Is it disinterested or uninterested? While they sound similar, they have different meanings, which can trip you up in writing. Use uninterested if you are bored or don’t care. Use disinterested if you are impartial, unbiased, and have no “stake” in the outcome (like a judge or a referee). The difference between disinterested and uninterested…
Disinterested vs. Uninterested: Which One Means Bored? Read More »
Blank pages are a standard feature in paperback and hardcover books. At the front of a book, they are called flyleaves, and endpapers are at the back. Some blank pages are intentional and serve a purpose. They may allow for a page for authors to sign, or others may be for readers to make notes.…
Why Print Books Have Blank Pages And Ebooks Do Not Read More »
Parallelism in writing is often why some sentences feel a little rough or difficult to read, and it’s not always obvious why. If parts of a sentence don’t follow the same grammatical structure, the result is faulty parallelism. The good news is that it’s easy to spot and fix once you know what to look…
Parallelism in Writing: How to Fix Faulty Structure (With Examples) Read More »
Prepositional phrases are an essential tool in any form of writing. They are easy to construct and use and can quickly and easily add clarity, depth, or precision to a sentence. The basic structure of a phrase is that it starts with a preposition and ends with a noun, with no verb or subject. The…
How To Use Prepositional Phrases In Your Writing Read More »
Successfully self-publishing a book always relies on having the best tools for author branding and book marketing. It’s a huge time investment to write a book. But equally, the time you invest in promoting yourself and your book or books can also be demanding. When is the best time to start? Yesterday! Publishing a book…
10 Free Tools For Author Branding And Book Marketing Read More »
Why should you check the file size of an ebook? Because it can cost you money. The bigger your ebook file size is, the more Amazon KDP charges you to deliver your Kindle ebook. It hardly seems fair because most other self-publishing services don’t charge you for the delivery of an ebook. But if you…
How To Reduce The File Size Of An Ebook Manuscript Read More »
Is it poured or pored? Use poured (with a “u”) when talking about liquids or things that flow, like water or coffee. Use pored (without a “u”) when talking about studying or reading something intently, as in “pored over the books.” A simple trick is to remember that you pour with a Urn but you…
As a general rule, most style guides and grammar references state that you should not use contractions in formal writing. However, it is a point open to debate by writers, editors, and grammarians. Some argue that language should be more relaxed now and that the days of stiff, formal writing are in the past. It…
Contractions In Formal Writing – No, Yes, Perhaps? Read More »
For new self-publishing authors, you might be wondering if you can download a copy of your published Kindle ebook from Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). Yes, you certainly can. However, the process is not as straightforward as you might think, and the download link is definitely not easy to find. With other services like Smashwords…
How To Download Your Kindle Ebook From Amazon KDP Read More »
In the phrases, the door creaked open, and the door slammed shut; the words open and shut are resultative adjectives. Perhaps it’s not a grammatical term you are familiar with, but you probably use it quite often. In the examples above, you can see that the adjectives, open and shut, are derived from infinitive verbs. However, there are…
