By the beginning of March, most authors have given up on their New Year’s resolutions to write a book and publish their own book. Maybe you don’t think you have enough time, or that things have gotten too hectic at home or work, etc., but these are just excuses. Maybe the real reason that you have given up is that the goals you set for yourself were not realistic in the first place. How do you set realistic writing goals for your book? Getting answers to the following questions is an excellent place to start.

1–Who Are You Writing For?

Figuring out who the audience is for your work can help you focus and identify what kind of information the audience is looking for (non-fiction) or what the reader expects to see (fiction). Thinking about every aspect of your ideal reader is essential. Here are a few things to think about when identifying the audience for your book:

• Age
• Gender
• Education level
• Hobbies and personal interests
• Favorite books and authors
• Occupation/Income Level

Even if you are not sure who your ideal reader might be, take a guess—the more specific your ideal reader profile, the better. You can always refine your description as you write.

2–Why Are You Writing the Book?

This is a question that is often overlooked when beginning the writing process. Still, it is crucial because it closely ties to your motivation and the objectives you want to accomplish by writing the book. Here are a few examples of reasons:

• For your personal satisfaction
• To create a family history for a small group of family and friends
• To share an account of your personal experiences so that others may learn from them
• To reach #1 on the New York Times Bestsellers List
• To share your knowledge and build a platform for the professional speaking circuit

The reasons are as unique as each individual starting out on their book-writing journey.

3–What Critical Information Should Be Included in the Book?

For non-fiction books, this is easy. If you have a clear idea of what your project is about, you will probably know what questions need to be answered by your book. You will know the people, the places, or events involved with the book’s subject. You may also need to research specific information to help support the overall thesis of the book.

For fiction, this is a bit more subjective. But readers, especially readers of genre fiction, have certain expectations when it comes to story. Readers of science-fiction novels expect futuristic technology, aliens, robots, and spaceships in the story. Many types of romances need to include a “happily-ever-after” ending. For fiction, a lot of this information depends on the specific type of fiction you are writing. Read several books similar to the kind of book you want to write to identify these expectations.

4–How Much Time Can You Devote Toward Writing Your Book?

This is extremely important and one of the questions that writers often fail to answer realistically. It is unrealistic to say that you can write four hours a day, seven days a week, if you have a full-time job, four kids, and two dogs. But you may be able to dedicate 15 to 30 minutes each day for your writing project.

Another approach is to ask yourself: “What am I willing to give up to write this book?” This might mean giving up your nightly Netflix watching or reducing the amount of time you spend socializing with friends, on social media, or aimlessly surfing the Web. In order to take your writing seriously, you will need to make sacrifices to do so. If you are not willing to make these sacrifices, you may not be serious about writing a book.

Answer These Questions at the Beginning of Your Writing Process

Spending 15 minutes freewriting answers to each question is a great way at the start of your writing project to focus on it and give you direction on what goals you need to meet to finish your book. Getting this information down on the page is one way to clearly define what you want to write about and make your writing goals realistic and achievable.

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Once you have written your book, reach out to us. We are a full-service self-publishing book printer, and we also provide a variety of publishing support services such as book manuscript formatting, custom book cover design, and bookbinding. For more information, call 1-800-259-2592, fill out our online contact form, or send an email to questions@instantpublisher.com.

You’ve finished the fun part of the writing process, and you’ve had a couple of trusted readers review your book and provide feedback. Now you need to proofread the book to capture all of those quirky little typos, misspellings, and other issues that (if unnoticed) would distract the reader from your story or information and maybe even result in losing their trust as a reader altogether.

Most book printing companies do not proofread your self-published book before printing it, so to avoid embarrassing mistakes, proofread it before submitting the final manuscript to the printer.

1 – Print Out the Manuscript to Review and Mark Changes On

Several studies have shown individuals proofreading a hard copy manuscript catch more errors than those who edit onscreen. One study showed that people who are proofreading on paper can do it anywhere from 20 to 30% faster than those reviewing the manuscript on screen. To save time and improve your accuracy, kill a few trees by printing it out. (You can always plant a few trees in penance for your waste later.)

Double-space the manuscript before you print it out so there’s room to insert comments and corrections. You must number the pages as well because you never know when your manuscript pages might get mixed up and out of order.

2 – Read the Manuscript Out Loud

This is the best way to catch errors such as missing articles (a, an, the, etc.) and words, typos that spellcheck misses (meaning to type “from” but entering “form” instead), and awkward and confusing passages. Better yet, have a friend read it out loud to you as you take notes. This way you can hear where they get confused or stumble when reading the manuscript.

3 – Look for Passive Constructions

If you remember from your high school grammar days that passive voice sentences are bad (most of the time). The passive construction is a sentence where the object of the sentence acts on the subject. Example: There was a great amount of snow covering the ground. (Passive) A lot of snow covered the ground. (Active). This is just a simple example, but make it a practice to look for all sentences that use linking verbs such as: is, am, are, was, were, be, being, and been (all forms of the verb “be”) and highlight them.

Next, go back and review each of the sentences with a verb underlined and see if you can rewrite it in an active form. You should identify and rewrite a good percentage of these sentences to make them stronger.

4 – Read the Manuscript Backwards

This approach helps when looking for missing punctuation or misspelled words. But also for catching things that you might have missed using other proofreading techniques. Read the last sentence. Then the next to last. And so on, until you reach the first sentence of the manuscript.

5 – Wait a While After Writing Before Proofreading

Writing and proofreading/editing are different processes that use different parts of the brain. If you jump from one task (such as writing) immediately into proofreading, you tend to miss things or “autocorrect” errors in your brain since the writing side of you still knows what you intended to say. Putting it away for at least a couple of hours (a couple of days would be better) to allow you to gain some distance from the project before you go into proofreading mode. This will improve the number of errors you find.

6 – Get Someone Else to Proofread the Manuscript

There is something to be said for “being too close to the work.” Especially if you’ve spent a lot of time writing and rewriting the same pages. Get another person to proofread the manuscript for you. They will see it with a fresh perspective and catch things you would typically miss.

7 – Review Apostrophes Carefully

One of the most common amateur author mistakes is misusing apostrophes in contractions vs. possessives–the most common example being the use of “your” instead of “you’re” when you are trying to say “you are.” Slow down and look at all apostrophes to make sure you use them correctly in your manuscript.

8 – Use a Red Pen to Mark Up the Manuscript

Using a red pen, or any other bright color, helps you make sure that you don’t miss any of the change suggestions you note on the manuscript. You can easily miss these if you mark them using black ink or pencil.

9 – Look for Words That End with the Suffix –“ly”

Words that end in “ly” are indicators of adverbs, a typically unnecessary modifier to verbs. Most of the time adverbs can be eliminated by choosing a stronger specific verb. For example – Ran quickly vs. Sprinted. Which one paints a clearer picture in your head? Use the “Find” feature in your word processor and highlight all of them. See if you can remove at least some of them. Also look at empty words that try to “intensify” verbs such as “much, more, very, less,” etc. You can eliminate these most of the time.

10 – Confirm That You Use Homonyms the Correct Way

Homonyms are words that sound the same, but are spelled differently, and have completely different meanings. When you are deep within the writing process, it is easy for your brain to enter the word that sounds like the word you meant. Imagine how embarrassing it would be if you sent out an invitation to “Meat the Parents.”

11 – Proofread During Periods of Focused Attention and Concentration

You should not save proofreading tasks until the end of the day when you are tired from doing other concentration-heavy tasks. You also shouldn’t try to do it while listening to a podcast, sitting on a conference call, or watching TV either. Proofreading requires deep concentration to do a good job, so limit your distractions and only proofread during times when you are very alert.

12– Turn the Manuscript Upside Down

This technique doesn’t work for everyone, but for those who like it swear by it. Turn your manuscript upside-down, face up. This requires you to slow down when reading each word and decipher it. This makes errors stand out.

13 – Make Multiple Proofreading “Passes”

This method of proofreading is time-consuming but works well. Only look for one issue at a time when you proofread the manuscript. For example, you review the manuscript once only looking for punctuation errors. Next, you go through the manuscript looking for homonym issues, then go through it again looking for passive voice construction, and so on. Reviewing the document multiple times assures that you plenty of chances to catch mistakes.

14 – Use Spellcheck, But Don’t Rely on It

Spellcheck does not catch wrong words that are spelled correctly because of a mistyped letter. (See Tip 2 – Read the Manuscript Out Loud for an example)

15 – Fact Check Carefully

Any time you quote someone, make sure it’s accurate and you know the source. Any time you use a figure or number, double-check it for accuracy. Confirm that the names of people, businesses, and products are spelled correctly. Make sure you cite all of your sources, providing links where applicable.

16 – Use a Checklist

Pilots go through a checklist before every flight. Doctors verify each step on the checklist before each surgery, so you should also use a checklist. Especially if you are writing several documents or one long document. It is easy to forget the spelling of a character name or a person of interest in your study. Use checklists to track these mistakes, especially those you make often. Include your commonly misspelled or misused words on the list and any other important project information on the list as well.

17 – Don’t Edit While Writing

Writing and proofreading need to be completely separate processes. While writing it is tempting to make corrections and tweak the wording but try to get a draft down on paper first and then (after observing Tip #5) proofread the manuscript when you are in a completely different mindset.

Following these tips will make you an excellent proofreader. Never underestimate the importance of a good proofread to make your book the best that it can be.

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When your book is ready to be printed, have InstantPublisher take care of it. We offer many additional services such as custom book cover designs, different binding and formatting options, and much more. If you have any questions at all, please give us a call at 1-800-259-2592, fill out our online contact form, or send an email to questions@instantpublisher.com.