Monthly Archive for April, 2010

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How To Write A Ebook

Published on April 13, 2010 in Writing/Publishing. 2 Comments Tags: .

So you have a great topic for an electronic book you want to write but do not know where to begin? Here are some tips on how to get that ebook written and out there quickly.

To start, take pen to paper – or fingers to keyboard – and write down the following information to help you develop and focus your electronic book project. First, start by writing down what are the main goals of your ebook. That is, what is the essential knowledge you want the reader to walk away with? Once you have figured this out, you need to decide how much additional research you need to do in order to provide the reader with the best quality information possible. If this is a topic you already have extensive knowledge about you may not need to do any additional research, but if not, you should outline precisely what avenues of research still need to be done. Next, outline the order you want to present the information so that the reader will be able to move logically from one step to the next while reading your ebook.

Once you have answered these important questions, your next step will be to write you mission statement explaining why you want to write this electronic book. This will explain to your reader your motivations for conveying the information to them, and it should instill trust. Then write down why you feel your ebook is better and different from similar books on the market. For example, does your ebook provide information that is lacking in other ebooks? Do you have more experience to back up your claims? What else makes your electronic book unique?

Once you have answered these questions, you are ready to create the basic outline of your electronic book: the table of contents. At this point, you should have a clear idea of what your electronic book is about, and writing the table of content should be fairly easy. Next, try to come up with the best chapter titles possible. These titles should catch the interest of the reader and make them want to read more.

Next, sit down and write the introduction to your ebook. In your introduction you can repeat in a new form much of the information you have already written down for your mission statement and where you outline the advantages of your electronic book over the others on the market. Try to make the introduction as personal as possible, including a story or something similar to help connect with the reader. Then, write the final chapter of your electronic book. This may sound strange, but your final chapter will actually be very similar to your introduction except written in a slightly different format and this is actually the best time to write it.

Finally, look at your remaining chapters and create a schedule for writing them. Or, if preferred, you can outsource these chapters to ghostwriters so that they can write them for you. Once these chapters are finished, your will be ready to publish your first electronic book! All you need to do is a create a great cover using some good ebook cover software, and then publish it using some reliable ebook publishing software.

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How To Pick Out The Best Content Copywriter

Published on April 12, 2010 in Writing/Publishing. 10 Comments Tags: .

Know-how matters when deciding on your seo copywriting services

Every single day, firms of all sizes are deciding to employ a professional business copywriting as opposed to working with a huge marketing group. That is because content copywriting services are generally more reasonably priced, and numerous of the topmost content writers working nowadays are freelancers, so the skill level is frequently superior.

But not all seo copywriters are made equally. You could give many seo copywriters the identical job and get lots of very diverse results at many different prices.

So, how can you be sure you hire a trusted website copywriter? Here are certain guidelines to use.

· Experience counts—When it comes to superior seo copywriting, there is no replacement for experience. You want to be certain the writer you choose has shown that he (or she) understands how to write content that works. Request to see examples of prior writings so you might determine if the writer’s style suits the requirements of your specific project.

Likewise, the relevance of the experience is key. As an example, if you’re searching for brochure writing, you need to find an skilled brochure copywriter who is able to provide you examples of earlier pamphlets he has made. Every medium needs a distinctive manner of content, so make certain the copywriter you choose has know-how in the style of project you need.

· Talk to the freelancer on the telephone—Any fair seo copywriter can make themself appear superior on his site (or other marketing and advertising materials), but there is just no system to conclude if a seo content writer is best for you unless you speak to him or her on the telephone. As soon as you have an real discussion, you can better conclude if you two in fact are on the same page and if the content writer is a good fit for the project you’re working on.

· Do not obsess over the cost—Always, the biggest misstep organizations make is to search for the most inexpensive seo copywriting services they may come across. For some reason, individuals imagine that any person can crank out content, so they get the least expensive writer, and give him peanuts to write their internet marketing collateral. No insult, but this is a completely unintelligent method of doing commerce. The content writer is creating the resources that your potential customers will be looking at. Whether it is a web site, a brochure, a professional letter, or anything else, the print is a expression of your company and your brand name. It needs to be professionally-written, and it needs to change visitors into customers.

Keep in mind, this is an expenditure of money into the potential success of your company. Don’t be miserly. You always get what you shell out for, and first-class seo copywriting will provide you a soaring return on your expenditure.

· Get the whole thing in writing—Never enter into a no contract or other lack luster deal with a professional content writer. Get everything in on paper. Sign a agreement that clearly states what both individual duties in fact are, deadlines that should be obtained, and the content writer’s rates. Each party needs to sign the contract and keep a duplicate.

If you use these easy rules, you’ll choose a master copywriter who can assist your business grow to get to new heights.

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How To Win The Next Top Spiritual Author Contest

Published on April 11, 2010 in Writing/Publishing. 104 Comments Tags: .

Recently, I was asked to assist in judging a short story contest. The contest was general-no specific theme or topic required. Authors simply had to submit a piece of fiction that did not exceed 2,500 words. I was not a final judge, but a “weeder,” one who helped “weed out” the good from the bad and decide which twenty stories would go to the finalist round.

I was initially excited about helping to judge the contest. However, with a few exceptions, I was quickly bored and disappointed by the entries. While our Reader Views Literary Awards occasionally receive poorly written books, most authors who write a full-length book have basic writing skills. Short story contests, however, attract a wider range of writers from high school students to polished and published authors. Many of the entrants are hoping to win to further or jumpstart their writing careers so beginning writers are more typically entrants.

Here are a few tips for authors to make their short stories stand out and be noticed by contest judges. Surprisingly, while quality writing is essential, many of the short stories I judged made the cut because the other entrants simply showed lack of common sense and an inability to follow instructions.

Pay the Contest Fee

Most contests have a fee to enter. These fees might be as little as $5.00 or as much as several hundred dollars. In any case, if you’re going to enter you have to pay the fee. In the contest where I assisted, we had several entrants who did not pay the fee. We still took the time to read the stories, and then we contacted those whom we thought were deserving of going to the final round to ask them to submit the fee. However, we only had a few who didn’t pay so it was not a big issue. Many contests receive hundreds of entries and no one wants to waste time chasing down people to pay a fee or holding up the process while waiting for a check to come in the mail. I daresay with most contests, if no entry fee accompanies the story, the story immediately goes into the reject pile.

Follow Submission Instructions

Contests, in order to be fair, must judge the contestants anonymously. As a result, most stories are submitted with a cover sheet with the author’s name on it, but the story itself should only have a header with the story title and not the author’s name. The cover sheets are for administrative purposes and removed from the stories to prevent judges from favoring contestants they know. Failure to follow this simple manuscript submission process can also result in rejection simply because it gives the author an unfair advantage over the other contestants if the judges know the author.

Abide by the Word Limit

The contest I helped to judge had a 2,500 word limit. Word limits are imposed by contests for practical reasons. Usually the story ends up being published, and if in paper publication, only so much space is available. Furthermore, it is easier to organize the contest if the judges expect to receive 100 stories of the same length than 100 that range from 100 words to novel length. Even judges only have so much time in a day, and it takes a long time to read all those stories. Most contests will ask the entrant to put the word length on the cover page. If you wrote your story with Microsoft Word, then go under the Tools menu to check the Word Count. Don’t go over by even one word. Play by the rules.

That said, I was surprised not only by the number of stories that obviously were over the word count but the ones way below it. Many of the entries were less than 1,000 words. They simply did not have the plot and character development of the longer stories so they could not compete against the others. Try to stay relatively close to the word limit, within a few hundred words at least.

Know the Publication

If you’ve never entered this contest before and never read any of the past winning stories or any of the publication where the winning story will be published, you have less chance of winning. You don’t have to subscribe to the publication, but most publications will have a website where you can read past issues or the contest itself will have a website where you can read past winning stories. Reading the previous winners will give you some idea of what kind of story is likely to win.

Look at the writing styles of the last several winning stories. If they are not flowery but your story is, you probably aren’t going to succeed. Same with foul language-if the publication is geared toward conservative readers, strings of swear words and steamy sex scenes are unlikely to please the readers so the judges will be less likely to consider your story.

Know the Genre

Has a Dungeons and Dragons type fantasy story ever won the contest? If not, but that’s what you write, chances are you aren’t going to win. That said, if your story is really good, it’s not impossible, but if realism seems to be the trend for past winners, you may want to submit a more realistic story. If realism isn’t your style, find another contest that is for fantasy stories.

I can’t tell you how many stories we received with talking animals, fairies, and vampires, and they were all cheesy and bad rip-offs of fantasy and horror films. Since this particular contest has always given the prize to realistic stories, fantasy and horror stood little chance, but there are plenty of contests that are looking for this kind of work and where you’re more likely to find the readers you want to jumpstart your writing career. I’m not implying that realistic stories are better than fantasy-they are simply different types of writing with different audiences.

Follow Basic Grammar and Punctuation Rules

Talk about horror stories. We received stories that were three pages long but all one paragraph. And then there were the stories where there were no separate paragraphs or even quotation marks to show who was speaking. And I couldn’t even have counted the typos in some of them. These kinds of errors and failure to know basic mechanics of grammar and punctuation were the biggest reason why stories were rejected for the final round of the contest.

Learn If You Lose

The problem (and benefit) with entering short story contests is that only one person wins. If you don’t win, read the story that did win. Perhaps your story is better but this other story just happened to be what the judges were looking for or what they prefer to read. In the case of the contest I helped to judge, the winning story was not in my opinion the best story, but it was the one the majority of the judges liked.

The Next Top Spiritual Author Contest Blog

Whether or not the winning story is better than yours, read it, analyze it, learn from it. Maybe you’re a better writer stylistically but your content was not as good, or vice-versa. Most contests don’t offer feedback to contestants, but if you really want to know, it doesn’t hurt to ask where you ranked in the judging.

Keep entering contests. A story that doesn’t win one contest might win another and you can always keep rewriting and resubmitting the story until you do win. Writing short stories is an effective way to become a better writer, and a couple of wins under your belt will help to make publishers take notice when you submit that novel.

Work At Home: Getting Started

Published on April 10, 2010 in Home Office and Writing/Publishing. 9 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

Welcome back!

This is the first in a series for WAHM, dads, grandparents, or anyone else who works from home.

Posts will discuss a variety of ways to earn money as a writer working from home, and also show you the pro’s and cons of freelance writing.  However, this information will also be helpful for anyone working from home.

Freelance Writing Defined

When thinking of freelance writing, many people assume the term means writing for magazines.  That is not the case at all.

Freelance writing simply means you are writing as a contractor and not ‘employed’ by anyone.  The dictionary defines freelance as “a self-employed person” and that’s a great way to explain it.

Freelancers are required to keep their own tax/income records, then pay tax on that income at tax time.  That means you should always allow for this when working out your income requirements.

*Please note I am not a tax consultant and any information provided is generalized.  Please consult a tax consultant for professional advice.

Setting Up Your Home Office

Because it’s logical, I’m going to start with setting up a home office.  In the majority of cases, you won’t need anything more than you already have:

Desk
Chair
Computer

*If you’re buying new equipment, make sure your desk and chair are ergonomical.  I’ll discuss this in more depth in a later post.

Those are the basics of a home office, and you probably already have each of those.  There are extras you may need, but aren’t essential at this point:

Fax
Scanner
Printer

Let me discuss each of these –

Fax – I’ve never had a fax, and have rarely been asked to provide a fax number, but I know a lot of WAHM who use them all the time.  It really depends on what you’re doing.

Scanner – more than anything, I use my scanner for clips.  This makes it simple to send proof of past publication to potential markets.

They can be printed out for posting, or they can be saved as pdfs and then attached to an email.

Note:  I haven’t queried a market via snail-mail for over 5 years, so pdfs are the way I work.

Printer – not essential.  I have a printer next to my desk, and I use it more for printing out work for proof-reading than anything.

Getting Organised

I will go into this in more depth in a later post, but organisation is extremely important in a home office.

Every day should start with a plan.  Decide on your work priorities for the day and write them down.  Make sure you tackle those items before anything else, and mark them off as they’re completed.

Not only does this show you what you’ve achieved, it helps you to move onto the next priority project.

A word of warning:  Do not allocate more than five priority items per day, especially when starting out, as you’ll find it overwhelming.

Mindset

This was one of the most difficult things I faced when I began working from home.

Here I was sitting at my desk, working from home, and knowing I had a ton of washing to do, floors to sweep, dishes to put away, beds to make etc.

It took a few months, but finally I was able to get housework out of my head.  Your mind tells you to do those unfinished or not yet started household tasks, but your logical side tells you that work must come first.

And if you’re working for a client then it must.  Because more likely than not you’ll be on a deadline.

If you can’t get beyond that housework mindset, start your day by adding a load of washing to the machine, load the dishwasher, and get the kids to make the beds for extra pocket money.

Doing this will ease your mind, and get your focus back on your workday.

Most people working from home are doing it for a variety of reasons.  Here are a few of the most common reasons:  illness and unable to go out to work, recently had a baby and want to work from home, need extra money.

Your Needs

Okay, that’s it for today, but I am going to set a bit of homework.  I’d like you to think about what sort of work you want to do (if you haven’t already started).

My next post will discuss various forms of writing – what they are, what they pay, and the pros and cons.

Don’t forget to leave your comments about this post!