Is Spelling and Grammar You Friend? Did you catch that? Did you stop reading and want to fix it?
I have great news! You don’t have to. And you don’t have to be an English teacher to write a top-notch book. But you do have to know how to present a clean, clear, reader-friendly story to get top-notch reviews.
Coming up is two easy ways to polish your ‘spelling and grammar’ for clarity and happy readers.
But first I’ll tell you a story of my own about a book I just paid money for and read.
The book promised to show me how to write, publish, and sell videobooks. There were two major problems:
- It was really a book of links and how-to’s for ranking on You Tube and Google. And promoting his choices of editors and producers.
- The spelling was so bad that I had to stop reading to figure out what the author was saying… like ‘you’ for ‘your’. SEO doesn’t call these STOP words, but I do. I had to continually stop learning and rewrite the sentence to understand what he meant to say.
The result of these problems?
I’ll give his book 3 stars because he did have some good points in the how-to’s. But I’ll take off one star for the not giving what he promised in the title and description. And deduct another star for the spelling and grammar.
AND I feel cheated; ripped off; defrauded. I won’t buy another book by this author. That’s significant and crucial. I can’t trust him to keep his promise.
Having gotten that rant off my chest, here’s the two easy methods to rid your story of my personal ‘STOP’ words.
1. Your word processing program has ‘spelling and grammar’ checks as well as ‘readability’ scores and wordcounts.
I currently write in Word. The ‘Review’ tab is where I find ‘Spelling and Grammar’ check for the entire document. It does the work. You and I reap the rewards. Easy Peasy and how I’ve earned the ‘Quality Book Award’. Have you found and used your spell-check yet?
2. Hemingway gives ‘readability’ scores by grade level and more.
I suggest Hemingway because it offers a free version that’s quick and easy to check for adverbs, passive words, and hard-to-read sentences. But there are more to choose from if you want to spiral deeper into grammar.
One is Pro Writing Aid and another is Grammarly. Both of these also have a free version. Check them out and go with what works best for you. But do something to encourage reader-friendly prose.
Sadly, I can’t suggest a quick and easy program to give you a heads-up for an on-point title and description. That’s one you’ll have to figure out on your own. But please do that, too. Perhaps a beta reader that will give you quality feedback… another human? If you’re a one-person show, let your manuscript cool; step outside of it; and answer the questions from a new perspective.
Do I feel better now? Only if I’ve helped you see how important ‘spelling and grammar’ and on-point titles and descriptions are. Have I painted the picture in enough detail?
On that note…
Happy Trails and Tales,
Alexie Linn
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Alexie Linn, the Author, and Homespun Rebel 