I’m Lana Castle, owner of Castle Communications, and I’m ready to give you the inside scoop on publishing and steer you clear of the pitfalls. I provide expert editing, publishing advice and production support for printed books, ebooks and media materials. I’ll help you publish an outstanding product with your timeline, budget, business experience, quality expectations and needs for prestige and creative control in mind. I’ll polish your prose and make your writing shine! (And I’m nowhere near as mean as I look.)
Returns
When folks in the publishing industry talks about “returns,” they’re usually referring to one of two things:
1. Paragraph returns in word processing and page layout programs or
2. Book returns — the bane of authors and publishers’ existence!
If …
View full postLiterally
Dear Style Meister: I recently heard an argument on National Public Radio about the use of the word “literally.” They said Webster’s defines “literally” as “in a literal sense or manner” or “actually,” and that its antonym is “figuratively.” I …
Publishing audiobooks, Part one
For years, I’ve encouraged my self-publishing clients to publish books in both print (most often through print on demand) and electronic form for as many different ebook reading devices as possible. Where the contents warrant it, I’m now encouraging authors …
Punctuating URLs
Dear Style Meister: How should you punctuate references to URLs? Do you set them off with commas? Should you leave a space between the URL and the comma following it so the comma doesn’t become part of the URL? Can …
Who can you trust when publishing a book?
It absolutely breaks my heart each time a writer contacts me after having used or contracted with a disreputable “self-publisher” or publishing-related service. Often the writer has paid or agreed to pay thousands for inferior services and/or undelivered promises. Unfortunately, …
Book signatures
Signature — In this case, signature doesn’t mean the autograph on your latest tome; it means grouped pages. Printers usually print books on large sheets that contain multiple page images. The printers then fold the printed sheets into batches consisting …
Imprint
Imprint — a subsidiary of a publishing house that specializes in one or more specific subjects or genres. A single publisher may have multiple imprints, each targeting different audiences or market segments.
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Collective nouns and subject/verb agreement
Dear Style Meister: Should this sentence read: “My target audience are readers in their twenties.” or “My target audience is readers in their twenties.” and why?
— Avoiding disagreement
Dear Avoiding: “My target audience is readers in their twenties.” The …
View full postOrganizing your writing
I recently bought a great tool for organizing writing projects. It’s a program called Scrivener. Although I’d heard about it years ago, I didn’t understand its value. Now I wish I’d owned it when writing all my nonfiction books. It …
Choosing between traditional publishing & self-publishing
If you’re wondering whether to seek a traditional publisher or to self-publish, I suggest you weigh what’s most important to you and most logical for your budget, your personality and your book. Think carefully about why you want to publish in …
View full postStarting a sentence with But
Dear Style Meister: What’s the rule for starting a sentence with “But”? — Hesitant
Dear Hesitant: Like many other “rules” of grammar, this is really a matter of style. While grammarians and teachers discouraged writers from starting sentences with conjunctions …
View full postFront matter
Front matter — the opening pages of a book that precede the main text, typically including the half title page (which shows the main title only), title page, copyright page, dedication, table of contents, foreword, preface and introduction. Sometimes other …
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