Writing Articles
Publish Your Book With An Independent Publisher
(category: Writing, Word count: 559)
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There are basically three options for getting your book published. You can try to get your book proposal accepted by one of the industry giants like Penguin or Random House but that's a tough road. Those companies only work with proven authors or those who already have huge platforms and salivating audiences. Having said that, if you manage to get accepted, you'll end up with a huge implied endorsement and a ton of indisputable credibility.
On the other end of the spectrum, you could self-publish your own book. The nice thing about this approach is that the only person who has to approve your book is you! If you want to publish your own book, go right ahead. In fact, given the advancements in technology, you can do exactly that and order as little as one book at a time. The downside is that the credibility is far lower than with a major publisher.
These two options seem to be on opposite ends of the continuum and indeed have plenty of differences between them. Luckily, there's a third category that sits comfortably in the middle. It's the category of smaller independent publishers and there are thousands of them. They range from very small mom and pop operations to well-established significant publishers. They tend to specialize in one genre or another and often become leaders in their area of expertise.
Soliciting the independent publishers is a great way for a new author to break into the market. Find one that specializes in your particular area and visit their website. They will tell you exactly how they want to be solicited and you're well advised to follow their guidance. Find out exactly what they're looking for and then cater your proposal to their specific requirements.
It's not necessary to have a Literary Agent when soliciting independent publishers. Don't get me wrong. Having an agent is always a good idea. But you do have some additional options when dealing with the niche players and many will accept proposals directly. Most want you to send it to their Acquisitions Editor but I recommend checking with their website before addressing the envelope.
Getting a book advance is less common when dealing with independent publishers. It's not impossible but I wouldn't bank on it. The upside is you'll have more access to the people reviewing your proposal and that's half the battle. Don't pester them. They probably get a few hundred proposals each month. But a polite and well placed phone call rarely hurts and it gives the editor a chance to hear your speaking voice at the same time.
Becoming an author is something you only do once. Once you've published your first book, you will forever more be an author. And it can change your life, not to mention your career. Don't waste your time approaching one of the industry giants when your odds of being accepted are significantly less than 1%. Instead, find an independent publisher that specializes in the subject you're considering and target your efforts accordingly.
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Writing Contests Building Writing Credentials
(category: Writing, Word count: 444)
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One of the ways many writers can successfully add credentials to their portfolio if to participate in a variety of literary contests. This type of contest encourages writers to put their best foot forward in both creativity and attention to detail.
It is true that there are some contests that provide a cash award for their top finishers, but there are also publishing scams that will accept your work regardless of quality. When you receive notice that your work has been accepted for publication it can be a real boost, however, a quick look at many writer's websites can help you define the contests that are essentially vanity publishers willing to print just about anything if they believe you will purchase copies of the book for friends and family.
Many cash award writing contests cover the cost of prize awards by charging an entry fee. This factor often discourages many writers who may not feel confident enough in their writing to pay a fee to submit. This allows those who do enter a better chance at placing.
There are also writing contests that present the opportunity to have their work published online, in a magazine or in an anthology. As a rule this type of contest does not require a purchase of the publication the work will appear in nor will they assume full rights of your work. The best writing contests only require a one time non-exclusive print right. This is important because it allows you the opportunity to sell or place the work in other venues.
Beware of forfeiting full (exclusive) rights in any writing contest. When this right is given the ownership of the work is no longer yours. You will have no right to use the material in any form without permission from the publisher. It is possible to pay to enter a contest, forfeit the rights to your work and allow a publisher to gain long-term financial benefit from your work.
Quality writing contests have the bonus feature of allowing you to fine tune your skills by reading the work of others. Reading can make a good writer even better. If you pay attention you can learn what works and what doesn't while using writing contests as a means of gaining valuable insight into unique styles and structure.
On a positive note, there have been numerous incidents in which individuals who entered a submission for a writing contest were able to use that same work for publishing in other book anthologies and magazines. The key is making sure to participate in writing contests that preserve your right to control the reuse of the piece.
How To Write A Strong Start For Your Novel
(category: Writing, Word count: 132)
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I revised my Civil War novel Hearts of Stone many times before selling it to Dutton Children's Books. My editor only had one major suggestion: Consider a new beginning.
If you're revising a novel, considering the first scene should be one of your last steps. It's hard to know how best to begin until you're sure how the story ends. And although everyone needs to revise in a manner that works for them, writers who perfect every sentence along the way can fall in love with sentences or scenes that ultimately don't best serve the story.
Skilled novelists convey character, conflict, setting, and voice in the first page, paragraph, even sentence. It's a tall order! But here are eight strategies that command readers'
Writing Articles Tips For Writing Good Articles
(category: Writing, Word count: 488)
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Writing articles on the web is the best form of expression in this internet centric era. The power of web has allowed us to reach millions of users surfing internet at any given point, and there is a tremendous potential to put forward your views to this audience. This is a great way to promote your website or blog as well. I personally prefer writing travel & tourism articles and following are a few tips for writing good articles which I follow.
1. Title is the most important part of any any article. A good attention grabbing title will certainly welcome users to your article. For example if you are writing an article on travel tips for Brazil tourism, you may decide to go with a simple title of "Brazil travel tips", but I would personally prefer a title like "Going to Brazil - Important Brazil travel tips", this will grab better attention and interest.
2. Use bullet points or numbers to break your article into several sections. It is a very good idea to bold certain words and sections of your article. Put pictures if you can, for example while writing a travel article, include maps, points of interests and other useful contact information.
3. Length of article: There is no rule but an article between 300 to 500 words is usually considered the best.
4. Search engine optimization: Optimal keyword density, using H1 tags for headings and specifying keywords in meta tags are some of the good rules to follow. Also do not forget to put the ALT tags on images.
5. Submitting your article: Try to submit articles on a website which have the same niche as your article, or at least the article is placed in the section which shares the same theme. For example if you are writing an travel article there is no point in submitting it to a site which has a niche of technology or finance.
6. Submit articles frequently: If you are a website owner then write articles often. This will encourage readers to browse your other posts and eventually visit your site for additional information.
7. Good content: Always publish original content and present facts to the best of your knowledge, regardless they are good or bad. Your article should provide unique information to the user. Specify a date when the article was written.
8. Using examples to describe your point or a situation, is also a great way to present your perspective.
9. If your article gets long, then put headings on the top and provide internal hyperlinks to rest of the article. A great example of this is wikipedia encyclopedia.
10. Social bookmark sites: After your article is published on the web, it is a good idea to bookmark with sites like Delicious and Stumbleupon. This should also help to attract additional web users to your article.
What Grabs Your Reader
(category: Writing, Word count: 224)
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It is the dramatic question that grabs your reader and holds him or her. It creates a narrow path that forces the reader into suspense that won't let go. It moves the story forward. All bestseller-kind-of novels have it.
Have you noticed that untrained eyes want you to explain everything in that first line, first paragraph. But it is the "Dramatic Question" that creates the hook.
In my novel, the Mayor's Wife Wore Sapphires, a mystery/thriller sprinkled with social commentary, I didn't want it to be clear what was going on. I wanted a question that would create a hook. Even when writing the "who, what, when, where, why, how," I didn't want it to be cut and dried. I wanted people to wonder. Here's what I mean?
"In my country, men like him disappear in the thick of night."
(I started in the middle of action. This man is not from the United States. This is a threatening statement about someone we don't know.)
The guest pitched forward from the shadows in the small, but elegant room. A glint of light hit his hair, as slick and black as a crow's feathers.
(That dark-haired man is unsavory. He wants someone to disappear. Who?)
I could have written it in a pedestrian telling way instead of an action story way
Eco Friendly Ways To Reuse And Recycle Books And Magazines
(category: Writing, Word count: 531)
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As more and more old-growth trees are cut down, and we face the reality of having to wait close to 100 years or more to replace them, the need to recycle paper becomes increasingly important.
Paper, of course, includes books and magazines. Although paper products are nearly 100% biodegradable, it is pointless to send these resources to the dump to rot in the landfill when we can recycle and reuse them.
More than any other material we hope to recycle, books and magazines represent knowledge. We find wisdom in the pages of old books, and learn about culture in the pages of old magazines. Because of these factors, the best thing to do with old books and magazines is pass them on.
Your local library or college library will accept donations of old books, and sometimes magazines in good shape. This allows other people to benefit from the publication as well. Once you have enjoyed your book, donate it to a library rather than letting it sit on a shelf to collect dust.
The second choice, for both books and magazines, is to sell them to a used bookstore, at a garage sale, flea market, or on eBay. Other people may be looking for the exact book or magazine you have; passing it on is a win-win scenario for you and the new owner.
If you wish to reuse publications in a creative way, magazines make good colorful craft supplies for children and adults. You can cut out parts of pictures to make collages by pasting the picture pieces to a cardboard backing; or make hanging mobiles by cutting out shapes, stringing pieces of thread through holes at the top, and attaching the strings to a clothes hanger.
You can also cut out whole pictures to construct a dream board or a vision board, which helps you to think about and visualize the goals and dreams you want to achieve; for instance, a Hawaiian vacation, a certain type of job, or a new sports car.
As for traditional recycling, some areas will let you place books or magazines in your blue bin for pickup as well. Many publishers print magazines on glossy paper. It is more expensive to recycle glossy paper because the demand is low for this type of paper. This will change in the future as the need to recycle paper becomes more important.
The biggest challenge with recycling books and magazines is separating the paper from the adhesives or staples used to bind the pages. Forward-thinking recycling companies have a way to remove the waste from the bindings magnetically; in the future we should begin to see growing opportunities to recycle all kinds of paper products.
Next time you're thinking about throwing away some books or magazines, think first about how you can pass them along for others to enjoy. If that doesn't work for you, try to reuse them creatively. If you still can't find a use for them, look for places to take them where they can be recycled into new paper products, so we can save more trees.
Tips To Help You To Write With Success
(category: Writing, Word count: 302)
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Writing is something that everyone can enjoy! Writing is freeing and fun and exciting, if you really let your imagination go writing can take you to places that you have never been before. The world would be a sad and empty place without good writer to cheer it up!
If you are having trouble starting to write all you need to do is sit down and do it. Do not worry about writing well, just write anything that comes to mind. This kind of free flowing thinking is a great way to get the old writing muscles working. You can always go over things and edit later, or just throw out that bit of writing but it will get your imagination flowing like it needs to in order to be a successful writer.
It is also a good idea to forgo the idea of using a computer or typewriter. Try writing by hand at first. Things tend to flow out much better when you are writing by hand. This is the perfect way to deal with any blocks that you are running into when you are writing.
You may also want to take some time to pick up some great online writing tips. The internet is the perfect resource for just about anything including writing. You can learn from some of the best writers in history if you use the internet the right way. They have all kinds of great tips posted online so start looking them up today.
If you need to do some research for your writing then you will want to take a trip to the local library. The library has books on any and every subject in the world so get some ideas or info there when you are stuck.
Writing Exercise 3 This Could Get Dangerous
(category: Writing, Word count: 292)
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Defining your fictional characters' voices is important. What is equally vital, though, is grasping your characters' humanity, the core of their fictional soul.
A good way to learn how to do this is by observing an incident through another living person's eyes.
For this exercise, choose your spouse, a relative, or your best friend to play the fictional character in a 500-word dramatic scene. Write using either third person or first person point of view.
Traumatic situations force people to reveal their true self. In other words, actions speak louder than words.
How would your chosen person react in a traumatic situation, a blind date, for example, or a wildfire?
Don't be blinded by your feelings for the person. You love your spouse, but how would he or she truthfully react if faced with a wildfire?
Consider objectively what you know about the person, and then what you sense.
We react instinctively toward other people, though we often pay no attention to the quiet voice in the back of our minds. Listen to what your quiet voice tells you about the hidden humanity of your chosen person, and then weave the information into your fictional character.
The humanity you need to bring your character to life is hidden behind the friendly smile you see every day.
You might want to keep this exercise away from the eyes of your chosen person. He or she might not appreciate being made into a fictional character.
Do not use your chosen person's name for your character! Your life may be on the line.
Grasp your character's humanity and you will give your character a soul your readers can believe in.
Most Newsletters Don T Work Part One Success And How To Monitor It
(category: Writing, Word count: 637)
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Some people think newsletters don't work. Often, they're right. In a world where most newsletters don't work, it is common to be confused about how to define newsletter success.
What's it good for?
Over the past ten years, I have paid attention to newsletters. I can tell you why most don't work. It starts with confusion about what newsletters are good for. Confusion about how to monitor success comes from that.
How many next-day phone calls?
Many marketers expect a newsletter to generate results as soon as it arrives. Most newsletters do. However, when the results expected are new sales and referrals following each issue, most newsletter issuers eventually conclude that newsletters don't work. By the way they gauge success, they're right.
Check your perspective.
From a sales perspective, an ineffective newsletter should be canned. But first, consider other perspectives. For example, think from the perspective of the impression left on readers. What impression would it make on you to receive two or three newsletters, then none at all, from your accountant? your lawyer? your investment advisor?
What newsletters do
Because of mismatched expectations, many who issue newsletters conclude either that newsletter success is harder to achieve than they imagined, or that newsletters just don't work. Yet, I see something in these situations that often escapes people struggling with an unsuccessful newsletter: A newsletter shapes people's perceptions of you.
Four Brand Effects
It can do other things, such as announce news and complement advertising; still, every newsletter is a reputation-shaping instrument of brand management. Any newsletter will:
*leave a first impression, or
*mould an already-formative impression, or
*validate a formed impression, or
*confuse a formed impression.
A newsletter makes an impression.
How does this fit into a context where more sales and good referrals are wanted now? Consider the following example.
Maintain meaningful contact.
There are people who receive newsletters from their credit union who would never attend a competing bank's grand opening in their own neighbourhood. They're so loyal to the credit union that they don't want the bank's cupcakes or door prizes. The credit union's newsletter refreshes their loyalty every three months. It maintains meaningful contact with them. It's a tool of client retention.
Effective at what?
The problems solved by the credit union newsletter in the example include:
*competition of extrinsic incentives (e.g. "Free gift when you sign up!").
*vulnerability to client attrition.
*the cost of acquiring new clients.
*the opportunity cost of losing profitable clients' future business.
Watch the numbers.
Watch-the-books managers should direct attention to:
*business per client - segmented by profitability per client.
*referrals per client - with a profile of clients providing referrals.
*client attrition - with a profile of clients lost and why.
*net increase in clientele (including clients gained and lost by all means).
Monitor over time.
Review these metrics on a quarterly basis and compare each quarter. Use this review to set newsletter performance goals in tandem with business performance goals (even if your newsletter is not a quarterly). Why not measure newsletter success this way?
Steady, no spikes.
A good newsletter might not cause a spike in sales. It can prevent losing a client who is being wooed by competitors, though. What business problems do you want to solve? Is it reasonable to expect a newsletter to help solve them?
Client relations success
Newsletters shape market perception, first and foremost, and can help to maintain hundreds of business relationships with meaningful engagement. Those who accept this and apply it wisely can find great success with newsletters. Those who expect each issue to boost sales or to bring new customers are wise to consider other methods. A good newsletter as a client-relations tool improves business measurably over time.
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