1. Editorial

Hello again. And welcome to the first E-Writer of 2005!

I do hope you had a good Christmas and New Year holiday.
Although, of course, the Boxing Day earthquake and tsunami in
Asia meant that many people in the region had nothing of the
kind. I hope no E-Writer subscribers were directly affected by
this devastating event, though we were all touched by it one way
or another. If anything good can be said to have come from this
disaster, with the massive global outpouring of concern and
support, the world does at least seem a slightly smaller
place now.

Work-wise, apart from my regular commissions, I've had my head
down working on my new writing course for WCCL. I haven't told
them yet, but it's going to be even bigger (in every sense) than
my 'Write Any Book in Under 28 Days' course. If you downloaded
the free sample module I included as one of my 'Christmas
presents' in the last E-Writer, you may well have an inkling
what the new course is going to be about. If you didn't, sorry,
you'll have to wait now until the new course is released!

It's always nice to hear from E-Writer subscribers with their
news. Professional freelance writer Simon Whaley sent me a press
release about two writing courses he and his business partner
Sue Horder-Mason are running this year, in association with HF
Holidays. The courses are about writing for the magazine market,
a field where both Simon and Sue have enjoyed great success: he
with articles, she with short stories. The course runs in Whitby
for 4 nights from 7 June 2005, and also on the Isle of Wight for
3 nights from 12 October 2005. Further information is available
from HF Holidays on 020 8905 9558 or via the website
http://www.hfholidays.co.uk/writing/. Good luck with the
courses, Simon, and let me know if you ever want an additional
guest speaker!

Several people have also written to let me know about the new
non-fiction writing community at http://www.writethismoment.com.
One of the founders of this new site is my former Writers Bureau
colleague and current E-Writer subscriber, Carol Anne Strange.
You can join free, which gives you access to a range of useful
features, including a messageboard on which some interesting
market information has already been posted. For a small fee, you
can also join the writing jobs and opportunities board, which
has details of current opportunities for freelance writers all
round the world. If you have any interest at all in non-fiction
writing, you should definitely check out this site. At the very
least, you should register so that you can read and post on the
free messageboard.

Finally, I have mentioned Google AdWords advertising several
times in E-Writer, mainly as a potential paying sideline for
writers. If you have tried this yourself, you may know that
Google have changed the rules recently, so a maximum of two
affiliate ads will be shown in any set of search results. This
means that the techniques explained in my recommended e-book,
GoogleCash ( http://tinyurl.com/2xtga ), may need to be adapted
somewhat in future, although the basic advice remains sound. To
go on making money from AdWords as an affiliate, you may need to
start creating your own sites and take prospective customers to
these rather than to merchants' sites directly. I will include
more advice about this in a future issue of E-Writer.


2. Review: Writer's Block CD

In recent weeks I've been trying out this new product from my
'28 Days' publishers, WCCL. And yes, I had to pay for it like
everyone else!

As the name indicates, the Writer's Block CD aims to help
writers overcome the dreaded 'block'. But it doesn't provide
advice or ideas on rediscovering creativity, nor is it (simply)
a relaxation inducer. Rather, it uses a psycho-physiological
phenomenon called binaural beats to help 'entrain' the mind into
a creative state. To explain this, I need to start with a bit of
theory.

If you've studied psychology (which I have - a long time ago!),
you'll know that scientists can measure the electrical activity
in our brains using a device called an electroencephalogram
(EEG). It has been known for a long time that different mental
states are associated with different patterns of electrical
activity. For example, someone who is fully awake and alert will
probably exhibit relatively high frequency electrical activity
patterns (13-40Hz), known as beta waves. Someone in deep sleep
will display low frequency activity (below 3.5Hz), known as
delta waves.

The frequency most associated with creativity is alpha (7-13Hz).
Alpha waves are typically produced by people in a relaxed, but
receptive, frame of mind. It seems to follow that, if you can
encourage your brain to go into a high-alpha state, it should
give your creativity a boost.

Unfortunately, though, you can't achieve this simply by playing
sounds at 7-13Hz. The trouble is that this is simply below
most people's hearing threshold. However, the Writer's Block CD
attempts to get around this by using 'binaural beat' technology.
Stick with me, because I'm almost through with the theory now.

It has been discovered that if you play tones of slightly
different frequencies to each ear, they combine within the brain
to create a low frequency resonance. For example, if you play a
tone of 320Hz in one ear and 330Hz in the other, it will create
a resonance at a frequency of 10Hz - the difference between
them. By using this method, the brain can be entrained into a
high alpha-wave state.

So how does it work in practice? Well, the CD comes in a jewel
case, and you simply load it into your music centre or PC and
play it. It's best if you listen through a pair of headphones
rather than loudspeakers. As I mentioned above, the CD works by
producing slightly different frequencies in each ear, and if you
listen through speakers inevitably the sounds from the left and
the right side will get mixed up.

I would also advise turning up the bass quite high: some of the
sounds on the CD are quite low-pitched, and it seems to me you
get better results if you boost them. And finally, close your
eyes while you are listening to the CD. From the occasion when,
as a psychology major, I was wired up to an EEG machine, I know
that the simple act of closing your eyes can greatly boost your
alpha-wave output!

There are two tracks on the CD: a brief intro (which you can
skip if you like) and the binaural beat track, which is 35
minutes long. It starts with a low-pitched throb - a bit like
having a ten-tonne truck standing on the road outside - and
gradually other, higher-pitched tones are introduced over the
top of this. I wouldn't recommend playing this CD at a dinner
party, but it is not unpleasant to listen to.

The advice provided with the CD is to try to relax as you listen
- don't fight against it, in other words! Personally, I use it
at the start of my writing day, though impatience sometimes gets
the better of me before the CD has finished and I start work
while the tones are still playing.

Does it work for me? Yes, I think so. To be honest I don't
really suffer from writer's block, but sometimes it takes a
while for me to 'get into the groove' at the start of a writing
session. I find that listening to the CD relaxes me and helps me
to focus on the job in hand. Would it work for everyone? I'm not
sure, though there is plenty of evidence that binaural beats do
have a real effect, and the phenomenon is increasingly used in
treating (among other things) sleep disorders and chronic pain.
For more information about the science involved see, for
example, http://web-us.com/thescience.htm. 

If you'd like to give the Writer's Block CD a try yourself, the
following URL will take you straight to the relevant web page:
http://tinyurl.com/5pw92. As with all WCCL products, 24-hour
customer support is available, and there is a 100% money-back
guarantee.


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3. Market Info - Miscellany

Here are a few more potential markets for you...

The agency Online Content UK is currently looking for freelance
report writers. Writers may be located anywhere in the UK or
Europe, and they do not require immediate availability, as the
project will run sporadically throughout the year. The work will
involve attending seminar events in the UK or Europe to report
on the seminars, case studies, discussions and workgroups held
(with travel expenses paid); carrying out additional research on
each case study; and writing up reports and examples in clear,
concise English. Approximately 15-20 days will be required per
report, and the work is likely to be in March, June and November
2005. For further details, including how to apply, see the OC-UK
website at http://www.onlinecontentuk.org/jobs.html. Note: You
will need to move smartly on this one, as applications may not
be accepted after the end of this week.

Brady Magazine, an online magazine for freelance writers, is
looking for article, success story and writing tip submissions
to fill its 2005 editorial calendar. They pay $15 per article,
$10 per success story, and $5 per writing tip. Further
information, including details of how to submit work, can be
found at http://www.bradymagazine.com/other/guidelines.html. 

Champagne Books is a new e-book/small press publishing company.
They say they are dedicated to bringing excellence in romantic
fiction to the romance community. They are currently looking for
fast-paced, character-driven novels where romance is integral to
the storyline. Specifically, they are looking for contemporaries
of varying sensuality levels (though no hard erotica), suspense
and comedies. Books may be set in any era, any location and can
have fantasy/paranormal elements. The maximum length is 80,000
words, or 25,000 words for novellas for their 'Bubbles' series.
For more information, visit http://www.champagnebooks.com or
e-mail your submission or submission questions to
submissions-at-champagnebooks.com.

UK publishers Croner are currently looking to expand their pool
of freelance writers and editors. They produce information for
businesses on topics such as company law, human resources and
health and safety, in a range of formats, including loose-leafs,
newsletters, CDs and online. They say they would be especially
keen to hear from people available to work in-house at their
offices in Kingston-upon-Thames, those with experience of
editing and re-writing for the web, and those available to
work on full-time short contracts. If you are interested, post
your CV to Kate Mitchell, Content Manager, Wolters Kluwer (UK)
Limited, 145 London Road, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, KT2 6SR,
UK.

Here's another one primarily for UK writers. The Reading Agency
is a national development agency for public libraries' work with
readers. Their new initative, ReadingPartners, aims to help
libraries work more closely with writers who live near them.
They are therefore inviting published UK writers to enter their
details on a national database of writers who are willing to
give readings and workshops in libraries. If you have had at
least one book published, this can be a great way of meeting
readers and publicising your work, and you would normally expect
to be paid a fee as well. For more information, go to the
website http://www.readingagency.co.uk and click on Project
Search, then again on ReadingPartners in the pop-up menu that
appears.

Finally, the erotic publishing house Aphrodite Unlaced is
currently seeking original fiction submissions from both
established and new authors in the varied genres of erotic
romance, including historical, contemporary and paranormal. The
length required ranges from 1,500 word 'quickies' to novels of
40,000 words and over. Payment is a royalty based on 35% of the
gross (a book's stated cover price at the time of sale) for each
single author title, sold in e-book format. Visit their site at
http://www.aphroditeunlaced.com for further details, and if you
have any questions e-mail them at
submissions-at-aphroditeunlaced.com.


4. Resource: Wikipedia

I must admit I only recently discovered the Wikipedia website (
http://www.wikipedia.org), but it has quickly become one of my
most frequently visited research resources.

Wikipedia is a highly unusual site, yet it is one of the Web's
biggest success stories. It is a free encyclopedia created and
edited by an online community of people across the world, none
of whom receive any payment. Anyone can log in to Wikipedia,
read the articles and, if they see errors, correct them.

It sounds like a recipe for anarchy, but by and large it seems
to work very well indeed. Several recent studies have compared
Wikipedia with paid-for encyclopedias such as Britannica, and in
most cases Wikipedia won hands down. According to a recent
article in The Guardian newspaper, Wikipedia's English language
version alone has over 360,000 entries in it, compared with
'just' 75,000 in Encylopedia Britannica Online.

Using Wikipedia is as simple as any search engine. Enter one or
more words in the search box at the left of the home page. Click
on Go and you will be taken to the Wikipedia page about that
topic. If no page with that title exists, you will be taken to a
search page where you can search for Wikipedia pages including
the term.

As a test, I tried out Wikipedia using a topic very much in the
news at present, Tsunami. The search box took me straight to the
article about that topic. This included sections on the physics
of tsunamis (including a colour diagram), early warning systems,
notable tsunamis of the past, and future threats. In addition,
there was a 'See Also' section with links to other related
articles in Wikipedia, and a section listing relevant sites
elsewhere on the web.

Impressively, the Wikipedia article already included a section
on the devastating Boxing Day tsunami in the Indian Ocean. The
relevant text is reproduced below:

The magnitude 9.0 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake triggered a
series of lethal tsunamis on December 26, 2004 that killed
roughly 150,000 people, making it the deadliest tsunami in
recorded history. The tsunami killed people over an area ranging
from the immediate vicinity of the quake in Indonesia, Thailand
and the north-western coast of Malaysia to thousands of
kilometres away in Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives,
and even as far as Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania in eastern
Africa.

Unlike the Pacific Ocean, there is no organised alert service
covering the Indian Ocean. This is in part due to the absence of
major tsunami events since 1883 (the Krakatoa eruption).

As you can see from this extract, one advantage of Wikipedia is
that it is updated very quickly by its army of contributors. In
addition, it should be said that many of the words in the
article included hyperlinks to articles elsewhere in Wikipedia
about the terms in question.

Obviously, all articles in Wikipedia may not be 100 per cent
accurate, so it is advisable to confirm any information you may
find from another independent source. Some topics are also
covered more comprehensively than others (the article mentioned
above in The Guardian revealed that the Wikipedia entry about
the TV soap opera Coronation Street is twice as long as the
article about UK prime minister Tony Blair!). Used sensibly,
however, Wikipedia is a hugely valuable research resource, and
in my view deserves a place on any writer or editor's Favorites
list.


I do hope you've enjoyed reading this issue and found something
in it that may be useful to you. E-Writer will be back again in
the next few weeks.

Happy writing!

Nick

P.S. LATE NEWS - My partner, Jayne, has just launched her own
website for writers at http://www.writing-resources.info. She's
unearthed some great writing tools and resources, which I'm
still busy checking out myself! Why not pay her site a visit
today?

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