Joanne Phillips Ghostwriting - Articles Archive

Getting Published - Do You Need An Agent?

There has been talk in recent months about publishers in the UK opening their previously closed doors to submissions from un-agented authors. It seems that so few agents are taking on sparkling new authors these days (credit crunch and all that…Yawn), publishers are looking to their 'slush' piles to find the writing stars of tomorrow.

There is also a growing trend for publishing deals to be handed out to authors who have previously gone down the self-publishing route. In the latest Writers' News magazine (Jan 2009), it is reported that "novelists Polly Courtney and Melanie Rose have both signed three-book deals with Avon, an imprint of HarperCollins. The deals follow the success of their novels, which were self-published by Matador."

If this is the case, then do we still need to approach, and enlist representation from, an agent in the first instance? Or is their role in the publishing process becoming sidelined? Should authors circumnavigate literary agents completely, and either contact suitable publishers directly, or put their considerable energies into self-publishing and self-promotion?

As a (currently) un-agented author myself, I would answer that despite the evidence presented above, writers do still need to seek out the services of a good agent. Embarking on a writing career without an agent onside is like selling your house without a solicitor - possible, but fraught with difficulties and needlessly complicated. The fact is, you need the professional services of an agent, just as you need those of a good solicitor…

Just as the world of conveyancing has its own conventions and language, so does the world of publishing. Your agent will navigate this path for you, helping with the editing and polishing process, negotiating the best financial package, thrashing out a beneficial contract, and then holding your hand until your book hits the shelves - and beyond. Yes, of course, as an intelligent person you could educate yourself about how the world of publishing, sales and promotion works, but wouldn't you, as a writer, rather be writing?

I know I would. Which is why I will continue to search for representation, despite all the evidence that this route is becoming increasingly closed-off to new authors. I have faith - in myself, in my writing, and in the place of the agent as an integral part of the process.

Read David Smith's informative article 'The Literary Agent' here.

Contact me: fill out the form on my contact page.

Everything You Need To Know About Ezines

What exactly is an ezine and why does your business need one?

Ezines are everywhere – you may even be a subscriber yourself. But for those concerned with internet marketing, the humble ezine offers huge opportunities for business promotion. Over the past few years ezines have become more and more interactive, and are no longer merely web-based versions of print magazines. They offer targeted information in a dynamic, easily digestible format, and hundreds of new ezines are appearing every week.

So how can an ezine benefit your business? Opt-in ezines and e-newsletters are a legitimate way to provide potential clients with sales information. All you have to do is write an article for an ezine – or have someone write it for you if you don’t have the time or the right skills – and include links to your product or service. Submit the article to popular directories for inclusion, and wait for the enquiries to flood in.

Sound too good to be true? Think again. Your market is both large and targeted. It’s not uncommon for a popular and established ezine to have over a million subscribers – these are people who have chosen to receive it. Targeted because ezines cover specific topics, from health to motorsport, from accounting to woodwork – whatever your business there is an ezine out there to match it. Because people have opted to receive information about a topic that interests them, they are more responsive to the recommended products or sponsored adverts that come with the ezine.

Ezine magnates

Certain ezine publications are hugely profitable for their owners. With a mailing list of only 10,000 subscribers an ezine publisher could make as much as $5000 from one mailing. How? Through affiliate marketing; the process where one receives a small percentage of an affiliate’s sale for sending the customers to them.

Producing your own in-house ezine

This would probably start life as a newsletter, emailed to clients and offered free to visitors of your website. By asking potential customers to opt-in to a newsletter you fulfil two objectives:

1 - you capture their name and email address, and 2 – you stay in their consciousness whether they bought from you or not.

In time, as your mailing list grows, your newsletter can also grow into a fully-fledged ezine, with articles sourced from all over the web, and targeted marketing for your opted-in subscribers.

What is the difference between an ezine and an e-newsletter? An ezine is usually web-based, with its own site and associated newsletter for subscribers. Newsletters are shorter and are emailed to subscribers usually weekly.

Getting prospects to opt in

Your newsletter or ezine needs to contain information that will be really useful and interesting. Keep news-style items current and up-to-date and don’t indulge in any blatant advertising or sales-speak. Make your ezine arrival an event your readers look forward to in its own right – when they consider you an authority they will buy from you without having to be coerced. Articles for ezines and newsletters can be sourced free from ezine directories (see below) – but bear in mind the articles will have links to the author’s products or services so make sure they don’t conflict with your interests.

It’s a good idea to let your subscribers know that their information is safe with you by including the following text on the opt-in page:

We will NEVER sell or give away your e-mail address or phone number to anyone. We will always respect your privacy.

This way they will be able to give you their email details with confidence. It is also good practice to give subscribers an easy way to un-subscribe should they choose, usually with a link at the bottom of each newsletter.

Happy zine-ing!

Resources

For professional help writing your ezine or newsletter contact TaskersWebcopy

Ezine directories

www.ezinearticles.com

www.ezine-dir.com

www.bestezines.com

The Future of Ghostwriting

While the Internet has opened up many new opportunities for ghostwriters, not all of them are welcome. Online agencies like Get A Freelancer and Elance list hundreds of projects under the heading ‘Ghostwriting’, but many of these projects are actually ‘bundles’ of mini-articles for submission to article directories and blogs.

Even sophisticated surfers may not be aware of the amount of marketing that goes into virtually every aspect of the Internet today. Few blogs are written by their named authors. Many forum posts are farmed out to freelancers. And almost all of this content has an ulterior motive – to nudge, coerce or tempt the reader into a loop of viral marketing.

What does this have to do with writers in general and ghostwriters in particular? Surely the increase in the scope and variety of freelance writing work is a good thing? Not necessarily. Not when projects are advertised with budgets as low as $30 for 30 articles, and the writers who win these projects often cut and paste content from elsewhere on the web – content that already falls far short of a professional standard.

While ghostwriting is being expanded to include articles, blogs, ebooks and web content, as well as traditional printed media, the quality of the writing is diminishing – and professional writers will find it increasingly hard to complete with teams of writers working in countries where $30 is a week’s salary.

Finding Quality Writing Jobs Online

There are loads of sites out there where writers like myself can find work, some of them free, some of them paid for. The most recent I came across was a UK based resource that charged £75 a year for membership - before you even got to have a look at the quality of projects or the competition.

I don't think so!

Get A Freelancer was the first site I joined, and I've had a lot of great projects through them. Most recently I won a project to write a motivational eBook for a network marketing Guru (can't mention his name I'm afraid, confidentiality and all that...), and had great fun putting that together. But the problem with GAF is the huge competition from parts of the world where a fee of $30 is a lot of money.

Many of the buyers stipulate English as a first language but then award the project to a provider who clearly has no such thing. Why? Because they are so cheap! UK writers just can't compete on price, and as a lot of the work is for web content where neither the client nor the reader is that bothered about grammar or punctuation, we can't compete on quality either. People simply don't care!

What do I do? Skim through the listings and only bid on projects where the buyer is clearly looking for a quality provider - and where they have the budget to pay. Unless you have time to waste, give the '30 articles for $30' postings a wide berth!