15 Full-Time and Freelance Writing Jobs

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Copywriter Seattle, WA
Work for Amazon. Compose and edit advertising copy for premium advertisers across a breadth of industry verticals. Work with internal teams to craft strategic advertising messages for their programs. Write short and long-form advertising pieces with a high degree of conceptual creativity and verbal polish. Draft compelling headlines and advertising messages that convey the objectives for the campaign while speaking appropriately to the target audience. Provide auxiliary copywriting as needed for sales and marketing collateral, while maintaining the company’s voice and creative standards. Bachelor’s degree preferred in a relevant field such as marketing, communications, advertising or business. Advertising or marketing background, preferably with experience working with premium brands. Advertising or creative agency experience. Basic HTML knowledge and applied experience.
http://jobview.monster.com/getjob.aspx?JobID=111829902

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News Reporter, Silver City, NM
Friendly, hard-working, upbeat team player wanted. We’re seeking a news reporter at the Silver City Sun-News in the high country of southwest New Mexico. As part of a three-person Bureau, you’ll do a little bit of everything here – from cops and courts, to government meetings, to covering some of the region’s many weekend events. We’re a small town (10,000 pop.) but we break big news. We’ve got murders and fires, lost hikers and SWAT stand offs. We are also home to the internationally-known Tour of the Gila, an annual bicycle race that brought Lance Armstrong to our tiny town two years in a row, an annual blues fest that draws more than 5,000 visitors from across the region, and a host of other arts-related events. You’ll work hard, but you’ll have fun doing it.
We compete with a five-day daily, and two websites, yet we are the only news source that consistently covers crime, courts and breaking news on every available platform. You will break news via Twitter and Facebook and our website, and follow those up for our print edition.
Journalism or related degree required. Send your resume and a cover letter telling us why you think you’d be a good fit for our paper and why you want to make Silver City your home. Put Reporter position in the subject line. Email: editor@scsun-news.com  Twitter (@SCSunNews)
http://www.scsun-news.com

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Writing Center Coordinator, Claremore, OK
The School of Liberal Arts is seeking candidates for a Writing Center Coordinator. This is to be a 12-month staff position. Applications are sought from candidates with a Master’s Degree in English with a concentration in Composition. Candidates must possess excellent verbal and written communication skills, have experience in teaching expository writing and coordination of academic tutoring; be proficient in Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and Outlook; establish and implement online tutoring applications and establish and maintain effective working relationships with faculty, staff, and students.
http://www.higheredjobs.com/details.cfm?JobCode=175650179&AAEmail=39952

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Online Marketing Manager, Boston, MA
Contact D Rodgers at Aquent, 617-535-4516, drodgers@aquent.com

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Reporter, Port Townsend, WA
Reporter sought for staff opening with the Peninsula Daily News, a six-day newspaper on Washington’s beautiful North Olympic Peninsula which includes the cities of Port Angeles, Sequim, Port Townsend and Forks (yes, the “Twilight” Forks, but no vampires or werewolves).  Bring your experience from a weekly or small daily — from the first day, you’ll be able to show off the writing and photography skills you’ve already acquired while sharpening your talent with the help of veteran newsroom leaders. This is a general assignment reporting position in which being a self-starter must be demonstrated through professional experience.
A second reporter-photographer position that embraces the Sequim-Dungeness Valley, which is considered one of the Northwest’s top climate areas, is also available.
In-person visit and tryout are required, so Washington/Northwest applicants are given preference. Send cover letter, resume and five best writing and photography clips to Leah Leach, managing editor/news, P.O. Box 1330, 305 W. First St., Port Angeles, WA 98362, or email to leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com .
www.peninsuladailynews.com

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Freelance Writers San Francisco Bay Area
As a freelance author, you will research, compose, and edit full-length and summarized non-fiction books on a variety of topics. Particular areas of focus include nutrition and diet, health and fitness, home and garden, self-help, cookbooks, and technology. Typical projects pay between $1,500 and $4,500 and take 1-2 weeks to complete. On a per-word basis, we pay an average that ranges from $0.10 to $0.50 per word depending on the topic, type of book, and the writer’s level of experience.  Please submit your resume, a cover letter that describes your areas of expertise, and representative writing samples.
http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=3320165&trk=rj_em&ut=25yK4dOE4Yf5k1

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Earth Island Journal
We are looking for stories that anticipate environmental concerns before they become pressing problems, stories that scan the horizon for the next big issue. Whenever possible, we seek to tell the stories of individuals and communities who are successfully defending and restoring the Earth. On-the-ground reports from outside North America are especially welcomed. We pay writers 20 cents/word for shorter dispatches (1,200-1,500 words) and for longer investigative features (2,500-3,000 words). We prefer that writers query us before submitting a story.
http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/guidelines/

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E: The Magazine
E serves important roles as a voice for the environmental movement and a vital information source on national and international environmental issues. We request that writers send queries by e-mail. Please indicate approximate article length and which section of the magazine you are targeting, allowing a three-month lead time. Please attach writing samples. E pays 30 cents/word upon publication, and you’ll receive a contract that can be signed electronically if your article has been assigned.
http://www.emagazine.com/writers-guidelines

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Elks Magazine
Informative, upbeat,entertaining writing on science, technology, nature, sports,history, health, retirement, finance, leisure, seasonal ideas and general Americana. Limit 1,200 to 2,000 words. Prefers articles on spec. Photos preferred and paid extra. Expect around 25 cents/word.
http://www.elks.org/elksmag/contact.cfm

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Familyfun
FamilyFun magazine targets families with children 12 and under. Gives parents what they need to create unforgettable family moments, whether it’s cooking, vacations, parties, holidays, crafts or learning. Has travel and non-travel guidelines for writers. Features 850 – 3,000 words. Pays $1.25/word. Departments pay $1.00 to $1.25/word. Very descriptive guidelines.
http://familyfun.go.com/magazine/contact-us-819817/

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The American Gardener Magazine
This magazine features inspiring color photographs and in-depth articles on new and native plants, influential garden personalities, garden history, and earth friendly gardening techniques and products. There are also regular departments on design, children’s gardening, conservation issues, and reviews of the latest gardening books, as well as a calendar of gardening events nationwide. Pays $300 to $500 for articles and $100 to $250 for columns. Query with outline,topic description, and why the piece is suitable for thereadership. Include clips or writing samples and a commentabout your gardening experience.
www.ahs.org/publications/the_american_gardener/

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Freelance Business Writer – Citygrid Media West Hollywood, CA
CityGrid, a leading local online media company that owns and operates leading local consumer properties including Citysearch, Insider Pages and Urbanspoon, is looking to hire a freelance business writer to craft copy and copyedit byline articles, case studies and create copy for our blog. Job Responsibilities: Write up to 5-7 byline articles/ blog posts per month on everything from the local landscape, small business marketing ideas to advertising trends Craft customer case stories and marketing materials when needed Work directly with key executives on copyediting articles and blog posts Deliver products in a timely fashion to meet set deadlines Oversee and prioritize work effectively Requirements: Prior experience writing business/technology articles needs to be a published writer.
www.simplyhired.com/job-id/xxbrxdwvad/freelance-business-jobs/

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American Spirit Magazine
The magazine’s focus is on Early American history; genealogy; civics education; historic preservation; collectibles such as furniture, porcelain, textiles, tools and artwork; women’s history and biography; historic travel and tourism; patriotism; Americana and crafts. Its primary timeframe encompasses the Colonial period, the 200-plus years between the Jamestown colony and 1820s. It also tends to focus on the American experience as it relates to women, and we like stories that link past and present. Non-fiction features average 1,500-2,000 words; non-fiction departments average 750-1,000 words. Published by the Daughters of the American Revolution, for its members.
www.dar.org/natsociety/magwriters.cfm

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Temporary Freelance Catolog Copywriter Ball Horticultural Company West Chicago, IL
Write, proof, edit copy for trade catalogs, print ads, brochures and direct mail pieces. Provide same to layout artist(s). Research product attributes, features and benefits. Participate in brainstorming. Work well in a collaborative environment. Our ideal candidate will be able to create compelling product copy for B2B and consumer-facing initiatives in a collaborative, fast-paced environment. Previous catalog copywriting experience 5+ years ad agency experience. BA in Journalism, Advertising, Communications or related. Proven track record in developing B2B and Consumer-facing communication. Proficient in Microsoft Office and Mac OS in a shared, server-based computer configuration Excellent attention to detail.
www.simplyhired.com/job-id/j34uhwj3lb/temporary-freelance-jobs/

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Freelance Senior Copywriter Company: Razorfish Chicago, IL
Razorfish is one of the largest interactive agencies in the world and currently has more than 2,000 employees in 20 offices in seven countries (Australia, China, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States) focusing exclusively on digital marketing and technology. Each office is filled with opportunities for people who want to invent the digital future. We are seeking a Freelance Senior Copywriter in our Chicago office. The Copywriter is responsible for conceptual development and copy deliverables, including advertising, web sites, email and other forms of interface design. These responsibilities include creating and communicating concepts, implementing marketing strategies and developing short and long form copy solutions.
http://www.simplyhired.com/job-id/qh62ypns2o/freelance-senior-jobs/

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts (there are almost 500 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “Like” next to it.

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

And don’t forget to spread the word on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Tumblr or StumbleUpon – or other social networking sites of your choice) – other writers might also enjoy this blog and find it useful.

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30 Books by Bestseller Author Rayne Hall

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… and what you can learn from her.

Rayne Hall is the author of thirty books in different genres (mostly horror, fantasy and non-fiction) and under different pen names, published by twelve publishers in several countries and languages (mostly English, German, Polish and Chinese).  Her short stories have been published in many magazines, e-zines and anthologies.

Rayne holds a college degree in publishing management as well as a Masters degree in creative writing.  Over three decades, she has worked in the publishing industry as a trainee, investigative journalist, feature writer, magazine editor, production editor, page designer, concept editor for non-fiction book series, anthology editor, editorial consultant and more.
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Currently, she tries to regain the rights to her out-of-print books so she can update them and publish them as e-books.  After living in Germany, China, Mongolia and Nepal, she has settled in south east England where she lives in a dilapidated seaside town of former Regency and Victorian grandeur.

Outside publishing, she has worked as a museum guide, apple picker, tarot reader, adult education teacher, trade fair hostess, translator and bellydancer.  Many of these experiences have provided fodder for fiction: several of Rayne’s stories feature bellydancers. Many of Rayne Hall’s stories explore the individuals’ responsibility for their choices, and the dark side of the human psyche. Her horror tales are psychological, creepy and suspenseful rather than gory.

She edits a series of themed multi-author short story anthologies (Haunted: Ten Tales of Ghosts, Bites: Ten Tales of Vampires, Cutlass: Ten Tales of Pirates, Scared: Ten Tales of Horror etc). For a list of books currently published under the Rayne Hall pen name, go to Amazon:

She judges writing contests (mostly for short stories, horror or fantasy fiction), coaches authors and teaches online classes for writers among others:

• ‘Writing Fight Scenes’

• ‘Writing Scary Scenes’

• ‘Writing about Magic’

• ‘Edit your Writing’ 

These classes are for intermediate to advanced-level writers and professional authors – definitely not for beginners or the faint-of heart.  Get an up-to-date list of scheduled classes.

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WRITING FIGHT SCENES – the e-Book.
Learn step-by-step how to create fictional fights which leave the reader breathless with excitement.
The book gives you a six-part structure to use as blueprint for your scene. It reveals tricks how to combine fighting with dialogue, which senses to use when and how, how to create a sense of realism, and how to stir the reader’s emotions. You’ll decide how much violence your scene needs, what’s the best location, how your heroine can get out of trouble with self-defence and how to adapt your writing style to the fast pace of the action.

There are sections on female fighters, male fighters, animals and weres, psychological obstacles, battles, duels, brawls, riots and final showdowns. For the requirements of your genre, there is even advice on how to build erotic tension in a fight scene, how magicians fight, how pirates capture ships and much more. You will learn about different types of weapons, how to use them in fiction, and how to avoid embarrassing blunders. Note: The book uses British spellings.

Writing Fight Scenes is vailable from Amazon (US site), Amazon (UK site), Barnes&Noble, Smashwords, iTunes,  Kobo and other online booksellers.

Rayne is active on Twitter where she posts #writetip tweets. If your profile says that you read or write, she will follow you back.
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Warning for “Self-Publishing” Authors

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The reason I started this blog initially, was to warn authors of vanity publishers including most of the POD service companies who call themselves “publishers” – and are in reality often unutilized print shops.

The statistics are mind-boggling, but still too many writers fall into their traps: the average Author Solutions customers – writers – spend around $5,000 with the company, but only sell 150 books. Even their press releases tell it all: “150,000 writers have used the services of Author Solutions, but they have only published a combined total of 190,000 books.” This comes from Penguin’s press release who just bought Author Solutions including their subsidiaries Author House, Xlibris, Trafford and iUniverse.

$100 Million in annual revenue comes roughly at two-thirds from the sale of services to writers, and only one-third comes from the royalties generated by books sales. Which means that most of the money they made (and unfortenately will make in the future) comes from fleezing writers.

Read more about their schemes and a litany of complaints at IndieReader.com  and on Let’s Get Digital. See also Mark Levines book: “Book Publishers Compared”

I just wish that writers read articles like these and study the “Writer Beware” website, Emily Seuss’ blog article or Marcia Yudkins blog “how to sniff out scams”.  There is no shortage of warnings out there!  Read them BEFORE you make decisions about self-publishing.

What steps are necessary in self-publishing a paper book:

• Marketing
• Manuscript Editing
• Book Layout
• Cover Design
• Printing & Binding
• Distribution

Why I put Marketing on top of the list? Because it is the most important one and should start long before you finish your manuscript. When you followed this blog you realized that almost all of my marketing tips don’t need involvement of service providers and are free. They involve only time, but no money.

An example: How much time does it take to write a terrific press release and email it out? Two, five, eight hours? You just saved more than $1,500 plus tax, that’s what Author Solution and the like would have charged you for this task. Being on Goodreads, Wattpad, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, FB, LinkedIn, Tumblr etc. and creating a platform and a name as a writer doesn’t cost a dime. Listing your books on Bowker worldwide is free. The list how you can promote your book for free goes on an on.

Another example: How long would it take to write a query and approach these reviewers directly: Kirkwood, ForeWord and BlueInk? One hour, two or three?  Author Solutions sells these three reviews from Kirkus, ForeWord and BlueInk to writers for a whopping $ 1,155 (or $1,405 for expedited) to a package price including
“evaluating the possibilities” by MVP for $3,000 in total (all plus tax) “for writers to be discovered and have their works optioned for film or TV”.

There is more: To set up four accounts on social media, they charge authors $700. How long does it take to open an account on Twitter, Facebook etc.? Their pricing is just absurd!

You can become your own publisher and not fall into the trap of “self-publishers”, just find information how to obtain and evaluate quotes on these services. The internet is full of advice on how-to…, service provider listings, offers for all of these services – starting with the 500 posts I wrote on this blog. One third of these articles is about self-publishing and two thirds “How to Market your Book on a Shoestring” – which is also the title of an upcoming e-book I am publishing soon for independent authors. Really independent ones!

And to publish a digital version of your book, the same is true: It takes time and dedication and a willingness to put yourself out there, but if you want to write a book there’s absolutely no reason to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars getting it into the e-book market.
If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts (there are almost 500 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “Like” next to it.

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

And don’t forget to spread the word on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Tumblr or StumbleUpon – or other social networking sites of your choice) – other writers might also enjoy this blog and find it useful.

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How to Create Your Own Newspaper Online

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What is Paper.li?  
It’s been around for a while and I have been following Paper.li sporadically – if content was created by one of my Twitter followers/authors. If you haven’t paid attention to these Paper.li articles yet: Creating your own Paper.li means, you can add your own Twitter/Google+/Pinterest/FB content to it – not only that of your followers. One tool more for authors, to attract attention to their tweets and certainly to their writing.

See what others wrote about Paper.li
Kelly Hungerford wrote:
“Paper.li is content curation service that enables you to become Editor-in-Chief of your own news site and publish topic based newspapers from content you find anywhere on the web, such as Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, YouTube or FB.

What is online content curation?
Simply put, online content curation is the organizing, filtering, presenting and sharing of the most relevant digital content for a specific audience.  People (and not machines) are the ones, qualified to make that final selection of content needed in order to identify the content that matters most to them, and for their audiences. We also think that these same people can greatly help their own communities to find their way through this “massive content world” we live in.

Why should I make a Paper.li?
We believe that the act of content curation and filtering content for specific audiences is strongly tied to the future of content. Millions of people are sharing content daily through social media channels and the numbers are growing, making it increasingly difficult to find, organize, share, discover and enjoy.”

From Bloomberg BusinessWeek:

“When it comes to news, many Twitter users say they rely on the social network and the community of people they follow— rather than a big news organization—for links to important or interesting news stories. A Swiss start-up called Small Rivers has taken that idea and turned it into a service called Paper.li, which gathers links that your network has shared and turns them into a kind of social newspaper, complete with different sections for different topics.  Is Paper.li the future of news? Perhaps not, but it fills a niche in the social ecosystem of news.

Paper.li takes your Twitter stream and extracts links to any news stories, photos, videos, and so forth, which it then analyzes, using what the company calls “semantic text analysis tools,” to determine whether or not the stories are relevant. The site then displays the links and related content in sections based on the context of the link. The service also creates themed pages based on specific topics using hashtags, such as #privacy or #climate, in much the same way that newspapers create special sections around an event or topic. Paper.li also automatically creates topical sections such as technology, arts & entertainment, photos, politics, and business. Users can also now create papers using a Twitter list. Embedded in a sidebar on each user’s customized paper is their Twitter stream.”

More on YouTube:  How to grow your Twitter Following

Curating Twitter Content with Paper.li

 

If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts (there are almost 500 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “Like” next to it.

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

And don’t forget to spread the word on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Tumblr or StumbleUpon – or other social networking sites of your choice) – other writers might also enjoy this blog and find it useful.

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7 Steps for Using Euphoria to Boost Your Success

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Author Bouquets: When you shower a new book writer with bouquets, you risk assisting at the birth of an infamous author’s ego. But praise and feedback are vital to a sensible author who learns to assemble them into a tool for later sales. Here are ways I have used – you can try them too:

How to Make a Readers’ Comments List

1. Just say thank-you and smile until you have something in writing from someone you know who has read the book.

2. Don’t destroy any messages that come in from or via your first buyers. These will be from family, friends and others they lent their copies to.

3. Open a readers’ comments file in your computer. Enter all email messages and scans of letters that contain solid feedback.

4. Acknowledge all messages and include the phrase, Do you mind if I quote you on that? People don’t mind, as long as they are quoted exactly and with no gaps. They are glad to be helpful and supportive. (If you absolutely must omit something in mid-sentence, insert three dots in its place: “. . .”)

5. Delete salutations and personal sentences from entries, keeping the most articulate, focused excerpts. Here’s an example of the format I use: “My flight out to CA was made all the more enjoyable because I read A Book of Kells on the way. I thought it was very well done – a very good read. It has real potential for a wider audience.” Chris Delmar, Westport, CT. For clarity, I substituted the name of the book for “your book” in the original.

6. Let readers submit a few of the comments to your Amazon page, under “Create a Review”. This must be done by someone other than the author. The review on amazon.ca is honestly entitled ‘Comments Received Directly by Publisher’. These are serious, freely submitted opinions from legitimate sources. For whatever reason, the writers were not able to send them in on their own. To take a look at what I’m referring to, click on this link and scroll down to the second review:  This review has been a placeholder until I received independent reviews. Now I can remove it, as I did the ones on amazon.com and amazon.co.uk.

7. Print out a copy of your review list and bring it when selling at book bazaars or book fairs. Browsers will enjoy its gossipy interest.

Guest blog by Margaret Kell-Virany
Author of “A Book of Kells”

www.amazon.com/author/margaretvirany

www.margaretvirany.com

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Do You Write Historic Novels?

History wasn’t short of wars and battles. Unless you can find detailed testimonials of eye-witnesses in archives, you need to employ some techniques to describe realistic battle scenes. Thanks to guest blogger Rayne Hall we get some very interesting tips here:

WRITING BATTLE SCENES
by Rayne Hall

Here are some techniques for creating powerful, exciting, realistic battle scenes. The biggest challenge in writing a battle scene is the point of view. To make the experience exciting and moving, it is best to stick to the perspective of a single fighter. However, the individual soldier can’t see what goes on a few feet from him, let alone what’s happening at the other end of the battlefield or how the sun dyes the horizon bloody red.
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Here’s a possible solution: Show the terrain before the fight begins, and have the general give a pep talk explaining the overall strategy. Once the fighting is over, show the battlefield and have your point of view character talk with his comrades about the implications.

Do you want to involve the reader’s emotions? Stack the odds against your heroes. The readers’ natural sympathies lie with the smaller army. The greater you can make the numerical difference, the better. The evil overlord’s army is bigger than the hero’s, and it is much better equipped, too.

Have you heard of the battle of Thermopylae (480 BC), when three hundred Spartans defended Greece against thousands of invading Persians? The Spartans knew they were going to die, and fought anyway, to gain time for their homeland to prepare further defences. Since then, thousands of battles have been fought – and forgotten. Thermopylae is remembered. The story has been retold in many novels, non-
fiction books, and films. The incredible bravery against overwhelming odds still rouses audiences’ emotions. When writing your own battle scenes, use Thermopylae as your inspiration.

Battles don’t just happen: they are usually planned. At least one side seeks the battle and is prepared. The generals plan a battle strategy in advance, and make sure that their officers know it. In the heat of the battle, it’s often impossible to change strategy or give orders. Sometimes, soldiers are still fighting when the battle has already been decided, because they don’t know that their king is dead or the enemy general has surrendered.

Often, the location decides the outcome of the battle. Generals choose the location carefully – and so should you, the author!  If the battle takes place on a slope, the army uphill has a huge advantage, because it’s easier to fight downhill than uphill, and because missiles fly further. Each general tries to make the battle happen in terrain which favours his own army, and where the enemy can’t fully deploy his. For example, chariots are fearsome on the plain, but useless in the mountains. Foot archers can fight on any terrain, especially in the mountains. The general who has many chariots will try to force a battle on the plain, while the general who has archers will try to lure them into mountainous terrain. If one general has a small army and his enemy has a large one, he’ll try to lure them into a gorge or other restricted space where they can’t move.

Armies are organised in units either by level of skill and experience (elite, veterans, novices, untrained peasants…) or by weapons and equipment (cavalry, infantry, archers, spearmen, chariots…) or both.

Before the battle, the general probably addresses the troops, firing their fighting spirit and courage. This pep talk may include de-personalizing the enemy, because soldiers are more willing to kill monsters than to kill fellow human beings. It’s easy to kill a man whom you consider a menace to your children, and difficult to kill him if you think of him as a fellow human who loves his children as much as you love yours.

Noble thoughts and ideals have no room during battle. The thinker of noble thoughts and carrier of high ideals during battle won’t survive. If you want to show your hero’s nobility, do it when the fighting is over: perhaps he gives the fallen enemies a decent burial, or ensures that his captives get medical treatment and food.

Consider using interesting or extreme weather to make your battle scene unusual. Imagine pristine snow which gets trampled, becomes slippery, and stains red with blood. Or a strong wind which blows arrows off course. Or blistering heat and glaring sun. Or week-long rain turning the field into knee-deep mud, making it difficult for foot soldiers, let alone horses or chariots. Or fog blocking the view of the enemy.

At the beginning of the battle, both armies shoot missiles to take out as many of the enemy as possible before they get close. In a historical novel, clouds of arrows may darken the sky before the battle begins. When the fighting is under way, describe only what the point of view character can see: this is probably only what is immediately before him, such as the enemy weapon stabbing at him.

To create excitement, mention sounds: the clanking of swords, the hissing of arrows, the pinging of bullets.
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Once the fighting is over, the survivors count their dead, bandage their wounds and repair their weapons. In this section, you can inject realism… Soon after the battle, there’ll be carrion birds (e.g. crows, vultures) feeding on the corpses. There’ll be humans (probably the victorious soldiers) gathering up re-usable weapons (because weapons are valuable) and looting the corpses. The battlefield is covered in
blood, gore, and amputated limbs. The stench is awful, because in death, the bladder and bowels have opened. Plus, there’s the smell from injuries, not just blood (which starts to stink only after a while) but the content of stomachs and intestines from belly wounds. The stench gets worse after a few hours, especially if the weather is hot. After some hours, the corpses will be crawling with flies, and before long, there’ll be maggots.

If you’re aiming for great realism, you may want to spend several paragraphs describing the gruesome aftermath. If you want to create more light-hearted entertainment, it’s best to keep the aftermath section short and to skip the gory details.

For tips on writing all kinds of fight scenes – from duels to riots, from self-defence to pirate attack – you may find my book “Writing Fight Scenes” useful. It’s available as an e-book. http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Fight-Scenes-ebook/dp/B005MJFVS0/ref=pd_sim_kstore_2

If you have questions about writing battle scenes, feel free to ask. I’ll be around for the next week and will respond: rain_dancer_uk – a t – yahoo.com

 

 

20 Amazing Social Media Stats

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Jeff Bullas just wrote in his blog: “These enticing, tempting distractions (by social media) are robbing us of time that should be spent doing productive work like washing your car, cleaning the house or doing your tax… and I know how much you all enjoy those activities!”

• videos viewed on phones and embedded in websites)
• Users on YouTube spend a total of 2.9 billion hours per month (326,294 years)
• Wikipedia hosts 17 million articles
• Wikipedia authors total over 91,000 contributors
• People upload 3,000 images to Flickr (the photo sharing social media site) every minute
• Flickr hosts over 5 billion images
• 190 million average  Tweets per day occur on Twitter (May 2011)
• Twitter is handling 1.6 billion queries per day
• Twitter is adding nearly 500,000 users a day
• Google+ has more than 25 million users
• Google+ was the fastest social network to reach 10 million users at 16 days (Twitter took 780 days and Facebook 852 days)

Read 10 more stunning stats on Jeff Bullas’ blog.

Statistics by SocialStatistics.com

Find more stats and see the fascinating info graphic  http://www.jeffbullas.com/2011/09/02/20-stunning-social-media-statistics/#g8LfQ8Tvst2p8Tis.99

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts (there are almost 500 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “Like” next to it.

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

And don’t forget to spread the word on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Tumblr or StumbleUpon – or other social networking sites of your choice) – other writers might also enjoy this blog and find it useful.

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Would You Like to Meet Readers in the Red Room?

The Readers and Writers Forum Red Room was named after both a real place and a literary tradition. The Red Room is a small, elegant parlor in the White House, Washington DC, where intellectual, artistic, and political victories have been quietly won.

President Franklin Roosevelt did not initially allow female reporters at his press conferences, so his wife Eleanor Roosevelt held her own press conferences at the same time, for the female reporters, in the Red Room. She was sure to make news, so the male reporters started attending, and the President eventually had no choice but to allow the female reporters at his press conferences in order to get the media’s full attention.

This tradition of civilized revolution on behalf of disenfranchised voices and causes is carried on in the modern-day Red Room.

The Red Room is also the name of four different literary works in different genres, by very different authors, spanning a century. One of these works, written by H.G. Wells, is about confronting fear itself, alone in a small room—a relevant allegory for writers, whether writing a novel or marketing a novel.

We conquer the fear and get all the great readers and writers in the same room, Red Room, for what one reader called, “my dream cocktail party, but you can show up in your pajamas.”  Authors are encouraged to show their books, their book trailers and authors biography and interact with their readers.

 

If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts (there are almost 500 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “Like” next to it.

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

And don’t forget to spread the word on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Tumblr or StumbleUpon – or other social networking sites of your choice) – other writers might also enjoy this blog and find it useful.

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Help Me to Choose a Cover Image

Hi everyone!
May I ask you for your help today?  I just cannot decide which one of these photos to choose as a cover image for a book on “SEAPLANE FLYING” – which is the title.

Please vote for the image you think is best suited as a background image for the book cover. If the horizontal photo is the most popular, it will be set in the middle of the book cover. Top and bottom will be dark blue, showing the title and author in blue/silver fonts.

Looking forward to your comments!  Thanks in advance!

Possible Cover Images for Seaplane Book

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Did Harlequin Publishing Deceive Their Authors?

Yesterday I read this article on J.A. Konrath’s blog:

“Three authors have just filed a class action suit against Harlequin publishing, which belongs to TorStar Corp., a Canadian publishing company.

One of them, Ann Voss Peterson wrote a book that Harlequin published, and she made 2.4% royalties per e-book copy sold. One of the reasons for this was:

While most of my books are sold in the US, many are sold under lower royalty rates in other countries.

In this particular contract, some foreign rights and – ALL e-book royalties – are figured in a way that artificially reduces net by licensing the book to a “related licensee,” in other words, a company owned by Harlequin itself.
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Here’s an example: Harlequin has an e-book it lists for $3.99. It sells that to Amazon at a wholesale price of $2.00. The author should make $1.00 for each $3.99 e-book that Amazon sells. But instead of selling directly to Amazon, Harlequin sells the e-book to Company X for 12 cents. So the author only gets 6 cents. Company X than sells the same e-book to Amazon for $2.00, but because they are a sub-licensing company, they don’t have to pay the author anything.

Sub-licensing is common. This is all fine and legal. So why are authors suing Harlequin? Because Harlequin and Company X are the same company!  No publishing company would ever sub-license rights for a paltry 6%, unless it was selling the rights to itself. Does Harlequin really expect a judge to believe that it sells a $3.99 e-book and only makes 6 cents? And according to the complaint, the 6% was not equivalent to the amount reasonably obtainable from an unrelated party, as required by the publishing agreements.

Do publishers have such a sense of entitlement, and do they believe that authors are so beneath them, that this is a fair and honest business practice?” Read J.A.Konrath’s full story and the court complaints. It makes for an interesting reading!

 

If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts (there are almost 500 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “Like” next to it.

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

And don’t forget to spread the word on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Tumblr or StumbleUpon – or other social networking sites of your choice) – other writers might also enjoy this blog and find it useful.

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Job Opening: Assistant at German Book Office NY

Job Opening: Assistant at German Book Office New York
Seeking native English speakers possessing German language skills for Assistant position at the German Book Office New York/Frankfurt Book Fair.

Role Responsibilities:

• Support of Director in all matters of the business including but not limited to: Communication with German and American publishing professionals;
• Copy-editing English texts for both grammar and style; assisting in coordination of various events and Frankfurt Book Fair related matters
• Writing reviews, articles and various blog posts for the Frankfurt Book Fair, the GBO, and New Books in German Magazine
• Managing the GBO and part of the Frankfurt Book Fair’s social media presence including but not limited to: Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest etc.
• Creating online email campaigns
• Monthly accounting for the GBO and Publishing Perspectives
• Conducting research projects for the GBO and the Frankfurt Book Fair

The German Book Office (GBO) New York, Inc., founded in 1998 as a non-profit organization, is a project of the Frankfurt Book Fair and acts as a bridge between the German and American publishing industries. The mission of the GBO is to promote German books in North America. We establish contact between German and North American publishers, and we partner with international and literary organizations
to promote translated books.

In addition, the German Book Office works closely with the Frankfurt Book Fair on its North American activities and projects. We provide information and assistance to exhibitors and visitors of the fair.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience. Business-related majors a plus.
• Prior office experience, preferably in publishing, digital media or agency desired.
• Strong communication skills (verbal and written) with the aptitude to communicate effectively in both individual and group settings
• Proven ability to deliver timely, accurate work and demonstrate good follow up and follow through all projects
• Excellent organizational skills with the ability to multi-task, prioritize, and manage time effectively
• Advanced knowledge Microsoft Office Suite and online research methods
• Knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite preferred; Final Cut Pro X, a plus
• Native English speakers possessing German language skills
• Willingness to learn, eagerness to network and interest in publishing at large

Please send your resume, with salary expectations and earliest possible start date to: stock@newyork.gbo.org

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts (there are almost 500 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “Like” next to it.

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

And don’t forget to spread the word on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Tumblr or StumbleUpon – or other social networking sites of your choice) – other writers might also enjoy this blog and find it useful.

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Sail to Success: Writing and Publishing Classes

Norwegian Sky Cruise Ship

December 3-7, 2012 • Bahamas Cruise
Norwegian Sky 4-Day Bahamas Cruise – combined with publishing and writing seminars:

Have a part of your manuscript critiqued by the publisher who publishes Mercedes Lackey, Joe Haldeman and Harry Turtledove amongst many others.

Learn about contract negotiations by the agent who negotiates on behalf of Lois McMaster Bujold, Catherine Asaro and the estate of Robert A. Heinlein.

Get to know all the inside tricks by some of the best and most experienced writers in the genre today, including:

Mike Resnick, who has won more awards than anyone else (living or dead) in short fiction and is the guest of honor at this year’s Worldcon.  Kevin J. Anderson with 48 bestsellers and over 23 million copies of books in print. One of the most popular SF writers today.  Nancy Kress, multiple award winning author of the ground breaking ‘Beggars in Spain’ (Hugo/Nebula), and an author who is fondly known as ‘The Queen of Novellas’ since every novella she writes appears to get nominated for a major award.  Rebecca Moesta, who specializes in the lucrative young adult market and has penned numerous YA bestsellers, including those set in the Star Wars universe.

And as if this wasn’t enough…you get to do all this while on a cruise ship visiting the Bahamas in a classroom limited to only 22 students.  Significant discounts are available for early sign-ups. 

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5 Beautiful Old Bookstores

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El Ateneo BuonesAires by David @Flickr

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Even avid e-book readers will be enchanted by these beautiful, magnificant old bookstores in Europe and in South America, housed in former opera buildings or churches.
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Photo Alex Duret-Lutz Paris

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Shakespeare & Co Paris Photo Tuuli Saarikoski

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BookStore Maastrich Photo by Kevin Gessner

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Porto Portugal Photo Marcella Bona

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Some Bookstores are so beautiful they are worth getting out of the house (or the country) to visit whether you need a new hardcover or not.  Find many more at FlavorWire.com under “The most beautiful bookstores in the world”.

Did you discover any beautiful bookstores? Let us know or send a photo!

If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts (there are almost 500 of them : ) if you haven’t already.  Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email?   Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “Like” next to it.

Follow on Twitter:  @111publishing

And don’t forget to spread the word on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Tumblr or StumbleUpon – or other social networking sites of your choice) – other writers might also enjoy this blog and find it useful.

 

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Have You Heard About LitChat’s Fiction Writing Course?

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LitChat is a fun, fast, and friendly way for booklovers to talk about books on Twitter. Authors and Readers can chat on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 4-5 pm (EST).

LitChat offers an intensive Fiction Writing Course on September 16 – 19 in South Beach, FL.
“Take your writing to the next level at LitChat’s first annual Writer’s Advance. The LitChat Writer’s Advance offers two days of intensive fiction writing education to a small group of writers seeking to sharpen skills, fine-tune their writer’s voice, and plot their own literary success.”

September 16-19, 2012
The Betsy Hotel South Beach, 1440 Ocean Drive, Miami Beach, FL

Taught by a faculty of award-winning authors, including master instructors Jon Clinch and Les Standiford, the LitChat Writer’s Advance includes two sessions with a master instructor, ample writing time, two read and critique sessions with master instructors, a panel discussion with published authors, and a public reading series featuring published authors. Panelists confirmed so far include: Debra Dean, Keith Cronin, Patricia Engle.

The host of LitChat’s Writer’s Advance is South Beach’s most literary boutique hotel, The Betsy  Included in the full Writer’s Advance tuition is a welcome reception on Sunday, September 16, 2012, coffee and tea breaks each morning, and a group dinner on Monday night.

Writer’s Advance tuition Early Bird until August 1, 2012: $250
Writer’s Advance tuition August 2-September 15, 2012: $300
Writer’s Advance tuition at the door: $350 (if space is available)
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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts (there are almost 500 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “Like” next to it.

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

And don’t forget to spread the word on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Tumblr or StumbleUpon – or other social networking sites of your choice) – other writers might also enjoy this blog and find it useful.

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30 Video Sharing Sites to Upload Your Book Trailer

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Distribute your video for free to as many sites as possible. Which of these online video platforms is right for your book?  Watch many of the hosting company’s uploaded videos to get a feeling for their viewers and the type of videos that are popular on their site. Or try them all and after a month or two check out the statistics where the most traffic comes from.  Schedule a couple of hours to sign in on all these video sharing websites.  Automated submitters such as TubeMogul cannot do it for you. It’s just a one-time task and you are done for the coming years.  30 video sharing sites to find the right ones for you.

Excerpt from the brand new e-book: ***** 111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer ***** featuring valuable tips and links to video tutorials, free music downloads and free images, available on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008Y15YYO

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ABCYouTube: http://www.abcyoutube.com — Makes YouTube video downloads and conversions fast and simple. Just add abc in front of any YouTube URL and the video will be instantly available for download in MP3, MP4, 3GP, and FLV formats.

Facebook Video: http://www.facebook.com/video (you must be a member of Facebook to see this page) – Their video player offers better quality and privacy controls than many other video sharing sites. You can send video voicemail back and forth between friends. It supports most mobile providers so you can take a video on your phone and email it to video@facebook.com and have it posted to your Facebook page.

Animoto: http://www.animoto.com/?ref=dfowkpqa — Allows you to create slideshow videos using images and music you submit. If you want to create an engaging video with just images and music (or talk), this service gets it done fast (that is, the creation is very simple, the downloading and rendering take longer). They limit you to a 30-second video for free.

Betawave: http://www.betawave.com
Offers a network of partner websites featuring celebrity entertainment, extreme sports, cartoons,  and more youth-related content.

Blip TV: http://www.blip.tv
You can upload your video via website,cell phone or an FTP address, plus a desktop utility called UpperBlip. Post videos automatically to blogging platforms.  Your viewers can download multiple video formats to  (Flash, iPod, cell phone playback, etc).

BookCaster: http://www.bookcaster.com — Features book trailers and other book-related videos. You can add your own videos.

Bukisa: http://www.bukisa.com — A place to share how-to videos and articles and earn money doing at the same time.

BuzzNet: http://www.buzznet.com — A video-sharing site that is part of the Video Egg ad network. Features music, celebrities, pop culture in photos, music, and videos.

Content Buzz: http://www.contentbuzz.com — Allows users to easily join and submit on-going new videos to 50+ video hosting sites, 25 social book marketing sites, 15 social news sites, 25 photo sharing/blogging platforms, 10 podcasting directories, 10 top RSS aggregators, 25 top ping services, and 7 blogging platforms.

Current TV: http://www.current.com — Showcases independently produced videos on a TV channel. You can post your video on this site and, if it gets voted as a great video by enough people in the Current community, it will be showcased on the Current channel.

DailyMotion http://www.dailymotion.com is a French video-sharing website on which users can upload, share and view videos.

Devour: http://www.devour.com – Allows you to find some of the best videos on YouTube. Essentially a tool for censoring most videos on YouTube, leaving you with what they think are the best videos.

Dump a Link: http://www.dumpalink.com – Funny and viral videos.

5 Minute Life Videopedia: http://www.5min.com – Focused on 5-minute or less how-to videos in the following categories: arts, business, extreme, fashion, fitness, food, games, health, home, music, parenting, people, pets, spiritual, sports, tech, travel, wheels, life tips, and knowledge.

Flixwagon: http://www.flixwagon.com – This website allows users to broadcast live video from your mobile phone. You can broadcast live to the web, keep videos for later, stream to your blog, and even Twitter live broadcasts. An MTV website.

Flixya: http://www.flixya.com/videos – Flixya pays you to share videos, photos, and blogs.

Flurl: http://www.flurl.com – A video search engine that also allows you to upload videos.

GeoBeats:  http://www.geobeats.com /filmmakers/register — Features travel and tourism videos which can be embedded quickly into your blog or website.

Graspr: http://www.graspr.com — Instructional video network. Features over 20,000 instructional videos on topics such as home, garden, sports, recreation, food, drinks and more. Allows you to learn from others as well as share what you know via videos.

Hey! Spread: http://www.heyspread.com — The first professional, robust and scalable Video Distributing and Tracking Web Service. Submits to 17 video-sharing websites for ca. $1.00. Also allows you to track stats for as many websites as you want, trans-code videos, and watermark videos.

Howcast: http://info.howcast.com/yourvideoonhowcast — One of Time magazine’s 50 best websites, the site features how-to videos and wiki entries/guides with 100,000 professionally-made instructional videos.

Lonely Planet: http://www.lonelyplanet.tv — This video website from the Lonely Planet travel guide publishers offers travelers $500 for their best travel videos. They are very selective. They also have a channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/LonelyPlanet (with 13,685 subscribers).

Miro: http://www.getmiro.com/publish – Allows you to set up a subscription channel for your HD video podcasts.

Mogulus: http://www.mogulus.com – Allows users to broadcast live online with any USB or DV camera, mixing multiple cameras and clips in real time. 100,000+ viewers can watch and chat together. Offers free or pro (paid) channels. Users can stream live using a mobile phone camera.

MonkeySee: http://www.monkeysee.com – Features how-to videos from experts. To become an expert to submit videos to this site, see http://www.monkeysee.com/expert/become

MotionBox: http://www.motionbox.com is a video sharing service like YouTube with a lot of other cool and impressive features. Motionbox doesn’t have a client uploader, users must upload the full video files to the service. Like YouTube, Motionbox trans-codes files to flash to reduce file size and standardize viewing, but they also store the original files.

PhotoBucket: http://www.photobucket.com — Has 40 million users who upload more than 7 million photos per day. Owned by MySpace, now also allows you to share video as well as photos.

Sclipo: http://www.sclipo.com – Motto: The social learning revolution. You can learn, socialize, and teach via videos, documents, photos, and audios uploaded here. You can set up your own academy here, offering courses. Remember: upload only educational videos. These are videos that teach such as tutorials, lectures, classes, advice, tips & tricks, lectures or alike.

TripFilms: http://www.tripfilms.com – Features 8,000+ travel videos. You can get paid $50 for a trip video that their editors select to feature.

TubeMogul: http://www.tubemogul.com – Allows you to upload to a selected group of video-sharing websites with one upload. They also allow you to track video impressions on these sites: Google Video, Metacafe, MySpace, Revver, Yahoo!, AOL Uncut Video, DailyMotion, YouTube, Crackle, Imeem, StupidVideos, Veoh, and many more. After uploading your video to TubeMogul and entering the Title, Description, Tags, and Category, you can choose at which sites you want to deploy your videos.

YouTube is a MUST!  http://www.YouTube.com is the most important website for sharing videos and book trailers, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos. YouTube was bought by Google for US$1.65 billion, and now operates as a subsidiary of Google. 

Use Viddler instead of YouTube: You can add your own logo to Viddler. It’s Way More Than Video Hosting

This is a tiny excerpt from my upcoming book: 111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer, available on Amazon.

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