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WritersNotes.Net: Helping Writers Follow Their Dreams Through Information, Inspiration, and Encouragement!
September 11th 2007 05:24
The Realities of Book Publishing
Lillie Ammann has written a post, on A Writer's Words, An Editor's Eye, that any writer planning on becoming involved in book publishing anytime in the foreseeable future would do well to read. It's called, The Realities of the Publishing World: Traditional, Subsidy, and Self-Publishing. Lillie has eight years in the publishing industry to her credit, which eminently qualifies her to write this piece.
Self-Publishing Explained
Lillie's post discusses the ongoing debate over the three types of book publishing and provides links to a few other helpful discussions of the topic. In addition to these resources, she links to her 14-part Self-Publishing Primer, where, in her own words, she offers readers "a more in-depth review of these different kinds of publishing and the advantages and disadvantages of each."
Gain A Bit of Publishing Knowledge
Lillie's Self-Publishing Primer is, itself worth the visit, with the other offsite resources she mentions providing the icing on the cake. So, if you have a book-length manuscript lying around waiting to find a home, and you're at all interested in learning a bit about the ins and outs of the book publishing industry--as well as the various options open to you in getting your own book published--visit Lillie's blog and have a read. You'll come away with a great deal more knowledge about publishing your book than you've ever had before.
Knowledge is power,
Jeanne
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DataBanq: The Blog of DataBanq Media Network
The DataBanq Media Blog covers topics such as technology, social networking, and SEO. These are all subjects that affect not only businesses that market their products online, but also writers of online content--or writers who market their writing online.
Posts on this relatively new but popular Internet Blog are informative and well-written. One that stands out in particular was penned by DataBanq president David Bayer and presents an in-depth assessment of the current and future realities of social networking.
Another fascinating topic addressed by Bayer on this insightful Technology Blog is "orphaned pages" (i.e., pages that, due to changes made to a website, no longer have other pages linked to them) and how such pages can negatively impact a website's other pages in search results.
The Databanq Blog presents highly informative content for anyone who is interested in knowing a little more about the inner workings of the often-mysterious world of the internet. And there are few people today who aren't in some way affected by the realities of the WorldWide Web--writers included.
Thanks for reading,
Jeanne
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Blog Day 2007: Celebrating New Blogs Worldwide
Today is Blog Day 2007: A day to celebrate new blogs all over the world! In honor of Blog Day, bloggers have been asked to list, describe, and link to five new blogs--preferably representing a different country, culture, or focus than our own.
Here's what the Blog Day website has to say:
BlogDay was created with the belief that bloggers should have one day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest. On that day Bloggers will recommend other blogs to their blog visitors.
After writing our Blog Day posts, we are also asked to notify the bloggers we've chosen, which I plan to do via a comment on each one's blog.
Five Great New Blogs You Should Definitely Visit
Here are my choices (in no particular order) for five of the best new blogs from different parts of the U.S. and around the world. (Well...only one is currently outside the U.S: Confident Writing, which comes to us from Scotland; though one will soon be moving to Germany: Content Done Better. Yet, for some of you, the U.S. is on the other side of the world!) All these blogs are either only several months old or under new ownership.
I will let the bloggers who create the magic of the written word on their blogs speak for themselves, via quotes from their About pages and blog posts.
Pro Blog Design
Pro Blog Design. Michael Martin has this to say about his very helpful blog and also about blog post formatting:
I have been designing websites for a few years now, and enjoying every minute of it.
Over time, Iâve learnt a lot about working with blogs, and through Pro Blog Design I hope to share that knowledge with others. Content on a blog is of course, King, but does the King get the attention he deserves when draped in ragged garments? Of course not! In the same way that the grandeur of the King is crucial to his success, your blogâs design is crucial to yours. (from Michael's About page)
As bloggers, we write pages upon pages of content each week. We spend hours promoting the articles, choosing the right words and trying to get our point across as clearly as possible. How can formatting be used to further improve our posts?
There are a few basic tools that you will have heard mention of time and time again, such as bolding words. The first section re-explains their purpose, and the second will explain how to perfect your usage of them to achieve optimal formatting. (from Format Blog Posts for Readability and Legibility)
Confident Writing
Confident Writing. Joanna Young says the following about her quality site and about why she writes:
Hello I'm Joanna Young, The Confident Writing Coach...My aim is to get people writing with confidence. To realise the power of their words. How we work is partly up to you - but my approach is based on a blend of coaching, teaching, editing and writing - tailor made to your needs. (from Joanna's Welcome and Work With Me sections)
(Post Title: Why Do You Write?.) For me, it's something to do with the power of connection: the connections we can make with other people, the connections we develop between our own ideas, making sense of our experience, pulling together spaghetti strands of random thoughts and creating something new, connecting back to our roots and our selves and coming out with a stronger sense of who we are.
But then again maybe it's that thing I call realising: the sweet, slow dawning of realisation. Recognising the things that you always knew to be true. Recognising - with a jolt - your self in your words. Realising the power of your words, and taking responsibility for their power and impact: on yourself, on other people, on the world. Grounding yourself with the specificity of words. Validating your experience with words which are not real - but can make us feel that our experiences are. Allowing ourselves to be changed by the words that we write. (from Why Do You Write?)
ChrisBlogging
ChrisBlogging. Chris Bibey describes himself and his insightful blog and shares a few words of wisdom on freelancing:
For more than three years I have been earning a full-time income online. My main sources of income include a wide range of freelance writing projects, and of course, blogging.
But although I do not know the first thing about web design or coding, I still earn three times as much as I did as a corporate slave.
The goal of Chrisblogging.com is to show you how I make money, how you can join me, and much more! (from Chris's About page)
There is no denying that a few big jobs make up a large part of my monthly freelance writing income. But guess what? I also believe that smaller jobs are every bit as important. Sure, I would love to work on high paying jobs only, who wouldnât? But the reality of the freelance writing industry (at least for me) is that this is not always possible. For this reason, I always think twice before I turn down any small jobs that I am offered. (from Don't Always Turn Down the Small Jobs)
ProBloggers Matrix
ProBloggers Matrix. Mark gives us this inviting welcome to his blog, and some great info about blogging (taken from one of his excellent posts):
Hello, Iâm Mark.
Welcome to ProBloggers Matrix. Iâll be sharing blogging tips. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to post them in the comments. (from Mark's About page)
If youâre like me, you love to write, you love to publish great articles on your authoritative blog and you also enjoy reading excellent articles in many fantastic blogs. That can be very time-intensive, but you need to get out and exercise! Get the blood flowing! Get into The Zone! (from How to Stay in the Zone and Keep Wowing Your Readers with Spectacular Articles)
Content Done Better
Content Done Better. Michi Beck's blog has an intimate, inviting atmosphere, due to her personal, engaging writing style. Her Under New Ownership section tells us this about her background, followed by an apt quote from one of her posts:
During her career she has written many informative articles on various subjects including economics, technology, local happenings, and human interest stories.
In addition to the newspaper and Internet work, Michi has had poems published and is currently working on her first novel, of which the first draft is nearing completion. She enjoys both fiction and non-fiction writing, and often takes the time to write about the smaller things in life, as she believes those things have lessons behind them that most people do not realize. It is not only the big things that are important in our daily lives, and since she is often reminded of that it appears frequently in her particular style of writing. (from Michi's Under New Ownership page.)
(Post Title: When It Rains, It Pours.) Have you ever noticed that? You could be in a âdry spellâ in your work life and then all of a sudden things go crazy, and youâre left shaking your head and wondering how youâre going to get it all done.
I mention this because it happened to me, rather recently. Iâm not sure whether to be overwhelmed and annoyed that everything showed up at once or happy because of the work and income. HmmmâŠ..I think Iâll go with âhappy because of the work and income.â (from When It Rains, It Pours)
Five Great Blogs to Bookmark and Visit Again and Again!
Be sure to visit the above blogs soon--and often! And don't forget to give these hard-working and insightful bloggers a little link love! It will be more than worth your while, as you continually enjoy their latest words of writing wisdom.
Congratulations go out to these five new bloggers for making their blogs places where we can go to pick up the best info, tips, techniques, and advice, to make us all better, more responsive, and more productive bloggers!
Happy Blog Day!
Jeanne
Technorati Tag: Blog Day 2007
P.S. I realize I posted this a little late in the day--particularly for those of you on the opposite side of the world to the U.S., where I live! My apologies. But, I believe I did manage to post it in time--though barely! If I missed the deadline in anyone's time zone, Happy Belated Blog Day!
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A Virtual Trip Around the Blogosphere
In my latest travels around the blogosphere, I've uncovered some excellent content that can truly be a boon to any writer interested in a fresh approach, a new inspiration--in short, any writer seeking the motivation to write with renewed vigor and vitality.
Confident Writing: Posts to Both Inspire and Get You Thinking
Please check out Joanna Young's excellent post, When Writing Means Spirit Spilling, at Confident Writing. This piece explores the process of writing from the deepest parts of ourselves and, through quoting the wisdom of several knowledgeable bloggers, links out to other blogs you'll find most helpful in your quest to grow your own writing.
Two of Joanna's other pieces, The Ingredients of Confident Writing, and How to Learn from Your Writing, are also insightful looks into the components that help make our writing fresh and engaging. They also link to other related posts on her own blog and/or elsewhere in the blogosphere.
The Golden Pencil: Pieces on Perfectionism, Freelancing Dos and Don'ts, and Marketing Your Work Objectively
Anne Wayman, at The Golden Pencil, has written a succinct, yet very helpful post called, Don't Worry About Perfection--Go for Effective, reminding us that perfectionism is a trap and wisely counseling us to let it go.
Anne has also posted two guest pieces that offer practical guidance to help writers more effectively run their writing business. Top Dos and Don'ts for Freelancers, by Lori Widmer, offers 14 basic tips to help writers "make a go of freelancing," and Sending Out Ships, by Charlotte Rains Dixon, counsels us to write personally but submit our work objectively.
Passionate Blogger: Giving and Receiving Series to Help You Reap the Same Recognition You Sow, and How to Avoid Information Overload in Research
Wild Bill, at Passionate Blogger, has posted the first two parts of his excellent and informative multi-part series on giving and receiving: Give and Receive Series - Part 1 - Technorati Favorites and Give and Receive Series - Part 2 - StumbleUpon. These two posts explore the importance of giving lavish recognition to other writers/bloggers and letting the "getting" take care of itself, specifically covering how to do so through Technorati Favorites and StumbleUpon. The upcoming third post in the series will explore how to do this using Alexa.
Another excellent post on Wild Bill's site, about avoiding information overload when researching and writing blog posts (and which could also apply to other types of writing), is Stop Cramming for a Post! This insightful piece is an apt reminder that focusing on what we do know (known, in blogging, as our niche), can help us steer clear of excessive and unnecessary research, saving us valuable time and making us more productive.
A Writer's Words, An Editor's Eye: Customer Service and Productivity for Freelance Writers
Lillie Ammann, at A Writer's Words, An Editor's Eye, has written a brief but inspiring post, called The Simple Truths of Service: Will You Be a Johnny Today? that points us to a helpful video and serves to remind all freelance writers how important good "customer service" is to writer-client relations--despite the fact that, as freelancers, we have no "Customer Service Department." This piece--along with the video it introduces--tells us, in effect, that we must be our own "Customer Service Department."
A second great post, entitled How Do You Stack Up Against the Average Worker in America? asks us, as homeworkers/freelancers, to weigh our own productivity level against that of the average American working outside the home, providing an interesting comparison of the two, and hopefully providing writers with a little incentive to work on becoming more productive.
Four Great Blogs to Bookmark and Return to Again and Again!
It is my hope that the above posts will help you become more effective at both the craft, and the business, of writing. Why not bookmark these four great blogs, so you can return to them later to check out the other valuable content they are certain to post in the future! (You may also want to search their archives for buried treasure!)
Until next time,
Jeanne
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Darren Rowse, over at ProBlogger, is running a project, throughout the month of August, called 31 Days to Building a Better Blog - 2007. The project is, at its core, a resurrection of an earlier project of the same name which Darren ran back in August, 2005, with great success.
The current project will, however, be a bit different, containing two components: Darren's own Daily Blogging Tips (as in the first project) and a compilation of ProBlogger readers' own personal blogging tips, learned through each participating blogger's research or experience.
If the first group of submitted links is any indication, posts yet to be written during the next month promise to provide a veritable windfall of helpful information for improving your blog's quality, visibility, popularity, user-friendliness, SEO compatibility, profitability, page rank, searchability, and more.
Whether you participate by penning a post--or 30 (one posted tip per day per blogger is allowed during the month of August)--or take part in the project through one of the other methods Darren suggests, you're sure to find--and hopefully also contribute--many words of blogging wisdom.
So hurry on over to ProBlogger and check out a writing project that could just transform your blog--and your blogging--into an activity/enterprise that is not simply successful, but also beautiful to behold!
Happy posting!
Jeanne
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Another blog I ran across at BlogCave (via MyBlogLog), which looks as if it might prove pretty helpful to bloggers is called Blog Smart Resources. With posts on free backlink builder script, trackback tools, Blogsvertise, various social networking sites and different SEO tools, info on the 2007 Blogging to Fame Awards, and more, there's a great deal that's of interest to bloggers here.
If you're a blogger, you'll want to make it a point to visit this blog when you have a bit of time to check out the many resources it offers to help make your blogging experience an easier, happier, and more productive one.
Happy reading!
Jeanne
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I visited my friend Laura Spencer's Writing Thoughts blog again today and decided to check out her new blog, OpinionMom, which she launched recently.
While I was there, I came across a post describing a handy blog rating tool that can be used to determine what sort of rating your blog would receive based on its content. Since I am very interested in producing a family-friendly blog, I decided to give it a try.
My blog came back with a G-rating, which is exactly what I'd hoped! (I couldn't be totally positive what my blog's rating would be, since the titles and posts of other Orble blogs are listed in the sidebar next to my own posts; so, needless to say, I was relieved to see that my blog had passed muster.)
Despite the fact that other bloggers' material does appear in my blog's sidebar, I do my very best to keep all other blog and post titles in an unobtrusive part of my blog, for the simple reason that any questionable material will be less likely to be noticed by those who visit my blog. I'm a firm believer that people should be allowed to decide for themselves whether or not they are interested in reading such content--before they are faced with it--rather than being accosted by it at every turn.
Orble has also recently asked its bloggers to use the "Mature Content" flag on any posts with titles that contain profanity, in order to prevent those titles from appearing in the "Popular Posts" list in the sidebar of all Orble blogs. (Thanks, Orble!) So this should help with some of the more blatant occurrences of profanity that had previously found their way into our blogs' sidebars.
Still, though, as I previously mentioned, I am not taking any chances. I have relegated the lists of other Orble blogs, as well as the "Popular Posts" and "Breaking Posts" lists, into the deepest reaches of my blog's sidebar, at the very end of a number of rather lengthy lists of other, more acceptable, material, to keep them well-hidden from casual and unintentional public view.
Here's the blog rating tool. Feel free to use it to check the rating of your own blog!
Thanks, Laura, for letting us know about this great tool!
Please be sure to visit Laura Spencer's Writing Thoughts blog for some great info and resources on the writing craft; and, if you're a mom, as well as a writer, you might just enjoy checking out her Opinion Mom blog, as well. (Links to both of Laura's blogs can be found in the opening paragraph of this post.)
Happy rating!
Jeanne
P.S. I hope it isn't infelicitous of me to use the above blog rating tool in this post--since it's offered by an online dating website! That does seem rather ironic. But, be that as it may, I felt the tool itself was valuable.
Note: Infelicitous was the Word of the Day for June 3rd on Melissa Garrett's blog, The Silver Tongue. Melissa challenges other bloggers to use her Words of the Day in their own blog posts; and, to be honest, I have been planning for quite a while to use this one. I love this word!
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Freelancing Journey, a blog which refers to itself as "The Road to Business Success for Writers & Bloggers," is literally loaded with info, tips, links, leads, techniques, advice, and other resources that can help you, the freelance writer, make the most of your own website or blog. Covering many different aspects of the freelance writer's creative, professional, practical, and even personal development, this site has something for everyone interested in any type of freelance writing.
One post, "Page Rank, Back Links and Blogging," posted June 22nd, 2007, explains why page rank is important and provides tips on how to obtain quality backlinks to your blog. Another, more recent post, titled "Definitive List of Paid to Blog Services," dated June 28th, 2007, links to a very comprehensive discussion of the subject found in a post on another helpful blog. In addition, Freelancing Journey's "Roll of Honour" includes a long list of links to other blogs about writing--and blogging--as well as numerous other writing resources, markets, and marketing blogs.
Freelance writers are busy people, whose time is often severely limited. But taking a few minutes out of your busy schedule today to pick up some timely tips and advantageous advice could just save you a great deal of time and trouble over the long term.
So, check out Freelancing Journey, and see if you don't agree that this blog contains some helpful literary and marketing signposts to guide you along your freelance writing travels.
Bon Voyage!
Jeanne
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