Okay, so let's get the hard stuff out the way first.
Hi, my name is Grant and I'm a man.
As a man, I have only one real belief in life - if all else fails, read the manual.
It was therefore with some trepidation I came to read Jo Roderick's Format It Yourself. I have published four books so far and what I learnt in formatting and getting a manuscript ready for Kindle or Createspace was done the way all men do these things - by trial and error. What could a know-it-all like Jo Roderick possibly have to offer to contribute to my creative process?
Quite a lot it would appear. Unlike many books of this type, Roderick has approached this subject right from the very basics and leads you through the entire process with lively prose and a great set of screenshots etc to help out the novice author. The writing is light-hearted, if not occasionally a tad patronising, but hey! Us men need that patronising voice sometimes if we're ever going to listen to an expert.
Much of what Roderick covers in this book are things I have already learnt (usually the hard way), but there are some real gems in this that I can adapt and use in my everyday writing. I, like many authors before me, have just assumed I must put up with the constant checking and re-checking and tweaking of the format to make sure everything appears in the right place.
I think this book would be an absolute boon to a new author starting out, especially one not already knee deep in bad habits. This book could and should be used almost as a "style bible" for new authors. For those of us a bit longer in the tooth, there is still much to be gained from this wonderful book. I have already begun to put some of the basic principles into practice in my work and it is already resulting in time-saving in my writing (which really is what it is all about). I envisage referring to this book often, especially when I am preparing manuscripts for publishing.
I can see how much work went into this book and am very impressed by it.
I would recommend it to all budding authors as well as those of us who already think we know it all.
Good job Mr Roderick and happy to give you four stars for this book.
Hi, my name is Grant and I'm a man.
As a man, I have only one real belief in life - if all else fails, read the manual.
It was therefore with some trepidation I came to read Jo Roderick's Format It Yourself. I have published four books so far and what I learnt in formatting and getting a manuscript ready for Kindle or Createspace was done the way all men do these things - by trial and error. What could a know-it-all like Jo Roderick possibly have to offer to contribute to my creative process?
Quite a lot it would appear. Unlike many books of this type, Roderick has approached this subject right from the very basics and leads you through the entire process with lively prose and a great set of screenshots etc to help out the novice author. The writing is light-hearted, if not occasionally a tad patronising, but hey! Us men need that patronising voice sometimes if we're ever going to listen to an expert.
Much of what Roderick covers in this book are things I have already learnt (usually the hard way), but there are some real gems in this that I can adapt and use in my everyday writing. I, like many authors before me, have just assumed I must put up with the constant checking and re-checking and tweaking of the format to make sure everything appears in the right place.
I think this book would be an absolute boon to a new author starting out, especially one not already knee deep in bad habits. This book could and should be used almost as a "style bible" for new authors. For those of us a bit longer in the tooth, there is still much to be gained from this wonderful book. I have already begun to put some of the basic principles into practice in my work and it is already resulting in time-saving in my writing (which really is what it is all about). I envisage referring to this book often, especially when I am preparing manuscripts for publishing.
I can see how much work went into this book and am very impressed by it.
I would recommend it to all budding authors as well as those of us who already think we know it all.
Good job Mr Roderick and happy to give you four stars for this book.
You can check out some more of Jo Roderick's fine work here on Amazon:
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