Archive for the ‘General Publishing’ Category

Some people do not use dashes in their writing because they are not sure of how to use them correctly. However, proper use of dashes can add zest to your writing so why not learn the proper way to punctuate a sentence with them?

Whenever you write a sentence that requires a break in thought, you may be accustomed to using double hyphens or two dashes (–); however, the proper length of the dash is dependent upon the punctuation needed in the sentence. The proper name of the symbol(s) you need is either an “en” dash , an “em” dash or a 3-m dash. Originally the en dash was the width of the letter “N” on a typeset, and the width of the em dash was the width of “M”; hence the names.

En dashes (–) are used to show duration such as when writing the time 9:00-5:00, or range such a date April 15-31 or number 100-150. The en dash can also be used as a hyphen in compound adjectives in which one part consists of two words or a hyphenated word: pre-World War I era. En dashes do not have spaces in front or behind them.

En dashes are created on a Mac computer by simultaneously pressing option-hyphen. For Windows users, the en dash is created by holding down ALT while typing 0150 on the numeric keypad.

Em dashes (—) are used in place of a colon or parenthesis to show an abrupt change in thought or to separate clauses in a sentence. Em dashes may be also used to show an open range: Jane Smith, 1987-

Mac users press shift-option-hyphen to create an em dash. The em dash is created in Windows by holding down ALT and typing 0151 on the numeric keypad. Microsoft Word will automatically create an em dash whenever you type two hyphens without spaces between them and without spaces before or after the words connected by the hyphens: word–word will convert to word-word.

Hyphens are used to connect two words and to separate characters in a phone number (123-555-0123).

The 3-em dash uses six hyphens before and after a word ( —— and —— ) when a person’s name or some other word(s) is being omitted. You may want to start in the middle of a longer quote while indicating that other words actually preceded or followed the part of the quote you used. For example:

—— that religion is a matter that lies solely between man and his God —— thus building a wall of separation between Church and State. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Now you have the facts about dashes and it’s up to you whether you decide to dash or not to dash!

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Yvonne Perry is a freelance writer and the owner of Writers in the Sky Creative Writing Services (WITS). She and her team of ghostwriters are ready to assist you with writing and editing for books, eBooks, Web text, business documents, resumes, bios, articles, and media releases. For more information about writing, networking, publishing, and book promotion, or to sign up for free email delivery of WITS newsletter, please visit http://www.writersinthesky.com New subscribers receive a free eBook Tips for Freelance Writing.

Today I took my son to the library. It was our third visit at his urging this week.

The children’s section of the library was bustling with kids, all of them clearly excited to pick out their next book.

The reason for all the activity? The summer reading program! I was amazed at how much MORE excited my six year-old became about reading after he signed up for the program. He loves to read all the time, but now he’s intensely motivated to read more and more books.

The program at my local library has a librarian in the children’s library three days a week available to listen to kids report on the books they have read. Each book read and reported on gives the child one entry into a prize draw, and a chance to play a turn on a giant board game. Each time the child passes “GO” they get another entry and a smaller prize.

What’s your local library doing for kids this summer? Do you have any summer library memories?

Recently I had the opportunity to visit Woozle’s Children’s Bookstore in Halifax, which bills itself as Canada’s oldest children’s bookstore. I brought along my six year-old son who loves books almost as much as he loves LEGO.

The store itself is charming. It’s lively and colorful, and my son thought it was a magical place.

Unfortunately, Canada’s oldest children’s bookstore was stocked with more toys than books. Many of the books that were featured were activity books and gimmick books with attached toys or props. My son did not pick up a single book in the entire 45 minutes we spent in the store. He went from the Thomas trains in the book are a to the smaller toys and gadgets near the cash register, to the Playmobil sets in the side room, where I finally retrieved him just before the meter ran out on my parking space.

The experience left me wondering if a children’s book store could survive if it sold only books. Are toys and gimmicks necessary to draw children into a bookstore these days?

Scholastic has been subjected to much criticism of late for filling their book club catalogs for school children with toys and brands rather than good reading material. Is this criticism unfair? Especially when a bookstore targeting children does no better when selling books to kids?

Could it be that a catalog, or bookstore, with books alone could not survive long in a market filled with over-stimulated kids? Are kids just too used to being entertained to be amused by regular old books?

I know that’s not the case with my own son, who happily spends hours on Amazon•com adding books to his wish list, and visits the library twice a week to find more and more books to satisfy his reading habit. But even he, a booklover born of booklovers, couldn’t get past the distractions thrown in his way by the retailer.

I asked over a dozen parents of school-aged kids about books and toys and such, and they nearly all reported the same thing: their kids love books, and happily buy and read voraciously, but they can be easily distracted by more flashy and expensive items as well.

So perhaps the problem here isn’t that kids don’t read, or that kids can’t make good reading choices, but rather that retailers stand in the way by throwing toys and higher margin items at them.

To be honest, while I did look at the books during our visit to Woozle’s, I found myself lured away by other toys and gimmicky products too. In fact, my only purchase of the visit was a jigsaw puzzle in a box shaped like a book. How can I blame my son for getting distracted when I fell for the same thing?

While I don’t want to deprive any retailer of any profit, I think I might be more likely to bring my son to a bookstore that acknowledged that  books are simply not as glamorous as gadgets and games,  and split up their store to separate the types of products to avoid distracting children and their parents from their search for great books.

Maybe it’s time to get rid of the obligatory train set that seems to be set up in every children’s section of every major bookstore I ever visit. It’s time retailers (and perhaps parents) stop assuming that the adults will buy the books while the children are kept busy with the toys.

Would it hurt sales? I don’t know about other people, but when my son comes running up to me excited about a book, 9 times out of 10 I will buy it for him. When he comes running up excited about a toy, 9 times out of 10 I tell him to put it back on the shelf. But that’s just me.

The only other bit of evidence I have to show that it can’t be pure folly to sell only books to kids in a book catalog or bookstore is the monthly catalog from the Children’s Book of the Month club (Doubleday), which is usually 99% books with only the occasional DVD or toy, and they certainly know how to sell books to kids and adults alike.

What do you think? Could your local bookstore do a better job at selling kids book to kids? Are publishers focusing too much on gimmicky books and underestimating the breadth and depth of the age group’s interests?  How about Scholastic, or the public library? Or am I off my rocker to think that kids would read books if we let them peruse, borrow or buy without distractions?

Monday will mark the 40th anniversary of the day that Neil Armstrong became the first man to step foot on the moon.

I thought there would be more fanfare surrounding this anniversary, and that more publishers would take advantage of it to push space related books.

Sadly, there’s far more interest in Michael Jackson biographies than space firsts these days.

In honor of those publishers who did make the effort, here’s a round-up of some of the new books celebrating the Apollo 11 moon landing:

The Apollo 11 Moon Landing: 40th Anniversary Photograhic Retrospective
Authors: Dennis R. Jenkins and Jorge R. Frank
Published by: Specialty Pr Pub & Wholesalers
This photo scrapbook shows images some famous, others unknown that chronicle the epic journey of Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins aboard Apollo 11, 40 years ago.


Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon
Author: Craig Nelson
Published By: Viking
A richly detailed and dramatic account of one of the greatest achievements of humankind


Moon Landing: Apollo 11 40th Anniversary Pop-Up
Author: Richard Platt
Published by: Candlewick
Re-creating the excitement of the expedition are extraordinary pop-ups depicting a rocket, the lunar module, a spaceship, and a spectacular spherical moon, while booklets and flaps offer readers a wealth of intriguing facts.


One Small Step: Celebrating the First Men On the Moon
Author: Jerry Stone
Published by: Flash Point
This celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing is a collection of keepsakes and memories that bring that historic moment of pride an accomplishment to life for a new generation. A stunning lenticular cover animates man’s first steps on the moon; an embossed textured page inside reproduces footprints in lunar soil; stickers, replicas, mission patches, fold-out newspaper pages, collecting cards, removable novelties and more complete this spectacular commemorative book


Apollo 11: The Moon Landing Logbook
Author: Carlton Books
Published by: Sterling
Forty years ago, the Apollo 11 spacecraft took off on the biggest adventure in history: carrying three men to the moon for the first lunar walk ever. Now, with this round and colorful sticker book, today’s kids can relive the thrill and join the astronauts as they make “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”


Mission Control, This is Apollo: The Story of the First Voyages to the Moon
Author: Andrew Chaikin
Published by: Viking
A beautiful, insightful, and highly readable presentation of the Apollo missions.


Voices from the Moon: Apollo Astronauts Describe Their Lunar Experiences
Author: Andrew Chaikin
Published by: Studio
Carefully assembled into a narrative that reflects the entire arc of the lunar journey, Voices from the Moon captures the magnificence of the Apollo program like no other book. Paired with their own words are 160 images taken from NASA’s new high-resolution scans of the photos the astronauts took during the missions.

Our top selling books for March 2009 seems to lean heavily toward the writing of Children’s books. It looks like spring brings with it a desire to write for the young.

1 ) 2009 Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market (Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market)

2 ) The Business of Writing for Children: An Award-Winning Author’s Tips on Writing Children’s Books and Publishing Them

3 ) The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Children’s Books, 3rd Edition

4 ) Children’s Writer’s Word Book

5 ) You Can Write Children’s Books

6 ) The Writer’s Guide to Crafting Stories for Children

7 ) Writing Children’s Books for Dummies

8 ) 2009 Writer’s Market

9 ) Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One and Never Lets Them Go

10 ) How to Write and Sell Children’s Picture Books