Writing Courses - Are They for You?

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

I have been intrigued by a new product advertised in magazines like National Geographic, Time, Archaeology and the like. It is a series of courses offered by http://TheGreatCourses.com. All are taught by accredited college or university instructors—mostly colleges we would be familiar with. Their ads always publish a complete list of the individual lecture titles and give the name of the professor.

These programs remind me of the ones I took a long time ago; we called them home study courses and everything was done by mail. I can remember typing up my lessons on a typewriter, folding them, and stuffing them into an envelope, licking it, and licking the stamps. Yes! Licking!

This month the ad featured a course called “Writing Creative Nonfiction.”  I haven’t bought it—yet. The CD course is $49.95 and the DVD is $69.95, so they’re frugal enough. Lots more frugal that most courses from accredited universities. The teacher for this one is a full professor from Colby College. And the name of one of the lectures: “Writing the Gutter—How to Not Tell a Story” caught my attention. I also thought the one called “How To Not Have People Hate You” might intrigue writers who worry—a lot—about that! Perhaps I would pick up some tips for the presentations I do for writers' conferences.

So, what’s keeping me from ordering the course? So, what is holding me back?

Time. I’m still in the final throes of writing the third full book in the HowToDoItFrugally Series. It is 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. I’m through the fun part and am struggling with the Index. So maybe I need a break? What do you think?

BTW, if you are interested in checking this course out, go to http://TheGreatCourses.com/5TME. There may be some other fantastic ones that would interest you. The range of topics that would interest creative people is huge. And, if you buy one, let me know what you think, will you?

ABOUT YOUR SHARINGWITHWRITERS BLOGGER

Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The multi award-winning second edition of The Frugal Editor; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers .  The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Three Tips on Starting a Series, Part 2



Writer Beware: "Series are tricky. Writing series is not for the faint of heart." So says Janet Lane Walters, award-winning author of  series in multiple genres and more; as quoted in my latest find, Writing the Fiction Series: The Complete Guide for Novels and Novellas, by Karen S. Wiesner.

I am living testimony to this fact. My dream has been to expand the one undertaking that has taken heart and soul to write, MY BOOK, into a series. The dream took shape when I realized I didn't want to part with my characters. Little did I know what the creation of a series would mean. Thank goodness so many authors are willing to share their ideas on writing a series, including how to begin, how to avoid common pitfalls and how to stay on target, whether you're writing a trilogy or see no end in sight.

In today's post, I would like to summarize three topics that will help propel you out of the gate, described in Wiesner's book: Book Groupings, Types of Series and Series Blurbs. If you are looking for good, solid advice on writing a series, I highly recommend Wiesner's book, which offers a thorough approach with many examples and worksheets that can save time and effort.

Book Groupings are as Familiar as Fiction Itself

• Series: Any continuous or interconnected set of stories. The two main types are the books best read sequentially, such as Harry Potter books; and those books read in any order, such as Nancy Drew books.
• Trilogy: Continues one long-term story arc or each story stands alone with a loose connection.
• Serial: Serial, episode or periodical stories come from a single work and are read in installments, such as Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers, first published in 1836; considered to have established the serial format. A current example is Stephen King's story, The Plant (2000).
• Miniseries: A planned number of stories told within an existing series. A personal favorite of mine on television, such as the six-part Roots and John Adams; Wiesner gives as her example in writing, The Darling Birds, by Johnny Dale.
• Other types of groupings include: Prequel, Sequel, Interquel, Spin-off, and Tetralogy (four-book series that can be developed the same as a Trilogy).

What Type is your Series?

The four main types of series Wiesner pins down, summarized here, has helped me turn a fuzzy idea of what I'm attempting to write into a clear vision. She points out that authors often create a combination of these types, a good idea if you want your series to stand out.

• Recurring character: Popular in mystery/suspense stories, fantasy, sci fi and paranormal genres. Wiesner's example: Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer.

Your star character appears in each book, often with her trusty sidekick. The stories can be told from one or the other point of view.


I considered doing this in my current series project but was advised by an editor that by switching POVs, some of the reader's emotional investment in my main character could be lost. I decided for this first series, to stick with the two mc's who are introduced in Book 1, with one of them the predominant mc. Wiesner advises that in this type of series there's a large cast of characters with varied importance from story to story.

• Central Group of Characters: Popular in romance novels, women's fiction, paranormal, sci fi and fantasy. Example: Redwall Series by Brian Jacques.

Your main group of characters have a loose or specific connection that ties them together, and one or two of the characters become the mc as the series progresses.

• Premise/Plot Series: Popular in action/adventure, suspense and thriller, inspirational, paranormal, horror, sci fi and fantasy. Example: Unbidden Magic Series by Marilee Brothers.

The connection in this type of series is the plot or premise that is the underlying theme.

• Setting Series: Your setting works in your series' books across the board.

The stories are tied by the setting. Characters can change, but the setting stays the same.

Series Blurbs on Steroids

One of the most difficult tasks of fiction writing, as we know, is encapsulating our novel in a short, concise sentence.

Weisner suggests blurbing your entire series in the early stages of the work, keeping it to one to four sentences; as short as possible and tweaking it as you go along. Your series blurb should:

• Be an overview of the entire series.
• Tell how the books in the series are connected.
• Inspire readers to want to read not just one book but the entire series.
• Let the genre shine through.
• Give the blurb the same tone as the story.
• Consider adding interest by making the blurb a question or an exclamation.
• Should give you a plan on how your series will end.

Nailing down these preliminary tasks, authors say, will save you much time and effort as you write your series. But the initial planning is not yet complete. This trilogy of posts will conclude next month with various worksheet suggestions, that if started early, can serve as reminders of details that might be forgotten and not easily found once your series gets rolling.

Check out last month's post: Is Series Writing for You, Part 1

Image courtesy of: http://all-free-download.com

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.

J.K. Rowling Says Goodbye to Harry Potter

No other book series has had the success that the Harry Potter series has. It allowed J.K. Rowling to build a billion dollar empire. But, as with all things, there comes an end. In this short three minute clip, Rowling discusses her feelings on ending the series.

Definitely worth watching!




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Five Ways to Annoy an Editor

Image courtesy of jesadaphorn at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The wonderful thing is that you can annoy an editor at any and all points throughout the publishing process. This allows you to get your own back for all the odd comments sprinkled on every page of your great works from kindergarten onwards. After all, your inbox is full of emails insisting you can make a fortune with your writing in a weekend. Who needs an editor anyway?

Well, if you want to be traditionally published, an editor comes with the package deal. So let's get off on the most annoying foot from the start.

Submissions

1) Resist reading the publishers' instructions for sending in submissions. Send in a hefty paper manuscript with all pages stapled together when the instructions ask for email only.

   Choose a jolly font -- something unusual like Bauhaus 93 or all caps like Algerian. Ignore the boring fonts  like Times New Roman which are so often requested by publishers. Word will happily suggest something it considers better if you run out of ideas.

    You'll get more words on the page if you use single spacing and keep the font tiny --try 8 pt.

   

    And  better not reread your manuscript before sending it off. After all, you want your editor to have lots to do. 

Remember the Rules

2) Follow every typewriting rule you can remember. Sadly we no longer need two spaces before every new sentence. With computers, one space throughout is all that's necessary. Your editor can sort that one out fairly easily but hitting the space bar to create paragraph indents or using tabs does mean tedious days of  extra formatting.

    Life is hard enough with the latest version of Word happily saving every copy of your work in a single file and creating huge files which need to  be reduced to manageable size.

3) Ignore all rules regarding point of view. After all if you know who's speaking what's the problem? 

The problem is that readers like identifying with a particular character or characters in a story. This is difficult if they can't have an in depth involvement. If characters are batting thoughts and feelings about like ping pong balls, it may be exhilarating but it is more likely to lead to confusion than empathy.

However, it's your book. 

Find the right agent

4} Choose an agent who supports your beliefs and ignores requests for blurbs and synopses, sends in an unread manuscript on parenting to a house specializing in Romantic Fiction. Yes, we can see there is a connection there somewhere but publishers and their editors are apt to concentrate on fact or fiction, or at least have different imprints for each.

What's an Editor For, Anyway?

5} And the final definite No-no. Your editor is not there to write your book. Your editor is there to help you polish your book, make it shine. If you have problems with spelling and grammar, at least do your best to check the manuscript through with Word's tools if nothing else. Read your manuscript out loud--that's a good way to find missing words.

*****

Any more thoughts on annoying editors, or even on annoying editors? Let us know in the comments below :-)

  

Anne Duguid Knol

A local and national journalist in the U.K., Anne Knol is now a fiction editor for award-winning American and Canadian publishers. As a new author, she shares writing tips and insights at Author Support : http://www.authorsupport.net .

Her Halloween novella, ShriekWeek is published by The Wild Rose Press as e-book and in print  included in the Hauntings in the Garden anthology. (Volume Two)

Her column on writing a cozy mystery appears  in The Working Writer's Club .

Three Reasons Authors Need An Online Press Room

By W. Terry Whalin

When it comes to telling others about your book, every author has to be proactive. I'm not encouraging you to use messages like “buy my book” which do not work. Instead your active steps should highlight the benefits of your book and what readers will gain from it. One area of the best ways to increase your active presence is to make an online press room.

Increasingly the media are using tools like Google to find sources for interviews. One of the best tools to increase your visibility with the media is to create an online press room for your book. 

For some time, I've had this tool in my plans and finally built it for my book, Billy Graham, A Biography of America's Greatest Evangelist. On November 7th, Mr. Graham will turn 98 years old. I encourage you to follow this link and check out my online press room which is full of information.
What does an online press room include?

Journalists (print or broadcast) are looking for easy ways to reach an author. Your first step is to understand what they need:

• Author contact information — provide several easy methods to reach you via phone and email
• Author biography or information about the author
• A Book Press Release
• Suggested questions for the author about the book
• Media samples of when the author is interviewed
• Samples of the book
• Visuals for the book—cover photos and author photos

I hope you will check out my online press room and notice each of these resources. Because I've launched my press room, I hope different people in the media will begin to use this resource.

As the author, you have to be doing interviews to have media samples for your book. Often authors forget to ask for a copy of the interview or download it from the journalist after the interview. You need this material for your online press room and to show the media that you are regularly being interviewed about your book.

Here's three reasons to create an online press room:

1. Every day the media is actively searching for authors to interview. Are you visible and easy to find?

2. A well-designed press room makes it easy for the journalist to: 1) reach you and 2) interview you

3. An online press room shows your understanding of the needs of the media and that you are eager to help them—and in this process help yourself.

Proactive authors have built an online press room and gathered the essential documents where a journalist can connect with the author and write a story or schedule their own broadcast interview. According to PR and marketing expert Rusty Shelton increasingly media are using these online press rooms to reach out to authors and schedule interviews. Your first step as an author is awareness that you need one. Next gather the materials for such an effort or create them such as writing your own press release or a list of suggested questions. Finally build your site and begin promoting it through social media to others.

Do you have an online press room? Has it helped you gain increased opportunities to promote your book or schedule interviews with the media? If so, let me know in the comments below. Proactive authors are always looking for the next opportunity. Literary agents and editors are attracted to these types of active authors.

Tweetable:

Here's Three Reasons Why Authors Need an Online Press Room. (ClickToTweet)

Once again, I made the list of the Top 100 Marketing Experts to follow on Twitter from Evan Carmichael. He creates this list from different variables such as retweets and more. I'm honored to be #61 on this list. Hope you will check it out.

W. Terry Whalin is an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing. He has written over 60 books including Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams and for more than 50 publications. You can follow Terry on Twitter and he lives in Colorado.

Good Sales Copy and Bad Sales Copy - How to Tell the Difference

By Clayton Makepeace

The definition of great copy is, "Copy that produces great results."

The quality of your copy isn't defined by the techniques you use. Nor is it determined by how many family, friends, clients, or focus group participants tell you it's great.

Only one kind of person in the world gets to decide whether you rule or suck: Prospects who cast their votes by responding to your copy in the only way that matters — by spending their own hard-earned money.

So the answer is …

 … the only way to know good copy for sure is to use it … measure the result … and compare that result with those produced by other similar promotions.

Can you get a feel for how your prospects might vote on your sales copy?

Is it possible to spot weaknesses that if repaired will probably increase response?

In a word, "Yep."

Just try this: As you're reading sales copy — whether your own or someone else's, ask yourself,

1.    Does the headline and lead stop me in my tracks and make me want to read the sales message?

2.    Is the tone of the copy appropriate for the message being delivered?

3.    Is it written using the kind of language my typical prospect is likely to use in day-to-day communication?

4.    Does the spokesperson come off sounding like my advocate — someone who's intensely committed to helping improve my life — and NOT like just another salesman?

5.    Does the copy offer me a benefit or a series of benefits I'm willing to pay for?

6.    Does the copy convince me that this product can actually deliver those benefits to me?

7.    Does it convince me that this product is unique in its ability to deliver those benefits?

8.    Does the copy answer every objection to making the purchase I can think of?

9.    Do I feel as though I'm moving through the sales copy quickly and effortlessly? Is it devoid of spots that seem dull, repetitive, slow-going, or that allow my mind to wander?

10.    Do I feel my excitement rising with each new paragraph I read?

11.    Does the price seem insignificant compared to the value I'm being offered?

12.    Do I feel an irresistible urge to purchase this product from this company, TODAY?

When you and everyone else you show the copy to can answer an emphatic "YES" to each of these questions, there's a darned good chance you've got a winner on your hands.

Your takeaway for today: Each time you complete your sales letter, see how many of these 12 questions you can answer with yes. If you can't say yes to at least 50% of the questions, then go back and rework your copy. Keep refining the copy until you get a yes on all 12.

This article appears courtesy of American Writers & Artists Inc.’s (AWAI) The Golden Thread, a free newsletter that delivers original, no-nonsense advice on the best wealth careers, lifestyle careers and work-at-home careers available. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.awaionline.com/signup/.

MORE ON WRITING AND MARKETING

Book Marketing - Engagement and Connection

How to Build Your Online Authority with Focused Writing Goals

Writing a Book – Bait and Switch Editing

Engagement & Connection

What you offer on your website consistently will draw readers to your site.  Develop authoritative content that readers can use and you will connect with them.  Research takes time, but is of vital importance to your writing, your message.  Make it real and it will engage your audience.

With One Billion active websites, we have a lot of competition and noise to challenge us.  To offer free, usable information is fundamental to the survival and success of our websites.

I suggest the following Tips for readership engagement:
• Offer information with longevity on separate static pages.  Offer info that is current and fluid within your post line-up.

• Link to resources external to your site you find of value and keep track of the dynamic nature of active or inactive status for each.

• To persuade readers to spend more time on your site, provide links to your archived posts or static pages within your Blog.

• Consider adding downloadable free offers.

• Do you have an eBook published or ready to publish?
• Can you offer a revised piece as a free article or eBook to download?
• Only readers registered to follow your site by auto-emails should be eligible for the free download offer.

• Add visuals: many sites such as Pinterest are photograph-driven.

• Add links to your site with a brief post intro to your Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc., pages.

• Always include tags for posts and your motto.

Blogging is an important part of book marketing.  E-Newsletters and regular posts are an excellent way to promote your work and to recommend the work of others.
 
November is National Novel Writing Month check it out at http://nanowrimo.org/.  I am participating and hope you will too.  For Non-Fiction check out Nina Amir’s November event at http://writenonfictionnow.com/4-ways-prepare-30-day-writing-challenge/ 
I appreciate your feedback.  Please comment below.  Thank you much!  deborah

Deborah Lyn Stanley is a writer, editor and artist.  She is a retired project manager who now devotes her time to writing, art and caregiving mentally impaired seniors. 
She has independently published a collection of 24 artists’ interviews entitled the Artists Interview Series.  The series was also published as articles for an online news network and on her website: Deborah Lyn Stanley - WritersBlog.  Deborah is published in magazines.  She is a blogger who has managed several group sites including ones she founded.

“Write your best, in your voice, your way!”