Writing and Publishing News from

I recently received some promo from the editor of a magazine and was less than impressed by his (or her) presentation. Not only does this individual accept stories for publication, he or she reviews books. (For the sake of simplicity, let’s assume this is a man.) He asks that writers and authors send only well-written submissions. However, I would hesitate turning my work over to someone who has such a convoluted way of writing as he does.

He repeats words (he used one word four times in a 40-word paragraph and another word twice). As an example (which is changed so that this person cannot be identified through this blog), he wrote something like this: “I went out a couple of times this week. It has been a couple of weeks since I’ve gone out, but I saw a couple of movies this week. I’m not a big movie fan. I’m fussy about what movies I see.”

He uses words that are simply not needed. Instead of saying, “I don’t go to the movies much,” he said something like, “I will admit to anyone who will listen that I don’t get out to go to a movie very often anymore.”

He didn’t edit. One sentence in his message is missing a key word.

He invites you to contact him. But rather than saying this, he rambles on about how “if you want to tell us about your project, send us over an email and let us know.” He says “some more,” when “more” would be adequate. He uses “to,” in place of “too.”

He mixes singular and plural in the same sentence by saying, “We will add a new feature to our next issue, so be sure to check them out.”

I visited this person’s website and was both impressed and disappointed. The graphics are great and he seems to have a fairly straightforward site, clearly representing his mission. However, he’s one of those who likes to use colors that make small print almost impossible to read—you know like yellow print on a black background. The text on the website is also in serious need of editing.

Why am I telling you this? So that you will not make the same mistakes. So that you will learn to do a better job of self-editing. So that you will realize that people are paying attention to the way you write—good and bad. If you don’t recognize the problems in the examples above or you’re not sure about the quality of your writing, please hire an editor. Strive to become a better writer.

Read Chapter 9 in my book, “The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book.” I give a good lesson on self-editing. I recommend that you self-edit your manuscript before sending it to a professional editor. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html (It’s discounted now.)

Contact me for an estimate: PLFry620@yahoo.com
http://www.patriciafry.com

I broke the hundred mark this week. I now have 101 followers at Twitter. Welcome each and every one of you.

I guess that’s something to celebrate. I do appreciate all of you who read my tweets and are interested, perhaps, in what I have to say in my daily blog about writing, publishing, book promotion and other aspects of my world. And I’m always up for meeting other authors. If I can help you, through this blog, all the better.

That’s what I use my Twitter account for—to let folks know about my blog topic for the day and to lead them to my blog site.

I even follow others occasionally at Twitter. It’s always an adventure to learn about some of the people who hang out at Twitter. While some are serious writers and authors who want to connect with other writers and authors, there are also those to whom you are tempted to say, “Get a life!” I mean, where are they from? What are they thinking? Oh I know, they are not thinking people—just reactive people out to see what sort of shock value they can generate. It’s a crazy world, getting crazier by the minute. Would you agree?

In fact, some of the people I’ve met over the years or come in contact with via the Internet who cannot find a publisher for their books or homes for their articles/stories are generally writing from their own narrowly focused opinion or mindset. Some of them write off-the-wall stuff designed to change minds; make a prickly, unpopular point; create chaotic thinking; cause rather than resolve a problem.

It has been my experience that some writers and hopeful authors who claim they want to be published, truly want, more than anything, to be heard. It isn’t the writing they are in love with, it is the idea of circulating their views publicly.

I can tell the difference between someone who is passionate about their writing and someone who is interested in a cause. The true writer is willing to do what it takes to get published, even if it means rewriting their article/book manuscript—writing on a topic that is more appropriate for the magazines or publishers they want to break into. Someone who wants to establish a career as a writer is willing to learn the finer points of submitting articles/stories or preparing a book manuscript for publication. This writer will bend and change in order to conform to the standards of the industry.

He or she will read books and articles on the subject, take classes and apply what they learn in order to move their careers forward or to meet their publishing goals.

If your writing career or publishing dreams seem to be stuck in the mud, maybe it is because you are being inflexible. Perhaps you are not willing to conform, your writing skills need serious improvement or your topic is too narrowly focused. If you are not realizing the success you desire, take a step back. Review some of the comments members of your critique group have shared. Ponder the advice you’ve received from professionals. Go back over the notes written on the rejection letters you’ve received. And while you’re at it, take a look at some of the articles, blog posts and books you’ve accumulated. Consider them from a more open-minded point of view.

I have a friend who, when I met her, was interested in writing, but didn’t know how to get started. She bought some of my books and I sort of mentored her from afar (via email). Finally, she drummed up the courage to write an article about her precious little dog that she lost to cancer and the ordeal they went through. She followed that one up with a couple of other articles pretty much all on the same topic. It didn’t take long, however, for her to run out of outlets for her narrow topic. And I convinced her to step outside that box and try writing articles related to her favorite subject—animals—only with much wider appeal. She spent the next several years writing a variety of articles on a wide variety of topics for pet magazines, ezines, websites.

Now my esteemed protégée is writing on all types of topics for a lot of different magazines. She has so many lines in the water that it is hard to imagine how timid she was at first to even put one toe in.

I’d love to hear from those of you who feel you may have been stuck at some point in your careers—or maybe you are now—and what you did or plan to do about it.

http://www.matilijapress.com
http://www.patriciafry.com

What techniques do you use when writing your blog, an article, a chapter in your book or even an email? Over the years, I’ve noticed that I’ve created some interesting and workable methods for remembering what I want to write, for self-editing and for enhancing an article or blog post that seems to be lacking something.

For the most part, these techniques are automatic—I apply them without much thought. Recently, however, I began to notice some of the habits I’ve adopted over the years.

One thing I do, for example, is to jot notes ahead of the writing I am doing. If a thought occurs to me while I’m typing and it’s something I want to be sure to include in my email, blog or article, I will space down and make a note so that I will remember to write on that issue or thought before completing the piece. Otherwise, I tend to forget the bit of wisdom or the comment or other addition I thought was important to add.

I will sometimes research a topic while in the middle of an article or even an email. Did you know that you can open two of your Internet windows at once? So you can be doing research while writing an email. If I’m responding to an email from a client and I want to add a bit of information I don’t have at my fingertips—a statistic or the name of a young adult fantasy publisher, for example—I can open another Yahoo window, find the information and then go back to my email and insert it. But most of you probably know this.

I write longer or more sensitive emails off-line—in my word processing program rather than directly in an email. When someone sends me interview questions, I write my answers off-line, as well.

I have developed the habit of re-reading everything before I click “send.” I even read personal emails before sending. This is an excellent habit to adopt. I used to think I was pretty good at creating good copy the first time around. Sure, I always double/triple-checked articles or my blog post before sending. But I was pretty quick to send emails without checking them. When I started looking them over more closely, I discovered that, in my haste, I sometimes typed the wrong words. My email might read, “I sue enjoyed our lunch together last week,” instead of “I sure enjoyed our lunch together last week.” I might unknowingly type “The food was band and the was service poor,” instead of “The food was bland and the service was poor.”

I’m positive that most of you make similar (and worse) mistakes as you are hurrying to complete an email. I know this because I receive so many emails with small and horrendous errors.

I’d like to hear about some of the habits you’ve developed in order to create more mistake-free emails, articles and such. And I hope that those of you who still find serious mistakes in your writings at some point down the road, will consider spending a little more time proofing what you write.

If you’re ready to have your article or book manuscript edited, please contact me for an estimate. Learn more about my work and my services here: http://www.patriciafry.com

Remember, I’m teaching a class on article-writing this Saturday (December 3, 2011) at the Ventura College in Ventura, CA. There’s still time to sign up. http://www.communityed.venturacollege.edu

Better late than never. I hope that some of you noticed that I did not post a blog this morning. Generally, if you check my blog site by around 6 a.m. Pacific and 9 Eastern, you will find a newly posted blog. It is rare that I miss a day of posting. What happened today? Just trying to meet a publishing deadline and still get organized for the upcoming family Thanksgiving celebration.

As it turned out, I finished a tad ahead of my stringent self-imposed deadline. So thought I’d post a brief blog this afternoon (this evening for those of you in the East).

With Thanksgiving coming this week and many of you entertaining family at home or joining family groups elsewhere, I’d like to suggest that you take this opportunity to interview the elders. Some of you are writing family histories. Some are simply doing genealogy research. And others of you may someday decide to document your memories for publication or for the family. I can speak from experience—you may live to regret not taking the opportunity to gather stories and facts from the older generation. Someday, you will have questions that no one can answer. You’ll wish you knew more about the childhood of a family member, how your grandparents met, what their life in another country was like, their military experiences, etc.

And there’s no time like the present to ask the questions and document the answers. Perhaps you can make a game out of it this Thanksgiving day.

• Jot down questions and let each family member draw one to ask the elders in your family as you sit around the dining room table. An appropriate theme might be; their earliest memories of their childhood and young adult Thanksgivings.

• Videotape the oldster sharing stories from his or her life.

• Ask others to write down prompts to help the older family member recall stories from the past.

• Ask everyone to share a memory.

• Send a questionnaire to everyone prior to Thanksgiving. Compile a book from the responses to be handed out and, possibly, read out loud as entertainment on Thanksgiving day. This will surely elicit additional stories.

Some of you have, no doubt used some of these ideas or have others you could share. I’d love to hear your results and your ideas.

http://www.patriciafry.com

It’s too late to order any of my books for Thanksgiving reading, but you have plenty of time to do so for the Christmas holidays. Order your copies here: http://www.matilijapress.com

I often suggest to hopeful authors, who are in the beginning stages of writing a book, that they join a writers’ critique group and participate for a while. This is a good way for new writers to learn more about the process, and for budding novelists or nonfiction book writers to find out if they have a viable project or not. While I wouldn’t suggest this as a final step before publishing, this is an excellent initial strategy for many authors.

New authors who have become involved in good critique groups will tell you that they learned a great deal about telling a story, organizing a how-to book, grammar and publishing in general.

Now some of you have trouble finding a critique group in your communities. But did you know there are online critique groups for authors? I did a little research recently and came up with some links for you. I did not check the reputations of these sites—I’ll leave that up to you. But these all seemed to be popular and active. If you are new to writing or if you would like some reader feedback for your manuscript, you might consider joining an online critique group. This could just be the boost you need for your manuscript and for your confidence as an author.

I’m offering a list of critique groups. It’s up to you to do the follow-up research so that you locate the best match for you and for your project. Keep in mind that they all have their unique standards and protocol. So what you learn about one might not apply to another.

CritiqueCircle in Iceland is a very active critique group. They claim to have processed over 65,000 stories and have over 2,500 active members. http://www.critiquecircle.com

The promo for Scribophile says that this is the best place to be if you want to give and get the best critiques around. They’ve had over 100,000 critiques. http://www.scribophile.com

ReviewFuse is another online critique group opportunity. They offer peer feedback for free. http://www.reviewfuse.com

And then there is WeBook. Check it out at http://www.webook.com

Of course, you can locate other critique sites by doing your own Internet search. Good luck.

Are any of you already involved in a critique site? How’s it working for you? Leave your comment here—it could be helpful to others.