A Writer's Edge

Blog House Cleaning

2008-10-07T07:39:00.000-07:00

Renting a bull dozer and steam shovel helps to pick up the mess in my house every so often. Books pile up. Clippings accumulate. Filing takes a back seat. And the ironing pile threatens to topple. The blog equivalent of such housekeeping chores includes purging nonfunctional links. (This applies to any website, of course.) And the corner for first attention is the Reciprocity list in the right column.

For a link to remain on the home page of A Writer's Edge, it must connect to another home page where this blog is listed. The permanent link can appear in a list or in every post (preferable but unlikely) on a web page. At my discretion, I also delist blogs with no posts in the last six months. Purely arbitrary.

This cleanup doesn't apply to the noble souls in the Blog Action Day Chain. Their links will remain until the party's over -- October 15 -- only a week away. There's still time to climb on board and post against Poverty next Wednesday.

Writer's Block and Alcohol

2008-10-06T08:11:00.000-07:00

It is a question of quality.

The notion that alcohol accompanies great writing is only a myth. Many great writers were alcoholics and worse, but they were great writers despite their addictions, not because of them. It is tempting, when faced with a temporary interruption in the flow of creativity (writer's block), to suppose that a little alcohol, a joint or another substance of choice will "loosen up" the ideas or words and get them moving again.

Most assuredly, writers can write while drunk. The problem comes during subsequent sober editing, when the light of reason shines on the crappy writing. It is terribly difficult to edit slop into good poetry or prose. I suspect what happened and still happens is that the drunk writer sobers up, sees the shit, throws it out and writes all over again, more coherently and beautifully.

While it is known by scientists and psychologists that alcohol and other addictive chemicals can loosen inhibitions (and language), research has also proven that the quality of the writing produced during intoxication drops dramatically as does the quality of any other performance.

At one time I decided I wanted to do some serious drinking for a while. I wondered what kind of writing I might create under drunk circumstances, so I tried a little experiment. The first part was easy: drink a bottle of wine. The second part was also a snap: sit at the keyboard and produce a masterpiece. When I sobered up a day or so later, I studied what I had written and found it made no sense! I vowed to never again try to write a serious piece while under the influence. One time I slipped up and sent a long email message to someone and, as a consequence, lost a long-time friend.

If your font of creativity is dammed up (or just damned) don't try altered consciousness as a method to explode the blockage. Many other less self-damaging devices are available. I'm not saying don't drink at all, just don't make the mistake of thinking it helps you write or fool yourself into thinking you've produced your best work while inebriated. You can do better than that!

Writing on the Radio

2008-10-05T10:53:00.000-07:00

Stumbled into IDEAS4ALL website and thought, "What a delightful place to pick up novel notions, actions for articles, and short story sparks." Then I found the section on Arts & Culture where the top idea is:

A specialised radio station broadcasting narrative 24 hrs a day. All kinds of stories, poetry, classic literature etc. narrated over the radio. Would be great for long trips in the car, for a lie down on the sofa at home, and for the blind or non-literate.

In America, radio stations used to broadcast stories. The earliest ones I remember were soap operas and humor for adults (which I listened to anyway) and ones for children, like Howdy Doody (I think) and The Lone Ranger and The Buster Brown Show. Who can forget The Shadow and Amos 'n' Andy and so many more. This was in the time before TV had caught on, and before my family had one (1940s).

Most of those story programs migrated to television and radio lost some punch. From time to time, someone resurrects the oldie goldies here and there, but I also remember listening to "Reading Aloud" in the late 1960s. It was probably out of Boston. Every day after lunch, a big fat pregnant yours truly sprawled on our new couch to listen to another chapter of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. I learned all about the habits of hobbits during that long winter, quite content to remain indoors out of the ice storms that blew across Portsmouth Harbor and right through the old house we'd rented.

Now similar programs are appearing on the Internet. Just do a search on "radio stories" or "story radio", and see what you come up with. I think a podcast would be a perfect venue for this type of program, and sure enough there's the Radio Detective Story Hour, Short Story Radio, and beginning October 27, you can listen to Halloween tales on The Writing Show.

O.K., so the Internet isn't radio, really, but what does that matter? The sound comes out of a speaker or earphones, and that's really old radio!

Sci-Fi Writing

2008-10-04T07:07:00.000-07:00

I Should Be a Science Fiction Writer

Your ideas are very strange, and people often wonder what planet you're from.

And while you may have some problems being "normal," you'll have no problems writing sci-fi.

Whether it's epic films, important novels, or vivid comics...

Your own little universe could leave an important mark on the world!

What Type of Writer Should You Be?

Use LinkedIn for Writing Work

2008-10-03T10:20:00.000-07:00

Remember the phrases "upwardly mobile" and "social climbing"? If you're old enough, you will. Keep them in mind as you read on.

Quite a few years ago, I took advice from someone I should have not. Eventually I discovered the person was less than stable and had multiple family problems. The advice? To join Google's Orkut social networking site rather than Linkedin. The notion was to network for business purposes, but Orkut turned into a sandbox for foreigners to practice English and play at Machiavellian principles.

Although I'm still trying to sort out how the various parts of Linkedin operate, I get the drift. (I'm still pondering the differences among contacts, connections, invitations, and introductions.) The way to work it for business is to not treat the service as a social network. Sounds simple, yes? No, we are conditioned to immediately enroll all our friends when we join such a group, simply duplicating our existing social network. Anyway, how many "friends" can one have?

With Linkedin, the phrase "upwardly mobile" might best be kept in mind. It's like getting useful back links for your website--you want ones from more prestigious sites, those with a PageRank at least one notch higher than yours. At Linkedin, go for the contacts/connections with people who can do you some good, crass as it may sound. Their contacts, to whom they can provide you with introductions, may be the perfect sources for new work for you. When you join the site, it offers a link to The LinkedIn Blog: Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn | Guy Kawasaki. Highly recommended. Read it first, before joining, if you can.

I haven't touched on the search processes at Linkedin, finding those initial best connections, mainly because I don't have a handle on them yet. One new discovery: Linkedin has higher levels of paid membership with even better features.

See the initial post about this adventure and one made a few days later.

Writer's Digest Editor Departs, Starts Blog

2008-10-02T19:40:00.000-07:00

Just a quick alert that Maria Schneider, formerly the editor of Writer's Digest magazine and blogger at The Writer's Perspective, has left the WD building. She cited creative differences with the new honcho, Jane Friedman, editorial director of Writer's Digest Books. Not one to be bereft of an outlet, however, Maria is starting a new blog, probably to be named Editor Unleashed. It's not active yet, but we can look forward to all the juicy tidbits of insider gossip and writing tips we desire.

Writing for Good: Join Blog Action Day Chain

2008-10-02T08:34:00.000-07:00

It is only two weeks until Blog Action Day on October 15. This year we're blogging about poverty. I doubt anyone will be in favor, but many, many in this world are familiar with it. Have you joined the Blog Action Day Chain at A Writer's Edge? You'll receive a link to your blog on the home page of A Writer's Edge, which Google visits frequently throughout each day. Raise your site's visibility in search rankings and participate in a good cause.

How to do it: Sign up at Blogactionday.org. Publish a post containing a link to http://www.writers-edge.info/2008/08/writing-for-blog-action-day.htm (the original call). Let me know in a comment or by email that you have joined. That's it! Instant fame, fortune, and good will.

Writing Websites: Critical Listings

2008-10-01T09:02:00.000-07:00

Last month when I wrote about how to have better websites for a book, yourself and your writing, I listed some of the components that enable attracting visitors, capturing their attention to keep them browsing, and causing them to return to your site. I promised to explore each of these components more in depth. This is the first follow up. Today we'll consider critical listings for your site.

Directories: Listing your website on The Open Directory (DMOZ.org) is neither simple nor automatic. Many people are unaware of its existence, but it is important to attempt to obtain a listing with it because many other directories (including Google's) feed from it. In fact, the only difference between Google's Directory and DMOZ is that Google allows the sites to be displayed by Page Rank order or alphabetically. One trick to getting a listing at DMOZ is to first study its structure and carefully choose which category you want you site listed in. You must submit your application ("suggest URL" link in the grey bar at the top of the page) while you're on the page of that desired category. Craft your description carefully, because this is not a place where changes are easily made, if at all. Do not try to list your website in more than one category!

The Yahoo! Directory is primarily commercial, and you can buy a listing. If your site is definitely noncommercial, you may "suggest a site" similar to the DMOZ process, although it currently kicks you back into the paid submission page, and the link about noncommercial submissions goes to the search help section. Not useful!

If you have a blog, multitudinous directories exist for them. See some of the ones A Writer's Edge is listed in for ideas. To find directories on your topic (e.g., book subject, type of writing, ones just for authors) search Google with the topic word and "directory" or "directories".

Search Engines: Google and Yahoo! control most of the web searches. MSN Live Search has a small part and others, tiny fractions. I think it is worth the effort to submit your site to the top two or three. Google and Yahoo! also have a sitemap service by which you can direct search engines to scrutinize the exact pages you want. I think these are also beneficial, especially if you have a large site with many web pages. They do require some degree of web expertise, although HTTP uploading helps.

The practices I've outlined above are part of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for a website and web pages. It's all about getting you, your site, your book, your writing in front of people's eyes. If you build it, they won't come unless someone or something tells them about it and where to find it.

This article is an extension of Better Websites for Writing.

Google Book Previews on Websites

2008-09-30T08:30:00.000-07:00

Improvements to Google's Book Search service now allows websites to include a "Google Preview" button. When the viewer clicks on the button, a smaller window overlays the page with preview and search features. I think it looks better than the same service presented at Google Book Search, at least the example at Books-a-Million does.

You can read what Google reveals about the new feature at Inside Google Book Search: Book Search everywhere with new partnerships and tools and check out websites that are already using it. In addition to publishers and booksellers, some early adopters include libraries, universities, authors, and social book sharing sites:

You can now import your Book Search My Library collection straight into your aNobii account, or preview books within the weRead gadget for social networks. Be sure to also try out the exciting integrations by BookJetty, GoodReads, and BookRabbit.

I'm not familiar with any of these, but through the years I've mentioned other personal library services we can use to catalog and display book selections and collections in blogs and websites. I've let others be the guinea pigs and have been favorably impressed with the results. (I have too many books and too little time to try them out myself.)

Writing Straight vs. Strait

2008-09-29T04:45:00.000-07:00

I won't cite chapter and verse, but in researching publications about writer's block, I came upon a word that confuses many people, me and myself included. I didn't know the right form of strait to use to indicate financial hardship. The correct idiomatic use is: straitened circumstances. The heavy duty academic text I was reading used straightened. I knew that was incorrect, but I thought the right form of the word was "straited". That's what I've been saying, although I've never written it (that I can recall). I was so wrong! It isn't even a real word.

Actually, the transitive verb is to straiten, while strait is a noun or adjective. They have related secondary meanings having to do with stressful difficulties and limited funding. A strait, of course, has another meaning as a narrow channel of water -- still that notion of being tight.

Evan Jenkins of the Columbia Journalism Review explains it with an amusing anecdote that includes a definition of straighten, which I have omitted so you can keep these words strait straight.

Mini-Reviews: Fall Releases

2008-09-28T08:13:00.000-07:00

My summer reading winds down with two books that couldn't be more dissimilar. The first comes out Tuesday, September 30, and the other is scheduled to arrive on the scene a few days later on October 7. I'm not sure if the cognitive dissonance of reading them together influenced my reactions, but I'd suggest you follow the almost archer sisters with KERPLUNK! rather than reading them in reverse order, as I did.

KERPLUNK! ISBN: 9780743280501 by Patrick F. McManus is a refreshing change of pace from the high tension wire act of duck duck wally, though both tickled the funny bone. Well, wally more like hit the funny bone at first, but then it tickled. On the gentler side, KERPLUNK! continues the low-key, folksy humor McManus is known and loved for. The stories in this trade paperback collection all first appeared in Outdoor Life magazine. He also wrote for Field and Stream. I remember enjoying his columns when those were the only reading material available in dentists' and doctors' offices, and I really didn't care about fly fishing. McManus' funny stories about hunting and fishing have an endearing appeal for all. They aren't actually sports tales, but rather reveal the foibles of humankind and what he thinks he learned from his adventures with Ma Nature.

THE ALMOST ARCHER SISTERS ISBN:9780743255868 by Lisa Gabriele is about two chicks, but most definitely not chick-lit. They happen to be half-sisters and opposites in most every way except for two devastating shared experiences. If dichotomies are the stuff of great stories and irony made for good reading, perhaps the downers in this novel could be overlooked. No, too integral. Maybe forgiven. Let's try more cliches: telling it like it is, that one fits. It is gloomy and depressing. If you'd like a reality check on what your life might have been like, if only you'd stayed back in Ohio/left home for the big city, THE ALMOST ARCHER SISTERS offers insight.

Banned Books Week

2008-09-27T00:09:00.000-07:00

You may get a giggle from the Google page about 42 classic books challenged or banned in the 2006-2007 year, or you may gag at the idea of being denied access to these well-known titles and authors. Come to think on it, this would make a good reading list for rising writers. Also of interest is the American Library Association page listing banned books.
Celebrate Banned Books Week, starting today!

Writing Words: Publishing Terms

2008-09-26T06:31:00.000-07:00

Did you know some books have lovely headbands which serve no practical purpose? And if you think PMS has to do with moody women, you haven't met the Pantone Matching System. Rachel Toor reveals these and many more esoteric publishing terms in A Publishing Primer at The Chronicle of Higher Education online. My favorite entry is the very last one with its little snarky jibes at some controversial authors:

Warranty: Your promise to the publisher that you are who you say you are (Margaret B. Jones!), that you have written the work (Kaavya Viswanathan!), that everything you say is true is true (James Frey!), and that you have the right to be named as author.

Via The Practicing Writer Vol. 5, No. 8: September 2008 newsletter from Dr. Erika Dreifus.

Beware When Writing Website Content

2008-09-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

More and more writers recognize the need for a website if for nothing other than displaying a portfolio to which to direct agents and editors. See my Credits page, for instance, with the link to an example of a published magazine article. I could also scan many articles into .PDF files or .HTML pages and send interested parties the links to particular clips.

This is all well and good, including displaying a resume on your writing site. Unfortunately some people get caught up in the joys of blogging and mingle the professional site with the 'personal' blog. I understand at least one free blogging software even facilitates building a website, although I'm not certain it hosts such sites too. Any WordPress readers care to comment?

Beware, too, of using recognizable templates. Design your site to mirror the professional writer that you are or want to become. That means a clean layout and sharp content focused on your writing and career. Resist the lure to include stories and photos of your cute, talented children and pets or personal rants and enthusiasma. Think about whether or not every subject has anything to do with your writing.

Avoid cutesy animations and graphics or free hosting without a domain name for your site. Using a "free" host says you are an unprofessional penny-pincher, unwilling to invest in your career. This indictment does not apply to having a presence on one of the major free social networking services. They are advantageous to establishing credibility and identification as well as networking for clients or jobs. Just make certain the information you offer matches up at all sites that pop up when someone performs an Internet search on your name. You do Google yourself regularly, don't you?

Study websites you admire and where you do business. Notice the level of professionalism they display. Your writing career is also a business, and your site must be part of your platform as a professional writer. When you add content, ensure that it is related to your career, book, services or products. I would further include what some consider a separate 'personal' blog. It's separated from your professional website only in your imagination. It is all part of the package that represents you to potential clients or employers. They also use Google (and more). If you want a career in the media be very circumspect about how you use the media to present yourself.

DON'T MISS OUT! JOIN THE BLOG ACTION DAY CHAIN.

Get Writing Jobs

2008-09-24T08:47:00.000-07:00

Quite often beginners ask, "How can I get a job writing? Must I have a college degree?" In a word, "yes". Staff positions on publications (including websites) usually require at least a general B.A. in Journalism or Communications. A "writing job" is very different from freelance writing where you're accountable only to yourself.

If your heart is set on working at a publication or writing regularly for one, you'd better go to school AND get all the internships you can handle. It is as an intern that you make the contacts which will likely land you a job after graduation. Not right away, but eventually. And your title won't be "Contributing Editor" but more likely "Editorial Assistant". At smaller publications a job with the title "Assistant Editor" might be an entry-level position, so don't hesitate to apply for those, too.

Another tack toward employment in the publishing industry is to ask for "informational interviews" at publications while you're still in school. You can also do this while job-hunting, but it is more effective to have made a connection with a staff member before you start tapping your network for a job. An informational interview is just what it sounds like, only you do the interviewing, asking questions about working at that particular publication, career paths, how the person arrived at her position.

At this point, freelancing may sound a lot more appealing, except for the lack of a regular paycheck and health benefits.

Everything I said about getting a job writing also applies to getting editing jobs, except the writing should come first. How can you edit if you haven't proven your skills writing? I don't know the answer to that one, but I've met some awfully young editors in recent years.

Ping Yourself!!

2008-09-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

Recently out of private beta testing, Ping.fm allows bloggers to update most social networks at once. This was one of the first bonus features I discovered from joining LinkedIn, thanks to the invitation from Missy Frye of The Incurable Disease of Writing. I think I met Missy through MyBlogLog...or was it on BlogCatalog? Thank goodness we aren't required to keep track of the tangled skein that nets us all together!

If you're one of those who preceded me into social bookmarking/social networking or who are deeply involved with multiple accounts, Ping.fm might be just the tool you need. What it does is literally ping (update) all your accounts with the various social services when you add a post. Not only that, as Ping explains, you can:

Use AIM, GTalk, iGoogle, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, WAP, iPhone/iPod Touch, SMS or E-mail and let Ping.fm relay your message to a multitude of social networking sites.

Awesome!

Just try keeping up with this one through their blog. Last Friday, they announced support for Multiply, YouAre, and Yammer and an addition of Diigo to their bookmarking service. Don't expect to see explanations, however, until you sign up with Ping.fm -- it's all very hush-hush for outsiders. Like me.

Writer's Block Book: The Saga Begins

2008-09-22T09:30:00.000-07:00

Back in June I put my money where my mouth is, so to speak an inaccurate cliche, by committing to gather up the most popular posts on Writer's Block into an eBook. That would be a brief, tidy little project, I thought. Maybe something to offer as a holiday gift in a month or two. I still might do that, but read on.

Later in the summer at the Writer's Digest Forum, I ruminated about whether or not I wanted my ideas to stand on their own or risk tainting them with the influences of previously published works on Writer's Block.

Simultaneously a friend published her novel with Amazon's CreateSpace and lent me a reference book on using MS Word to format a manuscript for printing. Just like in Betsy's murder mystery, I suddenly had the means, motive and money (very little needed) to perhaps self-publish! My eBook developed a tree book specter, the same one that haunts most all writers ... just to hold a book I wrote! An utterly irrational, unfeasible, nearly irresistible urge.

I realized the product would be a "slim volume" indeed with only a few dozen posts, and thought I might examine other books on the subject after all. To be honest, my fear of researching was less that they would influence my thinking than that I would find either duplication, no support, or worst of all, deterrence. Yes! I feared that I might develop a block and become unable to carry the project through. How ironic would that be?

Nonetheless, trepidatious research began last month with Amazon and the local library system. As I read the first books I could borrow, I found vindication of the positions I'd been stating, albeit couched in scholarly terminology, sourced by notes. Am I the only person who drools over footnotes? The excitement of research--tracking down references, cross-checking, consulting indexes for journal articles--overcame me.

I think I might see a niche for a book that knits up the various strands of research, theory and advice into a comprehensive, but readable and useful guide for the contemporary everyman (especially every woman) writer. Visions of self-publishing dissipated, replaced by plans for more research and proposal writing (with nonfiction, you sell the proposal, then write the book).

There is still the possibility I'll happen onto a publication that does exactly what I have in mind, or I'll get too caught up in researching (love those details!), or Life might intervene. I've only just begun to consider the work seriously.

See the Original Commitment Post.

What Would Happen? Creativity vs. Technology

2008-09-21T12:03:00.000-07:00

A variation on "What if ..." that sparks the creativity to write a novel. I'm wondering what would happen on Blogger if I added subtitles to the posts? One result, I know, would be that the list of recent posts would take up way too much room in the right column.

I'm not so sure how longer titles would look on the web page and in readers using the FeedBurner RSS feed and the email version available by signing up at FeedBlitz.

Why do I want to add subtitles? Well, I never claimed to be a good headline writer. In fact, when one newspaper city editor tried to force me into writing "heads", he quickly demoted me back to reporting. Shoot! I wanted to learn how to be an editor. Without headlines. Hard to do on a small- to medium-sized paper.

Then comes the problem of keywords. Creating a title sensible enough for search engines, one that includes a desired keyword and still attracts human readers while striving to be witty -- do I ask too much of myself? I respond, "No! Just make it longer, Stupid!"

Another elaboration of the subtitle experiment suggests putting the subtitle as the first sentence of the post. Perhaps in a bold typeface? (Bold is not a verb. You don't "bold" something. The first sentence would not be "bolded".)

We'll see how that works tomorrow when I plan to post on the saga of writing a book about Writer's Block. The project is metamorphosing -- maybe out of control.

Writing to Friends

2008-09-20T08:29:00.000-07:00

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Not really, for business purposes I chose LinkedIn to add to my social networking activity. You can see my growing profile there by clicking on the button at the end or navigating to http://www.linkedin.com/in/georgannahancock.

Special Writing Days

2008-09-19T09:30:00.000-07:00

Less than a month remains to get in on the link love available by joining the Blog Action Day Chain. Let me know that you've signed up in a post on your blog with a link back to the original call to action, and your blog will receive top billing for the rest of the period. Are you preparing a blog on Poverty to run on October 15? Join Blog Action Day and do what you can -- write!

Just one month later, on November 15 comes the seventh annual I Love To Write Day. The founder, John Riddle is the author of 34 books and says:

Last year, we signed up over 20,000 schools. This year our goal is to have an I Love To Write Day program in over 25,000 schools. Please help us spread the word: tell schools, libraries and bookstores in your community about I Love To Write Day. You can read more about I Love To Write Day and learn how to register (it's free!) by reading the Media Kit.

Writing on Locations

2008-09-18T08:45:00.000-07:00

I had the interesting and sometimes moving experience yesterday of seeing photos of places mentioned in some of the books I cherish. A small collection of books about women in Japan, spanning many centuries, has caught my imagination for no apparent reason.

My friend Barbara, who is currently living in Guam, visited Kyoto and Hiroshima recently and posted her photos on the Internet. I rejoiced seeing the shrines that were only a vague blank in my imagination and more beautiful in real life than I had dared to think. The Hiroshima survivor pictured and scenes of that devastation prompted some tears, I must admit. I once interviewed a woman who had lived through that holocaust and still suffered 25 years later.

Visual images and detailed descriptions add so much to story narration. Consider using the many resources the Internet offers to provide a firmer foundation when you cannot visit a place you're writing about. Even if you don't use every scrap of information you gather, your knowledge adds authenticity to your writing. Behind your words is the weight of contact, a sense of being there.

Mini-Review: LOST GIRLS

2008-09-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

Just released this week, LOST GIRLS by George D. Shuman continues his Sherry Moore series with the blind psychic investigating the unsavory topic of human trafficking, specifically, female sex slaves. I'm not sure which creeped me out more, the subject or the character of the heroine's necromantic "gift". This supernatural thriller criss-crosses the globe from Alaska to eastern Europe to the Caribbean and South America. Sex, drugs and a little something for everyone!

Coming from the To Be Read (TBR) stack:

FUSSY EATERS' RECIPE BOOK (Atria) by Annabel Karmel
ALMOST ARCHER SISTERS (Simon & Schuster) by Lisa Gabrielle
KERPLUNK! (also S&S) by Patrick F. McManus
HOW TO SELF-PUBLISH FOR FREE (CreateSpace) by Jimmy Clay

Joining the Chain for Blog Action Day

2008-09-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

It is just a month until Blog Action Day. Have you joined the Blog Action Day Chain at A Writer's Edge and received a link on the front page?

How to do it: Sign up at blogactionday.org. Publish a post containing a link to http://www.writers-edge.info/2008/08/writing-for-blog-action-day.htm (the original call). Let me know in a comment or by email that you have joined. That's it! Instant fame, fortune, and good will.

Continuing Education

2008-09-16T08:33:00.000-07:00

If you prefer the convenience of online learning, check out the wide selection of classes and courses from the Poynter Institute's News University: Journalism Training. Online Courses Anytime. Anywhere. Some could help fiction writers.

THIS JUST IN:

LitMatch members who are ready to take their writing to a new level can receive a $50 discount off the regular tuition when they enroll in their first 10-week writing workshop offered online or in NYC.

To receive the discount, writers must provide promotion code LM50D08 when registering online or by phone. Offer is valid only for writers new to Gotham who are enrolling in a 10-week workshop and may not be combined with any other discounts. Expires January 30, 2009. More info at WritingClasses.com or call toll-free 1-877-WRITERS.

Publicize Writing & Book Websites

2008-09-15T08:44:00.000-07:00

What if you build it, and no one comes? No one you want, anyway. A previous post offered some good reasons for writers, especially authors, to have websites. You want to connect with fans and potential readers or employers; provide more information about your, your services, your book; and the site is a badge of professionalism and sincerity, dedication to a career in writing.

All those functions are fulfilled when you let people know about your website. They need to know the correct web address or URL, which is the domain name. That's why I put a lot of emphasis on choosing a short, memorable name. To get the people you want to visit your site, you have to give them that address, probably several times and in every way possible. Here are some methods to use:

on book covers
in signatures online
after signatures to emails
in every piece of publicity
mentioned in every promotion
on business cards, stationary
in all advertising
included on letters
repeated during interviews
revealed during signings
announced to groups

Begin to think of your website address as a vital part of your professional identity. In your mind, associate it with your name (as a signature) and email address, so that you start including the web address, too, when filling out forms or providing your contact information. For example, if you do book signings and give away bookmarks, be sure the website address is on the marker -- and any other give-away items.

You can find many more articles on websites here on A Writer's Edge.