Website Wants You…to Write How-To

Can you make money writing how-to articles?

There's always a market for quality instructional articles. From auto magazines to women's magazines, editors always look for interesting and well-written how-tos. Recently, Hope Clark from FundsforWriters.com sent around a flyer about a website dedicated to how-to articles.

eHow.com is actively seeking writers to join their online community and provide content for "the world's most popular place to find clear instructions on how to just about anything." Content categories include Arts and Entertainment, Cars, Home and Garden, Weddings and others. Some of the most frequently searched topics include how to swim, how to write a letter of resignation, how to lose weight, how to build a deck and many others.

eHow-to has a "publishing wizard" (see photo left - click to enlarge) where you can compose your article, add images and video if you like. There's a tips and guidelines page that offers advice on the different elements and techniques for producing an article that will draw in readers.



How do you earn money from eHow?

The website pays for the content, but you have to sign up for the "Writer's Compensation Program," which is NOT open to anyone living outside the U.S. nor anyone who is not a U.S. citizen. Writers also must be over 18 and have a PayPal account.

I could not find any specifics on the pay or "compensation" other than the amount is based on how "useful" the article is, how many times it is viewed, what category it is in and other unnamed elements. (see a sample at right - click to enlarge) The website also stipulates that if you sign up for the compensation program and you make less than $10 a year, you will be charged a $1 processing fee. The site mentions this fee and the $10 or less earnings in a year policy several times in the FAQ section. If it is possible to make less than $10 in a calendar year, I have to wonder how little the "compensation" per article is.


What rights are you selling to eHow?

There is a long paragraph on the "Terms of Use" page dealing with what rights a writer grants eHow. You retain your copyright, but eHow has the worldwide nonexclusive rights to publish, display, duplicate, modify, create derivative works "in any form, media or technology now known and later developed" and to negotiate the reprinting of your article in the print media without further compensation. Nonexclusive means that you can sell the article elsewhere provided you can find a market that will also accept nonexclusive rights.

For an explanation on all the different kinds of rights you have available for sale, check out Writing-World.com's article "Rights: What They Mean and Why They're Important" by Marg Gilks.

In my opinion, I think eHow has something to offer the freelance writer. It claims to have more than six millions readers each month. If that's accurate, you will be hard pressed to find better exposure. However, I don't believe you'll make pots of money. The compensation formula seems very subjective from what I could learn. Still every experience in life offers some benefit and only you can decide if eHow is an experience worthy of your time and talent.

Top Books Since 1983?

Why these 25 years?

Is it just me or does the release of Entertainment Weekly's list of the top 100 books of the last 25 years seem like a case of odd timing? Twenty-five year spans fit neatly between years like 1925 and 1950, 1975 and 2000, but 1983 and 2008? Waiting two more years and doing the top 100 from the last 30 years makes more sense and is much easier math.

Actually, Entertainment Weekly does have a reason for selecting these particular 25 years. The pop culture magazine is celebrating its 1000th issue with a double-issue edition June 27/July 4. In addition to books, the magazine tackled movies, music, TV shows and more, compiling a list of the 1000 best things in pop culture.

The New Classics: The 100 Best Reads from 1983 to 2008 was released on the ew.com site on June 18, causing book bloggers and columnists everywhere to ponder the selections. Phil Kloer of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution calls the list "preposterous. A Harry Potter Novel at No. 2, ahead of all the literature written in the last 25 years, will start that little vein throbbing in your temple."

Novelist Janice Harayda writes on her blog "One-Minute Book Reviews" that the magazine's annual list of the year's worst books is "usually right on the money. " However, this list "falls a bit wider of the mark." She goes on to name 10 books she would've put on such a list.

Bloggers Jan and Jenny of Sibling Revelry don't comment on the list, but instead throw out a challenge to each other and their readers. The duo plans to read or at least attempt to read each book. They will blog about their thoughts and feelings and invite their readers to comment as well.

What was Entertainment Weekly's measure for a book making the list?

Good question. According to the New York Times book blog "PaperCuts" (June 20), the magazine polled its staff for their favorites. I couldn't find any mention of the criterion on Entertainment Weekly's website, but I did find a commentary on ew.com called "Breaking Down the List," which offered no insight into the selection process.

Only two of the top ten New Classics made the list of "10 Books that Spent the Most Weeks on the New York Times Hardcover Best-Seller List." One book from the top ten made the "Oprah Blessed Titles" list. Of the "Five Prolific Writers," only two had a book apiece listed in the top 20. So Entertainment Weekly didn't take best-selling status or the skill and mastery of the authors or even Oprah into account. And they call these books "classic"?

Which books are on the list?

You can see the entire New Classics: The 100 Best Reads from 1983 to 2008 on Entertainment Weekly's website. Here are the top 10 books:

1. The Road, Cormac McCarthy (2006)
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)
3. Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987)
4. The Liars’ Club, Mary Karr (1995)
5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997)
6. Mystic River, Dennis Lehane (2001)
7. Maus, Art Spiegelman (1986/1991)
8. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (1996)
9. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997)
10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1997)

This Just In…

Unrelated but with a deadline fast approaching, Memoirs Ink announces its annual writing contest:

"Memoirs Ink is hosting our Fifth Annual Writing Contest. For five years, we have been advancing the cause of creative nonfiction. The late deadline for our annual contest is August 15, 2008. Writers may submit personal essays, chapters of memoir, narrative journalism, and other forms of creative non-fiction. The Grand Prize is $1000 and publication online and in our upcoming anthology. (This is the last annual contest that will be included in our five-year anthology—so if you haven't entered before, this is the year.) Full guidelines are available on our website. Previous entrants get a discounted entry fee."

Everybody Wants to Touch Someone…Connecting with Your Audience

Growing up, I couldn't do my homework if I didn't have my stereo blaring, usually Barry Manilow (forgive me - I was a child) because no one else in the house could stand him and they'd stay out of my room. Even after high school and college, I found I couldn't write without music of some kind, and the harder the assignment, the louder the music.

In April, I bought the soundtrack to the movie "Once," loaded it iTunes and sat down to write an article for 3 Questions. I had seen the movie several weeks earlier and the songs kept playing in my mind. For weeks, I woke up humming at least one of the songs all day. Sometimes the soundtrack in my brain would switch tracks mid-day. I made a playlist on YouTube of song clips from the movie, then finally decided I needed the CD. I thought it would be great writing music.

So there I was with my blank Word page, my notes, my music, ready to be tremendously productive…I had to turn the CD off. The lyrics, the music kept drawing me in, stealing my attention so I could listen to how they played together, so I could join their fun. I shook my head and turned back to my page. One sentence became two, but then my favorite song came on, one I hadn't found on YouTube, and I was off again. I had 700 words to write and a deadline! I needed to concentrate on my article and I couldn't with that CD playing. The songwriters, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, had created words and melodies that bound me to them and their music.

The need to connect is no more important to anyone than it is to a writer. We have to build connections to the people and the world around us to maintain our source of inspiration. We have to build connections to our creations, and through them, we build connections to our audiences.

How do we make connections?

Write what you know, or better yet, write about something that holds your passion. Several years ago, I reviewed a book about Savannah from its early days as a coastal settlement through its first years as the capital of Georgia. It wasn't my favorite subject or time period so I had no intention of forming any kind of bonds. The writer, Carl Solana Weeks, meticulously researched the book, stuffing every fact he found into it like a kid trying to show all his treasures. Weeks had come to know and enjoy the people he followed through Savannah's childhood so much so that they were real to me through his words and I kept reading to the very end.

Use plot themes or "Universal Truths" to connect. An universal truth is something to which most people can relate. Family relationships are full of universal truths—mothers and daughters, the in-laws, sibling rivalries, etc. Audiences can relate to family themes because they've been there, done that. Everyone has some kind of family.

Common life situations can also draw the audience in. For instance, Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight series, set her stories in a high school. In an interview on Amazon.com, she explained, "…high school is such a compelling time period--it gives you some of your worst scars and some of your most exhilarating memories." Although her books are aimed at the YA market, they rank high with adult readers, because they can relate with high school memories of their own

Characters make the strongest connections with readers and audiences, person to person. YA readers in particular look for characters in their age bracket and issues that are important in their lives. However, everyone, young or old, wants to see something of himself/herself in the hero or heroine. Characters that share our dreams, our flaws or our frustrations will draw us in even if they live in a different time, a different reality or are of a different species.

For example, I find the movie "Capote" creatively inspiring. The movie is set in the late 1950s/early 1960s, with an eccentric, androgynous leading character, while I'm definitely a female who wasn't born when Capote began writing his book. Yet I've watched it three times and each time I suffer with Capote over his obsession to his book and the criminals that inspired it. I come away hoping one day to have that sort of passion for a project.

Are there any other ways to connect with readers, listeners or audiences?

Thousands, maybe even millions of ways. Some obvious instant connections include professions, interests and region or location. The 1980s movies "Working Girl" and "9 to 5" follow women office workers rising up against their deceitful, egotistical bosses, drawing raves from working women, while history buffs pushed His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis and Jimmy Carter's An Hour Before Daylight: Memoirs of a Rural Boyhood to the best-sellers list shortly after their release dates in 2005 and 2001 respectively.

What is the best way to connect?

There is no BEST way. A good writer tries to connect with his audience on as many levels as he can. Dan Brown used the struggles of between men, struggle between religious beliefs, a well-known setting in the Louvre, and a likeable character in often-befuddled professor Robert Langdon to make The DaVinci Code a novel hard to put down and a best-seller to boot.


As much as a writer strives to reach his readers, his readers work to find a connection to the writer, be it through plot, character or setting. People want to connect. They want you to invite them step inside your world and get lost for while.

Calling the Muse…Writing Prompts

"Keep your eyes open on Thursday for a special opportunity."

That was my fortune from my fortune cookie. It makes a great opening line for an article on writing prompts, don't you think? What can you do with that line? Doesn't it get you wondering as to what the opportunity could be…what makes it special...and will it really come true?

A good writing prompt will spawn all sorts of questions for a writer to ponder and attempt to answer. When you are suffering through the summer doldrums or maybe you have a minor case of writer's block, a writing prompt can jumpstart your muse into action. You can find writing prompts just about anywhere. Writing websites usually have pages of them. Here are few techniques I've learned for building my own file of writing prompts.

Ripped From the Headlines!

The "Law & Order" franchises on TV use this prompt all the time. They say truth is stranger than fiction so why not look to the news for ideas? If you write nonfiction, take a national headline or subject and work the local angle. If you write fiction, use the basic facts of the story to build your own conflict between characters. Every news story has a personal conflict on some level.

Today I read a report that quoted Amy Winehouse's father Mitch announcing the singer has emphysema. At age 24, Winehouse, because of her drug use and smoking, has a disease that usually afflicts people two or three times her age. How many article ideas can you glean from that without mentioning the singer? On the fiction side, you can put your heroine in her shoes and give her the battle to win or you could take the father's point of view and the struggle he'll have.

Read the newspaper, at least one, every day to find prompts to get your creative juices flowing.

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words!

I took a workshop with a wonderful author several years ago. LeRoy handed out photographs he pulled from magazines, instructing each of us to write the first page of a novel or short story based in the photo. These were random photos. I remember one was Marky Mark in his Calvin Klein briefs, while another was a deserted highway in Utah's Monument Valley.

Year's later my sister sent us a book that was one of her favorites because it was bizarre. The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg, author of The Polar Express and Jumanji among others, supposedly features drawings by Harris Burdick with titles and then a one-line caption. The drawings all have a fantastic element to them, sometimes funny, other times disturbing. Wouldn't be fun to sit down with those drawings and captions and concoct a story around them?

Images are great writing prompts, especially for fiction. Keep a file of photos, illustrations, postcards even that capture your imagination.

You Can Quote Me!

I collect quotations. Some spawn scenes in my head that I later use in my artwork. In my writing, I always began my column when I edited a newsletter for a writer's association with a quotation from a famous person. For instance I used "An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows" (Dwight D. Eisenhower) to start a column on writing simply. Most of the time the quote sparked the column's topic, but sometimes it just summarized the idea.

Quotations can inspire us for many reasons, including prompting ideas. I keep a file just for interesting quotes on my computer. When I'm stuck for an idea, I read through them all to see what will spark, like my fortune cookie did tonight. Oh!--If I do find a "special opportunity" on Thursday, you'll be the first to know.

Workshops & Retreats…ShawGuides Guide to Writers Conferences & Workshops

How do you find a writer's workshop or conference that's right for you?

The Internet has made this task so much easier. You can put "writer's conferences" into Google or any search engine to get started. However, there are also various searchable databases online. Writer's Mart, a service of Writer's Digest, has two sub-categories once you click "conferences" on the home page. Different events are listed on the front page of each sub-category but when you search with the same keyword, you come up with the same results. The Writer's Mart search engine works best with single keyword searches. I took two keywords from the first listing on the page and the search engine failed to find the conference.

A database that has helped me is ShawGuides Guide to Writers Conferences & Workshops. I can search by nearly two dozen genres, all 50 states, every month of the year and by over three dozen countries around the world. I can click the menu or type in keywords. It's not fool-proof. I typed in Maine, memoir and September and got five entries. Three have events in Maine, offer memoir classes and have events in September. One is in Canada. It will be held in September, does have memoir section and an instructor is from Maine. Another is from France, but offers a class on memoir and will be held in September.

Why does 3 Questions recommend ShawGuides?


I have worked with ShawGuides from both sides. I helped organize the Southeastern Writers Workshop for several years and the database was the workshop's primary advertising. Now I use it to select the workshops, conferences and retreats I profile here. I like ShawGuides because I know the information is current and because it is easy to use.

The database is free to search but organizations must subscribe to be listed. The administrators of the database contact each organization before their subscriptions expire. If a group doesn't renew, ShawGuides pulls the listing. The organization fills out its own listing and update it as needed so you can trust that they are accurate. There is also a link to the group's webpage. I have never found a broken link.

As I showed above, searching ShawGuides is easy. The listings give a brief outline of the event, the cost, even the faculty plus snail mail, email and web access where available if you decide you want more information. Some listings have photos and other features as well. The database is vast with over 900 writing programs listed.


There are two things I don't like about ShawGuides. One it is a very cluttered screen. Many of the listing pages have sidebars with advertisements and featured or sponsored links to other conferences. Some of those have photos that rotate through a cycle. It takes away from the main listing and sends me looking for the website link to escape.

Second, I can't move from one listing to the next or to the previous while I'm on a conference listing page. I have to go back to the search list and click on the next one. These aren't big problems keeping me off the database, but they are annoying.


What else should you know about ShawGuides?

ShawGuides has 10 other databases in addition to Guide to Workshops and Conferences. If your interests include art, photography, cooking, travel or more, you can find events for professional advancement or just recreational exploration.

ShawGuides can make your search for the perfect writer's conference easier and faster. Plus it is free.

3 Ways to Keep Yourself Writing…

When I interview authors, I always ask them what advice have they received and what advice would they give. The most common piece of advice is "Put your butt in the chair and write." Writing is a very solitary job with rejection lurking at the end of every page. So how do you keep motivated? How do you keep your butt in the chair? Here are some tips I've picked up for myself and from other people.

Reward Yourself

The creative muse can be very childish, and like a child, sometimes you have to bribe it into performing. Promise yourself a token of appreciation if you can just get this chapter done or mail that proposal off. The token can be anything from a walk in the sun with your dog to an hour of guilt-free Internet surfing to your favorite Starbucks diet-busting specialty coffee on the way home from the post office. Make the promise when you sit down and watch how that little incentive can get your fingers flying on the keyboard.

Embrace Rejection

Writers get rejected. There's no way around it. Not everybody is going to think you're the second coming of Charles Dickens, William Wordsworth or Virginia Woolf. When I had my first play reading at a writer's conference nearly 20 years ago, five people got up and walked out halfway through. I was upset when I told my sister about it later. An actress, she had rejection in her life, too, but she put a positive spin on it. "At least you made them do something. You got a reaction."

A speaker at a conference told of a man who put every rejection slip he got up on the wall so he could see them when he worked. He wanted to paper the whole office because it showed how hard he was working. Another writer friend took that idea and modified it slightly. You've heard the saying "You've got to eat a peck of dirt before you die." She says you have to be rejected 100 times before you make a sale and she sees each rejection as taking her one step closer to her next sale.

Try to find the positive in every rejection. It isn't personal so turn it around and make it a motivating force in your writing life.

Identify Your Villain

I'm not talking about a character for your hero to battle in your next book. You need a villain in your writing life. Mine is a journalism professor who asked me to leave his magazine writing class because I was "only an English major" and didn't have the journalistic background for his class. So where have I sold most of my work? To magazines, and the kicker is that five years after that class, I was at a workshop where he was teaching. My work had begun appearing in local publications, and on a break between sessions, he sat down beside me and said he had been talking to an editor of a new magazine, then asked if he could give him my number. How do you like me now?

I truly believe that it is human nature, especially American human nature, to strive to prove somebody wrong. Find your villain - the one who doesn't believe in you - and use him or her to motivate you to keep your butt in that chair writing. Force him to believe with every publication you add to your résumé.

The Skeptical Frog

Say What?...3 Exercises for Realistic Dialogue

We've all read it…really awful dialogue. Writing realistic dialogue is the hardest part of writing (in my opinion). Here are three exercises that I picked up studying script writing. Maybe they will help you hone your skills for realistic dialogue.

1) The Art of Eavesdropping

Pay attention to the conversations around you while you're standing in line at the bank or in a restaurant. Listen specifically for word choice and how much detail the speakers give. At your first opportunity, recreate the conversation on paper, a cocktail napkin or whatever's handy. Sketch out each person's character based on what you heard, including what that person does for a living, how old, economic status, region, etc. Remember to base it just on what you heard, not what you saw.

2) Who's That?


Write sets of dialogue between your main characters at various points in your story idea--the opening or first meeting, midway, and at the climax. Then record yourself reading the dialogue aloud with no mention of the names to see if the characters can be distinguished by their speech patterns and content when you play it back. If you have a writing partner or someone else you trust, let him listen to the recording.

3) I Can Do That

Dialogue doesn't happen in a vacuum. Your characters are usually going to be doing something while they are speaking. So act out the scenes with dialogue to see if you can really maintain a conversation during jogging when you're a 45-year-old desk jockey who has not missed many meals. Or if you're lifting a box full of 40 pounds of the stuff that's been gathering dust in the back of your closet for the last 20 years, will you really say politely "Honey, would you mind getting the door? Thank you so much!" I think not.




One Bonus Tip:

Recording your dialogue helps to gauge rhythm and flow, helps eliminate unintentional wordplay like cutesy alliterations or tongue twisters. If you can't read it without faltering, your characters can't say it realistically. Recording also helps to catch when your characters are using names too frequently or giving "idiot speeches," when one character says to another "do remember when you did this, that and this and it got us in trouble over here and your mom grounded us and…" Of course the other character remembers. He was there. The whole span is there to fill the reader in on the backstory.. Soap Operas do it all the time, but that doesn't make it great literature. "…and my dad was really your oldest brother and…." There are other ways to reveal the backstory.

Favorite Things…Six Books on Writing

I have a weakness…I love books on writing. In college, I saved all the textbooks from my writing classes. I subscribed to Writer's Digest almost immediately upon graduation and discovered the Writer's Digest Book Club and began buying writing books "at incredible savings!" Shortly after, I worked in the acquisitions department in a university library. I could order any book I could find and I got a discount! I filled shelves upon shelves before it was all over.

Have I read them all? Most but not all, but I have my favorites based on readability and usefulness.

Need help with mechanics?

The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. (aka "Strunk and White") - Originally written in the mid 1950s, this book breaks down English grammar the best of any other book. The table of contents is like a checklist of grammar points if you just need a quick reference. Inside you can find more in-depth discussions of the comma-semicolon dilemma and the dreaded indefinite pronoun. Coyote Canyon Press published the latest edition in 2007 without crediting co-author E.B. White. They also call it "the original edition." It is available on Amazon.com for $3.90.


Getting the Words Right: 39 Ways to Improve Your Writing by Theodore A. Rees Cheney - When I bought this book 20 years ago, the subtitle was "How to Rewrite, Edit and Revise." It does just that and in a way that it becomes incorporated into your daily writing life, like Weight Watchers isn't a diet but a program to incorporate healthy eating into your daily life. You change bad writing habits, learn how to avoid language pitfalls and become a better first draft writer simply by reading this book. Published by F&W Publications, it sells for $11.99 on Amazon.com.

The Writer's Digest Guide to Manuscript Formats by Dian Dincin Buchman and Seli Groves - WD Books published this guide in 1988, and at that time, it was THE reference guide to have because it lists not only novel formats, but query letters, short stories, plays, screenplays, nonfiction articles and more. Some of its advice is now somewhat dated in today's Internet world (it talks about setting your typewriter tabs), but the basics are good. You can only find it used now, but there are other formatting books out there and I strongly recommend that every writer have one, be it this one or not. The appearance of your manuscript makes your first impression to an editor or agent. Make sure it looks good.

Want to try something different?


Screenplay by Syd Field - Syd Field is a screenwriting guru and this book has been around at least 20 years teaching writers the structure of the basic screenplay. It will help you plot out your story, show you proper screenplay format, and much more. If you're a novelist looking to adapt your book, it even outlines what will and won't work on film. Field has many other screenwriting books but this one is the best one to start with if you've never written a script. Delta published its latest edition in 2005 and you can get it on Amazon.com for $10.88.

Creating Short Fiction: The Classic Guide to Writing Short Fiction by Damon Knight - I liked this book because it explained plotting to me in terms I could understand. I have yet to master it, but I do understand it. Like the other books on this list, it is enjoyable to read as well as instructive. Even if you don't want to write short stories, this is a good reference to have if you want to learn how to conserve your words but still give your idea life. It is from St. Martin's Griffin and sells for $10.46 on Amazon.com.

Need affirmation?


Dare to be a Great Writer by Leonard Bishop - I was sorry to see this book is no longer in print. (You can find copies on Alibris.com and from private sellers on Amazon.com). This is a great book to read before you send out your manuscript, after you get your first rejection slip or whenever you need to be reminded that you're a great writer. It's like having Dr. Phil at the ready on your bookshelf. I've read all of it but I didn't read straight through. Often I'd just flip through until I found the pages and the words I needed at that particular time.



There are other books out there that offer advice and instruction--I have many more myself--but I will probably never part with these six.







Irish author Paul Kildoff will answer your questions about writing and his new book Ruinair as he kicks off his Virtual Book Tour here at 3 Questions...and Answers May 19. Read more and leave your questions here by 6pm EDT Friday, May 16.

You Like?...You Write!

Being a freelance writer is like that old cliché: "Have your cake and eat it too." Write about things you like and you'll combine work and pleasure every day.

Where do you want to go?

A great way to manage a dream vacation is to pitch a get-away article to an editor. Lots of magazines and newspapers need travel articles. A friend of mine writes a day-trip column for the local paper. She had long wanted to visit a day spa. For her recent article, she got paid to try the services of four.

Not all publications will pay expenses so check with the editor up front. Keep your receipts for tax purposes too. Some, if not all, of them are deductible.

Places to pitch travel articles, beside obviously travel magazines, include local papers, city magazines, parenting magazines, women's magazines and others.

What do you want to do?

Several years ago I began thinking about getting a tattoo. I had seen one I liked, but I had so many questions I wanted answered before I took the plunge. So I pitched a story on tattoos to the editor of our city magazine. I got the assignment and interviewed tattoo artists in town and their clients and got paid for getting answers to my questions.


Another writer friend, a senior citizen, wanted to parasail and learned that some places offer tandem parasailing, where she could go up strapped in with an experienced "sailor." She sold an informative feature to a seniors' magazine and a first person essay to her local paper.

So look at what you want to do or what you're planning to do and see if there's a story there. If you have always wanted to do it, chances are someone else has, too, and would like to read about it.

Places to pitch these types of stories vary widely. You may, like the senior writer I mentioned, be able to pitch two different articles about the same dream. Always look for personal experience markets. Look for demographic markets. For instance, old-young, male-female and location (both yours and the story's) can help narrow down potential markets.

What do you like to do?

I have a friend who is a bookworm in the truest sense. At one point, she didn't have a nightstand beside her bed, just a stack of books. If you have a passion for books, write book reviews. Movie and DVD reviews are opportunities for the movie buff/writer, as are CD reviews for the music-loving writer.

If you like dogs, there are dog magazines as well as cat, horse, fish, ferret, rabbit, rat, and reptile magazines (according to TheMagazineBoy.com).


Do you knit, sew, crochet, or other needlecrafts? You guessed it, there are magazines for each of those looking for how-to's and tips among other story ideas. In fact, if you name any hobby, I bet you there's a magazine for it. In addition to those already mentioned, TheMagazineBoy.com lists magazines for such hobbies as beading, ceramics, doll making, jewelry, woodworking, painting, coin collecting, model making, trains and teddy bears plus more.

Now that you're mining your life and dreams for story ideas, here are some sources for potential markets:

NewsVoyager.com - free database of daily and weekly newspaper websites from nearly every city in the US and some international papers too.

TheMagazineBoy.com - free directory of magazines, including some international magazines, titles are sorted by category and subcategory.


WritersMarket.com - a subscription database of print and online magazines, newspapers, trade journals, and it includes a "dashboard" to set up folders and track your submissions, about $4/month or $30/year. (I know I mention it a lot--I am not paid to tout this site. I just use it often.)

Finally, go to your local newsstand or bookstores like Borders or Barnes and Noble and look through the periodicals section. Your local library is another great place to research potential markets. Don't forget to check your own coffee table. You can write for any magazine you read because you already know the target market.






Irish author Paul Kildoff will answer your questions about writing and his new book Ruinair as he kicks off his Virtual Book Tour here at 3 Questions...and Answers May 19. Read more and leave your questions here by 6pm EDT Friday, May 16.

Hmmmm...Updated

Ten days ago, I wrote a commentary based on a Wall Street Journal article reporting that Random House and HarperCollins were offering all or portions of some of their books for free. I wondered how and why they would do this since if someone could get something for free, why would they ever buy it?

Since I wrote the piece I've done some digging on both their websites, gaining a better understanding of the programs and their purpose.
HarperCollins actually has several online promotions: Full Access, Sneak Peek, and Browse Inside. Full Access is a one-month promotion, featuring selected titles available in their entirety for readers online. It is a test to see how free access with affect book sales. Sneak Peek allows readers to view 20% of select new releases for the two weeks prior to their release date. Browse Inside makes the remaining titles in HarperCollins digital library, again allowing readers access to 20% of any book. In a February 11 press release the company says that they worked with individual authors when developing Full Access and "additional title promotions will be decided upon on a case-by-case basis moving forward in consultation with our authors."

Random House's program to sell individual chapters of Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath is simply a test program to see how readers respond to having digital options to physical books. No other title has been announced in this program.



Amazon.com has been offering readers limited looks inside some of their titles for a number of years. HarperCollins appears to be the first to offer entire books online. While I believe that offering excerpts of books online can promote sales, I don't think that offering a complete book for free will promote sales of that book. I think what it might do, if anything, is enhance the image of HarperCollins as a publisher willing to go a little further for its readers.

Wanna Play?

This time next week 3 Questions…and Answers will celebrate its one-month birthday! Who knew?!

Are we going to have a party?

Not quite, but I do have a present to give away. As a way to show my appreciation for your support and readership, one lucky reader will receive this handmade journal from artist Sally Small. Here is her description:

"Journal - Aristotle and Aardvark


"This journal is made from a discarded vintage children's encyclopedia. It contains 50 sheets (100 pages) of new bright white 24# unlined paper (50% post-consumer recycled content), and is bound with a 3/4" black plastic spiral. I have included the original title page of the book and have also scattered a few illustrated pages from the original book throughout the new blank pages.

"The journal measures 7-5/8"x10-3/8" (19.5x26.5cm) overall, including the spiral, and the pages are 6-3/4"x10-1/8" (17x25.5cm).

"Since these journals are made with recycled books, there may be signs of wear and use, such as worn areas, scratches, slightly bent corners, and/or stains. There may also sometimes be old library ownership stamps, library card pockets and other miscellaneous markings inside the book covers. I think all these "imperfections" add to the charm of the item. Each journal is unique!"

To see her online store, click here Redux4u.




How am I going to pick the lucky reader?

If you would like the handmade journal, leave me a comment through the comment link below. Include some sort of identifying name--a nickname, a pen name or even something like "you can call me Al." Don't duplicate anyone else's, but you can put a number like Snoopy2, if your name is already taken. IMPORTANT: Make sure you leave your comment on this post. I will link to it in all the upcoming posts or you can click "Wanna Play" in the archives to come to this page. You can only enter once to be fair.

When's the deadline?

You need to leave your comment by 6pm February 27. Then I will draw a winner from all the names collected and announce the winner that evening's post. The winner and I will then work out where I should send his/her journal.

If you receive 3 Questions…and Answers by email, click here to take you to the page where you can leave your comment. If the link doesn't work, copy http://3questionsandanswers.blogspot.com/2008/02/wanna-play.html into your browser search line.

Wrap up…

To win the journal -

1. Leave a comment on THIS posting with an identifying name
2. Do it before 6pm February 27
3. Only enter once

Good luck and thank you!


AmyM

Things that make you go "Hmmmm".....

What do you think?

Random House takes a hint from iTunes! Like the download music icon, one of the world's largest book publisher has a test program that allows readers to buy digitalized individual chapters of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, according to the February 11 edition of the Wall Street Journal online. Six chapters and an epilogue are selling for $2.99. The Random House selected this book because it has been a strong seller since its release a year ago.

In addition, HarperCollins is offering readers the opportunity to "try before you buy" with their "Browse Inside" feature on their website. The company has a number of titles available for readers to read for free on the website, not just sample chapters, but the ENTIRE BOOK. New releases are included. The home page for the publisher promotes title after title and the company actively seeks feedback for the service and on reader's feelings for reading a book online.



What do the authors get out of these deals?

Royalty payments come from books sold. If a person only buys a couple of chapters, calculating the royalty payments could be a nightmare. Royalties are such a small percentage of the book price. It might cost the publishing house more to write and send the check for a chapter sale than the $2.99 asking price. Also you have to wonder if they'll count the books offered free as units sold. If not, the writers are getting shafted. No one who reads a book online for free will then spend $20-$25 for a hardback copy. And if someone buys a few trial chapters, I don't believe they will shell out the full price for the hard copy. At least iTunes offers an option to "finish your album." Don't think Random House will. They can't

Aren't these issues very similar to those that caused a four-month strike of radio, TV and film writers?

I think they are. I've set up a poll on the right of this page. Let me know what you think. In the meantime, I'm going to look for some answers.