The Spoon Boon Blog

It may seem to go against all forms of poker logic to voluntarily label yourself as a fish, but that is exactly what David Ulliott did. His nickname, Devilfish, was earned in a poker tournament in 1993 where he was compared to the devilfish; a potentially lethal fish that needs to be handled properly. Since that time he has claimed the nickname as his own, even having rings custom made with his nickname. His nickname is also engraved on his World Series of Poker bracelet.

While he is well known in the poker world, his strength lies in pot limit Omaha player, rather than the well publicized Texas Hold’em games. He has expressed a personal preference for the game, but is judged by many to play equally well in both versions of poker. His most publicized Texas Hold’em success was in the 1997 World Series of poker, where he won the bracelet. He has not won any bracelets since that event. He has appeared in the Late Night Poker Series, and in the World Poker Tour. He is well known in Europe for his poker skills, but is gradually becoming a household name in the United States as well. He is currently the spokesman for UltimateBet, an online gambling site.

Some gamers have asked “Why should I sign up for this rakeback deal? I just play on the World Wide Web when I have an incentive.” What will you do if one of these days you have the opportunity to take card playing up as a job? There are a lot of betters in the online poker community who are extremely distressed at dismissing rakeback offers and nowadays they have now opted in for all the leading online rooms. Do not make the same mistake.

If you are a person that stakes up to one or two dollars and then only bets when clearing bonuses, you could be getting usually around one hundred percent rake back for the bonus on the stake. A certain major website lately removed card players that used their gambling site exclusively for this function. Nobody knows for sure if this practise will initiate a new trend. Should this happen then immediately a rakeback offer is imperative. Poker Rakeback

Finally you may find your greatest game and then become extremely lucky, if it hasn’t happened by now. I was injured in an accident and found online poker whilst recovering, I have no regrets. That’s a couple of years back and believe me I have not needed to work since due to gambling and naturally rakeback. It is always great idea to look ahead. Consider it an investment in tomorrow, even if you do not consider rakeback is appropriate for you at the minute it could become a great option tomorrow, there’s zero to lose. If you’re thinking about trying out a new poker rooms you really must check out rake back.

The online gamblers interest association Rakeback Professionals is pleased to have such a lot of ethical affiliates. Reaping the benefits is as effortless as logging into any The poker afficionado interest service Rakeback Professionals affiliated website or even as accessible as e-mailing. The affiliate has the power to get anyone up and running in no time. You will be ready to start playing straight away. Should you sign up with a partner via Rakeback Professionals you can rest easy as each affiliate has been evaluated and also have agreed to grant permission to The Rakeback Professionals site to sort out whatever conflict which may happen. Granted that we screen every last one of our partners, we have had hardly any complaints and in addition we will always move instantly to investigate every concern to take care of the card players.

So, you have decided to start an ebook business. The question: what kind of ebook are you going to sell and how to bring it into the market?

The first thing you should know before bringing a product into the market is: SUPPLY + NO DEMAND = NO SALES. That is why you have to carefully research what people want, then find a suitable product that will meet that demand.

To do a research, visit http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion. Throw in these keywords: “Buy”, “Learn”, “How to”, and a list of popular search terms (ranked by number of searches per month) will appear. Using this information, you can determine what exactly your market wants, then decide on a suitable product to meet that demand. Other than using these tools, you can post questions in forums and ask people what they want. Very often, they will provide you with good answers.

After deciding a suitable product, only then should you decide on how it would be brought into the market.

There are 3 main ways to bring an ebook into the market:

1) Creating your own ebook

2) Being an affiliate

3) Purchasing resale rights to other people’s product.

Creating your own ebook

Creating your own ebook is not as hard as you think. It is a simple doing an intensive research on the topic you are going to write, then compile your findings into a report or an ebook and sell it at a price people are willing to pay.

In addition to writing your own material, you can use information from the public domain. Public domain information is usually written texts that have no copyright.
Creating your product using public information could be profitable when done right.

Being an affiliate to other people’s products

You can quite simply sell other peoples products as an affiliate for a share of the profits. The owner of the product gets a sale for their product that they would never have had, and you will get a check at the end of the month for selling that product on the owner’s behalf. Some product owners are willing to pay out as much as 60% of the profit. That is a healthy percentage. You can visit http://www.clickbank.com/ or http://www.associateprograms.com/ to for a huge list of affiliate programs you can join.

Purchasing resale rights

Not interested in being an affiliate or creating your own ebook? No problem… You can always find ebooks that offer resale rights that are already selling very well on the internet. You purchase the resale rights, sell the ebook, and keep 100% profits when that ebook is sold. Ebooks that come with resale rights often come bundled together with the sales letter and some marketing materials. When choosing a great product, do:

-Look for some level of exclusivity

-Look for quality sales letters

-Look for products with a wide market appeal

-Avoid products that are commonly included in packages

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Find out how you can FULLY set up and run your own internet business within a few days at http://www.ebizmodelsyoucancopy.com
Visit E-Biz Wiz Blog for proven ideas, tips and information on starting your own Internet Business and subscribe to the 12 Day Internet Marketing Success Course. http://ebizmodelsyoucancopy.blogspot.com/

The Hero’s Journey is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon - understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters.

The Hero’s Journey:

Attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the audience has regarding what a story is and how it should be told.

Gives the writer more structural elements than simply three or four acts, plot points, mid point and so on.

Interpreted metaphorically, laterally and symbolically, allows an infinite number of varied stories to be created.

The Hero’s Journey is also a study of repeating patterns in successful stories and screenplays. It is compelling that screenwriters have a higher probability of producing quality work when they mirror the recurring patterns found in successful screenplays.

Story Structure: Hero Convergence

One often overlooked aspect of the Hero’s Journey is the convergence of Allies and possibly the Shape Shifter with the hero on his (or her way) to the Final Conflict (often the Master of Two Worlds stage).

It is not unusual for convergence to begin post the Rebirth after the Near Death Experience.

Just as the Pull toward the Final Conflict [for the Hero] is a combination of pulls towards it and pushes against it, so the convergence is also riddled with obstacles.

For example, in Goldfinger (1964), Bond activates the homing device to let Felix know to come. But Felix et al lose the signal…causing us to wonder how the allies will aid our man…

Learn more…

The Complete 188 stage Hero’s Journey and FREE 17 stage sample and other story structure templates can be found at http://managing-creativity.com/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop

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Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. His specialities include Knowledge Management and Creativity and Innovation Management. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached at http://managing-creativity.com/

The journey to having my first novel for children published has been riddled with road blocks and shonky bridges. The good news? At every rickety stage I’ve picked up tips (and anti-tips) which I’m happy to share with everyone…

Read

For me, this was the easy stage! Aspiring writers need to read like maniacs to be aware of other writers’ work, both locally and internationally. There is no point writing a killer story if it resembles something already published. Sadly, that means no scar-faced teen wizards named Barry.

Write

Here’s a simple equation: the more you write, the better you become at writing. By the time I was ready to be born I’d already completed my first three manuscripts (spent most of the time looking around for somewhere to plug in my laptop). When the doctor smacked me on the backside I squinted at him and went, ‘Waaah!’ Which of course meant, ‘Ah, you must be my agent!’ I went on to scrawl home-made comics throughout my childhood before I began writing for surf magazines at age 17. Since then, I’ve had thousands of articles and pieces of fiction published. A lot were ‘hack’ stories; a few won me awards and contests. All helped build my writing skills and voice.

Feedback

A local teacher read my first manuscript to his class (thank you, Bob Swoope). The feedback was terrific. One kid enthused, “It’s just like Harry Potter, only funnier!” I dined off that compliment for a month.

I’m lucky ten year olds believe payment in Paddle Pops is the industry standard for editors, else I’d be broke by now (well, actually I am broke). I read all my stories to my daughter, her friends, and any young relatives I can bail up. Whenever my juvenile focus groups wander off to the nearest TV, I know the chapter I’m reading needs major reconstruction. Whenever the kids sit glued to their chairs and demand more, I know my story is heading in the right direction (and I’ve bought the right glue and Paddle Pops).

It’s useful to let adults rip into your story as well. Adult writers, that is. I’ve learned it’s best to avoid family members and friends, unless you enjoy making these people flee whenever they see you. Join a local or online critique group instead. Growing elephant-thick skin will also help you through this stage.

Rewrite

Finally, you think your book is ready. It isn’t. Time to let the manuscript breathe for a month, before revising it with fresh eyes. Be ruthless. Hack those excess adjectives that editors loathe. Delete every scene that does not sparkle, advance the plot on multiple levels and compel the reader to keep reading.

Rewrite again

As a writer for children, you’re not only competing against the mutant slush pile from Hell and other kid’s books, but against the internet, computer games and 24 hour cartoon networks. Remember: the modern kid is smarter, more savvy and easily bored than any generation before.

Submitting

Crunch time. When you submit your first manuscript, get stuck straight into writing the second. When your manuscript returns unloved, send another submission out on the same day (or even better, send two). For every five rejections, rewrite. Never surrender.

Over the course of several months, I sent my manuscript to every agent in the country. They all rejected until I was dejected. So I directly targeted publishers instead. I almost fell out of my computer chair when the second one immediately replied. The wonderful Ibis Publishing of Melbourne liked my story so much, they asked me to commit to writing two more in the same series. Truth is, to be published, I would have committed to writing a sequel naked in a bubble in the middle of Pitt Street. Luckily, they didn’t. But I still have my bubble.

Pre-publication

Over a year has gone by since my book was accepted. My patient editor Belinda Bolliger has driven me through two more rewrites to add backstory, cull my ellipsis fever and tone down my more extreme jokes. My major character has become less obnoxious and had a sex change from girl to boy. Why? Apparently, girls will read about boys; but boys aren’t happy reading about girls.

I originally named my book after the planet of talking horses and mutant chooks at the centre of my story. However, Uponia (too strange) was changed to Planet Horse Fart (too rude) to ZAPP to Planet Horse (too horsey) to Raz James and The Amazing ZAPP Discovery (too vague) to Erasmus James and the Galactic ZAPP Machine (too… wait, that’s it!).

The cover art has changed almost as many times while the date of publication has been put back from last Christmas to May to June to September. Fingers crossed on that last one!

It is vital to remain flexible and positive through such changes and delays. Yoga helps. Better to get everything right than to rush out an inferior product. The extra time has also given me time to set up a website, work out a battle plan with the Ibis marketing team Anthony and Paola and watch my hair turn even more grey. Meanwhile, my bank account has nose-dived, but who really needs fancy mod-cons like electricity and food?

On the road

Last month I drove to Sydney to psyche up the Pan Macmillan sales team. I delivered a ten minute standup comedy routine and was as surprised as anyone when the friendly team laughed at my feeble jokes and seemed enthused about selling my book. On the long drive home, I realised this would be but the first of many such promotional trips: to schools, book signings, anything and everything that will help me sell a few more copies and keep doing what I love so much. Then the rain began to bucket and my front tyre blew out. As I bounced into the bush, I realised I was about to experience another first on the scenic detour known as Publication Road.

DC GREEN BIO

DC Green is the author of the soon-to-be-published ‘Erasmus James and the Galactic ZAPP Machine’, a funny and action-packed tale of friendship, intergalactic zapping, flatulent horses, environmental havoc and bus-sized chooks. An award-winning fiction and non-fiction writer, DC used to travel the world for surf magazines, mainly because he couldn’t afford his own air tickets. He lives on the NSW South Coast of Australia with one slightly crazy daughter and three very crazy cats.

Check out DC’s stories at: http://dcgreenyarns.blogspot.com/

Buy ‘Erasmus James and the Galactic ZAPP Machine’ at Bookmark Australia: http://www.bookmarkaustralia.com.au/

Even though you should never only rely on your spellchecker to find mistakes in your document, you can make the most of your spellchecker by changing the settings. It isn’t as scary as it sounds and once you learn where these settings are, you can change them as often as you need to for whatever guidelines you have to use for a particular document that you are writing.

These punctuation settings are consistent with the American publishing industry. If you are writing for Great Britain (the United Kingdom) or writing in English for any other country, be sure to learn what punctuation rules are used in that country’s publishing industry. You can reset the spellchecker options at any time so that when you run spellcheck, it will automatically check for the right punctuation placement.

Here’s the easy 1-2-3 instructions for changing and checking your spellchecker settings:

1. Open Word.

2. On the toolbar, click on Tools. In the drop-down window, click on Options.

3. Click on the Spelling & Grammar tab, hit the Settings button. A new window will appear. Set the first three requirements:

Comma required before last list item (always)

Punctuation required with quotes (inside)

Spaces required between sentences (1)

Click OK.

Now, close all the windows that are open. Your spellchecker has now been re-set and these option settings will be in place for all Word documents that you create from now on. You only need to go through this procedure again is if you need to change these settings to comply with a specific publishing requirement. If you do change the settings, remember to change them back to these settings once you have finished that document.

Be sure to always run a final spellcheck of your document, after you have made your final corrections!

About The Author

Jan K., The Proofer is freelance proofreader and copyeditor. Visit http://www.janktheproofer.com for more information. Visit Jan K., the Proofer’s sister sites: Mom’s Break at http://www.MomsBreak.com for free printable projects and crafts. Jan’s Dough at http://www.jansdough.com for free printable recipes for Sourdough Bread and more. For more articles by Jan K., The Proofer, visit http://freecontent.janktheproofer.com. Article © Copyright 2005. All rights reserved.

jkproof@bellsouth.net

Have you ever had the experience of hiring a freelance copy writer only to find that the project takes longer than expected, or that the fees they offered are ‘flexible’ in the wrong way for you to benefit. There is no doubt that copywriter rates differ greatly from one to another. There is very little in the way of a standard rate especially when you are dealing with clients through the Internet. To ensure you don’t get taken for a ride, you need to get your copywriter rates set and keep them that way.

No matter if you are just beginning a project or are half way through, the benefits of having a set contract are enormous. Not only can you save yourself quite costly fees, but you can also count on when the project will be complete, how much you will pay, and, in the end, what to expect. If you are looking for basic rates, then ask for them. Find the copy writer you want to do the work, give them some basic idea of what the project entails and then ask for a quote. Now, before you get your email going, remember to include the word “flat” as in flat rate. By saying, “Here is my project, what is the flat rate you will charge?” you are eliminating the guess work.

Got the contract ready? That is the next most valuable tool you have to your computer. Having every detail spelled out, leaves little room for guess work. Dates, expectations, payment, and even revisions need to be included. It’s just a safe way to do business, no matter if you are the seller or the buyer. Copywriter rates that are flexible or based on a per hour rate are just too difficult to monitor. How will you monitor a per hour rate?

To find basic copywriter rates, you can browse through the listings of copy writers looking for work. There is a safe bet, here. You may want to steer clear of those asking for outrageous sums as they already have an inflated ego. You don’t need that in your work. If they had such a great business going, do you really think they would have to advertise? As for the lowest prices out there, require samples and references before getting too deep. No matter what you do need in the rates for copywriting, you can find someone out there willing to work with you. Just get the guidelines set before the project begins.

About the Author

Visit FreelanceWritingResource.com for more Articles, Resources, News and Views about Freelance Writing Jobs. This article may be reprinted in full so long as the resource box and links are included intact.