Essay Online

Ok so you have been through the writing process, where you have wrote that perfect novel, and rewrote it again and again until it’s perfect. Then you found either a Publisher or Agent to represent you. Your book has been through the editing stage, cover art finalized, and a Published Date assigned, now what? Is the job done? Have you did all you needed to do to make this book a success? Nope, you have only begun. Now you have to market that book, get it into book stores, let people know it is available.

First off you need to find out from your Publisher or Agent where you book will be available at, who is doing reviews and any promoting they plan on doing. Once you have the answers to these questions you now know where to start.

A review is the first step to getting your book known. You can begin requesting reviews as soon as the Publisher has a final proof copy available. Most review sites can be found in the Search Engines by simply typing the Genre of your book, Examples are Romance and Sci-Fi, and the key words book reviews. You will then see either reviews done on books in your genre, which you can trace back to the source of the review or the actual review sites. Reviews are a great way to get the word out about your book and shows someone else’s opinion of it.

Your local book stores is a good place. I know what if they don’t want to carry it? Well that is something you have to find out. More than likely though you can go and speak to a manager who will either point you to someone else or they can handle your questions. So how do you approach them?

Begin by preparing a summary of your book, maybe a short excerpt or possibly a copy of a review. Your business card, and if you don’t already have don’t fret there are many places that make them, and if you access to the internet and a printer you can make one online and print afterwards. There are keys things to consider when you design your business cards, one being your name, contact information, title of the book, and ISBN#. These things have to be on the cards, and they have to be in legible writing. Another thing to take with you is a copy of your book, now you don’t have to give them a copy though many do. However you do need one to show them the quality of the books and that they are ready for sale. Besides isn’t seeing something better than just hearing about it. Take cookies as an example, hearing about one is fine, but smelling them, touching them and tasting them is better.

Now that you have a basic press kit, dress nice or in character such as if its a pirate book, wearing a flowing skirt or men wear a ruffled shirt. Just remember first impressions do count and more than likely mean the most when you ask for that all important interview. Also don’t be afraid to ask for a book signing these are great incentives, plus gives you a chance to talk to the reader about your newest creation.

I guess the one other thing to remember is have fun, you have fulfilled a life long dream.

When it comes to SEO and a stream of long term traffic to your site there really is only one way to go.

Articles are the best way to ensure that you have constant links to your site circling the web with a one time only input from yourself. And the best thing about article writing is that it doesn’t cost you a penny &ndash in any currency.

Here’s how it works:

-make a list of the things that you know enough about to be able to write a helpful and informative article on.

-Brainstorm the points that the article needs to cover,

-choose 3 or 4 main points and write a few sentences around them that can qualify them as ‘valuable content’

-put all that together into an article of around no more than 800 words (you don’t want to bore people away) 500-600 is best practice.

-close your notebook and leave it for a couple of days.

Why? Do you remember when you were in school and the teacher always used to tell you to ‘make sure you read over your work.’ Well they were right. If you submit your article straight away you will inevitably come back to it later and think to yourself that this sentence doesn’t make sense or that you could have worded that better. If you give yourself some time away from it and then come back with ‘fresh eyes’ you will be in a much better position to objectively critique your work.

Once you are happy with your article copy you will need to submit it to article and ezine directories so that editors and site owners can pick it up and use it as content in their own sites.

There are two ways to do this.

a) You can manually submit your article to your preferred sites which means that you will have total control over who your article goes to or

b) You can use automatic article submission. Submitting your article automatically will save you hours once you get going as you will only need to submit your article once and the website or software that you use will then take over to add it to thousands of lists.

The choice is yours but it’s pretty much a no brainer…

Make sure that you close each article with some information about yourself which lets people know that they are free to use your article and also tells them a little about you including a link or two to your own site(s). This is known as a signature box.

Along with providing good quality content a signature box is the whole reason for you writing the article as it will let people know that you are a leader in your field and where they can find out more about you and your business.

Once your articles start to circulate you will find that the number of visitors to your site will grow and so, therefore, will the revenue you make.

Articles are a great way to position yourself as a leader in your field, so be sure to write about what you know about. Don’t try to make things up as people will be able to tell and you will not be taken seriously.

The more articles you publish, the more links you will have to your site and the better your search engine ranking will be and your bank balance.

Happy Writing

Denise Hamilton

Wow I knew I put this question off for a reason.

How to even begin? First, she has to be strong. I don’t even mean strength wise; she has to have a strong constitution. Grit, personality, doesn’t take anything from anyone, basically Emerald La Roe From my first book. She didn’t take anything from no one and stood on her own two feet. Which of course if why her and Max didn’t make it. You know Alfa male werewolf and all.

Emerald was beautiful in her own way, yeah she had a sinful looking body, with fire red hair and green eyes, but that’s when her outer beauty stopped and her inner beauty came out. She was strong, self-assured, relied on no one and took care of everyone and everything her own way.

A different character of mine Shayla is your basic blonde blue-eyed fairy. Ok so she does have the looks on the outside but she is developing into a strong and capable Queen. Next is Jacqueline from Vampires Revenge, she is short, Dark hair, and I forgot her eye color. Well that’s bad, but it’s her new inside that counts. She was a willowy fainting pushover that was an innocent in everything. Now though she is tough as nails, and well just don’t make her mad.

So I guess I choose independent women, who may or may not be a classic beauty. But by the end of the book they are, just from the character they become. Yeah Shayla is a 10 by some standards, and Emerald thinks her body belongs on a lady of the night, which may or may not be a good thing. And Jacqueline so far is a classic beauty, well in her Vampires Eyes, not so much anyone else’s.

So does beauty count? Yes I’m afraid it does, maybe not the same stop your breath beauty, but a subtle beauty nonetheless.

Personality counts more! It always has and always will. It does not matter if she were super model material, if she was not a woman we would call best friend or want to be ourselves then she would never make the cut.

So how do I create my heroine, simple I don’t I have no idea what they will look like or anything else about them until the story begins to unfold. I may decide they look one way before the first word is wrote and change it before the end of the first page.

Maybe you are looking around for new ways to advertise your work, whether it’s a book, freelance writing, new software program, or possibly crafts, a website may be just what you need. A website can get the word out about your product. You can use it to write a simple Blog about you and your product or a full article about how you can help someone else.

There are many ways to set up your website from simple WYSIWYG, to more advanced HTML graphics, however what way you decide you will find the right one for you. The basic WYSIWYG is the easiest to use and have many basic templates preset for you to use. These templates are designed to get the most space per page without slowing the loading process down. You will find different colors and layouts, where you can have photos on different parts of the page and the writing from above, to below, or even on both sides of the picture. The pictures themselves can range from ones included in the templates, to your own personal pictures, so be creative and have fun designing that special web page hassle free.

The more advanced web site builders use different styles and products, one being the HTML page. HTML can be extremely hard unless you have had previous experience or courses. However, our friends at Microsoft have come up with Open Office Document. In this program accompanying the Microsoft Word, Works, and Suites you will find a simple and elegant way to build your web pages off line. There are a multitude of templates, backgrounds, designs and more. Another great aspect is that you can set you pages up completely off line linking them together, so when the time comes to publish your web pages you are only a few clicks away.

There are several other programs available and most websites will have some kind of page builder included. No matter which way you decide to go you will find an exciting way to get your news out to the Internet world.

Every writer can benefit from a study of the effectiveness of their individual writing process. You can write more and you can write better by making some adjustments in your writing strategy.

Recently one of my writer friends complained about their declining word output.

“I spend more time at the computer than I ever did before and I’m just not producing like I used to,” she griped.

After spending a day in writing conferences coaching my struggling novice writers, my response came without conscious thought on my part: “Tell me about your writing process.”

“My what?” She asked.

Ah-ha!

I regularly coach my beginning writers about how to develop their own personal writing strategy or process and as a teacher of writing I think about mine quite often, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that experienced, professional writers rarely spend time talking about this critical element.

What a mistake!

It is easy to understand why. Many of us are simply too busy writing to think too much about the actual process. We have deadlines to meet, assignments to pursue, and pitches to create. When we do spend time with other writers our interactions typically fall into three categories–seeking admiration for our success, input for our end product, or escape from writing.

Many writers also take their writing process for granted and simply follow the old adage–if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But what happens when it does break down as it did with my friend? If you don’t understand your own writing process then you can’t fix it. And just like many of the machines in your life, regular maintenance checks just might prevent a major breakdown in the future.

My friend’s problem was easily identified and solved once we actually studied her writing process and writing life. Yes she was spending more time in front of the computer but she had lost a big chunk of her prewriting time due to changes in her home life. Once she understood that problem she was able to make adjustments to her schedule and she is seeing her daily word count rising back to her old levels.

So how is your writing process?

Many writers shy away from the term as it brings back fearful memories of a rigid structure forced on them in school. That is not what I want to talk about at all. Frankly, I always teach my students that there is no such as thing as the writing process.

Don’t get me wrong. I believe we each have our own individual writing process, I just don’t believe in the one-size-fits-all type strategy that many writers were force-fed. Just think about it. How could there be just one writing process–every writer I know is an individual with various strengths and weaknesses and personality traits. Every writer is wired differently from every other writer. That is one of the things that makes reading such a pleasure. It follows very logically then that every writing process should differ just as every writer differs.

Having said that I should point out that although the actual shape and form of each writing process is individual to the unique writer there are certain constants:

~ Generating ideas and choosing a focus

~ Organizing those ideas

~ Writing

~ Revising

~ Editing

The amount of time you spend on each stage of the writing process varies according to the writer and the task and this is especially true for me. Many writing tasks are so familiar to me that I spend very little time choosing a focus or organizing my ideas so I can leap write into writing. On the other hand I often generate four or more pages of fiction in about an hour at the computer because I spend a lot of time generating and organizing my ideas before I sit down.

I have spent years honing my personal writing process and know that the step I actually spend the least amount of time is writing. I have learned to let my creative juices flow and not to worry about such petty concerns as grammar, sentence structure, and word choice. I rarely waste a moment on organization or paragraphing. I just let the words flow through my fingerstips until I have emptied my budget. Then I hit save and print, tidy up my papers and set them aside.

Revision is usually the lion’s share of my writing process. It may take me two or three drafts to reorganize and shape a piece until I am willing to share it with others. Depending on how difficult and/or complex the subject then I may need to loop back through brainstorming, organizing and writing to improve my project. I may make a few minor adjustments to grammar or spelling or sentence structure, but primarily I concentrate on the larger issues of focus and development and organization.

When I am finally satisfied my article, chapter, or essay is working as a whole then I begin the actual editing process of cleaning up word choice and sentence structure and any other stray problems that have been overlooked. I usually spend only one draft on this actual process.

If you are serious about improving your writing quality and productivity then you need to spend time analyzing your personal writing process. You might be surprised by what you learn–and I know you can put the knowledge to good use.

What do you do now that you have finished that great manuscript? Many believe you can simply start sending it out to agents or publishers sometimes even both. However this is simply not true, just because you have created this riveting tale, you cannot send it out and expect it to be published right then. No, there are many aspects to being published and even more frauds out there, where the only goal is to con you out of your money. Filling their pockets and leaving yours empty and your dream of being published unfulfilled.

So what to do, where to turn, who do you trust, who do you ask? Well the first thing is take that perfect manuscript and reread each and every word and prepare to rewrite, if you are like many authors out there who have a hard time seeing their own mistakes then join a critique group. These groups are designed to help writers, and many have guidelines to follow so that your critique is accurate and fair. Once you have joined the group, redone your mistakes, repeatedly, finally believing you have the best Manuscript possible, here comes the hard part. Getting someone else to believe it as well.

You have to come up with a query letter that holds the readers attention using a strong hook. A hook if you don’t know is that one scene, that one line, that grabs the readers attention making them want more, need more of what you have to say. Once you have that Query here comes the synopsis, a synopsis is summary of your story highlighting plot twist and turns along with giving, a detail setting your story takes place in, generally about two to three pages in length. A word of advice when you write your synopsis, know the ending even if not exact, at least how it will end. Publishers and Agents do not want to be still guessing at the end.

Ok you have your Query, your Synopsis, your sample Chapters leading into the story, now what? Did you make sure everything is formatted properly; this makes a huge difference on acceptance to being read or thrown away before they look at the first line? So everything is properly formatted, you have researched the agents and publishers, you know who you are going to send out to, but there is one major problem who first?

Well that depends on your list, first off if you want an agent then they are the first ones to contact. A good agent will walk you through the process from, professional editing to submitting to the publisher. Agents will have Publishers they want to send to first, but you can suggest your own as well. A good agent will not charge you; they make money off getting that contract with the publisher. A good agent will keep you informed at all changes, but most importantly, a good agent will be looking out for you.

Now that we know what an Agent does maybe, you are like hundreds of other authors and do not want an agent. Well that is ok too; many go straight to the publisher. Whether you self publish or have a publisher, you need to follow the company’s guidelines and rules. Also, remember that unless you are self-publishing then the Publisher pays you not the other way around. A publisher should also have a list of events and ideas they want to use to promote the book.

No matter what way you choose to move that manuscript into a novel be sure to check out each publisher, editor, and agent on your list. Make sure they are legit, that they do not have any hidden fees, and any questions you have are answered completely before you sign that dotted line. Remember you are in charge, it is your work, and you have a responsibility to yourself, your readers, and your publisher or agent, just because the hard parts are done, do not stop. Send it out for reviews, ask local books stores to carry it, promote, promote, promote.

I recently made an important discovery that I just couldn’t wait to share. You can make money by giving your writing away. Yes, it really is true.

This isn’t some “get rich overnight” scheme or some trick to get you to lay out a bunch of money for a “turn key business”. You have to do the work yourself and it will take some time to set everything in place — but anyone with an elementary grasp of the English language can make this work!

Giving your writing away to web sites, blogs, ezines, and newsletters can really make you some serious cash on the internet and I’m not joking. I have been writing professionally for two decades and I never thought I’d make more by writing for free but I am.

In fact, I make more money giving my writing away than I did selling my articles and columns. That’s right. The truth is that I’m making more money writing part-time for free than I did in any of my full-time paid writing jobs and that includes advances and royalties from the publication of three novels.

There are three ways I profit from giving my writing away. They aren’t secrets and you can use them profitably as well:

~ Traffic for my web sites and blogs (I’ve seen traffic triple within a week from some articles)

~ Reputation building for me and my online enterprises which helps attract clients, customers, and visitors

~ Profit for my advertisers and for me through sales of my own products as well as affiliate income

It really is not a difficult or complicated business model and one any competent writer, or anyone with the ability to string a decent sentence together, could replicate or modify to suit their purpose. I am a writer not a business person, but I know this is working for me and that it could work for you, too.

And let me share one last terrific benefit of this writing business — you can write whatever you want. You aren’t dependent on some editor’s whim or assignment. You don’t need to worry about tightly focusing your work to fit within a publication’s editorial guidelines. You are in total control — you write to suit yourself in terms of topic, approach, and tone. And you’ll make more money doing that then you ever did when you tried to write for someone else. I promise!

Now go out there and give your writing away!

Need content for your website well then look no further, Articles are here and the way to go. Articles provide many different things, daily content for your site, a way to voice your opinion or the opinion of others, the biggest thing is traffic to your site, and then however comes returning visitors and visits provided by other links. All of these things are a part of Articles and how you can use them to provide a great and informative way to bring people to your site.

The Pros

The biggest pro of Articles has already been mention, traffic, returning traffic to be more specific. No website can survive without people making there way to it, and returning for more. Also lets not forget the Search Engines, AOL, Google, and Yahoo, in alphabetical or and only providing the names of just a few. These Search Engines use keywords to direct viewers to different websites. Just like Articles is the keyword for this particular article, Keywords are how the search engines recognize what you are looking for. Say you wanted games you would then type in the word games and wow look at all the hits you get.

The Cons

There are a few problems with Articles. One thing they are a person’s point of view, if the person writing the article is not happy with the Keyword then the article could be damaging to the original site, product, or person. Another con to Articles is the fact they change constantly moving from one subject to another and can make finding the right one difficult.

Summary

When writing your Article be sure you do not copy someone else’s work, not only is this illegal but also wrong. Make sure you give the original provider of the article their credit and the source link is working properly, not to mention telling them you are using their work. Following these simple guidelines can keep you out of trouble and possibly create a working relationship with the person you got your information from for a long time to come.

To bring all of this to a close you have to consider what you have read today, heard from someone else, or found on your own before, Articles if used properly can bring visitors to your website and keep them returning for more.

As a writing instructor and coach I work with writers every day who are not reaching their full potential. What holds them back?

When you talk with struggling writers they generally mention one of three problems:

~ Lack of writing skills

~ Lack of writing opportunities

~ Lack of knowledge

As a writing professional with more than two decades of experience in both print and internet publishing I regularly assure the writers that I work with that none of these three obstacles is insurmountable.

LACK OF WRITING SKILL

The lack of writing skills does not have to be an obstacle to your writing goals and dreams. It is simply a hurdle that you need to overcome. I have taught students struggling to earn their GED how to write and I have taught many developmental English students how to write. Writing is a skill that can be taught, learned, and mastered just like any other skill.

Obviously there are levels of ability and mastery just as there are with many other skills, but with time and practice almost anyone can achieve competency as a writer. I cannot promise that everyone can be a master craftsman but most can become a good wordsmith.

If you feel that your skills are weak then you might consider taking a course to strengthen your writing however for many writers simply working up a regular schedule of reading and writing will do wonders for improving grammar, vocabularly, and style.

LACK OF WRITING OPPORTUNITIES

There simply isn’t a better time to be a writer seeking an audience. Not only do the standard print mediums still exist in newspapers, magazines, and books there is now a wealth of opportunity available electronically in the form of ezines, blogs, and web sites. There are a plethora of paid opportunities for the experienced pro and there are a myriad of unpaid forums for the beginner looking for experience.

Seek out writing communities, both face-to-face and online, and writing publications, both traditional and electronic, and you will quickly learn about new markets and writing opportunities.

In addition, with the many available print and electronic options available sometimes you can simply make your own opportunities — create your own e-book, start a blog or electronic newsletter, or self publish your manuscript. The options are limitless.

If you lack writing opportunities then you simply aren’t looking hard enough.

LACK OF KNOWLEDGE

I cringe when I hear writers whine that they don’t have anything to write about. How can this be? If you are alive then you have something to write about.

Ideas come from a variety of places but the easiest place is to start with what you already know about. Look around the community (or rather communities) that you are a part of every day — including your home, church, work, and school. There are likely many writing topics there. What are your hobbies and interests? What do your friends and family ask you for advice? You have a wealth of knowledge and experience to share without doing any research — start there!

It is OK to also write about a topic that you are just beginning to investigate and understand. I often pick topics that simply interest me or that I need more information about. I’m trying to get my son to stop sucking his thumb so I have been reading up on that topic a lot lately!

Now go out and start writing. Don’t let these three obstacles block you from writing success. View them simply as opportunities to learn and grow and you will succeed.

Sylvian Browne’s Bio

Sylvia Browne is a self-proclaimed medium and psychic from Kansas City, Missouri. She was born in 1936, started her career as a psychic in 1973, and founded the Nirvana Foundation for Psychic Research. Browne has now authored several books on spirituality (published in paperback and audio), and has been regularly featured on The Montel Williams Show.

She has also made her appearances on TV shows such as Larry King Live, Montel, Unsolved Mysteries, and Entertainment Tonight; and has been featured in Cosmopolitan and People magazine. She is the president of the Sylvia Browne Corporation, and founder of her church called the Society of Novus Spiritus, based in Campbell, California.

Well-Known Predictions:

Sylvia Browne has predicted certain events in her career as a psychic, some considerably accurate and some questionable. One was the Clinton-Lewinsky affair in which she predicted that Clinton was falsely accused, which turned out to prove incorrect. Other well-known predictions include the 2000 U.S. presidential election and victory to Bill Bradley, the death of Bin Laden, the “hiding in caves” of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, a verdict of “not guilty” in the Robert Blake case, September 11 attacks, and the emergence of extraterrestrial life on Earth by the year 2010. According to police officials and family members, in all 35 police cases she has worked on, she didn’t play any significant role.

Criticism and Controversies:

Browne has been criticized in her career as a psychic by skeptics such as James Randi, who asserts that there is no distinction between Browne’s reading and those made by mentalists using cold reading and hot reading methods. There have also been a number of controversies surrounding this famous psychic. In 1992, Sylvia Browne was convicted of investment fraud and was asked to perform 200 hours of community service.

In addition, there were reported contradictions in her stories on the subject of “Visits from the Afterlife” and “In Life on the Other Side”. More famous controversies were the Sago Mine controversy and the Montel Williams controversies, in which several skeptics raged battles against Browne, questioning the credibility of her predictions and her career as a psychic.

Sylvia Browne Audio Books:

Sylvia Browne’s audio books are available for purchase in downloadable formats such as MP3, on CD/DVD sets, and on tapes. Each set of Sylvia Browne audio books lasts several hours, and is priced from $9 to $24. These audio books include &ndash

1.Adventures Of A Psychic

2.Angels and Spirit Guides: How to Call Upon Your Angels and Spirit Guide for Help

3.Angels, Guides & Ghosts

4.Blessings from the Other Side

5.If You Could See What I See: The Tenets of Novus Spiritus

6.Insight: Case Files from the Psychic World

7.Life on the Other Side

8.Past Lives, Future Healing

9.Phenomenon

10.Prophecy: What the Future Holds for You

11.Secrets And Mysteries Of The World

12.Book of Angels

13.Sylvia Browne’s Tools for Life

14.Visits from the Afterlife: Truth about Ghosts, Spirits, Hauntings and Reunions of Loved Ones