Posts Tagged ‘self-promotion’

Important Elements Of A Novel

Saturday, April 9th, 2011

Have you got a good idea or a story, maybe one that’s been bouncing around in your head for a while? If you’ve got an idea for a story, and aren’t sure how to get started, then this article is for you. You’ll learn the basic structure and elements to novel, so you can get writing. When you include all of these elements, then your novel will be more interesting to your readers, and you will be more successful. By the time you finish reading this article, you’ll know exactly what to do.

Of course, every novel needs a main character. And this character must be extremely real. Real enough to know exactly what they would do in various different situations. Even if you aren’t going to describe these kinds of things in your book, you must know them about your character. Even when writing about how your character walks down the street, by making them real to you, they will become real and believable to your readers.

Next is some kind of a story arc. There must be a definite beginning, introduction of the problem, the climax, and the resolution. Even short fairy tales have these elements. The beginning is the hook that grabs your readers and introduces them into your characters world. The problem is something that your character must face or solve. The climax is the biggest most exciting scene regarding your character and the problem. The resolution is how everything works out in the end.

And just as crucial as story arc, your character must change and develop as well. They should learn something, or improve their outlook somehow, or raise themselves up in the eyes of society. As they solve the problem, they must go through some kind of transformation, so they are better off than they started.

And finally, your novel should be interesting. The main character should be somebody most people would want to root for. The problem they face is something that the reader could imagine themselves facing and possibly overcoming themselves. And the resolution shouldn’t leave anybody hanging, or give anybody any nasty surprises.

This is the main structure of most popular novels today. Whether you are writing a children’s story or steamy adult romance, when you contain the aforementioned structure elements, your novel will be much more interesting, much more widely read, and you will be much more successful. All you need to do now is to get started.

To find the best self publishing companies, head on over to the self publishing companies website today.

Hints On Getting Your Novel Published

Friday, April 8th, 2011

If you’ve finally finished writing your novel, then you have completed a monumental task. Plenty of people start writing novels, but few people finish. Now that you’ve got the hard work out of the way, all you’ve got to do is find an agent, and wait for Oprah to call, right? Not so fast. Sometimes, getting an agent and getting published can be just as tedious as writing the actual novel. So how do you actually find an agent, which can bet you published, and get you paid? Keep reading.

One of the things that you’ll come up against is that plenty of other people are in your shoes. And while there are plenty of agents out there, most of them will be looking for somebody who has already been published, and who already has a group of loyal readers to sell their next book to. While this can seem difficult to overcome, there are plenty of ways.

The first thing to do is to summarize your novel in about two paragraphs. Make it sound as exciting and intriguing as possible. Use plenty of powerful adjectives to describe the plot and the characters. Remember, you’re trying to sell your novel to an agent, so make it sound good. Remember that agents get proposals from hundreds of people every day, so yours needs to really stand out from the crowd. An agent is worried about selling it for a profit, so make it sound like that will be easy.

The second thing to do is make sure first few pages or chapters really grab the reader by the throat. Often times an agent will ask to read the first chapter to see if your novel is worth pursuing. If you can afford it, have the first couple chapters looked at by a professional editor. These first few pages can make or break your chances with any given agent.

Next is to realize that getting published today is a huge numbers game. There are literally millions of people out there trying to sell their work. Don’t get discouraged. Give yourself just as long to find an agent as it took to write your novel. Send copies of the first chapter to as many agents as you possibly can. There are plenty of websites that list thousands of agents, and many of them accept queries by email, meaning you should send out no less than twenty queries a day. Somebody’s bound to nibble.

It takes much more persistence that you may have expected to get published. However, if you keep on sending out queries day after day, you will eventually find somebody that’s interested. It’s just simple matter of not giving up. And since it doesn’t take very long to send out twenty emails a day, you’ll have enough time to start your next book.

To find the best self publishing companies, head on over to the self publishing companies website today.

Things You Should Realize Concerning Self Publishing

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

If you’ve written a book, then congratulations. Plenty of people want to write a novel, even start to write a novel, and go so far as to tell all their friends they are writing a novel, but few ever complete it. The next step of course, is to get it published. This usually means finding an agent, who will shop it around to various publishers. However, if you’ve been trying for a while, and still no luck, then you might be considering going with a self publisher. If that’s the case, then this article is for you. You’ll learn the basics of self publishing, so you know exactly what you are getting into.

There are plenty of differences between a self publisher and a traditional publisher. Generally speaking, with a self publishing company, you’re pretty much responsible for everything. With the bigger, more traditional publishers, they take care of most of the heavy lifting.

One thing you should think about is marketing. Without solid marketing, nobody will even know about your book. With a traditional publisher, they take care of all of that. With a self publishing company, you’ve got to do all of it on your own. Which means selling it online, or calling every bookstore yourself and seeing if they’ll stock your book.

Another option for marketing that many self publishing companies will offer is to take your book to various book shows. This is where book distributors look around for recently published books. If they see yours, and like it, they might pick it up and carry it in their stores. This is generally fairly expensive, as you will be paying everything up front yourself.

Another thing to realize is that your book will be print on demand if you go through a self publisher. This means that it will only be printed as it is ordered. This makes the retail price a few dollars higher, so your book will seem more expensive than others. Traditional publishers, on the other hand, print thousands of copies at once, making it much more cost efficient.

There are plenty of benefits to self publishing. You retain much more control over your manuscript than with a traditional publisher. You also have the ability to design your own cover as well. This gives many a freedom that isn’t experienced with large publishing companies. Plenty of successful authors have started out through self publishing, and then gone on to enjoy very lucrative careers. You may very well follow in their footsteps.

To find the best self publishing companies, head on over to the self publishing companies website today.

How To Write A Story In A Hundred Days Or Less

Tuesday, April 5th, 2011

Have you a fantastic idea for a novel that you are sure will be a smash best seller, if you could only get it out of your head and on paper? Would you love to have written a novel, but aren’t quite sure how to actually get started? Well, relax, this is your lucky day. You’re about to learn how to write a novel in three months or less. You’ll need a couple of hours a day, a good deal of persistence, and some limber fingers (you’re going to be doing a lot of typing).

Step number one is to create all your characters. Make them as real to you as you possibly can. Describe them in much more detail than you ever would in your manuscript. Talk to them when nobody else is around. Imagine them in your favorite TV shows and see how they’d react. Make sure they plenty of realistic strong points and weak points. Give yourself two weeks for this step.

The next step is to create all your steps. This is best done on a big long sheet of paper, like butcher paper. Or your desk, or whatever. Each step should be only a couple sentences, and when finished, it should be a layout of your entire novel from start to finish. If you like, there are plenty of software programs created specifically for this purpose. Give yourself two weeks for this step.

Now you’ve got your characters and the plot outlined, it’s time to start writing. Your job is to sit down, and write non stop for two hours every day. Even if you write gibberish (which you won’t since you’ve already got the plot and the characters already figured out), keep on writing. Worry about correcting later. If you write two hours per day, you should be able to write a couple thousand words a day. At least. Shoot for three thousand if you can. This will give you a good length in about a month.

Now that the rough draft is finished, it’s time to go through it a few time. The first time, just go through and correct the grammar and spelling mistakes. Resist the urge to correct everything else. The second and third time through, read through it slowly, and make any changes, and tweak it until it’s perfect. Give yourself another month to do this part.

And, you’re done. One month of prep work, one month to hammer out the guts of your story, and another month to refine everything and make it perfect. After you hand your polished manuscript over to your agent, you can get started on your next best seller.

To find the best self publishing companies, head on over to the self publishing companies website today.

Blogs, Websites, & Social Media: How the Web Effects Your Lawyer Marketing Strategy

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

Lawyers are finding it difficult to let go of the older methods they use to market their services. It’s difficult to change habits we’ve grown comfortable with. I find this is especially relevant to lawyers promoting their services on the web. Again and again, I see lawyers that participate in blatant self-promotion. The effect is not what they desire.

Lawyer marketing on the web is becoming far too self-promoting. This includes websites, blogs, videos, etc.

Gaining a presence on the web can work both for you and against you. In other words, even though people may know who you are, it may be for the wrong reasons. When you are marketing professional services, such as legal services, not all publicity is good publicity.

When you publish content on the web, make sure it isn’t just a giant advertisement for yourself.

The following are some suggestions to avoid egregious self-promotion.

1. Don’t write about how wonderful you are. You can show your expertise in more subtle ways. Write about your field of work. Put a creative, interesting, and personal voice to it. Think about the last time you read something and thoroughly enjoyed the piece. Didn’t you take the time to find out who wrote it afterward? That is what lawyer marketing on the internet is about.

2. You have a very brief amount of time to make your point. People on the web have ADD. Make sure you can make your point quickly and concisely. You want to be interesting and informative, but not long-winded.

3. Stay current, but don’t get overwhelmed. In addition to being brief, you need to be current. With web 2.0 lawyer marketing, people don’t want to wait a month for your next blog post. By the same token, you don’t need to produce 3 articles a day to stay current. I would advise planning out a couple of blog posts, perhaps 2-3 a week. Do the same with your social media efforts. This will help you increase the effectiveness of your efforts.

4. Talk with your own voice. In a nutshell, be interesting. The amount of information put out onto the web increases with every second. To rise to the top, you need to be interesting. When you speak in your own voice, the content will take on your personality and will differentiate from what others are writing.

Website lawyer marketing requires an understanding of some basic web concepts. Learn about how lawyer web marketing can help you grow your client base.