A reader asks: When sending in a manuscript, how much fancy things do you do? I mean the creative font of the, “Chapter 1,” or the swirly design that is sometimes in between paragraphs to demonstrate a lot of time has passed, or its a new scene. Does the publisher just decide it all? Agents … Read more
Reader Blaine asks Does anyone out there know of a website or a book with a lot of sample query letters? The question comes just as I’m studying this guide to marketing a novel: The Sell Your Novel Tool Kit: Everything You Need to Know About Queries, Synopses, Marketing, and Breaking In by Elizabeth Lyon. … Read more
A writer’s style is the sum of sentence structure, sentence length, vocabulary, literary or cultural allusions, and world view. We all strive to create a style that will result in a distinctive “voice” that will distinguish our writing from that of others. Some writers have succeeded so well in creating that distinctive voice that adjectives … Read more
George Orwell didn’t have time to collect many royalties on his phenomenally successful novel 1984. The dystopic novel that has since influenced so many other writers and contributed words and even suffixes to our vocabulary, was published mid-1949. Orwell (birth name Eric Blair) died January 21, 1950. I wonder what he would have thought had … Read more
You won’t find it in Merriam-Webster (yet), but genericide has a legal meaning. The “death” specified as genericide is that of a trademark word that has become a common generic term. Some words that started out as brand names and “died” into a state of generic terms are: aspirin, bundt cake, cellophane, ditto, dry ice, … Read more
Commenting on That First Page, a reader remarks: Then there is the story of Orwell’s novel being rejected by American publishers because “American readers don’t like animal stories!” Publishers and agents alike have turned down books that finally made it into print and immortality. Two books devoted to the subject give details of now embarrassing … Read more
In the old days, publishing companies that catered to writers who were willing to pay to have their books printed were called Vanity Presses. Family historians aside, writers who paid to publish were assumed to have failed in selling their work to a “real” publisher because it wasn’t good enough, but they were determined to … Read more
Ali recently gave us five reasons why blogging improves your writing, and I don’t disagree with any of them. What ruined my writing ability (temporarily, I hope) was not the chance to write regularly or to get instant feedback. So what ruined it? Did I get worse the more I practiced? Can that even happen? … Read more
Article marketing is a great way to promote a product, service, website or blog. The name says it all: article marketing means marketing yourself with articles and it’s easy to do if you know how. Here’s how to create a good article marketing article. The Title The title of your article is the most important … Read more
I learned about “elegant variation” from my high school English teacher, but even she taught about it with a slightly-skeptical smile. It’s a rule that many writers feel bound to follow when they don’t need to. According to this so-called rule, a writer should never use the same word twice in a paragraph. Newscasters follow … Read more
Daily Writing Tips has already covered Five reasons why blogging improves your writing. But once you’ve polished up your skills, and grown used to writing frequently and receiving feedback, blogging can also help you get paid for your writing. 1. It’s a free (or very cheap) way to self-publish your writing Posting your writing on … Read more
Freelance writers are often asked to write keyword rich web content articles. If you don’t know where to begin, here’s the ‘keep it simple’ guide to get you started. Finding Keywords In most cases, clients supply the keywords you need for an article. If they don’t, then your first step is to research some appropriate … Read more