Pat Iyer’s Blog
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What is Vanity Publishing?
You’re planning to write or you’ve just written a book. When you tell a friend about your project, he asks you about agents and publishing houses. You respond that you’ve looked into self-publishing, and you think you’ll follow that route. He doesn’t sneer (at least,...
The Importance of Concise Writing
Talk about concise writing - it does not get any briefer. Today I saw an ad that popped up to the right of a YouTube video I was watching. It caught my eye because it was so concise. It read: New Need Now And the name of the product. In the world of writing, this is...
What Type of Editor Do You Need?
Some writers, those who have just begun the process, know that they need editors. They may be unsure of the type of editor they need. Others, who have a little more experience, may question that need. “I know how to spell and punctuate,” they say. “I have good grammar...
How to Consistently Blog
So you want to write a blog? What’s stopping you? Are you afraid you will not be able to consistently blog? Here are some of the answers I’ve heard. “It’s a big commitment.” “You have to do it every week—at least.” “How does anyone think of all those article...
What are the pros and cons of working with a ghostwriter?
Traditionally we write about pros and cons of any topic. I don't like ending on negative notes, so I am switching the order of pros and cons of working with a ghostwriter. First, let's start with the cons. A ghostwriter, by the way, is a person who works with you to...
Is a Cat a That? Correct Use of That
Is a cow an “it”? What is the correct use of that? In order to answer these questions, I need to address a related grammatical question about the use of that. Is a Human a “That”? In the course of editing manuscripts, I began to notice that people seemed to be...
Publishing a Book – What are the Options?
You have a wealth of knowledge that you want to share in a new way – through the publishing a book. You may have a body of work ready to repurpose (such as a blog you’ve maintained for several years) or a ghostwriter at the ready. Or you just really like to write; you...
How a Writers’ Group Fuels Your Success
The most successful writers of fiction, memoir, and narrative nonfiction know that they can’t go down the writing road alone. When they do the actual writing, quiet and solitude are essential, but for the evaluation stage, their work needs fresh eyes and minds...
5 Ways Writing a Book Can Grow Your Business
You’re sitting in a conference room watching the speaker ask, “Raise your hand if you’d like to get started with writing a book.” When I asked that question, nearly every hand went up. Wanting to write a book and actually writing a book are two different things. One...
The Treacherous Homophone
A homophone is a word that sounds the same as another word but has a different meaning. Note that some of the word pairs aren’t pure homophones, such as lose and loose. I include them because they’re close enough to get easily confused. Lose/loose “Lose” is a verb...