Friday, January 22, 2021

Read What Succesful Content Writer Jamie Wilson Explains

Succesful content writer, founder of The Conservative Fiction Project, and Senior Editor, Liberty Island Media, Jamie Wilson, shares her expertise on today’s content writing opportunities.

"One of the biggest changes that content writing has afforded freelancers is the luxury of a reasonably steady paycheck. My current favorite gig, CrowdSource, provides consistent multiple projects which are lower paid compared to many freelance jobs - but they don't require much in the line of research, and writers can skip the hard speculative work of queries. She recently started a new gig at PJ Media, www.pjmedia.com.

 A freelancer just getting started can support himself or herself on jobs like this while querying for better-paid and higher-profile work. It's been a game-changer.

Content marketing is all advertising if and only if you consider everything broadcast on network television, including your favorite shows, to be advertising. It is designed to be clickbait, drawing readers - but in order to do that properly, it also has to be engaging content in and of itself, not just content that says "click the ads." Just like any newspaper or magazine content, web content needs to a) provide something of value to the reader and b) make money. The key to not being a hack is understanding the balance between the two - and sites that balance these two things properly are the ones that are most successful at both.

Journalism is indeed about information provided to an audience - but more and more, that audience is unwilling to pay directly for that information as they find more ways to acquire it for free. For that reason, journalism has been borrowing more heavily from content marketing techniques as the years go on, just in order to remain viable. Examples would include USA Today's very large content program and the San Francisco Chronicle's SFGate website, which is primarily what you might term content marketing. I know that's about clear as mud, but so is the demarcation between content marketing and journalism today.”

She says good freelancers make good money doing content writing and editing - but they aren't hacks. Just like any other writing segment, there are tiers of expertise, and I've been fortunate enough to meet some of the best,” Jamie says.

A Navy wife and the mother of five children, she is the sister of a war hero.

“I am the founder of The Conservative Fiction Project, which helps conservative writers find one another and a wider audience. I work with Liberty Island Media, the first overtly conservative fiction publisher. I have always read stories and told stories, and I will always be a storyteller.”

Read Jamie Wilson’s stories, The Biscuit Boy and The Enforcement of Happiness, on Liberty Island Twitter:@jamiekwil

As a member of Writing Workshop since 1996, I'm always happy to share important information like Jamies. 

Join Internet Writing Workshop Your sure to find the list that will help you the most, and compatible members, willing to help you succeed.

Internet Writing Workshop

OR Internet Writing Workshop


 

Tuesday, October 6, 2020

Convert Double Spaces To Single Spaces

 

The standard form when typing is to leave two blank spaces after a period. However, most online publications want writers to leave only one space after a period.

When you're ready to submit your manuscript, this one easy task will change all two spaces after a period to one.

Before submitting your manuscript, go to your word processor's search and replace function.  In the search or find section, put <space> <space>.  In the replace field, type <space>.  Hit <Replace All> and that will search your document for two spaces and convert them to a single space.

For more writing and publishing information visit Access The World and Write Your Way To $$$ and Ultimate Internet Writers Directory.

No matter which genre you prefer writing, you'll get the most valuable help to successful writing available online when you become a member of Internet Writing Workshop.


Sunday, December 30, 2018

Ageless Authors 65 and Older


Ageless Authors was a website I learned about when a member of Internet Writing Workshop posted a message about their EntryTime for Senior Writing Contest.

Although I've never entered a contest before, I decided to give this third annual Ageless Authors international writing contest for senior writers age 65 and older a try.

Even though there is a $20 entry fee for submissions, this is the only international writing contest exclusively for older writers. Entries are being accepted  through March 15, 2019.

Ageless Authors website has much more than contests where elderly writers can learn a great deal. Chose from the menu bars on the right top corner. Add the website to your bookmarks.


If you're inclined to enter the third annual international writing contest, choose Contests at the top of the website to get the rules and guidelines.

Tip: When you follow the entry rules, be sure to enter the information in the order requested, followed by the manuscript of your entry ~ BEFORE you click send.

ie: Title of the entry
Word count of the entry
Name of entrant
Mailing address of entrant
Email address of entrant
Phone number of entrant
Bio of entrant 

Your Manuscript

As soon as you send it you'll receive a confirmation email. Good luck!

Friday, November 16, 2018

$$$ and sense of publishing specialties


Sometimes writers, caught up in the editorial content side of things, forget that publishing is by-and-large a business, with many financially-sensitive cogs in the wheel that ultimately deliver your article to the readers.

Writing for corporation's specialty publications is one career field. According to news figures Corporate America spends $14 billion producing its own publications and another $4 billion to $8 billion in postage to distribute the material. And that's only roughly half of the combined amount generated by the traditional consumer and business-to-business magazines.

Who's spending this money?

Publishing is costing health care, technology and finance businesses $510 million.

What types of publication is the money spent on?


Canyon Media has an excellent article on calculating the costs of Custom-publishing a quarterlymagazine, on average here.

The marketing and public relations departments of corporations handle the majority of custom publishing in-house.

Tip: Marketing and public relations departments need employees with writing skills.

Typically, companies produce 1.82 unique publications, each at an average frequency of 6+ times. If publications are aimed at non-company audiences, approximately 50,000 copies (20+ pages each) are printed and three quarters of those are in four-color.

Companies spend, annually, a billion dollars on these publications. Advertisers add millions to the publishing pot.


Michelle Goodman's
The Anti 9-5 Guide has an article on freelancing titled, "Do you need a freelance Portforlio site?

Associations and freelancing
National Association of Publisher's Representative (NAPR)

The Editorial Freelancers Association's site offers courses on medical copy-editing, grammar and usage, editing footnotes, picture research, interviewing and breaking into corporate communications. Followlinks, and discover a wide variety of markets, too.

For more writing and publishing information visit Access The World and Write Your Way To $$$ and Ultimate Internet Writers Directory.

Sunday, November 4, 2018

Where You Generate ideas Matters


Generating ideas ~ First, use APB Speakers Bureau website as a resource to spark ideas: https://www.apbspeakers.com/.

Create an Idea Calendar where you'll keep the ideas you generate while browsing the speakers.


Double click a speaker's photo to bring up their profile. Scroll down to see a list of topics, and a wealth of information that will spark ideas for you.

What does your mind conjure when you're reading them? Think out of the box.

Read what speakers speak about, where and how to find them, and get ideas for your own articles\speaking engagements  here, https://www.apbspeakers.com/topics/all-topics/

This is also a fine resource to visit when you're writing an article for publication in a bonafide medium (on spec or assignment.)
*Do check their engagements and fees links.
*Do not contact the guests before a magazine has assigned your article.
 
You'll find plenty of variety.
 
Start with an idea.Make a note of it, or a few pages of notes.
  1. File it in a folder labeled, Idea Folder.
  2. Put it away and jot your next idea note on a separate paper.
  3. File it in your Idea Folder.
  4. Continue to jot down and file ideas as they come to you.
TIP: Use a titled contest/or categories for this assignment and double the use of your time.
  • Select one idea from your Idea Folder.
  • Brainstorm and topic spoke the idea. (*See Topic Spoke handout.)
  • Consult a Writer's Market, new or old - it doesn't matter much at this point.
  • What you're looking for are categories.
You might also browse other market directories such as Working Press of the Nation, Religious Writer's Marketplace, Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory, etc. Most are available at the reference desk of libraries.

OLD MAGAZINES-NEWSPAPERS - www.unz.org is an excellent resource to research past publications.

There's no need to ever be at a loss for ideas.

Saturday, November 3, 2018

Worry About Telling Your Story, by Jamie Wilson


Jamie Wilson, a member of Internet Writing Workshop, gives valuable advice in this guest blog.

"Don't worry about taste or any other sense. Worry about telling your story.

Start with an arrival or a departure - it introduces chaos into a balanced system and gives you instant conflict. You have this stable system - a jail or a mental institution or a home or an office - and when you introduce a single person to it (or subtract one) the social dynamic changes, often catastrophically. You can do all kinds of things with that. (This idea came from John Gardner)

Start your story with something that inspires the reader to ask a question. You want your reader to finish that first sentence. When you open like this, readers want to keep going until they get that answer. The trick to keep them moving: make sure you keep adding new questions before answering the old ones.

Give your reader a tiny little taste of the world, and then focus on a single character.  Cut out everything mundane: eating, walking, chatting about action taking place, clothing, men looking at women's bodies.
Focus on what is important. Focus on conflict, inner and outer. Look around, and use the surroundings to define your characters. Feel. Express emotion. Make things active - do not discuss what has already happened, but rather start your story in the middle of action.

 Above all else, make every word move your story toward a goal - something that happens at the end of the scene, the building of a relationship critical to the story, a plot conflict, a problem. If a word does not at minimum do that, you need to cut it out. Try to make each word do several  things - build mood, describe, move plot forward, etc.

Finish the story. Do not obsess about this stuff. Give yourself permission to write utter crap. You do not have to make every word perfect. Few writers create a stellar work the first time around, and sometimes not the tenth or hundredth time around. Most of your work is done in editing. You have to have a story written down in order to edit."

Learn more about Jamie and read her stories here:
http://jamiekwilson.com
http://www.conservativefiction.com
http://www.conservativefeminism.com

Founder, The Conservative Fiction Project
Senior Editor,
Liberty Island Media
Twitter:@jamiekwil
 
Become a member of Internet Writing Workshop for valuable help to successful writing.
 

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

The Unfinished Poem by Joanna M. Weston

 

Joanna M. Weston, a member of Internet Writing Workshop and a widely published poet wrote this guest blog about how she works.
She titled her blog, THE UNFINISHED POEM

"I love writing poetry and read poetry most days: it is inspiration, clarification, communication and a delight.

I write a poem every day except Sunday. Then it may be a few days or weeks before I come back to the poem and, if it has no energy in it for me, I re-read with a fresh perspective. I then either delete the poem or tweak, or re-write: i.e. work on it, better able to see errors and where meaning is unclear.


I want to convey a feeling or experience to others clearly, for I believe poetry is, like all art, a form of revelation and communication.

I try to be sure that imagery is relevant, language fresh and without clichés. Phrases like 'every cloud has a silver lining' or 'after rain comes a rainbow' come so easily that sometimes it's hard to reach for a new image.

The computer's Spelling and Grammar checker is usually not helpful for poetry, so I try to ensure that subject and object, pronouns and verbs agree; that there are no extra words to muddy the focus of the poem: i.e. an unnecessary 'and', 'that', 'but' or 'then'.

I change words that have been repeated, often using Roget's Thesaurus. Adjectives and adverbs superfluous to the theme are deleted, as not every noun or verb requires a descriptive.

Line-breaks require particular attention, especially as I don't use punctuation. The best way I know to check line-breaks is to read the poem aloud, find where the natural breaks occur and use them.

Reading aloud also gives a reality check on rhythm:

·       Is the meter appropriately broken or maintained

·       Are alliteration, assonance and dissonance as effective as possible?

 All of which adds up to ensuring that the image or emotion is clear to the reader, that the devices of diction, prosody etc. enhance rather than get in the way of the intended meaning. And always I wonder whether my poem goes beyond surface conclusions to give genuine insight.

This is not to say that it is a simple task to edit my own poetry. And I rarely regard a poem as 'finished' even after it's been published.

I'm deeply indebted to the Poetry List of the International Writers' Workshop for their on-going help in critiquing my poetry, truly invaluable. Also I maintain a blog where I publish a poem every Wednesday:
http://www.1960willowtree.wordpress.com

I'm endlessly grateful to family and friends who, over the years, have pointed out typos and grammatical errors.

Joanna is married; has one cat, multiple spiders, raccoons, a herd of deer, and two derelict hen-houses. Her middle-reader, 'Frame and The McGuire', published by Tradewind Books 2015; and poetry, 'A Bedroom of Searchlights', published by Inanna Publications, 2016. Other books are listed at her blog, where you can also read more about her.

Joanna M. Weston

A Bedroom of Searchlights poetry
 

 
 

http://www.1960willowtree.wordpress.com 

ISBN 978-1-77133-305-4
published by Inanna Publications

 


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