Archive for November 2009

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Today’s guest blogger is Andy Hayes. Andy and I are tweet buddies and we love to talk writing among other things. He is that travel guy from Edinburgh, Scotland. Stay tuned to this post if you want a chance to win a copy of Andy’s eBook.

Newspapers Might be Dead, but Good Copy Isn’t by Andy Hayes

Most mainstream media would lead you to believe that the newspapers will soon be dead, or at least reborn into something new. Entrepreneurs have long known the value of giving their customers great content via flashy websites, interesting blogs, and catchy newsletters. But are you writing content that sells, or are you headed the way of the newspaper?  Double check your copy against these five tips and tweaks.

Write for Somebody. Everybody Isn’t Interested. There is a classic copywriting technique that has been around for ages, yet businesses and writers fail to take advantage of it:  write as if your customer were sitting next to you, listening in. If you write for the masses, they’ll tune out, because they’re not interested. Now if you’re talking directly to someone, perhaps they’ll be more curious in what you have to say. Test it out: how does it read if you add a “Dear John,” or “Hello Susie,” to the top of that sales copy?

Headlines: They’re Really Important. We’re living in an age of information overload, without a doubt. I tried to find a whimsical quote to insert here about the number of blogs being written, but it seems we stopped counting because it’s growing too fast, which I suppose is a whimsical quote in itself. If you don’t write snappy, catchy, interesting, and relevant headlines, nobody is going to read the rest of your words. You really need to work on these; don’t be afraid to go back and change if something isn’t working.

Are You a Real Person?  Show It! Bland, boring, tight-lipped corporate copy has gone out the window — and I say good riddance to it. Welcome to today’s marketing copy: warm, friendly but not too friendly, and full of personality. If your business was a person, who would it be like?  (If you’re a one-person business, I hope the answer is you.) Your sales copy should talk like that person.  Keep in mind your ideal customer; maybe they’re nerds who respect and understand your technical jargon, or maybe they’re scared and need handholding from a motherly figure. Now having a personality doesn’t mean it gets personal; make it professional and clean up those typos. Otherwise, relax and just write like you talk.

Ask Them To Do Something. People are lazy. That’s not a revelation by any means, but when it comes to online sales, people are really lazy.  You need to give people directions — very explicit, clear instructions. If your sales process has multiple steps, tell people what to do each stage of the way. Look at it this way:  the last thing on every page of your website (besides that copyright stuff in the footer) should be the answer to this question: “What do I do now?”

Quality over Quantity. When they say less is more, they mean it. As mentioned above, we’ve hit maximum information overload. When you can say it with less words, with less bullet points, with an image instead of text, do it.

About the Author: Andy Hayes is a professional writer and published author. He is the managing director of Travel Online Partners (TOP), the go-to resource for small businesses in travel and tourism for help with online technology. For more tips and tricks, have a look at TOP’s online writing guide, Write Right Online, the perfect cure for any lifeless sales copy.

Win: To win a copy of Write Right Online ebook, please leave a comment at least 50 words about your favorite writing tip or book. You have until 11:59pm on December 7, 2009 to qualify for the drawing. The unbiased and robotic Random.org has the honor of picking the winner.

The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the first ‘one-deal-a-day’ website dedicated to indie and casual games:

Sun. November 29th: 65% off on Dream Sleuth

Mon. November 30th: 65% off on Science Girls!

Tue. December 1st: 65% off on Save Our Spirit

Wed. December 2nd: 50% off on Delicious: Emily’s Taste of Fame

Thu. December 3rd: 65% off on Season Match 2

Fri. December 4th: 60% off on Mysterious City: Vegas

Sat. December 5th: 65% off on Real Crimes: Jack the Ripper

I hope all my American friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I’m, of course, thankful for you, you and yes – you! And yes, anyone who lives outside of the US. My first grader had Pioneer Day where the kids did different activities: make butter, make soap, cloth dying, etc. My fifth grader had Colonial Day where they made Jonnycakes, cross-stitched, worked with tinfoil, etc.

Not going anywhere for Black Friday. Staying right at home away from the crowds and enjoying family time. Besides, got most of my holiday shopping done.

Congratulations to Nicole Bernier for winning a copy of Thirsty!

Please vote for your top 25 books on writing. Let others know to vote, too.

Brain food… not too much this time… enough food this week, eh?

• Wordiness, Wordiness, Wordiness List: Words you can remove from your writing [Link: Esther Schindler].
• “Seg-Book-Gation” in Publishing: 1950 is calling, it wants segregation back. I read a book because it’s good — not because of the author’s race, religion, gender, etc. etc. The only time authors matters is when I like their book that I want to find more from the same.
• Writing Pay-How Low Will You Go? It all depends on experience, locale and workload.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• World’s Strangest Monuments: Hail, hail reef ecosystems! [Link: Andy Hayes]
• 12 Strangely Painted Homes: You can’t help but wonder if they were Photoshopped.
• 15 Most Bizarre Boat and Yacht Names: Some not safe for work.
• 12 More Insanely Titled Books: Many not safe for work. Yes, Oddee is on a roll this week. Or rather, many of us took a break from blogging this week.

In Valerie Porter and the Scarlet Scandal (I keep typing “Reporter”), you play a new journalist in the 1920s who deals with prejudiced males who think women should not be in certain jobs and a scandal involving politicians and starlets. This hidden object adventure game comes with a few twists and a fascinating story that’s sure to win over experienced and new hidden object adventure gamers.

Valerie starts her job with the local newspaper. Even though a female is a star reporter there, she paid her dues, and she’s no ally of Valerie’s. Valerie ends up in plenty of hot water as she pokes her nose where it doesn’t belong. She digs deep into the case involving a famous starlet, the mayor, the chief of police, a boxer and a director.

In the search for the truth, Valerie schleps around town visiting police station, mayor’s office, the gin joint, her apartment and other spots. She’ll study the scenes for clues that appear in the list of things to find. A lot of them, however, have nothing to do with the story. The game also tries to make the object finding harder by describing items instead of giving you their names, such as “hand warmer” for gloves and “cuts things” for scissors. If an item’s name or description perplexes you, click it to see its silhouette.

Another twist is finding multiple items of the same type such as newspapers, umbrellas and so on. Press and hold the mouse button and touch each for bonus points. You can do this when Valerie rides the train to travel to another location or in a scene asking you to find X number of items.

You’ll also search for two batteries in every scene to receive additional hints as well as 100 bells. When using up a hint, you still have to wait for the light bulb to fill back up before you can use another. If you don’t find all 100 bells by the end of the game, you’re out of luck unless you have the patience of Job and can replay the entire thing.

Valerie Porter and the Scarlet Scandal lets you feel like a reporter as Valerie types up stories with your help. The typewriter enters a few words, and then you select the word or phrase — from a list — that should come next in the story. Once you finish the story, you set the headline filling in the blank slots with the metal plates like they did in the old days. So pay attention to the story or else you’ll end up guessing the words until you get them right. What a clever way to ensure you follow the story.

When you have interactive conversations with the suspects and city officials, sometimes you’ll need to figure out the next line for Valerie to say. Rather than guessing, you have a puzzle where you trace the “correct” answer to the right statement by following the curvy lines. It’s a nice way to involve the player in the dialogue. You also do word searches based on conversations you’ve had and other mini-games. Most of the mini-games do repeat, but at least it’s not to the point where it becomes tedious or monotonous.

You revisit scenes and see the same objects when you revisit, but you rarely (if ever) have to find the same objects you’ve found before.

You’ll develop photographs by lining up two overlapping photos. This was difficult to figure out at first as the game didn’t accept the work — it looked clear. But after a few tries, it came together.

The scenes reflect the culture and design of the 1920s with gorgeous graphics with a touch of art deco. Valerie Porter and the Scarlet Scandal is an excellent production that’s a pleasure to play. While not without a few annoyances, Valerie Porter and the Scarlet Scandal keeps you captivated through all aspects of the game — something few games manage to do.

Download and try the game.

FTC Discalimer: Copy received from publisher.

The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the first ‘one-deal-a-day’ website dedicated to indie and casual games:

Sun. November 22nd: 65% off on Dream Sleuth

Mon. November 23rd: 65% off on Wisegal

Tue. November 24th: 50% off on Delicious: Emily’s Holiday Season

Wed. November 25th: 65% off on Engineering: Mystery of the Ancient Clock

Thu. November 26th: 65% off on Hide & Secret 3: Pharaoh’s Quest

Fri. November 27th: 65% off on Island Realms

Sat. November 28th: 50% off on Nat Geo Eco Rescue: Rivers

Congratulations to Dawn Herring for winning The Last Will of Moira Leahy! Never fear… Thirsty is still up for the winnin’. Also, please vote for your top 25 books on writing.

Articles full of brain goodness…

• Oxford Word of the Year: 2009: I had to unfriend someone on Facebook who abused the “Join this Page” button. Other terms listed include hashtag, sexting and Obamaisms.
• Copyright Essentials for Writers: It does matter. For example, if a pub puts your article into a book, you could get paid for that — but not if you sell all rights [Link: Jessica Strawser].
• 10 Productivity Tools for Computer Addicts: I use a couple of them and others I won’t use because they’ll just hook me in and take me away from work.
• How to Identify and Deal with Different Types of Clients: Covers just about every kind of person I’ve met.
• Why Do Great Writers Steal: Good info on how to steal without plagiarizing.
• 50 Books You’ll Want to Read in 2010: Still trying to get through my list from 2005! [Link: Bubblecow]
• The Most Powerful Two Hours You’ll Ever Spend as a Storyteller: Larry ain’t kidding. I’m gonna do this someday.

For fun because we’re allowed…

• Postcards From Yo Momma: A repository of modern day material correspondence [Link: Allison Winn Scotch]
• 35 Incredible Digital Painting Tutorials: Wow. I wish I had time to try this as I can’t draw worth a darn.
• The 15 Coolest Weapons from Sci-Fi Films: Ha! I guessed Lightsaber would be the big one and it’s #1.
• Steampunk Art and Gear: Why is it we’re suddenly seeing steampunk everywhere? [Link: Calista Taylor]
• Masters of Paper Art: Whooaaaa… stunning is right [Link: Kristin Butler].
• Bio-Diversity: Leaf art… like you’ve never seen it [Link: Mark Hurst].
• The History of the Internet in a Nutshell: I used BBSes. (I appeared in the BBS Documentary.) I met the Internet in 1993 using Mosaic and then moving on to Netscape Navigator by 1995.
• Texas Footwear Fail: We certainly don’t want to keep taxes beautiful…

Image from Twitlogo.com

You do everything right in Twitter. So why are some people not following you back? It’s not you. (Well, maybe in the rare situation when someone truly doesn’t like you. Even the nicest people don’t have a fan in a person or two.) Doing Twitter right means you …

• Mix up your tweets (retweets, replies, original messages and links).
• Take care in promoting your own stuff.
• Don’t spam.
• Have a nice follower and following ratio.
• Share insights.
• Spotlight others in a genuine way.
• Have a complete profile that includes a bio, avatar, link and location.

Good for you. That’s all you can do to encourage people to follow you and stick with you. Yet, you still won’t always make the cut. I have plenty of good Twitter users who don’t follow me back or decide to stop following me and I am OK with that. Even I don’t follow back people with thousands of followers. If you work hard enough and long enough, you too, can have loads of followers without producing good quality tweets.

Why would people not follow back a good Twitter user? The first thing to understand about Twitter is that we have different goals of what we want to do with it. In other words, five people could use Twitter in different ways and they’re all doing it right. Here are the possible reasons:

1. They follow specific topics or careers: One client follows only those involved the Intranet, internal communications and enterprise communications. Another follows only those who are writers, editors and publishers.
2. They want to limit their tweet stream: There’s no rule of thumb on how often to tweet. Some do 20+ tweets a day and others do just two tweets a day. Not everyone wants a flooded Twitter stream. So they limit their follows to the people they like, admire and respect.
3. They don’t know you’re following them: Some folks opt not to receive an email every time they gain a new follower. They also don’t review their “followers” list. Who has time for that?
4. They follow only people they know offline: While we can make friends and acquaintances online, some prefer not to venture that far and stick close to home with people they already know.
5. They just started using Twitter: Few figure out Twitter in an instant, so they’re not sure how they want to use Twitter or exactly how it works.
6. They may not know they stopped following you: Twitter isn’t perfect. I’ve followed people only to find out later that I stopped following them due to a Twitter quirk. Several of us swore that we thought we were already following each other.
7. They thought they were already following you: Unless you follow fewer than 100 people, very few study their followers and make sure they stay connected. So it’s easy to overlook someone. The fastest way to see if someone follows you is to look on their Twitter page for “message” under “Actions.” If it’s not there, they’re not following you. You can send a gentle tweet or email them privately letting them know that you can’t send DMs because they’re not following you. It’s OK. Many of us appreciate that.
8. They have millions of followers: These folks tend to be the celebrities or people with popular web sites (Oprah, Ashton Kutcher, Cakewrecks and Mashable). They know they can’t keep up and operate differently from the rest of us.
9. They didn’t like your introductory direct message (DM): Some people automatically respond to every new follower with a direct message while others send annoying (yes, they annoy a lot of folks) ones like: “Thanks for following me.” “I hope to get to know you.” “You can learn more about me at my blog.”
10. They were tired of your reciprocal tweets: On #followfridays, you list a bunch of names and not much else. Or you thank every single person for retweeting (RT) or mentioning you. Some people love it. Some people hate it.
11. They never heard from you: The other person is one of those who DMs everyone and if they don’t hear back, they unfollow. Or they RT something you said and never got a thank you from you.

Again, you and I have different rules and expectations when it comes to Twitter. While I follow one rule, you may break it, and in reverse. Conversation quality is what makes the Twitter experience. Not numbers. Not who follows you.

We can’t control who follows us (aside from the occasional nudge) or adds us to one of their lists. We CAN control who we follow. In rare cases, the decision to not follow you is a personal one — but most of the time it’s not.

What rules do you have for using Twitter?

Welcome to meryl’s notes blog (this here place you’re lookin’ at) in Plano, Texas. We’re honored to be a stop in Kristin Bair O’Keeffe’s WOW! Women On Writing Blog tour. I first met Kristin through Christina Katz. Since then, I’ve read her book, exchanged a few tweets and emails and absorbed her column in Writers on the Rise. (Stay tuned in this post if ya wanna win this book!)

About Kristin Bair O’Keeffe
Kristin Bair O’Keeffe is the author of Thirsty and an American who lives in Shanghai, China. She is also a voracious reader, a happy mom, an engaging teacher who believes in “telling the best story you can…believing in your writing…and working your arse off,” a fierce advocate for the end of domestic violence, and a writer who spends as much time as possible in writerhead. To find out more, visit www.thirstythenovel.com or Kristin’s blog at www.kristinbairokeeffeblog.com.

Now… post from Kristin Bair O’Keeffe.

Congratulations!

You’re a Mom and an Author!

(Gulp…)

The Beginning

On September 26, 2008, I was in an orphanage in a small village in Vietnam. On that spectacular, unforgettable, life-changing day, a nanny placed my eight-month-old daughter in my arms for the first time.

Three weeks later when our adoption was complete, my husband and I wrapped our arms around Tully and each other, finished up our Vietnam journey, and returned to our home in Shanghai, China.

On October 24 — less than a month after I officially became a mom — I got an email from David Sanders, the director of Swallow Press. “We would like to publish your novel Thirsty,” he told me.

Huh?

Seriously?

After all the dreaming, work, sweat, worry, anticipation, rewrites, excitement, ups-and-downs, paperworkpaperchasingheartsmashingheartopening, I achieved two lifelong dreams in less than one month’s time.

Mom.

Author.

Mom.

Author.

Good gracious me.

What Next?

Of course, all the gorgeous things that are supposed to happen when you become a mom and when you become an author happened:

• I fell in love with my daughter. Deeply, madly, sweetly.
• I read and reread (and um, yes, reread) the email from David Sanders, rejoicing in the fact that my debut novel finally was going to make its way into readers’ hands.
• I obsessed about formula, vaccinations, and pediatricians.
• I nested and made a comfy home for our family.
• I obsessed about the quality of water in China and prayed that our bottled water was as safe as they said it was.
• I obsessed about what the cover of Thirsty would look like and wondered if I’d get a chance to say “yea” or “nay” or if the worst happened, “Have you lost your bloody mind?”
• I obsessed about… (you see the trend here, yes?)

But…

then the reality hit. Suddenly I had to edit my novel AND take care of my new baby…at the same time. While I’d dreamed of both things happening, never had I expected them to happen in the same month.

Kristin Bair O'Keeffe and daughter Tully

Now when I look back, I can’t quite figure out how I did it, but I guess that’s the mystery of human will. I was determined not to have any childcare help during Tully’s first months at home…the three of us had a lot of bonding to do as a family. So while Tully was awake and Andrew was at work, she and I were a team…the dynamic duo. We wandered the streets of Shanghai, danced, played, read books, touched noses, and got to know one another.

While Tully slept (during naps, early in the mornings, and late at night), I edited.

Was I exhausted?

Yes.

Was I cranky at my husband?

Oh, gosh, yeah.

Did I neglect important friendships?

Too often.

Was I deliriously happy?

Yes.

Did I finish the edit?

Barely, but yes.

Ta Da!

Now…jump in time to October 1, 2009. Thirsty is in bookstores. Tully and I are in the United States for a mini-book tour. She is a happy, silly, healthy, brilliant, stubborn toddler. I am a happyhappyhappy, silly, healthy (and yes, sometimes stubborn) mom with a great husband and terrific friends who all nurtured me through my happiest, most challenging new mama moments. I am also an author.

Win: To win a copy of the book, please leave a comment at least 50 words about parenthood, the place where you grew up or a favorite locale. You have until 11:59pm on November 25, 2009 to qualify for the drawing. The unbiased and robotic Random.org has the honor of picking the winner.

The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the first ‘one-deal-a-day’ website dedicated to indie and casual games:

Sun. November 15th: 60% off on Zombie Bowl-O-Rama

Mon. November 16th: 50% off on Party Planner

Tue. November 17th: 50% off on Imperial City: The Crown of the King

Wed. November 18th: 50% off on Hexagonal Chess

Thu. November 19th: 50% off on Byzantine Circular Chess

Fri. November 20th: 50% off on Jack’s Home

Sat. November 21st: 65% off on Gardenscapes

Meryl's dad in USAF: Yes, that's a ciggie. He quit smoking not long after.

Thanks to veterans everywhere for defending our country at all costs. Two of the most important men in my life served in the USAF: My dad and my husband. Also, thanks to the brave soldiers at Fort Hood who put their lives on the line to capture the shooter.

Win Therese Walsh’s captivating novel, The Last Will of Moira Leahy, and Vote for your top 25 books on writing…

Articles full of brain goodness…

• The Most Important Sentence: How to Write a Killer Opening: I love the examples shared in this article.
• The Zeno: Poetry form by J. Patrick Lewis [Link: Greg Pincus].
• Writers and Financial Woes: What’s Going On: Why some writers see their finances melting.
• First Lines That Make You Read More: And not one is what we’ve all heard like The Tale of Two Cities‘ opening line [Link: Debbie Ohi]
• Three Reasons Why You Should Read Debut Novels: Just read two (The Last Will of Moira Leahy and Thirsty; both fabulous and memorable reads.) [Link: Lara Wells]

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• 50 Ugliest Cars of the Past 50 Years: Did they read my mind? They caught some of the more popular cars that I thought weren’t purty.
• Which Religion Should I Follow flow chart: If you’re dealing with the December dilemma, here’s your answer. Wow… I had no idea some people think underwear is magical. [Link: Deb]
• 15 Strange and Bizarre Gifts for the Weirdos in Your Life: Ahem… some not safe for work.
• Michael Jackson’s Thriller: Lego-style [Link: BitRebels]
• Sesame Street Remixes: Me love Sesame Street. My mom says that I was an early reader partly because of the show. I wonder how I pulled that off considering I can’t read monsters’ lips. And of course, captions weren’t around yet. Sesame Street lollipops.