1. Don’t take it personally.
   Editors, agents and their staffs are people, meaning the same daily tasks and annoyances influence them just as they influence you. Plus, they have a job to do. This job requires them to use their own judgment and biases to sift through material. As with any working professional, they are busy; therefore, a form letter is usually the easiest and most productive communication to use.
2. Know it is not a statement on Your Talent.
   A rejection doesn’t mean you are not a good writer. What it may mean is that your piece didn’t fit the idea of what that particular company or agent was wanting to find. Even the most talented and commercially successful writers had a hard time finding the right publisher for their first work.
3. Celebrate it and keep writing.
   One of the writer’s groups that I attend occasionally celebrates rejection letters. Why? It means they are submitting their writing not just writing. So see the letter as progress and submit to another place.

These same ideas apply even if you are a corporate writer. A business may have an idea of a certain style or a specific background. When you are passed over for another writer, it doesn’t always reflect on talent either.

Keep writing, keep looking. Eventually, there will be a match.

The following is a list of main points from the meeting.  

·         Nine in ten manuscripts are rejected with a majority due to using improper fonts or paper, having bad grammar/mechanics, or sending to the wrong agent (sending a romance novel to an agent that specializes in mysteries). Times New Roman in 12 point may be boring, but it is an industry standard and a safe choice.

·         The first page makes the impression, make sure it shines.  You want your manuscript to make it past the first stage of reading.  If the initial reader doesn’t like it, then it will definitely be rejected.

·         Good content in necessary, but something unique and fresh in invaluable.  Remember the adage there is nothing new under the sun, and plots are included.  What will make your story different is having a fresh approach to a tired plot. 

·         Avoid generalities. Be specific in your word choices – clichés and adverbs detract.   Don’t forget that images can be just as much of a cliché as phrases.

·         Evoke a strong emotion and use vivid images.  Remember it is better to show than to tell, and showing through dialogue can be the strongest choice in some situations.  A good journalist knows that quotes tell the story, and the same can be true in fiction. 

If you follow the advice in these bullets, then your manuscript has a better chance of standing out. 

In the coming posts, I plan to elaborate more on these notes and some of the others that I have left out of this post.

Feel free to comment with your thoughts and experiences. 

How do I do that?  Read everything you can by that writer.  If it is a news writer, Google to find his/her articles or go to the library to look for books by the author you have chosen.  Then, read to pay attention to the style.   Look at the word choice.  How are the sentences varied?  Does the writer manipulate grammar for emphasis (stylistic fragments and run ons).  How are things described – adjectives, similes, metaphors?  What elements are missing and why might the writer have left them out.  If it is a fiction book, how are the character developed and how are the themes developed.  It may sound like preparing to writer a paper for English class, but it will be worthwhile exercise. 

Next, try writing a paragraph or two using what you learned.  Do this as a writing exercise daily, and eventually, what you are learning will become part of your own style in your writing.

Have I accomplished this task? I would have to admit I have yet to reach my goal, but I am a much better writer because of this practice. 

Here are some writers that I read for this purpose: C.S. Lewis (for sentence variety and description), William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor (for style as well as character development and story development).

Anyone want to share others?

Most Web Readers Tend To Scan a Website.

As readers, we are less patient on the web. That reason is why having readable web content is the most important aspect of your website. 

Writing for web readers is different than writing for print.  When writing web content, follow the old adage “less is more.”  The simpler the writing, the more engaged the reader will be.   

How can engaging Content help my business?

If your website isn’t reader friendly, most often, you will lose that visitor, and you, in turn, lose a potential customer or donor.  Presenting reader friendly web content increases the chance you keep the reader on your site so they can become interested in your product or cause. To accomplish this task, just follow the five steps below.  By doing so, you will place your website in a strategic position for success.

What Are the Five Steps to Creating Engaging Web Content?

Step 1- Know who you are writing to and what message reaches them best.  Each audience will have its own jargon. A general web audience requires different content than one geared to reach teens or senior adults.  

Step 2- Make the information easy to scan.

·         Use an inverted structure. Think like a journalist. Newspaper articles are written with the important information first and details later.  Your web content should be written in the same manner.

·         Use headlines to your advantage. Since most readers scan for information, place the important information in headlines.

·         Use bullets. Bullets help break down your information into chunks.  Also, think of the first sentence in a bullet point as a headline. Then, lead with the most important fact. 

Step 3- Make the information readable.

·         Use short sentences. Complex sentences tend to bog the reader down.  Typically, you want simple sentences that are two lines or less.

·         Use short paragraphs. Make each paragraph about four to six sentences long. 

·         Use a simple font.  While fancy fonts look pretty, they distract the reader. 

·         Use a simple vocabulary. Once again, use a newspaper as an example.  Most papers write on a middle school reading level.  Aim for the same level.  The only exception would be a website with an academic audience.

Step 4- Don’t Overload the page with content.

·         Focus on one topic per page.  Too many topics will cause the reader to lost interest.  Plus, your message will be lost.

·         Avoid clutter. Too many graphics will distract the reader. 

·         Set a 400-500 word limit for each page.  Web readers don’t like to scroll or follow links to continue reading.

Step 5- Make the page easy to navigate.

·         Create simple menus. Use simple menu text and avoid graphical links.

·         Use headlines to aid transition. Let your headlines help your reader move through the content.  Using question can help you accomplish this goal.

Notice that I have placed the “meat” of the article in headlines or after bullets, and my sentences and paragraphs are short with an average vocabulary. 

There are three sets of the most commonly confused words.  I see these misused all the time. 

First:  Then and Than.   Then is used to express time, and than is used in a comparison.
For example, “Angela will bat first, and then, Mike will bat second.”  In that sentence then is used to express time or a sequence.  Now look at than; “Joseph is more likely to watch football than watch baseball. “  Notice the comparison.

Second:  There, Their, and Their.  Think of it this way.
There is a direction and count. Use there when referring to a number in a group: “There are five people waiting to get in the door,” or when referring to a place: “Look over there.”
Their always refers to people or objects. It is the possessive form of the pronoun they.
“You need to make sure their forms are filled out correctly before accepting them.”
They’re is the contraction for they are. “They’re going to the Braves game tonight.”

Third: effect and affect. The main difference is effect is a noun and affect is a verb.
If you think of effect as something to be measured or observed and affect as something that happens, you may use the words correctly more often. “The effect of the economic slump was seen in the unemployment numbers across all sectors.” Notice in the example, effect is not doing the action. It can be measured. Look at the next example.   “After the hurricane, the effect of the wind was noticeable in the amount of debris strewn around the town.” Again, it is something that can be measured or observed.

However, the word “affect” can’t be measured or observed. “How will the new banking rules affect the economy?” Notice that in this sentence affect is used to highlight something that will happen. This idea can also be seen in the next example.  “The amount of sleep a person gets at night affects the ability to concentrate the next day. “

There are others such as further and farther, and perhaps I will address those in future blogs.  But these three sets of words are the most commonly misused words that I see when I read blogs, emails, and web pages.  (I also saw them when I was teaching high school English.)

A freelance writer should be a shameless self promoter, using every available avenue to get his/her name out.  When a writer takes advantage of the number of outlets available to find work, then he/she will find a steady stream of income.  Keep in mind that this income will not be a major windfall, but a decent living can be made as a freelance writer. 

Where?  How?  You may ask.  First, build a website and target certain key words for SEO strategy.  I suggest starting local with the closest major city.  For example, bill yourself as Freelance Copywriter for Orlando Businesses.   Furthermore, this allows you to create an online portfolio that busy professions can access.  Second, get business cards; they are after all one of the best promotion tools available. 

Next, there are a number of different avenues you can use to find work.  Cold calling and mailing letters do work.  But also keep in mind shameless self promotion in person.  Go to a Chamber of Commerce meeting and hand out business cards.  Make contacts – then you may find that the letters are easier to write and may have a better success rate.  If you want to write magazine articles, find a mix of query letters and complete articles to send to magazines, and call your local newspaper and ask to be a stringer reporter or intern (have a complete article ready to submit when you do this). 

Use Craigslist.  It is free advertisement, and many businesses use to look for writers and advertise for writers.  An online job board for freelance writers such as O Desk, Sun Oasis, or Ifreelance.com are places to look.  One word of warning, when using sites such as IFreelance and O Desk, you will not find many people willing to pay the same rates a corporation would pay.  May of the business owners using these sites are small business owners, many of whom are just starting out.   Relying too much on them will cause you to be working on small paying projects a majority of the time. 

Find a niche, whether it is technical writing, grant writing, SEO, or white papers.  Focusing on a certain area helps to narrow down your search, and it helps you stand out among other writers.  The same idea works for magazine writers.  Write what you know.  Is it retail, gardening, hunting, or music?  When you write with this idea in mind, you have better query letters and better articles, and it will help you find more success. 

The best advice I can give is to work to continually increase your portfolio and network.

For one I have started a goal of writing just a half hour each day.  Once I meet this goal consistently, I will start to increase the time as I have room each day.  In his book On Writing, Stephen King suggests writing ten pages each day.  To me that seems difficult when you have a day job, but it is not out of reach. 

I encourage any writer to set a block of time each day to write, and write during that time.  Even if you don’t write to your task.  For istance a fiction writer, doesn’t have to write fiction the whole time – unless you have a deadline.  The goal is just to write everday and to develop the discipline to write everday.

1. Use strong action verbs. Nine times out of ten you can avoid “is,” and there is always a better verb than “do.” For example:
 Stacy completed the survery this morning,
 instead of, “Stacy did the survey this morning.”

2. Use active sentences and avoid passive sentences. The subject should perform the action not receive it. Instead of the following sentence:
The story was read to the preschoolers by the mayor.
Use this one in its place: The mayor read the story to the preschoolers.

3. Avoid the overuse of adjectives and adverbs. In fact, if at all possible, don’t use them at all. In their place use similies and metaphors along with strong action verbs.
Instead of:  He ran quickly out of the door.
Use: He dashed out of the room. (refers back to why strong action verbs are best)

The verb “dashed” conveys a better picture than “ran quickly

With just these few changes to your writing, readers will notice much improvement (especially if your reader is an English teacher).