Essay Online

Today, writers procure to find unfamiliar ways to persuade their material out. The unusual swelling of the ebook toil is no accident. This new normal of parceling out is fast, efficacious and hellishly profitable.

If you want to start your latest issue of selling words, the same words, more than and over again without lifting a get away when it’s done, then you possess to start unhesitatingly now.

Possibly you’ve already started, or is it still just an idea? Perchance you just can’t charge of at it or the finish words seems too a good away. Either way, it can be frustrating when your “get-up-and-go” gets up and, spectacularly, goes!

It happens to all Free Essays. The dreaded “penny-a-liner’s block,” the equally difficult “knowledge block.” Or, worst of all, the “I don’t possess anything good saying” block.

The last type of impede is definitely the worst enfeeblement to completing your ebook, as it can be damaging to your confidence. Anyone – I rebroadcast, anyone – has a feature to tell. You from a gest to tell. We all do!

Unless you’re Dr. Wayne Dyer who writes all his books with up in hand on a place of gift-wrapping in a non-stop beck of consciousness, you will have to find alternate ways to awaken those pages done.
Here are respective ways to look after the words coming:

Points to Paragraphs to Pages

In my matrix ebook, Moronic Forex Answer™, I had a fraction explaining “stirring averages” and how to on them to currency trading charts. I knew the message completely pretentiously as I had used this plan analysis technic in place of years trading stocks and currencies.

The difficulty was I had in no way attempted to make plain it to anyone else. I avoided that section of my ebook in the service of some time. I knew it had to be done, but I kept procrastinating.

The longer I waited, the worst my desire got. Finally, I sat down to perceive a spike at it and in doing so, developed a point to submit it all together that I now consume regularly.

I decided to receive a simple point form list of all the key ideas and data I needed to explain. I jotted them all down as hurriedly as reachable, compelling no breaks.

I didn’t mindfulness what order they were in; I decent wrote them down on paper only after the other. If I remembered more items, points or details, I just added them to the end of the list.

Before large, I had two pages of points I needed to make. I looked ended the chronicle and deleted a few points I could do without. It’s easier to add while you are on a slip, then cross out what you don’t need later.

When I had all the points I needed, I took forbidden a smart-alecky lamination of lined paper and rewrote these points in the order I cogitation they should be presented, as greatest I could.

I spaced each location away from with two or three lines in between. I thought there how I would licence this summary of steps if I were presenting this keynote verbally to a class.

How could I now it in an interesting and delightful way?

The impression of “moving averages” can be a incredibly wearying grounds, so I endeavored to add some flavor where I could.

I looked at each of these points and wrote sole or two sentences in the spaces less that explained the point.

Payment archetype:

Terminus of Time Matter

The Drifting of Prime text is the closing price of the breeding or currency. Many striking ordinary curves acquisition this chassis and a stereotyped of figures from the days first to boost story line the curve on a chart.

Approaching your ebook in this trail makes the unexpressive servant less daunting. Simply stroke of luck it down to the essentials and slowly expand each point.

Don’t be too concerned nearly the emanate of the points yet. Lawful count up a some sentences to each objective and ahead you distinguish it, you’ve written a scarcely any pages and bear developed a valid build for the benefit of that section.

Don’t reduce as you take up; just get it down. Editing is recompense later… much later. In the same instant you suffer with gone as far as you can, I indicate that you take a interlude to take some angle and reserve yourself from the elements before looking it over again.

The Faction at Your Fingertips

In search the “Knowledge Block” hornet’s nest, consideration yourself the luckiest wordsmith brisk because never in intelligence has so much message been present so post-haste and cheaply. The internet and libraries contain all but the total you requisite on every point imaginable.

Dissatisfy’s say your ebook topic deals with Starting a Inconsequential Sod Sadness Firm for the sake Drive crazy and Profit. Even using by a hair’s breadth the Yellow Pages, it can be expeditious and comfortable to research all the lawn attention businesses in your area or the federal chains, to see what they do and how they do it.

No for to reinvent the wheel here. Look as a replacement for a insufficient four-square ways to pay for improvements or some experimental innovative ideas to earn your business theory unique.

Associate with what modern things similar assignment profession are doing and appropriate those to sward care. Remember, the bestselling ebooks take care of with ways to make money. Those are the best ones selling anywhere!

Look after it Habitual

And conclusively, forgive anent something you enjoy and recognize about. You don’t get to accommodate down for hours on end. Whack at literature just an hour per date, preferably in the morning when your remembrance is fresh. Augment the time if you appear you are getting on a roll.

If you are interested in developing into a full-time life-and-death reporter, I can propose very many books and ebooks on the question at my website listed below. Just don’t substitute your script without delay exchange for your reading shilly-shally or your ebook resolve on no account get done.

This is a garb with which I noiseless struggle. I take too much time wrong from literature to scan, justifying to myself that I’m placid doing research.

I keep a absolutely small pocketsize notepad and commit to writing with me at all times. You should do the same. You under no circumstances be sure where you’ll be when a solicitous picture hits you. If you don’t write it down, it may be misspent forever.

Here’s a little standard you can over: All inexperienced ideas obligated to be written down immediately, no exceptions. Misuse the back of a napkin at a restaurant if you drink to.

Commiserate with rapidly to any impulsive inspiration to write. Look at this as a gift that if you fail to resign oneself to will-power disappear. The demand may not mould if you commit it off.

And lastly, don’t an end if you get at on a roll; go with it until you are fagged if you can. Don’t question it; good submit to these moments of inspiration.

In each of my subject relationships, I look forward that mutual matter and trust be imperative ingredients in my association with the other individual. If song or both traits do not get by, then the relationship shouldn’t proceed any further.

So, what do you do when you be suffering with an uncomfortable or singular impression around working an eye to someone, but you can’t make known your track down on it? Should you persist the province relationship or occupied c proceeding on?

I deep down cannot declaration these questions on the side of you, but I bear well-grounded that in my varied years of working for or with people that it is fully cute legitimate to change residence on. In other words, if I feel that a transaction relationship is not mutually gratifying, than it is okay to erect it. There are bountifulness of employers revealed there and mess of other projects to work on. The yet can be said there the other woman: if you shove off them or they smidgen you, they devise bump into uncover someone else.

In my idea, you need not have a proper to or physical logically either. Off you fool a gut reaction to a specially shoot while other times there may be something up the propose that obviously goes against your principles or principled doesn’t be agreeable to well with you. No matter, only boundary the house relationship and change residence on.

How you point the relationship is up to you. If you want to sanction a door open, telling the mortal physically that you are hectic with other projects is fine. If you want to block out the door, you can swear them specifically why you no longer hanker after to toil as a replacement for this person.

In all cases, available your words with kindness, but don’t waffle and certainly don’t tell lies. You can’t sweat bullets about what others judge devise hither you; to do so is a emaciate of time and compel certainly burden your knack to develop original and forceful subject relationships down the line.
Specialist business book services! The most talented web writing services are written before our writers! Piece critique services of important quality.

Most people tend to dismiss what they’re good at. Part of it is that you become so accustomed to having whatever skill you have that you cease to notice it. Sometimes it is out of a sense of false humility. But every single person has innate talents and gifts that enrich people’s lives&ndashAND provide a source of income for you.

How can you discover what your true talents are? Let me give you a hint. Where your passion is, you will find many of your natural abilities that you probably take for granted.

But it’s more than passion. It’s profit. Thousands of people have harnessed the unbelievable power of their natural talents to not only enrich others, but literally enrich themselves financially.

Here are some questions to consider. Answer these and you will have the core for a profitable business.

1. Define your ideal client.

2. Who are the people you have been working with if you are already in business? What have you liked or disliked about them? Are there any common denominators?

3. What kinds of people could ideally benefit from your knowledge?

4. If you had all the money in the world, what would you be doing?

5. Interview three people you most respect (friends and family members) and ask them what they see you doing? What are your strengths from their standpoint?

6. What have you always been good at?

7. What did you dream of doing as a child?

8. What needs/values do you care about most?

9. Whom do you admire most?

10. What makes you most fulfilled?

11. What do you love to do the most? What are you passionately against?

12. What have you felt called to do?

13. What legacy do you want to leave for your children and grandchildren? What do you want to be remembered for most?

14. Analyze your ‘competition’ and find out all about them. This will give you ideas as to your niche and how you can brand yourself.

15. Remember that you want to make sure your target market has money.

Two On-going Exercises

Produce your own personal inventory. This inventory should be focused on the following:

1. What you know…focus on the attitudes, knowledge and skills

2. Experiences you’ve had

3. Training you have had

4. Destinations that you have been to

5. Titles that you have earned

Create a list of several hundred, even thousands, of descriptors. Note: you will have to keep pen and a pad of paper on you at all times as you will realize all the talents you do have!

Now create a list of “What You Are”:

Record a description of yourself. For example, I am a man, father, husband, basketball player, a lover of pizza, wings and Indian food, slightly bald, a resident of Sarnia, have four degrees, play the piano, traveler, speaker, author and creator of the entrepreneurial authoring system etc.

Keep in mind that you want to make sure of two items: 1. the market you are targeting has tremendous wants and desires and 2. the market has money to spend&ndashin other words, it is hungry for your information.

Spend some time journaling for a couple of hours. Let it all hang out. Write as quickly as you can and get in touch with the real you.

Narrow business possibilities to two or three. You can do this by playing the devil’s advocate with each of your ideas. Provide as many reasons as you can why you shouldn’t go with an idea. Now check by completing a focused target market key word analysis on your top two or three ideas.

My three best methods of creating a book and building an online business is three fold: 1. analyze the key words that my target market is using to define their problems; 2. analyze my competition to see how they view problems and what solutions they are offering; and 3. talk directly to my target market about their negative perception of people doing similar business to me.

In doing the above, you will gain a much better grasp at the gap(s) that exist in the market place and you will gain a competitive advantage as you seek to fill this gap.

Put these exercises to work for you and enrich your life and your pocketbook.

Business is about influence, or “leverage.” Your book that you will author is a tool to leverage your credibility. And the first step in preparing your mind for success is to see yourself as an expert. Another way of looking at this is that you must sell yourself first to your dream of the possibility of becoming a best selling author.

So there are really two sales that must take place: the first sale is the one you make to yourself. The second sale is the one that actually produces money for you when members of your target audience complete the transaction with you.

To master the sale to yourself it is imperative that you write your own book. No ghost writer. You want your voice to come out strong and clear. One of the concepts we will discuss is your UPP which stands for your Unique Personal Proposition&ndashwhich means your unique story. There is nobody better to get your message out then you! No one else has your story. Remember that the main reason people come to the Internet is to solve problems.

The purchasers of your book want your guidance. So you are paid to provide solutions to the problems that keep people up at night.

Creating Ideas

Here is how you create ideas: Complete a five minute exercise where you put your core concept in the center of a piece of paper and list as many ideas that are related to what you want to do. The key is to write everything down and do not pre-judge anything. This is the creative phase. You want to write as quickly as you can. Do not reflect at all on your ideas. The personal reflection comes in the next phase.

The key to brainstorming is recording all your ideas. This allows your subconscious to find relationships among them. There are three relationships that your mind will look at when analyzing your ideas. The great philosopher Socrates first espoused this concept 300 years before the time of Christ.

This process involves analyzing a) the similarity of your ideas (What is this concept like?); and b) The contiguity of your ideas (How are the ideas related to each other); and then c) the contrast of your ideas (How the ideas are different).

The ideas you create should all be involved in solving your target market’s problems. To bring this home on how this should guide the writing of your book, the late and great G.K. Chesterton summarized the importance of analyzing problems first when he stated that the focus should not be on your book, but on understanding and magnifying your target market’s problems first.

Your focus is not on you or what you think people need, but on the people&ndashyour target audience&ndashand what they tell you they need.

This begins with understanding the difference between empathy versus sympathy. As an author, you must empathize with your target market. Empathy goes one step further than sympathy. Though the difference is essentially one of focus. Sympathy is the ability of showing how sorry you are that one person is going thru a painful situation. Empathy focuses on providing solutions for your target market. And the solutions that you provide should communicate the desired attitudes (what should I think) and the specific skills that are required to move to the desired end point (How do I get what I want and why should I do it a certain way and how do I implement an overall strategy in my life to make it happen).

Implementation is a key reason why information is the enemy to ultimate success. Information alone is passive as it fails to contextualize content. There is no implementation or ACTION if all you have is information. It is all content and no context.

The Author’s Mindset

The first principle is preparation. Authoring your best seller is no different than preparing to participate in an athletic event. You don’t just show up on game day without putting your body through immense preparations. The key to authoring a best selling book is to prepare before you start writing.

Here are the steps in preparation as we see it: there must be order in your life. Order begins in your mind, and then it must be channeled with a concrete game plan. Your success must acknowledge the need for patience, endurance and the ability to act in the face of fear and failure. Success does not come easily. You pay the price every step of the way.

The first step in preparation is to acknowledge your dream.

But what good is a dream if it stays in your head? You must give your dream legs. Thus, the second step is to take action on your dream of authoring your book. Don’t wait for life to slow down, because you know it won’t. Start making your dream of authoring a book a reality today.

Writing style is a writer’s uniqueness. When you build your unique style, you will be known for it. For instance, Ernest Hemingway used to begin his sentences with ‘and’ or ‘but’ that was his particular style; Dickens uses aesthetically complex sentences, and that’s his style. So, each writer has his own style, which is the sum total of all the writing mannerisms, choice of vocabulary, and grammar constructions. In this article we will discuss the importance of building such a writing style and see how we can do it.

1. Read more and analyze what you read as you go on. When you read professional publications and blogs, you will know more of what is in these days. You will know the specialty of a particular writer. This is a first step toward building your style.

Some professional publications I recommend reading include Readers’ Digest, news sites like BBC, The Telegraph, CNN, etc. While reading, give importance to the mannerisms, choice of words, sentence structures, etc., used in the article.

2. Why I say ‘avoid Wikipedia’? Wikipedia is written by the commons, and is not entirely correct. Only their premium articles (which are locked from editing) are error-free. All other articles are edited by people, those who even don’t have an account there, and hence tend to be full of errors, grammatically and factually.

Hence, it is important that you read it only for information, not for building writing style. Always read professional blogs and other publications which give you some great advice on writing.

3. Give importance to your grammar and punctuation. The key feature of a writer is primarily his writing grammar and punctuation. When the writer composes an article full of errors, his credibility goes down instantly. So, it is extremely important for the people trying to get into a writing field to learn grammar and punctuation. Rules of grammar and punctuation are very simple and can be learned from such publications as AskOxford, Merriam Webster, etc.

4. There are disputes galore! Yes there are a lot of disputes as the what is correct and what is wrong in written English. For instance, if you check out Oxford comma (google ‘comma rules oxford comma), you will know many writers recommend using it, while some writers avoid it.

It is dependent on the writer what he chooses to use.

Conclusion

It is popular saying that writing has personality. Indeed. The personality of a writer is dependent on the words he uses, the usage, vocabulary he chooses, and the style.

The recent flap about James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces has hit the media with a big bang, bringing the age-old debate about what is acceptable when writing memoir–a “real” story. Every time a memoir is released that gains media attention this debate is raised. Mary Karr, The Liar’s Club, Jennifer Lauck, Blackbird, and Vivian Gornick, Fierce Attachments, all defended their memoirs in various medias, and all said that some recreations of actual reality had to occur in order to write the story and make it interesting.

As a memoir teacher, I find that people are very worried about the ethical issues involved in memoir writing. For example, the writers ask such questions as, “what if I don’t remember the exact conversation when my mother died,” or “I don’t know what clothes I was wearing the day my father went away forever.” I am always moved by these innocent, caring questions, because the writer is trying very hard to be truthful and accurate, and not leave any room to be accused of dishonesty.

In my memoir Don’t Call Me Mother I researched the time the train arrived in Perry, Oklahoma to make sure the scene I was painting and the conflict with my grandmother about how long she’d kept my father waiting at the train station–three hours! was accurate. My memory told me it was a long time, but finding the time of scheduled arrival made me feel great–memory was not all I was drawing upon to create a story that would be taken seriously as “real.” In fact, when I began writing the stories that eventually turned into my memoir, I was calling it “fiction,” but the writing group challenged me about how unrealistic it was that a mother would act the way my mother acted, and that my grandmother was portrayed as “too over the top,” thus unbelievable. My answer was, “but it was all true.” Their response: “It doesn’t matter what is true in fiction, but it does for memoir.”

I realized that the power of the story I was going to tell was that it was true, and I did my best to recreate scenes that delivered the truth. Naturally, childhood memory is subjective, any memory is subjective, but over the years, as I talked with people who knew parts of the story and visited locations where the story took place, I discovered that indeed I had remembered very well, and I had not made things up in my mind. However, I am sure that if my grandmother and mother were alive to challenge what I wrote, they would have another point of view.

In order to reach out to the reading public and go beyond private journaling, a memoir writer must create a story that has a shape, drama, and story arc. This may mean constructing a scene that conflates time, or adds costumes to our characters that they may or may not have worn, but our job is to be as accurate and as honest as we can be. If we change the plot of our lives because another plot would be more interesting to the publisher, we are in the realm of fiction. If we say we had relationships we didn’t have because it would make a better story, we need to call it fiction.

A memoir writer needs to write a first draft that sifts through the happenings, feelings, and challenges and get them down on the page–a draft that is healing and purging–and important work.

Publishing is another stage. The writer must ask many questions of the work–how much to include, what is the shape of the book, and how to write it so others can identify and understand.

What to say about James Frey? None of us can know for sure what went on for him as he constructed his book, and what he remembered. On January 15, Mary Karr wrote a piece in the New York Times about memoir writing and she had this to say,

“Call me outdated, but I want to stay hamstrung by objective truth, when the very notion has been eroding for at least a century. When Mary McCarthy wrote ‘Memoirs of a Catholic Girlhood’ in 1957, she felt obliged to clarify how she recreated dialogue. In her preface, she wrote: ‘This record lays a claim to being historical - that is, much of it can be checked. If there is more fiction in it than I know, I should like to be set right.’”

Mary went on to talk about how much she learned, and how healing it was when she didn’t make passages in her book more “interesting” or shape them into a slightly different story. “If I’d hung on to my assumptions, believing my drama came from obstacles I’d never had to overcome - a portrait of myself as scrappy survivor of unearned cruelties - I wouldn’t have learned what really happened. Which is what I mean when I say God is in the truth.”

What a great idea&ndashas we write memoir we are reaching for something beyond our conscious selves. In the river of creativity and the search for truth, there are forces beyond us moving us along to a place we didn’t even know about, a place of healing and resolution. We can hope that James Frey also has found, or is finding, a resolution for his suffering, and that all memoir writers do the same, by wrestling with what truth is, and writing it out with a full voice.

Ask a bunch of aspiring magazine writers what editors are looking for when they read article queries and I’ll bet most of them answer, “good article ideas.”

Well, sort of. What editors most want to find in queries are good article ideas from writers who have an appealing edge over other writers. Contrary to what most beginning freelancers think, that edge need not be writing talent. A good many other qualities, some of which don’t show up in a query, make a writer valuable to an editor.

Ever hopeful yet skeptical, editors read queries for evidence that a writer not only has a relevant article idea but also one or more of the following qualities:

1. Research ability. Writers who can turn up little-known, highly interesting truths, track down hard-to-find statistics and answer thorny factual questions can easily rack up magazine assignments as long as they also understand what makes a topic relevant to a certain publication’s readers. Build your queries around such material and you’ll soon have lots of editors as regular clients - especially if your submissions sail through the fact-checking process.

2. First-hand knowledge. Pilot and flight instructor Mal Gormley found himself in demand as a writer for Business & Commercial Aviation, Aviation Week and other aviation magazines, which had all gotten burned by freelancers who were decent writers and researchers but who just didn’t understand flying. Hobbies, languages you speak, where you live or have lived and family circumstances such as being a parent of twins can each sometimes add to your appeal and win you assignments and repeat business from editors if you play your cards shrewdly in proposing and writing articles.

3. Access. Did you used to be a wardrobe assistant in Hollywood or an executive coach for Fortune 100 CEOs? If you can validly claim unusual access to hard-to-reach groups of people, you may find it easier to land assignments. Debra Wallace, who has interviewed such film stars as Dustin Hoffman, Glenn Close and Lauren Bacall, says that the celebrity writing business is “tough and not for the faint of heart.” She advises novices to prove their ability to get access first at smaller, local magazines before approaching national publications.

4. Expertise. Professional degree credentials are not quite as valued by editors as many well-educated people expect. Unfortunately, many experts cannot explain what they know in ways that capture the attention of magazine readers. But those who can write in a popular style have a great opportunity to endear themselves to editors.

5. Controversy. If you’re one of those people who have a knack for making people sit up and argue for or against what you’re saying, some editors consider that a worthy strong point. What generally accepted views can you passionately &ndash and credibly &ndash dispute? Just don’t launch an attack that’s going to inspire death threats or make you untouchable when you want to write on other issues.

6. Dependability. Editors can’t know how dependable you are from a query, of course, but having had a weekly column or having written regularly for one publication strongly implies that you adhere to journalistic standards and meet deadlines. Because an editor has to get an issue finished on time no matter what, this quality counts heavily. “When I told editors that I’d written for Crain’s Chicago Business every week for fifteen years, it impressed the hell out of them,” says Joanne Cleaver. “‘Wow &ndash fifteen years’: their tone of voice changed.” Once you demonstrate dependability to an editor, you’re in the running for repeat assignments.

7. Quickness. With their unforgiving publication schedule, editors also value writers who can bang out a readable article in next to no time. If you’ve ever had a writing job with daily deadlines, mention that as one of your qualifications. It might get you an opportunity to come to the rescue when another freelancer fails to deliver what was promised and an editor is looking at a hole in the issue about to close.

8. Catchy phrasing. Think about those phrases that suddenly enter the language, seemingly from nowhere, such as “mommy track,” “chick lit” or “alpha male.” Show the ability to coin such concepts in your query, and an editor might think “Cover story!”

Make one of these eight qualities your calling card, and you’ll find numerous magazine doors opening for you as a freelancer.

The only good teachers for you are those friends who love you, who think you are interesting, or very important, or wonderfully funny. ~Brenda Ueland

The doubt demon loves artists. This sensitive bunch of individuals falls prey to it so easily, from cartoonist Charles Schulz to writer Virginia Woolf. This little demon reared its ugly head when Stephen King threw the beginnings of Carrie into the wastebasket. We all owe our gratitude to his wife, Tabitha, who picked it out of the wastebasket and encouraged her husband to keep going. Some struggling writers don’t have such champions. Many writers ask themselves: Am I good enough? Am I wasting my time? If I was really talented I would be (published, successful, rich) by now. These kinds of thoughts are evidence of the doubt demon. The doubt demon can only be conquered by a concerted effort to give it as little attention as possible. Not just by you, but by the people around you.

As a published author, and one who has been in the business for several years, it’s hard to say this, but not everyone you know will want to see your writing dreams come true. Not because they’re mean (some are), but because they are unhappy with their own life choices and don’t want to see you change or cannot share in your dreams.

Avoiding the doubt demon is basically impossible for most of us, but there is something you can do about it. When you are facing the doubt demon make sure only to speak to friends or family members who are truly invested in seeing you succeed. You can identify these individuals three ways. The:

1. Always have something upbeat to say. You say, “I just got another rejection. I must suck.” They say “No, you just sent it to the wrong editor.” If they say something like, “You get a lot of rejections maybe writing isn’t your thing,” they are not someone you want to discuss your dreams with. As artists, we know the power of the written word and how they can impact people (read any bestseller). The spoken word is just as powerful (ask any leader) and you need to protect yourself from all negative input.

2. Are basically happy. Sorry, but unhappy people can’t give you the support you need. If they’re bemoaning man troubles or their jobs they likely won’t have the energy to lift your sagging spirits. Unfortunately, the phrase ‘misery loves company’ is true. So look for happy, optimistic individuals for support. You don’t need many. One will do.

3. Make you feel good. No matter what, they are enthusiastic about your efforts, ask about what you’re up to, and are generally interested in what you’re doing. At times, when I’ve begun a story and it’s not coming together I have a friend who I always call. I know I can depend on her to say or do something that will make me feel good. If someone makes you feel bad, take them off your list.

Fighting the doubt demon is hard on your own. You need to find a cheerleader to place in your corner. As I’ve said earlier, even if it’s only one person have someone you can call to give yourself the boost you need. The wonderful thing about a cheerleader is they can come in two forms: Those who read your works and those who don’t. I know people who continue to support my writing ambitions, but who have never read any of my work. They believe in me and that’s support enough. So go out there and find your demon fighters. You deserve them.

Types of things to watch out for with agents:

* Charging the author a fee up front, to be accepted as a client. Can be called a reading fee, or a monthly “office expenses” charge. The best agents, and most successful ones, only charge a percentage fee of royalties the author earns, typically 15%. Suppose a realtor charged you a fee to come over and tour your house before getting the listing? How quickly would you show that realtor the door. . .

* Charging back unusually large “postage and copying fees” to send out an authors’ work. One crooked agency accepts almost every client that contacts them, but in the fine print of the contract they charge “postage and handling” of up to $10 per submission they send out on your behalf. It doesn’t cost $10 to send a letter and a sample chapter of a book to a publisher. This company makes a fortune from these fees whether or not they actually successfully market any of their clients work.

* Directing authors toward specific editing services or giving authors’ names to these services. Sometimes they even own the editing service. Some agents make a significant portion of their income from referral fees from these services.

* Terms in Agency contracts with writers vary widely. Must be read carefully. Not standard at all.

* The agent contacts publishers pretty much at random. The agent’s value to you is in the relationships they have with publishers, so that if the publisher hears from them, they know the book is worth taking a look at. Ask to see copies of rejection letters that come back from publishers. If it looks like just a form letter response, rather than a letter you would send to an acquaintance, you can bet the agent may be just picking names out of a directory of publishers.

* Puts forth a weak effort or gives up on the client’s project after a few months. You have a right to ask how active the agent is going to be. How many publishers are they going to contact, how will they follow up? You also have a right to periodic reports as to whom they have contacted and the results. You must determine how much time and attention they are really going to give you.

Another reason it is imperative to have a reputable agent is that the publishing house typically pays the agent, who deducts their “cut” and sends the remainder it to the author. It’s a frightening thought that a less than honest person gets their hands on the money you’ve earned from sweat, blood, and even tears.

Find out more about agents

Today, Norm Goldman, Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com is pleased to have as our guest, Helen Barer author of Fitness Kills.

Helen is a native New Yorker and has spent many years as a writer of non-fiction ranging from cookbooks to television documentaries.

Norm:

Good day Helen and thanks for participating in our interview.

Helen:

I’m delighted to have been invited.

Norm:

How did you happen to write a book about a fitness ranch in Baja and could you also tell us a bit about Fitness Kills?

Helen:

I’m a big fan of fitness spas - I’ve been going to one or another for more than 20 years. About 12 years ago, while struggling through an aerobics class at a spa in Baja California, I looked around and thought it was like being on a cruise ship. We’d all arrived on a Saturday, would leave the following Saturday, and in the meantime got to be ‘intimate acquaintances.’

Fitness Kills is the story of Nora Franke,, a New York City food writer who having broken up with her boyfriend, and having gained weight as a result, accepted a temporary job as food consultant at such a fitness spa. She is befriended by a group of regulars, and is caught up by their pain and loss as one, and then another, of the friends die. Nora’s primary employer back in New York assigns her to write an article about the deaths at the health spa, and she becomes invested in solving the murder (and keeping herself alive!).

Norm:

What attracted you to the mystery genre?

Helen:

I like stories with a beginning, middle and end. As well as those with a strong central character - preferably a woman - that have something to say about how we live today and what our values are.

Norm:

What do you believe are the essential ingredients of a good mystery novel?

Helen:

Suspense! And caring about what happens to the characters. Which means, of course, that you have to know the characters. Believability is also essential. This is not a fantasy genre.

Norm:

Is your work improvisational or do you have a set plan?

Helen:

It starts off with a plan. Actually, I’m meticulous at the beginning. I have a summary page, a chapter-by-chapter outline, and know how it ends. But the middle…that’s the real mystery! As I established the characters’ voices, I found they led me in unexpected directions.

Norm:

Helen, this was your first mystery fiction writing project. Did you enjoy the process? How was it different from your typical format?

Helen:

I’d never written fiction before. It was like re-inventing the wheel. I found it very clumsy until a writing teacher at the New School, in a class I’d found called “Starting Your Novel,” suggested I switch to first person. All of a sudden I found my voice! Slightly smart ass, New York City, and vulnerable. I loved it. The dialogue came very naturally to me; it was the plot I struggled with.

Norm:

Can you tell us how you found representation for your book? Did you pitch it to an agent, or query publishers who would most likely publish this type of book? Any rejections?

Helen:

I did pitch it to many agents, all of whom said ‘very well written, but not right for us - it’s not hard-boiled enough/sexy enough/ complicated enough/ straightforward enough…’ take your pick. It was more than discouraging, But I’m in a terrific writing workshop, and two of the authors were published by Five Star, an imprint of Thomson Gale that publishes mystery novels. I queried Five Star directly, sent the book to them as an attachment to an email, and they accepted it almost immediately.

Norm:

What challenges or obstacles did you encounter while writing your book? How did you overcome these challenges?

Helen:

I’d had no idea how to write fiction; it was like learning a foreign language. I read a lot - other mysteries, writers about writing, etc. — and went to mystery conferences. Joining a writing workshop was a major step. Talk about challenges! They pulled and pushed me into writing and rewriting.

Norm:

Was there anyone who really influenced you to become a writer?

Helen:

My mother. She was never without a book, nor was I. She encouraged me to write even as a little girl; my first significant piece was a fourth grade project called “My Life in the Wilderness.” It got an A.

Norm:

Many writers want to be published, but not everyone is cut out for a writer’s life. What are some signs that perhaps someone is not cut out to be a writer and should try to do something else for a living?

Helen:

Don’t give up your day job! I actually waited until I was nearly retired to write full time. Otherwise there’s so much pressure. It also helps to have a thick skin.

Norm:

What are your upcoming projects? How can readers find out more about you and your endeavors?

Helen:

I’m almost halfway through writing my next Nora Franke mystery novel, while promoting this one. Check out my website, .helenbarer.com/.

Norm:

Is there anything else you wish to add that we have not covered?

Helen:

I can’t imagine. You’ve been so thorough.