For writers, writing contests are an imperative part of the process because they provide us with feedback and also help us thicken our skin. Remember, writing is a highly subjective industry, which means that we are constantly going to face rejection and conflicting opinions, whether by judges, readers, family members or even our own edits.

One way to effectively prepare for a writing contest is to have a professional edit done. If you have a crit partner that’s great. Not everyone has the time. I myself have to hire someone to do my edits because I simply don’t have the time to give the feedback to the other person. I always urge people to get a critique done first or a full edit because this is putting your professional foot forward. You wouldn’t go in to a job interview wearing jeans and likewise you don’t go in to a writing contest with a first draft.

Research some places. Writing Career Coach, of course, offers editing and I usually offer specials around the times of large writing contests. But beyond that, find either a critique partner, someone who is knowledgeable in the industry or a professional editor, to go through your writing and give you some feedback.

You can get a detailed edit where they will pick apart every little piece, or have somebody just do an assessment and give you an overview generalizing areas of strength and weakness. Either way, make sure before you go in to a writing contest that you’re taking the time to learn about the craft and build a strong showing in the contest.

Once you’ve toughened your skin and polished your writing it is time to get it out there. Find contests that have trained judges who are going to give you feedback on your work. While we always want to win writing contests in this subjective industry that won’t always happen. We need to be able to get something out of the contest no matter what. That is why feedback is so important. I’ll talk more about using the judges’ comments to improve your writing, but for now simply focus on finding good contests that provide real feedback.

If you’ve entered some good contests I’d love for you to share below. I know the Genesis Contest [unpubbed] and Carol Award [pubbed], both of which are sponsored by ACFW are good contests. The Daphne du Maurier Award from the RWA KOD chapter also has a good reputation and excellent feedback.

Don’t miss a single posting! Subscribe here to receive these postings by e-mail. Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com.

Today’s blog we’re going to look at the two most important parts of your story: beginning and the end.

You’ve heard the phrase in publishing, The first line of your story sells this book, the last line sells your next book.”

It’s more than that.

Your first line needs to introduce the story, introduce the character and point to the climax of the plot. The last line of your story needs to give a satisfactory resolution to that plot and also, if you can tie it back to the beginning, where your reader goes “Ah, now I understand what he meant there”. That is how you leave a great impression with your reader.

Think about ways you can do that as you’re working on your writing this week. What are the ways that the first line of your story is pointing to the climax of your book?

What is the way that the last line of your story is bringing the reader back to that very first line?

That’s your assignment for this week. If you have any ideas on how to do this we’d love to see your comments in the comments section.

Don’t miss a single posting! Subscribe here to receive these postings by e-mail. Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com.

Today’s post is from guest blogger, Rachel Mendell.  This post is part of a series on writing for the newspaper.

The first place most writers start their newspaper career is with a letter to the editor. Check with the guidelines as to word count and frequency. If you don’t understand what is expected call the paper and ask. The Sentinel runs local letters to the editor on the opinions page with a limit of 300 words. If you have contributed recently check to find out when you can send in a letter again. Every newspaper is different.

Columns are also a nice place to start. Again, contact the paper to find out if guest columns are accepted. Read the columns the newspaper runs on a regular basis. Is your local newspaper liberal or conservative? Many columns come from other sources besides local folks. Ask the editor who his favorite columnists are and research those writers. Make sure your column follows all guidelines exactly.

In the Sentinel columns sometimes run on other pages besides the opinion page. My column runs on a different page each week. The local superintendent’s column runs on the schools page. Just a suggestion: Humor is hot right now. Do not expect to get paid for columns, at least not right away.

Read more of Rachel Mendell’s tips on writing for the newspaper by following the links below.

Writing for the newspaper is still an opportunity.

Writing for the newspaper: events

Writing for the newspaper: Stories

Rachel Mendell writes for the Morrow County Sentinel, a weekly paper that covers county government and community events in Morrow County, Ohio. She has also written for the Galion Inquirer (daily) and the Crestline Advocate (weekly). Copies of her book, Ghostly Galion, are available by emailing thedomesticwarhorse@yahoo.com. Samples of her writing are available at domesticmobility.blogspot.com. For more information about writing for the newspaper contact Rachel at reporter@newscolorpress.com or call 419-946-3010. Be polite. You may need to leave a message.

Don’t miss a single posting! Subscribe here to receive these postings by e-mail. Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com.

Today we have  guest blogger Rachel Mendell, who will be with us over the next few posts!  The focus of these posts will be on writing for the newspaper.

There are lots of ways you can write for the newspaper. In this series I cover event promos, opinion pieces and stories. I have also added a few dos and don’ts for getting the newspaper’s attention.

 Yes, it’s true, the newspaper industry has taken a big hit. But you can still write for the paper and now is a great time to check it out. The newspaper is quick to publish compared to other print products and even though you may not get paid, it sure is nice to have those clips in your portfolio.

 Start a relationship with your local newspaper. Email, write, or visit with the editor. Have patience. Editors have always been busy, but with short-staffed offices, the pace has reached a new level of insanity. You may have to make an appointment. Ask him what his needs are and express your desire to help. Be successful in working for your local newspaper first and it will be easier to move out to a larger audience with that experience.

Read more of Rachel Mendell’s tips on writing for the newspaper by following the link below.

Writing for the newspaper: events

Rachel Mendell writes for the Morrow County Sentinel, a weekly paper that covers county government and community events in Morrow County, Ohio. She has also written for the Galion Inquirer (daily) and the Crestline Advocate (weekly). Copies of her book, Ghostly Galion, are available by emailing thedomesticwarhorse@yahoo.com. Samples of her writing are available at domesticmobility.blogspot.com. For more information about writing for the newspaper contact Rachel at reporter@newscolorpress.com or call 419-946-3010. Be polite. You may need to leave a message.

Don’t miss a single posting! Subscribe here to receive these postings by e-mail. Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com.

This article is excerpted from my article “How can I market my writing.” The entire article is available free under the “Articles” tab at www.WritingCareerCoach.com

As an aspiring author there is a great deal to learn. There are grammar and spelling rules. There is a tone. There is that certain ‘something’ that helps the reader connect with the message of the writer. Writers recognize this and spend a great deal of time at conferences and in critique groups honing their craft and finding ways to better express their thoughts on paper.

What writers are only beginning to realize is that running alongside this is the need for a strong marketing sense. For some people with a business background this could come more naturally. They’ve grown accustomed to networking and making sales contacts. For born writers, however, our more solitary nature sometimes makes the idea of networking about as appealing as dragging our tongue across razor blades. There is the perception that marketing our craft somehow sullies it, and thus, we want to leave that part to our publisher. Doing this will doom your work to obscurity. Therefore, we need to find ways to make marketing, if not pleasurable, bearable.

In this article we’re going to look at a few simple ways to begin to market your writing. While using all of these ideas together may give the best result, selecting only one or two can give you a significant jump start on establishing name recognition. Furthermore, most, if not all, of these techniques can be used before you even have your first book contracted. That makes these not only a means of marketing our writing to readers but also marketing our writing to potential publishing houses.

Blogging

Blogging is a phenomenon that has only been around for a little over a decade and has received mixed reviews. One of the advantages of establishing a blog is that many blogs are free to start. The setback of blogging is the same as the setback of anything else, you must let people know it is there and give them a reason to come again and again.

Articles

Historically the way to publication began with an author writing a variety of articles and then “shopping” them around to various magazines and periodicals. The face of publishing, however, has been changing over the last 5-10 years with a transition from print publications to electronic publications. While this has led to a decrease in the number of paying markets for a writer to break in to, it has offered an increase in the potential of using articles to market YOU, rather than the magazine you are writing for.

Newsletters

For people who like to stay in the know but who don’t like to read daily blogs there are newsletters. One benefit of the newsletter is the ability to add graphics to your stories and links to your blog and to other articles. Furthermore, a newsletter gives the perception of professionalism to some readers. I find that there is some overlap between my blog subscribers and my newsletter subscribers. Despite this, the two distribution means tend to reach different groups.

Speaking

This is my favorite part of marketing. I love to write, but I also love teaching other people how to write. Therefore I spend as much time as I can speaking to business and writing groups. This option isn’t for everyone but if you do have some interest in speaking, take the time to learn how to do it properly. Find some online classes and read books. Remember, just because you can talk, doesn’t mean you can speak.

Networking Communities

Finally, a great way to market your writing is by networking. Membership in online communities helps you with national and international connections while local groups help your develop your people skills. Make sure you focus on giving to these communities more than you seek to take.

This is not an exhaustive list of ways to market your writing but gives you a start. While these tips and ideas may not help you with the nerves inherent in putting yourself out there, they will help you to develop the relationships that will make marketing your work a much more pleasurable experience.

For a more expanded view of marketing and developing your writing check out my ebook Writing and Business: A Guide for Freelance Writers.  Available for purchase by contacting Tiffany, only $7.

Don’t miss a single posting! Subscribe here to receive these postings by e-mail. Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com.

In my previous blog I suggested looking for work in other venues. Today I want to show how this will help you with your book or novel writing.

1. You learn to write by writing. While there is a difference between a term paper and a romance novel writing is still writing. You learn to express yourself better as you write, no matter what the writing is for.
2. You learn about people. Interacting with people is a great way to deepen character development. In novels our characters will not always react in a way that seems logical to us. We need to learn how others react to certain situations so we can integrate that in our writing.
3. You make connections with other people who could be future readers. Becoming visible in your community helps increase your platform and will lead to more sales.

While these are just a few ways you can benefit from writing for other venues, they are important. Why don’t you take a few minutes to think of how writing for others will help you build and develop your writing career and share your thoughts in the comments.

Don’t miss a single posting! Subscribe here to receive these postings by e-mail. Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com.

I just completed the book The Pleasure of My Company a book about a highly neurotic man on a quest to normalcy. I picked up this book because it was not only written but read by Steve Martin [yes, THAT Steve Martin], so if the writing was bad the reading would be amusing.

                I was captured by the humor and the incredible characterization in this story. As with every book I searched for ways to improve my own writing during the process of reading.

                This book had one of the best endings of any book I’ve read in a very long time. I would put it among the top 5 endings of ANY book. It was the type that cannot be shared because it would spoil the entire the book. It ended when the story ended rather than jamming in needless [and useless] words just to hit an artificial word count. The ending was incredibly satisfying and logical. There were no cheap theatrics, it simply was.

                The ending always sells your next book and this story absolutely sold the next book to me.

                Here at Writing Career Coach I spend a good bit of time telling you ways to market your writing. I interview authors to introduce you to different ways of marketing your writing and looking at your career. None of that matters if you don’t deliver.

                So here is today’s assignment, what is your ending? Where are you going? How is your main character going to grow and develop over the course of your story? Why is someone going to invest hours of their time to live the life of your characters?

                How are you going to end? Tell us some of your ideas in the comments.

Don’t miss a single posting!  Subscribe here to receive these postings by e-mail.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com

Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.

Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.

Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.

Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.

Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.

She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.

Many new writers like to say something like this:

“My story is in a new kind of genre. There is some romance and little historical and some science fiction all mixed together in a coming of age novel.

How do you go about selecting a genre? Some say that you should write in the area you understand best, but that doesn’t always work for every author. While I have a degree in political science and history my stories are contemporary suspense novels. That means that I have more research to do in order to construct my plots, but it is the world I am best able to write in.

Consider what it is that most interests you and the kind of writing you get most excited about. Don’t limit yourself to the kind of writing that fits in with your background or learning. Look at the way the story starts to percolate in your mind. That is your first clue.

Once you’ve selected your genre you have the most important step: research that genre. There are certain conventions in writing that you must provide to your reader. Every genre is a promise. In a romance the promise is he and she will meet at the beginning of the book and be in a happy, committed relationship at the end. If you have her die on the final page you are breaking the promise you gave in writing a romance. In suspense you are promising the reader that there will be an emotional experience where life and limb are challenged. If the bad guy is caught 1/3 of the way through and you proceed to go in to the main characters childhood [without any further threat of the bad guy returning] you have broken the promise to the reader.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com
Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.
Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.
Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.
Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.
Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.
She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.