Writing

The Wordos Are Coming! The Wordos Are Coming! A Wordo Alert

by: Bill Moore aka Prof. Wordo

Actually, the wordos are already here. Probably have been ever since people started using that new-fangled tool " writing " to make something other than inventory lists. Since you won‘t find wordo in the dictionary, I‘ll start with a definition and some examples.

Wordos are related to typos because theyre mistakes in writing, but theyre different because theyre not misspellings or letters out of order. Like t

Writing

Voice in Narrative and Dialogue

by: Michael LaRocca

One of the nice things about being an author is that we can break any rule we want. (I just did.) It‘s part of our job description. Language changes through usage -- definitions, spelling, grammar -- and authors can help it do this. But on the other hand, we have to have some sort of agreement on the language or we won‘t be able to talk to each other.

When we as authors break a rule or two, it‘s not because we&lsq

Writing

Promoting Your "How To" Book - Customer Confidence Building

by: Michael Mould

Once you have your book completed and out in the marketplace you cannot sit back and hope the sales will be great unless you have no desire or care to see it sell, YOU have to promote it. So, what can you offer that will boost customer confidence and promote additional sales? Of course there are the traditional promotion tools, e.g., advertising, blogging, banner cross-promotion with other websites with themes that you book can enhance, etc.

Writing

Write A Super Bowl Ad: No Writing Skills Needed?!?

by: Kevin Browne

I want to make this point crystal clear: if you write a Super Bowl ad and it gets produced and shown on the big game down in Florida, your life will be in jeapordy.

Why?

Because the people in the ad business that live and breathe advertising have desperately wanted to accomplish that their entire careers.

Writing a Super Bowl ad is their Mount Everest.

And if you come in and actually, I me

Writing

About Writing

by: Michael LaRocca

Here‘s everything I know about improving your writing, publishing it electronically and in print, and promoting it after the sale.

Two questions you should ask:

(1) What will it cost me?

(2) What does this Michael LaRocca guy know about it?

Answer #1 -- It won‘t cost you a thing. The single most important bit of advice I can give you, and I say it often, is don‘t pay for public

Writing

Why Do We Publish?

by: Michael LaRocca

A major "character" in Mark Salzman‘s first autobiography is his father. Sometimes his father paints. But his father hates painting. He likes it when his painting is done. He likes having painted. But the act of painting itself is, in his opinion, a big pain in the backside.

Nobody reading this approaches writing like that, do they? I know I don‘t. Of all my experiences as an author, whacking those words down onto the p

Writing

The Worth of the Wicked

by: Stephanie D. Tyson

Sometimes writers mistakenly devote most of their attention to developing the main character while leaving the antagonist flat and underutilized. Yet so much of the meat of a story can be found in the doings of a well-written bad guy who experiences hatred, pain, torment, and even the opportunity for rehabilitation.

A characters hatred can be triggered by a variety of circumstances, big or seemingly insignificant. Perhaps someon

Writing

Writing a Memoir: Should You Do It?

by: Lisa Silverman

With the tremendous success of such memoirs as Frank McCourts "Angelas Ashes," Mary Karrs "The Liars Club," and Dave Eggerss "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius," the 1990s and early 2000s saw an explosion in the genre. The boom was seen in the number of memoirs acquired by publishers, the number of titles shelved in the memoir section in bookstores, and, as a result, the number of memoirs unfolding on writers computer screens across the co

Writing

How To Break Into Print Publishing

by: Michael LaRocca

The big question. Do you submit directly to publishers, or do you find an agent who will do that for you? Based on anecdotal evidence I‘ve heard, it can work either way. Many publishers refuse to read unagented submissions, but on the other hand Tom Clancy and John Grisham sold their first books without an agent.

The bottom line is, if a publisher reads what he can sell, he‘ll buy it. It doesn‘t matter if it comes

Writing

Powerful Book Pricing Tips for Authors

by: Brent Sampson

First let‘s provide definitions for the 4 terms covered in this article:

Retail margin is the difference between your books wholesale price and your books retail price. For example, a book with a cover price of $10 and a wholesale price of $5 has a 50% retail margin. This is the profit enjoyed by the retailer.

Wholesale price is the cost of your book to a retailer. To use the same rudimentary example, a book with

Writing

Why a Literary Agent is So Important to Your Success

by: Steve Manning

Ask any literary agent what theyre interested in and theyll tell you, without a doubt, literary quality. Thats what they want. Theyre looking for high-quality writing. Thats their story and theyre sticking with it.

But if you catch them in an unguarded moment, the truth might just slip out. Oh, theyre still looking for literary quality, and if thats part of the package so much the better, but thats not really the determining factor.

Writing

Write Your Perfect Resume

by: Steve Dolan

Writing a Resume

Not that long ago, the easiest way to get a job was to visit the company you wanted to work for and ask for one. Today, however, it‘s not quite that simple. Most companies require you to submit your resume to them before they‘ll consider you for a position. So the resume has become a great deal more important, because it‘s the first, and possible last, chance you have to make the right impression. Tha

Writing

Why Your Writing Time Is Worth More Than Money

by: Ruth Barringham

I used to think that everything in my life was geared around saving money. Even when it came to my writing I would rather waste time doing things the long way rather than spend money that would help speed my career along.

Bu then something happened that made me realise that my writing time is worth far more than money and now my time is much more profitable.

The thing that happened was Nick Daws Quick Cash Writing co

Writing

Creative Writing: Tips To Make Your Creative Written Work Sell

by: Mario Churchill

Creative writing is one of the most difficult jobs in the world. However, you really don‘t need a special talent for it. What you need is a paper, a pen and a very good imagination that is worthy of telling your story to other people.

With good imagination, you can really capture your audience‘s minds and keep them reading your work. However, you have to know that a good imagination is simply not enough when you are wri

Writing

Learning How To Write

by: Michael LaRocca

As a student of Spanish, my goal was to think in Spanish. Skip the word-by-word translation so I‘d have the necessary speed to speak and listen. I know words in Spanish that I‘d be hard pressed to translate. Usually profanity, I confess. Chingow!

For years my students here in China have studied grammar, and know it better than you or I. They read. They write. But speaking involves moving faster than that. In conversatio

Writing

How To Write Ezine Articles In Clusters

by: Elaine Currie

Writing several articles at once might seem pretty much impossible to do if you are just starting to write Ezine articles and find producing them one at a time hard enough. However, writing articles in clusters is not difficult and, once you understand how it‘s done, you will enjoy the benefits. A group of articles written as a cluster can easily be turned into a series but for now we are looking at the how to produce a group of unique articl

Writing

Interview with Marguerite Arotin, a Romance Writer in Ohio

by: Py Kim Conant

Py: How did you get your pen name as Maruerite Arotin?

Marguerite: My real name is Dana but when I decided to write romance, I always knew Dana would be too unisex for the romance market. So I thought about my nickname. My grandma used to call me Daisy and my hubby eventually picked it up too. Marguerite is french for Daisy and I‘m part French so I loved that ;-). Arotin was my late mother-in-law‘s maiden name so I took

Writing

Find Some Readers!

by: Michael LaRocca

The Internet will not replace traditional promotional efforts, but it can enhance them. Before I go into the Internet, I want to talk about the old-fashioned marketing methods, because they‘re still your best source of readers.

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BOOKSTORES

Map out all bookstores within 20, 50, even 100 miles of where you live. Call or visit and see who has a local or regional authors section. Most do. See if

Writing

Can Content Development Lead To Copywriting?

by: Kevin Browne

The practice and study of content development may just be the single best way to become a big league copywriter.

In fact, it is now widely recommended by many experts at some of the worlds‘ leading advertising agencies that students who are diligently putting their ‘perfect‘ portfolios together and refining them every day, ALSO engage as much as possible in content development in order to understand and appreciate t

Writing

How Much Cash Do Ad Copywriters REALLY Make?

by: Kevin Browne

Soooo. You‘re interested in how much ad copywriters actually make, are you? Don‘t be embarrassed. You can say that you are.

Well hand onto your socks, because the average salary of ad copywriters is anything but ordinary.

Junior ad copywriters right out of ad school certainly don‘t make what MBA‘s make, but it‘s nothing that would require us to grab a Kleenex and well up with tears. With po

Writing

Five Steps to Gaining Good Writing Skills

by: Peter Morgan

The best way to start honing good writing skills is by learning to write good essays.

At its most basic, there are five steps to writing a good essay. These good writing techniques are skills that anyone can learn.

The first step is to choose a subject in which you have an avid interest. The point isn‘t so much that you can talk knowledgeably about it (because good research is part of good writing skills) but that

Writing

Write The Perfect Super Bowl Ad: No Real Writing Required?!?

by: Kevin Browne

I want to make this point crystal clear: if you write a Super Bowl ad and it gets produced and shown on the big game down in Florida, your life will be in jeopardy.

Why?

Because the people in the ad business that live and breathe advertising have desperately wanted to accomplish that their ENTIRE careers. (That‘s really why they work weekends, spouses!)

Writing a Super Bowl ad is their Mount Everest

Writing

Greatness Is Daring To Fail

by: Mark McGimpsey

An early morning chill pricked at Matthew‘s lean muscular frame, as he stood contemplating on the task that stretched before him. A task, difficult in the extreme, and he shivered again as the realisation that he might soon be dead, began to gnaw at his forebrain like a dog persistently worrying a bone.

He felt slightly ill as a whiff of porpoise oil rose to assault his nostrils, but as the morning light started its slow incre

Writing

Article Ghost Writing From A Fresh Perspective

by: Lillian Varrassi

Over the last several months, I have come to realize the importance of article writing as it relates to website content either in the product or service area. Content for websites has become an integral part of the internet industry. It is estimated there are over 2.6 million web content writers currently offering their services to website owners.

Writing article content, no matter what the genre, frees the website owner to concen

Writing

Journey into the Past with Melinda and the Wild West

by: Linda Weaver Clarke

Step into the early days of the Wild West and be a part of another culture, time, and place. The historical/fiction novel, "Melinda and the Wild West," encourages the reader to be a part of history, and feel the tenderness of romance. This story blends fascinating characters with Idahos Bear Lake history and is based on several true experiences, published by American Book Publishing, for both adult and young adult alike.

Lloyd

Writing

Words Used Well - No. 4: I Never Said That

by: Bill Moore

Writers like to quote the classics and the famous. Often, though, through misinformation or poor research, they end up misquotingand sometimes misinforming. In some cases, they attribute a statement to someone who never made it. Because theyve heard the quotation misquoted so often, they dont bother checking the authenticity. Everyone pretty much knows by now that Marie Antoinette never said, "Let them eat cake," even though she gets the blame. And Sh

Writing

Becoming A Copywriter: Time To Start Watching Trashy TV?

by: Kevin Browne

Becoming a copywriter starts for real the second AFTER you‘ve gotten your first copywriting job.

Now don‘t worry, all of the skills that you needed to get the job will still be very much in play...but those skills, as you‘re about to find out, were only a prelude to the real day to day aspects of becoming a copywriter:professional style.

For instance, while it may have HELPED to have been aware of what

Writing

Self-Published Books Need A Professional Appearance To Court Success

by: Kae Cheatham

Not long ago, I read a self-published book produced by a printing company, where the author was required to furnish not only the manuscript, but the layout and cover. The cover was the best part of this book. The story had potential (although erratic and overwritten) and was compelling enough that, out of curiosity, I finished it. I have read esthetically-rough fiction from traditional publishers, but those at least had a professional layout and had

Writing

The Freelance Writer's Thanksgiving Prayer

by: Yuwanda Black

CLIENTS

Im thankful for clients.

Im thankful for clients " who pay.

Im thankful for clients " who pay on time.

Im thankful for clients " who pay what Im worth.

Im thankful for clients " who pay their thanks to me.

Im thankful for clients " who realize my value.

Im thankful for clients " who have ideas.

Im thankful for clients " wh

Writing

Tips from Robert Ludlum on writing a compelling thriller

by: Hal Gieseking

Based on a two-hour interview with the late Robert Ludlum, author of some of the world‘s best selling novels of international intrigue.

Q. How did your career in writing begin?

Ludlum: When I got out of college in 1952, I wanted to be an actor. I worked pretty consistently in plays and doing voice-over TV commercials until about 1958. Then somebody said to me, did you ever think of becoming a producer?

Writing

Writing

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