• “For the Kids” vs. “To the Kids”: How to Write Your Children’s Book

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      Are you writing and self-publishing a children’s book? It’s vital to consider a few critical questions, which will ultimately determine your word choices and content within your book. Aside from deciding the basics, such as fiction or non-fiction and the theme or overall topic, the next most important thing to determine is your target audience. Start by answering these basic questions: Who would you like to read this book? Who are you, as the author, speaking to exactly? Are you writing to Christians or non-Christians? Is it a book kids can read themselves? Is this a book meant for…

  • Why We Write: To Share Our Passion

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    At a recent editorial meeting, each of us editors threw around ideas, possibilities, and topics for the Xulon Press Blog. While the other editors had their own ideas, I had a blog topic in mind that I didn’t think exactly answered the question at hand: why do we write? However, once I explained what I wanted to do on the blog, our editorial manager responded with, “we write in order to share our passions.” Then I realized — what I had just shared was exactly that: my passion. Prior to the end of 2014, I registered for my second Be the…

  • Introducing Xulon’s New Editorial Critique Service

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    In 2014, the most helpful feedback that the editorial department received from our authors was that they wished they could have received more in-depth feedback on their manuscripts prior to going into editing and production. The manuscript review was of course helpful, but it wasn’t the thorough read-through and analyzation of a book’s content, structure, characterization, and so forth, like many authors may desire to receive. While some authors are fine with a short overview and review of their book, there are some that truly want to improve their book, have their strengths identified in detail as well as their areas of improvement with…

  • How to Show Emphasis Without Typing in All-Capitals

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    As an editor here at Xulon Press, I have read hundreds of manuscripts. Maybe even thousands. However, the top three things that I’ve seen on a consistent basis is: overuse of the exclamation point, misuse of the semicolon, and capitalizing words and phrases in order to convey emphasis to the reader. While we’ve covered the first two, we haven’t covered what it means to capitalize entire words and phrases, so allow me to explain. It’s pretty well-known that if someone says something to you through text, email, instant message, or any other written/typed communication in all capitals, it means they’re…