The TopNotch® Writer
Empowering the Christian Writer for the Kingdom of God
Volume 1 ~ Issue 2 . . . . . . . . . . . April 2008
Published by TopNotch Communications Group, LLC
MaryAnn Diorio, Ph.D., CLC, Principal
Copyright 2008. All Rights Reserved.
From the Editor's Desk . . .
A hearty welcome to all of our new subscribers. Word about The TopNotch® Writer is spreading quickly, thanks to all of you, and several new writers have joined our family during the past month. Please continue to tell your writer friends about our publication. Our goal is to help you grow into the writer God has created you to be so that you can be equipped to help build God's Kingdom.
Blessings,
Dr. MaryAnn
In this issue . . .
- Don't miss writing expert W. Terry Whalin's excellent article on trade journals.
- Take a look at your attitude. Is it helping or hindering you in your writing?
- Who's minding the shop? Follow these helpful tips for building a successful writing business.
- Working on your craft? Learn why transitions are important.
- Read a classic on how to become a writer.
- Check out the new, hot-off-the-press DAILY DEVOTIONS FOR WRITERS. A great gift for yourself or for a writer friend.
- Are you an editor looking for an expert writer of political and social commentary? Check out Gina Diorio.
ATTITUDE
What You See Is What You Get
by MaryAnn Diorio, Ph.D.
Seeing oneself as a writer is a pre-requisite to writing success. Your writing-related actions will flow out of your self-perception. If you do not see yourself as a writer, you will not write, at least not on a regular basis.
So how do you get to see yourself as a writer? You start by talking like one. For example, when someone asks you what you do, say, "I'm a writer."
Now, if saying those words makes you feel like a liar, think of it this way. You're actually telling the truth in advance. In Romans 4:17, God commands us to "call those things that are not as though they were." This is a key to faith.
Shortly after God called me to write, someone asked me what I do. I nearly choked as I sputtered the words, "I'm a writer". Why did I sputter? Because I didn't really believe the words. But the more I spoke them, the more I believed them. Why? Because "faith comes by hearing" (Romans 10:17).
Psychologists tell us that we will act according to how we perceive ourselves. Begin perceiving yourself the way God perceives you: as a writer for His Kingdom. As your perception of yourself lines up with God's perception of you, you will write. And not only will you write, you will succeed as a writer.
BUSINESS
Crash-Proofing Your Writing
by MaryAnn Diorio, Ph.D.
Being a good steward of your writing business means backing up your files on a regular basis. Horror stories about computer crashes abound, and it's been said that the only question to ask about a computer crash is not "if" but "when" will it happen? I personally have experienced two computer crashes, the first of which was a hard lesson that ended up in my purchasing an external hard drive.
With the marvelous technological options available to us today, we have no excuse, except, perhaps, laziness, for not backing up our files. Here are three ways you can do so:
1) External hard drive. This is a hard drive located outside of your computer tower. You can set it, as I have done, to back up your files automatically. If your internal drive crashes, all of your files will be safely stored on your hard drive and can then be reloaded to your internal drive.
2) USB Flash Drive/SmartDrive. Sometimes called a thumb drive, this is a tiny, thumb-sized device that comes with different amounts of storage space. Mine holds a whopping 4 gigabytes of information and cost me around $45. The difference between a simple flash drive and a combination flash/smart drive is that the smart drive version can store software applications as well as files. This is great when you're traveling and need to take your Microsoft Word or Outlook programs with you in order to open your files.
To order your own 4-gigabyte USB Flash Drive/Smart Drive, check out the links below:
3) Online/Internet backup service. Internet backup services are cropping up all over the place. One of the most popular is www.BookBackup.com. For a monthly fee, these services will store your valuable files on the Internet. You will be given a password to access your files. One advantage of this type of backup is that you can access your files from anywhere in the world and from any computer.
Remember: your time is your life. And your clients are your writing business' lifeblood. Guard both and you won't have any regrets "when" your computer crashes.
Handling Transitions
by MaryAnn Diorio, Ph.D.
Transitions are the connectors of time, leading us from the past to the present and from the present to the future. How we handle them is crucial to our well-being and to the well-being of others.
Like transitions in life, transitions in writing lead the reader from what went before to what he reads now and from what he reads now to what he will read in the next sentence, paragraph, or chapter.
So what is a writing transition? It can be a single word, such as however, therefore, or because, or it can be a phrase, such as With this in mind, inasmuch as, or considering the fact that. For a transition to be effective, it must provide smooth passage from the preceding element of your writing to the current element, and from the current element to the next element. Also, transitions must be logical in their sequence and flow. In other words, they must logically relate to both elements on either side of the transition.
Handling transitions is an art in itself. Mastering them will add zest to your writing and enhance your reader's experience.
FEATURE ARTICLE
What is a Trade Journal?
by W. Terry Whalin
Question:
Why should I read trade journals? Where does a writer find trade journals with publishing news?
Answer:
You may be wondering, "What in the world is a trade journal?" To newcomers, publishing is almost like a secret society where there are code words and unwritten expectations about what to submit to magazines and how to submit your material to publishers. First, it is not a secret society--but there are expectations and specialized language that every writer who wants to be consistently published needs to learn.
One aspect of this business which is also eye-opening to newcomers is the constant changes in the industry. Publishers come and publishers merge and sometimes completely close their doors. Magazines have an extremely high turnover of editorial personnel and new magazines have a high failure rate. How do you keep track of who is doing what and when? New books and new magazines are constantly appearing. A working writer needs to read trade journals to continually learn about this type of information.
A trade journal is a publication targeted to a specific segment of the population and some of the language in the publication is specialized. In the publishing arena, Publisher's Weekly is a magazine that every writer should know about--and try to read the magazine on a regular basis.
You can see the online version at: http://www.publishersweekly.com. This publication is about the size of a news magazine like Newsweek or Time and is a weekly magazine. The publication is specialized and has a limited circulation and a large subscription price tag (currently $225 a year for 51 issues).
Before you totally discount my advice to read it on a regular basis, here's how to see it from time to time. Almost every public library in the U.S. subscribes to Publisher's Weekly but it is not a publication that will normally appear in the magazine section of the library. The librarians use this publication to read reviews of bestselling books and other types of books before they appear in print--then they order them for the library customers. That means when the latest John Grisham book appears in your local bookstore, your public library has a copy or two available for check out.
OK, back to your library issue of Publisher's Weekly. Ask the reference librarian if they have a copy that you can read. Usually the librarian has to look around to find it and will often require you to read it nearby then watch to make sure you return it. These magazines are librarian tools as well as tools for the writer. I suggest you make friends with your local librarian and read Publisher's Weekly. It's how I read it for many years until I became a subscriber.
Beyond Publisher's Weekly there are other specialized publications for different segments of the marketplace. For example, if you write for Christian magazines, then you need to be reading CBA Marketplace and/or Christian Retailing. CBA Marketplace is the official publication of the Christian Booksellers Association and also has a limited circulation (something like 3 to 4,000 issues). Almost every Christian bookstore in the nation takes this publication. The retailer may be behind on reading it, but they have a stack of them. If you stop by the store and politely ask for it, they will often let you stand in the store for a few minutes and read through an issue. Anyone can subscribe to CBA Marketplace and the non-member price is currently $59.95 a year for 12 issues. http://www.cbaonline.org/Member_Services/resmpsub.jsp.
Another trade magazine which follows the Christian retail business is Christian Retailing which has a subscription price of $75 per year but does give away free issues if you qualify. See the qualifications at: https://secure.strang.com/strang.com/cgi-bin/subscribe.pl?offer=cr
CBA includes a free online newsletter at: http://www.cbaonline.org/
Christian Retailing includes a free online newsletter at: http://www.christianretailing.com/
One note of caution: these online newsletters may tell you the highlights or breaking news but the in-depth reporting is in the printed magazine--not online. Many writers wrongly assume they can get all of their information online. They can't and it's something you should keep in mind--no matter how much time you spend surfing the Internet.
Change is constantly happening within publishing. New editors come on the scene and others fade. Some companies are purchased by other companies and that purchase normally means a transition and change for the authors as well. I learned about this acquisitions change first hand last year when the publisher where I worked purchased two lines of books from another publisher. Instantly it added over 300 books to our backlist and authors began to phone me from out-of-the-blue to introduce themselves and ask questions about their books. As an editor, I had a huge learning curve and worked to find answers to their questions. My lesson as a writer was that I should have been aware of this change in the marketplace from several years earlier. The parent company, Eagle Communications sold off one of their lines of books to Bethany House Publishers . I had heard some horror stories from other writers about their books but I hadn't paid too much attention--until the publisher where I worked purchased two of the lines from Eagle Communications. I was suddenly involved handling many transition issues. Authors received their royalty statements and wondered why their book hadn't sold as much as previously. In the transition, book sales will often plummet because the sales team has left the company or they are a change mode.
From a learning standpoint, you can get a lot of insight and this type of information about the constantly shifting industry--from reading trade magazines. Admittedly it takes effort on your part as a writer--but it pays off in your understanding about a particular area of the marketplace and who is doing what. A key factor in getting your material published is often simply sending your submissions to the right editor at the right time and place. Writers need to keep learning about the marketplace and one of the ways to track this information is through consistently reading trade journals.
__________________________________________________
W. Terry Whalin understands both sides of the editorial desk--as an editor and a writer. He worked as an editor for Decision and In Other Words. His magazine articles have appeared in more than 50 publications including Writer's Digest and Christianity Today. Terry has written more than 60 nonfiction books and one of his latest is Book Proposals That Sell, 21 Secrets To Speed Your Success (Write Now Publications). See more about Terry at:www.right-writing.com/whalin.html. For more than 12 years Terry has been an ECPA Gold Medallion judge in the fiction category. He has written extensively about Christian fiction and reviewed numerous fiction books in publications such as CBA Marketplace and BookPage. He is the former Fiction Acquisitions Editor for Howard Books and creator of www.right-writing.com. Sign up for Terry's free newsletter, Right Writing News.
© 2008 W. Terry Whalin
BOOK REVIEW
by MaryAnn Diorio, Ph.D.
(In this section, we will feature outstanding books on writing.)
BECOMING A WRITER
by Dorothea Brande
For nearly 75 years, Dorothea Brande's classic, Becoming a Writer, has been inspiring writers all over the world to reach new heights of creativity. In this phenomenal writing how-to book, Ms. Brande reveals proven techniques to unlock the writer's creative genius.
Ahead of her time in understanding right-brain/left-brain psychology, Brande believed that the writer's brain was a two-sided organ comprised of "the child" and "the adult", and that the successful writer must function out of the spontaneous, childlike part of his brain for the creation of art and out of the adult of the brain part for the execution of art. In other words, the child part of the brain does the planning of the writing and the adult part carries out the plan.
The book is full of exercises to get the writer's creative juices flowing. It also addresses the issue of religiously respecting one's writing time. Brande goes so far as to say if you don't keep your writing appointments with yourself, you shouldn't be writing. As she points out, "Your resistance is actually greater than your desire to write, and you may as well find some other outlet for your energy early as late."
Brande was born in Chicago and lived from 1893 until 1948. She attended the University of Chicago, the Lewis Institute which later became the Illinois Institute of Technology, and the University of Michigan. She is also known for her two-million-copy bestseller, Wake Up and Live!, published in 1936.
Ms. Brande was said, "All that is necessary to break the spell of inertia and frustration is this: Act as if it were impossible to fail." After reading this book, one comes away with the feeling that writing success is more a matter of attitude than of talent.
To order your copy of Becoming a Writer, click here.
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ATTENTION
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A Student's Guide
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WRITING COACHES
Are you feeling "stuck" in your writing? I've been there myself. Allow me to help you!
Andrea Boeshaar
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& Published Author
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WRITING SERVICES
THE MOST VALUABLE 2-CENTS YOU’LL EVER FIND!
Clear – Concise – Compelling
Political Commentary That Will Turn
Your Readers into Returning Readers.
Gina Diorio cuts to the chase on today’s hottest issues in a style that's engaging, intellectual, and at times irreverent. Readers might get happy – they might get angry – but they will get thinking.
Contact Gina today to include her political commentary in your publication.
Gina L. Diorio, M.A., Principal
www.Liberty WritingSolutions.com
UPCOMING CONFERENCES
CHRISTIAN
American Christian Writers Conference
April 18-19, 2008
Fort Wayne, Indiana
May 2-3, 2008
Atlanta, Georgia
May 9-10 (MENTORING)
Nashvillw, Tennessee
June 6-7, 2008
Columbus, Ohio
June 20-21, 2008
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Delaware Christian Writers' Conference
April 18-19, 2008
Colorado Christian Writers' Conference
May 14-17, 2008
St. Davids Christian Writers' Conference
June16-21, 2008
SECULAR
American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) Conference
April 11-13, 2008
Philadelphia Writers' Conference
June 6-8, 2008
RESOURCES
Writers' Organizations
CHRISTIAN
Christian Writers' Fellowship International
American Christian Fiction Writers
Christian Writers'Group International
SECULAR
American Society of
Authors &Journalists
American Screenwriters Association
Blogs/Ezines/Websites/Loops
Right-Writing.com
http://rosemccauley.blogspot.com/
The Writers' View
(by application only)
FEATURED MARKET
Today's Christian
COURSES FOR WRITERS
Internet
Correspondence
American Christian Writers (ACW)
MARK YOUR CALENDAR NOW!
Nov. 15, 2008
I LOVE TO WRITE DAY!
For more info, go to
http://www.ILovetoWriteDay.org
Supplies for Writers
The Writers' Store
The Writers' Life Gift Shop
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do
that, but the really great make you feel
that you, too, can become great."
~ Mark Twain
THE TOPNOTCH WRITER is published monthly by TOPNOTCH COMMUNICATIONS GROUP, LLC, owned and operated by Dr. MaryAnn Diorio. Articles in THE TOPNOTCH WRITER are copyrighted and may not be reproduced in any way or by any means, electronic or otherwise, without the written permission of Dr. MaryAnn Diorio.
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