The 30-Minute Document That Makes Your Book Look Professional

Lynn "Elikqitie" Smargis (: 00:02

Hey friends and future authors, it's Lynn, a liquidy smart gist, ghostwriter and book editor back again here at Right For You for another episode of self-publishing for professionals. I'm so glad you joined me today, because today we have an awesome episode and today our episode topic is about the 30 minute document and it's gonna save you so much time when you're writing, when you're working with editors or other professionals and when you're self-publishing your book.

Before we jump into today's topic, I wanted to share a really quick

client experience with you. Recently, I worked with a gal named Dana, who is also a teacher. I was a teacher in a former life, and we worked on editing her book together. And she left me a wonderful review. She said, Lynn Smarges is the type of editor you hope for and rarely find. She's sharp-eyed, fast-moving, and genuinely fun to work with. She helped edit my book and delivered thoughtful, actionable feedback on time, every time. She's professional without being stiff, direct without being harsh, and somehow

makes the whole process feel easier than it has any right to. If you want your manuscript stronger and your sanity intact, Lynn is your person. Dana, thank you. So literally all of those things she said is what I really strive to do for all of my clients, right? So you need that support. You need your book to be better, but we can do it and have fun at the same time. So thanks, Dana, for that review. I really appreciate it. If you want to read that review, go on Google My Business and look up Bright For You. You can see all of my 25 five-star reviews.

right now. Alright, so if you are looking for that same experience with editing your book, then definitely hop on my discovery call and you can find that on my website, right for you dot meet or by looking in the show notes together. But let's get into today's topic. So this is one of one of the things that people generally just do not know about right. So like the different types of editing, some people are familiar with some types of editing or they might get them mixed up. But most people

Lynn "Elikqitie" Smargis (: 02:06

who have never written a book before, even if you have written a book before, you may not know about the concept of a style guide. Now, a style guide is super important for many different reasons, but we're gonna go into a few reasons today. We're going into four or five reasons why you want a style guide because it might seem like a little more, it's a little more work in the beginning, but it's one of those things, my friend, that you put a little more work in the beginning and it pays for itself over and over and over.

again. So let's jump into this. So reason number one is you want a style. Well, let's first say what is a style guide? So a style guide is basically instructions on how you want your book written. like if you want the word donut, always spelled out D-O-U-G-H-N-U-T, because you're writing a book about a donut shop, right? And D-O-N-U-T is actually Dunkin' Donuts. That is not the correct spelling, but we think it is.

because we see Dunkin' Donuts signs everywhere in the US, right? So, or if you want certain words italicized, or if you want certain words bolded, or if you're looking for like, specifically like, you want to say, instead of saying Yoda, you always want to say baby Yoda, right? So, however you want specific words to sound or say, or if you want specific things in your book, like you always want the title in all caps, or you always want the subtitle, just the first word,

to start in caps. So a style guide is literally telling everyone who works on your book, including yourself, because you can go back and remind yourself what you have in your style guide, how you want your book to look and how you want it written, right? So that if any book editor you work with, you can give this to them. Any formatter you work with, you can give this to them. Anyone you work with, right? And then, so that's what a style guide is. And it's really important for your book because a lot of times I'll get into editing with a client and I'll ask them, do you have a style

and the most of the time they'll say no. So I can create a style guide for my clients. So if you're just looking for a style guide, I can help you assist you with that. I have one price point for my style guide and we sit down together, I look at your book, I read through the whole book, I make suggestions for a style guide. If you have any suggestions you are looking for specifically, we'll add those in as well. And then I will give you my advice on things you're not sure about in for your style guide. So that when you have your finished style guide,

Lynn "Elikqitie" Smargis (: 04:35

is literally a PDF that you can just attach to any email or send to anyone that you are working with on your book. So everybody's clear on how you want your book to look. So maybe you want all of your paragraphs to be a block style. Maybe you want a picture for every chapter, whatever it is, start every chapter, whatever it is, right? And you put this in your style guide. So number one reason you want a style guide, besides all the facts I just mentioned, is consistency across your entire book, right? Because style guides ensure consistency. if you have two different editors working on your book, and most likely you will, if you are hiring an editor for your developmental editor and then you need a different editor for your copy editor, those two people are going to have different ideas of what your book might look like. And so a style guide shows consistency. They know this is what you want your book to look like. So that it gives consistency. Your editors don't have to constantly ask you questions. And they just know what you want your book to look like, whether that's capital

You're going You're going You're You're going have You're going have of things. of You're going lot of things. You're going a of different lot of You're You're to of different things. You're to have to lot of different You're have of You're going of and also a consideration.

One of the considerations one of my clients had was time. He was writing in military time, but most people don't understand military time. So I recommended to him for his style guide to write all the times out, just like an AM or PM. That way people can better understand it they're not going to get stuck on that because you don't want your reader to get stuck on little pieces like that because they'll put down your book and you'll get a bad review. And I don't want any of my clients or anyone listening to this podcast to get a bad review on their book for silly mistakes like that especially. All right. Your inconsistencies.

Lynn "Elikqitie" Smargis (: 06:38

also undermine your credibility, right? You're not gonna look professional if you're spelling words different, the same words different ways all over the place, and or if you're bolding it in one place and italicizing the same word in another. So that's gonna undermine your credibility and your professional look of your book, so make sure you keep that mind.

So let's move on to reason number two. It saves time and money with your editor because editors work faster because they understand your style preferences, right? Because you have them on your style guide. All they have to do is read through. And if they aren't sure, they just can use it as a reference and check back, which makes it super easy. Then that is less time that they have to take emailing you and less time you have to take answering questions because you don't have to field all those questions unless it's something you missed in your style guide, right? Then obviously Obviously they're gonna ask that question. But if you have a good person to develop a style guide with you, like I'm super thorough with my style guides, then you can say, okay, put all of the things down in your style guide and that way they can use all the, you can add, you can always add to it and edit it later. So if you do come up with something later on in the process, you can add it to your style guide. All right, it prevents costly revisions and corrections because the editors know what you want up front and less time is lower can mean lower editing costs. Now I do project-based editing costs, but if you have to get it re-edited because you have messed up and then you make a style guide and have to get it re-edited, that's gonna be more editing costs. So you wanna avoid extra editing costs that you don't need to pay for because of a mistake, right? That's not a good idea. So make sure that you avoid those.

Hey, my friends. Speaking of avoiding mistakes, one of the ways you can avoid mistakes is by getting support in a community that you are going to love. Because if you're one of those authors, you're feeling stuck, which I see a lot, and you don't know where to go next with your book, and you just put your book aside for months or possibly years, and I've talked to people who done that because they're just so frustrated about hitting roadblocks with self-publishing left and right. You don't have to spend thousands of dollars

Lynn "Elikqitie" Smargis (: 08:50

on a self-publishing course. Come join my new free community on school, skoul.com. You'll find weekly tips, advice on self-publishing, and you also get a group coaching session absolutely free every month. And you can get your questions answered on that. We'll have an awesome topic. So the next one we're going to have is on KDP mistakes, the most common ones people make. And you know what? If you miss that one, no big deal. Just join the community anyway, because I'm going to have all the recorded episodes of all of our group coaching calls right in the school community that you can watch at any time. So in addition to that,

If you missed that and you have questions or you've watched that replay and you have questions, come to our coffee chats that we have once a month on a Friday. And that's just a casual, hey, I've got this question about self-publishing and I will answer it for you. So you get the support for free. So join the school community no matter where you're at in your publishing journey. Go to SKOOL and look for Publishing for Leaders. Again, look for Publishing for Leaders because my first 100 members are free. And after 100 members, I'm going to start charging.

And now, while it's free, so go to school.com, S-K-O-O-L, look for publishing for leaders, the link is also in the show notes. So if you're ready to get that support, jump in our community for sure. All right.

Let's jump back into essentials for working with multiple people because your style guide is that. So if you have multiple editors, formatters, or designers like your book cover designer, right, you can put your hex colors for your brand on your style guide. You can put whatever you want on your style guide. I feel like more is better for a style guide because the more information other people have, the more consistent your book is going to look and the more professional it is going to look.

Lynn "Elikqitie" Smargis (: 10:44

Because everybody needs to be aligned on your page, right? If you have a co-author, it's really important because your co-author needs to agree upon the standards and the style for your book. Virtual assistants that are using your book to create content, maybe they're creating social media content, you can give them your style guide so they understand what it is that you're looking for and your brand and style are consistent, okay? If you have a ghostwriter such as myself, right, I can help you maintain your voice by referencing your style guide, which I've done for editing and ghostwriting clients

in the past and everyone's working from the same rules. All right, reason number four, you wanna maintain consistency across all of your content, okay? So you can use the style guide for blogs, social media, any courses you're making, any future books you're building on your current book. So if you're having another book in your series or you're gonna write a second edition, you can edit that style guide for your second edition because maybe you wanted to change some stuff up. And remember, style guide like everything is a work in progress. You can always edit it.

Add to it, take away from it, maybe you put something on there you found you really didn't need, or maybe there's something that you did need you forgot to put on it. So do that. Any type of brand voice consistency across your platforms and any...

Content ecosystems you're creating from your book. You can use your style guide to reference all of those So no matter who you're working with give them that PDF PDFs are so easy to upload into Drive or Dropbox or just literally send through on email And a PDF cannot be changed So I always recommend not sending a word document because someone can accidentally or purposely change that but if have a PDF It's really hard to change a PDF. So I always recommend do a PDF

Alright, reason number five. Professional presentation and credibility. These professional authors use style guides because it shows that you have attention to detail and professionalism and that you put a lot of thought and effort and time into your book. Remember, if your speaker and those event coordinators are reading your book and it's inconsistent and unprofessional, you're not going to get the job. But if they read the book and it's consistent and professional and you've used the style guide to make your book consistent and professional, you're going to get the job, you're going to get paid more because

Lynn "Elikqitie" Smargis (: 12:57

Because you look like a standout professional with an awesome book.

Style guides also prevent embarrassing errors that I've seen happen with people and it is the industry standard for any serious authors. So here are our five reasons you want a style guide. One is consistency across your entire book. Two is it saves time and money with your editor. Three is essential for working with multiple people. Reason number four, maintaining your consistency across all of your content. And finally, reason number five, your professional presentation and credibility.

is on the line. So make sure that you are creating a style guide for your book. If you're not sure how to do that, jump in my school community and hit me up with a question and I will answer that for you. Just go to SKOL.com and look for our community publishing for leaders. All right, my friends, I hope you have enjoyed this. I hope this has been really valuable in helping you with saving time and money with self publishing your book. I love to work with you. So definitely jump in my school community and we can chat and talk about publishing your book and getting you to author before the end of this year. Until next week, my friends, this is Linda Liquidy reminding you to keep writing, keep dreaming, and keep creating. Your book is waiting to be born.