Contest $100 Amazon $$

There are few sites on the Internet that create a community learning atmopshere on a platform that equals the one used by www.inspiredauthor.com. New writers can access free weekly workshops, forums, blogs and online learning courses - FREE.

This is the first time in five years that www.inspiredauthor.com has created an interactive community where writers can ask publishers How to Write a Novel, ask freelance writing agents How to Get Paid to Write, and receive more than 3000 articles and tutorials.

There are no fees for membership, nothing to buy, and no mass market mailings. The site is building up its resources including video tutorials, podcasts, and e-courses that members can download.

To launch this new platform www.inspiredauthor.com is offering their members a chance to win $100 in Amazon bucks, all they need to do is refer the site to their friends, participate in the forums, and comment on the blogs.

The $100 will be awarded in December, just in time for Christmas. Referrals and activity are calculated automatically by the software system. No member of IA's staff, associates, or publishing interests may participate.

Other prizes will be awarded, including free books, downloads, and free enrolment in courses at www.writersonlinecourses.com

Write Great Romance

49% of the books sold are romance.

Why? Romance feeds a need in people, and it lets them express emotions they could not normally express. Statistics report that women who read romance novels have sex 70% more than non-romance readers.

However, it is hard to have a romance novel published. Many writers despair of ever becoming published - that is because a romance novel needs more than a great story. It needs a romance. Now, many of you just dismissed this article, but take a moment to read on.

Do you really know what romance it?

A romance novel is not about the emotions, it is about the emotions it incites in the story’s reader. But, if you ask most writers how to stir emotions, they cannot answer. Most romance authors cannot even write out a story arc of their romance. I found this while teaching my advanced romance writing course at http://www.writersonlinecourses.com/.

There is an assignment that asks writers to outline the romance in their stories. The answer is usually something vague like, she meets him and they need to fight to save the town. They like each other, and after a business meeting, realize that they love each other.

That is not romance. In fact, it isn’t even realistic.

Romance is something you do. It is ‘actions’ one person does to show the other how much they care for them.

It involves:

• Holding hands
• Long walks
• Quiet talks
• Cuddling
• Sharing secrets
• Protecting

There is a pattern that people fallow when falling in love. It doesn’t matter what culture, where in the world, the pattern does not vary. Yes, it involves eye contact - but it is far more complex than a single glance. It involves a set up, an exchange of body language to ensure the male will not be rejected.

One of the biggest mistakes that romance writers make is having the male make the first move. In all cultures, the female makes the first move - even if the male encouraged the contact. Then, the female will often go through a series of situations that are meant to see if the male will stick around.

This mating dance was born thousands of years ago when women needed to ensure that men would stay around and provide for their children.

Many writers do not pay much attention to aspects like these. They are too focused on what turns them on, and what they like. Very few writers take the time to learn what the general public wants. It is so easy. Magazines are full of list of ‘what men really want,’ or ‘how to make her fall in love.’ There are also tests ‘are you really in love.’

All of these give writers clues into what touches women’s hearts and makes them ‘feel’ the romance in a story. These are powerful tools that writers can use to write a romance - a real page turner - that will make you famous.





How to Become a Writer

Learn How to Write a Novel - Free

www.inspiredauthor.com

We are launching IA on a new platform. The site is bigger and better than ever, with more tutorials and articles, taught by people who are currently published, and/or working as freelance writers.

Our site has earned 2.2 million hits this year, with 1500 regular visitors each day. We are also building a forum, which I want to thank Communati.com for, because I hit a brick wall. This new forum will give readers a chance to talk to the Topic Editors and ask for help.

Membership costs $0.00 - so there is no reason to stay away. We believe we created the largest 'online course' site dedicated - 100% - to writers.

How to Write Well

It always amazes me how people appreaciate good writing, whether it appears on a blog, in an article, or in a novel. The thing is, anyone can write well. You can write something that receives hundreds, even thousands of views. You can write a novel that sells thousands of copies. The secret is to write something that people want to read, by writing about life.

Take a look at two blog posts I wrote that received top hits, despite the fact they are on a blog community, www.communati.com, that has hundreds of great writers on the site.

My first article received almost 500 views in less than a few hours. Within 4 hours of being written, it was on the ‘most popular list.’ Gladiolas, Dahlias, Pear Trees and The Secrets of Life . This is nothing more than a look at a quiet summer afternoon that I spent with my family, and how it touched me, and also touched my readers. The writing is not literary and flowery. There is nothing poetic about it. I just wrote it in a way that made readers look into their own lives. This is the secret of great writing, making people look at their own lives instead of forcing them to see life through your eyes.

The second is a tutorial on saving time. I did not tell people to save time. Instead, I showed them how I save time. There is a big difference between talking about what to do and how to do. The world is full of tutorials that tell people what to do, but never gives them the tools to help them do it. How Much $$ Does Multitasking Costing You?
You’ll also notice that I made some great titles. Are titles important? Yes. They are so important that I have even returned to my blogs and changed titles. In some cases, the hits increased.

So, next time you write, don’t just put words on paper. Think about your readers. “Take care of your readers and they will take care of you.”



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Visit More Learning Sites:
inspiredauthor
Get Your Book Published
Get Paid To Write
How I Built a Career

Talk To A Publisher on Tuesdays

As a Helium writer whose articles suggest a high interest in creative writing and literature, we wanted to let you know an exciting new program we’ve developed, called Helium’s Book People Talk series. By participating in this Tuesday talk series, you will have a chance to meet publishers and get direct advice on questions like:

How do I get my book published? Do I need an agent? How do I avoid the rejection pile? What's fair for an advance? Should I self-publish? Can I get a job as a book editor? What are publishers really looking for?

Tomorrow’s discussion features:

Chapter One: THE FUTURE IS BLEAK (but your writing career doesn’t have to be).

Helium is honored to welcome Bleak House Books, a publisher of crime and dark literary fiction. Bleak House has been written about in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Crimespree Magazine, Mystery Scene Magazine, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus (The Book Standard), and others.

For future discussions, check out the listings at:

http://www.helium.com/
topic=13072.0

Editing Is Your Friend

Guest author and aquisition's editor for Enspiren Press supplied this article. We thank her for offering some insight to our readers.

As an editor, I find many writers have either edited their work too much or too little.
The key is to edit well enough to create a great story, but not too much that your work no longer has heart.
A lot of novel authors believe the golden word limit is 100 000. This is not always the case. Many publishers, big and small, prefer the word limit to be around 90k or even under. One of my publishers is UK hardback publisher Robert Hale Ltd. Their word count is approx 73 000 words. Always check the publisher’s guidelines, if possible.
Now some writers will be horrified that their beloved opus is a massive 300k words, and they refuse to cut a single word from it, but honestly think of the bigger picture — money. Publishers are companies out to make money, some foster careers, too, but mainly it is money and it is silly to think otherwise. For them to make money they have to create marketable books that will sell. If your book is a massive tome, do you think that the average publisher is going spend an awful lot of time and money on something that will be priced above all the competition?
When writers are confronted by the prospect of cutting words, they panic and think it can’t be done without destroying plots and characters.
In actual fact, most writers will learn that there is a skill to trimming word count. Once that skill is learnt, they can apply it to other works, and also this will change the way they write future manuscripts.
Sometimes, the act of cutting words from the manuscript is simply a case of re-writing the odd paragraph, of eliminating passive writing or over telling, deleting repeated or redundant words. Look for instances where you have explained the same thing more than once, but perhaps in different ways or by different character’s viewpoint. There are many good websites built to aid writers in writing the best work they can. I have a list on my website of several such websites.
http://www.annewhitfield.com/writingwebsites.html

In the end, write the story of your heart, but edit it with a business mind and the chances are you’ll have a better prospect of becoming published and the journey with your future editor may be also smoother.
Good Luck!
Anne Whitfield, author and editor.
http://www.annewhitfield.com

Do You Write Book Reviews

We have a site that is building at www.novel-writer.com that needs book reviews. You need to subscribe and be given publisher permission, but you can post all your book reviews (that you've already earned money from) along with a link back to one of your sites.

One of the benefits of writing reviews is that, once you can prove you do this, and the sites you write for have ample exposure, you can get books/ebooks sent to you free. This is great for an avid reader.

Get Paid to Write

We have started to publish short books to help writers improve their chances of getting paid to write. Not all writers are able to work as freelance writers, bidding on writing jobs, and making a living as writers.

This does not mean that they cannot make money from their writing - years before they receive their first publishing contract. One way is to write short books for sale, and to ghostwrite non-fiction.

Making 'Good' Money Writing and Ghostwriting Books (and ebooks) is a book that tells you how to start a ghostwriting career, and how to get paid to write books. You can buy the PDF version or a Print version. Click Here to buy 'Making Good Money Writing and Ghostwriting Books'

Reader's Choice Awards

We are re-launching our Reader's Choice Awards for novels, and non-fiction books.

How to enter this contest. Sign up at our website www.novel-writer.com and upload a book review, or a hundred. Then, tell people to go online and vote for your books. The books in different genres with the highest number of votes on December 31, 2007 will be given a plaque.

New Website

Our new website is ready for public participation. Feel free to join the writer's community at www.novel-writer.com. Post your book reviews, take part in the 'Reader's Choice Awards' and let everyone know what is happening at your publisher, or what you have learned along the way.

Our New Website

Novel Writer Magazine is making several changes in 2008. The first change is our new website. We have opened it up to let novel writers help each other get published, promote their novels, and keep ahead of the trends and information.

Novel Writer will also be growing. We are changing our format to allow readers in the USA to avoid 'lost in the mail' copies. This change will also let our magazines be larger.

Visit our site at www.novel-writer.com

We still have our forum and our Friday night chat

Novel Writer Magazine - New Year

They say that the third issue is a major one for a magazine. We found that to be true. Not in the fact that 'most magazine companies run out of money' and that we are a small trade magazine competing with two big lifestyle magazines - Writer's Digest - Writer Magazine.

I don't think those are factors. We found a change in how people responded to our queries for articles in this new issue. Up until now it was 'if I can find a few extra minutes - don't call me."

Now we have direct links to national statistic gathering associations. Did you know that ebooks and small press books made the top 30 for one association? It is all in the mag.

Next issue, our cover story is Terry Whalin - yea 'the' Mr Whalin, we are very excited to see what he will send us.