Newspaper Book Reviews

Ever since the rumors began to fly that my hometown rag, the San Diego Union-Tribune was going to join the growing exit line for Sunday book sections, I've held judgment and mention. The L.A. Times raised enough noise, following local agent Sandra Dijkstra's supposed call-to-arms. If there really was a rally, it failed. The paper no longer has a six-page pull-out section. Rather, two pages of the Arts section are devoted to books with more white space and, I'm guessing, fewer advertisements. No quality improvement, either. Nonetheless, if you have a book to plug and want to send review copies to the papers, John Kremer makes available a neat, free list of more than 60 Newspaper Book Reviewers with names, addresses, phone numbers, and live links.

Find Public Records Online

Whether you're performing research on contemporary matters or searching for historical information, Wendy Boswell has provided an invaluable guide, Technophilia: Where to find public records online. The article is part of her Technophilia series for the Lifehacker website. She explains "items like birth certificates, marriage and divorce information, obituaries and licenses on the web." Be sure to read the many comments to this piece in which readers add to the lore. Even if you're not in the market for such sleuthing at the moment, you might want to search on your own name to see what is on the record about you ... sort of like your annual credit report check-up.

Persistence, Not Muse

Many conversations in creative writing especially circle around the idea of a writer's "muse", the mythical source of inspiration and genius. "How do I ignite my muse?" beginners ask, as if it were a sparkplug. "She has deserted me!" Abandonment issues? Here's the secret: discipline, not myth, pays off.

Barbara Kingsolver majored in biology at DePauw University in Indiana, and then got a master's degree in evolutionary biology. She was working on a Ph.D. thesis on the social lives of termites when she decided to abandon a career in science and try to become a writer. She took a job as a technical writer, which forced her to sit in front of a computer for eight hours a day and do nothing but write.

She later said, "I learned to produce whether I wanted to or not. It would be easy to say oh, I have writer's block, oh, I have to wait for my muse. I don't. Chain that muse to your desk and get the job done." Kingsolver went on to success writing both novels and nonfiction books.

Learn the Language of Business

With over 20,000 definitions, the Business Dictionary covers every aspect of the business world. Seems to be especially investment- and financial-oriented. It is brought to us by WebFinance Inc., creators of InvestorGuide.com, InvestorWords.com and WiserAdvisor.com (more research resources).

Business Dictionary is a place to look up words and to learn. The website has a multitude of methods and indices with which to search. Business writing can be among the most lucrative fields for a freelancer. I highly recommend it for an area in which to specialize--and that's how to succeed as a freelancer these days.

News from A Writer's Edge

Last week was relatively exciting in A Writer's Edge's webby world. The glad news was that this blog and/or its author appeared on three lists of notable women writers who blog. At least, I think that sums up the general idea. Our grateful thanks to:

• Phil Gerbyshak for inclusion on The W-List Expanded at 100 Bloggers
• Lillie Ammann's mention in Blogs by and for Writers at A Writer's Words, An Editor's Eye
  
• Jennifer Mattern's The Big List of Writing Blogs at All Freelance Writing
  

The sad news was the passing of the Blog Fairy, now mentioned in the lovely Nom de plume 'The Poetess' tribute.

And the bad news is that twice I was almost fooled by incoming email messages. One was spam and the other a phishing expedition by someone trying to get into my Amazon account (why?).

Folks, these turd nerds are getting so good at their con games that I was this close to posting about a recommended website. As I studied the site, itty bitty warning bells rang, however, and I was able to snatch back a reply from the outgoing emailbox before it vanished. What triggered the tiny tingles? The person who wrote used my name, flattered my website by asking about the design, didn't really identify an affiliation, and signed the name "Jennifer" (no last name). The message raved about a site supposedly for research, listed a blog at a different website address, and the return address was at yet another site which returns a "401" (no access) message if you try to look at it. Also, the recommended site had a section labeled "Coupons", and the other was a shopping mall. Finally, I did a "Whois" on all domain names and found matching addresses for the owners of two of them. Bingo! Spaaaaaam! Sing a song of "nyahs!"

As for the Amazon phish file, purportedly it was to help me change my password. I had not asked to change my password. How dumb is that? I sent it immediately to Amazon with the headers included, and Amazon shot back its standard, "no, not from us". But it was soooo good looking. I checked EVERY aspect of that email message, and damn if it didn't look legitimate.

Take care, dear Readers. The web is a wonderful and dangerous place.

The Blog Fairy Flies On

I am so bereft! She flitted into my blog life and out before I even knew what she was all about! I hadn't even posted the badge (to the right) that she sent. Just now, while checking the messages in A Writer's Edge at MyBlogLog, I discovered that the woman who recently notified me that this blog was graced with the Blog Fairy's Blue Ribbon Award ... is gone. Really gone. Her daughter has taken up the mantle and started a new blog with a lovely tribute to her mother.

Learn About Digital Media

Ourmedia: Learning Center "is a rich educational resource for everything you wanted to know about user-created video, audio, and other forms of citizens' media." More reliable than a wiki, because it is edited. This resource is part of a larger "post your own" citizen journalism site, less silly (and predating) YouTube and the like, according to its own statement. An Open Media Directory provides information and links to free, legal music, audio, video clips and photos for your videos, podcasts and more. When I looked into all the instruction that's available for a multitude of digital media, I could see myself spending the rest of my life learning!

Scratch 'n' Sniff eBooks

According to CafeScribe "a survey of 600 college students 43% identified smell-either new book smell or old-as the thing they most love about books as physical objects. A majority (62%) also preferred purchasing used textbooks over new or electronic textbooks, despite the fact that e-textbooks are generally a third less expensive than used textbooks." Unfortunately, Cafe Scribe sells e-textbooks. Solution? Scratch 'n' sniff stickers will accompany every sale. Students are expected to stick them on their computers.

Blogger Video Podcasting

Just a bit and a byte ago, Blogger said:

Today we are releasing video uploading to Blogger! This feature allows you to upload videos and create a video podcast with the same ease that we currently provide with photo uploading.

When you go to the Blogger post editor, you'll see a new button () next to the image uploading one. Just select a video from your computer, wait a few minutes for the upload and processing to occur, and voila!

Read more about it in the [new to me] Blogger Draft blog.

Blogging for ...

First I want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BLOGGER! This system, which began with the Pyra company, has stuck around for eight, count 'em, eight years. Of course, the up sweep into the Google fold probably has a lot to do with the longevity. Doing away with the paid version helped. Providing a free server, Blogspot, also increases popularity. Let's see. What else? Perhaps the ability to integrate Google advertising easily, well, easier with the ready made templates, probably attracts more commercial users. I've always pointed out Blogger's ease of use as an enormous bonus over more complicated systems that require installation on your computer and/or server. I'll probably plug it again in an article I've been asked to prepare for the San Diego Writers/Editors Guild newsletter--if I can get the editor to narrow the scope.

"Write about blogs," she said.

"What about blogs?" I asked. Her blank look and shrug said it all. I think I'll write about the many ways blogging can help writers, or writers can use blogs. If you have ideas on this topic, feel free to add them in a comment, so I can rip them off. Hey! At least I'm honest and upfront about it.

Overcoming Writing Anxiety

Anxiety about writing: feeling tense as you approach or sit at the keyboard, a gripping sensation deep in your gut, shoulders creep up to your ears, paralyzed thought processes. Sounds a lot like a form of Writer's Block, no? It can be, and it can strike both fiction and nonfiction writers at any time. Seldom is the cause the writing process or tools you use (unless you have a weird phobia), although the subject or topic you're attempting to write about may cause such fear. A lot of tension can surround a writer's first love scene or sexual encounter (in the writing, not the writer's life).

New writers commonly are so afraid of experiencing rejection (which we all do) that they can't get to the submission gate. A way out of this is to realistically think about "What's the worst that could happen?" The worst is that you'll get a slip of paper in the mail, or an email, that says, "No thanks." Working writers may feel nervous over their earnings. Some of us never overcome performance anxiety, hesitating to make that first mark on a blank page or entry box, but it does remind us we're ALIVE!

Whatever is making you anxious about writing, some practices that can help include using affirmations about yourself (tape a big one on your monitor if necessary), relaxation exercises, giving yourself permission to fail or to write just anything not for publication for a set period. In the case of money problems, it is acceptable to take a break and get a day job or work part-time doing something else to earn income for a while. Sometimes we just simply need a break from writing.

OSU Free Books Online

Seeing the flooding in Ohio featured on NBC news this morning reminded me of the interesting reference website I found at the The Ohio State University Press. Its Open Access Initiative makes over 70 books available for download in .PDF format. The site claims:

All titles available this way, whether old or new, have gone through the exact same peer review process as our printed books. Any book that carries our imprint--no matter what medium is being used--has been approved by our Editorial Board after a thorough vetting process.

The collection spans the gamut of subjects. I'm not sayin' that this is necessarily a place to start research (although you could), but it is a resource to check for a free copy of a primary reference.

Poetry According to Kowit

What a humbling experience it was to dialog with nationally-known poet Steve Kowit! He talked with our writers' group last night on a wide range of aspects of poetry. First he read one of his own poems and casually mentioned that Ginsberg (the late, great Allen, the Beat poet) told him he'd riffed on it, just as Kowit had written it based on one of Pablo Neruda's poems, "Enigma". What a web of connections poets weave! I knew we prose writers rip off one another (there are only so many topics and a set number of facts to use), but it had never occurred to me that each poem was not individual.

Kowit mentioned he's a reactionary. I asked him to elaborate. He said he's rebelling against modernism and post-modernistic poetry with all its vague incomprehensibility. "That has lost poetry readers," he declared, explaining that he wants his poems to be accessible (understandable) to everyone. While discussing the "meaning" of a poem he'd read aloud, I floated the notion that a poem means what it means to the reader. He gently rejected this idea, declaring that poetry is communication, so there must be a message and it is the poets job to make the message clear. I still wonder about ye who have ears.

Writers Contracts Dangers

Even when you're writing for someone else and receiving no byline or credits, many sticky issues can rear up and bite you in the butt. What kind of writing carries no credit lines? Writing for businesses, work-for-hire jobs, and ghostwriting come to mind immediately. Because so many issues can arise around copyrights, use of your name and non-competition agreements, it's better to have these spelled out in the clauses of a contract before you start working. Even then, as the American Society of Journalists and Authors points out in a Contracts Watch article, you might not have a smooth relationship with the employer.

Melanie Votaw learned first hand about feeling (and being) violated when a book she wrote under a work-for-hire agreement was reissued using her name in a rewritten form that she did not authorize. "When I signed the WMFH contract, I gave away copyright of my original manuscript, and I received no royalties. The contract did not give the publisher permission to use my name in any way it saw fit, however. I potentially have a case for "misappropriation of name," but the attorneys for the Authors Guild have advised me that after having kissed my copyright goodbye, I would probably lose such a lawsuit."

Even more bizarre is the saga of the Penn Group suing ghostwriter Lauren Slater for breach of contract. Alex Beam of The Boston Globe presents a complex tale about Slater, this publishing company and it's proposed suit against a west coast ghost who didn't even work for it! A good admonition to find out all you can about any company before you work for them.

Readers Go Shelfari

Phil Gerbyshak, ringleader, oops! I mean ringmaster over at 100 Bloggers invited me to join his Shelfari community. To do that, I'll have to join the website which advertises itself as "a free site that lets you share book ratings and reviews with friends and meet people who have similar tastes in books. It also lets you build an online bookshelf, join book clubs, and get good book recommendations from friends. You should check it out." I wonder if Phil is aware of my predilection for horror? When I visited, I discovered it is actually a social networking site for bibliophiles. How cool is that?

New Free Articles

Since I last wrote about uploads to the free articles list on the Writing Help page, two more have appeared in HTML and PDF formats--"Avoid Scams" and "Writing Queries." I was busy with a new website for author Linnea Heinrichs. Let's all visit her at once and make her wonder what's happening. No, seriously, she has published a novel about The Black Death and now is working on one set in ancient Babylon.

Writer Joke

Two lions walked into a coffee bar to get something to eat. Two men sat at separate tables, one reading a book and the other pounding the keys on a typewriter. One lion jumped on the reader and gobbled him down. The other lion asked, "How did you know which one to pick?"

The satisfied lion replied, "Everyone knows that readers digest and writers cramp!"

Linking Strategies

Here's a reference I've BOLO'd for quite a while, hoping to raise my Google PageRank from 5 to 6 Sky Rocket to the Top of Google. I've already written about finding information indicating that quality incoming links were the key, but how to acquire them eluded me. In this article, Greg Furey suggests some linking strategies to get more Googlejuice:

* post articles on content websites
* use articles for viral marketing
* add link to forum signature

I've written about my one (bad) experience with posting an article on a content provider site, but maybe I gave up too soon. I've never tried the second approach--seems too much like begging (asking others to carry my articles on their websites or newsletters), and I've always done #3, but it hasn't helped. At all. My rank has been at 5 for AGES! I'm still trying to figure out how to get links from sites with PageRanks of 6 and higher. Outright begging just isn't my style and other than offer a reciprocal link or advertising, what is there to do? That seems too much like buying a link. I'm beginning to wonder why I care. Oh, year, as Furey says, "one of the key success factors to getting loads of free Google traffic to your website is increasing page rank."

Summer Reading

No, not another rant about "literary" vs. "commercial", but an answer to the question, "So, Georganna, what are you reading this summer?" A lot (not to be confused with the often-seen alot, which is not a word). I'm reading often and long because this season is unusually hot and muggy and I don't have air conditioning. This is escapism at its best! So, I read a pile of magic and supernatural novels that a friend gave me (her taste, not mine, but they were at hand):

Burning Bridges by L. Gilman -- eesh! Too much fairies, etc.
Magic Bites by I. Andrews -- too much violence
Unshapely Things by M. del Franco --fairy violence!
Second Sight by A. Quick -- best erotic writing for women!!!
Nightlife and Moonlight by R. Thurman -- weird violence
Kitty series by C. Vaughn -- Kinsey Millhone in fur 'n' fangs
Blood Bound by P. Briggs -- interesting vampire drama
--------------------------------------------------
Envious Moon by T.C. Greene -- quick, dark read, with a cute twist
The New Kid by E. Schrefer -- one I told S&S to NOT SEND because it sounded boring. Not only was it boring, it is one of the most disgusting books I've ever read and completely without social value or redeeming merit. I keep telling publishers, publicists, P.R. people and authors that I'm not reviewing books right now, but they persist and even send them anyway. I'm beginning to think that getting mentioned in blogs has become more important than reviews.

Book Marketing, Self Promotion

Tim Ferriss blogs about his formula for hitting highs on bestseller lists in How Does a Bestseller Happen? A Case Study in Hitting #1 on the New York Times.

The conclusion, in retrospect, is simple... It all came down to learning how to spread a "meme", an idea virus that captures imaginations and takes on a life of its own.

Doing that, however, included skipping the traditional book tours and signings and hitting the blogs:

* Go where bloggers go
* Be there with a message and a story that will appeal to their interests, not yours
* Build and maintain those relationships through your own blog too

The strategies he implemented were a tad more complicated, involving those to Phenomenize, Polarize and Communitize. He also notes needs to sell himself first, ensure boffo distribution for the book, and (oh, yeah) smashing writing. His book? The 4-Hour work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, but that hardly matters. We're talking about a process here and using current technology to sell an old one.

Commonly Confused English Words

I'm about to flip out over the quality of beginners--and even of those who call themselves Writers. And all because I keep seeing the same word choice and spelling errors repeated in messages to other writers. Now, I could be way off base here, but I think its partly because those errant spellers see those same misspellings and misuses in others' posts, in mailing lists, on "author websites", and they either think the word are O.K. (words like 'definately') or expect the list or forum Mom to clean up after them. Sometimes Their Crankinesses complain about a lack of a spell checker in the systems, to which I point out a multitude of online services and the one built into their word processor. Is it so hard to handle a physical dictionary, anyway?

Take every opportunity to write well, and it will become automatic for you, cutting down on the amount of time you must spend editing your work. Do you really have such low self-esteem that you don't care what your peers think of your usual style? Are you content to spread the rampant degradation of the English language? I looked back through the last three years of posts here and noticed several on this issue. In the very beginning, I was ranting about these:

affect and effect (both as nouns and verbs)
rap and wrap
lie and lay (as verbs)
accept and except
allusion and illusion and delusion
censure and censor
compose and comprise
imply and infer
founder and flounder
loose and lose
expand and expend

To which I'm adding:

insight and incite

Please, spend some time with sweet Lady Dictionary, or hang out at the bar with Funk & Wagnall, and learn when to use each word and how to spell all of them correctly.

Getting Editor Attention

Here's a link to a free recording of teleseminar which Diane Eble, a book publishing coach and author, interviewing Terry Whalin, literary agent and former acquisitions editor for several publishing companies. At Ask Terry Whalin :: Replay you can also download an audio file of the same recording. Whalin answers questions about how to get editors' attention, hold it, and write rejection-proof query letters and proposals. Whalin claims that only ten percent of all nonfiction books proposed ever get published, and writers need editors' backing to champion a proposal through the acquisition process. He also explains how to build a "platform" to make your writing more attractive to editors and desirable to publishers.

Researching on the Web

Johns Hopkins University's Sheridan Libraries offers help for evaluating information you may run across on the web:

All information, whether in print or by byte, needs to be evaluated by readers for authority, appropriateness, and other personal criteria for value. If you find information that is "too good to be true", it probably is. Never use information that you cannot verify. Establishing and learning criteria to filter information you find on the Internet is a good beginning for becoming a critical consumer of information in all forms. "Cast a cold eye" (as Yeats wrote) on everything you read. Question it. Look for other sources that can authenticate or corroborate what you find. Learn to be skeptical and then learn to trust your instincts.

This warning/admonition is especially true for writers who search for accurate information, whether it be for background on a tale of medieval madness or an article on carbon nanotubes. The article excerpted is a good starting point if you're just learning how to use the Internet to find information for your writing projects.

Hi!
Just wanted to see if you
were at the computer.
Yup! There you are.

Blog Laws

Although I mentioned the Writers Laws for Bloggers back in June, I've found a possibly more reliable, though maybe less readable version in the EFF: Legal Guide for Bloggers. This is the resource that Blogher Ads refers bloggers to in the process of signing up to carry advertising from that system. It appears to be a comprehensive fund of information on topics you may not have even considered. Some of the areas covered include legal liability issues; bloggers as journalists; and election, labor and obscenity laws. Gives one pause!

Ready, Set, Query!

In a recent newsletter, available through his website, Gary McLaren offered ten tips for ensuring your magazine article query is ready to go. Soon I'll add this helpful article to the Free Articles listings on the Writing Help page here, but for now, I wanted to highlight some of McLaren's suggestions. Before sending out a query, review it for:

* tight writing
* spelling and grammar checked
* background and contact info included
* read publication and its guidelines
* correct submission method to be used

Outshine your competitors in an overworked editor's eyes by sending only professionally-prepared queries for freelance writing success.

Cross-Posting Writing

It's no PostSecret that I participate in mailing lists, forums and sometimes in chats all over the Internet. It's no secret because I use the same name (my own) everywhere I post. If you want to build credibility, why use a pseudonym or "screen name", as they're often called? I'm most active on the Writer's Digest forum, sometimes writing about posts from this blog and sometimes creating different messages tailored just for those participants. One of those special posts caught the eye of the WD newsletter editor, who featured it in this week's edition (8/7/07). I'm honored! It is also a good illustration of how your work might be used without your consent or knowledge if it is posted on some websites. The WD Forum is right up front about this possibility in its guidelines.

Proofreading Tips

Last Saturday, we saw a little joke about typographical errors that bedevil all writers. Of course, the way we find those typos is to proofread our work. This should take place separately from a rereading for editing or rewriting purposes. Theoretically, proofreading should be the last action taken before a manuscript is sent out. Personally, I do it first because proofreading is compulsive for me. I can't read anything without seeing most of the errors in punctuation, spelling, and capitalization. With the advent of automatic spell checkers, especially the comprehensive system offered in MS Word, it seems easier to me to run that program first on the copy. It isn't fool proof, however. You still need to eyeball the words to make certain you haven't used your where you meant to write you're (or vice versa). Some people can comfortably read copy online, but I like to print it out if the whole amount exceeds ten pages. Double-spaced, of course, and for me, in a 14-point font. If you're working with a book-length manuscript, I suggest working on one chapter at a time. I've seen advocates for "reading" from the ends of sentences to their beginnings as a way to catch more mistakes. For some history and a poem about typographical errors, see Eric Shackle's page on the printer's devil.

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