Write What You Know

As writers, we’re often told to write what we know.

And while many writers (myself included) enjoy research, so we’re able to write about most anything, it’s possible to build a career simply writing about what we already know – no research required.

Erma Bombeck, Dave Barry, and David Sedaris all became famous writing from personal experience.

Who knows? You could become famous writing about what you know, too.

Just follow these tips:

1. Take a class or workshop, so you learn about all the different types of materials that can be created from personal experiences. Personal essays and opinion pieces probably come to mind immediately, but many other types of materials can be created from personal experience.

2. Learn ways to generate and capture an endless supply of material to write about. That way, once you’ve written about your most memorable personal experiences, you won’t run out of new material to write about.

3. Know the various markets for materials written from personal experience. You need to know more than the most popular markets for personal experience pieces, so you’ll have markets to submit to all the time.

4. Learn how to turn your personal experiences into marketable pieces (pieces that will be more likely to sell). There are some definite tricks of the trade for this, so be sure to learn them.

5. Learn how to effectively add humor to your writing (when appropriate) to make your work more appealing. Again, there are definite tricks of the trade for humor writing. Learn these tricks so your attempts at humor won’t fall flat.

6. Learn to write with style. Your work will be more marketable, and if you develop a strong personal style, it may become your brand as a writer.

Follow these tips and, even if you don’t become the next Erma Bombeck, you’ll still be well on your way to creating an enjoyable career writing what you know!

As the Working Writer's Coach, Suzanne Lieurance helps people turn their passion for writing into a lucrative career.

Let her teach you everything you need to know to build your career writing what you know.

Learn more at www.fearlessfreelancewriting.com.

The Power of Video Marketing - A string quartet

Okay, maybe I'm acquiring a bad habit. I watched another video that made me want to share.

I happened across this video on Facebook. I really try to avoid watching videos because they're kind of time consuming. But, this is another great one with a story and marketing elements.

In a few minutes, a really short clip, a story emerged of one-upping, competition, and determination. And, it's all done in a funny and extremely talented and creative way.

I don't know the name of the video, but it was posted originally by Brandon Williams. You'll see what I mean about it's power when you watch it. It's definitely worth the few minutes.



So, how is this great video marketing?

Well, I can think of at least two reasons:

1. If this were a music school. Would you join up if you wanted to learn a stringed instrument?
2. If they had a performance coming up, wouldn't you be motivated to get a ticket?

And, all from the power of a short video clip.

If you watched it, please let us know what you thought of it!

If you're not creating video yet, start today. Create something simple, right from your iPhone or iPad. Get it up on YouTube, optimize it, and publish it.

You can even create a PowerPoint presentation, turn it into an MP4 and put it on YouTube.

MORE ON WRITING AND MARKETING

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Guest Posts & Interviews: A Plan

One way to highlight your thought-leadership on your blog is by inviting other experts to contribute. You can do this through interviews, as well as guest posts.

The process for both tactics is easy and similar....

1. Decide What you Want. Are you seeking interviews, guest posts, or both? For interviews, will you do them via phone, Skype, or via email? If email, what is the length of the post. Also determine what additional information you want: headshot and book or product image, how many links, and how long of a bio. For guest posts decide on your ideal length, as well as image needs.

2. Make a Wish List of 10 Experts. This should be a few people you know, as well as ones you want to get to know.

3. Get Contact Information. If you do not know all the people on your list persoanlly, see if you can get an intro from a friend or peer. If all else fails, tweet to them or message via their most active social media platform.

4. Write a Standard (but Customizable) Intro Email. Let them know who you are, what you are requesting, and information about your site. Include some sort of personal detail (something you like about them or their blog), so they know it is not a form letter, and request they get back to you if they'd like to move forward.

5. Write a Detailed Request. Have this ready to go for when your expert says, Yes. If you are conducting the interview, decide the details (how much time you need and how you will do it - in person, phone, Skype). If it's an email interview or guest post, give them the word count. Be sure to request images, links, and social profiles, so you can easily share the published posts. And don't forget to give a deadline. It should be at least a week before your publish date.

6. Make a Chart. Create a simple spreadsheet to track your requests, responses, and deadlines.

7. Prep your Post. Decide how you will format these contributor posts for consistency, as well as to make the process easy for you.

8. Publish. When your post is ready, schedule or publish it!

9. Share. Share the post link (with graphic for better exposure) on your social networks. Also, tweet to or tag the contributor, depending on the platform.

10. Thank Your Guests. Send the link to the post in a follow-up email, along with a thank you. You many also want to include sample social posts with a request for your guests to share. This will make sure everyone gets the most benefit out of the opportunity.

Whether you interview experts or invite people to post, it's helpful to have a plan, as well as guidelines for your guests in place. It will save you time and energy, while giving your guests tips to make the most of their exposure on your blog.

What do you think? Do you run expert interviews or guest posts on your blog? What is your process? Share your thoughts in the comments. 

* * *

Debra Eckerling is a writer, editor and project catalyst, as well as founder of Guided Goals and Write On Online, a live and online writers’ support group. 

She is the host of the Guided Goals Podcast and author of Purple Pencil Adventures: Writing Prompts for Kids of All Ages. 

Debra is an editor at Social Media Examiner and a speaker/moderator on the subjects of writing, networking, goal-setting, and social media.

A Peek at Great Book Review Idea from New Release

Off-The-Wall -Alternatives

Making Your Reviews Into Workhorses

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson.

Excerpted (and adapted) from Carolyn’s new How To Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically: The ins and outs of using free reviews to build and sustain a writing career to be released this fall.

Authors rarely get the most of their reviews. Surprised? I think it’s either that they are so excited about the review or that the idea of extending a review’s value doesn’t occur to them. Or it’s because so many reviews these days come from readers. They aren’t professionals, so they have no idea how to distribute content beyond posting their review on Amazon.

One of the ways they can get more mileage from their reviews is to get them reprinted in more venues than the reviewer ever planned. Or you do it for them. And, no, it isn’t stealing or plagiarism if you get permission from the reviewer first. In fact, it can benefit the reviewer. 

When you get further distribute reviews you already have, it’s like getting a little marketing bonus. Here’s how to do that:

• If your reviewer doesn’t normally write reviews (these reviewers are often called reader reviewers), suggest she send her review or the link to her review to her friends as a recommendation.
• If your reviewer lives in a town with a small daily or weekly newspaper, she could send her review to them. She may realize the thrill of being published the first time. 

• Ask your reviewer—even one who writes for a review journal—to post her review on Amazon.com, BN.com, and other online booksellers that have reader-review features. I have never had a reviewer decline my suggestion. It is ethical for a reviewer to do it or give you permission to reuse the review as long as she holds the copyright for the review. (Most reviewers do not sign copyright-limiting agreements with the medium who hires them.) Get more information on Amazon’s often misrepresented review policies in Chapter Eleven, “Managing Your Amazon Reviews.”
• After you have permission from the reviewer to reprint the review, post it on your blog, on your Web site, and in your newsletter. Use quotations from the reviews to give credibility to selected media releases and queries.
• Once you have permission to use reviews, send copies of good ones to bookstore buyers and event directors as part of your campaign to do book signings, to speak, or do workshops in their stores. Go to (midwestbookreview.com/links/bookstor.htm) for a starter list of bookstores.
• Send quotations (blurbs) from the reviews you get to librarians, especially the ones in your home town or cities you plan to visit during book tours. Include order information. Try Midwest for a list of libraries (midwestbookreview.com/links/library.htm). 
• Use snippets from positive reviews as blurbs in everything from your stationery to your blog. (Use your e-reader’s find function to search for other ideas for using your blurbs in this book.)
• If your reviewer doesn’t respond to your request to post the review on Amazon, excerpt blurbs from them and post them on your Amazon buy page using Amazon’s Author Connect or Author Central features. They will appear on your Amazon sales page. 
• Include the crème de la crème of your reviews on the Praise Page of your media kit and inside the front cover of the next edition (perhaps a mass market edition like the pocket paperbacks sold in grocery stores?). See my multi award-winning The Frugal Book Promoter (bit.ly/FrugalBookPromo) for the complete—and I do mean complete—lowdown on media kits. 

Hint: Occasionally authors get reviews on Amazon that, shall we say…don’t thrill them. Reviews like that can be minimized by asking others for reviews. As new reviews are added, the old ones tend to get buried in the lineup of reviews. We can also (pleasantly!) refute a position a reviewer takes using the comment feature—or thank them for bringing something to our attention. We can also dispute their validity with Amazon, though that rarely works.

You can use some of these suggestions as part of your keeping-in-communication-with-reviewers effort after her review has been published.

Coming up in the newest release in my multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books, How To Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically: The ins and outs of using free reviews to build and sustain a writing career to be released this fall is more on how Amazon can helps authors early in their review-getting process. I mean, as long as it’s nearly impossible to do without Amazon and still have a successful book campaign, we might was well get them to return the loyalty we show them in as many ways as possible. 

----

Carolyn Howard-Johnson brings her experience as a publicist, journalist, marketer, and retailer to the advice she gives in her HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers and the many classes she taught for nearly a decade as instructor for UCLA Extension’s world-renown Writers’ Program. The books in her HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers have won multiple awards. That series includes both the first and second editions of The Frugal Book Promoter and The Frugal Editor won awards from USA Book News, Readers’ Views Literary Award, the marketing award from Next Generation Indie Books and others including the coveted Irwin award. Her next book in the HowToDoItFrugally series for writers will be How To Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically.

The author loves to travel. She has visited eighty-nine countries and has studied writing at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom; Herzen University in St. Petersburg, Russia; and Charles University, Prague. She admits to carrying a pen and journal wherever she goes. Her Web site is www.howtodoitfrugally.com. 

Your Website and Graphics

By Karen Cioffi

The title of this article specifies your website, but it’s just as relevant to your social media marketing and content marketing. And, it’s relevant whether you’re a freelance writer, a book marketer, a solopreneur, or small business.
   
Graphics are persuasive. Graphics are powerful.

To show you just how persuasive and effective they are, let’s look at some statistics and information from 3M Corporation in the article, The Power of Visual Communication by Mike Parkinson.

1. “Visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text, graphics quickly affect our emotions, and our emotion greatly affect our decision-making.”

2. Over 90% of information the brain receives and processes is visual.

3. According to Dr. Lynell Burmark, Ph.D. Associate at the Thornburg Center for Professional Development, words are received and managed by our short-term memory and most people can only hold on to 5-9 bits of information. Images go straight into long-term memory; there those images are permanently imprinted.

4. A 1986 study at the University of Minnesota School of Management discovered that “presenters who use visual aids are 43% more effective in persuading audience members to take a desired course of action than presenters who don't use visuals.”

5. In a survey conducted by the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab almost 50% of the participants said that when deciding the credibility of a website, its design look was the most significant determining factor.

6. According to Robert E. Horn, a Stanford University's Center for the Study of Language and Information scholar, when words and visuals are tightly meshed together, something new is created—the capability to soak-in, understand, and more effectively produce lots and lots of fresh information.

7. It’s synergy. The combined parts (words and visuals) are much more effective, powerful than the individual parts.

8. Companies and even governments spend billions of dollars each year to find ‘the’ image or imagery that will motivate the audience to buy whatever it is they’re selling: a product, service, or even an idea.

Okay, is that enough? Do you get that graphics, images . . . imagery is what will create results in marketing?

I sure do.

My biggest take away from the 3M in-depth article is that the buyer’s decisions are ‘greatly’ affected by his emotions. And, his emotions are ‘quickly’ affected by graphics.

So, for 2016 and beyond, it will be essential to use emotional imagery to motivate and persuade your audience.

But . . . yes, there’s a ‘but.’

People have been bombarded with those cookie-cutter images (I’m guilty of this too), thus making them much less effective.

An article at Forbes, explains that for images to now be effective they need to have a more natural element to them. The article refers to them as “natural stock photography.”

I started noticing this recently on Twitter and other social networks. There have been some beautiful ‘natural’ scenery images. And, they are powerful enough to grab you. This is what website design, including the images in your blog posts, should look like moving forward.

Another hot tip: Moving images with motivating quotes are still highly shareable graphics, as are infographics.

What are your website design plans for the rest of this year?

Reference:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomaslaurinavicius/2015/12/28/web-design-trends-2016/



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Save Time: Try an Outline-Sketch

I wrote my next book, Book two in a mystery series for 8-12 year-olds, while making dinner last night. To be more precise, every time my hands were free I jotted down plans for the book in a sketchy outline. Don't let this boast fool you, though. The one-page outline-sketch came together after the idea for the book rolled around in my head for about a year and after I collected thoughts on note paper and even wrote a detailed, single-spaced typewritten outline, all neatly collected on paper in a file folder.

The problem?

It's something I learned from the hours and hours I spent outlining my first book on gobs of notecards, post-its, bubbles on large sketch paper, and yes, a detailed, single-spaced typewritten outline and more. That story took so many unplanned twists and turns while writing it--ideas that were never written down-- that for this story I knew there had to be a better way.

Not Every Writer Would Agree
Before I started Book 1 I followed advice on writing a detailed outline from many different sources. The advice went something like this. An outline can:

• Save you hours of time and effort and even reduce writer's block.
• Help you work through problems of events and characterizations.
• Give you a blueprint to follow, even give you the advantage of seeing the entire story at a glance.
• And so on.

The wisdom of a well-developed outline didn't work for me, though. I spent much of my time making many different outlines. I started with, you guessed it, the detailed, single-spaced typewritten outline, painstakingly written over a sizable chunk of time. But while writing, I veered away from that outline. I tried to go back to the outline and rewrite it to keep the story intact to save time. I wound up spending so much time changing the outline that when I got back to the story there were still changes I wanted to make. It became a vicious cycle.

At that juncture, I tried the different methods of getting the outline of the story out: notecards, sketches, etc. When that didn't work, I gave up on outlines and simply plotted as I went along. That was time-consuming as well. I ended up following a pattern of letting the draft "rest" for a few days, then finding inconsistencies and thinking of new ways to improve the story, some of which involved major rewrites. Much of the time I felt like I was operating in a fog of uncertainty.

Your Book in a Nutshell
Here is what magically appeared on my dinner-time planner:

• The main characters were listed and their roles in the story.
• A clear idea of who the mc is and what flaw or need must be worked out by the end.
• An idea of what the theme will be. It is important to make the theme clear from the start because it needs to be addressed and solved by the end.
• The setting as imagined.
• Scenes which had already been envisioned were sketched out.
• Thoughts on the climax and ending. For a mystery, this is essential. It is the puzzle that your mc must piece together throughout the book. Knowing the puzzle in the beginning should help make the rest of the book fall into place. Also for a mystery, it's good to have a general idea of how your character solves the mystery.

This is not an exhaustive list and I haven't figured it all out yet. But I plan on keeping my outline sketchy on purpose! I'd like to write this book in a matter of months rather than a matter of years (as in Book 1). We'll see if this goal can be accomplished.

Guideposts and Skeletons
If an outline-sketch touches on the main points to be covered and actual writing is the filling, then Story Structure is the skeleton that holds everything together. There are many ways Story Structure is described, from the Story Arc, in which the scenes build tension to the climax and the ending ties up the loose ends quickly in a neat bow; to the Hero's Journey, introduced by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), according to Wikipedia, and described as:

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.

I keep a copy of the Hero's Journey in a notebook which I copied and pasted from http://www.thewritersjourney.com/hero's_journey.htm. 

In his book, Story Engineering: Mastering the 6 Core Competencies of Successful Writing, Larry Brooks writes that the single most important word in storytelling is conflict. No conflict, no story. Partnering with conflict is Story Architecture/Structure. No structure, no story, either. Brooks' six Core Competencies are: Concept, Character, Story Structure, Scene Execution, Voice and the Development Process. Guess which chapter is the longest. That's right, Story Structure. I highly recommend checking out Brooks' book and his website at http://storyfix.com.

Please leave a comment about your experience with outlines. Do they work for you? 

Of course, this post addresses fiction. When I wrote nonfiction articles I followed an outline-sketch I learned from an editor: Answer the W's in the first and second paragraph and explain the how during the rest of the article; when writing for newspapers, begin with most important information as the ending can be cut off due to space limitations. Worked for me.

Linda Wilson, a former elementary teacher and ICL graduate, has published over 100 articles for adults and children, and six short stories for children. Recently, she completed Joyce Sweeney's online fiction courses, picture book course and mystery and suspense course. She has currently finished her first book, a mystery/ghost story for 8-12 year-olds, and is in the process of publishing it. Follow Linda on Facebook.

Save Time: Try an Outline-Sketch

Beat the Clock with an Outline-Sketch

I wrote my next book, Book two in a mystery series for 8-12 year-olds, while making dinner last night. To be more precise, every time my hands were free I jotted down plans for the book in a sketchy outline. Don't let this boast fool you, though. The one-page outline-sketch came together after the idea for the book rolled around in my head for about a year and after I collected thoughts on note paper and even wrote a detailed, single-spaced typewritten outline, all neatly collected on paper in a file folder.

The problem? It's something I learned from the hours and hours I spent outlining my first book on gobs of notecards, post-its, bubbles on large sketch paper, and yes, a detailed, single-spaced typewritten outline and more. That story took so many unplanned twists and turns while writing it--ideas that were never written down-- that for this story I knew there had to be a better way.

Not Every Writer Would Agree
Before I started Book 1 I followed advice on writing a detailed outline from many different sources. The advice went something like this. An outline can:

• Save you hours of time and effort and even reduce writer's block.
• Help you work through problems of events and characterizations.
• Give you a blueprint to follow, even give you the advantage of seeing the entire story at a glance.
• And so on.

The wisdom of a well-developed outline didn't work for me, though. I spent much of my time making many different outlines. I started with, you guessed it, the detailed, single-spaced typewritten outline, painstakingly written over a sizable chunk of time. But while writing, I veered away from that outline. I tried to go back to the outline and rewrite it to keep the story intact to save time. I wound up spending so much time changing the outline that when I got back to the story there were still changes I wanted to make. It became a vicious cycle. At that juncture, I tried the different methods of getting the outline of the story out: notecards, sketches, etc. When that didn't work, I gave up on outlines and simply plotted as I went along. That was time-consuming as well. I ended up following a pattern of letting the draft "rest" for a few days, then finding inconsistencies and thinking of new ways to improve the story, some of which involved major rewrites. Much of the time I felt like I was operating in a fog of uncertainty.

Your Book in a Nutshell
Here is what magically appeared on my dinner-time planner:

• The main characters and their roles in the story.
• A clear idea of who the mc is and what flaw or need must be worked out by the end.
• An idea of what the theme will be. It is important to make the theme clear from the start because it needs to be addressed and solved by the end.
• The setting needs to be decided.
• Scenes which had already been envisioned need to be sketched out.
• Thoughts on the climax and ending. For a mystery, this is essential. It is the puzzle that your mc must piece together throughout the book. Knowing the puzzle in the beginning should help make the rest of the book fall into place. Also for a mystery, it's good to have a general idea of how your character solves the mystery.

This is not an exhaustive list and I haven't figured it all out yet. But I plan on keeping my outline sketchy on purpose! I'd like to write this book in a matter of months rather than a matter of years (as in Book 1). We'll see if this goal can be accomplished.

Guideposts and Skeletons
If an outline-sketch touches on the main points to be covered and actual writing is the filling, then Story Structure is the skeleton that holds your story up. There are many ways Story Structure is described, from the Story Arc, in which the scenes build tension to the climax and the ending ties up the loose ends quickly in a neat bow; to the Hero's Journey, introduced by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), according to Wikipedia, and described as:

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.

I keep a copy of the Hero's Journey in a notebook which I copied and pasted from http://www.thewritersjourney.com/hero's_journey.htm. 

In his book, Story Engineering: Mastering the 6 Core Competencies of Successful Writing, Larry Brooks writes that the single most important word in storytelling is conflict. No conflict, no story. Partnering with conflict is Story Architecture/Structure. No structure, no story, either. Brooks' six Core Competencies are: Concept, Character, Story Structure, Scene Execution, Voice and the Development Process. Guess which chapter is the longest. That's right, Story Structure. I highly recommend checking out Brooks' book and his website at http://storyfix.com.

Please leave a comment about your experience with outlines. Do they work for you? Of course, this post grapples with fiction. When I wrote nonfiction articles I followed an outline-sketch I learned from an editor: Answer the W's in the first and second paragraph and explain the how during the rest of the article; begin with most important information in writing for newspapers as the ending can be willy-nilly cut off due to space limitations. Worked for me.

Clipart courtesy of: http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/17000/17041/clock_17041.htm.

Linda Wilson, a former elementary teacher and ICL graduate, has published over 100 articles for adults and children, and six short stories for children. Recently, she completed Joyce Sweeney's online fiction courses, picture book course and mystery and suspense course. She has currently finished her first book, a mystery/ghost story for 8-12 year-olds, and is in the process of publishing it. Follow Linda on Facebook.