Publishing Advice

When Horror Collage Becomes a Book Cover (and Why It’s Harder Than It Looks)

Every once in a while, a piece of art accidentally turns into something else. This cover is a perfect example. This is not a published book. It’s a sample cover, created to show how my horror collage work naturally lends itself to book cover design—especially for dark fantasy, horror, and supernatural fiction. Moody lighting, narrative tension, strong focal imagery… all the ingredients are already there. And yes, this cover was created in Canva. Before anyone … Read more

How to Standardize the Punctuation in a Manuscript Before Submitting or Formatting Your Book

In a previous post, I showed you how to Remove The Extra Sections, Breaks, and Spaces Before Submitting or Formatting Your Book. This is not the only messy situation you might encounter in your manuscript. Your punctuation can be just as inconsistent, which causes major issues when formatting your book. Plus, your book looks sloppy, and sloppy books get bad reviews. Below is an example of inconsistent punctuation. Forgive my pathetic use of ellipsis and … Read more

Manuscripts Are A Dirty Business: Remove The Extra Sections, Breaks, and Spaces Before Submitting or Formatting Your Book

Let’s face facts. It’s hard enough to write a book, let alone keep the manuscript file clean. Eventually you find yourself with an edited book that you want to submit to agents or self-publish, but there’s all kinds of extra line breaks, spaces, tabs and other inconsistencies that make your manuscript look like a giant mess. Sure, you can turn it over to a book formatter, but the up front work to clean up the … Read more

Why Are There Hundreds of Content Controls in My Word Doc?

This book formatter recently opened a manuscript to do a simple round of edits and got smacked in the face with hundreds of content controls. Fields that wouldn’t behave. Text boxes that felt… caged. Dropdowns. Placeholders. Everything wrapped in mysterious grey borders like a haunted digital form. This was a children’s book. Not a legal intake form. So why was Word treating it like one? Wait, What Are Content Controls? If you’ve ever clicked into … Read more

Introducing Polished Pages: Clean Up Your Manuscript Like a Pro (Even If You’re Not One)

Let’s be honest—MS Word is powerful, but it’s also sneaky. One moment you’re typing away, and the next your manuscript is littered with mysterious formatting marks, rogue section breaks, and quotation marks that can’t seem to make up their minds. If you’ve ever opened your document and muttered, “Why is it doing that?”—this book is for you. Polished Pages: A Comprehensive Checklist for Cleaning Up Your MS Word Manuscript is your go-to guide for transforming … Read more

From Manuscript to Memoir: Your Guide to Publishing

Publishing a memoir is a rewarding journey, giving you a chance to share your personal story. You might wonder how to turn your manuscript into a published book. We’ll guide you through the steps involved and help you find the best path. This guide covers everything from crafting your story to effectively marketing your memoir. Key Takeaways: Crafting an Engaging Memoir First, make sure your memoir tells a captivating story. You want it to be … Read more

Learn from the Best: Insightful Author Interviews

In this piece, we’ll dive into special author interviews. We aim to discover the secrets of their literary success stories. If you dream of writing or love reading, these writer interviews will give you great insights. You’ll learn about the writing journey of accomplished writers. Ready to explore inspirational author stories and understand the author insights in their work? Then let’s begin! Key Takeaways: Sherry Dunn: The Journey of a Children’s Book Author Sherry Dunn is a children’s book author. She first published Maddie & Jasmine, a picture … Read more

Promote Your Book: Top Book Promotion Services You Need

Are you an author hoping to get more eyes on your book? Getting noticed is tough with so many books around. But, no worries! We’ll look at great book promotion services. These will help your book get seen and connect with readers. They work for self-published and traditionally published authors alike. You’ll get tools and tips for an effective book promotion. Book promotion includes more than just ads. It features things like teasers, bios, trailers, and … Read more

You Don’t Need an Agent to Publish

In the world of publishing, there has long been a common belief that to successfully navigate the complex and competitive industry, one needs to secure the services of a literary agent. While having an agent can certainly be beneficial, the notion that they are an absolute necessity for finding a publisher is not entirely accurate. In fact, in today’s digital age, there are numerous ways for writers to connect with publishers on their own, with … Read more

Is Your Life Story Worth Telling in a Memoir?

Writing a memoir is a deeply personal and often emotional journey that requires self-reflection, honesty, and vulnerability. Not everyone is suited for the task of writing a memoir, as it requires a certain level of introspection and courage to share one’s life story with the world. So, who should write a memoir and why? Anyone who has a compelling story to tell and feels a strong desire to share it with others should consider writing … Read more

The Remaking of a Fiction Series and Why You Should Consider Remaking Your Series

I write a fiction series, currently titled The Courier under the pen name Winnie Jean Howard, but I’m changing the series name to Angels Dark and Dumb. Why, you ask? Because the series title doesn’t speak to the actual series’ genre/sub-genres. Yes, the main character is a courier, and he continues to transport otherworldly things and beings in the series, but The Courier doesn’t speak to the fantasy, paranormal, and comedy side of the series. … Read more

Missing Fonts While Placing Text in Adobe InDesign: Resolve the Issue by Changing the Default Font

The missing fonts issue in InDesign, which I originally encountered while placing text from an external document file, is a well known problem, or possibly it works as designed, although poorly if you ask me. Regardless, and as annoying as it is, there is a quick fix. I mainly use a Window’s machine, so the instructions below are for that operating system. The Problem of Missing Fonts in InDesign Per my opening complaint, does the … Read more

Got EPUB and Paper Book Formatting Questions? ArmLin House Can Help

From the very beginning of self-publishing, formatting books has been one of my favorite things to do…like a hobby. I first learned the eBook process by writing the HTML and XML that encompass a book you can read on an eReader. After working in tech jobs for the early part of my career, it was a given that I’d delve deep into the guts of an eBook before learning any other method or tool to … Read more

Continue Shopping →
Item added to cart.
0 items - $0.00
Checkout