Rix Quinn, humorist and columnist has this truncated video about improving your writing. It’s worth the just over a minute to watch and listen to.

Write well and often,

Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing – a resource for freelance writers including 3x a week job postings.
Writing With Vision – for those who want to get a book written.
Image from http://www.sxc.hu

(www.thegoldenpencil.com)
Seth Godin has a wonderful post called Is effort a myth?. (Thanks to Your Book Publishing Coach for the pointer.)
It’s a wonderful and helpful essay, complete with the suggestion to find 120 minutes each day and commit to something positive. He lists a number of things that can be done with that time, plus makes some other suggestions I like.
If I had to choose just one it would be: Only spend money, for one year, on things you absolutely need to get by. Save the rest, relentlessly. In fact, I’m going to do that and so commit to you, …read more

(www.thegoldenpencil.com)
Sometimes I think there is simply no way to finalize a manuscript – particularly a book-length manuscript! Can you tell I’m working on the copy edited version on my soon-to-be-released book on getting a book written?
After I accepted or rejected the changes made by my excellent copy editor, I printed out the manuscript one last time. Or maybe not. Part of the reason is she suggested I double-check the look of the headings and subheadings. I do that sort of thing best when I have actual pages to work with.
It was also time to give the book one more reading …read more

(www.thegoldenpencil.com)
I got the copy edited version of my book on writing books back. I have to tell you, I wasn’t anxious to open it; in fact, I postponed it two days. I was afraid of what I would see for two reasons.

It’s always hard to look at any criticism, even when I’m the one who asked for it.
I hired a new copy editor and wasn’t a bit sure how she’d work out.

So far I’ve been delighted. She did exactly what I asked – that is, she didn’t do any rewriting, corrected mistakes and highlighted anything that confused her. I’m …read more

Yvonne Russel over at Home Biz Notes scoops me again! In a post called “Free – Penguin Authors Guide To Online Marketing – A Great Promotional Tool,”
I suggest you go right over and download it. It’s a 64 page ebook with some cool graphics and, it looks like, some sage advice. I haven’t read the whole thing on this Sunday morning, but I have read enough to be sure it’s worth the time to download and at least scan.
What I haven’t figured out is why Penguin has put together such a helpful guide. Usually this sort of thing is done …read more

(www.thegoldenpencil.com)
Arghhhh. I’ll never finish this d**n book! At least it almost feels that way. This morning when I started I had about 30 pages to go. Now hours and hours later I’ve still got 16 pages to go. It keeps growing! I’ve gone from a 20,000 word count a week or two ago to over 31,000 – yikes that’s a lot of writing. I didn’t realize I’d done that much!
But it all needs to be done! The book is better for it. Pant pant pant. I feel like I’m chasing these last few pages.
Oh well, back at it.
Write well and …read more

(www.thegoldenpencil.com)
I am so not a copy editor, and I am so appreciative of the good ones I know!
I’m doing the final pass on my book about how to write a book. I call it a pass, rather than an edit because I know I’m missing things. I always do! I am not one of those people who is good with tiny details.
If you looked at my cottage, you’d see what I mean. At first glance it looks pretty good, but I haven’t made my bed in days! And I’ll bet there are dust bunnies, maybe full grown dust rabbits …read more

Books are not only hard to write, the manuscripts tend to get long and messy. I’m going through the draft of my book about writing books and my headings are all messed up. I also changed typeface for the body somewhere in the middle. Plus, I started drafting in double space and then, as I got closer to completion, switched to single, except there are three or four sections that didn’t get switched.
As I’m editing and realized it was past time to set up a style sheet for the book. A style sheet simply defines the style, like typeface, type …read more

(www.thegoldenpencil.com)
Most of you who follow this blog are probably vaguely aware I’m writing a book about getting your book written. It’s designed to go with a class I’ll be teaching and I’m getting close to the end. I’ve figured out what’s wrong with the exercises and I know how I want to fix them although I haven’t done it yet.
After some soul searching I decided I have to include a chapter on marketing books, even though I don’t feel like I know much about getting books sold. So I drafted a chapter a month or two ago. Yech! I just …read more

Just discovered a blog that is already proving to be helpful. It’s Biswomen which has a women’s business books category.
In addition to reviewing books there are also gems like: Orman’s “Women & Money” book downloaded 1.1M times in free period. The post points out that the Orman’s book remained number 2 on Amazon even during the free download version, leading to the thought that free or even fee ebooks don’t necessarily hurt sales.
That’s worth thinking about.
Write well and often,

Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing – a resource for freelance writers including 3x a week job postings.
Writing With Vision – for those …read more