Online Bible Resources

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Part of observing the passing of the old year is looking back, sometimes with nostalgia and sometimes with thanksgiving. This year, as I made my writing plans, I looked back to how we used to get our writing done—with a typewriter, paper, and an eraser. A writer had to be truly dedicated to persist with those tools. Today, my job as a writer is so much easier with the technology available to me.

It’s hard to say which of the computer-based tools are the most useful, but for Christian writers, I have to say having numerous online Bible versions has to be near the top of the list. For my writing, I’ve tried to find one online source that offers all popular translations. I submit regularly to publishers who use the New International Version (NIV) or the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). In addition, I like to use The Message on my devotional blog. Continue reading →

Elements of Style: Strunk & White

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This little book has been recommended to me by numerous writers and editors since I began writing for publication in 1999. Since it has been around for a long time, there are several editions, my copy being the Third Edition. The 50th anniversary edition was published in 2008 and is available at retailers.

In the beginning, the book was developed by William Strunk, Jr., as a teaching aid in college classes at Cornell University. E. B. White was a student of Strunk, and, in 1957, he was asked to revise the book for publication after Strunk’s death. Continue reading →

Marketing Article Roundup

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Check out these great marketing posts on other blogs:

Marketing Lessons from the World of Retail (by T. L. Higley on Christian Author Network blog). This one offers some specifics about Facebook. Higley has other posts by the same title here and here.

Marketing Principles: Agent Rachelle Gardner features writer and marketing consultant Jim Rubart in a three-part series. Scroll to the bottom of the link to read the first article and work your way back to the top.

Should You Publish Your Own Book?

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Freepixels.com

Have you developed a book proposal and had no luck selling it to a traditional publisher? Have you written a book but haven’t taken the time to prepare a proposal and market it? If you can answer “yes” to either question, you’ve probably thought about self-publishing.

There’s been a lot of discussion about self-publishing on the Internet lately because of recent announcements by royalty publishers that they are going into the self-publishing business. That must mean that self-publishing is the wave of the future. Or, it could mean that the royalty publishers are just looking for another way to enhance the bottom line. Continue reading →

Life Journal™ Software

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Journaling is a great way to collect subject matter and organize your thoughts for your articles and stories. I still do most of my journaling on in notebooks, and I’ve tried to organize and index them as I complete a volume. However, over time, the sheer volume of my journal content has made it hard for me to find my notes on a given topic when I need it.

Last year, I purchased Life Journal™ software which was developed by Ruth Folit, a writer with 30 years experience with journaling. Lee Jones, the programmer, also is a journaler. I chose the version for writers, but there are also versions dubbed For Staying Sober, For Christians, and For Educators. It’s not as expensive as some software, and you can try it for free before you buy.

Before I share my evaluation, see this excellent summary of the features and benefits of Life Journal™ . Continue reading →

Accepting Your Role as Salesperson

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“Writing is an art. Publishing is a business.” These words jumped out at me in a workshop given recently by Lawrence Wilson, pastor and former editorial director at Wesleyan Publishing House. This simple statement encapsulates the aspiring writer’s problem with getting published.

Writers see themselves as artists, resisting the idea of putting a dollar value on their writing. Perhaps you write because you are passionate about a particular subject or about writing itself. Once you begin the quest for publication, though, you have entered the realm of business. For any business to be successful, somebody must sell something to someone. In my experience, writers abhor the whole idea of “selling themselves.” You, the writer aspiring to publication, must sell your work to publishers who, in turn, sell their publications to the end user (reader).

Does the idea of selling your work conjure up images of door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesmen or network marketing gurus? You’re not alone. Intrusive and manipulative sales techniques have given sales a bad name for most people. I think that’s why some prefer to call it “marketing” rather than “selling.” The term “marketing” suggests that you put your work out for people to see in hopes that someone will see it, like it, and buy it—like at a flea market.

Flea market vendors don’t sell much unless they offer quality products that shoppers want. They must know the market, the customer demographics. They must also interact with the shoppers to convince them to buy the product (selling). As a writer, you submit your work to publishers, making sure that you have followed the guidelines. Your customer, the publisher, states the demographics and preferences of his customers (readers), along with the technical requirements of the documents they are willing to consider. Still, you may need to “sell” the editor on your work. Extra-mile features will entice the editor to buy your work instead of someone else’s with identical specifications. For example, including sidebars and pull-quotes will make your article more attractive. For book proposals, mention an established speaking ministry or other platform for selling your books.

If you believe in the quality and value of your product, selling it is an honorable pursuit. You won’t sell to every customer, but you won’t get your work published unless you try.

Article Roundup

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Specifically for Writers

Web site for Newbie Writers (appears to be based in UK, but About link is not working for me today.

20 Hi-Tech Tools and Resources for Writers

Web Sites and Blogging

Author Tech Tips: The Top 5 Author Website Mistakes

New Rule for Book Review Bloggers

Online Security

5 Essential Tips to Keep Your PC Safe

Publishing Industry

Options in the Price War Over Books

If you have articles or Web site URLs to share, please post a comment. Next week, I hope to be done with my evaluation of the free brainstorming software, Personal Brain 5. If you have used this software, please contact me at akinemily(a)gmail.com.

Promotion/Networking: Twitter for Writers

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TwitterlogoContinuing the series on social media for writers, today I’ll share what I’ve learned about Twitter, the micro-blogging tool. If you are not familiar with Twitter, go to this article on Wikipedia now.

Instead of having friends as on Facebook, Twitter users have followers. I’ve used Twitter for several months now, following people mainly in the Christian publishing industry. Some of the same people are friends on Facebook. As of today, I am following 49 people, and 56 people are following me. Some say that you should follow everyone who follows you, but I don’t follow people unless it appears that their content will be of interest to me.

What I Like About Twitter

  • Posts (tweet) are short and often provide links that I can access if I want to know more. It doesn’t take me long to scan the list and read the things I’m interested in.
  • I can post announcements about new blog posts to help build my readership.
  • I can follow people I want to know more about and ignore the ones that are following me in order to sell me something.
  • The new Lists feature allows me to separate my preferred follows from the ones I’m just following as a courtesy.

What I Don’t Like About Twitter

  • Some people resort to text message language in order to get a longer message in the 140 character limit. Besides having trouble interpreting some of it, I see this as cheating!
  • Some people must just tweet all day long. There’s a limit to how much I want to hear from any one person, no matter how much they know about writing and publishing. If you have that much to say, use a blog.
  • I’m following publishing professionals for information about writing and publishing, not about where they’re going, what they’re having for dinner (breakfast, lunch, snack), or what the weather is like where they live.

Twitter Marketing Effectiveness

Although there are things I don’t like about Twitter (and other social media, for that matter), I have to admit that they can be effective. I do see an increase in the traffic on my blogs for a day or so after I tweet about a post.

Recently, a family in Vermont needed funding for medical treatment for their special needs baby. The mother let friends know about the problem via Twitter. Someone set up a page on her Web site where people could make donations through Paypal. The message went out on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media. See the details in this article, “How Social Media Saved Jaeli.”

Other Articles About Twitter

Seven Twitter People Every Author Should Follow

Nine Ways to Promote Your Book Using Social Media

See my previous posts on Facebook here and on social media in general here.

Read my post on Twitter, Facebook, and Tweetdeck.

Online Security: Passwords

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Usernames and passwords are a fact of life for anyone active online. From your e-mail account to your bank account, you have to deal with keeping your login information private. And how difficult is it to remember and manage all those usernames and passwords?

Dedicated Address Book

I keep my usernames and passwords in a wire-bound address book listed alphabetically by the name of the Web site. If I change a password, I immediately record the change in the address book and make a note of the date I changed it. I use some of my logins often enough that I can remember them, but I keep the address book on my desk just in case. It almost goes without saying that you don’t store your password list on computer, but I’m going to say it anyway. Don’t make a Word file or any other file with usernames and passwords that will be saved on your computer.

Password Manager Software

It’ll cost you between $25 and $30, but you can get software that will help you manage your usernames and passwords without compromising security. The top ten are reviewed online here. I have never considered using this method because I’m a cheapskate, and, whenever you buy software, at some point you have to buy an update. However, there are people who firmly believe this is the best way to manage login info.

Secret Formula

Here’s a great idea. Develop your own formula for your passwords. If you use the same formula for every password, the password will be unique each site and easier for you to remember. Still, I’d keep them written down somewhere anyway. See this article by Daniel Scocco on DailyBlogTips.com. I’d want my formula to be simpler than his, but it is a great idea. I think I will choose five-letter word to use as the base of my formula. I will change it up by adding letters, numbers or special characters before and after it. Of course, my formula is secret, so I won’t share it with you.

Promotion/Networking: Facebook for Writers

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In my last post, I promised to share my experiences with social media. I have not experimented with all of the possible methods. I primarily use Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Follow the links in the previous sentence to see my home page for each site. I’ve found that I have more to say on each method than I originally thought, so I will limit this post to Facebook. Others will be covered in future posts.

My Facebook friends include long-time friends, family, and writers/editors/publishers. I joined because a writer’s conference I planned to attend had set up a Facebook group. At first, I thought I would limit Facebook friends to writers, editors, and publishers. However, I soon found out that I had many long-lost friends on Facebook, so I decided to include them. Since I joined Facebook to promote my writing, it stands to reason that I want everyone who knows me to know about my blogs. So, why leave anyone out just because they’re not involved in the publishing industry?

Promote your blog: I have several blogs, and I often post an announcement that there’s a new post on a blog. This nets me higher traffic on the blog for a day or so after I post. I’m not getting many e-mail subscribers for my blogs from Facebook as I had hoped. It’s possible that I may be getting subscribers by RSS feed, which I cannot track. But, the increase in traffic, even if temporary, is worth the effort.

Promote your published work: Many published authors use Facebook to keep readers informed by setting up a group. Check out Rita Gerlach’s group for her recent novel, Surrender the Wind. I’m not sure whether you’ll get to see comments of fans unless you log in, but try the link anyway. For fiction writers, building a fan base like this is a must. You want your fans to be ready and willing to buy your next book when it comes out.

Non-fiction writers can post announcements about articles published in print or provide links to work published online. In addition, a non-fiction write can use a topic-based or cause-based group to build contacts. As group owner, you can post updates on your topic or cause, thereby keeping your expertise in that topic in front of your readers. See United Methodist Committee on Relief and Power of Prayer.

Priming the pump: In commenting on other people’s posts, I’ve had interesting Facebook conversations on topics that I’d never have a chance to discuss in person. Just yesterday, a friend posted a comment about an experience she had. I commented on it and received updates throughout the day. By the end of the day, I had an idea for a new article based on the topic that was discussed.

I welcome comments about your experiences marketing yourself and your work on Facebook. Next post: Twitter