Writing Writers

Been around the block? Know the writing ropes? Maybe it's time to share your gained wisdom by writing for the trade. Here are some writers' rags and 'zines and an estimate of what you might expect for payment:

Absolute Write: nothing to $5 for 800-2000 words or $.0025/word
ByLine: up to $100 for 1500-1800 words or $0.06-$0.07 per word
Canadian Writer's Journal: up to $9.50 for 400-2000 words or $0.0048-$0.024/word
Fiction Factor: $5
Funds For Writers: $35 for 650-700 words or $0.05-$0.053/word
Poets & Writers: $150-$300 for 500-3000 words
The Dabbling Mum: nothing to $30-$40 for 500-1500 words or $0.03-$0.04/word
The Writer: $25-$500 for 600 or 3500 words or $0.04-$0.14 per word
Writers Digest: $0.30-$0.50 per word
Writer's Journal: $20 for 700-2000 words or $0.028-$0.01/word
WritersWeekly.com: $30 or $50 for 300 or 600 words
Writing-World.com: $0.05/word to a maximum of $100

[writing]

Add to Google

Joining a plethora of other "buttons" and "badges" that link blogs or any other webpages or gizzies to another, the Add to Google button suggests:

The "Add to Google" button makes it easier for people to discover your feed or gadget. The button helps you promote your site by making it easy for readers to quickly add content right to their Google homepage or Google Reader.

This one links Writer's Edge. Please use responsibly and observe copyright courtesy.

You can also host the image yourself and use the following code to "roll your own", substituting the <> symbols for the curly braces I had to use to get the code to display within this post:

{a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?feedurl=[FEED_URL]"}
{img height="17" alt="Add to Google" src="[LOCAL_PATH]/add.gif" width="104" border="0" /}{/a}

See http://www.google.com/webmasters/add.html for more info.

[websites]

Word Plug-Ins

Pick a pack of tools to use with MS Word, thanks to Roger J. Carlson. Easily count lines, phrases and words. Find and highlight passive words, prepositions and adverbs. Highlight the latter two for elimination if you wish. The potent Adverb Eliminator highlights the offenders for deletion, using Word's Track Changes feature. Of course, I'd advocate not inserting adverbs in the first place, but some people just can't control themselves. Roger to the rescue!

He also offers a five-page Word document with screen shots on how to build a Word macro to find and highlight dull or passive words you might want to consider replacing to spark up your writing. He suggests finding alternatives to this list: is, isn't, am, are, aren't, was, wasn't, were, will, would, won't, has, had, have, be, been, do, don't, did, didn't, does, doesn't, seem, seems, exist, exists, appears, make, makes, show, shows, occur, occurs, get, got, went, put, some, many, most, that, very, extremely, totally, completely, wholly, utterly, quite, rather, slightly, fairly, somewhat, and suddenly.

[words]

Dangerous Jobs

Analysis on job insecurity from the International Federation of Journalists:

"Media have become more powerful and journalism has become more dangerous," said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. "2006 was the worst year on record – a year of targeting, brutality and continued impunity in the killing of journalists."

That seems to bear true from embedded reporters covering military action in Afghanistan and Iraq to bloggers on the Hollywood beat (sublime to ridiculous). A common theme on blog chats and forum sites is titled "Blogged and Burned", referring to the many who wrote about their jobs and lost them as a result. Remember, sniping is a dangerous activity at both ends of the gun.

[journalism]

UPI Image Resource

United Press International (UPI) the ancient newswire service now offers the public access to decades of photos. Buried somewhere in their archives is a shot of a serial killer I took back in the 70s. If only I could remember his name! I don't have much patience slogging through photo resources, but the ResearchBuzz mistress shares her experiences in UPI Makes Images Available Through Deal With Digital Railroad.

[resource]

Format Fiction

When you're a beginning writer, often the most puzzling parts are what should be the simplest--like putting the print on a page of paper. The experts, editors for the Writer's Digest books, should know about formatting for short stories and novels, right? It also contains tips on mailing manuscripts. This is not a web page, however, but a file in the form of an MS Word document. It's buried on an auxiliary website. No guarantees it will remain "live", so keep a copy if you find it useful.

[writing formats]

British Book Prizes Rigged?

Earlier this year, the Publisher's Lunch (a subscription-only newsletter from PublishersMarketPlace.com) questioned the ethics of British literary prizes:

The Guardian's publishing blog learns how UK fiction writers get in line for the country's endless prize longlists: "Apparently agents can collude with publishers to guarantee, through publishing deals, that certain authors are put forward for specific prizes. So some authors are put forward for prizes by contractual obligation, not just because their book is a good read."

The information came from the British publication Guardian Unlimited: Arts blog - books: Eyes on the prize.

[book contests]

Show Don't Tell

Sometimes I feel that fiction writing gets short shrift in this blog. Rachelle Arlin Credo offers tips on How to Write a Short Story. Of her 15 suggestions, the ninth intrigued me because it is the most difficult to explain:

Show don't tell

The characters should be the ones responsible for expressing the story through their actions and dialogue and not the writer telling the reader what is being expressed. Rather than saying, "Annette was really mad at her bestfriend Christina for stealing her boyfriend", say "Annette felt an ache in her stomach and a strong pang of betrayal as Christina approaches her and flashes her with a sweet smile. She breathed hard trying to calm herself as she speaks with suppressed anger: "I hope you're happy now that you've proven yourself as a friend."

I'd have a few quibbles with the alternating present and past tenses, and telling us that Christina tried to calm herself and spoke with suppressed anger instead of showing it too, but overall we get the point. Muttering "You bitch!" through clenched teeth would have shown, in Credo's definition, rather than told.

[writing fiction]

Hemingway Delay

Remember how in 2005 I noted that Ernest Hemingway's Cuban home, Finca Vigia, had achieved status on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's list of most endangered places? Now the AP reports Restoration of Hemingway hideaway held up:

Work to restore Ernest Hemingway's Cuban hideaway probably won't be finished until the end of 2009, held up in part by efforts to build a garage to house the author's long-lost Chevy convertible, museum officials say.

Most of the restoration funding comes from the Cuban government. The situation is not helped by the US government's continued embargo of Cuba that "has blocked willing American donors", according to Hemingway Museum director Ada Rosa Alfonso.

On a personal writer's note, in that earlier post, I mentioned: "In the late 1940's my parents visited Cuba, but I recall no stories about seeing Hemingway. Last week my mother turned 88. Note to self: ask Mother about Cuba trip before she dies." I delayed visiting her, and she died last May. I'll never know any more about that Cuban trip than mute black and white photographs can tell. Preserve those family stories before they disappear.

What is Published?

A participant on the Writer's Digest forum questions if his work has been published or not. He wrote to ask my view of his situation because a publisher has withdrawn an offer to buy when told the work under consideration "was on a writer's fan site where it resided and was critiqued." While I'm flattered to be asked for an opinion, I'm hardly the be-all end-all of information. In this matter, I thought the authority is the US Copyright Law which declares:

Copyright protects original works of authorship that are fixed in a tangible form of expression. The fixation need not be directly perceptible so long as it may be communicated with the aid of a machine or device.

One device being a computer, of course. Putting any writing on a server's hard drive is making it "fixed in a tangible form of expression." However, I was surprised to read further:

The 1976 Copyright Act defines publication as follows:

"Publication" is the distribution of copies or phonorecords of a work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending. The offering to distribute copies or phonorecords to a group of persons for purposes of further distribution, public performance, or public display constitutes publication. A public performance or display of a work does not of itself constitute publication.

Additional explanation states:

any form of dissemination in which the material object does not change hands, for example, performances or displays on television, is not a publication no matter how many people are exposed to the work.

This sounds to me like the copyright people consider something published only if it is offered for sale. The page further defines "public", but I think that's pretty much a moot point because anything electronic can be hacked. There is no digital privacy. Befuddled, I attempted to consult the 1978 Digital Millennial Copyright Act, but that electronic elaboration appears to be concerned with protecting digital rights, which assumes a piece already appears in digital format.

The Legal Encyclopedia at Answers.com states "Publication is the act of offering something for the general public to inspect or scrutinize. It means to convey knowledge or give notice." I researched deeper via Google and didn't find quickly any other definition source I considered reliable. So, we're thrown back upon ourselves as resources and the cyber legend that if a work appears only on a password-protected critique group online, it isn't really published. True? Untrue? Nothing about selling, renting, redistribution. But any site can be hacked. Anyone with a password can see your work. How many does it take to make a "public"?

Only a publisher can decide.

[publishing]

PubInsider

PubInsider Magazine is billed as "Your Connection to the Publishing Industry". The March issue has to be the best issue yet, and not only because editor Jeff Bowen published my ad twice for a while! I'm not sure how you'll find this issue after the end of the month, because the website IS the newsletter, and I don't see any archives. What's so great? An article by Sci-Fi author Cory Doctorow, links to valuable/useful information such as tools for determining sales rankings on Amazon and Amazon's customer service phone number, lists of media and PR contacts and articles to help you promote your writing, direct links to the writing/editing opportunities on various Craigslist locations (you might want to clip and save any of these!)

[resource]

Literary Map

What do Jack Kerouac, Robert Louis Stevenson, John Steinbeck, Robinson Jeffers, Henry Miller, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti have in common? If you guessed "Monterey County, California" you're right, but sussing out the sites associated with these famous writers might not be an easy job. To our rescue comes the Monterey County Convention & Visitors Bureau with a newly-released map of "Scenes for Your Senses Literary & Film Map". I wish I'd had it several years ago when I made my pilgrimage to Cannery Row in honor of Steinbeck. I had no idea all these other writers had connections with Monterey. The map is part of a 14-page brochure which you can download (slowly, it's 10.16 MB).

[writers]

Bush Uses Books

How elegant and wise President Bush appeared this morning, giving his anniversary update on the war ... which war? Notice the books displayed behind him. They line the mantel of a fireplace which, we hope, is never used. The heat is not good for the books. I suppose his handlers hoped the books would lend an air of erudition and authority to the beleaguered leader. You, dear readers, are wise enough to know to keep your books safe from excess heat and the dangers of fire, aren't you?

[books]

Morals and Publishing

Would you sell your work to a publisher who also carried out activities of which you disapprove? It came to my attention that Reed Elsevier sells weapons. Reed is a huge conglomerate that produces many professional journals, including Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, School Library Journal and Criticas, which influence books purchased by libraries. See the Financial Times article Spat erupts between medical journals:

BMJ, the former British Medical Journal, accuses Reed Elsevier, the publishing group, of "warmongering" through its international arms-fairs division, and calls on authors to boycott the Lancet, its flagship academic publication, until the links are severed.

This reminded me of an incident a few years ago in which I learned that my long-time email provider and sometimes ISP, AT&T participates in providing pornography through at least one of its many business arms. That gave me pause to consider severing our relationship.

[publishing]

Writing Show Contest Podcast

Paula Berinstein of the The Writing Show wrote to let me know about a podcast on this year's fiction contest that is available for download from the website. The contest is for the first chapter of a novel, and all entrants this year will receive the hotly requested 750 words of feedback as well as a $20 one week free access to the Literary Market Place online. Hmm. I'm tempted to enter just for that bonus!

[writing contest]

Sorry Silly Saturday

Oh! This looked like so much fun: I'm So Sorry - the apology widget that I've temporarily replaced the Google Book Search in the left column with a trial run of the apology widget. Apologize away! Make your apology memorable -- and it doesn't have to be political. Have fun!

[creativity]

AP Book Coverage

This is somewhat old news (last month) that the AP to Discontinue Book Review Package. The AP is the Associated Press news and features organization which provides content to most of America's newspapers. The change been hashed about a bit and lit pundits seem to conclude that it won't make much of a difference. What I thought was interesting was the reason why:

Linda M. Wagner, the wire service's director of media relations and public affairs, said in a statement today: "AP is revamping its Lifestyles coverage to focus more resources on topics like food and parenting ... "

but will continue providing literary news through the Arts and Entertainment department and with full-time coverage by a national reporter on the books and publishing beat. What I'm wondering is why book reviews were ever a part of a Lifestyles section? It would seem to me that coverage of authors and their productions, especially nonfiction topics, ought to be integrated into daily news and features, and fiction naturally belongs in Arts and Entertainment. It's good to see the venerable ol' AP creak into the 21st century.

[books]

Women & Books 2007

Two interesting firms, Content Connections (marketing) and eWomen Publishing Network (promotions) have joined to create a 30-minute survey, Women & Books 2007 to study women's nonfiction reading habits and the resources they need to become successful authors:

* Your incentive for participating: You'll receive a Special Report highlighting the results of our study. In addition, every participant will be entered into a drawing for one of twenty $100 specialty retail gift certificates. (To be awarded shortly after the close of the survey on Mother's Day, May 13th.)

* The Purpose of the Study: Women are a powerful and influential group. We'd like to gather information about their economic impact and the dynamics that influence their book buying decisions. The study will also look at factors that could help more women become successfully published authors.

* A Study for Women Only: If you are a woman, we invite you to participate and then reach out to a woman who has inspired you and invite them to get involved, too. If you are a man, we invite you to forward this to a woman who has made a difference in your life.

Remember, the survey closes on May 13. If you have questions, see the Information page. The incentives are from quality businesses, too:

American Express Gift Cards
Barnes & Noble
Bath & Body Works
Best Buy
Blockbuster
Coldwater Creek
Gap, Inc.
Nordstrom
Red Door Spas
Williams Sonoma

[research]

Training Blog

The Poynter Institute's ACCESS - The News University Training Blog carries the motto: The Best Journalists Never Stop Learning. Soooo, it's not like a training bra, but more like a sports bra; it supports training efforts? Sorry, it's one of those days when my mind goes sidewise in its thinking. I am impressed with the variety of ways in which you can receive the information from News U.--by email, RSS feed, at the blog, and online at the Poynter website. I noted many good tips to learning opportunities online at a variety of organizations.

[journalism]

WordWeb

Several people of the Writer's Digest Forum find this program useful: WordWeb: Free thesaurus dictionary download

WordWeb is a free English thesaurus and dictionary for Windows, and can be used to look up words from within almost any program in just one click. It works off-line, but can also look up words in web references such as the Wikipedia encyclopedia. Features of the free version include:

Definitions and synonyms, Proper nouns, Related words, Pronunciations with 150 000 root words and 120 000 synonym sets.

* Beware of using Wikipedia as a primary research source or reference.

[words reference]

Google eBooks

In addition to making snippets of books available online, Google Book Search intends to offer entire books in the form of eBooks, according to the Times Online article, Google plots e-books coup. Google's relationship with publishing is somewhat love/hate, as evidenced by recent lawsuits by organizations (Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers) accusing the search giant of copyright violations. On the other hand, publishers and authors will undoubtedly benefit from the sale of e-Books through Google Search and, probably, Google Checkout, another new service.

[ebooks]

Wikipedia Is A Dangerous Weapon

Teddy may be a bit long-winded in Cobwebs of the Mind, but he seems to get my point in In The Hands Of Fools Wikipedia Is A Dangerous Weapon.

Why is it that some people who call themselves "writers" are truly beginning to scare me these days? Why is it that any utterance that comes from the pen of struggling writers must be accepted as intelligent and full of thought? Why is it that anyone who can use a "virtual" pen in less than a day becomes a "writer and author" even though their "virtual minds" are empty? Why is it that we get the distinct feeling when reading the musing and ideas of some people on blogs and forum boards we begin to think the person writing was in the bathroom when God gave out brains?

[research]

The Writing Show Contest

The Writing Show's 2007 First-Chapter-of-a-Novel Contest is now open for entries. First prize is $500, a two-volume set of The Literary Marketplace (worth $299.95), an interview and the chapter posted on The Writing Show website. Giving in to popular demand, judges will provide 750-word comments on entries. Please visit the link provided for details.

[writing contests]

Up your clocks!

Dissing Blogs

Terry Whalin reviews Robert Bly's recent offering, Blog Schmog:

As an editor, I will tell you which has more credibility--the print magazine articles and books--not the online material. If you want to build credibility as a published author, you need to be devoting your writing energy toward building a body of work in print.

Kinda makes you wonder what we're all doing here, huh?

[blogging]

Promote Websites, Blogs

The Manhattan Service website offers tips and services to register and promote your website and/or blog. (Remember, a blog IS a website.) While I wouldn't hold the pages up as models (way too busy and crowded), I spotted some useful information for building traffic. The page on blogs contains a list in a table (proper use of a table on a web page, incidentally) of 154 blog directories to which you can submit your blog. A nice feature is listing the directories' Page Rank. Warning: don't use a bulk submission service. You're better off DIY or paying someone who will submit your blog "manually" (individually to each directory).

[websites]

Celebrate Women Writers

This is a celebratory day for women, being International Women's Day held during National Women's History Month (see the National Women's History Project). To make it more personal for Writer's Edge, we can take a look at Women Writers. Who does it better than A Celebration of Women Writers from the digital library at the University of Pennsylvania? They remind us that "Women have written almost every imaginable type of work: novels, poems, letters, biographies, travel books, religious commentaries, histories, economic and scientific works."

Beware of Publishers

Ann Crispin's and Victoria Strauss' blog Writer Beware gives two big 'thumbs down' to:

American Book Publishing (Salt Lake City, UT)
Archebooks Publishing (Las Vegas, NV)
Durban House Publishing (Dallas, TX)
Harbor House (Augusta, GA)
Helm Publishing (Rockford, IL)
Hilliard and Harris (Boonsboro, MD)
New World Media, Inc., a.k.a. American Book Press (formerly Washington House and Mandrill, a.k.a. Trident Media) (Alexandria, VA)
Oak Tree Press (Taylorville, IL)
PublishAmerica (Frederick, MD)
Royal Fireworks Press/Silk Label Books (Unionville, NY)
SterlingHouse Publisher (Pittsburgh, PA--imprints include, among others, Pemberton Mysteries, 8th Crow Books, Cambrian House Books, Blue Imp Books, Caroline House Books, Dove House Books, and PAJA Books)
Tate Publishing (Mustang, OK)
Whitmore Publishing Company (Pittsburgh, PA)

These are the same people who warned you about certain unethical agents last year. Now they're taking aim at publishers who charge fees, insist on author-unfriendly contracts, use misleading advertising, have conflicts of interest, are repeatedly complained about for breach on contract, provide poor or inadequate editing (a good reason to hire your own!) and who lack editorial standards. Before you sign a contract, check out the publishers with beware@sfwa.org.

Secret Agents

Looking for an agent? Twenty-three intrepid souls have volunteered for Writer's Digest's annual Secret Agents list. These are not advertisements. They didn't pay to get on the list, vouches WD editor, Maria Schneider. "These are legitimate agencies who have agreed to be included in our listing and are open to receiving new clients," she said. The list is part of an article by Chuck Sambuchino, Editor of the WD Guide to Literary Agents. Happy hunting!

[agents]

Writing Prompts

Stuck in a rut? I seem to be stuck on motoring terminology this last week. When you're lost in the jungle of words, trying to write that best sentence, express a special thought, stop spinning your wheels and find traction at one of these websites for prompts recommended by other writers:

http://208.183.128.3/write/create.htm http://www.theblob.org/raina/prompts/ http://westwood.fortunecity.com/smith/406/StoryaDay.html
http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/ http://www.creativity-portal.com/prompts/imagination.prompt.html http://www.kporterfield.com/journal/Journal_Prompts.html http://www.thepromptwriter.com/prompts.html http://www.burningvoid.com/write/exer.php
http://www.writingfix.com

[prompts]

Online Promotions

Patricia Fry, the president of SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network, www.spawn.org) offers an invaluable article in the Publishers Marketing Association - Newsletter about Internet marketing. In "15 Ways to Promote Optimally Online", she makes many points about online promotions that apply equally well to marketing a book, other types of writing or, as one wag is always reminding me, promoting yourself as author or expert. Fry suggests, among other tips:

* always be in research mode
* take advantage of forums and chats
* showcase your credibility
* sell or place articles elsewhere
* sell your work on several sites

[promotions]

Guide to Grammar and Writing

Sponsored by the Capital Community College Foundation of Hartford, Connecticut, the Guide to Grammar and Writing provides and incredible index to common writing questions as well as Principals of Composition. Yes, it's academically-oriented, but so what? That's where we were supposed to have learned the mechanics of good writing.

[English writing]

Composed or Comprised?

I think I'll scream if I run across another piece of Internet writing with the phrase "comprised of." Trying to sound erudite and sophisticated? Chic? Well-educated? Then learn the difference between "compose" and "comprise" and how to use each verb properly. Here's my stab at a colloquial definition:

objects COMPOSE something
something COMPRISES objects

Examples: Many pages of paper compose a book, but a book comprises many pages. Don't use comprise in a passive construction. See Bartleby.

Don't be surprised if this usage still elicits comments, however. In an earlier survey, a majority of the Usage Panel found this use of comprise unacceptable.

[English words]

Successful Writer Reports

We have a new series of Reports for successful writing available. And they're only seven bucks each! Yes, seven is the new $9.99. Also three dollars less, but who's counting? I don't know if this is the latest Internet marketing legend, but "they" are saying that $7 is the magic price point these days. The reports cover everything from the basics new writers need to know, all about agents and other representatives, formatting manuscripts, doing research, running your writing business and more. Find out all about the Reports at http://www.writers-edge.info/Reports.htm

[writing]