~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Writing Etc. – October 15, 2005

ISSN: 1545-5580

Tips, Techniques, and Resources to Transform You From An Average Freelancer to A Highly Paid Professional.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To subscr*ibe to Writing Etc. and receive the fr*e e-book, “Power Queries,” surf here:

http://filbertpublishing.com

Forward Writing Etc. to all your writing friends! They’ll be glad you did.

For easier reading and red hot links, surf to http://filbertpublishing.com/current.html

Your Key to the top secret Writing Etc. vault is here:   http://filbertpublishing.com/Top_Secret_Vault.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In This Issue:

Notes from Minnesota

Secrets of Rejection Revealed

Recommended Resource to Jumpstart Your Writing Career

2005 Action Plan to Jumpstart Your Writing Career

We Recommend…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This issue is sponsored by:

Think It’ll Take Forever To Earn A Great Living As A Writer?

Think again.

With Jumpstart Your Writing Career, you'll discover how easy it is to:

• Think like a writer so you can turn every opportunity into a writing assignment
• Hone your writing skills until they're razor sharp
• Tackle the most lucrative branch of writing
• Learn secrets of fiction to make your story lines sing
• Organize your nonfiction articles so editors will happily publish your work
• Write powerful queries that’ll open new doors of opportunity
• Promote your writing business for little or no money

Absolute Write calls Jumpstart “a marvelous tool for novice writers and often published authors alike. It’s refreshing, easy to use, and applicable”.

Pick up your copy today so you can jump ahead of the pack and start snagging great paying assignments, read more here:

http://filbertpublishing.com/jumpstart.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Greetings from Minnesota!

I’m the worst vegetarian in the world. Hands down. Period.

(Quick background… we chose a vegetarian lifestyle shortly after my dear husband’s heart attack.)

From what I’ve read, part of this lifestyle seems to include some sort of “regard for all life.”

Well, I don’t particularly feel that regard right now.

This decline into moral depravity began last spring when summer heat descended upon us far earlier than expected. Because we heat our home with a corn burning furnace (these wood stove-type appliances are quite popular in Minnesota) we were left with a ton of corn sitting on our garage floor.

“No problem,” Maury said, “We’ll just burn it up next winter.”

That plan worked fine and dandy until the local mouse population discovered our hidden cache.

We tolerated each other fairly well until temps dropped.

Seems every mouse in that garage has decided to move inside.

At first we captured each unwelcomed visitor in a humane “box trap” and released them in the country. (Feel free to hum a few bars of “Boooooorn Freeeeee… as free as the wind blows…” right about now)

I noticed a definite hardening of the heart as we trapped mouse after mouse after mouse….

We moved on to glue traps after I watched a furry critter scampering across my counter. (THE COUNTER~!~!~!~!~!~!~! Where we prepare food!~!~!~!~!)

I immediately ordered Maury to the hardware store to purchase every single mousing apparatus they had in stock.

However at this point in our “all life is sacred” stage we still peeled those little furry buggers off the sticky-paper-glue-traps and released them (a little less hairless, mind you) back into the wild.

We plunked thirty cents on the Walmart counter and purchased SIX spring loaded mouse traps.

That’s it, baby. Once garage mice start acting domesticated… well that’s when they have to move on to the great Habitrail in the sky.

(Don’t know what Habitrail is? http://www.habitrail.com/ )

Kandiyohi’s surrounded by corn fields. Mice don’t need to live in my garage when there’s plenty of food in the wild.

And heaven help them if they decide enter the house. Lucy (the RAT Terrier Wonder Dog) is under strict orders to have at ‘em.

Enjoy your week everyone!

Beth

P.S. Here’s our best seller list… be sure to pick up a copy of each of these titles. They’re awesome.

1.      Jumpstart Your Writing Career and Snag Paying Assignments by Beth Erickson http://filbertpublishing.com/jumpstart.htm

2.      Bob Bly’s Guide to Freelance Writing Success: How to Make $100,000 a Year as a Freelance Writer and Have The Time of Your Life Doing It. http://filbertpublishing.com/bob.htm

3.      Weekly Writes: Exercises in Creative Writing by Shery Ma Belle Arrieta http://filbertpublishing.com/Weekly.htm (You’ll get a ton of fr** writing/freelancing tools direct from Shery at http://WeeklyWrites.com when you order this title!)

4.      Timecross’d: A Love Story Out Of Time by Sean Thompson http://filbertpublishing.com/timecrossd.htm

5.      Writing Wide: Exercises in Creative Writing by Billie A. Williams http://filbertpublishing.com/WW.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~Advertisement~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you want to make a great living as a freelancer, you need to include this weapon in your writing arsenal. Check out the special report:

Can You Write Something Like This?

http://www.thewriterslife.com/opportunity1

If you can answer “yes” to that question, you could be in big demand, earning big money, writing just a few hours a day from anywhere you choose to live.

Beth’s Note: This course is not inexpensive, but it’s worth every penny. Where else can you receive hand-written feedback from successful, working copywriters? This company had a big hand in launching my writing career. Maybe they can do the same for you….

~~~~~~~~~~~~ Feature Article ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

But What’s In It For Me?!?

By Beth Ann Erickson

FilbertPublishing.com

And coming soon… BethAnnErickson.com

We’ve been talking queries these last few weeks.

I know. Boring, eh?

I don’t think so, and I hope you don’t either because today I’m going to blow the top off everything you thought you knew about writing an effective query.

So, let’s begin by taking a peek into the life of a busy publisher…

Day begins with a ton of e-mail and stack of mail.

First thing… sort out the junk. (I actually study and file my junk mail, but that’s another article.)

Next we sort the queries. Bills and such go in another pile.

So, let’s look at pile #2… the queries.

Phone’s ringing. UPS just dropped off a package. Dog’s ballistic.

Rip… Liz opens the first envelope. “To whom it may concern: I have written a novel.”

Liz tosses the letter and throws a rejection letter into the SASE.

Dog’s still barking like a fool. Beth wanders into the office muttering, “Anyone seen my bag of carrots? Need something to chew. Now. Carrots?”

Liz ignores her and slices the next envelope. This one smells like perfume: Dearest editor, enclosed you’ll find my query…”

Liz tosses it in the recycling. No SASE this time so this person won’t receive a response.

She grabs he next query and reads: Dear publisher: Mac Johnson is a man with a problem….

Liz rolls her eyes and this letter follows the same route as the previous queries.

Beth’s still wandering through the office digging for her bag of carrots. The dog’s transferred her attention to a tennis ball. She grasps it in her mouth and is now unceremoniously dropping it into Liz’s lap as she opens the fourth envelope.

“Dear Maury,” she reads, “I enjoyed Beth’s latest article in Writing Etc.” Liz smiles and leans back in her chair. “I found her advice to tightly target my queries to be invaluable. In fact I’ve sold four articles using this technique!”

Liz shoos Lucy away and zeros in on the letter. “In fact,” the letter continues, “as a long time subscriber to Writing Etc., I’ve noticed that you rarely cover a particular aspect of the writing life and I’d like to address that today…”

“Hey, Beth,” Liz yells, “come here. I think I found a hot one….”

See what happened here? Let’s analyze a bit.

Letter #1: This person didn’t personalize the query. A writer who doesn’t take the time to address the query to an actual human being runs the risk of appearing lazy. Publishers tend to feel that lazy writers produce lazy work.

Secondly, our continually updated online guidelines state that we aren’t accepting fiction. This reinforces the notion that this writer may be lazy. If they’re not lazy, they’re not computer literate and that’s a detriment when it comes to marketing your writing. Newbie authors must harness the power of the Internet to sell books. No short cuts.

Also, this letter’s first sentence doesn’t pass the “Who cares” test. Each sentence in your letter needs to effectively pass this particular test to cut the mustard in a highly competitive field. So you’ve written a novel? Who cares? Lots of people have. What makes your novel different? Unique? A pleasure to read? A reason to give up days of your reader’s life?

Letter #2: Perfume? Please don’t douse your queries in perfume. Seriously.

Queries are a business correspondence. This means no perfume. It means you shouldn’t call anyone “dearest.” We’re not your best friend. We’re your potential publisher.

Simply stated, you don’t need to romance a potential publisher (someone who will invest mucho bucks on your book). What you do need to do is convince them that you know how to effectively market your title. If you know how to sell, you’ll probably know how to sell books.

Now let’s move onto the second sentence: “Enclosed you’ll find a query.”

Well duh. It’s a query letter. I can think of a million better ways to start this letter, I’m sure you can, too.

Query writing is not for the faint-hearted. It’s a tough job, but the better you get at it, the faster you can trounce your competition and land the big assignments.

Let’s move on.

Letter #3: “Dear publisher.” Yup. Another impersonalized query. Make sure you send all your queries to an actual person.

After all, suppose you queried the New York Post. What would happen to your correspondence if you sent it to “New York Post.” Heaven only knows who’d finally end up with the letter. However if you send it to “Jackie Smith” at the New York Post, chances are you’ll get it read.

A little sleuthing will give you an incredible edge.

Now, let’s talk about first sentence. Here it is: Mac Johnson is a man with a problem….

It’s OK. Big problem with it is that dang near every fiction query starts with this sentence. At least the ones we get. Really.

Secondly, I’ve never heard of Mac Johnson. Liz probably hasn’t either. That’s probably because he’s a fictional character.

So, why should we care he has a problem?

Sounds brash, but it’s true.

Which brings me to my main point…

Every query you write need to answer this question: WIIFM.

Copywriters instantly know what this means. If you’re not a copywriter, I’ll explain.

When copywriters draft a sales pitch, the first thing they do is step into the mind of the reader. They study them. They read what they read. Eat what they eat. They, in essence, become the reader (or as copywriters call them, the “prospect”).

Kinda freaky, eh?

I thought so until I realized how important it is to touch the mind (and heart) of your readers if you’re going to get them to…

ü      Read your query

ü      Purchase your articles

ü      Read your articles

ü      Pick up your book

ü      Actually read the thing

Touching the emotions of your readers… no matter who they are… is almost always easier when you remind yourself of “WIIFM” or “What’s in it for me?”

Query number three clearly did that in a big way.

So, what’s the WIIFM in that third query? Well, he stroked our ego. He not only did everything right… called us by our right name… mentioned that he was a subscriber… he went so far as to let us know what he found this tiny e-mag helpful.

Smart marketer.

Right about now you’re probably wondering what’s the best way to apply this newfound knowledge to your queries?

Ah… that’s what we’ll talk about next time!

~~~

Beth Ann Erickson is the “Queen Bee” of Filbert Publishing. She’s also the author of Jumpstart Your Writing Career (http://filbertpublishing.com/jumpstart.htm ). She’s also a busy copywriter, speaker, and publisher of Writing Etc., the free e-mag for writers. 

~~~~~~ Recommended Resource to Jumpstart Your Writing Career ~~~~~~~

Queries too confusing right now? Don’t sweat it.

With this little e-book, you can forget queries and sell your books directly to your readers.

No queries. No printing. No POD. No publishers.

Best of all, you retain all rights to your own work PLUS you keep all the profits.

Here’s the link:

How to Write A High Profit E-Book In Seven Days

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2005 Action Plan to Jumpstart Your Writing Career

Scan your latest queries again (you should have done this once already).

Is there a clear WIIFM in each one? Have you stepped into the heart and mind of your reader?

If you haven’t, you need to sit down and conduct a bit of research.

·        Who is your reader?

·        What is their life like?

·        What do they love about their job?

·        What do they dislike about their job?

·        How can you make their life easier?

·        How can your writing totally make their life a joy?

These are just a few starter questions. Dig deep. KNOW your reader. Taste what they taste. Feel what they feel.

Now get to work. Remember, your competition rarely does this. If you do… BOY do you have an edge over them!

P.S. If you’re not sure the mechanics of writing an effective query, you can download Power Queries at this url: http://filbertpublishing.com/PQ.html

Till next time, happy writing!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We Recommend:

Writing For Dollars! The FREE ezine for writers featuring tips, tricks and ideas for selling what you write. Receive the FREE ebook, 83 WAYS TO MAKE MONEY WRITING when you subscribe. Email to subscribe@writingfordollars.com -*- http://www.WritingForDollars.com

WRITERS FIND MARKETS EASILY - Worldwide Freelance has a NEW fully-searchable Markets Database. Discover writing markets from North America, Europe, Australia and other places. It's free, so come and try it out here: http://www.worldwidefreelance.com

Are your book sales in a slump? http://filbertpublishing.com/copy.html

Instantly Download Jumpstart Your Writing Career and Snag Paying Assignments Here:

http://booklocker.com/bookpages/jumpstart.html

Don’t Forget to pick up your copy of The Almach. Reviewers are calling it “Haunting,” and “A Great Read.” http://filbertpublishing.com/Almach.htm

E-Mag And Web Site Owners! Did you know that Filbert Publishing has an entire cache of articles you can use FR EE. Copy and paste these articles straight into your web site or publication. Here’s the URL: http://filbertpublishing.com/articles.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Feel free to forward Writing Etc. to all your writing friends. Just be sure to include the entire issue. Thanks!

We strive to make Writing Etc. an invaluable resource to writers. If you have any comments or suggestions please send them to mailto:filbertpublishing@filbertpublishing.com

For Easier Reading and Red Hot URLS, read this issue online at:

http://filbertpublishing.com/current.htm

The Fine Print:

If you feel you are receiving this publication in error, we want to know about it. E-mail us at filbertpublishing(a)filbertpublishing.com so we can investigate how your e-mail address arrived into our double-opt-in system. Also, you can easily remove your e-mail addy from this list at any time by clicking your personalized link at the end of this e-mail.

To receive Writing, Etc. surf to http://filbertpublishing.com and insert your e-mail address into the form.

Please recommend this newsletter to anyone you know who'd like to learn how to make their writing sparkle. Just click on "Forward" in your email program and send away.

PRIVACY STATEMENT: We will not distribute your email address to anyone. Ever. Period.

Please send your news items, ideas, comments, etc. to mailto:filbertpublishing@filbertpublishing.com

Writing Etc.

Box 326

Kandiyohi, MN 56251

Maurice and Beth Erickson, Publishers

http://filbertpublishing.com/

© 2005 Filbert Publishing