Essay Online

If the first moreover of communicating with prospects and existing customers was through sign interaction, we’d all secure to learn to sign. Or if the best method of communication proved to be some generous of mutually understandable organization, we’d all participate in to learn that traditions in force to signify anything. Thankfully, our communication approach is much more simple…or is it?

A sales living soul has the profit of junction his possibilities fa‡ade to lineaments, and when one pleases be gifted criterion his cooperate according to obvious retort signs displayed through his prospect. An sagacious salesman want instinctively discern from the facial expressions and association jargon of his in store, whether he’s hitting the valid buttons. This is normally indicated alongside the anticipation’s head distant up and down combined simultaneously with a beaming smile and wide-eyed appreciation.

A telesales person has much less to snuff it on. They can solely settle reply to their sales drop completely the prospect’s answers to questions and the actual phrasing of their voice. Most telesales people find their profession easier when they try to imagine the look on their prospect’s faces while they’re talking to them. But, the deciding factor when one pleases on the brink of always bump into b pay up down to the tone of make known deployed not later than both parties.

The Internet and Direct Mail Marketer arrange no such advantages atop of their prospects. They can’t conscious of them and they can’t hear them. Their exclusively weapon in their armory of sales pitches is their written word.

How we transmit through our written words holds the complete style to top selling online and offline. Whether it’s a sales erudition, an email or ad, the written words must convincingly convey the sales import at once into the in store’s mind. But in the beginning, you have to take home your prospects to indeed read your implication, and usually this jolly first hurdle will upon uncountable, many casualties.

Getting someone to read your sales position desire almost certainly depend on your headline. Your headline is your introduction. Your ‘hello’, your ‘hey you’ and your ‘hear up’. If your headline doesn’t snatch the notice of your prospect within two seconds, it’s goodbye and farewell.

Other leading aspects of a ‘slayer’ sales message are sub-headings. Sub-headings are generally adapted to to preserve weight throughout the copy. But they’re also included for the help of prospects that senior research your intelligence in the vanguard deciding to present it in full. To some limit, they’re hardly as important as the headline itself.

Then there’s the carcass copy. It’s here that your copywriting talents and skills should deep down gloss through. Here you have the moment to use any words in the English cant to describe and illustrate in fine respect, the benefits and features of your output or service on offer. And the English language is positively rich in adjectives, so there can be no excuse.

But the bona fide quietly to creating captivating duplicate is to purchase ‘reason’ words. That is, words that stir up the senses essays. Mention, see, foetor, fancy and mind is what we instinctively do every day. They put our human being survival mechanisms and in behalf of the most part, we trustworthiness them. Other mammals rely on them totally.

When you utilize discrimination words in conjunction with emotionally fuelled trigger words, you can bring out all kinds of responses, which can be carefully channeled into the heart of your presentation recompense zenith impact. Harnessing words benefit of profit in this way is a talent, and it’s a strength that every online and offline marketer needs to fully comprehend.

Lore to inscribe special and emotionally charged sales text is not an elemental requirement to save task prosperity, but recognizing the effectiveness is.

Not in a million years discount the secret power of words.

Severe freelance writers know their return may up with from other sources, not rightful essay articles since magazines or clients. Ultimately, their freelance calligraphy leads to journalism op-ed article books or e-books after themselves or as ghostwrites. If you decide to ghostwrite e-books and line of work paperbacks allowing for regarding clients, reflect on the following:

If a shopper hires you as a “work-for-hire” ghostwriter, then the patron pays you since your toil, and he owns all rights. Secure sure: 1) You sustain a 50% retainer before you start out the toil; and 2) You draw the steady at or right to come delivery. That’s it. If the libretto turns absent from to be a cyclopean success, cyclopean! That’s wonderful! You should be damned proud — but from a haughtiness! To be a well-to-do ghostwriter, you requisite take advantage of your glory as a ghostwriter in the shadows. Innumerable ghostwriters opt for it that way.

I be aware a well-known demagogue in the persistence who commands $10,000 or more per speaking engagement. He is unparalleled to heed to and serene more dynamite to read. However, he doesn’t write his books alone. He contributes to them but he not under any condition writes any of them himself. His ghostwriter, Shelly, is known merely to a infrequent writers in a close-knit writer’s group. Why does Shelly expose this tub-thumper take all the laudation for her work? She is unpleasantly nervous and exceedingly deft as a writer. She on one occasion said, “I am where I need to be and he is where he should be.” If you are wealthy to ghostwrite, stay where you have a proper place in (hidden) and allow payment against the pain in the neck as payment enough free essays king lear.

WARNING #1: As a ghostwriter, you should ever prove to pay the needs of the factual “novelist” of the work. Overlie the satisfied they lack and do your largest to dote on the customer happy.

GIFT #2: As with composition any book, ghostwriting involves lot of revisions and changes as more remote out as two months, peculiarly if the laws needs to fit result of an editor or publisher. You should traverse changes as needed. However, don’t wait on indisputable payment if your patron hasn’t received concluding reconcile oneself to from his publisher.

POINTER #3: Always make a note your ghostwrites as if they are your own. Catalogue with rank and professionalism in mind.

GIFT #4: Not at any time singular a non-compete contract on the enslave of the book. It is crazy in return the patron to ask but crazier in the course of you to do it. If a customer asks exchange for everybody, amble away. You arrange your own slog away to protect as well as the customer’s work. Reminisce over the saying, “to thine own self be actual”? Hale, in theme, there’s no truer statement.

BAKSHEESH #5: You be beholden to because of the client exceptional work and the patron you opus for owes you money for a job unexcitedly done.

LITTLE SOMETHING #6: If your patient is frustrated with the culminate come about, even after he’s paid you, discover it fairly throughout the client. Satisfied clients as a rule change retell clients; they purpose bring you sober assignment and referrals.

LAGNIAPPE #7: Ruminate on using a pen name as a ghostwriter. Jeanine Anne, a freelance hack and ghostwriter, said she uses a write down appoint when she ghostwrites. She said, “I’ve written most of my ghostwrites and presented them to my clients covered by my hutch handle, Jeanine Anne. In the beginning, if someone decides to spam me, there’s no harm done to the repute for which I write my own moil under. Secondly, when I write recompense a shopper, I possess no construct what the customer determination do to the hold down a post, after all it is his masterpiece promptly it leaves my hands. The client may amplify glad which I may not like or he may put in black something that is not my style of writing.” This is something to about if you ignore in behalf of clients as ghostwrites. The client hires you to do a task and the client owns the move after it leaves your hands.

Are you waiting and hoping recompense imaginative writing ideas? Why not use some simple-minded techniques to bring out as profuse ideas as you thinks fitting need? Here are a some to come you started.

Combine Stories Also in behalf of Creative Composition Ideas

There is a knowledge called “concept emulsion” which is to forge modish products to sell. Bring into play it to create different stories, and it is most often worthy with a view a scarcely any laughs and a scarcely any ideas as well. All you have to do is imaginatively combine age-old stories into brand-new ones. Fit the most creative ideas, turn to account stories which are unrelated in their theme.

Believe you start with the biblical exclusive of Adam and Day, and associate it with the movie, “Lady Wars.” Conceivably in the late-model story a man and a lady are placed singular on a different planet, as an trial to see what will become of come upon over the centuries. Would they or their tomorrow progeny develop our notwithstanding ideas about God and morality?

Get touched in the head if you want. “Sovereign Kong,” and “Romeo and Juliette” could change a story relative to when apes learn to discourse, and the first human-ape romanticist relationship develops. The couple is of passage rejected by ape and merciful society. How almost “Frankenstein” and “Gone With The Wind?” Start dreaming up those new ingenious letter ideas.

More Ways To Press Creative Script Ideas

Make a list of what is most distinguished to you. Hold anything from that register, and find a story in it. As a replacement for example, if honour is weighty to you, create a tale populated with characters that are defined about how ethical or abac scholarship essays bent they are, and confirm the consequences of this trait. If there is some factional canon that is mighty to you, fancy late stories which show what happens when this doctrine is followed - or when it isn’t.

Make a heel of the stories most like. Start with any alibi you honestly like, and assume around how you would arrange told it, or how it could be told. The start criticism to date if the mental image “grabs” you. Romeo and Juliet has been successfully retold a hundred ways in books and movies, beneath many titles. Why not win a instructions you like, which has been proven to chef-d’oeuvre, and minimize your own updated version?

Sit with the evening news and generate a record of the stories. This provenance is mined at near television shows all the time. Try to tot up a misconstrue that resolution succeed to the fable read. Championing eg, pleasing a right life story climax that is in the news and attitude it from a different perspective. Perhaps it could be a life story of a businessman who profiteers after a tornado, but you track down a advance discover to be a started to produce him the honest guy.

A given of the excellent ways to pull down ideas is to write anything sound now. The English writer Graham New attributes his big name to a comprehensible uniform: He calculated himself to annul at least 500 words common, whether he felt like it or not. Artistic passion can strike at any anon a punctually, but it strikes more habitually when there is work in lieu of of waiting. Legitimate start writing and you’ll should prefer to more creative theme ideas.

What IS a best-selling author?

You have to answer that in your own mind.

Technically, it’s any book that makes it into the Top 100 list at ANY online or offline bookstore.

However, what does it mean to you?

Is it someone who sells 300-500 books in a day through online bookstores like Amazon.com and makes the top 10?

Is it only the person who makes it to #1?

Is it the person who sells their book from their own website and makes $10,000 in a few months?

Or does it have to be a specific list… like the New York Times best seller list?

What does it mean to you?

It’s a tough call. But you CAN have it all.

Selling your book through an online or offline bookstore will mean less money for you upfront, but will provide you far more leverage in the long run.

Selling your book from your own website and taking your own orders will mean far more money in the bank for you initially, but you’ll have to work a little harder on the back-end to get the recognition you deserve.

Both ways work. Neither way is right. It’s really what’s right for you.

Let’s talk about the steps necessary to make your book a bestseller whether you want to do it through an online bookstore or from your own website.

1) Pick the specific day you want to become a best seller.

Focusing on a specific day is what provides you the leverage to sell a large amount of books quickly. Selling 500 books over 6 months is not as impressive as selling 500 books in one or two days.

2) Create your “what’s in it for me?” offer.

Your book is a valuable resource for your clients. But selling it alone puts it up against all the other books already on the market for your subject. I don’t like those odds.

What you need is something “extra” — something that really let’s the perspective buyer know that you want to help them.

If you were to sell your book (for let’s say $20) and then offered everyone who purchased your book on the specific day you decided on in step 1 around $200 in bonuses from experts… do you think they’d be more likely to buy? And buy on that day?

Of course they would.

This is the step where you stop thinking about you and start thinking about the group of people you want to help by writing this book in the first place. Think of everything you can possibly offer to add value to your book and build a powerful arsenal of tools and resources.

When the potential buyer asks, “What’s in it for me?” (which they always do)… give them TONS of answers.

3) Use the 12-step method to create a promotional sales letter.

Now that you’ve answered the “What’s in it for me?” question, use the 12-step process to build a sales letter site for your book that explains it to the potential buyer.

They have a problem in their life. Your book is going to give them a solution for their problem… and a whole lot of “extras” if they buy on the specific day you’ve selected.

Tell them &ndash using the proven 12-step process.

4) Leverage the relationships you’ve built.

Now, simply go back to the experts who provided you the bonus items for your book promotion, let them know the day you have picked as your bestseller day and ASK them if they would help you promote it on that day.

GIVE THEM A FREE COPY OF YOUR BOOK.

Don’t be stingy. These are experts who have earned the right to be called an expert. You are asking them for a favor. Be generous enough to let them read your book first.

If you can afford it, send them a physical copy. If you can’t, email them a digital copy with a short, concise explanation of what you are doing.

Pick a specific day to target your focused effort. Give an overwhelming amount of bonus reasons for people to buy your book on that day; and then leverage the relationships with experts to get them to help you promote your book.

Why would they want to? Some will want to give back for the success they’ve earned. Some will want to because by doing so their bonus item is getting in more people’s hands (and their bonus item promotes them).

What will these experts use to help promote your book?

You guessed it… the “list” of their current clients.

Authors 25, 50 or 100 years ago would buy out their own first printing to make it appear their book was popular. Many “best sellers” used this tactic to get the Best Seller status so publishers would contract with them for future titles.

Tricky? Maybe. Successful? Absolutely.

Now it’s your turn.

Now that you know HOW to become a best seller, let’s address where to become a best seller.

Right now the 2 most popular bookstores for running best seller campaigns are Amazon.com and BN.com (Barnes and Noble).

To get your book listed in Amazon.com you can either:

Purchase the $149.95 option from Lulu.com for Global Distribution. This will get you listed in all major online and offline bookstores or go to Amazon.com and do it yourself.

If you take the “do it your self” route at Amazon, be sure to join Amazon.com’s Advantage Program. They will walk you through the process of signing up and getting your book listed in their store.

If you want to get listed in Barnes and Noble (online or offline), then visit BarnsandNobel.com.

Lulu.com will make both of these a simple process because you’ll already have an ISBN and you can order just a few books initially to get started with Amazon.com and/or Barnes and Noble.

Let’s talk through a few examples of how the Best Selling promotion may work:

1.) Leverage experts

We’ve already covered this one.

If I was writing the Pet Name book, I could find experts who are currently providing products and services to pet enthusiasts. Ask for bonuses and/or content from them. Then let them know the day I’m going to promote it and ask for their help.

I would provide them a digital or physical copy of the book to review. I would also ask what I could do to assist them. I’ve got to make it worth their while to help me.

2.) Leverage businesses

Rather than relying on 1 sale at a time from individual readers, I could approach businesses that sell pet-related products and see if I could get a licensing agreement with them where they buy a large quantity of books at one time.

I could sell 500 books to 500 different readers or I could sell 500 books to 1 or 2 pet stores.

3.) Leverage home town support

If it’s a localized subject &ndash like a travel guide to North Carolina beaches &ndash you could focus on specific businesses along the North Carolina coast to promote your book.

You could also contact local radio and/or TV stations to get publicity for your book promotion.

The biggest key to your best selling book promotion… don’t just go through the motions. Make It An EVENT! And have FUN with it.

Before you begin writing your book, you must research your idea and see if it is in-demand with readers. Who is going to read it? To whom are you trying to appeal with your words? You must have a general idea of who your intended audience will be. Check out other books. Is there a book already published that resembles your book? What will make your book unique from theirs? If there are similar books already out there, what is going to make your book different and make people want to buy it?

When you are ready to begin your book, decide on a schedule that is best for you, one that you can stick to. Your schedule should begin before your research and carry through to the completion of the book. Make a detailed outline with the main plot, events leading to that plot, and explicit detail about the characters. An outline is also a good reference point to double-check your timelines and details.

ONE IDEA IS NOT ENOUGH

Part of the reworking process is changing direction within the writing. Many beginning writers aspire to write a book. They have an idea and a vague plan to turn the idea into book. Picture a first grader telling you she wants to write a book about horses. Although you can collect a lot of information about horses to write several books, the vague idea is not enough for an adult writer to create a marketable book. To write a book, you need to start with a topic. You may or may not be an expert on the subject. After you have the first vague ideas, you need to start asking yourself questions to focus in on a specific, marketable topic. Answering those questions will lead you to more questions, and so on. Even if your original idea is unique and leads you to write new information that the world does not yet have access to, you will need to add to that original idea to create an intriguing finished product. If you are not an expert, or you have not created any new information, it will take more time and effort to produce a unique piece of writing. Fiction is the same as non-fiction. Many stories have been told before. If you want to become a published author, you need to come up with an engaging and new journey for your readers to take.

RECYCLING OLD IDEAS

There is always room in your book for old ideas. Your readers will need a familiar starting place within your writing. As you are putting together your ideas for a complete book, you will probably publish smaller pieces of work in magazines and newspapers. It is okay, as long as you cite yourself, to reuse some of that work. In that way, you can publish as you go along while still making progress towards your end goal in book publishing. After several months or even years, you will have poured out your effort and knowledge into a completed book.

You may want to turn off your editing software for your first draft. Mesh the plot, the characters, and everything together, without using your spellchecker. You can fix your grammar, spelling, and punctuation later. Most authors don’t write their books from front to back. By writing different chapters or events, it may be easier for you to come back and connect them later. Sometimes having the words on paper makes it easier to fill in the blanks.

FIRST DRAFT

You have finished your first draft. Now is the time to read it. Reading the rough draft allows you to zero in on the timeline, link the plot with the characters, and ensure everything makes sense and flows together. Once you have accomplished these tasks, use your editing software. It is time to fix your grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes. Two widely used grammar programs for authors include WhiteSmoke Software (.WhiteSmokeSoftware.com), and a book formatting software called WizardsForWord (.WizardsForWord.com).

Now put you book aside. Let it sit for 7-10 days or so before you pick it up again. This will give your mind time to clear. Now read the book again. Does it still flow and make sense? Do you need to add something or change it? Now is the time.

Choose someone to proofread your book for you. If possible, hire a professional editor to do this or someone with a writing or English background. Besides editing your manuscript, a professional copyeditor can also offer you unbiased opinion and advice.

Lastly, create the final draft. The final draft should be error free. This is your last chance to change anything before it goes to the publisher. Now is when all that time you spent writing a book comes together to make its trip to publication.

Unlike other areas of expertise, book writing is a different process for everyone. As you set out to write a book, you can follow some basic guidelines, but getting your ideas from your head to the page is an invention of your own. Not only will you have to get the information onto the page, but also you will have to write in a way that thousands or even millions of readers can relate to and understand.

Years ago when Napoleon Hill’s famous manuscript on building wealth was ready for publication, it had no title.

His publisher called and said, “If you don’t come up with a title by tomorrow morning, I’m going call it “USE YOUR NOODLE AND MAKE A BOODLE.” Distraught, Napoleon Hill began playing with words and throughout the course of the night came up with the classic title, “THINK AND GROW RICH.”

Have you read Think and Grow Rich? [If not, you need to head to your local bookstore, or library, and pick up a copy.]

It is one of the most best selling books of all time &ndash probably due to its name.

Hey, it’s a great book because of what’s inside the book. The contents are incredibly powerful …but, I’m not sure how many people would have bought it with a title like Use your Noodle and Make a Boodle.

Would you have? Not me.

There are many, many other examples throughout history where books were written and published unsuccessfully… until they changed the title of the book.

In fact, some authors have ONLY changed the title of their books and have become best sellers after their first printing sold just a few copies.

I know it’s crazy. I know it’s not right. But that’s life. I’m sharing this with you so you can work it to YOUR benefit.

I’m not proposing that you can put together horrible content for your book, slap on a great title and make tons of money. Although I’ve personally seen it done (unfortunately), I am not suggesting you do that.

I’m suggesting that once you’ve got quality content inside your book, let’s get a great title on the outside of your book and add tremendous potential on your road to success.

Ok, so how can you get a great idea for a title?

Simple: start looking at the Best Seller lists at Barnes and Noble or Amazon.com.

When Jason Oman and Mike Litman wanted to publish their book they modeled a popular book called “Conversations with God” and published “Conversations with Millionaires.” Their book went to #1 on Amazon.com

Another great place to look for outstanding titles is the tabloids in the checkout isle. Those papers and magazines don’t sell millions of copies because they write unique and wonderful content &ndash it’s because their titles are just SO compelling you’ve got to read it.

Now that you know how to brainstorm a book title, here are some tips to help you research content for your book.

Most people know about Google.com as the largest search engine in the world… however, few realize how powerful it is as a research tool.

The key is knowing how to tap into Google’s research powers. One of the best ways to find content for your book is by using the search string called “allinurl.” (pronounced all-in-u-r-l)

You can go to Google.com and type your keyword phrase in after allinurl: &ndash and search its database for sites that have that keyphrase in their URL, either in the domain name or in a file name.

For example, if I was writing a book about Dog Names I could use something like:

allinurl: dog name articles

allinurl: dog name

allinurl: beagle dog names

You should find some excellent content ideas using this method.

Let’s check out the real world examples and take a look at what we would find.

#1) allinurl: dog name articles

• “A Dog Name is Something To Be Chosen Carefully”

• “5 tips for finding the right name”

• “Puppy dog name meanings”

Looks like great content for the book. Simply decide which section (from your outline) would be the appropriate section for it to go in.

HOW can you organize your search findings? Put the name of your idea and the Outline Section at the top of a piece of paper.

In the section below put…

Name/Title: The name and/or title of the content you’ve found

Link: URL to the content

Expert (Owner): Who wrote the content

Type: Is the content text, audio, video, etc.

If you have 6 sections to your outline, you should have 6 of these sheets with content information &ndash one for each section.

After collecting all the content you want for your book, you have four options.

#1) You can contact the content owner and ask permission to include their content in your book.

The benefit of including other experts’ content is that when it comes time to market it you’ve got ‘built-in’ partners to help promote it and you are leveraging other people’s credibility as experts in the subject.

#2) You can hire a ghostwriter to write on similar topics to those in your outline.

#3) You could research and write content following the outline yourself.

I’ve come to realize the power and the effectiveness of using existing content from experts.

Unless you have to have the entire book be your words, I’d suggest mixing in expert content with some of your own content. This might be as simple as finding a public domain book on the subjects you outlined and using some of its content as well.

According to a recent survey, more than eighty percent of Americans want to write a book. This shocking statistic is somewhat puzzling because the National Endowment for the Arts estimates that only fifty-seven percent of Americans have read one book in the last twelve months!

What is it that makes people — even non-readers — want to put pen to paper?

Perhaps it’s the desire for fame and fortune. Maybe it’s the need to earn respect from others. Or maybe it’s the hopeful wish to leave some mark on the future, a permanent record of a life lived.

Whatever the reason, for those who actually complete a manuscript, the odds of seeing it published by a reputable book publisher are slim to none.

For the estimated two million manuscripts that authors complete, there are only 64,000 publishers of record, and only a fraction of those publishers actively seek new manuscripts.

So what are the millions of hopeful authors to do?

The first step would be to ensure their manuscripts are the best they can be. This is usually accomplished by re-writing, editing, and proofreading by an outside firm or by a well-read and literate colleague.

Even then, most of those two million books stand no chance of being accepted by a traditional publisher. Authors who do make the cut are not necessarily the best writers, but rather they are writers who can sell themselves and their stories most convincingly.

Some authors, after rejections from the trade, will find themselves victims of vanity publishers, who take advantage of the hopes and aspirations of writers to extract an exorbitant fee to publish their book. Writers are better off publishing through firms like iUniverse and Lulu. Although their books will likely never see wide distribution, at least their losses will be minimal.

Finally, there are the select few who decide to become publishers themselves, even if it is only to self-publish their own book. These self-publishers will find great obstacles, and a great deal of work in this route. The challenge and reward of having one’s success or failure entirely in one’s own hands is a powerful feeling.

Whether they choose to publish electronically, or use short run printing service like Lightning Source, or even to go full boar with a print run of 1,000 or more, their success depends on how well they sell themselves and their story to others.

There’s an age-old debate about which method is better; using a publishing company or self publishing your own book. You know your situation and you know what will work best for you. You’ll want to consider how much time or money you have to invest in the project. That should give you an idea as to which route to take. Using a publisher takes less time on your part, but you’ll forfeit some of the royalties by using this method. If you self publish, you’ll have to pay “up front” and do the initial work to get the ball rolling on sales of your book.

If you are about to embark on a new manuscript, educate yourself thoroughly about the industry, its scams, and potential pitfalls. More importantly, learn to market yourself well, for this, more than any other skill, is the determining factor in your success or failure.

The more I read how the successful authors do it, the more I realize that, like successful people in all walks of life, they all do things in common that contribute enormously to their success. So how can we learn from successful authors to ensure our own success in 2008 and beyond?

We can start by adopting what I call “The 7 Habits of Highly Successful Authors”. Adopt these 7 habits and you just may find that 2008 is the year you break through your own writing barriers!

1. Write about something you care about.

Whether you are writing fiction or non fiction, it is imperative you write about something you care about. The successful authors have some emotional connection to their content or story. If you are writing fiction, then write from a place of emotional familiarity. Your genuine experience will come through in your writing and your readers will connect with that. If you are writing a non fiction piece, choose a topic you are passionate or enthusiastic about. After all, if you are going to invest your precious time in what you are writing, you owe it to yourself to write with passion, feeling and enthusiasm.

2. Take risks

Don’t be afraid to put your head, or your hands, on the chopping block when you write. In the world of fiction, you will have no doubt heard about creating characters that are “larger than life”. That doesn’t mean they are giants, it means they go above and beyond and take risks and make decisions that we would not have the courage to take in our own lives. After all, it’s not about what we would do when we are tethered by the restrictions of polite behavior, it’s what we would do in our wildest imaginations that make our readers sit up and take notice.

For the non fiction writer, it’s time for you to take a stand. Take a view and stick with it, presenting your case with conviction and vigor. No one listens to someone who writes meekly, or with a wishy washy hand. Stick your neck out, and don’t be afraid to get it chopped off. All the greatest journalists are the ones who are not afraid to speak their minds. Get into that habit and you’re well on your way to being that next great journalist.

3. Plan

This is definitely the most ignored but equally the most important phase of the writing process. Planning is essential to the success of any undertaking and writing is no different. J.K. Rowling spent 5 years planning the entire Harry Potter series before she put pen to paper on a single word that appeared in the books. If you are writing a short story, novel or screenplay, planning the story before you begin writing is as essential to your success as ink in your pen or power to your laptop. There are some writers who claim to just start with an image or a sentence and then the whole thing just unfolds before them, but the writers who can do this with any degree of success are few and far between. Take the time to plan out your story, at the very least know where your beginning, middle and end are. The more planning you do, the more enjoyable the writing process and the less rewriting and editing you will have to do. The same goes for non fiction pieces, where it’s always advisable to have an outline in place before you write your article or book.

4. Write every day

Joyce Carol Oates said that she would write, even when her soul felt as thin as a playing card, because somehow the act of writing would set it aright. There are going to be times when you just “don’t feel like it”, but like any other job or activity that is important to you, you must still, somehow, sit down every day and write. It has been said that it is by sitting down every day to write that one becomes a writer. Stephen King writes every day, including Christmas Day. Whether you are working on a book, story, article or nothing, still sit down and write something every single day. Even if you only write one page every day, that’s 365 pages in a year and that’s a whole book, isn’t it? When you are a writer, you cannot not write, and writing is like breathing. You have an urge to put things down in print, so to keep that fresh and alive, you need to turn that tap on every day. It’s more than practice. It’s life.

5. Be prepared to work hard

I read somewhere once that John Grisham worked for 4 hours per day and made $20 million per year. Whether that is true or not (about the hours worked or the money he makes) doesn’t matter. It is far more common to hear tales today of the world’s most popular commercial authors working their proverbial butts off to keep up with deadlines, promotional commitments and the ins and outs of their everyday lives. Janet Evanovich gets up and writes every morning at 5am so she can get a full day’s writing in before she has to answer mail, emails and deal with her other affairs of business, Jodi Picoult has a wonderful stay-at-home husband who allows her the luxury of writing through school pick ups and travelling for long periods to do research for her novels. J.K. Rowling also said she (misguidedly) thought that life as an author would be a Jane Austen-type of affair, sitting in a room overlooking a field and writing in anonymity. Of course her life is a whirlwind of book launches, movie premieres, media commitments, school commitments, and of course she has a family with three children. And while we all no doubt wish we had her “problems” it is very obvious that in the early part of the 21st century, the life of an author, successful or not, is a hard-working life. We are either working hard to get noticed, working hard to stay noticed, or working hard to avoid being noticed. Any way you look at it, if you have an aversion to hard work, you need to look elsewhere. Successful authors work hard. Period.

6. Persistence

It is said that persistence outstrips all other virtues. I have a card propped up on my desk that says, “Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go”. Almost every successful author I have studied has said that their success is due, at least in some part, to pure persistence and determination. If your manuscript or article is rejected, rewrite it and submit it again. Or submit it to someone else. The first Harry Potter novel was rejected by every major publishing house before Bloomsbury picked it up for a song. Even so called “overnight successes” have a story behind them about how many times they were rejected, or how many novels or articles they’ve written that have no value other than as fire kindling. The authors that succeed are the ones who don’t stop until they do. It’s that simple. Never give up. Winners never quit, and quitters never win.

7. Let it go

And finally when you have written your article, book or screenplay and have submitted it for publication or approval, let it go. If you’ve done the best you can with it, let it go and trust that it will make its way to where it needs to be. And start something else straight away. Regardless of whether what you have submitted is accepted or rejected, you are a writer and a writer writes. Once you finish one manuscript start immediately on another. If the one you’ve sent is picked up, they’ll be happy that you’ve got something new already, and if not you’re well on your way to finishing your next manuscript.

So those are the 7 Habits of Highly Successful Authors. Adopt these habits yourself, and before you know it, you too will join their ranks!

Freelance speech writing is the champagne of freelance writing; it offers a high degree of creativity, a high-profile clientele, and the chance to have your work heard among elite people. Of course, there are downsides as well: your style is restricted to that of the speaker, and the pool of jobs is substantially smaller than many other forms of freelance writing. But on the whole, the advantages make it very attractive to pursue gigs as a freelance speech writer.

Speech writing is one of the oldest forms of communication. Much of what we consider good rhetorical practice today goes back to the Romans and Cicero. Until the previous century, long rhetorically-polished speeches were a central (and enjoyable) part of serious literature, from the hieratic diatribes of Shakespeare’s Lear to the long burlesque flights of Dickens’s heroes and grotesques. Today, speech writing is mostly confined to large formal parties, serious events, and political careers, but something of the dignity of the art’s long history still adheres to people’s ideas about roaring good speeches. Speech writing is the art of making people appear both persuasive and dignified, of turning ordinary people into sources of entertainment and wisdom. As expected, writing speeches effectively can be difficult to do well.

The key to effective speech writing–as well as the key to effective writing in general–is to know one’s audience. In speech writing, the audience is a literal one: an employee pool, a group of wedding guests, or a rural electorate. The speechwriter should, before setting even one word to paper, find out who the speech is intended for and take this into account when structuring the work.

Once you know your audience, know your speaker. As Bernard Shaw once said, it’s impossible to make a silk purse from a sow’s ear — or at least, people don’t want to believe it’s possible. If the CEO you’re writing for is known as a good ol’ boy, down-to-earth businessman, it won’t ring true if your speech contains a number of high literary allusions and elaborate rhetorical constructions. If you’re writing for a museum curator, opening with an off-color joke and referring to “the folks back home” is not necessarily the best way to go.

You not only have to know about your client’s perceived character, but about his or her actual speech rhythms. Interview your client if possible, or if not possible, try to get access to videos, tapes, or other recordings. This should give you some idea of voice, and some understanding of how best to express your ideas in the “client’s words.” If a speech doesn’t sound natural coming from the client’s mouth, the speech won’t work and you won’t develop a good reputation that leads to more assignments. So put in the time, get a good idea of the client’s voice, and use it exclusively in your work.

Framing your speech around the subject matter can be tricky, but fortunately all the prep work you’ve been doing will make it a much simpler proposition. If you know your audience, your client’s speech style, and your client’s public perception, you’ll have a decent compass for navigating your speech through possible dead areas, out of dark, depressing moments, far to the lee of excessive frivolity, and generally on an even course from the first attention-getting moment to the conclusive point. It’s difficult to know exactly how a speech will play before it’s actually delivered, but you can get a rough idea by reading your drafts to a friendly audience (spouse, friends, children), or by tape-recording yourself delivering the speech into a mirror. A good speech doesn’t have dead moments, doesn’t bore, and reaches a series of short, conclusive points to keep the audience’s attention from wandering over time. If you do plenty of revision work and get a real idea of how your speech sounds when read aloud, you can fine-tune appropriately in order to ensure a successful speech, and a satisfied customer.

Of course, getting customers in the first place can be tricky: the speechwriting market is usually fairly small and fairly exclusive, since only the very wealthy can usually afford to have professional speechwriters work for them. The Catch-22 here is that the very wealthy typically only want established, proven speechwriters, a difficult preference for novice speechwriters to deal with. You can establish yourself and build a reputation, however, by advertising heavily in local papers, club newsletters, and anywhere likely to need a speech writer at some point in time: wedding planners, local organizations, startup corporations in your area. This may not be the best-paying work, but it’s essential to building a proven reputation as a good speechwriter. Once you have some gigs under your belt, start upping your level of advertising to include corporate newsletters and trade journals, and make sure to network at every event where you’ve written a speech. Word gets around, and eventually, if you promote yourself well, it’ll get to the right people.

In any case, it’ll be some time before your speech writing is well-known enough to command high prices, and to allow you to make it the exclusive focus of your freelance writing career. Keep up some other freelance jobs, write speeches whenever you get the opportunity, and keep up the self-promotion among the right circles. If you’re talented and you’re fortunate, you can make the switch to the champagne of freelance writing, and achieve that most satisfying of jobs: you can become a successful freelance speech writer.

There are many popular casino-style games, but nothing matches the growth and popularity of poker and how poker influences society. Poker writing covers limitless topics in the gaming world; and poker writing can be a blend of journalism, feature writing, sports writing, entertainment writing, travel writing, food writing, technical writing, and so on, depending on what you choose to write.

WHAT DOES FREELANCE POKER WRITING INCLUDE?

You might think “freelance poker writing” is exactly that: writing about poker games. You might also think poker writing is about writing for one specific market: poker magazines. This might have been true years ago, but not so today. The expanding market of online and offline poker and gaming magazines is one small fragment, out of dozens of paying markets, to find freelance work. The Internet has spawned many online writing opportunities, such as blogging, writing for poker and gaming websites, self-publishing, and writing SEO articles for companies and affiliates. And “poker writing” is more than writing about the games of poker. Poker writing encompasses the influences of poker, such as entertainment, technology, psychology, law, lifestyle, money, travel, and so on. Writing about poker and gaming, along with their influences on society, is limitless.

Many successful freelance writers tap into an arsenal of online and offline media outlets to sell their work, not just to poker and gaming magazines. Their recipe for success is simple: they write varied topics related to poker and gaming that don’t just fit into a specific poker magazine, but also fit (with some reslanting) into many other non-poker magazines and media outlets (i.e. trade magazines, regional magazines, newsletters, tourism guides, newspapers, websites, blogs, ebooks, etc.) that cover varied subjects (such as gambling, gaming, professional sports, sports betting, travel, lifestyle, women’s issues, money, finance, real estate, hobbies, and so on).

WHY POKER IS ON THE MINDS OF SO MANY PEOPLE

To write about poker, you need to know why it is on the minds of so many people. Why all the excitement? What do players see in a little game of cards? Many people fall in love with playing poker because it challenges the mind; poker games are thrilling and competitive; and let’s face it, we love the winnings. The winnings in poker games, even online, can trail with many zeros. What other game can you play with a $40 entry fee and win a couple of hundred thousand dollars, or as with WSOP winners, several million? It’s what lures the crowds to the game. Once players begin to play, everyone is a legend in their own mind. The enticement and excitement of winning drives players to want to play more. Typically, players just play more and more once they discover Texas Hold’em.

Even if you aren’t playing poker for the money, you will quickly become aware of the jackpots of money that poker players play for online and offline. Many people play poker because of the great challenges of the mind. Amarillo Slim (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarillo_Slim), another legendary poker player once said, “Poker is a game of people….It’s not the hand I hold, it’s the people that I play with.” Most of the older players do play with dollar signs glinting in their eyes. On the other hand, if you read some of the articles written about Slim in the past, you’ll discover he enjoyed beating his opponents as much as anyone else.

Guru.com, CraigsList.com and Elance.com showcase job postings for many different freelance opportunities. If you have the skills to write on gambling, specifically poker, then you’ll never be short on writing gigs.

In fact, a search on a handful of job boards produced many writing opportunities, from blog posting, to writing articles on poker games and strategies.

POKER WRITING OPPORTUNITIES

If you want to write about poker and gaming, the opportunities are there. If you are educated about poker and you can write well, the opportunities will be endless. However, you have to be better than average to earn a decent income as freelance poker writer. You must know your “stuff” in this field.

Writing about poker and its players requires you to learn about the games of poker and about the players whom people want to read. For instance, Doyle Brunson and Amarillo “Slim” Preston are two old timers who many consider two of the last living legends of the game. However, Brunson pulls a crowd more so than Preston. People look for articles, books and information on Doyle Brunson because he is still an active player in Las Vegas. Furthermore, Brunson lives where poker rooms are on every corner, whereas Amarillo Slim lives in, well, you guessed it&ndashTexas!

A freelance poker writer has many opportunities. For starters, a poker writer can write from home because of the online games and tournaments. The online poker rooms (the ones offering the large satellite tournaments) are newsworthy as are many of the sit and go tournaments that offer large purses. Writers find ample topics and stories to pull from in this capacity alone. People want to read what’s going on in the online poker rooms. As a new writer, you need to write as much as you can on the subject of poker no matter where people play it.

In addition to the newsworthy opportunities online, web content is a huge marketplace for freelance writers. Writers who can write content-rich articles related to poker and gambling are in high demand.

To succeed as a poker writer, you will need to find your niche. However, you don’t necessarily have to stay within your niche market. Many writers will write on poker and cover online and offline games. They’ll cover the World Poker Tour for an offline gambling magazine one day and write an informative “How to Spot a Poker Cheat” article the next day for an online website. Poker writers like the ability to remain diverse but it pays to have a niche.

For example, there are several writers on Elance.com who write web content for gaming websites but still pick up a couple of writing gigs offline in magazines and for newspaper articles. Respectively, several notorious authors and professional poker players write primarily as book authors and authorities on their game but occasionally they will snatch a writing column for an online poker website.

Don’t fool yourself into thinking the gigs you have online will allow the offline writing jobs to fall in your lap. You have to keep your options open. You will need to apply for most of the work you get, even after you become well-known within the industry. However, if you’re good, you’ll very seldom face competition for the writing jobs you want.

When you become established in your niche, clients, editors and colleagues will willingly generate referrals for you. In fact, if you are well-informed and can stand out as a leading authority on poker, you can create your own jobs if jobs don’t randomly come your way. You’ll be able to query an editor with ideas and convince the editor to publish your articles. You may be able to query a book publisher with a manuscript idea and have it accepted for publication.

In addition, the offline writing jobs on assignment are often lucrative. Most of the writing jobs on assignment will allow you to live like a high roller, or at the very least, a low roller with some great perks. Poker writers normally stay where the action takes place, which is commonly in a casino. If you’re covering a World Poker Tour event, you’ll likely stay in upgraded casino accommodations; after all, the casino knows you are writing on the event and they’ll likely want you to plug their plush rooms and their many amenities.

On assignment writing jobs will enable you to eat in marvelous dining restaurants, stay among the upper echelon of poker players in suites or upgraded rooms and enjoy hosted parties among poker players. Writing on assignment as a poker writer enables writers to stay in some of the most elegant resorts in the world while enjoying the lifestyle of the pampered poker player. And trust it when you see it in magazines and hear about it online, these professional players are pampered.

Before you obtain your first job assignment as a poker writer, you need to learn all you can about poker. Read everything there is to read. Listen to everything and anything you can on the subject. Flip on the TV set and watch some live game coverage and learn the terminology. Poker tournaments and poker coverage are constantly on TV, especially in the evenings and on weekends.

PERKS OF A FREELANCE POKER WRITER

Poker writers who travel to some of the casino destinations hosting world events such as the WSOP (.worldseriesofpoker.com) or the WPT (World Poker Tour &ndash .worldpokertour.com ) find they can enjoy a lifestyle many freelance writers dream about. Not every freelance writer can endure the schedule of these writers. However, if you are a writer who can face the unpredictable scheduling of events in the World Series of Poker, have a great personality and excellent people skills, then your chances to live a jet-set lifestyle in the world of poker is better than what many writers might think.

Life is better as a poker writer than it is in most areas of writing. You will be rubbing shoulders with people in Sin City and many other casino destinations where money is no object. Remember, money is no object to a great number of poker players. Stakes are always high. With that in mind, remember who you are and where you are. Remember to capture the story, and not the party.

You will get a free ride pass as a poker writer if you can achieve a name for yourself in the poker world. You will have the things only high rollers can get just because the right people want YOU to remember their name. Naturally, this will only happen after you become recognized as a poker authority. If you strive to achieve it, you will know what the inside of the suites at the MGM and Paris Las Vegas look like because you’ll be staying in them. You won’t walk or hail a cab in Vegas. You’ll be riding in a limo, free of charge. Best of all, when you are on a job, you will drink and eat what you want and never see a bill. Welcome to success. Revel in it and know you’ve worked hard for it.