Thursday, October 15, 2009, 01:02 PM EST
[General]
I encourage everyone who's a member of the WritersMarket.com Community to join the new, free Writer's Digest Community at writersdigest.ning.com/.
Not only am I a member, but so are other Writer's Digest editors from the magazine, trade books, and other Market Books. There are already quite a few writers--even though an "official" launch has not yet happened.
Plus, I can tell you that the Writer's Digest Community site is much easier to use than the WritersMarket.com community site. And with the site being free, there should be even more writers and other publishing professionals involved in the Writer's Digest Community.
So get on over there today and send me a friend request.
I'm going to start highlighting some of the blog posts made on the WritersMarket.com community site from time to time. Here's what some of you are up to right now:
* And Maria Rachel Hooley blogs about the writing journeys she takes. In fact, Rachel is one of our more frequent bloggers--so be sure to stop by there and find plenty to read: community.writersmarket.com/mariarachelh...
I hope you're taking advantage of checking out the blogs and communicating with other writers on here. And if you'd like to see your own posts highlighted in a future post by me, then get blogging.
We've recently added niche pages for Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Children's Writers, Scriptwriting and Agents. Plus, listings from other niche books like Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market, Novel & Short Story Writer's Market, and Poet's Market are now available.
It's basically combining serialized novels with choose-your-own-adventure novels and delivering the content online at their website: www.underlandpress.com
The publisher is Underland Press, which was founded by Victoria Blake, a former editor at Dark Horse Comics. Underland Press publishes online and traditional print books that are scary.
Anyway, I'm always interested in new methods and approaches to delivering content whether fiction, nonfiction or poetry. In this case, authors have to provide chapters on a weekly schedule AND go with the new direction that readers have voted. I imagine this can get quite tricky for the author and maybe even confusing, especially if the author is trying to work in sub-plots and secondary characters, etc.
I wonder how long until television tries a similar concept in story telling. And I wonder how much say readers (or viewers, if it comes to that) should have in the storytelling process.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008, 10:25 AM EST
[General]
Beginning with my bookstore appearances earlier this year and continuing through e-mail correspondence this week, freelance writers (both fiction and nonfiction) have been asking me the following question: With the economy in turmoil, should I be laying low until things pick back up?
The answer is no. You should be picking up your efforts in a struggling economy. If anything, editors are probably finding themselves in situations where staff has been reduced and they're more reliant on freelancers than ever, especially in nonfiction.
If you're writing a novel, you should place the same sense of urgency on your project. Books typically take a year or more to find their way to bookshelves after acceptance, so if you get accepted in the next year, you could find your book released just as the economy is on the upswing.
Sure, as the economy tightens, you'll need to roll up your sleeves and make a great impression at every fork in the road--but how is that different than when the economy is doing well? Forget the economy and focus on what you're doing.
Whatever you do, don't use the economy as an excuse to procrastinate on your freelancing goals.
