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Monday, March 08, 2010 Monday Writers Craft Online: The Editor: For or Friend? When you write a piece, do you ask someone to edit it for you or not? For me it depends on what I'm doing. These blog posts are written in a few minutes and posted as-is. It's a blog, so I'm not very particular about grammar, style, etc. (Yes, feel free to make rude comments!) However, when I write for a publication, my work is always subbed/edited. Some writers really object to having their work edited; I think it's an excellent thing. OK, if you're unlucky enough to get a bozo going over your work, then they can ruin you. I remember years ago someone at the NST "improving" my work by adding in split infinitives, subject-verb errors, and other grammar horrors. When the piece was published it sounded like something you'd hear at the wet market. I suggested to the editor back then that she take a look at the "improvements" before letting them through. As it turned out, she'd already seen the piece, checked whose errors they were, and removed that sub. For the most, however, I find that editors improve my work. When I write something, I tend to become blind to errors and glitches. Editors can cast a fresh eye on work and then pick up errors or smooth out style problems. Eric Forbes of MPH picked out over a dozen grammar errors in the Logomania manuscript; Howe Leng of Marshall Cavendish did the same with Katz Tales. Magazine eds like Margaret Sebastian and Tara Barker can swap around a few paras, add in some sub headings and turn an OK article into a winning feature. If you ask me, I'd say editors are a writer's second-best friend. Cats are of course the writer's best friend - but you knew that, right? If you want to keep in touch with updates, here are some simple ways: Subscribe to Katz Tales in a reader Follow Au on Twitter Follow Ellen on Facebook Share| Labels: Monday writers craft online posted by katztales @ 7:23 AM (15) comments links to this post | 15 comments Saturday, February 27, 2010 Monday Writers Craft Online: When Someone Nicks Your Stuff You write something good, and sell it to a newspaper. Next thing you know, someone has ripped off your work and posted it on their web site. What can you do? I have blogged about this before but I'd like to revisit this as a friend is having similar problems. She asked me what advice I would give, so here it is... 1. Some people just don't understand it's rude to nick stuff. Plus, there are companies that have aggregated feeds, like Google News, that scour places of interest automatically. The best provide links to your page; nasty ones nick the article. Either way, the first option is to write to them and tell them to remove your stuff. Look for the email address of the web master, CEO etc and send it off. If that doesn't work... 2. Look up a contact number and call them. If there is no Contact Page, use MYNIC to look up who owns a .com.my or Malaysian domain or WhoIs for .coms or top level domain names. A polite email or phone call usually works wonders. If it does not, try... 3. Make up a web page telling your story, and send that link to the web master etc. Bad publicity frightens most companies into doing the right thing. 4. Add a script that stops bots, spiders and other programmes from crawling your stuff automatically. Instructions are here. Note, however, that this usually means your pages won't show up in Google and other places automatically either. 4. Make a police report and call your lawyer. As it costs a bomb to take a case to court, assuming you can afford a lawyer and find a court that understands this sort of problem, following through is not an option for mere mortals who aren't millionaires. Especially if the thief lives in a different country from you, and/or hosts their web site abroad. However, this strategy can add spice to a followup email/call where you tell the thief to let your stuff alone and send them a copy of the report. Send it by fax if you can as faxes are read by lots of office staff who will all gossip - and maybe force the boss into behaving honourably. Note. About fighting fire with fire... When the vets in Perak nicked my work the second time, I got really mad. For a few moments I really thought about finding a hacker and asking them to destroy that web site. I got over it a few moments later. Two wrongs may make you feel better but they don't make a right. Far be it from me to preach ethics, but when it's considered OK to destroy sites for one reason, it will lead to a situation where everyone considers themselves Almighty Online Arbitrators. And there's enough of that sort of thing going on already. Hope this helps, and good luck! Labels: Monday writers craft online posted by katztales @ 6:54 PM (5) comments links to this post | 5 comments Monday, February 22, 2010 Monday Writers Craft Online: Beat Stagefright "How do we inspire our self and look confident all the time when we are in public? I can speak english but when i face people who speaks english better,i get nervous. My tongue get twisted and my pronountiation sucks at those times!" When I speak Spanish (and it's pretty horrible Spanish) I am not embarrassed because I reckon that speaking someone else's language badly is better than not speaking it at all. When we lived in Burgo de Osma, a village in the north of Spain, people used to crowd round me just to hear my horrible Spanish. Knowing full well that "pala" can mean "stick" as well as "penis", I delighted them with "pala por andar" or "a stick for walking" meaning "walking stick". Turns out the translation is more like "push shovel". Describing a washer in Spanish as "a metal circle thing with a hole that you stick between things when you're fixing stuff" was also a hit. My man in the hardware shop got that one in 1! This is probably because I trained him to understand me describing a funnel ("a plastic thing for dropping liquid into a bottle with waste") and a box knife ("a knife in a square plastic box for safety"). I'm telling you, a visit from me in that place was better than What's My Line? Sure there's always room for improvement when you're speaking a foreign language, but hey, that's why you're standing there with your tongue tied and your pronunciation going to pot. It's cause you're practicing. Some people suggest you calm your nerves by imagining everyone else is naked. I don't because I think it's rude to speak to people while shutting your eyes firmly against horrible visions of nudeness. I just go for it and know that each time I mess up it means I improve a little. Three things that do help: 1. Rehearse set phrases. These give you time to think, and help you sound more fluent. For example, practice greetings, compliments, short answers to common questions. 2. Learn to take your time. The more you hurry, the more you stumble. Also, when you hurry your heartbeat goes up, which gets your brain chemicals going, which make you more hyper etc etc. Take a breath, force yourself to slow down. You will feel calmer for it. 3. Laugh. It's a stumble in communication not a crime! When you mess something up, laugh and say, "That sounded better in my head." or "I got so caught up in that sentence, I've forgotten where I started." Then breathe and go on.  As time goes by you will get better at speaking and the problems will lessen. And of course buy Logomania! Then you'll know where phrases come from and how to use them, which is horribly impressive in conversation. Click on the image above for free sneak peeks, and then buy it at any MPH! Labels: Monday writers craft online posted by katztales @ 8:34 AM (4) comments links to this post | 4 comments Monday, February 15, 2010 Monday Writers Craft Online: Get It Published Aini sent this email question last week, "I love creative writing and had sent a few short stories to the local magazines.But none got published. I'm dissapointed. Not sure whether it's because my simple english or because i don't use bombastic words. I hope you could give some useful tips." This email reminded me that I sold some short stories a few years ago and I forgot to put that on my writing credits. I sold 2 short stories to Singapore Womens Weekly and Malaysia Women's Weekly. And I have some more to sell so maybe this is the time to go looking for some new clients. Thanks, Aini! Anyways...This is the 6th of a series of pieces talking about publicity issues facing bloggers. Funnily enough I was going to write about ways and means of talking print publications into mentioning your blog. Apart from the short story issue, the two topics have quite a lot in common. So here goes... 1. The market for short stories is tiny so editors tend to work with people they know. To get known you need to sell a story. Yes, chicken and egg. If you write an excellent story, you will probably get published. Write one that's OK and you won't, because there are thousands of others out there who will do better. The same goes for press releases or approaches for publicity by bloggers! Everyone has a blog, so you need to stand out. To get the attention of the editor, your story idea about your blog (or your short story) has to be original, fun, different. And it must suit the style of the publication and the audience that publication woos; if you run a fashion blog, write to a fashion magazine. If you write romance, don't waste your time writing to a sci-fi mag. 2. Check your spelling and grammar. What you write on your blog is your thing. You can go for the absolutely proper styles, grammar, spelling etc or you can be like me and just write it down and shove it out. It's up to you. BUT submitting stories and press releases is a different ballgame alltogether. Editors don't want to waste their time with people who don't fine tune their work. They think "sloppy language = sloppy work". As there are others out there who are painstaking and enthusiastic, make sure you avoid "dissapointed" and write "disappointed", ensure English has a capital E etc. 3. Style choices. Short story telling is creative but if you want to get published, you need to think in a businesslike way; same goes for getting someone to write about your blog. When writing a story or press release, the easiest thing is to develop the tone that works for you or the story, and sell it to someone suitable. What's harder but more profitable is to look at a publication, analyse the style they want, look at the sort of stories they like, and then write something to suit. Next week: how to get over stage fright and that "oh god, my English sucks" feeling when presenting your work. Want to keep Au and Target rolling in cat biscuits and rost chikkun??? Check out my books below and buy them as gifts for friends. Click on the images above for free sneak peeks.  If you want to keep in touch with updates, here are some simple ways: Subscribe to Katz Tales in a reader Subscribe to Katz Tales by Email Follow Au on Twitter Follow Ellen on Facebook Share| Labels: Monday writers craft online posted by katztales @ 10:02 AM (2) comments links to this post | 2 comments Monday, February 08, 2010 Monday Writers Craft Online: 3 Publicity Do's And Don'ts Are you running a blog and looking for some publicity? In this 6 week series I'll be talking about common issues that are worth thinking about. For basic interview tips, checking legitimacy, whether you can approve pre-publication copy, and the pros and cons of email interviews, check the weeks past... 3 Publicity Do's And Don'ts Do's 1. Organise way in advance. If you tell a journo you need them to turn up tomorrow, they will already have made other arrangements. Rule of thumb: contact people at least 3 issues before the one you would like to be in. 2. If you don't pay for it, you don't get to decide what goes in and when it goes in. What you can do is to make your publicity work along topical themes that encourages journos to put it in when you prefer: like pointing out the Christmas recipes in your cookbook in an August launch that will get you December coverage, etc. 3. Advertisers get an edge of non-advertisers. If you really need to be in print, paying for ads works. DON'T 1. Forget to hand out press releases on paper and a CD with the text and nice pictures. The easier you make it to put out your stuff, the more likely it will be used. 2. Forget to write your contacts on all your press stuff. Your name and telephone number must be on each page so people can contact you five minutes before the deadline for that "extra something." 3. Ask journos to RSVP for a press conference or publicity party. If they say they'll come they probably will, however, the schedule changes when other things overrun their time, if a VVIP doesn't show up on time (COMMON!) and also according to "what's hot". Just try to make sure that your parties/speeches etc are hot! If you want to keep in touch with updates, here are some simple ways: Subscribe to Katz Tales in a reader Subscribe to Katz Tales by Email Follow Au on Twitter Follow Ellen on Facebook Share| Labels: Monday writers craft online posted by katztales @ 8:09 AM (2) comments links to this post | 2 comments Monday, February 01, 2010 Monday Writers Craft Online: Email Interviews Pros And Cons Are you running a blog and looking for some publicity? Over the next 3 weeks I'll be talking about common issues that are worth thinking about. For basic interview tips, checking legitimacy, and whether you can approve pre-publication copy, check the weeks past... This week I'd like to talk about pros and cons of email interviews. First the pros... #1 An email interview gives you more control over the things you say. You see the questions all lined up in advance, and have time to think about and polish your answers. #2 If you are nervous at an interview and stammer a lot, emailing your quote means there is less likelihood of your being misunderstood and misquoted. When you write your replies the journo will cut and paste whenever possible (because we are lazy and love shortcuts at work just like everyone else!) #3 If you want to talk about something that you were not asked, you can add a sentence or two at the end with your point, and you may be able to get that bit in too. That means more space and more publicity for you. #4 If you're good at giving quick good quotes, then an online interview takes less time and effort than a face to face interview. Plus, we will remember you and ask you for more quick quotes anytime we're stuck! The cons.... #1 Most of us speak one way and write another. Journos learn lots of writing styles, so they can appeal to many markets. This takes time and training. Most people are competent but not skilled writers. Even really good bloggers sometimes freeze over an email interview. Online comedians come off sounding like academics, great fun mums sound like hanging judges... If this is your problem, ask if you can talk on the phone for a few minutes and have the journo quote you instead so that you sound right. #2 You don't get a feel of what the journo is thinking. When you talk to someone, you can tell whether you are "getting along" or not. And if your answers are too long, too short, or whatever. Over email, you don't get this sort of interactive feedback. The best way to deal with this is to answer all the questions to the best of your ability as quickly as possible. And offer a phone interview "to clear up any other questions you may have"... Then give them your number. NEXT WEEK: 3 Publicity Do's And Don'ts If you want to keep in touch with updates, here are some simple ways: Subscribe to Katz Tales in a reader Subscribe to Katz Tales by Email Follow Au on Twitter Follow Ellen on Facebook Share| Labels: Monday writers craft online posted by katztales @ 8:07 AM (0) comments links to this post | 0 comments Monday, January 25, 2010 Monday Writers Craft Online: Asking To Preview A Piece Are you running a blog and looking for some publicity? Over the next 4 weeks I'll be talking about common issues that are worth thinking about. We've talked about basic interview tips, and legitimacy, now we move on to the next topic... Today I'd like to write about a really common misunderstanding between writers and interview subjects. This is: when you are interviewed for a newspaper or magazine article, is it OK to ask if you can see the piece you are contributing a quote to before it's printed? Or to approve which picture of you goes in? The answer is No. The only people who can see the article before it's printed are the people who pay for it to be written. This is part of the ethics of the business. The PM, politicians, celebrities, rich folks etc... none of them get to approve their quotes or their pictures. If you give an interview, you do so because it's fun, because it's part of your job, or because you want free publicity. As such you have to trust the writer to get it all down, and present the view you hope for. To do that, don't say anything you don't want to appear in print. If you say it, expect to be quoted. You can also expect us to give your statement a bit of a polish so that you sound better. We change your, "well, uhm, you know, I kinda like that pasta stuff with the hot chillis...uhm, that sort of uhmmm, you know, hooker thing? Uhm, oh yeah, pasta puttanesca. You know, because it's sort of spicy? It's got a kick. And I like it with salad... especially sour sort of salad. that balsamic one... It makes your mouth run, you know?" into, "My favourite is Pasta Puttanesca, a pasta made with hot chillis. It's got a real kick to it. I pair it with a salad tossed with balsamic vinegrette because the sour dressing compliments the spicy pasta." For partial control, go for email interviews (more on that next week). If you want total control over your interview, hire a writer or write the piece yourself, and pay to place the piece as an ad. If you want to control what picture is used, hire your own photographer, makeup team etc and pay for it yourself. Having said that, I do make two allowances. If I get a legal or medical opinion, I doublecheck the quote with the lawyer or doctor, and give a note to my client that the exact wording of these particular sentences has been checked for accuracy. Mind you, I check the actual quote to be attributed; I don't show them the whole piece. I have a duty to make sure I represent what they say accurately. However, I reserve the right to include general information they don't like, or quote other people in the piece whose opinion doesn't agree with them. Even if I check the exact working of a quote, this does not guarantee that every quote is published. When four people interviewed say the same thing, only one gets quoted. If the quote doesn't fit the slant of the piece, it gets dropped. Also, sometimes an editor will take out quotes (usually because the piece is too long) or even whole paragraphs (especially if they get an extra ad!) As a typical piece is checked by 2 or more people, writers know that their work seldom appears exactly as they wrote it. It's practically impossible to write a piece and edit it for grammar errors and style yourself afterwards. If you're lucky, someone else tidies up your grammar, and does it a bit of polishing, and doesn't bother you with the details. This is known as the easy life. Other times we write a piece, discuss it with an editor, rewrite bits of it, add bits in, take bits out, and then discuss it again, possibly with someone else present too, and make more changes. This is a painful process that has everyone tearing their hair out. And frankly, the fewer people making changes and needing to give approval for the final product, the better for us poor, overworked writers. That's another reason why we don't want to show you our stuff before it's out. So don't ask, OK? Also, if you are in Malaysia, don't forget that there is still time to put in your entry for Weekender Star Katz Tales competition. Send me email as the competition closes on Friday. Remember, participants must live in Malaysia. If you want to keep in touch with updates, here are some simple ways: Subscribe to Katz Tales in a reader Subscribe to Katz Tales by Email Follow Au on Twitter Follow Ellen on Facebook Share| Labels: Monday writers craft online posted by katztales @ 8:02 AM (4) comments links to this post | 4 comments Monday, January 18, 2010 Monday Writers Craft Online: How To Tell A Writer Is "Legit" Are you running a blog and looking for some publicity? Over the next 5 weeks I'll be talking about common issues that are worth thinking about. Last week we talked about basic interview tips, this week we move on to the subject of legitimacy..... As I said last week, about half of the people I interview for magazines and newspaper are bloggers and web site owners whose writing interests me. Business people tend to put up a telephone number, in which case I approach with a call first. But private people tend not to, so I contact them via their email. I have found that some people are suspicious of strangers writing to them. Some will not accept they are contacted because their writing is interesting; they think there is something odd going on. Or worry it will cost them something. Or they think it's some sort of hoax. Fair enough. So if you're a blogger, how do you know that the person contacting you is a legitimate writer? First, there's the approach. When I approach someone via email, I say who I am, what sort of piece I am writing about, for what publication, and invite the person to contribute one top tip or one comment on a very specific issue. I mention a deadline. If I want to meet up for an extended interview and/or take photos, I put this in the email too. Most times (although I sometimes forget) I include the URL with my writing credits. In my experience, someone who is very upfront and precise about what they want, is probably OK. Also, a standard quote like, "I love pasta made with fresh cream but I wish restaurants would not add sugar," says Brendan Ho, a 24 year old engineer from Kedah who runs My Food Blog. is unlikely to get you into any sort of trouble. When doing an email interview, we will ask you a bit about yourself (check last week's post to see what and why). Be sensible about talking about yourself and just don't reveal sensitive information like your address and IC number or where you will be on Friday night between 8 and midnight (just in case your contact is a fake ID creator or Freddy Krueger pretending to be a journo). If you are approached by someone who wants to meet you for an interview, I would observe the usual precautions when making online contacts. Meeting strangers is dangerous, so don't take risks. If you don't like the idea, or have a gut feeling, say no. If you're talking to a real writer, say you don't meet friends made online and ask if you can contribute via an email interview. Most likely they'll say yes, and then once it's published you'll know what sort of person you are dealing with. Me, I ignore my own advice and meet people I don't know because I need publicity for my work. However, I'm very careful about this. If I had an official office, I'd meet them there. As I have a home office, I meet new people in their offices. Or as journos often move about a lot, I arrange to meet them in very public places like a cafe in daylight in a busy shopping centre. And if I were a young blogger, or a sexy looking girl, I'd bring along a pal or relative too just in case. I also check out unknowns who want to meet me. Here are my top tips and caveats: 1. Check their email address to see if it matches the people they say they work for. If they're working for The Star, they should have an email that says @thestar.com.my. However, a journo may or may not have a corporate email address, or use it. Some companies are mean with email box space; or there may be problems accessing official boxes from outside the company building. I know many pros who work for big companies yet use Gmail and Yahoo for these reasons. Also, remember that freelancers may use public email too. I have my own web site and use @lepak.com email addresses but I know lots of fulltime freelancers who rely on Gmail. 2. Ask for their work number and call them. This works if it's a local journo and they give you a direct line, but expensive if they're abroad or not transparent if they give you a cellphone. If you're stymied by a cell phone number, and it's local, you can call the publication they say they work for. However, if it's a big company, like a newspaper, be sure you ask the right department. A sports writer may not be known at the newsdesk or the weekend section, and visa versa. 3. Check the publication they say they work for for their byline. However, you should realise that not everyone has a piece out every day/week/month so the issue you look at may not have their name in it. Also, some people work under pseudonyms. I have about 5. You can check online versions of the publication but that only works if the writer has a deal whereby their work is published on the web site. Most of my stuff does not appear online so checking mag and newspaper sites for my byline doesn't work well. Finally, although I have never heard of this happening in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Hong Kong or Indonesia, don't ever pay to have a quote published. If a writer approaches you for a quote for their piece, then they get their money from the client when they sell it. Anyone who asks you for money is not legit! NEXT WEEK: Is it OK to ask if you can see the piece you are contributing a quote to? Also, if you are in Malaysia, don't forget that there is still time to put in your entry for Weekender Star Katz Tales competition. Remember, participants must live in Malaysia. If you want to keep in touch with updates, here are some simple ways: Subscribe to Katz Tales in a reader Subscribe to Katz Tales by Email Follow Au on Twitter Follow Ellen on Facebook Labels: Monday writers craft online posted by katztales @ 8:06 AM (3) comments links to this post | 3 comments Monday, January 11, 2010 Monday Writers Craft Online: Email Interview Tips For Bloggers Are you running a blog and looking for some publicity? Over the next 6 weeks I'll be talking about common issues that are worth thinking about. This first one offers basic tips..... I interview and quote about 100 people every year for newspaper and magazine articles. About half are bloggers and web site owners whose writing interests me. But I approach about double that amount. Want to know why 50% don't get into print? Let me tell you... When interviewing people for a feature where I need to meet up, talk for a while, and then use lots of quotes, I ask for a face to face interview. But when it comes to one sentence quotes, spending hours and hours on the job just isn't feasible. For short quotes like this I often turn to bloggers. Bloggers are fun to quote because they often have great things to say. Also, blogs are fashionable. So for me, I make a beeline for my fave people whenever I can. Typical approaches to online writers are done via email (as most bloggers quite rightly keep their phone numbers private). I say who I am, what sort of piece I am writing about, for what publication, and invite the person to contribute one top tip or one comment on a very specific issue. If you run a blog and hope for publicity, are contacted in this way, and reply, yet don't get your quote in the press, chances are you are making one of these top 3 mistakes: Error 1. You don't answer immediately. Writers work to deadlines. If your quote isn't in on time, you don't get in. Also, email is not always delivered instantly. Email can be delayed on servers and by firewalls for several hours. If you leave it too close to the deadline, and your mail is delayed, you miss out. Also, if your answer isn't quite what we wanted, getting in early means we can talk to you again - before the deadline. As a rule of thumb, it always pays to answer as quickly as possible. Even if we tell you our deadline is in 10 days, do answer immediately. If your reply is really cool, you may be upgraded from a tiny quote and be invited to play a bigger part in the feature. Error 2. You answer the question you think we asked, not the question we actually asked. If we ask you for your top tip on how to save $$$ at Christmas, don't tell us you think spending a little extra is fun. It's not what we're looking for. If we ask you about your favourite meal, don't tell us about your favourite restaurant: talk about the food you love! If you don't answer the question right first time, you may be invited to reply again - if the deadline allows, and if the journo hasn't already got enough quotes from others for the piece. Note: Consider that writers know that email approaches often don't work out. We always ask several people for quotes at the same time. If all the people we approach give great answers, we feel lucky and quote the lot. And if we get some off-topic replies, we ignore those and move on. If you want free publicity, answer the question and do it fast and we'll come back to you again and again. Honest. It's because we love a hassle free life! Error 3. "I don't see why you are asking me about...." Always answer all the questions, even if you think it's silly. It's fine to say, "I don't know" to something, but don't refuse to answer normal questions about yourself. One of the main issues writers face is that our bosses/clients want a particular type of introduction/accreditation for people we quote. For example, ladies magazines typically want a line like, "I spread my holiday expenses by buying one present a month throughout the year for my kids," says Deliah Tee, 22 year old mum of Theresa, 5, and Matthew, 3, who blogs at XXX. Or they might want something like, "I spread my holiday expenses by buying one present a month throughout the year for my kids," says Deliah Tee, a 28 year old Financial Consultant with 5 years Debt Management experience. Because of this we need to know your real name, not your blog nick, and probably your age, your profession and something personal like the names of your kids or the place you were born. It's all stuff that helps readers connect to you - and saying who you are also inspires trust in what you are saying. We don't ask you this stuff because we want to figure out how old you are, guess at how much money you're making, or anything else. We do it because it's part of the deal. If we don't give this info, we get upset editors nagging at us. Or people think we make it all up. SO: if you don't want to give up your age, your name or whatever, that's OK. Just say so and pass on the opportunity to be quoted. By the way, I am looking for short email quotes from Malaysian food bloggers for a Star newspaper article. If you're interested in being quoted and having your blog mentioned in the newspaper, drop me a comment with your blog URL and email or send me an email at ellenwhyte AT lepak.com and I'll tell you more about it. NEXT WEEK: how to tell if you're being approached by a "real" writer over email! And what sort of info not to give them! If you are in Malaysia, don't forget that there is still time to put in your entry for the Weekender Star Katz Tales competition. As published in The Star last week, check this post for entry guidelines. Remember, participants must live in Malaysia. If you want to keep in touch with updates, here are some simple ways: Subscribe to Katz Tales in a reader Subscribe to Katz Tales by Email Follow Au on Twitter Follow Ellen on Facebook Labels: Monday writers craft online posted by katztales @ 1:54 AM (1) comments links to this post | 1 comments Monday, January 04, 2010 Monday Writers Craft Online: Placing Your Books I had tea with Steven Yong of Horizon Books last week. Steve is one of my Malaysian marketing gurus, so I quizzed him relentlessly and he gave me some of the best tips ever on how to get your book placed nicely in book shops. I have asked Steve to guest blog, and hopefully he will oblige once the start of the New Year rush is over. In the meantime, I will share his advice. My question was, "How do I make sure my books are in good places in the shop?" Steve said that although in many countries publishing companies pay bookshops for book placement, and this happens sometimes here too, writers in Malaysia and Singapore can still talk on a one to one basis to shop managers about their book placement. He added that good places are at eye level and in eye catching positions. I visited my local MPH book shop to see where my two new books, Logomania: Where Common Phrases Come From And How To Use Them and Katz Tales: Living Under The Velvet Paw were, and found them in excellent positions.  Logomania is in the wall display unit in the dictionary section, facing out at eye-level. Katz Tales is at e  ye level on the corner of a shelf under True Account and Profile.As both books are in highly visible places, and at eye-level to boot, I just said thanks and took the pics. Now I'm off to check other book shops and see where the books are. If you've books out, go see where they are, and if they're not in good places, beg the manager for a nicer position. The more people see your book, the better chance of that on-the-spot sale. Good Luck! If you want to keep in touch with updates, here are some simple ways: Subscribe to Katz Tales in a reader Subscribe to Katz Tales by Email Follow Au on Twitter Follow Ellen on Facebook. Labels: Monday writers craft online posted by katztales @ 2:40 AM (6) comments links to this post | 6 comments Monday, December 21, 2009 Monday Writers Craft Online: Leon Wing guest blogs Leon Wing is a wellknown Malaysian writer and blogger. I met him a few weeks ago at Readings, a writers group inspired by Sharon Bakar from Bibliobibuli and found him an interesting man to talk to. Checking out his blog, I was surprised to see that despite the few comments, there are many people who link to him! So I asked him to guest blog here, so we can all learn how to promote out work online. Here he is, *drumroll* Leon... I was actually quite astounded when Ellen asked me to guest blog here about how my blog acquired 200 links or thereabout. At first I was thinking this was about the other two blogs, http://puisipoesy.blogspot.com/, for which I write about poems, oftentimes taking them apart to show the mechanics; and http://themalaysianpoeticchronicles.blogspot.com/, for which I edit. _No_, this is for http://leonwing.blogspot.com/. In this, my personal blog, I write, or rather, review books I’ve finished reading. And, I can tell you for a fact that I go through quite a number in a short space of time: two to four books in a week or so. I would be reading a book I bought, always from my favourite book store in the city, Kinokuniya (http://bookweb.kinokuniya.co.jp/indexohb.cgi?AREA=05); and another – or 2 or all – I’ve taken out from the city's National Library. For borrowed books, I used to frequent The British Council's library. When I was little and could read, I used to climb with my little legs the long, long winding stone steps, all the way up, to a little hill, Bukit Aman, which housed the Brit Council’s premises and its library. This was where I first discovered, like treasures, books, most of them hardbacks – back then the library did not deign to house paperbacks – by such writers as Beryl Bainbridge and Muriel Spark, for the first time. A few years back BC decided to close almost all its libraries outside of Britain. You can imagine how devastated someone like me was: I couldn't just read one book a week – I needed my 4 to 5 books ration every month. Luckily I re-discovered The National Library. When I had the BC library then, I, unashamedly, snubbed the Nat. Now, I quite like it, whenever I happen to come across some new book. The rest of the books I would be reading would include ebooks, read from my PDA and, sometimes, my phone. I’m still clueless about the large number of links to my blog. But, I’m guessing my Twitter could have helped a bit: http://twitter.com/leonwing. I would squeeze into 140 characters of information and a link to my blog after every book I finish. Unlike the other website for which I edit, I do not rely so much on linking using some directory listing site, like http://www.blogged.com/. There, what you do is submit your site's web address, so that other members could find and propagate and link it. Even when I've said about my not using such sites, I really think it is a good idea to use them. You might even like to try out others, like http://www.blogarama.com/, http://technorati.com and http://www.blogged.com. For Malaysian blogs, sign yourself up at http://blogmalaysia.com/. Oh yes, another thing that would help. I’m sure you could be facebooking, even now itself, while reading this posting. In Facebook join the group NetworkedBlogs. This one is similar to the few directory sites I just mentioned. Another one, in Facebook, is Simplaris Blogcast. Every time you’ve done posting anything to your blog, go there and update it. Within seconds all your FB friends would be able to see your blog's links. And finally, of course, you must have something interesting to blog about; something your readers would want to stop by and spend time in your Web space and enjoy reading from. Labels: Monday writers craft online posted by katztales @ 1:47 AM (7) comments links to this post | 7 comments Monday, December 14, 2009 Monday Writers Craft Online: Ads That Work Studies suggest global online advertising spending will reach US$67 billion and account for 12.3% of total ad spending next year. That means that 1 out of every 8 dollars/ringgit of ad money will be spent on online media. For authors online ads can be useful as they are much cheaper than print and other traditional media. However, consumers are becoming adept at spotting and avoiding ads of all kinds. New Internet users develop blind spots to online banners and ad boxes within a very short time. To catch the eye and capture the heart of today’s impatient, jaded, cynical consumer, companies are now starting to invest in relationship marketing. Putting ads on your blog and web site, and connecting with reader via social networks like Facebook and Twitter too, can help make your ads visible. I'm using all my blog and Facebook to connect and have started Tweeting. I've also put an ad on the bottom of every email I send that reads, "Looking to buy a present for someone? Buy Katz Tales: Living Under The Velvet Paw for animal lovers and Logomania: Where Common Phrases Come From And How To Use Them for people who loooove words or just want to improve their English. Visit my blog at http://www.lepak.com for free sample chapters and more." I think it's working because people I have not met are contacting me. It's fun! Find out more about advertising trends and relationship marketing by visiting the following sites: Customer Relationship Marketing Today About Online Advertising Adverblog AdLab If you want to keep in touch with updates, here are some simple ways: Subscribe to Katz Tales in a reader Subscribe to Katz Tales by Email Follow KatzTalesTweets on Twitter Follow Ellen on Facebook. Labels: Monday writers craft online posted by katztales @ 4:38 AM (5) comments links to this post | 5 comments Monday, December 07, 2009 Monday Writers Craft Online: Get visible in search engines Aren't making it in the top ten results for Google, Yahoo and other search engines. META Tags can help boost your visibility. META tags are not visible on the web page itself, but they are invaluable for storing information about your web page and essential for advertising your web site correctly in some search engine and web directories. You can use the tags containing a description of your site, identifying the author, the keywords and description of the page. For example, if you click on View, Site Source for my Logomania book page (you didn't think I'd miss an opportunity for a plug, did you????) you'll see these META tags at the top of the page... meta name="description" content="Katz Tales and Logomania books by Ellen Whyte, plus beginner's Guides to email, corporate web design, newsgroups, cv writing and more." meta name="Copyright" content="Copyright 1999 - 2010 Inkblot Sdn Bhd" meta name="Author" content="Inkblot Sdn Bhd" meta name="Keywords" content="logomania, the star malaysia, mind our english, etymology, origin of phrases, where words come from, improve your english, english as a second language, malaysia, ellen whyte, MPH publishing house" If you use META tags to describe your site, many search engines will use these to index your site. Otherwise they use the first thirty words which appear on your site. META Tags give you have more control over how your site description appears to potential visitors. You can use keywords that appear, like Katz Tales and related phrases that do not actually appear, like The Star Weekender and cat stories, that help the search engine make meaningful matches. For search engines which ignore descriptions inserted in META tags the first sentence of your site will show up in search engines results to give surfers an idea of what is included in your site, so it's also important to make the first sentence count. That's it for this week for Monday Writers Craft Online. Hope to see you tomorrow for Katz Tales or next week for more writer stuff. If you want to keep in touch with updates, here are some simple ways:  Subscribe To Katz Tales in a readerSubscribe to Katz Tales by Email Follow me on Twitter as KatzTalesTweets, on Facebook. Labels: Monday writers craft online posted by katztales @ 6:58 AM (6) comments links to this post | 6 comments Monday, November 30, 2009 Monday Writers Craft Online: What you need to know about writing E-books by Kristen J. Tsetsi Today we have a guest, American author Kristen J. Tsetsi whose independently released Homefront paperback and e-book has been featured in publications that include the Huffington Post and the Stars and Stripes, on television, and on (American) National Public Radio. Thank you so much for inviting me as a guest. I’m happy to discuss the future of e-books and e-publishing, and I think you'll find I have great news for those of you considering digital publishing. Kri If you have questions, you can contact Kristen, or ask them here so that we can all benefit from the answer... Labels: Monday writers craft online posted by katztales @ 6:41 AM (3) comments links to this post | 3 comments |