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Jul 14 |
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Anybody know anything about examiner.com? A similar (but not identical) question: What is a "Gather" service for? |
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Mar 29 |
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What are effective ways of working with a nonfiction editor? @John - Good question! It's important to to me to try to get consensus first. After @Neil disagreed about it being a dupe, I left it open. And when you note that both my answer and my comment about the dupe got zero upvotes, and that his disagreement got one and his answer got four + acceptance, it was clear to me I was in the minority. |
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Mar 28 |
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What are effective ways of working with a nonfiction editor? @Neil - True, the question title sounds that way, but the question itself is by an author asking about over-zealous editing of non-fiction. Sounded kinda familiar to me… |
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Mar 28 |
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What are effective ways of working with a nonfiction editor? Possibly a duplicate of When editing for a person, how much can be changed? |
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Mar 7 |
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Is Mac OSX Lion's Revision Control System useable by writers? @Standback - actually, it is on the market: pay $99 for a developer membership (available to anyone—you don't have to actually be a developer) and you get access to the public beta of Lion. |
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Feb 8 |
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Where can I find sales numbers for books? Any author can see their up-to-date & historical BookScan numbers at Amazon's Author Central (free). |
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Feb 5 |
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Should you use two spaces after a period, or just a single one? @Oliver - when you type two spaces on an iOS device, it automatically turns into a period + one space. |
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Feb 3 |
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Where are the best places to promote tech books? Is your book about writing books? If so, then AuthorsCast is useful. If not, don't bother. Instead, you want to find podcasts that cover your book topics, i.e., one whose listeners are your target audience. |
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Feb 3 |
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Where are the best places to promote tech books? @QuickerSnarkerBacker - that would be a question about psychology, so I can't really make a meaningful guess. My opinion, though: I know that there are people who resoundingly resent even minor plugs, so I try to keep things as straightforward and above-board as I possibly can. And if others then complain about my sig, that's their problem. |
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Jan 30 |
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As a non-native English speaker, Is it better to get translated or get copyedited for long texts? @Pierre - I figured either I'd succeed and you'd be okay with the result, or I'd blow it and demonstrate how copyeditors don't always understand what the original non-native speaker meant. Either way: win! Mostly, though, "unability" and "corretly" were bugging me. |
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Jan 23 |
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What is the proper way to write time in a manuscript? Who's the target audience? Is this for a literary journal, a novel, a white paper, or ? The answer may vary depending on what you're writing. |
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Jan 19 |
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How do you meet a writing quota? @sjohnston - I was thinking of Dragon Dictation (free) when I wrote that. Yes, it has a time limit on each recording, but I expect that a paid version will be coming along without that limit. It's from the same company that sells Dragon NaturallySpeaking, so they know their stuff when it comes to speech rec. |
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Jan 18 |
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How do you meet a writing quota? Even better, there are iPhone apps that will both record and transcribe your notes for you. Just think: you could write a book during your daily commute, without ever touching a keyboard! ;-) |
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Jan 17 |
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What are the advantages of incorporation for a writer? @Charles - if the contractor provides their own tools and sets their own schedule, then it's entirely likely—and can be for several years running, as well. |
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Jan 17 |
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What are the advantages of incorporation for a writer? @Charles - (sorry, forgot to add this yesterday) Here's the official US gov't wording: Independent Contractor (Self-Employed) or Employee?. Their rules only care about the freelancer's "degree of control and independence," split into behavioral, financial, and type of relationship categories. |
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Jan 17 |
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What are the advantages of incorporation for a writer? While LLCs are not officially corporations, in practice they're functionally equivalent. For instance, the IRS doesn't have LLC-specific forms; instead, most LLCs just file as corporations. Also, sole proprietors don't need EINs, as they can just use their SSN. |
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Jan 17 |
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What are the advantages of incorporation for a writer? @Charles - My husband and I have been professional writers for a combined 38 years. In that time, we've discussed this topic with corporations, publishers, editors, agents, a lot of writers, and numerous tax professionals. This is, for better or worse, how the tech writing biz works in the US in 2011. |
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Jan 17 |
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What are the advantages of incorporation for a writer? @Charles - the OP asked for the US so that's what he got. The IRS doesn't care about income %s, just about how much control the company has. That is, if I'm told I have to work on X project using a computer they provide from 9-5 M-F at a desk at corporate HQ, they're more likely to be my "employer" than if I can work on my own computer in my own office on my own schedule. Some tech companies tried to bend the rules to save on taxes & benefits and got caught, so now the IRS keeps an eye on companies with a lot of freelancers. |
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Jan 17 |
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What are the advantages of incorporation for a writer? @Charles - you wrote In most countries, the social insurance advantages run the other way — me, I would have phrased that as "In all civilized countries, the social insurance advantages run the other way" (sigh). Don't get me started… |
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Jan 13 |
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Will e-books prevent books from going out of print (and rights from reverting)? @Ralph - fiction publishers are required to keep books in print for some years after they tank? Yuck. What do they do, print them a dozen or so at a time, just so that three years later the two people who might want to can still purchase them? Double yuck. (Note: this assumes the initial print run went to bookstores, didn't sell, and just the covers were sent back.) |
