April Writer’s Challange

One month, One Story, yep, you knew it was coming, it’s time for the: April Writer’s Challange:

Easter is just around the corner. For this month’s challange I thought we  would write an “Eastery” story. Doesn’t have to be Easter exactly. I was inspired by Dove Chocolate’s “Fairy Bunny”, which I saw in the store today. They are so cute. On the box is a poem that tells about an enchanted valley where bunnies with butterfly wings live. It’s a cute little image tale, and it got me to thinking: What a great fantasy story that’d make!

So, this month’s challange is to write a fantasy about an enchanted valley filled with magical faeries and the like. You can spin it off as any genre you like. One idea I thought of was based on my siggie gif: The Vampire Easter Minions. Kind of a fairy tale got mad thing.

Ain’t they cute?

 

What can you guys think of? 

The challange is up, so get going and write!

~~EK

Victorian Easter Chicks

Copper Cockeral’s newest design is Victorian Easter Chicks

Why Do Editors Reject MSs?

I just read this:

Treat your editors like the coach from any sports team because the editor knows their audience and only rejects writing with a good reason–even if you never learn the specifics.

Seemed like good advice, though I know nothing of sports or coaches. I do know, however, that editors have no choice but to reject 90% of what they recieve. Why? Well, for every book they have the physical ability to publish each year they receive 1,000 or more manuscripts. Many publishing houses only print 12 new books a year, one each month, and yet they receive ten times that many manuscripts in a single day. What does that mean for you the writer? That means that your manuscript had better be damn good if you want it to punch out the compatition and make it onto the editor’s desk. Once on the editor’s desk it had better glow if it wants to get picked for publication.

Why do editors reject manuscripts? Well as the editor in chief of Moonsnails Magazine and The Twighlight Manor Press, I think I might know the answer.

Here are copies of a few of the rejection forms we use:

Rejection Notice: No Space At This Time; MS Put on File:

After careful consideration of your ms entitled [ms title goes here] we must regretfully inform you that we are unable to accept it at this time. The decision to deny acceptance was based on the following:At the current time we do not have space for your story in our publication. The reason for this is that all of the space slots have already been appointed for all of our upcoming issues, meaning that it may be a year or more before we well be able to use your story. However, we did like your story, and may use it in the future. Therefore I have put it on file for possible future publication. This does not mean that we can guarantee we well accept it in the future.
Because it may be a year or more before we would be able to accept your story, you are welcomed to submit this same ms to other publishers. If it is accepted by one of them, please inform us of such. If it does get published in an other magazine, we well move it to a file for possible reprint in our magazine.
If at some point in the future we do decide to use your ms, you well be notified and payment well be sent at the than current payment rate.So, you are now staring at this letter, wondering what to do next. Should you polish your ms and resubmit it? Should you submit it elsewhere instead? Should you give up writing like great aunt so-so told you to do?
Answers: maybe, yes, and no.
Yes, go ahead and polish your ms. Correct any spelling and grammar mistakes. Re-read it, possibly re-write it. When you’ve honed it to a fine point, send it out on it’s rounds again. Who knows maybe we’d like the second version of it even better, maybe not, depends on the changes made. Do not let this rejection stop you from writing though. Write more stories, get lots of practice, keep sending them to magazines, keep polishing each draft. Never listen to great aunts who tell you to give up.While your story was not accepted for publication in our magazine at this time, you do have potential and I wish you the best of luck on your writing career. Though I can not promise that we well accept your work, you are welcomed to submit other mss for our consideration in the future.Sincerely,

Rejection Notice: Inappropriate Content:

After careful consideration of your ms entitled [ms title goes here] we must regretfully inform you that we are unable to accept it at this time. The decision to deny acceptance was based on one or more of the following:

explicit sex or sexual references
graphic violence for violence sake
mention of or reference to suicide
animal, child, or elder abuse
excessive use of vulgar verbology
mention of or reference to drug use — this includes one or more of the following:

smoking
drinking
illegal drug use

At this point if you are like most writers, you are sending me a long letter of complaint, protesting that your ms was misrepresented and misjudged, followed by a list of reasons why sex, drugs and gore are essential to your story, ending with a threat of some sort at the bottom. Now, before you write back to me demanding that I force an editor to re-read your ms, let’s review the problem that got it rejected in the first place.

Our editors read the mss and than accept or reject them based on our writer’s guidelines, our current needs, and most importantly the author’s ability to capture the reader’s attention. You the author, are our client. We are your customer. It is the client’s job to keep the customer happy. Remember, the customer is always right. Why? Because it is the customer who knows what they want. The customer is the one with the money. Likewise, it is the customer who pays you for your work or rejects it and pays someone else whose work was better. You do a good job, the customer pays you to do your job. What is your job?
Your job is to write a story that we well want to buy. What can you do to make me want to buy your story? Ah-uh, now we come to the most important part of writing a story: the customer…that one whose always right…our customers. Who are our customers? The people who buy our magazine. The people who read our magazine. Those are our customers. Our job is to keep our customers happy, by buying stories they well want to read. To determine how to keep our customers happy, we first must know who are customers are.
Who are our customers? Let’s examine our magazine.
Our magazine is family friendly: i.e. read by families. Families include all ages. In other words it would not be unusual for the oldest grandmother to be seen reading a story from our magazine to her youngest grandchildren. Keeping that in mind, we do not accept stories that contain any of the above mentioned things.
We are also a small press, sold locally at a tourist resort town on the frigid North Atlantic coast of Maine. Most people who buy our magazine are often tourists looking for something to read on the beach. Others who buy us are local teachers and parents who trust us to publish stories that provide a safe, clean, enjoyable read for students.
What do our readers want? They want a story that they can enjoy reading again and again. They want action, adventure, fun, and entertainment. They want to read about heroes off on grand adventures, pirates seeking lost treasure, super heroes vanquishing dastardly villains, wars in outer space, knights in shining armor, spooky old haunted houses, the type of stuff that was popular in the 1950’s comic books is what our readers enjoy.
What our readers do not want is pointlessness. What is pointlessness? Pointlessness is ho-hum, I think I’ll ad a sex scene in here because I can’t think of anything else to write right now. Pointlessness is , yawn, the dialogue got to short, so I’ll stick in a few swear words. Pointlessness is, geeze this sure is going slow I’ll add a serial killing vampire and have him splatter entrails all over the pages. Pointlessness is, I can’t think of anything else to write, so I’ll have a teenager overdose herself than slice her wrists while jumping off a bridge, because my life is so dull that that’s what I might do tomorrow. Pointlessness is anything that adds nothing to the story plot, it is simply there to fill up empty space. That is pointlessness. Our readers look at sex, swearing, bloody violence, and suicide and say, “Ho-hum. Looks like yet another depressed teenager wrote that piece of crap. Booooring! When are they going to get some real writers to write some real stories. I’m going to cancel my subscription.”
As you can see, if we print those things we lose our readers. If we lose our readers, we lose our customers. If we lose our customers, we lose money. If we lose money we go bankrupt. If we go bankrupt we have to close down the magazine. If we close down the magazine, we end up homeless and starving. So, the author’s ability to capture the reader’s attention is a big factor in considering a ms for acceptance. Think about it this way. When you buy a magazine to read, would you pay to read something like this:

It was a dark and stormy night, the night I wrote this story. I remember it was dark and stormy because I was watching the drug dealer outside my window that night. But my story isn’t about him, no, it’s about me and my life as a teenager. This is the coolest story in the world! OMG!!!!! It is sooooooo greetarific! It is all about how my teen years were nothing but heaping loads o’ crapola. You’ll just love to reading about how my step-dad was hell and how he raped me and beat up my dog, and how my mom was on drugs (that‘s how I knew the guy outside my window was a drug dealer), and how I run away and everything! It doesn’t have a plot, but that’s okay cause I’m the main character anyways, and I’m so great the story don’t need no plot. YAH! But than I got to thinking it’d be great if it was a horror, so I turned my step dad into a blood sucking vampire and I stuck in loads + loads of blood and gore to shock your readers with too!!!! Isn’t that jus the coolest thing??? I’ll bet no body ever thought of doing that yet. Yeah I know, it’s great, don’t thank me, I’ll settle for you kissing my ass and being my eternal slave, I’m so great you know. Oh yeah and sex too, I added a sex scene on EVERY SINGLE PAGE!!!!!! Who cares about story and plot? You don’t need a story line or a plot, not when you’ve got me! Me and blood and gore and lots of sex and great in your face kiss ass @#$&(+!#@%7 swear words to fill up the space right? Am I right or what???!! Oh yeah! I’m right baby! Can ya dig it?!

Okay, so your ms wasn’t THAT bad, but I’m hoping that by writing that example in that way, it’ll open your eyes to the fact that it is very hard for editors to WANT read a ms that is submitted without the author at least stopping to think about what our readers do and do not want. Other magazines do not publish misspelled, grammatically incorrect stories that focus on me, myself and I surrounding by naked girls and serial killers on drugs and nor do we. Okay, maybe there are a few magazines that publish that sort of thing, so, send it to them, they want it, we don’t.
As I said before, the customer is always right, and we have to think of our customers first. Our customers do not want to read misspelled and grammatically incorrect stories, nor do they want to read pointless ramblings. How long do you think a reader will stay interested in your story if you haven’t actually got a story to tell? You would not read it and you know that, and editors know it even better than you do. You’d never pay money to read something like that, so how can you expect other people to buy it? That said, why should we bother to accept it?

So, you are now staring at this letter, wondering what to do next. Should you polish your ms, delete the sex, blood, and drugs and resubmit it? Should you submit it elsewhere instead? Should you give up writing like great aunt so-so told you to do?
Answers: maybe, yes, and no.
Yes, go ahead and polish your ms. Correct the spelling and grammar mistakes. Re-read it, possibly re-write it. Remove the vulgarity from it. When you’ve honed it to a fine point, send it out on it’s rounds again. Who knows maybe we’d like the second version of it maybe not, depends on the changes made. Do not let this rejection stop you from writing though. Write more stories, get lots of practice, keep sending them to magazines, keep polishing each draft. Never listen to great aunts who tell you to give up.

My suggestions:
Never submit a first draft. Polish your ms until it’s perfect. Write it, than re-write it.
Be sure that your story has a plot which readers want to read about with characters readers well want to read about. Who did it? What did they do? Why did they do it? Where did they do it? What was the result of what they did?
Every story needs a beginning, a middle, and an end. The beginning tells us what the goal of the story is. The middle tells us what the character did to reach that goal. The ending tells us what happened when the character reaches the goal.
Be sure that your main character is someone that you readers well have a reason to love.
Third person stories (he said she did) get accepted more than 80% times more often than first person stories (I said I did), and second person rarely gets accepted by anyone (you said you did). 99.8% of all best sellers are written in 3rd person.
Always spell-check
I always recommend writers use Windows XP and MSWorks Word Processor. They are simple, easy to use, beginner friendly, writer friendly, and readily available to anyone with a PC.
If you use MSWorks Word Processor, set it to spell-check, tell it to include grammar checking as well, with writing style as formal. That’ll ensure that most grammar mistakes, including passive voice, are pointed out to you so that you can correct them.
Before submitting always ask for a copy of the magazine’s writer’s guidelines.
Always read at least 2 sample issues before submitting, so that you know what type of stories the magazine is looking for. Better yet, take out a year subscription and carefully examine how the magazine changes from one issue to the next.
Know thy enemy. Read the competition. Know which writers are being published in which magazines. Ask yourself, why did they get published and not me? Examine the stories that are published. How are they different from yours? How can yours become better than theirs. Think of the world of fiction as a great war. Some writers are your allies, they well help you reach the top. Some writers are your rivals, they well climb over you to get to the top first.
Be persistent and never give up.

While your story was not appropriate for publication in our magazine, you do have potential and I wish you the best of luck on your writing career. Though I can not promise that we well accept your work, you are welcomed to submit other mss for our consideration in the future.

Sincerely,

Rejection Notice: Lack of Spelling and Grammar:

After careful consideration of your ms entitled [ms title goes here]we must regretfully advise you that we are unable to accept it at this time. The decision to deny acceptance is based on:

Lack of correct spelling and an abundance of basic grammar mistakes.

Due to the volume of mss we receive each week, we are unable to read mss which require us to first stop and make spelling and/or grammar corrections in order to be able to read it. In the 1800’s when most authors were unable to spell due to lack of education, yes, editors did correct spelling. This is not the 1800’s, it is 200 years later. In today’s world, you would be hard pressed to find an editor that would correct a writer’s spelling and grammar mistakes. Today authors didn’t grow up in log cabins 1,000 miles from civilization, and even if they do live in the Artic Circle, they type the story up on a computer, and guess what? Computers spell check, and most grammar check too.
Before your ms gets to one of our editors, it must first survive the shush pile. The slush pile is a mountain of stories, which threatens to smother our editors in a paper avalanche. Once in a while is found one or two authors who have sent their 4th or 5th draft, a well polished draft with mistakes corrected, and the ms printed neatly and formatted correctly…and editors can actually read it. Those one or two that we can read because they are clean and neat with no mistakes… those are the ones we read, because those survive the slush pile and make it on to an editor’s desk.
Which mss drown in the slush pile? If the paper is dirty, crumpled, and torn, it drowns. If the font is big and flowery, it gets tossed. If the font is smaller than 12pt, it seeps into the unknown. If the paper is scented and has confetti flying out of each page, it gets fumigated. If the paper is pink, red, yellow, blue, or any other color not white, it gets tossed before it gets a chance to blind the editor. If it reads like a dry collage text book, it gets recycled quickly…we don‘t want our editors sleeping on the job. If there are 10 or more grammar and/or spelling mistakes on the first page, it gets tossed. Of every 100 mss we receive, more than three thirds are tossed in the trash as unreadable. Sadly, your ms has fallen into the unreadable category. As a result, your ms did not survive the slush pile and went unread by our editors.
Now, before you write back to me demanding that I force an editor to read your ms, let’s review the problem that got it rejected in the first place.
Our editors read the ms and accept or reject them based on our writer’s guidelines, our current needs, and most importantly the author’s ability to capture the reader’s attention. You the author, are our client. We are your customer. It is the client’s job to keep the customer happy. Remember, the customer is always right. Why? Because it is the customer who knows what they want. The customer is the one with the money. The customer is the one who pays you for your work or rejects it and pays someone else whose work was better. What is your job? Your job is to write a story that we well want to buy. Now than, what can you do to make me want to buy your story? Ah-uh, now we come to the most important part of writing a story: the customer…that one whose always right…our customers. Who are our customers? The people who buy our magazine. The people who read our magazine. Those are our customers. Our job is to keep our customers happy, by buying stories they well want to read.
The author’s ability to capture the reader’s attention is a big factor in considering a ms for acceptance. Think about it this way. When you buy a magazine to read, would you pay to read something like this:

dis is da coolest storee i’s even did wrote!!!! OMG!!!!! It is sooooooo greetarific! it is all about how my teen years were noting but heaping loads o’ crapola, you’ll just lov at read about how my step-dad was hell, and i run away and everting! it doesn’t have a plot, but that’s okay cause I’m the main character anyways, and I’m so great the storee don’t need no plot. I stuck in loads + loads of blood and gore to shock the readers wid too!!!! Is’nt tat jus the coolest thing??? Ya I knoe, it’s great,,, oh yeah and sex too, I added a sex sence on EVERY SINGLE PAGE!!!!!! Who cares about story and plot? you don’t neeed a story line or a plot, not when you’ve got me and blood and gore and lots of sex and great@#$&(+!#@%7 swear words to fill up the space right? Am I right or what???!! can ya dig it?! howe loong do ya tink a weeder will stae intrested in yor storee ifing dey kan’t weed wat U al wote? and you hav‘nt actualy got a story to tell ? “YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!“ U wood knot weed it and yos no that, & us editers no dat even betta tan U doo, so why wood we bodder to weed it? even if it had been a goode storee, we wood not have nonw for all the mistakes… !!!! it jus 2 bad that mor wriders did knot spell an grammer checke afor dey submit

Okay, so your ms wasn’t THAT bad, but I’m hoping that by writing that example in that way, it’ll open your eyes to the fact that it is very hard for editors to read a ms that is submitted without the author first spell-checking it at least. A typo here and there is understandable and overlooked, but how often do you see a magazine publish a story in a complete lack of grammar? Other magazines do not publish misspelled, grammatically incorrect stories and nor do we. As I said before, the customer is always right, and we have to think of our customers first. Our customers do not want to read misspelled and grammatically incorrect stories.

So, you are now staring at this letter, wondering what to do next. Should you polish your ms and resubmit it? Should you submit it elsewhere. Should you give up writing like great aunt so-so told you to do?

Answers: maybe, yes, and no.
Yes, go ahead and polish your ms. Correct the spelling and grammar mistakes. Re-read it, possibly re-write it. When you’ve honed it to a fine point, send it out on it’s rounds again. Write more stories, get lots of practice, keep sending them to magazines, keep polishing each draft. Never listen to great aunts who tell you to give up.

My suggestions:
Never submit a first draft. Polish your ms until it’s perfect.
Be sure that your story has a plot which readers want to read about characters readers well want to read about.
Always spell-check
I always recommend writers use Windows XP and MSWorks Word Processor. They are simple, easy to use, beginner friendly, writer friendly, and readily available to anyone with a PC.
If you use MSWorks Word Processor, set it to spell-check, tell it to include grammar checking as well, with writing style as formal. That’ll ensure that most grammar mistakes, including passive voice, are pointed out to you so that you can correct them.
Before submitting always ask for a copy of the magazine’s writer’s guidelines.
Always read at least 2 sample issues before submitting, so that you know what type of stories the magazine is looking for. Better yet, take out a year subscription and carefully examine how the magazine changes from one issue to the next.

Know thy enemy. Read the competition. Know which writers are being published in which magazines. Ask yourself, why did they get published and not me? Examine the stories that are published. How are they different from yours? How can your become better than theirs. Think of the world of fiction as a great war. Some writers are your allies, they well help you reach the top. Some writers are your rivals, they well climb over you to get to the top first.
Be persistent and never give up.

You have potential and I wish you the best of luck on your writing career. Though I can not promise that we well ever accept your work, you are welcomed to submit other mss in the future.

Sincerely,

As I said these are premade forms. Why do we have premade forms? Because we do not accept certain things, and no matter how many time we tell people that we do not accept certain things, they still send them out anyways, thinking “well, they well make an eception for me”… no, not even if you were Stephen King, would we make an exception.

Baiscly, write the best you can, edit it yourself as best you can, always read submission guidelines carefully, and send your ms out to the places that WANT the type of work you write. Editors are desperatly seeking good writers, they want to accept your work, you just have to find the right editor for what you wrote.

~~EK

Writing Exercise: Word of the Day: Panspermia

Writing exercises come in many forms. Basicly anything that can inspire you to write a story, can become a writing exercise. Well, today I came across a word which I had never heard before: Panspermia. I looked at that word and thought: “What the hell?” It wasn’t used in a sentance so I had no way to figure out it’s meaning. It was part of a True or False quizz, which asked what the meaning of Panspermia was. Of course never hearing the word before, I had no idea what the answer was, so I guessed “False”. Turns out I guessed correctly, but still didn’t know the true meaning of the word, so it was off to the dictionary for me. Here is what I found:

Panspermia: noun

Theory that life on earth originated from organisms coming from outer space. According to this theory, the seeds of life were scattered to Earth but could have been distributed to other parts of the universe as well.

Well, now THAT I have heard of before. (Avid fan of David Dochovny ;) ) So it got me to thinking, why not have a writing exercise based on a word. That word. Well, why not? So here it is:

Write a story using the word Panspermia as your inspiration. It could be about the begining of life on earth, a sort of creation story, a court room drama about a scientist forced to defend his theory, the discovery of proof, even a fan-fic peice about Fox Mulder! Be imaginative, be creative, but most of all have fun!

~~EK

Writing Tip of the Day: March 29, 2007: Critics

When you receive critical advice or feedback about your writing, learn to evaluate it then follow your instincts.

Get feedback, any and all feedback, about your story. Feedback is important, it well tell you more about yourself and your writing style than you really want to know, but it’s a lesson worth learning.

Listen to those who praise your work, but listen with an open mind. Think about this: ask yourself who is giving the good feedback and what’s in it for them?

Is your family? Your best friends? Do they really know good writing when they read it, or are they just glowing with pride because they know you? Feedback from your friends and family is rarely worth listening too, because unless your mom is an editor from Harlequin or Doubleday, chances are good that she is just fanning your vainity. Harsh? Yes, but true.

What about the bad feedback you are getting from friends and family, should you believe it? No. Chances are good that they are jealous and spiteful, and want to put you down and make you feel bad, and really have nothing good to say about anything in your life anyways.

So what does that all mean? Well, what it means is, never have someone who knows you personally give you feedback on your stories, cause it well not be objective. Yes, get their feedback, but no, don’t rely on it to determ if yours is the next best seller.

You want feedback from editors, agents, book reviewers, talk show hosts, and newspaper critics. They get paid to give writers feedback. Impossible? No. All it takes is sumbitting your manuscript to as many places as you can think of. Here’s one to get you started: Harlequin Romance Novel Critique Service, finding others is as easy as saying Google.

So, where has all this taking us?

• #1 get feedback from everyone: family, friends, online groups, & profesionals

• #2 consider who is giving the feedback and what their motive is

• #3 do you see a pattern in feedback given, regardless of who gave it? if you get the same feedback over and over again from everyone, than they may be right and you might want to look at that point harder

• #4 when all is said and done, it’s your work, your story, your characters, your book, not theirs… you only need to change what you think really needs changing

Think about every feedback you get from every possible angle and than act accordingly, based on what YOU feel is best for YOU and YOUR book

I know what my characters are doing and why, and where that well lead them… you tell me to change them and you’ll get a roaring lion on your hands, but you want to tell me about my grammer/style/spelling mistakes, (and I do make them, I admit it) I’ll take note and try to improve with willing ears.

I get most of my attacks, not on my style, but on one of my reoccuring characters who is a drag queen, and those attacks come not from my readers, but from close friends and family who think I am “ruining their good name”… ??? … whatever,

Everyone has a bone to chew, and you can be sure that the more famous you get the more “hate mail” you’ll get too, it comes with the job

to all you writers out there: good luck on your story, and be sure you got a hard shell… we writers need it if we want to stay in the game

~~EK

Share the Link Love

As you know I’m a regular reader of ProBlogger, it’s prob’ly the blog I read more than any other; it’s certainly the one I talk about most often here on Star Log. Well, today I was reading this post on ProBlogger, and of course it lead me to reading the links in it, includeing this one.

Oh my! I don’t think anyone would accuse me of being a link nazi!

I love surfing the blogs out there, and everytime I find one that I want to go back and read again I always forget where they are and can’t find them again…

I solved that problem though… the way I figure it, if I like the blog enough to go back and read it again, than people who like my blog, prob’ly well want to read it too, so I write a post about the blog, which contains a link to it, and than I add it to my blogroll… today my blog roll has over 100 links in it, it’s by far the biggest blog roll I’ve ever seen on a blog, but at least now I don’t lose my way back to blog I like to read.

well, an unexpected side effect of doing this is that a few days after adding my long blog roll I checked my Technorati rank, and was shocked to learn that I had gone from being in the millions up to being 200,000 that was quite switch…

well I come to find out, that several of the blogs I had added to my blogroll, had in turn added me to theirs, I was not expecting that, but that’s what did it… when I added them to mine, it raised their rank, and they did me the same favor…

WOW! You see at the time I started doing this, I didn’t know about pingbacks, I had never heard of them before, so I didn’t know that everytime I talked about a blog I liked, my blog sent them a copy of my article, so each time I sad something nice about them, they knew I had said it, only I didn’t know that was happening, so I didn’t know that the blogs I was talking about knew about my blog… well long story short, I found a great way to do link exchange and I wasn’t even trying!

~~EK

New From The Twighlight Manor Press: 2008 Calendar

Twighlight Manor Press on LuLu
Twighlight Manor Art by Wendy C. Allen 2008 12 month calendar
All art, drawings, and paintings by Wendy C. Allen, featureing the characters from the Twighlight Manor series, including EelKat, Sir Roderic, Etiole, Xavier, and more.
Price: $19.79

New From The Twighlight Manor Press: 2008 Calendar

Twighlight Manor Press on LuLu
Twighlight Manor Art by Wendy C. Allen 2008 12 month calendar
All art, drawings, and paintings by Wendy C. Allen, featureing the characters from the Twighlight Manor series, including EelKat, Sir Roderic, Etiole, Xavier, and more.
Price: $19.79

SPAM???

(¯`•Stormraven•._) wrote: define spam?

on my board im puttin a spam board, and most people that are joined to my forum dont know what spam is, so i wanna put an announcment about ‘what is spam’, can someone help me out and write me the announcment?EDIT: please

So you want to know about SPAM? All right.

Did you know?

The word SPAM is not an acronym at all. It comes from a famous “Monty Python” sketch wherein a customer at a cafe is bombarded with SPAM, the only item on the menu. A chorus of Vikings revel with the song: “SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, lovely SPAM, wonderful SPAM.”

Additionally, SPAM is a Hormel product named after “spicy ham” that served as the basis of the sketch.

So what exactly is this thing called SPAM on places like email, blogs, and message boards?

What is SPAM?

That depends on what you are really asking.

SPAM is illeagle, not only is it illeagle, but it is a criminal act, an FBI reportable offense, that can result in a $25,000 fine, and for the worst offenders a prison sentance.

What is SPAM?

SPAM is the posting of links to illeagle web-sites, such as those promoting Porn or drugs; usually through emails, blog comments, or “guest posts” on message boards.

HOWEVER:

SPAM has come to mean many other things as well… and today is used very losely to discribe a wide variaty of interrnet activities.

Most of us today, know SPAM as the posting of multi-links to a single web site…SEE THIS POST HERE FOR AN EXAMPLE… this type of SPAM is usually done by Bloggers hoping to raise their blog ranks through pingbacks and inbound links… like the “true” SPAM it too, is an FBI reportable offence (admins getting this type of posting on their site can go to the FBI website, and file a report of “online harasment”)

the type of SPAM you are refereing to is known as “friendly” SPAM… this is when an admin of a blog or forum invites members to post comments that are totally pointless and usually only one or two words such as:

LOL!

Got Ya!

I Won!

so… does that answer your question?

~~EK

Writing Tip of the Day: March 28, 2007: Editing

Never resist editing. Your writing isn’t etched in stone and can always be improved for the reader. Some of you are now throwing stones, and type hate emails for me. I know, I hate editing just as much as any other writer, but fact is, it must be done, so you might as well drop that stone and get editing. Think about it this way: If your writing is as perfect as you think it is already, than editing well only make it that much better, right?

Why do you resist writing? Fear? Fear of what? Maybe you ought to write a story about a writer with a phobia of editing. Point out how crazy his phobia is and how it disrupts his writing career. This’ll do wonders for changing the way you edit your stories.

If you really have a problem with editing, there are people whose job it is to edit your work… they are known as: editors. Editors are not a thing to fear. Editors are people who love books just as much as you do, and they  want to see a great piece of fiction get printed. So wither you do your own editing or you get an editor to do it for you, never resist the art of editing. Your readers well be glad you did.

LuLu has come a long way

LuLu seems to be on many writers minds lately. It seems like everywhere I go, someone is talking about how they have published a book on LuLu. I look at these people and I say: “LuLu! You have got to be kidding! Who in their right mind would get a book published by LuLu!” I guess you can tell it’s been a very long time since I had any dealings with LuLu. I remember the old LuLu. Quite differant from the LuLu of today.

I remember LuLu when it first started, not sure when that was, but I remember searching Google for self-publishing and finding this little site that boasted to haveing printed “over 100 books”. The site was a total mess, very unprofessional, hard to navigate, and really had no info about what they did. Basicly the whole thing looked like someone had dropped a bomb on Hell. It was terrible. So terrible in fact, that I never went back.

The whole web site was based on a chat-room, and didn’t really have a home page. I remember laughing at it and saying that no one in their right mind would let such a crappy looking web site publish their book.

That was a few years ago, and their site was online, maybe a month at that point, and had a notation that it was “under construction”. I blew it off as someone’s little pipe dream and never gave it a second thought.

Well, last week I was chatting with some fellow writers and one of them was telling me how she was doing her next book with LuLu. I thought “You have got to be kidding! Is that crappy site still going!” She tells me, that yep they were and boy had they changed. So I went and checked it out, and WOW! Did they ever change! It don’t even look like the same site. I’m amazed that they have come so far in just a few short years.

Well, now I’m intreeged. This “new” LuLu has gathered my interest, and I think I’ll test it out. I’ve got a short story, I wrote a while back, but never published anywhere, yet, and I think I’ll test LuLu out with it, see what happens.

While searching for info about LuLu, I also came across this blog. I recomend it to anyone who is thinking of starting a project with LuLu, as the author has written a wounderfully detail step by step instruction of the LuLu publishing process.

I’m interested in hearing of others’ experiances with LuLu. So if you’ve ever published anything with LuLu, feel free to comment and share your thoughts, both the good and the bad. I’d like to know more about LuLu as told by the authors who’ve been published by them

~~EK

Weirdly Wednesday: Poe’s Military Career: Nevermore

Well, it’s Wednesday once again, and you know what that means. That means it’s time for me to post the Star Log’s latest addition to Weirdly Wednesday. If you are new to The Star Log or to Weirdly Wednesday than here is what Weirdly Wednesday is all about:

Weirdly Wednesday

 

You can find “Weirdly Wednesday” posts at these sites:

1) http://atlindas.wordpress.com
2) http://fracas.wordpress.com 
3) http://eelkat.wordpress.com
4) http://hazel8500.wordpress.com
5) … add your site here…

---

Want to join us in Weirdly Wednesdays? Here’s how it works.
On Wednesdays, post a “Weirdly Wednesday” post… a weird site, the weirdest search term in your stats, something from Hollyweird. Whatever.    Link to www.atlindas.wordpress.com  — Let me know and I’ll link back to you.

This weeks addition from EK’s Star Log:

Star Log started out in life as a place for writer’s, or at least that’s what I had intended it to be. That’s why you well find so many posts such as Writing Exercises, and info about writing fiction. Well, once again, today’s post for Weirdly Wednesday is on a writing theme:

Poe’s Military Career: Nevermore

Edgar Allan Poe joined the U.S.Army straight out of college and was so good he quickly rose to regimental sergeant major. He even went on to West Point, but soon felt the lure of the writer’s life. But how to get out of the Academy? He chose a novel way of doing it. Legend has it that when cadets were called to a parade and ordered to wear “white belt and gloves’” Poe showed up  stark naked – except for a white belt and gloves. End of military career.

~~Ron Doering, Editor, The Military Book Club

Harlequin books seeks “real men” for covers

I saw this article on Yahoo News and thought it to be quite interesting, cause when it comes to romance books, I usually buy them for the cover art, but than rarely ever read the book, all I wanted was the picture on the cover! LOL! Of course all my Harlequins are from the 1970’s though, back when they used to sell Gothics on a regular basic, and the covers had big old haunted houses on them, with a girl in a long gown seen in the shadow of the house, running away. Anyone rember those great old Gothic covers? Why don’t they make those type of covers anymore, I wonder?

Well, here’s the article as seen on Yahoo News:

Harlequin books seeks “real men” for covers

By Jonathan Spicer Sat Mar 24, 3:08 PM ET

TORONTO (Reuters) – Real men don’t pose for the cover of a Harlequin romance. And that’s something the publisher wants to change.

Representatives of Harlequin Enterprises, the world’s biggest publisher of romance novel series, inspected the assets of about 200 men who lined up at a Toronto casting house on Saturday to prove they could flutter readers’ hearts better than professional models.

“We’re looking for some guys that are not your usual models, but have that iconic look that women go for — sexy, sensitive, beautiful and fit,” said Harlequin spokeswoman Marleah Stout, who attended the open casting.

“We want real men … exactly what you think in your mind when you’re fantasising or imagining that ideal man.”

Toronto-based Harlequin, a division of newspaper group Torstar Corp., sold 131 million books in 94 countries last year. It estimates that a third of American women have read at least one of its titles.

Until now, the publisher relied on modelling agencies to supply bodies for its concupiscent covers. But the readership — predominantly female and averaging 42 years of age — was upset when slight, young cover models clashed with the brawny, mature heroes described within.

“Some of the heroes are captains of industry, billionaires,” said Deborah Peterson, a Harlequin creative designer and a judge at the audition. “A lot of the models were too young, men in their twenties … and our audience likes men a little bit older, a bit bigger, than the runway models.”

At the Toronto casting, chiselled hopefuls shed their shirts and donned a cowboy hat for the panel while a handful of other judges watched on closed-circuit camera in an adjacent room.

Several were asked to return for a book cover shot, where they may earn up to C$250 (110 pounds) an hour, according to male modelling agencies.

Others indulged their own fantasies.

“From what I understand, (Harlequin) readers are women who want to escape from the relationship that they’re in,” said auditioner Carlos Troccoli, 30, who was tall, sturdy and muscular. “I can bring that to them.”

My thoughts on that? Well, this phrase stands out to me and makes me think:

 ”We want real men … exactly what you think in your mind when you’re fantasising or imagining that ideal man.”

hhhmmm… you know, I rarely like the men on the covers of Harlequin, they all look like Arnold. Not that that’s a bad thing, Arnold was a regular dreamboat as Conan. But for me, prefer older, more “real”  looking men. They are just so much sexier. When it really comes down to it, I prefer a man who looks more like Sir Roderic from my Twighlight Manor series, as Roderic looked in the late 1800’s to the 1970’s (the guy is 450 years old, so you’ll have to strecth your mind around the dates a bit). Well for those of you not familiar with Sir Roderic or what he looked like in that time period, just think of David Carradine as he looked in Kill Bill. And for those of you who have never seen Kill Bill, I just happen to have visuals for you. Wasn’t that thoughtful of me?

Isn’t  he just gorgeous? Can you think of a better guy to model for Harleqin’s covers? I can’t.

Now if Harlequin had more guys like that on their covers, I’d buy more of their books, esp if the guy turns out to be a spooky gothic guy with a big old haunted house. (I just go head over heals for a Gothic!)

I’d really love it if I could get David Caradine to be a cover model for Sir Roderic. What a dream that’d be!

Writing Tip of the Day: March 27, 2007

Write with wisdom and careful thought, because in publishing, haste often makes waste. Have you ever stopped to think on this? You must remember that before your book gets to it’s readers, it first has to get past the agents and editors. The slush pile is as wide as it is deep,  and the only manuscripts that survive are those that were well thought out and carefully edited. Don’t be tempted to send off your first draft, fresh off the printer. Let it collect some dust for a few days. Edit it up clean and neat, and make sure that it’s the best it can possibly be, before sending it out. Remember, write with wisdom and careful thought, because in publishing, haste often makes waste, and you can’t afford to waste time or words.

~~EK

Unusual sea creature…

I just saw this picture on another blog:

Under The Sea

Feb 23rd, 2007 by sparky23

[...  The picture at the top of this post is of a creature (one of many bizarre and odd beasts) that washed up after the tsunami in Southeast Asia in December of 2004. Its alien strangeness reminds us of the natural possibilities…  ...]

Does anyone have an info about this creature? Perhaps someone knows of any articles about it? if so please post a link to them in my comments, I’d love to find out more about this. Thanks!

~EK

So When Do Writers Get Paid?

Answer: Not very often.  

I saw this post and had to comment on it over here on my blog:

March 26, 2007

Hard times for authors

Hello, here we go again with another week in the book world. It seems that it isn’t getting any easier for first-time novelists to win a publishing deal, according to yesterday’s Observer newspaper in the UK. The article explains how a two-book deal might yield rarely above £12,000. 

in the US the average writer is lucky if the make $5 – $500 per month on a single story… only a rare few like say Stephen King, see any real steady income from their writing and in most cases it’s from movie rights not book sales… sad really, but what it says in the article you posted is true, writers can not provide for their family on writing alone, except in very rare occasions.

For short stories published in magazines, the average is a one time payment of $5 – $20.

For a book writers can expect 2% – 7% of the wholesale price of the book, which is 30% of the cover  price of the book. For a book with a $4.95 cover price that means the author gets paid an average of .25c per book sold times the average of 5,000 copies sold worldwide. You do the math, you figure out how  much, or should I say how little that is, and than ask “Why do writers have jobs, if they get paid to write?”

~~EK

Writing Tip: Reaching 50,000 words useing the 13 Step method…

I average 3,000 to 10,000 a day useing this method. yet, when I try for word count, I usually get stuck after about 500. My secret? I use the 13 step method

… why does it work? because you are focused on your plot, not the word count, and when you stop thinking about the words, they just start flowing out of you with out you even realizing it: read the complete article here

read more | digg story

Writing Thought of the Day: March 26, 2007

Here is an interesting thought. How many would actually want to read their own novel? You have written it out, pouring your very heart and soul into it; with you every fiber you have brought it to light, but would you read it? When you go out and buy a book to read, what kind of book is it? Do you read the same type of books as the one you wrote?

Writing Exercise: Art of the Day: March 26, 2007

As part of Star Log’s goal to help find ways to inspire writers and help kill writer’s block once and for all, I bring you today’s Art of the Day. The purpose of Art of the Day is to show you a great work of art AND hope that you will take this picture and use it to inspire you to write your next story.

Painting is one of my hobbies. I love art. I get a lot of my story ideas from looking at paintings. I often spend hours seaching the internet for paintings that inspire me to write. There in lies the purpose of my Art of the Day posts. I hope that these paintings well inspire you as they have me. 

Maybe you well write a story about the picture and the story it tells, maybe you well write a historical novel about the artist who painted it, maybe your main character has just bought the painting… who knows where this writing exercise well take you. Have fun and good luck!

~~EK

document.write(opotd_artist);Gustav Klimt
document.write(opotd_picInfo);The Kiss

Writing Tip: Reaching 50,000 useing the 13 Step method…

I wrote this for NaNoWriMo, but it works for all your writing.

My secret to reaching 50,000

I use the 13 step method… actually it’s the 10 step method, but I like 13, so I changed it.. The 10 Step Method it’s quite a popular method used by many professional best selling writers, not sure who invented it…

anyways it helps me to write a lot of words, real fast, so I thought I’d tell you guys about it, in hopes that it’ll help someone else reach the 50,000 goal too

but here is my 13 Step version of it

Write down

Scene 1
Scene 2

etc, all the way to 13… these are your chapters, plan on having 13 of them

Think about your plot, in terms of 13 tiny stories, than write a title for each… now you have your 13 Chapter Titles

Your list should now read:

Chapter 1: “title here”
Chapter 2: “title here”

etc, all the way to Chapter 13

Now, go back to your list and add the actual scenes:

Chapter 1: The Title Here

scene 1
scene 2
scene 3
scene 4

etc, all the way to 13 scences.

do this for each chapter.

Now go back and write one scentance to describe each scene of each chapter.

Once you have completed this, you well have a complete and detailed outline to take you step by step through your story… print it up and keep it on hand when you are writing, so that you can keep your story running smoothly from one scene to the next (though you can change anything in you outline that needs changes once you start writing… it’s not a hard and fast law that you stick to the outline… the outline, just helps you to write faster, by keeping your original story idea where you can see it)

once you get going the actual writing, you plan on say, write 5 scenes a day… and you’ll find that by useing the writing a scene at a time, rather than going for word count or page count, you well write more and write faster…

I average 3,000 to 10,000 a day useing this method. yet, when I try for word count, I usually get stuck after about 500

try it and see, you’ll be amazed at how well this method works

why does it work? because you are focused on your plot, not the word count, and when you stop thinking about the words, they just start flowing out of you with out you even realizing it

thinking in chapters has helped me so much… I used to just slog along trying to write 1o pages a day… that was the goal I gave myself, 10 pages… it was murder, I kept looking down at the bottom where it said page 1 of 1, etc, and I’d stop and think:

man… I typed all that and I’m still on page 1!

than I tried for word count… and after every sentance I’d stop and check to see how many words I’d done…

“What only 7 words in that sentace! /i’ll never get done at that rate”

than one day, I’m complaining about this to my editor, and he says “get this book”… so I go and I get the book, and it’s pretty good, than I get all the books by this author (writer’s how to books) and all the books she recomended as well… ended up with like 50 books on the art of writing

and in one of them I found this 10-Step method… well me writing horror I changed it to the 13 Step method, cause I try to alway have 13 chapters… and I tried it and wow… I write so fast now! I can’t believe it!

13 works for me, cause I write horror, and I design my stories to be in 13 chapters, with 13 scenes each, cause that’s te way I’ve designed my stories to come out…

you can change it to whatever you need… say you only need 8 chapters with 5 scenes each… than that’s what would work for you…

of course, you don’t need to have the same anount of scenes per chapter either… 5 scens in chapter 1, 2 scenes in chapter 2, 12 scences in chapter 3… whatever you need to carry your story across, is what you should use

that’s what’s so great about this method, you can change it to whatever works for you and your story… there are no hard rules

it helps keep me focused on my story too…

for me, I have a BIIIIG problem, with rambling… I’ll go waaaay off topic inside the thoughts of a minor character… which in itself is not bad, but it goes off the story. Good thing about it is it gives me ideas for a spin-off story, which I write a lot of.

The outline thingy, helps me to stay on my story, I keep looking back at it, and I know where I should be, and I can stay on track easier

bad thing, is, all my spin-off need outlines, and each of them reasult in more spin offs, and I end up with too many outlines and not enough stories LOL! 

I hope this helps!

EelKat as an M&M

Well, this is interesting… Did you ever wonder what you would look like if you were an M&M? I just found this site and here is what I would look like if I was an M&M:

Writing Tip of the Day: March 25, 2007

If you approach writing with a teachable attitude, you can learn from many sources.  No matter how many things you have written, you are never so good that you can not learn something new. Every new thing which you learn will lead you on to a new thing which you can write about. This is a never ending circle in life, for the more you learn, the more you  will find that you do not yet know and therefor the more you will seek to know. The more you seek to learn, the greater things you will have to write about. Seek and ye shall find, ask and it shall be given, knock and the door shall open. Write and the more you will find to write about. Let this be a lesson to you.

~~EK

Government Corruption: Town’s Harasment of Disabled Senior Goes Too Far!

Small town government with power hungry greed, harasses elderly man and his minor children, resulting in his 2 months in a coma, becoming disabled, and the large family with children & pets being forced to live in a “tent” made of shipping pallets and a tarp, during Maine’s cold winter…

read more | digg story

New Design Available From Copper Cockeral: Purple Easter Cross

New from Copper Cockeral Cards & Gifts:

Purple Easter Cross

Just in time for Easter! These products feature a Victorian Easter cross in a lovely lilac purple adored with spring flowers. We only have space to show a few of the more than 80 products available with this design on them. To see all products available, CLiCK HERE.

Pet Food ReCall Update

Tainted Dog Food and SciFi Gripes

March 25th, 2007 at 2:37 am (ghost hunters, menu foods, tainted dog food, hauntings, stress, Blogroll, sci-fi, Uncategorized)

I have two gripes. Major issues that really irritate me these days.

1) Menu Foods. Ring a bell? They’re the F-ing company poisoning our beloved little pussNboots and fido-pets. Have you read their press release Dog Food Recall? http://www.menufoods.com/recall/Press_Recall_03162007.pdf

It really bites the big one. They call it a “precautionary” recall, even though 16 ( and they expect more) cats and dogs have died of kidney failure due to the RAT POISON found in their canned pet foods. In this Precautionary Recall, they mention that they pretty much decided to do the recall since their largest consumer (probably walmart) initiated their own recall of the Menu Foods products, AND furthermore put future orders from Menu Foods on hold. Bravo, Walmart – or whoever you are “largest consumer”!

I haven’t heard of any heartfelt apologies coming from the Menu Foods camp, have you? On the other hand, they seem rather cold, and reluctant to take responsibility. Well, duh. You ARE, Menu Foods, responsible for the suffering of AT LEAST 16 pets’s families. Have the decency to show some compassion. You suck and I ban you.

Click on link to their website for the list of recalled labels, (everything from Walmart’s OlRoy to Eukanuba, to IAMS, Etc):  http://www.menufoods.com/recall/product_dog.html

*inserts clapping smilie icon here*

BRAVO! well spoken

I for one, would like to know what they plan to do about the families (mine being one of those you mentioned) who have have pets die from this.

Last December my Skeezics died of kidney failure just 2 days after becoming sick. The vet did everything she could for him, but she said the toxins in his body were off the chart, and in spite of emergancy procideres he still died. We miss him terribly, and we don’t even get so much as an appology from these murderers.

~~EK

New Design Available From Copper Cockeral: Purple Easter Cross

March 25, 2007 at 1:27 am | In home decor, religon, Holiness, items for sale, magnets, Christ, stamp, pink, store, CafePress, cards, postcard, purple, buttons, Victorian, shop online, sales associate, product promotion, note book, note cards, Easter cross, theology beliefs, old fashioned, teddy bear, web site promotion, mugs, magnet, ornaments, web site review, Holy Spirit, beliefs, posters, awesome, fashion, Theology, sales, white, product reviews, products, Christianity, Business, reviews, faith, prayer, God, Jesus, Easter, vintage, gifts, belief, Lolita, clothing, t-shirts, prints, spring, holiday, postcards, painting, retail, New stuff | No Comments | Edit this post

 New from Copper Cockeral Cards & Gifts:

 Purple Easter Cross

Just in time for Easter! These products feature a Victorian Easter cross in a lovely  lilac purple adored with spring flowers. We only have space to show a few of the more than 80 products available with this design on them. To see all products available, CLiCK HERE. 

Writing Exercise: Art of the Day: March 24, 2007

As part of Star Log’s goal to help find ways to inspire writers and help kill writer’s block once and for all, I bring you today’s Art of the Day. The purpose of Art of the Day is to show you a great work of art AND hope that you will take this picture and use it to inspire you to write your next story.

Painting is one of my hobbies. I love art. I get a lot of my story ideas from looking at paintings. I often spend hours seaching the internet for paintings that inspire me to write. There in lies the purpose of my Art of the Day posts. I hope that these paintings well inspire you as they have me. 

Maybe you well write a story about the picture and the story it tells, maybe you well write a historical novel about the artist who painted it, maybe your main character has just bought the painting… who knows where this writing exercise well take you. Have fun and good luck!

~~EK

John Kilroy
Hull, MA

Blogs for Writers: Round Five of Blog Additions

As the month of March draws near an end, so too does my search for blogs for and by writers… what you are now reading is round five of the blog additions. Possibly the last round, but who knows, I may change my mind if I find a few more to add.

I am also seeking out “how-to” blogs for writers of genre fiction, if you know of any good ones be sure to point me in their direction, even if you are not the owner of it.

Write Wrote Written
Pick The Brain
Boost Writing Productivity
Hypnotize Your Visitors
Alpha Glyph: Personal Publishing
Authors Blogs
Grow as a Writer
Given To
Incoherent Thoughts
SELF-PUBLISHING PART 1
Rager Media Editor’s Blog
Books Blog: A Conspiracy of Smart People
From Where I Sit
Good Vanity Publishing: How it should be done
Joe Wikert’s Publishing 2020 Blog
The Writing Life
ZoHo Writers Blog
Self-Publishing Book Production & Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
Petrona
Fiction Fanatic
Self Publishing
Self Publishing Fiction
Be Your Own Editor

P.$. If your blog for writers is not yet added, just leave a comment with a link to it, and let me know, I’ll check it out.  (This is the sixth post, so be sure to check all 6 of them, yours may be on one of the earlier rounds this month).

P.P.$. Once again, I remind comment posters, I only add family friendly, non-porn sites to all editions of my Z-Lists. Links to “adult sites” are deleted and the posters ISP  banned not only on this blog, but on each and every blog, forum, chat room, web ring, fanlisting, and web site of the more than 200 sites that make up The Space Dock 13 Network.

Writing Exercise: Art of the Day: March 23, 2007

As part of Star Log’s goal to help find ways to inspire writers and help kill writer’s block once and for all, I am now adding a new feture to Star Log: Art of the Day. Hopefully I well remember to post a new pic every day or so.

The purpose of Art of the Day is to show you a great work of art AND hope that you will take this picture and use it to inspire you to write your next story. Maybe you well write a story about the picture and the story it tells, maybe you well write a historical novel about the artist who painted it, maybe your main character has just bought the painting… who knows where this writing exercise well take you. Have fun and good luck!

~~EK

document.write(aotd_artist);Anthony Van Dyck:
document.write(aotd_picInfo);Susanna and the Elders
oil on canvas, 1621-1622
Alte Pinakothek, Munich

Send as e-card!

Happy Birthday to my little brother: Johnny E. The Blue Star Warrior!!!

Happy Birthday to my little brother: Johnny E. The Blue Star Warrior!!!

Attracting Readers & Keep Them Comming Back For More!

I’m doing more reading than writing tonight! LOL! Well, I just found yet another great post I had to pass on to my readers. Here it is:

Hypnotize Your Visitors!
March 22nd, 2007 — Diana Chance

Invaluable information! -When marketing your blog/website, remember the following acronym: AIDAS – Attract, Interest, Desire, Action, and Satisfaction.

If you follow these tips, not only will you be able to entice surfers to your site but keep them coming back for more.

ONLY AESTHETICS MAY NOT TIC

Most of us think about web site design in terms of our aesthetic preferences, but good web site design incorporates some fundamental elements that will make your web site work for your business and your customers.

ITS-ALL-ABOUT-READABILITY – Its all about readability

Make “readability” a fundamental part of your web site design If you want a professional-looking web site design that encourages visitors to read about your business, products or services, the first thing to do is to make sure visitors can, in fact, “read”. Stay away from all capitals in your writing and use common fonts that are easy to read.

LET THE LOGIC PREVAIL

Organize content into logical sections. Make it a snap for visitors to find information.

BROWSING NOT READING

Incorporate headlines into your web site design. Web users will browse more often than read. Use headlines and subheadings to give customers a quick idea of what your page has to offer. Someone in a hurry should be able to read your headlines and subheadings to quickly understand what products, services, and benefits they will get. Put your most important phrases in bold letters, too.

BULLETS WILL HIT THE RIGHT PLACE

Include bold words, bullet points, section titles and short paragraphs. The visual experience on a web site is quite different than on a printed page.

NO BACKGROUND NOISE

Never (really, we mean never) use patterned or distracting background images as part of your web site design. Your content will be “lost” in the noise.

EASY ON THE EYES

Eliminate bright background colors with bright text. Make reading easy on the eyes. Basic colors and a white background do best with the many different ways your page will look on different monitors.

STRUCTURED APPROACH

Make “Structure” an integral part of Good web site design It’s a good idea to map out the pages of your site; in effect, design the sitemap first. Find the most logical, most direct way to link your pages to one another. Think like your customers – if you were visiting your site, how would you want to find information? Better yet, get your customers to tell you!

PLAN BEFORE PLUNGE

Good web site design practices start with good planning. Don’t develop a single graphic until you’ve set up a skeleton site and done some real-world testing to see if the structure makes sense. Sit your employees or customers down and see if they can navigate your site easily and locate information quickly.

BE CONSISTENT

A good web site design will always (yes, we mean always) use navigation consistently. That means that your common navigational elements will be in the same place, and will have the same look on every single page of your site.

STANDARD PRACTICE

Sometimes, good web site design is simply following standard practices. Keep your logo in the upper left hand corner of the page and use it to link from your interior pages back to your home page. And use common names for things – “home” for home and “about us” for a page about you. If you have a search field, put it prominently near the top of your page. Most people have grown accustomed to these basic web site design principles.

WHEN “MORE” IS NOT ALWAYS “BETTER”

It’s a safe bet to say that all businesses want an effective web site. But what’s “effective” and what’s “excessive”? When it comes to good web site design, more is not always
better. Yes, your site can flash, blink and sing, but there are reasons not to add that extra feature. By “extra features” we mean things that do not improve your sales, make your business more efficient or advance your goals, but are simply surface enhancements. Music, a twinkling star, graphics that fade in and out.

HAZARDS OF SHOWING OFF TOO MUCH

All of these things may impress you but they may not impress your visitors. Extra features can : o Slow your site down so that people with slow Internet connections might never get through your opening animation. o Stop or inhibit search engines from listing your site. o Annoy visitors so that they leave your site before learning anything, signing up for your newsletter, or making a purchase o Flashing-blinking-singing things can be distracting, repetitious or detract from the real purpose of your site. That isn’t to say that these elements should never be used. Each has its place and can be an integral part of good web site design. But any enhancement should advance your goals, and your animations and music should come equipped with an “off” button.

USE THE RIGHT TECHNIQUE

On the technical side of web site design So far, everything we’ve mentioned has some visible effect on your web site. But there are other “behind the scenes” design elements that can help to make your web site the best it can be. A good web site design professional will take care to be sure that:

GRAPHICS ARE OPTIMIZED FOR DOWNLOAD.

Visitors should be able to get to your web pages quickly, even on slower Internet connections.

COLORS ARE “WEB SAFE”.

Some browsers display a limited color palette. Visitors should be able to view your site in all its glory, whatever their browser.

VISITORS USING LOW RESOLUTION MONITORS CAN SEE YOUR
PRIMARY CONTENT WITHOUT SCROLLING.

It’s usually best to design for the “least common denominator” so that your most important content is immediately visible on all types of monitors.

MULTIPLE BROWSERS, ON MULTIPLE OPERATING SYSTEMS.

Customers come in a variety of shapes and sizes and so do their web tools. People using a Mac, or IE 5.0 should be able to see your site as well as someone using a PC, or Firefox 1.0.

PROOF OF THE PUDDING

Include testimonials from your customers and suppliers. Nothing builds trust with customers and prospects like good words about you from people who know you and have done business with you.

OPTIMISE FOR SEARCH ENGINE

Search engines are the number one way of getting visitors to your site. You will want pages that are easily registered by the top search engines like Excite and Yahoo. Search engines are a lot smarter than they used to be. Most first look at the title of your page (those words that appear in the little box on your browser), then at the page’s Meta Tags, and finally at the copy on your page. If the same keywords appear in all three places, your site gets a high listing. This means that a customer who searches for you using one of your site’s keywords will find you linked in the first 10 to 15 sites the search engine presents. To see what Meta tags look like, go to any popular site, point your cursor at the page, and click the right mouse button. Choose “view source.” The Meta tag looks like this: <meta name=”description” content=”a few words that best describe your site, separated, by, commas”> <meta name=”keywords” content=”the same keywords listed like this:internet marketing, small business, web site promotion, selling, ezines, home based business, marketing, advertising, email marketing,”>

UPDATE OFTEN

Make sure you update your important info often. Search engines, just like customers, check back often to see how your site is progressing. Lots of helpful articles, tips, and a question and answer page will give customers all the information they need. Also include links to other recommended sites like yours. Try to get those sites to add your link as well. Customers will see you as an authority in your field and will appreciate your ability to help them in a variety of ways.

“Hypnotize Your Visitors II” coming soon!

-Diana Chance

Now, I ask you, wasn’t that a great post? I sure do look forward to seeing part 2 of it.

Eight rules for writing fiction: According to Kurt Vonnegut

According to Kurt Vonnegut the “Eight rules for writing fiction” are:

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.

3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

4. Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action.

5. Start as close to the end as possible.

6. Be a sadist. Now matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — in order that the reader may see what they are made of.

7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.

8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

– Vonnegut, Kurt Vonnegut, Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons 1999), 9-10.