Essay Online

In the 1600’s most cultured socialites considered chapbooks vulgar. These ‘flimsy’ booklets were often sold in less than reputable establishments and contained a variety of less than quality poetry, stories, ballads and political dissent. Often filled with spelling mistakes, factual blunders and little in the way of quality assurance these chapbooks often connected with the uncultured alone.

Today you will find several colleges that are working to collect copies of aging chapbooks. International universities have collections of hundred and even thousands of these manuscripts.

What are chapbooks?

This type of literature provides a relatively small grouping of thoughts or poetry in a booklet form that is generally unacceptable in traditional book markets. The length of a chapbook rarely exceeds 50 pages and can be assembled using a home printer and publishing software or using an office supply store that provides copying services.

Chapbook History

In the past these booklets were sold by peddlers to others who enjoyed the simplified nature of the work.

Some chapbooks were purchased if only because paper was scarce and the pages of the chapbook were used to wrap food items for transport.

Chapbooks have historically received very little respect and ultimately faded away for a time with the advent of mass produced newspapers and other periodicals.

In many respects historical chapbooks are now considered desirable folk art and are appreciated in ways the original authors would find surprising.

Chapbooks Today

In the twenty-first century chapbooks are seeing a prominence they have not seen in the past.

Today chapbooks are successfully used to promote an author’s poetry or short stories. They are marketed online and in specialty shops. Some chapbook developers have used the work for philanthropic purposes while others have funded group projects and the distribution of personal writings.

A fundraising effort for families involved in the Sego Mining Disaster in West Virginia saw a poetry chapbook used to provide needed finances for those dealing with loss.

With the advent of easy-to-use publishing programs and printers who can mass-produce a chapbook at reasonable prices, there are more people than ever looking to impact others through the distribution of chapbooks.

Chapbook Future

Some chapbooks may be downloadable through PDF technology while other writers of chapbooks may move solidly toward ebook technology in the future in an effort to distribute their chapbooks thus avoiding paper distribution entirely.

It is safe to presume that the time-honored tradition of chapbooks will see these little publications delight, encourage and challenge readers for centuries to come.

The publishing company is the backbone of the writing world. The publishing company provides a great service to society by publishing and displaying the work of authors. The global existence of publishers is obvious, but the inner workings of a publishing company is unknown by many authors. Many book publishers consider the publishing industry as an apprenticeship industry — most book publishing professionals gain knowledge and skills in this field with hands-on job experience. Generally, what an apprentice learns in one department is useful throughout the publishing house, which gives professionals the opportunity to move between departments. A typical publishing company has many levels to it, each with different functions.

THE ADMINISTRATIVE DEPARTMENT

The Administrative Department is the first level of any book publishing company. It has many responsibilities to help the publishing company function properly. The Administrative Department manages daily operations for publishing executives and management. This responsibility involves interaction with all employees from all departments, as well as interaction with authors and agents. The administrative employees manage the calendar, maintain organized files, screen/prioritize mail, draft correspondence, make travel arrangements and prepare itineraries, process expense reports, take minutes at meetings, and prepare reports. A position as an administrative employee allows a person to have a high-level of understanding of a publishing company, while being visible to executives.

THE ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT

All large and small publishing companies have an Advertising Department. Most publishing companies have in-house advertising agencies that purchase media space and create and design advertisements. In a publishing company, the Advertising Department works closely with the marketing directors, editors, and publishers of titles to create an advertising plan that promotes sales of an author’s book. An advertising plan requires research and negotiation to provide the best venues and the most cost-effective methods of advertisement. These employees also work closely with graphic designers, commercial sales representatives, printing presses, and internal staff to facilitate the run of advertisements.

THE EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT

The Editorial Department of a publishing company is one of the most important departments. The Editorial Department acquires, negotiates, develops, and edits book projects for publication. The daily activities of editorial employees include preparing acquisitions for transmittal to the production department; developing and maintaining relationships with authors, booksellers, and agents; performing general administrative duties; participating in editorial, design and marketing meetings; and reading and evaluating submissions by writing reader’s reports. The editorial department must work closely with all departments.

THE MARKETING DEPARTMENT

Another division of a publishing company is the Marketing Department. The Marketing Department creates, prepares, and establishes marketing strategies and policies for each book title by coordinating the efforts of publicity, promotion, advertising, and sales departments. The Marketing Department prepares all sales presentation materials, audio recordings, fact sheet collation, and promotions; creates and produces additional account-specific presentation materials; researches and establishes relations with new markets; and plans and maintains sales and marketing schedules.

THE PUBLISHER’S OFFICE

The Publisher’s Office is also an important department for many publishing companies. The publishers oversee the life cycle of a book title from acquisition to production, and onto the sales force. Publishers make executive decisions for all book titles within assigned imprints while staying within any cost restraints. This department is also responsible for sponsoring book projects, strategies, and initiatives for the publishing company.

BOOK RIGHTS DEPARTMENT

The Subsidiary Rights and Permissions Department is one of the most important divisions of a book publishing company. This department finds additional sources of profit for a given title, including serials, book clubs, and paperback, audio and e-book rights.

The daily activities for the subsidiary department include writing submission letters; sending manuscripts, proposals, and books to foreign publishers and agents; coordinating co-productions with other publishers; working with book clubs and sales for special editions; and maintaining relationships with other publishing companies.

ENJOY THE JOURNEY

The road to getting a book published is a long one, but well worth the effort. Trust yourself, and trust the publisher to create a beautiful masterpiece. Don’t be discouraged if several publishers are not interested in your book. You may have to self-publish your first book, and then again, a large or small publishing company may accept your book based on marketability. Good luck and enjoy the process.

If you have a good appetite and a way with words, food writing may be a career option to consider. Not only is doing research for food writing one of the more enjoyable tasks in freelance writing, but you’ll never be short of restaurant recommendations and potential free meals — though you may run short of well-fitting pants.

To become a successful freelance food writer, you’ll need to know how to describe food well. The key to description, at least in traditional literature, is to make focused, concrete comparisons. To see why, ask yourself which sentence you find more appealing: “It was the tastiest shrimp I’ve ever eaten,” or “The lime-pressed garlic shrimp, grilled over applewood, had a texture between the crunch of caramelized sugar and the soft resistance of a medium-rare salmon filet”?

The fundamental law of food writing is to make your reader wish that he or she had some of whatever delicious dish you’re writing about, to make the reader personally invested in the food. And there’s a strange quirk in the human mind: whenever we think about an object or activity, we activate the parts of our brain that turn on whenever we’re interacting with that object or engaged in that activity. In other words: if we think about throwing a baseball, the nerves in our arm twitch. Or, if we think about eating a thick steak, our stomach grumbles and our mouth waters. When you’re writing about food, you want to activate those same parts of the brain to make your reader feel that he or she is sharing in the experience of eating it. Words like “tasty,” “delicious,” or, worst of all, “really good,” won’t do anything for your reader’s emotions. Only words related to food — or words and images with strong emotional connotations — will really get your readers’ mouths watering.

Once you’ve written your articles, where do you market your food writing? If you live in a large city, you can write for a local newspaper or an alternative paper (i.e. the LA Weekly, the Austin Chronicle, etc.). Millions of people read these papers daily or weekly, and a good portion of those millions read the food section. When anyone in a major city needs to make restaurant reservations for a date, business dinner, party, or other social engagement, they look in the food section of the local paper for hot new restaurant reviews. Stay on top of restaurant openings and closings in your city. New restaurant openings can be your “bread and butter.” Local newspapers and online city guides are always wanting to print new restaurant reviews.

If you have a favorite local hangout that not many people know about, write an article on it. Submit your article with a proper query letter to a local newspaper. You might be the first one to write about the place, throwing needed business their way. In the end, you collect a decent paycheck from the newspaper, along with a published clip, a byline, and hopefully more work and referrals.

Another option is to write for magazines dedicated to food, dining, city nightlife, general lifestyles, or for the tourist market. If you plan to write for magazines, your choice of what to write about becomes much broader. You can write how-to articles, interview pieces, cookware reviews, and so on. If you plan to write for local tourism guides, your best bet is to write restaurant reviews. Tourists may not know about any of the well-known restaurants or diners in the area. Tourism guides provide insight and guidance to what’s hot and what’s not in the area. This means that there’s a steady flow of potential readers for your restaurant reviews and other food writing.

If you don’t live in a large city, it’s much more difficult to become a food writer. The mom n’ pop cafe downtown may have some of the best omelets you’ve ever tasted, but how are you supposed to sell an article if everyone in town already eats at that cafe every Friday night? Consider selling your articles to regional magazines. The Department of Transportation in several US states often publishes a monthly magazine about regional news. The editors of these magazines often look at local restaurant reviews as a source of human interest, or a way of boosting out-of-state tourism to non-traditional destinations.

Additionally, you might try writing sample copy for cookbooks, press releases for food suppliers, or ads for food companies. Companies and book publishers hire good food writers to help market anything from new varieties of pasta sauce to gourmet steak dishes. Even a nearby supermarket might be willing to pay for copy in weekly ad flyers.

Unfortunately for rural types, full-time food writing is more often than not an urban game. For urban types, food is one of the products that won’t ever stop being popular, especially when it’s offered as part of a good restaurant experience. Thus food writing means job security, and more importantly than that: it’s just outright enjoyable writing. So get to it!

“Careers, like rockets, don’t always take off on schedule. The key is to keep working the engines.” - Gary Sinese

If you pay close attention to the words and inferences of some who use freelance writers you will see that freelancers must be superhuman.

The Top Ten Signs you Have Found a Perfect Freelance Writer

1) They are never too busy to work on my project.

2) They are always efficient enough to have the project completed yesterday.

3) They are willing to write for a fee less than the poverty level.

4) They are willing to provide unlimited rewrites.

5) They always know exactly the style of writing I need.

6) They do not have a personal life.

7) They are knowledgeable about every subject known to man.

They never get sick.

9) They never expect prompt payment.

10) They like it when I’m snippy.

As a freelance writer you may be finding some truth to this list, but the burden of proof is on your shoulders as a freelancer. You do need to adopt a can-do attitude, but be honest enough to pass on a project if you are uncertain about the subject, deadline or volume of work.

The reason a good freelancer may seem superhuman is they have learned the value of follow-up, follow through, customer service and commitment.

All freelance writers have had clients that have more than likely been refused service from other freelancers. These clients refused to be pleased with any work they are presented with. They have an idea writer in mind, but sadly that writer does not exist.

In these cases it is difficult to end the relationship gracefully. It could be you have provided numerous rewrites and the client remains dissatisfied. At that point you may need to stand up to the client and ask for payment or to be released from the obligation.

When you do hear from satisfied customers, you should not hesitate to ask for a brief testimonial you can use for the benefit of other customers who may be considering you as a means of reaching their content objectives.

Stretch your wings and learn new skills. A good freelancer may specialize in one type of service, but is adaptable enough to facilitate new writing formats when needed. The more you learn about freelancing the more marketable your skills will be.

“Do a little more each day than you think you possibly can.” - Lowell Thomas

Is it better to participate in content writing or write for magazine publication?

The above question is actually multifaceted and can help you determine the overall thrust of your freelance writing career.

It has been estimated that a writer will need to pen a million words before a publisher is likely to accept their first work. That means a lot of rejection slips.

So, does that imply that content writing is preferred to the crafting of a book or magazine article?

Well not exactly. Content writing is a means of addressing a short-term need. If the immediate need is cash, then content writing might provide the answer. However, if you are looking for a means of affecting long-term royalty payments or a greater flexibility in the ownership of your material you may look at other publishing options.

When you agree to write content for a client you are essentially providing a service for hire. Once you release the article or story to the client and they reciprocate with a payment you have no further interest in the article. You can’t use it again and you will gain no further payment for its ongoing use.

When you write a story for potential use in a book anthology, or a full manuscript for publication, you may have a variety of rights to consider.

If you are the author of a story, you can negotiate with a publisher for the rights you are willing to provide. You could provide First North American Rights, which would allow you to resell the story in the future as a second right, but you would also have the capability of selling first rights to someone else on an international basis. Nonexclusive rights allow you to continue selling the material with the same rights to as many publishers as are interested.

As we venture back to the original question it is important to understand that freelanced writing can and should be a balanced approach to writing. If it takes you a million words before you find publishing success why not make some of those words available to a paying content market to provide some skills-based writing while you work on other projects that are more personal and may have the potential to provide long-term residual payments.

A writer should always find time to write about the things they are passionate about, however the service of content writing provides a means of gaining some writing income while learning new skills and writing techniques while you are waiting for a publisher’s acceptance letter.

“[Henry David] Thoreau is a keen and delicate observer of nature - a genuine observer - which, I suspect, is almost as rare a character as even an original poet; and Nature, in return for his love, seems to adopt him as her especial child, and shows him secrets which few others are allowed to witness.” &ndash Nathaniel Hawthorne (Journal entry, September 1, 1842)

Most of the greatest poets were not recognized for their work until they had long been laid to rest. Many suffered great difficulties in their personal lives, which may have led the poet to the wellspring from which they drew their words.

It has been suggested that poetry was used in our long distant past as a creative means of passing along traditions and history simply because the poetic language was easy to memorize and enjoyable to recite. The bards in medieval times were renowned for their use of poetry.

From free verse to rhyme and meter, poetry remains a benchmark in the world of literature. The pursuit of poetic markets remains a positive way to further an ancient form of storytelling that requires a special gift while the poet’s emotions are largely exposed.

Poetry is the one element of writing that impacts the emotions of writers more than any other. The vulnerable feel of poetry allows a writer to explore circumstances and emotions in a way that is difficult to do in most writing genres.

Most poets craft their words as a stress release and rarely share them with the world at large, however, there may be markets available for poetry.

It is true that publishers of poetry are about as plentiful as wheat fields in the Arctic, but there are other avenues for your poetry that can allow you to publish your material in unique and memorable ways.

Greeting card publishers are always interested in new succinct poems to share with card buyers. Poems can also be artfully placed on a line of gift merchandise including mugs and artwork suitable for framing.

In our modern era you would be hard-pressed to find someone who is able to make a living writing poetry. However poetry can provide a source of writing income and is often a creative outlet for those who also write in other genres.

It is true there are those who have little appreciation for poetry, yet the poet’s work has brought about significant societal debate and ultimate change in our world. Perhaps this is because the reader is invited to share the writer’s perspective in an emotional way that allows a perspective to be heard with something other than ears.

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all. - Dale Carnegie

Some of the special skills discussed in writing may have you feeling as if there is really no room for expressing your own personality in your writing. However, there is always a misunderstood need for personal innovation in storytelling. There will always be intriguing stories that defy conventional wisdom.

Children’s author Pamela Jane struggled with the advice she was receiving from others in the field of children’s literature. The suggestion was that Pamela should write about the subjects she knew. She was advised to avoid stories about dolls, fantasy and seasonal titles.

As it turns out, Pamela had just written a story about a doll she had owned as a child and the imagination she used to convey a fantasy Christmas story.

Pamela angrily accepted the advise of her writing friends and set the story aside. However, another friend encouraged her to at least explore the possibility of publishing the story.

“I decided to send it to an obscure regional publisher who might not have heard that seasonal doll fantasies were pass

“When length is a problem, I’d rather cut out sections — entire thoughts — than chisel off the texture and color from the most important parts of the story. Cutting is hard and painful work, but I’d rather do it myself than leave it to someone who doesn’t know the story as well as I do.” - Warren Wolfe

For some the idea of actually having writing deadlines would be a dream come true. They enjoy writing, but have never experienced the ruthless demand of completing an article by a preset time.

Deadlines have been the nemesis of writers for generations. Writers are notorious for seeing a deadline as being so far in the future the need to work on an article ‘right now’ seems nonexistent. In the end they simply make a mad dash to the finish line hoping they have everything in place to make the article shine.

I find that when I write on deadline, my stuff sometimes reads better, because I don’t spend as much time trying to write the perfect sentence or capture the perfect image. In other words, allow the deadline to force you to be concise, crisp and to write with urgency.” - Jim Souhan

A deadline does contribute to the tyranny of the urgent, yet writing for a deadline is a close cousin to Pressure Writing. When you are forced to work quickly your brain actually works harder and faster to process and compile only the most relevant facts. When you allow yourself to spend too long on an article you can begin to second-guess article construction and language use. Many writers will tell you that writing for a deadline actually works to make their writing clear and concise.

“Some people freeze on deadline. My cure for that: Start typing. The simple act of typing in possible leads or details frees you up. Sometimes writing a bad lead on deadline helps you remember what a good lead looks like, and allows you to jump-start your writing.”

- Jim Souhan

As you develop a writing career you will find there are more and more deadlines to greet you. These deadlines are important and may ultimately liberate your writing to become something that is crafted in a timely manner and set free for the enjoyment of others.

Writing for a deadline also allows you to discover there is more writing to be done once you’ve met your cut-off date.

The most valuable thing you can collect if you are selling your book from a website when a visitor comes to your book’s sales site is not their money… it’s their email address and/or other contact information.

If you have no clue how to create a website, do not worry about feeling intimidated. It is actually a lot easier than you think. There is a simple site that teaches people all about creating websites for free at .LissaExplains.com

You can also learn a lot by doing a search for a phrase at Google.com like “how to make a website” and “free html tutorial.” You will find tons of very good free training that way and can learn how in no time. Anyone can learn the basics of creating a website in just one day.

Ok, back to collecting your website visitors contact information.

I know, I know you’re probably saying… “I’m an author. I want to write my book, sell my book and become a recognized expert. WHY do I need to get their contact information?”

The simplest answer is: Because you will NOT become wealthy from the sale of your book. You will become wealthy and achieve celebrity status through the ongoing relationship you build with your readers.

If you don’t know who they are, how can you continue to keep in touch with them &ndash and they with you.

If you’re an expert on the subject and they already have your book, don’t you think they’ll want MORE information and MORE books from you?

ABSOLUTELY!

Your book makes you an expert on the subject, your interactions and relationships will propel you to a recognized expert and position you for long-term success &ndash not just a one-hit wonder.

The service you need to collect email and contact information and automatically respond to the person is called an Autoresponder.

There are paid autoresponders and free autoresponders. Normally the free autoresponders paste their own marketing message at the bottom of the emails you send out.

Not the best scenario, obviously, but if you want to do this will limited or no upfront investment then a free autoresponder service will work just fine until you start to see profits coming from your book.

The service I use is a paid service called Aweber. It is located at .aweber.com

Do your own research and find a company that meets your needs. I recommend this service because it’s been around for a long time and many of my high quality marketing friends recommend this to their clients and wouldn’t continue to do so if it was a shoddy service.

What should you do with your autoresponder service when you get it?

1) You should place at least 1 or 2 “sign up” boxes on your book’s sales page. You can offer an ongoing “newsletter” or “ezine” (as it’s called online). Or you can create a “special report” related to the subject of your book and offer it free to anyone who signs up.

The purpose of this sign up is to capture “visitor” information. This way even if the visitor doesn’t order your book, you still have their contact information and can keep in touch to promote your book and yourself to them on an ongoing basis.

Maybe they won’t buy your book, but because of your newsletter or special report, they might recommend your book to family and friends.

2) After PayPal.com and before your download page.

When looking at PayPal.com, we saw that after they took the person’s payment for your book, they would send them back to your website.

The first page the person &ndash now a client &ndash should see is a “register” page. This page can simply ask for their name and email or you can have optional fields like address, phone number etc. Obviously the more information they are willing to provide the better for future contact with them.

This is a different list than those in #1. #1 is a list of people who visited your book’s website who may or may not have purchased your book. These people are registered buyers.

History proves that it’s far easier to get current clients to order more from you than trying to get someone who hasn’t already ordered. Both lists are valuable &ndash but this one is the most valuable to you for ongoing success.

In poetic literature you will often find a poem that seems to be inviting the reader to participate in an adventure or a love story. The use of ‘you’ is evident in the poetry, but in most cases the reader understands that the poem is written to a third party and the author is simply allowing you the opportunity to read these moments of intimate conversation.

Possessives in poetry, marked by an apostrophe, are a way to understand that the poem is written for and to another person &ndash even when written from a first person perspective.

There is, however, a unique form of writing called Authorial Intrusion that will find the author breaking away from the storyline and speaking directly to the reader. This technique is sometimes used to take a work of fiction and make it seem somehow real. This is accomplished when the storyteller breaks from the action to talk directly with you.

Authorial Intrusion can also be used in poetry and is used extensively in persuasive essays. In fact, in essays Authorial Intrusion is often used as a means of allowing a personal voice of persuasion to assist in the point being argued.

You can see the use of Authorial Intrusions in old detective movies where they step out of the shadows and talk to the audience about what they are thinking. This particular adaptation has been used for comic effect in recent years as it has been used extensively in film parodies.

As film and fiction writing have matured the use of Authorial Intrusion has diminished. Sometimes Authorial Intrusions make a work seem amateurish simply because the audience is informed of an impending scenario just before the scenario plays out. It can come across as redundant and unnecessary.

Here’s a short example of Authorial Intrusion…

“Ben had assumed there was nothing to fear on the plateau, but he didn’t see the grizzly bear approaching from behind.”

This particular example really isn’t needed in the context of the story. If the story is indeed Ben’s then allow the reader to experience the emotions Ben has when he makes the surprising discovery.

In the case of fiction writing Authorial Intrusions should be minimal in a worst-case scenario and eliminated altogether in a perfect world. When you choose a Point of View in which to tell the story it is best to allow that voice to remain as consistent as possible throughout the narrative.