1. Editorial

Another fortnight, another E-Writer newsletter. I can't promise
to keep up this metronymic level of regularity, but I've had a
quiet-ish week so it's been a good opportunity to get this issue
done without too many distractions.

Not that I've been watching daytime TV the rest of the week, of
course. One other thing I've done is add an archive page for E-
Writer to my homepage (http://www.nickdaws.co.uk/EWarchive.htm).
I wasn't really happy with the automatic archive provided by
YMLP, so I hope this will be a better alternative. I've also
taken the opportunity to polish up the first two issues a bit
and add a few extra bells and whistles. For example, every
article in the web-based E-Writer issues is now hyperlinked from
the contents list at the top of the page. I hope you find the
new archive facility useful.

One other bit of news concerns Kwickee Bitesize, which I wrote
about in Issue 1 (http://www.nickdaws.co.uk/ew001.htm). As you
may remember, this is potentially a huge market for writers.
They are going to publish short articles which people can pay to
download via their mobile phone, PDA or the net. They are
inviting contributions of all types, from short stories to
how-to articles, travel guides to book reviews, and you are paid
a royalty every time one of your pieces is downloaded. Anyway,
the big news is that I have been accepted as a Group Editor for
this project, so I will be applying a final check to many of the
articles submitted.

I'm going to a meeting for editors in London next week, and
Kwickee Bitesize is officially "going live" soon after this. So
in the next issue of E-Writer I'll let you know what more I
learned at the meeting. And in the coming months I'll try to
keep you informed about articles which are selling well and/or
areas where more contributions are required. In the mean time,
if you haven't signed up as a contributor already, I recommend
going to their sign-up page at http://www.kwickee.com and
registering now. You don't have to be UK-based to contribute.
Although (initially at least) the service will only be available
in Britain, contributions are welcome from anywhere in the
world.

* Stop Press - I've just heard that Kwickee Bitesize are running
two more meetings for would-be writers in London on May 13. For
more details, send an e-mail to miriam.attwood-at-kwickee.com.
(Replace the -at- with the usual @ sign - I have had to introduce
this on my web pages to avoid e-mail addresses being harvested
by spammers.)

2. Resources: Your Own Free Cuttings Service!

If you're a writer, chances are you have one or more areas of
interest you need to stay current on. At one time many writers
kept a cuttings file or even paid a cuttings agency to "clip"
relevant stories for them. Of course, the net has made this much
easier today - but still keeping up to date with news stories as
they occur can be a challenge.

Well, the good news is that there are now two very good services
which will do this free of charge for you. Basically, you just
tell them your special interests and they will ensure that any
news stories about them are sent to you by e-mail.

The first such service is offered by top search engine Google.
Their News Alerts service is at the Beta stage (i.e. they are
still fine-tuning it) but anyone can use it right now.

The beauty of Google's service lies in its simplicity. All you
have to do is enter your e-mail address and an appropriate
search term (e.g. "butterflies" or "digital cameras") and any
news story which includes this term will then be e-mailed free
of charge to your desktop.

Of course, you will need to be careful not to use too broad a
search term or you could be inundated with stories ("Iraq" might
be a case in point). However, the good news is that you can use
Google's Advanced News Search to set a wide range of selection
criteria. For example, you can set which country or US state
stories originate from, whether the search term occurs in the
title or the body of the story, and so on. You can also set the
search to exclude stories which include a certain word or words.

To use Google News Alerts as your own personal cuttings service,
go to http://news.google.com and click on News Alerts in the
left-hand menu. Before entering any search terms, however, click
on FAQ at the top right of the screen to discover how, among
other things, you can use the advanced facilities to narrow down
the range of stories you are sent.

The other free news service is offered by Yahoo and you have to
register before you can use it. This makes signing up a bit more
time-consuming, but does mean that Yahoo can offer a greater
range of options for users. For example, you can opt to have
your alerts sent to a mobile device or by Yahoo Instant
Messenger (YIM), as well as by e-mail. You can also edit your
search requirements. This is not possible with Google, so if you
find you are not getting the results you want, your only option
then is to cancel the search and set up a new one. The Google
service does, however, offer more ways of fine-tuning your
search than Yahoo.

To use Yahoo's news alerts service, go to their homepage at
http://alerts.yahoo.com/config/set_notification and click on
"Sign Me Up" to get a Yahoo ID. Of course, if you already have a
Yahoo ID (maybe you use their free e-mail service) you can use
this and simply sign in.

These two services are little known among writers, yet can be
invaluable for keeping up to date with your areas of interest.
Why not try both out and see which meets your needs best?

3. Market Info - Miscellany

Here are a few more potential markets which may be of interest
to you...

Oceans of the Mind is a quarterly US science fiction magazine
which is published on CD-ROM and as an Adobe e-book. Each issue
contains ten stories of up to 6,000 words from a mixture of new
and established writers. Payment is from 6 cents a word. Each
issue has a theme for which contributions must be suitable. The
next deadline is August 1 2004, and for this issue they are
looking for science fiction mysteries - robbery, murder, piracy,
locked room, and so on. Contributions by e-mail are not only
accepted but encouraged. The full writers' guidelines can be
viewed at http://www.trantorpublications.com/guidelines.htm. 

Loose ID is a new US-based electronic publishing house. They are
inviting contributions of cross-genre love stories (e.g.
romantic suspense, science fiction romance, paranormal romance,
romantic comedy, romance with anything else, or non-traditional
romances) with a high degree of sexual tension and a level of
eroticism appropriate to the plot and style. They say they will
also consider extraordinary or unusual straight contemporary and
historical romances from previously published authors. Minimum
length 20,000 words, up to 130,000 words maximum. They are also
looking for stories based specifically on the lyrics of a 1980s
pop song (which also meet the other requirements listed above).
Full details can be found at http://www.loose-id.com. Payment
will be on a royalty basis, though exact details are not
provided.

Finally, if you fancy yourself as a TV playwright, there is just
time to submit your idea for the Channel 4 (UK) New Writers
Scheme. I don't have a web reference for this, so I've included
all the information I have below. As far as I'm aware, this
opportunity is open to writers worldwide.

The Channel 4 scheme in its fourth year. Through it C4 says it
aims to encourage innovation and experimentation in story-
telling and to look for new ideas and fresh perspectives on TV
drama. Last year the scheme produced a wide variety of material,
ranging from romantic comedy to urban gothic, 'Hammer Horror' to
lyric poems. One of the writers from this season went on to
write and direct a BAFTA nominated short film, and another has
been short-listed for the TAPS short film award

The brief is to push the boundaries of structure, form and
subject matter, and to tell stories in a way that wouldn’t or
couldn’t be done in mainstream drama. They will be largely, but
not exclusively, young and urban. All must be contemporary. Each
will be shot in 4 days on a very limited budget, so a maximum of
4 locations and 4-6 speaking parts is a good basis to work on.

The scheme is open to anyone without a primetime TV drama credit
(i.e. anything transmitted on a major terrestrial TV channel
between 7 and 11pm). Writers who are successful will be guided
through the process of taking an idea from treatment to script
stage, and from there to working with the director through to
the production of the film itself. The hope is to introduce
major new talent direct to mainstream drama. Submissions from
multicultural film-makers and writers are particularly welcome.

The slot is 24 minutes and the Commissioning Editor is Jess
Search of Independent Film & Video. Successful applicants will
receive a fee of 1,500 UKP for their commissioned script. To
apply, submit a writing sample and a short treatment for your
film (1-2 pages maximum) to: C4 New Writers, Ideal World
Productions, 3rd Floor, 77 East Road, London N1 6AH. The
deadline for submissions is Monday May 17, and only those who
are accepted on to the scheme will be contacted.

4. Article: Think Global!

The other day I got an e-mail from someone in the US who was
interested in buying my course "Write Any Book in Under 28
Days". However, he was a little concerned to discover that I was
British. How could I claim to be an expert on the US publishing
industry when I live on the other side of the Atlantic?

Equally, I have had several emails from potential British and
European customers who are concerned to discover that WCCL (who
publish my course) are an American-based company. Does that mean
that my course is not suitable for people living on this side of
the pond?

My answer to all these questions (after heaving an almost
imperceptible sigh) is really much the same. No, I'm not an
expert on the US publishing industry (or the British one, for
that matter). However, as a writer of over 30 published books, I
do have some idea what sells. And an important aspect of this is
to grasp that publishing (and therefore writing) is now a multi-
national operation. Most large publishing houses have offices in
many countries. What they all dream about is publishing a book
which will sell not just in one country but world-wide. Indeed,
some publishers will not now take on a book unless they can see
it has multi-national potential.

In my view then, writers owe it to themselves to take a broad,
even global, perspective. Yes, you can stick to writing books,
articles and stories for markets in your home country, but by
doing this you will be needlessly restricting your potential
marketplace and earning power. The Internet is an invaluable
asset in this regard, as it makes working with publishers and
editors in other countries almost as straightforward as with
someone in the same street. In my Living & Working In books
(L&W Germany and L&W Italy) I worked from my office in the UK
with a publisher in Spain and researchers based mainly in the
countries concerned. I never actually met any of them, but with
the aid of e-mail and the web, two substantial books (both now
in their second editions) were created.

Yes, there can sometimes be minor difficulties in areas such as
spelling and usage, but these are seldom insurmountable. One of
the companies I work regularly for, Lagoon Games, is based in
Britain but sells mainly to the USA. Consequently I have to try
to write in American rather than British English. I'm pretty
good at this now, but I make a point of setting my spell-checker
to American English so that if I make any mistakes (e.g. writing
colour instead of color) the checker will pick it up.

Usage can be more tricky, but generally the Internet holds the
answer to most queries. For example, a few months ago I was
working on a themed party pack for Lagoon, and had to come up
with twelve nursery rhymes which would be familiar to US
readers. With the aid of a search engine I found several US
nursery rhyme sites, and chose rhymes which appeared in all of
these. (I still had to convince my slightly dubious London
editor that 'Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater' was a well-known
nursery rhyme in the USA, but after double-checking with their
office in Boston she accepted this!)

Incidentally, if you're interested in the differences between
British and American English (and Canadian English, which is
something else again), a useful resource can be found at
http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/~jphb/american.html.

Anyway, my main point is, don't think that just because you live
in Britain, or America, or Australia, or anywhere else, you have
to limit yourself to writing for markets in that country. We are
fortunate to be writing in English, a language spoken around the
world, so take full advantage of that fact. Above all, don't be
afraid to approach publishers and editors in other countries, or
think that their requirements are somehow totally different to
what you are used to at home. Who knows, it may be that with
your 'foreign' background, you have just the fresh perspective
that they are looking for!


That's it for this time. E-Writer will be with you again before
too long (though not necessarily in a fortnight!).

Happy writing,

Nick


----------------------------------------------------------------

Advertisement

Nick Daws' CD-based course 'Write Any Book In Under 28 Days'
takes you through every stage of writing a book, from getting the
original idea through to editing the completed manuscript, all in the
shortest possible time. Read a lengthy extract from the course
at http://www.nickdaws.co.uk/writeany.htm, then click through to
the publisher's website to read some of the many testimonials!



Return to E-Writer Archive Page

Return to Homepage