Marketing
Want to Build an Email List? 8 Newsletter Platforms to Choose From
How many times each day do you check your email? Five? 10? More than that?
If you’re tuned in to your inbox all the time, you know how powerful email is — even after all these years — for connecting people around the globe. And if you’re not reaching out to your readers via email, you’re missing out on a valuable opportunity to connect with and build your audience.
If you don’t already have an email newsletter, it’s time to start thinking about it as a part of your marketing efforts to build an author platform. It will go a long way toward helping you land writing gigs and sell books.
Build Your Author Platform: 7 Manageable Ways to Start From Scratch
By now we’ve all heard about author platform, even if we’re not entirely sure how to build or maintain one.
But in my everyday work with authors, I’ve noticed many writers aren’t sure how exactly to get started. What should you focus on when you’re being pointed in 20 different directions, and all roads are potentially huge time sucks?
Freelancing
15 Magazines That Will Publish (And Pay For) Your YA and Children’s Stories
You’ve written and revised your children’s and YA stories more than you can count. Only your trusted circle has witnessed the magical way you weave words together to create fictional and nonfictional worlds for tiny humans — yet, everyone tells you more people need to read your children’s and YA stories.
For most writers (or any artist), putting your work out there isn’t an easy step to take, no matter how celebrated you are.
Want Bylines in Big-Name Publications? These Freelancers Will Teach You
When New York Times contributor Kristin Wong started freelancing, her first client offered her zero dollars for a screenwriting gig and she accepted it. She had to pay her dues, right?
Then a friend who was already a successful freelance writer told her she had to stop accepting low writing rates. Not only for herself, but because she was lowering the bar for writers everywhere.
This caused a shift in Kristin’s mind, and she began to view her writing as a business instead of a hobby. Now she’s a full-time writer, journalist and author — and living proof that you can make money as a freelance writer.
Blogging
How to Start a Blog: A Simple, Step-by-Step Guide for Writers
Have you always wanted to start a blog?
If you’re a writer, it makes perfect sense: You can use a blog to serve as your author platform, market your work or find new freelance writing clients. Blogging is also a great way to experiment with your writing style.
If you’re searching for a good way to share your thoughts, feelings and expertise, now is a great time to start a blog.
How to Convince An Editor to Hire You Again: Turn One Assignment Into Many
For freelance writers, recurring revenue is everything.
One-off assignments are a good starting point, but what you really need to form a reliable income stream is writing projects that continue over time: a company that wants you to write a blog post each week or a white paper each month, for example. Work (and pay) you can count on.
So how do you impress an editor with your first few assignments, with the goal of getting more assignments or even become a regular contributor?
Publishing
Get Your Book on Kindle: Everything You Need to Know About Amazon Self-Publishing
When I started writing my first book, I knew it was destined for Amazon self-publishing.
I had been working as a developmental editor for years at that point, so I had a pretty good understanding of the industry and the various publishing options available to me. The book I was writing was very niche, and I didn’t have any desire to commercialize it. I just wanted to write the book I wanted to write and make it available to people who would appreciate it for what it was.
Boo! These Are The 10 Monsters Your Book Editor Fears Most
As Halloween draws nigh, I’d like to introduce you to 10 monsters that haunt my nightmares.
Now, these guys and ghouls don’t regularly visit me, but they are a source of fear from time to time. And what’s often most troublesome is that I can seldom tell if they’re going to turn into a monster when we first meet.
Plus, I’m not the only one they visit.
I surveyed a group of editor friends on Facebook and discovered they’ve been visited by these monsters too.
Craft
5 Commonly Used Phrases That Weaken Your Writing
Most writers use too many words. That sounds silly, because it’s our literal job to use words. But too often we throw them on the page by the bucketful, like amateur painters trying to recreate a Jackson Pollock. Your canvas of brown splotches affirms how intentional Pollock’s seemingly casual flicks of the brush actually were.
This is how carefully good writers choose words — or, more likely, cut words from a first draft.
Wordiness clutters sentences and obfuscates your message.
How to Write Better: 10 Straightforward Techniques to Try Today
Whatever you write, you want to get your thoughts across in a clear and effective way — that’s the first thing you need to know about how to improve writing skills.
If you’re a novelist, you don’t want awkward word choices or repetitive sentence structures to distract your readers from the story.
As a freelancer, you don’t want your work to seem sloppy or poorly edited.
When you blog, you don’t want readers to switch off because you’re far too wordy.