Fix Writers Blues

I was feeling low a few weeks back and moaned to my humorist friend, Bonnie Boots, about it. She replied:

The problem with depression is that the brain that is depressed is the very one we rely on to tell us what to do about it.

Brain: I'm depressed.
Brain: Yeah? So?
Brain: well, shouldn't I do something about it?
Brain: Like what-ask some numbnuts doctor for help?
What's the point? I know more about me than any doctor.
Brain: Well, yeah, so...how come I'm still depressed?
Brain: Shut the fuck up!

Bonnie exercises her funny bone at Write Side Out and this year started an exciting new venture, The Internet Wizards Magazine, the premier lifestyle publication for entrepreneurs and self-employed people doing business on the internet.

Thanks for all the laughs, Bonnie--it really is good medicine!

Write an Agent Query

Yes, expanding the free articles list on the Writing Help page is going slowly, but I have good news. Yesterday I added both versions of About Agents. This piece answers some of those nagging questions like: "Who needs an agent?" and "How can I get one?" On the latter, I ran across a gem of a find in active agent Nathan Bransford's blog, Anatomy of a Good Query Letter. Bransford, who works for the Curtis Brown agency in San Francisco, appears to like a very personalized query letter which reveals the writer has researched the agent. If I were to design a Do and Don't list for querying agents, one item would certainly be: Don't create a generic letter and try to make it fit all the agents you query. The same applies to addressing editors at publishers if you are skipping the agent process.

Charges for Writing

Still on a roll concerning finding writing jobs, a writer's resume and today's offering, how much to charge. Thanks to Lillie Amman's blog a valuable once lost reference has been found again. I wish I knew when this was republished (hopefully updated): How Much Should I Charge. One line in the article indicates the data are from sales made in 2005 and 2006, and the pages appear to be from a book--maybe the current Writer's Market? The file is in .PDF format, so you'll need a reader like Adobe's (free) to open it.

Writers Laws for Blogging

The Aviva Directory carries an article on Blog Law >12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know. This website is not a legal one in the sense that it's written by an attorney as far as I know. Indeed, at the end comes a disclaimer that the content is only legal information, not advice. The post also contains a nice list of websites for further research. Each of the 12 issues discussed ends with a three point summation titled "How to stay out of trouble". Very pertinent. Some of the topics covered include:

* Deep Linking
* Copyright Infringement
* Privacy Policies
* Liability for Comments
* Spam and the CAN-SPAM Act

Yipes! Just reviewing the article for this post gives me pause. It's so easy to get into trouble. If you're a writer contemplating starting a blog or already blogging, a look at these points may save you from a load of grief later on. I know I'll be studying them.

Copypright Right and Wrong

Despite the typo in the page title, I'd trust the information on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America's Warnings and Cautions for Writers--Coypright page. It was reviewed in April for broken links and corrections. The SFWA web page offers sections on Copyright Basics, To Register or Not?, Registration Services, Copyright Myths and Links (to other copyright resources). Copyright issues seem to be the top questions asked by new writers.

A Writers Edge Housekeeping

A note on this and that:

This is a notice to all who link to A Writer's Edge via scrolling scripts often buried at the bottom of a web page. I will only link to blogs with reciprocal static links on the index or home page. No scrolls, no buried and only sometimes visible, no links list on another web page, and no links lists swiped from compatriots. Sorry, but I'm running out of real estate here as I try to follow my own advice to not force readers to scroll down more than twice to read a page. I'm also thinking of purging my Reciprocity list of the links that are commented out and don't display, but are still visible to search engine spiders. No more free rides. Again, trying to reduce the page's bulk for the spiders' crawls. A sleeker, slimmer design behind the scenes for SEO purposes.

That is a sample of my writing that does not deal with writing matters ... for those enquiring minds who want to know if I still write anything besides this blog. Please feel free to comment at 100 Bloggers about the piece there and here about the linkage tidying up mentioned above.

Writers Resumes

A few days ago I wrote about finding writing jobs. But what do you do when the potential employer asks for a resume? You can refer them to your online version (you do have one on your website, don't you?) Or you can send one by snail mail. They shouldn't necessarily look alike, because the one on the Internet can contain links to your clips. It should also be written for reading on the screen. For tips, see my free article on writing for the web. You can view my example of an online writer's resume. I also direct potential employers to a page with more details and links. I can't tell you exactly how to design your paper resume, because the needs of a beginner differ greatly from those writers with credits or ones who specialize. Moira Allen offers comprehensive general guidance you can adapt to your individual situation in Creating a Writer's Resume on the Writing World website.

Free Articles on Writing

On the Writing Help page, the first three free articles are now available for downloading as .PDF files. To read the downloaded files, you'll need a reader like Adobe's Acrobat Reader. Here are some shortcuts to the available free articles files:

Book Signing Tips	Download .PDF file
Give and Take Critiques	Download .PDF file
Write for the Web	Download .PDF file

Buzzwords

The 13 Most Fun Buzzwords of 2006 will have you in stitches. It asks, Ever done any blamestorming? How about prairie-dogging? Do you work with any BMWs? Or has your career been plutoed? The BuzzWhack website is dedicated to de-mystifying buzzwords, but it's not without some humor along the way. Get a daily buzzword by email. "Not all buzzwords make you cringe. Some are delightfully colorful, funny and sum up life in today's workplace," says John Walston, author of The Buzzword Dictionary. "And given the way the world's been going lately, we definitely need something to laugh about."

Find Writing Jobs

Freelance nonfiction writers can find opportunities listed in the Craigs List online publication. You can search Writing/Editing jobs in general or by specific major city. Deborah Ng also specializes in freelance job listings, and David Eide does the same at Sunoasis Jobs. PoeWar and Writers Weekly are two other general sites where you can search.

Other smaller sites will have overlap with those above, often dipping their buckets in the same well, especially Craigs List. Nonetheless, it's worth a look at:

http://www.online-writing-jobs.com/jobbank/jobbank1.htm
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=24
http://journalism.berkeley.edu/jobs/index.php?cat=free&submit=Go
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/jobs/jobs_media/index.html
http://spj.org/blog/blogs/freelance/
http://www.mediabistro.com/joblistings/
http://www.journalismjobs.com/Search_Jobs_all.cfm
http://www.simplyhired.com/
http://www.indeed.com/
http://www.writerfind.com/freelance_jobs/

Some of these websites allow you to post a listing of your services (most notably Craigs List, which is free). Some contain useful job search information. Some clues for success that I can provide: limit your search to the most recently posted items because employers tend to post in multiple venues and jobs go fast; respond right away. Beware of scams--potential employers should give you a way to contact them other than email; most companies have a website; avoid jobs from abroad where collecting payment may be impossible.

Get Your Writing Published

Yet another website/service wherein to post your work and read others', critique, enter contests, share camaraderie--Nothing Binding is a great example of a very attractive website design, although rather slow in loading pages. Shall we assume great success or inadequate hardware? With no advertising apparent and promises to remain ad-free, I wondered how the owners make a profit. Perhaps in the coming audio/video additional services?

The stress on "forming an emotional connection with prospective readers" and bypassing traditional publishing processes raises an interesting question. If you post your piece on this or any of the many similar outlets, will that count against the possibility of it ever getting it published by someone else? This issue was addressed by the editors at Writer's Digest magazine, who concluded you're probably better off not posting anything online that you might want to sell at a later time. More and more publications are asking for assurances that a submission is original work, never published anywhere. Anywhere includes online. They said material in blogs is still in an iffy state of flux and might or might not be considered as already published. The good news is that reprint rights can be sold for writing previously appearing on the web.

Take a Quiz on Style

The British news publication The Economist makes public its style guide and offers a quiz based on it. What's really great about this quiz is that the Answers page not only explains why the correct response is preferred, but it also refers you to a section of the style guide (with a direct link) for further study. Here's a sample of the questions. Pick the most correct of the three following sentences:

If Mickey Mouse were president, he would introduce such a policy.
If Ted Kennedy became president, he will introduce such a policy.
If Ralph Nader becomes president, he would introduce such a policy.

All I can think is that if Mickey Mouse were president, we all might be a lot better off! Incidentally, the website also provides various research tools such as "Backgrounders", brief explanations of topics that I would depend on over any wiki descriptions you might find on the web. I looked up the Kurds (hoping to learn something of their ways) and found 25 million stateless souls trapped in the Middle East conflicts.

Writers High

Another Sunday morning, another visit to the bagel shop overlooking Murphy Canyon. What is it about this place that turns on my creative juices? This time my eyes are drawn to the treetops outside the picture windows. Right outside, for the shop is perched on a hilltop within the canyon. Hummingbirds dart in and out, slurping nectar from nearly invisible flowers. They rise and drop, according to hummers' whims, an occasional ardent male performing a loop-the-loop. I know if I were outside I'd hear their distinctive chirps. My eyes also catch on spiders' ley lines, strung from branch to branch, silken threads on which they drop to pounce on prey.

What if I were to anchor my line, like a spider, pay it out and catch an updraft from the canyon floor? To rise up and up, higher, higher still. A writer's imagination carries me away, traveling while sitting still.

Free eBooks for Writers

Practicing writer Erika Dreifus is retiring four of her famous writers' guide books, and for the month of June, you can download them at no cost from her sales page at Lulu.com. The free ones are the last four on the page:

* Where to Sell What you Write When you Write About Writing
* The Practicing Writer's Directory of Paying Short Story Markets
* The Practicing Writer's Directory of Paying Poetry Markets
* The Practicing Writer's Literary Contest Directory for Writers of Book-Length Fiction

Don't ever say I didn't give you anything! Also, the Writing Help page here has three free articles just for you. Enjoy!

Publishers Database

Last month writer Linda Formichelli compiled a free database of publishers' information at Review Copy Helper. Ostensibly the list is to aid book reviewers obtain copies of new books, but I don't see why it can't be used by any other writer, too. The listings include links to publishers' websites, physical addresses, email addresses, phone and fax numbers. For reviewers specifically, she advises:

When contacting a publisher to request a review copy, include your name, mailing address, phone number, and e-mail address; the name of your publication; and the title, author, and (if possible) ISBN of the book you're requesting. It's also nice if you can send the publicity department a copy of your review or article!

Gloom & Despair, Inc.

The anti-motivational website at Despair.com is hilarious beyond words. Having spent a few years preparing for a career in organizational development, I can appreciate the jokes. Best of all is theParody Motivator Generator that I used to create this image of myself. The tag line says, "When all about you are losing their heads, give up." My favorite country song is from "Hee Haw". It has the lines, "Deep, dark depression/Excessive misery. If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all!" Y'all just keep hangin' in there, now, and have a nice day!

Writing Space

Remember a year or so ago the fad in writer's blogs was to display pictures of your desk? My mess was so inspirational that it made a constant reader of published novelist Paula Offutt (well, that's what she said). We've moved on from desks to writing space in general, about which writing coach Lisa Collazo suggested, "It should be filled with tokens of positive reinforcement, such as a letter from a good friend, a piece of writing that influenced you, or a photograph of a favorite author." She asked her readers to describe their writing spaces. I'm more of the "creative clutter" type of artist, but some of us are really neat ... or else don't have much in the way of physical resources. You can take a look at other writers' spaces on the Writer's Digest forum. Yep, mine's there. I jumped right onto the bandwagon as soon as it appeared, having the shot at hand. My real writing space, however is my whole house. The desk is in my bedroom now, but the other one still contains a large file cabinet and all my photo and spare electronic equipment. The library is in the kitchen, and I keep notebooks, a clipboard, writing instruments in the living room. Papers and newsprint turn up in every room, too. I've learned to function like a man, spread out and take up all the space!

Questions of Style

If you write nonfiction and use the AP Stylebook as a guide to punctuation and grammar, did you know it's available online by subscription? It's free to search the site if you don't know what section to look in for an answer. The same page contains a long list of previously submitted questions and answers--note their brevity. Not one word more than needed to respond. Now, that's good editing! Better yet, if there's a sticky wicket not covered in the text or website, a feature allows you to query the APStylebook.com editors (about style).

Clean Up on Aisle ...

Server problems (my host's bad) prevented yesterday's post in a timely fashion and also eliminated two comments on the post Blogs to Books. You can see the comments if you click to add one of your own, but they don't seem to show up on the post's page! Sigh ... the best I can do is reproduce them below:

clare said...

Hi Georganna
Thanks for the mention. We are a traditional publishing house (but small and independent) and have published 28 books to date including Blood Sweat and Tea. We are most defintitely not a self- or vanity-publisher and if you take a look at the 'about us' section on the site (www.thefridayproject.co.uk) it should give you a bit more detail. Hope this helps! Clare

4:40 AM

Sue said...

a book from my blog would be a dream!

9:18 AM

Boost Page Rank

A theory is circulating around websites that advise other websites involving writers. It's something like this: to boost your own website, write articles and give them away for other websites to display. These articles (they can be on any topic) contain an embedded link to your website. That way, whenever your free article is used on the Internet, a new incoming link is created to your home website. Theoretically this boosts your page rank, because Google uses the number of incoming links in its arcane algorithm that determines ranking and returns from searches. The only fallacy I can see with this notion is that Google also considers the quality of the incoming link. This is why getting or buying links from exchanges or "link farms" is discouraged. If low quality websites display your work, creating a link to your home website from theirs, this can actually hurt your site's page rank and ranking in returns. I know it's tempting to unload those little darlin's that just don't sell into these free content dumpsites, but you must think ahead to the more complex ramifications of your actions. It just isn't as simple as "showing editors your stuff" (not that editors have time to cruise the web looking for new writers.)

Blogs Become Books

The blog-to-book phenomenon continues unabated. After only a few weeks online, Suzie Harris' "Dress to Kill on Ebay" blog has attracted the interest of a publisher, according to one blogger. This seems just too good to be true, but some other bloggers have received the same fantastic play including "Girl With a One-Track Mind" by Zoe Margolis (pseudonym, Abby Lee), "Blood Sweat and Tea" from Random Acts of Reality by Tom Reynolds, and Anya Peters "Abandoned: The True Story of a Girl Who Didn't Belong" from the homelessness blog, Wandering Scribe, published by Harper Element.

BTW, here's another blog-to-book conversion service I missed in the other roundups of blogs-to-books: The Friday Project. They also produce CDs. I'm not certain if this merits a self-publishing label or not. The website isn't clear about that. If anyone has had contact with this company, let us know.

English Usage

If you're really really a ginormous fan of the English language, you're probably already a member of the alt.usage.english newsgroup. Come again? Say what? Don't even know what a "newsgroup" is? Well, way back in a galaxy far, far away--oh, wait, I'm mixing metaphors here. Over a quarter of a century ago, long before the WWW existed, the Internet hummed along without pictures. We connected with one another directly through our telephone wires and some nodes aggregated messages and distributed them to folks with special software called "news readers". You may have this facility built right in to your email program, or you can now access newsgroups online through Google Groups. You won't be disappointed if it's all words, will you? Many of the newsgroups have websites these days, and alt.usage.english there tell all about the history of the group, explain how to find information contained in it, is one of them. Pages direct you to its archives and allow you to search.

A feature I find fascinating is the Audio Archives, which let you "Listen to the sounds of English from across the USA and around the world". Shall I share my story about Australian English? I went down under and carefully listened to a news broadcast on my first day. I recognized all the words spoken, but had absolutely no idea what they'd said. Same with reading newspaper articles. It took about three days for my brain to translate what I consider "British English"!

Comic Writers

Check out the funnies at The Writer at Work by Richard Krzemien

Used with permission of author.

Get Books Accepted

If you're reluctant to spend 49 cents at Amazon to buy a special report that might help sell your manuscript, Terry Whalin has created what he calls an Audio Postcard with most of the same information. It's actually a recording of a conference presentation, but it's available for free. As a former book editor and now an agent, he offers three sets of six helps: Six Keys to Get Your Book Rejected, Six Ways to Get Rejected by Editors, and Six Keys to Getting Accepted. Sounds like it's a lot easier to get rejected than accepted--and it is!

Let's focus on some of the positives, what you can do to interest agents and editors in your proposal or novel. One suggestion that surprised me was to develop a great title for your book. Another is to have already designed your own marketing plan beyond being available for interviews, one that draws on your own networks and resources. A third tip is to have already acquired fabulous endorsements for your work, and that means Famous People who says that they Love Your Book. Other steps you can take involve turning around Whalin's keys to rejection into positive actions to ensure success. Listen and take notes.

English Words World

If you're an Anglophile or a lover of the English language, you might enjoy Michael Quinion's World Wide Words. He calls it a British view of international English. He has a newsletter, sells his books, offers articles, answers questions, provides links and general weirdness. I especially like a section on the front page entitled SIC! No, this isn't the same as "sick" (but it might be). For example, there I found this gem of humor:

I was at a meeting the other day that included a sandwich lunch. Mine was Italian Chicken, whose other ingredients were Italian pesto, black pepper, sun-dried tomatoes, and free-range mayonnaise. It was sad to think of those cute little mayonnaises, running around unconstrained and happy until it was time for them to join the rest of the ingredients in my sandwich.

Now, I encounter these linguistic annoyances/amusements constantly, and I'd love to run to this blog to post them, but I usually forget by the time I reach home. How long, Oh Lord, until my brain is wired to the web? Anyway, you wouldn't find them very useful. Maybe I'll just send them to Michael from now on.

Unblocking Writer's Block

Some writers, especially those who have specialized in nonfiction, believe Writer's Block is a myth, an excuse or a "cop out". I used to think it was solely due to an acute case of perfectionism, placing it squarely in the realm of the psychological. My thinking and understanding of the phenomenon has expanded recently. I can now see that it as a multifaceted problem, and the facets are not necessarily joined to any one core difficulty. Sometimes the cause is simple such as other life stresses, exhaustion, hunger, or poor health. We don't always need psychoanalysis to sweep away a block. Simple causes call for simple solutions.

I like the suggestions Vicki Vialle offers. She says, "Even if they manage their time and follow writing guidelines, many writers will still experience a time when the words just won't come together, when they are simply "stuck" and can't think of anything to write. This is writer's block. Fortunately, a few helpful techniques make it possible to overcome the challenge of writer's block." They include:

* Take a break
* Be flexible
* Relax!
* Move

The brief article is a quick read with six more techniques and explanations. You might want to print them out and stick them up near your monitor as reminders.

Larger Print for Boomers

Following a lead from the Mediabistro.com: GalleyCat, I found the happy news that a not-so-sinister cabal of publishers are planning to enlarge the size of the printing in books. I love large-print editions! Korky Vann wrote in a special article to the Hartford Courant online that:

publishers such as Simon & Schuster, Penguin Group, Harlequin Enterprises, Random House and HarperCollins have launched or plan to launch large-print lines designed to appeal to squinting baby boomers who are discovering that standard type is, well, impossible to read.

Large-print books on shelves for summer reading include blockbuster bestsellers, diet books and non-fiction including: "South Beach Diet Quick & Easy Cookbook" by Dr. Authur Agaston ($27.95, Random House), "Innocent in Death" by J. D. Robb ($33.95, Thorndike Press), "The Overlook" by Michael Connelly ($23.99, Little Brown & Co.), "The Measure of a Man" by Sidney Poitier, (Harper San Francisco, $16.95) and "Marked Man" by William Lashner ($7.99, Harper).

Watch for more and more publishers to jump on this bandwagon as the Baby Boom population bulge ages. We're also the part of the public who still reads print publications and has money to buy books.

Top Books

The USA Today folks have pulled together their list of 25 Books that leave a legacy. It's part of their 25th anniversary celebration with room for you to make an impact: a poll on which of their top five selections should be number one. What if you think another book--one that isn't Harry Potter, The Deep End of the Ocean, The Da Vinci Code, The 9/11 Commission Report (that's a book?), or Chicken Soup for the Soul--should be first? Well, then you can vote for "none of the above" but no write-ins allowed. No indication is given as to the criteria used by the USA Today editors and critics who chose the top 25. Frankly, some make me gag. The notion that The Da Vinci Code represents the best writing our country can offer is offensive, or that What to Expect When You're Expecting ranks in the same class with A Brief History of Time is ludicrous! Nonetheless, there they are. Take a look and vote for none of the above. Send them a message. Or send me a me