Caitie's Corner: Book Review

Since there are so many of you who are new I'd like to introduce Caitie's Corner. My 9 year old daughter LOVES to read. She was doing weekly book reviews but reading a book a week with her studies and theater got overwhelming. Caitie will now return with reviews of books...but a little less frequently.

Morning Glory

By Katy Pistole

Hi, it's me, Caitie again.

Sorry about the last few weeks. This is the 4th book after the Palomino, Stolen Gold and Flying High.


One night Sunny is in Labor! The Foal was stuck! A few hours later Glory was born.

Sunny nearly DIED giving birth to Glory. On the way back to Jenny's home they see Vanessa driving the car next to them. Then about 30 minutes later they see a Tornado!

Vanessa gets cut above the knee. Then lots of other exciting things happen.

In the end, Jenny learns to love her enemies.

It's a good book. Read it.

That's all. Bye for now, Caitie.

Saving time and winning awards

Happy Monday

I'm sure some of you are wondering where I was this weekend. Sorry, I had problems getting online to post the interviews. I'll post it later tonight so you get a chance to see two postings today.

Today I'd like to share with you a way to help you save time reading blogs...by not reading them.

My husband ran across this great website "PimpMyNews". What this website does is use audio software to convert blogs in to audio files. It sounds a little robotic but I think it's great. Now I can listen to up to 10 blogs every day while I'm making lunch for my kids, cleaning off my desk, or driving in the car [by downloading it on my iPod]. This is a GREAT time saver.

In an effort to keep you guys updated quickly with great content I requested that they add my blog. I'm happy to announce Writing Career Coach has recently been added to their list of blogs you can listen to. Click the link below to try it out. And please, spread the word. This is a great time saving device and I hope many people will use it to learn from the blogosphere.

http://www.pimpmynews.com/SearchStories.aspx?searchterm=Writing%20Career%20Coach

I have two contests to announce. First, is the ACFW Genesis Contest. I am a judge in this contest so I know the amount of care that goes in to judging submissions. The contest is open to unpublished authors who are members of ACFW [you may join when you register your entry]. The fee is $35 but the best part is judges leave comments on your writing.

Here is the link: http://www.ACFW.com/genesis/

This is CBA [Christian Booksellers Association] so it reflects a Christian Worldview as well as no gratuitous gore, foul language, or open sex. CBA is one of the largest growing segments of publishing currently [at least that's been the trend over the last couple of years]. Many CBA houses are being purchased by mainstream publishing houses because of this. So you get high callibur judges to read through your work and help you see how to improve your Novel writing.

I also know some of you are already published [for both royalty and subsidy publishers]. For those of you who are self published I was just made aware of this contest:

http://links.mkt230.com/ctt?kn=1&m=815678&r=MjIwNDU5MTM1NQS2&b=0&j=NDQ1MDk1NjcS1&mt=1

I hope this will help you grow as a writer. We don't spend a great deal of time here talking about craft but none of this makes any sense if you don't have the craft to write a great book.

I have been feverishly working to get the mentorship website up. I hoped to go live tomorrow but I don't think I'll be able to do it AND eat, shower and sleep. :-)

So, if you'd like to be among the first to know about my new mentorship [and receive a special link that offers the first month at 60% off for you and anyone you'd like to share it with] be SURE you've subscribed to get this blog emailed to you. Here is the link: Subscribe to my blog: http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=267268

No matter when the website goes live my subscribers will hear first, those who visit my blog will find out the Tuesday AFTER the unveiling.

Oh, I am SOOO excited. Now, on with the story.


HIGH 17

So I turned 30, sent off my first requested full, and began living the writer's life.

How could it be better? Everyone I knew had read this story and said it was the best thing I'd ever written. It had flowed through my fingertips. It was meant to be.

Then it was March...My husband had just finished his 6th [and final] round of Chemo. [He had some really rough chemo. We called it Drano.] For some reason on this round he hadn't bounced back yet, even though it had been more than a week.

Then he developed a fever. This was worse. He was over 101 so I called the oncologist. He told me not to panic but to get Chris to the ER.

Just before we'd called the doc I had been introduced to the next phase of the writer's experience: Rejection of a completed Manuscript.

Thankfully since the doctor called only moments after getting the rejection I didn't have time to wallow in it.

We got Chris to the ER and found out he had pneumonia. He was able to go home with strong antibiotics and all was well.

Thankfully the worst of our cancer battle was behind us.

On my writing I wrote up a query and submitted it to a second publishing house.

But already the next book was starting...It would be the next major jump on my path to publication.

Check this out

Hello and happy Friday.

I got this blog carnival in the mail today and thought it might bless you to see a list of blogs to help you drive traffic to your site.

http://webfreebies4u.blogspot.com/2008/01/welcome-to-january-25-2008-edition-of.html

Tomorrow we will have a special Saturday edition of the blog with a book review of Katy Pistole's third book [reviewed by my 9 year old reader, Caitie] and we'll have an author interview. See you then.

See you tomorrow, Tiffany Colter

"Successful publication about getting word out." According to new blog

Seems like an odd name for a blog, doesn't it?

I did that on purpose. That's because today we aren't talking about blogs; we're talking about Press Releases.

Have you ever seen a press release? Do you know how to do one? These are questions that can be answered, to a certain extent, at www.PRWeb.com

Go to this website, http://prweb.com/writing_release.php and follow the free online tutorial to help you craft your press release. Also, look around this website with an eye for marketing.

1. How does this website cause repeat business [look for changing content]
2. How do they get traffic to the site? [Offer helpful service to both sides, writer and editors.]
3. It's not a blog but content is still free and useful. [They do sell a service but look at what I had you link to. Meaningful content to help you with press releases. Don't you think you'll return if you need to do a press release? It is likely.]
4. It's free to sign up [but the service has a fee]. This allows them to get in contact with you to share special offers.

How can you implement one or more of these features in your own marketing? Depending on how a person uses them, press releases can be very helpful, or a waste of time. Likely your publicist at your publishing house will help with the press release but do you have something to say now? Something that is valuable to your community? Take 30 minutes and learn a bit about how these can help.

Now, HIGH 16

I told you yesterday they'd requested my Full MS [manuscript] but if you were following closely you'll realize I'd only written those 40 pages. Now I had an editor wanting to see an entire Manuscript. I remember it was a Tuesday night-and two days before my 30th birthday. Happy Birthday to me!!

We were preparing for Chris' next round of Chemo [which would also be on my 30th birthday]. The story was a wonderful distraction from all that was happening. I couldn't write until after Chris' treatment but when the kids were gone I planned on moving quickly through the story.

On Thursday night, after the kids had left, I sat down to write. The story was moving along but my brain was moving faster than my hands. I was thinking about scenes that would occur for 50 pages.

It caused brain freeze.

I stared at the computer feeling my one chance to be published was fading away. I couldn't get control over these characters. I sat my laptop aside and grabbed my notebook. I started writing one sentence summaries of each scene on my notebook. I scribbled for hours. When I was done I had 12 pages of notebook paper front and back with sentences like:

"She meets him in town. He is handsome. Leaves quickly and asks pharmacist about who was in recently. She's still not certain Mr. Colewick's death accidental."

The cryptic little sentences were enough to job my memory later. However, I still had to get the book written. And all I had was 12 pages of "scene sentences". I didn't know it yet but I had created something that would completely revolutionize my writing.

I started writing scenes based on my notes. I was amazed how quickly the scenes were flooding out of me. Then I could double back and add red herrings or bits of foreshadowing since every scene was numbered on my paper.

The story was flooding out of me.

I had it written and edited and off in 20 calendar days. And I hadn't had time to write every single day.

I sent it off, ready for my Published career to begin.

Focus on one point

Focus

There are many ways to use this word but they all come down to one need. Consistently moving towards a set point.

In your writing business you need to focus on your ultimate goal. By doing that you can separate what is necessary and what are distractions. One of my first goals this year was to double my subscriptions in the first 90 days of 2008 and release my first product before the end of January. Along with that I had the NF collaboration, my fiction writing, and my coaching. Those are just the writing related tasks. I focused on this blog daily. I wanted to consistently provide useful content. And by January 18th I was only 2 people away from doubling my subscriptions. My Writing Career Coach product is still on target to be released in January. The delay has been a result of all the content that is going in to it. There are four sections with 4-8 topics in each section. I'm only through about 1/2 of the topics and I have 19 single spaced pages of information.

So how do you maintain focus. With all you have to do. You need to have a business plan. Where do you want to be in 90 days [the writing industry can be slow so it's best to put goals you can control (like # of queries) at the beginning of that 90 days and a realistic result to be accomplished by the end of those 90 days]. Have you put it somewhere you can see it?

In one of Robert Kiyosaki's books in his Rich Dad, Poor Dad series he says Focus stands for:

F-Focus
O-on
C-Course
U-Until
S-Successful

Everything you do should be through this prism. But first you need to know what that course is. You also need to have a quantitative measure of success. That is why I have goals I can control [Edit two MS, rewrite 1 MS, and write 1 new MS]. I can do that by setting out specific goals. So what are your writing goals. While having a goal to read one book on writing is fine, you need to also do some writing.

You will likely have two or three courses running simultaneously. You'll have your parenting course. You'll have your professional course and you'll have your business course. On each one you'll have one target to focus on to become successful. What is that for you? What is your mark of success?

Check this link out. Here is someone who is taking action to move forward by first changing how they look at things and working in the new reality rather than simply complaining that it is unfair:
http://diaryofanovel.blogspot.com/2008/01/one-part-writing-three-parts.html

And now, I am in the process of redoing my WritingCareerCoach.com website. I'd like to add comments from people who have learned from my blog or my course. So please, if you'd like to be quoted [I will link back to your blog or website as well] email me at Tiffany@WritingCareerCoach.com and put Endorsement in the subject line. Write a few sentences [I'll have to edit for brevity] and put a note at the bottom that says I have permission to use your comment on my blog or websites.

Later this week we have a book review and an author interview. I hope you'll enjoy that but for today we'll pick up on HIGH.

HIGH 16

My initial thought when I heard "tumor" was a fatty mass or something in his leg. I wasn't worried at all. However, by the end of the day the reality was sinking in. We had two doctor friends and they, along with an internet search, told us we were looking at cancer.

On November 17, 2005 [our oldest daughter's 7th birthday] we were told that it was likely an extremely rare and very aggressive cancer. Osteosarcoma. Thankfully the doctor who wrote the protocols for treatment of this cancer was 30 minutes away. It would mean removal of his femur, and possibly his entire leg. It had grown quickly from imperceivable on X-rays in mid-July, to over 4 inches in length and filling the bone marrow by early November.

After a whirlwind of doctors and specialists the biopsy was done Dec 5th. It took ten days for the biopsy to come back. Lymphoma. What a relief. While it was still cancer Chris would keep his leg and he could see the local oncologist. Chris' Chemo began January 4, 2006 [yes, it took 2 months to begin treatment]. Chris would have 6 rounds then radiation.

It was rough seeing him go through that first round. Thankfully friends and family stepped up and took our kids for the 4 days following each treatment. Our kids were 7, 6, 5, and 2 when he started treatment. Chris was 29.

It was after the second round of chemo that the writing portion of this story picks up again. Chris was sleeping. The kids were gone. I couldn't turn on the TV or Radio. Everything was silent.

"Don't go to the holler."

I heard the thick southern drawl in my head as clearly as I would if the person was next to me. I suddenly could see this beautiful wooded land like on the OH/KY/WV border. I typed as quickly as my fingers could fly. By the end of the weekend I had over 40 pages done. I emailed it to a publishing line that I knew was looking for electronic submissions.

12 days later I got an email.

Your story looks good. Can you send us the full MS?

More Free Advertising

It's a snowy Tuesday in NW Ohio. Temperatures in the teens with wind chills below that. I'd love to say it's toasty warm here but my desk is right next to the cold air return so it can get a bit chilly here.

I'd like to continue a bit on Free Advertising. I was checking out other blogs today [as I usually do] and Randy Ingermanson [Advanced Fiction Writing] has a bit about websites today. He knows his stuff so you should go check out what he has to say about domain hosting as well as getting your own website.

http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/blog/2008/01/21/questions-on-web-domains/

Chip MacGregor also had some great advice about becoming an professional writer that you should check out. The name of the blog is "State of Confusion" and it's from January 20, 2008. His blog address is www.ChipMacGregor.com

Now, ways to get free advertising.

I've shared that traditional advertising isn't always the most effective form BUT it can be useful. One way I've been able to get free advertising with a local publication [as well as online publications] is to write an article in exchange for a free ad. Sometimes this is a good idea. You get a by-line as well as an advertisement in their paper. Your article shows that you're a professional [at least, that is the perception by many] and then when they see the advertisement for your website or product it can drive traffic, even if they're only curious.

My step-mom did this. She works as an interior designer [or is it decorator, I always forget the difference]. She started writing articles for a local magazine that talked about real estate. She was a little TOO effective because she found people stopping in to the store she worked at just to meet her and say they loved her article. That would be GREAT except that would take "her up" [which meant her turn to talk to a walk-in customer]. When business got really slow she may have only got 1 or 2 ups a day. When those were taken by fans it didn't have the desired effect.

But imagine if your advertising sent one or two curious people a week to your blog or website, do you have a system in place to capture them? Will you be able to make them regular customers? [By customers I don't always mean they buy something. I consider all of you customers of my blog.] Are you providing a service that is helpful enough that a person will come back regularly. If yes, how can you make it better? If not, how can you make it better?

There are also other forms of free advertising that we haven't discussed. There is public speaking as well as radio interviews. Now, before you go running off calling radio stations you need to learn HOW to approach them. I have a connection in the radio industry that I can contact. How much interest is there for this? Let me know.

Oh, and if you're a casual reader and haven't yet signed up through feedblitz to get my blog do that today. I will soon be launching my mentorship program and I'll email a discount link the day before the new site opens to every person on my subscriber list. I'd encourage your to tell your writing friends about this blog in preparation for the big announcement. They can sign up to get the blog delivered to them directly by simply clicking this link: http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=267268

Now, HIGH 15

Thank you for your patience on picking this back up. On Friday I told you I was about to enter a bumpy road. It was June 2004 when I didn't win the writing contest and I was crushed. I was even more devastated than I had been when my teacher gave me a 'D' on my story. I had worked so long and hard for this and I had nothing to show for it.

I continued to write articles for the local paper, and enjoyed that, but beyond that I had given up on writing. No more characters chattering in my head. I focused on submitting queries to various magazines and collecting more pages for my "fan mail binder" [which held all my rejection letters]. In August of that year we began the process to adopt a deaf 4 year old girl from Siberia, Russia.

From that point on my time was filled with paperwork, documents, notaries, and paperwork. My writing had to be completely put aside. I continued to write the monthly article but everything else, including reading, stopped. On April 4, 2005 we boarded a plane to the region for court and to pick up our daughter. On April 11, 2005 we were named her guardian and April 15, 2005 our daughter became a US Citizen when our plane touched down at JFK Airport. [The adopted child of 2 US citizens becomes a citizen upon touching soil in the US. This is fairly recent.]

Oh it was an adventure. Our daughter had no language other than squeals and chattering sounds that were like a chipmunk or squirrel. It was a rough road. Two weeks in to it I wondered why I had turned my life upside down. I was exhausted and she was aggressive. My calm house had become one of screaming [when she hit her sisters-her other form of communication] or stomping [the only way to call her to us from across the room was to stomp on the floor so she could feel the vibrations]. In May, on the advise of someone in the writing industry, I put my writing completely aside. It was painful and I cried for weeks but I knew I couldn't do it all.

In June my husband's knee started to act up like it did every spring [yes, up here it is still Spring in early June]. He got it X-rayed and the doctor said it looked like the childhood injury had turned in to arthritis or possibly a tore meniscus. There was not much to do except deal with it. He could have a CT scan to see which it was but since it was only a little painful he left it alone.

By October the pain in his knee was unbearable. He had a hard time at work [he's a Paramedic] and we prepared for imminent surgery. It would mean weeks off from work and with the adoption loan adding to our expenses we wanted to hold off as long as possible. On November 9, 2005 he went in for the CT.

At 9:25 am November 10 they called with results. I saw my husband sit down.
"They found an 11 cm tumor in my bone marrow."

Free Advertising

Happy Monday and Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. DAY. This posting will be a little shorter than usual because of a technical snafu. I budget 1 hour a day for blogging and blog reading. I'd spent almost 40 minutes writing up a very detailed blog only to have the battery in my laptop DIE just as I was getting ready to hit the "Post" button. Not to worry...blogger backs up. right?

Yes, but it's not often enough because it only saved the first 3 lines of the blog. As I teach when I'm talking to my apprentices [who I affectionately call 'mentees'] budget your time. So I have only about 1/3 of the time to do this blog that I originally took to write it. So in addition to the teaching I am giving of free ways to advertise I also want to tell those of you with "blogger", don't rely on Autosave. There is a blue "Save Now" button that I'd never noticed before. It will save your blog as a draft. Learn from my mistakes. :-)

So for free advertising there are some questions to consider.

Are you using the free advertising available to you? Do you even know where or what it is? Do you know what you're advertising?

These are important questions to ask yourself as you create a marketing plan and strategy that will be effective in reaching your target audience. Are there blogs that you can write? Before you answer that does your target audience read a blog? Is there a better way to reach them? Would submitting an article to a local parenting magazine be a better use of your time and resources? Do they attend church or synagogue? If so, are there local community events paper targeted to that audience.

These require time and thought but it's been my experience that asking these questions rather than running out and throwing money around is far more effective use of your time [and money]
Is there a possibility of going on a blog tour? I know PR firms that sell blog tours for thousands of dollars but maybe you already know some people who will allow you to join their blog for a day as a guest blogger. If you're going to do this try to find a way to track this. I'd suggest mentioning a particular blog in your blog. For example:

"I've learned a number of things as a writing career coach and as a writer. Some lessons have been more expensive than others. On January 1 of this year I talked about an important business lesson I learned. It has been one of my top 5 most visited blogs. You can check it out at:
http://writingcareercoach.blogspot.com/2008/01/lesson-learned-and-how-i-got-here.html "

Then, if you've got tracking software like google analytics [www.google.com/analytics ] you can check that particular blog for hit count on the date. It will drive people to your site to see what you have to share with them [we're all curious] and you can see how many people clicked through to check out your blog.

Now, don't do this too much. You never want to make a blog, yours or someone else's, an infomercial. If I was writing a normal blog and had that one link above I don't think anyone would feel I'm trying to jam something down their throat. I'm not. My Writing Career Coach program is designed to help fiction, non-fiction, journalism, and other writers learn what they need to reach their writing goals. When I've accomplished that, you will trust me when I recommend a product as well. I trust you to give me attribution when you copy something [I only ask that you post my name and this blog address] and you can trust me to share solid information without trying to get you to open your wallet every day.

I hope this one technique to getting free advertising [and also ways to track those posts] will be helpful. And if any of you would like to host me on your blog I'd love to come chat.

I'll continue with the HIGH story tomorrow. I'm out of my 15 minutes and now it is time to spend an evening with my Marketing Director [aka my hubby]. Tomorrow I'll be sure to keep my lap plugged in so I don't lose 40 minutes of work and so I can share even more on Free Advertising with you. I can't wait to see you tomorrow.