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Tuesday, May 31, 2011

A Freelancer's Guide To Meeting Project Deadlines

When it comes to meeting deadlines, one way to manage your timetable effectively is to divide the large jobs and farm them out to several freelancers.

Let’s say you’ve been awarded a writing job to write an e-book on childcare with 10 chapters for $2,000 over a 45 day period of time. Bid out each chapter separately among 10 freelancers and allocate, say, $100 for each chapter over a 25 day period. This way you don’t have to worry about the deadline because you’ve given yourself a 20-day buffer and you stand to earn $1,000 for your efforts.

If you are going to handle a project in this manner, then you must be able to rewrite the articles to make sure the entire book “flows” seamlessly and that the same style and tone of voice is consistent throughout.

1. Cultivate a strong talent pool

In many cases, this is the most important asset you need to subcontract work to others. Here are a few additional tips to help you out in this regard:

a) Know how to hire a good coder

There are four things you should look at when hiring a coder – their resume, their samples, their rating, and their client testimonials.

The last two are critical because it is easy to prepare a bogus resume and samples, especially on the Internet.

If you look at those four things and feel you have found the person you are looking for, hire them.

b) Know how to keep them happy

A happy coder always delivers better work than an unhappy one, given the same skill level. You keep your freelancers happy by dealing in a polite and professional manner, paying them on time and understanding them when they fall or falter (and believe me, they will miss a deadline now and then). Give them respect and they will give you their best.

2. Nurture your current roster of clients

Here is the main reason why quality counts – it is quality, more than anything else, that will make your customers come running back to you again and again. Always put a premium on quality. First-class work is sometimes hard to find, especially given a limited budget. If you consistently deliver first-class work, you assure yourself and your freelancers of a prosperous business well into the future.

There is a popular saying in sales which says that “It is eight times easier to get new business from your current clients than it is from cold calls.” In other words, make sure you ask your clients for referrals from people they know or work with who may need the service you provide.

Some freelancers hesitate to ask for referrals because they feel it is unprofessional. They feel asking for referrals is like asking for a favor. That is not the case. If you have faith in your ability to deliver good work you are actually helping your client because of your willingness to provide quality work to their friends or business associates. That will reflect well on them too. It is a two-way street.


Monday, May 30, 2011

A Few Dilemmas Of The Writing Journey

Authoring as a Risk-Taking Endeavor

Being an unpublished novelist poses all sorts of dilemmas. Writing is entrepreneurial in nature, more than most people realize, and it is fraught with make or break decisions. Which side of the political spectrum do you show yourself? Do you embellish this or that social issue, perhaps the one most fashionable, or do you hide from them all?

If your goal is publication for its own sake, and you've decided to write, say, Gothic romance number 214,386, then you do need to follow the Gothic template. But you also need to make it stand out from most of the 214,385 Gothics that came before. The burden to distinguish is higher for unpublished writers because they have no track record to give their work advanced credibility or benefit of the doubt. Yet if the novice distinguishes herself too well, then her originality may be viewed as too risky in itself.

This need to balance risks even extends to things that look simple and straightforward on paper. Take the question of how good your manuscript should be before you query it. The reference books are all unanimous in urging that your manuscript should simply be the best you can make it before submitting it. But it's not that simple in real life. First off, many amateur writers don't know how good their writing is relative to their own potential. This is especially true if you are trying to achieve a literary end that's new or different, say, push a new frontier in poetry, or achieve new levels of fright in horror.

In my own case, in writing Coinage of Commitment, I was bent on writing a love story unlike any other, a mainstream tale of love at a higher level. That made this project so different that even the style I adopted needed to be distinctive, a vivid way of expression that leads readers through the characters' souls to glimpse romantic love at breathtaking heights. That's not exactly stock stuff, making it risky to submit and hard to know when it was good enough to send out.

Not realizing what I was getting into, I polished the manuscript as best I could, then sent it out. Two months of querying later, when on a whim I sat down to reread it, I was shocked to discover that it was not the greatest love story ever written, something I suddenly discovered was important for me to achieve. Important enough that I pulled the ms off the market and sent it to not one but two independent editors in series. Three rewrites and seven months later, I resumed the query campaign. But by then, I wondered about the stability of my improvement progress.

Sure enough, despite best intentions, my writing ability kept jumping ahead of itself. I simply couldn't keep my hands off the ms for wanting to make it better. That meant that the sample chapters I sent out kept changing. Even after the ms was accepted for publication, I could not quench my hunger for better prose. My publisher, Saga Books, in a fit of artistic benevolence, held the presses for the extra weeks it took me to equilibrate at deciding, finally, that I could not improve a single word.

Yes, I realize that this is an unusual account. But it shows that every publishing journey is bound to be unique. So when you read simple instructions like: submit only your best work, don't be surprised if the path in execution is more tortuous than you ever dreamed it could be.


Sunday, May 29, 2011

A Different Way To Write Your First Novel

If you’ve always wanted to write a novel, but found the traditional structured process too frightening or overwhelming, maybe your imagination works in a more organic fashion like mine. In that case, start with your main character and the idea the character gives you for the plot. Then close your eyes, grab your notebook or computer, and watch the main character. Sooner or later she or he will begin talking and moving around. When that happens, start writing! I guarantee what you hear and see will thoroughly surprise and delight you.

Even though my books are considered literary novels, I’ve always admired the mysteries of Tony Hillerman, and the way he laces his novels with information about the Native American tribes in his area. I call books like these “info novels,” and they are great fun if you’ve never read one. That is also a goal I try to achieve with my Occult novels. With these I’ve been able to weave information about contemporary Pagan life, as well as real spells, chants, or rituals throughout every chapter. This series also provides a wonderful opportunity to add data of interest to my women readers about holistic healing, feral cat rescue, perimenopause, fibroids, and much more.

Anyone who would like to undertake a big project like a first novel should know the sky is the limit. If organic structure development, experimental formats, and “info novels” appeal to you, go for it! Don’t worry if your ideas differ from the traditional novel. And don’t be afraid to seed your novel with information. Just make sure it occurs naturally within the flow of the storyline. For good examples, read the “info novels” written by novelists who excel in this form.

Also, don’t let your first draft scare you, because all first drafts tend to be utterly frightening. A first draft has only one purpose: it’s the place where you put your ideas down on paper. The editing of the first draft is where the magic happens. When I create the first draft of each chapter, it is an exhilarating experience. A real adrenaline rush! But I am first and foremost a poet, and like most poets I love to edit. It’s the polishing of each scene, sculpting it to sail smoothly into the next that gives me the greatest joy.

In fact I am currently working on a new novel, which is proving to be the most organic and intuitive one I’ve ever attempted, making it great fun to write. All I started with this time was the main character and her cats. She never told me her idea for a plot, so I just followed her around, writing down her thoughts, words, and actions as she moved from scene to scene. Suddenly, other characters appeared, and exciting subplots began to emerge.

Now I am six chapters into this novel. The first five chapters have already been published or accepted by literary journals, because I always submit each finished chapter as a short story to gain publication credits for the novel. Yet the main character still hasn’t revealed the plot to me. No problem. This novel seems to be following its own organic, information-rich course, and those who’ve read several of these chapters have enjoyed them immensely and can’t wait to find out what happens next. Me too!

Don’t let fear stop you from writing the novel that’s been bubbling around in your imagination for days, months, or years. Most of all, don’t let a lack of money or education stop you. I never took a writing class, and nineteen years later I’ve published more than thirty poetry books and novels. My poems and short stories have appeared in over seven hundred literary journals, magazines, and anthologies worldwide. How did I do it? I used what was available to me. I found my high school and college grammar books and studied those. And then I read the poetry books and novels of writers I admire, and that’s how I learned to write.

Sometimes, if your mind works in an organic fashion this may be the best way to tackle your first novel. Then all you’ll need to do is let go, give total control to an imaginary character who lives in your head, listen to what she or he says, and start writing!


Saturday, May 28, 2011

A Beginner's Guide to Writing a Novel

No one is born a novel writer. But do you believe that we all have the capability to be writers? Impossible as it may seem but the answer is yes! If we have the passion for it and if we strive to make it happen, novelwriting can be as easy as writing ABC. Writing is actually not a very complicated thing. It is just like drawing, painting, and even cooking. It is an art! Your imagination is all that it takes to get it started. What makes it hard is not writing itself but how people make it hard than it really is.

The first key to writing a novel is the ability to dream and imagine. Think back to when you were a little child and dreamed. Your imagination took you to places you've never been before. It made you do things you never thought you could do. Having superpowers...being in strange places...the conditions are limitless. Writing a novel is actually imagination translated into words. You close your eyes and let your thoughts drift while creating a web of consequential ideas. Afterwhich, you write them down on paper.

The second key to writing is formulating the premise of your novel. Let's say you'd start with a huge asteroid moving about in space. Then suddenly it collided with another asteroid and instantly created an explosion. Some of the explosion's debris fell down into the earth's atmosphere. By accident a person comes in contact with it. These sequence of events could be your initial start in which you let your mind take hold of and run with to produce the succeeding events.

The third key would be creating a stream of spontaneous ideas. Once you have the initial idea, sink down into it and allow yourself to be completely absorbed. Let's say after the person comes in contact with the asteroid debris, he gains supernatural powers! And then he notices some new changes in his being, not just physically but also emotionally and psychologically. This is where an avalanche of new ideas start coming in. You will notice that you are no longer directing your story but your story is directing you. That makes writing now so easy. You don't need to analyze anything because the story now starts to play like a movie. All you have to do is put them into words as the story plays in your head.

Next, make sure you are able to retain your daydreaming and concentration as one event goes after another. This state is now called the "alpha state". According to Judith Tramayne-Barth, this is the place between consciousness and sleep. Time stands still when you are in this state. Words keep coming to you until you start to feel pain in your legs and in your waist and then you suddenly flick consciousness and you become flabbergasted because you've not only written one or two pages but five or more without even knowing it!

The next key would be to practice flipping in and out of the "alpha state". You can do this by rereading what you've written and internalizing it as if it was your first time. It might take you time, as much as hours or even days before you are able to go to your "alpha state" again but once you're adept at going into the zone, it would only be a matter of minutes before you start writing a new dialogue.

So, you've finished your story! Now it's time to do the final touch-ups. There is still one last thing that you need to do. Yea, you guessed it. You need to check the entire story again for spelling, punctuations, grammar, correct word usage and coherence. You might even need to revise it a few times before you are able to arrive with the final output. But don't fret, it's not much work really compared to writing the entire novel. What's important is you now have your own novel, written by yourself, using your very own imagination. How much more proud could you get?

Friday, May 27, 2011

A Bad Literary Agent Can Be Worse Than No Agent At All

Types of things to watch out for with agents:

* Charging the author a fee up front, to be accepted as a client. Can be called a reading fee, or a monthly "office expenses" charge. The best agents, and most successful ones, only charge a percentage fee of royalties the author earns, typically 15%. Suppose a realtor charged you a fee to come over and tour your house before getting the listing? How quickly would you show that realtor the door. . .

* Charging back unusually large "postage and copying fees" to send out an authors' work. One crooked agency accepts almost every client that contacts them, but in the fine print of the contract they charge "postage and handling" of up to $10 per submission they send out on your behalf. It doesn't cost $10 to send a letter and a sample chapter of a book to a publisher. This company makes a fortune from these fees whether or not they actually successfully market any of their clients work.

* Directing authors toward specific editing services or giving authors' names to these services. Sometimes they even own the editing service. Some agents make a significant portion of their income from referral fees from these services.

* Terms in Agency contracts with writers vary widely. Must be read carefully. Not standard at all.

* The agent contacts publishers pretty much at random. The agent's value to you is in the relationships they have with publishers, so that if the publisher hears from them, they know the book is worth taking a look at. Ask to see copies of rejection letters that come back from publishers. If it looks like just a form letter response, rather than a letter you would send to an acquaintance, you can bet the agent may be just picking names out of a directory of publishers.

* Puts forth a weak effort or gives up on the client's project after a few months. You have a right to ask how active the agent is going to be. How many publishers are they going to contact, how will they follow up? You also have a right to periodic reports as to whom they have contacted and the results. You must determine how much time and attention they are really going to give you.

Another reason it is imperative to have a reputable agent is that the publishing house typically pays the agent, who deducts their "cut" and sends the remainder it to the author. It's a frightening thought that a less than honest person gets their hands on the money you've earned from sweat, blood, and even tears.

Find out more about agents.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

25 Ways To Fail As A Freelance Writer

1. Don’t set yourself a writing routine or stick to it.

2. Always make sure that doing your writing is at the bottom of your list of priorities, and even when you are writing, if something else you have to do that day springs to mind, then go and do that instead.

3. If one of your friends comes round to invite you out for coffee, just go, no matter how busy you are with your writing.

4. Whenever you’re writing, answer the phone every time it rings and answer the door every time someone knocks.

5. Always feel guilty for doing your writing instead of doing what other people want you to do.

6. Don’t read any articles about writing, especially if it’s written by an expert.

7. If anyone ever tells you of a simple and profitable way to make money from your writing, don’t believe them and never try it.

8. Never take a writing course to hone your skills.

9. Don’t visit any writing sites on the internet, and never subscribe to their newsletters.

10. Don’t join any writer’s forums or participate in any online discussions.

11. Don’t get your own website to showcase your writing ability and writing services to the whole world.

12. Do everything you possibly can not to get your name known in the writing world.

13. Keep your work secret. Always put your writing away in a draw when you’ve finished and never show it to anyone – especially editors and publishers.

14. Don’t enter writing competitions.

15. Don’t submit articles to paying websites.

16. Never even think about writing a book.

17. Especially don’t consider writing a profitable e-book.

18. They say you should write at least 5 article proposals or short stories every week. If you do write them, don’t mail them.

19. If a magazine or publisher offers specific guidelines for submissions, don’t follow them.

20. If an editor likes your work and publishes it, never offer to write for them again.

21. If you send in a query to an editor and don’t hear anything for a couple of weeks, start ringing them and don’t stop until they make a decision about whether or not to publish your work.

22. If one publication rejects your work, assume that it’s worthless and unsuitable for every other publication and don’t send it anywhere else.

23. Whenever you receive a rejection letter, take it personally and throw your work in the bin.

24. Never ever consider the possibility that, if your work’s written from a different angle, it could be suitable for another market and sold again.

25. And if all that doesn’t make you fail, you can always just give up writing.


Wednesday, May 25, 2011

12 Tips For Generating Bright Ideas For Writing

Are you running short of ideas for your blogs or articles? Is generating fresh ideas for writing becoming difficult? By following the techniques discussed in this article, you will be a writing power house.

1. Subscribe to a dozen RSS feeds on various subjects you are most interested in. Scan through the feeds every morning or at night and select a few articles for thorough reading. After reading the articles, tag them using your own classification system.

Classifying articles in different categories helps locate them quickly. Use Google's RSS reader for reading and tagging the RSS feeds. You will have access to your categorized articles from any computers connected to the Internet.

2. Subscribe to a few print magazines and read them regularly. After you finish reading an article, record the main points of the article in a Google note. You will have access to these notes anywhere in the World.

3. Use a PDA and carry it with you wherever you go. Better yet, get a PDA with a camera and cell phone. You will only carry one gadget for all your communication, organization, and content generation needs.

Take pictures of interesting places, events, and moments you come across in your daily life. Use the voice recorder of the PDA to record whenever an idea hits you. Every night, transfer the ideas from your PDA to Google notes and upload your pictures to flickr.

4. Scan through the comments posted by others on the online articles you read regularly. Record interesting ideas, pros and cons of an issue, and strong opinions posted by others in your Google notes. Leverage the wisdom of the crowd.

5. Have lunch with friends at least once a week. Bounce ideas off them on any topic. Mix ideas from divergent topics to create new ideas in you own subjects.

6. Use the time like driving, watching TV while exercising in a treadmill, etc. to think about your favorite topics and try to relate to things you observe on the road and on the TV. When you get an idea, record it in your PDA.

7. Go through all the ideas and articles you have recorded in Google notes and your RSS reader to create new ideas by giving new twists to the old ideas. Combine two or more ideas and change or improve an existing idea to come up with your own idea.

8. Use a variety of online tools like Technorati, Digg, Delicious, etc. for writing inspiration. Every hour, hundreds of new articles and news stories are posted in these sites. Check Yahoo's buzz log to find out what people are talking about and searching for. Quickly scan them to hit a few gold nuggets that can serve as springboards for new ideas.

9. Using on-line tools discussed earlier, select an issue and jot down all the pros and cons. Search Google to enhance the idea by adding more pros and cons. Once you have collected a dozen diverse opinions, you will be able to write an article based on those facts in a pro-con format.

10. If you are good at using data for analysis and comfortable in the use of a spreadsheet, draw charts in the spreadsheet and look for patterns in the data. Provide you own interpretation to the data. Illustrate your articles with charts and graphs.

11. To generate topics for your article, use overture keyword selector. Select a single keyword and run it through the overture. You will see a dozen or more keywords based on the search popularity. Copy a few selected keywords to a notepad. Now, take each keyword and do a search in online sites like Digg, Technorati, etc. You will see a number of articles. Read them to generate ideas.

12. Ask yourself what if, what else, and why not questions on an issue and search the Internet to find answers from different sources. Create new ideas generated from existing materials, provide step-by-step guide for somebody to practice an obvious idea, or offer benefits of practicing an old idea.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

10 Tips for Tech-Writers

Tech-writing is a tricky business. It’s not a very high profile industry, so there’s not much support around. Follow these 10 quick tips, and you’ll be well on your way to a satisfying tech-writing career.

1) Follow a sensible career path…
STEP 1: Start in a team
STEP 2: Stay only just long enough
STEP 3: Manage yourself
STEP 4: Manage a team
STEP 5: Go contracting (depends on the market)

2) Knowledge is your lifeblood – learn the politics of your company. Know who knows what. Find someone who consistently gives you timely, reliable, technically accurate answers, and get their name tattooed on your shoulder! Every company has at least one. And they may not be in the project manager/product manager/customer/programmer roles. They are generally the people who’ve used the product in the real world, and dealt with real world customers.

3) Communicate WITH, not AT. Tech-writers don’t have enough power to get away with communicating at.

4) Track stuff (take spreadsheet printout and write it up on the board).

5) Develop good product and domain knowledge – The more you can figure out for yourself, the better off you’ll be (and the more respect you’ll get from the techies).

6) Find out who your users are, what they are trying to do, what they are having trouble doing, and how they want to be helped. Then provide this assistance. Help the user do what they are trying to do. Don’t just tell them what the product can do… a help system is only helpful if it addresses the users’ needs.

7) Treat everyone as a customer. Then manage their expectations and your commitments. Always ensure they know what you’re doing. Tell them when you’ll be finished. And pull out all stops to meet your deadline.

8) Provide a surrogate user testing mechanism for the development team – providing usability feedback.

9) Work as hard as required to get good quality doco finished on time and to budget – this is how you’ll get the satisfaction out of work that you need.

10) Have fun with it.

Don’t become jaded and cynical by the high-tech, harsh, uncaring IT world. Use your smarts, and make the most of the resources provided. Most importantly of all, make work satisfaction your number 1 goal. It’s the best way to stay happy and get ahead.

Monday, May 23, 2011

10 Smart Moves For Getting Published In Top Magazines

Eager to see your byline in magazines like Smithsonian, National Geographic, Parade or Outside? Here are 10 tips on getting past the threshold of "Maybe" to "Yes" at top magazines.

1. Put timing on your side. You can change a perennial story, where there's no special reason to do it now rather than next year, to one that prompts an immediate assignment by adding a connection to some upcoming season or event. For instance, "the disposable versus cloth diaper debate" lacks any time element. But you can peg it to Earth Day, coming up in April, or specific future environmental powwows. You can get the same effect by tying a perennial topic to recent front-page news. If devastating floods are lingering in North Carolina, use that to make a piece on adequately insuring a business sound timely.

2. Freshen up perennial topics. Some magazines revisit the same topics again and again because relationships, or toilet training, or camping in national parks lie at the core of the magazine's mission. Hunt back about four or five years in the magazine's archives for these central topics and update them.

3. Create cover-worthy article titles. Editors sweat over the blurbs that go on the magazine cover. If you study the kinds of blurbs they favor, and give a similar title to your proposed article, you may score an assignment from a title that is exactly on target.

4. Be brief and detailed. This combination of skills has great value in the magazine world, and a query offers a perfect setting to demonstrate your mastery of rich compression. Let every sentence sparkle with detail, but say just enough to get the idea across.

5. Stay ahead of the pack. I once heard someone say that if you've read about an issue in Time or Newsweek, you're too late to query other top magazines on it. Spend energy pursuing stories that seem both trendy and unexplored.

6. Get your details right. Nothing kills confidence faster than factual errors! Recheck all information in your query before sending it.

7. Be truthful. Don't exaggerate the facts of a story, don't present fiction as real and don't inflate your credentials. This should go without saying, but not long ago a freelance writer sold an article in which she had presented a story she heard from a fellow airline passenger as something that had happened to her. She claimed she didn't realize that that was unethical.

8. Don't have a hidden agenda. Forget about any kind of revenge story, or about hyping a company in which you have some sort of covert financial interest.

9. Show enthusiasm. Make sure your writing feels alive and flavorful, not parched and pinched. I've heard a number of editors say they like to work with writers who show enthusiasm for their work.

10. Flatter an editor. A good number of editors write on the side for other publications, and if you happen to spot his or her freelance work and mention it in your query, you win points. Mentioning that you liked a particular issue of the magazine, or a certain cover story, helps build rapport, too. Make sure that any praise is specific and sincerely enthusiastic.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

10 Resume writing tips to land you your dream job

Imagine yourself sitting in an employer's desk with hundreds of resumes falling in on your desk against a vacancy declared by you in your company.

Number of vacancy - 1, and number of applicants - innumerable.

As an employer it is your responsibility to select the most deserving, suitable and competent candidate. So it is up to the candidate to snatch the employer's attention out of those hundreds of resume application. As such, writing a resume is all about knowing what employers specifically look for in an applicant's application. So, never make the mistake of underestimating the importance of a "good and eye-catching resume".

Now, a good and a perfect resume is not an allegory. Neither has it anything to do with the elite schools or exceptional work experience. A blue collar worker may have a exceptional CV, while the resume of a white collar professional may have a poorly written one. A good resume is your first step at the door of a good job; you must well-understand that it is your representative to an employer before you get there. A resume centers round the detailed info about a candidate that is truthful, brief and to the point; not something that is exaggerated or unnecessarily long.

There are certain things that a good and perfect curriculum vita has within its set margins.

1. First of all, decide the format of your resume. Decide whether you want it
to be in a functional or chronological format.
2. Write your resume in active verbs.
3. Highlight your skills and objectives. Make it your resume headline.
4. Be specific about your professional background. If you are an experienced
person, mention your tenure with previous employers; and in case you are a
fresher, define your professional qualifications.
5. Define your current pay scale. And don’t forget to put down your expected
salary.
6. If your CV is targeted towards a specific career path or employer, then you
must know all their requirements and mention them in your resume very
clearly. Research and know the qualities that will prove to be beneficial
to the employer and think about how your capabilities match those qualities.
7. Next, be particular to provide every minute personal detail. Highlight your
contact details.
8. Be professional, concise, brief and clean. Avoid from being too flashy with
your resume design.
9. Stick to writing one page cover letter as far as possible.
10. Last but not the least, be sure to edit and re-edit your resume once you
are done with writing it.

Remember, the objective of your resume is to unleash your accomplishments and qualifications to the employer's committee. Think it to be a promotional brochure, a pamphlet displaying your organizational and career skills.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

8 Tips To Become An Expert Proofreader

Many people are under the assumption that proofreading is an “innate” ability. The reality is that it is actually an acquired skill. By following these tips, you can transform yourself into the expert proofreader you’ve always dreamed of becoming!

1. You are the best judge of yourself. By this I mean that you can determine exactly what your most common mistakes are. Whether it’s placing the “e” before the “I,” or simply forgetting the semi-colon; once you familiarize yourself with your most common mistakes, proofreading will become much easier.

2. Remember, proofreading is not about misspelled words only; most likely those are caught by the application you are using like MS Word spell checker. You must look for incorrect sentence structure, repetition, and text which does not flow well together.

3. Leave the document for a while, and return with new eyes. If you walk away from your work and take a quick break, then return, you will find your outlook has changed completely!

3. Slow down and read out loud! So many errors are caught when you read the text slow and out loud to yourself. You realize things like: this sentence sounds strange, or I repeated this word 5 times in the same paragraph!

4. Your subconscious plays tricks on you. Sometimes you read what you think SHOULD be there, not what is ACTUALLY there. So you must acquire the skill that overcomes the power of the subconscious. What is that skill? Simply reading what is actually on the page!!

5. Never settle for one quick glance over your paper. Read it several times to be sure that you have not missed any possible error.

6. Try to work with a friend or hire professional help. There is nothing like another set of eyes to look over your work for you. After working on a document for so long, it becomes too familiar. Having an unbiased party view your paper is never a bad idea.

7. Once a misspelled word, always a misspelled word. It has become faulty information embedded in your mind. Now it’s no problem when the word is misspelled in a way that MS Word will catch it, but the absolute worst thing is when the misspelled version happens to be a word too! In that case, the application absolutely will not catch that error! For example: your and you’re OR sea and see.

8. The one second you aren’t on your guard, paying attention, you may end up misspelling or incorrectly structuring a sentence. Remember that your mind works faster than your fingers. Always remember that when you proofread somebody else’s work you are more likely to detect errors than proofreading your own work.

Professionals proofread their work over 10 times. Now, by following these guidelines, you can too!

Friday, May 20, 2011

8 Steps To Writing A Great Children's Book Manuscript

Let's face it: some kids just don't like to read. Increasingly, parents, teachers, librarians, and editors are looking for books that will appeal to reluctant readers. When I was writing The Best Books for Kids Who (Think They) Hate to Read (Random House), I read hundreds of children's books, old and new, that I thought would fit the bill. I discovered that there are eight qualities possessed by great books for reluctant readers, and to my surprise some of my childhood favorites didn't pass the test. If you can work at least three of the elements listed below into your book, it will have a good chance of being loved by all kids, even those to whom reading is a chore.

Humour

Making kids laugh is essential to building a pleasant association with reading. But you need to understand what tickles kids' funny bones at different ages. The humor in picture books is broad and very visual. Easy readers (and some picture books for ages 6 and up) begin to introduce verbal humor: wordplay, puns, double meanings. As kids move into the chapter book arena they can handle jokes that need a setup and a payoff that's played out over several scenes. Dialogue, how characters react to each other, or the situation in which a character finds himself may be innately humorous.


Well-Defined Characters

Many kids want to identify strongly with the characters in their books; for reluctant readers, this is essential. It doesn't matter what the character looks like on the outside (be it space alien, a clown or a talking frog), on the inside this character needs to embody the perspective of the reader. This means the character is dealing with issues the reader might face, or seeing the world in a childlike way. Book characters must have multidimensional personalities with strengths and weaknesses in order for the reader to care about them and want to stick with them for the entire story. In nonfiction such as biographies, authors who find an element of their subject's life that is relevant to the target audience have a better chance of reaching reluctant readers.


Fast-Paced Plot

Kids who love to read don't mind a story that takes a few chapters to unfold, but reluctant readers don't have that much patience. The action needs to start in the first paragraph, and by the end of the first chapter the reader should know quite a bit about the main character and have a good idea about the conflict or problem that character will face. Subplots are fine for chapter books and up, but too many will get in the way of the forward movement of story. Keep the pages turning.


Concise chapters

Ideally, each chapter should contain one clear event (or one specific point in nonfiction), and have an arc of its own (a beginning, middle and end). This makes reading even one chapter a satisfying experience. Chapters that end on a high note in the action will make the reader want to see what happens next. Episodic novels (where each chapter stands alone as a short story) are also good bets for reluctant readers. Richard Peck's A Long Way from Chicago and Louis Sachar's Sideways Stories from Wayside School are two middle grade examples.


Kid Relevance

This applies to the themes and ideas that form the basis for plots or how an author approaches a nonfiction topic. These ideas should be relevant, meaningful, and applicable to the reader's life. Instead of conveying a lesson your adult perspective tells you the reader needs to know, try using the reader's frame of reference as a starting point. Write to your audience, not at them. And remember, books can be just for fun.


Suitable Text

Depending on the age and ability of the reader, the text needs to be challenging but not overwhelming. Strive to write your story as clearly as you can, using active sentences and concrete nouns and verbs. When writing for a broad age range of reluctant readers (8-12, for example), make the vocabulary accessible to the younger end, but the interest level appealing to kids on the older end of the spectrum.


Unique Presentation

Reluctant readers often choose nonfiction over fiction because it speaks to their personal interests. Finding a new or unusual slant to your topic helps keep that interest alive. Humor doesn't hurt either. It's Disgusting and We Ate It! True Food Facts from Around the World by James Solheim appeals to middle graders' love of the gross while sneaking in some history on the side.


Visual Appeal

Authors generally don't have much say in a book's design, but author/ illustrators might. Larger typeface, the generous use of white space, and illustrations that elaborate upon the text all help break up the string of words and make the book less intimidating to read.


Thursday, May 19, 2011

6 Tips For Your First Jab At Creative Writing

The world of creative writing is an ever expanding one as stories or genres continue to evolve in a natural reaction to the changes in time. Having confirmed writing skills, however, is not enough to succeed in creative writing. Having passion for it is more important than having technical expertise. Love for creative writing, and not adherence to the grammatical elements, is what will ultimately guide you to doing things properly and successfully.

6 Tips for Your First Jab at Creative Writing

Don’t Stop Reading – It’s impossible to become a writer, much less a creative writer, without being a reader first. Discovering your love for writing shouldn’t stop you from further devouring reading materials but should instead encourage you to diversify your taste. If you want to become good in creative writing, you need to broaden your horizons. Don’t limit yourself to reading one genre because this can only provide you with limited knowledge. If you want to improve, read everything that you can get your hands on.


Don’t Stop Learning

You can ask Stephen King, Danielle Steele, Dan Brown, and JK Rowling, and all of them will surely tell you that they’re not perfect writers and will never be. No one can be perfect in any way, and if you allow your writing to stagnate, readers will soon get bored with your work. Of course, before you can continue learning about creative writing, you first have to acknowledge the fact that your writing is definitely imperfect. Get past your ego if you want to be a successful creative writer.


Choosing a Topic

You’ve heard countless people tell you that to be a successful writer, you need to write about you know, and that’s true. But more importantly than that, you have to write about something you love or something you hate, just as long as it’s a topic that arouses passion in your heart and brings your pen aflame! If you find something that interests you but you don’t have adequate knowledge about then research it by all means! Research, research, and research, until you can safely say that you’re writing something you know and love.


Build Your Vocabulary

True enough, Ernest Hemingway earned fame by using poignantly – but sometimes brutally – simple words for narrating events in his stories. But building your vocabulary surely wouldn’t hurt, would it? Broadening your vocabulary and discovering its etymology can be one of the ways for you to develop a story idea or an effective way of setting the tone or mood for a particular chapter. But more important than that, building your vocabulary will reduce the instances when you can’t just quite say the word you want but it’s already in the tip of your tongue.


Don’t Let It Get Away

If an idea suddenly occurs to you, and it seems excellent for a future story, write it down. If you’re walking down the street and you suddenly think of a good dialogue for your characters, write it down. Don’t let anything get away because the human mind is a tricky thing, and it might be impossible for you to recall exactly what occurred to you just three minutes ago. Good story ideas are a dime in a dozen, but great ideas are definitely few, and who knows if what you’ve written down will one day become one of the latter?

And last but not the least, NEVER STOP WRITING. Don't make publication of your work the ends and means for your writing. Write because you love to write!


Wednesday, May 18, 2011

5 Writing Myths Busted

One common element whenever human beings gather is the need to talk and share experiences. Often that need turns into something a little more fun, a little more dangerous -- gossip. Gossip is often fun but it can also be dangerous because it spreads quickly (because it is fun) and often distorts or even completely avoids the truth. Gossip creates myths in many fields and professions, and the field of writing is especially prone.

The top five myths about writing are:

Myth 1: Writing is easy for some people. Let me tell you that is just about the biggest myth going. I have been a professional writer for going on three decades now. I also know many other professional writers of various ages, experience, and income. I don't know a writer that will tell you that writing is easy. Writing is brutal, hard work and there are times when I think it would be easier to simply open a vein as Red Smith said. However experience and practice can make many writing tasks easier. There are some writing tasks that I can almost accomplish on autopilot because I have written that specific format and/or topic a lot.

Myth 2: Writing requires talent. I won't lie. Talent can certainly help and talent is what separates the great writers from the good writers. But the truth is that talent is not enough to make a writer great or even good and talent is not a necessary requirement to be a good writer. Writing is a skill that can be learned, developed and honed. If you practice your craft, if you read the writing of others to learn more about your craft, and if you seek and accept guidance and suggestions about your writing then you will improve and grow as a writer. Dedication harnessed with talent can create amazing results but if I had to pick just one then I would go with dedication. You can always increase your skill level through dedication.

Myth 3: Writing isn't an useful skill. I have made my living as a writer for my entire professional life but even if you don't intend to make your living with words you will need this crucial skill. There simply isn't a profession that does not involve writing. Perhaps the form will vary, but written communication is the cornerstone in every professional field. Your writing ability will often impact landing a job as well as advancing in your career. Today written communication is even more crucial in professional and personal relationships.

Myth 4: You can't make a living as a writer. I can remember when I told my father that I wanted to be an English major in college. He was very worried that I wouldn't be able to support myself. The truth is that I have never had trouble finding a job and today I own my own business because of this flexible and important skill. Not only can you make a living as a writer but writing is an essential tool for many other careers and professions.

Myth 5: Writers block is alive and torturing writers as you read this. I'm not dismissing the difficulties inherent in dealing with writers block but whenever I talk with writers purportedly suffering from it they fall within two general groups. The first group actually creates their own block by insisting on the perfect place, mood, or alignment of planets in order to write. This is beyond ridiculous. One of the many benefits I gained from years of newsroom experience is the ability to write in almost any condition or mood. Deadlines will teach anyone how to give writers block short shrift. The second group I have more sympathy for as their problem really is internal in nature. Usually the problem is that the particular story (whether fiction or nonfiction) they want to tell is not yet finished cooking in their brain. In this case, while the writing may be stalled I don't agree that it is blocked. The writer must listen to that inner voice and respond appropriately. Sometimes the idea needs more time to percolate and sometimes more research and/or planning is necessary. Once the proper adjustments are made the writing will begin to flow again.

Don't let your writing fall victim to these five myths about writing.


Tuesday, May 17, 2011

5 Ways A Reader Can Respond To Your Article

When reading your article a reader can get warmed up and react on your article in several ways. A responsive reader will want to:


1) Visit your website link in the resource box

This is probably the most common response people seem to go to, even if it is the wrong one. People are so fixated with wanting their readers to go to their websites and buy straight away.

Tell me something, how many strangers on the Internet have you brought something from because they just told you a great story? None right?

You have to preheat (or presell your readers) the oven before you can ask for their credit card details.

Sending your readers to your website will usually result in a lower sales percentage straight off the bat. That is of course if you are selling them anything at all.

If you were selling them something, the best bet would be to send them straight to your newsletter signup link in your resource box.

But if you are sure you want to send them to your website, the best way to do that is to tell your readers (in your article) that if you go to your website (in your resource box), there is a free gift (of value) they can get, just by visiting your site.

Make sure if you do this, it's not a blatant plug for a product and the gift is of real value, or very few publishers will publish your article, and fewer readers will respond to you in the future. No one likes being sold straight off the bat, and by giving them a free gift, or getting them to give you their email address some way is the best way to go.


2) Visit your affiliate link

This one is quite tricky.

For starters, some publishers don't allow you to put affiliate program links in your article at all, and if you do, they have to be completely in context and it must be one brilliant article, but that's not a problem.

You can of course put an affiliate link in your resource box, which would be allowed straight away.


3) Subscribe to your mailing list.

This is one of the better options. Why, because when they sign up for your mailing list, they are giving you permission to contact them via email on a regular basis.

It would be very hard in your article to announce your mailing list in context of the article, as it would come off as a blatant plug, so the best bet would be to include your subscribe email address in your resource box.

Send them to a splash page where you can capture their email address. Or let your readers to send a blank email to your autoresponder/mailing list email address and subscribe from there. Give them a free gift, something of value.


4) Refer your article to others

If you want your readers to refer your articles to other people, here is what you do.

(This is a good idea if you have affiliate links in your article)

You send them to a website, with a refer a friend script. This website also has your previous articles on there as well in an easy to use site.

You see how many possibilities there are.

By giving them something in return with value, like a free 5-day course, you get them to refer your article/website to their friends.


5) Contact you personally

If you want people to contact you personally, don't make them dig through a website to find your contact details. At the very least, put your email address in your resource box, if not your business phone number.

Monday, May 16, 2011

5 Tips To Start Selling Your Self-Published Book

You’ve spent hours researching, writing and self-publishing your book. Now, you want to reap the benefits of selling it yourself, but where do you begin?

Here are five simple tips to help you get started.


1. Figure out your market

“Bookstores are lousy places to sell books,” says self-publishing guru Dan Poynter in USA Weekend . “Find the places where your audience gathers and sell directly to them. If your book is about cats, go to pet stores.”

To start selling your book, take the time to research your target audience. Who will be interested in purchasing your book and sharing it with their friends?

Once you know your target market, look at the places they shop and spend their leisure time. What media venues do they watch, read and listen to on a regular basis?

Create a list of all potential organisations, business and groups. This will give you a good understanding of the online sites and brick-and-mortar locations where you need to focus your marketing efforts.


2. Spread the word

When you are ready to start selling, don’t be shy. Talk about your book, carry a copy around with you and look for every opportunity to mention it. Also be ready to give copies away to influential people who will build buzz about your business.

If you are a good speaker, try to give presentations to groups catering to your target audience. You can partner with various organisations to promote your appearance and build word-of-mouth. This may include issuing a press release, giving books away during radio or television interviews or getting involved with charitable activities.

“Speaking to local, target audiences is a great way to start building buzz about your products and services,” says Melanie Rembrandt, small business PR expert and owner of Rembrandt Communications, www.rembrandtwrites.com. “But in order to build credibility, you need to offer valuable information pertinent to your book’s subject without being sales-oriented. You can always have a book-signing after your presentation to sell your books and meet potential customers.”

Another trick is to leave a copy of your book at your local bookstore or library. If visitors pick up the book and read it, they will ask for a copy of it. Then, the person at the counter may contact you to purchase additional copies.


3. Venture outside your target market

After you’ve pursued all venues focusing on your specific audience, start marketing your book to other groups outside your target market.

Look for secondary sources that may be interested in purchasing your book as a gift for a friend, co-worker or family member. Perhaps you can partner with a business, charitable organisation or hobby-group related to your book-topic?

Think “outside of the box” and try to let as many people know about your book as possible. You can issue a press release, offer special discounts and create newsworthy events to draw attention to your book. And these activities don’t need to cost a lot of money. You just need to think of some ways to stress the unique benefits of your book and take the extra time and effort to plan, coordinate and follow-through with your ideas.


4. Take advantage of business relationships

If you used an online publisher in developing your book, advertise on their site. If you used a local printer, ask if you can leave a couple copies at their front desk.

Visit all of your local establishments and leave some kind of information about your book. If you are a regular customer, most of these businesses will be happy to help you and the local economy.

And when preparing these “leave-behinds,” think about the benefits for the business and customers. Perhaps you can print up small calendars, checklists, quick tips, bookmarks and other items that advertise your book while offering something of value to potential readers.

You may even be able to partner with various businesses to offer special joint coupons and discounts. Use your imagination, but always keep the benefits for the customer in mind.


5. List your book online

This may be obvious, but you really need to list your book online to reach the broadest possible market and increase “buzz.” Review your target audience and try to get information about your book posted on all of the pertinent sites they visit.

Also create a simple website. And don’t worry. Today, there are many services that offer cost-effective or free websites to self-published authors. You don’t need to be a technical genius or have a lot of money to take advantage of these services and create an online presence.

However, in your online copy, be sure to stress the unique benefits of your book and provide customer testimonials (for credibility). Also include some information about your background to help you stand apart from others in your genre.

Once your site is up and running, research free, press-release posting sites. Also look for online organisations that may be willing to post reciprocal links to your site to help build search-engine optimisation.

These are just a few, simple tips. There are many ways to sell your self-published books. But you can start by focusing on your target audience, work the business relationships you already have and be creative. And soon, you’ll be well on your way to being a top-selling author!


Sunday, May 15, 2011

5 Reasons to Start Writing a Research Paper in Summer

Half summer is gone. You had enough time to experience its beauty and enjoy the long-expected freedom to the fullest. Another half is ahead. Don’t you think it is high time to settle down and find the way to make your studies in the coming year much easier?

Writing a research paper will be the perfect match for this objective.

Do not feel like writing a research paper? Then leave your feelings aside and let your mind work instead. Then you will definitely see that there is great use in writing a research paper on vacation. In fact, writing a research paper in summer has far more benefits than you could imagine.


Reason #1

In the middle of July going to the beach, hanging out with friends, and common outing to cafes does not seem exciting and cool anymore. The little treats you dreamed of a couple months ago now seem run-off-the-mill and dull. It is high time to make changes in your daily activities.

Don’t you find writing a research paper a nice alternative to got-used-to activities? You could start looking for research paper topics, do a preliminary research and come out with an outline for your paper ahead of everyone else in your class. In other words, you could start writing a research paper and still enjoy your vacation at the same time.


Reason #2

You must have heard from your forerunners or learned it from your own experience that writing a research paper is a tiresome and time-consuming task. It involves creating drafts, thinking of a good research paper topic, developing an outline, and writing good introduction, body and conclusion.

As your workload at school increases every year, you will be spinning like a soccer ball, trying to meet a deadline, find relevant information, and fulfill all requirements for research paper writing when time finally comes.

However, you can escape the trap so many students fall into and write a research paper without deadline pressure by simply starting your work on it in summer. It is a proven way to escape a rush before the deadline and write a reward-winning research paper.


Reason #3

Another consequence of the huge workload at schools and colleges is that quite often students do not find enough time to explore their research paper topics from cover to cover. Not only the students get poor grades for their research papers and leave loads of information beyond their attention, but also find the assignment dull and tedious.

If you do want to have the outstanding knowledge and derive satisfaction from your research paper, start writing it in summer. You can explore the research paper topics in libraries, figure out which one is to your liking, come out with research paper ideas or make some other preparations.

If you continue the work on the research paper on a regular basis during the studies you will get the desired effect, namely a deep knowledge of the subject under consideration.

Remember that knowledge you gain today is a nice investment in your future.


Reason #4

Do you know that people with books in their hands seem to be more intelligent, smart and broad-minded? Actually, they create a far more positive image than those who dislike reading. Why am I saying this? It’s just that you can turn this fact to your own advantage.

Let us make it out. Your major tool in writing a research paper is either a book, or a note book. Take them everywhere with you and who knows, probably, they will help you meet your sweetheart or just make a useful acquaintance. Moreover, people around will pay more attention to you, which can greatly help boosting your self-esteem.

So, arm yourself with a sophisticatedly-named book, like “Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London”, and be sure to knock out the person you are aiming at :-)


Reason #5

Last but not least, writing a research paper in summer can boost your confidence and self-esteem greatly. Think what a great sensation it is when you know that your summer was not spent in vain and you managed to overcome your own laziness. It may inspire you to other challenges that will lead to great success.

Moreover, your parents, friends, and teachers will be astonished when you will be boasting of your achievements on the 1st of September. Surely, you will impress everyone with your thoughtful approach to your academic writing.

Hope these reasons assured you of the importance of writing a research paper in summer and you will spend the rest of your vacation with your future research paper in your mind.

Of course, it doesn’t mean that you should beaver away at studies round the clock. Summer is still summer. It is meant for fun and recreation. Still, make sure that you spend the vacation with some benefit for your studies, namely writing a research paper!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

5 Reasons Every Writer Needs a Web Site

If you are serious about your writing, in fact even if you aren't, you need a web site. Let me repeat that -- every writer needs a web site!

If you don't believe me then here are five very good reasons why:

1. Your web site can serve as your showcase and portfolio. It can include your biography, experience, and writing credits as well as copies of your work or better yet--links to your published work. So many queries today are done electronically and it much easier to simply include an url for editors or prospective clients to visit than to try to attach copies and/or a long list of urls on various locations.

2. Your web site can be your creative outlet. Perhaps your bread-and-butter writing is in the financial field but you really enjoy writing poetry or about fly fishing. Then you can publish those pieces on your web site to receive exposure or simply to reward yourself for a job well done. Who knows, you might even find yourself with some new paying assignments in these fields!

3. You can demonstrate your expertise in your particular field or fields by demonstrating the number of articles you have written in that area as well as any experience and/or education you may offer in this field. Listing your articles or putting a selection on your site will get your name linked with various key words surrounding that topic in the search engines.

4. For writers, your name is your brand and you need to continually have your name out there and furthermore you need to have it connected with your areas of expertise. The more articles and essays you have published on the web then the more times your name gets out there for readers, clients, and editors. Owning your own web site (deannamascle.com for example) is like owning your own billboard on the internet superhighway.

5. You can earn money with your own web site and your writing even without getting paid by publications. Place Pay-Per-Click ads on your site or sign up for some affiliate programs to advertise on your site. Depending on the size of your site and the traffic you attract this may become a major new source of income for you!

I hope I've convinced you that a web site can be an asset to your writing career, but I must warn you that web mastering can be very addictive to us creative types. Don't let it overtake your writing time. Start out simple and build over time so you can work out a good balance between your writing and your webmaster chores.


Friday, May 13, 2011

4 Hassle-Free Ways To Write How-To Articles

You want to get your e-mail newsletter started, but you don't want to be burdened with writing articles every time you turn around. Fact is, writing how-to articles isn't that much of a hassle once you have a system for it.

Creating short, how-to articles allows you to:

- connect with your audience

- position yourself as an expert, and

- increase sales

Bottom line: Give clients information they need and you'll be the first person they'll think of when they run into challenges.

Consider creating a template for your e-mail newsletter articles that will fit the needs of your audience. Ask yourself if they want detailed information, or if they're happy receiving broad ideas that will allow them to tailor the information to meet their specific needs.

If they want specific info, you could always include a teaser paragraph in your newsletter and then provide a link at the bottom of that paragraph. The link can lead to more detailed information about the subject your that audience is interested in.

Once you understand the needs of your audience, place your information in article format. Here's a system I've often used to produce quick, informative articles.


1. Begin with an identifier paragraph

This is an introduction to the subject. Just let people know exactly what you're getting at.


2. Tell them why they should be interested

This is where you just get into the reader's world. You will what you're talking about help them do their jobs better? In essence, that's all people really want to know.


3. Give short, realistic pieces of advice

You have so much to say it's hard to fit it into short bits of info, but do it you must. Otherwise you'll lose your audience's attention. Try to stick to the points that have the most impact or the ones that are completely opposite to what people in your industry are currently doing.


4. Wrap it up

One of my mentors used to always say to me, "Tell 'em what you're going to tell 'em. Then tell 'em. Then tell 'em what you told 'em." No, he wasn't senile. His advice actually worked. At the end of every article I just wrap up what I've said by reviewing the key points of the article. It's called a "takeaway." What's the one thing you want the audience to take away from your article and implement in their daily work lives? Once you've answered that question, you have your final paragraph.

Whatever you do, keep it short and simple. Sure we may want to use sophisticated language if your audience craves that, but you'd be surprised. When reading e-mail especially, readers won't mind short, concise words and phrases. And that's especially true if those words and phrases add more to the bottom line and/or help them become more efficient.