The Spoon Boon Blog

Most all ezine publishers need fresh content. Article writing is something that gets tedious to the publisher who sends out an ezine every week. Fresh, unique ideas are always attractive, and ezine authors don’t mind publishing others work, (along with a complete research box, (THIS IS YOUR AD) as well.

If you can learn and excel with this kind of content writing, you can win in two areas. Promoting your own site, or writing content for others site owners and earning dollars as a ghostwriter.

I have been writing and promoting on the web for over 3 years. Here are the tips I find most important to a beginning –article for promoting– writer.

Articles should be short enough to read in less than 5 minutes.

Ideally they should be between 300 and 600 words (an average page in a printed novel is about 300 words).

Top 10, or 7, (the number isn’t that important) Tips on (your subject) are great attention grabbers for articles to promote your website.

Write in short paragraphs, forget what you learned about in English class, if a paragraph is long, find a good point where you can cut it and put an extra line break. Browsing for content, readers are more likely to stick with reading something the eye can easily skim from top to end. (Notice with this article, I have added spaces between each bullet in this list :o)

If your article is long, break it into 2 or 3 parts. For a real web traffic puller, and list building technique, request them to sign up for an autoresponder version to receive 2nd or 3rd part. (be sure to give them opt-out options when you do it this way)

Here is a mistake I see many online authors’ making. Don’t use huge big vocabulary. You are not writing a thesis, or essay for school. Write so that someone with a 8th grade education could easily read it. Don’t try to impress with large vocabulary words, you will lose readers, who feel your writing is condesending to them. (See, how many do you think I may have lost using condesending?

Try to write with passion. Put feeling into your words. Pull in as many of the five senses, experience stories, as you can. For an example of this, read this article. Articles should educate, entertain or inform. Imagine how popular your article will be if it does all three.

Make sure your article is well formatted. You can post it at a site like ezinearticles.com and use their (”get this article page” to get your article in different formats, both text and html.) This sites also allow you to input your own personalized summary, and keywords, which allows webmasters to find them and use them as well.

Set a goal to publish a certain number of articles per week to a certain number of database sites.

It is easy to find sites to submit your articles too. Just go to google, type in articles, then, scroll to the bottom of the page. You will find a button which says, search within results.

With this search button type in “free articles” or “free content” or “free to republish” and you will find several submission sites. You can also type “article submission directories”

I have set a goal to do five things each day toward promotion. Each persons goals will be different, but remember, to be effective you must write new content and promote on a consistent basis.

However, if you have a good article, it will also duplicate itself quickly and spread across the web like a forest fire out of control!

You can optimize your article to get the exact keyword density for search engines, but that could fill another whole article. For your main keyword, try to use it about 7-10 times throughout the whole page. This article’s goal is to find article writer-promoter, webmasters to list their articles at my new article database.

Receive news about this site when it goes live by sending an email to this link: articledatabase@lauriemeade.com

About The Author

Laurie Meade, an online researcher, writer and webmaster.

Publisher of the ezine, “Yes You Can” Learn how to “Create the Life You Desire, and Start Doing it Today” by visiting http://lauriemeade.com

editor@lauriemeade.com

This is the survey result of 325 people conducted by myself
so I can improve at my own book signings. After completing
the survey, I saw the wealth of insight it had given me. I
felt it was important to share it with a wider audience. I
also interspersed some personal experiences.

The survey was conducted by Catherine in-person with people
who attended book signings at area bookstores in Northern
Virginia metro area between January 2004 and September 2004.
A total of 325 people completed the survey.

Here is their response to one of the questions: Why do you
go to book signings?

If you are wondering how this can help you in marketing your
book. These 10 items are extremely important. They tell
what authors need to give to their audience in order to
increase their books sales and to connect with the audience.
When you know what you audience wants, what they expect, the
guessing fades and transforms into a great book signing
event.

Here are the top ten responses in answer to the first
question:

1. People desire to be acknowledged for taking their time
to come — by you, the store, and others that came.
Participants who have either already read the book, come to
meet other like-minded people. They have a social intention
and you need to give it to them. Most book signings don’t
have any social aspect to them so create one. When you
include ways, you will definitely increase sales. People
want connection, they don’t want to be ignored. Get them
to talk to the people around them. Introduce one person you
just met to the next person to them. There are many
techniques or create some of your own. A seasoned author
learned to do this over time. Learn to do it sooner.

2. Curiosity. People are normally curious about authors
and how they write, or how they got their book published.
Tell them about your journey with all this. For the wanta-
be or gonna-be writers there because their vision includes
what you are doing, give them that feedback. It creates
immediate connection. Even if they didn’t come not to buy
your book, usually they will change their mind, just because
you settled their curiosity.

3. Entertainment. Yes, you need to be entertaining.
People do want that and they stick around (meaning they
don’t get up and walk out) if they get it. Show energy, use
hand gestures, and please stop reading from the page (number
one pet peeve). Over and over again, I saw people leave
when the author continued to read his presentation from the
page. People don’t expect perfection. They had a heavy
week, or day, and they want some way to lighten it up. Even
if your book is a heavy topic, lighten it up. Comical
anecdotes about yourself are great!

4. Oh, the old, “what’s in it for me” discussion. What are
the benefits for them to read the book? Is there some
information that will help shift their thinking on anything?
Use testimonials, ones that have some meat on their bones.
Yes, you may need to make some assumptions on where the
audience is at. Go ahead and do that. Create a few that
cover a wider perspective and it will deliver to a wider
audience.

5. There is nothing wrong with encouraging more sales. Who
else might be interested in the book. Their boss, friends,
sister, who? Go ahead, give gift ideas. What holidays or
events can you tie the book to? Is Christmas, Mother’s Day
coming up? Tie your topic and the holiday together if you
can. Mention the type of people who like to read this sort
of book. No, don’t say everyone and anybody. This is
sometimes hard for authors because they attach it to
“selling.” Drum roll…heaven forbid…selling. When an
audience is so enthralled in a book and its story, their
mind isn’t on buying two books. They walk out with one and
then when turning page three or five, a flash appears,
“Ooops, I should have bought one for my boss.” I guarantee
you that it is very unlikely they will return to the
bookstore to buy another copy at that point.

6. Do some things where you make extra connections with the
audience. Just don’t sit behind the table. Stand up, shake
hands — no limp ones either, and look them directly in the
eyes when you ask them, “Who would you like me make this out
to?” Ask if they would like another book made out to
someone else?

Here’s a SECRET tip. It makes a BIG connection. The
Japanese do this all the time. Put down the pen. When you
hand over the book, hold it cover up facing them with both
hands, present it to them slowly, purposely, as if it’s
worth a million dollars and a very special gift. Look deep
into their eyes at the same time (okay this part is
different than the Japanese), and say silently in your heart
and in your voice, “Thank you.” Watch them light up. Of
course, smile.

7. As mentioned earlier, audiences come with a hidden
agenda — to have a good time. To enjoy themselves. Create
that space of joy and lightness for them. Don’t think you
don’t have any control. The store wants you to succeed.
Share with them what type of experience you want the
audience to have. Ask for recommendations, ask for things
that haven’t been done before too. Give inspiration in
language, in thoughts, and in stories. Stories that pulls
the heart strings. If there isn’t one in the book, find
one.

8. There is nothing wrong with giving away a trinket, toy,
item, that comes from one of the characters. Or even it
isn’t directly and just somewhat related. You don’t need to
spend lots of money on promotional items. Think. This
might require approval by the host store. You will usually
find that as long as it usually doesn’t cost them anything
and it increases book sales, they will encourage it. Give a
gift if they buy two or three copies. Find a unique magnet,
or something funny, something that doesn’t cost much but it
just ads to the incentive to buy more than one. Sometimes
the book store is returning something and can give you a
remainder sale price. Ask.

9. You can’t say thank you too many times. Remember to
smile, say thank you, and be there with a loving and open
heart. This creates an attractive energy and pulls people
towards you.

10. Share tidbits about how the idea of the book came to
you. Did you write 15 minutes a day, a certain word count?
Did you get help from others, who? Did you struggle with
some part or something? Was there someone there for you
that inspired your journey? Please not the spouse comment
all the time. To singles this is boring and people said a
turnoff. Share tidbits about your childhood. There is a
child in all of us. Share your childhood with your
audience. Especially funny screw-ups.

Well, I hope you enjoyed learning what audiences want at
book signings. This process was definitely an eye-opener
for me. It gave me a real taste of people and their
expectations. Maybe another future survey would be to get
people to tell me why are they leaving early.

© Copyright 2004, Catherine Franz. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Catherine Franz, a Certified Professional Marketing &
Writing Coach, specializes in product development, Internet
writing and marketing, nonfiction, training. Newsletters and
articles available at: http://www.abundancecenter.com
blog: http://abundance.blogs.com

The Supreme Court ruled that if an employer seeks to rely on that defense. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit initially affirmed the jurys findings but after the United States Supreme Court asked it to reconsider the Second Circuit reversed itself and ruled in favor of Knolls. A lawyer from Roosendaal won from a advocate in Midwest City Oklahoma In Meacham Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory was planning to lay off a number of employees. Knolls totaled those scores and gave the employees additional points based on their years of service. The company had its supervisors rate their subordinates based on their performance flexibility and critical skills. In other words the ADEA permits employers to discriminate based on age considering age is legitimately necessary under the circumstances. It then used those totals to decide who to lay off. The BFOQ defense states that it is not unlawful for an employer to take adverse employment actions otherwise prohibited by the ADEA where age is a bona fide occupational qualification reasonably necessary to the normal operation of the particular business. As long as the adverse action is based on reasonable factors other than age. Specifically the jury found that although the plaintiffs did not prove that Knolls intentionally discriminated against them they did prove that Knolls method of deciding who to lay off disproportionately harmed older workers. The Supreme Court then agreed to hear the case and eventually reversed the Second Circuit and reinstated the jurys finding that Knolls policy unlawfully discriminated because of age. In reaching its conclusion that the employer has the burden to prove the reasonable factors other than age defense the Supreme Court looked at another provision of the ADEA the bona fide occupational qualification defense. Even if the employment action is otherwise prohibited by the ADEA. At the trial a jury found Knolls had violated the ADEA because its layoff procedure had a disparate impact based on age. Twenty-eight of those 62 employees sued under the ADEA claiming Knolls illegally fired them because of their age. For example it would not be illegal to consider criteria for a particular role in a movie that has a disparate impact on age if the part calls for someone of a particular age. In that case Meacham versus Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory the Supreme Court interpreted a provision of the ADEA that permits an employer to take an adverse employment action against an employee. The Supreme Court has previously recognized that the employer has the burden to establish the BFOQ affirmative defense. It has the burden to prove that its decision was based on a reasonable factor other than age. Thirty of the 62 salaried employees the company laid off were at least 35 years old.

Word processors are so widely used now that I tend to take it for granted that most writers know how to perform basic tasks (e.g. double space their work, count the number of words, and indent a paragraph automatically). Every so often, however, I see a manuscript that reminds me that there are a lot of writers who are still using a word processor as they would an old-fashioned typewriter.

They put a double space after a full stop; they hit the space bar half a dozen times to indent a paragraph, and they tap ‘Enter’ at the end of every line to achieve double spacing. This can result in some peculiar effects such as capital letters at the beginning of every ‘double spaced’ line. (The computer thinks you are starting a new paragraph when you hit ‘enter’, so it automatically starts it with a capital letter.)

Here are a few tips on how to perform basic word processing functions. I’m using Microsoft Word for these examples, because it is the most widely used word processor (and the one I’m most familiar with). However, you should find that most word processors work in a similar way.

How To Double Space Your Work

• Type your story or scene in normal single spacing

• Look for the word ‘Edit’ on the menu bar at the top of your screen. Click on it, then choose ‘Select all’ in the drop down menu. Slick on ’select all’ and your story will be highlighted in black.

• Look for the word ‘Format’ on the menu bar. Click on it, then choose ‘Paragraph’ from the drop-down menu.

• A pop-up text box will appear. Look for the line that says ‘Line spacing’. It will probably say ’single’ in the rectangular box underneath it. Click on the arrow beside the box and a menu will drop down with other choices. Choose ‘double’ and then click on OK. Your whole story should immediately become double spaced.

How To Indent Your Paragraphs

If you set your work to the accepted layout for business letters and documents, your paragraphs will all be flush left, and you will have a space between each paragraph. Don’t use this format for your manuscripts otherwise when you double-space your work, the spaces between get double spaced as well. You will waste a lot of paper, and it can be annoying for the reader if you have a series of short paragraphs and therefore a lot of white space on the page.

Before you start typing, set your paragraphs up using this method:

• Click on ‘Format’ on the menu bar at the top of your screen.

• Click on ‘Paragraph’. A text box will pop up.

• Look for the word ‘Indentation’. In that section, you will see the word ‘Special’. It will probably be set to ‘none’. Click on the arrow beside the box, and choose ‘First line’. This means that just the first line of each paragraph will be indented. Don’t close the text box yet.

• In the section underneath you will see the words ‘before’ and ‘after’. This refers to the space before and after your paragraph. Make sure both are set to zero. Then click OK.

How To Count Words

• Click on ‘Tools’ on the menu at the top of your screen.

• Choose ‘Word Count’. A box will pop up with various statistics for your work in progress, including a word count.

Cutting, Copying, Pasting and Deleting

• You can select (highlight) one word quickly by double-clicking it. You can select a whole paragraph by clicking the left mouse button three times.

• To delete a word or a paragraph once it is highlighted, simply press the ‘delete’ key.

• To move a highlighted sentence (or a word) to a different place in the paragraph, you can use either of these methods:
  1. click on the ‘edit’ menu at the top of your screen, choose ‘cut’ from the drop-down menu, move your cursor to the place you want to insert the sentence, choose ‘edit’ then click on ‘paste’.

  2. Place your cursor (which turns into an arrow when you highlight text) anywhere in the highlighted text. Click and hold down the left mouse button. You will see a little box appear at the bottom of the arrowthis represents the block of text you are moving. Making sure you continue to hold down the left mouse button, drag the highlighted section to its new position. (You will see a grey cursor line moving with the textjust position that cursor where you want the sentence to start.)

  3. If you want to copy text from one document to another, simply open two files at once. Highlight the text you want to copy as described here, but choose ‘copy’ from the ‘edit’ menu rather than ‘cut’. Move to the second document (which will be open in separate window look for it on the taskbar at the bottom of your screen; click on it and it will pop up. Alternatively, click on ‘Window’ on the menu bar at the top of the page, and choose the document you want from the list that drops down.) Place the cursor where you want to place the text copied from document #1, choose “Edit” then “paste”.

How To Start A New Page

Sometimes (for example, when you want to start a new chapter) you will want to move to a new page when you are only part-way down the existing page. DON’T just keep tapping the ‘Enter’ key until you eventually arrive at a new page. This makes it harder for the editor to format the work later on.

To finish working on one page and move quickly to a new one, click on ‘Insert’ on the menu bar at the top of your screen. Then click on ‘Break’. A box will pop up so you can choose what kind of break you want in this case, it’s simply “page break”. This will probably be the one selected. Make sure there is a black dot in the circle next to ‘page break’ (do this by clicking on it if the circle is empty) and then click OK.

The “Undo” Arrow

This is a blessing for writers. If you make a mistake while editing, and end up losing a whole paragraph, page or section, simply click on the little blue curved arrow at the top of the screen. If one click doesn’t get you back to where you were, keep clicking until you’ve undone the disaster. The arrow that curves to the left is ‘undo’; the arrow that curves to the right is ‘redo’.

(c) Copyright Marg McAlister

Marg McAlister has published magazine articles, short stories, books for children, ezines, promotional material, sales letters and web content. She has written 5 distance education courses on writing, and her online help for writers is popular all over the world. Sign up for her regular writers’ tipsheet at http://www.writing4success.com/

You’ve just been notified a review of your book has been posted. You’re all excited and can’t wait to see what has been written. You’re clicking onto your book’s page when…Oh no! They hated your book! This bad review is going to turn away customers from buying your book. Wait! This isn’t the end of the world. Here’s 3 tips to deal when you get a bad review.

1. You can’t please everyone!

Example: One of my favorite authors is a bestseller but the author didn’t receive such hot customer reviews.

Another example: I was reading some book reviews and one of the books had one of the worst ratings ever. I clicked the link with curiosity to find over 20 customers had reviewed the book and loved it. In life, you can’t please everyone. Will a bad review discourage future customers? On to my next tip.

2. A bad review doesn’t have to mean bad profit.

Not all customers look at a bad review as their only guide to buying. In fact, if your review is so awful, they may even buy the book to see if it’s really as bad as the reviewer rated it. There’s the saying that curiosity killed the cat, curiosity in this case could help you. Customers also realize that everyone has different tastes. Maybe the reviewer didn’t like your book, but who’s to say someone different won’t? It may be bad publicity, but none the less it may help you. In fact, sometimes a customer may have read the bad review but only remembers your name and or the book’s title.

3. If you’re getting more than one bad review.

It’s understandable if you’re disappointed. It’s expected, but do not allow yourself to become discouraged. If you’ve published an e-book and can easily edit your work, bad reviews can actually help your writing. Now don’t go crazy and change everything! But if reviews are constantly pin pointing on one certain area, review your work and see if and how you could improve it. I know reviewing repeatedly can be hurtful but if it can help your e-book, isn’t it worth considering? Also, don’t start picking apart reviews right away, give yourself time to go over them. Picking apart your reviews the moment you receive them could prove fatal to your self esteem.

About the Author

Content Producer and Children’s Author of Mysterious Chills and Thrills for Kids.
http://www.laurahickey.com

As a proofreader of business writing, I see many of the same
errors made again and again. Errors in your writing (be they in
advertising copy, correspondence, or a web site) are more
serious, I believe, than most people realize.

Why? Well, the standard of your writing has always been
important. Today, though, more than ever before, FIRST
IMPRESSIONS COUNT. We are bombarded by the written word in its
many forms — books, pamphlets, magazines, signs, e-mail, web
sites and many other media.

We are all suffering from information overload and are forced
to find ways of screening out as much as we can. We thus tend
to make quick decisions on what to read and what not to. First
impressions increasingly determine what we read and what we
don’t, and poor writing leads to a poor first impression.

The following list of tips should help you to avoid some of
the most common slip-ups.

1. Capitals: Avoid the temptation to capitalize words in the
middle of a sentence Just To Provide Emphasis Like This. If
you want to be more emphatic, consider using bold face,
italics, color or larger text.

2. Commas: The most common use of the comma is to join together
short sentences to make a single longer sentence. We do this
with one of the following small joining words: and, or, but,
yet, for, nor, or so. For example:

We have finished the work, and we are looking forward
to the weekend.

Notice that the two halves of this sentence could each be
sentences in their own right. They thus need to be separated
with a comma and joining word. In the next example, though, we
don’t need a comma:

We have finished the work and are looking forward
to the weekend.

The halves of that sentence could not stand alone, so no comma
was used.

3. Ellipsis: The ellipsis is a series of three — and ONLY THREE
— full stops used to mark missing words, an uncertain pause,
or an abrupt interruption. Avoid the temptation to use six or
seven dots — it looks amateurish. For example, we write:

Niles: But Miss Fine’s age is only …
Fran: Young! Miss Fine’s age is only young!

4. Excessive punctuation: Only one exclamation mark or question
mark should be used at a time. Consider the following
over-punctuated examples:

Buy now!!!
Great bargains!!!!!!!!!!

Excessive punctuation looks too much like hysteria and
detracts from your credibility. Avoid it.

5. Headings: For long works, establish a clear hierarchy of
headings. Microsoft Word’s heading styles are great for this.
(They also allow you to automatically create a table of
contents.)

6. Hyphenating prefixes: Most prefixes don’t need a hyphen; i.e.
we write “coexist”, not “co-exist”. There are exceptions,
though. The prefixes “self-” and “ex-” are almost always
hyphenated.

7. Numbers: Numbers of ten or less are normally written as words.

8. Quotation marks: Users of American English should use double
quotes (” “). Users of British English should choose either
single quotes (’ ‘) or double quotes and stick with them for
the whole document. Incidentally, British English usage is
increasingly moving towards single quotes.

9. Spaces: Modern style is to use a single space at the end of a
sentence, not two. Also, most punctuation marks (e.g. commas,
full stops, question marks) are not preceded by a space.

10.Tables: Set table text one or two points smaller than the
main body text and in a sans-serif font such as Arial or
Verdana. Avoid vertical lines as they tend to add unnecessary
clutter.

Armed with these simple guidelines, your writing should be well
received every time. Good luck!

About the Author

You’ll find over 200 tips like this in Tim North’s much applauded
e-book BETTER WRITING SKILLS. It’s just $19.95 and comes with a
90-day, money-back guarantee. Download a sample chapter here:
http://www.betterwritingskills.com

One obvious question that can get overlooked in the process of seeking publication is, Why do you want to publish this book, article, story or poem? Most likely, the answer involves some combination of artistic or spiritual vision, desire for recognition, need to communicate an idea or body of knowledge, feeling a compelling urge to shift consciousness around a particular topic, seeing a knowledge gap in the general society and feeling called to fill it, and of course receiving a little or a lot of financial compensation for one’s efforts.

As writers, as creative people, it can be difficult to join the artistic and spiritual sides of what drives us with the practical and business concerns. However, the union needn’t be a shotgun marriage, and it needn’t be done alone. Let’s look at some examples.

Cassie, 23, is a recent college graduate with an English major. She is working as an editorial assistant in an academic publishing house. For the last several years, she has been keeping a journal of poetry and prose. In the last six months, she has been reading at open-mike nights throughout the Bay area, and has begun to receive excellent feedback and recognition for her work. Thinking she might be ready to publish a book, Cassie showed her work to one of her colleagues at Scholarly Books, Inc., who told her her work was not commercially viable. What should be Cassie’s next step?

First of all, Cassie should get other opinions about the viability of her work, and from people with more relevant backgrounds. An editor at an academic press does not necessarily know the market for poetry and literary fiction, and even if she does, any author would do well to learn a bit more. Right now, Cassie is making enough money to live on, and has time left over to pursue her writing.

Though most writers of poetry and literary fiction do not earn the bulk of their livings through publishing their work, Cassie’s main goal is self-expression and elevating her level of participation in her literary community of choice. This would give her increased recognition and acknowledgment, which a few years down the road, could in turn translate into a cash advance for her next book. Even without a published book, Cassie could possibly attract enough students to offer a successful creative writing workshop through a local venue.

Cassie might also want to consider some of the many alternatives to mainstream publishing such as zines, e-books, subsidy publishing or self-publishing. A knowledgeable and qualified publishing consultant will be able to help her make the best choice at the optimal point in her writing career.

Here’s another, very different, path:

Bryan, 47, is a nurse-practitioner who spent time before and after nursing school working in nursing homes. Now he works in a clinic for the elderly with doctors and social workers. He is known in the office as the “New Age Guru,” and often refers his clients to homeopaths, osteopaths, and other practitioners of alternative medicine. He was even instrumental in starting an ongoing yoga class for the elderly at the local “Y.”

Bryan has kept up with gerontological and alternative medicine health issues by reading both trade journals and consumer magazines, for years. He is familiar with some of the psychological challenges some elderly people face when considering alternative care. For example, having relied on western medicine exclusively for so many years, many elderly patients are understandable skeptical about undertaking something unfamiliar, and in their eyes, marginal. Bryan wants to write a book that would serve as a guide to holistic health care for the elderly and their families, but isn’t sure how to begin.

Having never published before, Bryan might well choose to write an article to begin with (as opposed to launching into a full-on book), for several reasons. One, it will be a good exercise in writing itself. Two, he will see whether he feels satisfied with the amount of writing in an article, or feels he has a great deal more to say. Three, he will introduce himself to potential readers as an expert on his topic, perhaps even creating a website to include as part of his byline.

Let’s say Bryan decides to go ahead with his article, entitled “Holistic Health Care for the Elderly.” Now Bryan needs to decide what audience he wishes to reach: Health care providers? Elderly patients? Families of elderly patients? Aging Baby-Boomers? His publishing consultant sends him on a mission to the library and through the Internet to find a small handful of publications in which he would love to see his work appear. To his surprise, Bryan finds that the topic has been fairly well-covered already, however, no one has adequately addressed the issue of coordinating multiple health care providers for the elderly patient, something Bryan has much to say about. Bryan decides on two gerontology trade journals and three consumer magazines geared toward baby-boomers, who are likely caring for an aging parent. He crafts one query letter for the trade journals, and another for the consumer magazines, which his writing consultant helps him polish. Should both a trade journal and consumer magazine accept his query, he’ll be able to recycle some of the same material for different audiences, provided both editors approve. Once published, Bryan will be much better situated to decide whether and how to go about writing his book, if he still feels called to do so.

While their situations differ, both Cassie and Bryan, like other writers, needed to consider the question of audience: Who will be interested in reading this work? They also need to consider their vehicle: What is the best way to reach this audience? Are there multiple routes to various audiences? Should an author put all his energies into one route, or explore several avenues simultaneously? What are the advantages and disadvantages to each of these choices? Finally, both Cassie and Bryan had to do some work to establish credibility in their field: Readers want words that come from experience, knowledge and recognized talent. Both Cassie and Bryan are well on their way to moving their writing careers to the next step. Their weekly meetings with their writing consultant help them clarify their options each step of the way, make the choices that are best for them, and groom the query letters and proposals that help launch them into print.

The above are fictional composite characters extrapolated from typical client situations.

You are welcome to reprint this article any time, anywhere with no further permission, and no payment, provided the following is included at the end or beginning:

Author Jill Nagle is founder and principal of GetPublished,
http://www.GetPublished.com, which provides coaching, consulting, ghostwriting, classes and do-it-yourself products to emerging and published authors. Her most recent book is How to Find An Agent Who Can Sell Your Book for Top Dollar http://www.FindTheRightAgent.com.

When you are just starting out playing cricket it’s not always easy to know what you should purchase. If you go into a sports equipment high street store & ask them what you need, you will in all probability end up getting loads of gear. Therefore, it is best to understand what you want ahead of you going shopping. That way you are a great deal more likely to obtain what you want, instead of what the shop manager advises you require.

Below, is more or less a complete cricket equipment inventory, you don’t need all the kit on this list, as lots of organisations will lend you equipment particularly at youth level:

Cricket whites, cricket bats, balls, helmets, gloves, batting (wicket keeping) inner gloves, wicket keeping gloves, batting pads, wicket keeping pads, box, chest pad, arm guard, inner thigh pad, cricket boots (bowling boots; batting boots), box (groin guard), stumps and bails.

For most of the sports meetings you participate in you will require to have your own set of whites. Cricket whites include white cricket trousers and cricket shirt. Make sure that you get hold of an excellent set of cricket trousers as well as a good white cricket shirt and jumper as it can easily get pretty cold if you are standing out on the pitch for a great deal of time in particular if you are going to play in England (the start and end of the season are the coldest). Check out the latest cricket equipment sales online at Sportswear-Equipment.com.

If you can not borrow equipment from your club the other most critical items of equipment are a cricket bat and box. A good quality cricket bat is necessary if you aim to score many runs and is a very personal piece of equipment, therefore spend a few hours selecting your bat, if at all possible you should go to a sports shop and pick one up before you buy in order for you to know how it feels to hit with. As soon as you know what you want you can often acquire bats online cheaper). You need a good box to guard your groin from the ball, as getting hit down below’ is particularly painful, so investing in a good box before you start is a clear must - you can not bat without one.

Related topics of interest include: F1 Merchandise & Toys.

All I Really Needed to Know About List Building | I Learned From Stephen King!

I have always been an avid reader of Stephen King’s writings over the years, he’s one of the few authors that I can safely say I have read everything he has written. Granted, I am a couple of years behind, but I do manage to catch up as I get the time and opportunity to read him.

Most of his work is pure fluff or entertainment but some of his writings (Different Seasons comes quickly to mind) is some of the Best Writing America has produced in the last 50 years or so. In the same light, (in my humble opinion) Stephen King is one of the best writers America has produced in the last 50 years.

Totally underrated mainly because of the ‘genre’ of his writing - he’s the perfect example of a ’stereotyped writer’ outperforming many of the stereotypes most critics find that brings down his writing. Once you have been typecasted, it’s extremely difficult to break out of the mold that many people, rightly or wrongly, have pigeon holed you into.

Regardless, whether you’re on the ‘+’ or ‘-’ side of Stephen King… I am firmly in the ‘+’ column… you should look at him for his ‘list building’ techniques!

What?

Stephen King and List Building? What’s up with that?

List building is all about building a direct personal relationship with your contacts, prospects, or subscribers. Readers must feel a direct connection with you; someone they can trust and relate to in an one-on-one situation.

Your communications should have this friendly, causal feel as if you’re talking to a close confident or pal. It must touch your reader on a purely personal level or you will not succeed in building a good relationship.

Stephen King, in many of his books’ Post Scripts or Author’s Forwards, speaks directly to his readers. These communications are friendly, chatty, and intimate - like direct conversations with a close contact over a cup of hot coffee on a Misty Maine Morning. Constant Reader please listen up, I have something to tell ya!

Over the years, no doubt, these ‘Direct Letters’ to his ‘Constant Readers’ have built up a fierce loyal readership that probably has more of a direct correlation to his sales than many people would admit or could imagine.

His list must be in the ‘tens of millions’, readers who are eagerly awaiting the next installment of this correspondence. King, whether he realizes it or not (no doubt he does), has built up a large contact list of eager readers who not only look forward to getting their next King Fix but also looking forward to the next Author’s Note that touches briefly on the events in his own life.

This is a great way of connecting with his readers and one does get the feeling that King ‘genuinely’ does care about his readers. It’s something that’s read between the lines and can’t be faked!

It also has a way of ‘fleshing out’ his writing; offering a personal view or comments on his take of things. It is also a perfect way of building a more personal relationship with his readers. Probably the only down side for King is the few ‘fanatics’ that may take this relationship to an extreme level. An unfortunate fact of living in the modern world.

In spite of this, building a large contact list has many more benefits and as we see by the King’s example, it can take many forms. For anyone in the marketing field, a close study of King’s list should be noted for how it builds (over time) a deep loyal following that’s ready and eager to shell out for King’s latest offering, time and time again.

Anyone building a large list should keep many of these points in mind - making a direct personal appeal/contact and forming a relationship with your readers or subscribers may take years but a loyal readership will pay dividends for years to come. Rewards that can not only result in financial gains, but rewards of a more personal nature which comes from knowing you have helped someone by brightening up their day or putting a smile on their faces - just with the power of your writing.

Powerful stuff indeed and worth a King’s Ramson!

Any man, woman, and in some cases, any child, can write a saleable product on any subject as long as they have the knowledge of that subject through personal experience, research, or both. The list of subjects that can be written about is endless.

Creating a product is easy and pretty simple. However, it can take longer and require more sweat, blood and anguish for some people to produce a completed product than it does for others, even if they are equally knowledgeable.

When creating an information product you should always write as though you are talking to the reader. Write in a way that’s similar to the way you were instructed to write book reports in high school.

You should be factual and clear. Know who your reader is and what type of language they expect you to use. By this I mean that you should build-up a rapport with the reader that he can feel. The reader should get the impression that you’re talking directly to them.

Informational reports on how to make money usually sell very well, but you must think about your competition. Believe me, there is ALOT of competition! Other great products could contain information about how to learn and develop and prepare for a new career, how to save money, how to make more time for leisure activities, how to solve personal problems or how to attain greater success.

Simply pick a subject that has sales appeal and that will sell well for you. This is not as hard to do as it sounds. All you have to do is write about something that you already know. When you write about something you already have knowledge on your enthusiasm will show through. If you’re not a strong writer this is a benefit for you because it will cause your reader to overlook your writing weaknesses!

Once you’ve decided on a subject you’re next step is to do very thorough research. Read as much about your topic as you can find. Get information from the Internet, the library, newspapers, magazines and books. They used to say that you should spend a good six weeks or so researching your subject and gathering notes, but since the Internet is so full of great information it doesn’t take nearly as long anymore. I’ve even seen it reported that some people can produce a product in as little as 1-3 days!

My only opinionated suggestion to you is that you take at least one day off from your information before you create your final copy. Set aside your first draft and allow your brain, body and especially your creative juices to rejuvinate. Then, go over your rough draft and polish it up.

This is when you should make sure that your words are easy to read and easy to understand. If this is the case then each sentence will flow very smoothly. If you’re sentences flow in this manner your words will be much easier to comprehend.

Once your product is complete it will have the potential to make quite a bit of money for you. Then, all you have to do is go find a report on how and where to sell it for the best results. Better yet, maybe you could create that product, too!