The Write Way.

There’s no magic way to find a job, especially in our current world economy, but Jist Works’ THE TWITTER JOB SEARCH GUIDE by Susan Britton Whitcomb, Chandlee Bryan, and Deb Dib is a fairly good resource. Released this month, it’s a well-researched guide to using Twitter, and one of the ways Twitter is used is to find employment. I wonder how many people actually hook up with a gig via Twitter, Facebook, LinkIn, or any other social media.

Susan Whitcomb (@susanwhitcomb)as founder of Career Coach Academy, claims to have helped thousands of job seekers find success and to have trained hundreds of other career coaches. She has, she says, authored many best-selling books, including RESUME MAGIC, JOB SEARCH MAGIC, AND INTERVIEW MAGIC. She has a niche and a platform. She’s classifies herself as a personal branding expert.

Chandlee Bryan (@chandlee) is the president of a career management firm, a job search expert, and social media evangelist, according to the book liner notes. Her past experience includes recruiting, career counseling, and consulting. She has a relatively high profile among social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and some personal blogs.

Deb Dib (@ceocoach) is described as a “careers industry trend leader, communications expert. She’s a career coach, and the jacket notes list some other marketing-ese about her skills.

Those who aren’t excited about marketing jargon, coaching, and jumping on bandwagons may not be bowled over by the origins of this book project, but it must be said that there are some useful nuggets in THE TWITTER JOB SEARCH GUIDE. For readers who are social media novices, much space is dedicated to explaining the phenom, especially Twitter and how to use it. The step-through of how to set up your Twitter profile, complete with graphics and bling is worth a look. Those who have a measure of proficiency with Twitter will find that material skip-through-able.

The Guide is not unlike many books on how to find a career, period, Twitter or no. There’s a lot of common sense, resume advice, how to describe yourself in marketing terms, and so forth. Some of the appendices are worthwhile. You’ll find lists of relevant Internet gurus, job board recommendations, and comments from a dozen or so successful tweeters (those who engage on Twitter.)

This book is very much an exploitation of the current rising popularity of networking via social media sites and will give the novice to intermediate user a leg up here and there. It is well organized, written in a bright, breezy kind of voice, and not inaccurate. However, read it quickly since social media changes week to week and you never know how long web and email addresses will be viable. If you’re looking for work in this economy and feel like you just don’t know where to begin, this book might crystallize your thinking and get your feet moving one in front of the other.

Make money writing for content mills

Why your book needs an agent or editor

Women Day by Day

Writers and agents are at war. There’s a battle  in a fairly well-known agent’s blog. Agent Chip MacGregor published a guest post about agents refusing to read slush pile stuff. A writer took exception and commented that she consigned Mr. MacGregor’s blog to her slush pile and 86ed it.

Attitude is everything. Mr. MacGregor retorted the writer’s comment was “stupid. For me, dissension never warrants bandying about the word “stupid.” It’s an offensive word, especially when  translated – “How dare you call me out? You’re stupid.”

Why neither writer nor agent is stupid

Writer – agent is a business arrangement. No one owes anyone anything unless and until a contract is negotiated. Writers may submit whatever they want to whomever will allow it over the transom. Agents are free to read or not to read. I’m puzzled by apparent animosity between the two groups. Writers and agents, most especially writers never before published. Is it a battle? Is there need for a battle?

If an agent decides not to read anything coming across her desk this week, and sets fire to all, cool. Do it. How does that indicate lack of prowess in writers?

If a writer chooses to submit dreck and embarrass herself, not attending to mechanics of producing publishable writing, does that indict other writers, all writers heretofore unpublished?

How agents and writers can  stop the battle

I shake my head when this perpetual argument, good agents vs. bad writers, sparks. It’s like silly arguments about should bad writers go ahead and write for content mills. There is no right answer. Both are just arguments. They make great article and blog fodder for articles and blog posts.

Some “professional agents” have a chip on their shoulders as big as a Sequoia. Their halos blind their own vision. they get puffed up with a sense of bloated importance. Read some tweets at Twitter, or blogs in the blogosphere, or columns in publishing industry periodicals. some agents are rational and compassionate, remembering how all written work begins – with an idea, often a great idea.

Having been a publisher and editor, I empathize. Some awful stuff is submitted by writers who don’t have a clue and don’t want a clue. Burn them!

Controversy draws readers. Is that what perpetuates the battle? If junk lands on an editor/agent/publisher’s desk – it should be junked. Why bother to chastise the sender, indict writers, yammer at anyone who has ever or ever will make a submission? And is there any purpose for less than conscientious writers to whine about rejection?

How agents and writers, authors, can use their time

Now, both agents and writers could resign themselves to the state of the publishing nation and realize it’s all in flux anyway. Five years from now neither writing nor agenting will resemble the current paradigm. Agents may not even exist. Sad, but true. Chill the battle.

Agents, you might simply vow to never read anything that doesn’t come in from, say, a subagent who screens the stuff before they bother you with it. spend more time, then, shopping the bright, shiny stuff that sets your soul afire. You know, deep in your heart, there is no King, Steele, or Updike in that pile.

Writers, stop whining when work is rejected. Don’t write slanderous challenges to the editor or agent who says you need to clean up your work. Authors and writers can use the extra time to learn self-editing. Read books. Take classes — a grammar brush-up? Learn how verbs and nouns must agree. Understand that not every line of dialog can begin with the name of the person being addressed. Learn the difference between “effect” and “affect.” Learn that punctuation rules are seldom optional, and a comma is not something sprinkled liberally about a page for embellishment. Commas have functions. Hire a ghost or an editor to help you succeed.

At the end, isn’t it stupid to be intolerant or set oneself up on a pedestal, whether writer or agent? Am I right, people?

How to land an agent!

More reading

Must have web links for successful writers

Stop bitching and sell your writing

Brad Pitt doesn’t belong in your headlines

Digital photography is one of the hottest book topics around and everyone is writing a book about digital photography. I got a review copy of Derek Pell’s Shoot to Thrill. There is some value here for writers who wish to incorporate photos into their queries and submissions. However, I’m not inclined to recommend the book. Shoot to Thrill could have been more thrilling.

Mr. Pell, who says he has written some 20 books, writes this one in his version of a detective mystery style. It’s too trendy, reaches too hard to be funny, and is fairly offensive to women, all at the same time. The first thing I noticed is the goofy jargon.

Nobody move – you’re surrounded. Must be a couple hundred books on digital photography starin’ at you….There’s nothin’ but sunny-side-up o the subject….believe me I’ve read ‘em all.

By the end of the first graff, I was done with apostrophes in place of missing letters. The rest of the text is liberally sprinkled with references to “you guys” and “dames.” To all appearances, women are not capable of reading or of taking good photographs. The pity is, if you wade through all that, there are good tips in the book, especially for those who want to shoot photos to illustrate their writing. Pell was evidently a shooter for UPI and other outlets for some time.

His images are engaging. The chapter called Gestures is particularly effective – showing how to catch action and expressiveness.

It’s conceivable that some readers will find this book funny, and that’s cool. But it seems the important information and the point of the non-fiction how-to book are lost in a bigger-than life parody. You can’t be all things to all people. Adding humor to non-fiction is great. Drowning readers in a laborious stretch to bury content in style makes the author completely self conscious. He’s lost his way and his point.

If you have a quirky sense of humor, you’re a macho kind of guy or just curious, give the book a look and let me know your take on it. One of the most valuable sections is the appendices where there’s a good list of resources and references online and off. You can find them listed, Pell says, at  ZoomStreet, his web site.  All you dames out there – pass on this book, maybe. The website is better than the book.

Shoot to Thrill Derek Pell isbn: 13-978 0 1231 4240 7 $24.99 U.S. and $29.99 Canada

More info for writers:

Should you hire an editor or a ghost?

Four essential thoughts on self publishing

how to write a press release

Trash Proof News Releases is a handbook (about 200 pages) for anyone who needs to promote a book or product with press releases. You may think you know all about writing press releases, but you could easily be wrong. the goal, as with all writing, is to get them read. Most end up in the trash.

TRASH PROOF NEWS RELEASES is a tool designed with one specific goal – to get you publicity in your target media that achieves a return on investment that rivals and even exceeds your best marketing. It offers you everything you need to know to give media everything they need to run with the story using you and the resources you’ve arrayed and meet their needs in today’s fast paced environment and ever changing technologies. –Paul Krupin

Once you get past those two run-on sentences (whew!) in the promo, there’s gold in the actual book. You may wonder how much there is to say on the topic, but the book answers that question. You’ll feel as though you’ve taken a course in press releases – and that’s a good thing. Press releases represent free publicity for your endeavor. FREE is a good price.

Author Paul Krupin deals in depth with how to write a release, how to know you’re ready to publicize your stuff, how and where to send it, and how to follow up. His book is a free download from Smashbooks.

You’ll learn how to exploit three reasons an editor would be interested in your press release :

1. It could interest and expand the media outlet’s target audience
2. It will provide unique added value
3. you are easy to verify, trust, and work with

There are actual sample releases that are helpful. I always learn better form examples. There are appendices chock full of suggested effective  topics for releases in different businesses.  The back of the book information is priceless – a resource you’ll use over and over. Once you read this book, it’s likely your marketing efforts will be power-boosted and your efforts should bring more positive results.

Paul Krupin

Paul Krupin is a PR guy and evidently knows his business. He’s a scientist, a once-upon-a-time attorney, an author, and a fascinating person.His website is filled with useful information and free stuff to download. Interestingly, though Mr. K is a busy person, he is available for questions and comment via email. Check his website for the address. He is also available for consulting – that’s his business.

Secrets of being a ghostwriter Writing for content mills Must-have web links for writer

Ghost writing takes a bite out of career insecurity

It’s a scary time for writers. Pulitzer Prize winning authors are looking for work; established writers are laid off in droves, and publishers bite the dust daily. But ghost writing is a writing niche in high demand and growing fast. As publishers and agents get pickier about what they accept, and editorial gigs dry up for writers, ghost writers — skilled ghost writers who know the publishing business — find themselves busier than they have ever been. That in mind, I took Claudia Suzanne’s unique ghost writer certification training, Ghostwriter Certification Training.

About Claudia Suzanne and her training approach

Claudia is a well-known ghost and book industry authority. She wrote a definitive text on the business (used in major universities worldwide) and has ghosted more than 100 books and novels including medical, academic, history, bereavement, romance, action/adventure. She learned from the ground up, and promises to help students avoid her errors.

Her background and expertise drew me when I decided to explore the field of ghost writing. Her book  SECRETS OF A GHOSTWRITER: Your New Career on a Silver Platter, the foundation of the course, is the only book I could find on the realities of ghosting and the bottom-line skills needed to enter or move ahead in the field. Her training class is the only one that provides recognized certification. Those who complete the rigorous, university-quality course receive a certificate that only an elite group of writers hold. Claudia is a skilled teacher and communicates clearly and patiently.

She allowed me to audit her course for review. By the third of fourteen weeks, I sent her a check for tuition. The class is that valuable. Claudia holds class via telephone for three hours each week. Enrollment is limited so each student gets personal attention. Though skeptical at first about a three-hour phone conversation, I quickly got comfortable and found it almost as effective as a classroom setting, and more convenient.

The workload is about what you would expect from a masters level course. You must be self-motivated and self-directed. Students reluctant to put in homework time (about five hours per week) soon found they had to do the reading and exercises or get left in the dust.

Some of the topics on board:

• How to do an A&R and what it is
• How to find the “gold” in any manuscript
• How to determine BISAC selection
• How to advise the three types of authors on publishing options
• The variances between the author’s writing process and the ghostwriting process
• How to chart nonfiction and map fiction
• How to find customers, market your business, and make money.

We ghost wrote selections from actual manuscripts. We learned concise line-editing and substantive editing processes. We learned to dissect a manuscript, evaluate content and writing, communicate strengths and weaknesses to the author, and prepare for successful submission. Claudia focused on maintaining the original author’s voice and showed us precisely how to identify “tells” that define each author’s voice. Lectures are supported by the textbooks Claudia uses in her on-site classes at California State – Fullerton. The textbook is a galley proof and needs some editing, and some of the reading material is repeated in the lectures. But overall, the repetition helps underscore concepts, and the material is so solid typos don’t matter.

I enjoyed Claudia’s professional, conversational style peppered with entertaining yet helpful anecdotes. Her knowledge of the subject is impressive. If her classroom performance has a weakness, it is that she goes off topic fairly easily. That’s balanced by her ability to come back and control the discussion as needed. Out of 14 weeks, not one session seemed weak. I don’t recall any questions Claudia couldn’t answer effectively.

Bottom line

If you need a step up in your writing career – if money is coming in more slowly than it once did and jobs are tougher to find – I recommend this course. The tuition, at around $900, can be paid in installments. There are sometimes significant discounts available on Claudia’s website. Claudia’s ghost writing training moves writers ahead of competition as the publishing industry morphs. The next session begins January 2010. Claudia promises to change the way you look at the written word, to expand your career, and increase your revenue streams. I believe she keeps her word.

Claudia’s book is SECRETS OF A GHOSTWRITER: Your New Career on a Silver Platter

Claudia’s course is Ghostwriter Certification Training