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The Dos and Don’ts of Writing a Prologue
Writing a prologue can be difficult and intimidating. A prologue—the short opening section of a story—may be the first thing you read when picking up a novel. Consequently, some writers are afraid of giving away too much plot information, or of not enticing the reader...
Step-by-Step Process to Self-Publishing a Book for First Time Authors
Writing and self-publishing a book can seem like a daunting task but involves several key steps. Here's a general overview of the process: 1. Idea and Planning: - Develop a clear idea for your book and determine its genre, target audience, and unique selling points. -...
Marketing Your Self-Published Book to Increase Sales
Marketing is an important aspect of selling your self-published book. Here are some tips to help you effectively market your book and increase sales: Build an online presence: Create an author website or blog where readers can learn more about you and your book. Use...
Technically Speaking – Part 2
Part I of this two-part post focused on the five major steps to successfully approaching a technical writing project without a technical background. Now, in this second installment, we’ll focus on the list of 10 tips and tricks to successfully making that project...
Word Count in Novels: Is It Important?
Word count — it’s a simple enough thing — write the words and count them. But do word counts really matter when you are writing your novel, and is book length an important thing to consider before publishing? Although there’s no absolute answer, and there’s always an...
How to Be a Good Beta Reader: Reading in Exchange for Critique
What Is a Beta Reader? A Beta Reader is asked to read an author’s work when they’ve finished their original edits, but before the professional editing has begun. They help the author handle big-picture questions regarding story, pacing, plot, character, etc. While...
What’s in a Name? How to Make Sure Your Book Title Looks and Smells as Sweet as a Rose
Maybe I’m showing my age here, but when I was a young adult, I loved going to Barnes & Noble to peruse the new book titles to see what spoke to me. We’re told not to judge a book by its cover, but a cool title on said cover is always helpful in catching the...
ISMTE Recap: When It Comes To Preprints, Trust, but Verify
With the open science movement growing in popularity in the last decade, preprints have become a bigger and bigger part of the publishing industry. They’ve also, in some ways, become a bigger and bigger problem for the publishing industry as well. ISMTE’s recent...
Navigating Reviewer Fatigue
Peer reviewed journals often try to promote timely publication as a selling point to potential authors. An efficient publication process is crucial for scholars who are publishing time-sensitive research and who are required to publish in many disciplines for career...
ISMTE Recap: Is It Time To Pay Peer Reviewers?
It’s been this way for decades, but one of the biggest hurdles in peer-reviewed literature is waiting for peer reviewers. Yes, at the end of the day, no matter how good or important an article is, its processing time and publication date will ultimately be controlled...
Technically Speaking – Part 1
If you’re not a technical expert, the terms “technical writing” and “technical editing” can be intimidating—but they don’t have to be! Editing this kind of writing isn’t all about having an advanced degree, because the purpose of editing isn’t to be a subject matter...
Technica Editorial and Other Editors Say Thank You #PeerRevWk2016
In order to celebrate Peer Review Week and recognize the contributions and importance of peer review, Technica Editorial has collected comments from authors, editors and reviewers about the importance of the process. Here are just a few comments about peer review’s integral role in science publishing: “Peer review is critical to the work. None of us can be...
Everything You Need to Know About Rightslink
Are you an author who needs permission to reuse or adapt text, figures, or tables from a pre-existing publication? Are you on a deadline and worried that the process will take too much time to complete? Are you tired of the messy envelopes and painful paper cuts that come with mailing copyright requests? Are you confused and unsure of how to pay for...
Journal Tools to Reduce an Author’s Stress
Producing a scholarly manuscript is hard work. The process includes researching, editing, finding the right journal, finding the right document format that can allow for collaborative editing, and ultimately getting people to actually read your research and track its impact. Just thinking about all of those steps is already giving me a migraine. I mean I’m...
There’s an “I” in “Edit” But Not in “Team”
When folks outside the publishing industry hear the words “editor” or “proofreader,” they often think of one single person making corrections to a paper or book. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth; editing is a group effort. I’ve always thought of the different editorial employees as players at different positions on a sports team. Although...
The Proof is in the Pudding: Networking, Success, and Cliches
You know those sayings that are so ingrained in your brain that you can’t even remember how or when you first heard them — the ones you hated when your mom would use them for comfort or a life lesson but you now find yourself counseling others with? Two wrongs don’t make a right. The early bird gets the worm. You know the ones I’m talking about. Well,...
What You Need to Know About Conflict of Interest
In the world of publication, conflicts of interest are taken very seriously. Yet, it is also easy for an author or reviewer to miss conflicts of interest if they are not fully aware of what a conflict of interest is. So, what is a conflict of interest? A conflict of interest is any financial or non-financial relationship that a person has or might have...
There Are Plenty of Fish in the Publishing Sea
No matter who you are, you have likely experienced the dating world. And if you are in the writing/editing industry, you have probably also tried to get your work published. These two worlds might seem unrelated, but, when you take a closer look, they have much more in common than meets the eye. In both worlds, for example, you are inevitably going to face...
Reference management software: a must-have for authors
The moment is here. After years of planning, experimentation, and analysis you are ready to publish your findings and share your discoveries. Your desktop is littered with manuscript versions one through twelve and your eyes are watering as you scan the final version, anxious to initiate peer review of the work. Before you click “submit”, it’s time to...
STM Publishing and India
Several generations ago, when people in the US imagined what the future might look like, their most optimistic ideas tended toward a kind of Intergalactic Techno-Utopianism best represented in media by L. Ron Hubbard, The Jetsons, or various comic books involving spandex and lasers. This view is now largely museum material. What has replaced it at...
To Catch a Predatory Publisher: Avoiding Scholarly Scams
For researchers, the road to publication is often a difficult one — and it just got even trickier. With the advent of open-access (OA) journals in which authors often pay a fee to be published, the scholarly publishing world has been the target of many scams. Fake journals claim to provide authors an easy road to publication, but instead only tarnish...