Diligence in our writing

Do you quit when your writing is 'good enough?"  Most of us revise our work three or four times and feel its ready to publish. I try to follow the good advice to set any piece of writing aside until at least the next morning.  When I read it over again, with fresh eyes, I almost always find another error.


That's what the professionals in the news business do too, although they have to work much faster. The following journalism fable comes from Carl Sessions Stepp, who marked 50 years of journalism with 50 lessons learned. Here is #49..


49. My favorite fable about journalism.
"According to John Hersey, in the New Yorker's early days a critic complained that unsophisticated theater audiences would "laugh at the drop of a ha on the stage." The pun on "drop of a hat" looked like a typo, so Editor Harold Ross determined to make sure it survived. He wrote "do not change" on galleys. He followed it through the production process. He even climbed into the press, read the plate to make sure "drop the ha" remained, and told printers not to change it. The next day, he picked up the new issue and saw "hat." The printers had changed shifts after he left, and someone proofreading pages had made the change.
The fable, Hersey said, offers two eternal truths. Writers should be willing to risk their lives by climbing into the press to save a word. And they should recognize that no matter what they do, the work will never be perfect."

See Stepp's full list of fifty items here at American Journalism Review.

Over 30,000 viewers...

Thanks to all my readers for letting me reach the 30,000 visitor mark here at the Release Your Writing blog.

Helen Gallagher

Notetaking: Yesterday and today

Are you old enough to remember learning to "outline" as a child in English class?

As I scribbled notes for an article last week, I suddenly felt I'd never make sense of the fragments I jotted down.  I picked up the notes today and found I was right. My brain works better at laptop-speed. My notes are caotyred qyucjkyt, oops, that was supposed to be 'captured quickly,' make more sense, and are legible. If I failed at outlining in school, at least I excel at fast typing.

Yet before computers let our ideas fly with instant transfer from thought to document,  people sat with paper and pen and gave great thought to each word written. After all they could not highlight and delete a paragraph of longhand, so better preparation by outlining might have been the only way to organize the flow of words from mind to hand.

To my delight, I found Creative Nonfiction's weekly email led me to evidence of the very thing I was contemplating: notetaking.

Here, for example is Sylvia Plath's outline for The Bell Jar. This one-page outline is hard to read, but you can clearly see her math showing it would top out at 280 pages. Published in 1963, Wikipedia lists the book's published page count at 288. Isn't that impressive?




Okay, just one more -- J.K. Rowling's outline for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix



You'll find these and a half-dozen more at FlavorWire here

The "slow" move to better online content

We've seen a resurgence and new respect for long-form journalism, after a few years of tweets and status updates that don't add anything lasting to our literary world. Now comes a call for "Slow Media." 

"Every person with an Internet connection now has a place to go to find news as it breaks. We are only just beginning, however, to realize the Internet’s power as a promoter of longform content, a recognition that is helping to drive the rise of micropublishing, a movement that emphasizes the quality of the publishing environment over timeliness, and one that eschews the primacy of the pageview. We are just starting to see the emergence of startup publications that are seeing opportunity beyond the blog format. Included among the most prominent proponents of the written form are Medium, Atavist, Byliner, Longform, and Longreads."

For us, it means more quality reading, more places to write, and an appreciation for our good writing.

Read more here at Pando.

It started with chick-lit

First there was chick-lit, segmenting the popular fiction category into a subgroup of lighter novels, fun to read and easy, Most importantly, it was aimed at the target audience of book-reading females. Those who like the genre and found it relevant helped spread the popularity of chick-lit titles.

Then we saw the proliferation of YA (young adult), gothic and the recent steamy books turning people 50 shades of red.

Where have we come today? Writer's Relief suggests we're up against "new adult fiction" (NA) as the hot new thing. A USA Today article suggests this sub-genre appeals to readers between adolescence and adulthood, mostly those in college

Think 'young love' but without the happy ending readers desired in the past.


Writer's Relief helps you decide if your next novel fits the NA category with a brief checklist. Read their full post and the checklist here.

Yes, writers must work at promotion...

Quoting here from an ASJA's 2013 conference speaker, Brian Feinblum.

"Take matters of PR and marketing into your own hands.  Few people are solely writers – most writers also must promote and market their work, or hire others to assist.  But if you just have wild expectations, hopes or misguided beliefs about your role and what publishers do for you, you’ll find yourself frustrated.  You are a writer, and you are a promoter, and marketer, even if your business card doesn’t say so."

Source: Brian Feinblum, the creator and author of BookMarketingBuzzBlog, is the chief marketing officer for the nation's largest book promotions firm, Media Connect (www.Media-Connect.com), formerly Planned Television Arts

A little advice on succssful pitches

Thanks to Book Marketing Buzz for their timely tips on their blog. If I was going to BEA this year, I'd definitely nest in their corner and absorb more of their top marketing ideas.  With Spring in full swing, those of us who want to get articles published this year better step up. Knowing the long cycle from query to assignment, your pitch in May might be in print by November.

A recent post on their blog discusses the best ways to pitch the media when most of them are understaffed. The answer ,of course, is to make their job easier.

The way to appeal to the news media is:

<    * Localize your story when possible

<     * Have a truly timely and news-worthy hook

<     * Present a story that is easy to cover, with well-packaged materials such as written content, videos, or visuals

<     * Let them know you have a large platform, such as a big number of Twitter followers or YouTube viewers –
  this will move them to cover you because they hope your social media fans will follow them

<     * Say something new or something old in a new way

<     * Don’t make the media have to think, do research, or download 50 things – make your pitch short, simple and catchy.

Santa Fe photo shoot-out

Part of the travel writing workshop with Travel Writing on Location was our photo shoot-out yesterday.

What better American city than Santa Fe to take great photos. From the amazing LaFonda Hotel filled with art and history to "The City Different" in glorious color.

LaFonda Terrace Concierge

La Fonda La Plazula hand painted art throughout

La Fonda Terrace courtyard gardens

La Fonda hot tub

St. Francis of Assisi Cathedral

Santa Fe street musicians

Balloon fun

A fine quote for those days when you're stuck...

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started."-- Mark Twain

 

 

 

When you get some time to spend on your writing, don't let anything get in your way. Even if you can't remember what you wanted to write about, or what magazine you wanted to pitch, sit down and start writing. Something good will come of it, I promise.

Ebook stats that tell the truth

Great infographics that tell the story about ebooks vs. print revenue and royalties, courtesy of Now Novel. Read full story here.

Courtesy of: Now Novel

Publishing: Nook Press now competes with CreateSpace.

CreateSpace has been a great resource for my client projects, with me as midwife for 14 books in 2012 and 2013 to date . Self-publishing for print and ebooks with no upfront cost is an ideal solution for many authors who don't need the services of a print-on-demand firm for marketing add-ons or special personalized services, custom sizes, photo management or other magic.

Now Barnes & Noble has expanded their Pub-It ebook publishing service to include Nook Press:  full self-publishing for print books, with no upfront cost.  I'll test it as soon as the next client picks up the phone and requests help in publish a book. Or, if time permits I will do the 2nd edition of Release Your Writing that you've been asking for.

Until then, if you're thinking of self-publishing, give Barnes & Nobles new service some consideration.

Magazines aren't dead

Magazines aren't dead. Our screen time just keeps us from taking the time to explore and enjoy them. Stop in at the Chicago/Main newsstand at the power reading corner of Main & Chicago in Evanston, IL. There you'll find an aisle of gorgeous magazines on the arts. While reading Letter Arts Review, one of five new magazines purchased, I came upon this, in reference to the rhythm of writing:

Come at it

the way you would

a pile of clothes on an empty beach at dawn.

Circle it slowly.

Hold the pieces up one by one.

Be a cop: ask questions.

 

                                   -- Al Zolynas, How to Read a Poem

Anne Lamott on social media

Had the pleasure of seeing Anne Lamott in Winnetka, IL last night, thanks to The Book Stall and Women's Exchange. An 'intimate group' of 300 people packed the auditorium and were rewarded with an entertaining evening of Anne reading from and talking about her books, sand about writing, grace, and God.

Thought you might like to know her view on Twitter. For all the people who think they don't have time to use it, she says:

"It's called Twitter, not Treatise. It takes about a minute!"

Anne also loves the intimacy of it and says she finds the 140 character limit is great writing practice. She also said social media doesn't take anything away from her writing time. "Its part of my real writing."

Her two newest books are Some Assembly Required,  and Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers,

Think big for your book promotion

Beyond your local bookstore and local library, there is a world waiting to discover your book. Work a book tour into your summer vacation this year if you're promoting a new book. Poets & Writers has a huge database of literary places here:
http://www.pw.org/literary_places


Libraries, book shops, museums, arts centers.... you're sure to find a few great places where you can book an event.