Notes from Minnesota   

Hey Freelancer!  

I just got back from beautiful Columbus, Ohio. Great city, by the way. I'll cover details on all the cool stuff I encountered later.

However, I'm swamped so I'll keep 'er short today. I hope you enjoy today's issue of Writing Etc.!

Beth :)

P.S. Be sure to check out our best sellers. Here's the link

P.P.S. Share Writing Etc. with your freelance friends by  clicking here.

Beth's Hot Pick of the Week   

Think it’ll take forever to earn a great living as a writer? 

Think again.

With Jumpstart Your Writing Career, you’ll discover how easy it is to:

• Think like a writer 
• Hone your writing skills until they’re razor sharp 
• Tackle the most lucrative branch of writing 
• Learn secrets of fiction 
• Organize your nonfiction articles 
• Write powerful queries 
• Promote your writing business for little or no money  

If you want to be a freelance writer who snags paying assignments, this book’s for you.

Get more information here.

Make Your Writing Sparkle      

Today we're talking more about one of my pet peeves: the dreaded homonym.

As I mentioned last time, a homonym is a word that sounds exceedingly similar or the same as another, but the spellings, and definitions, are different.

Here are a few homonyms that can trip you up:

• Accept: to receive. “Will you accept my apology?”

• Except: excluding. “Everyone can go except you.”

• Ask: to inquire. “Feel free to ask questions.”

• Ax (or axe): a hand tool. “Grab the ax and cut down that tree.”

• Principal: the person who heads a school. “Behave or I'll make you talk to the principal.”

• Principle: basic truth or law. “The first principle of medicine is to do no harm.”

• Your: a possessive pronoun. “Grab your jacket.”

• You're: a contraction for you are. “You're funny.”

'Til next time. :)

Prompts for the Week  

If you need to jumpstart your journaling, these prompts will give you a fresh perspective and (hopefully) help your mental journey to new territory. Here are the rules:

First, read the prompt and ponder it a minute.

Second, get writing. Don't stop. Even if you can't think of anything, just keep the fingers moving.

Third, write a minimum of one page per prompt.

Let's get started:

1. Write a sentence correctly using both accept and except.

2. Write a paragraph using both askand axe.

3. Write a story using both principaland principle.

4. Write a poem using yourand you're.

Have fun!

Feature Article  

The Bright Side of Writing Scams

Beth Ann Erickson

Two phone calls within a couple weeks. Two smart freelancers. Both nearly snared in the same writing scam. 

It goes like this:

After months, if not years, of submitting their books to publishers and receiving scores of rejection letters, they finally received the “OK” to submit their latest work to what they thought were reputable publishers.

One small problem, though. Each had a niggling sensation in the pit of their stomach that simply wouldn’t subside.

“We love the manuscript!” the publisher proclaimed. “Brilliant. It’ll sell like gangbusters!”

Still the nagging sensation persisted.

Then they e-mailed me complex e-mails detailing their situation.

“What’s your phone number,” I asked, “this is way too complicated to try to unravel via e-mail.”

Onward they sent their phone numbers to me and I rang each of them.

As they spoke it became disappointingly clear that they were indeed caught up in a fairly common publishing situation.

I won’t bore you with the minute details. However on a broader scale I can say this:

When you are searching for a publisher of any sort, your mantra is, “Money flows towards the writer, not away from the writer.”

Both these authors had found “publishers” who offered to “publish” their books for a fee. Really BIG fees.

This got me to thinking… if you’re going to pay to publish your book, why not simply self publish? After all, publishers who claim to “publish” your book, then charge you setup fees, cover art fees, editing fees, annual hosting fees, and inflated book prices are not publishers.

Publishers are supposed to write checks, not collect fees.

If a “publisher” is “helping” you self publish your book, your best bet is to simply self publish it rather than get your name tangled with a company that may or may not have a reputable reputation.

I’ve heard of too many authors who are astounded to discover (after all the contracts were signed) that they hadn’t found a publisher, but that the company was “assisting them in self publishing their book.”

This clearly wasn’t what they had hoped to find when their book got accepted by the company.

But most authors make the best of it and struggle against the stigma that many of these “Print on Demand” (POD) “publishers” have created for themselves, rightly or wrongly deserved.

Had most of these authors known that they were about to get caught between thinking they’d found a “publisher” and realizing the publisher viewed them as “self publishing” they would have simply opted for the second option and deleted the middle man.

This is what I advised these two writers to do.

If you’re going to pay one cent to get published, hop ship and self publish. With so many options available today, why not reap all the profits if you’re going to have to work your tail off promoting your book?

You’ve got online publicity options available that are simple to use and dirt cheap to implement.

You’ve got a whole world of digital printing beckoning you to jump in and realize your dream.

Plus, you can totally eliminate the stigma of being affiliated with a POD publisher which means reviewers won’t automatically reject your book. Bookstores may take a chance on stocking it (provided you supply bookstore friendly terms). Industry people won’t wrinkle their noses at you.

You see, Print on Demand book printing is a fabulous technology. However, the Print on Demand business model that many POD publishers have developed call for them to achieve the bulk of their profits not from book sales (because many of these books are anything but readable), but from author fees.

Now, I know, writer scams exist and will continue to do so. But to wallow in the negativity of it all won’t suit either of us.

Especially when that same negative situation can shine the light on an incredible publishing opportunity open to every writer… self publishing using digital technology at its best.

The resources are available. With the maturation of the Internet, promotion is darn near effortless.

And all this new technology will allow your writing to see the light of day.

Our future is truly bright. And there’s something really special about witnessing the birth of a new dream, a new publishing company. I know these fine writers will write the words they were born to write… and those words will make it onto the printed page.

I truly love my job and am absolutely grateful every time a dream takes flight.

~~~

Beth Ann Erickson is the “Queen Bee” of Filbert Publishing. She’s also the author of numerous titles as well as the Creative Mindset Newsletter. Pick up the first seven copies today here. She’s also a busy copywriter, speaker, and publisher of Writing Etc., the free e-mag for writers. 

P.S. You can use this article free of charge on your own website or zine. Just don’t make any changes and be sure to include the entire byline. Enjoy!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I Recommend:

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http://www.WritingForDollars.com

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