E-publish and Be Damned

IN an article called ‘Kindle: How you can make a million writing your own e-book’, Andrew Wilson shares his ideas about e-publishing. I’m guessing there’s more to the amount of work he did than he’s letting on. While it’s wise to read the whole article, what I’ve done is to condense his words to get a gist of the whole thing:

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Step 1 – How to Start

Think about the type of book you want to write. Genre novels – particularly crime thrillers, fantasy, paranormal romance and chick-lit – seem particularly suited to the Kindle format. Experts say it is best to steer clear of literary fiction.

Read other people’s books. Look at the list of the top 20 titles and download those that look similar to your novel.

Consider the length of your novel. Many of the top sellers tend to be short, quick reads.

Proofread your novel for mistakes – pay a professional to vet your manuscript.

Step 2 – Judging a Book

A good cover is one of the most important secrets of e-book success.

DIY cover – in my novel The Gift Of Death, each of the key players in an old murder case receive macabre gifts.

Using my MacBook Pro (application called Photo Booth), I clicked on Effects and selected the X-Ray feature, which provides a kind of negative image. I enlisted the help of a couple of designer friends. I found an old gift box, wrapped a ribbon round it and then gave it to one of my friends to hold as they stood in front of a set of glass panelled doors.

When I was happy with the image, I sent the picture to my friend’s computer, and we played about with typefaces, fonts and colours until we were happy with the result. (Remember to follow Amazon’s technical guidelines regarding the cover image.)

I decided to add the ‘twisted gem’ quote from Kate Miciak at Bantam Delacorte, to give the book an extra boost. I then saved this image and uploaded it back on to my computer. The whole process – concept, photography and design – took something like two hours.

Chapter 3 – Uploading a Book

Before you upload your book, you need to write a description, which Amazon says can be anything between 30 and 4,000 characters (not words). This is your chance to really sell your work, so make the blurb pithy and compelling.

Amazon has provided a useful video and step-by-step guide (kdp.amazon.com), and the whole process of uploading it to the site was surprisingly straightforward.

If you are serious about self-publishing, it’s a good idea to also check out Smashwords (smashwords.com).

Chapter 4: Pricing

There are two royalty rates offered by Amazon – 70 per cent of the cover price if the book sells for between £1.49 and £6.99 and 35 per cent for titles priced at 75p. The overwhelming advice offered by the experts is to keep your price as low as possible.

Chapter 5: Creating a Brand

Once you’ve completed the uploading process by clicking the Save And Publish button, you’ll have to wait around 24 hours before your book is available for sale.

Build a backlist – in an ideal world, you would have a series of novels already written that you could offer your readers.

Promote the book on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, together with specialist ones such as Goodreads.com and Kindleboards.com.

Create your own website and blog creatively.  Post a series of short and infrequent blogs to your target audience. The idea is to attract readers to your website, where you can then engage them on an individual level until finally they begin to correspond by Twitter, Facebook and email. Locke calls this concept ‘loyalty transfer’, a technique that is the opposite of the hard sell.

‘One day I wrote the blog, the next day I was successful,’ he boasts. He ran a Twitter search for Penn State and found hundreds of people tweeting about a forthcoming game. He picked the first 100 and sent each one a direct message with the title of his blog and a link to it.

They in turn forwarded it to friends all over the world, many of whom clicked on Locke’s website and found his novels shared many similarities with his blog.

Traditional media are also good for spreading the word about your book – ask your local newspaper if they would be interested in running an interview with you. Word-of-mouth recommendation is the key to success.

Chapter 6 – In the Money

What are the chances of striking it rich?

Kindle owners are reading more – they now buy 3.3 times the number of books they purchased before owning the device. And, as volumes of Kindle owners increase, and assuming prices go up, someone over here will do it eventually.

Aneeta Sundararaj can be contacted at editor @ howtotellgreatstory.com

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Once upon a time, storytellers ruled

Once upon a time, as they were tucked into bed at night, children would look up dreamily at their mothers or fathers and say, “Tell me a story.”

And mothers and fathers would tell their children stories. Because they had stories to tell. Stories their parents had told them when they were children. Fairy tales they’d read in library books. Bible stories they’d heard their Sunday school teachers tell.

That was once upon a time. These days, not so much.

These days many parents would have no idea what to say or where to begin if their kids asked for a story. Lucky for them, most kids these days don’t know to ask.

The art of storytelling is not a dying art, but it’s not exactly thriving — yet another cultural deficiency we may attribute to the Great Glowing Box. TV has left children with the sense that stories are for seeing, not for listening.

“Storytelling is the oldest — and still the best — way we have of communicating to one another what being human is all about,” says Kansas-based storyteller Priscilla Howe. “For tens of thousands of years, storytelling has been the way we’ve come to understand the human experience.”

Howe says she started telling stories when she was 13 years old, on baby-sitting jobs.

“I’d lie on the end of the bed as the kids were settling down to sleep, and I’d just start with some character I’d invented or some fantastical idea, and away I went,” she says. “The kids got caught up in it, and so did I.”

Howe went on to earn a master’s degree in library science and then to a job as a children’s librarian.

“In 1988 I started telling stories to children at our library and realized that this might be a calling for me. In 1993 I decided to try making a living at it.”

Howe now tells stories at schools, libraries, festivals and community events throughout the Midwest and internationally. She says storytelling:

Reflects the world to children in a safe way.

Improves listening comprehension, a vital pre-reading skill.

Instills an appreciation for the beauty of oral language.

Introduces children to literature they may not be familiar with.

Introduces children to characters with whom they can relate.

Develops the ability to imagine, another skill necessary for reading comprehension.

Encourages and stimulates use of various learning styles (visual, aural, kinesthetic).

“The most satisfying thing about storytelling, and the most important thing that can come from it, is the connection that is formed between the storyteller and the listener, and between the listener and the other listeners,” Howe says. “In the 21st century there are all kinds of electronic and digital connections. Storytelling creates an in-person connection.”

TELLING THE TALE

Professional tale spinner Priscilla Howe has these tips for novice storytellers:

The Big Rule, Rule Numero Uno, the Most Important Thing: Love the story. If you don’t love the story, why should your listeners care?

You don’t have to know how the story ends: “Just start with something whimsical,” Howe says. “An outlandish situation or character and just go from there. For example ‘One day a long time ago, the Princess of Everybody and Everything came to Kansas City to visit her uncle. …'”

Ask your listener(s) for suggestions: Once you’ve introduced the characters and setting, ask your listener(s) to speculate as to what happens next. If you are uncertain where to go with the story, let your listener(s) ideas help you along.

Follow the rules of improvisation: “Say ‘yes’ to ideas that pop into your head,” Howe says. “Don’t screen them out. Go with the flow.”

If improvisation isn’t your strength, go with stories you already know: “Start with familiar fairy tales or Bible stories or old folk tales or ancient myths and legends,” Howe says. “You can tell them straight, or you can add your own twists. If it’s a story kids already know, they’ll try to correct you if you stray, but that’s part of the fun. You can make each story your own.” Online: www.priscillahowe.com

Article source: http://www.findarticles.com Copyright © 2003-2006 Knight Ridder. All rights reserved.

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On Writing: Visualize Your Writing Success

I was one of those children who know early on what they want to be “when they grow up.”

“I’m going to be a writer,” I told my parents. “I’m going to write books,” I said to my teacher. When they stopped laughing, I took my secret dream and buried it. But I did know who I was and who I was going to be, so finally I started writing despite the expectation of ridicule. I was 35.

Each time I wrote, I agonized over what to say. I fretted over the quality of my work, and felt inadequate even before the letter of rejection arrived. Six months or more would pass between one submitted piece and the next, while I tried to overcome the embarrassment and shame I felt at each rejection.

Ten years later, I make my living as a writer. I write something every day, and have a 75 percent acceptance rate for my queries, short stories and articles. I publish two ezines for other writers and have multiple books on food writing and writing for sale.

What happened in those ten years to change my writing process? Many things, but it wasn’t until recently that I started creating and selling my writing regularly. What did I do?

I visualized my writing success.

It sounds simple, but it’s hard to put into practice when you are filled with self-doubt. My first breakthrough came after reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. One step to personal fulfillment she suggests is writing “morning pages.” Start each day by sitting down with a notebook and pen. Write three pages of whatever comes out. Write without planning, editing or thinking. These three garbled pages are my data dump. I write about my many worries: the high price of gas, my weight, my cat’s limp, rejection letters, the snow storm on its way, losing my job, obnoxious people.

Once the three pages are done, I let go of the mundane and clear the way for the extraordinary to flow from my mind and my finger tips.

But that was only a start for me. It did clear away my insecurities but only temporarily. Throughout the day those self-doubts would sneak back. As I lay in bed each night I was haunted by my mistakes, my sloppy syntax, the very idea that I thought I could submit a short story to a writing contest, and why couldn’t I produce like the other writers I knew did.

I had to find something that would fill my mind and heart after the crud was written out each morning. I changed my evening ritual of worrying and self-recrimination to one of visualization and raising my “vibration.” I’ve had this explained to me two ways: we are all just energy and we can operate at a low vibration and negative energy, or at a high vibration and positive energy. Alternatively, we can raise our vibration and connect with God, the Source, the Divine or the Creator – choose your own name for it. The Creator is the place from where all creativity comes. I learned to tap into that feeling of joy and began to gratefully accept my gifts and talents.

Each evening before I fall asleep, I close my eyes and let myself be successful, productive and filled with joy. As I feel the joy, I experience a lightness and feel a buzzing around me. I let the feeling flow over me until I am operating at this level of vibration, awash in positive energy and feelings. My specific visualization changes based on the projects I’m working on. One night I might visualize myself walking into my office, smiling and energetic. I am thrilled at the ideas that flow from my center, and start researching markets to sell these articles to. I see myself writing winning query letters and manuscripts. I think about spending my paychecks on something special: flowers to plant, new hiking shoes for me and my husband, a donation to the food pantry.

After a few practice sessions, any writer can benefit from this tool by:
– Finding a quiet place.
– Thinking of the happiest moment in your life and allowing yourself to relive the happiness you felt at that time.
– Imagining yourself getting lighter. One way to do this is to visualize yourself in an elevator. Get in on the first floor, then move up, floor by floor until you notice a “buzzing” feeling.
– Once there, start the visualizations of your writing success. Remember the good, happy feeling. This is the feeling you want to continue throughout the day as you turn your visualizations into reality.

The next step is to create that positive feeling by talking to yourself about where you intend to be, not just tomorrow morning, but in a year from now: “I’m so happy that my new novel is being published this week. I thought the interview I gave last week was productive. My second novel is nearly finished.” Despite the fact that none of this has yet manifested, keep talking to yourself (or journaling) about it as if it is happening now. Truly see yourself in these positions – signing books, giving interviews on CNN, and preparing a second manuscript for your editor.

Keep practicing, knowing that you will find yourself writing and selling more. You will become more creative and better able to overcome the obstacles you’ve placed between you and your writing success. When you start to head down the “I’m a loser” road, stop yourself and redirect your feelings by beginning a new visualization about how wonderful your work is, and how many people have benefited from your writing.

For great, easy to understand teaching on positive feeling and raising vibrations, read “Excuse Me, Your Life is Waiting,” by Lynn Grabhorn.

Day by day, I am manifesting my dream. Since starting my visualization practice, I have begun writing every day. In fact, I often squeeze in extra writing throughout the day, enjoying the happiness that flows in and out of me as I write.

Pam White's work has been published widely on the internet and in ByLine, Writer's Digest, Low Carb Energy, Home Cooking, Back Home, Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine, Without a Clue, and Third Degree. Her website (www.food-writing.com ) is home to her food writing newsletter, book and online classes. She has launched a new ezine for parents who write, "The Writing Parent," at www.thewritingparent.net © 2006 Pamela White

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On Building Community Through Storytelling

When teachers and students meet each other they bring histories along. Acknowledging those histories – simply showing each other moments of our lives – helps everyone be more his or her true self. Conversely, keeping the secret of who we really are or even waiting, cautiously, to see how much of our true self is safe to expose, takes time and energy away from learning. If children are encouraged to honor who they are uniquely, they are more apt to honor each other. One way to share our uniquenesses while at the same time discovering similarities is STORYTELLING.

Consider the ideas and activities which helped me build a community of learners each year in my classroom for almost twenty years. Remember, you and your community are unique. Trust your instinct.

I didn’t do every activity or even make every assumption listed here every year. Each class’s young people taught me how to teach them. One activity’s success (or flop) determined what came next. I learned not to panic when something flopped. “If at first you don’t succeed?…..” Each group is unique. I’m convinced every group needs to tell its stories, but different groups demand different approaches.

Bottom line: Is what I am/we are doing fostering community?

Below are the activities we did, based on the assumptions I held.

Assumption: The teacher is human – has been afraid, has “flopped”, has had dreams, has been scolded – and yet still honors him/herself. There is value in risk-taking; learning comes from “flopping”.

Activity: Tell a story from your childhood, one in which you took a risk and “flopped” to some degree but also experienced the triumph of having risked and learned.

I tell the story of diving off the high diving board and doing three-quarters of a flip – ouch – but the triumph is I did it, my dad watched me and he applauded my effort. I tell another of trying to be the very quietest student in the kindergarten line because of the doctor’s visit to school. When I spoke, just once, out of necessity, I got in BIG trouble. The triumph was having a long talk with my mother about the way teachers don’t always get the whole story and deciding at age five that I would be a teacher who makes an effort to get the facts.

Assumption: Everyone experiences firsts. Firsts involve uncertainty. They are accompanied by a mixture of fear, excitement, bravado, panic, etc.

Activity: List possible big and small firsts. Tell one to a partner.

I warm students up by asking them to see themselves at various young ages when they experienced many firsts. I let the ideas come from the students’ memories. Some typical firsts: bike ride without training wheels, lost tooth, dentist visit, funeral, sleepover away from home, taste of unusual food, touchdown/homerun/dance recital/school play (any achievement), memorable birthday party, wedding, memory of fireworks, success at tying shoes, running away, getting caught, buying a present. Endless possiblilities. Model the way to bring details of a memory to life by telling your “first”; student stories will be richer in detail.

Note: Stories trigger stories. One student’s story of getting stitches brings out everyone else’s. This isn’t bad but it limits the wonderful variety that can emerge. Spend time with the possiblities and actually address the problem of hearing too many “accident” tales in a row.

Assumption: Regardless of what family or locale we come from, we share certain kinds of stories.

Activity: make a list of topics that many if not all humans have in common: memorable foods (the time Mama hid Grandma’s special cookies and the kids found and raided them); special clothing (buying the dress, hat and first pair of nylons I wore at age 13); hiding places (the time you retreated to the attic niche and the family called the police); money (you learned a lesson about the value of money the time when…); animals (the day the cat fell through a hole in the floorboards, the zoo lion that roared at you); eccentric relatives or neighbors (Mr. Stone’s precious rock garden). Other topics include camp, family gatherings, superstitions, building something, trips, family customs, holiday traditions, haircuts, treasured objects. What common story sources can you find.?

Note: Stories are a wonderful way to poke fun at our humanity. Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad tales are great examples of tales that satirize our idiosyncrasies. A good tale exposes our common frailties from greed to forgetfulness, gluttony to squeamishness. However stories can hurt people if making fun of someone is at the heart of a tale. Caution your community about that difference. Also family stories can reveal painful truths. I never say a story isn’t appropriate. What I say is that people have a right to privacy. We discuss confidentiality (which is not so much keeping a secret as keeping an important promise) and the respect that it is built upon. Some individuals or groups need more help with these concepts than others.

Assumption: The places of our lives contain memories of big and small moments of significance.

Activity: Draw a place you’ve spent lots of time and associate with memories.

Not a work of art – just a “sketch to remember”. Look into the room or landscape for bits of memory. The point is to recall happenings, not just draw scenes and objects. Look in basements or attics;. look at trees or objects in your yard or garage; recall a friend’s or relative’s house; draw the layout of a lake or pool where you swam or a playground you recall. When the teacher does a quick sketch of her own, she can gently discourage the art anxiety some children feel. Likewise, painstaking artful drawing slows down the memory retrieval. Use photos or treasured objects to inspire memory as well.

. Note: Be aware that telling personal stories (or any powerful tales) can bring up unresolved emotional hurts – for both adults and children. Grant sanctuary to all tears. That is, acknowledge that sharing history often means sharing pain. It’s okay. It’s healthy. It frees up your mind to be more imaginative. The community needs to be a safe haven for someone who exposes an old or new wound. When I work with unfamiliar students I lean toward tales of “triumph” vs. trauma. In your community, experiment with how to approach emotional issues.

Assumption: Within folktales, myths, literary stories, poetry, essays and songs (some of which have already been planted in us by grandparents, librarians and teachers) we find our histories literally and metaphorically.

Activity: Brainstorm the stories planted within. Talk stories, rhymes and songs to see how many you can remember even parts of. The more you talk, the more you’ll remember. Then explore the growing body of folktales, myths, children’s stories, songs and poetry available in books and on audio tapes.

Find plots and characters that speak to you.When you step into a story and make it your own you try on hidden aspects of yourself through its characters and events. Try telling stories in groups or pairs. (We performed five versions of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” and saw five interpretations of the tale. Groups can choral-tell a poem to see how interpretations differ too.)

Assumption: Folktales and myths of many cultures help us to see ways of looking at life and naming things different from our own. Folk literature, including myths and legends, is a wonderful resource for building community.

Activity: Explore one motif such as the youngest sister (brother), the magic pot, the character who says, “Let me in!”

Bibliography

Listed below you will find more of my writings and my favorite sources for help with storytelling. Have fun! “Finding Myself in My Stories” Language Arts, November, 1985.

• “Connecting To Language Through Story” Language Arts, October, 1987.
• “Storytelling – A Way to Look Deeper” English Journal, January, 1989.
• “Storytelling-In High School? Honestly.” by Marni Schwartz in Vital Signs a collection of teacher articles ed. by Jim Collins (Boyton/Cook Heinemann)
• “The Silences Between the Leaves” an article on poem-telling, in Workshop III ed. Nancie Atwell, Heinemann, 1990.
• “Building A Classroom Community Through Storytelling” by Marni Schwartz, Storytelling Magazine, the Journal of The National Storytelling Association, Jonesborough, TN 37659, July 94.
• “Drawing Out Teens’ Personal Tales” by Marni Gillard in HEARSAY: The Connecticut Storytelling Center Newsletter, June 1997 (CSC at Connecticut College, New London).
• Children Tell Stories by Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss (Great how-to book.) Richard Owen, Katonah, NY 1990.
• Children as Storytellers, Kerry Mallan (Australian teller helps students.) Heinemann 1992.
• The Boy Who Would Be a Helicopter, Vivian Gussin Paley (A kindergarten teacher uses children’s fantasy play for telling and writing. MARVELOUS!) Harvard Univ. Press 1990.
• And None of It was Nonsense by Betty Rosen (An innercity high school teacher storytells with teens.) Heinemann, 1989.
• When You’ve Made it Your Own… by Gregory A. Denman (A storyteller shares his love of poetry) Heinemann, 1988.
• Touch Magic by Jane Yolen (Wonderful essays on the use of folk literature in the language arts.) Putnam, 1981.
• Yellow Moon Press, Oryx Press, August House, Libraries Unlimited – publishers of great tapes and books about storytelling.

Marni Gillard, storyteller
833 Parkside Ave.,
Schenectady , NY 12309
(518) 381-9474
You can email Marni at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
http://www.storypower.com/gillard

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On Writing: Defeating Self-defeating Talk

I’ve been writing for ten years but it’s only been in the last year and a half that I’ve been selling to national magazines, earning larger checks, and creating my own writing business that both satisfies me and promotes my work.

What kicked off my writing success? I like to think of “her” as the final straw that broke my inner critic’s back.

I was hired to work in a testing center. There were two of us, working one day a week, watching candidates taking certification exams for their professions. Why did I want the job? As I told the woman who hired me, “I’m a writer. I need a steady paycheck for the times when the writing dries up.” And at that time the writing seemed to be drying up…inside of me.

I liked the job just fine, but my co-worker was another story. After a few months she began ridiculing me, telling me that I wasn’t a writer and had never sold any of my work. I pointed out my weekly newspaper column. I argued with her, listing the magazines I’d just been published in. I told her how I was starting a newsletter online. She laughed. She called me a liar. She told me I was a terrible writer.

And I denied all that she said.

How did this help me? I’d always told myself the exact things she was now saying to me: “You’re no writer! This essay is terrible. Give it up. You’ll never make it.” But where I couldn’t argue with my inner critic, I found the voice to protect against and to defend myself to my co-worker. Here, sitting across the office from me, was my inner critic personified. It was an incredible opportunity for me to face down my own insecurities as I refused my co-worker any power over me.

Despite her predictions of doom, I built a website and started a newsletter. She countered by doing the same and telling me how much better hers was. I liked her website. It was cute and fun. I told her so.

It didn’t appease her. She critiqued each of my newsletters as they arrived in her email box. I told her that her newsletters were funny and wished her well. Still, it was knowing that she was watching me and hoping for my failure that kept me on schedule. This newfound dedication to my writing career — a direct result of my co-worker’s negative comments — attracted advertisers for my newsletter, and editors who asked me to write for them.

My co-worker’s anger increased as she fell behind in her planned publication schedule. Her language deteriorated and the day she threatened to get me fired, using a smattering of obscenities, I quit. It was time to leave anyway. Suddenly I found myself with several writing students and felt pretty sure that the writing wasn’t going to dry up any time soon.

I kept publishing my newsletter and chatting on my discussion list. I was doing well but was hired for a regular, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. job…..as a writer! What a coup. I wrote about this in my newsletter. Within 12 hours of sending that out, two Yahoo! ID’s created that very day joined my discussion list and sent messages raging on me and my lack of talent. They both claimed to have been scammed by me for hundreds of dollars. They gave my address and phone number and promised to post messages all over the internet. I felt sick and my inner critic had a few good hours of beating me down.

Then I grew strong.

It only took a Google search to find a program that would trace the IP of the sender. Sure enough, it was my former co-worker. I banned her from my list and sent a message telling her to stop, or else. She stopped…for a while. But by the time she’d come back, I had more students, more published clips, and a new book underway. Standing up to her had taught me how to stand up to myself, to refuse to cave into that part of me that told me I was a loser.

Every once in a while she still posts, but lately it’s been questions about why I haven’t done something. Recently she wrote to ask why I haven’t written that new class I talk about on my website. Hmm, I thought, why haven’t I written the new class? So, not only did I write the new class, I sent a thank you to her newest alter ego. “When you wrote me that note asking when the cookbook writing class would be ready, I decided I had to get moving on it. I researched, wrote and interviewed, and am busy writing the lessons right now. I have two students signed up for the first session already, and I have you to thank for that.”

Not surprisingly, she didn’t sign up for the class.

I can’t wait until she writes me again. I could use the push to finish my novel.

About the Author: Pamela White has been published in Writer's Digest, ByLine Magazine, Home Cooking, Back Home, Low Carb Energy, Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine, Without a Clue, Third Degree, and multiple online periodicals. Her website – www.food-writing.com – is home to her food writing newsletter, book and online classes. Sign up for her newest ezine: "The Writing Parent" at www.thewritingparent.net.

© 2006 Pamela White

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On-line Education an information explosion article

If there is one revolution that has swept the world in a relatively short span of time, it is certainly Internet Revolution. Internet has rejuvenated many sectors such as Service, Manufacturing, Health-care, Education and a lot more. In more than one way, the emergence of Internet in Education sector has paved way for making huge profits and stands as a clear winner in this game of bandwidth connectivity.

On-line education for instance is increasingly attracting the students segment across the world. Some thirty years back, the students had to seek admissions in schools and colleges. Today, the penetration of Internet has created a platform to these students to study at home or at places convenient to them. In fact, some of the on-line educational institutions offer courses at affordable fees. The flexibility is in your time and place. Students can elsewhere work during the day and spend the night doing the courses on-line.

An exciting feature in this type of on-line education is that many diploma and degree courses are offered to all categories of people cutting across linguistic, locational and age barriers. For instance, a student can spend five hours a day, a father three hours and a typical executive who is confined to the office premises working for an organization during the day
can spend his leisurely night doing the course.

The onslaught of Internet explosion has only increased the demand for more on-line educational programmes. Two typical advantages of going online is that fast-paced results and instant feedback (response to a query) take you through and groups of people instantly start interacting with one another to exchange views. Today, the best investment is knowledge.

Literacy, for instance, has an impact on the on-line education programmes. In rural areas, the local communities primarily consisting of farmers in villages and small townships play a vital role in the development of on-line education. Special tailor-made programmes are offered to suit the needs and demands of local communities. The knowledge base is so widened that information gathering is just happening with a click of a mouse.

The on-line explosion has the following unique features:

1. Most of the online programmes provide necessary tools and resources on-line and therefore, cost per programme is minimized.

2. You can do a course in six months, 12 months or the duration of your own choice. Courses are adapted to suit your own choice.

3. All these can be done from your office or at home or anywhere around the world. People who often travel will find it extremely convenient because it is just done from your own comfort zone.

4. Knowledge sharing is another vital feature in this information age. The disseminated information passes through various gateways keeping you updated at each stage about the happenings around the community.

R. Balaji works for a leading newspaper company in New Delhi. He regularly writes artciles and stories. He can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Objectivity and Writing – Or – How An Author Disappears From View

There’s a profound difference between a preacher and a commentator, a politician and a journalist, a spin doctor and a critic. And what is that?

One word. Agenda.

The main reason why we don’t always trust preachers, politicians and spin doctors is not that they lie – though clearly they sometimes do – it’s just that they generally only give us one side of the truth. The truth as they see it. In effect, their agenda dictates the message.

A preacher will tell you only he has the facts – and you’d better listen to him or watch out…

A politician may want you to believe his version of the state of the economy – so he will deliberately withhold contrary facts, distort any opposing argument and/or belittle his detractors – sound familiar?

The modern spin doctor will point out benefits to seemingly bad events, or minimize the impact of bad news by diverting your attention to something else. All very clever – but is it right?

If we’re paying attention, we should be able to see these people’s agendas at work – and choose to either ignore what they say, take them with a pinch of salt – or perhaps agree, because they reflects our own agendas.

But what about these opposing views? Don’t they need a fair hearing too?

If we (as consumers) are to make wise decisions based on the facts, we surely need to be able to see a situation from all angles, to appreciate all factors in order to view things with objectivity. Because only from wise decisions can our lives be enriched.

As a writer, and therefore as a purveyor of truth, you need to be fair and objective. You mustn’t hide from the truth, or try to negate certain facts or play any cheap tricks with words. Even in fiction.

The way to do this is to, as far as possible, ‘remove’ yourself from the writing. A reader should not be constantly aware that there is an author trying to tell him something. You do this by effectively ‘hiding’ your opinions and your agendas from the reader.

If you have a character with a particular agenda, it’s important you have the opposing view outlined somewhere else in your text. It’s not your job to force one view of the world on to readers. You must gain their trust and you can only do that by being seen to be objective. Start to preach and you’ll lose the reader, I guarantee it!

A good piece of writing will be a measured argument. It will contain both sides of a debate. When you choose a theme for your story, make sure you’re going to show both sides of the issue. Your eventual story resolution may imply a certain truth but you should not overtly suggest that it is the only truth – or that you have some kind of monopoly on it!

As a serious writer, it is your job to speak with authority – to imply that you have a kind of omniscient wisdom – that you see all, present all but without judgment – and that you are leaving the ultimate decisions about what’s right and wrong to your reader.

For example, in an article for a magazine, the best way to speak with authority is to leave your more extreme opinions – and your agendas – out of the piece. For example if you are presenting an article recommending store items or different products, you can’t be seen to favor just one – you will then be accused of having a vested interest – or receiving some kick back.

The same applies to fiction. You cannot be seen to favor one character’s viewpoint to the exclusion of all others.

I guess what I’m talking about is balance. On a simplistic level, where you have bad guys, you need heroes. Where there is evil behavior, you need salvation. Where there is war and despair, you need hope.

On a practical level, where you have characters that espouse extreme views, you need other characters that endorse contrary views, so that you don’t get accused of using your writing as platform for sermonizing.

As far as you can, strive for balance in your writing. Whenever you feel tempted to make an issue of one of your own personal agendas, think it through – try to imagine and incorporate the opposing view.

I think you’ll find your writing will be stronger for it.

Of course, the one exception – where you’re ‘allowed’ to express biased opinions – is advertising. In fact, it’s where all the rules of good objective writing are often deliberately broken.

But that’s for another article – to come later no doubt!

This article is written by Rob Parnell. Visit his website at www.easywaytowrite.com

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Objectivity and Writing – Or – How An Author Disappears From View

There’s a profound difference between a preacher and a commentator, a politician and a journalist, a spin doctor and a critic. And what is that?

One word. Agenda.

The main reason why we don’t always trust preachers, politicians and spin doctors is not that they lie – though clearly they sometimes do – it’s just that they generally only give us one side of the truth. The truth as they see it. In effect, their agenda dictates the message.

A preacher will tell you only he has the facts – and you’d better listen to him or watch out…

A politician may want you to believe his version of the state of the economy – so he will deliberately withhold contrary facts, distort any opposing argument and/or belittle his detractors – sound familiar?

The modern spin doctor will point out benefits to seemingly bad events, or minimize the impact of bad news by diverting your attention to something else. All very clever – but is it right?

If we’re paying attention, we should be able to see these people’s agendas at work – and choose to either ignore what they say, take them with a pinch of salt – or perhaps agree, because they reflects our own agendas.

But what about these opposing views? Don’t they need a fair hearing too?

If we (as consumers) are to make wise decisions based on the facts, we surely need to be able to see a situation from all angles, to appreciate all factors in order to view things with objectivity. Because only from wise decisions can our lives be enriched.

As a writer, and therefore as a purveyor of truth, you need to be fair and objective. You mustn’t hide from the truth, or try to negate certain facts or play any cheap tricks with words. Even in fiction.

The way to do this is to, as far as possible, ‘remove’ yourself from the writing. A reader should not be constantly aware that there is an author trying to tell him something. You do this by effectively ‘hiding’ your opinions and your agendas from the reader.

If you have a character with a particular agenda, it’s important you have the opposing view outlined somewhere else in your text. It’s not your job to force one view of the world on to readers. You must gain their trust and you can only do that by being seen to be objective. Start to preach and you’ll lose the reader, I guarantee it!

A good piece of writing will be a measured argument. It will contain both sides of a debate. When you choose a theme for your story, make sure you’re going to show both sides of the issue. Your eventual story resolution may imply a certain truth but you should not overtly suggest that it is the only truth – or that you have some kind of monopoly on it!

As a serious writer, it is your job to speak with authority – to imply that you have a kind of omniscient wisdom – that you see all, present all but without judgment – and that you are leaving the ultimate decisions about what’s right and wrong to your reader.

For example, in an article for a magazine, the best way to speak with authority is to leave your more extreme opinions – and your agendas – out of the piece. For example if you are presenting an article recommending store items or different products, you can’t be seen to favor just one – you will then be accused of having a vested interest – or receiving some kick back.

The same applies to fiction. You cannot be seen to favor one character’s viewpoint to the exclusion of all others.

I guess what I’m talking about is balance. On a simplistic level, where you have bad guys, you need heroes. Where there is evil behavior, you need salvation. Where there is war and despair, you need hope.

On a practical level, where you have characters that espouse extreme views, you need other characters that endorse contrary views, so that you don’t get accused of using your writing as platform for sermonizing.

As far as you can, strive for balance in your writing. Whenever you feel tempted to make an issue of one of your own personal agendas, think it through – try to imagine and incorporate the opposing view.

I think you’ll find your writing will be stronger for it.

Of course, the one exception – where you’re ‘allowed’ to express biased opinions – is advertising. In fact, it’s where all the rules of good objective writing are often deliberately broken.

But that’s for another article – to come later no doubt!

About Shery: Shery is the creator of WriteSparks!™- a software that generates over 10 *million* Story Sparkers for Writers. Download WriteSparks!™ Lite for free at http://writesparks.com

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It’s My First Time; Please Be Gentle

It was my very first assignment, and, as far as first assignments go, I was spoiled. This was a good, national market—Link Magazine, to be precise. Link was a free magazine distributed in college dorms all across America. They also had their own television station. It was an impressive outfit.

So, I got the call one fine afternoon.

“Hi, Jenna. This is Torey at Link Magazine, and I wanted to talk about your query.”

Of course I knew what he was talking about. I only had one query. It was the only idea I’d ever had for a magazine article; a profile of three of my college buddies who had started their own Internet Service Provider. This was many years ago, when web-based businesses were still novel and interesting things to talk about.

Anyway, he called to tell me I got the assignment, but it would only be a very short piece—around 300 words. They could pay 50 cents a word, he said in an apologetic tone. I pretended to be cool, but I didn’t even think about negotiating. I was just waiting for him to glance over my query again, notice I didn’t mention anything about my experience, and realize I was an amateur. A creditless loser. I rushed him off the phone, really, just hoping I’d get through the conversation without him ever asking anything about my background. I succeeded.

Although I had two weeks to submit the article, I thought it would look very professional if I could show that I was the World’s Fastest Writer. He had told me he would send me a sample copy of the magazine, but I didn’t have time to wait for that. This was my first real assignment, for goodness sake! I had to work on it NOW.

I called my friends, and conducted about 6 hours worth of long distance phone interviews, jotting down every word in longhand. (I thought it would have been rude of me to mention my expenses, so I sucked up the phone bill.) I summoned all my knowledge about journalists, which I’d derived from watching movies, of course. Journalists were thorough, and detailed, and they got the scoop behind the scoop. So I dug deep; I asked really obscure questions about their parents and their childhood dreams, in addition to all the relevant ones about college and work.

Then I ran straight to the computer and wrote my first draft. It clocked in around 2,000 words. I had to cut only 1,700 of them.

And cut them, I did. I only kept the very big, fancy words. I made sure every word was impressive and collegiate and writerly. I tried to cram everything I ever knew about these three guys into four paragraphs. I stayed up all night with a thesaurus, editing and tweaking until I was sure this was the most intelligent 300-word profile ever written. And I emailed it straight to the editor.

“Hi,” he said on the phone the next day. “Um, there’s a little problem with what you’ve submitted. It sounds like a press release, and it’s not funny. Link is funny. And irreverent. And… you’ve never read the magazine, have you?”

“Well, no,” I admitted.

“Why don’t you just wait until you see the sample issue, and then see if you can pick up the style”

“Okay,” I agreed, down but not beaten.

It was absolute torture waiting the next three days, my typing fingers paralyzed while I waited for the magazine to appear in the mailbox. When it finally did arrive, I read it cover to cover, studying it like the Bible. It was the first time I’d ever really learned anything about the business I’d just entered.

I had assumed I’d be a great writer in any form, mostly because I’d aced all of my English courses in college. People paid me to help them with their term papers. Surely, that’s the kind of writer who editors would want to hire… right?

I couldn’t have been more wrong. This magazine was informal, quirky, entertaining. It read like a conversation among friends, rather than a Shakespearean analysis. I had just assumed I must know how to write for magazines after reading them for so many years. I knew Link was a college magazine, and I had read college magazines (they were fruity and talked about goofy things like studying and glee clubs and “just saying no”). So I figured I knew what this market was about. When I got their magazine, I started thinking about how much variation there is within any market. In women’s mags, there’s matronly Good Housekeeping, and there’s skin-deep Vogue. In smut, there’s classy Playboy, and then there’s anything involving the letters “DD.”
This wake-up call made me realize I had just been a passive reader; I’d never studied my craft. I never paid any attention to the styles, structure, and tone of magazine articles.

I rewrote that piece; gave it a wacky title, a clever hook, and short, punchy sentences. The editor absolutely loved it. He loved it enough to stay in touch with me, even when he left the magazine and moved on to other markets. He loved it enough to recommend me to the publisher of the magazine when they needed an editor-in-chief for an off-shoot magazine several years later. In penance, I learned how to study a market before I submitted queries, let alone finished assignment.

I don’t think he ever knew that was my first assignment, and I don’t think he remembers that awful first draft I submitted. But today, I’m so thankful that my first experience was with an editor who was patient and kind enough to give an overeager amateur a second chance to make her first impression.

Jenna Glatzer is the editor-in-chief of Absolute Write (www.absolutewrite.com), where writers can get a free list of more than 180 agents who are open to new writers! She is also the author of OUTWITTING WRITER'S BLOCK AND OTHER PROBLEMS OF THE PEN and other books for writers, which you can read about at http://www.absolutewrite.com/jenna/books.htm if you want to make her day.

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