1. Editorial

Hello again, and thank you for being a valued E-Writer
subscriber!

It's been another ridiculously busy month for me, though
naturally I'm not complaining about that. One of the things that
has kept me busiest has been the launch of my new course, Quick
Cash Writing. This has generated huge interest, both among E-
Writer subscribers and in the wider world, so I've had a stream
(or even a river) of e-mails to answer and interviews to do.

For anyone new to E-Writer, Quick Cash Writing (QCW for short)
was designed to complement my original, best-selling course
'Write Any Book in Under 28 Days' (
http://www.nickdaws.co.uk/writeany.htm).

While 'Write any Book' could be sub-titled 'Everything you need
to know to write a book in the shortest possible time', the sub-
title of Quick Cash Writing could be 'Everything you need to
know to start making money from writing as quickly as possible.'
QCW covers a wide range of shorter opportunities, from readers'
letters to greeting card concepts, articles to short stories,
consumer contest slogans to movie ideas.

You'll no doubt be relieved to hear that I don't intend to go on
too much about QCW in this issue. You can, of course, read all
about it in E-Writer 19 ( http://www.nickdaws.co.uk/ew019.htm ),
and you can see an extract at http://www.nickdaws.co.uk/qcw.htm.
The latter also has links to my publisher's sales page.

I would just like to mention though that my offer of a free copy
of my electronic tutorial Short Story Acumen to anyone buying
QCW via a link on my website is still open, but it can't go on
much longer. Short Story Acumen is an info-packed, interactive
product on sale elsewhere for £24.99 (around $40). It aims to
cover every aspect of writing short stories for fun and profit.
You can read more about it at http://tinyurl.com/74z8b. 

So if you want to get your hands on Quick Cash Writing, plus
Short Story Acumen, plus my idea-generating program The Mini-
Inspiratron, plus eight other writing programs and demos, plus
various other freebies as well - please don't wait too long!

Go to http://www.nickdaws.co.uk/qcw.htm, read the extract from
the course, then click on one of the banner ads to go to my
publisher's sales site. Once you've ordered your copy of Quick
Cash Writing, forward a copy of the e-mail receipt to me and
I'll e-mail you back with details of how you can access Short
Story Acumen and your other 'mystery bonus'. I thank you!

QCW has occupied a lot of my time this month, but I have of
course been doing other things as well. In addition to my usual
'bread-and-butter' writing work, in May I was commissioned by a
software company to write hundreds of short, affirmative
statements for a subliminal messaging program. A little more
stimulating, I must admit, was another job which involved
preparing material for a 'Lads Night Out' party pack: jokes,
games, chat-up lines, and so on. Watch out for it in a shop near
you soon!

I was also very pleased last week to be invited to the book
launch of an old friend of mine. Jeff Phelps is an architect for
Wolverhampton City Council. As well as being a genuinely nice
guy and modest to a fault, Jeff is also one of the most
naturally talented fiction writers I have ever known.

I first met Jeff over twenty-five years ago when, as a young,
aspiring writer, I set up the Cannon Hill Writers Group in
Birmingham (UK). Jeff was a regular member of the group for
several years. In those days we held regular writing contests
for group members, with judging by the members themselves. One
trend quickly became apparent, however - if Jeff entered, Jeff
always won! There were other very good writers in that group,
many of whom have gone on to achieve publication in various
fields, but Jeff's work always seemed to have that special extra
quality we all recognised.

Jeff has won various awards over the years for his poetry and
short stories, and I also had the privilege of collaborating
with him a few years ago on a radio play. Painter Man is his
first published novel, however.

The book is a gently humorous, but also honest and touching,
account of an aspiring artist trying to follow his dreams while
also supporting his young wife and family, set against the harsh
backdrop of the industrial Black Country. I can testify that the
book is an excellent read. You can order it if you wish from the
publisher's website at http://www.tindalstreet.org.uk. When
Painter Man and its author Jeff Phelps start being nominated for
big literary awards, just remember where you heard about it
first!

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2. Article: The Perils of Internet Research

I read an interesting article in UK newspaper The Guardian this
month. It was by their environmental columnist George Monbiot.
I'll try to sum it up briefly here, but if you're interested I
strongly recommend reading the full article. The following
shortcut URL should take you straight to the version on the
Guardian's archive page: http://tinyurl.com/bdnre 

Basically, Monbiot had been intrigued by a letter published in
April in the magazine New Scientist by British botanist David
Bellamy. In his letter Bellamy claimed that many of the world's
glaciers "are not shrinking but in fact are growing...555 of all
the 625 glaciers under observation by the World Glacier
Monitoring Service in Zürich, Switzerland, have been growing
since 1980". His letter was instantly taken up by climate change
deniers, including motor vehicle manufacturers, to help promote
their case.

An active environmentalist himself, Monbiot was concerned to
discover whether Bellamy was right or not. And it should be said
here that David Bellamy is a very well-known scientist in the UK
at least. At one time he was a regular TV show presenter on the
BBC, and he is still often called in as a 'talking head' when
expert comment on environmental issues is required. He is also
an academic, formerly at the University of Durham, so presumably
well aware of the importance of checking and confirming sources
when quoting this type of information.

So Monbiot decided to investigate further. First, he contacted
the World Glacier Monitoring Service and read out Bellamy's
letter to them. They emphatically denied that there was any
truth in the scientist's claims and professed amazement at the
figures he quoted. They stated that their observations all
showed unequivocally that most of the world's glaciers are
retreating.

So Monbiot got in touch with Bellamy and asked him what was his
source for the information in the letter. Eventually Bellamy
replied quoting a website http://www.iceagenow.com. This site
was constructed by a man called Robert W. Felix to promote his
self-published book about "the coming ice age". It claims that
sea levels are falling, not rising; that the Asian tsunami was
caused by the "ice age cycle"; and that "underwater volcanic
activity - not human activity - is heating the seas". Felix is
actually not a climatologist, vulcanologist or oceanographer.
He describes himself as a "former architect". Monbiot says: "His
website is so bonkers that I thought at first it was a spoof."

However, there on the site is the figure quoted by Bellamy, or
something like it. The relevant paragraph reads: "Since 1980,
there has been an advance of more than 55% of the 625 mountain
glaciers under observation by the World Glacier Monitoring group
in Zürich."

But in Bellamy's letter, the statistic quoted was 555 of 625
glaciers. Monbiot was unable to find this figure (which would
represent around 89% of glaciers) anywhere else on the web. But
eventually he got to the bottom of it. In his article, he says:
"On the standard English keyboard, 5 and % occupy the same key.
If you try to hit %, but fail to press shift, you get 555,
instead of 55%. This is the only explanation I can produce for
his figure. When I challenged him, he admitted that there had
been 'a glitch of the electronics'."

Clearly, this is an embarrassing story for David Bellamy and
casts a cloud over his professional reputation. However, I think
it's something all of us who use the Internet for research can
learn from.

It's very easy to fall into the trap of seeing something in
black and white on your computer screen and thinking it must be
true. However, anyone with just a little computer knowledge and
a few dollars can put up a website and say anything they like on
it, so it is important to switch on your full critical faculties
before researching anything on the net. Here then are a few tips
for internet researchers...

* Give most credence to information you find on sites run by
educational institutions such as colleges and universities. Many
such sites in North America have a .edu suffix, while in Britain
they usually have the suffix ac.uk. Sites run by respected
professional organisations and societies are also generally
trustworthy.

* By contrast, be wary of sites put up by individuals, pressure
groups and political parties. At the very least, the "facts"
they present may be slanted to support their point of view. The
same, of course, can apply to company websites, and indeed to
any sites which are attempting to sell something.

* Remember that just because a particular statistic or "fact" is
reported on several different sites, it doesn't necessarily mean
it is true. Material is easily copied from one website to
another, with or without permission.

* Look at how information is worded, therefore. If the wording
on two sites is very similar, chances are the information has
simply been copied from one to the other, probably without any
checking.

* Check also when a site was last updated (most reputable sites
will indicate this somewhere, and the information also appears
in all searches run on Google). Sites that are not regularly
updated should be viewed with suspicion.

* If possible, rather than relying on what is written on a
website, go straight to the horse's mouth. There are various
services which will put writers and journalists in touch with
experts in their field. ProfNet ( www.profnet.com ) is a free
service which enables you to send a query to over 10,000 news
and information officers from 4,000 organizations in North
America and Europe. Some other similar services are listed in
Module 3 of my course "Write Any Book in Under 28 Days"

* Try to research controversial matters as deeply as possible.
Even experts on a subject can hold quite different views. Only
by familiarising yourself with all points of view can you present
a balanced picture to your readers.

Despite all my caveats, please don't be put off researching
information on the Internet. Information in print can just as
easily be wrong, and there is lots of information on the web
that is simply unavailable from print sources. Internet research
does needs to be approached with commonsense, however, and a
healthy degree of scepticism.

And finally, if you know that your typing is not as good as it
could be, do double-check any figures and percentages you have
quoted in your book or article, to ensure that you have entered
them correctly!


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


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


3. Market Info - Miscellany

Here are a few more potential markets for you, starting with an
opportunity brought to my attention by E-Writer reader (and a
near-neighbour of mine) Linda Jones.

If you know a good place to go on holiday with children, a new,
UK-based website for families (yet to be launched) would like to
hear from you. They aim to publish info about destinations for
holidays and day trips. Reviews of 200 words and a one to three
'star' rating are needed. The team are building up a bank of
reviews of UK destinations and some further afield. The site is
being launched by three mothers of young children, and they are
looking to build long-term relationships with contributors. The
bad news is that there isn't a budget to pay contributors at the
moment. However, Linda says that other benefits are on the
horizon. In the early days contributors will be entered into a
prize draw for vouchers for a spa day or pampering session or
another prize of equivalent value. In the long-term, as the site
grows, there will be more possibilities. If you are interested
in getting involved and would like more info, please contact
Linda at linda-at-passionatemr.co.uk.

Scheherazade Tales Romance E-Novels, a royalty-paying electronic
publisher of romance e-books, is open for submissions. Novel-
length (minimum 50,000 words) romance genre only. Query by email
to editor-at-scheherazadetales.com - send short synopsis of
storyline and approx. 5 pages from anywhere in your manuscript
cut and pasted into the email, or send complete manuscript by
email attachment. Romance must be the main focus of the story,
not a secondary element. They like to see the hero/heroine
having larger-than-life adventures while falling in love and
struggling to stay together. Sensuality from sweet to spicy, but
no erotica. For more information, see their website at
http://scheherazadetales.com.

A US publisher is seeking experienced health writers to ghost-
write consumer health books. Writers will interview authors and
physicians, as well as complete research for the manuscript,
which will be approximately 120 pages (25,000-30,000 words).
They are looking for writers who can turn around material
quickly. Each applicant will be asked to complete an original
writing sample to demonstrate understanding of clarity,
organization, and tone. Initially, send an email with an
overview of your health writing experience, your interviewing
experience, and your fee requirements. They say if they need
more information, they will ask you for it. E-mail:
HealthBookPub-at-aol.com.

If your knowledge of IT matters is better than mine, this next
opportunity may interest you. Future Publishing (UK) have a
number of opportunities for freelance writers in their
technology, games and PC magazines. They say: "If you're a
technology, computing or games enthusiast, love to write, know
your stuff, can explain things clearly and concisely, would like
to earn extra money and see your name in print, we'd be
interested in hearing from you." Experience is not required -
just a love for your subject and a desire to engage other people
in it. To apply, contact Group Editor Nick Merritt at
nick.merritt-at-futurenet.co.uk in the first instance with a
400 word article about any item you've bought this year. See
also their website at http://www.futurenet.com. There is a
closing date for applications of 6 June 2005.

The agency Online Content UK is urgently seeking a UK-based
freelance writer with experience writing about property for a
project likely to start this week. You are asked to get in touch
if you have experience writing about property and real estate
issues (long copy, not just advertising), writing for the web,
and using keywords in copy - ideally for search engine
optimisation. To apply, e-mail Elizabeth Varley at
jobs-at-onlinecontentuk.org asap (today if possible) with:
* PFPCW in the subject line
* your relevant experience summarized in the email
* your CV if you have it to hand
* some relevant samples
* your availability in June
* your daily rate
* your location

The international Christian development agency World Vision is
seeking an experienced freelance researcher/writer for short-
term writing projects. To apply, send a letter of introduction
and CV/resume to: Adrian Richardson, World Vision, Fox Milne,
MK15 0ZR, UK, or email adrian.richardson-at-worldvision.org.uk.
This one has a closing date of 15 June 2005.

Chick Flicks Ezine is a paying market seeking well-written,
emotionally engaging, creative fiction, non-fiction, articles,
and opinion pieces (max. 2,000 words). Despite the name, the
publication is for men as well as women. They say: "We want
emotion and honesty and engaging journeys from point A to point
B and beyond. Send us pieces with less-spoken, but common
universal truths. Make us laugh, make us cry, make us hurt in
the deepest, darkest parts of our souls, but most of all, be
honest, raw, real." See http://www.chickflicksezine.com for
their full submission guidelines and pay rates.

Freeway Publishing are looking for freelance researcher/writers
to research and write e-books of 8,000 to 12,000 words on a wide
range of topics. Their main categories are business
opportunities, sports and hobbies, and health. Writers will be
paid a flat fee (not an advance) plus a royalty on every sale in
the 24 months following publication. For further information,
see http://www.freewaypublishing.com (click on
Researcher/Writers Wanted at the top left of the screen).

Finally, it's not a market, but for any freelance journalists
among you, Linda Jones - mentioned above - also recommended The
Journalist's Forum to me. You can access this UK website at
http://www.janmurray.co.uk/journoforum/. Linda says they are a
very friendly bunch and she has gained some excellent contacts
and an actual commission through being signed up with them. The
contributors are mainly London-based freelance journalists.

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

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4. Useful Resource: Diskeeper

Stop me if you've heard this before, but I've been having
problems with my computer recently...

It started with mysterious error messages about programs I'd
never heard of no longer being able to run. Then the computer
started to crash repeatedly. And these weren't just your common-
or-garden Word crashes either - they weren't even "blue screen
of death", but black screen. Windows XP is quite robust, and it
always recovered eventually, but accompanied by a message that
"Windows has recovered from a serious error".

It got to the point where my PC was crashing at least once a
day, and of course anything I hadn't saved at the time was lost.
And even when the computer was working, it was noticeably slower
than usual. For someone like me who depends on their PC to earn
their living, it was very worrying.

Anyway, I tried various measures to sort it out. I ran a
complete virus check - no problems there. Then I ran Spybot
Search & Destroy, in case a spyware program was responsible.
Again (apart from a few harmless tracking cookies) this came up
negative. I even tried running Windows' ScanDisk program, in
case my computer's hard disk had become damaged - again, the
results were negative.

I was starting to think that perhaps the only solution would be
a complete reinstall of Windows XP (a daunting prospect for a
non-techie like me), or even getting a new PC. But then, while
surfing the web for inspiration, I found the answer...

On a computing message board, I found a posting from someone who
had suffered very similar problems to mine. His PC's problem, it
turned out, was that its hard disk (the main long-term storage
facility in modern PCs) was heavily fragmented. Once he had
defragmented it, everything worked normally again.

Now, here's the obligatory technical bit. Because of the way
computers work, files are often saved in separate data packets
on different parts of your computer's hard disk. These packets
then have to be reassembled before you can open or use the file
concerned. If the different packets are scattered all over your
hard disk, then the head mechanism has to jump all around the
hard disk to find them. That means the process takes longer, and
there is a greater possibility of errors. The solution to this
is to defragment your hard disk. This process rearranges the
data on your hard disk more efficiently, so that related data
packets are put back next to one another again.

Now of course I knew that I should defragment my PC's hard disk
from time to time. However, Windows built-in defragmenter is
very slow (we're talking hours here) and you can't run any other
programs while it's operating. It doesn't tell you when you need
to run it. And it's also tucked well out of sight in Windows XP,
meaning I undoubtedly hadn't run it as often as I should have
done.

Anyway, rather than use Windows' built-in but not very efficient
defragmenter, I decided to take up a recommendation I read on
the message board. I invested a modest $19.95 (around 12 UK
pounds) on the home edition of a program called Diskeeper. And
I'm very glad that I did.

Diskeeper quickly analysed my hard disk and told me it was
heavily fragmented (either 60 or 40% - I can't quite remember
now). I set it to perform an immediate defragmentation, which it
completed in under an hour. OK, that's not instant, but it's
quicker than the Windows tool, and you can run other programs
while it's operating.

The best thing, though, is that you can then set Diskeeper to
automatically defragment your hard disk as required. Just select
Smart Scheduling, and Diskeeper runs in the background all the
time your PC is switched on. It uses minimal resources, but
automatically runs from time to time to minimise fragmentation.
All you see is a little logo that appears in the system tray at
the bottom right of your screen to tell you when it is
functioning. This does not affect your ability to use your PC.

My computer is now running beautifully again, and serious
crashes are (touch wood) a thing of the past. What's more, I
know that, as Diskeeper is keeping a watchful eye on my hard
disk for me, it should never become badly fragmented again.

So I'm a big fan of this program now! If you'd like to try
Diskeeper for yourself, you can download the software, or a free
trial version, from http://www.executive.com/defrag/defrag.asp.
And no, I don't get paid anything for recommending Diskeeper. I
just like to pass on information about good products to E-Writer
readers, and this is a product I rate highly.

* Even if you don't buy Diskeeper, don't forget to defragment
your hard disk from time to time. To use the free tool in
Windows XP, click on System Tools/Accessories/Disk Defragmenter,
and follow the on-screen instructions. Diskeeper is much better
though!


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

All good wishes,

Nick



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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
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testimonials!

* New! See the latest independent review of 'Write Any Book in
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----------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright Info

Except where specifically stated, material in E-Writer is
protected by copyright of Nick Daws, 2005. 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!

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