Friday, September 28, 2012

Book Cover Layout Tips by Brian Scott


Book Cover Layout Tips by Brian Scott

A survey cited by "The Wall Street Journal" says that a person who surfs the book store actually spends more time looking at the front book cover before he reads the back cover. Yes, you got it right. You should carefully think about how to design your book cover using recommended design techniques to attract buyers.

Here are some noteworthy book cover creation tips you can use.

1. The Front Cover

The front book cover showcases the title, its subtitle, and the author's name. Think of the front cover as a billboard ad displayed on one of the busiest streets in the city. Its design must express a solid message without being too flashy and fussy. The graphics should be bold, unique, and distinct. Graphics should relate to the book's content and not mislead readers. Use contrasting bold typeface as the lettering. You can use your imagination for the color scheme. The font size must be readable, even from a distance.

Poorly designed book covers will result in poor sales. The best tip is to hire a professional graphic designer who is skilled in printing, photography, software, and creative skills. Now that will truly make sense.

2. The Book Spine

The book's spine must contain the author's name, the book's title, and the publishing company's logo (if applicable). The information must be legible, uncluttered, and visibly clean. Use bold and contrasting colors for the letters.

3. Tease the Back Cover

The back cover gives you a second chance at selling your book to a potential buyer who found your front cover interesting. The back cover should tease the minds of potential buyers and persuade them to buy your book. Go for a terrific headline and advertise it to your target market, provide a brief but persuasive background of the content, include your bio-data and photo, the bar code, and the 13-digit ISBN number.


Whether you are writing fiction or non-fiction, you must choose the best title for your book.


4. Keep Your Book Title Short

Favor short titles instead of long titles. Short titles make a great impact. Statistics show that more readers remember a short book title instead of a long book title. Book titles don't have to form a complete sentence. Phrases, terms, fragments, or even just one word might make the perfect book title if it can fully encompass the main idea of your work.

5. Keep It Descriptive

The title of your book must mirror the idea of your book. One simple but effective example is the first book of C.S. Lewis' popular Chronicles of Narnia Series, the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. With those words, you know immediately which important figures encompass the story.

You don't have to be literal all the time. Abstract ideas and allusions work as long as you can catch readers' attention and exhibit an underlying significance in hindsight. One good example is Tennessee Williams' play, The Glass Menagerie.

6. Speak the Language of Your Readers

Your story's success relies on how much your readers can relate to and appreciate your book. Although this doesn't mean you have to write about situations that your readers have experienced, it does mean writing in a way that helps readers grasp your meaning. Apply the same reasoning as you develop a title for your book.

Using buzzwords are okay if you believe they're appropriate. Consider the long-term consequences of your choice. A popular term today may be obsolete in the next decade.

7. Make It Unforgettable

This is where various factors like alliteration, rhyming, choice of verbs, and even choice of language all come into play. You don't need to use complicated words; one glance at "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" proves that rather well.

If you need help creating unforgettable book titles, focus on your book's content. What ideas in your book seemed preposterous at the start, but you defended and proved your point in the end? Can you sum them up in a few words?

Ponder these important book cover creation tips and be ready to hit the market with the potential of great sales.
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Thursday, September 20, 2012

7 Solutions for Repetitive Sentence Structure


7 Solutions for Repetitive Sentence Structure
It takes little time or effort to spruce up a sentence that includes repetitive-sounding phrases. Here are some examples of minor revisions that eliminate echoes of phrasing:

1. “Six models are available, from a one-bedroom bungalow for $81,000 to a three-bedroom, two-story city house for about $200,000.”

Avoid the “this for that, this for that” structure of this sentence by varying the second for phrase: “Six models are available, from an $81,000 one-bedroom bungalow to a three-bedroom, two-story city house priced in the low $200,000s.”

2. “Locations range from Sonoma, Berkeley, and Crockett in the San Francisco Bay Area to Shelter Island in Washington State.”
The “this in that” repetition here is resolved by flipping
the city/state order of the second element by using the possessive form of the larger geographic element: “Locations range from Sonoma, Berkeley, and Crockett in the San Francisco Bay Area to Washington State’s Vashon Island.”

This type of solution is often useful even when no repetition occurs; “Chicago’s downtown hub,” for example, flows more smoothly than “the downtown hub of Chicago.” (Also, note in the example above that the capitalization of state is correct; this is an anomalous usage when distinguishing between the state of Washington and Washington, DC.)

3. “Her designs include the Vitra company’s fire station in Weil am Rhein, Germany, the Mind Zone at the Millennium Dome in London, and a tram station and car park in Strasbourg, France.”

Introducing variations in this reference to buildings in various locations reduces the number of prepositions from four to two: “Her designs include the Vitra company’s fire station, in Weil am Rhein, Germany; the Mind Zone, at London’s Millennium Dome; and a Strasbourg, France, tram station and car park.”

Note that because formal writing calls for setting off restrictive phrases — without a comma, “the Mind Zone at London’s Millennium Done,” for example, implies that other Mind Zones are to be found elsewhere — the three elements of this sentence have been separated by semicolons.

4. “The story bridges the stylistic gap between the dreams of Tim Burton and the nightmares of David Lynch.”

The fix in the second example, above, can be applied to names of people as well as those of places: “The story bridges the stylistic gap between the dreams of Tim Burton and David Lynch’s nightmares.”

5. “They range from venerable standards such as House Beautiful, with a circulation of 7.6 million, to the local up-and-comer, Dwell, with a circulation of about 250,000.”

Substitution of “which has” for a weak with and elegant variation of one word strengthens this sentence: “They range from venerable standards such as House Beautiful, with a circulation of 7.6 million, to the local up-and-comer, Dwell, which has a readership of about 250,000.”

Various revisions of the final phrase are possible. You could choose a more vivid verb and write “which boasts 250,000 readers,” for example, but be careful about weighted words such as boasts and claims. Also, in some sentences, the grammatical structure of “the 250,000-reader Dwell” is valid, but applying the template here produces awkward wording.

6. “In the white winters, you can sled or cross-country ski, or drive to the North Lake Tahoe ski resorts. In the hot, bright summers, there’s hiking through giant forests, climbing the towering Sierra Buttes, and swimming in the 130 nearby lakes. In the autumn, the deciduous trees glow with vivid fall colors, and in the spring, the masses of wildflowers create a psychedelic dreamscape.”

The repetitive “in the (noun)” introductory phrases in this paragraph are mitigated by some variety in the respective following phrases, but further differentiation is easily accomplished: “In the white winters, you can sled or cross-country ski, or drive to the North Lake Tahoe ski resorts. During the hot, bright summers, there’s hiking through giant forests, climbing the towering Sierra Buttes, and swimming in the 130 nearby lakes. Come autumn, the deciduous trees glow with vivid fall colors, and when spring arrives, the masses of wildflowers create a psychedelic dreamscape.”

7. “She says that over the past month, she’s made over 350 calls on her cell phone.”

Avoid using a word more than once in a sentence, especially if it has different meanings each time: “She says that over the past month, she’s made more than 350 calls on her cell phone.” (But generally, when you come across over used in the sense of “more than,” don’t automatically correct it unless your workplace’s style guide mandates it. If you believe that over, as an alternative to “more than,” is not valid, get over it: Many usage manuals and style guides accept either term to mean “in excess of.”)

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Literary Terms to Know


Humours: Ancient Greeks and Romans believed the human body to be comprised of four humours — blood, black bile, yellow bile and phlegm — that corresponded with different personality types, seasons, organs and elements. It’s pretty much accepted as complete scientific doodie by now, but the concept has left an indelible impression on literary history all the same.