The Writing Parent
A Bi-weekly Ezine
Volume II, Issue 12
April 29, 2008
www.thewritingparent.net
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"You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do
nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out
again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have
talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you
persist. " Isaac Asimov
In This Issue:
1. Ed notes: BLOGS GONE WILD
2. DEVELOP, WRITE, SELL AND TEACH ONLINE CLASSES, Part III by Pamela
White
3. WELL WRITTEN OR WELL-WRITTEN by Steve Osborne
4. Markets and Jobs for Writers
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Make Money as a Food Writer in Six Lessons by Pamela White, available
at Amazon.com:
http://tinyurl.com/2b4t3n******************************************************
1. Ed notes: BLOGS GONE WILD
Wow, we're having amazing weather and I'm so energetic that I've
spent the last three days washing windows (except for a baseball game
we snuck in yesterday!).
Anybody out there write a blog?
My husband is a political blogger. He writes anonymously, originally
because he is an editor at the local newspaper and didn't want them
to try to influence what he wrote or to push him to analyze local
political situations differently. His thinking is that, while the
publisher and editorial management know it's his writing, others
don't and that is a way to keep people from thinking he is the voice
of the local paper through this blog.
Many people know he is the person writing this blog. He's a
professional journalist with 30 + years writing for newspapers. His
ethics are strong so he never invents anything, never libels anyone
or even comes close to it.
Today, he received an email that he could trace back to the state
senate (but not the individual who wrote it) calling him names and
saying he was childish and making other mild threats. (it went pretty
much like "you are so sophomoric, nanny nanny boo boo to you"" The
nasty email was a result of my husband's analysis of someone in
politics, of course. And while he is taking it in stride, but I feel
a bit agonized about it all. I want my husband to be able to write
his political pieces, anonymously if he wishes. I just hate it that
he gets attacked by someone, especiallky by someone in a politically
powerful position.
So for now, I am not interested in joining that fray…but maybe I'll
get the nerve to move into the blogosphere soon. Who knows?
Onward and upward,
Pam White
p.s. – When you get to long, long links to websites or listings, just
copy the entire URL and paste it into your browser. And if you've
ever thought about adding food writing to your mix of magazine
articles, I am running a great sale on the ebook version of my Make
Money as a Food Writer book, but only on the ebook/digital version.
*******************************************************
DIGITAL EBOOK VERSION OF
MAKE MONEY AS A FOOD WRITER IN SIX LESSONS
IS ON SALE!! THE COST TO YOU IS ONLY $16.95 THROUGH FRIDAY, MAY 2 AT
MIDNIGHT EST. (THE SALE DOES NOT INCLUDE THE PRINT VERSION)
This ebook is over 150 pages of step-by-step instructions to your
dream writing career, insider information on how to break into all
areas of food writing, bonus chapters on the writing life, copyrights
and selling rights, time management, and top info from food writing
conferences. PLUS FIFTY MARKETS FOR FOOD WRITERS
All my sales are guaranteed for the full purchase price for up to 60
days after purchase.
To buy your digital copy of Make Money as a Food Writer, go here now!
Remember the sale won't last forever.
Go here:
http://www.food-writing.com/foodwritingclass/selfstudycourse.html
*****************************************************
2. DEVELOP, WRITE, SELL AND TEACH ONLINE CLASSES, Part III by Pamela
White
ATTRACTING STUDENTS
This is part three in a six-part article on creating classes as an
additional revenue source for your writing. To see the first two
parts, please go to:
http://www.thewritingparent.net/articlesforwriters/writeonlineclassi.html
In order to sell and teach online classes, you must find the students
who are willing to pay you to teach them what you know.
If you've followed the steps in the first few parts of this article,
you already have completed much of the research needed to get started
finding your ideal client.
While planning your course's topic, you should have done some
research on who would be interested in your course. Some of the ways
to do this include:
* Google your topic to find message boards, websites, and email lists
where your potential students hang out.
* Also look into online and real life places where your potential
students might also spend time. For example, many gardeners also
cook, preserve and bake, which gives you the opportunity to promote
your gardening class at cooking sites, and in cooking magazines.
* Websites that accept articles on your topic are another way to let
future students know about your class. You can send an article (or
articles) to the website owner directly offering your article for his
or her use on the site. You can also post your articles on your
class's topic to article banks like ezinearticles.com,
articlecity.com, amazines.com or easyarticles.com, so ezine editors
and website owners can pick up your articles for publishing and
posting, giving you wide-ranging exposure to your future students.
* Send press releases, postcards and brochures through the mail. Due
to the overabundance of spam in our email boxes, your future students
may delete any emails you send out just because they don't know who
you are and if you are legitimate. Press releases can go to
newspapers and websites, and, if you've written an interesting press
release AND have information that pertains to the paper's audience.
You can buy lists of names and addresses from magazines covering your
course's topic to get a tightly focused group to mail postcards to.
* Build a website. This is critical because just having a site
legitimizes you. Plus it gives you hundreds of pages to create ways
to sell and teach your class. Find a web host with templates you can
use if you don't know how to set up a website or can't afford to hire
someone to do the work for you.
When promoting your class anywhere there are ways to do it that are
more attractive to those who read your posts or messages. You can
have someone else post for you and give you a recommendation, or you
can post messages that are filled with information and include your
site or class info in your signature of each post. New members of
message lists and boards have to prove themselves before other
members will care about any information on what products they are
selling.
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3. WELL WRITTEN OR WELL-WRITTEN by Steve Osborne
Is the following sentence correct?
This book is well written.
Yes? You're right. It's perfectly correct. No broken rules there. Now
check out the following sentence. Is it correct, too?
This is a well written book.
No, it is not correct. But why? It's basically the same sentence as
the first, except that the phrase "well written" comes before "book"
rather than after it. But that is precisely what makes the
difference. Here's the rule:
**Hyphenate the elements of a compound modifier only if that modifier
precedes the noun.
I don't know about you, but whenever I read a grammar rule like that,
it takes me back to public school days when well-meaning English
teachers crammed our minds with undecipherable rules. "What in the
world is a compound modifier?" I should have asked. But of course I
didn't because the bedazzling Priscilla Price sat right next to me.
It's not that I didn't want her to think I didn't know what a
compound modifier was. No one knew. It's just that I didn't want her
to think I cared what a compound modifier was. That would not be cool.
But I assume you care because you're reading this, and you're not
ashamed of caring. So let me explain. A modifier is a word or phrase
that describes another word. Modifiers can be adjectives or adverbs,
but for our purposes, that doesn't matter. So if you say, "That's an
adjective," or "That's an adverb," I'm happy for you, but I really
don't care.
A compound modifier is a modifier made of more than one word. That's
why it's called a "compound" modifier.
So, what the rule says is that if the compound modifier comes before
the noun it modifies, hyphenate it. But if it comes after the noun,
don't hyphenate it. On that basis, the sentences we grappled with
earlier should be written as follows:
This book is well written. (The compound modifier comes after the
noun, so no hyphen.)
This is a well-written book. (The compound modifier comes before the
noun, so it gets a hyphen.)
Who comes up with these rules and why? No one knows for sure, but I
have a personal theory that a group of Nazi war criminals eluded
capture, went underground and decided that creating rules like this
would be the most cruel thing they could do to the guys who beat them
in WWII.
It gets worse. Look at the next sentence. Is it correct?
This is a beautifully-written book.
I hate to tell you, but it is not correct. "But why?" you say. "The
phrase 'beautifully written' is a compound modifier, right?"
Right. "And it precedes the noun it modifies in the sentence, right?"
Right. "So it should be hyphenated, right?"
Wrong. It should not be hyphenated because of yet another rule
perpetrated by the underground war criminal group that states ...
**Don't place a hyphen after a word that ends in "ly" - even if the
word is part of a compound modifier that precedes the noun it
modifies. The exception is if the "ly" that ends the word is part of
the core word itself, as in "family" (a family-run business).
At this point you have probably either stopped reading in despair or
are hopelessly frustrated and confused. It is helpful at times like
this to remember what the Buddha said: "Life is suffering." It would
also be helpful to commit the three sentences we have discussed to
memory and use them as guides or templates when you have questions
about hyphenating compound modifiers. This will keep you out of
trouble 98.7 percent of the time. When you memorize the following
correctly written sentences, pay special attention to the presence or
absence of hyphens:
**This book is well written.
**This is a well-written book.
**This is a beautifully written book.
Finally, here are a few examples of these rules in action. All these
sentences are correct, and hopefully you now know why.
He is a well-known actor.
He is an actor who is well known.
She received a $5,000-a-year bonus.
She received a bonus of $5,000 a year.
It was a naturally flavored food.
The food was naturally flavored.
***About the Author: Steve Osborne is author of "Writing Tips for the
Real World," a blog at
http://www.thewritersbag.com He is an award-
winning freelance writer and writing instructor. His blog teaches
writing tips, techniques and strategies designed to help people from
all walks of life turn the written word into a powerful success tool
in their careers and personal lives.
*******************************************************
Hundreds of subscribers have bought the book that walks
you through breaking into your own food writing career. Join their
success!
Buy Make Money as a Food Writer in Six Lesson by Pamela White,
available at Amazon.com:
http://tinyurl.com/2b4t3n******************************************************
4. MARKETS AND JOBS
MARKETS
ADBUSTERS
Adbusters Magazine,
1243 West 7th Avenue
Vancouver, BC
V6H 1B7 Canada
www.adbusters.org
Guidelines online:
http://www.adbusters.org/network/submission_guidelines.phpTopics: activism, politics, commercial culture, ecology essays and
articles for a worldwide audience. Sample of articles they've
published are online. Pay not specified.
AIM America's Intercultural Magazine
http://aimmagazine.orgGuidelines online:
http://aimmagazine.org/submit.htmShort stories, essays, poems. Samples are on the website; pay not
specified. Holds contests, too.
ADIRONDACK LIFE
P.O. Box 410, Rte 9 N
Jay, NY 12941
http://www.adirondacklife.com/Guidelines online:
https://www.adirondacklife.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=112
Features run up to 4000 words; pay is 25 cents per word. Freelance
photographers are also used to illustrate articles or for photo
essays, covers, calendars, etc. Only interested in events and history
of the Adirondack area.
BACKPACKER
2520 55th Street, Suite 210
Boulder, CO 80301
www.backpacker.com
Guidelines online:
http://www.backpacker.com/guidelines/Prefer queries; email addresses of editors are on guidelines page.
Articles include destinations, personality, technique, or gear. Pay
is 60 cents to $1 per word.
TREASURE VALLEY FAMILY
http://www.treasurevalleyfamily.com/Guidelines online:
http://www.treasurevalleyfamily.com/aboutus/writers.phpEvents, advice, activities for families in and around Boise, ID.
Query with clips. Articles run between 1000 – 3000 words.
KIDZ N FUN
www.kidsnfun.com
Guidelines online:
http://www.kidznfun.com/tahoe/SITE/top/listing.cfm/ntg/6098/0/direct?c=1
Articles are 400 – 600 words and should relate to family travel. Pay
not specified. Website has articles, and pieces on gear for kids.
Seasoned Cooking
http://www.seasoned.com/Contact:
http://www.seasoned.com/About/Staff.aspxAppears to be open to new writers; pay is not mentioned.
Beautiful site
ROAD ISLAND ROADS
http://riroads.com/Guidelines online:
http://riroads.com/admin/guidelines.htmArticles run between 500 and 2000 words. Must not be time sensitive.
Pay not specified.
All articles must be related to Rhode Island. Magazine is archived
online for easy research!
JOBS
Freelance Travel Writer, telecommute
http://atlanta.craigslist.org/wri/656188683.htmlFreelance Writer, Miami, FL
http://www.mediabistro.com/joblistings/jobview.asp?joid=76369&page=1Freelance Research/Fact Checker, Men's Health, NYC
http://www.mediabistro.com/joblistings/jobview.asp?joid=76322&page=1Technology Editor/Reporter, Grand Junction, CO
http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=906244Web Editor, B2B Technology Site, Irvine
http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=890776Editor, Rocky Hill Chronicle, CT
http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=914267Poker Writer, Vancouver
http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/wri/652465488.htmlWebsite Copywriter, Winnipeg
http://winnipeg.en.craigslist.ca/wri/653015283.htmlWeb page writer needed, telecommute
http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/tor/wri/655871429.htmlTechnical Writer, Toronto
http://montreal.en.craigslist.ca/wri/655673699.htmlInteractive Copywriter, Boston, MA
http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/wri/659325043.htmlWriter/Contributor to Family site, Chicago
http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/wri/658813510.htmlFreelance Writers, Dallas Area
http://dallas.craigslist.org/wri/659692836.html"Writing gives you the illusion of control, and then you realize it's
just an illusion, that people are going to bring their own stuff into
it." – David Sedaris
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******************************************
The Writing Parent is copyrighted by Pamela White, 2008
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