About Writing

In this free email course, I'll tell you everything I cognize just about up your writing, publication it electronically and in print, and promoting it after the sale.

Two questions you should ask:

(1) What will it cost me?

(2) What does this Archangel LaRocca guy cognize just about it?

Answer #1 -- It won't cost you a thing. The single most important bit of proposal I can give you, and I say it often, is don't pay for publication.

My successes have come from investment time. Several of it was well spent, but most of it was wasted. It cost me nothing to share what I've learned. It cost you nothing to see it except several of your time.

Answer #2 -- "Michael LaRocca has been researching the publication field for over ten years."

This quote, from an ezine (electronic newsletter) called Authors Wordsmith, was a kind way of expression I've received a lot of rejections. Also, my "research" required 20 years.

But in my "breakout" year (2000), I finished writing four books and regular them all for publication in 2001. Then I spent about a year as an editor and Author Development Specialist for one of my publishers.

After my 1st book was published, several my publishers closed. Two weeks and three publishers later, I was back on track. All four books were republished, and a fifth will be discharged in 2004. Written in 2003, no rejections.

See how more quicker it was the second time around? That's because I knowing a lot.

2004 EPPIE Award finalist. 2002 EPPIE Award finalist. Listed by Writers Digest as one of The Better 101 Websites For Writers in 2001 and 2002. Sime-Gen Readers Select Awards for Favorite Author (Nonfiction & Writing) and Favorite Book (Nonfiction & Writing). 1982 Who's Who In American Writing.

Excuse me for bragging, but it beats having you think I'm unqualified.

Also, I found more redaction jobs. That's what I do once I'm not writing, doing legal transcription, or teaching English in China (my new home). But the thing is, if I'd become an editor before learning how to write, I'd have stunk.

I'll tell you what's missing from this course. What to write about, wherever I get my ideas from, stuff like that. Possibly I don't answer this question because I think you should do it your way, not mine. Or possibly because I don't cognize how I do it. Or possibly both.

Once you've done your writing bit, this course will help you with all the another stuff involved in being a writer. Writing involves wearing at least four several hats. Writer, editor, publication seeker, post-sale self-promoter.

Here's what I can tell you just about my writing.

Sometimes a story idea just comes to me out of obscurity and refuses to leave me alone until I write it. So, I do.

And, whenever I see a book that actually fires me up, I find myself thinking, "I will I could write like that." So, I just support trying. I'll ne'er write the best, but I'll always write my best. And get better every time. That's the "secret" of the writing "business," same as any another business. Always deliver the goods.

I see voraciously, a habit I recommend to any author who doesn't already have it. You'll subconsciously pick up on what does and doesn't work. Characterization, dialogue, pacing, plot, story, setting, description, etc. But more importantly, person who doesn't enjoy reading will ne'er write thing that person else will enjoy reading.

I don't write "for the market." I cognize I can't, so I just write for me and then try to find readers who like what I like. I'm not trying to whip up the next bestseller and get rich. Not that I'd complain. Nope, I have to write what's in my heart, then go find a market later. It does marketing a challenge at times, but I wouldn't have it any another way.

When you write, be a dreamer. Go nuts. Cognize that you're writing pure gold. That fire is why we write.

An author who I truly admire, Kurt Vonnegut, sweats out each individual sentence. He writes it, rewrites it, and doesn't leave it alone until it's perfect. Then once he's done, he's done.

I doubt most of write like that. I don't. I let it fly as fast as my fingers can come across the paper or keyboard, rushing to capture my ideas before they get away. Later, I change and shuffle and slice.

James Author claims that he writes the last sentence first, then has his goal before him as he writes his way to it.

Then there's me. No outline whatsoever. I create characters and conflict, disbursement days and weeks on that task, until the 1st chapter actually leaves me inquisitive "How will this end?" Then my characters take over, and I'm as amazed as the reader once I stop my story.

Some authors set aside a certain number of hours every day for writing, or a certain number of words. In short, a writing schedule.

Then there's me. No writing for three or six months, then a flurry of activity wherever I forget to eat, sleep, bathe, change the cat's litter... I'm a walking stereotype. To assuage the guilt, I tell myself that my unconscious is hard at work. As Author would-be say, long periods of thinking and short periods of writing.

I've shown you the extremes in writing styles. I think most authors fall in the middle somewhere. But my point is, find out what works for you. You can see just about how another writers do it, and if that works for you, great. But in the end, find your own way. That's what writers do.

Just don't do it halfway.

If you're doing what I do, writing a story that entertains and moves you, then you will find readers who share your tastes. For several of us that means a niche market and for others it means regular appearances on the bestseller list.

Writing is a calling, but publication is a business. Remember that AFTER you've written your manuscript. Not during.

I've told you how I write. For me.

The next step is self-editing. Fixing all the mistakes I made, that I can identify, in my rush to write it before my Muse took a holiday. Several rewrites. Running through it repeatedly with a fine-toothed comb.

Then what?

There are stories that get rejected because the potential publisher hates them, but far more are shot down for another reasons. Artificial dialogue. Boring descriptions. Weak characters. Underdeveloped story. Unbelievable or inconsistent plot. Sloppy writing.

That's what you have to fix.

After my fifteen-year hiatus from writing, I started by exploitation Free Online Creative Writing Workshops. What I needful most was input from strangers. After all, once you're published, your readers will be strangers. Every publisher you submit to will be a stranger. What will they think? I was far too close to my writing to answer that.

Whenever I got several advice, I considered it. Several I just threw out as wrong, or because I couldn't do the changes without abandoning part of what ready-made the story special to me. Several I embraced. But the point is, I decided. It was my writing.

After a time, I didn't feel the need for the workshops anymore. I'm fortunate enough to have a married woman whose proposal I will always treasure, and after a piece that was all I needed. But early on, it would've been unfair to ask her to see my drivel. (Not that I didn't anyway.)

I don't cognize how far on you are in your writing, but if you've ne'er used a workshop, I support a list of them at http://freereads.topcities.com/creativewritingonline.html.

Your goal once you self-edit is to get your book as close to "ready to read" as you possibly can. You want your editor to find what you overlooked, not what you didn't cognize about.

To that end, I offer two resources.

http://freereads.topcities.com/usefullinksforauthors.html contains links to online quotations, synchronic linguistics and style guides, dictionaries, encyclopedias, thesauruses, scam warnings, writer groups, copyright stuff, etc.

http://freereads.topcities.com/commonwritingmistakes.html contains a list of the most common mistakes I've seen in my years as an editor. I still read it from time to time just so I don't forget.

Your story is your story. You write it from your heart, and once it looks like thing you'd enjoy reading, you set out to find a publisher who shares your tastes. What you don't want is for that 1st reader to lose sight of what does your story special because you've bogged it down with silly mistakes.

Authors don't pay to be published. They are paid for publication. Always. It's just that simple. And later, I'll tell you wherever to get several free editing.

But there's a limit to how more redaction you can get without paying for it. Do you need more than that? I don't cognize because I've ne'er seen your writing. But if you measure it honestly, I Think you'll cognize the answer.

As an editor, I've worked with several authors who just couldn't self-edit. A non-native English speaker, a guy who slept through English class, whatever. To them, possibly paying for redaction was an option. This isn't paying for publication. This is paying for a service, training. Simply like paying to take a Creative Writing class at the local community college.

By the way, I don't believe creativeness can be taught. Writing, certainly. I took my Creative Writing class in high school, free, and treasure it. But I already had the creativity, or else it would've been a waste of the teacher's time and mine.

If you hire an editor worthy of the name, you should discover from that editor how to self-edit in the future. In my case it took two tries, because the 1st editor was a rip-off creative person charging over ten times market value for incomplete advice.

That editor, incidentally, is named Edit Ink, and they're listed on galore of the "scam warning" sites mentioned at Useful Links For Authors. They took kickbacks from every fake agent who sent them a client. (I'll talk just about fake agents later.)

If you choose to hire an editor, check cost and reputation. And consider that you mightiness ne'er do enough merchandising your books to get back what you pay that editor. Do you care? That's your decision.

The first, most important step on the road to publication is to do your writing the better it can be.

** PUBLICATION **

My goal is to be promulgated in several mediums, ebook and print. There are several readers who prefer ebooks, and several who prefer print books. The latter group is more larger, but those publishers are harder to sell your writing to. I want both, because I want all the readers I can get.

Thus, I advocate thing of a stepping-stone approach. Publish electronically with a quality place, enjoy the benefits of free redaction and about instant gratification regarding publication time.

Later, if you think you can sell your book to a traditional print publisher, you have a professionally emended manuscript to submit.

Before you epublish, check the contract to be sure you can publish the emended activity in print later.

If you cognize your book just plain won't ever do it into traditional print, print-on-demand (POD) is an option. Several of my books fall into this category. The better epublishers will at the same time publish your activity electronically and in POD format, at no cost to you.

A lot of authors swear by self-publication, but the prospect just plain scares me. All that promo, all that self-editing, possibly drive about the country with a back seat full of books. I'm a writer, not a salesman. But, possibly you're different.

I self-published once, in the pre-POD days. Mom handled the sales. I had fun and bust even. With POD, at least it's cheaper to self-publish than it was in 1989.

If you're flying solo, POD can range anyplace from US$99 to over $1000. Don't pay the higher price! Cost shop. Also, remember that POD places publish any author who pays, and do no marketing.

Print Publication vs Electronic Publication
http://freereads.topcities.com/printpublishing_electronicpublishing.html
This site provides a comparison of the two mediums. Each has plusses and minuses. Even as if you already cognize what epublishing is, take a look.

Electronic Publishers
http://freereads.topcities.com/onlinefictionbooks.html
A list of the ones I believe are esteemed and my criteria for selecting them. Plus, a link to award-winning author Piers Anthony's wholly first-class in-depth analysis of galore more epublishers than I'll ever list.

How To Break Into Print Publication
http://freereads.topcities.com/printpublishing.html
If you're at the beginning of my stepping-stone approach, seeking an epublisher, you'll probably just want to bookmarker this one for a year or two. That's fine, because it's not going anywhere. I plan to use it myself in a year or two. If, on the another hand, you're available for traditional print, use it now and I will you success!

Print-On-Demand Publication
http://freereads.topcities.com/printondemand.html
What is it? Should you use it? If so, how? What to mind of if you do.

** PROMOTING YOUR Promulgated WRITING **

It doesn't matter how you publish your book. Self-published, epublished, POD, or traditional print publication from an absolute powerhouse. Marketing falls mostly on you, and the same things always work. Book signings, interviews in the local newspapers and on radio.

Start with http://www.kidon.com/media-link/index.shtml. It will allow you to look up all the local media outlets in your area that have websites.

If you write to them all, you're a spammer. Plus, it'll take ages. Look for the ones with a legitimate interest and fire away.

If you find a stale URL, and I think you will, look for the name of that media outlet at several place like Google. Spend several time looking for the right press contacts, spend several time writing your press release, and do what you can.

Most of these sites list email, snail mail, and phone calls. Since I live in China, I've only used email.

Book reviews, author interviews, book listing sites, and book contests are thing we can all do, regardless of wherever we live. Again, I'm going to give you several web pages to visit. Pages wherever I support my resources, so I don't lose them. Several of the sites I mention do ebooks, and several do not. The POD option can help e-authors here, but balance cost vs. likeliness of gaining enough readers to offset that.

Some are ezines and several are websites. Several are written newsletters, several are written magazines, and several are newspapers. This is just a starting point. If you visit them all, and you have time for more promotion, you can find galore more.

Book Reviewers, Author Interviews, Book Listing Sites http://freereads.topcities.com/bookreview.html

Book Contests http://freereads.topcities.com/bookcontests.html

Okay, let's get back to my overseas angle. Aside from two radio interviews and a seminar in Hong Kong, and several emailed press releases to the LOCAL media back in the US which may or may not have succeeded in anything, my marketing has come from the Internet.

I have a website. I have a newsletter. I'm giving away a free ebook, the essence of which you're reading now. You found me somehow, right?

Here's the type of message I obtain often in email. To be more precise, in spam.

If a million folk see your ad, and you get 1% of them, that's 10,000 readers and therefore $15,000 profit and you only paid $1000 for those million addresses.

NO!! It doesn't activity that way. Need I use the words dot-com bust?

My website is free. My news-sheet is free. I don't buy mailing lists, I don't harvest email addresses, and I don't spam. I want interested traffic, not just sheer numbers.

Do you think the Phoenicians tried to sell sails to folk a thousand miles from the water?

Internet marketing isn't a replacement for the methods mentioned above, but a complement to them. And by exploitation it, I got you here.

Your goal in marketing is this. There are surely folk in the earth who like what you like. And since you like your book, they probably will too.

But you have to find those readers and do them interested, without spamming them and without just "playing the amount game."

If you're an e-author, let me state the obvious. Cipher buys ebooks who doesn't have Computer network access. Do they? So you decidedly need a website.

Traditional print authors need websites too. Even as blockbuster authors like J.R. Rowling and Author King, who I doubt could garner any more name recognition, have websites. So does every long-established ineluctable monstro-business like McDonalds and Coke.

Okay, those peoples pay web designers. I'm not doing that. I can't generate those kinds of sales figures. And yes, I've once been employed as an Hypertext mark-up language programmer. But you can write your own website without even as learning Hypertext mark-up language if you want. It's no harder than writing a manuscript with a word processor.

It won't be super-flashy like the big boys, but it'll communicate the information. Remember, you can communicate. You're an author! And that's what keeps folk coming back to a website after the thrill of the flash wears off. Information. Content. Your specialty.

I consider my website and my news-sheet to be successful, and I've created a free email course to analyze how they got that way. Yes, there are legitimate route to bring traffic to your website and your newsletter. Not massive amount overnight, but slow steady growth over the long term.

** CLOSING THOUGHTS **

We've been talking just about soft sell.

Now, at the end of my free workshop, I'll tell you just about 2 URLs that I think will help you and one that won't. You can decide if any are worth a visit.

After that, I'll get back to the lesson.

Books OnLine Directory
http://freereads.topcities.com/
You've been to parts of it already and seen that it delivers thing you're looking for. (I hope.) Don't forget to go back from time to time.

Mad Simply just about Books
http://freereads.topcities.com/archive.html
My free weekly email news-sheet will support you up-to-date on the latest information as I find it. Plus, it has a certain goofy charm that the website lacks.

Both URLs mention my books, but in the background. I hope you'll look one day out of curiosity or because you actually like my generous nature, but it's not mandatory. Soft sell.

From Watha, NC, USA to Shaoxing, Zhejiang, China
http://michaeljan.topcities.com
This site doesn't mention writing at all. I wrote it for my students. I teach English in China, and this is wherever I tell all just about it. On with a hefty portion of personal history and photos. How I got here, how I quit a job via email to marry a lovely Australian, dog and cat photos, stuff like that. Simply for fun. It won't help you a bit.

Now let's get back to your writing. That's why you're here.

Here's thing you've detected before. Once your manuscript is rejected -- and it will be -- remember that you aren't being rejected. Your manuscript is.

One reader took me to task for that statement, claiming he'd ne'er been rejected in his life. I'm really happy for him. But why, if I may be so bold as to ask, would-be he need proposal on How To Get Published? I'd rather he write several proposal so I can hang up my "helper guy" hat and discover from a master.

But I digress. You aren't being rejected, I was saying. Your manuscript is.

Did you ever hang up the phone on a telemarketer, delete spam, or close the door in the face of a salesman? Of course, and yet that salesperson just moves on to the next potential customer. He knows you're rejecting his product, not him.

Okay, in my case I'm rejecting both, but I'd ne'er do that to an author. Neither will a publisher or an agent. All authors tell another authors not to take rejection personally, and yet we all do. Consider it a target to shoot for, then. Simply support submitting, and just support writing.

The better way to cope with waiting times is to "submit and forget," writing or redaction another stuff piece the time passes.

And finally, feel free to send an e-mail to me anytime. michaellarocca@yawweb.org. I'll lief share what I cognize with you, and it won't cost you a cent.

I would-be will you luck in your publication endeavors, but I cognize there's no luck involved. It's all skill and diligence.

Congratulations on complemental the course! No ceremonies, no degrees, and no diplomas. But on the bright side, no student loan to repay.

Best regards,

Michael LaRocca http://freereads.topcities.com/archive.html

About The Author

Michael was born in North Carolina, USA. He teaches English at a university in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, China. Five of his books were promulgated in 2002, and another is regular for publication in 2004. One of his novels is an EPPIE 2004 rival in the Thought category. One of his novels was an EPPIE 2002 rival in the Adventure story category. He’s besides won two Sime~Gen Readers Select Awards for nonfiction. He’s proud of the fact that he seldom writes in the same genre twice. He’s listed in the 1982 Who’s Who In American Writing, but that impresses him even as less than it impresses you. Archangel has worked as an editor for the past thirteen years. For ten years he was responsible for all the technical school manuals and sales literature make by an R&D firm. He besides wrote their website. Then he affected to China in 1999 and began redaction and reviewing fiction for several U.S. publishers via the Internet. He has been involved with the publication of about 200 novels. He besides works as a legal transcriptionist for a Hong Kong firm. Once he should be squeeze writing into his schedule, he is normally enjoying the institution of his married woman and their cat instead, or sweating through Chinese lessons. In Gregorian calendar month he finished obtaining his TEFL qualification, so possibly now he’ll find time to write. For more information just about Archangel and his books, visit his website at http://freereads.topcities.com which was listed in Writers Digest’s The 101 Better Websites For Writers in 2001 and 2002. His email address is michaellarocca@yawweb.org

This article was announce on May 05, 2004