Life of A Writer

Do you enjoy traveling to writers' conferences, expos and events during the summer? On the other hand, maybe you stay at home to do your writing and marketing, like me. Yes, unfortunately, I don't travel much. To be honest, though, I'd love to travel to other states to hone my writing skills and meet other writers, but right now, I can't do that. However, once all three of my kids are grown, hubby and I have plans to buy an RV and travel the world. Believe me, I can hardly wait to become a travel writer; it's something I'm definitely looking forward to! I'd love to be able to attend writers' conferences, expos and other events, as well as participate in a book tour. For now, though, I'll enjoy what little events for writers we have around my area and cherish the time I have with my children -- because they're already growing up faster than I'd like them to.

Anyway, if you're not like me and you do enjoy traveling, you may want to add the National Christian Writers Conference and Book Expo to your summer schedule. The event will take place on September 20, 2008 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Virginia Beach, VA. Registration is under $100 and includes workshop materials, breakfast, lunch and entrance to the book expo. During the conference and expo, you'll get to meet other Christian writers, magazine publishers, independent bookstore owners, editors and many others. Moreover, you'll hone your writing skills as you learn from experts scheduled to speak.

To find out more about the National Christian Writers Conference and Book Expo in Virginia, visit their website. Plus, if you've never been to Virginia Beach, VA and would like to learn more about what the city has to offer, surf over to the Virginia Beach City Page.

So tell us, will you be visiting the National Christian Writers Conference and Book Expo? How about any other conferences, book expos or events for writers? Whether you plan to travel this summer or not, I'd love for you to share your summer plans with me by leaving a comment below.

Photo credit: Eschipul

Bookmark on Del.icio.us | Stumble It!

Read full post >>

Today I'm going to share some free online tools and services that have helped me manage my clients and writing career. All of the following tools and services make invoicing, following up and working with clients much easier for me, and I hope you'll find some or all of them helpful as well. So what do you say, are you ready to make your writing career less stressful by adding some new tools and services to your virtual office?

Reminder Services

Sometimes we get so swamped with work that we tend to forget upcoming deadlines, query letters we've sent out, jobs we've responded to, clients we need to follow up with and etc. However, with a free e-mail reminder service, those important dates will no longer slip your mind, because you'll be able to schedule reminders to be sent to your e-mail inbox on certain days.

I schedule reminders to help me remember when to follow up on query letters, my upcoming deadlines, upcoming interviews, when to follow up with existing and past clients, and when to follow up on writing jobs I've applied to but didn't receive a response from.

Free-Minder: You can set your reminders to remind you of the upcoming task 7 days, 14 days, 3 days or 1 day in advance. There's also a note field that you can use to let you know which query letter you need to follow up on, the name of the client you're following up with and more.

I used Free-Minder for a long time -- before my e-mail provider added a reminder feature -- and I loved it! They sent the reminders just as I had scheduled them, and I enjoyed Free-Minder's features, especially the notes field.

Memo to Me: Set one-time, daily, weekly, monthly or yearly reminders.

Project and Client Management

Invoice Journal: This free invoicing tool that will let you send invoices to your clients. Moreover, you can create and manage invoices, as well as send invoices in multiple currencies. Use Invoice Journal's free demo to explore all the features before you register.

WriteWith: This free tool will allow you to share documents and communicate with clients. Some features include e-mail or text messaging notification of changes the client has made to your documents, new assignments from clients and invites to view documents; ability to chat with clients; view any changes a client has made to a project; export documents to PDF, HTML or other formats; publish documents to a Wordpress or Typepad blog, plus many other features.

I absolutely love WriteWith! It's so much easier to communicate with my clients and work on their projects.

Fax Service

I use to pay $30 a month for my fax service through my local phone service provider. On top of paying for the fax service, I had to purchase a fax machine, which cost me approximately $100. While I could write the fax machine and service off on my taxes as a business expense, I still had to pay the monthly bill for the service. Moreover, to be honest with you, I thought $30 a month was a little expensive since I didn't send or receive too many faxes. With that said, I went in search of a less expensive fax service through the Internet, and that's when I learned I could cut my $30 a month fax bill down to $10 a month! I immediately signed up and have been satisfied with my online fax service every since. The best part is there's no software to download and I even get a toll free number so my client's and others don't have to pay to send me faxes.

My Fax: Through My Fax, you'll get a toll free fax number and cut down on paper expenses incurred by printing out income faxes. You can save all incoming faxes to your hard drive and print them out only if you need to. You get all of that and more with My Fax for only $10 a month!

Payment Service

Paypal: You may already be familiar with this service, but just in case you're among the few writers who may not be, Paypal is web-based tool that will allow you to send and receive money. Most clients now pay their writers through Paypal, so if you haven't already signed up, head to Paypal to discover more. If you want to receive payment from clients quickly, this is a must-have for your virtual office!

Tools for Trend Research

Google Trends, Yahoo! Buzz and Google Alerts will help you stay on top of all the latest trends in your areas of interest. These three tools have become a lifesaver for me many times, and I believe they're essential for any writer's virtual office.

There you have it, a list of some of my favorite tools and services that I have added to my virtual office. I help you find them as helpful as I have.

Do you know of any other free tools and/or services that every writer needs in his or her virtual office? Then, please, comment to share your favorite tools and services for writers with us.

Photo credit: Rintakumpu

Bookmark on Del.icio.us | Stumble It!

Read full post >>

Since my weekly listings of telecommute freelance writing jobs weren’t generating comments, I wondered if y’all were actually viewing them. So, to find out if you wanted my weekly listings to continue, I ran a poll (results below). According to the poll, the majority of you want me to continue bringing you telecommute freelance writing jobs on a weekly basis. With that said, I’m bringing them back starting today. Please don’t be shy, though. Comment and let me know if my listings are helping you land new writing gigs. I love hearing about your success in the writing industry, especially when I was able to help in some way.

Without further ado, today’s telecommute freelance writing job listings follow. Enjoy and best of luck! …

Feature authors/contestants to create how-to craft videos and content with photos (winner receives a $300 beginning author contract and share of future sponsorship revenues).

Freelance reporter to cover business and technology news ($40-$60 for quick turnaround news stories).

OTR Global is seeking an investigative reporter for cyclicals and industrial markets (competitive pay and expense reimbursement).

RealFootball365.com needs writers enthusiastic about NFL and/or college football to contribute content to their website on a daily basis ($10-$15 per column).

Seeking writers for a B2B construction magazine ($.10 per word for first assignments, and $.16 per word thereafter).

UnwiredView.com is seeking mobile tech bloggers ($8 to $100+ per post).

Are you looking to hire a writer or blogger? Contact me with the details and I'll include your announcement in next week's listings.

Bookmark on Del.icio.us | Stumble It!

Read full post >>

I love having the kids home for the summer, but there are afternoons when I could just scream. Not because I don’t enjoy my kids and love ‘em to death, but because they apparently don’t understand that mom needs to work.

As I sat down the other day to write some articles for clients, the TV was on and no one appeared to be watching it.

“Mom has four articles to write today, so please try to be quiet,” I began.
“Okay,” they replied.
“Is anyone watching the TV?” I asked.
“No.”
“Can someone shut the TV off, please?”

After they were kind enough to shut the TV off, they turned their attention back to their computers, so I immersed myself in mine. I managed to write and edit my first article in an hour’s time, without interruption. I was grateful and on a roll!

With one article successfully completed, I immediately began article number two. Unfortunately, that task didn’t go as smoothly as the first. I had managed to write two sentences and then the disruptions began.

“Do you want me to go to the store to get sugar now?” my stepson asked.
“Yes, please,” I replied.
“Mom, can I go with Chris?” JB, my oldest son, asked.
“Can I go too?” Joe, my youngest son, chimed in.
“Yes, you can both go,” I answered.

Soon after the boys left for the store, I turned my attention back to my second article. I’d hoped to get at least half of the article written before the boys returned from their trip to the local convenient store, which was only a 10 minute drive. (My daughter was at her dad’s, and would be there until August 1.)

Thankfully, I was able to complete half of the article before the boys returned from the store. But once inside, I think they had forgotten that mom said she had four articles to write, because it wasn’t long until I was answering one question after another.

After about 20 minutes of chatting and answering questions, the kids decided to play quietly in the other room. Hooray, time to finish the second article. Think again...

A minute later I heard, “Mom.”



“Hang on,” I told JB.

“What?” I asked, after I finished typing the thoughts I’d had in my mind.
“I’m going to fry some Spam.”
“Okay, I told him.

Because I was working at the kitchen table, he began asking me questions to make sure he was operating the stove the right way. It wasn’t long after that when Joe and Chris entered the kitchen, and that’s pretty much when everything came to a halt. (It’s also when I checked to see if any steam was rolling from my ears.)

I spent an hour and a half assisting with the cooking and answering questions before they all decided to go back into the living room so I could return to my work. Did I finish the articles? After a few more distractions, yes, I was finally able to write and edit the three remaining articles.

How about all you other writer moms out there, do you have any summer writing stories to share? Don’t be shy; you know you do.

Bookmark on Del.icio.us | Stumble It!

Read full post >>

Lillie earned her entry by commenting on posts that were a part of my Fiction Writing Tips series, but in her e-mail to me she stated that she’d love to take advantage of the prize herself, but since she’s not planning to write another fiction novel in the near future, she’d rather pass the mentoring opportunity on to someone else.


Before I announce the name of the new winner, I’d like to thank Lillie for her comments and wish her the very best with all her writing, marketing and editing endeavors. And, of course, I look forward to more of her comments here at Life of a Writer.

With that out of the way, the new winner of the Mentoring Session Contest is Eliza Wyatt. Congratulations, Eliza, I look forward to working with you on your fiction novel!

--------------------------------------------------------

Drum roll, please… Lillie Ammann!

Congratulations, Lillie! You’ll be receiving an e-mail from me shortly explaining all the details. I can hardly wait to get started helping you write, publish and market your next fiction novel.

Lillie has been a regular reader here at Life of a Writer for quite some time now, and she frequently comments, so I was both surprised and happy when I drew her name from the hat, which consisted of 11 entries.

I hope she doesn’t, but if Lillie declines because she’s not working on a fiction novel and has no plans to write one in the near future, then I’ll draw another name from the hat and announce that winner’s name here, as well as notify him or her via e-mail.

I’d like to thank everyone who entered my Mentoring Session Contest, and even though you didn’t win, I wish you the very best and encourage not to give up on your fiction novel. While I only have time to mentor one writer, I’ll still be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Keep reading Life of a Writer for more contests or subscribe free via e-mail for immediate notification of new contests, upcoming contests, new posts and more. Do you prefer reading updates from your favorite blogs through your RSS reader instead? No problem, just subscribe to my RSS feed, which is also free.

Let’s celebrate with cake and ice-cream, shall we? Lillie, you get the first piece.

Photo credit: Traveling Fools of America

Bookmark on Del.icio.us | Stumble It!

Read full post >>

1. Fiction Writing Tips: Get to Know Your Characters With a Character Outline
2. Fiction Writing Tips: Writing a Novel Outline
3. Fiction Writing Tips: Writing the First Draft
4. Fiction Writing Tips: Editing the First Draft
5. Chasing the Right Publishers or Agents
6. Five Things to Do While Waiting on Responses From Research Contacts
7. Increase Your Chances of Landing a Review for Your Fiction Novel
8. Three Ways to Promote Your Fiction Novel Before Publication

Bookmark on Del.icio.us | Stumble It!

Read full post >>

Congratulations on landing a publisher! Your next step -- whether you chose traditional publishing or print on demand -- will be promoting your fiction novel. Yes, traditional publishers do more in terms of promotion for their authors than print on demand publishers, but the author should do his or her part as well. In fact, all publishers appreciate it more when the author steps up to help, and one great benefit for the author could be bigger royalty checks.

When should you start to promote your fiction novel? Before your fiction novel hits the bookstores is best. Some promotion will take place after your novel hits the market, but today were going to explore three ways you can promote your fiction novel while it’s still in the publishing stages.

Write and distribute press releases. Create a persuasive press release announcing the release of your book. Then distribute the press releases to local newspapers and other media contacts.

Create a media kit. You’ll want to create two media kits: one to send through postal mail and another for your website. Your media kit should consist of a cover letter, a booklist (if you’ve had other books published), press clippings (can be included later if you haven’t gained any yet), your press release, your bio, a color and black and white photo of yourself (headshot), a fact sheet that includes information about your book (release date, ISBN, publisher, etc.), sample questions and answers (in case they want to schedule an interview), a sample chapter or excerpt from your book, a flyer, brochure and your business card. Those are just the essential materials your media kit should include; feel free to add any additional materials.

Plan a virtual book tour. Virtual book tours are becoming popular among many authors, and the majority of them have reported success in sales. While you should wait until your fiction novel is released before beginning your virtual book tour, there’s nothing stopping you from planning in advance. For more information on planning a virtual book tour, read Cheryl Kaye Tardif’s Authors Tour the World With Virtual Book Tours. Cheryl organized her own virtual book tour and then wrote this wonderful article to teach other authors how they can do the same.

And there you have it, Three Ways to Promote Your Fiction Novel Before Publication. This is also the final post in my Fiction Writing Tips series. If you missed any of the topics covered in this series, visit the Fiction Writing Tips Series Table of Contents for a complete list with links.

I’ll announce the winner of the Mentoring Session Contest, which was tied into this series, here, tonight at 11:00 p.m. (CST). I’ll also contact the winner via e-mail so we can get started with the mentoring session.

With that in mind, if you haven’t entered the contest yet, there’s a few more hours left. One way to receive an entry is to comment on this post. Not sure what to say? Why not share your own advice on promoting a fiction novel before publication. Would you like a second entry after leaving your comment? Then subscribe to Life of a Writer for free e-mail updates.

Thank you for sticking with me throughout this long series, and may the Lord bless you with many book sales! Don’t forget to join me here again at 11:00 p.m. (CST) to discover who the lucky winner of the Mentoring Session Contest will be.

Photo credit: Nathan Dainty

Bookmark on Del.icio.us | Stumble It!

Read full post >>

I finally caught up on my writing enough to enjoy some of my favorite writing-related blogs. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to exercise my “reading pleasure” time and hone my writing skills. With that in mind, tonight’s session was refreshing!

If you’ve had the time to read all your favorite blogs but have a hankering for more great reading, I’d like to invite you to check out the following posts. Out of more than 300 posts to catch up on the following were my favorites, so I’d like to share them with you as well. Who knows, maybe you’ll find them just as helpful, entertaining and inspiring as I did.

English Grammar 101: Verb Tense, by Maeve over at Daily Writing Tips

How to Analyze and Improve the ‘Bounce Rate’ for Your Website, by Maki over at DoshDosh

Pay Attention! Attention to Details Will Set Your Business Apart, by Laura Spencer over at Freelance Folder

That’s Really Stupid, by Billie over at Life Laughter Chaos (Not writing-related, but a parenting moment I can relate to. See my comment where I shared a similar story.)

Virtual Publicity Tours – Not Only for Authors, by Jennifer Mattern over at All Freelance Writing

Bookmark on Del.icio.us | Stumble It!

Read full post >>

Over the 4th of July, hubby and I took the kids camping at Glen O Jones Lake. My oldest son, JB, enjoyed the fishing, and on day two of our camping trip, he got his very first big catch!

“I think I got a big one this time!” He shouted with excitement.
“I’ll get the net,” his younger brother, Joe, said as he ran a few feet to the campsite.
“Hurry, bubby!”

In less than a minute, Joe made his way back to the lakeside just in time to scoop his brother’s catfish into the net.

“I believe you have the biggest catch of the day,” my husband told him.
“Bring your fish over here so I can take a picture,” I said.

As he carried the fish over to where I was, he said because Joe had helped, he wanted him in the picture too, so using the camera on my cell phone, I took a picture of the boys holding JB’s fish. Because of the poor quality of the picture, you may not be able to see the excitement on JB’s face well, but I can honestly say, he was grinning from ear to ear… and he remained that way the rest of the day.

A week before the camping trip, the local news forecasted severe thunderstorms for the 4th of July weekend, and since I’m not big on being outdoors during storms, I began praying a few days before the planned camping trip. My prayer was, of course, for no thunderstorms. The night before we were due to leave, I asked God to change the forecast, adding that I didn’t mind a few rain showers, it was just the thunder and lightening that I didn’t want.

The next morning arrived and hubby was determined to take the kids camping -- rain or shine. Therefore, we headed to the store to purchase some camping supplies and food. While in the grocery store, my husband greeted a lady he knew (a friend of his nephew), and she told him that her and her husband were going camping with my husband’s nephew and his wife. Shortly thereafter, my husband went to the store next door to purchase something else as I paid for the groceries. As I stood in the checkout line, the lady my husband had greeted got in line behind me, so I chatted with her. During our conversation, we discussed the weather, and she told me that they were going to cancel their camping trip, but said when she woke up that morning, she watched the weather and discovered that the forecast had changed to only a few rain showers.

“That’s wonderful!” I told her, and silently thanked God for answering my prayer.

From then on, I was as happy as I could be. Not only because the weather forecast had changed, but mostly because God had answered my prayer!

There were no thunderstorms at all the entire weekend, and the temperatures stayed below 70. We did have a few sprinkles every now and then, but that’s all it ever amounted to -- thanks to my prayers.

Come Sunday morning we packed up to leave. Once we arrived home, I called my mom to let her know we all had a great time. After I told her about the camping trip, she revealed a bit of bad news to me. She told me that my cousin -- who’s more like a brother to me instead -- was headed to the local hospital. She went on to say that during our camping trip, he had been sick in bed and wasn’t able to urinate. To make a long story short, when my cousin arrived at the hospital, they ended up calling the life flight to have him sent to a hospital in Evansville, Indiana. Turns out his kidneys had shut down, so they put him on Kidney Dialysis. In addition, his blood pressure was dangerously low (both numbers were below 100).

My cousin spent approximately a week in the hospital on Kidney Dialysis, but today I’m happy to report that he’s home and able to urinate on his own again. Yes, another answered prayer. However, this time God answered the prayers of many, because I wasn’t the only one praying for my cousin to have a quick recover; my family as well as many church members prayed for him too.

What did you do over the 4th of July holiday weekend?

Bookmark on Del.icio.us | Stumble It!

Read full post >>

Welcome to part seven of my Fiction Writing Tips series, which I should have posted last Thursday, but due to a family emergency, I’m posting it a little later. Since this post is meant to focus on how to get your book reviewed, I won’t discuss the family emergency. My next post, however, will talk about the camping trip I took with hubby and the kids over the holiday weekend, and in that post, you’ll find out more about the family emergency that delayed this post. But for now let’s focus on getting your book reviewed.

In part six of my Fiction Writing Tips series, I listed five things you could do while waiting on responses from research contacts and compile a list of book reviewers for your fiction novel was among that list. “Why would I gather book reviews before my book is published?” you ask. Because you can use book reviews on the back cover as well as in promotional materials you’ll send to the media announcing the upcoming release of your novel.

While book reviewers are easy to find, it doesn’t mean you’ll get the reviewer to give you a review. With that said, let’s explore a few of the things you can do to increase your chances of landing a review for your fiction novel. Not only will the following techniques increase your chances of landing a review, but they’ll also save you time and money.

Determine the genre of your fiction novel: Only contact book reviewers who will review your genre. For example, if you’ve written a fantasy novel, a book reviewer who only reviews Christian fiction and romance will not be interested in reading your fantasy novel.

Contact the reviewer before sending a copy of your book: Don’t waste your money by sending a copy of your fiction novel to every reviewer on your list. Instead, contact the reviewer first. When contacting the reviewer, let him or her know what your novel is about, and then ask him or her if they’d be interested in reading your fiction novel and giving you a review.

Follow the book reviewer’s submission guidelines: Before contacting the book reviewers on your list, read their guidelines and follow them. Some reviewers only review certain formats, genres and etc. By reading their guidelines, you’ll know if you have what they want, and they’ll appreciate the fact that you took the time to read and follow their guidelines.

Let the reviewer know what formats you have available: When contacting a book reviewer with a description of your book, mention what formats you have available. If your novel is only available in PDF format, then they need to know this, because some reviewers only review hard copies. Again, check their guidelines to see if they’ll accept your novel in whatever format(s) you have available. If they don’t accept the formats you have to offer, then it would be a waste of your time to contact that reviewer.

Send a follow-up e-mail: If you sent your fiction novel to reviewers and haven’t heard back from them within one month, send a quick follow-up e-mail to those reviewers.

Join me Thursday for the final part in my Fiction Writing Tips series. On Thursday, you’ll discover a few ways to promote your fiction novel before it hits the bookstores. Then, on Friday, July 18, I’ll post the winner of the Mentoring Session Contest. If you’d like to enter the Mentoring Session Contest, comment on this post. To receive a second entry, subscribe to receive free e-mail updates from Life of a Writer.

Photo credit: Mia3mom

Bookmark on Del.icio.us | Stumble It!

Read full post >>

Happy 4th of July! I hope your holiday weekend is fun and safe. As you're reading this, I'm camping with the family. Hopefully the storms their forecasting for our area will pass us by, but just in case they don't, pray that the Lord will keep us all safe.

Now, moving on to the main topic of this post... I would like to know if my weekly listings of telecommute freelance writing jobs has been helping you. I know there are many other blogs and websites that list telecommute freelance writing jobs, but I've tried to make my listings a little different by adding the price the employer is paying, including the topic they want you to cover so you don't have to click through only to discover that topic isn't one you write about, and finally, I also try to keep the penny-paying writing jobs out of the mix. With that said, would you like for me to continue listing telecommute freelance writing jobs each week? Please vote below, and feel free to comment if you like.

Bookmark on Del.icio.us | Stumble It!

Read full post >>

Last week I told you how to research publishers and agents, and today I'm going to list five things you can do while waiting on responses from your research contacts. With that said, let's explore what you could be doing while you're waiting to find out if the publisher or agent your researching appears to be replicable.

1. Write the query letter for your fiction novel.
2. Prepare your chapter-by-chapter outline.
3. Write the synopsis/proposal for your fiction novel.
4. Catch up on work you've put on the back burner.
5. Compile a list of possible book reviewers for your fiction novel.

All of the five things mentioned above will be needed once the responses start to come in and you begin contacting the publishers or agents that you believe checked out to be replicable. However, don't just submit what you think they'll want, check their guidelines first to find out what they want you to submit. Some may want a query letter first, and others may want a query letter as well as the synopsis/proposal. If you send them what you think they want without following the advice and instructions in their guidelines, you'll increase your chances of having your submission land in the publisher or agent's "slush" pile, and I'm sure you don't want that to happen.

Join me again next Thursday to learn how to increase your chances of being reviewed, where to find book reviewers and more in part seven of my Fiction Writing Tips series.

What do you do while waiting on responses from your research contacts? Share it with us in the comments area. By sharing what you do in the comments area below, you'll earn yourself an entry in my Mentoring Session Contest.

Additional reading:

Make the Perfect Pitch: The Novel Query, by Kelly James-Enger.

Mastering the Dreaded Synopsis - Condensing Your Novel, by Lee Masterson.

Writing a Synopsis From the Ground Up, by Dee-Ann Latona LeBlanc.

Helpful books:

A Writer's Guide to Fiction, by Elizabeth Lyon.

The Writer's Guide to Queries, Pitches & Proposals, by Moira Anderson Allen.

Bookmark on Del.icio.us | Stumble It!

Read full post >>

Today was supposed to be the day when the winner of the Mentoring Session Contest was announced, but since I still have three more posts to go in the Fiction Writing Tips series, the winner of the Mentoring Session Contest will be extended to July 18, 2008. So the good news is if you haven't received an entry yet, you can still do so. All the ways to enter can be found here. Remember, one of the ways to receive an entry is to comment on any of the posts in my Fiction Writing Tips series, and the next post for that series is scheduled for Thursday, July 3, 2008.

If you have any questions, leave them in the comments area and I'll answer them there.

Bookmark on Del.icio.us | Stumble It!

Read full post >>