Put These ‘Take-Home’ Lessons to Work
By Randy Dotinga
There’s something about “take-home message” that rubs me the wrong way.
With a few exceptions, most things I take home ultimately end up in my stomach, in a landfill or under the couch. Sure, the books stick around. But they only molder on shelves while some hot young thing by Robert Caro or Mary Roach finds its way to the bedside table.
Valuable lessons deserve better. That’s why I’m introducing Take Your Message to Work Year.
For the rest of 2013, devote some time to reviving some take-home messages. To get you started, here are a few lessons I learned at the ASJA Annual Writers Conference earlier this spring: Continue reading →
What Writers Need to Know about Information Products
By Marcia Layton Turner
We writers hear almost daily about magazine markets drying up, publisher advances plummeting, and online content paying paltry amounts. Anyone focused solely on what is going on in the traditional publishing industry might think there are no opportunities left. They would be wrong. In fact, there are plenty of opportunities to generate an income from writing, just not in the way that it has been before.
For the past few years, with the rise of e-readers and e-books, and increased reliance on the internet for information, demand for information products has been steadily rising. What are information products? They are tools for sharing how-to, service-oriented information that are sold online. The information itself can be formatted or packaged in a number of ways, including: Continue reading →
How to Use Social Media to Support Your Writing Career
By Dorri Olds
Far too many freelancers say things like, “I don’t have time for Facebook; I don’t care what somebody had for lunch,” or, “I don’t get Twitter.” Here’s the problem with these comments, they sound dinosaurish like latecomers who said, “Why would I ever want a cell phone?”
Saying you don’t have time for social media is the same as saying you don’t have time to tell anybody who you are and what you do. You’re probably accustomed to attending networking lunches, handing out 20 business cards and making connections that lead to work. Think about that for a moment. First you must dress up, travel to the event, find out where the bathroom is, etc. With social media you can stay in your jammies and let 4000 people know what you’re up to in less than five minutes. Continue reading →
4 CommentsSell Books with Your New Public Speaking Skills
By Judith C. Tingley
The new brain research says we should all do something new and challenging to grow our neurons and enlarge our neural pathways. I took up Spanish and computer brain training. Maybe writers could give public speaking a shot as a way to recharge brains — and sell books. It can be fun.
When your first or next book is published, traditionally or not, you’ll want and need to be out there selling yourself and your book to the world. Carol Cassella, MD and author of Oxygen, was stressed and unprepared for the demands of promoting her book, when I interviewed her for an article. Public speaking was the unexpected requirement. “I can’t do this. It just isn’t me.” Continue reading →
Leave a commentLet’s Write Some History
By Christopher Klein
I’m a history geek. Favorite historical figure: Teddy Roosevelt. Favorite historical event: the Defenestration of Prague. (Go ahead, Google it.) I love writing about history because it allows me to indulge my passion, travel back in time, and constantly learn more about humanity’s incredible backstory. And writing about dead people means never having to worry about your subjects returning your phone calls.
If history lurks around every corner, so do outlets for writing about history. Here are just a sample of some of the opportunities available for history writers: Continue reading →
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