Hello Book Lovers, Authors, dreamers, and those of you interested in taking the next step to learn about getting a book published. I live on a sustainable farm with my husband and four children for those of you who don't know me. I'm an established author of inspiration, fiction, children's books, a journalist, a stay-at-home mother, and an advocate for healthy living. I publish a weekly blog and podcast (Herb' N Wisdom™) and am a Print Specialist for Pufferprint.  If you're like me and want to know everything I can about someone and their upcoming projects, here is an interview I did with the Veteran Crowd Spotlight.  Since you now know who I am, we can dive right into our topic: Heather's book writing tips and how you can use these tips to make your dreams and book writing goals come to life. In short, Preparing Your Book/Files/Manuscript Part One. It doesn't matter if we are talking about a children's book, the book printing process to include how to print your own book, or novel writing. Or simple things like what information you need before heading to a publisher to include ISBNs and author bios. We are going to cover it all and, in the end, ease your mind and frustration so you can take that next step or create a more fluid process of getting your book published the next time around. Ready to start? Let's do it! To begin, I want to clarify a few things. I will be talking about different types of publishing. For instance, traditional publishing is where the author turns in their work to a literary agent who finds them a traditional publisher. That publisher then uses their resources to edit, advertise, etc. Self-publishing is another platform where you go through a company such as WestBow Press, turn in your manuscript or files, and then they charge you a certain amount to edit, create the cover, advertise, and take you from the beginning of the process to the printing of your book. Indie publishing is where you do all of the work, cover, layout, bio, acquire your own ISBN, and then take it to a printing company to have it printed or use an online platform like Smashwords, Amazon, or Barns&Noble. And lastly, we have a mixture where you are like an Indie publisher but companies like Pufferprint offer ISBN's, barcodes, and formatting help. These have an additional cost but are calculated for each project, so you are aware upfront of what those will be before you begin.  So to recap, we will discuss: Traditional publishingSelf-PublishingIndie PublishingAnd a mixture of Indie and Self-Publishing With those in mind, let's start with preparing your files. Preparing your book/files/Manuscript Part One Since we are talking about different books, like children's books versus fiction or biographies, there are different processes. Not only in what you need to complete before submitting your work but because some of you are going straight to a literary agent and some of you are going through a print company, like Pufferprint or the self-publishing route. For traditional publishing, where you are trying to catch the eye of a literary agent, it is best and most of the time required to have your manuscript finished/fully completed. In cases where you already have a literary agent, you may have a partial idea or manuscript for your next book since you have an established relationship. Now, if you have multiple books, say a series, it is wise to have your first book completed and then a snippet or one...