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After enduring 21 Covid months cringing through virtual events, the experience boils down into a secret sauce for going pro when going on camera. Shifting a virtual event from the level of suck to success is a skill every author needs since virtual connections increase opportunities for professional exposure and more book sales. Seven easy (and cheap) tips can shift you from novice to pro. Camera Positioning: Eye-to-Eye Position the camera just like real-life communications at eye level. Looking people directly in the eye is the most personal connection in life. The camera is the viewer’s eyeballs. A laptop camera on the desk shows your nostrils; a camera set on top of a monitor is a recipe for neck strain. Set the laptop on books or platform with the camera perpendicular to the keyboard and even with the eye. Put the camera in front of the monitor at eye level. Look in the Camera Lens It’s tempting to look at the screen when participating in a virtual event. When answering a question in real life, look at the questioner. In a virtual event, the question comes from the speaker on the other side of the lens, not the monitor. It’s More

Earlier this year I lost another family member. At the funeral, I caught myself giving more attention to the impact this person had on other people, and how it’s not about how they died but how they lived. Yeah, maybe trite and cliché, but the shift from mourning to celebration mattered to me. To pine too much over the loss is to deny them recognition for what they donated in life. As writers, we hope to have donated something to be remembered. That revelation took me home to tweak my own plans for when I’m gone. While losing someone is a burden on whomever is left behind to take care of affairs, methods can be used to lighten the load. I already had a will, and my intellectual property is specifically mentioned in it and handled separately from other assets, but I refined my plans. Hopefully, these ideas can help you. 1) Make sure someone you trust is in charge, and while you are still around, hold conversations with them so there is no doubt what you’d like to happen. Their questions might tell you what you forgot to cover. 2) Plan for your intellectual property specifically, on its own. More

When I started my writing career, I maintained my corporate job, which offered me the stability I needed after surviving leukemia and the respite of part-time work during my long convalescence. I took a very business-like approach to jumpstart my writing life. Find feedback fast Corporations invest in intensive employee feedback to help people grow fast and produce better results. Employees can be more efficient only when they know how to leverage their strengths and mitigate their weaknesses. As a lifelong self-doubter, that kind of feedback helped me grow into managerial roles in the corporate world in less than two years. Naturally, I wanted feedback on my writing to grow just as quickly. I found NYC Midnight, a series of writing challenges with prompts, tight turnaround times, and feedback from judges in the film, publishing, and literary industries. With this method, I produced at least two pieces of writing for each contest, which cost me far less than what a professional critique would have for one short story. It also forced me to commit and create a portfolio of good work in short spurts. I didn’t win any of the competitions, but I came away with constructive feedback that might have More

The more someone else can write your piece, the less valuable it is. I receive many submissions for FundsforWriters, and the majority of them can be written by almost anyone. How to write for parenting magazines, how to schedule your writing day, what makes for a successful writer. The advice could be copied and pasted from multiple places on the web because they are so generic. That’s why we ask that the piece be full of anecdotes (first-hand experience) and ingenuity (unique snippets of advice not seen elsewhere). You’d be amazed at how many people think that nailing the word count qualifies the piece. You’d also be amazed at how many people ignore the word count, period. But what will reject a piece just as quickly as lack of attention to word count, is being common and submitting a piece, the likes of which can be found on every writing mill and blog on the Internet. Whether talking about an article to FundsforWriters or a novel to a traditional press, the bottom line is if someone else could write something similar to yours, it’s worth less. The world wants originality and freshness. Whether a publisher, agent, magazine editor, or editor of More

Memoirs and legacy books have never been more popular. It is natural to want to memorialize oneself, to create a written portrait of one’s life to pass down to children and grandchildren, or to publish one’s story as a lesson from which others can learn. However, not everyone who wishes to tell their personal story has the ability to write, and many who do need help shaping their stories or sharpening their words. Writing and editing memoirs and legacy projects can add to a professional freelancer’s income stream. Ghost Writing Memoirs For writers with a strong resume, ghost-writing the memoir of a celebrity can be quite lucrative. A celebrity’s name can sell books, but that doesn’t mean they can write them. Some ghostwriters work independently, others work for companies like Kevin Anderson & Associates. But most clients will be like mine. Deborah Nelson wished to write about losing her daughter in a tragic incident and how her own life spiraled into a “black hole” afterward. She had several false starts, a journal she’d kept, newspaper articles, some notes; but she didn’t know how to pull it all together. She sent me her materials and, after several phone conversations and numerous More

It’s a familiar feeling for the writer. Once he or she has finished a manuscript, essay or book of poems there is a sigh of relief and a feeling of satisfaction for a job well done. The writer puts the work aside for a bit, then takes it out again and starts the editing process. Changes, additions, revisions—constant polishing until it is “perfect.” The writer is now ready to release their work into the world. Their baby, their treasured piece, goes into the hands of a select few beta readers. A warm feeling ensues until the comments start to come in. “I liked it but I’d change this part.” “Did you know you repeated yourself?” “That sounds dated. I’d change it to this.” “Overall, it’s a good story but I think it could be better.” I’ve had these reactions to my work. And after many decades of writing I’ve concluded that my primary emotion should be one of gratefulness. Gratitude that someone took the time to read my work and had the courage to make suggestions for improvement. They saw the flaws, the holes and the areas to be fixed and were willing to speak up and to tell me More

As a published author, I always look forward to reading FundsforWriters. Not only does it deliver C. Hope Clark’s fun updates about all things books (and life!), it provides incredibly useful news about literary grants, job opportunities, industry insights, and writing retreats. Last year, the newsletter mentioned the Pat Conroy Literary Center’s Writer’s Residency in Beaufort, South Carolina. I never imagined I’d have a shot at earning such a once-in-a-lifetime honor, but I dared to enter at the very last minute. And guess what? All the stars aligned, and I received news that I had been selected to spend a week in the heart of Conroy’s beloved Lowcountry. Thanks to their generous sponsorship, I would spend the time writing, researching, and learning more about the gifted writer and the landscape that had inspired me in countless ways. The residency is offered twice a year, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. For one thing, it’s located in the charming MarshSong guest cottage on St. Helena Island, approximately 15 minutes from downtown Beaufort and 15 minutes from the beach at Hunting Island State Park. The host, writer Mary Ellen Thompson, is a lovely and LIVELY soul who has become a dear More

I like to think of Christmas Eve and New Years Eve as the forecast, the brink of something forthcoming instead of the end of the year. We stand on the cusp of better and brighter living. Of more hope. Of more adventure. There are those of us who have suffered loss, and I wish you blessings and comfort, but they too are on the brink of something new. I have a friend who lost her husband this year in a tragic accident. He was not a senior in age so the loss was a shock. He was fit. He had family and friends who loved him. She struggled with his demise, and my heart pined for her to find some sort of peace. It takes strength, after weeks of soul searching, to move forward after such a loss, and it takes way longer to find a sense of peace. But the strong find a way, and usually they wind up even stronger. Not to discount the loss of a loved one, but this new path can be rewarding. It’s not a path of choice, but rather a path of necessity, and it is what we carve out of it that defines More

I have been a newspaper and magazine feature writer for decades. I’ve worked from big cities and smaller markets, both in the U.S. and in Europe. I have (on occasion) spoken on national TV about the stories I’ve written and had my pieces picked up by wire services and reprinted across the country. I’m here to share a secret with you: Sometimes the smallish, regional publication in your backyard is the best gig there is. Here’s why: They are accessible. Depending on where you live and what your experience level is, writing for your area’s independently published magazine — some examples: the Washingtonian (Washington, DC), Central California Life magazine (Fresno, CA), PineStraw Magazine (Southern Pines, NC), dsm (Des Moines, Iowa)  — will not be the same heavy lift as getting a byline in, say, The New York Times or The Atlantic Magazine. Start by subscribing to your local magazine and spend some time on its website. You’ll get to know the types of stories your publication writes and who the editors are. The website likely has submission guidelines that will walk you through how to pitch a story idea to an editor. At a smaller publication, the competition will be less fierce and an editor will likely respond to your emails. More

That question comes to me at every event I appear at. Especially once a book comes out, like of late with the release of Murdered in Craven and Burned in Craven. The non-writer thinks that I finished the latest book just a week or two ago, and then someone put it on Amazon for me, sending me copies to sell on the side. I never make fun of their logic, but I do like to clarify. When a book is released, I’m usually finishing up writing another. That surprises so many. In this case, I already sent the next Edisto book to the publisher, and have cracked the wrapper on the next one, having written a couple thousand words of the story. Usually it’s only then that they realize that I do this for a living. This isn’t about writing when some fictitious muse hits. It’s about writing everyday. I know I preach that ad nauseum, but whenever I’m interviewed and asked, “What advice do you have for new writers?” . . . I always say the same thing. Write every day. Show up to work. Of course I’m working on a book. I’m always working on a book. I have three books in More