Source: http://writersdigest.com/article/the-anatomy-of-a-writers-website/

by  Linda Formichelli

If you want to get your writing noticed and don’t have a website, you’re falling behind. A website is essentially your online business card—it shows editors and publishers you can do the job, nets potential readers and makes you accessible to anyone who might want you for a book or article assignment. My very first website, which I built using a book on HTML that I found in a phone booth, landed me a column gig that lasted more than a year. Now, several iterations later, my website is a place to show editors my clips, entice writers to take my e-courses, convince them to buy my books, reach out to the media and land speaking engagements. If you don’t have a site, the time to act is now. It’s not as hard as you might think. Here’s how.

DO IT YOURSELF

There are two main ways to build a website: Do it yourself or hire someone to do it for you. First, here’s how to build a website using your own two hands (and a computer).

What you see is what you get. If you have time and some design talent, you can build your own website using a WYSIWYG program—which stands for What You See Is What You Get and is pronounced whiz-ee-wig. You don’t need to mess with code the way I did when I built my first website back in 1996; with WYSIWYG programs, you can draw boxes, create columns, add graphics, input text and more, and the final result that goes online will look the way you created it on-screen. One popular WYSIWYG program is Adobe Dreamweaver (adobe.com), which costs $399. I used this program to build my husband’s and my site (twowriters.net).

If only I’d known about open-source software, I could have saved a bundle. There are WYSIWYG site building applications that are distributed for free online. One example is Nvu (nvudev.com). Another is KompoZer (kompozer.net). Both are complete Web-authoring systems for Linux, Microsoft Windows and Macintosh computers that allow users to create and manage a website with no technical expertise or
HTML knowledge.

Build an iSite. iWeb is a Web-building application that comes with new Macs, but you can also get it for $79 as part of iLife 08 (apple.com/ilife). This program lets you choose from 26 Apple-designed themes, each containing templates for all the pages you may need: “welcome,” “about me,” “blog,” “podcasts” and so on. Journalist Elaine Appleton Grant used iWeb to build her site (www.appletongrant.com). “I’m happy with the results of using iWeb—people have told me my website is really beautiful,” Grant says. “It didn’t take too long and it’s easy to update.”

Trusty templates. Templates are pre-designed themes that you plug your content into. One of the most popular sources for website design templates isGoDaddy.com’s WebSite Tonight plan. Besides templates and tons of extra goodies, you get hosting and e-mail accounts—an all-in-one package. Prices range from $4.99-12.99 per month depending on the features you want and the space you need.

You can also find open-source (i.e., free!) templates. For example, Open Source Web Design (oswd.org) and The Open Design Community (opendesigns.org) are collections of Web designs that anyone can download free of charge. The designs range from basic to whimsical, and you can search the databases by color, number of columns and images.

Writers’ resources. Some writers’ groups offer members free or cheap websites hosted by their sites. For example, The Authors Guild (authorsguild.org), whose first-year dues cost $90, charges $3-9 per month for an easy-to-build site, depending on the extras you want.

Freelance Success (freelancesuccess.com), which charges $99 per year, isn’t a writers’ group per se but includes market reports, a forum and a simple-to-create website that lets you choose a color scheme, add a photo and enter highlights, résumé and clips.

Blog it. Many writers turn to blogs as their main websites because they’re easy to create and update.
For example, the website of food writer and cookbook author Monica Bhide (monicabhide.com) is built and hosted on the popular blog service TypePad (typepad.com). The main page is an actual blog that Bhide updates frequently. In addition, she has an “About Me” page with her bio and publishing credits. Some writers fear that using a blog as their main business website will make them look less than professional. Not so, says Bhide. “On the contrary—I think editors are looking for writers who can write for multiple types of media.”

Blogs are free (or cheap) and easy to create, host and update. Plus, each blog service offers plenty of themes that you can choose from to fit your personal design style. You can also hire a designer to tweak the theme if you prefer. For example, Diana Burrell and I recruited a designer to modify The Renegade Writer Blog (therenegadewriter.com, which was created on WordPress.com), to match our book cover. Other blog services besides TypePad (which costs $4.95 and up per month) include Blogger (blogger.com) and WordPress.com; both are free.

You can also create a regular website for your business and supplement it with a blog. That’s what we did with The Renegade Writer Blog; we both also have regular websites for our clips and publishing credits.
Freelance writer and novelist Allison Winn Scotch, author of The Department of Lost and Found, has a typical website that touts her novels and clips (allisonwinn.com), but she also has a blog called “Ask Allison” (allisonwinnscotch.blogspot.com) where she answers questions from readers and chats about all things book-related. “The blog helps me sell books in ways that I never imagined,” she says. “I’ve made dozens of blogger friends who are happy to promote my novels far beyond my initial audience.”

HIRED HELP

If you have zero design skill and no time to build your own site, you’re better off hiring a designer.

Let’s talk money. Reese Spykerman, who has designed writers’ websites (including my own, lindaformichelli.com), says costs vary widely. “You can get sites for less than $1,000, but these are typically people starting out and you may not get the best quality site,” he says. “A lot of writers, as long as their content isn’t too involved, can get a site for $2,000.” Some Web designers charge by the hour instead of offering a flat fee. Christie Jacobsen, a designer who has worked on writers’ websites, says prices can range from $60 per hour for a freelancer to $100 and up for a design firm.

Finding a designer. The way you find a good designer is the same way you find a good hairdresser: Ask someone with a website you admire, “Who did your site?”

“I’m a big fan of word of mouth,” Spykerman says. “If you have writer friends who have had a successful experience with a designer, that can help build your confidence in that designer. I’d be hesitant to hire someone I hadn’t heard about from someone else.”

WHAT EVERY WRITER’S SITE NEEDS

Now that you have the scoop on how to build a site (or have one built), what do you do about the content? “Your site is to establish who you are, what your niche is and what separates you from the other authors out there,” Jacobsen says.

Here are the must-haves (or, in some cases, nice-to-haves) for a site that will wow editors and readers:

•    All about you. Somewhere on your site—whether it’s the front page or an “About Me” page—should be a bio that lets editors and readers know who you are and that you’ve got the goods. On the main page of my site, I tell readers I “wear more hats than your old aunt Millie,” and then give a brief roundup of what I offer, from articles to e-courses, with links to the relevant pages. My brief bio also appears on the “Media” page.

•    Your contact information. Don’t forget to tell people how they can contact you. “If the content on your site is appealing to an editor or publisher but they can’t easily find your contact information, that’s bad,” Spykerman says. “A dedicated contact page is important. Repeat that information on the home page.” An e-mail address or e-mail form is the minimum you should provide. You can include your phone number as well. Google’s GrandCentral service (grandcentral.com), which is currently in the beta stages, offers one number that can ring your office and cell phones while hiding your real numbers.

•    A picture of you. While not obligatory, a photo is a nice perk to include on your site. “I felt it would be easier for editors to associate with me as a person,” says journalist Debbie Abrams Kaplan (kaplanink.com). Her photo was professionally done; while getting family photos taken, she had the photographer take a few solo shots of her.

•    A press page. If you’re selling a book, a press page can make it easy for the media to spread the word about you and your product. “At a minimum you want your book announcement press release, some biographical information about the author, a graphic of the book cover and a headshot,” says Sandra Beckwith, who has three websites including one for her book Publicity for Nonprofits (nonprofitpublicity.com).

•    Testimonials. Testimonials and reviews can give you even more credibility than you naturally have. “Other people can say things about your qualities that you can’t say yourself,” Kaplan says. “It means more than if I were to say the same thing.” How to get them? Ask! Your favorite editors will likely be flattered that you asked them for a testimonial. If it’s a book you’re plugging, include positive reviews you’ve garnered; Scotch’s “Ask Allison,” for example, includes reviews on several pages of her site.

•    Samples of your work. To pique editors’ and readers’ interest, include sample chapters, your table of contents or clips of your articles. You can display clips in different ways: as text on your site, as downloadable PDF or Microsoft Word files, as links to online articles or even as password-protected documents so only the people you choose get a peek. Spykerman recommends having at least some of your clips as text-only on your website, as this gives search engines more text to scan (so you may come up higher in search results); also, some editors may not like spending the time to open a downloadable clip. In addition, avoid having too many links to outside sites, as the links may change and turn up an error message when editors click them.

•    Buying 411. If you’re selling a book, be sure to have a way people can snap it up right then and there, whether it’s through a form on your site or a link to your book’s page on Amazon.com.

•    Personality. Included in the bio of freelance writer Judi Ketteler (judiketteler.com) is this statement: “A former gymnast, I also judge gymnastics and have been known to tumble in the backyard on occasion.” Don’t be afraid to let your personality show on your website.

Learn how to create strong characters, craft believable dialogue & get the attention of agents with:
The Writer’s Little Helper

Become a WD VIP and Save 10%:
Get a 1-year pass to WritersMarket.com, a 1-year subscription to Writer’s Digest magazine and 10% off all WritersDigestShop.com orders! Click here to join.

Related Posts
Selling Your Soul to Market Your Book
Book Marketing Mondays: The Single Best Marketing Tool for an Author

Bookmark and Share:

Connect to us via our other social media buttons. Just pick your click!

source: http://writersdigest.com/article/10-creative-ways-to-beat-writers-block-fast/

Written by: Fred White

It’s easy to become immobilized with writer’s block, but one of the best ways to get the creative juices flowing again is to give yourself 10 minutes to write creatively about something completely different. Following are 10 exercises that will help you take a fresh look at your work-in-progress by giving you a mental break.

1. TAKING A RISK
To be a writer means to take risks, putting yourself and your ideas out on a limb, making yourself vulnerable to criticism, maybe even ridicule. Does that give you pause? If you have strong views on any subject, rest assured that there will be multitudes who want to throw rotten tomatoes at you, no matter how carefully you present your evidence.

While it’s true that no writer can please everyone, writers can nonetheless benefit from making an effort to persuade, either overtly, through reasoned argument, or artistically, by way of dramatically rendered scenes.

Set a timer for 10 minutes, and write a paragraph describing a fresh approach to a writing task you stopped working on because you felt it was too controversial or unpalatable. Focus on the importance of the topic and how you might present it in a way that would persuade those whose views oppose your own.

2. WRITING FOR YOUR READERS
How do you see yourself in relation to your readers? Answering that question will shed light on your reasons for wanting to be a writer. Perhaps you see yourself as a teacher, motivated to share your knowledge with others. Perhaps you see yourself as an entertainer, motivated to delight your audience with a captivating story. When you sit down to write, think of yourself not so much as “a writer,” but as a man or woman reaching out to an audience, entering the conversation of humanity, enriching that conversation with a new voice and a new way of thinking about important matters.

Draft a poem or letter addressed to your fellow citizens in which you share one idea for making the world a better place. Is it the importance of citizens exercising civic responsibility? Is it having faith in a higher power? Perhaps you have a vision for education reform. Be as detailed as you can about the solution
you propose.

3. EXPLORING HIDDEN HISTORY
Much of history is hidden. Even major historical events like World War II, for all the books devoted to them, include “blind spots” that historians or novelists haven’t yet tapped into. Explore any period of history in depth, and you’ll discover stories yet untold—or begging to be retold.

Choose a moment of “hidden history,” ancient or modern, and use it as the setting for a brief story. Create imaginary characters and situations, but be faithful to the historical record, or what there is of it.

4. CREATING ATMOSPHERE
Open one of your favorite novels and pay attention to the techniques the author used to create atmosphere. Reflect on how these descriptions work on your imagination. How does each one contribute to producing a particular mood?

Write an opening paragraph for a short story, concentrating on creating a certain kind of atmosphere—say, a festive and reckless carnival for a Mardi Gras–themed piece, or an atmosphere of foreboding for a paranormal one. Where would your story go from there?

5. ENRICHING YOUR DESCRIPTIONS
Writing is a wonderful way of celebrating the beauties of the natural world and the accomplishments of our techno-industrial civilization. It’s also a way of discovering (or rediscovering) the inconspicuous things that would otherwise slip by our radar. Think of how much less distorted people’s views of reality would be if they’d only open their eyes and observe the world like writers do.

Go through old drafts of stories, essays, poems and journal entries and look closely at the way you describe things. Pluck out one (or more) of those descriptions and improve upon it.

6. WRITING LIKE A JOURNALIST
A thin line exists between so-called ordinary thinking and creative thinking, but both types are necessary. For example, we want to think practically when we work out household budgets or try to improve our health, but we can be creative about how we save money, or about the kinds of nutritious meals we prepare. When we write, we combine practicality with imagination. We invent dramatic situations involving imaginary persons, yet these situations need to be conveyed in well-written, grammatically correct prose.

Begin writing a fantasy story as if you were writing a factual news story. Approach the fantasy elements as if you were reporting on the results of the latest city council meeting; emphasize facts and keep descriptions as objective as possible.

7. TRANSFORMING A FAIRY TALE
Fairy tales, like ancient myths and folklore, dramatize archetypal struggles between good and evil, the consequences of foolish actions (think of Pinocchio and his lies) and the exploitation of the innocent (as with Hansel and Gretel and the witch). Fairy tales remind us writers of the essence of storytelling: a deeply desired goal, a struggle against daunting opposition, a satisfying final outcome.

Read Anne Sexton’s poetic retelling of fairy tales in her Transformations, then write one of your own. If poetry isn’t your cup of tea, then do a prose adaptation of your favorite fairy tale.

8. DRIVING A SCENE WITH DIALOGUE
Writers need to be ventriloquists, able to project different voices into different personalities, particularly through dialogue, but also through their patterns of thought. As a character speaks and thinks, so is her character projected to the world. When putting words into your characters’ mouths, think of ways to make their respective habits of speech distinctive.

Write a dialogue scene between two very different individuals. Try capturing their personalities through their manners of speech. Also contrast them through their behavioral eccentricities and physical characteristics.

9. WRITING ABOUT WRITING
When it comes to writer’s work, think labor of love: What better way to work hard than at that which nurtures the soul, fills our needs to express ourselves creatively and offers the dual gift of entertainment and edification to the world?

Jot down your reflections on the act of writing—how you feel about the labor of inventing, the false starts, the revising and polishing, the proofreading. Which tasks do you least enjoy, and why?

10. LETTING YOUR IMAGINATION RUN WILD
You don’t have to be a sorcerer or mystic to write a good ghost story—you just need to be imaginative. Assuming that ghosts are real, that they do indeed haunt houses or hotels or loiter around graveyards, what kinds of sounds would they make to call attention to themselves?

Write a brief story about someone who has found a way to communicate with ghosts, or with a particular ghost who, let’s say, is trapped inside a house that it really does not wish to haunt.

You’ll never have to face a blank page again if you order:
The Write-Brain Workbook
*This one-of-a-kind guide provides a full year of writing excercises and games designed to get thoughts brewing and the pen moving across the page.

Become a WD VIP and Save 10% on this book:
Get a 1-year pass to WritersMarket.com, a 1-year subscription to Writer’s Digest magazine and 10% off all WritersDigestShop.com orders! Click here to join.

Related Posts
10 Ways to Fuel Your Writing
Writing For Young Children – 10 Basic Rules

Bookmark and Share:

Connect to us via our other social media buttons. Just pick your click!

source: http://writersdigest.com/article/10-ways-to-write-what-you-no/?et_mid=135086&rid=3047568

Written by  Bill O’Hanlon

It takes a lot of energy to write a book and stay with it through drafts, revisions, submissions, rejections, sales and marketing. Many writers find the energy in the sheer joy of writing. But others draw on darker impulses and feelings to carry them through the process. Sorrow, anger and hurt can be the writer’s fodder and fuel. I should know.

I’ve written 30 published books—and what propelled me to a writing career in the first place was that I was, frankly, extremely pissed off.

After overcoming depression as a young adult, I decided I wanted to become a psychotherapist. I studied with an eccentric psychiatrist named Milton Erickson who was very optimistic about people’s abilities to change if they were approached in the right way. I was taken by his nearly psychotic sense of hope, and I entered the field full of the possibilities of what I—and my fellow therapists—might be able to help people achieve.

But I was discouraged to find that a surprising number of my colleagues didn’t share this hopeful view. I’d hear them say things like, “These people don’t even want to change; they love being miserable.” Some of these therapists were just, sadly, burned out—compassion fatigue, it’s called in the field—but others genuinely believed that their patients were too damaged to recover.

Now, I was the mellow, peace-loving type, but I found myself wanting to throttle these naysayers. I hadn’t entered the field as a cynic, and didn’t appreciate being surrounded by them. But why should anyone listen to me, the new guy?

The people whose views my colleagues did pay attention to were the “experts,” those luminaries with publication credits to their names. So I got to thinking: If I could write a book that would make a case for my views—and provide practical methods for creating change—maybe I could have some influence. I decided to give it a try.

I have a friend who tells her writing students, “You can’t be a writer unless you love to write.” After hearing her say that a few times, I had to tell her that, at least at first, I didn’t love to write at all. In fact, I disliked it. But I had to write. I was compelled by a variation on that old adage: “Write what you know.” Only for me, it was: “Write what you ‘no.’ ”

Since then, I’ve noticed that many other writers have found their own ways to channel seemingly negative emotions to a positive end—and that we can learn a lot from what they’ve done. So if you’ve ever found yourself feeling cynical, downtrodden or frustrated (and what writer hasn’t?), take heart: Here are 10 ways writers can (and do!) turn “negative” experiences into writing fuel.

1. WRITE INSTEAD OF ACTING DESTRUCTIVELY.
The key to transforming your hurts, frustrations, fears and anger into something useful is to turn the emotion that arises from upsetting experiences into some form of creative expression. It doesn’t have to be a nonfiction book or a persuasive piece of writing, as it was in my case. The point is simply to find a way to use your pen as your weapon.

Take Sue Grafton, who has often told the story of how she got the inspiration for her popular alphabetically titled series: She was in the middle of a nasty divorce, and would find herself fantasizing about ways to kill her husband. Rather than acting, she channeled all those fantasies into her murder mysteries—and her passion-fueled stories resonated with readers, landing her on the bestseller lists.

2. WRITE FROM BEING RIGHTEOUSLY INDIGNANT.
The political world is filled with books fueled by the powerful combination of dissatisfaction and a desire to do something about it. Liberal author and filmmaker Michael Moore has famously penned several bestsellers out of righteous indignation, including Stupid White Men and Dude, Where’s My Country? The same could be said for bestselling author and TV host Bill O’Reilly’s offerings (including Culture Warrior and Pinheads and Patriots) at the other end of the spectrum.

Management consultant and bestseller Tom Peters also famously rants. He wrote his first book to challenge a wave of popular management gurus who claimed American business was about to be overtaken by the Japanese model. Peters thought there were a lot of terrific American companies—and that they needed support rather than skepticism. His book championing that view, In Search of Excellence, started a revolution in management theory. As he revealed in a Fast Company story, “When I wrote [Excellence], I wasn’t trying to fire a shot to signal a revolution. But I did have an agenda. … I was genuinely, deeply, sincerely and passionately pissed off!” Peters goes on to say, “Nearly 100 percent of innovation—from business to politics—is inspired not by ‘market analysis’ but by people who are supremely pissed off by the way things are.”

Did that first book get that anger out of his system? No—as with many other writers fueled by passion, it was just the beginning. As he later wrote in his introduction to his title Re-Imagine!: “I’m 60 years old as I write. I’ve been doing my ‘thing’ for well over a quarter of a century. … At this point, I don’t have to write a book. My speaking and consulting gigs keep me busy to the breaking point and beyond. So why am I sitting inside … on a gorgeous July day on Martha’s Vineyard, cranking out Book No. 11? Because I’m pissed off.”

3. WRITE FROM BEING WOUNDED.
What struggles have you had in your life? What can you offer to others who share them? Patsy Rodenburg had speech problems as a child that led to a wounding encounter with an “elocution” teacher, whose cruel treatment, combined with mocking taunts from fellow students, silenced Rodenburg in the most literal sense possible. Finally finding her voice gave Rodenburg such sympathy for others with speech issues that it became her life’s work—as a vocal coach—and led to her educational book The Right to Speak: Working With the Voice.

And she’s not the only one. Blind, deaf and mute writer Helen Keller—who authored several bestsellers in her time—wrote, “I thank God for my handicaps, for through them I have found myself, my work and my God.”

4. WRITE FOR REVENGE OR TO PROVE SOMEONE WRONG.
If you’ve ever been discouraged from pursuing your craft, you’re not alone. To paraphrase one oft-quoted adage, “Writing well (and getting published) is the best revenge.”

Take Ann Patchett, who writes in defiance of her former teachers—a group of nuns, and one especially, who gave her the message that she was dumb. In Why I Write, edited by Will Blythe, she says, “I write for her. Even as a child I wanted to write for revenge, to show them all, but especially this particular nun, that I had been misjudged.”

In 1964, J.A. Jance was a junior in college when she applied for a creative writing class, only to be turned down by the professor because of her gender. “Girls become teachers or nurses,” he told her. “Boys become writers.” But she held onto her writing dream until she married an aspiring writer who, rather than supporting her, reinforced the stereotype. “There will only be one writer in this family,” he told her, “and I’m it.” She was thwarted—but after her divorce years later, she decided to give this writing thing a try again. Jance finished her first three books—with a full-time job and two children to raise—by writing every day from 4–7 a.m. Where do you think the energy to maintain a schedule like that came from?

Moreover, Jance’s thriller Hour of the Hunter featured a heroine who longed to be a writer, but whose husband declared himself the only writer in the family. Her antagonist? A former professor of creative writing who turned out to be a crazed killer.

5. WRITE FROM FRUSTRATION THAT A STORY HAS GONE UNTOLD.
Mark Arsenault was a newspaper reporter assigned to cover the story of a dead man found under a bridge. When he stumbled on a group of homeless heroin addicts near the scene, one of them, Julia, made such an impression on him that he wanted to write about her. But his boss at the paper rejected the idea. After arguing with the editor to no effect, he decided there was more than one way to tell a story that deserved to be told—and Julia became the inspiration for his debut novel, Spiked. In his essay “Romeo and Juliet With Needle Marks,” anthologized in How I Got Published: Famous Authors Tell You in Their Own Words, Arsenault explains: “I was so ticked off, I had to write fiction.”

We all know of stories the world should hear. You could be the one who finds a way to tell them.

6. WRITE TO DEAL WITH FEARS OR TRAUMA.
Stephen King suffered from ear infections as a child. The first time the doctor said puncturing his eardrum to drain the infection wouldn’t hurt, King believed him. This was followed by some of the most excruciating, terrifying minutes he’d ever experienced. The subsequent visits with the needle only reinforced this sense of helpless terror—a theme that appears with haunting authenticity in his work.

Anne Rice lost her 5-year-old daughter to leukemia, and has since said that featuring a close replica of the child in Interview With a Vampire was subconsciously a way of giving her immortality.

7. WRITE TO HELP ILLUMINATE OR CORRECT A SOCIAL INJUSTICE.
Never forget that your gift as a writer gives you the power to make a difference.

Before he wrote the popular Burke crime novels, Andrew Vachss was a federal attorney investigating sexually transmitted diseases that had been given to children through abuse, often by family members. He began to write to get a bigger jury than he could find in a courthouse. His crusade started when he interviewed a man who admitted to sodomizing his own baby, but defended himself by saying the state had no right to get involved because the baby was his. Vachss said he thought he’d come face to face with the devil—until he met many more like him. He wanted the laws to better protect children, and so he starting writing fiction on these themes.

In an interview on Amazon.com about his latest novel, Another Life, Vachss says, “My goal was not to raise consciousness, but to raise anger. Ours is a country where anything can be accomplished if enough people get angry … because, in America, we act on our collective anger.” He goes on to cite laws and political action groups that have formed in response to issues brought to light by his stories, saying, “Anyone who says, ‘Books don’t change anything,’ or—more commonly—that crime fiction is the wrong genre for promoting social change—should take a closer look.”

8. WRITE IN REACTION TO SOMETHING THAT UPSETS YOU.
John Grisham was an attorney sitting in on a case in which a 12-year-old girl was on the stand facing the rapist who had brutalized her and left her for dead. It was tough to listen to, especially because Grisham had children of his own.

When court adjourned for lunch, Grisham left, but remembered he’d forgotten his briefcase inside. When he returned, he found the defendant sitting alone in the courtroom and realized how tempting (and easy) it would be, if he were the child’s parent, to kill the man right then.

From this came his first novel, A Time To Kill, in which a lawyer defends a father who commits just such a crime.

9. WRITE YOURSELF OUT OF (OR THROUGH) A CRISIS.
Before he was a writer, the late Dominick Dunne was a Hollywood producer, but an unhappy one. He turned to drinking and drug use and eventually, it got him fired—so he left California, moved to a cottage in Oregon and began to work on a novel about Hollywood (The Winners).

Later, his daughter was murdered. During the trial, Dunne was appalled that the murderer seemed to have been coached on what to wear and how to act (even carrying a Bible). Dunne knew enough from his time in the movies to recognize acting and props when he saw them. He became outraged when he saw how easily the judicial process could be manipulated and distorted. After that trial, he could have spent the rest of his life angry and embittered—but instead, he shifted the focus of his writing, covering the trial for Vanity Fair, thus beginning a long relationship with the magazine. He went on to make a name for himself writing about notorious murder trials in both widely published articles and bestselling books, including Another City, Not My Own (a novel inspired by the O.J. Simpson case). “Thank God I hit bottom,” he once said. “Hitting bottom is a wonderful thing, if you can get back up.”

10. WRITE FROM IDENTIFYING WITH A UNIVERSAL STRUGGLE.
In speaking about her bestseller, Seabiscuit, Laura Hillenbrand often tells of how her illness, chronic fatigue syndrome, left her unable to stand or even lie still at times and made her identify with the broken-down horse and out-of-favor trainer the book featured. The characters had succeeded despite long odds, and eventually, so did Hillenbrand, despite sometimes being able to write for only minutes at a time or in awkward, uncomfortable positions, such as holding her work above her head.

Readers never tire of stories of people succeeding against all odds. Telling one could place you among them.

As Kingsley Amis once said, “If you can’t annoy somebody, there’s little point in writing.” You don’t even have to get out of your chair to stir up trouble, heal your wounds or seek revenge. Transform all that could stand in your way into the type of writing success that only you can have. In other words, write what you “no.”

Related Posts
Writing For Young Children – 10 Basic Rules
Slicing and Dicing Your Story into Pieces: How to Break Your Book into Chapters

Bookmark and Share:

Connect to us via our other social media buttons. Just pick your click!

Written by: Judy Cullins

Source: http://www.authorinsider.com/article.php?subaction=showfull&id=1150390746&archive=&start_from=&ucat=7&

Want to sell a lot more books? Want clients calling every day to find out more about your service? Most emerging businesses forget the #1 way to promote anything–the Internet. Specifically, writing and submitting articles.

These ten Tips will help you write a winning article that top ezines and Web sites will want to publish.

1. Include your non-fiction book’s chapter how to’s or your fiction’s juicy chapter excerpts in your articles. Your book coach encourages novelists as well as self-help authors.

2. Keep your articles around 200-800 words each. Remember today’s audience likes short copy. They want it one, two, three. Online writing is so different from what print magazines want.

3. Keep your article focused on just one thesis or point. That means mindmap your article or make a linear outline what points to keep before your write it. A plan helps.

4. Create a hook for your two or three-sentence introduction. Notice this one asked you a few questions to engage you.

5. Forget the old school of writing for print magazines and getting paid. Follow the Internet way– give your article away like Mrs. Field cookie samples, so people who read them and notice your signature file will want to visit the site where you sell your book.

6. Keep yourself out of it. Your audience wants to know what you can do for them. Replace those “I” constructions with “you.” “If you are like me….”

7. Number the main points for clarity. People love easy to read tips. Remember tips have a format that pros know. Start with a command, follow it with a benefit for doing it, and follow that with examples of how.

8. Collect ten well-edited articles before you blast off. Online readers will look at you more seriously when they see you offer more than one quick thing. They will see you as the savvy expert and click to where you sell your book.

9. Leverage one article into five. Change your audience. Change your number of how to’s. Three Tips to… or Five Tips… or The Two Best Ways to….

10. Remember free information is the reason people go to Web sites, so put your articles there as well as in a blog.

Once you get dozens of short articles or fiction excerpts out to no spam ezines or top web sites in your field, you will notice the search engines optimizing your site because they see your important key words that link you, your book, or your service together. Your submitted articles lead to the magic of “viral marketing.” The thing is that this is attraction, natural marketing at its best. Your coach’s URL and signature file is now on over 33,000 Web sites.

By Judy Cullins

Judy Cullins ©2005 All Rights Reserved.

Judy Cullins, 20-year Book and Internet Marketing Coach works with small business people who want to make a difference in people’s lives, build their credibility and clients, and make a consistent life-long income. Judy is author of 10 eBooks including Write your eBook or Other Short Book Fast, Ten Non-Techie Ways to Market Your Book Online, The Fast and Cheap Way to Explode Your Targeted Web Traffic, and Power Writing for Web Sites That Sell. She offers free help through her 2 monthly ezines, “The BookCoach Says…,” “Business Tip of the Month,” blog Q & A at http://www.bookcoaching.com and over 185 free articles.

===============
Email her at Judy@bookcoaching.com or Cullinsbks@aol.com

Phone: 619/466-0622 — Orders: 866/200-9743

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Judy_Cullins

Related Posts
Book Promotion – Mistakes to Avoid
Relevance and Credibility – Key Selling Points in Promoting Your Book

Bookmark and Share:

Connect to us via our other social media buttons. Just pick your click!

source: http://blog.bookmarket.com/2006/07/how-to-brand-yourself-and-sell-lots-of.html

Article by Peter “The Humorator” Fogel

Congratulations! You’ve done it! You’ve had your book published. From idea to proposal to final creation it certainly was an arduous journey, wasn’t it? Whether you’re a fiction, or non-fiction writer you must now decide what to do with the marketing of your baby. Yes, having a media blitz with a hired publicist or doing your own grassroots campaign is very important.

But know this: If you have loftier ambitions such as branding yourself as an expert in your chosen field and selling lots of books (Cha-Ching!) one of the quickest and fun ways to do that is through public speaking. Now if you have a fear of public speaking…

Realize 90% of Nervousness Doesn’t Even Show

Contrary to what you might thing, public speaking is not essentially stressful. Believe it or not, the audience can not see the butterflies, shaky hands, or sweaty palms. A quick way to combat that is to focus on your audience, the passion you have for your book and how will it change their lives.

I promise you once you get on your feet and put your energies into delivering strong content and see the eager faces in front of you – you will lose your nervousness. And guess what?

You Don’t Have To Be Perfect!

Many of us have observed public speakers and thought to ourselves, “Wow, I could never be that smart, calm, witty, entertaining, polished … or whatever.” Well, I’ve got news for you: You don’t have to be brilliant, witty, or perfect to succeed. You see, in the beginning you can be average. You can make mistakes, get tongue-tied, or forget whole segments of your talk. (on a limited scale of course.) That’s because in the beginning your audience doesn’t expect perfection.

If they can walk away feeling better about themselves, their job and lives and ways to improve it through your knowledge—then guess what? You were successful!

Want Better Results? Then Make Eye-Contact With Your Audience!

Yes, nerves create a need to hide. So what do you do? You look down or look away and think, “If I we can’t see them, then they can’t see us, right? Wrong! Listen, you’re not hidden in front of a crowd of people. Since that won’t work, you can use the old “look just over the tops of their heads.” But that breaks the audience connection.

Here’s a technique that’s always worked for me. Focus on making eye-contact with someone in the front row. Once you feel comfortable with that person then move down the row to the next friendly face. It really works!

Remember: the secret to selling more books through public speaking is to find your targeted audience that can immediately benefit from it. Take them on a journey with you. Depending on the length of your talk you should focus on three major key points and use a journalist’s technique: The 4 W’s of who, what, where, and why.

Make no mistake: public speaking will sell a lot more books than just doing a bookstore signing where you’re hoping people pass by your table and buy it. Carp diem. Take action. Contact libraries, associations that love having authors present their work. Infuse humor in your presentations, learn the tricks of the trade of seasoned speakers, and you’re guaranteed to exponentially increase your brand, your business, and your book sales.

– Peter “The Humorator” Fogel is a reinvention and communications expert as well as the author of the book, If Not Now… Then When? Stories and Strategies of People Over 40 Who Have Successfully Reinvented Themselves. He’s also the creator of the program, Peter “The Humorator” Fogel’s Guide To Effective Public Speaking.

Sign up for his FREE 7 Days To Effective Public Speaking e-course at http://www.fortune500comedy.com.

Related Posts
You Can Sell More Books!
How to Double Your Book Sales on Your Website

Bookmark and Share:

Connect to us via our other social media buttons. Just pick your click!

source: http://www.wheatmark.com/index.php?/blog/entry/you-can-sell-more-books/

Written by Sam Henrie, President, Wheatmark

Ten years. That’s how long I’ve been helping authors publish and market their books. The experience of working with well over a thousand authors has instilled in me a deep conviction:

Every author—and that includes you—can sell more books than they do now.

Here’s what you must do:

First, forget everything you’ve ever heard about bookselling and marketing unless it comes from someone who is successfully selling books NOW … in 2011.

Book publishing and distribution are changing so rapidly that what used to work even a couple of years ago often doesn’t anymore. The major publishing houses are publishing fewer and fewer titles, rarely giving author advances, failing to market most of their titles, and facing a myriad of troubles. The big bookstore chains, Barnes & Noble and Borders, are no longer the largest channels for book sales, and they are also struggling financially. Selling through discounters like Wal-Mart and Costco is often the road to bankruptcy. The online retailer Amazon.com is rapidly becoming the biggest channel for book sales, and offers an unparalleled platform for book marketing. Blogging and social media sites offer entirely new and powerful ways to connect with book buyers. E-book sales are more than doubling every year. In short, everything is changing, which means there is real opportunity for those authors who are willing to understand these changes and use them to sell more books.

Second, learn what really works from those who are successfully selling books NOW.

We at Wheatmark constantly study the current bookselling methods and book marketing strategies of our bestselling authors. We also keep abreast of what is working for the other successful independent and traditionally published authors out there. We’ve found that there are some strong commonalities in the methods and strategies used by these top-selling authors. We’ve also discovered that these authors use a number of not widely known—and sometimes surprising—bookselling and marketing techniques. I’ll be giving you a glimpse of what we’ve learned in upcoming issues of the Sell More Books newsletter as I profile some of these highly successful authors. So stay tuned. (For more in-depth and immediate information on the latest methods, strategies, and secret techniques for selling and marketing books—and how you can use these them to dramatically increase your book sales—check out the Authors Academy at www.authorsacademy.com.)

Third, implement.

It goes without saying that nothing will happen unless you take action and implement what you’ve learned.

Ralated Posts
How to Double Your Book Sales on Your Website
Income Streams for Authors

Bookmark and Share:

Connect to us via our other social media buttons. Just pick your click!



Written by: Karen Cioffi

Source: http://karenandrobyn.blogspot.com/2010/12/5-marketing-reminders-for-2011-basic.html

1. Create a presence and platform

Creating an online presence and platform can be initiated by creating a website or blog. First though, you’ll need to be sure of your niche because the site name and content should reflect your area of expertise is.

Remember, plan first. Choose a site name that will grow with you. Using an children’s author as an example, if you choose a site name, Picture Books with [Your Name], you’ve limited yourself. What if your next book is for young adults?

Some authors create sites with the name of their book. This is a good strategy for pure focus on that one book, but again, what happens when more books become available. Will you create a site for each of your books?

While you can do this, you will be stretching yourself thin and diluting your main focus: you as the author of multiple books.

Leave room to grow; it’s always advisable to use your name as the site’s name.

In addition, with today’s gone-in-a-second attention span, it’s a good idea to keep your site simple. Sites that take a few seconds or more to load may cause you to lose potential buyers.

2. Increase visibility

Writing content for your readers/visitors is the way to increase visibility. The word is: Content is King. Provide interesting, informative, and/or entertaining content that will prompt the reader to come back.

Also, be sure your content is pertinent to your site, and keep your site and content focused on your platform.

3 Draw traffic to your site

To draw traffic to your site, promote your posts by using social media. You can also do article marketing which will increase your visibility reach.

Another strategy is to offer your readers free gifts, such as an e-book relevant to your niche. This will help to increase your usefulness to the reader.

This is considered organic marketing; it funnels traffic back to your site with valuable content and free offers.

4 Have effective call-to-actions

Your site must have call-to-action keywords that will motivate readers to visit and click on your links. Keywords to use include:

•    Get your Free gift now for subscribing
•    Subscribe to our Newsletter
•    Free e-book to offer on your own site
•    Buy Now
•    Sign up
•    Don’t hesitate, take advantage of our expert services
•    Be sure to Bookmark this site

You get the idea, motivate the reader to want what you’re offering and give him/her a CLEAR and VISIBLE call-to-action. Make it as simple as possible for the visitor to buy what you’re offering.

5. Develop a relationship with your readers

It’s been noted that only 1% of first time visitors will buy a product. Usually, only after developing a relationship through your newsletter, information, and offers will your potential customer or client click on the BUY NOW button.

While it will take some time and effort to implement and maintain these strategies, it will be worth it in the long run. Think of it as a long-term investment.

Happy marketing in 2011!

Related Posts
Create A Unique Sound for Your Brand
Best Ways to Overcome Writer’s Block and Save Your Sanity (And Your Hair!)

Bookmark and Share:

Connect to us via our other social media buttons. Just pick your click!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Karen_Cioffi
http://EzineArticles.com/?Writing-For-Young-Children—10-Basic-Rules&id=2599996

Written by: Karen Cioffi

I write for young children and I also write marketing and health articles. Writing in both genres, I can tell you that writing for children can be much more challenging. When writing for children, there are guidelines to keep in mind to help your story avoid the editor’s trash pile. Here is a list of 10 rules to refer to when writing for young children:

1. This is probably the most important item: be sure that your story does not suggest dangerous or inappropriate behavior.

Example: The protagonist (main character) sneaks out of the house while his parents are still sleeping.

This is a no-no!

2. Make sure your story has age appropriate words, dialogue and action.

3. The protagonist should have an age appropriate problem or dilemma to solve at the beginning of the story, in the first paragraph if possible. Let the action/conflict rise. Then have the protagonist, through thought process and problem solving skills, solve it on his/her own. If an adult is involved, keep the input and help at a bare minimal.

Kid’s love action and problem solving!

4. The story should have a single point of view (POV). To write with a single point of view means that if your protagonist can’t see, hear, touch or feel it, it doesn’t exist.

Example: “Mary crossed her eyes behind Joe’s back.” If Joe is the protagonist this can’t happen because Joe wouldn’t be able to see it.

5. Sentence structure: Keep sentences short and as with all writing, keep adjectives and adverbs to a minimum. And, watch your punctuation and grammar.

6. Write your story by showing through action and dialogue rather than telling.

If you can’t seem to get the right words to show a scene, try using dialogue instead; it’s an easy alternative.

7. You also need to keep your writing tight. This means don’t say something with 10 words if you can do it with 5. Get rid of unnecessary words.

8. Watch the time frame for the story. Try to keep it within several hours or one day.

9. Along with the protagonist’s solution to the conflict, he/she should grow in some way as a result.

10. Use a thesaurus and book of similes. Finding just the right word or simile can make the difference between a good story and a great story.

Using these techniques will help you create effective children’s stories. Another important tool to use in your writing tool belt is joining a children’s writing critique group. No matter how long you’ve been writing, you can always use another set of eyes. It you’re a beginning writer and unpublished, you should join a group that has published and unpublished members. Having published and experienced writers in the group will help you hone your craft.

Karen Cioffi is a freelance writer and co-author of the bedtime picture book, Day’s End Lullaby. She is part of the team at DKV Writing 4 U and is the creator and moderator of the yahoo group VBT – Writers on the Move. This group consists of authors and writers who help promote one another through virtual book tours and other useful strategies. Karen is also the co-moderator of a Yahoo children’s writing critique group. For helpful tips about writing, marketing, self-publishing and much more please visit: http://karenandrobyn.blogspot.com

If you’d like to learn more about the many affordable writing and website services offered at DKV Writing 4 u please visit:
http://www.dkvwriting4u.com.

Related Posts
Slicing and Dicing Your Story into Pieces: How to Break Your Book into Chapters
The 7 Core Principles of Conscious and Creative Writers

Bookmark and Share:

Connect to us via our other social media buttons. Just pick your click!