Ellen Gable Hrkach – Page 2 – Catholic Writers Guild

Does Self-Publishing Mean Substandard?

November 12, 2012/8 Comments/in Catholic Writing and Publishing, Self-Publishing/by Ellen Gable Hrkach

image copyright Ellen Gable Hrkach

Although I now own and run and a publishing company, all my books were self-published. I don’t like the connection that people often make between self-published books and “bad” or substandard writing. The truth is, the vast majority of self-published books (I’ve read a lot of them) are indeed substandard quality. I download free Kindle books every day and many of them aren’t worth downloading because they are embarrassingly bad. I’ve also read some wonderfully written self-published books, but these are in the minority.

So…is the ease of self-publishing bringing the overall quality of books down?

Well, in a word, I believe it is.

Unfortunately, many self-published authors think they can write a book without extensive editing. Others, who do have editors, don’t employ professionals, and instead use friends and relatives. Another self-published novelist I know used a published author as editor but this particular “published” author had no experience in fiction so this showed in the characters and plot. Still others publish their books with little or no proofreading.

Going with a “Self-Publishing” company like Trafford or iUniverse also doesn’t guarantee high quality. Large companies want your business and while they can be helpful, they are also more expensive than a self-publishing book coach.

In my capacity as a reviewer for CatholicFiction.net as well as a reviewer for other websites, many self-published manuscripts come across my desk (or computer) that are so atrociously written, I won’t even review them.

I’ve come up with a few ways to increase the likelihood that your self-published book will not be included in the “badly written” bunch.

Avoid Thinking “I Can Do It All”
I’ve won awards and have had bestselling books precisely because I realize that I can’t do it all. I hire editors, copy-editors, proofreaders and my husband (a professional artist) designs my covers.

Employ a Professional Editor (for overall plot, characters, setting, writing style) and humbly consider their advice. If you’re writing fiction, find a fiction editor. If you’re writing a non-fiction book, find one who specializes in non-fiction. Authors should want their work to be the best it can be. Sometimes a book has to go through many edits in order to be polished and of good quality. My first novel went through about 30 edits. My second and third novels, ten. Be open to construction criticism. Don’t we all want to produce quality books?

Use a Copy-editor (for grammar, word usage and punctuation)
One author I know used a friend as copy-editor. This person (I’m guessing) had little experience in professional copy-editing. That particular book was a great read, but had many comma, quote and apostrophe errors that made it distracting to read. When a reader gets distracted, they’re pulled from the story.

Proofreaders, Proofreaders, Proofreaders!!!
Ask at least 10 of your friends and relatives if they could read your manuscript and find typos. One novelist I know didn’t use any proofreaders (he said he proofread his book himself, which was a big mistake…authors can be blind to their own mistakes). Unfortunately, it showed. Another author used one proofreader, but one isn’t enough to read through 100,000 words and find all the typos. With my second novel, In Name Only, ten proofreaders went through the book and missed “Brtish.” I didn’t catch it until I converted my book to Kindle.

Employ a Professional Cover Designer
The book may be good, but if the cover looks like a five year old designed it or the font is too light to read, then people may not even consider buying your book. A good cover must also look eye- catching in thumbnail. Many of the self-published book covers I see on Kindle are not professionally designed. In fact, many look like a child designed them.

Research
If your book takes place 100 years ago, please do the research that is necessary. I once read a self-published novel that takes place in the 1870’s and the author included an automobile (those didn’t appear on the scene until 20 or 30 years later…).

Kindle Conversions
If you don’t know how to convert your manuscript to Kindle (or other ebooks), hire a professional. I can’t tell you how many books I’ve downloaded on Kindle that were virtually unreadable because of the poor conversion.

If You’re Going to Print…
If you’re printing your book, hire a Print on Demand (POD) Company who has extensive experience with printing books. A company that prints brochures, business cards and flyers may not be the best company to print your book. Create Space (Amazon’s POD Company) prints over 100,000 books per week and, for the most part, they know what they’re doing and their customer service team is extremely helpful.

Consider Using a Book Coach For a small fee, book coaches (like myself) walk the self-published author through the maze of self-publishing. As a book coach, I sometimes help with editing (although not always) and assist the self-published author in releasing a quality book. The book coach’s fees are usually much less than an author would pay for self-publishing companies.

Following all these hints will not guarantee that your book will be high quality, but it will certainly lessen the chances of it being “embarrassingly bad” or substandard. In the future, I hope to see more quality self-published books so we can remove the stigma and the frequent connection that self-published books equal substandard quality.

Have you self-published? If so, did you use a company, a book coach or did you do it yourself? Feel free to comment below.

Because this could be YOU

May 30, 2012/2 Comments/in Catholic Writers Conference Live/by Sarah Reinhard

In lieu of a serious post about blogging, I’m going to put this forth as a reason to come to the Catholic Writers Conference Live:

YOU could be the one in these pictures!

Pat Gohn and me, who always makes me smile

Ellen Gable Hrkach with me, who has an enthusiasm that’s ten feet tall

The incredible and amazing Lisa Hendey, pausing for a picture from her #1 fangirl

These are all pretty big names in Catholic writing, but they didn’t blink an eye when I asked them to mug it up with me. They were, in fact, that way with everyone. Everyone there at the conference was. Didn’t matter if they were a bestselling author or a lady with a cute baby (my secret is now exposed).

You’ll come home with far more than just some cool pictures, but it sure is fun to look back at the pictures, don’t you agree?

Awards Contests for Self-Published Authors: Are They Really Worth It?

May 14, 2012/0 Comments/in Catholic Writing and Publishing, Self-Publishing/by Ellen Gable Hrkach

In my post last month, I gave a link which lists some popular awards contests for self-published authors: http://www.selfpublishingreview.com/blog/2009/01/self-published-book-contests/

This list doesn’t claim to be all inclusive, but it is helpful. And be aware that most of these contests require an entry fee.

One award that doesn’t require an entry fee (if you’re a member) is the Catholic Writers Guild Seal of Approval. Sarah Reinhard gives extensive information on the SOA contest in this blog post: http://blog.catholicwritersguild.com/2012/03/seal-of-approval-now-accepting-submissions.html

Another awards contest that CWG members have been quite successful with is the Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPYs). In 2010, my Catholic historical romance, In Name Only, won the Gold Medal in the Religious Fiction category and CWG President, Ann Lewis’, book Murder in The Vatican: The Church Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes, won the Gold Medal in 2011. Other CWG members have won Bronze medals for their novels in past contests.

As well, CWG member, Karen Kelly Boyce, recently won the Eric Hoffer award (in commercial fiction) for her novel, Down Right Good.

The question is: are awards worth it? Awards are certainly affirmation that we are producing quality books. But do they sell books?

Case in point: A few years ago, at a local Catholic conference, the organizers allowed me to speak briefly in front of the 400 or so attendees. I then proceeded to tell them that my novel, In Name Only, had won a Gold Medal for Religious Fiction. Later that day, the local Archbishop came to my table. He said he was an avid reader and was interested in the book that “had won the Gold Medal.” “It’s a romance,” I replied, thinking that an archbishop would not be interested in a romance. I continued, “But it has inherent Theology of the Body themes.” “Great,” he said, “I love romance novels, especially one with Catholic themes.”

The archbishop wasn’t the only one who stopped by my table after I mentioned that my book had won a gold medal. During the next three hours, more than 40 people lined up at my table to buy my book.

While medals may help to sell books at conferences, I have to admit that the award didn’t make much difference in my online sales (in fact, I didn’t see any spike in sales following the medal announcement).

Even so, winning an award is an incredible honor, an invaluable addition to a resume and it increases personal one-on-one sales. So…what do you have to lose? The cost of the registration fee. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Contests are definitely worth it.

The Stigma of Self-Publishing

March 12, 2012/4 Comments/in Catholic Writing and Publishing, Self-Publishing/by Ellen Gable Hrkach

I am the self-published author of four books. Three of my books are currently on various bestsellers’ lists on Kindle. My second novel, In Name Only, won a Gold Medal in Religious Fiction in the 2010 IPPY Awards (the first Catholic novel to win this award). It has been #1 in its category for nearly three months (dropping to #2 for two weeks when my third novel Stealing Jenny took over the #1 position). Stealing Jenny is #2 in one category and has been in the top 20 of four other categories for three weeks. In the past year, my books have been downloaded by tens of thousands of readers. And yet, when I recently asked a local Catholic newspaper if they would write a review of my latest book, they replied, “We don’t review self-published books.”

Another time, I attended a large “book fair,” where hundreds of local authors set up tables and sold books. There were other self-published authors at this event. At first glance, however, it wasn’t obvious that I was a self-published author. My books had professional looking covers and book trailers. I sat beside a published author who began conversing with a prospective reader. “Did you self-publish your book?” the reader asked. “Oh, no, I would never have done that. My books are published by a reputable publisher.” She would never have stooped so low as to self-publish. Ouch.

Self-publishers have come a long way. Years ago, authors who took the “vanity” publishing route were rarely taken seriously and they rarely sold more than a few books.

That attitude has improved in the seven years since I published my first novel, although many professionals in the publishing industry and some traditionally-published authors continue to have a bias against self-published authors and books.

I believe part of the reason is because self-publishing is so easy nowadays that just about anybody can do it and the quality of some self-published books is poor. Some naive first-time authors think they can do it all. Some newbies think that they are great writers and don’t “need” an editor. Novice authors often think they can design their own cover without any sort of advice from a visual designer. I have seen more than a few self-published books in my capacity as reviewer for Catholic Fiction.net in which the quality of writing was so bad I won’t even review it.

Another reason there may be a negative bias toward self-publishing could be the belief that self-published authors wouldn’t be able to get published by a traditional publisher or that perhaps they have already been rejected. This may be true for some self-published authors. But consider the case of self-published millionaire, Amanda Hocking who was rejected by traditional publishing houses and who is selling 100,000 books per month on Kindle.

On the one hand, I understand why some newspapers, magazines and websites need to have a blanket rule in place for self-published books (since there are many poorly written self-published books). On the other hand, I have also read extremely well-written novels by authors who self-published: Elena Maria Vidal, Gerard Webster, Christopher Blunt, Krisi Keley, Regina Doman, to name a few.

Although self-publishers have come a long way, we have not arrived yet with regard to “stigma” of self publishing. Despite the stigma, I don’t believe I would ever go the traditionally published route. After self-publishing four books (with lots of assistance) and after having 100 percent of the control, it would be hard to give my books to a publishing company. For me, it would be like giving my baby away to someone else to raise.

The stigma and negative bias of self-publishing will likely not disappear completely. However, if self-published authors continue to publish quality books, sell to thousands of readers and raise the bar for self-published books, it will hopefully lessen the stigma.

To learn more about self-publishing, I’ll be giving two chat presentations at the Catholic Writers Conference Online in March: Self-Publishing and Kindle e-books.

What’s it all about? How Theme can help your story shine.

February 28, 2012/9 Comments/in Catholic Writing and Publishing, Encouragement for Writers, Fiction, Marketing Your Work, The Writing Life, Writing Tips and Tricks/by Leslie Lynch

Theme comes in lots of shapes, sizes, and variations, but embodies the core of what something is about, whether it’s your brand as a writer, the story you’re writing, the characters you’re writing about – or the music you’re listening to while writing. So what is theme, and how can it help focus and clarify your purpose as an author?

Theme is the underlying idea that makes something tick. It is pervasive and affects everything about the whole, without being overt or overbearing. In fact, the best practical expression of theme in writing rarely shows up as words on paper. Rather, theme directs the words in order to come up with a finished product with specific meaning at a deeper level.

Let’s look at theme from the big picture to the more detailed aspects. First is your theme as a writer. Why do you write? What do you hope to accomplish – and how are you different from the thousands of other writers out there? If you’ve never written a mission statement for yourself, this is a great exercise. The answers to these questions can keep you focused and motivated. A bonus for taking a few minutes, hours, or weeks to analyze your purpose is that you may come up with a brand, a concise statement of why you are unique and what you have to offer your readers. If you’d like to take more time to contemplate your calling as a writer, Lent is a perfect time for reflection. Use it!

On to story. What are you writing about? Not the plot – what happens – but the deeper meaning? This is the place for clichés. Not in the writing, but in your mind. Clichés tend toward the universal, and that’s what you’re after here. Identify the most resonant concept underpinning your story. Love conquers all… People and relationships are more important than one-upping the Joneses… Revenge, or mercy? Man against nature/beast (human or otherwise)/impossible odds, etc. Once you nail it down, make sure that the theme drives every scene in the story. Don’t beat the reader over the head with it—theme is best conveyed through subtlety—but your awareness will influence the words as they pour forth. Theme will provide conflict and growth throughout the book, even if each scene doesn’t have an overt thematic question.

One caveat about theme (a very large one), as it relates to story: Do not use theme to further your agenda. Readers will pick up on it and put your book down. Let the characters struggle with the issues in a natural, organic way; don’t have them act out a morality tale. Ellen Gable Hrkach alludes to this aspect of theme in her post on Feb. 13, 2012, Improve the Odds for Self-Publishing Success. Her first book, Emily’s Hope, enjoyed modest sales to a narrow audience. Please note, there is nothing wrong with this; if your mission is to be the voice for an issue, or you write without regard to readership or sales, that is your prerogative. Ellen stated, in writing that particular book, if her words touched one person, she would have achieved her goal. She clearly succeeded. But Ellen then wished to engage a larger audience. What did she do? She chose to widen the scope of theme in subsequent books – which are selling more briskly. So the idea of theme circles back to one’s theme as writer, which will inform your choices of theme in specific works.

Which leads us to the third level of theme. Characters. Each character should have a core belief or value that can be summed up in a short phrase. Duty first… Me first… Life is an adventure! Life is dangerous… Again, clichés rule here. What is most important to each individual character, i.e., what will they fight to the death for? The flip side is critical, too. What conflict will the character walk away from, and why? Once you understand your characters, keep that core belief in mind as you write. Your characters will stay true to themselves and their motivations, making for a book that readers will remember long after they’ve finished it. A bonus at this level: Your character’s theme is always a two-edged sword. Use it. Create conflict with it – and then find a way for the character to grow. By the end of the book, their theme may have changed; at the very least, they will live it in a deeper manner, and the reader will love them (and you) for it.

Do you consciously use theme in your writing? If so, how? Or, as you look back on your work, can you see theme at any of the three levels we’ve examined?

The “Control” of Self-Publishing

January 9, 2012/0 Comments/in Catholic Writing and Publishing, Self-Publishing/by Ellen Gable Hrkach

Self-Publishing is so easy nowadays that anyone can publish his or her own book. Because of that, many self-published authors are producing poor quality books. This can give self-publishing a bad name.

In some respects, self-publishing is more difficult than publishing with traditional publishers. After all, publishers take care of the editing, cover design and all the jobs that go with creating a quality book. They often do extensive marketing as well.

However, I believe the advantages of self-publishing outweigh the disadvantages. Over the next few months, I’m going to share what I believe are the main advantages of self-publishing.

I do not use Trafford, Author House or Publish America. I simply started my own publishing company and currently sell my books through Amazon, Kindle, Smashwords and my publishing website.

This month: Control

As a self-published author (and owner of my own publishing company), I maintain 100 percent of the control and decision-making. I like having a say in every part of my book’s creation. I enjoy working with my husband in the creation of a cover that I feel will best illustrate the content and story of my book.

I transcribe the book, make necessary edits, typeset it, convert it to Kindle and do all the marketing myself…which is why I’m only able to knock out four books in ten years.

If I can’t perform a specific job (like overall editing and copy-editing), I hire people to complete that job. I currently hire an editor, copy-editor and several proofreaders.

Control re: prices

This is especially important when it comes to setting Kindle e-book prices. As a self-published author with little overhead, especially with e-books, I can offer my novels at a remarkably cheap price of 2.99. Traditional publishers generally don’t do that, which means that I can sell more e-books than they do.

Control re: content

While my editor makes suggestions on plot, character, settings etc, I make the final decisions regarding those things. I don’t have to water down the Catholicity nor do I have to make it generic Christian, unless I feel that a certain project warrants that.

Self-publishing gives the author control over every stage of book production from first draft to publication.

Personally, it’s the way I like it.

Next month, Finances and Self-Publishing

I’ll be doing two moderated chats on self-publishing at the 2012 Catholic Writers Conference Online in March. Click on the link to find out more information about the conference.

Ellen Gable Hrkach is an award-winning novelist and vice president of the Catholic Writers Guild. She lives in Canada with her husband and sons.

Self-Promotion…or the Strangest Place I’ve Ever Sold A Book

December 12, 2011/0 Comments/in Self-Publishing/by Ellen Gable Hrkach

Since a self-published author doesn’t have a publisher to promote them, it’s important to take every opportunity to promote oneself. Keep copies of your books in your car, always have business cards or book marks in your purse or wallet and…don’t be afraid to talk about your books.

I’ve sold books to the insurance man, the animal control officer, at family functions and churches. I’ve sold books to people on the beach and at the grocery story.

But the strangest place I’ve ever sold a book was at a local club/bar.

Now, I never go to bars or clubs, but this particular night, my husband was performing with his jazz fusion band. During one song, he actually plays two different guitars (photo).

That night, as I watched my husband perform, I noticed a tall fellow swaying to the music and staring at my husband. When the song finished, the band took a break. The tall man ran off in the direction of the stage. I followed close behind. He spoke to my husband with the adulation of an adoring fan.

“Man, you’re the best guitarist I’ve ever seen! The way you play those two guitars…it’s just incredible! You’re better than Mick Jagger,” and he went on to list three or four other famous guitarists.

Now, my husband has enough humility for both of us, so, seeing me, he didn’t respond to the praise. Instead he replied, “This is my wife, Ellie.” My husband’s newest fan turned to me and said, “Your husband is the most incredibly talented guitarist I’ve ever seen or heard.”

“Isn’t he amazing?” was my response.

“He sure is.” We chatted for a few moments, then, out of the blue he said, “He’s so good, you should write a book about him.”

I’m sure I burst out laughing. “Well, actually, I have written a book. It’s a novel called Emily’s Hope and it’s loosely based on my life…and my husband is a major character in the book.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“Do you have any copies with you?” (As I said before, self-published authors should always be prepared.) So I responded, “Of course.”

Admittedly, this 40-year-old tipsy man probably was not the target audience for my first novel. And…my husband felt I took advantage of a fellow who was drinking, and perhaps I did. But, well…a sale is a sale.

Humor aside, I’ve often wondered about this fellow who walked into the bar to have a good time and walked out with my novel in his hands. I hope he’s doing well.

Ellen Gable Hrkach is the vice president of the Catholic Writers Guild. She is the award-winning author of In Name Only, a Catholic romance and now an Amazon Kindle bestseller (top 100 Religious Fiction). Her new book is Stealing Jenny which is a contemporary pro-life suspense novel. Her website is www.ellengable.com. She and her husband and five sons live in Pakenham, ON Canada.

The Personal Approach to Marketing Your Self-Published Book

September 12, 2011/2 Comments/in Self-Publishing/by Ellen Gable Hrkach

Because self-published authors don’t have a publishing company to help them promote their work, it’s important to take the initiative in marketing. Connecting with your fans on a personal level is a great way to market. This can be done through attending conferences as well as interacting with them through your blog, facebook or other social networking.

Face-to-face interaction, however, is one of the most effective ways to market. If you have the budget, time and freedom to do so, I highly recommend attending conferences as a vendor and/or book seller. Readers and potential customers appreciate the opportunity to speak with an author and to have their books signed by the author herself.

For the first six years of my career as an author, most of my book sales occurred at live conferences (see photo) I attended as a vendor. (Now, Kindle sales make up 80 percent of my writing income). I typically attend four to five conferences a year. I normally sell anywhere from 30 to 100 books per conference (depending on the length and attendance of the conference.)

The goal of any author is to find those readers who will not only buy your first book, but will keep coming back for your future books. Attending conferences is a great way to have interested readers coming back for more.

For example, I have attended the Journey to the Father Youth Conference as a vendor every summer since 2005. The JTTF attendees, workers and volunteers know me and most importantly, there are many at this conference who will not only buy anything I write, they will buy excess copies.

Another approach to personal marketing is to always reply to a comment on your blog, on Facebook and/or Twitter. This develops a rapport with your readers and you can also make a lot of great friends too!

One last approach to personal marketing is to participate in Skype or teleconference calls with book clubs. This is a fairly new (and ideal) way to connect with many readers at once.

The personal approach to marketing can help to promote your books to those readers who will return time and again to purchase your books.

Ellen Gable Hrkach is the vice president of the Catholic Writers Guild. She is the award-winning author of In Name Only, a Catholic historical romance and now an Amazon Kindle bestseller (top 100 Religious Fiction). Her new book is Stealing Jenny, which is a contemporary pro-life suspense novel. She can be found blogging at Plot Line and Sinker. She and her husband and five sons live in Pakenham, ON Canada.

E-Books: The Future of Self-Publishing Part II

August 8, 2011/0 Comments/in Self-Publishing/by Ellen Gable Hrkach

Last month’s post focused on the advantages of making your books available on Amazon Kindle. This month, I’m going to talk about the practical considerations, like e-book conversion, pricing etc.

Some Practical Considerations

Create a Quality Book
If your book has not been edited and polished, it will probably not gain a large audience. This is a hard point for some self-published authors to hear, but an important one. Refer to my post on Editors and Humility.

Converting to Kindle
If you are a self-published author, you can either convert your books for the Kindle (using trial and error like I did) or use a conversion service. These services, however, can be very expensive for something you can do yourself. And…although this process can be very tedious and tricky, especially if there are photos involved, once you go through the conversion process once or twice, it will be less challenging.

Smashwords has an excellent free guide for converting books into many different e-formats:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/download/52/1/latest/0/0/smashwords-style-guide.pdf

Determining price: I had no idea what price I should set for my Kindle books. Initially, I set it at 6.99 looking at similar books. I sold one or two e-books a month and the ranking was coming in at about 400,000. Six months later, I decided to experiment and set my book prices lower, to 2.99. After all, Amazon offers 70 percent royalty, so I would still receive $2.05 per book.

A few weeks later, I checked the ranking and just about fell off my chair. One of my Kindle books, In Name Only (a Catholic romance) was regularly ranking in at about 40,000 out of a million books (not best selling status, but certainly pretty good) AND my print books were now also selling. Now, In Name Only is regularly in the top 100 of Religious Fiction Books.

If you have several books, pricing one of the shorter books (or even a collection of short stories) for .99 will gain you more fans and entice them to buy your other books.

Here are some other considerations for setting the price…

1. Your ebook MUST BE priced less than the print equivalent (and I’m not just talking about a dollar or two less). Potential customers expect this, because they know your production costs (paper, printing, shipping, middlemen) are less. Even famous authors should follow this. Consider Nelson DeMille’s novel “The Lion.” The Kindle price is 14.99, but the paperback, hard copy price is 9.99. While perhaps DeMille’s publisher can get away with this sort of price jacking, relatively unknown self-published authors cannot.

2. While in principle, a longer book deserves a higher price than a shorter book, if you’re unknown, setting it at a lower price will gain you more sales because the reader knows he or she is getting a bargain.

3. Consider the likely market of your book, and the cost of competitive books, then price accordingly. Experiment with different prices.

Smashwords (www.smashwords.com) is another e-book publisher, and they offer your e-book in many different formats, not just one.

Whether you’re a first-time author or an established writer, there are many advantages of putting your book on Kindle: you can receive more exposure, make more money, sell more print books (without financial costs of printing) and gain more fans. E-books are the future of self-publishing.

Questions? Feel free to contact me at info (at) fullquiverpublishing.com

Ellen Gable Hrkach is the vice president of the Catholic Writers Guild. She is a freelance writer and award-winning author of three novels and one non-fiction book. Her new book is called “Come My Beloved: Inspiring Stories of Catholic Courtship.” Her website is www.ellengable.com She and her husband and five sons live in Pakenham, ON Canada.

A Self-Published Author’s Best Friends

May 9, 2011/2 Comments/in Self-Publishing/by Ellen Gable Hrkach

Nowadays, because it is so easy to publish your own book, first-time self-publishers often don’t realize that many people are involved in the production of a good quality book: editors, cover designers, proofreaders, copy-editors. Writing a book is only one step in a long process. It’s important for self-published authors to embrace the virtue of humility during this process.

First, a bit about…Editors

Hiring an Editor was the single best thing I did with regard to self-publishing. I cannot stress enough the value of hiring a good editor, especially if you’re going to self-publish.

One of the most common mistakes of self-publishers is to think they do not need an editor. All authors need an editor.

While it may be helpful to ask your writing buddies to give you feedback on your work, a professional editor (who doesn’t have any emotional investment in your relationship) will likely give you feedback which is more honest.

I use two different editors: one for overall editing (characters, story etc) and one for copy-editing (grammar, sentence usage, repetitive wording etc). I also use several of my friends for proofreading my manuscripts at various stages. I wouldn’t have been able to publish quality books without these editors.

With regard to humility, it is extremely important to humbly consider constructive criticism regarding your manuscript. If you think it is the best book ever written, but you refuse to accept any and all criticism, or if you attempt to defend every piece of criticism that comes your way, it is unlikely that your book will reach its literary potential.

Years ago, as an inexperienced novelist/self-publisher, I realized the need to employ an editor. It seemed like an huge expense at the time ($200) but, as I said, it was the best thing I ever did.

I was humbly taken off my high horse when my editor handed me a nine-page critique of (what I considered to be) the final draft of my first novel. The criticisms were harsh and to the point. I was crushed. “How could she say all these horrible things about my novel?” I asked my husband. Instead of letting me cry on his shoulder, my (humble) husband suggested that I take every piece of criticism, humbly step back and discern whether there was any merit to it. After prayerfully reflecting on each point, I eventually agreed with 90 percent of the critique. Then I spent the next two years editing and re-writing.

Hiring good editors and embracing the virtue of humility will help you to become a more proficient writer so that you can self-publish quality books.

Next month: The Importance of a Good Cover

Ellen Gable Hrkach is an award-winning novelist and editor of the soon-to-be published “Come My Beloved: Inspiring Stories of Catholic Courtship.” Her blog is called Plot Line and Sinker. She lives with her husband and five sons in Pakenham, Ontario Canada.

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