10 Steps to Becoming a Better Writer
Write.
Write more.
Write even more.
Write even more than that.
Write when you don’t want to.
Write when you do.
Write when you have something to say.
Write when you don’t.
Write every day.
Keep writing.
Source: About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and CEO of Copyblogger Media.
Enough said!
Helen
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Young Writers Dazzle.... stepping up to self-publishing
Today's New York Times has a front page article about teens and pre-teens who've joined the world of self-publishing. Good for them. Read the article here.
Friday, March 30, 2012
I recently had the pleasure of working on the layout for this book, Reflection: A Long Walk Into the World of Love. It's sweet and quite unusual.
Part fairy tale, by author Marie-Eve Kielson who is a marriage and family therapist, who gets to the heart of what it takes to have a loving, committed relationship. Her co-author is her husband, Daniel. Over the many years of their marriage, he maintained the habit of writing poems to her for her birthdays and anniversary. He is now a nature photographer as well, and his section of the book combines the lovely poetry with amazing nature photos, along with his own strong narrative on the nature of love in a relationship. A very special gift book for all ages. Perhaps best of all, it honestly conveys what is involved in maintaining a lasting relationship.More at their blog: kielsonmedia.com
Part fairy tale, by author Marie-Eve Kielson who is a marriage and family therapist, who gets to the heart of what it takes to have a loving, committed relationship. Her co-author is her husband, Daniel. Over the many years of their marriage, he maintained the habit of writing poems to her for her birthdays and anniversary. He is now a nature photographer as well, and his section of the book combines the lovely poetry with amazing nature photos, along with his own strong narrative on the nature of love in a relationship. A very special gift book for all ages. Perhaps best of all, it honestly conveys what is involved in maintaining a lasting relationship.More at their blog: kielsonmedia.com
Monday, March 26, 2012
Know your audience
But have you really identified your ideal target market? Is it people eager to learn time-saving solutions? Or is it young moms, reading on the run, and looking for advice on taming tantrums? My ideal reader is a man or woman eager to get their writing noticed - to use a blog or to write articles to get their voice heard, and build a following for their work. So my niche is easy because my blog is built to please and inform this market segment.
For your target reader, the more you narrow your blog or book niche the more you can deliver what they expect. As you can see, the puzzle is in figuring out. The reward is having a growing audience of people who look forward to reading more of your work.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Good bloggers succeed
If your writing is good and you're consistent, people will visit and return to your blog. You need only to provide compelling posts on your topic and keep up the momentum so visitors are rewarded when they return to see what's new. Then use that momentum to move you forward in wider circles.
As a result of my book and blog here at Release Your Writing, I now share advice for writers on the Freelance-Zone blog.
Several major magazines, including Health Magazine and Cooking Light, have been featuring good bloggers in their print magazine, and sending a wide audience to read the work of these people. Big print media is singling out bloggers who show talent and, promoting their blogs. This is a remarkable opportunity for writers who want to move to well-paying magazine markets. In fact, if you want magazine freelance work, the first place editors look for your writing samples is your own blog.
Another success story is Lois Roelofs, a member of Off-Campus Writers Workshop (OCWW). Based loosely on her book Caring Lessons, her blog is the strongest part of her platform. Now she has added to her visibility with a blog book tour at WOW! Women on Writing in addition to maintaining her blog. She grew into this step-by-step-by-step, starting as she says, because she heard about: "WOW through SheWrites, and SheWrites from Helen at OCWW!" And, Lois says she would not have started her blog without my encouragement.
Can I urge you to do the same? Put enough effort into your blog that you begin to see it as a communication tool, a place to showcase your writing, and to increase your visibility. Link it to your other social media outlets, and good things will happen...
Helen
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Yes, we still need real books
Seth Godin, a pioneer in independent published, just had a book rejected by Apple for distribution on the ibook. The reason? His book contains links in the bibliography to books at Amazon! How can firms like Apple and Amazon control the publishing business?
Media Bistro reports: "With Amazon removing IPG books from the Kindle Store, Barnes & Noble and Chapters Indigo not selling Amazon print titles in their stores, and now Apple not accepting a book with links to Amazon in the iBookstore, book retailers are beginning to fragment and make the experience more cumbersome for the consumer.:
As Seth says:“We’re heading to a world where there are just a handful of influential bookstores (Amazon, Apple, Nook…) and one by one, the principles of open access are disappearing. Apple, apparently, won’t carry an ebook that contains a link to buy a hardcover book from Amazon.”
As I see it, its time to sit down, unplug and read a good book.
Media Bistro reports: "With Amazon removing IPG books from the Kindle Store, Barnes & Noble and Chapters Indigo not selling Amazon print titles in their stores, and now Apple not accepting a book with links to Amazon in the iBookstore, book retailers are beginning to fragment and make the experience more cumbersome for the consumer.:
As Seth says:“We’re heading to a world where there are just a handful of influential bookstores (Amazon, Apple, Nook…) and one by one, the principles of open access are disappearing. Apple, apparently, won’t carry an ebook that contains a link to buy a hardcover book from Amazon.”
As I see it, its time to sit down, unplug and read a good book.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Klout: Measure your social media strength
At a workshop last Saturday, I displayed the new Klout factor - a measure of your reach on social media. (klout.com). Here's a small sample screen:
To see the power of this new popularity tool, here's an article from Cision Navigator that displays the top ten crafts blogs based on their scores.
In the grand scheme of visibility, this can teach you two things:
1. See how easy it now is to find, not just blogs in your area of interest, but drill down to the top ten in a category.
2. Shows you the importance of integrating your social media - not just Facebook or Twitter, but staying visible among all social network tools. Some people may be glued to Twitter while others prefer using Facebook, and many focused individuals prefer Linkedin, to focus on their most important contacts and resources.
You may not want to sign up with Klout.com, but knowing its now a useful way to measure online visibility, it may prove useful to you.
To see the power of this new popularity tool, here's an article from Cision Navigator that displays the top ten crafts blogs based on their scores.
In the grand scheme of visibility, this can teach you two things:
1. See how easy it now is to find, not just blogs in your area of interest, but drill down to the top ten in a category.
2. Shows you the importance of integrating your social media - not just Facebook or Twitter, but staying visible among all social network tools. Some people may be glued to Twitter while others prefer using Facebook, and many focused individuals prefer Linkedin, to focus on their most important contacts and resources.
You may not want to sign up with Klout.com, but knowing its now a useful way to measure online visibility, it may prove useful to you.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Blog design options
Today I changed my blog design back to a simpler design. I was testing the checkerboard design but found it awfully confusing for those who want to read my work here.Yesterday was a great day. I had the largest crowd ever for my workshop at the Helen Plum Memorial Library in Lombard. A terrific audience stayed with me as we did a 90-minute race through Everything E, covering writing for e-markets, e-books, e-publishing and e-marketing.
Attendees are welcome to leave questions here in the Comment section and I'll reply here or privately - your choice.
Thanks to the hard-working staff at the library.
I'll be back!
Helen
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Looking for Helen? Upcoming event schedule
All are free for attendees, and there are several topics I'll be discussing. Each library has a full list of the events on their web site - some calendars show the Jan-Feb "Inside Writing and Publishing" events, and others are updated to include these March-April dates as well. All of the speakers on the schedule offer great information at libraries all over the north and western suburbs. Like indie book stores, we owe a debt of gratitude to our Illinois libraries for recognizing the need for more writing/publishing/technology programs:
My events:
Feb. 25, Helen Plum Library /2:00 p.m. / Topic: Everything E! -- ebooks, epublishing, emarketing
Mar. 25, Geneva Public Library / 1:00 p.m. / Topic: Writing effectively for today's markets
Apr. 28, Ela Area Library / Lake Zurich / 11:00 a.m. / Topic: Blogging for authors/writers
Also Apr 28. Fremont Library, Mundelein / 2:00 p.m. / Topic: same program as Lake Zurich
Check all library websites for further details and other events you might want to attend on the same dates.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Will your next book be published by NBC?
This from the Business of News SmartBrief:
E-books and video are on tap from NBC News, which launched a publishing unit. The company said the expanding notion of a book amid increasing possibilities offered by digital media will allow it to provide a more "immersive" reading experience. NBC has some experience in the field, having worked with Penguin and The Perseus Books Group on enhanced e-books. The New York Times (tiered subscription model)/Media Decoder blog
E-books and video are on tap from NBC News, which launched a publishing unit. The company said the expanding notion of a book amid increasing possibilities offered by digital media will allow it to provide a more "immersive" reading experience. NBC has some experience in the field, having worked with Penguin and The Perseus Books Group on enhanced e-books. The New York Times (tiered subscription model)/Media Decoder blog
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
If the rumor is true: Apple is about to start a self-publishing business
This Jan. 9, 2012 news could be great for authors or doom for ebooks. What do you think?
"We broke the news last week that Apple is in development of a self-publishing program and many leading websites such as Media Bistro, Paidcontent, and tons of others. The essence of our writeup was that Apple will be holding an event at the end of the month where they are expected to take the wraps off of their self-publishing program for iBooks. This may benefit indie authors that want to submit directly to the service and not be forcibly relegated to doing business with various Aggregators. What does it mean for these companies if Apple starts their own program?
iBooks only launched in the last few years and has been playing catchup with Amazon, Kobo and Barnes and Noble. All of its competitors have expansive ecosystems that have been developed for many years and have solidified partnerships with the leading publishing companies and also smaller ones. The iBooks store is woefully sparse in terms of selection compared to the other stores. Most of their books are overpriced and many bestsellers are not available for an international audience.
One of the advantages Amazon and Barnes and Noble have over Apple is their own self-publishing program. Apple does have a little known process to publish your own books but it involves a validated ePub file, ISBN identifiers from the Library of Congress and a willingness to run the gauntlet of contracts, paperwork, and use iTunes Connect. This entire process is very daunting and many users are unaware of its existence.
Instead of dealing directly with Apple self-published authors have been using official Aggregator’s such as; Ingram, INscribe Digital, LibreDigital, Lulu, and Smashwords. If you live and publishing in Europe, you can do business with Bookwire and Immatériel. Of these, only Smashwords will convert MS Word documents to ePub.
Publishing Aggregator’s are proving to be a popular option for people to self-publish with because they help you along the entire process and normally submit to many other bookstores. Smashwords is one of the leading companies that do this and even provide you an ISBN number for free. They submit to Kobo, Sony, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple and a few others. One of the drawbacks of using any major Aggregator service is that they brand your book and serves as self-promotion."
Continue reading at the source: http://goodereader.com/blog/category/e-book-news/
"We broke the news last week that Apple is in development of a self-publishing program and many leading websites such as Media Bistro, Paidcontent, and tons of others. The essence of our writeup was that Apple will be holding an event at the end of the month where they are expected to take the wraps off of their self-publishing program for iBooks. This may benefit indie authors that want to submit directly to the service and not be forcibly relegated to doing business with various Aggregators. What does it mean for these companies if Apple starts their own program?
iBooks only launched in the last few years and has been playing catchup with Amazon, Kobo and Barnes and Noble. All of its competitors have expansive ecosystems that have been developed for many years and have solidified partnerships with the leading publishing companies and also smaller ones. The iBooks store is woefully sparse in terms of selection compared to the other stores. Most of their books are overpriced and many bestsellers are not available for an international audience.
One of the advantages Amazon and Barnes and Noble have over Apple is their own self-publishing program. Apple does have a little known process to publish your own books but it involves a validated ePub file, ISBN identifiers from the Library of Congress and a willingness to run the gauntlet of contracts, paperwork, and use iTunes Connect. This entire process is very daunting and many users are unaware of its existence.
Instead of dealing directly with Apple self-published authors have been using official Aggregator’s such as; Ingram, INscribe Digital, LibreDigital, Lulu, and Smashwords. If you live and publishing in Europe, you can do business with Bookwire and Immatériel. Of these, only Smashwords will convert MS Word documents to ePub.
Publishing Aggregator’s are proving to be a popular option for people to self-publish with because they help you along the entire process and normally submit to many other bookstores. Smashwords is one of the leading companies that do this and even provide you an ISBN number for free. They submit to Kobo, Sony, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple and a few others. One of the drawbacks of using any major Aggregator service is that they brand your book and serves as self-promotion."
Continue reading at the source: http://goodereader.com/blog/category/e-book-news/
Monday, January 9, 2012
Feb. 11, 2012 Lawyers for the Creative Arts hosts DIY Publishing and more...
I have attended this even in the past and it is a wonderful learning opportunity. Hope to see you there:
| Pen to Digital Press: DIY Publishing in the Digital Age |
Date: Saturday, February 11th Time: 9 A.M. - 6 P.M. Place: John Marshall Law School, 315 S. Plymouth Court, Chicago, IL 60604 On Saturday, February 11th, Lawyers for the Creative Arts and John Marshall Law School will host an all day symposium titled Pen to Digital Press: DIY Publishing in the Digital Age. This day long program will feature a diverse group of speakers from the writing and publishing professions, professors of law and literature, and members of LCA's Staff and Board of Directors. A detailed program will follow. Topics to be covered include: 1. Overview of Publishing in the Digital Age: Perspectives and Alternatives; 2. Choosing a Publisher: Contracts and Other Pitfalls; 3. Taking It to the Bank: Monitoring Your Sales and Reading Your Royalty Statement; 4. Problematic Content: Solving Privacy and Defamation Issues; Collaborating; and Legally Using Third-Party Content; and 5. How to Become an Outrageously Successful Author: Using Social and Other Media. This not-to-be-missed program will include lively round table lunch discussions on hot topics of the day, ranging from how to write a query to idea protection to writing for television to Q & A with literary agents and entertainment lawyers. We will also host a book signing and networking reception at the close and authors are encouraged to bring their books. Local writers, law and college students, professors, and attorneys are all encouraged to attend. Full details are available here. Registration fee is a real value: $85/person, including lunch and our written materials* $55 for each student currently enrolled in a full-time higher education program** * 3.0 MCLE Hours are anticipated. * *Complimentary for JMLS students and faculty. Sponsorship opportunities are available by contacting Marci Rolnik at LCA: mrolnik@law-arts.org or (312) 649-4111. |
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
From the folks at Goodreads.com
The year has just begun, but we're already looking forward to World Book Night 2012. On April 23, 2012 join thousands of volunteers for a million-book giveaway. Inaugurated last year in the United Kingdom and now expanding to the United States, this nonprofit event is looking for enthusiastic readers who want to encourage their communities to read more. World Book Night needs 50,000 volunteers to help distribute 1 million books nationwide, especially in underserved communities that may not have easy access to books.
To become a book "giver," sign up by February 1, 2012. Select one of the 30 available titles—a range of fiction, nonfiction, and books for teens—and you'll receive 20 special-edition paperbacks to hand out to readers near you. The books are available free of charge thanks to support from the publishing industry. This year's lineup includes The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, and many more!
Full details here at World Book Night
The year has just begun, but we're already looking forward to World Book Night 2012. On April 23, 2012 join thousands of volunteers for a million-book giveaway. Inaugurated last year in the United Kingdom and now expanding to the United States, this nonprofit event is looking for enthusiastic readers who want to encourage their communities to read more. World Book Night needs 50,000 volunteers to help distribute 1 million books nationwide, especially in underserved communities that may not have easy access to books.
To become a book "giver," sign up by February 1, 2012. Select one of the 30 available titles—a range of fiction, nonfiction, and books for teens—and you'll receive 20 special-edition paperbacks to hand out to readers near you. The books are available free of charge thanks to support from the publishing industry. This year's lineup includes The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, and many more!
Full details here at World Book Night
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