This week several members of my critique group had a little fun with a feature at Lulu.com.

The Titlescorer is an interactive feature that purports to analyze a book title in terms of how likely it is to find its way to the bestseller list.

According to the information at the site, a research team analyzed

the title of every novel to have topped the hardback fiction section of the New York Times Bestseller List during the half-century from 1955 to 2004 and then compare[d] them with the titles of a control group of less successful novels by the same authors.

The data is based on about 700 titles. If you type in the titles of some bestsellers you’ll find yourself wondering how the research team arrived at its conclusions. Some blockbusters come up with “a 10.2% chance of being a bestselling title.”

Along with typing the title, you have to choose from a couple of drop-down menus that ask you to specify “grammar type” and indicate part of speech. Depending how you answer, The DaVinci Code can score as high as 35.9% or as low as 10.2%.

I’ll have to admit to having spent more time than I should have playing with it. No matter what combinations I tried, the highest score for any title I was able to come up with was 59.3%. One of my colleagues put in a title that scored 65%.

I wouldn’t be too influenced by the results you get for your title, but playing around with the Titlescorer is as good a way as any to hash out your ideas.

Just don’t play too long. That draft is waiting.

How much money can one make? Well, this obviously depends on how experienced you are, and on how hard you are willing to work. Some people use freelance writing only to supplement the salary of their 9 to 5 jobs. Others work hard at it and within some time they actually quit their day jobs and start writing full time.

Regardless of what your goals are, one thing you will certainly need to succeed is the knowledge about how to get started. That is what this post is about. Two friends of mine are launching today a complete course for aspiring freelance writers called Freelance Superstar.

Here are the topics covered in the course:

• How to Start Writing for Money
• What to Expect from Freelance Writing
• Online Writing Jobs Exposed
• How to Attract High-Paying Clients
• Regular Writing Vs SEO Writing
• Regular Writing Vs Copy Writing
• Freelance Blogging Vs Freelance Writing
• Improve Your English and Writing Skills
• Expand Your Career with Outsourcing
• Create Stable, Recurring Income from Referrals
• Getting Paid as a Freelance Writer

On top of that you will also get a collection of video tutorials and templates to help you setup a portfolio website. Currently the course is selling for $37 (one time fee), but that will last for seven days only. After that the price will increase.

I know Gobala and Monika have been earning good money with freelance writing for many years, and I am sure the information they are offering in the course is top notch, so click here to check it out.

All right, let’s go straight to the point: there is no writing tip in this post, and yes it contains a plug for a paid product. However, I am not writing this for money, but rather because I think the product could be useful and worth it for many of you guys. The link you will find below is not an affiliate one, so we won’t gain commissions if you buy or don’t buy it.

With that out of the way, let me briefly describe what the deal is. Brian Clark is one of the online marketers and copywriters I most respect. He managed to build a business that generates six figures in monthly revenues, and he did that with a 100% ethical and transparent approach.

Today he is launching a course titled Freelance “X” Factor, which is aimed at people who want to make a living out of freelance writing and copywriting. If you read this blog, there are some good chances you are interested in earning money with your writing skills right?

Here are some of the topics covered:

• How to mix and match your way to a unique market position
• How you’ll easily charge more than the average freelance writer
• The right (and wrong) way to get the attention of “big dog” bloggers
• Your main content marketing and subscriber acquisition strategy
• The difference between content marketing and direct response copy
• How to replicate your marketing model for your clients

Check it out if you think the product could be the right one for you.

Nowadays, thanks to email, we can be zapped with rejection in a matter of minutes!

Nevertheless, email queries are a boon to writer and agent. They save time, paper and postage. Not to mention unproductive fantasizing.

Much email writing breeds carelessness in most of us so it’s a good idea to pay special attention to any email we direct to a literary agent.

Here are some guidelines.

Subject line: Put something meaningful in the subject line. For example, a meaningful subject line for a query about a novel called It Was A Dark and Stormy Night would be

Query: It Was A Dark and Stormy Night.

Contact information: The usual place in an email for contact information is at the end, after your name. However, in this case it’s a probably a good idea to let the agent know immediately whose query is unscrolling before him. Just put the same contact information at the top left of the email that you have after your name at the bottom.

Greeting: Use the same salutation you would in a letter. Do your homework. Address your query to an individual, not an agency. Find out if the honorific is Mr. or Ms.

Avoid Email Speak: Don’t pepper your query with abbreviations like BTW or LOL. Think “business letter.” Write the email as if you were going to mail it the old-fashioned way.

Formatting: Keep your email query brief. Avoid long screeds of words. Break it up into short word groupings. I hesitate to say “paragraphs.” In web writing proper paragraphing is not always an option when the goal is to present easy-to-read clumps of words. And above all, DON’T WRITE IN ALL CAPS!

Correct spelling and usasge: Most emails are composed on the fly. We open Compose, dash off our message and hit Send. That’s not the way to handle an email query. A single misspelling or misused pronoun can shoot you down with the agent. Write your query in a word processor. Use the spell checker. Run it out and scrutinize the hard copy. When your query is error-free, then and only then paste it into the email and hit Send.

Tone and Style: Be businesslike. You can be cordial without being chummy. Don’t try to crack a joke. Jokes have a way of coming out all wrong in an email. And as for emoticons. Puhleez!

Attachments: Unless the agent has asked for an attachment, don’t send one. Most people, not just literary agents, maintain a strict policy of not opening attachments from strangers.

Links: Given the tiny bit of space allowed by an email to present ourselves, it’s tempting to want to include links to sites that tell more about us or showcase our writing. It’s probably not a good idea. All the agent wants in this first approach is the gist of your proposal and an idea of your professional credentials. By all means, place a link to your professional website after your name at the end of the email, but don’t pepper the body of the email with links.

The OWL at Purdue offers general guidelines at Email Etiquette.

Business managers who would like to draft an email policy guide for their employees will find 32 rules of email etiquette at a site called Emailreplies.com.

I don’t know how I’d get along with out them.

Not counting their other household applications, index cards are the mainstay of my writing projects.

Writing about language
I keep a stack of index cards by my chair to make notes of language peculiarities I encounter in my reading or TV watching. This is a more useful method of note-taking than my former practice of recording such notes on the backs of envelopes or even in a dedicated notebook. The cards can then be separated into categories such as grammar, vocabulary, and the like.

Novel planning
I hate to outline, but I have learned that writing a novel requires outlining–if not at the beginning, then at some point down the line. Using index cards makes the process more pleasant.

Once you have your plot in mind, deal yourself a deck of index cards equal to the number of chapters. Using one card for each chapter, write a one sentence description of what happens in the chapter. As your novel progresses, you will almost certainly want to add or to rearrange chapters. Having your outline on index cards makes rearranging easy.

Another set of cards can help you keep the characters and their identifying tags straight. You don’t want to give Bruce Bigpecs piercing blue eyes in Chapter One and smouldering black eyes in Chapter Twenty.

Record-keeping
Something I hate more than outlining is keeping track of important records. I should have known better, but when I began acquiring WordPress accounts and GoDaddy domains, and doing things on line that require usernames and passwords, I wrote the information down in a little notebook next to my computer. Now it’s a big deal to find a password or an ID. This stuff is going onto index cards.

Plenty of computer programs exist for doing the kinds of things I’ve described here, but the fact remains that some of us require tactile re-enforcement.

It’s a psychological delight to be able to hold the stack of chapter cards in your hand and visualize the wonderful novel that is to come of them. And when the computer program crashes or is lost, that box of cards is still going to be there.

Low-tech or not, the index card belongs in every writer’s toolbox.

NOTE: We can thank American librarian and efficiency freak Melvil Dewey for the modern cardstock index card. Christened “Melville,” he dropped the “inefficient” letters. He experimented with spelling his surname “Dui,” but apparently that was too exotic to be practical.

Here’s a writer who shares my addiction to index cards:
Lela Davidson’s tribute to the index card

And here’s a brief bio of Melvil Dewey.