Beth’s Blog

Time and money. One is finite, the other infinite. One I squander as though there’s an unlimited supply, the other I carefully monitor.

Time… I work with many writers who say they don’t have time to write. Yet they spend (interesting term) time in forums, they read Internet gossip, they “unwind” watching their favorite television shows, they spend hours chatting on the phone with friends.

Yeah. Everyone should get time to unwind. But if you have a burning desire to write, how will sitting numbly in front of a television build your dream? How will hanging out on forums or chatting on the phone propel you towards your ultimate desired destination?

Words do not write themselves, inspiration waits only for the person who has the courage to jump into its cold waters without thought of safety, reputation, or compensation.

Time is a finite resource, once a moment has passed, you’ll never experience it again. Combine that with the fact that our time in this plane of existence is limited and… well… get writing.

Money… it comes and goes.

Luckily, writing is a fairly inexpensive profession. All you need is a pencil, paper, and (eek) a thought.

Some writers seem to think they need extensive libraries. If you don’t have the money to build that writing library, visit the local library, take copious notes and build your knowledge base that way.

If you don’t have the money to write full time (if that’s your dream), then write in your spare time. And make sure you have spare time.

Most people find the resources they need for the activities they truly want to perform. Even in the teeth of a “great recession” you’ll find big screen TVs flowing out of your local Walmart at a record pace. These people found money for a multi-thousand dollar entertainment machine, I’m sure you can find any funds you need to perfect your craft.

In other words, if you truly want to write, you’ll find the money (and time) to do so.

But now we come to other’s opinions.

Writers aren’t necessarily the most popular people at parties. We tend to be an over-observant bunch and that can cause a bit of angst for others.

Sometimes we write things that others disagree with. Sometimes the most innocuous phrase will offend someone and you’ll receive angry correspondence. Worse yet, you’ll most certainly anger, offend, and hurt family members, despite your concerted efforts not to do so.

It’s not a matter of “if” you’ll offend someone, it’s a matter of “when.”

How do you handle this?

The only thing you can do is to hold your ultimate writing dream up front and center in all you do, whether you’re writing, promoting, or dealing with reader response.

Understand some people will love you, others won’t. It’s a fact of life. You can’t please everyone all the time. If you try to do this, you’ll not only turn yourself into a supremely ineffective writer, but your message will become an impotent pile of socially correct drivel that won’t touch anybody’s heart.

True, effective writing cuts deep and resonates long after the page has left the reader’s hand. This is honest writing, often embarrassing, that has nothing to do with subjects, predicates, well structured sentences, and dangling participles.

It has everything to do with raw communication, sensation eclipsing your words, making them invisible. It’s about word painting images in your reader’s mind until they’re carried away, breathless, on a stream of emotion to a place they want to linger.

It’s pricking your reader’s soft spot until they awaken long enough to really hear your message.

How do you do this?

For starters, you can dump the mindless activities. Get engaged in life, watching, living… awake.

The great John Carlton (he’s a famous copywriter, look him up) says something to the effect that most humans walk around in a self inflicted haze, blindly gimping from one activity to the next. We live a life of patterns, one after another, rarely deviating from our routine.

Don’t believe me? Try dressing differently tomorrow. Put the other shoe on first. Wear something totally different from the norm. Apply your makeup before you brush your teeth. You’ll quickly discover what a creature of habit you are.

Well, these patterns combine to create a life-long trance where we’re told in a million subtle and not so subtle ways how to dress, what to eat, what to think, and how to act. Deviate from this mass-controlled trance and you’ll experience freedom unlike anything you’ve ever experienced . By the way, you’ll also likely experience the phenomenon of social stigma.

Another wise person said it best when he said, “People laugh at sheep, at how compliant they are. But humans have out sheeped the sheep. When a sheep gets out of line, the shepherd gets them back in place. When a human falls “out of line,” his fellow humans will ostracize him, mock him, shun him, make his life miserable until he steps back into the social norm.”

Most writers write because it’s a compulsion, not a choice. There’s a message to be released and if you don’t do it, you’ll live a miserable existence.

Finally releasing that message often entails this “waking up” process I just mentioned. Pursuing a dream is most definitely something that can shake up a few social norms and the dreamer often experiences tremendous social stigma when they’re foolish enough to do something so crazy.

But like it or not, we’re the scribes of the day. It’s our job to document what we see, experience, and feel in an honest fashion.

We’re the supposed thinkers of our age. May our writings prompt others to break out of their patterns just long enough engage in a few cerebral gymnastics as well.

Words contain power. May each of us use that power in a responsible fashion.

Writing isn’t for the faint of heart, but the rewards for a message accurately transmitted are phenomenal. I urge you to truly wake up and give it a whirl. The results will surprise you.

As a writer, you need to acquire a readership, whether you write articles, advertising, fiction, and/or nonfiction. You’ve probably heard that you need a website to help promote your writing and start building that readership.

It’s true. The Web is a fabulous means to build a writing biz. You can connect with like minded individuals, you can present opinions, you can experiment with your writing (beyond what our predecessors could ever imagine), you can interact with your readers… you can have fun.

The thing nobody tells you about this process is that once you’ve got the website up, you have to generate traffic to start this incredible web adventure.

That can be an interesting task.

In fact, lately this “web traffic” situation seems to be on more minds than mine. I get e-mails (nearly) daily promising me that (for a hefty price) some company or another will get one of my sites “to the top of the major search engines.”

Yeah. Right.

There are effective ways to get your website listed in the major search engines. There are also some not effective ways as well.

This article outlines one ineffective way to get web traffic.

I’ve coached a few writers, so-called professional communicators, this past month who were discouraged because although their websites were rising through the Google ranks and were receiving a good amount of organic traffic, they weren’t making any book sales.

I had a hunch I knew what was going on.

When a well-written book doesn’t sell, it’s usually for a number of reasons, the most probable being that there isn’t a large enough market for the topic, the price point is too high (or too low), or the web page doesn’t properly sell the title.

One look at the site confirmed my suspicions. In all the instances brought to my attention, the problem was with the website. Every single writer was more concerned about web site optimization rather than properly describing and selling their book.

It’s one thing to make your website favorable to search engines, in fact Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an important part of building a website, but it’s quite another to engage in clumsy tactics to make your site climb up the ranks.

Disclaimer: I’m not, nor do I pretend to be an SEO expert. The following is pure opinion based on my web adventures.

What each of these people did was, as they built their website text, they inserted copious numbers of “keywords” to the point that they were literally “keyword packing.”

Keyword Packing occurs when you take a particular keyword and pack that keyword into a keyword sentence as many times as possible so that when the search engines spider your site they’ll see your keyword and assume that keyword accurately represents your “keyword” website and will appear when someone inserts that keyword into the engine. (Note: this sentence is packed with a keyword. Betcha you’ll never guess which one it is.)

As you can see, keyword packing makes for some very awkward writing. Combine keyword packing with keyword placement on menus, subheads, and titles and you’ve got one, big keyword, mess.

Here’s the problem. When you receive good search engine rankings, you will receive traffic. Problem is when you do receive that traffic, you’ll quickly discover it evaporates once your visitors experience your awkward writing style.

It takes a writer with the skill of a master to elegantly weave keywords into a website while maintaining flow and sales effectiveness.

Very difficult.

So, suppose you’re not an SEO expert (like me). What can you do to get website traffic without sacrificing content?

There are multiple ways to generate some website traffic including writing articles, article distribution sites, creating videos, visiting forums, blogs, zines, Google Adwords, and much more. I’ll discuss these more in upcoming issues of Writing Etc.

You’ve got options, many of them not costing one red cent, to generate web traffic. Approach SEO carefully, never sacrificing content for keywords.

Remember, a site receiving a few relevant, smart, interesting, and engaged visitors is far more powerful than a bunch of people who visit and leave thinking you’ve got an awkward, repetitive, unnatural writing style.

My two (very opinionated and probably antiquated) cents.

Something worrisome is going on in the freelance world and up until now I’ve held my tongue, not wanting to pour gasoline on an already blazing fire. But these past few weeks I’ve been acutely aware of some extremely negative comments coming from some very respected writers in our community.

No. This group of folks aren’t dissing Filbert Publishing. They’re not even bad mouthing anyone I know.

However, in their zeal to “protect” newbie freelancers from falling for a swindle, a number of companies have begun to paint the broader publishing community with a pretty wide, negative brush.

I’ve watched with increasing wonderment as this “everyone’s trying to rip me off” attitude has spiraled to interesting levels.

So, I’m speaking up.

Truth is, I’ve found more hard working honest publishers than fly-by-nights intent on preying on newbie writers. Generally speaking, the fly-by-nighters are pretty easy to spot. They’re the companies that make you pay to get published. It’s that simple. If a publisher asks for money to publish your work, turn away. Problem solved.

Thing is this entire brouhaha has created an air of negativity that bothers me.

Bottom line? It’s tough to produce beauty in a negative environment. And if you’re the kind of writer who aims to make their corner of the world a little better, you’d do well to be aware of what that negativity may have on your muse. Because, if you allow negativity to take root, before you can say “holy cow!” you can find yourself slipped in a creativity-draining rut that’s pretty tough to get out of.

I know what I’m talking about.

I learned my lesson the hard way when once in a fit of (justified) rage :), I whipped out an article and sent it to my favorite ezine owner, Dan Case at Writing for Dollars.

He immediately shot an e-mail my way saying, “Sorry. I don’t publish negative articles. I know this biz is tough, but I refuse to focus on anything that isn’t uplifting.”

Wow.

After I paused long enough to ponder his words, I realized he’d just changed the course of my career. And I’ve worked to live up to that high example ever since.

And I challenge you to do the same. Because when you do this, magic sparks and your muse thrives.

I’ve also found the attitude in which a freelancer approaches this biz (that would be your mindset) has everything to do with your success.

If you look for negativity, you’ll find it. If you keep your eye out for the magic, you’ll find that as well. Choice is yours.

So, in the fine tradition of “looking on the bright side of life,” I’d like to present an alternative freelance reality:

1. Not everyone in this business wants to take advantage of freelancers. Yeah, we’ve got a few worms amongst the apples, but they’re easy to spot..

2. If you live by the mantra that when you submit something to a publisher, “money always flows towards the writer” you’ll spare yourself a lot of grief.

3. If you feel anger stirring inside, if you start feeling frustration while reading writing advice, chances are you’re reading something that can squelch your muse and leave you fuming for far too long. Get over it, move on, and get writing.

4. Writing forums are great, but if they interfere with your writing, it’s time to join in the discussion after your writing’s done.

5. Writing is an adventure. Enjoy it. This is your life. Every day that ticks by is one less day to write. So get to it.

6. Banish fear. Writers don’t need it. Despite your soft, creative interiors, you must push through the fear and make it to the other side. There, you’ll find incredible beauty.

7. Finally, if you’ve lost your first love, if writing has become a chore, move heaven and earth to regain your joy. Your message is worth it.

So, these are my thoughts on a lazy Tuesday afternoon. Listen to your emotions. Protect your muse. Then write.

For the story within you will not get released if you don’t write.

If you’ve been keeping up with freelance news, you’ve undoubtedly heard that Amazon is planning to remove the “buy” buttons from all books printed by LightningSource and demand that all those titles be printed by their own company, Booksurge.

This news is real. Wall Street Journal as well as Publisher’s Weekly have reported it. Angela Hoy at Booklocker broke the story when a Booksurge rep threatened to remove all of Booklocker’s “buy” buttons.

Already PublishAmerica and Whiskey Creek Press have had their buttons removed.

This move impacts all of us… as authors and publishers. Subsidy publishers, university presses, traditional publishers, we all use print on demand technology. In fact, Filbert Publishing has six titles affected by this move.

With literally thousands upon thousands of titles on Amazon, many of the subsedy POD presses will incur great expense moving all those books over to Booksurge. The squeeze on these companies companies will most certainly affect their freelancers.

Those who won’t move their titles to Booksurge will lose an outlet for book sales. Sure, we can head to other online bookstores, but let’s face it, Amazon is a book selling juggernaut.

So, if you’re an author who is (or who may be) impacted by having the “buy” buttons removed from your Amazon book page, you need to start weighing your options. First and foremost, don’t panic, act professional in all your dealings with this issue, and remain open to directing your potential readers to other outlets.

Whether or not Amazon will remove more “buy” buttons is unknown. I’m the kind of person who watches the world through rose-colored glasses and remain optimistic that everything will turn out just fine… in fact I’m sure it will. I would love to continue to sell through Amazon, but if it isn’t in the cards, so be it, it’s really Amazon’s choice.

And on a personal note, I sell very few copies of my own books through Amazon. I suggest that if you’re an author, get your hands on a few copies of your book and sell them direct on your website. You’ll make more money, you’ll grow your own customer list, and (most of all) you’re not as affected by the whims of retail outlets who can change their terms at a moment’s notice.

But that’s just me.

A fellow freelancer forwarded an e-mail to me. They recently hosted a teleseminar and mentioned that the economy is affecting the profession. One of the callers disagreed, writing:

“I attended a recent teleseminar and was really disappointed that politics was brought into it. I have to deal with political challenges everywhere… I do not want to hear it in a writing seminar, especially when words like “recession” are used inaccurately to promote the viewpoint of one of the presenters.”

Now, I’m not one to open a political can of worms, but I do believe that the current state of the economy does affect the freelance landscape. To ignore what’s going on in the political scene, to pretend the economy isn’t tightening, to be unaware of the plight of the average American would be career suicide.

Now, I’m not advocating shouting your political views from the mountaintops, but you are very wise when you take note of the latest economic news, combine it with real world experience, and draw your conclusions… as well as adjust your game plan… from there.

To think that a writing career is all roses, happy thoughts, and positive intentions is a bit dangerous when you don’t take into account the real world your readership is currently living in.

Truth be told, and you can find a ton of freelancers who agree with me on this, many publishers are tightening their guidelines and accepting fewer titles. Marketing managers are squeezing every cent out of every mailing. In the copywriting world, many mailers are eliminating royalties. Big time copywriting gurus are supplementing their income by selling copywriting “how to” products to aspiring copywriters who are clueless to the reason behind this sudden generosity to “share the craft.” Readerships decline, belts tighten, and it’s getting a bit tougher to earn a living as a freelancer.

The silver lining?

Those who don’t understand how to effectively communicate will drop the profession. Publishing houses that don’t carefully evaluate manuscripts will perish. Authors who go the vanity publishing route will flush their cash.

But the savvy freelancer who develops even rudimentary marketing skills, the freelancer who remains aware, yet positive, the freelancer who takes time to cultivate a career… these writers will do just fine, in my humble opinion.

So yeah. Be aware of the current economic situation, but don’t drown in the negativity of it. If you’re not aware, you will languish in this profession. It’s that simple.

These two links come courtesy of Dan Poynter (http://PublishingPoynters.com).

http://www.slate.com/id/2185746/

http://tinyurl.com/23bm2f

As they’d say in Minnesota… Uff-da.

Catch ‘ya later!

Beth

P.S. It’s good to be back!

Interesting discussion! Enjoy.

http://tinyurl.com/33xlwv

Talk later,

Beth

I’ve gotta admit. This one depressed me a bit.

Interesting article. Even more interesting comments.

Every book writer should be aware of this.

Check it out.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lissa-warren/it-lit_b_54532.html

Talk later,

Beth

Headline: Harry Potter Magic Spells Losses for Booksellers.

Article says: because of deep consumer discounts, independent booksellers are barely breaking even on every Harry Potter book sold.

Wow.

As a publisher, I know the discounts we have to offer wholesalers and distributors really cut into profits, often eclipsing any whatsoever when we factor in rising postage prices.

I know printers aren’t exactly raking in the dough when you consider their huge overhead.

Author royalties aren’t that great either.

Now bookstores are struggling to break even on a huge title.

It’s a sorry state for the US publishing system.

That being said, both authors and publishers can make some pretty nice incomes if they work smart.

Here’s the URL:

http://tinyurl.com/2s6842

Talk later,

Beth

Yeah, I’ve had my tangles with Amazon reviewers. Seems like I’m not the only one.

Check it out:

http://tinyurl.com/2fjqpb

Talk later,

Beth