This is often because we freeze out of fear. How do we know if what we are doing will work, and with all of the authors out there, how do we set ourselves apart? The other aspect of the author life is that most of us suffer from imposter syndrome, regardless of how successful we are. If we put ourselves too far out there, someone might discover we’re really not that good at what we do.

However, if we can overcome this fear and create a great web presence, we will be more successful and sell more books. So, how do create your own content and maximize SEO for your own website?

Your Web Presence

The first key is your web presence. This means you need to have a website. For authors, this is often something we don’t think all that much about. We go and purchase the website that is also our name even if it is through a free site like Blogger or WordPress.com, and then we build a homepage with our book covers or bio, and we’re done, right?

Wrong. First of all, there are some things you need to think through before you even choose a domain name. Thousands of authors are out there doing the same thing you are, and you won’t stand out that way. You also need to make sure your domain name is the right one:

• Common Names: If you have a name like John Smith or your last name is Jones, you might want to use the name of what you do or the genre you write to set yourself apart from others who share your name. You will have a hard time ranking in Google for just your name, since you will have a lot of competition.
• Shared Names: If you share a name with someone who is well known, especially if they are a famous author, you may want to use initials or otherwise set your name apart. You will have a hard time ranking for Steven King or Robert Parker if you share their name. On the other hand, you could conceivably get some accidental clicks as well. That’s not always a good thing. Readers could be very displeased.
• Hard to Spell Names: While this may set you apart, it also makes it hard for readers to do a Google search for your name. You want that search to be easy, and you may want to even consider a pen name.

So, what are your alternatives besides a pen name? You can create websites around your series or character names, but you don’t want to create too many sites as that can make it hard to manage all of them and create content as well (more on that in a moment).

You can go by the type of books you write, and incorporate that into your domain name as well. You are a creative person when it comes to writing, you just need to be creative with your domain name as well.

Just be careful that the name you choose, and that the abbreviations you use don’t spell anything inappropriate. If you run words together, pay attention to what other words that might create. You don’t want to be internet famous for a domain name error.

Social Media: Which One?

Once you have established your website, you need to expand your web presence to social media. If possible, your social media handle should match that of your website as closely as possible.

If you have a common name or share one with a celebrity, you will come across the same issue as you did with a domain name: the handles and user names you want may already be taken. Again, you must be creative, but the closer you can be to your website the better.

Also, understand that when you first start out you will struggle with gaining a following no matter how ideal your name may be. This is why content marketing matters: if you have something to share that is worthwhile, people will read and share it.

As to which social media platform, that is for you to determine. Where are your readers most often? What about similar writers in your genre? What social media sites are they most active on.

Blogging While You’re Writing

While you are working on the next Great American Novel, you need to keep your readers and potential buyers interested. In addition, you need to need to keep Google and other search engines coming back to visit your site. If your site has no new content, Google doesn’t have a reason to come back and index your site.

You’re going to lose ranking, visibility, and website visitors. So you need to blog at the same time you are writing. However, what do you blog about? You want to speak to readers, and not just other writers, a common mistake new writers make.

• A Little About your Process: Write some things about your process, but not too much. The reader is only so interested in this.
• Your characters and your world: Your readers want to know more about your characters and your world, and you are the expert on them. Share that expertise with them.
• Your Research: You find out some amazing things while researching your books. Share them.
• More About You: You are a unique person, and your life and your experiences, even your feelings, are what shapes your stories. Share that with your readers.

If you don’t know what to blog about, look at other successful writers in your genre and follow what they are doing with your own twist.

They key to content marketing is that you must create content.

Consistency and Timing

The final point is that you must blog consistently, and timing matters. There are many studies online that tell you about the best time to post on your blog, and even when to share on social media. There are programs like Hootsuite and Tweepsmap that automate the sharing process.

The truth is one post a month won’t cut it. Two is better, one a week or more if you can swing it helps. You can accept guest posts and author interviews that will help keep your content going and also increase shares.

If you are a writer, SEO and creating content matters for your website. If you are going to gain readers and be discovered, it is important that Google and other search engines find your site ad display it in common searches. You’re a writer, and you have to write more than just books.

Write for yourself and your blog, and you will reap the same rewards any other business does when they focus on SEO and Content Marketing.

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The post SEO for Authors: Why Content Marketing Matters is copyright 2013 by Write Hacked.

These content editing tips will help make sure your hard work doesn’t go to waste.

Know your goals

Presumably, you know why you’re writing this content. Think about the purpose it serves for your brand and your audience – the introduction needs to address this purpose and compel people to read on. Be clear on what information you’re offering and let people know that the more they read, the more value they’ll get. When you’re editing, try to read your opening paragraphs as if you’ve never read the article before. Are the key points there? Is there a hook? If not, rewrite.

Be unique

Copycat content is not memorable, but you don’t have to be controversial or inflammatory just to find a unique content angle. If there’s a new perspective or an insight you can offer that no one else can, be sure to make that clear in your writing. Finding creative ways to demonstrate your expertise in your field is what keeps your work at the front of people’s minds. When you’re editing a piece of content, consider whether your offering feels unique or special. If it doesn’t, it’s time to rework the copy.

Keep it concise

It can be easy to go off on tangents or to get carried away with excessive language that turns a great piece into something cluttered and unclear. As well as going back over your writing yourself, it’s a good idea to get at least one pair of extra eyes on it.

A section that you think is witty and interesting might come across as word vomit to somebody else, or it might contain a great idea that isn’t fully relevant and could be used for another piece. Filtering out excess blurb means you’re more likely to keep people’s attention. It also helps them to find the information they need more easily.

Make sure it’s found

Before you publish anything on your site, make sure it’s earning its keep. Do some keyword research and find out which high volume terms you could be ranking for, and be sure to add an effective title tag and meta description that will entice people in from the results page.

• Include your target phrase or keyword toward the beginning of your meta information where possible
• Remember to keep titles under 55 characters and descriptions between 150 to 160 characters, to make the most of your space on the search results pages
• When it comes to actually putting keywords into the body of your text, be sure to only add them where it makes sense

This might mean re-editing certain sections so the keywords appear naturally, but it’s a lot better than trying to force them into your copy and ending up with something that doesn’t read well.

Subheadings, bullet points and numbered lists are all good ways of breaking up text. As well as working better on mobile, smaller sections of text are more easily digested by Google (as well as your target audience).

Come back with a fresh pair of eyes

The best thing to do at this stage is to get another editor to cast their eye over your work and look for anything you’ve missed. At the very least, step away from the content and come back to it when you’ve been doing something else for a while. The likelihood is you’ll notice things you didn’t notice the first time around, or may even spot new ways to optimise the content that you hadn’t previously thought would work.

Think before you publish

• Are your goals clear?
• Is the content unique or memorable?
• Could it be more succinct?
• Have you applied SEO tactics?
• Has it been properly reviewed?

Editing is a crucial part of the content production process. Done well, it’s the difference between copy that gets lost in the ether and copy that drives interest and interaction. Work through the steps above to make sure that your hard work doesn’t go to waste.

Chad Harwood-Jones is managing director of content marketing agency, Ad-Rank Media, which specialises in planning and implementing large-scale content projects with expertise in natural search, SEO and digital PR.

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The post How to Edit Your Writing for SEO is copyright 2013 by Write Hacked.

We can use art and writing as a means to turn our negative feelings into a reckoning for positivity. Here are some thoughts about negative experiences and how we can write them into a corner when they try to bully us.

The Dangers of Holding in Our Pain

Our culture glorifies the idea of holding in your emotions. Men are often called weak for being expressive, and women are called crazy for expressing their emotions in any way. Neither of these are fair, as emotions are simply a part of the human experience, and there’s nothing weak about admitting to what you feel.

Here’s the fact: suicide rates are on the rise. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the suicide rate in the United States increased 24 percent from 1999 to 2014. The amount of adolescents — and we are talking early adolescents — that contemplate ending their lives or do end their lives has increased as well. Where drugs used to help, they have gotten more dangerous and often make the problem worse.

We have to normalize emotions and offer people practical ways to handle their trials in life. Even social work professionals admit, we need to start thinking out of the box. I propose one of the best outlets for pain is through creative writing.

Write It Off

There is something so satisfying about forming the perfect sentence to describe what you’re going through. As long as you’re doing it for you and not to impress others, I think being able to work hard on this transfer from mind to paper is therapeutic. By writing about your negative experiences, you can process them, learn from them, and — if you’re comfortable with it — share and relate it to others.

Here are some suggestions to turn your negative experiences into lemonade, through the power of writing:

Poetry Exercises

Poetry, lyric writing, and the like are the best places to employ your artistic license, due to the common “show don’t tell” mentality that’s so popularized in these communities. I personally find it useful to use poetry prompts in order to challenge yourself. The point of doing these exercises is to force you to write down your thoughts in a different way than just “I feel sad” or “I am angry.” You also are usually writing less — but it’s harder to get a good flow going. It’s a new form of expression for a lot of freelance writers and similar creatives, and can influence your other writings as well.

Descriptive Nonfiction

This is something I struggled with originally due to my past writing song lyrics with metaphors. I had to drop all of that — which I now consider to be mostly fluff — and switch to describing the actual scenes around me. Descriptive nonfiction lives in “show don’t tell,” more strictly than poetry does.

Retell your story. Use color, shape, and other physical descriptions. How red was your face from embarrassment or hurt? What were other people doing? Describe their movements, their facial expressions, and how their face changed and moved as well. And what words were they using? Of course, “show don’t tell” can also make for a traumatic retelling of a hard time, so gauge yourself and see if you can handle it first.

Letters to Yourself

Years ago, during one of my first breakups, I found myself writing letters late before bed. These letters were addressed to myself, oddly enough. I never called it journaling, or felt like I was writing a diary; I was very clearly writing a letter. Even though I was the recipient of these letters.

Physically writing my thoughts down on paper felt like I was transferring my emotions — like they were physically leaving my body. This was one of my initial experiences with the therapeutic effects of writing, and since then I’ve used writing to help myself through other breakups, loss of friends and family, and stressful life events.

Freewriting

It has been said that “bad writing is good for you,” and this may certainly be the case in your situation. Freewriting offers the comfort of no restrictions – just straight up word vomit until you need to eat again.

Some find this to be a positive and freeing experience. It offers them a way to put some elbow grease into releasing their emotions, but they don’t have to worry about anything else. This isn’t typically the writing you show people, but certainly you can if you would like.

Get a Little Abstract

Use weird prompts and exercises — and by “weird” I mean unusual to you — to stretch your writing and give you new ways to express yourself. The thing with writing prompts is that they work like writing games. You have to use them to finish a piece based on rules and restrictions you don’t typically adhere to. Some of the most satisfying pieces of writing I’ve done have been based on odd prompts, and it always feels like a new way to express my thoughts, feelings, and beliefs.

How To Encourage Others

As I mentioned earlier, we need to normalize negative emotions. Make them something to talk about, and make it usual to talk about them. Let’s innovate a bit and give struggling people healthy and positive ways to handle their pain.

We must live by example first, because telling people to talk about their issues doesn’t shut out the voices — external or internal — that make them feel uncomfortable doing so. Being transparent ourselves can do that.

Now how much more as a writer can we share our experiences tangibly, especially with other writers? We all struggle with life, so writing them down for others may actually give them something to lean on, and maybe vice versa.

Ultimately, transparency begets transparency. With that in mind, let’s strive for honesty and humility with each other, so we can destigmatize depression, formulate it into something positive, be it through writing or whatever other form of creation you choose, and gain something from it rather than lose everything to it.

How have you used writing or creativity to cope with bad experiences? Let me know in the comments below!

Avery T. Phillips is a freelance human being with too much to say. She loves nature and examining human interactions with the world. Comment or tweet her @a_taylorian with any questions or suggestions.

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The post Lemons Into Lemonade (How To Turn Negative Events into Positive Expression) is copyright 2013 by Write Hacked.

So, if you want your voice to be heard then you need to take some effective and exclusive strides. You certainly can’t turn a novel into a bestseller if it is not well-written. But, apart from just considering the fact of writing in a great style, you ought to take care of some other actualities to make your book a bestseller.

Want to know the secrets of doing so? Then, here are the six approaches through which you would be able to make your book the biggest talk of the town.

Just read ahead and I genuinely believe that these tips would work for you!

1. Go for Something That You Believe

If you are bearing an idea in your brain that a topic which would be appealing enough to the crowd would make your book a bestseller then you are absolutely wrong. Instead, write on such topics which you find interesting and want to read about the same.

As Carol Shields rightly said, ‘ Write the book you want to read, the one you cannot find’. So, in spite of writing a monotonous book in a conventional style if you write a story that matters to you then there is a greater chance of it becoming a bestseller.

2. Opt for the Right Theme

One of the best factors which can let a novel to stand out from the rest is its theme. Your readers would recommend your book to others only when they can relate to the same. Also, they refer a book to someone when they find that the book is conveying a message that others need to read. So, you should invest your precious time and energy to find out the right theme for your novel.

3. Let the Tone be Neutral

If your motto is to make your book recognizable throughout the world then you ought to write in a way which can connect to all kind of readers. But, wait! By this statement of mine, I am not meaning that your story should be based on global culture only.

You can very well write a story about something which is close to your heart, like your nation, culture or whatever! Just make sure that the dialogues, narration, writing style etc. are understandable by audiences who are present around the globe.

Do you remember the Booker Prize Winner of 2015- A Brief History of Seven Killings? Well, I am talking about such kind of tone.

4. Design Your ‘Book Cover’ Uniquely

We might have believed in a statement like ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ for years. But, practically, the outer look of the book usually convey the whole story in a simplified way which is written inside.

So, to give your book a one of a kind look intends to be something quite significant. But, don’t think that you need to shell out a huge amount of money for doing this! All you need is a creative designer who is expert in making the ideas live in terms of a classy book cover.

5. Opt for the Perfect Publisher

Well, when it comes to turning a book into a bestseller then the publisher plays one of ‘The Most Important’ roles. The brand credibility of the publisher that you are choosing for would affect the credibility of your book in an immense way. So, don’t forget to choose such a publisher which can let the graph of your book’s sales go higher!!

6. Create an Author Page and Book Profile in ‘Goodreads’

When it comes to book-lovers then Goodreads is a buzzing name!! So, if you want to let your books get sold well then you ought to make it visible to the audience who are present all over the world. And, Goodreads is the best option to do so! Once you are done with making an account in ‘Goodreads’, ask your friends, followers, and readers to leave a review on the site and last but not the least recommend it to other users of this website.

7. Use Social Media to Advertise

Nowadays, people spend most of their free time while being online on various social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. So, if you want to leave a solid impression of your book to the world then use these platforms to market your book which would enhance your awareness and publicity.

Want to know how? Well, it’s quite simple and easy! Creating book trailers, sharing book quotes, drawing book doodles would certainly do wonders for you.

Coming to an end…

Apart from these aforementioned important facts, you should keep various other things in your mind if you want to make your book a bestseller.

Like, editing and re-editing your book for multiple times, publishing translations even, having an author website, sending emails to your subscribers, writing a compelling book blurb etc. would certainly help you to come up with nothing but a bestseller.

So, don’t wait anymore! Just take these tips into consideration, go ahead, write and get your international bestseller published soon.

Joseph Payne is the marketing manager at CouponsMonk.com, deals and discounts provider company. He is passionate about money savings, investment and finance industry. In addition, Joseph also supports non-profit agencies that provide healthcare solutions to handicapped and disabled people.

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The post 7 Potent Ways to Make Your Book an International Bestseller is copyright 2013 by Write Hacked.

Next I remember the terror that came over me as I began to realize that owning and running on an online insurance blog, would require me to….write.   The whole idea seemed so simple to me when I though it up. Build a simple insurance website that answered common people’s questions.  But translating my knowledge and know how was hard to put into a digital format.  I knew what I could say, but I had trouble saying it.

After five years or writing weekly though, I have come up with some very simple rules to help any business owner start their own blog writing career.

Rule One:  Don’t Fret it 

Up late worrying about what you are going to write about?   Seriously, it really does not matter what you write about or how great it is, especially in the beginning.  Getting started is often the hardest part.   Here are some ideas of what to write about:

• Answer a question a client asked .
• Correct a Common misconception.
• Write a detailed explanation about how something works.
• Refute another internet source, politely.
• Announce what you plan to do.
• Write something, really anything that is original.

Rule Two:  Never Copy other People’s Work.

Although this rule may seem amazingly obvious, its not really.  Many websites on the internet are basically just copies of other peoples posts.  In fact there are even software platforms that allow you to copy an article and out comes a slightly different version.   However, there really is no value in that.  If after scouring the internet  you find a topic that you love so much that you want to write about it yourself.  Then read it four or five times and read a couple of other articles about the same subject, then right your own.   In some situations, such as when you use quotations from that site, just link to the orginal article.  This is generally considered OK in the world of the internet.

Rule Three:  Just Start Already

On a new internet site, there is little reason to wait to write the perfect blog article.  In the beginning, really any article is almost better than none.  Obviously steer away from the obvious no nos:  Porn, Terrorism, Hateful Speech, etc.  If you need a full list, maybe you don’t need a blog.   Just focus on family friendly topics and you will be fine.

Rule Four:  Cite Sources

Without getting into all the SEO of the internet, citing sources will allow you to gain credibility with your readers.  Remember the days of footnotes?  Perhaps some of you don’t.  Lets just say be happy its 2017 and not 1997.  Citing sources really has never been easier.    If you have no idea what I am talking about, just give credit where credit is due.  As a general rule that just means linking back to someplace authoritative, especially if you pulled something from them.   It you are dealing with details its usually helpful to reference a credible source of where the details came from.   Readers are more apt to believe you if you cite a survey, but really only if their is a link from the survey.

Rule Four:  Write in whatever Voice you Feel Comfortable with

Oxford vs the AP Comma rule, just write as you feel natural.  Obsession with writing styles can often interfere, especially on your first attempt.  Trust me when I say that my first couple of insurance articles about life insurance were about as poorly written as could be..  I overstuffed them with keywords and there were grammatical errors all over the place.  Looking back on it now, I laugh that I even worried about it.  Practice does indeed makes you… at least… better.   For me at least, I know that my writing style will never be perfect.  Its the subject matter, insurance, that needs to be hyper accurate anyways.

The exception to this rule on the internet is if you are guest posting for another site.  Occasionally some guest post will require you to write in a certain tone using certain methods.  If you are guest posting – please adhere to the site owner’s rules.

Rule Six:  Start with a headline and Sub Categories and Fill in the Details

This is a big secret of the non writers.  (It may also be a secret of full time writers, but I am not one of them.)  Start off writing the general headline and add in a few sub categories.  Next up – write out the end of the blog post.   You will then be able to visit the sub categories and fill in the rest of the information.

Rule Seven:  Write for Scanners too

Sad as it is true, a lot of people that visit your site, won’t really read your article  There is a good chance that google will send them to your post where they may scan quickly through your post looking for photos, graphics, or the keywords that they are looking for.   This may be anathema to pure writers, but if you are writing your blog post for business or other reasons, I would head this advice – Ignore scanners at your own peril.   Scanners are everywhere.  I know that is what pinterest is for.  However, ignoring a sizable part of the population is often not the best business decision.

Writing for scanners involves, photos, graphics, charts, highlighted text, and bullet points.  Make it easy on their eyes and they just might read your entire post.

My Final Rule:  Write about Something you Care About

Sometimes you can tell when a writer could care less about a subject matter, the post will just not have that appeal.  So how does an insurance guy write about something he cares about?  Simple I chose an insurance subject that I feel passionate about – People getting ripped off buying an overpriced life insurance policy that they neither need nor want.   Frequent visitors of my site, often tell me that they can tell that I care about the subjects that I choose to write about

“The Most Important Step to Owning a Blog is to Write.”

To Review my Rules were:

• Consider the Scanners
• Start with a Headline and Fill in the Details
• Write in whatever Voice you Want
• Cite Sources
• Just Start Already
• Don’t Copy
• Do Not Fret
• Write about Something you like

There you have it, some basic rules to apply to your very first blog post.  Yes, there are more things to learn, such as changing up the fonts, but those can wait for another post.  Consider that in two years time, your first blog post most likely will be most remembered as a stepping stone, not a work of art.   The Most Important Step to Owning a Blog is to Write.

Scott W Johnson is an insurance broker and agent, based in Marin County California.  He is the owner of several insurance websites, including Whole Vs Term Life Insurance .com  His mantra with insurance related matters is “Educate the Client and Let theme Make an Informed Decision.”

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The post 8 Rules for Starting A Blog is copyright 2013 by Write Hacked.

What makes online branding so necessary?

Major reasons are:

• Reach
• Recognition
• Engagement

But as varied it is, it is not easy. If the online channels open doors, they open them for an exodus of people. With information available at their fingertips, online users are spoilt for choice. Making a well-defined and well-placed brand ‘a must’ to stand out from the crowd.
For individuals looking to carve a niche for themselves as writers, this might seem a daunting challenge at first. But the following simple steps can set you up to meet the challenge of online branding head on.

5 ways you can create your own Online Brand:

1. Start your own Blog: Establish yourself online by creating your own blog. Blogs help you to create and manage your own content on your own site.Making good quality content the cornerstone of your personal brand in itself helps leverage the platform provided by the blog. Many first time writers initially test waters by writing blogs.Apart from giving you a platform to air your views without any constraints, it also allows you to connect with your audience.

What further boosts this connection and takes it to a wider audience is maintaining social media consistency on popular sites like Facebook, LinkedIn etc. Having a strategy for relevant and timely content sharing on the blog and from there on social media platforms helps you to create a solid foundation.

Consider Chiara Ferragni, who is today considered a fashion brand unto herself. She started it all with a blog: The Blonde Salad. Which is today a hotspot internationally for the most trending fashions. Below are the current statistics of her reach by the website Top Fashion Influencers. It also shows how maintaining a social media feed is a constructive exercise for online branding.

The following gives a glimpse of her journey to a successful blogger.

2. Customer feedback and testimonial: Actively engaging with customers reading your content has two-way benefits:

• It allows you valuable feedback and a clearer idea of what is expected or needed.
• It helps you to engage with the audience in a more meaningful way.

Customer feedbacks make the customers feel involved in the entire process. In case of valuable feedbacks, if the changes are made it forms a mutual bond of respect between the writer and the reader. A sure way to form a loyal base for your brand.

At the same time, customer testimonials are a sure way to validate your product for a new set of audience. A testimonial proclaims the worth of your product to the customer. Due to the deep infiltration of social media channels, your work will start finding mention and visibility wherever the testimonial will get shared.

For better illustration, let us take Kristi Hines, a freelance writer who has worked with some of the best brands online.

She has built a network through her work that includes influencers in the industry who appreciate and share her work on their network. Following is how glowingly Kristi’s work is referred to and explained by one of them.

Such testimonials go a long way in validating and marketing your brand among the audience.With information so easily available and shared at a touch, building your brand based on customer reviews is an important way to form and influence such networks.

But even before any of the above, it’s important to have your work critiqued by a professional editor. Or you can take the help of critique services such as the 2nd Draft Critique Services. Find valuable feedback and get going.

3.Leveraging unconventional Social Platforms i.e. Quora and Medium:

Another effective way to leverage your brand is through the unconventional social platforms.

Diversification is important for first-time writers to tap into different segments of audience networks. Some of those off-beat but very large networks include Quora and Medium. Submitting to these websites is a way to not only showcase your writing skills but also demonstrating your expertise in a certain field and creating a following.

Consider an example, technology influencer Matt Cutts’ profile on Quora to get a better understanding.

The more the number of people who read your work, the more followers you get to convert.These mediums further help you to market your brand directly through links to your blog or other published work.

Another such example is Gary Vaynerchuk. A writer with specific interests in business has the following profile on Medium.

4.Join online writing Communities: Connecting with other individuals on the same journey as you are a great way to go. Such community bonding helps you as a first time writer to understand the nitty-gritty of the process. With more experienced people to guide you along when you face a problem.

Various writing communities foster mentorship programs too, wherein you can interact with established names in the industry and learn the ropes first hand.

Mentions for your work from any one of such mentors would go a long way in boosting your image in various industry circles.These communities go a long way in helping you sustain an audience base through recommendations and mentions on their individual networks.

For example, Bookrix is a community of independent writers who believe in self-publishing.

As part of their community, you get valuable information and impetus in your writing journey.

Then there is the oldest online writing community Critique Circle. Here you can spend hours interacting with other writers and discussing ideas. You can also utilize their critiquing services to produce a better work.

5. Develop Expertise in some specific areas:

One of the best ways to develop a loyal dedicated customer base is to gain expertise in a few specific areas. Ranging from gardening to AI, original and innovative content about certain specific topics help greatly in branding.

Such expertise leads you to multiple mentions on various platforms where your opinion is highly valued. Being considered an expert on selected issues greatly helps in creating for you a brand name.

Having customer especially reach out to you for advice on those specific issues goes a step further in strengthening your network and audience base for your work.

Take as a reference, Adam Hurrey. He is a freelance football writer. Having created an expertise for himself in the world of football, he has found quite a following on Twitter. It is how he has leveraged this platform to promote his brand is what is noteworthy.

Following are his Twitter stats.

A glimpse of his bio, that he has used to promote his other ventures.

His case proves that having an avid interest in writing about any specific field can be catapulted into great success with the right mediums and branding strategies.

Conclusion:

In recap, first-time writers have a wonderful opportunity to create a brand for themselves through the various online channels. Since online branding is all about getting your work noticed by the targeted audience through the appropriate online channels. Leveraging the right medium at the right instant goes long way in ensuring that your work is looked up to as a brand in itself.

As first time writers getting started is the first step. So write and publish as much as you can. Leverage the benefits of online channels and get your work noticed.With a dedicated approach, further study into branding and a little perseverance you can cultivate the above 5 steps to your utmost advantage.

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The post 5 Ways to Build an Author Brand is copyright 2013 by Write Hacked.

Start with the basics…

So, to test drive a title, say it out loud.  If you trip across a word, you need to fix it.  If saying your title makes you smile, frown, or sigh, that better be the mood that your book is trying to evoke through its 250 plus pages.  I advise authors to read their entire manuscript out loud before locking it down.  Hearing your words will help you identify where your story lags, where there are extraneous words, where there are repetitions.  Your voice is a much better gauge of the quality of your book than your eye.

How to go about picking a title?

Sometimes, an author comes to me with a title in mind and that is the one we end up with.  The author has a clear idea of the focus of the book and that focus is conveyed in the title.  Does that mean that writing the book is going to be a snap? Unfortunately, not always, because the author may go off message and it’s my job to try and convince them that while their material is good/great, it is not in service of their argument or the point of their story.   By repeating the title, we have a way of addressing what stays and what goes.

Usually, the author has no idea of the title.  What happens is that we work our way through their story, adding and deleting, and eventually a word or phrase pops up that captures the tone and theme of the book.  The title evolves organically from the process of writing.  It may be a piece of dialogue that works perfectly as a title – even a piece of dialogue spoken by someone other than the author embedded in a particular anecdote.

For one client, who ended up with a piece of dialogue as a title from a story that he repeated early on in our interviews, I put together an evolving list of prospective titles ending up with over 40 rejects.  Some of these titles were pieces of quotations from famous philosophers and scientists; others were lines of poetry, and still others were pulled out of the air in moments of my own despair and desperation.  We eventually circled back to the beginning, proving that sometimes the first idea is the best idea.

Final Thoughts and Examples

By the way, using parts of quotations whether from famous writers, poets or Sacred Texts can work beautifully even when your reader is not aware of the source material.  You may want to use the entire quotation in one of the front pages of your book, on the flip side of the title page, for example.

Here are some genres and examples from novels and memoirs that might serve as inspiration:

The main character:  Look no further than Anna Karenina; Madame Bovary; Huckleberry Finn; David Copperfield; Oliver Twist; Emma; Carrie, Mrs. Dalloway; and Don Quixote; My Life: Bill Clinton; Forrest Gump; and Seabiscuitt.

The unnamed main character: The Girl Upstairs; Girl Gone; the Aviator’s Wife; Memoirs of a Geisha; The Girl on the Train; The Piano Tuner; The True Memoirs of Little K; The Lover; The Invisible Man; The Boy Detective; the Girl Before; The Alchemist; The Alienist; Lab Girl.

Places that serve as a character in a book:  Winesburg, Ohio; Main Street; Mansfield Park; Cold Mountain; Wuthering Heights; Missoula; Hiroshima; Inside Passage; Rooftops of Teheran.

Character names and places about which something is happening: Paris Is Burning; TK; Looking for Alaska; Picnic at Hanging Rock.

Places and Metaphors: The Glass Castle; White Castle; The Red Tent; A Tale of Two Cities; The Lonely City; The Devil in the White City; Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil; Magic Mountain.

The Leading Word: To, From, Out and Into: To the Lighthouse; Out of Africa; The Road from Courrain;  Into the Wild; Into Thin Air.

Oppositional and Three-word Titles: War and Peace; The Sound and the Fury (this also is an excerpt from a Shakespeare quote); Crime and Punishment; The Pit and the Pendulum ( this title is also alliterative); A Tale of Love and Darkness;

One word titles that aren’t names:  1984; Atonement; Persuasion; Beloved; Possession; and Misery;  Blink; Outliers; Freakonomics; Embers; Undaunted.

Titles from Other Sources: Happy Days are Here Again (song); The Sun Also Rises (the Bible) A Time to Kill (Bible); As I Lay Dying (poem); Tender is the Night (poem); I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (poem); Passage to India (poem); No Country for Old Men (poem); All the King’s Men (nursery rhyme); Everything Is Illuminated (novel); Grapes of Wrath (hymn); and As I Lay Dying.

Sayings and Expressions: I Turned a Key and the Birds Began to Sing; Nothing to Lose But my Life; If You Don’t Ask; Running with Scissors; Beware of Pity.; Titles with Subtitles: This is a great way to incorporate your theme into the title of your book.  You’ll find that many editors try and dissuade you from using subtitles (especially since they don’t always show up on the spine of the book, but here are a few):   Jack: Straight from the Gut; Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper; Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (also alliterative).

This list is by no means exhaustive, but it will give you some ideas of about where to look for titles – whether within your own book or elsewhere.

An exercise that will be helpful as you try and come up with THE best title: Go to your neighborhood bookstore and look at the table of new releases.  See what catches your eye and which titles speak to you.  You might also check out some of the online book services.  And finally, make a list of titles that you have loved and try and figure out why they speak to you.

Founded by memoir writer Loren Stephens, Write Wisdom, provides memoir writing, editing, coaching and publishing services for philanthropists, corporate executives, artists and parents who want to leave a written legacy for their children.

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The post Ghostwriting: What’s In a Title? is copyright 2013 by Write Hacked.

If you want to run a top-notch blog, get ready to work a lot with a sharp focus on your target audience. Creating a good blog takes a lot of work, including a regular analysis of your visitors, their needs, and expectations. When you publish a blog post that grabs and holds attention, it’s like delivering a speech: you need to know the goal of your presentation to reach your listeners. The better you know your readers’ needs, the more chances you have to keep them interested.

But:

Until you have an audience, even the best article isn’t worth posting.

While you need to spend countless hours working on expanding your audience, there are some surefire ways to drive traffic to your website, even without investing much money:

1. Create Guest Posts to Share Your Expertise

First things first: if you want to attract more visitors to your blog, get your name out.

To build your online influence, you need to share actionable tips that help readers solve their problems. The more people read your blog post and find it useful, the better. And if you want to reach your potential audience, enter an already-established community: write guest posts for A class websites.

Guest posting is not just about being featured on badass sites to attract their readers to your blog. It’s also about building relations with opinion leaders in your niche.

2. Collaborate with Influencers in Your Niche

Influencer marketing is a great way to promote your brand as most opinion leaders drive action, not just awareness.

Once you’ve established good relations with opinion leaders, it’s time to ask them for collaboration. For instance, you can create a valuable content that is worth sharing, and show it to an influencer who might want to spread it among his or her audience on social media. When a thought leader shares something, it gets more shares and views as people tend to trust recommendations.

3. Promote Your Blog on the Web

Mary Meeker’s annual Internet Trends Report claims that $73 billion is spent on digital advertising, split between desktop and mobile. In other words, the online environment is getting more and more competitive, so you need to invest into your promotion to reach your target audience. Before wasting your budget on online advertising, do an audience analysis to target the right people.

Don’t wait for your target audience to find your blog by chance: advertise!

4. Reach Your Visitors Through Social Media

Around 81% of U.S. population have accounts on social media. It has become a perfect place for keeping in touch with friends and family, reading news, and finding job positions. It’s also comfortable for people to communicate with brands, so they interact with brand accounts on social media.

Even if you haven’t had a brand account yet, you can reach your potential visitors with the help of your private profile. Your friends and family are the first people to share your content and, therefore, expand your audience.

5. Interact with Your Potential Readers on Other Platforms

Proficient bloggers encourage their readers to communicate in the comments section. People tend to post their thoughts and questions, and it’s a perfect way to hook them. You don’t have to be an author of the text to communicate with other readers. It’s an actionable way to build your awareness in the niche and attract some visitors to your site. When it comes to interacting with potential readers, you need to be useful and provide them with tips that work well.

The bottom line

No matter how much effort you put into writing content for your blog, it’s worth nothing until you have a good audience of readers. Thus, attracting your target audience to the blog is a must, and some of the above-mentioned tactics can help you.

Do you have your secrets on growing your audience online?

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The post 5 Actionable Ways to Attract Your Target Audience to Your Blog is copyright 2013 by Write Hacked.

Here are top 10 mistakes writers usually make when self-publishing their first book. Avoid them, and you’ll succeed.

1. Waiting, and Waiting….and Waiting

There is no “perfect” moment to publish your book. “But I still need to work on X, Y, or Z,” you might think. Fine. If your book is not finished yet, or your content not polished, set up deadlines, stick to them, and finish your work in due time.

Dana Humphrey, Sales Manager at essaygeeks.co.uk, shares her opinion. “Procrastinating is never productive. Depending on how much work you have left to accomplish, design an effective schedule that will help you keep track of your progress.”

Some good tips:

• Begin your day by motivating yourself. Do what you love for one hour before starting to work. Relax, unwind, meditate, read, dance, sing, whatever. Take time for yourself.
• Set daily word count goals – if today you plan on writing 700 words, stick to that target, and don’t stop until you’ve reached your number.
• Change work environments for better focus, and personalize your office if working from home
• Set weekly and monthly deadlines, and reward yourself if you respect them

Side note: don’t forget to ask for advice and feedback constantly. Tracking your progress is essential.

2. Not Planning Your Budget

While traditional companies might do the math for you, self-publishing means taking care of everything by yourself. It’s important to plan a budget and see where you stand. It’s crucial to write your plans down, and respect them thoroughly.

• If you need help with different tasks, plan on hiring a freelancer
• Think about your marketing costs, and what self-publishing means cost-wise
• Consider the taxes that you’ll have to pay
• Keep track of your income and expenses; find a balance

It’s important to prepare beforehand than leave everything for the last minute. Stay organized!

3. Thinking Negatively

Worrying about the number of readers that you’ll have, or your inability to sell a high number of copies will only decrease outcomes and motivation. It’s good to prepare for the worst, but that does not mean you should think negatively all of the time.

• Think what the worst that could happen is if you don’t sell any books
• Think about ways to improve your content instead of worrying about the future
• Practice writing every day, even after you’ve finished working on your book – if you won’t succeed the first time, there’s always “a second time,” so you must be prepared and trained.

Focus more on treating the cause, not the symptoms, and make the best out of your present situation.

4. Making Your Story Perfect Before Publishing It

Your story must not be perfect before you publish it. If you wait too long, you’ll end up not publishing anything at all. With each new book that you launch, you are gaining experience. There’s no “failure,” there are only better outcomes. You will earn something new every time you publish a volume.

5. Finding No Good Websites to Publish It On

You should start thinking about marketing. Publishing a book without creating a plan to promote it is inefficient.

• Use Amazon as your first tool – even if this website takes 65% of your profits, it’s still the best method to promote your book; everybody uses Amazon
• Promote the book on your personal blog and link it to Facebook, Twitter, etc.
• Join Google Books
• Check out Lulu or Createspace

Start preparing yourself for your marketing campaign by following the latest self-publishing trends!

6. Continuously Comparing Your Work to Others’

Don’t compare yourself to others. There might be better writers than you on the market – so what? There are less talented writers too. If you keep thinking that “you could have done better” after publishing, you won’t be able to sell too many copies. In order to promote your product, you must believe in it with all your heart. You are unique, remember that.

7. Not Creating Your Website Immediately

If you don’t have a website or a blog yet, it’s time to work on it. You’ll need a personal platform to promote your book on.

• Choose your platform (we highly recommend WordPress)
• Pick a domain and a host
• Choose a name (make it stand out!)
• Set up your website by choosing a simple theme and customizing it

Don’t struggle too much on the design. First, make sure your book sells, and then start worrying about the details.

8. Not Building Up an E-mail List

You’ll need to reach out to your customers in one way or another. The best strategy is creating an e-mail list.

• Start by choosing your favorite email service (for example, MailChimp)
• Send out trial e-mails to your groups (family, friends, neighbors, etc.)
• Enlarge your list by creating eye-catching titles and linking to social media

Have super interesting headlines. Avoid making them look like spam, and format your content in an intelligible way. Be consistent, and send out e-mails regularly!

9. Being Unwilling to Understand SEO

As a promoter and beginner, make sure you get accustomed to what SEO means. According to MOZ, SEO is a marketing discipline that grows your online visibility exponentially. It focuses on improving your rankings on search engines, and bringing more traffic to your page. Focusing on understanding how SEO works is therefore crucial for your marketing campaign.

10. Asking for a Price That’s Too High

Don’t be greedy! If you are publishing a book for the first time, it’s not smart to set high prices. Tips on how to price your book:

• Take in consideration the production costs
• Think about your experience and expertise on the market – if you don’t have an already established reputation, go for the minimum price
• Consider offering discounts
• Search for eBook market prices
• Ask your customers how much they’d pay by creating surveys

Conclusion

Don’t wait too much to publish your book, act on it now. Also, plan your budget accordingly, stop thinking negatively, set deadline to accomplish goals, find great websites to publish your book on, and start building up your e-mail list today. For better outcomes, learn SEO, and ask for decent prices. Good luck!

Chris Richardson has been working as an editor at a publishing agency in London, UK for 5 years. He is also a professional content writing expert in such topics as career growth, self-improvement, blogging, and technology innovations.

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The post Top 10 Mistakes Writers Make When Self-Publishing a Book is copyright 2013 by Write Hacked.

The fact is that many authors have seen success with self-publishing, but it requires a great deal of additional work, not to mention financial and marketing acumen. If you can learn how to do it yourself, and set aside the time, self-publishing can be the preferable choice. It doesn’t have to be the desperate last option people make it out to be, as long as you put in the work and use the right author resources.

What’s the Difference Between Self-Publishing and Traditional Publishers?

The main reason that self-publishing hasn’t killed the traditional publishing industry is the services that publishers offer. Traditional publishers have connections with bookstores and staff to supplement a book launch. Editors, marketing teams, and cover designers are all ready to give your book the best chance of succeeding possible. That’s because when a publisher signs you on, they become invested in the success of your book too.

The main benefit to traditional publishing is that it lets you just write and let other people take care of the rest.

If you’re self-publishing, on the other hand, you need to do all of that yourself: Source an editor, a cover designer, find an audience and market to them. You’ll be navigating tax season alone, which can get complicated too.

This isn’t meant to dissuade you from self-publishing. There is a lot to be said for having 100 percent creative control in the design and marketing phases of book launches. You also get to keep much more of the profits per book sold. Plus, there are a number of resources that show you how to do most, if not all of these things and get your book self-published for free or cheap.

Plan a Self-Publishing Budget

Rather than thinking of your novel as a thing that you write, send off, and get published, it’s important to think about longer term goals. Getting published is no longer the last step, when you’re doing it yourself. It is, in fact, the first step of a whole new project.

What you’re going to need is a publishing small business plan. Treat your book launch just like a product release from the point of view of a business owner. Identify your target market, make a marketing plan, and outline the process that gets you from point A (writing is finished) to point Z (books are being sold).

Some important decisions to make before you start involve what you’re prepared to spend money on.

It can be a good idea to spend money on some services, but pick carefully. A good general rule is to spend money on people, not platforms. By all means pay for an editor or a cover designer individually, but avoid marketing platforms and packages. With the right business plan, and the host of book marketing advice online, you absolutely do not need to pay for marketing services.

Once you’ve made the decisions about where you want to spend money, stick to them. This is a long-haul process and staying on budget is important.

Remember to set aside some money for proof and test copies of your books, plus a few freebies for contest prizes, and a modest stock for you to take to signings. It’s important to price out the final cost of book production so that you can budget for how many you want to purchase from the self-publishing and printing service you choose.

Prepare Ahead for Tax Season

If you’re not self-employed already, filing with self-employed income can be quite a difficult transition. You will want to get organized ahead of time, decide whether you need help with your taxes, and keep very careful track of not only your income but your expenses as well.

There are unique tax requirements for sellers on Amazon that you should take into account. Not to mention the fact that if your audience becomes international, you may have complicated tax treaties to navigate. For countries with close relationships with America, this won’t be much of a problem.

For example, if you’re outside of America but want to access the American audience, you’ll need an American tax number come tax season. This is easy to accomplish in countries like Canada. It’s a good idea to look up which countries that America has tax treaties with, and know where you end up paying taxes for international book sales. This is important even if you do live in the US. Usually, you’ll only need to pay taxes once, but where and how you do that can change depending on the country in which the sale is made.

Most Important of All …

Weigh the costs and features of the different self-publishing services carefully. There are a number of self-publishing platforms. If you need help sorting through the options, here is a handy self-publishing guide comparing Createspace, Lightning Source, and Lulu. Stick around and follow more advice on this blog, and you’ll be ready to go in no time!

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The post Preparing for Self-Publishing: Where Do You Start? is copyright 2013 by Write Hacked.

Ways of finding inspiration differ from writer to writer and depend on its personality. They vary from simple things like listening to music or watching movies to some more demanding tasks like traveling. Either way, no matter which one you choose, those techniques are just outlets. They arise as a result of your will and effort for self-improvement. Yes, the real truth is that the way to regaining motivation and reestablishing inspiration comes from one’s desire to make changes in their life. That will help them reach their potential and achieve the goals that are set.

Need some help starting? Here are some techniques that will assist you on your way to finding your will for self-improvement. So you could regain your motivation and inspiration.

Meditation

As many of you already know, meditation is a practice where an individual trains its mind and transforms it. This is in order to achieve a state of consciousness. This state of mind encourages and develop concentration, clarity and emotional positivity. This way people are able to penetrate to the deepest parts of their being and find answers to current or lifelong problems. So just relax, close your eyes and enter the mood where the ideas may come to you unexpectedly.

Establish a strict routine

It is a known fact that a strict daily routine is the best ally of the people who are fighting with depression. This way of life provides you with a sense of accomplishment and control. In that way it clears your mind which makes room for new ideas. An interesting fact is that a large number of great writers lived their lives on a tight schedule. People who freelance and have writing jobs from home especially need to impose this strategy. It helps not to fall behind just relaxing in their favorite chairs all day doing nothing. For instance, one of the household names of today’s literary scene Haruki Murakami, when writing a novel, gets up at 4 am. He works for six hours, runs 10 kilometers or swims 1,5 kilometer. Than he reads for the rest of the day and go to bed at 9 pm sharp. He says: “I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind.”

Have fun

It is so easy to forget the importance of fun In our lives. If you let it writing can make you unhappy. Whenever you try to make yourself to write about something you do not like and continuously beat yourself up whenever you cannot force the words to come out of your head consequently being dissatisfied with your work it will make you miserable. And a miserable person can hardly do a decent job. So, go find something that makes you smile, because smile produces happiness and when a person is happy it is much easier to find motivation and inspiration. Find writers needed add on a subject you know and love and rediscover your love for the written word!

Search for help

Some people find it hard to make big decisions and take corresponding actions. In that case, the best move is to ask a professional to help you get out of your head and start taking action and making changes in our life. Those helpers come in form of life coaches. A life coach will act as a motivator who will give you the push you need to achieve your goals. Academic writers online today usually so many obligations and volume of work on their hands that they especially require the assistance of professionals such as life coaches. They will help you strategize effectively and through a series of specific questions. They will make you re-focus your thinking in order to be sure you are realizing your goals in an effective and meaningful way.

The best way to choose of those techniques is to try them all. Then make your decision. The thing is that, whether it is meditation or a strict routine, one of them will probably suit your needs. Also it will provide you with necessary help in your inspiration lacking moments.
Somehow, the fastest and most efficient way to restore your motivation and inspiration is with the help of a professional. A life coach will help you identify your goals and hold you accountable for reaching those goals. He will also guide you through obstacles and teach you how to make important decisions for yourself. In that manner life coaches are probably the best way to go on to your path to self-improvement.

As it was said many times in this article, desire for self-improvement is key for discovering your inspiration. So do not wait, go and find it!

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The post How Top-Notch Authors Find Inspiration For Their Writing is copyright 2013 by Write Hacked.

Have a ‘.com’ Domain

If you want to be seen as a professional writer and author then you’ll need a fully-fledged website. People rarely want to spend their money on amateur work as there’s a risk it will be too low quality – to make sure you don’t lose readers, invest in your own website.

Start A Giveaway

When you want to sell your book, it may seem antithetic to give it away, but in all honesty that’s the easiest way to garner reviews and appear in the ‘also bought’ scroll when people look at other books, so it’s a small price to pay for a lot of potential readers.

Promote Yourself on a Blog or Social Media

This is one of the easiest steps to take, and one a lot of authors already have in place. However, not many authors are using their social media profiles and blogs as efficiently as they could. For example, using the following tools can help maximise your following and turn your audience into readers:

• Portent Title Maker – the headline of your post is the first thing people will see, and it’s how they’ll decide whether or not to check out your page. Make sure it’s snappy and catchy by using this tool
• Paper Fellows – learn from people who have already gone through the process by seeking help and advice from the professionals and amateurs who are available in the forums on this site
• Essay Roo – if your time is taken up by writing your book, then you can hire a professional editor for your social media or blog posts to make sure you have selling content ready to go, and your audience is hyped up before your book’s release date
• Topic Generator – if you’re not sure what to write about to promote your book, simply enter the key words here are you’ll be provided with a whole list of topics and ideas for posts
• UK Writings – selling content needs to look good and be in the perfect format, so hiring an expert copywriter here can help you appear really professional in all of your online pages
• Easy Word Count – it’s well-established that blog posts over 1000 words are the best for SEO and engagement, and it’s easy to make sure you’re hitting this target with this tool
• Paper writing service – for your posts to be popular, you need to fuel SEO, and an easy way to do that is by making sure that your posts all have perfect spelling and grammar – so hire a professional editor here to make sure your posts are flawless before they’re uploaded

Engage on Social Media

Simply being present isn’t enough, you need to seriously work at maintaining relationships, which is easier to manage with Buffer.

Focus on SEO

While it may not come naturally to a creative writer, when you’re marketing you need to tick certain boxes. If that’s difficult, you can find help with SEO at Yoast.

Have Multiple Books Ready At Once

Having a short prequel is a great way of getting readers hooked, and it also means you suffer fewer losses if you decide to have a freebie launch. Plus, you look more like an experienced author.

Choose a Niche

You’ll rise higher in the charts of a niche category than a general one, which is a great way to make your work more appealing.

Launching a book is a scary time, as it’s like you’re putting a part of yourself out into the world, however following the steps above is a great way to make sure people find your novel.

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The post 7 Tips to Help Promote Your First Self-Published Book is copyright 2013 by Write Hacked.

Motivation is not something that you find every day. In many ways, it is similar to a gambler’s luck. It should be understood from within and spread all over like the urge to keep on playing games.

However, certain tips and tricks will help a writer stay on the task. They are:

Choose Something That Interests You

Motivation is something that is largely found from within. While several external factors will certainly help in this aspect, a person will find it difficult to stay motivated on a task if there is no attachment to the same.

Hence, it is imperative to write on something that is of interest in the first place. In such a way, it is possible to stay motivated even when the going gets tough. Choosing a niche that may be a pastime or just a general interest will also help spring new ideas to the mind.

Set Deadlines

Deadlines are extremely important in order to find a great balance between work and personal life, and this study shows just that. Getting down to writing something special requires a lot of time, and this can be taxing on the personal life. Consequently, this takes an effect on the output in a negative way, as it is not possible to spend a lot of concentration or also generate new ideas when an individual is not entirely happy. Setting deadlines and adhering to those deadlines will help greatly when it comes to balancing both sides of the game.

Speak with Other Great Writers

New interactions are a great way to find new concepts to write about. They are also just a great source of ideas. This becomes especially profound when meeting with other writers, who have excelled in the field.

Such opportunities may be rare, but they can be the kind of motivational tools that can transform a dull moment into something special. Interactions with our great writers also give an insight into their style of work and the tools that they use to motivate in order to write something special.

Reward Yourself

Those in the field of writing know that the rewards will not be instant and it may even take several years in order to get rewarded in a handsome way. This can be a deal breaker for those who regard money to be an important aspect of life.

A major reason for many to quit the work in the middle is simply because they do not see any rewards. While one can keep reminding themselves that the rewards would come, a better way to stay motivated would be to reward themselves with gifts now and then. These gifts can be seen as a remuneration for all the hard work.

Dream to Get Fresh Ideas

It is possible to source fresh ideas required to write something special from our daily life or even on a trip. Yet, this may not always be possible. One need not worry at the lack of ideas coming from our physical environment, as there is a huge dream world where anything is possible.

It is not wrong to even daydream sometimes if it means that the source of the next great idea can be found. Surprisingly, dreaming can be a great way to find new sources of inspiration to write about – even without moving a muscle.

Eliminate All Distractions

Unlike other jobs where it is possible to multitask, writing requires a lot of concentration and dedication in order to get it right. If an individual is working on something special like a novel, it is imperative to eliminate every distraction that may come their way in order to stay focused on the job.

Apart from increasing the time spent, such distractions also have the capability to dissolve a great idea. The distraction may come in the form of family, friends, or machines. Yet, it is important to overcome all those aspects in order for the result to be great.

Keep Reminded About the Importance

The key to stay on a subject for long periods – these can be especially long in the case of a novel – is to be reminded about its importance at regular intervals. The rewards may come in any form, but being reminded about the same from time to time will help the mind remain focused even if the reward is not within touching distance.

Most make the mistake of forgetting about the ultimate goal and end up losing momentum and motivation halfway through the project. It is possible to use the vast array of gadgets or even consult with our family or friends to remind about the importance of the project.

Getting a Clean or Innovative Writing Space

Lastly, the importance of a clean or innovative writing space cannot be underestimated. The motivation factor clearly increases sevenfold if the working space is to the liking of the individual. Some prefer a clean space that has minimal looks in order to focus on the task at hand.

However, there are also individuals who prefer an individual working space so that he can dive into those fresh ideas straight from their desk. Even if someone likes to be on the move or in a special place in order to write on that special project, it is imperative to find a place that is distraction free.

Final Thoughts

These are some tips and tricks that one should adopt in order to write something special. It is not every day that one can produce a masterpiece, but sticking with some of these pieces of advice will certainly get them closer to fulfilling this goal. Remember that everything you’re looking for is right there – in your head – you just have to find it.

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The post Tips & Tricks On How to Get Motivated If You Want To Write Something Special is copyright 2013 by Write Hacked.

I’m not so sure about that, but what I do know is that it’s an effective platform to get your message out into the world, build a thriving audience, and sell like gangbusters.

With over 80 million visitors a month, there’s room for any niche you can think of.

I’ve been on the platform for a while, but have only used it sporadically. While there, I’ve watched people with no prior audience, ok writing skills, and determination build huge audiences and leverage them to successfully launch businesses, books, and online courses.

I took a deep look at the keys to the success of popular writers and found they have all have similarities.

In this post, I’m going to share what I’ve discovered so you can use it to build your platform, attract a thriving audience, and of course – sell books.

Your Profile

All great things start small. Your Medium profile is no exception. It’s the first thing people see when they land on your account page. It lets them know what you stand for, who you are, and what they can expect from you.

Darius Foroux is one of the most popular writers on Medium.

His profile tells you what he is/does and asks a pointed question “want to live a productive life?”  To top it off, he throws in social proof about the size of his mailing list. 20,000+ is definitely a reason to take him seriously.

You don’t need to put your numbers in your profile, but you should check these boxes:

• Who you are
• What you do
• What they can expect from you.

When you supply that information, you increase the chances they’ll follow you and engage with the rest of your writing. An engaged audience is a loyal audience.

Writing that Caters to Medium

Medium, like other platforms, rewards some content more than others. Of course, you should always follow best practices when writing and cater to your audience’s needs. I know I don’t need me to remind you about how to format and edit either.

That’s not what here for.

I’m referring to the specific types of content that do well on Medium. When you incorporate these articles into your workflow, you get more traction, shares, and followers in a shorter amount of time.

Listicles

Yes, the internet has made it hard to ignore them. Usually, they don’t offer much value, but I know you won’t make clickbait.

Anyways, a good listicle is informative, to the point, and easily digested.

News Jacking

Are there any popular topics that can tie into your writing niche? For example, maybe Drake just completed a grueling world tour; can you take lessons from that and tie it into an article on productivity? (“7 Things we can learn from Drake about Productivity”)

You take what’s already being fueled by popular media and make it your own.

How To’s / what I learned.

How to’s are like the holy grail on Medium. Coming close behind them are articles detailing a personal experience and what you learned from it. No matter whom you are, where you come from, and what you’ve done —there’s an interesting story there.

I recently read a story that highlighted the effects of blogging every day. It was a well written and engaging case study — the verdict — it doesn’t work.

Dress up your experiences and make them presentable. You are a writer aren’t you; this should be a piece of cake. The added benefit is allowing your audience to connect with the person behind the words. They get to understand you as a person apart from your work.

Publications – your secret sauce

Even if you do everything else right, your reach will be limited on Medium. The best quality — the number of users — is also the worst one. Your writing can easily be drowned by more established authors.

Medium publications will help you avoid this fate. They’re like magazines unique to the platform that help you reach their audience. Once your story is published within a publication, it shows up on the timeline of their followers which gives you massive exposure.

Each one has its own guidelines and requirements for submitting. Once you’re accepted as an author you can continue to submit every story you write without going through a formal pitching process.

To get inside the publications, you have to pitch the editors a draft of your story. The tricky part is finding the editors email address. Some of the smaller publications list it on their about page. Most don’t.

Instead, navigate to the editor’s profile, then to their social accounts, and then to their personal or business website. Most of the time, you can find an email you can use to submit your draft. Pitch it the same way you’d pitch any other work.

Target publications with at least 10,000 followers.

Conclusion

Medium is a huge and highly engaged platform that doesn’t take rocket science to master. The first prerequisite is to write what people want to read. After that create a strong profile, cater to your Medium audience, and get accepted to multiple publications.

Let me know your experience using Medium in the comments.

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The post How to Build a Powerful Author Platform Using Medium is copyright 2013 by Write Hacked.

At the same time though, it represents potentially lost revenue, staring you right in the face. Even worse, it’s often not your genuine book the piracy site is offering. It’s a virus-ridden abomination, ready to infect the world under the guise of your good name. Most of the time, it’s better to brush it off and move on. Take it as a mark of success and a funny story to tell your writer friends.

If you really can’t let it go, then the following are some possible approaches to sink the pirates for stealing your work.

Complain To The Service Directly

There are a whole host of places you might find your work lurking without permission. Torrent sites, PDF sharing services, specialist eBook download sites…the list is endless. After all, the internet is far from the most law-abiding place.

However, in almost every instance, you have the opportunity to do something directly. Torrent sites often have the option to flag a torrent or report it. In the first instance, it’s always best to try and go through the sites own channels. If you make enough noise, you will sometimes be listened to.

Sometimes, you will be able to find a section of a site specifically for reporting copyright problems. Otherwise, you should aim to find a general contact form or email and approach the site through that. When contacting a service, be sure to state that you are the copyright holder of the work in question. Be firm and pushy when aiming to deal with services in this way.

If you make several attempts to contact the site itself, but receive no reply, it might be time to take things to the next level.

Contact The Host

Aiming to get a site taken down by going over its head to its host is a time-consuming, technical process. In short, you should be sure that you really want to do it. If you do, check out this in-depth guide to the technical aspects of ebook piracy protection. Basically, sites often cover their tracks by registering in a circuitous way which makes it difficult for them to be tracked down and dealt with.

Sometimes, you will get lucky, and a site’s host will take it down, protecting your work and the work of countless others. More often than not, it’s too much effort to get an effective response. While it’s relatively easy to click a report button on a torrent service, for example, it’s a lot more trouble to try and resolve things through the host.

You should carefully consider whether your time is better spent creating or complaining.

Dealing With Plagiarism

Sometimes, you won’t find an entire book you’ve written pirated. Instead, you’ll find blog posts copied or nearly-copied from your work, published under someone else’s name. This is potentially worse than a pirated ebook as bloggers live and die by the quality of their ideas and the influence they’ve had.

One way you can check to see if your work is showing up anywhere it shouldn’t is by using Copyscape. If you do come across some of your content in an ‘undesired location’ you have several options available to you. In the first instance, it’s often a noble solution to reach out and offer that the blogger can keep the content on their blog, as long as they link to your original and identify you as the author. This is often a win/win scenario.

If you definitely want it taken down, you need to try and contact the blogger directly. Sometimes, they will own up to it and take it down out of embarrassment. If this doesn’t work, you can always try and leaving a comment, although the chances are it will be deleted. It’s possible to report sites to Google for stolen content. Similarly to reaching out to a site’s host, this is perhaps an option of last resort, if you’re really, really bothered. Most of the time, just keep in mind that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” and move on.

Piracy Protection Recap

When it comes to your work being ‘borrowed’ without permission, it’s almost always better to move on. After all, do we not have better things to do with our time as writers than chase ebook piracy protection copyright claims?

However, if you’re determined to strike back, you can always –

• Report the content directly
• Take things up a notch and contact hosts/Google
• Reach and out seek a diplomatic solution where your authorship is recognized

The approach you take will depend upon the severity of the copyright infringement and the size of the bee in your bonnet.

Just always keep in mind it’s the cool kids that get copied!

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The post 3 Piracy Protection Tactics For Writers is copyright 2013 by Write Hacked.

It begs the question, how can you ensure that the time and effort that you put into producing content is worth it? The important thing to note here is the creation of content that’s captivating, engaging, entertaining and unique. You have to try to write content that draws people in.

With this in mind, the following are five unusual techniques that will keep your readers glued to any content that you come up with:

Don’t Complicate Things: Keep It Simple

Have you ever been frustrated by a piece of writing merely because of the type of words used? If you have fantastic content, it’s advisable that you don’t complicate it, thus making it difficult for your readers to comprehend. Offer value to your audience through by cutting the content down into several bits.

When you look at content from established and renowned writers, you’ll notice that their content is usually arranged in an orderly manner and written using simple vocabulary, words used in everyday conversations. The ideas that they are trying to pass across to their readers are usually broken down into finer detail!

Most of the famous novels are written in a simple style. They leave a lasting impression with the story rather than with words. To keep your readers glued to your content, you have to say what you want to say in the simplest way possible without any complications.

Employ the Element Of Surprise

The greatest works of fiction are often full of surprising twists and turns. However, nonfiction works are at times predictable, therefore making them uninteresting.

It is, therefore, advisable that you include unforeseen twists and turns in your content. This will keep things exciting and fun for your readers. Why do we like our presents wrapped? It’s simply for the element of the surprise that lies ahead.

You have to keep readers on their toes by, for instance, asking them a question and responding to it in a way that they would not have expected. Moreover, you could make a statement and then follow it up with a point that seems to contradict that same sentence. However, you should not forget to explain your points. Additionally, a provocative comparison or an unanticipated joke can keep the reader glued to your content.

Narrate an Unforgettable Story

Since time immemorial, people have often been captivated by stories. For example, most of the time we tend to tell our latest stories to our fellow students during lunchtime; at night we tell enchanting stories to our kids, then we watch captivating movies on T.V.

People remember stories more than concepts, formulas or rules. Your content will be compelling and more interesting if you include examples and real life experiences.

For instance, instead of simply saying ‘fast foods are unhealthy,’ you could give a story about a particular person who lived or has lived a long life as a result of avoiding fast foods. This addition will keep capture the attention of your audience, which will, in turn, keep them glued to your blog.

Make Use of Emotional Language

Awful non-fiction pieces of writing are mostly excessively factual and mundane. They often use complicated sentence structures and unfamiliar words in order to make them appear more credible and look as if they were written by an expert.

The solution to this is to use more emotion, imagery, and personality. Metaphors can also be used to add some flavor. The less you use abstract nouns, the better. It’s better to use proper nouns in this case since they represent something that you as a person can touch physically. These kinds of words attract readers to your content. The reader is able to experience them as opposed to simply reading them.

Particular words like ‘magic’ are emotionally charged words that definitely affect your readers. They get to have a feel of your content. These kinds of words can evoke emotions in your audience. Emotions will make your readers continue reading your content, word by word. You should, therefore, strive to reconnect with the emotional part of your writing.

Lure Your Readers

If you’ve noticed, great movies grab your attention right from the word go and don’t let it go till the end. With this in mind, why don’t you apply this technique when writing your content?

If your articles are mostly for the online community, it’s guaranteed that they’ll be in competition with other articles from different writers. In this day and age, readers can simply choose all of them (for free in most cases). Therefore, grabbing their attention from the start is the number one priority. A good tactic of doing this is starting with a historical or personal story.

Moreover, you could also ask a question to your readers. For instance, if you’re writing an article about how to reduce weight, you can begin with “Isn’t it annoying that every New Year you come up with a resolution to lose weight, and then three months down the line you haven’t even begun following the set weight reduction regimen?” The question should be in a way that it resonates with your readers.

Also, you could start with a funny thought too. By utilizing one of or all these strategies, you have a higher chance of grabbing your reader’s attention and keeping it until the end. Remember to keep your audience guessing on what’s coming next.

Conclusion

There you have it. The above are unusual tactics that you can employ to keep your readers interested and glued to your content all the time. As a writer, you need to be imaginative. You can train yourself on how to use these techniques by simply reading many great works of fiction. Eventually, you’ll be able to grasp these methods and make your writing as interesting as possible.

Are there any other techniques that you know of that we might have left out? Feel free to mention them.

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The post 5 Unusual Writing Techniques that Keep Readers Glued to Your Content is copyright 2013 by Write Hacked.

If you would like to become a successful writer, you have got to sharpen those writing skills. Writers have huge demand in the writing field.  More and more companies and people used to hire professional writers to write contents and articles for their business websites or blogs. Writing is menacing to people who are inefficient and unskilled at writing. Writing doesn’t have to be heartbreaking because there are many people in the world who write regularly for earning money. So, any person can polish his writing skills with a little discipline and a readiness to learn.

Here are 15 Essential Tips for Becoming a Better Writer:

1. Write More

You can become a better writer if you focus on writing more. People become successful in writing by writing articles, essays and contents more. When you write more, you will understand how to write, how to develop new ideas and how to make your writing effective.

2. Write Everyday

One of the most essential things that you should do to become a better writer is to write every day. When you write every day, you will get the fluency in writing and you will also be introduced to new things to develop your writing.

3. Read A Lot

None of the people in the world can become a good writer if they don’t focus on reading. Reading is essential if you would like to become successful in writing. So, read books and other materials in order to develop your writing.

4. Perfect Grammar and Spelling

Grammar and spelling is very important when you write something. The writer should be fluent and expert in grammar and spelling. So, make sure to brush up on the fundamental theories and standards of writing, grammar and spelling.

5. Research A Lot

Researching is very important for people who would like to become experts in writing. Research a lot so that you can develop an eye for what effective writing looks like and it gives you a chance to understand how others write.

6. Develop A Style

Every successful writer has got their own writing style and their style of writing allows them to express themselves in a great manner. Hence, you should develop a writing style that lets you to make your writing effective.

7. Make Writing Simple

You can turn into a better writer by making your writing very simple. People will love your writing if you write in a simple way because simple writing helps readers to understand what you write, your ideas and your arguments.

8. Practice Writing

Don’t think that you can improve your writing without practicing writing. Keep in mind that practice makes you better and when you practice writing, you can develop into a better writer. It’s the practice that makes your writing effortless.

9. Stay focused

If you don’t stay focused in your writing, you will fall short and cannot become better in writing. Distraction is common and it is the enemy of all writers. Hence, you have to learn how to overcome distractions so that you can become a great writer.

10. Be Patient

Writers should be very patient if they would like to be a better writer. Remember that you cannot find success in your writer soon or within a day. You should practice writing and keep on writing every day with a lot of patience because eventually, you will find success.

11. Make Mistakes

Another important thing that you should have so as to become a better writer is the fearlessness to make mistakes in your writing. Making mistakes and correcting them at the right time will help you become an expert in writing.

12. Write With Conviction

Conviction is very crucial when it comes to writing something. You should be confident enough about your writing and lack of conviction will guide you to fear, uninspired and indifferent. So, approach writing with a lot of conviction.

13. Know Your Abilities

There is always a need to understand your abilities because it will help you to write about the things in which you are expertise. You can develop a better writing style if you know your abilities and it will also lead you to fame as well.

14. Be Honest

A professional writer will always be honest in his writing. None of the people consider you as a better writer if you don’t keep up honesty in your writing. Don’t go for plagiarism in your writing and be sincere in your writing to be a better writer.

15. Write With Passion

You should write with passion and it will aid you to turn into a better writer. When you approach writing with passion, you will find ways to improve your writing and make you writing as enjoyable as possible. So, be passionate to be a writer and write accordingly.

Thomas Brown is an avid reader who likes engaging content. He also writes poetry and short stories on occasion.He is an academic counselor too and guides students on literature writing .Read more of his work here.

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The post 15 Essential Tips for Becoming a Better Writer is copyright 2013 by Write Hacked.

They say that repetition and practice are essential keys to success. I completely agree, and I guess you do too. Remember how easy was putting words on the paper? How about the fact that starting and finishing writing tasks was something that had to be done on a daily basis?

You need to get back in shape quickly! There’s often a huge problem when writers, bloggers, or any individuals that simply write encounter: After a longer break, your writing will look like crap. You’ll figure out that writing isn’t that easy how it used to be, so you might quickly give up.

Listen to me…these thoughts are normal. Your unconscious brain is trying to protect yourself from disappointment, so it generates resistance. Get out of this state of mind and become aware that you’re the one in control, and that it takes just a bit of will and action to put things back to normal.

During today’s post, you’re going to learn a few helpful things that’ll put you back on track. In fact, our tips might also be simple objective reminders of what needs to get done. Pay attention, and make sure that you make this lecture productive by taking quick steps and actions towards change.

1. Stop Being a Perfectionist

Every writer is a bit perfectionist. After a long break of writing, you’d be often tempted to think that your writing terribly sucks. You’d be tempted to believe that you’ve lost your skills and that you have to restart your learning process, and that might make you want to quit.

These were merely two simple examples of possible self-thought scenarios. There are many other thoughts that can make you feel totally bad and unprofessional. Do not self-sabotage yourself. Seriously…realize once and for all that every negative thought is an uncontrollable reaction coming from your subconscious.

If you become aware every time, avoiding or dealing with perfectionist thoughts will be very easy.

2. Start Reading & Copying other Writers

Writing breaks that become permanent breaks represent the biggest threat to a writer’s career. If you decide to get back to writing, though, you might feel that you’re not good enough and that you’ll never write like you’ve written before the break.

Dana Trinidad, professional writer at Best Essays, explains how picking up writing again is not that complicated if you actually know what to do:

“For all the writers who have trouble with picking up the habit again, here’s what you should do:
Take a day off and simply browse the web. Look for talented writers within your niche, and make a list of 5 writers. Then, decide 3 writers that impressed you the most. After you’ve made up your mind, read two or three of their articles (of each writer) each day.

Read critically – that means you should watch how they put the words in the sentence, how they express their ideas, what words and verbs they use, and what they avoid. In the same time, try to copy their style a bit while you’re practicing each day on your own.

3. Develop Habits Again

Writing should be a daily habit. Whenever habits are established in our lives, we no longer need motivation in order to start that task. It’s a part of our lifestyle, and we have already accepted and got used to it.

Create tiny habits and stick to every one of them each day. Example:

a) Write 500 words each day RIGHT AFTER you wake up and wash up
b) Create a longer article on Tuesdays and Thursdays after gym.
c) Analyze 3 writer’s works 30 minutes each day.

Make these habits very small and easy to approach. This way, you’ll build momentum. Writing will quickly seem painless, and the fun will come back soon.

4. Take Your Time

Please, do not rush! You need to take your time. Long breaks are often causing lots of damages. This refers to basically anything. If you’re used to eating a lot each day and then you suddenly change to rare meals, your organism will go crazy.

It’s the same with writing, only that the negative emotions come from your actual ego that tells you that you’re not good enough. Take things easy, be very patient with your “recovery process”, and you’ll witness success sooner than expected.

5. Maintain the Momentum by Writing Each Day no Matter What

Building momentum is great because it makes us “go on fire” with everything we do. Every time a bit of momentum is built as a result of a small action and/or accomplishment, we’re earning bits of motivation and inspiration. Creativity is also a very important resource to consider. Fortunately, it applies the same way, if we’re only able to maintain the momentum!

The thing is…holding the momentum is not even that hard. All that it takes is to write every day. It doesn’t matter if you write 250-300 words or 2500-3000 words. Focusing your brain on writing each day will slowly turn you into the confident writer that you used to be before, or even better!

Conclusion

Getting back in writing shape after a long pause is different for every writer. It’s a bit tricky and complicated, yes, but it can always be done. As a last strong advice, I’d suggest figuring out the most important reason for which you want to start writing again. Is it important enough?

If it is, connect yourself with that thought each day. If you’re emotionally connected to your desire of change, you’ll stand much more chances of success. I wish you good luck. And remember, writing is important, so what you do is…important!

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The post Taking a Break from Writing? Here’s How to Get Back in Shape Quickly is copyright 2013 by Write Hacked.

Below are the best lessons from the famous writers that a beginner can follow before they start writing. The lessons are from the immense days of hard work devoted by the writers to get into the top list.

Inspiration gained by keeping deadlines

Writers move towards their writing with focus and commitment. Most writers start writing through some inspirations, but without setting a specific goal they achieve nothing. In such cases, inspiration doesn’t seek much relevance and all a writer need is the focus and commitment to reach the specific goal or the deadline. For better novels, a writer should be creative in his writing skills and ideas should be highly demanding. A writer is said to be committed only if he complete the project within the deadline.

Maintaining deadlines keep the writer honest and trustworthy and the publisher wills to assign him more tasks. The only inspiration the writer should have is the deadline and he should heavily work on that.

Blocking writer’s choice

If we google writer’s block while surfing the net, then we can get millions of results about the hacked articles and blocked writers. The skilled and professional authors do not always believe on the blocking of writers. They always see this as a kind of fear that doubts the creativity of the writers and worries about their actions. Writers always fear about the readers because readers do not focus on a write up if it is not worth reading it. They always worry about their skills and over time they start feeling that they don’t have the skill in them anymore.

Importance of playing

As one grows there are many changes awaiting for him. Over time he will lose the passion for playing and will lead the life with numbness. There are many reasons for this condition. The busy lifestyle most of the people following nowadays have resulted in them to stick into the gadgets. They are using gadgets and technology for each and everything ranging from paying bills to buying groceries. The wonder and playfulness have almost lost the teenagers and children have still the spark in them. Children are ready to accept challenges because they do not know what is impossible.

To get the emotional feeling of the readers, the writer should have lots of experience. The writer should think in the way a reader thinks and should touch the mind of the readers. To make this possible, a write should first set out and should have an eagerness to play. Connect and enjoy the work you are supposed to do. Always fill the hearts of readers with happiness through the words you have mentored in your heart through your book.

Do not rely on the number of books sold

Even if the writer is successful in selling hundreds and millions of books worldwide, he may not feel still to be at the top of the game. For beginners, the heart will be filled with full of insecurities and doubts. They want in their books to hit the best seller grounds and want to the fame.

When the writer feels himself to be inferior, then the feelings of doubt and insecurity start rooting in their heart. Selling millions of books and hitting the count of best sellers may not feel a writer to be the top of the game. Achieving success entirely lies in the willpower of the writer. He should be passionate in his writing skills and should always stick on to the point that selling millions of games never make any person be at the top of the game.

Concentrate on the work

Instead of being depressed on other writings, concentrate on the work assigned and put the maximum effort in that. The best possible way is to tell the story to others and share those experiences. Each and every writer differs from each other and the writing advice is not treated equally for everyone. To get the work done with perfection, a writer can rely on a number of tools to make the writings better. If the writer needs to paraphrase a poem, he can use the paraphraser or rewording tool for making the writings plagiarism free and error free.

Conclusion

The lessons given above are based on the immense hours of hard work the writers have contributed to getting a place at the top of the list. The examples given may not always help us but, still, some of the realities can mentor us to become a good writer.

So now it is high time to include all these points into our writings as the proverb says better late than never. Start by applying the tips and advice from the experts.

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The post 5 Writing Lessons from Best-Selling Authors is copyright 2013 by Write Hacked.

Part of the fear and disdain that many writers have against ghostwriting is that they are terrified that someone will steal their ideas, killing their chance to become the next bestselling author or price winning article. The reality is that, although idea theft can happen, very few start writing and immediately create an amazing piece of prose. The most likely result of their initial efforts is that their work will not be very good, and that is not a good way to earn reputation. Talent is irrelevant if the writer does not have the skill to make it shine.

So why would any writer sell their creativity, and their skill, their most precious possessions, without receiving any recognition whatsoever? The most common answer is that those writers do it for the money, pure and simple, and to a certain point, it is true. Ghostwriting can be a very profitable business. However, there is another reason for doing ghost writing that very few young writers consider, and that is improving their writing skill. The job can be an incredible learning experience.

When you are a writer, especially a young one, it can be hard to get feedback on your work, even more, if you are starting, and as such is hard to know if your skill is improving. Social media and the internet offer many sites where you can join writing groups and provide mutual support, but the response time and quality of the feedback are not always the best. Many of these groups are mostly composed of other young writers seeking guidance, and although many of them are eager to help they may not know how to provide good feedback.

Then there’s always the option of paid feedback of course, but not everyone has the cash for that sort of service. The truth is that it can get very expensive, at least if you want quality, and that is without taking into account if the source of the service is a reliable one. It is crucial to do research when looking for this option.

Ghostwriting clients can offer excellent feedback, and it is not hard to see why they are paying the writer, and as such, they will look at the writer’s work with a critical eye. They will comb their work over and over till it is precisely how they want it, and that includes checking that important factors like grammar, structure, and readability, are adequately covered in the text. They are three of the most important basic writing skills that a writer needs to master.

Even more, if the client likes their work, it can become a long-term relationship which in turn can blossom into a mentorship, not different that any training program, or even working with an editor. The main difference is that the writer is earning money at the same time they are learning about writing.

As such, the best advice I can give is that if someone is going to spend hours of their life writing then, for the sake of efficiency, the should at least spend that time in an activity that will help them improve and diversify their skill. Also, as a very welcome plus, it will also help them earn a living. The creativity will go nowhere, new ideas will eventually come, and all that time and effort spent ghostwriting will assist the writer in starting their new writing career in a much stronger position.

In conclusion, Ghostwriting provides many advantages compared to other writing jobs. Ghostwriting jobs are abundant and cover all levels of expertise, as such, they are the first jobs the writer is going to find. Also, it is an excellent way to earn cash and skill at the same time, and for new writers, those are the things you are going to need the most, especially when it comes to skill. Last but not least, clients will provide extensive feedback since they are paying. Writing is a very competitive market, and very few employers have the patience to take someone with no experience, it is never too soon to start, and ghostwriting offers an excellent way to do it.

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The post Ghostwriting as the best tool for improving your writing talent is copyright 2013 by Write Hacked.