Tag Archives: publishing

4 Tips for Showing the Possessive Form of a Proper Noun

Apostrophe word or phrase in a dictionary

One of the things I see in my editing is that many authors are unsure as to how to show the possessive of a proper noun ending in S. Here are some things to remember to clear up this confusion.

Tip 1: When you have a name that ends in an S, add an apostrophe to show belonging, but only if the apostrophe S is not pronounced.

The ball belongs to Sanders.

It’s Sanders’ ball.

NOT: It’s Sander’s ball. [the S is a part of the name and cannot be separated to add the comma]

Tip 2: If you would pronounce the S to show the possessive, you must add an apostrophe S at the end of the name.

The ball belongs to Cyrus.

It’s Cyrus’s ball.

Tip 3: If a family name ends in S and you want to show the possessive for the whole family, add es’ to the end of the name.

The ball belongs to the Sanderses. [the whole of the Sanders family]

It’s the Sanderses’ ball.

Tip 4: Limit the apostrophes to one per name (or word).

It’s Cyrus’s ball.

NOT: It’s Cyrus’s’ ball.

Keeping these tips in mind as you write is sure to help you avoid these mistakes in the future. It has been said that, on average, it takes about a month to build a habit, so the more you practice applying these tips, the quicker these rules will become second nature.

If you are still unsure of whether you are using apostrophes to show the possessive form of proper nouns, be sure to use a grammar-checker like the ones built into Microsoft Word or Google Docs or an AI grammar-checker like Grammarly to help you with this.

The Wattpad Experiment: Week 2

Last week’s stats: 15 reading, 2 stars, 9 comments, 0 sales

I have to admit: I feel kind of guilty. Due to the constraints of my day job and the editing I do in the evening, I’ve had very little time to do Wattpad justice.

As of today, I have 3 people who are either following me and/or reading my novel, The Revenant: A YA Paranormal Thriller with Zombies. I have been reading and commenting whenever I have the chance. I have seen some really good manuscripts that I am eager to continue reading, and some not so good. I am amazed at some of the professional-quality covers I’m seeing, too. I’m also blown away by the plucky initiative of Wattpad’s clientele. Kudos to each and every one of them for putting themselves out there and writing whatever strikes their fancy.

I finally managed to port the book over to Draft2Digital (still not done and Pronoun’s gone, so most of my books are no longer available as eBooks–did I mention I was suffering serious time crunches?) and upload the new cover to Amazon, but still can’t see the most recent paperback online. I’m Looking forward to the break between semesters to get this on Ingram-Spark, too.

Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

One is never enough

Given the rate at which others are posting, one chapter a week seems skimpy. I’ve been reading around about Wattpad. According to TechCrunch, Wattpad has over 60,000 monthly users, most of them teens (though the average age is 20) and female, which is the perfect demographic for my writing. Moving forward, I will upload two chapters week. I plan to do one on Saturday and one on Wednesday.

Wattpad is a form of social media

It took some work to build my followers on social media. Even now, some 3 years after I opened my Twitter and Facebook accounts, I only have a few hundred following me on Twitter and maybe about 100 Facebook likes on my author page, and only 80 people who receive my newsletter. To reiterate: it took 3 years to achieve that. Three years of advertising, liking, following, posting, experimenting, giving books away, and the like. Moving forward I need to engage on social media more frequently (maybe instead of religiously reading Flipboard every evening?).

Too much of a good thing

In addition to voting, reading, and following, authors can access discussion forums. The different forums are myriad, as are the threads. There are so many places to visit, it’s hard to know where to start. I’ve already begun to dabble, sticking my toe in to test the waters. I suppose, moving forward, I have to slowly move deeper in until I have established a foothold on the site. So far it seems as if there is a whole lot of random posts and not a lot of interaction

Moving forward

I am interested to see if uploading twice a week will make a difference. I will also continue with my experiment until the whole book has been uploaded and report back to you. If you use Wattpad, I want to hear your first impressions. What was the first thing you did on the site? How did you work your way into this massively incredible society?

Read The Revenant: A YA Thriller with Zombies on Wattpad at https://www.wattpad.com/story/134197850-the-revenant

A. Terry’s How-to Book for Blog Tours is a Recipe for Success!

promote-book-blog-tour 

Just when I think I’m learning what it means to promote and publicize a book I’ve published, I’m thrown for a loop. I hadn’t heard about blog tours until recently. I’d always assumed that when the time came I’d find an affordable company to do it for me. Then I read How to Promote Your Book With A Blog Tour by A. Terry and I wondered why I shouldn’t be trying to do this on my own.

Terry’s How to Promote Your Book With A Blog Tour is an easy to follow step-by-step guide to planning, booking, tracking and wrapping up your blog tour. The book suggests materials you might collect prior to this endeavour, how to contact prospective bloggers, and alternatives to simple requests for reviews. Terry provides links to important sites and online exemplars. There is even a template for querying prospective blog tour hopefuls that I’ve used and find it works quite well, with a little modification.

I’m still in the process of organizing my tour.  At present, after approximately a week of sending out queries, I have four stops on my tour booked. Whether or not it works out will not be for lack of trying on my part.

Bottom line? A. Terry’s How to Promote Your Book With A Blog Tour is a recipe for success, sure to help ambitious, resourceful and persistent authors rise to the occasion of going it alone when it comes to planning and executing their book blog tours.

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What is a Story Cartel?

dinghy

…when it’s done, we’d connect our dinghies in an everlasting virtual cartel…

I’ve just entered Joe Bunting’s contest to win one of three memberships in his next Story Cartel group.

Here is my entry:

The writer’s group I belonged to disbanded a number of years ago. Since then, I’ve been afloat without a paddle in a small rubber dinghy with room enough for one. There is a teeny tiny hole in the bottom of the boat. Most of the time I am able to plug it with my finger and forge on with my writing. Sometimes the waters of self-doubt seep in and no matter how quickly I paddle, I cannot stave the flow. Belonging to a writer’s cartel would help connect me to a group of passionate, like-minded individuals. We would listen to each other’s tales and offer support, advice, and encouragement, patching each others’ dinghies. We would teach each other what we’ve learned about the world of publishing, make connections with fellow cartelistas, and build our readership. Then, when it’s done, we’d connect our dinghies in an everlasting virtual cartel and sail off to apply what we’ve learned, posting the occasional tweet about a fellow cartelista that reads “I knew him or her when.”

Wish me luck!