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E-Writer Issue #7 16 July 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: Writing Novelty Products 2. Article: Kwickee Update 3. Market Info: Miscellany 4. Style File: Descriptive v.Possessive Nouns 1. Editorial: Writing Novelty Products Hello again. And thank you for being a valued subscriber to E- Writer! I had two unexpected parcels arrive in the mail this week. Both were from publishers I have worked with over recent months. One was from a greetings card company, and turned out to be a sample of their new product, 'Bear in a Chair'. It was a little teddy bear, sitting in a chair and apparently reading a mini-version of an inspirational book I had written for the company some time ago. Very cute! It now graces my partner's bedside table... The other parcel contained six quiz books I wrote last year, along with six accompanying devices called Quizmos. The latter look like a cross between a calculator and a mobile phone - the idea is that you enter your answer to each question and the Quizmo tells you whether you are right or not, and works out your score at the end. Watch out for them soon in a playground near you! I mention these things just to illustrate the fact that there is a huge range of 'novelty' books and other items freelance writers may be required for. Just a few similar projects I have been involved with over the last few years include: 'Cyberbabe' and 'Cyberboyfriend' CD-ROMs Office Magic Tricks Kit Office Practical Jokes Kit Children's quiz books Humorous recipe books 'The Legend of Doom Island' adventure game Casino Party Night Pack 'Fifty Ways to Fill an Awkward Silence' cards 'Fifty Ways to Embarrass your Kids and Family' cards 'Seduce your way around the world' humorous phrase book intro Of course, I write books and articles as well, but I think that any writer who fails to explore these markets is in danger of missing a trick. These sort of products can be quick and fun to write, there's less competition from other writers, and once you are established with a company, you can expect a steady stream of work from them. You're unlikely to get rich, as they normally pay a fixed fee rather than royalties - but on the other hand, payment will be guaranteed, and generally realistic if not spectacular. Finding out about opportunities isn't always easy, of course, but here's a tip. In the next month or two the shops will start filling with Christmas gifts, books, games and novelties (yes, I know it's hard to believe...). Check out any which include any significant amount of text and see who the publishers are - then drop them a line offering your services. Send them one or two samples of your work. If you don't have anything published in an appropriate style, simply write something and include it with your application. Who knows, with a little bit of luck you could find yourself writing next year's Christmas novelty best-seller! 2. Article - Kwickee Update Regular readers will know that I am a freelance Group Editor for a new company which was originally called Kwickee Bitesize (more about this in a moment!). They plan to supply articles, stories and so on which people can download (for a fee) via their mobile phone, PDA or the internet. The service will only be available in the UK initially, but anyone is welcome to submit work, and you will get a share of the fee each time it is downloaded. You can read all about the company, if you haven't already, at http://www.kwickee.com, http://www.kwickee.info or in any previous E-Writer (http://www.nickdaws.co.uk/EWarchive.htm). Since the last issue there have been various developments to report, and the first of these is a name change. For trademark reasons the 'Bitesize' label has had to be dropped - so from now on the company will simply be called Kwickee, and articles and stories on the system will be called Kwickees rather than Bitesizes. This shouldn't make much difference to contributors, of course, but don't use the word Bitesize in your submissions any more. The other big news is that a definite launch date has now been set. If you visit the Kwickee.com homepage you will see that a countdown has begun, but to save you working it out I can reveal that the Kwickee service will be launched to the general public on 21 September 2004 at midday (BST). This date has been chosen to coincide with a major telecommunications conference, and in the mean time Kwickee will be developing and testing all their systems to try to ensure that everything goes smoothly from the launch date onwards. One or two people have commented that it can be difficult to contact Kwickee, so the company has introduced a 24-hour support line. The number for UK callers is 0870 73 83238, and calls are charged at 8p per min. There is also a form on the website you can use to submit questions - just go to http://www.kwickee.com and click on Contact at the top right of the screen. You can select the department you want your query to be sent to (e.g. Technical, Editorial) from a drop-down menu at the bottom of the form. Writers are always welcome to submit work to Kwickee, so if you haven't already registered, go along to Kwickee.com and fill in the online form. As I mentioned above, you don't have to be UK- based to write for Kwickee, but non-UK residents will be paid by Paypal, so you will need to sign up for a Paypal account at http://www.paypal.com. I hope to bring you news about more opportunities at Kwickee very shortly, including further vacancies for freelance editors and specialist writers. -------------------------------------------------------------- Advertisement Every writer should have their own website, to promote themselves, communicate with their readers and (perhaps) generate additional streams of income. But what do you do if you're a complete newcomer to website building? The Newbie Club First Website Builder could be the answer. It's a four-volume guide to creating, writing, designing, automating, uploading and promoting your own website, in fully illustrated e-book format. As well as the four beautifully written e-books, you get loads of free software, including the Super Easy Mini Site Wizard, which will build a basic site for you in literally minutes. Check out everything on offer at http://tinyurl.com/2syw8. Even if you eventually decide to hire someone else to build your website, the information here will help you to assess what is possible and maintain and update your site once it is running. -------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Market Info - Miscellany Here are a few more potential markets for you, starting with a couple of transport-related items... I mentioned 'Moving Stories' in E-Writer a couple of issues ago. The original closing date for this web-based collection of poems and stories about railway journeys was 30 June 2004, but the site has been so popular (no doubt since its mention in E- Writer!) that it is now to continue at least until the end of 2004. Writers are invited to submit poems or stories based on their experience of rail travel and post them on the website http://www.moving-stories.org.uk. Popular themes include first encounter, leaving, off to war, a funny story, tragedy, and coming home. Read other stories already on the site to gain inspiration. There's no payment, I'm afraid, though if funding is found the best contributions will be selected for a printed anthology. Still, as I said in EW5, it's good practice at stringing words together, and publication on the website at least is guaranteed! Now here's a paying market for travel-based stories. Window Seat Press are seeking off-beat tales of international bus travel for an anthology. They want off-beat, funny, inspirational or tragic international bus travel stories of 750 to 4,000 words for a bus travel story anthology. Payment is one $500 editor's choice per book, plus $100 and two book copies for all other published stories. The submission deadline is December 31 2004, with publication scheduled for summer 2005. To submit, send your story in the body of an email with the subject line, "Where Do We Get Off?" to mailto:wheredowegetoff@windowseatpress.com or send a self-addressed stamped envelope with each submission to: Where Do We Get Off?, Window Seat Press, 1519 Connecticut Avenue, NW, #301, Washington, DC 20036, USA. All submissions must include the story title, along with the author's name, address and phone number. For more information, visit http://www.windowseatpress.com. There has been an open call for submissions for the popular series, A Cup of Comfort. Each Cup of Comfort anthology features 50-60 soul-stirring true stories about the experiences and relationships that comfort, inspire, and enrich our lives. Written by people from all walks of life, these slice-of-life stories are carefully selected for publication based on originality, creativity, emotional impact, and substance. Submissions are currently being sought for the following three volumes: A Cup of Comfort for Love, A Cup of Comfort for Faith, and a Cup of Comfort for Spirituality. Stories must be original, positive, true, in English, and 1000-2000 words in length. There are no entry or reading fees. There is one $500 grand prize per book, with $100 for all other published stories. For full guidelines, visit http://www.cupofcomfort.com (click on "Share Your Story"), or e-mail cupofcomfort-at-adamsmedia.com, or mail SASE to Cup of Comfort, Adams Media, 57 Littlefield Road, Avon, Massachusetts, 02322, USA. Is copywriting your thing? If so, UK distance learning college The Writers Bureau (http://www.writersbureau.com) would like to hear from you. They are looking for someone to create a course for them on freelance copywriting skills. To apply, send your full CV to Diana Nadin at diana-at-writersbureau.com. By the way, in my days as a freelance tutor for The Writers Bureau I worked regularly with Diana, so do say hello to her from me if you decide to apply! Aspiring crime writers still have time to apply for the Crime Writers Association's Debut Dagger Award. Entrants are required to produce a 500 word outline of their proposed crime novel, together with its first 3,000 words. All sub-genres - cozy, hard-boiled, historical, humorous, police procedural and private eye - are welcome. The outright winner each year receives a £250 ($400) cash prize, plus an accommodation package for two at a London hotel. All previous winners of the Debut Dagger have gained publishing contracts and are now on their way to becoming successful crime writers. There is an entry fee of £10 per submission, and entries from anywhere in the world are welcome. For full info, see the website http://www.thecwa.co.uk (click on Debut Dagger in the left-hand menu). The closing date for entries is 1 September 2004. Finally, are there any illustrators out there who might be interested in collaborating on a children's book? My colleague Roland Curtis (a professional freelance copywriter living in Lichfield, Staffordshire, UK) is looking for someone with a flair for characterisation to help him develop a series of children's stories. The stories will be around 8,000 words each; and with commendable honesty, Roland adds, "Naturally, the money is likely to be abysmal. I need someone with a sense of fun prepared to take a punt on this - it's a bit of an adventure." If you're not deterred by this, drop Roland a line at roly-at-rolyonekenobe.fsnet.co.uk. 4. Style File: Descriptive v. Possessive Nouns In this feature I examine an aspect of English usage - words, punctuation, grammar, and so on - which can cause problems for writers. In this issue I'm highlighting a construction which catches out even experienced writers. Here’s an easy (I hope) question to start you off - what is wrong with the sentence below? Jill asked whether her husbands jacket was ready for collection. Of course, the mistake is the omitted apostrophe, which should go between the ‘d’ and the ‘s’. Husband’s is the possessive form of the noun husband, indicating ownership of the item concerned. But what about the sentence below? The slimmers group meets on the first and third Thursday of every month. Many people would put an apostrophe after (or even within) ‘slimmers’, but this is almost certainly wrong. In this case, slimmers is not a possessive noun but a descriptive one (sometimes called an attributive noun), and no apostrophe is required. ‘Slimmers’ here is a simple plural rather than a possessive. This confusion can easily occur when a descriptive noun ends in the letter ‘s’. As a general guideline, when the noun in question shows ownership, origin, authorship or measurement/duration, it is likely to be possessive, and an apostrophe is therefore required: Michael’s computer Dr Collis’s prescription Jane Austen’s books Ten years’ service However, where the noun describes or identifies only, an apostrophe is not used: sales department United States Army electronics industry skittles tournament Sometimes it's not easy to tell which is which. For example, do you attend a writers' conference or a writers conference? If it's a group of writers attending a conference, you need the plural ending, writers. If the conference actually belongs to the writers, however, then you want the possessive form, writers'. A useful clue is that if you can insert another modifer between the -s word and whatever it modifies, you're probably dealing with a possessive: Spurs forward John Doe scored twice in the second half. Spurs’ new forward, John Doe, scored twice in the second half. Another measure you can try if in doubt is to rephrase the sentence with a noun not ending in the letter ‘s’: Arsenal forward John Doe scored twice in the first half. Arsenal’s centre forward, Joe Doe, scored twice in the first half. For the benefit of my American subscribers, Spurs and Arsenal are English soccer teams ;-) Finally, if there are other modifiers before the noun, these can also help you to decide whether the noun in question is possessive or descriptive: Talented Spurs forward John Doe scored the first goal. [Spurs as descriptive noun] Spurs’ talented forward John Doe scored the first goal. [Spurs as possessive noun] I hope that makes this issue a bit clearer. At times, deciding whether you have a descriptive or a possessive noun is not easy, but if you follow these guidelines you should be right most of the time, and if you make the odd mistake your editor will put it right for you (maybe). New readers might also like to refer back to my article 'What Mr Sanders Taught Me' in E-Writer Issue One, which explains the rule about where to place apostrophes in possessives. Click on http://www.nickdaws.co.uk/ew001.htm to go there directly. That's it for this issue. I hope you've enjoyed reading it and found something that may be useful to you. E-Writer will be with you again soon(ish). 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 e-mail 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! ---------------------------------------------------------------- |