Internet Authors Aren't Dummies

by: Mike Scantlebury


There are plenty of people out there who've written a book. Maybe you're one of them. Maybe you've thought of trying to get it published, (not on the internet, but with a real, live, bricks-and-mortar publisher). OK. First step? You need advice. You trot along to your local bookshop and start looking along the shelves until you find titles like 'Getting Published for Dummies' and 'Seeing Your Book in Print for Complete Fools'. Trouble is, there is no way on earth that anybody can write a formula for getting your book published by Traditional Publishers that works every time, and you will be sorely disappointed.

You see, getting published generally falls into three stages. First is Writing the Book. Ah, right now, you've hit problems. Sure, the advice 'for dummies' will be all about Plot, and Tone, and Point of View, but the fact is that this will vary according to what you want to write. If it's a hard-boiled detective mystery, you might choose to have tough, no-nonsense characters from the streets, talking in the local argot, swearing and blaspheming their way through life. If you want to create a Mills and Boon romance, on the other hand, you need to drop the bad language, the 'attitude', and find some sympathetic people with everyday problems to write about. So, when the advice is 'Make sure your dialogue is sparkling, witty and pithy', who are we talking about here? Does that advice apply to the type of story you're trying to create? When the advice is 'Keep your descriptions short and to the point', does that work every time, in every situation? No, the 'advice' is way, way too general, well-meaning, and, ultimately, vague and inappropriate.


Writers who find their way through this maze will then have to move on to Stage Two. This involves Preparing your Manuscript for Publication. Ah, now we are on much safer ground. This is the one time in the whole process when you can be absolutely accurate about what to do. The fact is that every publisher will want to see a manuscript neatly typed, with no spelling mistakes, on one side of A4 only, and with separated pages. That's right. No ifs, no buts. Don't think you can send in your handwritten material – it won't get looked at, and don't think you can print on both sides of the page to save paper. They won't accept it. These are 'Rules' that we can all agree on. For once.

Now we move on to Stage 3, Submitting your Manuscript to Publishers. Which publishers? This is where the advice gets kind of vague. 'Choose a suitable publisher' seems fairly easy to understand. Don't send your novel about drug-fuelled crime warlords to Mills and Boon, but don't send them the one about gay cowboys either! After that, it's hard to tell. You can look in your local bookshop (again) and see what each publisher has out now, but don't forget that these 'new' books were over a year in the making. What that publisher is looking at today may be completely different to what they published then. So, it's rather hit and miss, then? Yes, it is, and the 'Dummies' book will be full of true, but rather unhelpful anecdotes, about how various authors got published, often against the odds and unexpectedly. At the end of the day, you can 'try and try again'. Maybe it will work.

No, most authors are not 'Dummies' and don't need to be lectured at. But reading a book about getting published by Traditional Publishers is a bit like reading a book on 'Roulette for Dummies' or, you know, that really good one on 'Winning the Lottery Without even Having to Buy a Ticket'. If you want something more certain, take your manuscript and log on to a print-on-demand site like Lulu.com where you can upload your material, print off a few copies and make a start on 'being a published author', not least because yes, you do then have a book in print. After that, it will be less nerve-racking taking the traditional route and posting off your precious creation to publishers, because at least you will have had the feeling of what it's like to hold a book in your hand with your name on the cover and your story on the pages. Traditional Publishers can't guarantee that will happen – ever – and no advice for would-be authors, however well-meaning, can ensure success either. Only the internet can, and that applies to everybody, 'dummy' or normal person.



About The Author
Mike Scantlebury is an Internet Author, with 10 novels, numerous stories and songs to his credit. Look for his videos on YouTube too. The books are on the web, at his own sites and others. You can get a flavour at his download site, check out some chapters and choose to take away however many you want. Log on to http://www.mikescantlebury.biz >>Read more...

Writing Tip: A Word on "That"

by: Lisa Silverman


Once in a while I am called upon to edit or proofread a manuscript that makes a particular mistake with great frequency, and I’m reminded to tell you all to avoid aforementioned mistake. Today I am helping to rescue an author who had difficulty knowing when to include or omit the ever-present but little-considered word “that.”

I refer to “that” not when used as a pronoun (”That was a great party”), adjective (”I prefer that website”), or adverb (”He wasn’t that fat”). Usage in those cases is more straightforward, although the word can perhaps be replaced by a more interesting or descriptive one.

The more troublesome function of “that” is as a conjunction, usually introducing a subordinate clause. It’s troublesome because in many cases, it’s perfectly acceptable to use “that”—-and perfectly acceptable not to. You should be able to recognize when it makes a difference, and why.

Example:
"Peter told Paula that she looked beautiful."
"Peter told Paula she looked beautiful."

Economy of words being important to me, I would choose the latter sentence. It conveys the same information without being unclear. However, eliminating “that” can sometimes affect the clarity of a sentence, and while you’re being your own editor, clarity should trump even the economy of words. When the clause being introduced follows a transitive verb, the introductory “that” can often prevent a misreading of the subject of the clause as the object of the verb, as in this example:

"She trusted that Ken had been faithful."
"She trusted Ken had been faithful."

In this case, go with the first sentence. Why? While the meaning of the second sentence will be clear to most readers by the time they arrive at the period, they will first find themselves reading this: “She trusted Ken.” And we don’t want our readers to be confused for even the millisecond that it takes them to get from “Ken” to “had.” Because confusion creates distance.

This is another one of those little tricks you can use to address both wordiness and lack of clarity in your writing. Look for “that” when you’re rewriting, and make sure it’s there when it should be and gone when it’s unnecessary. And that will be that.


About The Author
Lisa Silverman is a freelance book editor and works in the copyediting department at one of New York's most prestigious literary publishing houses. She has also worked as a ghostwriter and a literary agent representing both book authors and screenwriters. She founded http://www.BeYourOwnEditor.com in order to provide writers with free advice on both writing and the publishing business. >>Read more...

Professional Article Writing, From Hobby To Income

by: Brian Ankner


In the art of writing there are several areas or levels of expertise. We will go over a few of them and find out where you would like to end up in the world of professional article writing.

The hobby blogger writes to tell stories of what they have seen, read or about an experience they had at some sort of event, online or off. The hobby writer rarely uses a spellchecker and their posts usually reflect the innocence of a novice writer.

The casual writer is the more serious blogger or website owner that tries to convey a story, write a review or share knowledge in their field of expertise. They will have several sites or blogs in areas surrounding their life and occupations, often times posting in several other peoples blogs or forums daily. Whether they know it or not, they are actually grooming themselves to be a great writer.

The advanced writer supplies content for others in the way of articles, white papers and reports after doing research in that particular field and composing relevant, targeted information about the subject. They may get compensated for the material or submit the articles to directories for distribution for SEO reasons or to establish themselves in the market as an authority for sales purposes.

Professional writers get paid well for their efforts. Sometimes in the tens of thousands for a high conversion sales letter, documentary, biography, or book. They are the syndicated columnists, feature story authors in magazines and the ever popular technical manual composers. They will often have pen names to protect their identity and can be ghost writers giving up all rights to the project for compensation.

In the advanced and profeessional areas, writers are sought after mostly due to the fact that not everyone can convey their thoughts and ideas well, let alone write them down in the proper format or storyline. Hence the growing need for writers.

In the online world thousands of websites and blogs are being created every day and the one common theme between them all is they will need content written.

The majority of all websites are about a company or service, the balance are for selling products either physical or digital. A small percentage of sites are purely informational and are not monetarily driven like the .gov sites and some .org sites.

Almost all offline companies that want a website created will hire it done. A golden opportunity for writers. Just plug in with a few website creation companies and you will have a nice part time freelance writing job.

Online marketers trying to sell products will try to write their own sales pages for the small or low cost products but when it comes to the high end market they will inevitably seek out a professional to be able to convert as many leads as possible thus reducing their cost to sale ratio.

This is where the advanced and professional writer comes in to the play and are eagerly sought after.

An advanced writer can work on an almost endless variety of projects. A writer can either focus on an area of expertise, or write a greater variety of general knowledge articles. The going rate for quality articles in the 500-700 word range is $15.00-$25.00 each depending on the quantity ordered. Not bad considering and article can be made in less than an hour for the groomed writer. A nice paying part time job and a respectable full time income when you build up your client base.

As more high end products and services come online the professional writer can develop an awesome stream of income when they have proven themselves in the market. I know many of the top writers for the online world and it is usually a six month wait before they can get to your project unless you have very deep pockets.

Most of the professional writers for online copy easily exceed six figures a year and rarely do they get a blister on their finger from the keypad!

For the beginner there are many resources for developing the skill of writing. There are workshops, seminars, courses, reference books, and connection with other writers. I currently subscribe to many copywriters RSS feeds so I can study their style. Every day will become part of a your training. Every minute at the keyboard adds to your store of information, ideas, topics, methods and style.

A writer is not a writer until they put words to paper or screen and this is the application of the training that you will have acquired over the years. Yes I said years, it takes time to get good at anything worthwhile.

Usually, most of us see the quality of our work going up as we ramp up our productivity. The old saying is "the first one is the hardest" and it plays true in writing also. My first article had to have taken at least four hours or more and the end result was nothing to be proud of! After a while and the desire to get better, it now takes less than an hour to write a 600 word article, research included.

Article writing is an art form - not only must you be continuously creative, but you also must have the desire to continue. As long as you have an ounce of creativity you will be able to become a good writer.

Eventually, you'll get to the point where the discipline, the passion, and the experience will all come together and your skill as a writer will either produce a nice income or the sites and blogs you create will get highly ranked from the quality content.


About The Author
Brian Ankner has been writing articles and website content for quite some time now and has created a site dedicated to helping aspiring artists blossom into great writiers. For the resources that he uses, go to http://www.topshelfarticles.com/Professional_Article_Writing.html and pick up the tools to start your publishing career. >>Read more...

Writing Articles - Can put money in your pocket

by: John Arrington


Writing articles has one purpose and that is to generate traffic, not to be written as a sales letter.

Writing and submitting articles can generate huge amounts of traffic and create a very nice income for you, if done correctly.

If you are starting a Home Business and want to make money online than articles are the way to go. Why? Because

traffic generated from submitting articles is all targeted traffic. Because those who search online for information click on your article are searching for what you have to offer.

To see the amounts of traffic and sells needed to become successful online you must write at least one article a day.

More the better you must have at least 200 or more articles submitted to top quality article Directories before you start seeing results from your efforts.

The process is slow at first and than in about six months you'll start to notice an increase in traffic and sells generated from all those articles you have submitted.

Just stay focused and continue writing more and more articles and you'll reap the rewards later, in some cases for years to come.

There is money to be made writing and submitting articles. If you don't give up and quit.

If you are looking for a quick buck, writing and submitting articles is not the answer. You must be committed for the long haul. And sooner or later you'll profit big.

NOTE: Work hard now and relax later. Or work hard all your life and have nothing to show for it.

Copyright © 2007 & Beyond All Rights Reserved.

This article may be distributed freely on your website and in your ezines, as long as this entire article, copyright notice, links and the resource box are unchanged.



About The Author
John Arrington has 12 years experience in the marketing business. And has helped countless of people to become successful. Blog site: http://jarrington.blogspot.com/

If you want to learn how I do it. I just released a new ebook loaded with all the techniques you'll ever need to know about making money submitting articles. It's called "Article Marketing Masterminds" Get it here: http://tiptopwebsite.com/johna >>Read more...

Ten Ways to Write Great Blog Posts That Get Attention

by: Courtland Bovee


Millions of blogs fight for readership online (over 75 million by some counts), with thousands more being created every day. Making yours stand above the rest may seem like a daunting task, but here are ten suggestions for making your blog posts stand out from the crowd.

1. Write each post title so it grabs the reader's attention. It is the first thing someone reads, and it should get your reader's attention right away. Your title should both pique the reader's interest and be informative. Do not write "Business Writing Advice"; instead, say "The Best-Kept Secret to Reducing Your Business Writing Worries." Longer titles have the advantage of describing in detail what your post is about; 8-12 words are a good range.


2. Keep sentences short and clear. A little goes a long way. Readers are busy people and they will not spend hours detangling complex syntax or sifting through blocks of text. Also, use strong language. Start a new paragraph every few sentences, and limit each post to 250 words, if possible. If you cannot write it in under 250 words, split it into two entries.

3. Break up the text. Use numbered lists, bullet points, and subheadings to make your posts easy to scan. Lots of white space on the page is a good thing-it allows your reader to take mental breaks and let the knowledge soak in. In addition, with the inevitable clutter of banner ads and side text, this technique puts some distance between your writing and all those distractions.

4. Keep current. No one wants to read old news. Your job is to stay up-to-date so your readers do not have to themselves. Read newspapers. Scour the web for references. For example, if you write a blog about business communication, subscribe to Google News Alerts using keywords related to the field, such as blogs, podcasting, instant messaging, business letters, memos, and business reports, so you will always be well informed. Posting items from last month or last year will lose your reader's interest faster than you can say "Enron."

5. Be bold. Timidity is an easy path to anonymity. Do not be afraid to create and state your opinions. Of course, there are some situations in which objectivity rules-but you have to give people a reason to read this blog by you and not by the person next door.

6. Be accurate. If you make a statement, be prepared to back it up. Know what your sources are and quote them accurately. Misinformation spreads like wildfire online; do not be the spark that sets it off or the wind that fans it.

7. Contribute to the conversation. Links are great-but then what? Do not just post links to the same tired sites, offer your reader something new. Contribute to the conversation. Your goal is to be the site to which everyone else is linking-so you had better have something worth writing about.

8. Stay focused. Once you have defined the theme of your blog, stick to it. A blog about piggy banks has no business posting about the latest innovation in alternative energy. Such a deviance will only confuse your reader and chip away at your virtual authority.

9. Use key words liberally. Keywords are, well, key. Harness your blog's search engine potential by dousing your title and post with effective keywords that will help interested parties find your page in the vast, muddled blogosphere. This is one of the most important elements of getting your blog read-go at it with gusto.

10. Be consistent. Keep a schedule and stick to it. Post frequently-at least several times per week if you want to increase your potential of attracting new readers. Let your blog languish for weeks without updates and your audience will move on to fresher ground.

Maintaining an informative blog that people want to read takes hard work and good writing skills. Find what makes your writing unique-and flaunt it for all it is worth.


About The Author
Courtland L. Bovee, one of America's leading instructors in clear and effective communication, co-authors several leading college-level texts with John V. Thill, a prominent communications consultant and current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Global Communication Strategies. Their website, Business Communication Headline News, the #1 business communication site on the web, is at http://www.businesscommunicationheadlinenews.com
>>Read more...

What Writers Must Know about Internet Commerce

by: Jo Ann LeQuang

Let's assume you're a writer and you want to make money by writing. In the olden days (last year, maybe) you would think up an article idea, hammer a few paragraphs out, and then check with some editors if they were interested in buying a finished product.

If you were lucky, you sold it. If you were not exactly unlucky, the editor rejected your idea but paid you to go out and write something else. And the most common response was a great big bunch of nothing. No response. No answer. No sale.

You have probably heard that a writer can make money on the Internet, but you're probably thinking, "How on earth is that possible?" After all, just about every job offer that comes to writers for Internet type stuff pays less than even a skinflint magazine editor would have paid ten years ago for the same material. The big difference is that the Internet publishers seeking writing support want their content virtually overnight and the old-fashioned editors did not mind giving you a few weeks.

There are two ways to make money on the Internet and they mirror the ways people make money in the brick-and-mortar business world. First, you can sell something. Whether it's ceiling fans or candles or airline tickets, you can make money if you have a product that you can trade to people for cash.

The other way you can make money online is by selling advertising. The best models for this include TV programs, magazines, and newspapers. Take a TV program; it's content that is offered for free to people who want to see it. A newspaper isn't exactly free, but it contains a lot of high-value content from around the world and it's offered at a very nominal fee (less than it costs to print it, I bet) to just about anyone who wants it. They'll even bring it to your house every morning! Who else will deliver for a product that does not even cost a dollar-for no extra shipping and handling fee?

Then there are magazines. They cost more but they're still a great buy considering the content you get, the articles, the pictures, and the sheer volume of printed pages.

So how do these enterprises make money? They do it by offering content that people want and then selling advertisement. TV shows make money because they sell some of their viewing time to advertisers who offer commercials. Newspapers and magazines do take in some subscription money, but the thing that keeps them in business is ad revenue.

And how do advertisers manage to survive? Smart businesses know the best opportunities for their particular type of advertisements. There's a whole science to that. If a well-placed smart commercial on a certain TV show increases sales, then everybody wins. The company earns money because the ad draws customers; the TV show earns money because it sells time (and eyeballs) to the advertiser.

You can build a website that features lots of top-quality content and then sell advertising on that site.

Now you can't just throw up any old site (and the operative word here is "throw up") and figure that advertising will work. You need a quality product. You also have to offer something of value.

That's where the good news comes in: you're a writer.

You can create your own online magazine of sorts. The goal is to attract people interested in the same subject to look at your site. There's a whole science to that, too. But if you do it right, people on your site may be interested in ads on related subjects.

The Internet is all about niches. Let's say you want to write about dogs. Bad idea. It's too broad for the Internet. With the Internet you have to think narrow. You could write about dog training. Or adopting poodles from the pound. Or photographing dogs.

The idea is that your highly targeted information will resonate with a particular subset of readers. With billions of Internet search a year, you don't need to have broad appeal to get a big audience.

Then you sell advertising. Now in the traditional business model, that meant pounding the pavement, talking to potential advertisers, and often working with them to get an ad finalized. Then you had to hound them for payment.

On the Internet, you can sign up with search providers to put ads on your site. These ads (offered by the big search engines) use electronic algorithms to automatically match ads by content to your site so that your dog training site won't offer ads for gastric bypass surgery. You don't sell a single ad: you merely clear some room for Google or Yahoo to put ads on your site. They match the ads to your content.

In the print world of our ancient ancestors, an advertiser paid if his ad ran, regardless of whether anyone responded. Internat ads work on a different model; they run for free and the advertiser pays only when somebody clicks on them. This is what is meant when they say advertisers pay for clicks.

The good news is that you can find qualified advertisers and start generating ad revenues from a website pretty quickly without ever having direct contact with your advertisers.

You can also get advertisers the old-fashioned way by selling space on your site to individual vendors. Those arrangements are worked out individually.

Savvy Internet entrepreneurs can make money either selling products (including electronic products like e-books or online courses and now even online audios) or selling advertising or a bit of both. There are strategies for what to use and how, but those are the basics.

So what exactly does this mean for us writers? Writers need to start thinking about what they write not just in terms of how to tell the story, but how to best position the content in the marketplace.

If you can set up a wholesale arrangement with local or even international vendors, you can sell products using a "shopping cart" type website, lots of photos, and some cool product descriptions.

If you have the expertise (or can get it) and can write about how to beat a speeding ticket, land a job working on a cruise ship, or sell your home without a real estate agent, you can write electronic content (e-book, e-course, other materials that are delivered online including audios and videos) and sell that.

First, of course, you have to understand how these kinds of enterprises actually function. Even some off-the-wall business angles are good to study, because the same principles always apply. You target a specific niche market, develop content to attract visitors, and then sell either advertising, products, or both.


About The Author
Jo Ann LeQuang writes for a living. If you would like to write for a living or write for a better living, find out more of what she has to say at http://www.workingonlinewriter.com .
>>Read more...