Monthly Archives: April 2010

Last week we covered the ‘Why’ of writing book jacket copy, so now let’s get down to business and get into the ‘How’.What is copy? Book jacket copy isn’t about summarizing your project or providing the reader with a clear synopsis or plot spoiler; it’s about sales. Book copy should be short, succinct, and send a message. It should grab the reader and tell them why they should pick your book rather than the thousands of other titles packed into the shelves.How do I write it? First, and foremost, you should draft a synopsis of your project. This will help you to determine which plot points you want to highlight and which you don’t want to spoil for the reader. Once you’ve got your synopsis down, there are three components to creating effective book jacket copy:Attention: Start off your copy with a powerful hook that demands attention. Is there a central question or revelation in your plot? You might start off with the first sentence or two from your plot summary.Interest: Intrigue interest and create curiosity. Again, book jacket copy is about sales, and copywriters generally have knowledge of certain key words that engage readers and get them excited about a book. These terms relate to each genre and audience; the same words that entice a thirteen-year-old girl to purchase a young-adult book will be far different from the key words in place on the back of a literary novel aimed at an adult audience. Your best bet? Research your market.Detail: Provide details about your story, but again, don’t turn your book copy into a spoiler! The best way to know how much detail to include is to read other book jackets. Start with those in a genre similar to your book; copy on a romance novel, for instance, is going to be vastly different from a science fiction or horror story. This will also help you to get a feel for your audience and what they want to read.You might even want to peruse the New York Times Bestseller List – choose a couple of books from the list and read over their jacket copy. The jacket copy may not be the only thing selling those books, but it can’t hurt to check out the success stories.A final caveat: The amount of copy that appears on your book jacket is completely based on the final book design.Book jacket copy is meant to be slightly over-the-top and sales pitch-y, so be creative and have fun with it, and take the opportunity to really make your book shine and out-sell all the rest.Keep in mind that while you may try to design and format your book jacket cover on your own, there are professional editors who will do it for you. An experienced editor will create a professionally written book jacket cover that will capture your audience’s attention. This is short, succinct copy that sends a strong message about your writing. Heather Todd is full-time professional editor, published writer & marketing consultant whose passion is to help others create a letter-perfect presentation in their writing. Ms. Todd provides advisory & consulting services worldwide to numerous corporations, a small sampling of such businesses include: http://www.FirstEditing.com Syndication Source: ThoughtSearch.com Continue reading →

Well of course your whole book is important. But what makes the beginning more important than the rest of it? That’s where you catch the reader’s attention. The first few pages of the book must hook your reader, hold their interest and keep them reading. If it doesn’t, it will end up back on the shelf.You can accomplish a great beginning with four easy tips:1. Establish who, what, when, where and why.2. Ascertain what kind of story you are writing.3. Let the reader care about the character(s).4. Set the tone of your book from the beginning.Let’s take a closer look:1. ESTABLISH WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE AND WHY.Fiction writing is no different from any other writing. You must answer all of the “w” questions right up front as much on the first page as possible without being obvious. Let’s look at each one:WHO: Give the character’s name right up front to establish from whose point-of-view (POV) the story is being told. In first-person that is “I”. In third-person you want the name to reflect the time period, the personality of the character, and the tone of your book. Determine the best name to get your reader to understand your character.In my current work in progress, my heroine’s name is Lizzie Cantrell. I point out in the story that Lizzie is not short for Elizabeth but that her mother named her after Lizzie in the play, Rainmaker. She is an artist looking for adventure. The hero, however, is Phillip E. Van Dyke. He insists that his employees call him Mr. Van Dyke, and if they call him Phil, he is extremely upset. Seriously injured, he is determined to keep people from getting too close. By having everyone use his formal name, he believes he can keep his emotions locked away.Choosing the right name can greatly impact how your readers relate to your characters.WHAT: To establish a relationship between your reader and your character, you need to suggest what the character is trying to gain or lose based on their goals. In the story above, Phillip keeps pulling up his turtle-neck. I suggest there is something wrong, but I don’t give it all away yet. You need to suggest what is going to happen and make the reader curious to find out.WHERE AND WHEN: Let the reader know up front in as little detail as possible where your book is taking place and what time period. You don’t have to state the precise date, however that works in some cases. In contemporary novels, any detail about modern conveniences is usually sufficient. If you are writing a historial, use a known event, war, or invention that will signify the time period.WHY: Again we don’t want to give the story away, but this is where you reveal what drives your character and why. You just need to give a clue as to why they are pursuing what they are to let the reader know more is to come.This may sound complicated but it’s not. Here is an example from “A Novel Approach” by Kathy Jacobson that shows all of this important information in just a few short sentences:Liz had nothing against sleeping with men, but she never again wanted to be married to one. After three years of freedom, even Jeff’s wealth didn’t look like a good trade-off. She smiled at him across the breakfast table and handed back the diamond ring she’d almost cracked a tooth on.”It was clever of you to hide this in my muffin, but I really can’t accept it.”Here’s the summation: Who – Liz. What – she’s declining a marriage proposal. Where – her breakfast table. When – three years after her divorce. Why – she prefers her freedom over wealth. Everything in one neat little paragraph. Wow!2. ASCERTAIN WHAT KIND OF STORY YOU ARE WRITING.The next important part of a beginning is starting with an important action when the character’s life changes. A good resource for understanding this is Orson Scott Card’s MICE quotient taken from his book, “Characters and Viewpoints”. This will affect your beginning in different ways. For MILIEU it would be when the character enters the new environment. If you are writing an IDEA story, you want to start with something that affects the question being asked. When writing a CHARACTER story, you would concentrate on the character’s emotions concerning the change in environment. With an EVENT story, you begin with the event that pushes the character into a new adventure.Don’t start your book with the character’s back story. Begin with the circumstances that changes the character’s life. Back story is very important and can be added throughout the book in interesting ways, but starting out with the character’s life story is boring to the reader and you will lose them.You do, however, want to have your character performing some natural task to make your reader identify with them. Then take them on the journey. If you throw them into the middle of the action too quickly, the reader is confused about what is happening, who the character is, or why they should even care.3. LET THE READER CARE ABOUT THE CHARACTER(S).Make sure you give the reader a reason to relate or like your character. You can accomplish this by making sure your character has goals and their reasons for their choices are clearly stated, especially that first scene. Make sure your scenes are well thought out according to POV. Remember that if you switch POV you lose the tension in the scene. It is important to stay with the opening character long enough for the reader to bond with them.4. SET THE TONE OF YOUR BOOK FROM THE VERY BEGINNING.Choosing your genre will help determine the tone of your book. Is it suspenseful, humorous, or gory? Your writing needs to reflect that. Even your synopsis should reflect the tone of your book. The editor needs to know you can project the same tone that the book will be written in.Well, that’s it. It sounds simple enough and really it is. It takes some thought and practice, but it can be done. Given these four tips, you will write a book that will hook your readers and keep them turning pages. Good luck. Cindy A. Christiansen is a multi-published author and a member of Romance Writers of America. To find out more, visit her website at:
http://c.a.dragonfly.googlepages.com
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Author: Joaquin Reveron Title: Do You Really Need A Job or Feel Maximum Incommodity? Article: Noting that many of our culture and society dislikes incommodity, incommodity according to most dictionaries is defined as inconvenient. Generally incommodity is logically and truly defined as something that causes that causes difficulty, trouble, or lack of ease. Society is indeed correct when it comes to its definition, however, you should shape and build your own definition when it comes to such magical word.

My years of research and learning for many of our situations involve similar patterns; incommodity may bring the maximum best of you in a state of intolerance. A state of intolerance meaning as something that you highly dislike, however, noting lovable results when such intolerance have been successfully dealt with and ended by you! With that in mind we should sub-consciously ask ourselves; are life best visions acquired with ease?

While a job might bring positive social distraction it might not be the best option for you if being in a job is just a state of survival, of just putting food on the table or perhaps in your case, for accomplishing tasks that might bring greater joy and satisfaction to others as a good son or daughter. Safety and being secure is something loved by everyone healthy and responsible; however, it needs to be said from personal discoveries that it might not be the wisest move for your specific situation.

Most of us want to satisfy and bring joy to our immediate family, relatives, friends and perhaps, other people we still do not yet know- however, if according to Dr. Ephrem and his great modern research of life span if retire from a job at an age of around 50, we can expect to live to age 86, another whooping 36 years than you would be very happy if a purpose is set. Judging such studies and research conducted from such popular doctor, we might even believe that we may live up to 150 years of age if we retire in our mid 20s.

With minimum amount of humor but with strict notation from many experiences, if the expectancy of life is notably less than 86 years of age for few of us and less for others who do not follow such inverse relationship, than you could say with true bases of incommodity: I need to retire right now or retire very shortly in the next months.

Life is truly a magnificent gift. However, if you are one of those who think that life should be lived on agony and with unpleasant views for next days work, you should highly consider retiring anytime soon noting that you may be fine for the better in the long term. Most importantly, noting that the purpose of you still being in a job might already have possibilities of being successfully achieved because of your dexterity and already established relationships in such field, you should resign if the short term and long term results will be much healthier for you and your loved ones.

Something I would definitely like to remind you, if you have a job, make sure you really enjoy it. Make sure that such tasks that you do on a daily basis are consciously and sub-consciously fun. Most importantly, make sure that whatever is that you end up doing correlates with your actual working strengths. You will have more chances of living a life of eternal joy and happiness! Wholesale Video Games online are one of the business components Joaquin serves as reference source, e-commerce coach and certified author. His focus today is assisting people receive extra income through the acquirement of a Wholesale List Syndication Source: ThoughtSearch.com Continue reading →

Author: Josh Stone Title: Helping Children Get Back to School with Success Article: For almost all children, the end of summer can be a very exciting as well as stressful time. Trying to get everything organized to go back to school without issues can be enough to send even the calmest child running in fear. In order to ensure that your are not driving themselves absolutely crazy, you need to take some time to ensure that they know how to deal with the stress, and some ways that they can best get organized and ready for school.

Your first step should be taking some time to really review what your child has and what they need that you do not presently have. While most children do not need to repurchase everything for school each year, it is still a good idea to look at the supply levels and supply list far enough in advance that you will be able to pick up anything that your child is missing.

Avoid waiting until the last minute to order any uniforms of supplies that your child will need. This is especially important if you are needing to wait for items to be shipped. Because items must be shipped and can be delayed, you need to ensure that you are not waiting until the last minute. Always try to give at least one week of leeway to ensure that you are not scrambling for solutions in the event of a delay of some sort.

You should also work to help your child to figure out what to expect for the new year. Many children find themselves in new schools, with new teachers, schedules and surroundings. This can be very stressful. In order to help your child as much as possible, try to avoid forcing your child to walk into school unprepared. Spend a bit of time talking with them about the upcoming changes. This can be helpful since it will allow them to slowly warm to the idea of all of the changes that are going to happen.

Another great suggestion is to visit the new school if possible with your child. This will allow them to get a feel for the layout before they are there on their own the first day of class. While this is not always possible, it can make a huge difference for children when they are trying to figure out the best way to handle all of the new changes that are happening.

As a parent, you need to be certain that you have all of the uniforms that your child will need as well. Without plenty of uniforms, you could find yourself doing more laundry than you are interested in doing. In order to help reduce the stress for yourself with huge piles of laundry on a daily basis, pick up a few additional uniform pieces. You will certainly appreciate the break in the laundry and be happy that you are not having to rush each night to do a load for the next day. In addition, this has the benefit of helping the uniforms to stay looking good for longer as well. Best Buy Uniforms offers the lowest prices and highest quality school uniforms at itsSchool Uniform Store. Best Buy Uniforms also offers Dickies School Uniforms, and School Uniform Shirts at wholesale prices. Syndication Source: ThoughtSearch.com Continue reading →

Author: Vince Welsh Title: How Should Educators Be Trained To Teach Special Needs Children? Article: Educating special needs students can be a challenging yet rewarding experience. Educators who work with children with learning disabilities need to be specially trained to know how to handle particular situations and personalities. People who work with or are responsible for teaching special needs children need to first understand the different learning disabilities, attention deficits, developmental delays, behavior problems, and other distinctive disorders that each child may suffer from. The degree of disability of each student varies but could include severe difficulties such as dyslexia, autism, and multiple disabilities.It’s helpful for educators to develop a clinical eye towards all students and learn how to apply special teaching techniques to reach each student. Each student has different symptoms and needs and therefore teaching special needs should be customized and developed to meet each student’s needs. The first step to ensuring this approach is to develop an educational plan that is designed and modified to fit the individual based on their weaknesses.Educating special needs students requires patience, an understanding of the medical conditions that have an effect on learning disabled children, as well as an understanding of the federal laws of education. This is all vital to being a positive influence and great help in teaching special needs children. You need a solid foundation of knowledge relating to students with learning disabilities first in order to effectively help teach them. Beyond this, an understanding of the federal laws that apply to education such as IDEA, No Child Left Behind (NCLB), and Section 504 of the Rehabilitations Act of 1973, along with other classroom and curriculum accommodations to manage learning.When working with special needs children, it’s helpful if teachers know how to diagnose different learning disabilities. Teachers should learn about all of the different types of learning disabilities and know how to recognize symptoms. Beyond learning disabilities, behavior problems can be very disruptive in the classroom. Behavior problems need to be approached in the same way as learning disabilities. It’s important for educators to completely understand all of the different types of behavior problems. There are ways to help improve behavior problems once you understand the difference in each type.One of the more serious learning disabilities is autism. This disorder is different from many of the other developmental disorders that some students may have. Once educators understand the disorders it’s necessary to know how the disorders are appropriately medicated. However, medication should not be the only method used to solve any problems with special needs children. In order to properly help and handle special needs students, an educator needs the help of parents, school administrators, special care providers and support staff, other teachers, and aides and paraprofessionals. Partnerships and collaborations are really key to effectively supporting and improving the lives of special needs students. To go beyond just educating special needs children, you need to create an environment where the student will feel comfortable and cared for. A lot of work and care goes into teaching special needs but the results of truly being able to help improve and educate special needs children can be extremely rewarding. Teacher Education Institute (TEI) offers rigorous, graduate-level professional development courses for K-12 classroom teachers. For more about TEI, educating special needs students, or teaching special needs, visit http://www.teachereducation.com Syndication Source: ThoughtSearch.com Continue reading →

Author: James Copper Title: So You Are Thinking Of Changing Your Career Article: When it comes to leading a full, productive life that is everything you want it to be, one of the most important elements to consider is what you do for a living. As many of us know, there is a world of difference between a job and a career. A job is simply something you do to bring in a paycheck, but a career is something that also has an element of purpose and passion to it. It’s something with a real future and plenty of room for opportunity and growth.

Of course, when it comes to living a richer, fuller life by changing career, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible. However, as is the case with anything important, decisions in regards to changing career should always be made carefully and thoughtfully.

Assess Yourself
Take inventory when it comes to your marketable skills, your interests, and your values. Assess your needs as far as schedule is concerned, as well as financial need. What are you good at, and what do you enjoy? When it comes to changing career, what type of environment would you like to work in? Do you prefer something with lots of variety or a position that offers the security of routine and a regular schedule? The answers to all of these questions play an important role when it comes to job satisfaction and will help you pinpoint some career fields that might suit you.

Do Your Homework
Next, you should begin researching the fields you are most interested in and figuring out which ones will be feasible on a practical level. What degrees and qualifications are necessary in order to be able to work in the field you want? Which ones offer the most positions with job security and room for upward movement? Which ones have the most openings available for those that might be new to the field? How do others you know that work in your field of interest feel about what they do? Carefully considering all these elements will help you narrow down your choices make sure you’re changing career in way that will be practical as well as rewarding.

Narrow Things Down
Once you thoroughly research your field of interest, you should next start looking at individual occupations within that field. Evaluate your options, determine which choices will fit your lifestyle, values, and preferences the best, and come up with both long and short-term plans as far as what steps you will need to take to get where you need to be.

In many cases, this will involve checking out your options as far as further education. In this day and age, there are many exciting educational options designed to help those thinking about changing career acquire the skills needed to land the jobs they want. There are a wide variety of affordable courses within those paths designed to prepare you for many of today’s most rewarding and secure careers – everything from IT, to plumbing, to medical assisting. Look into what programs are available in your area for the occupation you want and assess which ones will be doable for you.

Don’t Forget to Think of “Plan B”
When it comes to changing career, it’s always good to have a back-up plan as well. Decide which occupation you’d like to go after if for some reason your first choice doesn’t work out for whatever reason. There are so many exciting careers out there that may be able to offer you the type of change and fulfillment you’re craving. James Copper is a writer for http://www.new-careers.co.uk where you can find information on Changing Career Syndication Source: ThoughtSearch.com Continue reading →