Brand It!

Cattle ranchers burn a symbol in the hides of their cattle so everyone will know that they belong to their respective ranches. Corporations have logos for the same reason. And today, people buy products based on their recognized identity. So what does branding have to do with freelance writing? A lot.

Do you think brand management is just for BIG companies like McDonalds, NBC, or Target? Think again. Branding is important to ALL companies for the simple reason that people buy from other people. People have personalities. Branding establishes and communicates a company's personality—your personality, otherwise known as your image.

In business, branding is the process by which you try to become the first business a person thinks of when they consider buying goods or services in your category. It’s the process by which you attempt to differentiate your business from your competitors. Although your name and logo are important features of your brand, there’s a lot more to it than that.


Think about YOUR company. Yes, even if you’re a company of one. What personality or image do you want to present to customers and prospects? Should it be warm, friendly, and down-to-earth? Polished, knowledgeable, and sophisticated? Well-traveled, cultured, and educated? When someone hears your name, do they think of a certain type of writing?

Do your current promotional materials—brochure, Web site, Facebook Page, etc.—reflect the image you want to present? Is your personality presented consistently in all forms of communication? If not, here are some ways you can make this happen.

To begin, you need to consider four key steps in managing your brand once you’ve created it. The first is to position your brand among others by identifying your unique benefits and image. Next, you need to develop a plan for making your brand identifiable. Then you need to guard  the integrity of your brand so only you use it. And finally, you need to build awareness of and preference for your brand.

Managing a brand is an ongoing process, not a destination. The work is never done. From time to time, you’ll want to tweak your brand to make it easier to identify or to make it stand out from those of other writers.

The secret to good branding is you shouldn’t try to be all things to all people. If you’re trying to grow your business, it might seem logical to expand your offerings, but that’s unlikely to be successful in the long run. It’s often better to narrow your focus until you’ve created a new category you can be first in. Many writers work as generalists, so no one knows them for a specific type of writing or for a specific subject.

You also need to control how people perceive you and your brand. It’s important that people are able to describe you and your business accurately. They need to know exactly what you’re able to offer them.

So rather than having the "right" name, the best brands are those built from the ground up on customer service and community. There's only one problem. You can't force a brand into existence overnight. It takes time to develop a successful brand—months, even years. But once it’s established, a good brand will stay in the spotlight, perhaps even longer than the business, itself.

Please check out my Web site, Writing at Its Best, for some example of my work over the last 35 years. Also, to see a highly developed online magazine on antiques, which I launched in 2015, go to The Antiques Almanac.

Read What You Write

In order to be a good writer, I had to start reading like one. I have two reading modes–one for pleasure and information and the other for writing technique. In the first, I sit at my desk or in a comfy chair and read for entertainment or knowledge without paying much attention to how the writer wrote the text. But in the second, I read for technique, carefully paying attention to structure, grammar, and English usage.

Many writers never read their work once they finish it. In fact, too many beginning writers never look at what they write beyond their first draft. Writing takes on a life of its own and only after it has “settled” a bit can I really see the problems and the mistakes.

Writing on a computer has lots of advantages, but the one big disadvantage is that I find myself being hypnotized by the print on the screen–so much so, that I often don’t see simple mistakes right in front of me. To avoid this problem, I print out each draft of what I write–yea, I know it isn’t good for the trees–and put it aside to read later. Later can be the next hour, the next few hours, or the next day. Just the act of getting away from that particular piece of writing helps me to get a new perspective on it. Also, I usually read it somewhere else, say in that comfy chair with a nice cup of coffee, just the way I would read any other material.

In this process, my mind forgets for a while what I wrote and sees it as if it’s something new. This, alone, helps me to see the flaws in my writing, so that I can act as my own editor. In effect, I’m not only reading it as a reader but also reading it as a writer.

Please check out my Web site, Writing at Its Best, for some example of my work over the last 35 years. Also, to see a highly developed online magazine on antiques, which I launched in 2015, go to The Antiques Almanac.

Spring is Here—Are You Ready?

Spring is here—at least it’s supposed to be for many of us in the Northern Hemisphere. With snow and temperatures falling, it’s a bit of a challenge to get into the Spring mode. You know, that state of mind which tells you to start things afresh. And for writers, that should mean it’s time to clean off your desk. By the way, have you seen the surface of your desk lately?

As a writer, the center of your world is your desk. For some, perhaps you, that center is often hidden by a mountain of stuff—yes, stuff. Papers to file, mail to open and read, notes, books, pens, rulers, and a myriad of “personal” items that have moved in and homesteaded on your valuable desk property.

Are you totally overwhelmed and need a miniature snow plow to clear your desk? Chances are that sometimes, perhaps most of the time, this is true for many writers.

So how do you reclaim this valuable space? One easy way is to keep the acronym R-E-M-O-V-E in mind. It stands for Remove distractions, Everyday use, Move to the preferred side, Organize together, View your time, and Empty the center.

Let’s start with removing distractions. While it’s nice to have a couple of photos and favorite little items on your desk, they take up valuable space and distract you. A photo of a loved one may motivate you, so we’ll give you that, but too many other photos and what not will certainly distract you from your writing. So remove from your desk anything that isn’t directly related to your writing. Put those items on a shelf or some other place in your office.



Only put items you use every day on top of your desk. Everything else should go into drawers or cabinets underneath it. There’s no need to have a mug full of pens at your disposal. You’ll only use one at a time anyway. And while a few extra ones, especially with different colored inks are good to have, keep them in your top desk drawer for easy access. The same goes for notepads, paperclips, rubberbands,etc.

Everyone is either right or left-handed. And while some may be ambidextrous, they’re in the minority. Arrange the items on your desk to complement the hand you use. Move everything to the preferred side. Place pens, pencils, and pads where you reach for them most. Most writers don’t even consider this when setting up their desk. Rearranging everything to suit your most used hand will make working easier.

And just as you did in the general organization of your office, organize like items together. Grouping helps to establish centers so that you can easily find what you need.

Make sure you place a clock on your desk so that you can easily view your time. And be sure to make it big enough to easily see it at a glance. Don’t depend on looking at the tiny numbers on your computer’s task bar to find the time. Always keep time in view so that you can budget it better.



Keep the center of your desk clear by emptying it each time you finish a project. Clear space in the center of your desk so that you can work on the project at hand.

Finally, aggressively attack your mail, both regular and Email. Provide an inbox for incoming mail and one for outgoing mail. Designate specific times during the day to read your Email and turn off Email notifications on your computer and on your smartphone. They can distract you more than anything.

With these tips in mind, plan on reorganizing your desk space so that it’s an efficient and pleasant place at which you can work. You’ll soon discover that your productivity will soar.

Learn more about me on my Web site, Writing at Its Best, and on my Facebook Page. And be sure to visit my Writer's Corner for articles about freelance writing and writing in general.

Beware of the Elephant in the Room

Today, you often hear the phrase “the elephant in the room.” No, it has nothing to do with elephants. But it usually means there’s a subject present that no one wants to talk about. For writers, that subject is whether you’re a writer or an author.

What is it about our society that reveres authors more than writers. Aren’t writers and authors the same? Don’t they both communicate with words? Actually, not all writers are authors and some would say that some authors certainly aren’t good writers.

Beginning writers seem to think if they write a book that they’ll be recognized as a writer. What drives so many beginning writers to write a book when they haven’t written much else? Perhaps the idea goes back to when they were in school.

Everyone learns to read by reading books. Yes they’re short—most have one sentence to a page—but they’re still books. How many first graders are out there reading articles and short stories? None. As they progress through the grades, they read more and more books until, before they know it, they’re sitting in English classes studying literature.

Do you see yourself as a writer? To succeed at writing, you better. If you only see yourself as an author, that lofty ambition may get you into trouble, and you may never ever get your writing career off the ground.

Most writers have to work in a variety of formats to be successful. Books take a long time to prepare, write, and market, compared to articles and short stories. Unfortunately, the reading public doesn’t associate writers with articles or short stories. When was the last time you recalled the name of the writer of an article you’ve read? And perhaps that’s the problem, for when you market a book, you market yourself as well.

A lot goes into writing a book. It’s not just the writing, it’s the research, the organization, the energy. Writing a book is like having a baby elephant—it takes 22 months for the little guy to grow inside it’s mother. That’s just about how long it takes to create a book—getting the idea, marketing the idea, researching the idea, organize the idea, writing the idea, and rewriting the idea. Oh, and let’s not forget promoting the idea.

Articles and short stories take much less effort. And they can be sold over and over again, either reprinted as is or reworked. Once you publish a book, you cannot publish it again. And many books end up in on discount tables and sites or go out of print—that is, die—altogether. This, of course, has to do with copyright laws. And while shorter pieces of writing are also copyrighted, they’re done so for individual periodicals. Once a book is copyrighted, that’s it.

So while you may bask in the glow of book publication, that light may only shine briefly. Writing in a variety of formats not only gives your writing career a good foundation but will also pay off in the long run.

 Learn more about me on my Web site, Writing at Its Best, and on my Facebook Page. And be sure to visit my Writer's Corner for articles about freelance writing and writing in general.

Do You Have a Book in You?

Beginning writers often say they have a book inside them. Well, if they ever expect it to get published, they had better get it out. For many people, the epitome of being a writer is writing books. And although aspiring to be an author is a noble pursuit, it’s not all there is to a writing career.

When writing a book, most writers begin by doing just that. They bury themselves in researching their topic or story and spend months, if not years, writing about it. Sounds logical, doesn’t it? But how many of them actually get their book published?

In general, most people feel they have something so important to say that every publisher will want to publish their book and every reader will run out to buy it. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

This attitude of self-importance originates way back in school—as far back as first grade. Most teachers don’t mean to instill this in their students, it sort of happens through a process of educational osmosis. The teachers had it instilled in them by their teachers in a never-ending educational process. So what is a book writer to do? Market research.



Whether you plan to write a non-fiction or fiction book, it pays to take a look at the market for your idea—not your book. Take a trip to a good bookstore and browse through the books on your topic. This will tell you what’s being sold. Remember, most of the books on the shop’s shelves originated at least two years prior to you seeing them. Now stroll over to the sale tables. The books on these tables are remainders—leftovers that didn’t sell during the book’s most recent run. Many may be terrific, but for some reason didn’t hit the mark. Take notes, being sure to nor publishers names.

Next surf on over to Amazon.com, the world’s greatest book depository. Search for books on your topic. Amazon has practically everything in print. Do the same at their competitor, Barnes and Noble’s Web site. Take more notes, again being careful to note the names of publishers.



After all this research, review your notes and draw some conclusions about how viable your topic really is. Generally, too many books on your topic means the market is overloaded. Too few often means not enough readers are interested or the topic hasn’t been explored to any great degree by writers.

Armed with your conclusions, you’re ready to proceed with your book, modifying the topic to reflect market trends. It’s important to note that you shouldn’t cater to your topic’s market but be driven by it. Doing so will greatly enhance your chance of publication.

And remember, it’s not the book that makes you a writer, but what you have to say in it.

Learn more about me on my Web site, Writing at Its Best, and on my Facebook Page.

Setting Up a Cross Platform in Social Media

Social media isn’t just about Facebook. In fact, there are many social media networks, each catering to a specific group of people by age or special interest.  To be successful in social media as a writer, you have to post on several different platforms and then link them together in your own social media network. Doing so brings followers from one platform, like Facebook, to another.

The main social media platforms are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, YouTube. The last one is mostly for posting videos, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t use your smartphone to post a video of you in action once in a while.

So what exactly is a cross platform? To be successful in social media, you have to spread the word about yourself and your work to other networks. But it shouldn’t end there. Once you’ve begun regularly posting on the other networks, it’s time to link them together by sharing posts. Each time you share a post, another group of people see it. And so do their friends. If each person shares your post with just one other person and that person shares your post with one other person, your message will reach lots of people.

Facebook
So where do you begin? Once you’ve established yourself on Facebook—use it as your base of social media operations—you can venture forth to other social media networks. You might choose Twitter next. People on Twitter read their feeds almost as much as those on Facebook. Here, your posts will be shorter—even though Twitter recently increased the number of characters for each post from 140 to 280. Just because the network allows you to write longer posts doesn’t mean you should. Twitter readers are in the habit of reading short blasts, and they probably won’t change their habit for a while.

Twitter
Write a post on Twitter that’s related to the one you posted on Facebook. But don’t stop there. Be sure to add an image to your post. This can be hard if you’re posting about writing, but if you post about the subject you write about, it should be easier. You can also set it up so that you can automatically share your Facebook posts on Twitter. However, you cannot do the reverse.

Instagram
Now that you’re posting on the two primary networks, it’s time to check out some of the secondary ones. While users of Instagram will probably disagree, this network is a hard one to break into for writers because it definitely relies on image posts. In fact, you begin with an image and then add a caption to it. Also, you must have a smartphone to post on Instagram. While you can access Instagram on your computer, you cannot post from it.

Google+
Another secondary network is Google+. Its posts work much like Facebook, but its user base isn’t as large. In Google+ you can either post only text or text with an image. You used to be able to directly share your Google+ posts with Facebook, but now you have to physically post on Facebook, linking to your Google+ account. It’s a little more time consuming, but it works.  If you have images to share, you may want to set up a Google+ Collection. This is an image-based division of Google+ in which all your posts focus on one subject. Within it, you’ll find lots of photographers, antiques collectors, and such who post images related to their subject. Like Instagram, the image is the main thing, accompanied by perhaps a paragraph of text. You used to be able to share your Google+ posts directly to Facebook, but now you have to physically copy it and create a separate post on Facebook using the same text. Of course, you can still directly link to your Google+ account in your Facebook post.

Creating a Cross Platform
You should begin cross linking your posts as soon as you have one other social media network besides Facebook to which you’re posting. Try linking your Facebook posts to Twitter. Then slowly add another network, again linking the posts on it to Facebook and vice versa. As you add more networks, you can continue doing the same thing.

Let’s look at an example of how this works.  Let’s say you specialize in writing about antiques. You can do posts about the history of objects, their uses, historical anecdotes about them, their status with collectors, even the status of the current market. The list goes on and on. So you might begin by introducing the object on Facebook and mention how well it’s doing in the current market. Then you could do a post on Twitter that links back to your post on Facebook. If you’re on Instagram, you can post an image of the antique object and note a quirky anecdote about it in the caption. Finally, you could post an image of the object on Google+ and write a short paragraph about its history or how it originated. Naturally, you’ll want to repost a sentence on Twitter that includes a link to your Google+ post. You can then link your Twitter post to Facebook, putting you right back to your network base, but now with a different angle than your first post.

By building a cross platform, you’ll soon increase the number of your viewers across the board. But you must be patient. Social media doesn’t work overnight. It can take several months for your posts to get noticed. In the meantime, read, share, and comment on  other people’s posts in your social media accounts.

Learn more about me on my Web site, Writing at Its Best, and on my Facebook Page.

Let's Get Social

Social media is here, whether you like it or not. At the same time, more and more writers are pursuing online publishing, filling Amazon’s inventory with all sorts of ebooks. Many of these writers have turned to Facebook and other social media platforms to promote their books. Unfortunately, just as many find that even with diligent attention to social media, they’re promotions are going nowhere. Why is that?

The trick behind using social media outlets is to connect like-minded people. But the group most writers seem to attract is other writers. Other writers won’t necessarily buy your books or send other writing work your way. They’re too busy trying to sell their own books and writing services. So who do you connect? Readers.

Just saying “Buy my book” won’t get you additional readers. But getting your readers interested in your subject will. Some social media users even try connecting their followers to other followers.

There was a time when Facebook was for making friends. And though it still has that friendly environment, it has matured. If you don’t have an author page, if you write books, or a business page, if you do other types of writing, you should definitely set one up. This is your professional or “fan” page. It’s the page that will keep your fans, that is your readers, up to date on your what’s happening in your professional life. Readers “like” this page. They aren’t there as friends but as customers or buyers. 

Your professional page is where you offer readers some extra value—a behind-the-scenes look at your work, for example.

Use your page to promote your writing, but also use it to ask your fans why they like your work. Facebook is the type of social media platform that encourages readers to share their personal insights and lives much more, and you can capitalize on that through your page. Ask questions, run polls, offer contests. Interact with your readers in a way not related to your books or other writing, then use the feedback you get to become more personal to your fans.

Offer your readers some insights into your subject matter. For instance, why you chose a particular location for your novel or what makes you passionate about the non-fiction subject that you last wrote about.

And don’t forget to use images. Facebook users thrive on them. Have photos taken of you signing your books or have someone else take a few, even with their smartphone. Or you might take photos of the locations of your short stories or novels, if they’re based on real places. Text only posts on Facebook rarely get much attention. You need to pair your text with an image or a meme.

If you attend writers’ or book conferences, be sure to take photos and bring your readers with you. Post different ones every day. Too many writers are afraid that if they mention or show the work of other writers that they’ll move away from them. Why do you think so many businesses set up shop near other businesses of the same type? Competition is good for business.

Encourage your fans to share your posts with their friends on Facebook. Get them to talk up your books. After all, they like them or they wouldn’t be following you on Facebook. Ask them to help you find more fans—but not too often.

Be careful about encouraging likes from other writers who want you to like their page in return. That will get you a bunch of likes, but it won’t get you anywhere with your promotions. That’s the only reason they liked you to get a like back.

Next Week: Setting up a Cross Platform

Learn more about me on my Web site, Writing at Its Best, and on my Facebook Page.

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.

Organization is Paramount

Readers see only the words on the printed page or screen. They have no idea of all the words that pile up to get those particular words in front of them. While some people think writers pull their ideas and words only out of their heads, most writing requires research—and lots of it—as well as draft upon draft. All this research and drafts must be kept in order to keep any writer from going insane.

To be a success as a writer, you have to be organized. Have you ever been in someone’s office and all the desks are buried in piles of paper? While those who work in that office most likely know what’s what, any new employee or some hired to take over while another is out sick may find the whole mess daunting. Without organization, production slows or even worse ceases.

When computers first came on the scene, manufacturers said they would lead to a paperless society. Obviously, they didn’t mean writers. In fact, that really hasn’t happened and probably never will. There are some things that just can’t be digitized.

If you haven’t done so already, you need to get organized. Many writers wait until a slow period to do this, but somehow that slow period never seems to materialize, so they just keep piling new material on top of old. Sooner or later, it’s almost impossible to find anything.

Back in the day—whenever that was—people used filing cabinets. But unless you have endless space, they’re only a temporary solution, good for newer material at best. So where do you put your archives. Big businesses have large warehouses in which they store their archive files. Or the hire another company whose business is storage to do that for them. Oh, but you say that today most of your files are electronic and you can use the Cloud. That’s all fine and dandy for computer files, but you can’t store any paper on the Cloud.

Manila folders have long been the basis for a business’s filing system. They worked back in the day and they work today. You should create a file folder for every writing project. For those projects that are big, like books, you’ll need multiple file folders and eventually a file box to store them in.

When writing a book, for example, you should create a separate file folder for each chapter, plus extra ones for appendices and the general concept and outline. You could place all your research notes for each chapter in the chapter’s folder or you could use additional folders to store them.In the end, you’ll amass a good amount of material, some of which you may want to use again.

Each article and book chapter should also have corresponding computer files—several for research, one for the rough draft, and successive additional ones for revisions and rewrites, each numbered in succeeding order.

In addition to all your writing files, you may also have a well-organized library of several hundred books. While you may use most of these for reference in researching your work. But you may also keep books you’ve read and might read again.

Go to any office supply store or search them online and you’ll discover a myriad of items designed to help you get organized. Stackable trays, for instance, look like they would be good to get clutter off your desk. But in fact they can produce more clutter. While you may plan to use them for sorting current material, they tend to get clogged up, so you’ll need to periodically  clean them out.

It’s also a good idea to keep everything you use most often closest to your desk. This can be article folders, notes, a scheduling book, etc. You may also want to keep a calendar with automatic reminder alerts on your computer. Paper calendars can’t remind you of a deadline or appointment with a sound or by flashing on a screen. If you use a smartphone, you can even set up the reminders in your phone.

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.

The Right Time

Too often writers are consumed by the content of what they’re writing. Few consider whether the subject is timely or not. To be a successful freelance writer, you have to consider whether it’s the right time to write and market your idea.

While some subjects are “evergreen,” or good for just about any time, most are time specific.  Evergreen pieces appeal to an editor any time of year. Even so, you still have to get things out ahead–at least 2-3 months for short stories and magazine articles, and perhaps a year ahead for a book idea. It’s not what’s trending now but what will be trending in the near future. In some ways, you have to be somewhat of a fortune teller to predict what readers will want down the road.

Many beginning writers get frustrated when they get rejections from publishers for their work. While the writing skills of some may be lacking, the reason for the rejection could be one of timing. Many think they can send any article, short story, or book idea in at any time and the publisher will just love it. But it all comes down to timeliness.



To market your writing successfully, you have to take a hint from retailing. Department, discount, and online stores would never think of putting out summer clothes in June or July (or December or January for those down under). Summer is already here. Instead, they put out their summer collections in April or May, several months ahead of when the clothing might actually be worn. Ads for back-to-school clothing and other items now begin to appear in July, barely a month after most kids have just gotten out of school for summer vacation.

So to get your ideas—or in the case of short stories, your text—to an editor at the right time, you have to think ahead. Whatever you’re sending out now—except articles to newspapers if you can find any to take them—should be on topics that will appeal to editors three to six months from now. This works especially well with seasonal subject matter.

Writing about events in a timely manner is another thing altogether. There are three ways to approach this—write about the event before it happens, write about it after it happens (news), and write about it coinciding with an anniversary of the event.

Most publication relations writers write about events before they happen. This produces interest in the event and encourages readers to participate or attend it. Newspapers usually publish stories about events after they’ve happened, giving readers a review of the event. Magazines like to publish articles on events to coincide with the anniversary of an event because they need to plan far in advance. Knowing which type of publication you’re targeting will allow you to know how you should write about an event.

Trending subjects can either have a short life or a long one. Articles about a political election or the election process may only be of interest to readers for a shorter time while those that concern diet trends may have a longer timeline. It’s important to know which trend is which in order to pitch ideas that won’t be outdated by the time an editor gets to them.

Seasonal pieces are perhaps the easiest to write and sell because seasons are well established. The four seasons of the year—summer, fall, winter, spring—the most general, but you also have those holidays around which retailers plan their sales—Christmas, Easter, Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving, and back-to-school. You can easily make a list of ideas for each season and be assured that most or all will sell.

So while it’s important to write well, it’s just as important to write timely pieces that you know will sell.

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.






                               

Those Pesky $25 Words

Inflation has a way of affecting everything eventually. Prices have gone up on many things you buy today. The same can be said for those writers who continue to challenge their readers by using words their readers don’t know instead of simple, everyday words to express themselves.

As little as 10 years ago, those big words were only worth $20, but the price has gone up. With the the advent of social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, more and more people are turning to plainer words to express themselves. Part of this is the use of their thumbs to peck out the words of their posts on their smartphones.

It doesn’t matter how extensive a vocabulary you have. What matters is that you clearly express what you’re trying to say to your readers. Unfortunately, that’s what wasn’t encouraged in school, and especially not in college. Academics pride themselves in sounding learned. But to be a good writer, it’s not necessary to show readers how intelligent or learned you are. It’s more important to take complex concepts and write about them clearly so all your readers will understand.

By using complex words, readers miss the nuances and only get a basic understanding of the subject matter.

A good example is a travel book entitled Mirrors of the Unseen by Jason Elliot that tells about his journeys through Iran. The majority of readers haven’t been to Iran, so they probably only know about it through the T.V. news. He writes beautifully about the culture, with its mosques and bazaars. Unfortunately, all this beauty comes at a price. It seems Elliot, like so many writers, assumes all readers have his extensive vocabulary.

In contrast is a book entitled Antarctica by Gabrielle Walker that’s filled with descriptions of complicated scientific experiments and research written against the background of the stark beauty of the world’s southernmost frozen continent. This writer, on the other hand, uses plain language and makes it seem as if her readers were traveling around with her. She presents an in-depth view of Antarctica that draws her readers in and keeps them turning the pages.

Go back and look at books you’ve read. You’ll notice that the ones you enjoyed the most probably had the most conversational language. Re-read portions of the books you liked the most and see if you can discover the essence of the author’s writing style.

Back in the early days of personal computers, there was a simple software program called PC Style. This little program would analyze a piece of writing for its use of personal pronouns, word length, dynamic verbs, concrete nouns, sentence length, etc. By running several paragraphs of a book through it, you could immediately analyze the writing style. Then by doing the same to a piece of your own writing, you could immediately see where it was lacking.  Unfortunately, that program hasn’t been available for a long time. And while some of today’s word processing programs try to do the same, they just don’t compare to it.

You can use the Find and Replace feature in your word processing program to search for personal pronouns—I, you, we, they, he, and she—for example. These are the words that make writing conversational. These are the words that make readers feel as if they’re part of the story.

You can also do a manual search for complex words—but don’t do this immediately after finishing a piece. Wait a day or two so your writing will appear fresh to your mind. When you find words that you are either long or complex, put them in bold type so you can easily find them and then use the thesaurus in your word processing program to find plainer words that mean the same thing. Do the same for long sentences. Try to keep your sentences shorter and avoid using semi-colons which tend to string them out.

Once you see the difference all this makes to your writing, you’ll never want to go back to using those pesky $25 words.  Instead, you’ll get used to using $1, $5, and $10 words to enlighten your readers about your subject. This blog is a good example.

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.

                               


       

What Makes a Great Nonfiction Book?

You’ve been writing articles for a while and would like to step up to writing a nonfiction book. While there’s a lot of information out there about writing novels, there isn’t as much about writing good nonfiction books.

Remember the Bob Newhardt Show on which the main character, a writer of nonfiction how-to books,  ran a bed and breakfast in Vermont with his wife.  The subjects of his books would have been great for insomniacs, but not all nonfiction books make readers yawn.

Today, nonfiction books have a lot of competition from the Internet. Readers can find all sorts of information online, so why would they want to purchase a book—even an inexpensive ebook—when they can search for what they need. The truth is that most people don’t really know how to search the Web, so they still need nonfiction books to give them information in an orderly manner.

It’s how a writer assembles the facts in a book that makes all the difference. The key to nonfiction book success is information synthesis. To make sure a nonfiction book is worth paying for, you need to bring your own fresh a perspective to the subject matter—a perspective that readers can’t find online. What’s more important today is your ability to synthesize the facts and give them context and perspective.

First and foremost, make sure your nonfiction book has a strong focus. It’s better to limit the focus than ramble all over the place. To do this, you’ll need to think out your book before doing research. You’ll most likely find a mess of facts on your subject. How you make sense of those facts is the key.

To make sense of all the information you collect, you need to give meaning to it. And that requires a point of view. What are your feelings about your subject? Who will be telling your story? Except for memoirs, most nonfiction books are told from another person’s perspective.

Offer insight by weaving current events and trends into the context of your book, even if it’s historical in nature.

Present the bigger picture about your subject so that readers will be able to make more global sense of it.  And if your subject is more complicated, simplify it for the average reader. Don’t talk down to your readers to prove how smart you are. Instead, write in plain language and explain difficult words or phrases.

A nonfiction book goes deeper than an article or blog on a subject. While the shortness of both only gives the reader the basics, a book can delve deeper into a subject. Take a common theme or one that has been written about heavily in the past and give it a fresh approach.

Above all, make sure your nonfiction book gives readers information in a way they won’t find it anywhere else, in a way only you can deliver it.
   
   

You’ve Finally Been Published--Now What?

Writers are an odd lot. Some write prolifically while others write one or two successful pieces and then nothing. Getting published for the first time is a tremendous goal. It takes a lot of time and energy. But afterwards, many writers feel let down. Why is that?

Most likely it’s because they focused so much on that one piece, whether article or short story, and not on all the information they gathered for it. But a professional writer knows that information is his or her biggest asset.

Many beginning writers get published for the first time, then turn to a completely different subject, marketing that to a different editor or publisher instead of building a relationship with the first.

Writing is not just about words, it’s about relationships. No matter what sort of writing you do, you need to build on past successes. If you begin at the top, you have no where to go but down, so it’s important to begin slowly and build relationships with your editors. This can be either by getting to know what a particular editor wants or building on new contacts.

For some writers, perhaps you, that first published piece is a fluke. It may not have been totally an accident—most likely you sent out numerous queries or finished manuscripts—the piece succeeded. But more than likely the piece succeeded in the wrong market. Sure, you were ecstatic about getting anything published, but it happened for the wrong reasons.

To get your career started, you need to build on that first publishing success, even if it happened in the wrong market. Editors want to know about your track record—they want to see clips of published pieces. But if you don’t have any, you’re as bad off as if you apply for a loan without any credit history.

As soon as you achieve publishing success, immediately send several similar ideas to that same editor. In fact, while you’re waiting to hear back from that publication, assemble a list of salable ideas that you can send along later. While this publication may not be your ideal, it’s better that you get more pieces published in an established market instead of trying to forge new ones.

Perhaps the editor liked your writing style or perhaps your subject. What probably happened was that the editor liked the timeliness of your subject. Your subject was right on target, even if your writing skills may not have been up to par. Take a serious look at that market and send the editor some other ideas.

It’s important to build a rapport with your editors. Normally, they don’t remain in their positions very long. Editors flit from publication to publication about as fast as hairdressers do from salon to salon. If you have a good relationship with an editor, he or she will often take you with them to their new publication. It’s usually an upgrade to a better position for them, resulting in a marketing upgrade for you, which can mean higher pay and more prestige.

Success as a writer is all about climbing the proverbial ladder. You’ve got to do it one rung at a time.

Where Do You Start to Publish Online

There are plenty of markets online. Many of them focus on small niches, which makes your chances of getting published even greater if you have a specialty. You won’t find a richer resource of publications anywhere that’s easier to access than online. However, you do need to approach submitting to online publications a little differently than you would submitting to print publications.

The Internet is growing. More people are spending more time reading online, which increases the chances of your work being read. But those who do read articles online, read about specific things. While the number of specialized print magazines has grown dramatically in the last two decades, Web sites have always been tightly focused, thus attracting specific readers—readers who are interested in the information they have to offer about their particular subject.

Good Web sites and e-zines are constantly growing their readership. Perhaps you’ll get lucky and a small ezine that only 100 people read a month accepts your work. A few months later that publication might be read by 1,000 people a month. It’s not unusual for readership to increase by over 1,000 readers in one month. Remember that the Internet is also known as the World Wide Web for a reason. If your work appears online, people from other countries who might never have read your work may do so online.


Writing for Web sites is a little different than writing for print. Generally, you’ll want to write your articles in the second person. While thousands may eventually read your work, you’re dealing with one reader at a time, so addressing them using the pronoun “you” in the second person instantly makes a connection.

However, selling to Web sites and e-zines is essentially the same as selling to print markets. Start by studying the markets. While there are a few databases that list online markets, you’ll actually be better off searching for them yourself. First you need to find them. Begin by searching for the subject you’re interested in writing about as if you were a reader interested in reading about that same subject. Google is the best search engine out there. While others may target specific subject areas, Google literally covers the world in its searches.

Another source you can try is the Directory of E-zines.

Create a special folder entitled, “Online Writing Markets,” then as you discover potential sites and e-zines, bookmark them and save them into this folder. Don’t be too particular at first. If you search for a specific subject, you’ll find what you need. Once you have found a number of sites which may be possibilities, go back and study them one by one.

How good your results will be depends on your search. To search for a specific word or phrase, enclose it in parentheses. Go back to the ones that look like they may be good markets and notice how often they’re updated. If a site sits idle for a couple of months, it’s a good bet the owner isn’t paying much attention to it. On the other hand, if a site is updated frequently or on a specific schedule much like a print magazine, then it’s a sure bet they’ll need plenty of content to keep going. Also, notice if articles on the site have been written by different people. If they’re all written by the same person, move on, because that site won’t be accepting other writers—at least for now. In print this is known as “in house” while online if could be referred to as “on site.” You may want to check back later because the owner may begin using other writers.

Once you know which markets may be good for your work, find out if they pay anything and how much. Also, determine if they have any writer’s guidelines, and if so, download a copy.

Remember, all your transactions should be electronic. If a site or e-zine owner says your should send your work by regular mail, cross them off your list immediately. You’re working in the 21st century when smartphones and computers connect many Americans.

Submitting queries for your article is the same as for print. The form is the same and so is the content. The only difference is that you’ll be sending your queries by Email included within the message itself. The same goes for the text of your articles. Make sure you send them in as a Microsoft Word document. You can use any wordprocessing program you wish to prepare them, but you must use a universal program like MS Word to send them. To be on the safe side, send your text as an attachment in MS Word 2003 or higher.

And just as with print, keep tract of your submissions. While your Email program’s “Sent” folder will do that, it’s a good idea to keep a record of your submissions in your computer, then you can easily go back to check on the status of each article submission.

NEXT WEEK: Promoting Your Online Work

Publishing Online—Where Are We Now

The Internet continues to grow as a publishing medium for both articles and books. It took a while, but readers as well as writers seem to be accepting it as a bonafide publishing venue.

This added confidence seems to be encouraged partly because of the volume of writing in the form of blogs, Web content, and e-books now available online. In addition, the number and types of electronic devices on which to read it has increases exponentially. While many readers avail themselves of this writing on laptops and tablets, an equal number or more access articles and blogs on their smartphones.

And although it had taken quite a while for writers and periodical publishers to accept the Internet as a viable publishing medium—even though it’s not a majority as yet—more and more are turning to it every day.

The number of blogs has exploded since 2010. Platforms such as Google’s free Blogger have made it easy for writers to get the word out. Many have turned to Wordpress, thinking it to be more professional. But when it comes right down to it, it’s not the platform that draws readers, it’s the writing. It’s the difference between writing polished work on a high-tech computer or writing it by hand on a paper towel. In the end, it’s the quality of the writing that counts.

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.

However, today both amateur and professional writers seem to have found a place somewhere online. The difference in how they present themselves is two-fold.

First, the professional edits and polishes their work before posting it online, whether it’s a blog or an article submitted to an e-zine. Also, blog subjects tend to be slanted to the reader and not personal in nature. Amateurs, on the other hand, either don’t know how to edit their work properly or ignore this process and essentially post their first drafts.

Second, amateur and non-writers seem to be confine their posts to personal blogs, product reviews, and comments after articles. Some set up personal writing Web sites where they post short stories, personal blogs, or poetry.

The day of professional blogging is upon us. Investigative journalism has found its way online and these writers—as professional as any newspaper or magazine writers, some of whom formerly wrote for print markets—are getting paid for their work.

Pay for online work is increasing, also. While e-zine publishers generally work with very low or non-existent budgets, some have come to realize that paying professional writers attracts visitors to their sites. Many major newspapers, such as the Washington Post, have online editions that feature some of the same writers they feature in their print editions.

Next Week: Where Do You Start to Publish Online

The Key to Unlocking the Door to Success

Communication is the key to unlocking the door to success. Believe it or not, you already have it in you. But you’d be surprised how many writers—in fact, how many people—cannot communicate effectively.

Writing is one of many forms of communication. Like listening, it requires a reader to digest the ideas provided by the words. Remember that old saying: "If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound if no one is there to hear it?" That could be changed to read: "If a writer writes down his or her ideas, do they exist if no one reads and interprets them?"

There are three parts to the communication process—the sender, who sends the message, the message, itself, and the receiver or the reader. If the receiver cannot understand part of the message, even one word, than there’s mis-communication.

This concept should be the basis for your writing. Using it is the difference between being a writer and a person who writes. Everyone learns to write in school. But most people don’t communicate well. Instead, they rely on the reader to interpret what they have to say.

This happens everyday on Facebook. Most Facebook users assume that they’re writing only to their close friends. Actually, most of them are really sending their posts out to all their Facebook “friends,’ many of whom they don’t personally know. Normally, they shorthand their posts, assuming their personal friends know what they mean. But those Facebook “friends” who don’t know don’t understand what they’re trying to say, thus mis-communication occurs.

As a professional, published writer, you must make sure that everyone who read’s your work understands it.

If you write articles for magazines, for instance, you already have a target audience—a defined group of readers based on the subject matter of the magazine. Most magazines today specialize in a particular subject, so you must slant your article to meet their needs.

However, if you write books, your readership is often undefined. Sure, some may argue that if you write a romance novel that only women of a certain age will read it. But in reality, what’s to prevent any reader from purchasing the book at a bookstore, a book sale, or even on Amazon. Chances are men won’t read it, but you never know.

So knowing who your reader will be is an important part of the communication equation. To be successful and get your work published, you need to write for a specific group of readers who will understand not only what you’re writing about but the words you use to do so.

Too many beginning writers write for themselves without considering who will read their work. Because of this, they fail to get published. Naturally, there are other reasons why they may have trouble getting their work published, but lack of communication is Number One.

Have you written pieces that have yet to be published? Get them out and read them again. Did you write them for a specific group of readers or just yourself? Changing the angle or focusing these piece better may still help you get them published.

Pinning a Value on Your Time

Writers, like other artists, often have a hard time when it comes to pricing their work. With visual artists, it’s a difficult prospect because a project may take hours and hours of grueling work before its completed. If they charged an hourly rate, their work would be overpriced in the market place. Instead, many just take a wild guess and figure that if someone wants one of their pieces bad enough, they’ll pay whatever it takes to get it.

As a writer, on the other hand, if you produced one copy of a book, for example, and charged what it took in time to produce it, no one would buy it. But as a writer, you have an advantage. You have to ability to produce multiple copies of a work or get paid by a publishing company for them to do so. Artists who have adopted this same business model are doing significantly better than those that don’t.

Still, how do you figure out what your time is worth? The first thing you have to remember is that you’re in business. And as such you have overhead—the cost of utilities, including phone and the Internet, office supplies, postage, food, transportation, insurance, equipment, clothing, etc. All that adds up! And before you can make any profit, you have to be able to pay for it all.

There’s no guess work involved when figuring out what your hourly rate should be. It’s simple mathematics. First, you add up all your regular monthly expenses, then you factor in the cost of extras, such as buying replacement equipment. If you can’t wait to get the latest smartphone, then you’ll have to add in that cost to the mix. You can’t leave anything out.

Next, you need to divide your total monthly expenditures by four in order to get the amount you spend per week. By dividing this by seven, you’ll find out what you spend per day—even on days when you’re not actually working.

If you work the standard 40 hours—not necessarily 8 hours per day—then you should divide your weekly total by 40. Let’s say your monthly expenses come to approximately $1,600, then your weekly expenses would be about $400. Dividing that by 40 hours gives you an hourly rate of $10. But that doesn’t allow for any profit, so you must add on an equal amount or higher to make sure you’re getting enough to cover your expenses and make a profit.

However, you won’t necessarily be working steadily as you would in a salaried position. Instead, you may work more one week than in another. Generally, money won’t be flowing in regularly. So it’s a good idea to make your hourly rate slightly higher to cover the times when you may not have any work. In the beginning, you can possibly shoot for a lower rate, increasing it as you gain more experience and more complex assignments.

While you probably won’t ever get your hourly rate, at least you’ll be able to judge if what you’re getting paid is enough for the time you put into your work. You may also want to consider establishing a minimum rate for writing projects. But don’t make that rate too high or you’ll be cutting yourself out of some easy jobs that overall will net a higher profit.

While you won’t have much control when it comes to be paid by editors of magazines and newspapers—essentially, they generally tell you what they’ll pay you—you still need to know if what they’re paying is enough for the time you put in on a project.

Many freelance writers make the mistake of putting in the same amount of work on each article they write and then get paid a different amount for each piece. But unlike products produced by other businesses, no one piece of writing brings in the same amount from different publications. You may get paid $300 from one publication and $50 from another for exactly the same piece. Also, some editors may only pay a pittance but ask for a lot more work. It’s only by knowing your hourly rate that will enable you to decide it what they’re offering is enough for you.