The web is 25 years old this year!

It was a quarter century ago that a fellow named Tim Berners-Lee created the web as we know it. three cheers for Tim!!!

Here's his story
Twenty-five years ago today, I filed the proposal for what was to become the World Wide Web. My boss dubbed it ‘vague but exciting’. Luckily, he thought enough of the idea to allow me to quietly work on it on the side. 

In the following quarter-century, the Web has changed the world in ways that I never could have imagined. There have been many exciting advances.  It has generated billions of dollars in economic growth, turned data into the gold of the 21st century, unleashed innovation in education and healthcare, whittled away geographic and social boundaries, revolutionised the media, and forced a reinvention of politics in many countries by enabling constant two-way dialogue between the rulers and the ruled.

It has made the work of a writer more powerful, efficient, and far-reaching. We are the first generation to enjoy this benefit. Lets continue to use it well.

Helen Gallagher

A new hangout, just for writers

Everything old is new again. In addition to Google Plus, which is a new competitor to Facebook, Google has launched  

Google + Hangouts for Writing Groups

MediaBistro.com has a full report and posted a link to a how-to by Mary Robinette Kowal.

In its early stages, it looks useful for writing groups in distant cities, for friends logging in for the commitment to write and then checking back with the group, and creating a structure for discussion or critique. Learn more here.

Mary is one of the people testing the new Hangout for Writers. Learn more and sign up here if you too want to be an early adopter. https://plus.google.com/up/start/?sw=1&type=st

Here's feedback from participants: http://www.jamierubin.net/2011/07/14/my-first-google-writers-hangout/
Helen

Book Country: Penguin's author site and print-on-demand

Penguin Group USA is launching a site for fiction writers - for posting work-in-progress, getting critiqued, even getting published.

Later this summer the site will generate revenue by allowing users to self-publish their books for a fee by ordering printed copies. (The books will bear the stamp of Book Country, not Penguin, and the site is considered a separate operation from Penguin.)

The site will also explain the business of finding an agent, marketing and promoting a book, using social media and handling digital and subsidiary rights. Penguin hopes the site will attract agents, editors and publishers scouting for new talent, and allow writers to produce work with more polish and direction than they could otherwise.

More melting and morphing of the industry into a model that is accessible to all authors, not just the top tier.

Keep an eye on Book Country, and read Release Your Writing: Book Publishing Your Way if you need to gain clarity on your publishing and marketing options.

Catholic Writers Conference Online

For the third year in a row, I'm a conference participant at the unique Catholic Writers Conference Online. The event runs from March 21 through 27, 2011. 


The current conference schedule is here, and as a reminder, this conference is open to all, is free, and you participate by online chat, in forums, or via phone.

Take note of the pitch sessions - your chance to pitch live to at least six agents and editors on the schedule.

My topic is "Power Blogging for Writers" on 3/21 at 7 p.m. Central time, but take advantage of the richness of presenters, topics and variety at this free event all week long.

Blog daily during "Words Matter Week," March 6-12, 2011

The National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (NAIWE.com) invites you to join us March 6-12, 2011 for the fourth annual Words Matter Week.


As evidence that we haven’t advanced too far down the slippery slope of slop and drivel, Words Matter Week has rolled around once more. Billed as a time to celebrate the importance of words, Words Matter Week is celebrated annually online as well as on campuses, libraries, and in communities nationwide.
 
“Words are the foundation of civilization,” says Janice Campbell, Director of NAIWE. “In every aspect of life, personal or professional, words form the basis of relationships with others. The written word preserves and transmits knowledge, evokes alternate worlds, and provides endless food for thought. Words Matter Week gives us the opportunity to celebrate words and focus on why they matter.”

Learn more at the Words Matter Week Website,http://WordsMatterWeek.com.
I'll be blogging each day for the challenge, and hope to see you there. 

Improve your writing with better words and a handy phrase counter

A few years ago my presentations to writers included a demo of Visual Thesaurus. Its great to take a step back and analyze our writing. Liven up your next editing session by using the Visual Thesaurus to find a better word for "ordinary."

And now, thanks to the Phrase Frequency Counter from writewords.uk, you'll never waste time editing out all the redundant, useless language you use when filling a first draft of an article, essay or manuscript.

We all know how to say things the long way, but we can learn to be precise, crisp, and effective, instead of voluminous, clumsy, and wordy.

It's 2011: Do You Know Where YOUR Platform Is?

Writers need visibility online, and in every workshop I give, the subject of platform surfaces. I draw charts, give examples, explain the foundation, yet most writers and authors make a minor, confused effort, groping around in social media without results.

While the state of online media is relatively stable now, use this time to jump in or update your existing presence online. The outreach you can do with the internet costs very little, and is a tremendous benefit in building your platform. In return for greater visibility, your job is to find five or ten sites to set up a profile, keep track of your log-in and passwords, and return frequently to be part of the community.

Here are a few good resources to get you started:

1. authorcentral.amazon.com
2. facebook
3. linkedin.in writing groups
4. mediabistro.com and avantguild (fee)
5. redroom.com
6. shewrites.com

and most important:  YOUR BLOG or WEBSITE..

Publisher's Weekly related article.

NaNoWriMo makes Op-Ed page in New York Times

Hello, all you ambitious NaNoWriMo participants. You're almost half-way through the month, slogging through a sea of words. Today's New York Times has a cute op-end titled "Word After Word After Word," and since you're too busy writing to read teh newspaper, I'll delivery the salient points here:

NaNoWriMo started in 1999 with 21 participants and has grown into an enormoius non-profit helping people burst free of inhibitions and work with a common deadline. Your group has now produced almost a billion words, nearing the 2009 total of almost 2.5 billion.

Last year, slightly more than 19 percent of NaNoWriMo writers made it to the finish line.

As the Times piece says:

"This is the lovely thing about language. We all get to use it, and use it reasonably well, and words are so easily recycled. ... In NaNoWriMo, the talented and inexperienced, the experienced and  untalented, and all of the rest, can use as many words as they want, knowing that we will never run out and not one will be wasted."

Write on,

Helen

Highlight text from web pages

Last week, I did a demo of i-lighter.com, software that highlights text on web pages.
You save the highlights on a dashboard screen, and can retrieve them, see where they came from, and sort them.

Shortly after the demo, we learned the i-lighter company is closing down, due to lack of profit. Unless someone comes along (are you listening Google?) and buys them this week, the product will cease to work.

So, not to disappoint... I found WebNotes, which does the same thing. It's more complex, but you can enjoy the basic, free features and get more complicated if you are using it for grant research or a large paper.

A motivation boost from Writer's Digest

It's very cold in Chicago this morning. Even the little teddy bear in his pj's can't keep warm over at Pajama Marketing. So go visit him http://wp.me/pw4DH-5p and learn about the special Writer's Digest promotion. They are signing people up, just til Jan. 31, for a year of Writer's Market online edition for $29.99 - the price they used way back in 2000.

If you need motivation, need to research the markets, find ideas, read publishing industry news, that's the place to be.

Besides, Mr. Bear needs a hug over there!

Helen Gallagher

Writers write & Bloggers blog

At a blogging panel this week, the audience, comprised of sophisticated journalists and serious freelancers, learned the value of having a blog. It's a vehicle to create visibility, share your voice and your opinions. If you need a reminder to begin or update your blog, use this image as a reminder. You're free to download it, by right-clicking and choose to save it to your computer. Why not make it your desktop background instead of last year's family photo?

Social networking sites: You may already be out there...

Things move fast in the online world. A few days ago I learned of a site that profiles authors, and when I went to make a page, my books were already there. Maybe you're out there too:
Go to filedby.com and search for your name.

The firm built a site in March, with over 1.8 million pre-assembled author pages, according to a report in the Wall St. Journal.

Books as Video

Think new media can ever replace books? I sure don't. Here is a two-minute video composed entirely of book images!

Author victory over Google

There's money coming your way...

Similar to Amazon's 'search inside the book feature,' the ambitious people at Google have been busy making electronic copies of OUR books, and making them available for full online searching. It's part of their very aggressive program of digitizing all the print content, from the British Library Archives, to Harvard, to our books. Having Google creep toward becoming THE repository of all printed matter makes many of us uncomfortable, but now the courts agree they owe us something for the rights they "borrow" to our works.

This from ASJA.org
"Some of the books were in the public domain but many others were not. Google digitized the lot, without so much as a nod to authors' copyright protections. The Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers and several individuals filed suit to stop this blatant piracy.

Yesterday the parties announced a settlement that will serve both writers and Google. Terms of the settlement still have to be approved by the court, but assuming it happens, writers who own the rights to scanned books should get at least $60 per work, depending on how many authors make claims. (The total settlement amount is $45 million.)"

Details on how authors can file claims will be available in a few months. In the meantime, it's all good news for us.

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.

Meet Maggie Ball, a friend from down under...

One of my many online friendships is with Magdelena (Maggie) Ball, an energetic writer and host of Compulsive Reader: www.compulsivereader.com.

I've sent soon-to-be-authors to Maggie's site to study the reviews and learn what makes a book stand out, and what gets mentioned in goods review. Now Maggie Ball has authored her first novel Sleep Before Evening, and has been named as a Finalist in the the Regional Fiction category of the 2008 Next Generation Indie Book Awards.

The Next Generation Indie Book Awards were established to recognize and honor the most exceptional independently published books for the year and is presented by the Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group in cooperation with Marilyn Allen of Allen O'Shea Literary Agency. Additionally, Sleep Before Evening will be listed as a Finalist in the 2008 Next Generation Indie Book Awards catalog, distributed at Book Expo America in Los Angeles.

Talking about her book promotion, Maggie says: "I'm actually based in Australia myself, so all of the in-person promotions I've done have been here in Aus -- that includes the book launch, library talks, giving ancillary talks on subjects the book touches on like addiction, self-actualisation, art and bi-polarity.

"With Angus & Robertson, Australia's biggest independent retailer, I basically visited them in person and made a lot of phone calls -- can't beat that face to face stuff. But I have a pretty big online presence, and tend to work in a worldwide venue, and probably from a network point of view, I have many more colleagues and contacts in the US than in Australia. Also Australia is a much smaller market, and the book is set in the US, while the publisher is in the UK!"

When you think it's difficult to write fiction, try writing a novel based in New York, when you're living in Australia, while running the successful Compulsive Reader site at the same time.

The marvel of this online friendship and my reason for sharing this with you is: In all this time, knowing Maggie online and enjoying her Compulsive Reader site, I never knew she was based in Australia. It shows you both how global the "world-wide" web is, and how you must listen when I urge you to think globally in your own promotions. Living in Chicago doesn't limit your market. Use the web to target readers far and wide, and let me know when YOU are the one to win an international prize.

Need a nudge? Writing resources

If you need to recharge your creativity or find places to publish your work, the web is full of great resources.

Take a look at WorldwideFreelance.com, especially their Writing section, for help when you need a little inspiration:

They have fresh articles on:

• fiction, non-fiction and blogging
• freelance writing
• writing habits
• international markets
• the writing craft
• queries, mistakes to avoid, and dealing with rejection
• publishing and book promotion

There you go - just one site out of thousands that can turn a slow day into a writing spree!

Self-Published Book Awards by Writer's Digest

No - it's not me... I've done enough boasting lately about all the fun I'm having with the success of Release Your Writing. To see the wide and wise range of winners in 15th annual Writer's Digest self-published book awards, click here.

The top prize went to a non-fiction book by Norma Lehmeier Hartie, entitled: Harmonious Environment: Beautify, Detoxify & Energize Your Life, Your Home & Your Planet.

By self-publishing she has her timely book on the market about 18 months faster than anyone plowing their way through traditional publishing timeframe.

Bravo !!

Pajama Marketing

Sure, people laugh when I speak of "pajama marketing," but you know what I mean - putting in a few hours at your computer, marketing your work. Here's a great example of a way to market your work to independent bookstores around the country.

Sure, marketing your book requires a lot of work. But the writing did too. And even if you didn't write your book with this in mind, it's time to focus on expanding your readership by getting your book in more stores.

Did you know you can buy a mailing list of U.S. independent book stores from a reliable source (NewPages.com). The cost for over 1,400 book store names and addresses is $75, but they also list the addresses on their site, where you can snag them for free. You could copy and paste the addresses for the shops in your area into a word processing document, do a mail-merge to print labels or letters, and let your work fly! New Pages also has lists of public and academic libraries at the above link.

What would you send to stores? That's up to you: The book synopsis, colorful postcard, media sheet, telling them how to order from your publisher, and stating the handsome 35 or 40 percent discount you'll offer. Include customer comments from your Amazon page and other testimonials from readers. No need to include sales figures - they have easy access to that information.


Helen Gallagher
Release Your Writing

Author, Author, where is your web site?

If you are working on a book, don't wait until its finished to build your web site. Once your book launches, you'll find yourself busy with hundreds of other things, and a publicity campaign is much easier if the web site is already in place.

As I've helped people with this task, I've noticed they gain clarity about the book, and about how to focus or pitch the book by having a web site. It forces you to make a nice, concise statement about the book, to capture attention. And that will later become the theme for your entire book campaign.

So don't wait - choose a domain name for yourself or the book's title, as I did with Release Your Writing (www.releaseyourwriting.com) and begin letting your site reveal the focus of your book. You'll also have a place there to list upcoming events and let people know how to purchase, but you might enjoy it as a visual representation of what you know is soon to come: your book.

Helen Gallagher