Did you know that you can access grant and contest submission information (deadlines, requirements, fees, etc.) for many literary journals online, thanks to Poets and Writers magazine?
The submission calendar is well worth checking on a regular basis: you may have some old unpublished piece that just fits in perfectly — or be inspired to write something new! Either way, keeping up with submission information will keep you … beyond the elements of style!
Posted in About Writing, Contests, Fiction, Getting Published, Publishing, Words on November 27th, 2009
It’s almost 2010, and still I find myself telling bewildered would-be authors that it’s not enough for them to say that they’ll participate in a potential publisher’s promotion plan for their books. That may have worked in the ’50s, I don’t know—I wasn’t writing and publishing then. But it hasn’t worked for some time, and the sooner you get your head wrapped around that concept, the closer you’ll be to selling your book.
Any book proposal, fiction or nonfiction, must include a marketing plan, and the more specific it is, the better. Publishers don’t want to hear that you’ll go along with their ideas, they want to know that you’ll be constantly coming up with ideas of your own, and following through on them. A website. An email list to which you belong. Flyers. Lectures. Giveaways. SEO. Social media. Direct mail. Local cable broadcasts. The list is limited only by your imagination.
And to help that imagination, enter a new blog by PR expert Rebecca Kellogg, Creative Marketing Campaigns. It’s still in its infancy, so don’t expect a plethora of ideas; but I’ve listened to Rebecca’s ideas for some time and I’m excited about the potential for this blog. Try it and see what you think!
An older post (but still relevant) that I think is particularly useful about creative book marketing is called, oddly enough, Creative Book Marketing, and is well worth the read.
If you want a little humor with your research on book marketing, check out the idea of book trailers here.
In any case, remember that it’s no longer up to you to simply write the best book you can. You have to market, market, market. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!
Posted in Ideas, Publicity, Publishing, Words, copywriting on November 24th, 2009
Well, it’s that time of year again. When popular culture is acknowledged in the musty tomes and corridors of academia, and new words are admitted into the sacred space of the dictionaries.
Well, the Oxford English Dictionary, anyway.
Then again, the OED’s “new” word of the year is “unfriend.” But it’s probably news for Facebook users that unfriending has been around for a very long time indeed. The OED itself notes:
1659 Fuller _App. Inj. Innoc._ iii. xxxjb, I hope, Sir, that we are notmutually Unfriended by this Difference which hath happened betwixt us.
In addition to unfriending people, this year we’ve added zombie bank, hashtag, sexting, birther, ecotown, and tramp stamp, among others, to the list of accepted vernacular vocabulary.
Pleased? Disconcerted? Time marches on, and like it or not, someone you know is already using these words. Or maybe it’s you. In any case, try some of them out! And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!
Posted in About Writing, Language, Words on November 20th, 2009
I’ve always enjoyed Google’s cartoon-like logos, often commemorating occasions I had no idea existed. That cartoon-around-the-logo actually has a name (but what else would we expect from Google?), the Google Doodle, and here’s a brief history of the Doodle from MediaPost’s Laurie Sullivan.
Remember that if you installed a Google toolbar on your browser and use it for search, you’re missing out on the Google Doodles altogether! So make it a point to visit the landing page from time to time. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!
Posted in Creativity, SEO, Words, internet, search engine optimization, social media, website stuff on November 17th, 2009
Okay, so it’s been a while since I posted to my blog. Bear with me: my personal life has been in an upheaval (to put it mildly) but it seems that I’m getting it back on track, so I’m back to my blog now as well!
Today I want to point all poets and short fiction writers to a tremendous web resource of which you might not be aware. Duotrope lists an amazing amount of information about an amazing number of publications, both print and online, that are open to submissions. It tells you about reading periods, whether simultaneous submissions or reprints are accepted, the average response time, genres, comments … in short, just about anything you might want to know about the publication.
Duotrope also keeps track of the frequent changes in the literary world: which publications have folded, which aren’t accepting submissions, which new ones have appeared, etc. And you can have all of that information sent to your inbox for free by subscribing to either the poetry or the fiction edition of the digest here.
So check it out! And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!
Posted in Fiction, Publishers, Publishing, Submissions, Tools, Words on November 13th, 2009
