Six Sentence Sunday
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Saturday, 4 of February of 2012
Here are a few of the ed tech stories that caught my attention this week.
Google+ for Educators
Nice presentation to help you decide how to use Google+. Are you using yet? I’m there, but my usage is pretty minimal so far.
iThink Before You iPad
Are you using iPads for teaching, classroom management, or personal stuff? For my needs, a Netbook (an ancient pre-tablet one) works just fine. Most of the other things I would do with a tablet work just fine on my smartphone.
Back to School Boot camp: First Day Essentials
What are your kids doing on the first day back at school? If you aren’t quite sure yet, these activity ideas should get your creative juices flowing.
Not a Pretty Picture
The folks at Raising Arizona Kids magazine look at the Kids Count data and what it means for the kids in their area. What does the data look like for your state? How do you address the results of economic troubles with your kids?
Not a Pretty Picture
What do you think of the Missouri law? Do you think suit will affect things?
What hit your radar this week?
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I interviews Renegade Writer Linda Formichelli to get her tips on cutting your hours without cutting your income. Read it here.
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With the death of Borders, we freelancers have one less place to find a wide variety of magazines to do market research. Where else can we go to find magazines to browse before submitting?
Where do you find copies of magazines to pitch to? Or do you go Renegade Writer style and pitch blindly?
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Earlier this year, I had an article on getting clips (also known as writing samples) published at Quips & Tips for Successful Writers. One of my suggestions was to write articles for trade magazines.
Trade magazines are targeted a people in a specific field, and they are a great way to get valuable writing experience. I worked on a trade magazine for 12 years and later edited a collection of articles from that magazine for the publisher.
Here are a few ideas to help you get published in these magazines.
Leverage Your Expertise
Start with a trade magazine in a field you know well or have built a solid reputation in. If you are working a day job in, say, insurance while you grow your freelancing business, look for magazines that target insurance agents and pitch stories of your own career success or lessons learned.
Ask an Expert
If you are looking to build a platform in a new field, you may need to enlist some expert help. Try interviewing well-known people in that field and pitching the Q&As to magazines that would be interested. If you want to build expertise in organic living, for example, find a local organic farmer and interview him or her for a farm methods magazine.
Partner with a Business
Many businesses want to place articles in magazines, but they don’t always have the writing expertise on staff. Try working with the leaders in these firms to co-author articles for the magazines in their field. If you are all about educational technology, for instance, you might find a small educational software company and work with their founder to write an article for an education journal.
Trade magazines can provide great writing experience and samples, which can be the key to growing your writing passion into a successful career. Have you broken into the trades? If so, share your experience below. We’d love to hear how you did it and what you learned from the experience.
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I’m a big fan of writing classes to help me keep my skills sharp and learn new types of writing. But, it is important to choose a class that works for your needs so that your time and money are well spent.
Follow these steps to help you find the right fit.
Know yourself: How do you learn best? Do you need to be in a face-to-face course, surrounded by your peers? Or do you prefer to learn on your own, working on your schedule and in your home? For face-to-face courses, you could look into the offerings at our local community college. Online courses offer the individual experience you may be looking for if you don’t want a face-to-face course. You might look at Writer’s Digest’s course offerings.What are your experiences with writing classes? Have you taken any online courses? How about community college courses or other in-person training? Are you looking for some classes to sharpen your skills during the summer months, which may be a little slower for writing jobs?
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The Business of Writing | Craft | Fiction | Freelancing | Platform | Money
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Now I’m not suggesting that you turn in half-edited work or that you shoot your queries off willy nilly, but could your writing career benefit from a little less perfection and a little more production?
I know that I get so excited about an idea that I will spend all of my available writing time thinking about it, deciding who to interview for it, looking at the possible markets to see which is the perfect fit, and basically every other ways to legitimately procrastinate the actual writing. Then, when I finally get the pitch ready to go (or the short story completed), I am so excited about its potential for publication that I continue stewing about it rather than working on my next piece.
My mid-year resolution is to limit the time I spend on each pitch so that I can send more pitches. I will quit striving for perfection so that I can increase my productivity.
There was a time when I thought the hardest part of being a writer would be coming up with ideas. Now I know that ideas are not the problem. Time to develop every worthwhile idea is my biggest obstacle, followed closely by knowing when to let go of each idea and send it out. I will use my newly gained time to help me develop more of my ideas.
What about you? Do you think you are pursuing perfection too much? If not, what other obstacles are you facing? How can you overcome them?
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I posted a little bit last month about different ways to spread your message and keep your name top of mind with potential clients.
This week, I’ll focus on a few more ways to market yourself in your local community.
Business Writers
If you’re looking to land local businesses in need of your writing expertise, you need to get yourself in front of them. (I know this is not the most appealing task for many of us reclusive freelance writers.) Face-to-face relationships are key for many business owners and managers, so you need to meet them on their turf to make a good impression.
Many communities have local business fairs and trade shows with reasonable rates for booth rental. If you can swing the time and expense, these can be valuable marketing opportunities for you.
You’ll need a display to draw people to your booth, professional marketing collateral pieces, and a fun giveaway.
For your display, you can go with a low-cost vinyl banner, which you can hang in your booth area, or a more expensive free-standing trade show display. There is a middle-ground free-standing option that you can order in different sizes, an X-frame banner stand.
Fiction Writers
Yeah, yeah, you say. Another post on marketing that only applies to non-fiction writers. But, fiction writers could use displays, too.
Imagine you are doing a book reading. You’re up on stage with a free-standing X-frame display behind you featuring your name and your book cover. And you have a matching smaller table-top display up front next to your stack of books to sell.
Or imagine that you are planning a reading at your local library. They are kind enough to let you place a vinyl banner outside announcing the event. You’ll likely find that more people attend your event, and those who don’t at least check out your book on Amazon or in the bookstore.
Have these ideas gotten you thinking about how you can use displays to market your writing products and services? Do you have ideas of other resources you could use to market yourself? Look at what the local businesses around you are doing and see if you could apply any of their techniques to your writing business. And check back Wednesday for part 2.
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The Business of Writing | Craft | Fiction | Freelancing | Platform | Money
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