Holiday gift ideas: Not too late to ask for these...

Friends and family don't know what to buy you for a holiday present. Why? Because they observe you hunched over your computer, or writing in notebooks. They can't buy you time, they can't buy you inspiration or courage, so they might buy you a new journal, pen, or another mug.

Besides suggesting all the wonderful books written by writers for writers, here are a few other great ideas that don't require wrapping! Ask for a subscription to an online writers organization. They'd never think of it, but you would so enjoy getting grounded in such a group.

Drop these ideas around the house so you can connect with writers of books, blogs, business and lucrative freelance venues.

links:
American Society of Journalists & Authors
asja.org

Freelance Success
freelancesuccess.com

MediaBistro (with the AvantGuild add-on if you've been very good)
mediabistro.com

SPAWN - Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network
www.spawn.org

Please comment below to add your ideas for the writer's dream holiday gift!

Track your blogs & books

Do you know which words and phrases will drive traffic to your blog or website?

You can find out by using www.freekeywords.wordtracker.com to see what results come up when people search for sites like yours.

If you want to come up with a new domain name that will be readily found, or even better - if you are choosing a book title - use this free service to see how well it would rank.

I've been told again and again that I did the right thing by having a domain name and book title match: Release Your Writing and releaseyourwriting.com works double-time driving traffic to my web site, to this blog, and to steadily growing book sales.

To use www.freekeywords.wordtracker.com, type in the search phrase you expect people would use when looking for your site. It then calculates the average number of expected searches on that term per day.

How nice: Elizabeth Gilbert explains all

The woman who wrote Eat, Pray, Love raised the bar for all writers. But you need not feel that faint twinge of jealousy. Turns it took Elizabeth Gilbert a looooong time to be accepted:

After more than five years of sending out work for publication and collecting only rejection letters, she finally broke onto the literary scene in 1993, when one of her short stories was pulled from the slush pile at Esquire magazine and published under the heading “The Debut of an American Writer.” (excerpt from Elizabeth Gilbert's bio).


Click here for a wonderful essay sharing her thoughts on the writing life.

So, let's spend the summer writing well. As Elizabeth Gilbert says, "PUT IT OUT THERE."

Helen Gallagher
Release Your Writing

Blogger adds post-dated feature

If you blog here at blogger.com (and why wouldn't you?), you know you can trick the system by clicking Post Options and giving your post a past or future date. Blogger has now made this a bit easier, so you can create what would be daily posts, but write a batch of them all at once, and have them load per your schedule. Read on...

Scheduled post publishing, which we talked about testing on Blogger in draft last month, is now live for everyone. If you set a post’s date into the future, Blogger will wait to publish until that time comes.

Have you ever wanted to announce something on a certain date but knew you wouldn’t be at a computer to make a post? Or you wanted to keep posting regularly but knew you’d be on vacation for a few weeks? Scheduled post publishing is here to help you out.

Scheduling a post is easy to do: on the post editor page, click the “Post Options” toggle to show the “Post date and time” fields. Then, type a post date and time that’s in the future. When you click the “Publish” button, your post will become “scheduled.” When the date and time of the post arrive, it will be automatically published to your blog.

Visit "Beneath the Cover"

We're pleased to have a nice mention in the powerful "Beneath the Cover" site today. You'll note the site is packed with great articles and book industry resources. Our thanks to Yvonne DiVita for the mention. Enjoy!

Helen Gallagher
www.releaseyourwriting.com

How long did it take you?

When I tell people I got the idea for Release Your Writing in March, 2007, and it was published in September, six months later, they fall on the floor. Are they laughing or crying?

Well, my Mr. Wonderful just sent me this YouTube link to a Natalie Goldberg video commentary. She states:

People say "You're so lucky. It only took you 7 months."

"It took me 7 months and 30 years," she replies.

Natalie does a nice job of using YouTube to post a personal, subtle promo for her new book Old Friend From Far Away.
Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e17SIiSRIwY


How long will it take you to release your writing?

Helen Gallagher

Blogger becomes Bloggie

Today, fellow writer Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell features an interview with me on her blog.

Stop by for a look at www.kcwrite4u.blogspot.com. Kerri is a prolific writer with over 2,000 articles published, as well as essays and books.

Helen

From blog to web site

Now that Release Your Writing is launched, this little bloggie is getting tired of handling the full load. If you look at www.releaseyourwriting.com, you'll now see a full web site, with a link to this blog, an event list, and loads of other material about the book.

Thanks for supporting this effort, and ... keep writing!

Helen Gallagher

Book Launch: "Release Your Writing"

Yes, Release Your Writing: Book Publishing Your Way is out. Six months from concept to publication. That's the benefit of self-publishing. While I was formulating ideas for a sequel to Computer Ease, as a book tentatively titled Computer Ease for Writers, I collected material, and wrote an outline, but knew something was lacking.

In March of this year, I gave a presentation to Off-Campus Writers Workshop, (OCWW.bizland.com) and I titled my talk "Release Your Writing." As soon as I entered the room, connected my laptop to the projector, and saw that title on the screen, I knew I had the book's focus. A few weeks later, at the American Society of Journalists & Authors (ASJA) conference in New York, there was a palpable excitement over self-publishing: with packed sessions on the topic, self-pub firms present, and self-published authors on panels.

So, I went up to my hotel room during lunch and bought the domain name www.releaseyourwriting.com. Now I'm pleased the book is available for all. This is it: One book that explains options in publishing, technical aspects of coping with technology, dozens of shortcuts to write better and faster with your computer, and an entire section on book marketing, targeted specifically to those of us who do not have agents, marketers, and publicists steering out books toward an audience.

Keeping a book alive is very much an author's responsibility these days. Release Your Writing shows you how to do it, and how to have fun along the way. Enjoy your journey!

You can purchase Release Your Writing here

NOLA story: It's Oprah's way or not at all....

I am a big supporter of New Orleans, before and after the Katrina carnage. Here's a chance for me to promote a journalist's book about the experiences, and for you to have some fun. Imagine if you, as a fresh author of a new book, were asked to speak about the topic on Oprah!! But - you couldn't mention your book! You'd be frustrated too.

Read the New Orleans Time-Pic story by Chris Rose here. Chris is the author of 1 Dead in Attic.
http://www.cclarity.com/ryw/NOLA/NOLA-oprah-not.html

I put the link on my site since news stories move off the top pages online very fast.

Helen

Writer's Digest blog

I've had the pleasure of writing a few articles for Writer's Digest, and am pleased to see some of their best people are moving into blogs. Maria Schneider handles technical and publishing concepts at hers: http://www.writersdigest.com/writersperspective/default.aspx

Make it a regular stop on your "paper route."

Cheers,
Helen