~by Amina Abdullah-Winstead, PhD
Author/Founder (IPSA)
Author/Founder (IPSA)
Traditional methods of publishing can take years to achieve
especially when submitting information for peer review. Self-publishing is an
up and coming alternative to traditional methods. This service allows your
information to be available in many forums for immediate discussion and debate.
Below is a guide to help you in your search for publishing your writing.
Review Your Writing
Assemble a team to review your work for feedback. Try
gathering individuals with professional experience to review the material for
clarity, poor phrasing, redundancies, and vocabulary choice. Create codes that correspond with the item in
question when marking needed corrections. For instance, NC can represent not
clear and PP for poor phrasing, while RD could stand for redundant. For
academic articles, ask members of the academic community who have expertise through
either research or experience working in the area of your topic to review your writing. You can never
have too many eyes checking your work and a fresh set of eyes may discover minor
mistakes previously overlooked.
Edit Your Writing
When submitting the final version for publication you want
to make sure that your writing is free of errors. If you type your work in Microsoft
Word, use the spelling
and grammar checker tool. This function captures common mistakes made with
spelling, punctuation and grammar, but not all of them. Proofread your work to
capture additional grammatical and spelling errors, as well as punctuation, sentence
structure, and colloquialisms. Similar to the review process, assemble two or
three individuals to read your writing and highlight mistakes as a final step
before submitting your work.
Make Final Corrections
You may question why this is necessary. Believe it or
not, you may miss a correction after having several people review and edit your
document. The best way to make sure this does not happen is to make a matrix listing the suggested corrections from each person and then check each
one off as you make changes to your writing. Taking the time to perform this
process ensures that you put forth clear and consistent work.
Publish Your Writing
If you are writing an e-book, think about allowing an
independent publisher, such as Hawthorne Press, to assist you with publishing your work. An independent publisher can assist you with
creating a book cover, establishing a price point, obtaining the required identification codes, registering your copyrights, and organizing your manuscript for the proper e-book or print format. Compared to traditional publishing, you can
receive higher royalties for your work with independent publishing and
self-publishing. Take not that independent publishers can place your e-book for sale with major distributors like Amazon or Barnes and Noble just as easily as major book publishers.
Promote Your Work
There are many ways to display and promote your work. You
can create a website or blog, post messages on Facebook and Twitter, or use
social media widgets and gadgets to drive people to your work. Whichever method you choose
remember always to brand your work as a link for future endeavors.
These are suggestions that serve as a guide for getting your ideas from your mind to production. Whether you take this approach or use
another way to publish your material, get started on preparing your first work. You
can always decide on publishing later. However, if you start with an independent
publisher from the beginning, they can steer you through the process to
ensure that you have a publishable product.
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