Word association for Writers

Hello everyone,

I am so excited about this week. We are in to August and getting ready for back to school. While I honestly hate the winters up here outside Toledo, Ohio...I do LOVE the fall. The air gets cool and bring with it the cravings of apple cider and donuts. These things just go together. I can't think of one without the other.

What do you think goes together?

For you is it summer that goes with family vacations? Maybe Spring with gardening.

There are some things I want you to look at that go together as well: Writing, marketing and helping other writers.

First, Writing and marketing. I have a good friend, Nora St. Laurent, who blogged this last week about a few different people you need to check out. Michelle Sutton is the Volunteer Officer of ACFW, author and the editor of a new online magazine. Next, Rebeca Seitz of Glass Roads PR on the same blog. This is a writer who is also a publicist. Finally, Nora also had David Gregory. If you like book reviews and author interviews I encourage you to check out her blog. Nora has a highly successful group of book clubs that she facilitates and is becoming something of a fiction expert. Click this link, and prepare to become addicted.

Next, Writing and Helping other writers. This is something near and dear to my heart. I truly believe that it is the role of each writer to support other writers. When I heard two days ago that Kristie Pratt wanted to help 3 people get to conference who didn't have the funds to get there, I was intrigued. She asked people to send $2 and within about 2 days she was 25% of the way to her goal. That is incredible. She only has until August 15th to get all the money raised so these people can go without the price increasing on them.

I sent her a contribution [more than $2] because I have received a scholarship before to attend conference. I know how they can refresh and encourage a writer. I'm asking all my writers to help with this fund. BUT I'm putting my money where my mouth is! Not only have I personally donated but I've also decided that I'm donating 1/2 of all the product sales from my website from now to August 14, 2008 will go to this. There is no special link needed. Nothing. Whatever I sell this week of my products, I'm going to give 1/2 of the RETAIL PRICE [not the profit only] to help. So if you'd like to donate, you can send Kristie a payment through paypal at kristinepratt@gmail.com or if you'd like to purchase a Writing Career Coach product [that includes the new college and homeschool products I added on the Homeschool page] then 1/2 of your purchase price will be sent to these writers.

So back to our word association game, I hope that when you begin to think about your own writing career that you think of diligent effort, effective marketing strategies and remembering where you came from so you can help others get to where you are.

Remember, marketing isn't about beating someone else-it's about being the best that YOU can be and running with that success.