Jen's Writing Journey

Writing Roundup, February 5

February 5th, 2010 · Uncategorized

The Business of Writing
Craft
Fiction
Freelancing
Platform

The Business of Writing

Perseverance
Without the ability to stick to our goals and complete our writing projects, all of the talent and study in the world won’t mean a thing. How do you keep your motivation up even when you are facing a seemingly endless string of rejections?

Two Roads Diverged: Understanding Traditional and Self-Publishing Differences
Todd Rutherford discusses the differences between these two publishing paths at great length. This post is a great resource as you decide which path is right for you and your work.

Special Focus on the Amazon-MacMillan Battle
Last weekend, the fight between Amazon and MacMillan over ebook prices was seemingly the only topic worth following on Twitter. Here are a few posts that discuss what happened and the results fo the dust-up:

Fiction

Is Your Scene Cluttered with Inconsequential Blather?
Author Roz Morris discusses the problems inherent with too much text cluttering up a scene, using an example from her husband’s graphic novel to illustrate.

Tune In, Turn On, and Drop Out with T.C. Boyle
In an interesting interview with Powells.com, Author T.C. Boyle discusses the fictional world he created in Drop City.

Are You Using Setting to Deepen Your Characters?
Author K.M. Weiland discusses how to assess your setting and ensure that it adds to your overall story.

Freelancing

10 Actions for Writers in Providing Great Customer Service
As writers, it is so easy for all of us to focus on our writing and hope that the business side of things just takes care of itself. But, when we work as a freelancer, we are not just the talent. We have to function as the accountant, the business manager, and he customer service staff. How do you ensure that you provide customer service that keeps your clients coming back for more of your talent?

How to Work Less
When we want to earn more money and find more clients, we usually think we need to work more. Linda Formichelli has a much better idea: Work fewer hours, but make sure that those hours count. Don’t tweet or read blogs or sit on the computer waiting for an email response when you are supposed to be working. Work or leave the computer.

20 Writing Mistakes that Make Any Freelancer Look Bad
Whatever you do, don’t make these mistakes. Unless, of course, you never want to work for that client again.

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Guest Post by Christina Katz: Platform Resolutions for Writers

February 1st, 2010 · Uncategorized

Thanks to Christina Katz for sharing her platform-building wisdom. I hope you get some good action steps from this guest post.

Platform Resolutions for Writers 2010

Before writers establish an author platform, they typically establish a writer platform. Over the past decade, thousands of writers have parlayed established influence into traditional book deals. Landing a traditional book deal is still an effective way to exponentially increase your credibility and visibility.

Your “platform” refers to what you do in the world with your professional expertise that makes you visible and influential in the world. Having friends on Facebook or followers on Twitter is not your platform, unless the majority of those people know who you are, what you do, and are enthusiastic about your work.

I thought I would offer some advice about how to slowly and steadily establish a lasting platform. You may note the lack of fanaticism in this advice and the emphasis on enduring success instead. I’m a mother and a wife, a freelancer, a speaker, a teacher, and a blogger, so aiming for balance is the only way I can afford to work if I plan on sticking around for the long haul.

This advice has worked consistently for my students over the past several years. I think you will find that a grounded, step-by-step approach works just as well for you if you choose to follow it:

Develop a platform topic that you love and can work on tirelessly for the next few years. Your passion of the moment should come in second to the topic you could delve into deeply for a good, long time. Prior professional education and a depth of personal experience are going to be a boon to your platform if you have an eye on a future book deal.
Hang back from establishing a blog on your topic until you have cultivated a wealth of content and experience working with others on specialty-related activities that lend credibility and trust to your name. Others will tell you to start blogging immediately, but don’t, if you want to be efficient with your time and money.
Instead, gain authority by seeking publication in established, highly visible publications both in print and online that serve your target audience. Avoid the kind of publishing that anyone can accomplish, like posting on article sites, and work on your professional communication skills instead. By all means, avoid the content mills offering writers slave wages with the promise of future earnings.
Don’t begin any kind of marketing campaign for any product or service offerings until you have established yourself as a go-to person on your topic, again saving you time and money. Before you look at ways to serve others directly, channel your expertise into the best service methods possible based on your strengths and weaknesses. This is a meaty topic that is covered in-depth in my book, Get Known Before the Book Deal, Use Your Personal Strengths to Grow an Author Platform (Writer’s Digest Books 2008).
Then, develop a product or service that can become one of several multiple income streams over time that will support your goal of becoming a published author. For example, teaching classes over the years has allowed me to re-invest more of the money I earn from writing books back into book marketing. Make sure any offerings you produce are released conscientiously and are integrated into the professional writing you already do. Otherwise, you will seem like you are all over the place and just trying to score a buck.
Don’t expect your platform to support you financially for at least one or two years, as you micro-invest in it, re-invest in it as it grows, and expand your visibility.
Once you have a professional publication track record in your niche topic, then it’s time to hang your online shingle. I’ve seen this accomplished in as little as six months by exceptionally focused students. Take a portion of the money you’ve earned writing and invest it in a professional quality online presence.
A low-cost way to do this is to purchase your name as a URL and use a hosting site like GoDaddy.com to host a Wordpress.org blog. I use the Thesis Theme, which you can see in action at my blog. In this way, a blog can also serve as your website where you post your published clips, offerings and bio. If you don’t have a ton of money to invest in the look of your site, you can always pay a designer later.
Delay partnering with others on joint ventures until you have a clear idea of your own strengths and weaknesses in and around your topic. And when you do partner with others be extremely discriminating. Make sure the partnership is going to be win-win-win for everyone involved.
Start an e-mail newsletter or e-zine with those who are most interested in your topic. Build your list by invitation and then grow it into a permission-based following over time. Create an expected, ongoing dialogue that is mutually beneficial to everyone involved and your list will grow.
Now you are ready to start blogging. And yes, I mean while you continue to do all the things we’ve already discussed. Be sure to zoom-focus your blog on what you have to add to the conversation that is already going on about your topic. Don’t just share information; make an impact. Make your blog a go-to, up-to-date resource for your audience.
Partner selectively with others who serve the same general audience that you do with integrity and humility. Spend time getting to know folks before you decide to partner with them. You can’t afford to taint the reputation you have worked so hard to establish by partnering with just anyone.
Now that you have an established niche and audience, definitely participate in social networking. I like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn because they all offer something unique. The best way to learn is to jump in, spend an hour online each week until you are up and running. Follow the instructions for getting started provided by social media expert Meryl K. Evans.

This start-up plan for a writer platform will eventually blossom into an author platform. From start to finish, implementing a solid platform following this advice should take you about a year. By the end of that year, you will have established yourself as a serious contender in both professional and online circles, without killing yourself for some huckster’s promise of overnight success.

Have a plan. Leave a legacy in words, connections and professional influence. If you are consistent, by the time the year is done, you will have made effective use of your time and money in 2010. I wish you the best of luck in your platform-building efforts!

Christina Katz is the author of Get Known Before the Book Deal: Use Your Personal Strengths to Grow an Author Platform and Writer Mama: How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids for Writer’s Digest Books. She has written hundreds of articles for national, regional, and online publications, presents at literary and publishing events around the country, and is a monthly columnist for the Willamette Writer. Katz publishes a weekly e-zine, The Prosperous Writer, and hosts The Northwest Author Series. She holds an MFA in writing from Columbia College Chicago and a BA from Dartmouth College. A “gentle taskmaster” to her hundred or so students each year, Katz channels over a decade of professional writing experience into success strategies that help writers get on track and get published. Learn more at ChristinaKatz.com.

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Writing Roundup, January 29

The Business of Writing

Top Authors Await Ebook Bonanza
The Times looks at how many British authors are waiting to sell their backlists on the long-awaited Apple tablet. (On a related note, I can’t imagine that the price tag of the tablet will lure in any but the earliest of adopters for the first year or so.) The article also provides some interesting predictions for the growth of ebooks.

The Slush Pile
Worried that there will be no more slush pile when you re ready to submit? This agency still values the slush.

Taking a Deeper Look at Media’s Appetite for the iPad
Did you visit the live blogging site for the iPad launch event, waiting to see what it would look like and then, finally, what it would cost? Yeah, me, too. I was impressed by the price (I thought it would be higher), but I’m not ready to switch from my iPod Touch to the much larger iPad. Here’s a nice look at what media companies think about the new device.

Booty Call
Writer JA Konrath discusses some issues behind ebook piracy and his solutions for the problem.

How Publishers Will Cope with Amazon’s Monopoly
Our friends at GalleyCat summarizes a discussion about Amazon’s hold on ebooks from Digital Book World.

Craft

Funds for Writers newsletter, Jan. 24: Choosing Your Conferences
Hope Clark offers some great tips for using your professional development funds wisely. Should you spring for the big conference, or should you spread the wealth and take a class here and there, go to a retreat once or twice? When you’re done reading the lead article, feel free to scrool down to find the job/publication leads.

Agent Perspective: Rosemary Stimola
An agent describes what drew her to a particular book that she represents. She also talks about the market for historical fiction and her agency.

Are You a Bi-polar Writer?
Do you shift from one type of writing to another? Does it help you or hinder your development and success. In this post, Deb Boyken discusses how to use your dilettante nature to your advantage.

Does Alcohol Help or Hurt Your Writing?
Joanna Penn looks at the history of alcohol and writing. Some of the best writers have been alcoholics, but does that mean we should all take up a drinking habit?

Fiction

Seven Key Values to Maintain as You Write Your Romance
Author Larry Brooks shares some tips for romance writing that can be applied to other genres, too. It’s a nice piece full of good advice.

Heroine Worship, Part 3: Getting High on Heroines
Author Teri Coyne talks about the addictive nature of the heroine, of seeing yourself in the character in a way you can’t when they are not the same gender as you. I can’t help but wonder if this is how people from different races feel when they finally come across a hero or heroine of their same ethnic background.

Quick Tips for Publishing Your Fiction
Writer’s Market offers some quick and easy tips to help you increase your chances for submission success. Also, this page includes a link to get a free trial of Writer’s Market online.

Freelancing

Fear of Success for Writers: Sings of Self-Sabotage in the Writing Life
Fear is a big reality in the life of someone who is striking a new path. As you build your writing career, you may find yourself unconsciously sabotaging yourself. Look for these signs and then figure out how to deal with them.

Are You Trying to Be too Smart?
Over at Men with Pens, Taylor discusses the need to continue to hone our crafts and our vocabularies, but also to keep our copy from sounding too academic or stilted.

Healthcare Coverage for Freelancers
Jennifer discusses health care for freelancers at Freelance Writing Jobs. This is huge and important topic, and it is one that I will be posting about next month. So, look for that in February. And, if you have any insight into health care and its effects on your decision to stick with a day job or go freelance, shoot me an email.

Platform

10 Truths about Self Marketing, Like It or Not
Tony Eldridge confronts some of the sometimes unpleasant truths about marketing your books and yourself.

10 Tips for Content Marketing Success
Adam Singer gives some good tips for ensuring that your blog content is drawing in reader,s keeping them there, and getting them to view you as an expert in your chosen content area.

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Surmounting Writing Obstacles: Lack of Originality

January 25th, 2010 · Uncategorized

Fear is the mind killer.
–Frank Herbert

I’m taking an online course on writing short stories, and in this week’s call, one of the instructors offered this advice to one of my fellow students:

If you worry that your idea has already been done, you’ll never write a word.

That was the best thing I’ve heard in months.

I have been crippled on my fiction WIP because I have all these ideas I think are so clever, but then I find that someone else in the same genre has already thought of it and used it in their stories. That realization has made me so demoralized and unable to progress on my story.

In my head, I knew that there are really no original ideas, but you can explore them in an original manner. But, my heart had forgotten that lesson. Somehow, hearing the instructor say it, reminded my heart of that truth. (Why is it that sometimes you need to hear from an “expert” to really believe something?)

My plan for the week is to print out my WIP so that I can incorporate the changes I want to make to the main storyline and assess the story so far. I will not worry that sometimes my ideas have been used by other writers. My take on the concepts will be my own, and the ideas are essential to the story and to the world I have built.

What about you?

How has fear that your work is derivative affected your writing?
What strategies have you created to deal with it?
How does this particular fear differ in the fiction and nonfiction realms?

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Writing Roundup, January 22

January 22nd, 2010 · Uncategorized

The Business of Writing
Craft
Fiction
Freelancing
Platform

The Business of Writing

Is Your “But” Too Big?
No, that’s not misspelled, and it’s not a piece on the relative lack of exercise of the typical writer. Agent Nathan Bransford gives a motivating speech on pushing through your personal obstacles.

Amazon Offers Higher Royalty for Self-Published Ebooks
Publishers Weekly describes the new deal form Amazon.

10 Commandments for the Agent Hunt
How do you find an agent? Author Emily Bryan has some tips to help you prepare for a relationship with an agent and to find the right one.

An Ebook Launch from the Inside
Freelancer and blogger Thursday Bram shares the background on her new ebook Discover Your New Job Online. If you’ve been thinking about getting into the ebook game, this is a must-read post.

Special Focus on Piracy

Book piracy was a huge topic this week. Here are a few different perspectives on the issue.

Aargh! Pirates, Tess Gerritsen
On Piracy, Nicole Peeler
Author Daniel Alarcón Investigates the Lucrative World of Book Piracy in Peru, Jason Boog

Craft

Can You Measure Good Writing?
Kate Monahan discusses how we can measure progress in our writing.

Settings: A Cheating Trick
Marie-Claude Bourque shares a shortcut (a much more positive term than a cheat) to envisioning your settings. You could adapt it for any item you need to describe.

A Time to Rewrite
Agent Jessica Faust gives some advice to help you decide which feedback you should follow and when you should revise your manuscript.

Fiction

How to Make a Book Trailer
Author Myrlin A. Hermes guests at Nathan Bransford’s blog to share his tips for making your book trailer.

The “What Not to Do” Primer
Author Jaci Burton uses the TV show 24 as an example of how not to create and populate your stories.

Revising from a Critique
So you’ve gotten your feedback from your critique partner, critique group, or even from a manuscript doctor. Now what? Becky Levine shares her tips for tackling the revision in this guest post at Jennifer R. Hubbard’s blog.

Freelancing

Huffington Post’s Traffic More Than Doubles Year over Year
The Huffington Post now averages nearly 10 million unique visitors each day. But, they do not pay their freelancers. Is that level of exposure worth it? These posters on Media Bistro are against writing for free. What do you think?

Media Is Not Objective
In this interesting post on the BlogWorld blog, we are reminded of our own inherent biases. I spent a lot of my time in journalism school learning how to work around those biases so as to be as objective as humanly possible, or at least not to enter into stories completely blinded by my own initial biases. How do you deal with your own subjectivity?

A Safer Way to Launch a Freelance Business
In an early episode of Friends, Chandler and Joey advised Rachel to quit her job at the coffee house so she would get “the fear.” “The fear” would be her impetus to find a job in fashion, her dream field. There is a lot to be said for necessity and its ability to motivate even the laziest writer. Here, Ed Gandia gives advice to those who want to build a freelance career while they still have the security of a regular paycheck.

Platform

Link Building Tactics for Freelance Writers
Jennifer Mattern gives some great advice on increasing your online profile.

What You Need Before You Query
Agent Janet Reid has a table that shows what you need to put into place before you send out your query, whether you are focusing on fiction, non-fiction, or memoir. It’s an awesome resource!

How to Tweet Like Amanda F. Palmer
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Plans for 2010

January 18th, 2010 · Uncategorized

In 2010, I’m going to be focusing more on building a client portfolio, so I’m making a few changes to my schedule here on the blog. You’ll still find my weekly writing roundups here on Fridays. And I’ll be posting each Monday on topics important to we writers.

This week, I’m going to share my excitement over my recent Netbook purchase. It is actually a belated Christmas present from my husband. No stores had Netbooks in stock when we went shopping right before Christmas. (My husband is smart enough to know that I need to pick out my own computer!) We’ve been monitoring the stock at the local Best Buy, and it appears as if they don’t want us to spend our money there because they still don’t have the Asus Netbook I want in stock.

So I went to Amazon. I found an updated version of my Netbook of choice (with 11 hours of battery life) for a much lower price than the older model I could have ordered from Best Buy. Plus, with Amazon’s free shipping, I saved even more money.

This is the model I bought: ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1005PE-MU17-BK 10.1-Inch Black Netbook

I should receive it within the next week or so. I’ll let you know if it lives up to my expectations.

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Procrastination In my search for what to do about my current feeling that I'm slutting around with my writing, I've decided that I'm procrastinating. I need to write, not worry about whether I can take a break to work on a second project. If I need to take a break from......

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Writing Roundup, January 15: Back from Hawaii Edition

January 15th, 2010 · Uncategorized

The Business of Writing
Craft
Fiction
Freelancing
Platform

The Business of Writing

The Prosperous Writer E-Zine is Rocking It
New year, new methods. Platform guru Christina Katz has streamlined her online life and created a new electronic newsletter and blog to help her fellow writers. Add christinakatz.com to your blog reader, then visit the site to sign up for the electronic newsletter.

Literary Agents Get Personal on Agent’s Day Thread
Galley Cat talks a little about the #agentsday posts on Twitter.

Gail Carriger’s Query Letter
Agent Kristin shares the original query letter Gail Carriger submitted for her book Soulless, as well as her pitch to editors. What do you think about it? What lessons can you learn for your own queries?

A Writer’s Earnings
Writer Elle Scott discusses the idea that writer’s earn tons of money. She links to some specific author’s who have publicly reported their earnings.

Has Anyone Seen My Shotgun?
Moonrat shares a discussion about titles between an author, an editor, and a publisher. It does a good job of illuminating the relationship among all three.

Craft

Lost in Translation
Over at Pop Culture Divas, writer Morgan Karpiel shares some grocery and personal care items from Poland that U.S. consumers might find a little offputting. As we work on our stories, it is important for us to ensure that we lose as little in translation as possible, making sure the context works for the majority of our potential readers.

Tell Not Show
Elspeth Potter visits Victoria Janssen’s blog to discuss when you do need to “tell” instead of “show.” She also gives some ways to do that without being a boring exposition fairy.

Fiction

Of Avatars and Empathy
Kimberly Davis discusses the story-telling lessons to be learned form the movie Avatar.

Ask Daphne about Mary Sue
Have you heard a character described as a “Mary Sue” but aren’t quite sure what that means? Kate Schafer Testerman provides a good description.

Freelancing

Stop Making Excuses, Start Making Changes
Long-time freelancer Jennifer Mattern gives some advice on ramping up your freelancing business. It’s a timely post, as we are all looking toward the new year and what it will offer us.

What to Do when the Earth Shakes
Writer Sue Lick shows how you can use national and international stories to generate localized story ideas you can sell.

The Brand-New Work-at-Home Parent, or What the Heck Was I Thinking?
In another installment from All Freelance Writing, Rebecca Garland dispels some of the myths about how easy it is to juggle work and family commitments.

Freelance Writing: The Lazy Need Not Apply
Deb Ng shares the habits and aptitudes that can make a successful freelance writer.

Platform

So You’re Going to Be an Author: Three Book Publicity Bibles to Read ASAP
As part of her new Prosperous Writer persona, Christina Katz gives her three favorite platform-building and book publicity books. Give them a look.

The Key to Marketing Your Book: Time Well Spent
Agent Nathan Bransford gives some great tips for using your book marketing time wisely.

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Happy Holidays

December 25th, 2009 · Uncategorized

I’m headed off to warmer climes for the holdays. I’ll be back starting January 11 with my regular posts and roundups.

I wish you all a wonderful holiday season and an amazing new year.

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The Joy of Pseudonyms

December 24th, 2009 · Uncategorized

Based on all of the input I got in response to Monday’s post and my gut feeling, I have decided to better focus on my brand by creatng a pseudonym for my fiction writing.

But, picking another name is tough. I found a nice resource from an agent (”What’s in a Pseudonym?“), but I’m hoping for a little more crowdsourcing help.

If you currently work undera pseudonym, how did you choose it? Did you keep your first name the same to avoid confusion? Did you pick a literary name that has special meaning for you, or did you use a family name? (You don’t have to out yourself by giving your legal name and pseudonym. General guidelines and ideas are plenty.)

If you have only dreamed of pseudonyms, what types of names resonate with you?

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