My Latest Short Story is Out!

For those of you who don't read my book blog, my Fan Page on Facebook or follow me on Twitter, just thought I'd let you know that my short story, "The Right to Remain Silent," has been published online in Back Alley Webzine. And the editor, Rick Helms, has compared it with L.A. REQUIEM. That's a pretty nice comparison. I think I'll take it. :)

Last Minute Push . . .

Okay, this is very last minute, but I wanted to let you all know that the big promo on my mystery novel IDENTITY CRISIS (click on the link for the description) will expire by the end of the month. That's two days, people. (Well, less than two, really. Unless you're across the International Dateline. Then . . . well, I don't know. I suppose the publisher determines this based on Eastern Daylight Time. Anyway . . .)

You can order a copy (or copies) of IDENTITY CRISIS for 10% off the retail price, if you click on the publisher's order page and simply enter the code README at checkout. It's that simple.

Or, if you're electronically inclined, you can also purchase it as an e-book through Amazon, the Scribd Store or Smashwords. Much cheaper than print, even with the discount.

Quotation for the Week of August 30

"Doing nothing is very hard to do . . . you never know when you're finished."
-- Leslie Nielsen

Guest Blogging About E-Publishing and Print Books

Just wanted to let you know that I've made a guest appearance on the mystery writers' blog, Poe's Deadly Daughters, giving my take on the value of print books in the age of e-publishing. See what you think and feel free to comment either there or here on this blog.

I love e-publishing and have personally benefited from it, but I think there will always be a place for print books. What do you think?

The Importance of Writing Clearly

A guest post by Rick Holton

If people in business don't understand your message, they will either ignore it or interpret it how they want. Hence, it is important to write clearly, so no one can fail to understand you.

Clear writing comes from clear thinking. If you don't know what message you're trying to communicate or don't know how your audience will react to your message, you will not succeed.

Here are six tips on writing clearly that people in your organization may find helpful.

Be direct. Tell the reader up front why you're writing and why your message is important to them. Being direct includes organizing your material logically. Start with your most important point and work down, and remember that you are building an argument, not just piling up random ideas. Draw a connection between your ideas by using transitions.

Make sentences brief and simple. Don't lose your reader in long, complicated sentences. You should not, however, make all your sentences the same length or identical in structure. In that case, your reader will have a harder time figuring out the relative importance of your ideas.

Use ordinary language. If you use jargon or other words that are unfamiliar to your audience, your audience will not understand you, so keep in mind their level of expertise in the subject you are writing about. If, for instance, you are writing to someone in finance or HR about an issue in engineering, you should recognize that they may not be familiar with engineering jargon. Remember: you're not writing to show off; you're writing to communicate.

Omit needless words. Perhaps the single most important idea in Strunk and White's Elements of Style, is to omit needless words. Look at what you've written and see what you could leave out without changing your meaning. Or see what's irrelevant to your purpose. Do not use expressions like "at this point in time," when you can say "now."

Put key ideas in key positions. Don't start sentences with "it is" or "there is." Instead of saying, for example, "There are five reasons why the project succeeded," say, "The project succeeded for five reasons." In the second version, the key idea is in the important subject position, and the second version uses fewer words.

Also put important ideas in independent clauses and secondary ideas in dependent clauses. If you wish, for example, to make a point while acknowledging other factors, you might write a sentence like: "Although I hate the hours, I find the work fascinating." You are saying your work is the most important thing; therefore, you'll be staying at your job. Note that you could express the opposite idea by saying: "Although I find the work fascinating, I hate the hours."

Use verbs. Another way to enliven your writing and omit needless words is to use verbs. Avoid, for instance, expressions like "we made the decision that..." This is only a clumsy way of saying, "we decided." When I run into former business writing students, using verbs is one of the principles they always seem to remember.

Rick Holton is owner of The Holton Group, which specializes in business writing and consulting.

Quotation for the Week of August 23

"My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me."
-- Benjamin Disraeli

Google Books Dispute Pretty Far From Settled

As anyone who's been following the Google Books lawsuit knows, there's been a settlement in the case. However, things are pretty far from really being settled here.

Today, the NY Times had an article about an author and lawyer who's objecting to the settlement. Scott E. Gant, an author and partner at Boies Schiller & Flexner, says he plans to make a "sweeping opposition" to it.

According to Gant, "This is a predominantly commercial transaction and one that should be undertaken through the normal commercial process, which is negotiation and informed consent." He also says Google is "trying to ram this through so that millions of copyright holders will have no idea that this is happening."

He may be onto something there, since so many authors are confused about this.

While the settlement resolves disputes with the Author's Guild and the Association of American Publishers, it has drawn fire from the National Writer's Union and the entertainment agency William Morris Endeavor.

Part of the problem here is that the settlement is so complex, no one really feels comfortable with it.

Author Stephen Elliott puts it like this, "The lawyers for the Authors Guild . . . understand it, Google understands it, but I don't know any writer who understands it. That's really enough for a 'no' right there."

Check out these articles from the San Francisco Chronicle, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Publisher's Weekly.

A lot going on here. Stay tuned.

ADDENDUM: Google nabs French archive, in continuing series of deals with libraries. The front page headline from La Tribune: "Google has won." The "collaboration" is also referred to in the article as a "surrender." You'd think the Nazis were marching into Paris again . . .

Quotation for the Week of August 16

"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. . . . I want to achieve it through not dying."
-- Woody Allen

Markets, Markets, Markets!

Thought I'd share some good news (for a change) about magazines. Apparently, the rumors of their death have been somewhat exaggerated.

Newsweek reports that, while this has hardly been a banner year for magazines, there are a few that continue to attract ad revenue. In fact, the article named a dozen that are doing particularly well. Take a look for yourself and see which of the fortunate dozen continue to thrive despite the ill-fortunes of the print magazine industry, in general.

And while we're on the subject of markets, let's talk about fiction and memoirs.

Did you know there was a periodical called Memoir (and)? If you write memoirs or essays, you may wish to check this out. It sounds very different. (I have to thank Leslie at Work-in-Progress for cluing me in on this one.)

Finally, for fiction writers there's an intriguing-sounding anthology that's looking for submissions for something called "hint fiction," which is defined as "a story of 25 words or less that suggests a larger, more complex story."

That's the only hint I'm giving you about that. If you want to know more, you'll simply have to read Joe Konrath's blog post about it.

And that's it for now. Keep writing and marketing!

Quotation for the Week of August 9

"Nothing is impossible. Some things are just less likely than others."
-- Jonathan Winters

Get 10% Off 'Identity Crisis' Until August 31

Remember how my mystery novel, IDENTITY CRISIS, was on sale for 10% off the retail price last month? Well, that sale is on again in August (as in, like, now).

All you have to do to get your own brand new copy (with the great new cover you see here) is click here, order your copy (or copies--as many as you like) and enter the code README at checkout. It’s simple–and you get all the same great mystery reading at less cost.

So act fast. Next thing you know, it'll be September, and I have no idea how long Lulu will be making these promos available.

Useful Tips for the Twitter Novice

As independent writers, you know building your business is all about marketing and networking. Both online and off. And Twitter has become an important component of many, if not most, writers' marketing and networking efforts.

One problem with Twitter--like everything else that involves a computer these days, it doesn't come with an instruction manual. Yes, there's a Twitter support page. But I'm talking about the unwritten rules of Twitter. What are the customs? How can one make the best use of it?

Which is why I like Chris Brogan's Brief and Informal Twitter Etiquette Guide. It answers all those questions you may have when you start out--and newbies tend to have many. (I know. I've been there. And I'm still hardly an expert.)

I'd also like to point out for those new to Twitter that there's a growing tradition called Follow Friday. During Follow Friday, various users post a series of tweets including the hashtag #FollowFriday or #FF. I stumbled across a #FollowFriday tweet and learned about it by accident.

The whole idea of Follow Friday is to recommend other people to follow. It's a good way to get followers by giving to others. Very win-win.

So I'm including this post by Derek Showerman about how he tweets on Follow Friday. Great tips here for those new to Twitter. Like the fact that Follow Friday exists and has a useful purpose?

Wish I had these tips when I started using Twitter.

Quotation for the Week of August 2

"Most conversations are simply monologues delivered in the presence of witnesses."
-- Margaret Millar