Al Kaplan, 1953
My dad passed away two years ago. Today would have been his 79th birthday.
Nominate a favorite social media book.
If you receive this post by email, please tell me what’s the best time of the day you’d like to receive these. It used to go out in the mornings, but I felt overwhelmed by emails in the morning and thought late afternoon / early evening would be better. It doesn’t mean that’s the best time for you. Just reply and let me know. Thank you for reading!
Brain food…
- How to Read a Non-fiction Book: If you want more — The Little Book to Your Well-Read Life is the best book I’ve read about reading books.
- Musings on a Memoir, a Movie and a Two Billion Dollar Story Model: I’ve added Open to my must read list and viewed the captioned trailer of Edge of Darkness.
- 8 Blogs About Book Covers and Book Design: I confess. I never read The Phantom Tollbooth because of its cover. I just finished reading it. I’m glad I waited to read it until now when I am a bigger verbivore today than when I was a kid.
- Product Launches Should be a Big Deal: Don’t let post title fool you. It’s an excellent critique of a Microsoft presentation. Great lesson for the presenters in all of us.
- Publishers: Why Are You Creating Huge Followers for Those Who Might Soon Be Putting You Out of Business: Excellent read from Christina Katz on the partnering (or not) of publishers and authors. I’d love to know what you think. I’m still listening, learning and assessing.
And for fun because we’re allowed…
- 12 Most Creative Candles: When I was a kid, I made egg candles from a crafts book I had. Probably the only thing I tried.
- 10 Interesting Edibles from the Fancy Food Show: Interesting is the right word.
- How to Use a Semicolon: A comical look at ; [Link: Writer's Digest]. You can also take the Twitter spelling test.
- Movies in Longshot: Comics with dot characters.
- Australia and Stupid Tourist Questions: Should we bring cutlery? [Link: Andy Hayes]
- Replacing World Landmarks with Souvenirs: Clever [Link: Mark Hurst]
- SimplyNoise: White noise for when you need it.
Updated: 11 June 2010
Occasionally, I receive an e-mail from someone who wants advice on becoming a professional writer. There’s too much information out there, so the best thing to do is learn a little at a time. The following is what I tell those interested in a writing career.
Join a writing community: The best thing you can do is join a writer’s community as not many writers like to give advice because they worked hard to get where they are with little or no help. Many great communities exist out there. Your best bet is to search for the ones covering your industry or genre because those communities will have answers to many of your questions. So search the community for answers before asking.
Book recommendations: Writer’s Market [current year]
Resources: Read Writer’s Digest (it has a community, too). Check out my Friday links and Twitter (I have a list of writing pros that can also help you) as I often include links to great writing-related articles. Social media is a great place to meet and connect with writers and others in the industry. A few Twitter chats cover writing-related topics. Here’s how to join a Twitter chat.
This list is short to avoid to avoid overwhelming you. When someone gives me too much info — I feel overwhelmed that I don’t know where to begin. If you’re ready for more resources, here’s a growing list of Free Tools and Sites for Writers.
Abstract version of my story: I didn’t quit my day job and dive into freelance writing. Instead, I wrote on the side while working a day job. I continuously received assignments and it took five years before leaving my day job for full-time freelancing.
What advice do you share with new writers?
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