www.inkthinkerblog.com — In addition to all the fun I had at the conference attending the sessions and getting some expert advice from people whose work I really respect, I also met up with a ton of great people just moseying around:

When I arrived, I chatted with the diamond mines guy while waiting to meet up with an online acquaintance (now friend!) from the DCPUBS Yahoo Group.

After the keynote address, I had the pleasure of talking with Jerry B. Jenkins about his next project, which, in my opinion, is a major departure from what he’s written in the past.

During the first session, I lucked out when I sat beside author Catherine Kent, who has several great projects in the works right now. We seemed to be on the same wavelength yesterday, because we were in nearly every session together — nice to see a familiar face amid the crowd!

In my second session, I met journalist and professional blogger Dana Loesch, author of Mamalogues.com, and I think I want to be her when I grow up. Add Dana to your must-watch list, so you can honestly say that you loved her before she was an international icon — but hurry up, because this girl is going straight to the top.

Before lunch, I bumped into Writer’s Digest Editor-in-Chief Kristin Godsey. (I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Editors are real people, and they’re just as pleased to meet you as you are to meet them.)

After lunch, I met WD columnist Kevin Alexander, whom I had been seeing pretty much every time I turned around all day. I didn’t know who he was — no name tag — so I finally went up to him and was like, “Hi, I’ve been seeing you all day, so I just wanted to say hi and meet you for real. I’m Kristen King.” As soon as he told me who he was, I was like, “I know who you are; I love your column! Um, how old are you?” Smooth, right? Yeah, I thought so, too. (And it got even more suave, just wait.) Turns out he’s my age, and it was very cool talking to him about how he snagged the WD column. As we were talking, my eyes started watering uncontrollably for no apparent reason. It got so bad that I finally had to say something. My theory, which I shared, was that I was allergic to something blowing out of a nearby air vent (or perhaps to him, as someone else pointed out). “Or, you know, you’re like the Beatles, and it’s just, you know, like, such an honor to meet you, like, you know?” I said, wiping my eyes and willing them to stop tearing up already. Yeah, as I said, suave all the way. ::insert eye rolling here::

I also met a media consultant with a brilliant idea for a fantasy novel and a handy concept for a book all writers will benefit from, college professor working on a novel, a romance writer (Nancy from southwest VA, if you’re reading this, please e-mail me!) who is definitely going to make a splash in the business world with her nonfiction book idea, and several agents with a lot of good advice.
More on that later.

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www.kristenkingfreelancing.com
Finalist in 2006 Writer’s Digest Best Writer’s Website Contest

Contents Copyright © 2006-2014 Kristen King

www.inkthinkerblog.com — Today marked the Fourth Annual BEA Writer’s Digest Conference, which was held at the DC Convention Center — which, as I learned, is conveniently located off the DC Metro’s Yellow Line at the Mt. Vernon Square stop.

The thing about the oh-so-convenient location is that I waaaaay overestimated the amount of time it would take me to get there and ended up arriving at like 7:10 and felt like the really dorky girl who’s so excited about the first day of high school that she gets there like an hour before the janitor comes in. Yeah, I was cool alright. Fortunately, there were about a dozen people there before me, so I wasn’t super-losery, just a little losery. Registration started at 7:30, and the event began at 8:30, so I had some time to kill. Fortunately, a very helpful venue employee pointed me toward a ridiculously overpriced Starbucks that equipped me with a $4 small coffee drink at a $3.25 2″ x 2″ piece of too-sweet banana bread. Mmmm… While enjoying my $7+ breakfast, I had a lovely conversation with a romance writer who formerly worked in Africa in the diamond industry. We exchanged cards, of course.

The keynote speaker, Jerry B. Jenkins, co-author of the Left Behind series (of which, I must admit, I am decidedly not a fan), gave an unexpectedly humorous talk about the importance of humility in the life of a writer and pointed out the value of staying out of the way of your own message when writing. A highlight was Jenkins’ sharing a letter from a 10-year-old who had read some of his books and suggested that he include more of pretty much every animal on the planet (including shellfish!) in his books and requested that Jenkins call him to discuss. “I was tempted,” Jenkins said, grinning. He also shared a collection of several malapropisms coined by a friend of his. I was particularly fond of the one about the friend whose ashes were placed over the fireplace in a “urinal.” “He must have been a real whiz,” Jenkins chuckled.

Next up in my day was a session called The First 50 Pages, led by Jessica Page Morrell, author of Between the Lines, Writing out the Storm, and the blog The Writing Life Too. She was a real treat, and her presentation covered everything from how to prepare yourself to write (envision a writer having the worst day ever — crappy day at a crappy job, flat tire in the rain on the way home, favorite cat dead, burnt popcorn — and write for that person) to pacing and plot points to incorporating description into the story without slowing the reader. I’m totally psyched to read Between the Lines, which I cheerfully purchased at 25% off at the conference bookstore and had autographed.

Next up was a session on 3 Ways to Make Yourself Irresistible to Any Agent or Publisher by Michael Larsen, author of How to Write a Book Proposal, and Elizabeth Pomada, author of Fun Places to Go With Children in Northern California, who are the co-founders of the Larsen-Pomada Literary Agency. Their three main points were that authors should (1) understand what agents and publishers are looking for, (2) develop their craft, and (3) make a commitment to their respective careers. They passed around a sheaf of handouts that are available on their website under the large heading “3 Ways to Make Yourself Irresistible to Any Agent or Publisher” and are definitely worth checking out and saving for future reference. The presentation was certainly handy, but the back-and-forth (him/her/him/her/him/her) style through the whole presentation was a little overwhelming, and I had a hard time following some of the comments because they were talking so fast to keep to the time restriction. Thank goodness for the handouts! They’re gold.

At lunch, we heard from Michael Cader, who created Publisher’s Lunch (which you should be subscribing to!), and Robert Hartwell Fiske, creator of the Vocabula Review. Cader, who is much younger than I expected, seemed caught off guard, but delivered a great (and extremely concise) talk about the publishing industry as a whole and about the importance of writers being advocates for themselves by having a platform and a network that create a ready-made, built-in audience for their respective books. It wasn’t necessarily new information, but he was very engaging and it was just fun to hear him talk. Fiske had prepared a speech on what he calls “dimwitticisms,” those cliched and say-nothing phrases that we rely upon so heavily in written and oral communication. His presentation style was emphatic and relentless, and I got the feeling that he was reading from a prepared statement rather than just talking, so it felt a little firing squad-ish to me. I’d definitely buy his books after that, but I’d be uncomfortable alone in an elevator with him — I mean, what if I unwittingly spoke a dimwitticism? Would he bludgeon me with the Concise Oxford English Dictionary? Perhaps I’ll stick with the stairs from now on.

After lunch was an unstructured book signing by the authors who were present. I had Jessica Page Morrell sign my copy of Between the Lines. While waiting for her, I overheard several conversations that John Warner had with people who were waiting in his line and was so taken with him that I grabbed Fondling Your Muse (hilarious!) and had him sign for me as well. What a delight he was! This guy is going places, and I’ll be keeping a close eye on his career (in an I-have-a-lot-of-respect-for-his-approach-and-expertise kind of way, not in an I’m-a-psycho kind of way, really.).

Just a side note here: The folks running the register at the conference bookstore were awesome. They were totally swamped, but stayed cheerful through the whole thing, and Scott Don’t-Remember-His-Last-Name from WD was extremely helpful — very accommodating of my eight bajillion trips to the register when I kept finding yet another book that I couldn’t live without. (And at $10 each for WMs and 25% off everything else, that was a LOT of books!) They were kind enough to let me leave my many purchases with them rather than having to lug them around all day, so if they happen to be reading this for some reason, thanks, guys!

After the signing, I stepped into Revision: A Fly High, Fly Low Approach, led by award-winning mystery writer Hallie Ephron, b

ut stepped back out again pretty quickly. It was going to be a great session, but a few minutes into it, I realized that it wasn’t going to be new info for me (you know, with the whole editing background), so I headed over to Your First Book: What to Expect, Avoid, and Anticipate, presented by Harcourt publicity director Jennifer Gilmore (whose pending first book, Golden Country, is due out in August 2006 from Scribner and sounds like it will seriously kick butt — one reviewer compared it to Doctorow’s Ragtime, if that tells you anything). Gilmore took us through the process a a first book, from finding an agent to selling the book to promoting it. She emphasized the importance of the writer’s role in promotion, but cautioned us to remember that we’re writers, not publicists, and we need to let the publisher and its people do what they’re there for and not get in the way. Gilmore also pointed out the importance of patience and was very frank about the parts of the process during which pretty much nothing happens on our end: while the agent is shopping the book, while the editor is working over the manuscript, that kind of thing. It was a great session and she was very conversational — definitely one of the high points of the day. One thing that surprised me was her observation that there are better ways to spend one’s time and money than on creating a website. In fact, as you may have noticed, she doesn’t have a website herself. As I said, surprising; but her point that a website should support your promotion and publicity efforts, not replace them — and that it must be updated constantly to avoid making your book seem to be doing less well than it actually is — was excellent, and no one had ever mentioned that in previous seminars I’ve attended.

Next up was a quick instruction session on the afternoon’s Pitch Slam. Basically, in a pitch slam, authors have three minutes to talk with an agent about a book idea. The actual pitch should take about one minute, and the other two minutes should be devoted to the agent commenting on the idea. You can see as many agents as you want, but it’s first come, first served, so prioritizing was essential. John Warner, the Fondling Your Muse guy, gave the intro, describing the two main types of pitches: the log line and X meets Y. The formula for the log line is protagonist + adjective, function, conflict/antagonist. The sample log line Warner created for for A Beautiful Mind, went something like this: “A brilliant mathematician goes all whack-job but he marries a hot chick so it turns out okay. Sort of.” For X meets Y, it’s pretty self-explanatory. The sample X meets Y for one’s first sexual experience was “It’s like heaven meets forty-five second, tops.” Death? “It’s like life meets not life.” He reviewed the main points one should cover in a query letter, and supported them by sharing a laugh-so-hard-you-seriously-think-you-might-throw-up-or-cry-or-do-both-simultaneously sample query he wrote: grab their attention; be confident; “hit ’em with your best fastball” (give the actual pitch); potential market/audience; rational appeal + emotional appeal; and “close by assuming that the agent wants to represent you and it’s only a matter of scheduling.”

The Pitch Slam session itself was awesome. I made it to three agents, one of whom was extremely unreceptive and not even remotely helpful, and two of whom gave me some great feedback, which I’ll save for another post.

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www.kristenkingfreelancing.com
Finalist in 2006 Writer’s Digest Best Writer’s Website Contest

Contents Copyright © 2006-2014 Kristen King

www.inkthinkerblog.com — It just goes to show that professional organization memberships can really pay off…

At the beginning of my second year as a member of the Council of Science Editors, I was invited to join the editorial board for the organization’s bimonthly journal, Science Editor.

My latest article, “Paperless Proofreading: A Publishing Revolution,” appears in the May/June issue of Science Editor.

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Talk is cheap. Good writing is priceless.

www.kristenkingfreelancing.com

www.editingforeveryone.com

Contents Copyright © 2006-2014 Kristen King

www.inkthinkerblog.com — The senior teller handed the trainee a wrapper and said, “Make sure there are a hundred ones here.”

The trainee carefully slipped the wrapper off and started counting: “One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven.” Then she stopped, rewrapped the bills and handed them back to the senior teller, saying, “They look good so far.”

It’s tempting to treat page proofs that way, too. And it’s just as dumb. Don’t do it. Check every page.

But if you’ve never been asked to check page proofs before — whether by a compositor getting ready to send pages to the printer or by the printer getting ready to put your book on the press — you may not have a good idea of what to look out for.

Here’s a list to get you thinking. Not everything on this list applies to every book, and some books contain features that go beyond what I’ve listed here. I originally jotted this down in response to a question from a self-publishing author who had designed and typeset her own math book, so some of these points pertain specifically to books with equations. You can skip those parts if they don’t apply to you.

The Checklist

1 – RIP issues (uncommon these days, but possible)

The raster image processor (RIP) is the program that turns a PDF file into a visible image, on your monitor, in your desktop printer, and, most importantly, in the printing company’s filmsetter.

– The PDF should have had all fonts embedded, but verify this by looking closely at the pages. Sometimes a font refuses to be embedded, and you can’t know this until you look at the pages and find missing or wrong-font characters. Are you seeing what you expect to see? Are there any missing special characters or symbols in equations? Does the body text look, on close inspection, like the font you think it was set in or has a default font been substituted?

– Do the tracking and kerning look right? Do the justified margins line up straight?

– Are graphic curves smooth, or are they noticeably faceted (approximated with a series of straight segments)?

2 – Images (halftones)

– With most presses, the image you see on the proof will be a little lighter than what prints. Is that how the images look? Can you see small halftone dots in the lightest areas (using a magnifier such as a loupe)? Can you see small white dots in the darkest areas? Does the picture look bright and clear rather than muddy and dark? If not, talk with the printer before going to press.

– Is the line screen what you expect? Are there moirés? Are all images visible, correctly positioned, correctly scaled, and with clean edges? I don’t think there’s much hand stripping going on these days, so I wouldn’t expect problems; but you do need to look.

3 – Layout

Here, you are looking for your own oversights, of which there may be none — but don’t bet on that.

– Are running heads/running feet/folios both present on every page where you expect them and correct? (Read them.) Check that fonts are consistent; if you have old-style (hanging) numerals on the chapter pages, do you also have them on the other pages? If you have small caps running heads, do you have them on every chapter?

– Are all pages present and accounted for, odd pages recto (rather than verso), blank pages where you expect them, correct total number of pages, including front matter, back matter, and blanks? Does the first blank page count as page i? Are folios visible on pages where you expect blind folios?

– Do the entries in the table of contents have the correct page numbers, especially for the front matter? In the table of contents, are there still bogus numbers (i.e., zeroes) for the appendix and index?

– If something is supposed to be masked out, is the mask still there and covering as much as it’s supposed to or is there a tell-tale corner showing?

– Do facing pages balance? That is, are they the same depth?

– Are the margins consistent? Do bleeds actually bleed (you’ll need to check the PDF file to ensure there is a full eight of an inch available for every bleed).

– Do all paragraphs conform to the style you planned for them? Are most of the lists justified but somehow this one slipped by ragged right? Is there a paragraph that never got a style applied to it, leaving it in the wrong font, size, leading, or kerning? Are paragraph indents consistent with the design (lede paragraphs are usually flush, not indented).

– Are equation numbers present where you expect them and equations positioned consistently (horizontally)?

– Are figure legends spaced consistently from figures? Are credit lines positioned consistently?

4 – Glaring typos that you can’t believe you missed before

– Check the cover, title page, and copyright page thoroughly, word for word. This is when you’re going to discover that the title or author is misspelled.

– Reread the acknowledgments (and ensure you spelled acknowledgments correctly). It is rude to thank someone profusely but call her Jean instead of Joan.

– Make sure running heads are the right ones for the chapters they’re in (yes, I’m repeating myself, but do it again anyway).

– Skim every page for words that jump out at you — pubic for public, loose for lose, etc. It’s not too late to do a complete proofreading if you find an unacceptable number of these on a quick skim.

– Turn the proof upside down and go through the pages one more time. You will be amazed at how many errors leap off the page at you when you are reading upside down.

5 – Stray marks

With today’s digital technology, it is unlikely that stray marks you see on the proof will actually print; they’re probably artifacts of the proofing process. Nonetheless, circle any marks you see, including white scratches across type. If you received a digital proof (looks like it came off a laser printer), don’t even bother with this. If you received a blueline (funky paper with the type in blue), then you should do this step.

The Finishing Touches

Write your corrections legibly on the pages, in the color you’ve been asked to write in. If this means you have to run out to the drugstore for a red pen, do it. In fact, follow all of the directions that came with the proofs, especially the one that says when they’re due back.

One more thing: Be nice. Whether you made the mistakes in the first place or someone else introduced them subsequently, nobody did so intentionally and nobody is out to make you look bad. Errors happen. The purpose of proofing is to find them so they can be corrected, not to point accusatory fingers. And if you’re unsure whether something is right or wrong, ask; don’t guess and don’t assume.

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Dick Margulis (http://www.dmargulis.com/typography.asp) has been arranging squiggly marks on paper for over four decades, as a typographer, editor, and writer. You can contact him at dick@dmargulis.com.

__________________________________________
Talk is cheap. Good writing is priceless.

www.kristenkingfreelancing.com

www.editingforeveryone.com

Contents Copyright © 2006-2014 Kristen King