Please Don’t Feed the Writer

It’s Been fun, but I have to announce that Please Don’t Feed The Writer will update no more forever.  My focus has long since shifted and other projects are far more demanding of my time than they used to be.  Anything writing related will be moving to the master site at www.jerrydrussell.com.  The content posted here will be revisited and those that I find appropriate will be freshened up and posted there as well.

For those with any interest, I’ve begun writing for Associated Content, and my articles can be seen here.

For my other works in progress, check out the following sites.

• Jerry D Russell dot com - Realistic methods for making money online
• Cooking… by the seat of my Pants! - Because cooking should be an adventure
• Frugal Fridays - The official home of the Frugal Fridays food event and more
• ADHDFamilies - News, insight and observations on family life and ADHD

It’s been fun.  Too bad I can’t salvage the theme used here, as I really am quite fond of it.  Please, feel free to browse around the archives, they’ll be here for a while.  As I update and move articles to the main site, you will magically be redirected to the proper place.

Have a great day, everyone!

Research is one of those things that you just have to get used to, especially if you’re in college.  Term papers always seem to be due before you’ve had enough time to prepare and even with the Internet finding the right pice of information on your topic can be a daunting task. Would it help if I told you I’ve found a better way to research those term papers?  Would it help if I told you it could save you hours, even days of searching for “just the right” fact or figure?  Am I ever going to stop sounding like a T.V. game show host?

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No, it’s not the name of a law firm, it’s the fundamentals of good journalism.  If you plan on writing any thype of journalistic article, you’ll need these questions need to be answered.  It’s a simple formula that has worked in journalism for a very, very long time, but that some reporters, especially on the Internet, seem to have forgotten.

Let me break the “Five W’s and an H” down for you.

Who: Who is the article about?  Is it a person, an institution, a government body?

What: What event are you covering?  What makes this newsworthy? What is the point of this article?

When: When did this event take place, or when will it take place? (In the old days of news, this would have been the dateline.) Without this little piece of information, the story is useless to the reader.
Where: Where did the event take place, or where will it take place?  Obviously, if you are reporting something happening in Hoboken New Jersey, it probably won’t have a lot of impact on someone in San Diego California, but may have significant impact on someone in New York.

Why: Why did this happen, or why is it taking place?  Knowing that it is happening loses a lot if it’s importance if you don’t know why it is happening.

How:  How did this event or these events take place?  How did they play out?  How was a problem resolved?

As you can see, these are pretty straightforward guidelines.  In journalism all of these questions should be answered as close to the beginning of the article as possible and it is recommended that they are answered in the first two paragraphs.

I’ll let you mull this over for a bit and come back later today with an example of a short article written in this format.  Until then,

Happy Writing!

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of writing going on around here lately, but if you think that’s because I haven’t been writing you would be terribly, horribly, incomprehensibly and emphatically wrong. The fact of the matter is that my daily writing totals have been running somewhere around 2,700 words by the time all is said and done at the end of the day.

If you’re wondering why I haven’t updated this little slice of the Internet pie while cranking out all those words I would have to point out that while writing about writing is an interesting sideline, it isn’t what brings home the bacon. Writing about food pays my bills, though there are other projects I’ve been devoting some pretty serious time to as well. Those projects are something that may be of use or interest to some of my readers, so I’ll get back to them when they are ready to unveil.

For now dear readers, I have a few updates I’d like to throw out over the course of the day, so stay tuned, there’s more coming!

Let’s face it, a lot of online book reviews are done by people who have absolutely no training in writing, let alone how to write a review.  If you’ve ever come across one of these reviews, you’ll know it.  I’ve personally seen reviews with a 4.5 star (out of five) rating, but to read the review you would think that the reviewer despised the story.

You really need to think these things through before you hit “publish”, don’t you?

I just had the responsibility of writing a review myself.  In doing so I stumbled on this article at Schoolastic by Rod Philbrick.  It is hands down the most informative I’ve ever read.  Give it a read, you’ll be glad you did!

Make no mistake, if you are writing for a living, even if it’s only for a small second income, you are running a business. Businesses thrive on organization. You wouldn’t be able to tell that I subscribe to that theory by looking at my desk right now, but a glance at any of my filing cabinets would tell the tale immediately.

The key to being able to react to changing circumstances in a timely fashion is having the ability to get the information you need without having to think twice about it. Digging through a stack of papers to find client information does nothing for your bottom line. It’s a waste of your time, and since your time is money, it’s a costly mistake.

One tool you should probably consider having in your arsenal is a label maker. I’m not talking about the old-time rotate-the-wheel-to-punch-a-tape variety, modern label makers can do a lot more than tell you which client folder you’re reaching for.

What would you say if I told you this one tool could help you with postage and printing? With just a few clicks of your mouse you have access to online stamps as well. Not too shabby, is it?

Each of these things can save you time. Saving time relates directly to your bottom line.  Dymo offers a slew of different USB ready solutions for both Mac and PC.  The question you need to ask yourself is this:

Can I afford not to be more productive?

If you are anything like the rest of us, that answer would be “No”.

go take a look at what Dymo can offer you, you’ll be glad you did.

A pitch is a letter or email sent to an editor for approval of a concept. Think of it as a sales tool designed to excite the editor enough to want to read the article you’ve been wanting to write.

Just mentioning “the pitch” has been known to send writers into the fetal position. Most writers absolutely abhor the idea of writing a pitch. Somewhere along the line writers have begun to think of the pitch as something complicated and almost magical. The reality that this is a simple, structured format that is extremely easy to create has been overshadowed by a need to over-analyze the concept, in turn causing the writer to turn something simple into a very daunting task.

It is time to allow the fear of the pitch to slip from your consciousness. There really isn’t anything more difficult about writing a pitch than there is about writing an article, a poem, a short story or a novel. If you can write any one of these things well enough to have it accepted then you have no need to fear writing a pitch. What you do need to do is actually write it. Once you’ve done a few the stress factor will wear off, I promise.

Now that I’ve covered that, let’s jump in and cover the mechanics of the query letter (or pitch.. They are one and the same.)

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Almost everyone who has ever attended college has had to apply for scholarships or grants at least once. If you have done so, you know that the most difficult part of the process is often finding grants or scholarships that you are qualified for out of the thousands of options available.

Scholarships.com can help ease the process of finding and applying for just the right packages. Their database is free to search and updated constantly to provide you with every option available. Why put off getting the assistance you need to further your education? The tools are available right now.

You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.  It’s your future, grab it by the horns!

Creating your own ebook need not be difficult. In fact, if you are perceived to be an expert or an authority in your field, then you can probably have an ebook ready for the “presses” within a week or so. This article will cover some of the topics you need to consider when you have actually decided to write your own ebook. The All important strategies of getting it noticed, then getting it to sell.

I could cover all of these topics myself but honestly, it’s been done before and by people who are making six-figure incomes doing just that (as opposed to my non-existent ebook income, because I discovered this information in the planning stages of doing just that.), so I’ll refer you to those articles and just dish the highlights here.

Alexis Dawes, an ebook author with an income that most of us only dream of gives some absolutely wonderful advice in her article titled “5 Short-Term strategies to Building Long-Term eBook Sales“. Her methods are concise and come from years of experience. Her action plan is simple on the surface:

• Always think “Is this an eBookable Topic?”
• Pick a passion and study it periodically
• Don’t hesitate to dictate
• Read a sales letter a day
• Build name recognition before you need to.

After each action plan, Alexis goes over the methods she used to achieve these actions, something most articles on this topic fail to cover well. I’m labeling this a s a must-read if you’ve thought about selling your own ebook, and these are methods that can help fiction authors as well as informational authors.

Bluedolphin Crow has a wonderful article for the more technical aspects of creating a marketing timeline for your ebook sales. In her article titled “Secret #2: Creating your Marketing Timeline for Success!“, Ms. Crow lets us in on her organizational methods and action plans:

… goals present and future, Action plans for today and tomorrow as well as next month, and last but definitely not least you have a sales tracker as well.

Having worked in Internet development for the past 20 years, I appreciate the fact that Ms. Crow is covering a topic that most people never approach, and I can tell at a glance that they are viable, I’ve used many of the same methods in promoting web properties over the years. They work.

In conclusion: If you are still wondering whether or not you can manage writing an ebook David Hallum, publisher of the eBook Catalog would like to “…Ask you a few” questions that might just help push you in the right direction. While possibly the least informative article listed here, it is thought provoking and the site has more information that you will undoubtedly find helpful.

you haven’t started writing your eBook yet? What are you waiting for? The only person losing out here is you…

You may or may not, but it’s something worth looking into, even if you are a freelancer working from home. Business Insurance is not necessarily just for brick and mortar establishments, and even if you have homeowner’s insurance or renters insurance it may not cover your business related expenses if the need should arise.

Depending on the country, state, county or province you live in, the rules on the types of coverage you need may be mandated by law, especially if you are considering incorporating. (If you’re freelancing in the US, you may want to consider that now that taxes for “hobby” incomes have just been raised to around 50%!) Corporate entities are usually required to hold some kind of insurance on property as well. If you are freelancing as a traditional “Mail In” manuscript writer, you might want to consider getting your own insurance on shipped items. It is your income after all.

In the end your best bet is to consult an insurance professional either over the Internet or in your area. They are trained to know what you need and most will be happy to assist you in getting the best rate possible. After all, that’s how they make their money.

If you write for an income, whether on the Internet or in print, you are in business. Treat your efforts like one and they will reward you in the end.