|
|
E-Writer Issue #4 25 May 2004 http://www.nickdaws.co.uk E-mail: ewriter-at-nickdaws.co.uk "Hints, tips and tricks for wired-up writers" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >>> In This Issue <<< 1. Editorial - Kwickee Bitesize latest 2. Resources: AVG Anti-Virus 3. Market Info: Miscellany 4. Style File: Comma Splices 1. Editorial - Kwickee Bitesize latest Hi there! I've had a busy couple of weeks, which is why it's a bit longer than usual since the last issue. There have been various regular jobs and a couple of one-off commissions to occupy me, plus of course my work for Kwickee Bitesize ( http://www.kwickee.com). As regular readers will know, Kwickee Bitesize is a new UK-based service providing articles and stories for delivery via mobile phones. I am one of the 16 freelance group editors for Kwickee Bitesize, and our role is to perform a final check on Bitesizes which have been edited by the sub-editors before they are passed for publication. I went to a meeting for all editors in London on May 13, and last Thursday (May 20) began editing contributions for the service. So here, as promised, are my exclusive insights into the opportunities - and possible pitfalls - for Bitesize writers! The first thing I've noticed is that many people are failing to provide a 'teaser' paragraph for their contributions. The teaser is a paragraph of up to 500 characters which people will be able to see for free. This, along with the title, is all you have available to persuade a potential reader to buy your particular Bitesize. Even poems and short stories need teasers, so do give them some thought. An example might be along the following lines: 'This article reveals some of the best places to eat out in Central London, based on my twenty years of living and working in the capital. As well as naming my favourite restaurants, I have set out the type of food on offer, typical cost per person, phone number, opening hours, and so on. Whether you're meeting a client or have a hot date in town, I guarantee the food won't let you down if you book a restaurant listed here!' As you can see, it's a selling job, so don't be too modest. Put yourself in the place of a typical Bitesize reader, who wants relevant information in a hurry. In your teaser paragraph, show them how your Bitesize can solve their problem by giving them the facts and figures they need now. A good teaser will be key to determining whether your Bitesize is purchased many times over, or languishes unbought and unread on the Kwickee server. If you don't provide a teaser your contribution may simply be rejected outright, though for the moment the editors are doing their best to provide them where possible. A few other stylistic points: * In non-fiction articles try to provide lots of solid factual information: phone numbers, addresses, prices, bus routes, opening hours, etc. etc. * Use a single space after full stops and other punctuation marks, not double. * Break your article up into paragraphs, and include a blank line between paragraphs (this includes lines of dialogue in short stories - they are paragraphs as well). * Keep the layout simple - tables won't work, for example. If you need bullet points, use asterisks. Remember to save your Bitesize as an RTF file (not Word) before uploading it. * Give your Bitesize a title which includes some relevant keywords (or how will potential buyers find it?). Keywords in the title should be capitalised, e.g. Where to find the best RESTAURANTS in LONDON. * Don't worry about uploading images. Although this is mentioned on the Kwickee website, due to technical (and other) problems, plans to include images with Bitesizes have been put on hold for now. As I mentioned previously, non-UK writers are welcome to contribute Bitesizes. One particular area of demand is travel articles. Could you write a brief guide for visitors to your home town, city or region, for example? Or a guide to aspects of your country which UK visitors may be unfamiliar with - tipping, eating out, public transport, and so on. One very good Bitesize I have seen was a guide to things to do on a day out in Dublin, while another explained how to buy discount theatre (or should I say theater) tickets in New York. Relatively few fiction writers seem to have taken up the challenge of writing for this medium, so there could be an opportunity for you here if you have a talent for writing short fiction. (Remember - Bitesizes are limited to around 800 words, but longer stories can be divided into instalments, and you will get paid separately for each instalment as it is downloaded.) Just remember that, as with articles, you have to 'sell' your story with a good title and a strong teaser paragraph. And finally, there are definitely opportunities in the area of writing adult material, if you can turn your hand to this sort of thing. Human nature being what it is, this is likely to be one of the areas of greatest demand when the system goes live, and yet the adult material I have seen so far has not been very strong in any sense of the word! Just to remind you, if you want to contribute a Kwickee Bitesize, you have to register at http://www.kwickee.com and upload your contributions using the form on the website. Once Kwickee is launched to the general public - currently scheduled for the end of June - you will be paid a fee every time one of your Bitesizes is downloaded. 2. Resources: AVG Anti-Virus I don't know about you, but my e-mail service has been terrible for the last week or two. Sometimes I can't send e-mails, sometimes I can't receive them, sometimes both. And even when the system is working, even with my broadband connection everything seems to be incredibly SLOW! Anyway, I checked on the service status page of my Internet Service Provider, NTL, and they say the problems are caused by the sheer number of viruses on the net at the moment. Many of the current generation work by invading a vulnerable computer and causing it to send copies of itself to everyone on that machine's e-mail address list. Thus the problem multiplies itself... The moral of this? Well, I should hardly need to say it, but if you're a regular net user, you MUST have a current anti-virus program and keep it up to date. Computer viruses are a bane of modern life. If your computer becomes infected, the effects can include anything from 'harmless' prank messages to wiping your computer’s hard disk. However, perhaps the worst aspect is the embarrassment of passing on a virus to other people, perhaps even your writing clients. Needless to say, this does little to engender good customer relations! In the past I've tried various solutions, including many of the best-known proprietary anti-virus programs, but some have messed up my computer's operating system, and after a trial period they all charge for the essential monthly updates. Then I discovered AVG Anti-Virus... AVG is a FREE anti-virus program available for download from the website http://www.grisoft.com. It works with most single-user versions of Microsoft Windows, up to and including XP. There is also a paid-for version, but the only additional benefit of using this is that you get free technical support. In practice I found AVG very easy to install and configure. As far as I can see, unless you are a complete novice where computers are concerned, you are unlikely to need to call upon the company’s assistance. To download AVG, click on Free Downloads from the Grisoft home page, and follow the on-screen instructions. It is quite a large file, so you will need to be patient, especially if using a dial-up connection. Note that you will be sent a separate serial number by e-mail, and will need to enter this in order to activate the program. Once AVG anti-virus is installed, it will continuously monitor all operations on your computer and scan all incoming and outgoing e-mails. By default it will also run a complete scan of all your folders and files every 24 hours, although if you feel this is excessive (I did) you can disable this feature using the Control Centre. AVG automatically updates its virus information files from the Internet - so, effectively, once you have installed it, you can forget about it. Any infected files the software finds are either 'healed' or (if this is not possible) placed in a 'Virus Vault' where they can be safely dealt with or deleted. And yes, AVG Anti-Virus is genuinely free, and I don't get any kickbacks for recommending it. It's just a great resource, and I want as many people as possible to know about it. And, of course, the more people who use it, the fewer viruses there will be in circulation - and then maybe my email will finally get back to normal again! 3. Market Info - Miscellany Here are a few more potential markets for you. The first two come courtesy of WriteLinkPro, the members-only section of the excellent WriteLink website (http://www.writelink.co.uk). With their permission, I have reproduced the vacancies almost exactly as they appeared in the WriteLinkPro 'Job Alert'. Please note that in this web-based version of E-Writer, I have used -at- instead of the customary @ symbol in e-mail addresses, to stop the addresses concerned being 'harvested' by spammers. UK Greetings is currently looking for freelance copywriters with a talent for writing humorous, quirky, cute, sentimental or emotive copy which would be suitable for greeting cards. Payment rates are flexible, and subject to negotiation, and can be based either on daily rates or per piece used. If you require further information, or would like to submit your CV and any published examples of your work, including possible artwork, please contact: Susan Cooper, UK Greetings, 3rd Floor, Wettern House, 56 Dingwall Road, Croydon, Surrey, CR0 0XH. Tel: +44 (0)20 8260 1296. E-mail: susan.cooper-at-ukgsp.co.uk. And here's an ad for anyone who can write crime short stories... "Crime writers wanted! I work for a major British magazine publisher and we're on the lookout for brilliant original whodunits, murder mysteries and ingenious crime puzzles for an exciting new national magazine launch. Stories should be at the 'cosy' end of the crime fiction scale - no explicit sex or gore, please! - but they must involve the reader in cracking a crime or a crime-related mystery. All genres, including classic country-house, historical and modern-day, will be considered. We're looking for stories of 3,000 to 7,000 words, but will consider those of up to 12,000 words as well as much smaller ones - mini-crime puzzles will be especially welcome. We will pay in the range of £50-£80 per 1,000 words (negotiable for smaller stories). Please send stories as hard copy only on one- sided double-spaced A4 to Peter Sheridan, PO Box 29476, London NW1 7HZ. Alternatively, send your submission as a .doc attachment to PeterNSheridan-at-yahoo.co.uk, along with your contact details. We cannot return submissions - even if you send an s.a.e. - and we cannot comment on the merits or otherwise of your work. Successful authors will be contacted within two months of submission." Kwiclkee Bitesize (yes, them again!) are looking for soap opera writers. Five new ‘KwickeeSoaps’ will be launched in June. Three will be written to meet the interests of people in certain genres, and one will be classified as ‘Adult’ due to its expected racy content. Airside, the fifth soap, which is going to be based at a busy London airport, will allow a new writer to take over the script and story development every thirteen weeks. For more information, see the website http://www.kwickee.info (click on Soap Writers Required towards the bottom of the right- hand column). Mundania Press is a US publishing house looking for novels between 35,000 and 100,000 words for publication in both traditional and electronic formats, They accept science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery/detective/thrillers, romance (all subgenres), historicals, Westerns, mainstream and war/spy novels. They say they are also looking for cross-genre novels as long as the main theme or setting is one of the genres they accept, such as comedic horror, paranormal mystery, science fiction romance, etc. They say, "If your novel is entertaining, and has a uniqueness to it, we want to see it!" Young adult is also welcomed as long as it is based on the genres listed above. Payment is by royalties, paid quarterly (no advances). Full information, including Mundania's very detailed submission requirements, can be viewed at http://www.mundania.com/index.html. 4. Style File: Comma Splices I've had some positive feedback on the article in E-Writer #1 ( http://www.nickdaws.co.uk/ew001.htm) about positioning apostrophes in possessives, so I've decided to introduce a new, semi-regular feature on grammar and punctuation under the title 'Style File'. I should perhaps say here that I make no claims to being a grammar guru, but it's a topic I'm very interested in and have made a detailed study of over the years. I will try to back up my comments with reference to relevant printed and online sources where appropriate. I thought I'd kick off Style File with a look at comma splices. To judge from the Kwickee Bitesize contributions I've been reading recently, this is a very common area of confusion among aspiring writers. So what is a comma splice? This error occurs when two (or more) independent clauses are shunted together with only a comma to separate them. For example: The mountain peak is permanently covered with snow, alpine plants and heather grow lower down. Each of these clauses can stand on its own. Using only a comma between them causes confusion, forcing the reader to re-read the sentence to make sense of it. (Initially it appears that the mountain peak is covered with snow, alpine plants and heather.) To be able to recognise a comma splice, you need to understand what constitutes a clause - it is a group of words containing a subject and a verb. For example: The car stopped. Here 'car' is the subject and 'stopped' is the verb. There are two kinds of clause. An independent clause is one - such as the three-word example above - which makes complete sense on its own. It can stand alone as a sentence, as both parts of the first example can. A dependent clause, as its name suggests, can't stand alone as a sentence; it depends on another clause to make complete sense. 'Although the car stopped' would be an example of a dependent clause. There are various ways a comma splice can be repaired. Staying with the example above, the simplest method is to change the comma to a full stop. The mountain peak is permanently covered with snow. Alpine plants and heather grow lower down. Another possibility is to use a semi-colon. A semi-colon can be used between two independent clauses when they are closely related to each other. The mountain peak is permanently covered with snow; alpine plants and heather grow lower down. Less formally, a dash could also be used here; more formally, a colon. Yet another way to avoid the comma splice is to use a co- ordinating conjunction (and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet) between the two clauses. For example: The mountain peak is permanently covered with snow, but alpine plants and heather grow lower down. Finally, if you want to show a relationship between the two clauses, you can put one idea in a dependent clause (remember, a dependent clause depends on your main clause for meaning). For example: Although the mountain peak is permanently covered with snow, alpine plants and heather grow lower down. Notice that the first part of the sentence cannot stand alone now; it has become a dependent clause, depending on the following independent clause for its meaning. The meaning of your sentence can change, depending on the word(s) you choose to bring the two clauses together. For example: Comma splice: I am taking a course in information technology, it’s being run by Mr Smith. Revised: I am taking a course in information technology, as it’s being run by Mr Smith. Revised: I am taking a course in information technology, although it’s being run by Mr Smith. Occasionally, however, what appears at first glance to be a comma splice may simply be an elision. For example: Jack closed the car door, put the key in the ignition. In this sentence, the words 'and he' are elided - the author assumes they will be understood by readers and therefore omits them for the sake of pace and conciseness. Although this might be frowned on in formal English, in popular fiction especially it is commonplace and would not be regarded as a mistake. In this type of construction, both clauses have the same subject (in the case above, Jack). To avoid repetition, the subject in the second clause (and the co-ordinating conjunction) are therefore elided. But note that if the subject is different in the second clause from the first, the excuse of elision won't wash - you'll have a comma splice, which is Bad! That's more than enough for now, so I'd better sign off. Hope you've enjoyed reading this issue and found something that may be of use to you. E-Writer will be with you again in the next week or two (probably). Good 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! ---------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright Info Except where specifically stated, material in E-Writer is protected by copyright of Nick Daws, 2004. Material from the newsletter may, however, be reproduced in other online or off- line publications so long as (a) the text (including any URLs and email addresses) is not altered in any way, and (b) the souce is acknowledged and a link or text reference is provided to my website at http://www.nickdaws.co.uk. Notifying me is not essential but would be appreciated - please use the e- mail address above or the link on my site. Many thanks! ---------------------------------------------------------------- Subscription Information You are receiving E-Writer because you, or someone acting on your behalf, subscribed at my site http://www.nickdaws.co.uk. E- Writer is never sent unsolicited, and your e-mail address is never used for any purpose other than to send you copies of this newsletter. If you wish to unsubscribe, please do so by clicking on the link below (but I hope you won't!). If you would like to change the e-mail address to which your copy of E-Writer is sent, please first unsubscribe using the link below, then subscribe again using your new e-mail address at http://www.nickdaws.co.uk. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Return to E-Writer Archive Page |