The Weekly Newsletter is Dead

A few weeks ago I started republishing my weekly newsletter for writers to see if it was useful.

Last week I checked the online stats and saw that every time I send it out, very few people click on anything in it (in fact there were very few clicks), which means that I’m not providing information that anyone needs.

And it takes me a couple of hours every week to research the contents and put the newsletter together.

So If I’m wasting my time, then it’s time that would be better spent doing my own writing.

If you still want writing news, it can be found in the writers’ news feed at the bottom of this blog.

If you need writing markets you can find thousands of places to submit your work at http://writeaholics.net/writingmarkets.html.

And I’l still be writing articles for Writeaholics.net which I’ll link to in this blog.

Speaking of which, I wrote and uploaded an article this week called “Stock Your Online Writing Store and Ship Goods Daily” which will really inspire you to write and publish more books.

So now my weekly newsletter for writers is dead and will not rise again, which is good news for you because you should be writing, not wasting time reading emails.

So get to work.

2 Really Great Offers For Writers - But You Have To Be Quick

This is just a really quick notice that there are currently two really great offers for writers, but the offers only last a short time (a few days)

First is an offer for anyone serious about wanting to be a screenplay writer.

The second offer is for 50% on ebooks for writers, including The 2015 Novel and Short Story Writers' Markets, The Kick-Ass Writer, Writing New Adult Fiction and 2015 Songwriters Markets. Just apply the discount code on checkout to get your 50% discount. There are several pages of ebooks to choose from.

But these offers don't last long. One finishes in 2 days.

So here they are:

Shop the Final Draft Sale at Writers Store
Final Draft 9 retains all of its studio-tested features used by Hollywood giants like Tom Hanks, J.J. Abrams, James Cameron, and Aaron Sorkin, while setting new benchmarks in performance and ease of use. With Final Draft 9, you’ll enjoy over 30 new and improved features, plus a fresh look and feel for both Mac and Windows users. Now, get Final Draft 9 for $69+, Valid 26th May till 5th June 2015.

50% Off eBooks through May 31 with Offer Code TAKE50 at Writer's Digest Shop
Want to improve your writing skills but don't want to wait around to take action? Browse the eBooks and start learning how to write a book, discover the steps to getting published, and learn how to effectively market your book to a wide audience. With downloadable eBooks on fiction writing, character development, screenwriting, story outlines and even how to get started writing, we can help take your idea from page to publisher.

Offer Code TAKE50 Valid 29th May till 31st May 2015.

I’m K.I.S.S.ing Everything

One of the best known acronyms for business, or for anything really, is KISS which stands for Keep It Simple Stupid.

I recently realised that I wasn't enjoying what I do and everything seemed like a chore.

So I’ve been KISSing everything.

One of the major changes I'm making to my online businesses is to get rid of most of my websites, especially my writing sties, and send all my visitors to just one writing site instead.

I’ve also set out a weekly article writing and online marketing schedule that is easy and quick to do and leaves plenty of time for book writing which is really what I want to do more of.

If you’re struggling to get enough writing done, try applying KISS to every area of life.

Look at everything you do and find a way to make it faster and simpler.

It leaves much more time for the things you’d rather be doing.

Finish Your Sh*t

The other day I read a really amusing - yet straightforward and honest - article by writer, Chuck Wendig.

He was talking about how aspiring writers are not really writers at all and was listing reasons why.

One of the things he listed was the bad habit that most writers suffer from, and that is not finishing things we start.

I’m just as guilty as anyone else for doing this and I have half-written manuscripts and short stories waiting to be proofed and edited, stashed away all over the place.

Chuck’s article was called “25 THINGS I WANT TO SAY TO SO-CALLED “ASPIRING” WRITERS” which I thought was funny to start with because of the way he called them “so-called”.

The part of it that made me laugh the most was this:

“I’m just going to type this out a dozen times so it’s clear: finish your shit. Finish your shit. Finish your shit. Finish your shit. Finish your shit. Finish your shit! FINISH YOUR SHIT. Finish. Your. Shit. Fiiiiniiiish yooooour shiiiiit. COMPLETO EL POOPO. Vervollständigen Sie Ihre Fäkalien! Finish your shit.”

I especially liked “COMPLETEO EL POOPO”. Hilarious!

So if you’re a writer with things left unfinished, now would be a good time to Competeo El Poopo.

But seriously though, how much money are we leaving on the table through all our unfinished work?

I even have a series of 7 novels that have been left in the outline stage. Crazy, isn’t it?

Take a good look through all the writing projects you started but never finished and see what you can do to get them completed.

And I’ll do the same.

You can read the rest of Chuck’s article at:

http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/02/21/25-things-i-want-to-say-to-so-called-aspiring-writers/

How Important Is Making Money From Writing?

Many purists will tell you that writing is an art form and so you should never be so vulgar to discuss money in the same sentence.

And to that I say, rubbish.

We all want to earn money from our writing and we want to earn enough so that we can quit the day job and write.

But how important should money be? Should you care more about earning money than about your writing?

No.

Writing and publishing should lead to money but wanting to earn money shouldn’t lead you to writing.

You should write because you love to write and not because you think it’s a fast and easy way to make money.

If you do that, your writing will never be good.

A perfect example of this is a writer I heard from who said she’d studied the market and discovered that the fastest selling ebooks were romance novels.

She wanted to write ebooks because, she said, they were a good source of passive income and so she could work once and go on earning money from her novels for years.

Her goal was to write 30 novels. By her math it would provide her with over $10k/month income through ebook sales.

To get the money faster she wrote her 30 novels in less than a year by writing each ebook in 10 days which is 3 a month and so she’d reach her income goal in a year.

The problem with the plan was that she was writing the books so fast and under so much self-inflicted pressure, that her novels were badly written, full of typos and the plots were trite and uninteresting.
The result is that 18 months later, her ebooks sales are still low.

I thought it would be a better plan to write one really good novel a month instead of 3 really bad ones.

But she wasn’t really a writer to start with. She just thought writing was a way to easy money.

There’s plenty of food for thought in that, isn’t there?

If you’re not a writer, and by that I mean someone who enjoys writing, then you’ll never make a lot of money as a writer.

Writing is a talent that some people have and many don’t.

Most experienced writers find it difficult to write under so much pressure which would make it impossible for a non-writer to do it.

But she tried.

And failed.

Just enjoy writing and keep doing it and eventually you’ll get faster naturally.

I know I did.

Just Write, Damn You!

OK, so this is going to be a mini-therapy session for me while I sit and whine to you about all the would-be writers (who like to call themselves aspiring writers) who never write a damn thing.

And then they ask me how to get started or how they can make money from their writing (that they never do).

So first I think I need to get one thing straight.

If you never write anything then you’re not a writer.

You see, you don’t need a college degree or any type of formal education to be a writer. And you can’t get a diploma or a certificate to show that you’re a writer the way doctors and lawyers do.

In fact, the only way that you can prove that you’re a writer is if you write every day.

And you don’t even have to write a lot. Many novelists only write for one or two hours day.

But the important thing is that they do it daily.

And what’s great about being a writer is that you’re no paid by the hour so your writing can go on earning money for years.

And it all begins with writing.

Every day!

So sit down and write, damn you.

Quick Cash Writing

Download Your Free 'Focus' MP3

Struggling With My Writing Routine

This week I'm struggling with keeping up with my usual writing and publishing routine.

I'm quite the creature of habit (which I'll be talking about in a future article) and I like to get certain writing tasks completed on certain days. That way I never have think about it. I never suddenly have to think "Did I write that article for Writeaholics.net?" Nope. I just know it's been done because I have a set day to do it.

Anyway, this week my usual routine has been monumentally disrupted because...my computer has had to go into the repair shop so I don't have access to my usual files and my usual software.

I know that something is wrong with my computer because it's slowing down and having a few issues, but it is 4 years old and I usually replace my computer every 3 years, but my current Mac Book Pro has been such a great computer that I hate to part with it.

The problem began when I started having issues downloading some of my emails. I phoned my hosting company, Netregistry.com.au, and they discovered that some horrible person has created fake email accounts on my website and is trying to download them every time I try and download my legitimate emails.

The fake email accounts are attempting to download to several different IP addresses, none of which are mine.

Now you'd think, wouldn't you, or at least I would, that with such a hacking attempt going on with my account that my hosting company would do something about it immediately.

But no. It's now been several days - today is Wednesday and they discovered this hacking attempt last Thursday while I was on the phone with the so-called tech support department - and still not one damn thing has been done to put things right despite my making 3 phone calls and sending 2 emails to them.

And in the meantime I cannot download my emails for that particular website (my cheritonhousepublishing.com site) because every time I do, the hackers automatically try to download their emails too and all the IP addresses get immediately blocked from the account, including mine.

So then I can't access anything and I have to ring up NetRegistry.com.au and ask them to unblock my IP address so that I can at least log into my website control panel. But first of all they go through loads of rubbish asking me to send them screenshots of my failed login attempts, etc and I have to keep explaining that it's not a fault on my computer, it's their system automatically blocking me out. It usually takes me about 20 minutes to get them to understand this.

I-Yi-Yi!

In the meantime I wondered if all this is what is affecting my computer. Have the hackers got into it somehow? I'm not sure how online hacking works so I don't know what people have the capability to do.

The computer store rang me today and said that my computer hard drive is corrupt and had some adware on it. They've removed the adware and are cloning my files so that they can install a new hard drive and put all my clean files and software back onto the new hard drive. I should get it back today, at a hefty price, but it will be worth it.

I'm currently using my Mac Book Air which is the computer I use if I want to work away from home.

I do sometimes like to work in the park or at the library, or sometimes at a really nice lookout (that has toilets and a drinking fountain) that's not too far away from here. That's one of the good things about living in the mountains. The views are fantastic.

I don't keep anything on this computer just in case it gets damaged or stolen. I don't have my emails on it and I don't store personal or business files on it. Only files that don't matter if others see them.

And it's password protected which means that once the lid is closed, a password is required to use the computer again. I really use it as nothing more than a glorified Word Processor.

And it doesn't have any of my software on it or passwords to my internet accounts.

I like to stay safe. Yet still there is adware on my main computer which I'm usually really careful with too.

On the upside of all this, I've managed to get plenty of writing done because I don't have much else to do while my other computer is AWOL.

I can't do a lot with my writing because I can't upload anything without my passwords and I don't want to use them even once on this computer just in case it remembers them. I can however, log into this blog and make a new post. It's one place I am auto-logged into on this computer.

So I'll keep waiting till my Mac Book Pro returns and in the meantime I'll just keep writing and writing.

My usual routine may have been disrupted but at least I'm getting plenty done.

There really is no excuse not to write.

Write Faster And Better

If you’re like me you dream of being able to write more every day and have a huge library of published books and a slew of websites with hundreds of pages of useful articles and other information and millions of visitors a month.

Ahh… wouldn’t it be nice?

I’m not there yet but I am getting there.

How about you?

Do you dream of the same writing goals?

If so, what’s holding you back?

It’s probably the same thing that’s held me back too.

Practice.

That is the ‘secret’.

If you want to write more you need to write faster so that you can tackle more large writing projects such as books.

Writing faster means writing more and it also means writing better.

In other words, practice will help you write faster and improve the way you write at the same time.

If you want to write faster and write and publish more, do what I always do and get a course or an ebook that you can follow that will get you started and keep you writing.

Some courses I’ve used are:

Quick Cash Writing. Great for writing all kinds of smaller projects such as filler articles, short stories and greeting card verse.

http://writeaholics.net/links/quickcash.html

Write Any Book in 28 Days or Less. Laid out in an easy to follow style and suitable for writing fiction and non-fiction. Just follow the advice as you go through the course and by the end you’ll have your manuscript written.

http://writeaholics.net/links/writequickly.html

12 Month Writing Challenge. A course that gives you monthly assignments that build on top of each other so that by this time next year you’ll not only have earned over $30K from the course, but you’ll have multiple streams of passive income to keep you going.
http://12mthchallenge.com

7 Day Ebook Writing and Publishing System. If you want to write ebook fast, this course will get you there. Short how-to ebooks can help you to earn a steady, passive income. When you download this course, you’ll also receive the bonus ebook 2 Hour Short Report Writing: How to write a short report or ebook in just 2 hours. 

http://cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/7day.html

Can you imagine how much writing you’d be able to do and how much money you’d earn if your downloaded and worked on writing courses such as these?

There are many more writing courses available to download online so there really is no excuse for not getting started today, even if you don’t have an idea of what you want to write.

All you need is a goal of what you want to achieve then get to work and do it.

Some people never get started with their writing because they’re afraid they’ll fail. While others are afraid they’ll succeed.

If you don’t make a determined start now, what will you achieve in one week’s time, in a month or in a year?

Nothing.

Ask yourself this:

• What is your goal with your writing?
• How are you going to achieve it?
• Why haven’t you started?

Now would be a great time to begin.

How to Master Writing Focus in the Shortest Time Possible

I love watching football. Rugby League is the game I love and I attend most of the home games of my favourite team.

There is another fan who sits in front of me. He’s a barrister and he’s extremely passionate about the game.

He yells, stands up, shouts at the players and is always fully absorbed in what’s going on on the pitch.

And when I see him like this it’s easy to see why he’s a good barrister (and from what I hear he’s really good). It’s his focus.

When he’s at the match he is 100% focused on the game and no doubt he’s the same when he’s in court.

He just has an amazing ability to concentrate so hard on what he’s doing that he seems to forget about everything else going on around him.

And this is the same type of focus you need when you’re writing.

It’s easy to think that writing isn’t hard. You imagine that you sit down, write for a while and then your working day is over.

But it’s not like that at all.

Writing takes concentration and 100% focus on your work, otherwise you’ll let every little thing distract you.

Sometimes just everyday neighbourhood noises can be very distracting.

So how is it possible to have total focus when you’re writing?

Block out everything else.

This means forgetting about other things that have to be done.

If you need to be somewhere soon, set an alarm to remind you and then get back to work.

Got a car payment due? Forget it for now. Had an argument with someone yesterday? Block it from your mind.

Are the neighbours having an argument while you’re trying to write? Slip on some headphones and listen to meditation music so that you can’t hear them.

Using headphones and relaxing audios works to not only block out other noises but also helps you focus.

A win win.

So forget about everything else and let yourself get lost in your own writing world.

Everything else can wait.

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Download a Free MP3 Audio of Brain Salon’s “Razor Sharp Focus” And See the Difference It Can Make Instantly.

Years ago I was studying for a degree with the Open University.

This meant I was studying at home.

The Open University sent me my text books at the beginning of the school year and gave me a schedule of classes I had to watch on TV (no internet back then).

At the end of the school year I had to go and sit a 3-hour exam.

I sometimes found it hard to study alone.

When I was doing other things I’d always think “I should be studying” and when I was studying I fretted about all the other things I had to do that weren’t getting done.

And it’s the same now that I’m a writer working from home.

I’m always thinking “I should be writing” and then when I am writing I think, “I have so many other jobs I should be doing.” It just never ends.

But I am getting better at it. I’ve been working as a writer for many years now but I still get that nagging “I should be….” no matter what I’m doing.

One of the things that has helped me is listening to self help audios that help me relax and calm down.

I also listen to audios about being more relaxed and focused as well as listening to audios about writing and working online (those two go hand in hand).

One of the places I go to find audios about writing and working online is bensettle.com. This is the website of a copywriter and email specialist and he has hundreds of hours of free audios on his site.

I also listen to audios from hardtofindseminars.com. There are thousands of free audios on this site all about making money online.

Another place I go to is LearnOutLoud.com because they also have thousands of free audios.

 So if you want to keep on learning to perfect your writing craft while you’re busy doing other things, try these three places to download some amazing audios.

How to Earn $100 From 5 Minutes Writing

Years ago, when I first started writing, I knew that I wanted to be a professional writer but I had no idea where to start.

Then I stumbled across a writing course called Quick Cash Writing.

I bought it, downloaded it and immediately started working my way through it from virtual cover to virtual cover.

And guess what happened?

I made enough money so that I could give up my job and write full time.

Previously I’d worked a full time job. Then once I started making a bit of money from my writing I got a part time job instead to give me more time to write.

But once I’d worked  my way through Quick Cash Writing, I was amazed at just how much money I could make from my writing.

I was eventually writing for private clients as well as writing for magazines.

The easiest money I made from magazine writing was from Reader’s Letters.

These are so fast to write and pay a lot of money. One of them paid me $100 for a few words and a small photo of my dog.

Reader’s letters, in  most magazines, are just a few words about something funny that happened. Other magazines look for tips that other readers can use or opinions about articles from a previous issue.

But either way, these only take 5 minutes or less to write - and they can usually be submitted by email which is the quickest way to do it.

And I know from first hand experience that it is possible to earn $100 for 5 minutes of writing - or less.

And I also made quick cash from sending a short joke into the Readers’ Digest magazine. They pay up to $100 for jokes and they send you a copy of the issue your joke is in.

So if you want to earn a fast buck or two (or even a hundred or two) try submitting a few reader’s letters, tips, opinions or jokes. 

Try it right now. 

It only takes 5 minutes.

Too Many Writers Don't Spoil The Broth

I am fortunate to live in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland in Queensland, Australia.

It’s a collection of small towns and villages up in the mountains that run between the coast and the inland.

It is a Bohemian culture up here full of artists and writers and people wearing tie-tied clothing, flowing skirts, loose shirts and dreadlocks.

It’s an area of cafes and craft shops selling the work of local artists.

The cafes are full of writers, all sat working for hours every day.

Writers also can be found in the libraries and parks, all busy working on their laptop computers.

 But can there be too many writers to spoil the broth, just like there can be too many cooks?

In the 2 years that I’ve lived here, I’ve found it to be a place that’s very conducive to writing.

I’ve written more here than anywhere I’ve ever lived before.

I think this is because environment is important when you’re writing.

Even online you need to be aware of the virtual environment you’re in and decide whether it’s helping you to write or hindering you.

Choose wisely who you follow online and the places that you visit.

And don’t spend too much time online.

Instead, make sure that you’re spending most of your time writing.

And don’t be afraid of spending time with too many other writers because, as I found, too many writers don’t spoil the proverbial broth.

Instead they add more flavour.

Get Online Today Even if You Don’t Know a Thing About Websites

I get asked so often, is it possible to have a website or blog without knowing anything about HTML code?

Can it be done?

Of course it can. Naturally it’s better if you go online and learn a bit about HTML code first, but even if you don’t know a thing you can still launch your own blog today and start uploading articles.

How?

Well, to keep it simple and quick, you can create your own Blogger blog. Blogger is owned by Google and anyone can start a blog in minutes (the blog you're reading right now is a Blogger Blog, click the Blogger link in the top left corner to get started).

Once you have your blog you then change how you want it to look using the simple dashboard that Blogger provides.

If you don’t know how to do it, there are hundreds of videos on YouTube about how to set up a Blogger blog and how the dashboard works. You only have to do a quick search to find the info you want.

And I’m betting that you can have your blog set up and start posting articles in less than a couple of hours.

It really is that simple.

There’s a saying online, KISS. This stands for Keep It Simple Stupid. And starting a quick Blogger blog is simple.

Of course, there are also those who ask for my advice and then don’t take it.

I say “Start a Blogger blog. It’s so easy to do.” and they say “OK” but they do nothing.

This is because they really aren’t interested in having a blog. They just want an excuse to not have one so that in their own minds it’s not their fault that they’re not a successful writer. It’s because they don’t know HTML code.

So if you’ve always wanted to have your own blog, check out a few videos on YouTube about starting a Blogger blog and then go to Google and set one up yourself.

Just stop making excuses and get your online writing business started.

Even if you’re not sure exactly what it is you want to do yet, forget the minor details and just get something started.

Remember you don’t have to be able to see the whole staircase to take the first step.

:)

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Proof That There is Money to Be Earned From Short Ebooks

Recently I was doing a Google search for writing markets to include in my latest newsletter for writers.

I came a cross jobs for ebooks writers so I clicked through to see what they were.

The jobs were advertised on freelancing job websites.

I didn't use these jobs in my list of markets because they weren't high-paying, but I was amazed by them all the same.

Nearly all were looking for someone to research and write a short ebook of around 5,000 words.

I thought "Only 5,000 words? That is really short! I've read article on people's blogs that are longer than that (take a look at Steve Pavlina's How to Make Money From Your Blog as an example). And it's only about a 25-page ebook, or 30 if you include cover pages, disclaimer pages, etc.

And for this they are willing to pay the writer several hundred dollars. Why so much? Because there seems to be a lot of money in ebook publishing. In my most recent newsletter I linked to an article about this called $2700/Month of Passive Income by Publishing Kindle eBooks, and No Writing.

So it became clear that if people will pay writers hundreds of dollars to write a short ebook, it's because they are making much, much more money from the writers hard work.

Most of theses ads offered plenty more ongoing work for the right person. Some said they would keep the writer busy for a year.

The downside to these jobs is that they wanted the ebooks completed in a week - or less, in just 5 days.

Is it even possible to research and write a short ebook this quickly? You bet it is. And it has all given me much food for thought. (Who is this guy called Thought and why do I keep feeding him?)

And hopefully it will feed your thoughts too.

Because I now have proof that there is a lot of money to be made from writing and publishing short ebooks.

But wouldn't it be better to write them for yourself and keep all the profit?

You can do it with my 7 Day Ebook Writing & Publishing System.