crafting-a-title Archives - Successful Blog

This week Phil and I reached a benchmark. We finished the first edit on the first of four parts of his book. This first section will serve as the prototype for the rest of the book. As the prototype section, we used it to test our ideas for how the book would work. Could the vision we talked about be a reality when we tried it out across a complete section of posts from Phil’s blog?

As we moved through the section, we were to careful keep to these standards.

The content and structure work together.
If one isn’t working, don’t force a fit. If the structure works for all but one page, that page doesn’t belong. If many pages don’t fit, the structure needs to be refit.
Consistency is a value, a benchmark of quality, and a support for readers. It also makes authors look smart.

That’s right. Consistency makes us look more intelligent.
In fact,

It’s better to be consistently wrong than inconsistently right.

Why Being Consistently Wrong Is better than Inconsistently Right

When we meet someone who thinks and talks like we do, we call that person someone who “gets” it. We think people who think like we think are intelligent . . . and those who donÃ¢â¬â¢t, well, theyÃ¢â¬â¢re not.

I can adjust when I talk to someone. I can put my “best brain” forward. I can listen actively and organize what I say to meet how someone takes in information. Teachers do that every day.

But how does an author do the same thing? Book readers think in many ways. An author can’t adjust for each reader.

The answer is one word, consistency.

Why is it better to be consistently wrong than inconsistently right?

You can spell the word house as hous, and if you do so consistently, readers will accept it as an alternative spelling. Miss once and they will see the mistake.

How Does Consistency Make Authors Look Smarter?

Consistency is key to a predictable book. When a book is predictable, readers know where you’re going without thinking about it — they “get” how you think. Giving readers consistency in every facet of a book means they can concentrate on what you’re saying. Your message and it’s brilliance can shine right through.

At the Book Level — A consistent structure offers orderly navigation. Readers know what to expect and what will come next. The experience is predictable and repeatable. Readers can feel safe that they know where the author is going. That can make an author look smarter, because readers feel the author is following a logical, predictable progression.

At the Detail Level — Many companies have a house style that determines how they phrase terms and spell certain words. Publishers and journalists follow a style manual for the same reasons. A consistent style provides credibility and accuracy. If an author is consistent in matters of detail, he or she establishes trust on matters of accuracy — inconsistency undercuts that bond and makes readers wonder whether the thinking is equally inconsistent and flawed.

Staying consistent lets a reader know how an author works and where he or she is going. Authors can’t adjust for readers, but they can make it easy for readers to follow their thinking. When authors do that, readers feel like the author “gets” it.

We all know that someone who “gets” it is really intelligent. — as intelligent as we are. It proves itself out consistently.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you’d like Liz to help you find or make a book from your archives, click on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

In a conversation with Phil early this morning, we realized we are ready for the collaboration part of this endeavor. Here’s how it will work:

Phil will choose two days or evenings per week we can meet via voice.
He’ll arrange his time so that after each call he has a block of writing time.
I’ll arrange my time so that before each call I have prep time. I’ll send a list of the pages we’ll be talking about.
When we talk we’ll cover 3-8 pages in one section, discussing what rewrites they might need to flow together.
Phil will do the rewrites immediately after.
Phil will hold all of the rewrites until we’ve been through the entire first pass of the book.

Now the book is shaping up as a whole. We’ll be looking at how things fit together and flow. One of the relevant key word strings in Phil’s working title is “practical tips.” On the pages, we made a rule that each page has a real-life application of what Phil has described. During our two phone calls each week, we’ll be testing each tip to make sure that there are no repeats, that all of them can be done, and all can be called practical.

We’ll revisit the working title even more often than we already were.

The cover and the title are a promise of what is inside of the book. So we are careful to constantly revisit the title to make sure that the choices we make are in keeping with what our goal is.

This is where bloggers outshine the average off the street author. Bloggers know the value of relevant key words. They know readers search for important terms.Bloggers understand from their daily publishing that they should call a book what it is, not something clever that readers won’t understand.

We’re scaffolding down to a manscript that is beginning to be more like a book.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you’d like Liz to help you find or make a book from your archives, click on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Bookcraft 2.0: Why Consistency Makes Authors Look More Intelligent

Why Being Consistently Wrong Is better than Inconsistently Right

How Does Consistency Make Authors Look Smarter?

Bookcraft 2.0: Why Bloggers Choose Better Titles than Authors