with a running ‘list’ of spellings, capitalisations, etc. that could be used in more than one way (he or she makes a decision early on and ensures that it is the form used in every instance). Are you opting for ‘z’ or ‘s’ spellings? (ie specialization or specialisation?) Do you refer to the Earth or the earth? Is there always a space between amounts and units or not? (10 g or 10g?) However something appears in its first use in the book must be used throughout.

   In general publishing, digital manuscripts undergo many layers of checks, from the initial read-through and possibly requested rewrite of the submitted manuscript, to three or four editing and proofing checks by the copy editor and designer, and at least two by the author. And even then mistakes can sneak through.

   Have someone else check your text for you, to act as the copy editor. You will have seen the text so many times that your brain will skip along too fast, filling in the gaps if there are any – so you'll be blind to them. If you don't have anyone to act as copy editor for you, make sure you leave long enough between writing and editing to be able to approach the text as though seeing it almost for the first time; Stephen King recommends locking away the manuscript for at least six weeks.

 

Copy Editing Non-Fiction

   Does the structure make sense? Check the overall book and the structure of each chapter.

   Have you included everything you need/meant to?

   Are your chapter titles clear and useful?

   Do you need any repeating devices to help make important points? (These could be as simple as occasional ‘top tips’ or pictures to illustrate the main points.)

   Are your sources 100% reliable?

   Have you libelled anybody? (See Chapter 4, Libel) Are all real towns, districts etc in the place the author says they are and spelled correctly? Is the tense consistent throughout? (ie do you start off talking in the present tense and veer off to the past or future?) Is the viewpoint consistent throughout? Are you in the first person, ‘I did this, I did that etc’ , the second person ‘You do this, then you do that etc’ or the third person ‘He did this, she did that etc’ ? Who is the target audience? Is the book solely for US consumption? Or solely for UK consumption? Like most ebooks, is it going to be sold to a world market simultaneously? If so, are there any regional technicalities that need expanding on or deleting – pricing, contact details, regional phone numbers etc.

   Are there sectors that need clarifying for the world audience? Can you insert an American, European or Asian equivalent to any society or organisation that you quote? Whichever route you decide on, local or international, be consistent.

   Grammar. Don't rely on computer grammar programs.

   Spelling. Don't rely on computer spellcheckers. If you're not sure about a spelling, use an online dictionary.

 

Fiction

   As the novel is its own world within itself, not much of the above is relevant. One important point to check in fiction is timeline.

   Are dates and seasons consistent?

   Does everybody age at the same rate?

   Are there any minor characters, animals even, that appear and disappear without trace?

   Are there any quotes that need clearing and paying for or deleting (see Chapter 2: Copyright)? Don't even let the thought cross your mind that it's only your small book and nobody important will ever read it and notice anyway.

   Have you made up any fictional names for companies or places that really exist and therefore might, within the context of the story, get you into trouble? Have you mentioned real companies or people who get involved in your fictional story in a less than glowing way which could get you into trouble?

 

Getting the professionals in

   What a professional can give you is a fresh eye. An insight into the actual content of your words – ie what they really say, not what you think they say. Editors know that there are many ways in which communication can fail, but here's three that you're unlikely to spot in your own writing:

   Authors often ‘delete’ (don't say as much as they think they have); ‘generalise’ (make sweeping statements that aren't strictly true and need unpicking and rephrasing if useful); and ‘distort’ (introduce a personal bias where it is not appropriate). A professional will very quickly iron out any of these contaminating factors.

   Every client has different needs – and only they know the real purpose of the book (to share information, to make money, to shock, and so on). A professional editor will ensure that the book you've written does the job you want.

   The depth of a copy edit is up to you to make clear when you commission. Do you want a heavy edit (the full check as given above), or a light proofread (for grammatical/spelling/ typographical errors only)?

Some authors, for example, would like their copy editor to check their sentence structures and edit the words to flow with a better rhythm and pace. This will give the work that all-important professional sheen. But to many authors this would be nothing short of anathema – a crossing of the line from checking to interfering with their precious words.’

   So: make sure you spell out your requirements very clearly before you commission an editor.’

 

How much will it cost?

   Copy editing is much more time-consuming than proofreading – it probably works out at around three to four times the cost. But Sarah points out it's really impossible for a professional to judge without seeing a sample piece, as some people's work needs only a very light edit, while others needs a virtual re-write:

   ‘If you're writing a non-fiction book, it's probably worth hiring a professional to help structure it – ie lay out the plan for the whole book and for each chapter – so that the structure makes sense and the writing is easy. By breaking down the chapter – into the content for each chapter and even each page, if you want – it becomes much easier for the author. You can then write in prescribed ‘chunks’ , and don't have to waste time wondering what to write each day. Once you know that you've included everything that's important, you can just enjoy writing. This is the kind of help you'd expect from the full ‘commissioned’ service – the full attention and expertise of a professional commissioning editor for one, two or all of the services – detailed structure/planning; copy-editing; and proofreading. Just as any professional author would enjoy when working with a large publishing company.’

   Sarah is the MD of the UK company EditorsOnline, a group of top freelance UK editors who work at highly competitive rates. No job is too small or too large, and they're friendly too. For more information go to http://editorsonline.org/.

   To get a competitive quote in the USA, search for copy editors/proofreaders at https://www.elance.com/.

Proofreading

   Copy editing all done, now it's time for your first proofread. The final one comes at the end of the process, just before you go to print. See Chapter 20 for a checklist.

 

Top Tip

   Cut and paste your document into Google Docs before converting. Go to Tools > Spelling and a window will pop up with change/ignore options. Now you can check through the whole document by clicking Ignore (or choose to Change) each time. Not all suggestions are written-in-stone correct, quite often they are suggested alternatives.

   There's also an Amazon check system that kicks in just before you publish on Kindle. So when you have your final draft, it’s worth converting that to .mobi sooner rather than later. Then open up your publication page and load to Amazon KDP’s dashboard (you’ll be shown how to do all of this in detail later). You don’t have to go all the way and publish at this stage. The spellcheck only appears after you have opened the book’s file once from Amazon’s dashboard. So, open the file, then close it again and you’ll see Amazon’s helpful list of spelling errors, which they will email to you if you wish.

CHAPTER 2

COPYRIGHT AND COPYLEFT

 

Copyright extends to 70 years after the author's death in the UK. In the USA it could be 70, 95 or even 120 years.

   Wherever you are, even if you've written a work of fiction, you must do a thorough copyright check.

   Have you quoted from any books, poems or song lyrics?

   Have your characters read any magazine or newspaper reports quoted from real life that could get you into trouble (see C3, Libel)?

 

Music

   Have you used any song lyrics? Song lyrics are the bane of professional authors and permissions are often notoriously expensive.

   Author Blake Morrison had to pay:

   £500/$728 for one line of Jumping Jack Flash.

   £735/$1069 for one line of When I'm Sixty-four (I'm quivering a bit here but it IS all right to name the title of the song, even if it's included in a later lyric).

   Two lines of I Shot the Sheriff?: £1,000/$1455.

   His final bill was £4,401.75/$6,406. And that was addressed to the author, not the publisher. He was lucky to have a decent publisher who helped him out by paying half.

   Music copyright is complicated. To read more and to find out how to get a quote, go to The UK Copyright Service

https://copyrightservice.co.uk/

or ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) http://www.ascap.com/.

 

Words

   Whilst every case must be checked individually, generally speaking the 70 years after the author's death in the UK and the pre-1923 Public Domain rule in the US are your starting points. Be aware that works might have been re-licensed. In the process of trying to clear a quotation from a World War 1 memoir we wanted to use in Blackbird Digital Books' French travel book The Valley of Heaven and Hell, Cycling in the Shadow of Marie Antoinette by Susie Kelly, the author finally got the definitive response from a US librarian. Whilst the text was all over the web, the copyright was very questionable. There had been numerous other editions, with new introductions, plus an original ghostwriter who had died much later than the author! JUST BECAUSE IT'S ON THE INTERNET DOESN'T MEAN IT'S COPYRIGHT FREE! NO WAY!

 

Images

   If you're using photos you took yourself you might think you're clear. But no.

It's a bit of a grey area but if there are any people in your images who are not being photographed in a public place, you are technically supposed to get model clearance if you're putting your picture in a selling document. If you look on photo agency sites the images will say ‘model cleared’ to show they have signed permission from the person in the photo. If you're in a situation where you can get a chit of paper signed, get it signed. Many historical or special sites, houses, gardens etc open to the public allow photography. But only for non-commercial use. If you decide to use one of your snaps in your book you'll have to get clearance and permission.

   We tried to clear a picture of Marie Antoinette's bed in the Palace of Versailles for The Valley of  Heaven and Hell. Permission to use one photo for an ebook would have cost 119 Euros ($164/£103). Whilst old paintings might be out of copyright, the IMAGE of the painting may well not be. Museums and art galleries, many of whom ban photography, grant licenses to use reproductions of their images, for which you have to pay. Some images ARE OK, the Mona Lisa, for example, is obviously everywhere. If the image is pre-1885 you're more likely to be in luck but always check no matter what the date. Most copyright notices are on Wikipedia. But be careful. The rules vary according to where you are. In 2009 the National Portrait Gallery in London threatened to sue an American who uploaded some of their images to Wikipedia. Whilst the images were in the public domain, the digital photos were not – in the UK anyway. A classically complicated case. The museum may require a credit even if there's no payment.

 

Links

   Check the source of your links. In The Valley of Heaven and Hell the author had included a fantastic clip from an old Jacques Tati film. It had to come out.

From Wikipedia contributor guidelines:

   For policy or technical reasons, editors are restricted from linking to the following, without exception:

   Material that violates the copyrights of others per contributors' rights and obligations should not be linked. Linking to websites that display copyrighted works is acceptable as long as the website has licensed the work. Knowingly directing others to material that violates copyright may be considered contributory copyright infringement. If you know that an external website is carrying a work in violation of the work's copyright, do not link to that copy of the work. Linking to a page that illegally distributes someone else's work sheds a bad light on Wikipedia and its editors. This is particularly relevant when linking to sites such as YouTube, where due care should be taken to avoid linking to material that violates copyright.

 

Not everything is copyright

   Just to complicate matters, there's an area of copyright law called Fair Dealing, or Fair Use, where you can use quotes as long as you document the source. I sometimes quote from websites and books without asking for permission. The rules used to state that you were OK if the quote was used as a small part of a journalistic article and the source given.

   Blake Morrison explains that in the UK the guidelines are as follows:

   ‘If you're writing a critical commentary on a piece of writing you can quote up to 400 words or use a series of extracts of up to 800 words. With poetry it's up to 40 lines, provided that doesn't exceed a quarter of the poem's length.’

Since the new UK copyright laws of 2014 came into force, it’s now OK to use quotes without permission in non-factual pieces as well.

   The laws vary from country to country. For more information look at the Fair Dealing section on Wikipedia’s Copyright page. Wikipedia itself is copyright free. Its text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence but additional terms may apply.

   There's been plenty of discussion about the accuracy of Wikipedia over the years. I've found it pretty reliable but I prefer to use http://www.encyclopedia.com/ as a first reference point. It searches over 100 encyclopedias and dictionaries and the results can be viewed side-by-side. Whatever your source, facts should always be double-checked, preferably triple-checked via the most reliable sources you can find. Though newspapers have a political bias, their articles will have gone through their own checking procedures. Treat personal blogs with caution, especially if they have an agenda, clear or hidden. Blogs can of course be excellent sources of information you could find in no other way. To check up on the weight and authority of a blog or website, type its name in the Technorati search window. The higher the number the better. The famous internet newspaper The Huffington Post, for example, has an authority of 958. Technorati is also a useful place to go to when you get to your ebook promotion stage (see chapter 26).

   If you want to use somebody else's work, an expert in a particular field for example, don't be afraid to seek permission. People are often delighted to be asked. Tell them they'll receive full credit for their quote and don't forget to do that. Thank them in your Acknowledgements and send them a copy of the ebook. Print and file any permission emails in a safe folder so that you can prove it later if need be.

Wherever copyright is concerned, don't ever think, 'ah they're too famous to bother with my little book, I'll probably get away with it'. DON'T RISK IT. Always veer on the side of caution.

 

Finding Copyright-free Material

   Creative Commons is now included in the Firefox Main Search Browser window at the top right of the Web Page, where Google is. Click the little arrow next to the window and go to Creative Commons.

   This brings up a very useful search page where you can specify a CC search in

Europeana, Google Images, Wikimedia Commons, YouTube, Jamendo (music), Flickr, Fotopedia, Open Clip Art Library, Google Web, SpinXpress Media

   Note that CC has no control over the results that are returned. Do not assume that the results displayed in this search portal are under a CC license. You should always verify that the work is actually under a CC license by following the link. Since there is no registration to use a CC license, CC has no way to determine what has and hasn't been placed under the terms of a CC license. If you are in doubt you should contact the copyright holder directly, or try to contact the site where you found the content.

Photographs and artwork

   Have you used any photographs or artwork? Are they copyright-free? Is there a photographer you have to pay? What about the person in the photograph? Have you asked their permission and got a signed clearance?

   For licensing permission to use copyrighted artwork, go to http://www.dacs.org.uk/. They represent many of the most famous artists who are still in copyright.

   If the work is by a friend or relative, have you asked permission and credited them in your Acknowledgements?

   For free stock photos go to http://compfight.com/

   For free graphics go to http://www.freevector.com/ .

   There you will find a huge selection of images. Some are free for private use only, others for private and commercial use. There is a special page for commercial use: http://qvectors.net/tag/commercial-use/page/2/.

   ALWAYS credit and link, if possible, to the source.

 

Copyleft

   Copyleft is an internet word. It's a form of licensing that's used to maintain copyright on computer software, documents, music and art. It's a novel way of using existing copyright laws to ensure a work remains freely available. See Wikipedia for more information.

 

Your Own Copyright

   Copyright Notices

   Put a copyright notice at the front of your book, the symbol © plus the word 'copyright' plus any disclaimers. If you're offering advice make it clear you're not legally responsible for anybody else's actions.

   The copyright sign on a Mac is ALT + G. The copyright sign on a PC is CTRL + Alt + C or Alt + 0169 (on block of no's far R of keyboard). Or in Word: INSERT> symbol.

Self-Publishing Ebooks: The Absolute Beginner's Step-By-Step Guide

by Stephanie Zia with Mark Binner