A publishing professional tells you about the differences between writing print articles or books and writing for a web site.

The Internet is the largest market for your freelance writing, with your potential readership surpassing that of any of the print media. As a bonus, your words will probably exist in cyberspace forever.

But writing successful web content, the kind that attracts a large following, requires a different approach than writing articles or books. Why?

Web readers are impatient. Few surfers read material word for word; instead, they skim it.

If viewers see dense, wordy text, they’ll leave your content unread, no matter how well it matches their interests and needs.

Avoid dense text by freely using these easy tools:

* Bolded subheadings jump out at the eye, helping the reader identify useful information.

* Bulleted or numbered lists condense wordy paragraphs into easily digestible phrases or sentences.

* Empty space gives the reader’s eyes a rest, allowing the words to stand out. Freely use double-spacing between bullet points, paragraphs, headings and text. Allow for margins all around.

Not only with your text look more appealing on the page, people will read your content.

For web-writing success beyond your dreams, follow these tips:

* Put your important information first. Do not spend much time leading up to your point, jump right on it. Your readers will not tolerate fluff.

Our key message here is to motivate web writers to use bolded headings and bulleted lists and to understand why this is crucial.  The impatient reader will quickly get your important information, even if they don’t scroll down to the rest of your article or read every word.

* Have a professional mind-set. Take your web writing as seriously as if you were writing for the magazine, book or other print markets.

* Clearly understand the purpose for each piece of your content, whether article or blog. Have something worthwhile to say, offering new information and fresh ideas. What is your point? Address it with every word.

* Write short sentences and paragraphs. Limit sentences to 25 words and paragraphs to three sentences. (This is a guideline, not a rigid rule.)

* Good writing is tight writing. Each paragraph should have a main point, and each sentence should pertain to that point. Every word, sentence and paragraph should do important work, otherwise prune without hesitation or regret.

* Think brevity. Online articles should be shorter than the comparable print version; blogs should be shorter still. Both must convey an important message in the fewest possible words.

* Have fun! When you enjoy your writing, your readers will, too. They’ll become your fans, eagerly anticipating your upcoming content. And providing outstanding content to attract a large readership is what it’s all about.

Copyright 2006 by Barbara Doyen. All rights reserved.

Why?

Because the content goes in an entirely different direction than the author’s description.

Rather than focusing on helping the reader by providing worthwhile information directly applicable to the readers’ lives, their stated purpose, the writer instead wants to tell their life story. They’ve convinced themselves that others would be interested.

Usually, they are not.

Unless there is something truly unusual about their life experience, and the writer has written in a compelling voice, in addition to having come kind of connection that will assure strong book sales, publishers won’t be interested.

As an example:

You’re suffering from some kind of illness, let’s say it’s breast cancer. You think others would want to learn about what it’s like to go through that illness. You’ve never published anything, but you kept a daily journal which you consulted to write up a manuscript about what happened to you as you went through traditional treatment. You tell us how many million women go through exactly the same thing every year, so they’d be interested in hearing from someone who’s done it.

Unless you offer something of personal benefit to the reader, like an explanation of new treatments and resources to help readers along their own path, your story likely won’t be picked up by publishers.

What you are really doing is filling your inner need to give an outlet for all the emotions you perhaps suppressed through your treatment.  This has been done before, by people who are famous or well-published, who have a ready audience of interested readers.

A writer we know got a publishing contract for a nonfiction book. When it came time to deliver the manuscript, however, her editor was dismayed to find that instead of sticking to her topic, she delivered a book of stories about her late husband.

Writing as therapy can be valuable. But it usually isn’t publishable.

If you find yourself drifting off-subject, recognize it and go ahead and do it to get it out of your system. Just understand that you probably won’t be able to sell that material. And if your therapeutic writing is effective, you probably won’t want to.

Before you get all ruffled by this advice, remember that we are speaking in generalities, based on lots of experience in this industry. There are always rare publishing exceptions—your work may be one of them!

Copyright 2007 by Barbara Doyen. All rights reserved.

Suggested reading:

Why Alice Sebold had to write stop writing her bestselling novel, The Lovely Bones and write her nonfiction memoir first.

Yet, memories of her own real-life rape kept interfering with her work. So Sebold set aside her novel manuscript and instead began to write her nonfiction book, Lucky, which detailed her own attack and her rapist’s subsequent trial.

Lucky went on to became Alice Sebold’s first published book, a memoir which did well and established her credentials as a book author.  The title refers to something chilling she had been told by a policeman: that she was lucky to have survived her attack, as the previous victim had been brutally murdered.

The Lovely Bones was Sebold’s second published book; a novel exploring what might happen if someone didn’t survive a brutal rape. Sebold wisely made her character younger so that she could examine the effect on her fictional parents, siblings and school friends.  It became a bestseller almost overnight, despite the editors who were doubtful due to the novel’s “dark” subject matter.

In the aftermath of her real-life attack, Sebold might have wondered what would have happened had she died—would she have been better off?  Her answer, as told through protagonist Suzie Salmon, is no—but you can find peace, even in death.

Many first novels are semi-autobiographical; in this way, Sebold was able to exorcize her own story and be free to write her novel, benefiting herself both personally and professionally.

Copyright 2006 by Barbara Doyen. All rights reserved.

Find out why you should consider writing nonfiction.

What is a Memoir?

Discover the many benefits of publishing nonfiction books and articles, even if your goal is to be a successful novelist. Nonfiction can jumpstart your writing career.

Every writer should seriously consider nonfiction. Here’s why:

Quicker Sales. You don’t have to wait years to get published, especially in the articles markets.  The time to a publisher’s contract for nonfiction is shorter in the book industry, too.  Unlike novels, nonfiction books are marketed and sold before they are written.

More Openings. From small town newspapers to global commercial publications, the market for nonfiction articles is almost unlimited. In contrast, have you noticed how few print publications run short stories these days?

More Money. In general, entry-level nonfiction book authors are paid better than their fiction counterparts. The income from nonfiction articles is much greater than the payment from short fiction, which may amount to little or no money, or perhaps only one or two free copies of the publication containing the story.

Less Competition. At least half of the people we meet say they want to publish a book, usually a novel; some industry studies place that statistic even higher. Since there are far, far more writers trying to publish fiction, the nonfiction markets (comprising approximately half of all trade books published), hold better odds for a sale.

Valuable Credits. Your writing experience is a major part of the package you present to a publisher when you are seeking a writing contract. Previous sales make you look like a professional. Editors and agents are more likely to trust you to write well and meet deadlines, since you’ve already proven you can do it.

Build Confidence. After you get a few sales under your belt, you will come to believe that you CAN do this. Each success will lead to bigger and better successes as you develop your career, getting you past that inner voice doubting your abilities.

Writing Maturity. Any writing that you do will increase your ability to write well. Writing skills develop through experience, by actually writing, regardless of what type of writing it is.

Build Your Knowledge Base. Writing nonfiction, whether it’s short pieces or full books, requires research and, probably, interviews with experts. What you uncover as you develop your material will lead you to discover other salable nonfiction ideas. The information you collect will be useful to you if you write fiction, as well, adding richness and depth to your work.

Update: 2010. The paid markets for print nonfiction articles are no longer open but the internet now provides opportunities for writers to access a vast audience, potentially generating good income.

Copyright 2006 by Barbara Doyen. All rights reserved.

“Dear Agent:

I’ve got 5,000 copies of my published book in my garage, all ready for you to sell to bookstores for me.

Signed,

Eager Author”

We can’t tell you how many times writers have contacted us with letters like this, or something similar. We’d guess the number to be in the thousands.

Sometimes the “published” books they refer to were self-published; more often, they were not. Instead, the eager writer paid exorbitant prices for a sub-standard product from a vanity press.

It’s not our job

Either way, self-published or a vanity scam, getting your book into bookstores is not what a literary agent does. We’re in the business of getting the writer’s manuscript published by a real book publishing company—one who pays the author for the privilege, not the other way around.

When we’ve taken the time to explain this to the Eager Authors who write to our agency, they become quite disappointed. “What am I going to do with all my books?” they ask.

What happened?

Obviously, in their eagerness to get their name on a printed book, these wanna-be published writers didn’t think this through, learning what self-publishing a book is and what it isn’t.

Some of them may have self-published books that could go on to sell well; most of these Eager Authors do not. And the problems holding them back often go way beyond the issue of the quality of the text. It’s not possible to be successful with a sub-standard printed book.

Self-education should come before self-publication.

Done properly, your self-published book may lead you to contact a literary agent with a different kind of letter, one that asks if it is time to take your successful title to a trade book publisher for even greater success.

Copyright 2007 by Barbara Doyen. All rights reserved.

Advice for writers who want to become published authors.

We’re all busy these days. It’s easy to get caught up in our daily routine and forget about those things we’d really like to do, someday.

That’s why the end of the year is a good time to assess our previous accomplishments and set new goals for the New Year.

What is your unrealized dream?

–Do you have a secret desire to become a published author?

–Or perhaps you are making money with your writing but want to ratchet your career to the next level?

Write it down.

The simple act of expressing your desires in print will help you realize them. Take pen to paper or apply your fingers to your keyboard and tell yourself what you’d really like to accomplish before the end of the coming year. What is your heart’s desire?

Make it happen.

Then set some goals for yourself. Decide on concrete next steps that will take you from where you are now to where you want to be at this time next year.

Get Published in the New Year offers practical advice that will help you write and sell your work in the coming year.

Copyright 2006 by Barbara Doyen. All rights reserved.

Have you always wanted to be a published author, someday? Why not make it your New Year’s resolution—a literary agent tells you how.

There are all sorts of paying markets for everything from short pieces to full-length books.  But you can’t switch from wanna-be writer to published author unless you have something to sell–and this means you’ve got to get writing. Here are some tips:

–Get started now. Don’t wait for “someday.” Actually beginning to write something is the biggest obstacle for most people. Once you’re involved in a project, it gets much easier, but that first sentence, first page, first paragraph are usually the hardest, even for published pros.

–Turn off your inner critic. It doesn’t matter if your first words are good. It just matters that you get some down on paper or keyboarded into your computer. You can always rewrite them later—in fact, it is likely that you will want to. But for the time being, just write. Give yourself permission to write badly, if that is what it takes to get the words flowing.

–Write regularly. Schedule appointments with yourself to sit down and write. It doesn’t have to always be the same time of day and it doesn’t even have to be every day.  Do not let a week go by without actually writing something, however.  Look at your busy schedule and find one or more time slots that you can dedicate to writing, even if it is just 15 minutes per sitting. Some people get up a little earlier before work while the house is still quiet and their mind is fresh. Others are night owls who get creative at the end of the evening when the family is asleep. Discover what works for you.

–Set up a dedicated writing space. Assign yourself a spot for that purpose, even if it is just a tiny folding table in the back corner of your laundry room.

–Quiet, please! Shut the door to outside noise. It is probably best to avoid all potential distractions such as TV, radio, recorded music. (Perhaps multi-tasking by doing a load of laundry would mask outside noise to your writing corner.) Ask your family not to interrupt you during your writing time unless it’s an emergency.

–Start small. If you feel overwhelmed at the thought of beginning an entire book, start with an article. If a full-length article seems too hard, start with something shorter, like a letter to the editor for your local newspaper. The important thing is to get started.

–Create your mindset. Know that if you have the desire to get published, you will find the means. Make it your New Year’s resolution to get published!

Copyright 2006 by Barbara Doyen. All rights reserved.

See Also:

Write It Down, Make It Happen

Memoirs are perennially popular with many new books coming out each year. The bestseller, Night, by Elie Wiesel, is a memoir, not an autobiography or biography. But what is a memoir, anyway?

Memoir, autobiography, biography

A memoir is a special kind of autobiography, usually involving a public portion of the author’s life as it relates to a person, historic event, or thing. The text is about the personal knowledge and/or experiences of the author.

In contrast, an autobiography covers the author’s entire life to the present, and is expected to include details about his or her public and private life. A biography is someone’s life story written by another person.

Examples of memoirs

Elie Wiesel’s Night relates true stories of fellow concentration camp sufferers during the Holocaust of WWII based on the author’s shared experiences with them. He limits our glimpses of his own ordeals, including them reluctantly as a vehicle to chronicle the others’ suffering, perhaps due to survivor’s guilt.

Irene Spencer’s Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamists’s Wife is about polygamy from the author’s personal experience of it. Now in a monogamous marriage, which was beyond the topic of this memoir, Spencer did not give us the details of her life outside of polygamy.

Jung Chang’s Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China is the author’s memoir recounting the terrible events in twentieth century China by telling us how she, her mother, and her grandmother survived them. It does not include anything about Chang’s life since 1978, when she moved to England.

To sample many memoirs in one book:

Eve Claxton’s The World’s Best Memoir Writing: The Literature of Life from St. Augustine to Nelson Mandela is an anthology of memoir excerpts from people who have changed the world.

Memoir: Fact or fiction?

Obviously, a memoir should be true. The author should not alter the truth in telling his or her story. In fact, Elie Wiesel checked the text and made minor corrections in his book, Night, before it was published in the US to make it as truthful as possible.

Memories are faulty, so a little leeway is given to authors of memoirs, but they are expected to be honest and to check their facts for accuracy. Creating fiction and passing it off as nonfiction, as apparently was done by James Frey in his controversial A Million Little Pieces, is completely unacceptable.

Memoir writing techniques

A memoir is written in first person from the author’s point of view.

It is narrative nonfiction written in story form like fiction. Dialogue can be included, but since few people can remember precisely every word spoken, the dialogue is not literally true; instead the author attempts to recreate it as accurately as possible. For this reason, some memoirs, like Wild Swans, tell the story without dialogue.

The memoir author should “think small” and make a series of “reducing decisions,” says William Zinsser, author of the perennially popular book, On Writing Well, which includes a new chapter about writing memoirs in the latest edition.

Each memoir has a particular theme or focus

A memoir does not contain everything from this particular slice of the author’s life, but rather, events are selected and examined for meaning relative to the purpose of the book.

The author has questioned what happened and come to some kind of new understanding or lesson learned by it. The author shows us how he or she was affected by this experience, how it has profoundly changed the way he sees the world.

And by extension, reading the book will change the way the reader sees the world.

Copyright 2006-2007 by Barbara Doyen. All rights reserved.

Plagiarized Best Sellers–Why Do It?

What is plagiarism?

Everyone knows that plagiarism means taking another’s work and presenting it as your own. Most bestselling authors are above doing such a thing, yet accusations against them do occur.

What is behind these plagiarism charges?

Deliberate Acts

If an author has intentionally taken copyrighted material and published it as their own, they have committed plagiarism. Perhaps out of fear of inadequacy, or due to deadline pressure, an occasional author steals copyrighted material without permission, or takes ideas without crediting the originator. The source of the stolen material can be books or other print material, as well as information from the Internet. The result is often a protracted legal battle and the loss of the author’s reputation in the publishing world.

There have been rare cases where a writer has used the entire text from a published book, reworked it so that it is somewhat disguised, and later published it under their name. Not only is this a theft from the original author, it violates the plagiarizing author’s publishing contract, which stipulates that the material is original, resulting in disgrace and lawsuits.

Inadvertent Acts

Unintentional plagiarism occurs, usually due to sloppiness. Perhaps as the author was doing background research for his book, he failed to footnote the paragraph he copied into his notes from another source. He might have been about to create the footnote, but got interrupted at that moment by a phone call or a doorbell. Later, thinking that unattributed paragraph was his own, he included it in his published book. The consequence of this error might be a financial settlement along with an apology from the errant author.

Coincidence

Sometimes people come up with similar ideas independently; it happens all the time. For instance, I was an agent for quite a few years without ever seeing submissions about the black plague. Then, in one week’s time, three authors from different corners of the U.S. queried me with a similar plot device: the black plague being re-introduced today due to a newly-unearthed, contaminated artifact. Perhaps it was pure coincidence. Perhaps the authors had all been inspired by a news story involving an archaeologist finding an object buried with black plague victims. Their stories were otherwise entirely different.

Greed or Imagination

Like the mega-jackpot winners, a best selling author is perceived to have become instantly rich. People with twisted moral standards might try to dream up false accusations against the author as a way to get some of the book’s earnings. Other people might imagine things against successful authors due to their own mental or emotional issues, perhaps even believing that these things are true.

Copyright 2006 by Barbara Doyen. All rights reserved.

New software for detecting plagiarism means that writers should take steps to prevent risking their reputation due to charges of plagiarism.

Plagiarism is a serious issue, and one that should concern every author.

Very clearly, we do not want to be on the receiving end of someone plagiarizing our work, nor do we want to be the plagiarizer.  This applies not only to deliberate or inadvertent “lifting” of content from hardcopy, but from web content as well, even if it is taken from your own websites.

Of course you know that it’s a serious offence to include copyrighted material in your work as if it were your own.  But too many writers are confused about web content, thinking anything they find on the Internet is copyright-free and available. It isn’t.

When writing your book or article, don’t “borrow” from printed material or anything from the Internet, even if it is in the public domain.

Put everything in your own words.

Your publisher must explicitly approve the few exceptions to this advice prior to your manuscript’s deadline, or better, before offering you a publishing contract. If your publisher agrees, you will be responsible for getting the legal permissions needed and must submit the signed documents to your publisher prior to publication.

The ramifications of plagiarism are very serious, not only for the author, but for the publisher of your material.  So serious, in fact, that most publishers today utilize a software tool that very effectively checks every manuscript for plagiarism, that even cites the sources of the plagiarized material.

Authors who submit manuscripts containing plagiarized text are likely to have their publishing contracts terminated. Word about such things gets around the publishing community.  Reputation is important in this industry–sully yours and your future writing career will be seriously jeopardized. No legitimate agent will knowingly represent plagiarized material and will be upset to discover it in a project they’ve sold. No editor will want to work with an author who is known to plagiarize—the risks are too great.

So, do your research.  Then put aside your research material and write all your content from scratch.  That way you, your agent, your editor, and your publisher will all be pleased with your original writing and eager to work with you again!

Copyright 2006 by Barbara Doyen. All rights reserved.