This week I’m sharing links to other sites and blogs that I follow regularly. Some I may have mentioned before, but I think they’re worth a second mention.

• Cec Murphey’s Writer to Writer. Especially useful for beginning writers is the recent series entitled “Articles First?” Many beginners dream of writing a book, but they need publishing credits. Writing articles can help with that. Read the five posts here. Then check out the other posts.
• Jane Friedman’s There Are No Rules. One of the Writer’s Digest blogs, this one has great information on every aspect of writing for publication.
• Sally Stuart’s Christian Writers’ Marketplace. Sally posts regular updates to listings in her market guide.
• Rachelle Gardner’s CBA Rants & Ramblings. Rachelle is a literary agent serving the Christian market. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
• Terry Whalin’s Right Writing. This is not set up as a blog, but the site offers a wealth of how-to information for the Christian writer, beginner or otherwise.

Winner Number One is Sue Tornai, a regular subscriber to Blog4writers. Visit her site, www.suetornai.com. Also take a look at her blog: www.missue.blogspot.com.

The second winner is a regular subscriber whose e-mail address begins with ditelbat. I’ve received no response to e-mails asking for name and mailing address. Will you please e-mail me at akinemily@gmail.com and give me your mailing address so that I can mail your book?”

I’ll be doing book giveaways about once a month for the rest of this year. Subscribe to Blog4writers so that you will be eligible for future drawings. Go to http://emilyakin.com/blog/, and enter your e-mail in the Subscribe box and follow the directions. If you need help, don’t hesitate to e-mail me for help: akinemily@gmail.com.

Full title: Macmillan Teach Yourself Grammar and Style in 24 Hours, by Pamela Rice Hahn and Dennis E. Hensley, Ph.D., published by Pearson Education Macmillan USA, 2000.

Have you wanted to attend a writers’ conference but couldn’t afford it? Have you considered online courses but passed on them for the same reason? Consider getting a copy of this book, and give yourself a thorough workshop on the basics of writing. Although the title may intimidate you, the book is not boring and pedantic. It’s designed for anyone needing a review of grammar basics, but it also targets those who need to improve their writing.

You may be wondering what’s the difference between grammar and style. The first sentence in the first chapter explains, “Grammar is the study of sentence structure and the rules that govern it.” “Style” means “a distinctive manner of expression,” according to Merriam Webster. The first 12 chapters give you grounding in grammar, while the rest of the book helps you develop your style.

The title says you can accomplish your study in 24 hours. Sounds amazing? Well, you won’t be able to do it overnight, unless you just don’t sleep at all. Each chapter is constructed so that you can study and absorb the material in one hour. Then you take the multiple-choice test. If you do one chapter a day, you can finish in 24 days. Do two chapters a day and be done in 12 days. Maybe it’s not “quick and easy,” but it is effective.

The book offers several appendices with tables, resources, lists, and a detailed index. If you’re a published writer or one who wants to get work published, this book will be a good refresher course. It’s available both new and used on Amazon.

Preview the book on Google books.

A review of The Time of Your Life is on Blog4writers here. In the Getting Organized posts, I mentioned some of the concepts in the book. See those posts here.

I’m giving away two (2) copies of The Time of Your Life on Blog4writers this week. Since the book is out of print, I must disclose that these are used books, but they are in good shape. Here are the rules for the drawing:

• Deadline to enter is 11 p.m., Central Daylight Time, Sunday, July 18, 2010.

• How to enter:
  • If you are already an e-mail subscriber to Blog4writers, you are automatically entered.
  • Others may enter by becoming a new subscriber. Just go to any page on my site, http://emilyakin.com and put your e-mail address in the subscription box at the top of the sidebar. Click “subscribe” and follow the directions.
  • If you prefer not to subscribe, you can enter by commenting on any post on the blog: http://emilyakin.com/blog/. Browse the posts by using the search box or by browsing the category drop-down menu.
  • Current subscribers (as of July 13, 2010) may comment on any post for one (1) additional entry in the drawing.

• Drawing: On July 19, 2010, I will draw two names from the pool of subscribers and commenters. Winners must reside in the USA.

• Winners will be notified by e-mail. I will ask for your mailing address, and I will send winners’ books via USPS media mail as soon as possible after the deadline.

Enter now while you’re thinking about it. If you have questions or need help with anything, e-mail me at akinemily(at)gmail.com.

Writing for peanuts—that’s what you’ll be doing if you sell each article, story, or poem only once. You may be tempted to skip this article if you’re still trying to get your first piece published. Resist the temptation, because, once you do sell something, you can sell it again as long as you don’t sell all rights. Keep submitting according to publisher guidelines, and follow this plan.

Avoid all rights and work-for-hire. If you’ve never been published, and an editor wants to buy all rights, you may decide to agree just to get something in print. There’s no shame in that, but you won’t be able to re-sell that piece, ever. Work-for-hire pays pretty well, but, again, you give up any and all rights to your work.

Submit until you’re accepted. Sell first rights or non-exclusive rights only. Once the first-rights piece has appeared in print, you can sell any number of reprints to others. Some publications will accept simultaneous submissions, but you must inform them when you submit. If it’s a first-rights piece that’s being considered, you can sell first rights to the first editor who responds. Then you should notify the others that first rights are no longer available.

Sell reprints (as-is or piecemeal). Once the piece is eligible for reprint, submit it to other editors with no changes. I’ve found that this is not impossible but definitely difficult. Rarely will you find two publications whose guidelines are exactly alike, but you can find publications that are similar enough that you can submit with minimal changes. Most editors want to know when and where the reprint article has appeared, mainly to be sure a competitor has not used it. In the Sunday School papers market, for example, most readers will not see any paper other than the one published by their denomination.

A 1500-word article might be divided into three 500-word articles and sold separately or as a series. Each smaller article would qualify as a single reprint. Usually, you don’t get paid as much for reprints as for first rights, but this approach might soften the blow a bit. Again, you will have to tell the editor when and where the article(s) appeared.

Submit regularly, and always be on the lookout for markets for your reprint sales. You won’t get rich quick writing for publication, but you don’t have to write for peanuts.

Other Resources:

Details on the various types of rights

Submission Tracking Methods

One Article, Many Checks

What does editing have to do with marketing? Well, since the quality of your product will affect its “saleability,” you need some quality control measures. Publishing houses just don’t have the resources to do extensive edits on the mountain of submissions they receive. They routinely reject manuscripts that are shot through with spelling, grammar, and usage errors. So—don’t handicap yourself by submitting your work without thorough proofreading and editing.

Self-editing is the only way to make sure you submit your very best work, short of hiring a proofreader. Here are a few of the methods I use to edit my articles.

• Use the features of your word processor. I use MS Word 2007 which includes a plethora of editing helps that go way beyond the standard spellchecker. Settings appear on the Microsoft Office Button menu under Word Options, then Proofing. You can choose grammar and style as well as readability statistics. My last post on this blog rated 7.0 on the Flesch Kincaid readability scale. That means the reading level is 7th grade. Check here to find out how this is calculated. If you use a different word processor, explore your help section or search online for help on how to use the features you have.
• Perform a screen edit. The spelling and grammar checkers will not catch some errors. For example, I recently caught an error where “pane” was used instead of “pain.” Spellings of people’s names are rarely in the spell-check dictionary. As you read through your work on-screen, sometimes it occurs to you that you should re-order a sentence or shorten run-on sentences. Reading out loud can help you catch awkward constructions, too.
• Print a hard copy. Once you’ve corrected the errors you’ve found, it’s time to print it out. This is a good time to let the document sit overnight, if possible. I was taught to “let it rest” in my high school English classes, and it’s one of the most useful things I learned there. Mark the errors you find on the hard copy. Read it aloud again, and mark revisions to transfer to the electronic file.

If you think this might be more time-consuming that the original writing, you’re right. A familiar writers’ adage is “writing is rewriting.” Resist the temptation to send your first draft after you’ve run the spellchecker. A thorough self-edit might cost you some time but it will earn the editor’s attention when you submit.

Online Helps:

Proofreading Tips

Self-Editing Checklist

You are a writer. You’d like to get your work published. If you are a beginning writer, your best chance to get published quickly is to submit short pieces to magazines. You might produce articles, short stories, puzzles, and poems. If you’ve had your work published, but you’re not getting regular acceptances, perhaps you need a fresh approach.

Think of yourself as a manufacturer. Most writers think of themselves as artists. If you write for your own purposes, there’s no need to worry about what others think of your work. However, if you want someone to publish it, you enter a different realm, the world of business. Imagine yourself as a manufacturer of a physical product. As you plan and manufacture it, are you thinking about your customer? Are you building something you like, or are you creating a product that people need or want?

The publisher is the retailer. Because publishers can’t accept every piece of writing that is submitted to them, they only buy products that they know will interest their readers. You are the producer, and you have to sell your product to the retailer. Publishers have to know their customers—what they need and want. They will not buy your work if it does not fit the specifications for what their typical reader likes. As manufacturer, you have to craft your product to impress two customers, readers (end users) and the publisher’s representative, the editor.

What does the reader want? Find a one or more copies of your target publication. Use the table of contents to summarize the number and subject matter of articles. Read some articles to get a feel for the preferred style. Find the writer’s guidelines for the publication to get specifics on what the publication wants. Usually, you can find guidelines on the publisher’s Web site. If not, you’ll need to find the listing in the market guide and write or e-mail to request guidelines.

What does the editor want? First, be sure that you follow the guidelines to the letter. Some editors toss every piece that does not comply with guidelines. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot by ignoring guidelines. Next, make sure you offer a quality product. Editors do not exist to re-work your writing. Their job is to find pieces that fill their need with the least amount of editing. New writers, consider finding a freelance editor to critique or edit your work before you submit. You might have to pay for the service, but consider it part of your education as you learn to write for publication.

Yes, a writer who is in business to get published must consider his or her customers from beginning to end of the creative process.

Previous posts on on product quality here.

Next post: Editing Your Work

Virginia Smith did an outstanding job as keynote speaker with a pothole-by-pothole description of her road to publication. Beginners and published writers alike enjoyed two days of networking, learning, and worship.

I taught a workshop entitled, “Get Organized—And Sell Your Work.” Some of the information in my session is included in a series of blog posts. See the summary and links to each post on this page.

If you’re reading this, and you were a KCWC attendee, I encourage you to subscribe so that you won’t miss the book giveaway coming soon.

In the summer of 1999, I attended my first conference, Southern Christian Writers Conference at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. Somehow, an announcement about the conference reached my local newspaper in Union City, Tennessee. I managed to locate some other West Tennessee writers who were attending SCWC, so I decided to go with them. I had no idea what I would learn or what I would do with the information. I just knew that I liked to write and had been told that I was good at it. I wanted to explore the possibilities.

My first workshop was “Writing for Magazines,” a two-part workshop led by Cheryl Sloan Wray. I couldn’t have chosen a better place to start. Cheryl led us step-by-step through the submission process. She provided sample query letters, sample articles, and a list of suggested beginner markets. I also purchased the first edition of her book, Writing for Magazines. With what I learned in the course and suggestions from mentors, I submitted my first work that fall. My acceptance rate for the first five articles was 100%. Of course, I didn’t maintain that “batting average” forever. But, I have always been thankful for the thorough training I received at my very first conference.

I went back to SCWC each year, even after it was moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I also have attended several other conferences. Without the teaching from that first conference, I would not have been equipped to submit my work. Equally important in my quest for publication was the encouragement of Betty Jones, a writer from nearby Dyersburg, Tennessee. She’s the one who let me ride with her to that first conference. At SCWC, I met other writers who provided useful information as we got to know each other outside of the scheduled conference activities. It’s impossible to name them all, but I do want to mention Lettie Kirkpatrick Burress. At a time when I was discouraged, she suggested markets that helped me get back on track.

Here’s a partial list of my published work. Thanks to the people who organize conferences like SCWC, KCWC, Indianapolis Christian Writers Conference, and Florida Christian Writers Conference for your hard work and willingness to help people like me get started.

If you are thinking about writing for publication, there is no better way to learn than to attend a Christian writers conference. Whether or not you intend to write for the Christian market, you will learn the basics of writing for publication. And, you’ll find caring people who truly want to help you succeed.

Online Conference Lists:

ChristianManuscriptSubmissions.com

List on Sally Stuart’s Web Site

• Don’t take it personally. There are many reasons your work was not accepted. Notice I didn’t use the word “rejection.” Doesn’t “not accepted” sound better to you?

• Look for reasons why this particular piece of work was rejected. Realize it was this piece that was not accepted, not you or your writing ability. Here are some reasons and some remedies from my experience.

1. Your timing may not be right. Submit a re-write, especially if you got encouragement from the editor. Or, submit your piece as-is in a few months.

2. The “rejector” may not be the best fit for your piece. Submit to other publishers.

3. It wasn’t your best effort, really. A total re-write is in order in this case. Resolve to send nothing less than your best in the future.

• Don’t give up. Continue to submit your work while working to improve your writing skills and knowledge of subject matter. Take a back-to-basics approach to your submission process.

1. Be sure you follow guidelines to the letter when submitting your work.

2. Take a look at the quality of your writing. You may not be the best judge, so find a critique group or professional editor to evaluate your work.

3. Read extensively in the genre you write. You’ll learn what the publishers want, and you’ll improve your writing at the same time.

Most published writers say they have received more rejections than acceptances. Let’s accept that rejection is part of the process.

More info:

Writer’s Digest articles on rejection.

Sally Stuart’s blog post on rejection.

Advice from Grapevine for Writers