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Sally Murphy, Australian author

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366 Books – March Update

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This is my third month of my year long self-challenge to read a book a day – that is 366 books in 366 days, to celebrate the National year of Reading. I must confess that having started strongly in January, and keeping up to target in February, march saw a bit of a slide, and although I’m not yet up to the April report, things are looking a bit grim. When I set myself the challenge I didn’t take into account that I was busily looking for a day job. As it happens I ended up with not one, but two jobs, which I started at the beginning of March, at the same  time as the release of  my new book, Do Not Forget Australia. So in March I started two day jobs, launched and promoted a book (including a 14 day blog tour), attended  two literature festivals and, and did some school visits – all the while trying, but not succeeding, to keep up with my reading targets. But read I did, and finished the following books in March:

61  A Bear and a Tree Stephen Michael King Penguin Picture Book
62  Liar Bird Lisa Walker Harper Collins Adult
63   Hatched Asphyxia Allen & Unwin Children’s
64  Dead, Actually Kaz Delaney Allen & Unwin Young Adult
65  Stella Makes Good Lisa Heidke Allen & Unwin Adult
66  The Quicksand Pony Alison Lester Allen & Unwin Children’s
67  Every Minute in Australia  Yvette Poshoglian Scholastic Children’s Nonfiction
68  Comeback Peter Corris Allen & Unwin Adult
69  Strictly Confidential Roxy Jacenko Allen & Unwin Adult
70   Watermelon on my Plate Paddy Dewan Papyrus Publishing Children’s Poetry
71  Professor Fred Hollows Hazel Edwards New Frontier Children’s Nonfiction
72  The Red Poppy David Hill Scholastic Picture Book
73  Sarah Thornhill Kate Grenville Audio Adult
74   Currawalli Street Christopher Morgan Allen & Unwin Adult
75  Raven Lucas is Missing Christine Harris Scholastic Young Adult
76  Mort Martin Chatterton Random House Children’s
77  The Secret of the Swords Frances Watts Allen & Unwin Children’s
78   The Poison Plot Frances Watts Allen & Unwin Children’s
79  Shy the Platypus Leslie Rees National Library Children’s
80  Sea Hearts Margo Lanagan Allen & Unwin Young Adult
81   Jake’ss Concert Horror Ken Spillman Fremantle Press Children’s
82   Yippee! Summer Holidays Tjalaminu Mia Fremantle Press Children’s
83  Emu and the Water Tree Gladys Milroy Fremantle Press Children’s
84  All Monkeys Love Bananas Sean E Avery Fremantle Press Picture Book
85  The Festival By The Sea June Loves Allen & Unwin Adult
86  Unnamed Children’s

If you are quick with your sums you’ll see at the end of March I was five books behind target (that is,  my total thus far should have been 91). Not an irredeemable figure, I’m hoping. As things settle into a better pattern with work, writing, family and the rest, I’m hoping I’ll get back into the swing of things and  make up for time (though I must confess April hasn’t started spectacularly either). You might  also note that there quite a few books on the list this month that I  haven’t reviewed. Some are books I’ve sent the way of my fellow reviewer, and some are on my desk awaiting review. And there are a few that I won’t review because they weren’t review copies. Also, just to clarify, the last one on the list ‘unnamed’ did have a title, but I’ve chosen not to reveal it, simply because it relates to some research I’m doing on a confidential project.

In spite of my busy busy month I am still enjoying the challenge and not regretting setting it for myself. I think without the challenge I would have read even fewer books in March.
I’ll be back with another update in a month or so. Wish me luck!

Making Time

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After my post last week about how busy I’ve been these past few months, I have been really trying to clear my desk and my head to get back into some writing projects which have been pretty much on hold.  And, like so many time-strapped people, I’ve been searching for the magical formula to find more time. If only I could conjure up an extra hour, half hour, even ten minutes in my day, of COURSE I could write more.
And I can keep telling myself that more time will be more output – but who would I be kidding? Probably nobody, and certainly not myself. Sure I’ve been busy and I’ve needed a break from writing in order to sort out a house move, change of job and all the rest of it. But in the end, if I want to get those projects working again, I don’t need to wait for time to magically appear. All I need  is to make that time happen.

Need an extra hour in my day? Turn off the television after dinner. An extra half hour? Stop reading the daily newspaper (which depresses me anyway). An extra ten minutes? Stop checking if it’s my turn in online Scrabble games.  
So yeah, I have time. Not the perfect blocks of time I would like, and which I would have if I was able to give up my day job.  Or if I could give up sleep and write through the night when my family are all at rest. Or if I lived in a perfect world where authors were given little writing bubbles to work in eight hours a day, sealed off from the distractions of the real world. Or…okay, you get the picture. So, I’m working hard to capture those little morsels of time and put them to good use.

What about you? Where can you capture an extra five, ten, fifteen minutes for your writing dream?

Reasons Not to Write: Number 1

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I don’t have time to write.

This is probably the most common reason I hear from people why they don’t write, in spite of their professed desire to be a writer and/or to get published.


“I am going to write a book one day,” they’ll say. “But I just don’t have the time right now.”


Tosh! If you are reading this blog post, you have the time to write. In the couple of minutes it has taken you to click on a link, open this post and read it, you could have written a paragraph. In the ten minutes you took on Facebook/Twitter/whatever other social networking site last hour, you could have written two paragraphs. In the hour you sat in front of the tv last night, two pages. And so on.


Now before you throw rotten tomatoes at me, I am not for one moment suggesting any one of those things is a waste of time (I surf blogs, facebook, twitter and watch TV every day). What I am saying is that if you really want to write, you will find some time to devote to it.


It might not be the uninterrupted days of writing you dream of – but even five minutes snatched here and there can add up.


I don’t know a single writer who has as much time to write as they would like. Many published authors (including myself) still need to work day jobs to survive financially, or have family responsibilities. Even those who do not have other commitments generally have writing related commitments which take them away from their writing – speaking engagements, promotions and so on. But they make time to write.

So, what are you waiting for? You want to be a writer? Write.

Guest Article: Virtually Famous – Websites For Authors and Writers, by Simon Rose

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If your New Years resolution is to set up a website to promot eyour writing, then today’s guest article will interest you.
Virtually Famous – Websites For Authors and Writers
by Simon Rose
It’s been said that everyone can have fifteen minutes of fame. With the advent of the Internet, the amount of time we can all spend in the public eye changed somewhat. Today anyone can have a website, providing them with visibility all over the world.

Maybe you’re just starting out as a writer. Perhaps you’re self-published, or an established author with three or four books to your name. You could be with a small publisher or a big one. Today, websites play crucial role in the way the world does business. Companies lacking an online presence might as well be invisible. Authors are no different. You may have written the world’s greatest book, but if no one knows about it, then it might as well not exist. You need to get yourself on line if you want to get noticed.

Your readers are generally interested in you and your work, so you can include all kinds of things on a website. However, search engines look for keywords, so the most appropriate ones need to be carefully incorporated into the text on the top twenty five per cent of your home page. If author, books, writer, story, literature, Canada, United States of America, England or indeed anything related to what you do are part of the copy, your site will be ranked higher in directory queries.

Biographical details are a must, but don’t be tempted to go overboard. Your website may be your home in cyberspace, but it’s a marketing tool too. Pictures of you with your family or pets present a good image, but don’t overdo it. Photographs from your professional life are more beneficial. If you have a picture of yourself shaking hands with an important public figure at a black tie function, put it on the site. If you have photographs taken at your presentations and workshops in schools or libraries, use those as well. Try to display the cover art of all your books and show people where they are available and the price. This applies not just to Canada or the US or wherever you are based in the world, but other countries too, if your books are distributed elsewhere. My own site connects directly to each novel’s pages at the Indigo website and to Amazon worldwide. I also post links to the professional organizations I belong to, plus the major online bookstores, my publisher, Canada Council for the Arts and so on. There are pages devoted to the historical background behind three of my books, each page containing links to websites with a wealth of information for my readers.

It is of course important to check any links on an ongoing basis to ensure they are in working order and still lead to the appropriate destination. Your links don’t all have to be business related. I also connect to my favourite soccer team’s website, pages related to the area of the UK where I grew up and so on. Your readers always want to know more about you, so give them something interesting to read. This also applies to any additional pages you may want to include. Tell the world what you are doing and what’s going on in your professional life, such as a schedule of signings, your latest book launch, upcoming festivals or other events. If you update it regularly, people will keep coming back when you release details of new books, appearances, awards and so on.

Companies often use testimonials related to their products to draw in prospective customers. You can do the same, by reproducing the reviews you have received for your work. If you’ve received favorable comments from teachers and librarians, be sure to add those too. You may also have interviews you have done with the media or a decent video of a presentation. Some authors include excerpts from their books, others selections from upcoming, unpublished work. Children’s authors sometimes have study guides for teachers to use when working with their books in the classroom. Even if you aren’t self-published, you may wish to sell your books online. E commerce is still growing at an explosive rate and many author’s websites have a separate page containing order forms in order for you to purchase books directly. Also many companies offering website hosting also offer free easy tools to create your own e commerce site. And don’t forget any writing related services you may offer. I have separate web pages for manuscript evaluation and other services for writers, as well as for business writing.

A good way to attract repeat visitors is to add interactive elements to your web site. You can include children’s games, whether they’re arcade type activities or simple puzzles. My own website has a page with puzzles related to the plots and characters of all my novels. If you’ve published a cookery book, you could publish a recipe of the month. If your site has something cool to do, rather than simply reading your text, no matter how interesting it is, people will visit more often. They will also invariably stay longer, increasing the chances that they will buy your books.

You’ll know which areas of your site are getting the most visitors if you have access to good statistics, which are usually provided as part of your web hosting package. These are much more useful that the traditional visitor counter, which indicates how many people have been to your site since a particular date. This can sometimes be detrimental, especially if you are declaring to the person that they are only the forty seventh visitor since January 2001. Good statistics are invaluable, because they tell you not only how much traffic your site is getting, but also precisely where the visitors are coming from. This can help you to target your marketing to specific areas of the country or around the world. It can also help you to determine which of your professional memberships is the most worthwhile when it comes time to renew. If a particular group is the source of traffic, it’s a good one to retain. If another has few referrals, it may be advisable to spend your money elsewhere.

Your home on the Internet can be as simple or as complicated as you desire. Websites aren’t for everyone, but today if you want to get noticed, it’s advisable to have one.

I offer writing services which examine what works best when creating websites for authors and writers and create editorial content designed to get you noticed. Together we explore what’s right for you and the most effective means to promote you as a writer around the world. Full details of my website editorial services are available at http://www.simon-rose.com/websites.htm

Full details of my website editorial services are available at http://www.simon-rose.com/websites.htm

Simon Rose is the author of science fiction and fantasy novels for children, including The Alchemist’s Portrait, The Sorcerer’s Letterbox, The Clone Conspiracy, The Emerald Curse and The Heretic’s Tomb. He offers a wide variety of workshops, presentations and Author in Residence programs for schools and libraries around the world, covering such topics as where ideas come from, story structure, editing and revision, character development, time travel stories, history and research and more. He is also available for presentations, workshops and public speaking engagements with a wide range of adult audiences, offers creative services designed for writers, including editing, critiquing and manuscript evaluation and also freelance writing services, including website content and copywriting, for the business community. Details of school and library programs, plus online readings, excerpts from his books, reviews, and reader, student and teacher comments may be found at http://www.simon-rose.com/ You may also visit his blog.

Guest Article: Whack a Few Writing Myths, by Joyce Schafer

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A guest article – this one’s a short excerpt.
Enjoy.
Sally

There’s all kinds of advice on how to write including

· You must write every day.

· Write in the same designated spot at the same time every day.

· Write for at least one hour every day.

· Get up early several mornings or every morning to write.

· You must have complete silence.

· You must eat only blue M&Ms or no blue M&Ms, I forget which.

These bits of advice are not etched in stone I’m relieved to tell you. I choose to be intentional and passionate about writing, not monastic. I’ve written at all times of the day and night, and not every day (well, I do count emails which are excellent practice); on my sofa, at my desk, standing up on the subway; for five minutes and for ten hours at a stretch; with jackhammers and leaf-blowers making a racket outside my window (and a neighbor learning to play drums); and I don’t like losing sleep.

One problem with trying to follow a “One Way” rule is that, more than likely, it’s not the most appropriate way for you. If you don’t follow the rule(s), you get into self-judgment. Then you’re so busy thinking and feeling bad about yourself, you’re not taking the action that will create your desired outcome. If you’re committed to writing, nothing and no one will stop you.

If you don’t know how to get started, start anywhere. Seriously. For fiction, if you have the ending, start there. The beginning and middle will come to you. If you’re writing non-fiction, make a list of what you plan to cover. You can write about any item on your list when you feel inspired to do it, or any section or chapter you want to focus on.

Coaching questions:

1. If you haven’t started, what’s stopping you?
2. What might you do to take the first step?
3. What’s the next step after the first? And the next?
4. Would it be nice if you were a published writer or do you intend to become one no matter what?

Exercise: Write a page about anything, even if all you write is, “This is stupid. I don’t know what to write. If I knew what to writeFree Reprint Articles, I’d be writing.” This will ignite your ability to just get going.

Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Article partially excerpted from, “Write, Get Published, and Promote: An Easy e-Guide for New and Aspiring Writers” by Joyce Shafer (author/freelance services for writers). Get a discount at http://www.freewebs.com/writegetpublishedandpromote.

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