DKV Writing 4 U

Posted By Karen on March 8, 2010

Be specific and be professional when submitting queries:

All writers face the dreaded query. Did I put enough information? Did I put too much? Did I have a great hook? Am I submitting to the right publisher?

These are just a few questions that run through a writer’s mind when mailing, or clicking the send button for the query. So, how do you answer these questions and the many others that go along with the job of crafting a query?

Well, the first simple response to this question is to READ the publisher’s or agent’s guidelines. Okay, that’s not accurate-you need to STUDY and FOLLOW those guidelines precisely.

Items to watch for when reading those guidelines:

1. What genre does that particular publishing house, agent, or magazine publish?
2. Does the publisher/agent accept simultaneous submissions?
3. Is there a specific word count involved if querying for articles?
4. Does the publishing house accept unagented queries?
5. Does the magazine only accept specific themes, if so, is your article on target?

This list is not complete, there are obviously more items to watch out for. So, we go back to the main rule for querying: FOLLOW the GUIDELINES!

But, following the guidelines is just part of the querying process; you also need to know some inclusion essentials.

Six rules to use that will help you create a winning query:

1. Be professional. Writing is a business just like any other-treat it as such.

2. Be sure to include your contact information: address, telephone number, email address and website.

3. If you were referred by someone include it in the query. Every little bit helps, but be sure it’s a referral from someone the editor actually knows.

4. Write tight – be specific and jump right in. You want to provide enough information to warrant the editor to want more, but you need to keep it to one page.

5. The first paragraph is the pitch-within a couple of sentences you need to hook the editor or agent. The second paragraph is about you, again keep it brief and include your credentials. The third paragraph is your conclusion; thank the editor/agent for his/her time and mention if you are enclosing a SASE and if the query is a simultaneous submission.

6. In regard to your bio: Limit personal information unless it adds to your credentials as a writer qualified to write for this publisher.
A good way to practice for queries and pitches is to write a one sentence out of the ball park description of your manuscript. This will help you to think and write tight and choose the perfect words to hook the reader and convey the essence of your story.

Related Article:

Freelance Editors: Should You Hire One?

Until next time,
Karen Cioffi

http://karenandrobyn.blogspot.com
http://karencioffi.com

Category: Writing Tips | No Comments »
Tags: a winning query, Queries, submitting a query, writing a query

Posted By Karen on February 26, 2010

It’s been said many times, writing is the easy part, marketing is the tough part. Even if you’ve written a GREAT book, if it’s not promoted and marketed on an ongoing basis chances are you won’t sell much.

To help in this area, I have a great article from Penny Sansevieri, marketing guru and author of Red Hot Internet Publicity:

Social Networking on Blogs
By Penny Sansevieri

We all know that it’s great to hop on social networks like Facebook, Squidoo and Twitter, right? But have you ever considered that a blog is a social network, too? You bet it is, but I’m talking specifically about the comment section within each blog. We all know that it’s great to pitch bloggers for your book or product, right? But there’s more to it. Really, it’s about online networking or cyber-schmoozing. Before you even target a blog for your pitch, you should get to know them first.

Here’s how:

First, you’ll want to get to know the blogs in your market. To do this you’ll want to follow them and communicate with them via the comment section on their blogs. You can find these blogs through blog search engines like Google Blog Search and Technorati.com. Once you find the blogs that are top in your market (I suggest going after the top 5-10 to start with) then you’ll want to see what they post on and comment on their blog posts. What does this do? Well, it’ll help give you a voice on your top blogs and give the bloggers a chance to get to know you.

Here are some tips for commenting intelligently on blogs:

• Be interesting and thought-provoking. Save the “wow, great blog” comments for when you are really looking to *not* impress someone.
• Watch, then comment. I recommend following the blog for a few weeks before jumping in. You want to get a sense of the tone of the blogger and how he or she responds to comments.
• Try commenting on at least five blogs a week, this way you’re not spending *all* of your free time doing this and still you’re able to get a voice out there in the blog-o-sphere.
• Offer additional insight to the blog post, perhaps you’ve had a different experience than what the blogger cited. If so, politely and intelligently tell them your viewpoint and invite other ideas.
• Be entertaining, engaging, and helpful. Always. Don’t push your book, yes you can mention it – but don’t push it, that’s a big no-no.
• Try to build a rapport with the blogger by being consistent, that’s why you don’t want to follow too many bloggers. You’ll be too fragmented this way.
• Be inspiring, readers love inspiration. Don’t just gush for the sake of gushing.

Commenting on blog posts is a sort of social networking, even better in fact because blog posts and their associated comments are searchable. Keep in mind that you’ll want to always list your URL when you log in (and most blogs require that you do log in and leave your online “footprint”).

Once you have spent sufficient time online you’ll start to get to know the bloggers that are a significant “voice” in your industry. This type of networking will help when you go back to pitch them your story, book or product. Remember that bloggers, like any other on or offline media, want the scoop. So give them what they want.

Here are a few tips for pitching bloggers once you’ve networked with them:

• Know what they like: don’t pitch them a book review if they don’t review books. Just because you have become commenter-extraordinaire doesn’t mean that they’ll bend the rules for you. Well, they might, but better to let them suggest it.

• If the blogger does review books and/or products check out their submission guidelines before sending them a pitch.

• If you’re sending them a story idea be sure and tell them if you’ve pitched this idea to anyone else. If they have an exclusive, tell them and give them a (reasonable) deadline for responding if you’re going to shop this around.

• Present the unexpected: it’s OK to take chances, it really is as long as you stay on topic. Pitch the blogger, you never know what could happen.

• Make it easy: if you’re pitching them a story don’t just pitch them and expect them to do all the work. Make it easy on them by offering to co-interview (when appropriate) or offering them experts you think might work well for the piece.

The key is that as you’re getting known online, the Internet is one big networking party. Just because you can hide behind your monitor doesn’t mean that you’re invisible. Remember that everything is your resume and everything leaves a footprint. The best thing you can do is get out and cyber-schmooze, the worst thing you can do is be unprepared. Do your homework and remember, online networking (when done effectively) can benefit you enormously both in your online footprint as well as the connections you’ll make. Don’t worry about spending hours on this, it’s really about quality not quantity. Get out there and social network on blogs, you’ll be glad you did.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reprinted from “The Book Marketing Expert newsletter,” a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques.
January 21, 2010 Issue #212
http://www.amarketingexpert.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Related articles:

Article Reprint Strategy

What is Email Marketing?

Until next time,
Karen Cioffi
http://karencioffi.com
http://karenandrobyn.blogspot.com

Category: Marketing and Promotion | No Comments »
Tags: Marketing, networking with blogs, promotion, social networking

Posted By Karen on February 23, 2010

Carolyn Howard-Johnson just published a press release for a chapbook of poetry with co-author Magdelena Ball. While reading it I thought what a great idea it would be to post it for her, but also use it as an example of what a press release should look like.

In case you don’t know who Carolyn Howard-Johnson is, she is an award winning author and editor, and a marketing guru. She is also the author of the Frugal series: The Frugal Editor, and the Frugal Book Promoter.

Unfortunately, Wordpress doesn’t have a feature to easily change font size, but watch for wording, structure and such…here it is:

Media Release

CONTACT:
Carolyn Howard-Johnson e-mail: HoJoNews@aol.com

CONTACT:
Magdalena Ball e-mail: maggieball@compulsivereader.com

For Immediate Release

Poets Digitise Towards Deeper Understanding
Award-winning poets Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball have never met. In fact they live on different continents. But that hasn’t stopped them from collaborating on a series of poetry chapbooks designed to replace trite greeting cards with real sentiment. With their ‘celebration series’, the two have developed a new concept for inexpensive holiday gifts.

Their chapbooks of poetry include Cherished Pulse (for anyone you love) with artwork from California artist Vicki Thomas, and She Wore Emerald Then (for mothers on your gift list) with photographs by May Lattanzio. A new booklet titled Imagining the future will be released over the next few weeks in time for Father’s Day 2010, with further books for women everywhere, and there is a Christmas chapbook in the works.

The small books, a tradition in the poetry world since Elizabethan times, are priced to compete with greeting cards and provide real poems, designed, for the same price as a high end card, to go far beyond the cliché sentiments in most greeting cards.

Now both of these poets’ collaborations, Cherished Pulse, and She Wore Emerald Then, have been released on the high profile Smashwords.com site, and can be read in over nine digital formats on any computer or portable reading device anywhere in the world. Smashwords unique technology allows the work to be available into every format used by the millions of new e-book readers that are flooding the market. Even as the hardware and software change, the author’s words will remain available to readers. This is quite a revolution for both authors, both of whom started their writing careers when the latest technology was a typewriter and carbon paper for copies.

Magdalena Ball runs the highly respected compulsivereader.com review site. She is the author of the poetry book Repulsion Thrust, which was published in December 2009 to unanimous 5-star reviews. Her novel Sleep Before Evening, published in 2007, was a Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s poetry appears frequently in review journals. She is listed in Poets & Writers and her chapbook of poetry, Tracings (www.budurl.com/CarolynsTracings ), was given the Award of Excellence by the Military Writers Society of America. She is also an award-winning novelist and short story writer and instructor for UCLA Extension Writers’ Program.

For more information on any of the chapbooks in this poetry series, contact either of the authors or visit media rooms at: http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com
http://www.magdalenaball.com

Until next time,
Karen Cioffi
http://karencioffi.com
http://karenandrobyn.blogspot.com

Category: Media Release | Comments Off
Tags: carolyn howard-johnson, chapbooks, magdelena ball, poetry, press release

Posted By Karen on February 20, 2010

Okay, before I start, I just had to delete 1010 spams without checking through them for valid comments. This prompted me to install a WP additional spam plugin. We’ll see. If this doesn’t work, I’ll have to install a captcha or disallow comments altogether.

Now, on to business!

I am so honored to be one of four awarded the Creative Writer (Liar) Award from the working editor herself LEA SCHIZAS! I’m thrilled!

THANK YOU LEA (Pen Perfect Associates). And be sure to check out Lea’s blog at:
http://thewritingjungle.blogspot.com

But with this award comes a great responsibility; here are the rules :

1: Thank the person who gave you the award and link to them.
2: Add the award to your blog
3: Tell six outrageous lies about yourself and One Truth.
4: Nominate six creative liars… I mean writers and post links to them.
5: Let your nominees know that they have been nominated.

Okay…Six lies and one truth? Hmmm…see if you can guess which one is the truth:

1- I eat chocolate every day.
2- I’m tall, thin and blonde (okay, that’s a give away!).
3- I love hot weather, the hotter the better.
4- I only smoke 1 cigarette a day, except Sunday’s, that’s my day of rest.
5- I run the New York Marathon every year.
6- Laughed when my husband slipped and fell flat on his back on a marble floor.
7- I love to watch reality tv.

That’s it, my six lies and one truth. Following in Lea’s footsteps, the first commenter to guess my one truth will receive a free e-book.

Now on to the nomination of my peers who are worthy liars…rather writers:

1. Carolyn Howard-Johnson (http://sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com)
For continuously helping other writers and marketers

2. Kathy Stemke (http://educationtipster.blogspot.com)
For making amazing strides in the writing world

3. Stephen Tremp (http://stephentremp.blogspot.com)
For having an amazing and interesting blog

4. Dana Donovan (http://www.danadonovan.com)
For being generous with his time and effort

I could go on and name at least another thirty writers or as Lea put it so aptly, wriliars! (hee, hee), but I’m limiting it to four.

Thank you again, Lea, for honoring me with this wonderful Lia..writers award, and for always making me laugh.

And, now for one writing tip:

“One of the bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, looking for long words because you’re…ashamed of your short ones.” -Stephen King

Until next time,
Karen Cioffi
http://karencioffi.com

Category: Writing Tips | 1 Comment »
Tags: bloggers, writers, writing award, writing tip

Posted By Karen on February 15, 2010

I was going to post an article here, but when I saw 1183 spams, I scanned them for valid comments which took quite a while.

So, sadly, no post…and a lot of wasted time.

I’m really getting to the point where I’ll just close the comments. If someone really wants to contact me they can use the contact form on the contact page. I am hoping this was just a fluke – we’ll see with this post.

For those who did make a valid comment, I thank you. I think I approved you all. If not, I apologize and you must have been missed and deleted with the spam.

Until next time,

Karen Cioffi

Category: Websites | Comments Off
Tags:

Posted By Karen on February 8, 2010

It’s funny, I was going to post a completely different post about one sentence writing advice, but I’ll save it for another day.

When I came to the site today, I had over 200 REAL spam mails. Having Aksimet (thank goodness), they all went to spam along with a few marketers who actually left comments.

I realize some of these comments were left as a marketing strategy, but, hey, I’m in the marketing game also, so if you actually read my posts and make an intelligent comment that reflects the post, I’ll click the approve button.

I also realize you may be an affiliate marketer or VA doing the leg work for someone else and this is the nature of business, but there are other bloggers who don’t and will just delete you along with the spammers. As I’m getting more of these marketing commenters I can see it is becoming a more popular strategy. But, I don’t think I’ll partake – it can be a risky business.

While I do try to comment on sites everyday, it’s on sites that I usually follow or ones that I find through one source or another and the post is useful and interesting, but unless I know the blogger I never leave a url in the comment itself.

For those that leave a url link in the comment, this can be construed as a bit gutzy, brazen, rude…it will only ensure that most bloggers will delete your comment. Your link is already in your name.

Commenting in itself is visibility, even if you don’t drive traffic back to your site, the search engines pick up your activity. And, again, your name has your link in it.

If you leave your name (yes, actual name) with one url that is different than your name link, then it will be up to the discretion of the owner of the site as to whether he/she will allow the comment. Some bloggers don’t like this practice, while others realize it’s a marketing strategy and as long as you’re actually reading the posts and making a valid comment, it’s a great way to boost up your visibility in the search engines.

One commenter on a previous post said I was on the first page of an unrelated google search – that’s COOOOOOL!

You know, I read or heard (I attend a number of marketing teleclasses and read a number of marketing books and blogs so I don’t remember which right now) that it’s a gracious gesture to leave your name (can be just your first name) at the end of your comment. It’s kind of like when letter writing was the norm – the writer always left their signature.

Just be careful here, be sure it’s your name – you never know where or when a business contact or prospect will be made, don’t start off on the wrong foot.

And, thanks, you gave me fodder for a new article.

I guess I should check on my other sites…

Until next time,

Karen Cioffi
http://karencioffi.com/media-page/
http://karenandrobyn.blogspot.com

Category: Marketing and Promotion | 3 Comments »
Tags: blog comments, bloggers, blogging comment marketing strategy, marketing strategy

Posted By Karen on February 3, 2010

My previous article, based on a webinar with Rick Hubbard and Phillippa Games, listed 6 website problems or leaks that you may not be aware of. I said I’d post the solutions in my next post and here they are:

Six common problems that may be causing leaks in your website and the fixes:

1. You get traffic to your site, but the visitors do not convert. They just leave. Maybe they don’t like the look of your site – who knows.

Do a website audit. Make sure all your links are working. Ask fellow bloggers/website owners what they think of the site. Is your name immediately visible, so the visitors know where they are?

Look at your analytics, or have a professional web designer do it. If you decide to do it yourself you can use Google Analytics. It will give you a code to put on each page of your site and it will follow the traffic in regard to keyword phrases you use, and analysis just about everything you’ll need to know.

2. The visitor may stay, but can’t find what they’re looking for, or can’t find it easily enough.

Again, do a site audit. Often, as with our own writing, we can’t see the obvious pitfalls and errors. Have someone you trust give your site a critique or review. Or, again, hire a professional.

Follow up with each leak he/she finds. You want your site to be user/visitor friendly. Visitors don’t want to jump through hoops to find what they need.

3. There is NO Call-to-Action!

Easy fix here…just add CLEAR call-to actions on every page. Make sure on your landing page the call-to-action is easily visible.

4. You’re devoting too much time on funneling the wrong kind of traffic to your site.

This is another relatively easy fix. If you’re promoting health products and your spend your time and promotion at writing or sports sites you need to reevaluate. Do a Google search for health sites and start following them. Try to find those that have a lot of comments and traffic. Add your comments often.

Offer useful and related content on your site that will funnel in the traffic you’re seeking.

5. You lack branding.

Another easy fix. Get specific. If you’re writing about health in general, that’s a big niche. Why not narrow it down to a specific area within health. The same goes for any niche you’re in – be specific. If you’re a writer, do you do freelance, nonfiction self-help books, suspense thrillers? When promoting yourself be focused on your area of expertise. Create content for the niche you’re targeting to help establish your brand.

6. You lack credibility.

Begin to establish yourself as an expert in your niche. As it’s been said over and over, Content is King! Post to your site often, at least twice a week, preferably more. And, start posting your articles to the article directories. As you become comfortable writing articles, start offering ebooks.

That’s it; six website problems, six website solutions.

You might also find this article of interest:

How to Improve Your Website

Until next time,
Karen

Category: Websites | 38 Comments »
Tags: call to action, establish your expertise, lack of brand, Marketing, narrow your niche, Websites

Posted By Karen on February 1, 2010

I attended a great webinar today with Rick Hubbard and Phillippa Gamse – two experts in the marketing field.

Phillippa reviews websites to find all those little holes, or leaks as she puts it, that allow visitors to seep through. She gave an example of a boat with leaks in it. And, often the site owner is not even aware of these leaks.

I know this picture isn’t a sinking boat, but I really like the picture.

Six common leaks in your website:

1. You get traffic to your site, but the visitors do not convert. They just leave. Maybe they don’t like the look of your site – who knows.

2. The visitor may stay, but can’t find what they’re looking for, or can’t find it easily enough.

3. There is NO Call-to-Action! Y

4. You’re devoting too much time on funneling the wrong kind of traffic to your site.

5. You lack branding.

6. You lack credibility.

My next post, I’ll tell the fix to these leaky problems.

To start though, when creating a website, you MUST PLAN and think through. Know what you’re looking for and who you’re targeting.

You might also be interested in:

5 Surefire Tips to Promote You and Your Book for FREE

Until next time,

Karen

http://karencioffi.com

http://karenandrobyn.blogspot.com

Category: Marketing and Promotion | 4 Comments »
Tags: Marketing, traffic, website, website problems

Posted By Karen on January 28, 2010

You know…an easy way to turn your knowledge into income is to create a booklet or e-book. Obviously, an e-book, if you use sources such as Lulu.com and Smashwords.com, will cost nothing. But, on the flip side, if you’re thinking of doing B2B (business to business) work, businesses would prefer a booklet to hand out to prospects, clients, or employees.

But, today, I’m going to address e-books.

E-books are an amazing product – they can be absolutely FREE to create!

What else can you create for FREE and SELL for whatever you think it is worth? The only cost is your time and some effort.

All you do is open a Word document and start typing away. Get all that expert knowledge you’ve accumulated over the year/s and create your content. Just be sure that your content will actually be of value to your readers and reliable.

Pretty easy so far, right?

Now that your content is set, you can add pictures. If you can believe it, this is free also! Just use clip art, or another easy way to do this is take your own pictures. Download them onto your computer and then upload them into your e-book. If you have a program such as Photoshop Elements you can create all types of variations of one simple photo.

That’s it! It’s time to take your Word doc and upload it to Lulu.com, or other source. You can also use a pdf creator and change your word doc into a pdf file – now you have an e-book!

Is that cool!

So, what can you do with that e-book you created?

Well, just about anything!

You can sell it on your site through Paypal; you can sell it through Lulu; you can offer it as a free gift to entice visitors to sign up for your newsletter. You can offer as reprint allowable to increase your visibility and traffic back to your site. You can market with it, create your expertise with it…you get the idea.

What? You’re not sure if you can do it on your own? That’s okay, don’t fret.

If you’re a little hesitant about undertaking this task, there is help available right here. Whether you’re an author looking for exposure and promotion, a free gift to offer on your site, or want to earn some money with it…if you’re a business looking to increase traffic and visibility and sales…contact us today.

For the next few days,January 28th through January 31st, we are offering a SPECIAL:

5 page e-book, on a topic you choose, for $25.00

10 page e-book, on a topic you choose, for $50.00

The e-book may or may not include pictures – we reserve the right to make the final decision on this.

Rules:

1. One per customer

2. We reserve the right to refuse your query if necessary

3. You may be asked to provide topic information and/or an outline

3. Turn around time will depend on the number of requests, but should be within one month. Difficult topics may take longer.

4. Half the cost down upfront, and the balance when the e-book is complete

5. You will be able to claim the e-book as your own (we are the ghostwriter)

Your e-book will be emailed to you as a pdf file after payment is received in full. Payment is to be made through PayPal.

This is GREAT offer, and for a LIMITED time only. Act now.

Use our contact page or email us at: dkvwriting4u@yahoo.com

Category: Marketing and Promotion | 1 Comment »
Tags: create an e-book, e-books, make money with e-books, promotion

Posted By Karen on January 27, 2010

The list of online marketing gurus is growing every day. Every time I turn around I find another site full of valuable marketing resources and the site owner is willing to email additional information, and I get a how-to ebook, free. How do you say no to that? The only catch is that you have to subscribe to their site. Well, okay, that’s not so horrible. The information certainly has to be worth a subscription, so you’d think.

The deal with this is that each of those subscriptions (site owners), along with some useful informational emails, will offer products or services of their own and from affiliates they promote. According to each of these emails, every product or service offered will be a must have…a real deal. Which do you choose, if any?

In cost accounting there is a term:  Opportunity Costs. What this term means is that if you choose one path or alternative, it is at the sake of other options and benefits. Another way of putting this is: You have $27 per month to spend; you can use it to go to the movies, or go out for dessert, or buy a book a month to teach yourself how to write for children…or you can invest that $27 in the Children’s Writers Coaching Club with Suzanne Lieureance. The club actually teaches and guides you along the path to publishing a book or freelance articles. It also delves into the business of writing, such as marketing. The option you don’t choose is an opportunity cost.

So, the bottom line is to choose the option that will give you the most benefit for the money and time involved. You want your opportunity costs to be low and of little consequence.

After I’ve spent a tremendous amount of time gathering information form various sites and marketing gurus, and spent a fair amount of money (fair amount for me anyway) on strategies, programs, e-books, cds and so on, I’ve come to a couple of realizations that you should consider before you venture into this bottomless pit of opportunities.

Four Tips on Choosing an Online Product or Service:

1.    You need to research any strategy, program, or service you are thinking of investing in. Though, you need to be careful here because once you google the company or site name, you will undoubtedly come upon some of their affiliates who are eager to proclaim the value of the product or service. The affiliates are partnered with the company. They get a pre-arranged percentage for every visitor they send over or visitor who makes a purchase, or some other call-to-action.

2.    Ask friends, writers and marketers you know and trust about the company or entrepreneur you’re thinking of investing time or money or both in. If no one you know can provide some input, be certain to use tip number ONE.

3.    Once you’ve made your decision and purchase that product or service, STOP looking for others until you’ve gotten your money’s worth out of your first investment. Or, at least stop until you’ve reviewed and worked on the first purchase. What I mean here is: Early on, I fell into the trap of buying one program and before I even looked at it, I bought another one. This is a huge mistake and waste of time and money. If I involved myself with the first project, I may have realized I didn’t need the second or third purchase.

4.    Always evaluate your opportunity cost when thinking of spending time or money.

Incorporating these tips into your writing and/or marketing journey should help you reap the benefits of your investments and save you time and money.

To find out more about the Chidren’s Writers Coaching Club:

Children’s Writers Coaching Club

And, check out:

Writing Motivation and Guidance and Tools

Until next time,

Karen Cioffi

http://karencioffi.com

http://karenandrobyn.blogspot.com

Follow Karen at: http://twitter.com/KarenCV

Category: Writing Tips | 2 Comments »
Tags: Children's Writers Coaching Club, marketers, online writing tools, opportunity costs, spending money wisely, writing motivation, writing opportunities