What is the scope of your success?

by benmweilertNo Comments
An argument I often see in the writing community is how to define specific terms. Some examples are "When am I considered a writer?", "How long should my novel be?", and "Do I have to be traditionally published to consider myself an author?" Ultimately, many of these questions have one key concept: success. Just like how there are many genres out there, there are differing ideas on what constitutes a writer's success. This can either be a significant motivator or a source of endless depression, so let's look at how to measure the scope of a writer's success. What are your goals? I decided to take my writing more seriously in 2017. After cutting my teeth on the self-publishing process for a few years, I released the second edition of my debut trilogy and set a goal for myself to publish at least one book each year. Even though this goal brought me some stressful moments (and motivated me to seek therapy...
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You may already be a writer

by benmweilertNo Comments
About three years ago, I decided that I wanted to take my writing seriously. In 2016, I had a bit of a gap in my self-publishing schedule, having published the Fluxion Trilogy omnibus two years prior. I learned a lot in publishing my first three novels, so this was part of the reason I was taking some time to ensure the future products I published would be of the necessary quality. I was still writing drafts of the books I wanted to write; I just realized it would take longer to get them into polished shape for publication. Since I still wanted to publish the stories I had backlogged, I needed to figure out a schedule where I would release one book a year for the foreseeable future—much like I had done with my first trilogy. This was my definition of taking my writing seriously. Expanding my bibliography of published works every year seemed like an achievable goal, so I started...
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Why a book is more than just words

by benmweilertNo Comments
Go over to your bookshelf. Pick up your favorite book and open it up. What do you see? If your only answer is “words,” then take a second look. Flip through a few pages. Now, what do you see? Do you notice that it looks like a book? What do I mean by that? Essentially, all the other elements of page design—besides the words themselves—are what help make a book into what it is. That being said, I’ve seen some issues with self-published books that I feel I need to address. Good design balances negative space. Even though this post is mostly about the design of a book’s interior, the first place to start is with the words themselves. Open up your favorite book again and look at the words. Now, see where there are no words? The indents at the start of paragraphs and the chunks of space to the right of fast-paced dialogue create negative space that helps the reader...
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