Angela Booth's Writing Blog

Writing a Book? Publish It Yourself

Now it’s all about the money.

To hell with the story.

As he said, publishing companies are merging, big publishing companies are buying small companies, and small publishing companies are dying miserable deaths and going out of business.

The man behind the desk no longer cares about books. He cares about money.

He doesn’t read novels. He reads only the bottom line.

via venturegalleries.com

For most writers, the big advantage of traditional publishers over self-publishing has always been editors.

That advantage has gone, it seems. Publishers are cutting down on editors.

You might as well hire an editor and publish your book yourself.

Just Five Minutes Makes All the Difference

On the blog this week, I ran “Five-Minute Money: Ten Fast and Easy Cash Generators for Writers”.

The article discusses simple little things you can do which will be powerfully effective over time.

Jan, one of my students, called me to tell me about #5 — “5. Contact a Client to Catch up.”

She had five minutes, so she called one of her clients. She hasn’t spoken to him since last September. He not only gave her a big new project, but also give her the phone number of one of HIS clients. Just 24 hours later, she had three new gigs, which will make her a total of $8,450 over the next few weeks.

via www.fabfreelancewriting.com

This week on our freelance writing tips blog, we're running a series on blogging.

We kicked the week off with the "5-minute blogger."

Just five minutes can make all the difference in your writing life.

Accept What You Get, Every Day

If someone wants your very best version, that probably means that they're going to get the same version that you've done before, the same as the best version you produced a week ago. If you want the best, it also means that you're asking someone to repeat what's come before.

via sethgodin.typepad.com

Seth's a genius. Too many writers want polished performances each day.

Accept what you receive with each day's writing. Acceptance makes writing fun.

If you've been struggling, acceptance will end those struggles.

Don't Blame the Internet

The Internet is what we make of it. Luckily, I have never had a problem turning off the computer to read a long book or go on a long bike ride. I have learned to compartmentalize my digital self from my physical self. The Internet does not define me. It is a part of what I do and what makes me… me. But it is not the core of my existence.

via readwrite.com

Writers complain that the Internet is too distracting: they have no time to write.

My response: "Decide what's most important to YOU."

If email, online gaming, movies and Facebook are important, that's fine.

We all have the same number of hours available each day and week.

It's not the Internet's fault if you're not using some of your hours for writing. :-)

Imposter Syndrome: Do You Have It?

There is, of course, the Imposter Syndrome, a real syndrome psychiatrists diagnose many women–particularly successful women–with. According to Wikipedia, the Imposter Syndrome is: “a psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments. Despite external evidence of their competence, those with the syndrome remain convinced that they are frauds and do not deserve the success they have achieved.

via www.publishingcrawl.com

Excellent article on Imposter Syndrome. It afflicts many writers.

If You've Thought Of Blogging As a Career

One of my friends is now a keen blogger. She calls her life a "permanent vacation". She blogs for 45 minutes after she's dropped her children off at school, then for another 40 minutes at a café, while she's having lunch. In the evening, she checks on her blogs before she goes to sleep…

She tells me that aside from an on-going income, the best gift her blogs have given her is the gift of time.

via lazyrichblogger.com

Get onto the blogging fast track. Check out this amazing offering: even the coaching is included. (However, it's time limited.)

Enjoy. :-)

How To Write a Book

Want to write a book?

Many people do, if my Inbox is any indication. I get at least ten email messages a week which start by saying either: “I want to write a book…” or “How do I write a book?”

If you’d like to write a book too, here’s what I tell my correspondents: GET STARTED.

Write one word, and another one. And another. Don’t stop.

Sooner or later, you’ll have a lot of writing that’s book length.

via www.justwriteabook.com

Write. And then write some more...

Say It Backwards: Seth Godin's Writing Tip

If your writing feels like nothing but easily defensible aphorisms, as if you're saying things that are obvious, it's entirely possible that no one is going to eagerly keep reading. Your real estate brochure or the ad copy you've written--if it's merely posturing or bragging, better to not say it at all. We already know you think you did something great.

via sethgodin.typepad.com

Sheer brilliance: read Seth's advice, and follow it.

Writing Secret: Limit Your Time and Write More

It reminded me of Parkinson’s Law; If you give yourself a set amount of time to complete a task, you will fill that time to completion, so when I gave myself 45 hours to get a week’s worth of work done, it took me 45 hours. When I only gave myself 35 hours, I still got everything done, plus I had a lot more time to myself, which in turn reduced stress and made me even more productive.

via www.lifehack.org

You can set time limits to your writing, too.

Here’s a little secret: if you limit your time, you’ll write more. (If you’re concerned about your writing’s quality, it’ll be much the same as always.)

Let’s say you’ve been hired to write the content for five webpages. You think it will take you eight hours.

Give yourself four hours.

You’ll get it done.

Here’s why this works. As soon as you limit the time, you’ll get creative about finding ways to work faster.

One writer found that if she photographed pages from library books into her iPad, she cut down on research time. Back at home, she opened the pages in Skitch, and annotated them. Photographing, and then annotating, cut her research time in half.

Challenge yourself to find your own ways to be creative, and get more done. If you write for a living, you can increase your income painlessly.

Mayhem: Anne Rice Posts Link To Review She Doesn't Like

... Anne Rice. This author chose to respond by posting a link on her Facebook page (where her 740 thousand Facebook followers could find it) and appended the invitation: “Comments most welcome.”.

via www.the-digital-reader.com

Well, for goodness sake. A decoupaging blogger decided to cut up an Anne Rice novel. She didn't like like the novel, but she liked the paper it was written on.

So what? You'd think.

Anne Rice didn't think that. She promptly posted the link to the blog post on her Facebook page... Predictably, mayhem erupted.

The blogger writes: At this time I choose not to remove this post or the comments, the only difference is that a well-known author has singled out a single post from a tiny blog for her followers to demonize. Thank you for your time.

Keeping a Diary in the DIgital Age

“I doubt anyone will ever read my diaries, but I feel as if I have some ‘proof’ that I lived the life I am living,” Perry said. And the novelist John Sundman told me, “The benefit of keeping a diary is that it helps me figure out what the hell I’m doing with my time on earth.”

via paidcontent.org

I use Day One (great app) for digital journaling, but also write journals (yes, plural) in pen and ink.

Over the weekend, I reread Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl over the weekend -- on the Kindle of course. It's an amazing book.

Clever Online Outliner Uses Dropbox

Fargo is a simple idea outliner, notepad, todo list, project organizer.

It's an HTML 5 application, written in JavaScript, runs in any compatible browser, including Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Microsoft IE 10.

Files are stored in Dropbox, using the Dropbox API. They are accessible anywhere Dropbox is. You can share files with other users, or publicly.

via smallpicture.com

If you're a Dropbox user, you'll adore Fargo. Very clever, and simple outliner.

You can import your outlines into any app which imports OPML format.

Video: Perfect Partners, Whitelines and Evernote

“Hi! This is a short film on how to make your handwritten notes searchable using Whitelines paper and Evernote.

You need a Whitelines notepad, an Evernote account and a pen of course. Then you make your notes, scan, upload the scan to you Evernote account and search!

via whitelines.se

If you love writing with pens and paper, try Whitelines paper. Photograph your notes, send them to Evernote, and they're instantly searchable.

Since the above video was made, Whitelines has released Whitelines® Link paper, making the integration with Evernote even easier.

Scapple: A Serious Doodle Pad for Writers

The way Scapple works is you double-click anywhere on a document and start writing. This can be something simple like the name of a character, or something longer, like a chapter's opening paragraph. Or it can be a note that has to do with anything your mind can think of and needs to get down quickly.

via www.tuaw.com

It's no secret that I LOVE Scrivener. I've been using it for years, and use it for every long writing project; even for short ones, like blog posts, if I'm writing a series of them.

So when the Scrivener people came out with Scapple last year, I had to download the beta. The above article gives you a clue to what Scapple is, but I think of it as a doodle pad.

Mind you, I still have paper doodle pads -- I think better with a pen in my hand -- but Scapple's ideal for getting disparate thoughts down quickly, and for brainstorming.

It's even great for work overviews. I have a Scapple document called "Today Notes", which is just a large pad of the things I'm currently working on and which I want to keep in mind.

This is amazingly useful. I can add a note to a project while I'm working on something else, and when I take a break, I can look over the "pad" quickly to see whether my work's on track for the day.

Scapple's wonderful addition to my workflow, and of course, it interacts with Scrivener. You can drag your notes into any Scrivener document.

Writing Ebooks: Free -- Give Away Books

Give away review copies

You should give away “free” copies to anyone who’s likely to give you a review. Publishers are happy to give away review copies, and if you’re a self-publisher, you’re a publisher.

Reviews are solid GOLD on Amazon.

You should be more than ready to give away 200 copies of your ebook in exchange for reviews. However — this is important — you need to form relationships with potential reviewers first. This takes time.

via www.justwriteabook.com

We've been talking about writing and selling ebooks on the freelance writing blog this week.

Giving away ebooks helps you to sell more.

Lowering the price to 99 cents may help too.

(However, always have a reason.)