Writing and Publishing News

It’s common knowledge that an author must target a book toward a particular audience. Well, this is also true for freelance article writers.

As freelance writers, we need to focus on our audience/readership, first and then strive to satisfy their needs or desires. What information are they seeking? What can you bring to readers that they want to know about? And, when you are contemplating an article on a particular topic, consider, do they need this information? What do they need/want to know about this subject?

Many writers simply want to write what they want to write. They have a pet topic and sometimes they get really involved in writing an article about it without first checking to see what is needed on this topic. It’s wise to write about what you know, but, if you also hope to begin a freelance career or you simply want to sell a few articles on this topic, you’re going to need a different approach.

Rather than burying your head in your work and writing the article that you want to push, you must first get acquainted with your audience. Who is interested in this topic and your slant on it? What magazines/newsletters/websites might publish the piece as you’ve written it? What else is out there on this subject? Has this article been done before many times over?

Folks, before you start thinking about what you can produce or what you want to say or, even worse, what you think others should read, consider your audience—their desires and needs. Discover magazines that this audience typically reads and then work from the inside out—not the outside in.

In other words, do your research and then write an appropriate article for an appropriate publication or site directed toward the right audience.

For more on how to establish a freelance writing career or how to promote your book through articles, read my book, “A Writer’s Guide to Magazine Articles.” http://www.matilijapress.com

Watch for future blogs on how to formulate a good article and featuring research tips for article writers.

For some of us, writing the book is easier than writing the synopsis, a brief promo piece or—dread of all dreads—the back cover copy.

Who wrote (or will write) your back cover copy—the bit on the back of the book designed to influence browsers to buy it? Did you ask your editor to write it? Maybe you left it to your POD publishing service. Or did you write it yourself?

I’m often asked to write the back cover copy for my clients’ books. But I never do this on my own. I always get as much input from the client as I can. After all, the author is the one with the vision for this particular book. He created the story or wrote and organized the material. He is intimate with the content of his book, but he may not feel confident writing the all important back cover copy. So who should write it? It really doesn’t matter, as long as the author is involved.

Even after editing the book and maybe even going through it a second time to tie up any loose ends, I don’t feel qualified to write the cover copy on my own. It’s not my book. It’s not a result of my vision. It’s not my story or a product of my passion. So when an author asks me to write the back cover copy, here’s what I do, first:

I ask the author how he or she responds to someone who inquires about their book. I ask the author to describe his book to me using as many words as he or she wants. And I pose the following two questions:

1: Why did you write this book?
2: What is the purpose of this book?

As the editor or even a casual reader of the book, I will certainly have my impressions of the content. I might define the story as an action-packed saga staged in Alaska during the gold rush. But the author may consider it a love story. While I might describe a book as a spiritual memoir featuring intimate religious visions, the author may see his book as a self-help book for Christians.

Certainly, if I think the author is off in his description, I will say so and attempt to steer him in the direction of reality. Or I will help him to change the book to fit the desired category and depiction. But I will always listen to the author’s translation before I do any of the above.

Your Reason and Purpose
Have you explored your reason and purpose? It’s a good idea to do this even before you start writing your book. If you don’t have a clear and rational reason for producing this book and if you haven’t examined the purpose of this book, I suggest that you do so NOW. You want to make sure that your reason and purpose are logical and pure. Otherwise, you may be on a path to sure disappointment.

Poor reasons for writing a book:
• To change people’s thinking about something.
• I’ve always wanted to be an author.
• I had an interesting life and I want to share it.
• I want to get rich so I can quit my job.
• I might as well, I don’t have anything else to do.
• People tell me I’m a good writer.
• I have a very rare hobby and there are no books about it, so I want to write a book for the handful of others who share my interest.

Better reasons for writing a book:
• To add to my credibility in my field.
• My extensive research shows there’s a need for this book.
• Writing is my passion and I hope to break in as a serious author.
• I’ve worked hard to get where I am and I believe I have something of value to share with others.
• I love writing stories. I’ve studied the publishing industry. I understand my options and my responsibilities as an author. I’m willing to do what it takes to break into publishing as a novelist.
• I’m a high-profile celeb, I have a close connection with one or I have experienced something highly unusual and exceptionally media-worthy and I want to write about it.

I hope that, after reading this blog entry, you will all sit down and re-examine your project—your reason for writing it and your book’s purpose. I’d love to hear from you. Tell me, for example, whether your reason and purpose are reasonable or if you needed to make some changes.

And be sure to stop by my bookstore at http://www.matilijapress.com I wrote most of these books for you, you know. So place your order today.

All writers are editors. In fact, to write is to edit. Most of us edit from the moment the paragraph, sentence or even word appears on the screen or note pad. We typically look at the phrase we have produced, and immediately begin to scrutinize it. We make changes—try writing from a different angle or using a different combination of words.

I don’t know about you, but I edit as I go. I try not to—and sometimes I can write several lines before I decide to change or correct something. But my writing process is a mix of writing and editing, writing and editing.

If you’re like me, once you’ve completed an article, story, blog post, email or book manuscript, you go back to the beginning and read it through with an editorial eye. You may do this once, twice or dozens of times before you consider it finished. And this is a good thing.

It’s also highly important that you invite one or more additional sets of eyes to scrutinize your work once you feel it’s finished. You may be surprised at what an editor and, in some cases, an untrained eye, will discover, especially in your book manuscript.

There are things that the author just can’t see because he or she is much to close to the project. It’s a fluke of nature—if we scrutinize something too many times, we begin to miss the obvious. Over time, our eyes and our brains are tricked into seeing what we think we should see and they miss seeing what is actually there.

Here are some of the problems I find in the nonfiction and fiction book manuscripts I edit:

1: Punctuation mistakes—backwards quotation marks, two-spaces between sentences, errors in the way the em-dash is formed, missing or misplaced commas, errors in punctuating dialogue, misuse of apostrophes in plurals/possessives and numerals, etc.

2: Grammatical mistakes—misuse of words (your and you’re, who’s and whose, too and to, than and then, its and it’s), misspelled words, capitalization errors, using passive instead of active sentences, word repetition and so forth.

3: Content problems—muddy writing, discrepancies in the storyline, overuse of clichés, lack of clarity, lack of continuity, overuse of qualifier words (very and really), difficulty in using and maintaining the right tense and person and so on.

Of course, you, the author, should be watching for all of these things as you write your book and you must go through and edit many times over. But it’s the trained eye and the fresh eye that’s going to notice that you’re still referring to Don Blake as Ron Blake in the 3rd chapter. You might never notice the discrepancy in the timeline in Chapter Eight. But a good editor will. The multitude of repeated words might not bother you at all, but it won’t escape a good editor’s field of vision.

I can’t tell you how many manuscripts I see whose authors tell me, “It’s completely edited. I just need you to double check the grammar and punctuation.” What I find, when I open the file, however, may be a big can of worms. If you don’t know that fathers’ is a plural possessive and father’s is a singular possessive, you will undoubtedly make mistakes in your manuscript. If you aren’t aware that it is 1890s and not 1890’s, your work may be riddled with errors. If you haven’t learned that you start a new paragraph for each new speaker when your characters are involved in dialogue, you may grossly err in formatting your manuscript. And if you aren’t bothered by repetition—you don’t have a clue that the redundancy makes for uninteresting reading—you may inadvertently create a manuscript monster.

Let a good editor tame your monster. You’ll have a much better chance at the brass ring of publishing.

And be sure to read The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html Order the companion Author’s Workbook and get a discount.

If you’re interested in my editorial or consulting services, contact me at PLFry620@yahoo.com. Learn more about me and my work at http://www.matilijapress.com/consulting.html

So what are you working on this week? The weather is changing. You’re either being lured out-of-doors by warm breezes and sunny skies or you’re being forced indoors by the heat. School is out or almost out for the summer, so some of you will have young kids home with you all day. Many of you have summer travel plans, although, with the price of gas, you may not travel far.

What are you doing to maintain your writing schedule—to stay on track with your book or to keep up with your freelance writing obligations? Do you have tricks and ploys in place so you won’t fall behind on your projects? Or do you just totally give your writing power over to the summer and coast until the weather cools and the activitys subside?

I’ve always managed to write no matter what. I disciplined myself to do this when my life circumstances dictated that I get a job outside the home. I knew, then, that I had to find a way to write no matter what else was going on in my life. If I didn’t, I would lose a very important—actually vital—part of myself. Writing feeds my heart and soul.

Here are some tips for managing your writing amidst the hustle bustle of summer activity:

• Purchase or borrow a laptop computer that you can use anywhere and anytime. Or carry around a steno tablet or legal pad and pen—in your purse, car, totebag, briefcase…

• Try a little organization. Write while the kids are involved in quiet time—reading books for the library summer reading competition, watching a Disney movie or coloring, for example. Either orchestrate the quiet time or wait until it happens naturally.

• Trade kids with another writer. Write when your kids are at his/her house.

• Get your kids involved in activities such as church school, events at the recreation center, art/music/craft classes, etc. Write while they are engaged.

• Get up an hour earlier or stay up an hour later and write.

• If Grandma comes to visit, send her off with the kids for an ice cream treat or to feed the ducks at the pond for an hour. Write while they’re gone. Grandparents love spending time one-on-one with their grandkids.

• Assign chores for the summer. Devise a game or system to make it work without all the typical complaining and arguing. If you want to know about a system that can end chore day squabbles, email me at PLFry620@yahoo.com. I know just the item and it really does work.

In order to survive the summer and still accomplish your writing goals, I suggest working on your mindset. Learn to write no matter what is going on around you, what is scheduled to occur or what might be happening soon. Take your writing seriously—make it a priority. But also be flexible. If your child needs you, he needs you. If your husband comes home from work early and wants to take the family to the beach, stop what you’re doing and go. If your mother-in-law is visiting, enjoy the visit. But stay true to your writing passion. You can often manipulate the circumstances around you. Create activities to keep children safely engaged for periods of time once a day. When the mother-in-law is chatting with her son or busy playing with the children, slip away and write a chapter. Take a tablet to the beach with you, in case you have time to jot down a few ideas or flesh out a character.

Successful writers weren’t all afforded lovely offices surrounded by beauty, peace, quiet and endless hours to write. Many of them wrote amidst chaos and less than desirable conditions. Look at Anne Frank and Jack London, for example. Who else—come on, there were countless authors who wrote while suffering hardships.

If you’re struggling to sell your book, don’t forget to order my new ebook, The Author’s Repair Kit. It will help you to breathe new life into your stalled book. http://www.matilijapress.com/author_repairkit.html

So, what are you working on? And how do you plan to continue your writing momentum during the summer months? I’d love to hear from you. PLFry620@yahoo.com.