• Book Search Optimization, Metadata

    Xulon’s Book Search Optimization / Metadata Service: Explained

    - By 

    Out of all the services that Xulon Press’s editorial department offers, there is no guessing which one is the most complicated to our authors. In fact, the average person probably doesn’t know what “metadata” or “search optimization” means. It probably sounds like a few technical terms that only a Google engineer could possibly understand, right? Wrong. It’s actually a pretty simple concept, if explained in layman’s terms and not technical terms. Xulon Press offers, for an additional fee, a “Book Search Optimization” service or what is sometimes referred to as a “metadata” service. Most people these days get a lot…

  • Exclamation Points

    The Weight of the Exclamation Point

    - By 

    Since I started here as an editor at Xulon Press, nearly eight weeks ago, I have read at least one hundred manuscripts. Almost every manuscript I have edited and reviewed has been nonfiction. They have all been unique in their focus, voice, and message, but almost all of them have contained at least one “common writing error” that I usually have to suggest needs to be changed. The top three “common writing errors” I personally have picked up on are as follows (in no particular order): overusing the exclamation point, writing words/phrases in all capital letters, and misplacing of the…

  • Xulon Press Staff Editor, Taylor Graham

    Meet Our Newest Staff Editor: Taylor Graham

    - By 

    Whether an author is writing a book that is purely fiction or writing a non-fiction book portraying their lives, the use of setting and imagery is an important part of painting the pictures that the author sees in their mind for their readers. It’s a difficult part of writing any genre: getting readers to see exactly what you, as the author, see in your mind while describing the scene. Sensory imaging is often an effective tool when describing the setting; using descriptions that will appeal to a reader’s senses, whether it’s describing a smell, sight, sound, taste, or feel. An…