The Writer's Mailbag: Installment 284

Bill

Well, its well past thanksgiving now, and I'm just getting to this hub!

By the way this year we actually had 'Black Friday' as the retail sector discovered another reason for marketing.

I think a lot of people here recognise thanksgiving as something special, not quite a holiday yet, but time to start getting ready for Christmas.

Thank you for the comment about "clunky dialogue". Then again the other day I put a quote from Churchill about "keeping the words concise" on a writing fb group and caused a furore so I better stay quiet!

Regarding ISBNs not sure if anyone mentioned it but when you publish the eBook with Kindle you are given an 'ASIN' number that is unique to Amazon. (Amazon Standard Identification Number).

When you publish the paperback with Amazon you get BOTH the ASIN and ISBN (I just checked and on mine they are different numbers) and as far as I'm aware both are unique to Amazon. The ISBN is meant to have thirteen digits but I just discovered one of mine has two ISBNs, one of ten digits (pre 2017) and one of thirteen (post 2017)

My book was published in 2017

The reason the ISBN is unique to Amazon is because they pay for it and naturally don't want the competition using their intellectual property.

I think we are a little deprived in the UK, with no Thanksgiving. I have learnt more about it during my time on HubPages and appreciate the meaning behind it.

Thanks for explaining a little more about ISBN numbers, a grey subject for me.

What's the difference between proof reading and editing? I tend to think that proof reading is putting right spelling and grammar issues, basic problems with text. Although I have to say that I can reread a piece several times and still miss basic errors! Editing is a bigger job for me, when I look at bigger changes like altering the structure or deleting some parts, trying to make an article more concise and readable. I'm inclined to make bigger changes to my own writing. If I am editing someone else's work, I try to keep as much as possible to the original without imposing my own thoughts.

I agree with the book idea for your mailbag. Maybe you could delegate the job to someone else?

As an editor, I have read your comments on dialogue with interest, especially as I know a friend who bases his very good books a lot on dialogue.

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving this year.

Wishing you all the best on this stormy Thanksgiving. I have nothing to add to the conversation, just want to let you know that the entire Hub Pages Community is thankful for your friendship and advice.

I'm thankful, Bill, for your Mailbag series and other hubs and for your kind and helpful comments on hubs by others.

O the editing question/comment smacked me. I have read and reread and read again (no redundancy intended) and published only to find after about the one millionth reading of the article a comma omitted or a space too large or a word used incorrectly (there and their and I KNOW this stuff...I was a teacher of language arts for 42 years but, alas, these old gray mare eyes ain't what they useda' be). O the shame of it all. But all I can do is fix it when I find it. Always glad to stop and visit. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours...hoping it is just grand. Angels are headed your way, my friend. ps

One more interesting mailbag with great questions.

The ISBN number for both e-book and paperback is the same as you said above. But, I am confused about the points mentioned regarding the publishing rights. Do you mention that one can publish an e-book on Amazon and the paperback of the same book with another publisher without removing the e-book?

Regarding the editing of books, I think that editing is not such a simple task as mentioned by our Sister Ann above. It can take weeks and even months according to the quality of the first draft. Maybe some gifted writers do it quickly.

Another great addition of the mailbag, Bill. A wonderful Thanksgiving to you and your family.

Happy Thanksgiving, Bill!

This mailbag is a wonderful prelude to friends and family gathering together to appreciate being alive.

Paula's a dear friend of mine, too. She is a trouble maker, isn't she? Gotta love her!

Hi Bill another fantastic write from you and learned more here thank you and best wishes to you,

Dear Buddies, Nell and Jodah......DON'T PICK ON ME!! LOL

Manatita.....Guess what? Speaking of spelling~~ "grammer" is spelled GRAMMAR. Oops! Don't you hate it when that happens?

@DeniseMcGill, have you tried clicking the "bleed option" when choosing the book size in Amazon? I have a children's coloring book on there and the patterns go right to the edge, using "bleed".

Another great article. I learn so much from these questions and answers. In regard to self publishing, I bought a book one time that was more of an outline of what the book would be, rather than the actual story. I reviewed it and gave feedback to that effect and said that once it was actually written as a book, I would read it but whether the author did anything with it, I don't know.

Oh Bro!! My very FAVORITE brother of all time! Out of your nice. long, funny comment, I'm taking a snap shot of one sentence! Your sister, "a couple years YOUNGER than you???!!" I LOVE you...but sweet bro...I know how old you are because you mentioned it rather recently.......and for the record.......I'm older than you, DAMN it anyway! You only thought I was younger all these years because I was dumber than you!! LOL

"HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU & BEV....& THE WHOLE CREW!"

Thanks for sharing some more useful and interesting information, Bill. I hope you and your family have a great Thanksgiving.

Your opening made me stop and think. Canada has a national Thanksgiving holiday that they celebrate in October, I think. I only know this from a friend from Canada. So now I"m curious if there are other countries who may celebrate something similar but by a different name? Happy Thanksgiving to you, Bill!

Just made it into the Mailbag before Monday ends. Whew!

Re: ISBNs. Yes, you do need to make a decision about it before you self publish. While I realize you may mistrust Amazon, as we touched on last time, an ISBN is simply an inventory number for use by bookstores, libraries, and the like when ordering books. Since most self published books will NEVER be in the those outlets, the necessity should be carefully evaluated beforehand.

I hate to correct anything that's in the Mailbag. But if you decide to purchase your own ISBNs from Bowker, you need to have a different one for EVERY format of the book: one for print, one for eBook, and one for audio book. This is another reason why I think self published authors should scrutinize this expense before buying into the hype that buying ISBNs make it a legit publication. It adds up quickly.

Also, Amazon will assign an ASIN no matter what the author chooses for the ISBN. They NEVER assign a free ISBN to Kindle eBooks.

Re: Editing. True, I critique and edit books for authors. But I don't judge if they want to edit themselves. What I do encourage is that self published authors learn to self edit their work. There are many ways to improve your manuscript without hiring a pro editor: Use online tools for proofreading, record yourself reading it aloud (this is really valuable), and give yourself time (like days or weeks) between the writing and editing processes.

Re: Mailbag Book. We've already talked about this. But I think a Mailbag podcast is a way better platform for this material.

Re: Thanks for All You Do. So glad you're in my tribe of author friends and thank you for all you do for our HP community!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Funny but true on your answer to editing. Also true that some HP authors deserve a place among the works of major publishers. You're one of them. Anyway, where there's life, there's hope.

Thanks for your answer to my ISBN question, Bill. I had no idea. I'm trying to get into the frame of mind to finish my writing project by the first of the year. I hope you and the other HP writers have a very good Thanksgiving this year. It looks like it's going to be a cold one for us this year.

Thanksgiving has always been special for me. My mother always cooked wonderful meals. I will miss my son Jackie, but I'm thankful he is now pain free. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and thanks again for all the info you freely give to help us all become better writers.

Wait... you mean the world doesn't revolve around us? haha! Just kidding. Happy Monday Bill! I agree, I think everyone can get into the spirit of Thanksgiving.. because at the heart of it, it's all about gratitude.. and that is something everyone in this world should practice daily. Anyhoo.. another fabulous mailbag. I always enjoy reading your advice and I definitely think you could transform this series into a book of sorts.. probably a few different ones. Just my two cents. Sending you warm wishes for a relaxing Thanksgiving week with your family. Take care! See you next week!

Happy Monday Bill! And of course, Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you enjoy the holiday with loved ones and that you get your fill of turkey and pie. I agree that it should be considered a "universal" kind of holiday, even if you don't celebrate the same way, we all have things to be thankful for.

Enjoy your week and I hope you squeeze some inspired writing in as well!

Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends. We had ours earlier in Canada but I always cherish this day as families gather together and remember the many things we are grateful for.

This has been a good one. Lots of ISBN comments. To be honest I don't know how it works either. I was working on a children's picture book and had always gone with Amazon before this. But as you may know, children's picture books often have illustrations that spread across the double-page including the gutter. Amazon rules flatly refused to allow the images to go across the gutter and kept wanting me to make a margin there. That would have ruined the whole effect so I went to another publisher. I chose Lulu out of a hat and they too offered their own free ISBN. Then they offered global distribution. I thought I wanted that because it would be offered on Amazon as well. But two weeks later I got an email saying Amazon refused to carry my book because of the gutter issue. I'm pretty mad about that. To me, it means they don't like children's books. However, they would be willing to offer a book with some other publisher's ISBN on their website.

Blessings,

Denise

As always, I learned a lot. Happy Thanksgiving, Bill.

Thank you!

Ann

I think there are numerous "Cool Kids" on Hubpages. I think of the advances that have occurred since I was young, and we can talk to people around the wirld on Hubpages. How cool is that?

This is another good mailbag. Enjoy Thanksgiving with Bev.

Thanksgiving wishes from across the globe. May your home be filled with laughter and happiness!

Much Love,my Brother.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Some of our thoughts are uncannily similar. I was sharing ideas on the universality of Thanksgiving with an English sister just last week. Some don't appreciate it, true.

I'm so proud that Americans have embraced it in such a beautiful way!

On the English spelling and grammer thing, my main interest is Beauty. Deergha wrote some awesome poems, so good in fact, that her 'not so good' command of spelling was excused by me.

Sean was similar but much improved. Sometimes we have to forgive the language thing if beauty pervades the work.

Secondly, in my case, the computer plays up. I can see the mistake, but not allowed to go back to correct it. This happens in the comments section

But yes, there are some who really need to re-read their work, as a piece, which is at best mediocre, can appear much worse with bad grammer and spelling.

Equally, good work can also be enhanced with more attention to details.

Love to Bev and family.

Hi Bill,

I miss the Thanksgiving holiday, it has become like a friend I doubt I will ever see again. It wasn't just the food, or being with my family, it was a sense of belonging, making memories, and reviving old family jokes.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Bill, you don't just sit at the cool kids table, you built it and the chairs and cooked the meal too. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family. We've much for which to be thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving Bill!

I hope you had a wonderful moment with your loved ones.

Regarding the ISBN, I think Amazon issues one for a book. You get the same one for Kindle edition too.

And I would definitely recommend you to get all these episodes up to 300 get printed on Amazon. They are good teaching tasks for newbies. I’m sure you would decide at some point in the future ahead to get them combined into a literary read. Well, best of luck for that :)

Thank you for answering my question. We are moving today so I'm more scatterbrained than usual.

Thanks for answering my question, though actually it was just a thought I chucked out at the time, not even intending it to be used for the mailbag! But I'm glad you did; it's great to be the stirrer occasionally and I do have some devilment in me! How did you know?!

I wish you and yours, as well as all those on HP, a wonderful week of Thanksgiving, full of love and giving. It would probably do us good to have that too. Even though it's all embraced with Christmas here I suppose, the fact that it's one day set aside in particular to give thanks for all we have, that has to be a good thing.

Enjoy all the love of your friends and family, and I'm sending you mine too, bill (the love, not the people; can't wrap them up!).

Ann

Have a Happy Thanksgiving. May your blessings abound.

If my Uncle Amos (May he Rest In Peace) can publish a book on Amazon that says something. I liked your realistic response.

Trust Paula to make a suggestion like that lol. Another interesting mailbag, Bill. I feel a little jealous of you Americans getting to celebrate Thanksgiving while we have to wait for Christmas. As you say it we should all be giving thanks for all the blessings we have in life. Anyway, have a great one.

Whahoo, up to catch you. Heck a Monday at 630 without Bill would send me in a spiral of not good. You inspire but you also just keep some of us afloat. What a blessing for us and you.

What say you about professional consistency on HP. Tough deal with my sermons and Boy teacher stuff ---- years. I feel guilty when I am in the middle of a climb in the desert and miss it.