Bag of Writing Tips

Here's a nicely mixed bag of tips for successful writing.  These links comprise some of the fundamental resources I've hoarded throughout this blog's life.  Before I delete them from the "Drafts" I will gather them into posts. Make note of these resources and mine them for yourself:

Ed 2010 is the place to go for, as Ed says, "your magazine dream job." The WhisperJobs is it's great feature, and now a message board is functioning. Ed's blog seems to have died out a couple of years ago, possibly around the time Ed joined Twitter as @Ed2010news. Do we see a what's what here? BLOG Twitter.

Allen & Unwin is an Australian book publisher with a very useful service called The Writing Center. I especially like the Writers on Writing section.  They currently feature a Q & A with Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Committed and Eat, Pray, Love.

Chris Gobel's Writing Help Page displays his to ten list of "no-no" hints for writing in general.  Some of the links may be outdated, but the easily- understood guidance is evergreen.  This is part of his website, HUMDINGER LITERARY E-ZINE: All kinds of writing for all kinds of readers. This site is now an archive, nay, a treasure, to be plundered systematically for all it's worth.

Another deep, deep resource is the English Usage FAQ Home Page of http://www.yaelf.com/ -- also housing the FAQ page for the old alt.usage.english Usenet group (anybody here old enough to have belonged to Usenet groups?  Waaaay back, predating the World Wide Web.) It might be easier to use this huge website via its site map.

Just as the classics become references to have at hand, while experts and authorities take up more techy methods to communicate, A Writer's Edge Blog will remain right here, while I continue on Twitter. Also available via RSS.

GLHancock 4,801 tweets

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Amazon Ups Royalties

Have I a functioning crystal ball? Nah, just blind, dumb luck. Since I joined Amazon to publish material for the Kindle reader, the company is popping out upgrades and new advantages right and left. As soon as a question rises in a Twitter chat, I find Amazon's DTP (publishing program) evolving to address the issue. For example, last week we were kicking around how English residents could use the service. They were stymied by Amazon's requirement for a U.S. bank account and SSN, TIN or EID (for the IRS and Social Security).

On January 15, Amazon announced: Amazon Expands Kindle Digital Text Platform to Enable Authors and Publishers Worldwide to Publish English, German, and French Language Books in the Kindle Store. That is the unwieldy title for a news release that tells my overseas Internet friends they can begin using the service.

Five days later, Amazon probably pre-empted other media producers by announcing a new 70% royalty option for DTP authors and publishers. This begins on June 30, as yet only for U.S. accounts. To qualify for the 70% royalty option, books must satisfy the following set of requirements:

* The author or publisher-supplied list price must be between $2.99 and $9.99
* This list price must be at least 20 percent below the lowest physical list price for the physical book
* The title is made available for sale in all geographies for which the author or publisher has rights
* The title will be included in a broad set of features in the Kindle Store, such as text-to-speech. This list of features will grow over time as Amazon continues to add more functionality to Kindle and the Kindle Store.
* Under this royalty option, books must be offered at or below price parity with competition, including physical book prices. Amazon will provide tools to automate that process, and the 70% royalty will be calculated from the sales price.

A final warning: the 70% royalty option is for in-copyright works and is unavailable for works published before 1923 (a.k.a. public domain books). They need to tack on that kibosh because so many of the get-rich-quick, looking-for-shortcuts, tell-me-the secret writers think they can republish titles now in public domain and make a fast buck, or $.99 anyway.

As with DRM, which I wrote about the other day, I have not read all the nuances of the DTP royalty program.  I may find that it does not apply to my articles. Still, I know many readers are intensely interested in adding their books to this format and venue.

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HARO is a Mega Network

Michael Stelzner of Top Ten Blogs for Writers and writing white papers reknown, interviewed Peter Shankman, the genius who built HARO. That's the "Help a Reporter Out" site that morphed into a resource for both writers needing experts to quote and experts looking for public relations opportunities.

Stelzner examines the phenomenon from a social media viewpoint in an article on his new site, Social Media Examiner, started last summer: How ‘Help a Reporter Out’ Grew to a Mega Network.

They discuss how HARO evolved from a Facebook group to facilitate his casual match-making between reporter friends and friendly sources:

As HARO grew, more people were asking me questions and I did not have the time to fill in all the answers. That led to the Facebook group concept as just being a lot easier. I could post the queries to Facebook and then anyone could answer them. That was a very easy start.

In about six months, the requests overran Shankman's email capability, and he moved the service to a website.

He and Stelzner explore the social media aspect of the service and how to build one of your own. Shankman stresses having good content to offer people who want to receive it and enjoy using it. He also has a vision similar to the one David Siegel writes about in Pull: The Power of the Semantic Web to Transform Your Business, that we are evolving toward one network. He said, "I don’t necessarily think it’s going to be Google Wave. Right now I’m really not seeing any value in Google Wave. I think it will probably be some sort of combination of Facebook and something Google does."

I'm happy to see my feelings about the Wave echoed and that others share Siegel's predictions about our future social and business lives meshing in a single Internet network, meeting many needs as HARO does now.

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Find News about Magazines

Magazine freelancers need to know about their markets. A good source for news on them is MediaWeek.com. The site covers multimedia, but the section on newspapers and magazines is especially handy. Scroll down the page past news articles to find white papers. Are you a specialist? Perhaps you could write a white paper for this site. MediaWeek is part of Nielsen Business Media, serving the publishing industry with multiple sites, including Editor and Publisher, another source of information for freelancers, too.

A third website you might want to hit when you make your "rounds" is FOLIO, possibly even more comprehensive in its coverage and services. I see there every technical version of ways to deliver information and breaking news. I am especially drawn to the blogs. I noticed one by Jason Fell on this week's Twitterversy #afropw about the Publishers Weekly cover shot and title because I vigorously participated in forcing the @PW senior editor Calvin Reid to apologize for his choices.

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Pronounciation Dictionary

Everyone gets a kick out of "WhorePresents.com," the website for finding the agents of rich and famous people. If you're still scratching your head over this, the joke is in the capitalization of the domain name. In a name registry, a site name is in all caps: WHOREPRESENTS.COM is the domain for the site that calls itself "Who Represents." It is our dirty minds that see the word "whore" first.

What if you could avoid such a faux pas? Wouldn't it be handy to have a place to check before you cleverly chose a name that means "no go" in another language (Nova)? That was not exactly the genesis of Pronounce Names - Dictionary of Name Pronunciation, as they explain:

The idea of this website is to make your name easy to pronounce. The dictionary does not have your name, how do you get people to pronounce your name right?

How many times have you been in this situation when you have heard your name mangled, twisted, contorted into something you yourself can barely comprehend?

Yes, I see or, rather, I hear every time an Asian call me "GAY-OR-GANNA", but I forgive because they are phonetically correct.

At Pronounce Names, you can:

* Lookup pronunciation of a name.
* Submit pronuncation of a name so that others can pronounce it correctly.
* Request pronunciation of a name that you don't know and would like to find out.

And that's exactly what I did. They tell me to return in a few days to learn how to pronounce my own name. This should be good!

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APA Manual Reprinted

The Education Services News blog has a good roundup on the APA6 debacle. Apparently when the American Psychological Association printed the newest edition of its Publication Manual, no one proofread it. Ever. This is only the style guide used in most all social science disciplines. After great brouhaha, including a Facebook page campaign, the APA has agreed to reprint the manual, presumably with the typos and foofaws corrected, and send them to those who purchased flawed versions.

I've held off buying one because I finally found software that will apply the APA6 format to any document, including the dissertation I will be editing shortly soon some day. Maybe this year.

Act quickly, though, if you bought the first version. See the information in the APA PM blog. If you need a replacement, the offer will be available only until December 15.

Now I'm wondering, what will they do with all the unsold flawed copies already printed?

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Bad Writing Advice

Why would I tell you how to write badly? Or give you bad writing advice? Susan K. Perry, Ph.D. is a social psychologist, writer, and writing consultant. Among her books are Writing in Flow: Keys to Enhanced Creativity and Psychology Today saw some merit in having Perry produce 11 Types of Bad Writing Advice.My first reaction was to jump on it and see how I could turn it all about to provide a quick fix of "good writing advice". I'm not alone in an effort to improve life by thinking positive, casting fresh French baguettes across the ocean, as it were. If what goes around comes around, it might as well be nourishing and gourmet! So, let's see what we can do with Ms. Perry's list of bad advice to avoid: anything that limits, cramps, narrows, demeans, distracts, diverts, straitjackets, inhibits, stymies, cripples or dictates.

"Well, duh!" I thought. No, wait. There must be value here or the magazine would not have posted this blog entry, right? Let's apply critical thinking to the kinds of suggestions I give people who want to be writers or to develop their writing skills. The first that comes to mind is the one Jane Friedman uses as the title of her blog: There are no rules! And I realized Perry's piece provides examples of the types of "rules" tossed at newbies like live grenades.

The idea is to not adopt any attitude or practice that shackles you to just one way of thinking, behaving, writing, form, or style. You may think, "That's no help, Lady!", which brings me to my second iota of writing wisdom: It's all guidance, suggested methods to try out and discard if it doesn't work for you. Some of them mean, "Don't do this in excess in one piece of writing." Let me illustrate with Perry's last piece of exaggeration:

Avoid adverbs; never use the passive voice; don't start a sentence with "there are." Every one of these "rules" has been broken repeatedly to terrific effect by top writers. And while there are established formats for query letters, nonfiction book proposals, and novel synopses, for every successful sale based on those formats, there's a major exception.

Aye, here's the rub: the people we are dumping all this advice upon are not "top writers". They are the "bottom writers" (especially if they're pantsers, if you will!) I don't encourage a vertical hierarchy about much in life, so I prefer to refer to those at the center and those on the periphery, hoping to work their way into the swirl that is the writing galaxy. Those at the center did not get far if they began and persisted in "exception" mode.

The idea is first to learn to write well. When you are just starting out, don't lean on the crutches of adverbs, adjectives, do-nothing verbs, colorless nouns and "there are" constructions. You need to strengthen your writing with strong action verbs and descriptive nouns.

Just because John Updike wrote in first person and sometimes used mundane openers like "It wasn't so much that ...", peppered his works with long adjectival passages and didn't hesitate to pop in an adverb to modify an already carefully chosen verb, doesn't mean that your writing will shine if you this do, too, if that's all you can do. Updike was/is one of the brilliant suns we revolve around because of all the other writing woven through these "broken rules", brilliance that can support the lesser structures.

Yeah, yeah. Fly away! Be free! But first begin with some grounding in the basics. It's sort of like sending children to any Sunday School, so that they will have something to rebel against when it comes time to choose for themselves what to believe. Writers, like children, need a context and structure to get them off to a good start.

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Writers' Tweet Chats

Are you a lonely writer? Try a Tweet Chat for company. The other day in a LinkedIn group discussion I mentioned finding chats on the World's Largest Chat Room (Twitter). They are one of the many ways to use this social networking service to further your writing career or business. You can search a frequently updated Google Docs spreadsheet for information about Twitter Chats. Many pertain to running a small business, but the following ones are of particular interest to writers:

#blogchat -- Bettering your blog 8-9pm CST Sunday
#writechat -- Writing and the writing life. 2-5pm CST Sunday
#journchat -- Journalists, bloggers and PR 7-10pm CST Monday
#litchat -- Readers, books and authors 3-4pm CST Open M-W, guest Friday
#kidlitchat -- Children's literature 9 pm EST Tuesday
#editorchat -- Twitter writers and editors 7:30-10pm CST Wed
#followreader -- Read, publish, author, library, book blog 4-5pm EST Thurs
#poetry -- Poetry readers, writers, and others 8-9pm CST Thurs
#journ2journ -- Reporter help, journalism challenges 7-8:30pm CST Thurs
#booktweet -- Free and eBooks. 12-1pm EST Sat

If you live in a very isolated area and can't get to writing group meetings in person, a Tweet Chat is the next best experience. You'll meet your peers (and sometimes your betters), learn, share, and make connections you can pursue later in email and visits to websites. You'll also find new resources and solutions to problems. Some groups have a blog or web page with transcripts available.

You must have a Twitter Account to see the chat (search for the hash tag name). You can lurk and listen right in Twitter, although many find that using a third-party service like TweetChat.com, FriendFeed.com, or TweetGrid are more useful ways to participate. With them, you also must register, usually easy, and enter the hash tag name for the particular chat room you want to enter. From then on, it's a big friendly party full of talkative writers. Fun!

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What Good is Twitter?

And other social media? Before I grudgingly dragged myself over to sign up with Twitter, I kept reading about how useful it is. But no one offered any details. Everyone said things like "you'll find out how to use it for yourself." Big help, huh?

As with LinkedIn, I'm sorry I waited so long to jump into these turbulent waters. For an early adopter of technology, I'm surely slow with the social aspects.

I consider Twitter as the world's biggest chatroom. If you're in business, you need to have a Twitter account--and to use it and monitor messages to it. It's the 911 for instant communication, research, connections for any kind of writer.

Here's how Twitter has saved my bacon a few times:

One place my book reviews appear is on the Blogcritics.org. New software on the site was giving me a fit. The Help was no help. Editors were unavailable. I was ready to scream. Then I thought: Twitter? Although still unfamiliar with all it's workings, I searched on the website's name and found an account for it, direct mailed it and lo, the Big Man himself intervened. In a few minutes. (A day later an editor responded.)

Another day I was about to publish a post recommending a new service at another website. All I had was the base URL to the site. Thought I'd better check out the special part myself. After many minutes (waiting to upload the post to my blog, mind you) I could find nothing, no link, no mention, no part of a site map that correlated. And the plug was plugged in! A "Top Priority" email to the PR person brought no response (ever!). Once again I consulted Twitter, found an account for the correct company and shot off a question. While I worked on a couple of other posts, someone at the company noticed they were about to lose out on possibly valuable free advertising unless they responded to a Twitter chirp. They did, and the post went up touting a new source of reading material for tech-type readers.

In both cases, I was pleased with speedy dependable research results. They enabled me to multitask, keep on working on a particular critical piece, and do my "job" in a timely fashion. And this is just one little example of what Twitter does for me.

When communicating with a friend, client, colleague, source, supplier, or representative, the messaging often flows back and forth between and among Twitter and email. Throw in the third party applications I've accumulated thusfar and I can carry on multiple conversations simultaneously with TweetGrid or monitor just one input stream; or work in my blogging program and get TweetFox instant messages in the lower right corner of the screen, and once a week go to a big meeting of editors in a TweetChat room.

All this has only to do with business communication. I'm beginning to think I could write a book about the handy uses for Twitter and other social media for issues other than socializing.

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Writers Beware: StRaTeGiCbOoKPuBliShInG

While I was checking my listing at Kudzu (to send to a new client), I scrolled down the page. An ad caught my eye:

Don't Self-Publish Yet

Traditional Publisher Seeks New Authors, Fast Decisions.

www.StRaTeGiCbOoKPuBliShInG.com

Because I could scarcely decipher the company's name (first warning), I clicked to read about this incredible traditional publisher that needs to advertise to find books to publish (second big red flag). Just gazing at the web page design, I immediately thought "New York Literary Agency" (not a good connotation).

A short hop and I discovered that this [monkey] business is associated with Eloquent Books, Strategic Book Marketing, and probably more, all under the aegis of the AEG Publishing Group, which purportedly announced last fall that they had bought The Literary Agency Group! That name was either the umbrella or one of the many variations the NYLA uses. Wow! Put them all together, and their reputations speak volumes.

Just for laughs, see the AEG listing at Preditors and Editors. I would tag this post "silly" and run it tomorrow, except for the sad looks I've seen on faces when I let people know they have been taken in by one of these companies' scams. So sue me!

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Editing Queries to Magazines

I like Joe Wallace's post on How To Query Magazine Editors at freelance-zone.com. His concise summation of points can serve as an editing method before you click on the Send or Submit button or print out your snail mail letter. Use it like a pre-flight check list.

The items are do or don't, which is not unusual because most advice can be presented in either light. Like: don't write to "Dear Editor"/learn the editor's name and use it. Wallace covers contact info, expertise, length, pitching, and staying on target. Secret insider tips to success which I endorse.

If you want to find local publications to query or pitch, it isn't a bad idea to start with your phone directory. All businesses have a phone, and usually they are listed in the advertising section formerly known as "The Yellow Pages". Live in the outback? Libraries often stock phone books for at least the nearest major urban areas. Such directories are also online like YellowPages.com and Verizon's SuperPages.com.

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Writing with Holly Lisle

Holly Lisle's eponymous website is a great resource for creative writers. I've blogged about her several times. And she offers a great deal of free material. In addition to the useful Plot Outline, you can also get 40 free sample pages of the second version of Create A Plot Clinic book. And she says, "Version 2 is a free download for anyone who purchased the beta version or Version 1.(x) How to create a plot from scratch, or fix a broken plot, from first idea to final revision." What a deal! I've always appreciated Holly's famous Mugging the Muse and the classic One Pass Manuscript Revision. You can read what I wrote about the muse ebook and the article on revision.

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Writing About the U.S.

Setting a novel in the United States often requires some research into history. Similarly, a nonfiction piece may need comparative data from a previous era. Everyone knows the U.S. Library of Congress (LOC) is probably the largest repository of such information. But not everyone can travel to Washington, D.C., to perform the necessary research. Fortunately the digital age rescues us -- and we don't even need a special membership or password to access the LOC collections.

Visiting the electronic version of the library can be as daunting as paying it a visit in person. Where to go? What to ask for? Fortunately intermediaries, like the Digital Library Federation maintain a registry of the digitized collections in the LOC. This isn't just a list of names, however. Clicking on the Full Description link takes you to a page of information about the collection that will help you determine if it's likely to contain the data you are seeking. Additionally, the description page contains sections on associated projects and related collections. In some cases, alternative access URLs are provided, handy if the main link is down for any reason.

You can also search A Writer's Edge for other posts on research.

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Christian Writing

PLEASE ENTER THE CONTEST! DEADLINE JULY 10

A growing and popular genre of writing is the Christian sector, especially in countries where the majority of religions are various flavors of Christianity (a.k.a. the U.S. and U.K.) A comprehensive resource for Christian writers seems to be Sally Stuart's Christian Writers' Market Guide. The site is only a few years old, but the owners claim their guide book to markets is in its 23 year. Stuart also offers books by other authors on Christian writing, as well as consulting on manuscripts and contracts.

You can also find lists of magazine and book publishers that accept such articles and query guidance about each and a general list of organizations and web addresses for writers. Stuart also offers an impressive list of conferences -- I counted over 40 for the rest of this year including one in San Diego in September.

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Free Writing Mentors

This is for future or recent (last two years) undergrad or graduate students who want to freelance or work on publication staffs. How would you like to spend an hour talking with a mentor in the field you want to enter? How would you like it if the expenses were underwritten? Well, Ed2010, the website of seemingly infinite resources for budding journalists, offers such a service. If you're located in New York City, you might meet one-on-one. If you're outside the city, the communication would be via email or phone. To apply, copy the questions on the referenced page, answer them, and email them to ed@ed1020.com. Good luck!

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Search Yourself and Career

You probably already know that it's a good idea to Google yourself (in the privacy of your own home, of course). Also Google your blog or website's name and URL, and any other word or phrase with which you might be identified on the Internet. Don't limit this activity to just the most popular search engine. Sometimes surprises pop up on Yahoo! or Ask.com and even MSN's Live Search. For example, last night I was checking some links on my info page, and discovered a new reference to an organization I'd forgotten I was once part of. The name under which most of my print credits appear shows up on the new page at least twice.

Why do I care? It's not that I'm so narcissistic that I drool over seeing my name (current or former) in print on the web or anywhere. I overcame that character flaw a long time ago, when attention shifted to seeing my name on checks. The point of regularly searching the web for information about yourself and your work is three-fold:

• to ensure that the data are accurate
• to see how much someone else can find out about you
• the references found also might come in handy some day when you're selling yourself or your services. I use such a list as a means to verify my identity as well as some of my career credits.

Some of the newer automated searchers can display garbled and misleading snippets retrieved from limited sources. I found one of those last night, too. I was thankful the website provides a method to register and correct mistakes in what is displayed. And another showed an inactive email address. I had to jump through a few hoops to get that changed, and I'm grateful for the difficulty that prevents someone else from changing the data about me.

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Master English Words - VOA

When I was growing up in southwestern Ohio, way out in the country near a tiny town called Mason, a field of very tall radio towers reached toward the clouds. From far enough away, on a clear day, a viewer could see the towers were topped by large antennas. A little sign, I think, indicated they were broadcasting Voice of America programs. We were going to talk the mean Russians into submission. (It was the Cold War era.)


Eventually I learned what the Voice of America did and then thought little about the activity until I discovered the digital version, VOA News.com. Better yet, the service provides a Wordmaster section subtitled "A Weekly Analysis of American English". It features grammar, idioms, slang, regional English, topical issues and an archive of articles/programs. What a wonderful resource for American writers, as well as its intended audience overseas. And it is a virtual wellspring of more resources. Peruse the list of programs, and you'll see what I mean.

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Copyediting Terms Writers Need to Know

If you think "flush and hang" is surfing terminology, don't know a digbat from a curly quote or kerning, a quick glance at 140 copy editing terms will give you a handle on the jargon your copy editor might use.

It has been a while since I visited About.com, which used to be a tacky and confusing website of questionable resource. What a joy it was to discover that the Grammar and Composition section is now under the watchful direction of Richard Nordquist, Ph.D. with enormous credits. The website is much less cluttered-appearing. The part under Nordquist's jurisdiction is neat and useful. I skated in, looking up the term "bastard title" in Copyediting Terms - Glossary of Copyediting Terms.

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Finding Famous People

Writers often need to contact celebrity and authority figures. Sometimes it's for an interview, quotes, or other content-related reasons. Other times, they're looking for a way to obtain a testimonial, blurb, or maybe a preface for a book. One method of research is to subscribe to WhoRepresents.com. Here are some tips from John Kremer's Book Marketing Tip of the Week newsletter on finding someone famous:

1. Google them. This is the simplest way. Generally you can find an address for someone famous or important simply by Googling them.

2. Use one of the phone book services on the Internet. You can Google "phone book services" to locate some of these. You may have to try more than one to find the person you are looking for. That has been my experience.

3. Ask your friends. You'd be surprised how many of your friends know people that you would also want to know. The six degrees of separation rule is an exaggeration. My experience is that if you are at all active in any group, you are probably three people away from anyone you want to reach. Ask and keep asking until the right person hears your question and answers with an introduction.

Incidentally, you can email John and sign up for his newsletter.

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Microsoft + Yahoo = Writers Gain?

You might think the stock market's antics far afield from anything affecting writers. I pay attention to most everything but sports. I'd been noticing the talk of MS having lots of cash, Google's price tumbling, possible Yahoo takovers. The pieces fall into place with today's news of the MS offer to buy Yahoo. What would that do for each and how might it affect us as a writers? Search, Baby. Search for the answer.

MSN's search engine has never been any great shakes. Yahoo was once queen until Google came along with better algorithms. Yahoo tried to diversify and became scattered. (I still can't get it to create a suitable search box.) MS tried to diversify meekly and limps along. With a cash infusion, Yahoo can bolster its strengths and give the Google search (basic and variations) real competition again.

I'm not sure what's wrong with Google, outside of pissing off a lot of website owners with its SEO debacles, but I feel certain the company has overstretched its reach, tried to expand too fast, and suffers a typical business cycle flat. I hope MS and Yahoo join to force Google improvements. This could be an all-win situation as writers become more dependent on the Internet for research that often begins with basic search services.

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P&E Readers Poll Results

I don't know whether to Woo! Hoo! or Boo! Hoo! A Writer's Edge tied for 14th place out of 18 writers' resource websites in this year's poll at Preditors & Editors (see Writer Resource Results for what I mean). I'm happy, because I didn't know about the competition until this year, and got off to a feeble, late start campaigning. Thank you, thank you all who voted for us! Next year, I hope I can remember that voting begins on the first of January. Then perhaps we, too, can win the coveted first place badge, which went to a website equally unknown to me: Latinidad, actually a newsletter distributed through a Yahoo! Group.

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Chat With a Publicist

This Sunday at 7 p.m. EST you'll have a rare opportunity to participate or lurk in a chat with a writers' publicist, P.J. Nunn, of BreakThrough Promotions. She'll be the featured guest at the The Writer's Chatroom, providing publicity and P.R. tips as well as special free gifts for attendees. Click on "Enter Chatroom". It may take a moment to load. Type in the name you wish to be known by, and click "Login". No password needed. When you get there, tell 'em Georganna sent you!

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Holiday Gifts for Writers

If you have writers on your holiday gift list (or want to drop hints to others)-- how about a present that will further careers? Be a Successful Writer and the two volumes on Effective Websites for Writers will provide useful information and show how much you care!

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Find Data on the Internet

So often I see questions in chats, forums and message boards asking, "Where can I find information on ... ?" Fill in the blank with whatever is puzzling you. My flippant response is "Did you Google it?" I realize what follows can be a tedious process, unless you know how to craft specific searches and use Google's special features. It would help to know where to find information on the Internet from more direct sources. That's where Robert Niles come in. The Pasadena journalist's statistics page has long been my favorite resource to recommend for understanding and using numbers, especially from research reports. Now he also has a page on Finding Data on the Internet. (Data is the more academic term for information.)

Rather than presenting a course on how to do Internet research, Niles has gathered a list of the most credible sources of information from Agriculture to Safety, with "Other" and "Basics" categories thrown in, covering more general resources. These will get you started in the right direction.

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Calendar for Writers

Thanks to Dorothy Piper, who posted this resource in a section of the Writer's Digest forum. I think that the Time and Date calendar is one of the most useful tools I've come across, especially for fiction writers. As Dorothy said, "This super link lets you choose any year in any country. It gives holidays and observances for the chosen country, plus moon phases. Horror writers would benefit from that, I should imagine." Great find, Dorothy. Thanks for sharing!

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Get the Skinny on Zips

ZIPskinny is the best extraction of data from the 2000 U.S. Census that I've come across. If you know the zip code of a neighborhood you'd like to research, just plug it into the search box on the first page. Alternatively, you can select the state, then a city, and the program will pull up information for the zip code of the geographic center of the city, along with a Google map of the area. Note to Zipeople: it would be great if you could make the map a display the zip code for the other areas a visitor can maneuver to, and then with a click, get the data for that different neighborhood.

The information shown for a particular zip code includes demographics of race, age, and gender; a comparison chart with other nearby areas displaying several different socioeconomic factors (education, marital status, etc.); and the same for the single code with additional vertical bar charts showing six factors broken out by ranges. Two other features allow you to find the top 100 zips in the country and by state for several limited factors and a system to query for a comparison of up to 20 different codes.

I can see this working for both fiction and nonfiction writers and in two directions: either finding information about a geographic area you're writing about or finding a type of area to write about. It would take some time to search on several factors because the functionality is limited for now, but hey, it's free!

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Research Shortcuts for Writers

Everybody loves shortcuts, right? Here's an interesting collection of them: StartSpot. The home page links to resources for finding information more quickly on books, movies, employment, genealogy, charities, food, government, headlines, homework, libraries, museums, people, shopping and travel. "So what?" you may say, "Any search engine does that." But this isn't a search engine, it is human-edited lists for specific purposes. They say:

Our editorial team carefully evaluates and selects the best, most relevant and most interesting online resources for a topic, then organizes the information to make it easily accessible.

Take a look at BookSpot, for example. Glancing down the menu in the left column, it appears that most anything you'd like to find is covered. When you click on a specific topic, you don't find references to everything (and have to wade your way through the dross). The editors have chosen the most useful links to present to visitors, cutting down on the time it takes to do the research.

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Hope for future writers

A bright ray of hope for future generations of writers comes from the old classroom standby, Weekly Reader. Oh, Lord, how I lived for the day our little newspaper arrived, so much more interesting than text books! The smart folks who sustained me through grade school now publish Writing magazine for middle and high school students. This year, it was named as one of the top four magazines in educational publishing by the Association of Educational Publishers. The magazine contains how-to articles, author profiles and student writing. Its goal is to help students build skills in writing that apply across their curricula. Each issue is supplemented with a Teacher's Guide and a literary blog that links content to state and national standards. Students are invited to contribute to the reely kewl blog. The current issue features:

* a teen's experience with blogging for a political campaign

* encouragement from author Mary Pipher, who challenges young writers to use their words for social change

* step-by-step instructions on writing an op-ed piece

* a heart-warming essay by Gary Paulsen

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Listen to the Writers

Like to listen to authors talk about themselves, their writing and sometimes read from their works? Then you'll love the unedited full Don Swaim recordings available at Wired for Books. Swaim worked with CBS in New York, which broadcast monthly two-minute excerpts from 1982-1993. You can also hear them at Book Beat. The Wired for Books MP3 Page: Essays, Interviews, Stories, Plays, and Poems contains priceless materials, too. It's a free service of the WOUB Center for Public Media at Ohio University.

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Research Old Magazines

I was especially happy to find OldMagazineArticles.com when I read that "It is a primary source website and is designed to serve as a reference for students, educators, authors, researchers, dabblers, dilettantes, hacks and the merely curious." I seem to resemble that statement. The home page contains an index and a simple search engine, and you can also browse by subject or view recently-added articles. The articles are freely available in .PDF format, almost exactly as they originally appeared. If you register, you can receive email updates on new articles added, even by your categories of interest. The site also offers an RSS feeds by subject area.

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Let Writer's Block Flow

Facing the blank page, what do you feel? Just empty? Focus deeper, deeper still. Touch the fear, the rage, feel the sadness that is the undercurrent of an unproductive life. If you are honest with yourself, you'll acknowledge being filled, gripped by strong emotions. What you tell yourself about these feelings keeps you in paralysis, as does trying to hide from them, deny them.

A better approach is to identify your emotions and be aware that you are separate from the feelings. You are not the thoughts or the feelings or the block. They flow through you, and by identifying them, you can let them pass on, flowing out of you. The Buddhists call this "mindfulness" and practice meditation to achieve similar results.

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Build a Successful Writer's Website

When writers discover they need websites to be in competition with their contemporaries, they often try to DIY the job. For those thinking about this move, here are some characteristics of good sites for a head start:

* sensible domain name (your own, business, book title)
* rented server space to host your site
* clear ID on the first page
* simple, consistent design
* quick-loading pages
* current information
* accurate spelling, grammar, etc.
* plainly-named internal links
* compatible with most browsers

For more tips, explanations, examples and references, see the second volume of my eBook, Effective Websites for Writers. You can find it on the Writing Help page, along with other useful resources, including free articles.

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Write Boring Science Lit

From: How to write Consistently Boring Scientific Literature

Table 1. Top-10 list of recommendations for writing consistently
boring publications.


Avoid focus

Avoid originality and personality

Write l o n g contributions

Remove implications and speculations

Leave out illustrations

Omit necessary steps of reasoning

Use many abbreviations and terms

Suppress humor and flowery language

Degrade biology to statistics

Quote numerous papers for trivial statements

The previous quotation is from a paper or article by Kaj Sand-Jensen of the Freshwater Biological Laboratory, Univ. of Copenhagen, Denmark. I wasn't quite sure if it is a serious academic piece or meant to be a humorous send-up of serious academic literature. It hauntingly reminded me of working on the thesis for my M.A. Otherwise, I think Sand-Jensen's points are well-taken directions for any nonfiction writing, especially anything meant to persuade others or to support a point of view (like op-ed articles, letters to the editor and personal essays).

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More U.S. Copyright Fees

From the U.S. Copyright Office - Fee Adjustments: 2007:

Sometime between October 1, 2007, and January 1, 2008: The Office will charge a fee for contents titles listed on an application for a collection, for example, for the titles of songs contained on an album. The Office will include these titles in its public registration records to make them more comprehensive and more useful to those who search the records. A fee will be charged for each title: $1 for each contents title in an electronic filing: $3 for each contents title on a paper application.

So, while they've lowered the rate to register from $45 to $35 if you register electronically, they've added more fees for those who register collections. Pity the poor poets and song writers!

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Writing Op-eds & Letters to the Editor

The media center at the Communications Consortium website has a hot page on Op-eds & Letters to the Editor. This is a popular area with which to begin a nonfiction and freelance writing career. To define:

Letters to the editor allow you to offer a short rebuttal to an article or commentary, or add a crucial missing perspective. Most letters should be 150-250 words. ...
An op-ed is a column or guest essay published in the opinion section of a newspaper (Opposite the Editorial page). Most are between 500-750 words, and most outlets will take submissions by fax, e-mail or mail.

Although the piece is geared toward organizations, the tips about keeping your writing short, factual, and on-topic apply to anyone submitting such works.

Best of all, perhaps, is a chart of details on how to submit an op-ed or letter to the editor in more than a hundred of the largest circulation papers in the U.S. In the chart are addresses; fax/phone numbers; and hot links to email addresses, editors and the papers' websites. Need I point out that many of these publications will have book review sections and accept news releases on other writing-related topics?

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Successful Writers Radio Interviews

Lorilyn Bailey, creator of GuestFinder, an Internet-based directory of more than 200 authors, experts, spokespersons, and entertainers who are available for radio, TV, and newspaper interviews, has posted Tips for Successful Radio Interviews. Bailey covers what to do in advance of a telephone interview, on the day of it, and during the broadcast/recording. These include:

* providing questions
* practice, practice, practice
* clear your work space
* turn off the computer
* don't say "umm"
* offer useful information

The article is so comprehensive on this subject that I think I'll add it to the Free Articles on my Writing Help page. More and more writers are filling the airwaves with interview, talks, seminars by radio, Internet broadcasting and podcasting. We all need to know how to perform at our best during these opportunities.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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Book Publishing Encyclopedia

In a recent newsletter, Dan Poynter wrote about his latest self-help for self-publishers:

Finding book resources fast. Time is money. Writers, publishers and publicists need access to resources--quickly. Whether you deal in entertainment (fiction) or information (nonfiction), you need information on the book industry.

Dan Poynter's Book Publishing Encyclopedia is the "Book Publishing Answer Book." It has thousands of tips and references in an easy-to use alphabetical encyclopedia. Each fact, figure, resource or reference, in its 222 pages, links to a specific page on a web site for more information.

Red emphasis mine, because it made me assume this is an eBook. How else could it "link" to information on his website? I hurried to Amazon and was confused to find the reference available only as a paperback. Discouraged from buying it, I wondered, what good is a link if it doesn't work? I guess saying "link" was short for "URL" or "web page address", but still, misleading. C'mon, Dan, release this in electronic format with real links.

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Writers Shop Online

My early morning routine involves steaming mugs of Bigelow's Hazelnut Vanilla tea, which I order online because local stores stopped carrying it, and waking up to the Today Show. This morning I was pleased, but not really surprised, to see our prime sponsor, BizRate.com, mentioned as a recommended shopping site. It's obvious from their ad in the top of the left column that they offer computers and other electronics. I wondered what other items useful to writers might lurk there. Right off I spotted a section on Books and Magazines and found Language Arts books. Imagine, a redneck dictionary for only $4, and Office Supplies carries everything from desks to pens. One of the warnings mentioned in the Today Show segment was to look out for shipping costs that inflate prices online. In the Special Offers section, I found a linked list of stores that offer free shipping. The site has multiple search features and even rates the stores. I noticed at the bottom of the page that it won a 2006 Circle of Excellence award.

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Based on the Book

My real-life book club met yesterday to discuss Debra Ginsberg's Blind Submission. Several members remarked about striking similarities to The Devil Wears Prada, one irate lady declaring that the author had just taken the plot and changed the names and location. Eventually, in a discussion of just how bitchy a major character is, another member commented that the character in the movie was toned down quite a bit from the one in the book. It turned out that she was the only one who had read the Prada book and seen the movie. All the rest of the members were referring to the movie. This whole "book varies from movie" discussion reminded me that the Mid-Continent Public Library, based in Independence, Missouri, has a high-tech branch online with an applicable resource anyone can use: Based on the Book, a catalog of over 1,200 books, novels, short stories, and plays that have been made into motion pictures.

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Electronic Writers

In the past year, F+W Publications, the parent company of Writer's Digest and Writer's Market Place, exploded in a frenzy of electronic presences. Adapted from a recent newsletter:

WRITER'S DIGEST BLOGS

Poetic Asides by Nancy Breen and Robert Lee Brewer blog on poetry

The Writer's Perspective, by Maria Schneider, is dedicated to the publishing industry and other writing-related news. She'll keep you up-to-date on the writing essentials, all while providing links that might interest you and commentaries on the industry's hottest topics.

Questions and Quandaries, by Brian A. Klems, answers some of the most pressing grammatical, ethical, business and writing-related questions. This is an extension of his popular column in Writer's Digest magazine.

This Writer's Life, by Kevin Alexander, gives his witty take on starting a writing career. Join in his often amusing, occasionally heartfelt experiences trying to get a leg up in this challenging field.

Guide to Literary Agents by editor Chuck Sambuchino for all the latest news and views on literary agents.

The company is also active at MySpace with the following profiles:

* Writer's Digest Books http://www.myspace.com/wdbooks

* Writer's Market http://www.myspace.com/writersmarket

* Writer's Digest http://www.myspace.com/writersdigest

* CWIM's Alice Pope http://www.myspace.com/alice_cwim

The Market Books now have mini-sites with information about each book and a place to sign up for a free newsletter. To check these mini-sites out and sign up for the free newsletters, go to:

* Novel & Short Story Writer's Market www.novelandshortstory.com

* Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market www.cwim.com

* Poet's Market www.poetsmarket.com

* Guide to Literary Agents www.guidetoliteraryagents.com

* Photographer's Market www.photographersmarket.com

* Artist's & Graphic Designer's Market www.artists-market.com

* Songwriter's Market www.songwritersmarket.com

This is all in addition to the U.S. www.writersmarket.com and www.writersdigest.com, and if you're interested in markets in the United Kingdom and Ireland there's Writer's Market UK at: http://www.writersmarket.co.uk.

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Writers Conferences

One question many new writers ask is, "How can I find a writing conference to attend?" The most comprehensive listing I've seen are the ShawGuides, Inc. | Writers Conferences & Workshops. They have details on 353 upcoming activities for writers. A better question, however, would be, "How can I make the most of a writer's conference?" Some tips involve preparation. Attend armed with:

* business cards
* copies of synopsis or outline
* recording device
* elevator speech
* open, positive attitude
* easy smile

Writers attend conferences for various reasons. Some are there to learn from workshops, seminars, lectures. Others come for the networking, access to agents and editors. There's no reason not to go for both, and don't discount the camaraderie with other beginners (you can learn from your peers, too.)

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Writers Internet Research Resources

A generation that can't remember life without PCs, the World Wide Web, and/or Wikipedia may never know the joy of browsing through a real life encyclopedia. The venerable Encyclopedia Britannica (full or Junior set) was once considered the last word in reference material. For some of us, it was the first or only resource we used. At the library. Teachers accepted its citations without question. I'm sure plagiarism was rampant then, too. Now students are taught to use the Internet. Thanks to projects digitizing the contents of great libraries and journals making issues available online, soon electronic research will be king. For some, it is already, with their first and last stop the Wikipedia. It was probably the first attempt to offer knowledge on the web, but unfortunately many users don't realize it is a very volunteer effort and quite vulnerable to manipulation. Even the managers have had to publish a disclaimer, but I wonder how many people even see it or read it. The general disclaimer takes pains to point out twice, "Wikipedia cannot guarantee the validity of the information found here" before the ubiquitous C.Y.A. statements.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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