Friday, March 24, 2017

Introduction to the Marketing & Publishing Resources

Writers working with commercial publishers well know that they provide little marketing support for their authors' books. Publishers usually launch a book into the marketplace with minimal marketing planning and give the book only months to stand or fall before essentially abandoning it to the backlist.
However, the web gives authors many powerful tools and outlets for marketing their work themselves, and almost all are free. This resource aims to offer a concise guide to such marketing, as well as extensive reference Web sites and books.
Also, writers have the ability to self-publish their own books and articles, using the extensive network of consultants and other professionals, as well as technologies such as print-on-demand. This resource also includes guides to self-publishing, along with useful references.
Besides this resource, NASW Book Editor Lynne Lamberg has produced Write That Book, an excellent collection of books and online resources for book publishing (available only to NASW members).
Although I've done considerable research to gather information for this resource, I'm admittedly new to book publishing and marketing, although I'm actively involved. My wife and I have founded a small publishing company, Glyphus L.L.C., and have self-published the booklet Working with Public Information Officers, as well as my novels The Rainbow Virus, Wormholes, Solomon's Freedom, and The Cerulean's Secret. And, my book Explaining Research has been published by Oxford University Press. Here's a series of blog posts on my experience in self-publishing and the lessons I've learned. I hope these lessons and this collection of articles are helpful in your decision about self-publishing and in making it a rewarding experience.
I also hope my fellow NASW members will give me feedback — both insights into marketing and publishing from their own experiences and ideas for additional topics to be covered. Below is a list of articles in the Marketing & Publishing Resource. Best of luck with your publishing!

National Association of Science Writers   www.nasw.org

Article list:

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Hyphenating Prefixes




A reader who works with legal transcription has the following question:
There seems to be a trend towards having the prefixes and suffixes separate from the modified noun instead of being attached or hyphenated. What is proper?  Some examples are non negotiable, post surgery, post doctorate, age wise.
The examples given present a variety of forms, not all of which represent a prefix+noun combination.
The prefix non- is added to nouns of action, condition, or quality with the sense of “absence, lack of,” or simply “not.” for example, non-Catholic.
Non- is affixed to adjectives to make them negative. Whether to add a hyphen depends upon whether American or British usage is being observed. The OED hyphenates many words that M-W shows written as one word. For example, M-W gives nonnegotiable, but OED has non-negotiable.
When it comes to another word in the reader’s list, however, both the OED and M-W agree with postdoctorate, although both prefer postdoctoral.
The prefix post- means, “after” or “behind.” It is added to adjectives without a hyphen: postcolonial, postsurgical. Post can be used on its own as a preposition meaning, “after”: “Your mouth will be extremely dry post surgery.” In this context post is a separate word. Added to a noun to create a descriptor, however, post would require a hyphen: “Post-surgery care is vitally important.”
The suffix -wise means, “in the manner of” or “as regards,” as in clockwise, lengthwise, foodwise, etc. This combining form is never separated from the word it’s added to, either by a hyphen or by a space. It can have other meanings, of course. For example, a person is said to be “pound wise, but penny foolish.” In this context wise is a word that means “possessing wisdom”; it is not a suffix.
Hyphenation is not an exact science. Authorities differ regarding the necessity of a hyphen, but I’m reasonably sure that all agree that suffixes aren’t free agents that can stand apart from the words they belong to.