web stuff 4 writers

A few more writing resources from across the world wide web.

• Overwhelmed by emails? Not getting any writing done because your mind’s on those blog entries you need to respond to, those websites you have always meant to revisit? You might want to read Digitally Bankrupt, which is about starting over in the online world.
• The Daily Blog Tips blog also has 10 Tips for Managing Email Effectively.
• Alternatively, you could save time on your research and other novel-writing activities, by checking out Mashable’s 30+ Tools for the Amateur Writer.
• Meanwhile, over on Information Today, Roberta Roberti has written a piece about Blogs to Book deals, focusing on The Julie/Julia Project blog which went on to become the book, Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen.

Your thoughts

Found a new website for writers this week? Started a new series or posted an interesting article on your own writing-related blog? Please leave a link in the comment box below.

Tags: Web links // Add Comment »

Tomorrow night, I’m starting a four week writing workshop, organised by the London literary project, Spread the Word.  With an MA in creative writing under my belt as well as several undergraduate papers and a number of evening classes, I guess you could say I’m a bit of a writing workshop junkie.

However, I know that not all writers feel the same way about the usefulness of such workshops – which leads me to this week’s writing about writing question…

Writing about writing, Week #7

What’s your opinion of writing courses?  Do they offer anything to writers?  Is writing something that you think can be taught?

If you’ve answered this question in your blog, please leave a link to the entry in the comments box below.  Alternatively you can write/paste your answer directly in the comments box.

Tags: Writing about writing // 1 Comment »

In Saturday’s entry, while writing about about blog tours, I mentioned touring writer, Trish Milburn and added a link to her website. This morning, I received a notification that Trish had commented on that entry. There are millions of blogs out there. There are millions of entries posted each day. How did she find out about mine?

She received a Google alert.

What are Google alerts?

Google alerts are email notifications that you receive when a certain term (which you have specified) is mentioned in a blog post, news story, web page, or Google group.

You can choose to receive these emails, once a day, once a week, or as soon as the term is discovered by Google.

How can writers use Google alerts?

Writers may wish to enter their own name, or the names of their books or websites, as a search term so they will receive an email whenever these are mentioned on the web. It’s worth noting though, that if you or your works have a common name, some of the results you receive may not be relevant.

If you blog or write articles about a niche topic, signing up for Google alerts related to your keywords, will also keep you up-to-date with what’s newsworthy in that area.

You can create your alerts by entering your email address and search terms at the Google alerts website.

Your thoughts

Do you use the Google alerts service? What ‘search terms’ have you specified? How relevant is the information that the service delivers?

Tags: What is? // Add Comment »

In Friday’s entry, I wrote about how writers could use the basic features of facebook.com – the groups, event calendars, and profile fields that become available to them as soon as they become a member of this social networking website.

However, there’s more to facebook than these basic tools. Earlier this year, the owners of facebook began to allow external organisations and web developers to create their own applications.

There are hundreds of these applications now available: from maps applications which show all the cities you’ve visited to vampire/werewolf applications which allow you to virtually bite your friends and have them join your monster army. Here are a few of these applications which as, a writer, you might find fun or useful.

Blog RSS Feed Reader

This application uses your blog’s RSS feed to display the titles of your recent entries within your facebook profile. Profile visitors can click through to your website to read the full text, or subscribe to the feed directly from facebook.

Books

As a writer, I’m also a reader – and the Books application allows you to share your opinions on the books you’ve read (as well as keeping track of any comments that facebook readers have left about your own). The book information is generally taken from Amazon, but if the book you’ve read doesn’t appear there, you can add it most of it yourself.

There are a number of different versions of this application. At the moment, I’m using the one coded by Larry Gadea and Martin Mroz.

Storylines

This is a shared story application. You write the first 200 characters of a story, then invite your friends to add their 200 characters and see where the narrative goes. This one was a bit buggy when I first installed it, and I couldn’t see new additions to my stories for days at a time. However it seems to be working fine now.

Scrabulous

Scrabulous is a online version of my favourite word game. You can challenge up to four friends to a match, with each player taking their turn when they’re logged into facebook.

How to add applications to your facebook profile

1. If you want to add the specific applications I’ve mentioned here, you can search for them by their name. Alternatively you can browse applications by keyword.
2. Clicking on the name of the application in the resulting list will usually take you to a page with general information about the application. Click on ‘Add Application’ to add it to your profile.
3. The application may need some extra information from you in order to display correctly. Once you’ve filled in all the details, the application will appear as a box on your facebook profile.

Your thoughts

If you’ve got a facebook profile, do you use any applications to help promote your book? Or are there any writing-related games you play via this social networking website? Leave a comment and let us know.

Tags: Procrastination, Promotion // Add Comment »

Here’s a new concept for the week: blog tours.  Well, the concept is new for me at least.  Other writers, it seems, have been packing up their virtual bags and touring round the blogosphere for months now.  There are even organisations, like Pump Up Your Book Promotion PR who specialise in these online book tours.

How does a blog tour work?

Instead of visiting bookstores and libraries to promote their new book, a writer will make guest posts on a number of blogs – trying to visit as many as possible within a restricted ‘touring’ period.

At each ‘stop’, the writer will either take questions from the blog author and readers, or post an entry on a prearranged topic.  Touring writers will often publish their itinary on their own website, as seen here on Trish Milburn’s blog.

Why go on a blog tour?

As far as I can see, there’d be two major advantages to going on a blog tour.

The first, and probably most important, is that it gets the ‘buzz’ about your book, out to new audiences.  Blogs that host tours may have many more daily readers than your own blog or website.  If you pick your blogs carefully, you might also be able to reach people who are unaware or unfamiliar with your work, but already interested in your subject matter.  For example, if you had written a non-fiction book about scrap-booking, you might want to target craft blogs, blogs by craft store owners, and so on.

The second is that, your appearances may inspire the readers into online action.  If you’re on a shortlist for a contest, as Trish Milburn is, at the end of each post you can call for votes.  Or, if your book’s available online, you can provide a link to a site where the reader can find out more and maybe purchase a copy.

Over at The Blog Tour Spot blog, there is an evaluation of Mary DeMuth’s tour of 85 blogs in six weeks, as well as more information about blog tours and tips that might come in handy if you’re organising your own.

Your thoughts

Have you seen authors on blog tours?  Have you been an author on a blog tour?  Do you think that the publicity gained is worth the time commitment involved?

Tags: Promotion // 2 Comments »

What is facebook?

facebook is another social networking website, which allows its members to keep in touch with their friends and associates. Membership was originally restricted to university and college students, but in late 2006, use of the site was opened up to pretty much anyone with an email address.

To give you some idea of the site’s popularity and reach, I’d suggest you check out the BBC news article, 15 reasons why facebook may be worth $15bn.

How writers can use facebook

It’s probably fair to say that facebook is a more ‘closed’ website than some of its social networking competitors (such as Bebo or MySpace). To see most of the information, you need to be a logged-in member. To see someone’s profile – depending on the privacy settings on their account – you may need to be listed as their friend. Unfortunately this means I can’t provide links to content.

Instead, I’m going to provide a list of ways that writers could use facebook, by taking advantage of the basic tools and applications that are available to you as soon as you become a member.

• Add relevant links to your user profile. Under contact details in the profile editor, you can add a link to your writing website or blog. You can also use the posted items application to let your friends know when you’ve written an entry or found a website that you want to share.
• Join one of the writing related groups. Search for ‘writing’ using the groups application gave me 500+ results.
• Start your own group. As an alternative to an email list, you might want to start a facebook group about your writing. Then you can send messages to all the members of the group, share related videos or photos, and join in any discussion on the group’s message board.
• Advertise your event. Whether you want to promote a performance of one of your plays or the launch of a new book, you can make it an ‘event’ for it on facebook. You may wish to allow your friends to invite their friends, which will get the word out to a much wider audience.

There are also a number of ‘add-on’ applications which may be of use to writers. I’ll cover these in a later entry, but in the mean time, if you’ve got any other suggestions about how writers can use facebook or any opinions about the service in general, please leave a comment below.

Tags: What is? // Add Comment »

Well, it’s November 1, which means National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) have begun.

If you’ve somehow missed all the recent hype, here’s a summary of the two challenges.

NaNoWriMo

In NaNoWriMo, participants attempt to write a 50,000 word novel during November. The focus is on quantity over quality (there’s always National Novel Editing Month next year), and the frantic writers can seek support and inspiration from local groups, or the official NaNoWriMo forums and podcast. If you’re taking up the challenge, you might want to check out my earlier post, Five must-have resources for NaNoWriMo.

NaBloPoMo

Participants in NaBloPoMo are attempting to write a blog post every day in November. Again, if you need support, there are forums and groups that you can join. Those who manage the entry-a-day, are entered in the draw for a range of prizes.

Your thoughts

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo or NaBloPoMo this year? If so, are you working to a particular theme or idea, or are you going to make it up as you go along?

Tags: Blogging, Finding inspiration // 2 Comments »

So sad to read in the Guardian that Dina Rabinovitch died this morning.

I discovered Dina’s blog earlier this year and was touched by the honest way she talked about her experiences with cancer.  Those who read her Guardian columns and her book, Take Off Your Party Dress, were similarly impressed.  I was inspired too, by the way she used her blog and her JustGiving page to raise almost £70,000 so far for cancer research.  In a blog entry, Dina writes about how she’s raised this money from writing.

My thoughts tonight are with Dina’s family, and all who knew her.

Tags: Blogging, Finding inspiration // Add Comment »

Happy Tuesday morning everyone.  Here’s this week’s writing about writing topic.

Writing about writing, Week #6

In most large bookstores, you’ll find a shelf with books that have been written about writing. Books that teach you how to write a best selling novel. Books that tell you how to write a script; to sell freelance articles; to publish your poetry.

Have read any of these books? If so, are there any that you’d recommend to others?

If you’ve answered this question in your blog, please leave a link to the entry in the comments box below.  Alternatively you can write/paste your answer directly in the comments box.

Tags: Writing about writing // 3 Comments »

Whether you have hired a web development team to create you a multi-page website or you are setting up a free profile on MySpace, it’s important to first consider what sort of information you’re going to make available.

You might choose to have a blog, an online forum or animated games which fit the theme of your book.  You might want to post reviews of your work or exchange links with other writers.  These features all add to the website experience and may keep your readers coming back, but they’re not, in my opinion, ’essentials’. 

These would be my essentials:

1. Information about your work

For many writers, promoting their work is a major reason for having a web presence.  Simlarly, for many readers, finding out more about the writer’s work is a major reason to visit the writer’s page. 

On Beverly Cleary’s website, for example, there’s a list of her published books.  Clicking on the cover image next to each one takes you to a page with more information about the book.  There, you can read a sample chapter online or find out where you can order that book online.

If you’re a journalist rather than a novelist, you might want to include links to online examples of your work.  If you’ve had poems or short stories published in an anthology that is not available in online book stores, you might still want to mention the title so readers can seek it out by alternative methods.

2. Information about you

There may be some who argue with this one, but I like to find out about the person behind the writing – and there’s more space on a page of a website than there is on the back cover of a book.

It’s up to you how much information you want to reveal.  Some writers include their entire life history, while others keep this section very much focussed on their writing.   On her ‘about’ page, young adult writer, Lauren Barnholdt includes both the ‘official’ biography and ‘what you really want to know.’

3. A way to get in touch

Readers may come to your website with questions.  Reviewers too.  Journalists or agents.  These people may leave frustrated if there’s no way to contact you. 

To remedy this, you could include an online contact form like the one here on web stuff 4 writers. 

An email or PO Box postal address will also serve the purpose.

Your thoughts

What features do you think are essential to writers’ websites?  Do you agree with the three I’ve listed here, or would you argue for others?

Tags: Creating websites, Promotion // Add Comment »