A World Without Readers

What would writers do without readers? As the old saying goes, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it fall, did it really fall?” “If words appear on a page and no one reads them do they really exist?

Well, yes. Unlike the trees in the forest, books in libraries all over the world contain the words of thousands of writers. But if no one reads them, what good are they?

Words are a writer’s stock in trade, but many beginning writers seem to think that just the act of writing is enough. To complete the communication process, all writing needs to be read.

It used to be that writers were limited to the printed page. If you wanted more than one person to read your work, you had to get it published. Competition in the publication arena is tough, so beginning writers had to spend much of their time pitching story ideas to editors. And while this is still a big part of the market, there are lots of other possibilities. And as the slogan for Mastercard says, “Master the Possibilities.”

Besides print publishing there are lots of other venues where readers can read your work. However, it’s important to understand what type of reader you’ll find in each. Don’t go looking to readers to provide criticism, constructive or otherwise. You should leave that to other writers—people who know writing.

The average reader reads for enjoyment or information. They don’t read to give feedback to the writer. In fact, most people don’t read in detail. Writers, on the other hand, should know how to read like a writer.

So it’s important to know your readers. Let’s say you post something you wrote on Facebook. People generally use Facebook as a quick way to catch up on what’s happening with their friends, as well as people they don’t know—Facebook calls these people “friends,” also. If you post an article or a very short story in the Notes Section of your Facebook page, chances are that very few people will read it. You could post it directly, but even if you do, most people will just skip over it.

Posting a piece of your writing on a writing Web site or creating a site of your own will guarantee that you get the most readers. Blogs are a good example of this. But readers won’t flock to your site or blog just because you wrote it. You have to promote it. Now this is where Facebook can help. By creating a post that includes a link to your article or short story, readers, many of them accessing Facebook from their smartphones will probably take the time to go there and read—or at least skim over—what you wrote. Blogging programs, like Google’s free Blogger, allow readers to post comments.

By devoting a little time to promoting yourself and your writing on social media—Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.—you’ll be surprised how many readers you can attract from all over the world.

A publisher printed 5,000 copies of a writer’s book, of which only 3,500 sold. That doesn’t necessarily mean that 3,500 readers read the entire book. Some people stop reading after the first chapter. That same writer created a Web site on which he posts articles in his field of interest and now the site gets over 17,000 readers a month. It’s as simple as doing the math. In fact, more people read writing of all kinds online than all the books put together.

So remember, a writer without readers is like a musician without listeners, a teacher without students, a garbage collector without trash. Knowing that someone will be reading what you write will motivate you to write more. Too many beginning writers keep journals in which they're both the writer and reader--the only reader. To be successful as a writer, it's important to write for the reader, not for yourself. And the more readers, the better.

To read more of my articles and book excerpts, please visit my Web site. And to read more articles on freelance writing, grammar, and marketing, go to Writer's Corner.

Promotion, Promotion, Promotion Redux

This week marks the eighth anniversary of this blog. A lot has happened in eight years, both to me and to my writing. For one thing, I’ve moved on to publishing my own magazine, an ezine, or online magazine. And today, the theme of one of the first blogs I wrote on promotion is more relevant than ever. For today, I have the ability to connect to thousands of readers through social media.

In that early blog, I mentioned that in real estate, the motto is "location, location, location." Today, it doesn’t matter where I’m located because people from all over the world can read my work. I’m not longer limited to the readership of one magazine or to only U.S. sales of my books. Instead, thousands of readers can sit back in the comfort of their own homes or vehicles, or any other place, and read the information I post in my online magazine, The Antiques Almanac. In less than two short years, its readership has gone from a modest 3,300 to over 10,000—all thanks to promotion on social media. And a related blog on antiques, "Antiques Q&A," now has over 127,000 views—nearly 5,000 per month—since it began in 2009.

Sure I can rely on published works to get readers, but today, I have so many more opportunities via the Internet. And while the older generation struggles to use computers and occasionally get online, the younger generation has made this as much a part of their life as texting to friends.

And while producing five issues a year of my ezine is a lot of work, I find it more fulfilling than going the regular publishing route. By publishing it online, I’m able to make direct contact with readers, many of whom send me their questions about antiques.

To see how I’m faring in the world of ezines, I did a search the other day and discovered that most are nothing more than blogs or extended blogs. While they may be called ezines, they really aren’t done in an online magazine format. I’ve carefully designed The Antiques Almanac to reflect the type of content found in print magazines but with the added advantage of interaction. I plan each issue around a theme, an idea I got from a print publication I still write for. I try to make the themes relevant to today’s lifestyles and trends but with a connection to history.

I used to produce a short articles about some facet of Christmas that I would post on my business Web site, Writing at Its Best, and also print out and send to friends inside a related Christmas card. I just posted seven articles, all on the theme of an old-fashioned Christmas, to my antiques ezine. I love researching little known facts about holiday traditions and antiques. These articles are a great way to show my readers that I'm thinking about them at holiday time.

All of my sites—all four of them---are how I promote myself to the world. And they've brought in a lot of business over the years. So if you haven't created a site for yourself already, get started. In fact, make it your New Year's resolution.

But I also use Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and LinkedIn extensively to promote both my ezine and my blogs. You can do this, too. Just remember, "promotion, promotion, promotion."

Writing Articles That Get Published

Non-fiction writing is meant to be published. It’s not something that you create to please yourself or your friends. It’s writing that you share with a number of readers, perhaps thousands. Unlike short fiction, which often gets stashed in a drawer incomplete, articles should go straight from your computer to either a print publication or online.

The neat thing about articles is that you can write and publish them even if you’re not planning to write for a living but just want to promote a product or service of yours or your company.

If you’re not writing articles yet, even if you write fiction, here are three reasons you should consider it:

•  They’re an easy way to gain credibility in your subject field.
•  They can drive quality traffic to your Web site or sales page.
•  You can get paid to write them. 

So what’s the secret that all non-fiction writers use to guarantee that their articles get published? You don’t have to have a genie in a bottle granting three wishes to succeed. All you need do is follow these simple steps to prepare yourself before you begin to write.

Choose the right type of article for the purpose.
All articles can be classified in one of these types: advice, how-to, profile, and review. Each has a specific purpose and must be written differently to correspond to its intended purpose. 

Know the direction of your article.
Before you begin, you need to know the direction your article will take. Once you know that, you need to ensure that every word you write supports that direction.

Define the specific thought, feeling, or action you want to stimulate in your readers.
Just like advertising people do when writing good direct-response copy, you want to think about the purpose of your article. Do you want your readers to feel inspired? Visit a Web site or purchase a product? Become more informed on a subject?

Note how your article will help your readers.
This step is similar to defining the benefits of the product or service you’re selling in a sales letter. It’s critical, because along with helping you write the article, the list of benefits will reveal if it’s worthwhile for you to write it. Make a list of the benefits your article will provide your readers. Some people say you should have at least six, but you don’t need to include that many if the ones you do include are strong.

Include useful instruction on your topic.
Identify some type of instruction you can give your readers. Just like with a sales letter, you want to engage them. Everyone likes to learn something new. Useful instruction ensures that that will happen.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that every article you write needs to be a “how-to.” The instruction could just be as simple as explaining how a marketing process works or providing examples of what others do when faced with a similar situation.

Identify how your readers will identify with your article.
It’s important that your readers identify with what you’ve written. Have they been in similar situations? What have you told them that will help them next time? As much as you want to engage your readers, you also want them to identify themselves as people who will benefit from the advice or instructions given in your article.

Answer the questions your readers will ask themselves.
As interactive as Facebook and other social media sites are, readers may find it hard to seek you out to get answers to questions that may arise as they read your article. To help make sure that you include answers to some of the frequently asked questions in your article, you should make a list of them to use as a guide before you begin writing.

The next time you sit down to write an article, create a worksheet for it and fill in the details before you begin writing. Not only will this help you to write your article faster, it will also guarantee that the content will be directed to your readers—and that’s what makes an article publishable.

You’ve Got a Site—Now What?

Okay, so you’ve designed your writer’s Web site or had it done for you, now what? Many people think if they design and launch a Web site that visitors will come. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, it usually takes at least three and sometimes six months for visitors to find your site. Why is that and what can you do about it?

The answer to the first question is simple. In order for people to find your site, they have to see it in search listings, but getting into search listings is no easy task. The extraordinarily long time it takes for your site to appear in search engine results is because it takes time for search engines robots to crawl your site. The next time you view your new site, imagine little things moving all over your pages. They’re recording keywords in the content and what the content is about. Then they send that information back to the mother ship, let’s say Google, so the search engine can create a listing that appears in visitors’ searches.

But once search engines have found your site, things will change and visitors will start going to it. However, by promoting your site through Email and social media, you can get visitors to go to it even before search engines list it. It’s imperative to promote your site from the very first minute it appears online. And don’t stop—ever.

In this era of social media, it’s important to let readers know where else you’re active online. After you get your Web site up and running, be sure to create a professional Facebook Page. This isn’t the personal page that most people use, but one that shows you as a writing professional. It’s the type of page people “like.” You’ll have to work to get people to like your new Facebook Page, and this could take some time. But once you’ve created your Facebook Page, you’ll be able to download the code for widgets to put on your site, so that visitors can go to it.

Unlike your Web site, your Facebook Page is more to show fans what’s happening currently in your professional career. Don’t, as so many book authors do, create a Facebook Page for your book. Rather create a page for your writing business on which you can showcase your writing, no matter what kind you do.

If you have notable media coverage, good reviews, positive testimonials, or a significant following on a social media site, such as Instagram or Twitter, tell your site visitors about it. In fact, you may want to create a media page on which you post press releases and links to articles and reviews about you and your work. Doing so will show visitors that spending time on your site is worth it.

Give your visitors a reason to come back. Just telling them you’re a writer isn’t enough. Just promoting your book isn’t enough. You must offer them something. Don’t just post articles or stories you’ve written. Instead, choose them for subject matter that may be interesting to your readers, so they’re then actively reading your work. Inform and entertain them.

If visitors reach the bottom of a page on your site, that means they’re very engaged and will likely go to other pages on your site. Use this as an opportunity to add a call to action, such as an email newsletter sign-up or the sale of your book. If you don’t engage them first, you won’t sell anything.

To maximize the effectiveness of your website, install a site analytics tool. Google Analytics is a free and popular tool available to anyone with a Google account. Once you install it, you can  immediately collect data on your Web site traffic and visitors. It will also tell you which pages of your site are the most popular. This will help you plan for future additions to your site. And most importantly, your site statistics will tell you how people get to and use your site.

About 20–30 percent of your site traffic will come from mobile or tablet devices. Is your site optimized for those visits? While it’s important to keep cell phone users in mind, don’t design your site specifically for them, or for that matter, for any particular Web browser. Design your site for the majority of users. Owners of too many sites today are redesigning their sites just for cell phone use which takes away from how they look on a wide computer screen.

Remember, you don’t have to launch and perfect everything on your site at once. In fact, doing so is against the grain of the digital era. Start small but smart, and build your skills and presence over time. Customize and add more complex functionality as you get more comfortable with the technology, and as you develop specific skills and career goals that require the investment.

Designing Your Writer’s Web Site

As a freelance writer today, your Web site is an important part of your marketing plan. It will be your online home, the place where hundreds and possibly thousands of people will get to know you. It’s the place where you can present your products and grow your business by obtaining more work. Once you purchase a domain and choose a hosting service, you’re ready to begin designing your site.

Whether you design your site yourself or hire someone to do it for you, you’ll need to know what to include. Professional Web designers may know how to put material onto the Internet, but you can bet that very few know what’s needed on a writer’s site.

Every Web site contains the same basic parts—a Home Page, an About Page, Content pages, a Resources or Links Page, and a Contact Page. The Home Page is usually the first page a visitor sees. It’s the introductory page to your site and connects through a navigation menu to the other pages of the site.

The next most important page on your site is the About Page. Here, you’ll present yourself—why you chose to be a writer, what publishing experience you’ve had, and your social media connections. It’s important to let readers know where else you’re active online. You’ll also want to have a professional looking photo of yourself on the page.

Another important page is the Contact Page of your site. This should include ways in which visitors to your site—either editors or readers or both—can contact you. Here, you’ll post your preferred methods of cotnact—regular mail by street address, phone number for home or cell, and Email address.

A page which you may want to include is a Resource Page, which contains links to other sites that are of interest to you or are related to the subjects you write about. Many writers think that they don’t need outside links because they’ll take visitors away from their site. Actually, these links help visitors to find your site. The right links help to raise your rankings on search engines like Google which enables readers to find you faster. The rest of your site contains pages of your content—books, article listings, etc.

Before you decide on what your site will look like, you need to figure out its purpose. What do you want your site to do? Do you want to connect with your readers or do you want to connect with your editors, or perhaps both. Your site needs to have a direction and a unity that visitors will eventually associate with you.

First and foremost, your name should appear as an integral part of your Home Page. Under it you may want to add a tagline that clearly describes the type of writing you do.

You may also want to include an Email newsletter signup. Whether you send a newsletter once a year or once a week, you’ll want to stay in touch with readers who visit your site. MailChimp is one email newsletter service that’s free for up to 2,000 names, which helps automate this process for you.

If you write non-fiction, your site should contain a sample list of articles you’ve published. And if you also write non-fiction books, you can either have a book page or a separate page for each book, with links to Amazon.com so that your visitors can easily purchase them. In the beginning, you could easily combine everything into one page.’

If you write fiction, both short stories and novels, you can follow the same as above. You may even want to include a sample short story, one that’s one or two pages long. Novels can be listed much as non-fiction books, but if you write books in a series, then you’ll want to group them by series, with additional separate pages for each book, with a synopsis, reviews, and an excerpt. And always include links to where your work can be read or purchased in both print and digital form.

Depending on what you write, you may have been covered in the media. Create a page with testimonials and links to reviews or articles about you.

One of the biggest mistakes many writers make when developing their site is getting clever with menu listings or pages. Your Web site isn’t the place to get clever. It must be clear and straightforward, with logical navigational links to your various pages. Try to limit your menu to five or seven items. If you have a lot of content, group it into sections, then list the section titles in your Home Page menu. Create a separate menu with items pertaining to that section on the first page of each section, called the Landing Page. And always link back to your Home Page.

Another mistake many writers make is creating a blog page and calling it their Web site. While a blog is on a Web page, it isn’t a Web site. Your site needs to contain the four basic pages, plus various pages containing your content.

Don’t think you have to create all your pages at once. Start with the four basic pages, plus perhaps one page listing your work, then proceed from there. Creating new content keeps search engines happy and brings visitors back.

To learn about a basic Web site design package, check out BBC Web Services.

Next Week: You’ve Got a Site—Now What?

So You Want to Write a Blog - Part 2: Positioning for Success

Location, location, location. That’s the mantra of real estate agents. And it should be your mantra as far as your new blog goes. In this case, it’s not where you post the blog----there are numerous free blogging sites that you can use. Instead, it’s how you position your blog among the other blogs in your category.

So before you do anything, you’ll need to do some surfing. No, you don’t need to go put your swimsuit on and get your boogy board ready. But you will need to spend some time surfing the Web for other blogs in the subject category that you’ve chosen. When you find several you like, study them. Don’t just read the latest post, but check back through the archives and find the thread that keeps all of the posts in line with the bloggers goal.

And that brings us to the next step. You’ll need to define your goals for your new blog. What do you hope to accomplish with your blog? What type of blog will it be? (See last week’s post). Are you trying to establish yourself as an expert in your field? Are you trying to promote your business? Or are you blogging for fun and to share your ideas and opinions? Write down your short and long term goals for your blog. What do you aim to gain from it in six months or a year. Then design, write and promote your blog to meet your goals.

What are your target audience’s expectations? The design and content will vary according to your audience. And even before you post another entry, your audience will size up your blog. If you don’t meet its expectations, they’ll move on without a second thought.

Once you begin posting your blog entries, you’ll need to be consistent. Nothing screws up a blog more than when the blogger jumps around and rambles on and on. Your blog represents a specific message and image to your audience. Your blog's design and content should consistently communicate your blog's image and message. Being consistent allows you to meet your audience's expectations and create a secure place for them to return to again and again.

Another stumbling block to gaining a good audience is not regularly updating your blog. If you fail to update regularly, your audience will perceive your blog as a static Web page. Your blog should be anything but static. It should be a vibrant living thing that’s also timely.

To garner a good position for your blog among your audience, it’s imperative that you invite your readers to join in a two-way conversation. Ask them to leave comments. Pose questions from those comments that will solicit more comments. Continue the conversation by leaving comments on other blogs inviting new readers to visit your blog. If you don’t gain loyalty from your audience, then your blog will fail.

Much of your blog's success will depend on how you promote it on the social media networks. Find bloggers in your subject area and comment on their blogs.

Look for enhancements for your blog. There are plenty of plug-ins and features available. But don’t overload your blog with gimmicks. Try holding a contest, for example. It’s a simple way to engage readers. Take the time to research new tools and features, and keep an eye on the latest news from the blogosphere.

Remember, your blog is an extension of yourself. Your loyal readers will keep coming back to hear what you have to say. Inject your personality into your blog and adapt a consistent tone for your posts. People don't read blogs simply to get the news. They could read a newspaper for news reports. Instead, people read blogs to get bloggers' opinions on the news, the world, and more. Don't blog like a reporter. Blog like you're having a conversation with each of your readers.

If you follow the old real estate developer adage, "If you build it, they will come," you’ll surely be disappointed. Sure, some readers will find your blog and read it a few times. Others will stick around for the long haul and read your every post. But developing a successful blog requires hard work by creating compelling content on your blog as well as working outside of your blog to promote it and develop a community around it.

Writing for Web Sites

The Internet, the World Wide Web, commonly known as the Web, has changed over the last decade. Originally, a collection of sites that were mostly one way portals, it has grown into a sophisticated communication medium in which writers and readers can interact with each other. And if you think you can take previously printed articles and sell them to online markets, you better think again.

Writing for online publications is a lot different from writing for print. First, they’re mostly written in the second person. That’s because you’re speaking directly to readers—one at a time. So when you use the pronoun “you,” the reader thinks you’re speaking to him or her.

Second, online articles tend to have links. They’re interconnected to other pages on a site or other sites on the Web. But you can’t include too many or your reader will drift off to other sites and not finish reading your article.

Before you begin writing for any sites, you should set out to learn as much as you can about Web writing. Just as you studied magazines to learn about their style, length, and approach, so you should study Web sites to learn their style, length, and approach to the subject.

The first rule of Web writing is to write tight—yep, that’s right, put the girdle around that article. Online readers, unlike print readers, aren’t there for the duration. They’re busy people who have a little time to see what’s happening. So they surf fast, and read as little as they can. You’ve got to say what you mean and mean what you say in as few words as possible. Cut right to the chase. (Whew! The clichés are certainly flying here.) Web articles tend to be shorter and more to the point than print pieces. The majority of online blog posts and articles fall in the 500-800 word range. If you write pieces longer than that, you’re asking for trouble.

And since online readers don’t linger over a page or an article for too long, you should use subheads, bullets, and numbered lists to help them find what they want fast. Today’s readers use various devices to access Web content—cell phones, tablets, laptops—so you also need to be aware of how your article will look on the page. Break the content into shorter sections with clear headings to make it easy for Web readers to browse.

Although all articles demand compelling leads, online article leads need to be especially so. If you’re going to hook online readers, you need to do it quickly because their attention span is 10 seconds, so it’s even more important to make that first sentence and first paragraph really engaging.

It used to be that just about anything could be posted on a site and readers would consider it. Not anymore. The competition among sites is fierce, so today’s Web developers insist that their sites have a style all their own—and that’s not just for the layout and graphics, but for the content, too. Good Web content has a strong voice and direction tailored to appeal to a specific  reader. Note the style of the text on the site for which you wish to write and imitate it as nearly as possible in your own piece. Learn the site’s voice and tone. And note the topics that it covers regularly. Some sites offer style guidelines the way magazines do.

In order to successfully write for the Web, you need to know something about search engine optimization, or SEO. SEO makes websites more “visible” for search engines by including specific keywords in articles. You can’t guess at these. In fact, most Web site editors will give you a list of keywords that they want you to work into your article. It’s important to include them subtly so they don’t stand out. Sometimes, it may be difficult to figure out how to include them, but get creative. Site editors like it when you do.

Writing for Web sites usually means you’ll be given tight deadlines. That’s because everyone wants everything yesterday. With the immediacy of the Web, you may be expected to write a piece in less than 24 hours. Deadlines for print are much longer and more forgiving. Web sites need lots of content—and everyone wants it to be original. Realistically, that’s a tall order. It means you have to begin from scratch every time you write an article. All sites want exclusivity. Again, let’s get real. That’s no way to run a business. And while Web developers may get rich from advertising income, they’re mighty stingy when parting with that money to pay you for your time and effort. In fact, many site owners want everything for free. And that’s the downside of the Web.

You as a writer can only make a profit from Web writing if you’re able to sell pieces again and again, just as in print. Unfortunately, the Web hasn’t gotten there yet. Even though there are millions of online users, every site thinks they should have them all.

So pay will be pretty paltry in most cases. Web developers expect the world for a penny, so to speak. But because the volume is so great, you can make a decent amount of income if you’re efficient. That means getting your writing routine down—no lingering over a draft, no extensive re-writing, no over-editing. Learn to write each piece with a 1,2,3 attitude—(1) think out your piece and plan it, (2) write the draft, (3) edit the piece. With all your information at hand, you could even do all of that in an hour. But that’s cutting it pretty close.

To make things easier, consider using information from articles you’ve already written. Recast topics from research you have on hand. Save the heavy duty pieces for sites that are willing to pay you for your time and expertise. Don’t waste your energy for $10-30. And if a Web developer balks when you say no. Tell him, “You get what you pay for.”

Practice Makes Perfect

When it comes to writing, practice makes perfect. The more you write, the better you’ll become.

You may have to force yourself to write every day, but by doing so. Writing will become routine. Sooner or later, you’ll be able to write about anything at a moment’s notice. Putting words on paper or in a computer will become an enjoyable process instead of a much feared drudgery.

Most beginning writers want to write, but what to write may be the problem, keeping them from doing it often.

Frankly, writing without readers—that is, writing for yourself—is pointless. And while keeping a journal may be good for keeping yourself on track, it does little for your writing skills because there’s no interaction from readers.

It’s much like talking to your self. There’s no one listening but you. And communication— whether written or spoken—is a two-way proposition. To communicate you have to have someone on the other end, either a reader or a listener.

Let’s say you’re just starting out on your writing journey. You probably have few, if any, publishing opportunities. So what can you do to practice your craft? Unlike even a decade ago, there are now lots of possibilities out there, thanks to ever-improving technology. “The world is your writing oyster,” to paraphrase an old saying, thanks to the Internet.

However, you have to be careful what you post on it. At the least, you can do daily posts on Facebook or Twitter. In the first instance, Facebook users tend not to read as much as view images. Have you noticed the increased use of “text” images—quotes created on an image to be shared? These and one-sentence tweets don’t make you a writer. No one will be able to judge your writing from such brief examples.

So that brings up blogs. These are a great way to practice your writing. Blogs are a modern, online form of the essay—a piece of writing, like this one, that express your opinion on a topic. Unfortunately, too many blogs are just frequent ramblings of people who think that telling their reader about what they ate for breakfast makes compelling reading. Blogs should be much more than that.

To be successful at blogging, you have to have a purpose. Your blog should inform or entertain and should be shorter rather than longer.  Above all, you should post installments regularly. But just because you’re writing a blog on the Internet, which too many people often view as an informal medium, it doesn’t mean that you should ignore good writing skills. Blogs are an ideal platform for you to practice them.

Another related option is to contribute to other people’s blogs. Many bloggers welcome other writers’ work, plus this also gets your name out on the Web.

Still another opportunity is writing short articles for Web sites. It’s difficult for Web developers to get lots of new content. Many are constantly seeking new work to post on their sites. Write articles on one or more subjects that interest you.

First, however, you’ll need to not only learn to research and write interesting articles but also to word them for the Internet, which is bit different than writing for print publications. These pieces must be as professionally perfect as if you were writing them for a magazine. The downside is that Web developers are notoriously cheap and often expect the world for very little pay or nothing. But at this point, you can afford to write some short pieces to again get your name out there and get some readers.

Finally, there’s self publishing via ebooks. It’s sometimes hard, even for seasoned writers, to realize that ebooks are still books, albeit in digital form. They require all the care and attention a writer should give to any book. This last opportunity may be beyond your reach if you’re just beginning.

Engaging in any of the above writing activities will make you a better writer. But you’ll no doubt have to practice to make your work perfect. 

On the Road Again

Have you dreamed of traveling around the world then writing about your travels and getting paid for it? A lot of beginning writers and lots of other people have done just that. There’s something glamorous about travel writing. You’ll definitely impress your friends when you tell them you’re off to another far-off land. For them, travel comes maybe once or twice a year during vacation time. But to travel whenever it beckons you is to them a dream come true. But is it that easy?

True there’s a touch of glamor surrounding world-journeys-for-pay. Getting started in it isn't all that difficult if you hustle enough, but since 9/11 things have changed, not only because of what happened on that fateful day, but also because the publishing markets have changed.

Fifteen to twenty years ago, most readers got their information about other places from reading articles in magazines and travel guides. Since then the market has drastically shifted to include videos, podcasts, and hundreds if not thousands of Web sites with information on where to go and what to do. So the market for travel articles isn’t what it used to be.

Secondly, for the most part, you’ll make more if you work for minimum wage at McDonald’s than if you traveled the world and wrote travel articles. Have you seen what it costs to travel today? Compare those travel costs with what editors normally pay for travel pieces. No, I don’t mean the ones in Travel and Leisure and National Geographic Traveler. I’m talking about the majority of travel markets. The pay is pitiful for the amount of time and energy involved.

But still many writers try to break into this field. That’s because it seems to easy to everyone. Retired doctors who have the bucks to travel think they can dabble in travel writing. Retired teachers, who have the time and some bucks want to do the same. But how would they feel if you, the writer, wanted to dabble in medicine or teaching. You might be able to do the latter, but certainly not the former. To say the field is overcrowded is an understatement.

If you want to succeed in travel writing—and not just dabble in it—you have to work hard and be extremely organized. Remember, every moment you spend traveling is time spent, time for which you need to get paid.

Today, you pretty much have to have the means to travel to do travel writing full-time—or a spouse who will pay the bills while you travel and write about it. It used to be that airlines, hotels, and the like gave writers discounts or free transportation or accommodation. That isn’t so true anymore. Many hotels still give discounts and free rooms, but you have to get there, and the cost of doing that could hit you out of the ballpark. It doesn’t make sense to spend a $1,000 on a trip, only to make $200 on the article that results from it. So that means you’ll need to write and publish five $200 articles from that same trip to make up for the cost. And in reality, you probably won’t get paid $200 for each article, but less, which means you’ll have to publish a whole bunch of articles to make that trip pay for itself—and that doesn’t include any profit.

If you’re serious about travel writing, there are some things to do before you start packing. Discuss your travel plans with several editors—in person, by phone, or by email—regarding  places you'll be visiting, people you'd consider interviewing, and so forth. Often one or more of them will give you a noncommittal letter of introduction from them. This letter doesn't actually commit them to publishing any of your writing, but it helps open some doors, especially in foreign countries. At the least it should help establish that you are a working writer looking for good material. If you cannot get such a letter—and as a beginner that’s nearly impossible—then  take with you some backup material such as copies of your articles to present when strangers ask who you are and why you're asking all those questions.

Once you get established as a travel writer, you may, with luck, get a letter of assignment from an editor. This is the only way you’ll get any help with costs from hotels and such. Editors won’t hesitate to give one of their regular writers one of these, but they usually don’t give them to writers they don’t know.  Letters of assignment can get you out of tight situations when traveling, but more so they can get you into many museums and private libraries for your research and perhaps get you private tours with curators.

NEXT WEEK: More on travel writing.

Eight Ways to Expand Your Business

If you’ve been freelancing for a while, perhaps it’s time to think about expanding your business. Other small business owners have the luxury of being able to hire help, open branch locations, even franchise their business. Unfortunately, most of those don’t work with freelance writing.

Working for yourself, by yourself, means that you can only do as much work as you have time. And there are only so many hours in a day. That puts a limit on expanding your business. Sure, you can take on larger projects, but when you work on a large project, such as writing a book, you don’t have time to do the smaller ones. And frankly, most book projects don’t pay nearly as much in the long run as working on a bunch of shorter and less complicated pieces. So how can you expand?

1. Revise your sales presentation. When the same bland renewal notice for a magazine subscription arrives in the mail, you don't give it a second look. If you want to renew an editor's interest in your material or build up assignments on a higher level than in the past, you must revise your presentation. Analyze the way you pitch ideas now and see if you can improve on it. How well does your current method sell your ideas? Is your timing and the sequence of ideas logical? Is the market holding you back or are you holding yourself back through fear, lack of expertise, or timidity?

2. Create a brochure. Don’t forget you are a business. And businesses advertise. Some kinds of writing may allow you to run ads in journals or newspapers. But the majority of what you do most likely doesn’t lend itself to direct advertising. So why not create a brochure of your work. Hotels do it. Airlines do it. All sorts of businesses do it. This doesn’t have to be an expensive, glossy affair. It can be nothing more than one page folded in thirds. You won’t have too much room, but there’s enough to include teaser quotes from your writing and perhaps a few photos. Short excerpts of articles will do the trick.

3. Keep up with marketing chores. And don’t forget, that many top freelancers spend several hours a day doing marketing chores, staying in contact with publishers, editors, agents, and other clients either by phone or Email.
    
4. Use books as premiums. If you’ve written books, consider using copies of them as premiums—gift books to corporate executives which they then gave their employees or rewards for contests that you run on your Web site and Facebook. Naturally, you’ll want to sign each copy.

5. Create or improve your Web site. And speaking of Web sites and social media, if you don’t have a good Web site yet, create one. Today, more and more people look to the Web to find professionals, including writers. But don’t just focus on selling, give visitors to your site something in return—information on writing, itself, or the subjects you write about. Both will draw them to your site.

6. Publish pieces on Kindle. The longer you’ve been freelancing, the more material and information you’ve acquired. Use some of it to create articles or short stories and perhaps short ebooks that you can sell on Kindle. While this may not bring in lots of cash, it helps you use materials that lie fallow in your files.

7. Promote a book through articles. If you have a book about to be published, you might want to try to write several short articles on a related subject and get them posted at key Web sites online. They’ll give you greater visibility and subtle promotion for both yourself and your book.

8. Apply for grants or enter contests. Lastly, consider applying for grants or entering contests from time to time. Nothing boosts a career like an award. But don’t concentrate on either of these. It’s actually easier and less time-consuming to just write and publish your work than it is to seek out a chancy result like either of these.

The Keys to My Success

When I’m at a dinner party or other gathering, inevitably someone will ask me what I do for a living. I tell them I’m a writer and immediately they think of Stephen King or some other celebrity writer. No, I’m not one of those, but I have made a living at freelancing for over 26 years, so I must be doing something right.

There are a dozen keys to my success. Any beginning writer, with a little hard work, can achieve what I’ve done by following them.

1. First and foremost, I meet deadlines. It’s become second nature to me after this long. Editors appreciate a writer who works with them and doesn’t cause them to get behind.

2. I write something new every day.  Perhaps its one of my blogs, a book review, an article for a publication, or an article or two for one of my four Web sites. It’s sometimes hard to make enough time to write since I now have to exercise about an hour and a half a day after recent coronary surgery, plus teach writing classes in the evenings.

3. I read as much as I can. The more I read, the better writer I become because I’m influenced by the thoughts and techniques of other writers. But I don’t just read as a reader, I read as a writer, analyzing the text as if I had written it and seeing how I might improve on it.

4. As a writer, I’m constantly making notes. In fact, my desk is flooded with them. Often, I’ve made so many, I lose track. I make To-Do Lists almost daily. If I don’t, I may forget what needs to be done on what piece.

5. Over the years, I’ve learned to mentally record conversations, visual details, sensory stimuli,  facts—lots of facts. I also record these facts in copious notes that I prepare for each article and book. Notes for the latter often fill an entire file box.

6. To keep myself organized, I’ve learned to clip and file vital information so I can retrieve it later.  This has increased my productivity over the years.

7. Even in this day of e-books and the Internet, I still use my public library from time to time. Some information just hasn’t been digitized. However, I find myself using my local library less and less as technology marches on.

8. And though I love words and their origins, I’m careful not to add vague words, that my readers won’t understand, to my vocabulary.  (See my previous blog on $20 words).

9. I love books and my house shows it. There are books in just about every room. As my writing career has advanced, I’ve amassed a small library of perhaps 500 books on both writing, and the subjects I specialize in—Mexico, travel, and antiques.

10. In order to sell my work consistently, I study the markets for it.  However, today, it has become a challenge to keep up with writing markets. It used to be easy to spot a trend, but things have changed so much and so fast, that today it’s difficult. And while it’s always my goal to be at the right place at the right time, I don’t always hit the mark.

11. Since I began writing books, I’ve had to learn as much as I could about editing, publishing, and marketing. Being more knowledgeable about all facets of my business, I’m a more effective business person.

12. I take my writing seriously and have made an effort to make my family and friends do likewise. It isn’t just a pastime or a passing fancy. I communicate with my readers and now, through social networking, many of them communicate with me.

These keys are what have made me successful, but they won’t necessarily work for every writer.
And while my name may not be a household word, I’m still successful at what I do.

Staying Afloat in Today’s Market

With the economy the way it is today, it’s become harder and harder for freelancers, like myself, to stay afloat. The age-old doggie paddle just won’t work anymore. Sure, by kicking your feet you’ll keep your head above water, but little else.

So what can you do to make sure the Big Bad Wolf doesn’t come knocking at your door. The answer is diversify. Regular businesses learned this long ago, so it’s time that you as a writer learn it, too.

Before you cut the cord to a full-time job and seek work as a freelancer, you need to figure out what kind of financial base you have from which to operate your freelance business. Yes, that’s right, I said “business.” Every business has some sort of backup plan for tough times, and you should, too.  Thoroughly do your homework so that you’ll have the confidence to know about the writing markets before you begin.

I started out slowly, writing on Sunday afternoons. Then as I got better and got some assignments, I worked at night after teaching school all day. Soon I was writing as much as I was teaching. But I really didn’t do enough research, so when I did quit teaching, I didn’t have much to fall back on.

I decided that if I was going to do this, I would see work in areas that used the knowledge I had gained from the subjects I wrote about. I began teaching continuing education classes about travel destinations—I was an aspiring travel writer—at a local community college. This led to teaching writing classes. After all, I was both a writer and a good teacher, so why not combine the two.
But I still wasn’t making enough.

I sought out a part-time  job at a travel agency since I did know a lot about travel and world destinations. That gave me a regular paycheck with enough time to continue writing. Eventually, I got a full-time job at a better agency while still writing. But that put me back in the same position I was in as a school teacher with one exception. I had learned a lot about the travel industry working in these agencies and this gave me the knowledge and experience to write for travel trade magazines. Once I started doing that, the assignments kept coming in. By the time I had moved to a third agency, I knew I was in a rut. So one day I quit.

But now I had travel trade assignments and articles published weekly in five local newspapers. Plus I was teaching more continuing education classes in the evenings which left my days free to fulfill my assignments. I was on my way to freelance success.

Today, my company, Bob Brooke Communications, encompasses several different areas. Besides writing articles and books, I also have a fairly packed continuing education course schedule. My interest in photography led me to learn as much as I could about digital photography and now I teach that at several locations several times a year. I have also developed a modest lecture circuit which pays well for the time involved. To get material for lectures, I use the information I gather for articles on various subjects and combined with my photography, turn them into lectures.
But to fill in the voids left when writing markets go astray, I began designing Web sites, mostly for small businesses. I began with my own site, then developed three more informational sites. I’ve designed over 25 sites to date. These I do occasionally, but the pay is good enough to tide me over.

So if you have to seek out other work, make sure it’s related to what you write or that you can learn information that will be useful in your writing. My continuing education courses and lectures are all based on what I write. My technical expertise, which I developed solving my own computer problems and designing my own site over the years, has helped me tremendously in my web design work.

Remember, don’t work at anything that will take away from your writing. Work only at jobs that complement it–if you have to seek outside work at all.

Turn Awards Into Cash

Awards to a writer are like gold. And while some may even be made of gold which you can cash in at any one of those “Cash-for-Gold” shops, most are far more valuable.

While writing awards come in all varieties, the ones that hold the most value are those given with minimal input from you, the writer, and usually from a group of other writers. After winning such an award, especially one given by a group of writers or editors, your credibility soars–at least for a while.

Soon after you’re presented with an award, everyone rushes to congratulate you. But not unlike when a loved one dies and the sympathies fade away after a few weeks, so it is with an award. How soon they forget!

So it’s up to you to make sure they don’t. Whatever type of award you win, you need to milk it for all the promotion it’s worth. Prominently display it on the Home Page of your Web site. Post it on your Facebook Page, tweet all those Web birdies out there. But most of all, let your editors and publishers know about it.
First and foremost, use your award to get more work. Make sure you update your resume, especially on your Web site. Don’t be shy. And mention it in your query letters. The more prestigious the award, the longer its residual effects will last.

And be sure to display your award(s) where you can see them every day, so that they’ll inspire you to write more. Remember, the fact that you received an award in the first place means someone thought you were better than the rest. The award just proves what you knew all along.

Publishing Online–The Beginning or the End

Ever since the Internet appeared on the scene, publishing on it has been given a bad rap. Some publishers refuse to publish any writing that’s previously appeared on a Web site. Hogwash!

The truth of the matter is that many of them fear the Internet, seeing it as prime competition. And rightly so. Big city newspapers, for example, are falling like a stack of dominos. They say they just can’t compete with sites that offer their content for free. Philadelphia’s leading newspaper, The Inquirer, and its sister publication, The Daily News, recently went on the auction block, and even though a group of investors won the bidding, their future is still uncertain.

Many periodical publishers cling to the notion that people need to hold some sort of paper in their hands to read it. In fact, recent surveys have shown that nearly 50 percent of readers get their news and other information online or through T.V. As the older generation gradually dies off, the younger one will increasingly turn to electronic media to satisfy their informational needs.

The fact is no one–editors, public relations people, and, yes, even writers–recognize the Internet as a legitimate publishing medium. One reason is that essentially non-writers communicate on it. And even if a professional writer publishes pieces on Web sites, there’s no way to tell the difference. Sure, the writing is most likely better quality, but there’s no definite line as there is in print publishing.

Secondly, few Web sites pay little or nothing for contributed work. Most site owners, beyond the corporate sites, are people with a special interest and are not professional editors or writers. And that’s the rub. Sites that do offer writers opportunities for publication don’t have any approval process, so they accept everything. Someone has got to decide which pieces are good or not before posting them.

What’s needed, both for the publishing industry and professional writers, is a professional publishing division of the Internet–a section with e-zines (electronic magazines) controlled by editors that pay writers rates comparable to print publications.

Unfortunately, Web site owners are a greedy lot. Even if they do have advertising on their sites, they don’t want to share the revenue from it with writers. Let’s face it, an e-zine wouldn’t have the high printing costs associated with print, so they could divert that income to paying good writers. Plus, the publications can easily be subscription controlled. And the subscriptions wouldn’t have to cost as much as print because of no printing costs.

The process of submission to these e-zines would be the same for writers. They would still send queries or manuscripts. They’d get paid on acceptance or on publication–or like some cheap publishers, a long time after publication.

It’s important that everyone–editors and writers, alike–recognize the Internet as a bonafide medium of communication. It may not happen immediately. But it will happen.

The Importance of Revising

Writing isn’t only about putting words on paper. It’s really about arranging and rearranging words until they say what you mean. Many beginning writers fail to revise their work. They write a first draft and stop there. While you don’t have to completely rewrite what you write, it’s important to make sure what you’ve written communicates clearly to your readers.

To begin, check your work for misplaced content. This might be as simple as an event that’s out of chronological sync or a misplaced modifier. You may have a dull opening that won’t hold on to your reader’s attention or an ending that doesn’t end with a bang. Whatever you’re problem, a little revising can go a long way.

The most common reason for revising is for length. If you plan to sell to newspapers or magazines, you need to adhere to their length requirements, not write long diatribes in which you ramble all over the place. Today, the length of most published articles and short stories lies somewhere between 800-1000 words. As the Internet has threatened to take over the publishing world, magazines in particular have changed their layouts to reflect a “Web” look which means shorter pieces.

Start by deleting any unwanted content. Remove words like “very,” for instance. How nice is nice? Very nice. This word does little to advance the information in your work. You get the idea. Also, check to make sure you’re not using the same words and phrases continually. Create a little variety, and by using words that produce a more exact image to your reader, you’ll write clearer as well.

After you’ve deleted parts of your writing, you’ll be left with holes that you’ll need to mend. To do this, you’ll need to write new sentences, combine others. Be careful that you’re not asking your reader to make a leap in information. Never assume your reader knows what you’re talking about.

Another form of revising is a type of refreshing. When a book has been in print for a while, often publishers will ask the author to revise it for a new addition. This can mean new language and perhaps new information. In today’s fast moving world, a lot can happen in five years–an average length of time a publisher waits to revise a book. Travel guidebooks, on the other hand, are usually revised annually or biannually.

Promotion, Promotion, Promotion

In real estate, the motto is "location, location, location." Since it doesn't matter where I'm located as a writer, my motto is "promotion, promotion, promotion." It doesn't do me any good to write if I don't have readers. Speaking of which, isn't it about time someone reads this blog?

Sure I can rely on published works to get readers, but today, I have so many more opportunities via the Internet. And while the older generation struggles to use computers and occasionally get online, the younger generation has made this as much a part of their life as texting to friends.

Today, I've been working on updating my Web site. Take a look at www.bobbrooke.com. Every year I thank my readers by posting a holiday message--I send the same one in print to friends who may not be Internet savvy. I started this practice in 1996. Back then, my message was a crude text message with even cruder text illustrations. Boy, have I come a long way. Now I use the latest in HTML coding to produce an electronic holiday message, complete with music.

Since I'm a non-fiction writer, what better way to promote myself than with a short article about some facet of Christmas. I love researching little known facts about holiday traditions. These little articles are a great way to show my readers that I'm thinking about them at holiday time.

But my Web site--actually sites, since I have four of them--are how I promote myself to the world. And they've brought in a lot of business over the years. So if you haven't created a site for yourself already, get started. In fact, make it your New Year's resolution. Need some help? I design Web sites, too.

And remember, "promotion, promotion, promotion."