A.C.E. Writers

Recently I was notified via facebook.com that I was the winner of a blogging award presented by Jo Linsdell- Feliciani. Jo writes from her home in Italy and often sends information about other writers and their blogs over her blog about Writers and Authors. I always appreciate her insight and the links she offers.

All the blogs on her list of winners are created and maintained by writers. Please click on one of the links below to see more about writers and authors.

1. http://bookmarketingmaven.typepad.com/
2. http://www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com/
3. http://authorspromotingauthors.blogspot.com/
4. http://www.barbaraehrentreu.blogspot.com/
5. http://vrleavitt.com/
6. http://jdswritersblog.blogspot.com/
7. http://www.thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/
8. http://janverhoeff.com/blog/
9. http://pennylockwoodehrenkranz.blogspot.com/
10. http://writersanctuary.blogspot.com/

Congratulations to all these authors. I know they’re all favorite blogs of mine too. I visit them often.

You never know when it’s important to get the right message to the right person, until you’ve once given the wrong message to the wrong person. There’s a problematic issue there of the message and who it should be given to. Try now – this message.

It’s nearly midnight and the day is gone, but soon the sun will be branding the morning with a different identity – that of yet another day.

The image is golden. The sunlight sending out spires from a round orb in the eastern sky, fingers of light that dance across the horizon. But there, right at the point of center, as the sun rises above the horizon, there’s an indention in the planet and liquid fire flows from the horizon to where you stand. A single strand of light from the sun, right to your toes.

Life begins in that instance, yet again, in a new day. No past exists for that moment and you only know that you have been blessed by the new day, now fading into history.

Midnight ink has no power – only the source of strength and assurance comes with the day. The written word is crisp, clear and to the point. Don’t miss an opportunity to send your words into the future with meaning. You’re a writer. Keep your pencils sharp.

What’s the difference?

An editor will review each line and correct all those basic grammar errors, punctuation errors and line edits that need attention.

A critiquer will focus on the topic and flow of your book, assess the story line and drive your tale home to the reader.

A consultant takes on all these things and way-way more. The consultant will give you a heads up on editing (probably won’t be willing to do a line edit – unless you’re really willing to pay the big bucks) and will share some basic suggestions for layout and writing style. The consultant will adapt the story to the reader, suggesting wording, concept analogies and critiquing the way your story flows from one setting to the next.

A consultant also helps you find the right people to design covers, write titles, promote your concepts and bring your writing ideas to the top of the publishing option. Often a consultant helps you find the right Agent, send query letters and make contacts necessary for selling your book.

If you’re in need of a consultant – let me know – email.

As I sit here, once again, awaiting sunrise, the contemplation of what draws readers comes to mind.

There’s a comment in the in box that indicates my topics are spam… uhhuh. She’s selling Viagra, Vicodin and Valium and my topics are spam. Okay, that’s a good line. I suppose, even the fact that I referred to this missive content could be an indication that my content is spammy. Or it could be simply the concept of writing about what sparks interest.

Controversy —

As a blogger, my topics can range around the planet and back. I often pick up current events and chatter about my opinion on those. Sometimes, I discuss the latest, greatest piece of clothing — my daughters love it when I mention their excursions to Victoria’s Secret on my blogs. My sons would prefer I discuss their weapon of choice, or whatever topic it is they’re writing about this week. My readers on this particular blog, prefer I stick to writing topics.

Controversy can be any topic you come up with, while focusing on putting information out there to the world with some purpose, a little opinion and some irony. If the topic is intriguing enough to have references, citations might actually improve the dynamics of your topic. If not, your opinion counts as much as the next guy’s opinion. Share it.

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The Reality is — Sex Sells!
The decadent, sinful richness of chocolate draws consumption. Consumers rush to the chocolate counters at least three times a year, fully intent on proving that chocolate is a sinful seller. Yum… I’ll bite.

Writers who really want to sell their romance novels know that they need to add something that turns the reader on. They understand that sexual frustration sells books. They understand it so well that they write a little into every book they write.

Even literary masterpiece movies such as Titanic and Pearl Harbor suck up to the sexual buying public with sex appeal. Their story lines altered to include illicit sexual acts and implications, although somewhat tastefully done, are included in both movies. When action based theatricals use sexual marketing ploys, everyone knows they are attempting an appeal to women.

The implication is sexist, although probably true.

Women Considered More Consumptive
While men may purchase the higher priced products: trucks, golf clubs, tools and equipment. The bottom line is, women want more stuff.

Auto dealers have discovered an impact in their bottom line by painting the showroom pink.

Places where men used to rule are more and more often becoming a woman’s domain. Women spend money and marketing experts are figuring out that they must appeal to feminine side of their market, in order to make a profit.

Writers Learn the Lesson
Readers love to read about topics that interest them. We want controversy. The readers want to read more about topics that interest them with twists that appeal to their sense of attractions. If it appeals to you, your audience will probably love it.

But, what if it’s against your moral values to write about a given topic. Or perhaps, it’s just against the moral fabric of your being to write in a specific manner? You could lip it instead…

One writer gives an indication of where her characters are going by allowing her hero to take off his shirt. She never goes beyond the shirt, but she can describe his sinewy muscled chest in words that make your heart skip beats.

Polarity of values can work for you if you simply allow the reader to take the rest of the story. Stop before you get there and allow the controversial topics to roll on.

Writers — there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Use it to your advantage!

How many words does it take to make a profit?

The question came through email from a writer friend who had been playing with his writing game for more than half a century. The man was freaking old! But he still had a dream.

There wasn’t anything else in his message, just that question.

I couldn’t answer that one. I just sat there staring at the message, knowing the man, I understood why he was asking. He’d been writing since he was young, before he even got out of school. (And I knew he didn’t go to high school, so he was like, 12 when he got out.)

He could write. I’d read what he wrote and it was spectacular. I knew his stories would capture hearts and readers. So, the question was… How many words does it take to make a profit?

I wrote back…

It takes one thousand absolutely stellar words to make a profit. Once you write them, you’ll understand what I mean. You’ll be making a profit on your writing and everything else will fall into place. It won’t matter how many words you have to write, because you’ll have enough.

If you truly want to know what those words are, call me… My number.

I got the call.

Within a week, I got his first response to my answer. He was making his dream of writing for profit happen. After a half century, he was going to be making a profit really soon. I helped him put his words to work and the next few hours were strategically perfect, he was making money from those words.

Understand that he had written far more than a thousand words before, and we put many of THOSE words to use. But what made him profitable as a writer were those thousand words he wrote — after the call.

It’s like having a chocolate kiss.

You know there’s more chocolate available, but a kiss is all you really need.

Julia was a friend of my mom. She had curly white hair, blue eyes and a smile that just did’t quit. No matter what happened in her life, she laughed and smiled. She was a happy woman. In her late sixties she took up playing the mandolin with my mom.

Together, they had a band called the Sonshine Band that played once a week in our home, but frequently at the nursing home and at church. In the group, there were several older ladies who played various instruments. Mable played the piano, Delphine played the dobro, Mom played the guitar, and Julia played the mandolin… Other people randomly joined them for an evening, a few days or a week, but these were the main players – and all of them were past sixty.

After about two years of playing in the band, Julia found out she had cancer. She knew it was nearing the end, but she kept smiling.

My son, on a short visit to her house, asked, “What makes you so happy?”

She answered, “Go get the candy dish over there.”

He did. He brought a pretty pink dish back to her, with the lid in place.

“Inside this dish is the secret to happiness. With this, you never need anything more to make you happy.” She smiled and her eyes lit up, “so are you ready to open the lid?”

“Yes,” he whispered.

“I’m going to let you open the lid, but you can only have ONE.” She whispered, her eyes snapped with mischief.

She opened the lid and let each of the kids have ONE. “The secret is that each day, I can open the lid and have ONE. Happiness doesn’t come from having a chocolate kiss, today. It comes from having the hope that tomorrow I can have one. The secret is in hope.”

One Thousand Words —-

Are you ready to write One Thousand Words for profit?

What does constitution copyright infringement? Last week a friend was asking me about copyrights and how she could avoid being accused of it… I said, “Good luck with that!”

She shivered and asked again, “You know I never copy anything anyone else wrote without giving proper credit where due.”

I agreed, “I do. You’re always good at giving proper credit, but that’s not what you asked. You asked how you could avoid being accused of it.”

I don’t EVER copy written work of anyone else’s. But, I’ve been accused of copyright infringement by people who don’t understand that you cannot copyright an idea or a concept.

The basis of all written work is an idea or concept, and those come from somewhere! Whether you read something that inspires you, or just happen across the concept randomly; the research you do to create your article or story is yours. Links, quotes and other significant quotables should be referenced, but you get to claim the rest of the article.

For instance: The photo to the left was taken by Danielle Simone who writes a blog called Trails of Nature.  Danielle sent the photo to me this morning, but her intentions most likely did not mean I could use the photo as if it was mine. Most often, when Danielle sends me a photo, she doesn’t mind if I post it, but she’d like credit for the photo and a reference at the very least to her blogs. More often than not, I contact Danielle and ask before I post a photo she shares with me.

The significance here is that if I do use the photo, I honor Danielle by giving her credit and a link, thereby not infringing on her right as owner of the the photo. It’s always a good thing to give credit and referral links when sharing a photo or information online. I always recommend contacting the owner of a photo and asking if you can reprint if you haven’t got prior permission.

Paper and pen go a long ways toward building a successful writing career. You’ve probably heard all the secrets that make writers good at their task.

• Using a computer with word count.
• Using word checker to spell check your writing.
• Using line edited scripts on the computer.
• Writing with a keyboard and functional digital dictionary.
• Using spoken word to write at voice command.

All these offer multiple options for making your work better, but seriously, you need to write. Nothing replaces putting the pen to paper and just writing down what you want to write.

Often as daylight hours break, I find myself longing for a porch, a deck, or a place to simply write down my thoughts. It comes from spending years writing on the patio, or on the porch, to bring my words into focus.

When writer’s block strikes, I simply grab a pen and head for the great outdoors. Nothing can stop a writer with a pen and paper – short of running out of ink… or paper.

By Laura Wheeler

It seems that everybody is an SEO expert, even though, if you truly understand the field, you quickly come to realize that nobody knows everything about SEO. In fact, many people who say they do, are really just guessing. [Read more →]

As writers, the unfortunate reality is that we have to do the lion’s share of book marketing and promotion ourselves. Key to that marketing is the virtual book tour, otherwise known as a blog tour. Advertising a book tour actually begins way before your book release.

Here’s how I did it. I created a blog a year and a handful of months before my book was released. On that blog, on Wednesdays, I hosted an author. Almost without exception, each interviewee told me that when the time came for me to begin my blog tour, they would be glad to host me.

Would I remember all those names? Of course not. So, I created a file, where I printed off the emails from those authors, highlighting their comment. Each time I received a comment like that, I printed it and tucked it in my file.

Over the course of the year, I got a handle on which blogs created more buzz than others, and which ones had a good following. I made it a point to host those authors on my blog. It was a win-win proposition.

My book, “Guardian,” was released the end of January, 2010. Planning a blog tour is about organization. I began planning mine for the first 10 days of March. I went to my file and perused its contents. Then I chose several folks from that file.

I had to contact each one and suggest a date. I also had to keep track of who I suggested each date to, so that information went in my file also. Once I had the dates nailed down, I placed the dates and blogs who would be hosting me on my blog. I did the same thing on my website.

I then had to create the content for each blog. Sometimes, I guest posted, sometimes I was interviewed, and sometimes my book, “Guardian,” was reviewed. It is important to mix it up so your followers don’t get bored with repetitious information. It was my responsibility to make sure that my blog hosts had all the information from me that they needed ahead of time so that the day of the blog came the post was up.

Then, for each day of the blog tour, I advertised on all the yahoo groups I am a part of that I was on so-and-so’s blog that day. I also advertised on my own blog for that day, Facebook and Twitter. Key to the success of the blogging, I think, was having a copy of my book to give to a lucky commenter at the end of the blog tour.

Further, the blog’s owner advertised on the day of they hosted me, so that was central to the blog’s success as well. Those blogs that were advertised by me and the blog owner (in an enthusiastic manner) were key to a successful tour.

In retrospect, 10 days was probably a bit too long. I think people stopped following me because they got some of the same information more than once. Seven days would have worked better.

When it was all said and done, the tour was pretty much a success. To be honest, I don’t know how many books it sold as I’m not privy to that information, but my publisher has those numbers, and I’ll find out when I get my first royalty check.

To sum it up, place the schedule on your blog and web site, post about it daily on Facebook and Twitter, promote it daily on your yahoo/ning groups, and ask the blog host to do the same thing.

You can visit Katie Hines on her blog at http://katiehines.blogspot.com for more information about blog tours and her book Guardian.

“How many words have you written today?” The question didn’t resonate with me, because I’ve never really counted words. Bloggers don’t. Even back when I was focused intently on writing books for a living, my portion didn’t really have much to do with word counts, so I didn’t… Count words, that is.

Traditionally, for me, if I didn’t spend several hours a day with my butt plastered to the chair and my fingers clacking out words on the keyboard, I wasn’t getting a heck of a lot done. And, that didn’t constituted food on the table. So, if my kids wanted to eat, I’d better be parking my butt in the chair for the allotted amount of time required. Which, I must add (color is an additive here), has given me a rather ample derriere.

Then along came Article Marketing and 250 word articles are easy to write in a limited amount of time. For instance, I can generally put out at least 5 – 250 word articles in an hour, with quality content that drives traffic and meets the requirement of many article marketing sites. Given a few moments more, and I’ve added enough content for a side bar or two and my five articles can become a thousand word report with the introductory paragraph and a simple conclusion.

So, when fellow writer Oris George called to ask how many words I’d typed out today, I hesitated. Three blog posts, five articles, two White Papers and a few chapters on a children’s book I’m currently writing make about 5K words today. Not so many, given it’s after five in the evening and I’ve been home all day, unless of course you consider that I’ve got two new baby grandson’s to spoil, a grand daughter who needs attention and the phone hasn’t stopped ringing all day long. Not to mention the two teenage boys who have spent the day asking questions about going to camp in the blustery snowstorm that invaded our lovely March about midnight last night.

Romance writers like Marcia Lynn McClure have proven that there’s money to be made, just writing books and selling them online. Other serious writers, Dianne E. Butts and Lea Schizas, have focused their writing on children’s books, writing information and articles published in alternative publications.

Writing for Profit is not difficult, impossible, or even unheard of on the Internet. Most anyone with a computer has the skill required to create some form of money making enterprise online, but few will make the effort. There are a few minimal requirements to make a steady income online, and I’ll list them right here:

• Email account
• Website
• Content
• Traffic
• Product
• Services
• Purpose…

Of all these things, the skill to create them comes pretty natural, if you have a little umph.

If you’re looking for ways to achieve your goal of having a website, I have a suggestion for you. Visit the Blog Busters Network for Business conference in April and when you leave you’ll have ALL these items with three months of FREE hosting for your site domain, products and services.