Read Aloud
by Cindy Layton
Since I last wrote for the blog, I’ve spent time learning first-hand what it takes to prepare a manuscript for publication – a multistep and detail filled process.
Coming from the business world, my inclination is always to break down a project into its smallest pieces and approach each in a logical and orderly manner. Hence, I made a list of the project tasks and attached (meaningless) time estimates to them, more as motivation than expectation. There’s even an Excel spreadsheet, I kid not.
Many of these tasks could more efficiently be parsed out to contractors for a fee but my purpose is to completely educate myself on all aspects of the process.
Though I've barely begun, a few of the steps have already surprised me.
Back in October 2016, I wrote about my experience at Indie Author’s Day at the Portland Public Library. A woman who had just self-published her book recommended using the Read Aloud feature in Word to discover errors that visual editing missed. While contemplating whether to pay for professional editing, I, by serendipity, noticed that same Read Aloud icon and was reminded of her advice. After playing with the feature and adjusting the options, I let it read. After a few minutes I paused. Wait! What did she say? It to it? That didn’t sound right. I restarted the voice over the sentence and what I couldn’t see I could most definitely hear. The sentence had the word ‘it” repeated in error.
That was enough to convince me. I used the program to read aloud the entire manuscript and found more of these invisible errors, i.e. an instead of and, etc. It was well worth the time.
Another part of preparing the manuscript for publication involves creating a copyright page. I began to modify a template, but I already knew I had a problem with the line beginning This is a work of fiction… Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. In my story I reference a real book and a real author/public figure extensively, including excerpts from a speech given, but I wasn’t sure about the rules and legal issues involved. Further research revealed how pervasive the use of brand names, other books, and other famous people and their works were in my writing. As a part of the read aloud process I kept an ear out for these references and made a list to resolve their fair use.
There are a few articles I found useful. Jane Friedman explains what’s OK to use and what’s not in her article on Permissions and Fair Use from her blog here.
Two articles by Kathryn Goldman were also helpful. She uses examples from The Fault in Our Stars, by John Greene, to illustrate the considerations given in the use of trademarks, copyrights, etc.
The first describes how to use brand names in your fiction. The second examines whether you can use other peoples’ creative work in your work. Both originally appeared in the blog from the Better Novel Project site.
So, I’ve already blown my time-line out of the water and my Excel spreadsheet is mocking me in this early July heat. But onward I press. I will share more of these surprises as the journey continues.
Many thanks to Marianne Leonne for her guest blog "Writing From the Rage Vortex." The rage factor influences my writing as well and I do struggle to incorporate it in a constructive way.
