Add a WordPress app. to your smartphone January 31, 2010

“Write posts, upload photos, edit pages, and manage comments on your blog using WordPress for iPhone, WordPress for Blackberry, and m.wordpress.com.”

Automattic have upgraded their app. for WordPress. The iPhone or iPod Touch application lets you see and manage WordPress.com blogs. You can delete a post or a page, edit a post, see commentators’ e-mails, and moderate comments.

“Introducing the only iPhone app that lets you write posts, upload photos, edit pages, and manage comments on your blog from your iPhone or iPod touch. With support for both WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress (2.7 or higher), users of all experience levels can get going in seconds.”

The app is rated 4/5 by users, so if you are fortunate enough to own an iPhone and a WordPress.com blog, I’d recommend downloading this handy-dandy tool.

For those of you without a WordPress blog, sorry, I know nothing outside of WordPress. For those of you without an iPhone (myself included), by the time you’ve saved up for half the cost of one, I hope it’s come down to half the original price. 😀

 

Every piece of writing needs to be clear and precise. With microscope in hand, Inksnatcher’s writing and editing service will hone any work until it glitters in the light of a 1,000 watt bulb. INKSNATCHER.COM

 

 

Hyphens—when to use them January 28, 2010

Hyphens . . . who on earth came up with this idea?? Grammar rules are supposed to be solid rules, not vague ideas that writers can use when logic applies; but whoever said writers were logical?

Open compounds
Two or more words used as one adjective
The school bus driver started yelling.

Hyphenated compounds
Two or more words with a hyphen(s) before a noun
The well-fed child laughed his little head around the floor.

Closed/solid compound
Two words joined as one
The underfed child lay listlessly in the dirt.

So when should I use hyphens?
Most of the time, a sentence’s meaning will be completely clear when the adverbs and adjectives are placed after the noun in a sentence, so hyphens are not required. When adverbs and adjectives are used before the noun, you will probably hyphenate.
The cat was black and white.
The black-and-white cat played with his tail.

“It is never incorrect to hyphenate adjectival compounds before a noun” (CMOS, 7.86).

And when can’t I use hyphens?
If you have an adverb (a word describing an action word) ending in ly matched with an adjective, either before or after the noun.
He was a fascinatingly handsome man.
The man was fascinatingly handsome.

Is there any easy way to remember how this works?
You’ll just have to accept that some compounded words don’t follow the rules. What can you do about this? Buy the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary and follow that, although . . . The Chicago Manual of Style will let some originally-hyphenated compounds slide if they are now widely accepted. The CMOS has a style guide for compounds, combining forms, and prefixes at the end of chapter seven.

And so we come back to the original suggestion for when to use hyphens—when it’s logical to do so. Capiche?

 

Every piece of writing needs to be clear and precise. With microscope in hand, Inksnatcher’s writing and editing service will hone any work until it glitters in the light of a 1,000 watt bulb. INKSNATCHER.COM

 

 

Fabulous book promotion guide January 25, 2010

Oh my goodness, this lady is just brilliant!

I wrote about Stephie Smith a few weeks ago because she has an excellent chart on different writing contests you can submit to, but I just discovered a newer feature of her site . . . a book promotion guide!

Below is her list of every suggestion she has to promote your book. C’est incroyable! Hop onto this table’s contents as fast as you can.

Advertising
How To Articles
PR Agencies
Book Review Sites
Mailing Lists
Promotion Tips
Blogs / Interviews
Online Classes
Video Trailers
Chats
Website Stuff
                                                                                                                     
And is Stephie content with providing this to struggling artists such as ourselves? Mais non! She also provides the following list of writers’ resources.
                                       

General Writers’ Resources
Agents
Different Genres
Promoting Your Book
Blogging and Blogs
Grammar, Punctuation
Publishing Your Book
Book Review Sites
Money, Taxes & Jobs
Romance Reading
Contests & Exercises
News on Books & Publishing
Romance Writing
Craft of Writing
Pitching Your Book
Writing Scripts

Historical Resources
American History
Fashion & Costumes
Scotland
Architecture, Landscaping
Industrial Revolution
Ships & Naval History
Coinage
Medieval-18th c. England
Titles, Bios & Genealogy
Crime and Punishment
Pirates, Smuggling, Trade
Victorian Era
Culture (Art, Speech, etc.)
Regency Era
World History

You are probably thinking by now that Stephie is a good friend of mine and we have this pact to help each other out. Not so. I found her site quite by chance and feel that all her hard work must be proclaimed from the highest rooftops. This is a fabulous accomplishment and it’s all for us!

Ok, I’ll calm down now, and I’ll quit with the exclamation marks. Again, here’s her page of writers’ resources.

If you’d like to thank her for making all her hard work available at no cost, you can buy her booklet here.

 

Every piece of writing needs to be clear and precise. With microscope in hand, Inksnatcher’s writing and editing service will hone any work until it glitters in the light of a 1,000 watt bulb. INKSNATCHER.COM

 

 

Be prepared for blogging interruptions January 23, 2010

And down the hill we head for the last challenge on the bloggiesta hosted by Maw Books.

Jenn from Jenn’s Bookshelves challenges us to come up with ten ideas for future posts. This can be a real life saver down the road. Interruptions to the daily grind happen all the time, and the Girl Scout motto, “Be prepared,” was not a random idea for Lady Baden Powell.

Jenn’s method of storming the brain cells is to draw circles and fill them in with ideas that branch off from older blog posts. Then go a step further and branch off those ideas.

Once that’s done, write up some draft posts so you have the basic ideas developed a little.

And this darling photo is in this post, because when I looked for pics of circles I found this one irresistible. I really don’t like cats, so the rug could be a pleasant substitute under my feet. 🙂

 

Every piece of writing needs to be clear and precise. With microscope in hand, Inksnatcher’s writing and editing service will hone any work until it glitters in the light of a 1,000 watt bulb. INKSNATCHER.COM

 

 

Make your blog more impressive January 21, 2010

We’ve nearly completed the second bloggiesta list of mini challenges, an idea of great genius that helps blogging writers everywhere.

.Get rid of the dead links
“For your challenge, click on this link, and follow the directions in order to make a better blog for your readers.” ~Karin from Karin’s Book Nook

A blog looks much more professional when all the links work. OK, so you didn’t know and you wrote that post two years ago. The thing is, though, people can still find that post, and you don’t want them to leave your site disappointed.
                                     
Encourage yourself
“Find a post or two–or however many–and mentally buff them up. Then? Put them up on a pedestal.” ~ Tempting Persephone

Chelle from Tempting Persephone likes the idea of making your best/favorite work stand out on your site. Hopefully it will encourage you to know what you are capable of on those grouchy days.

Find and give more blogging help
“The Bloggie Cult is a discussion board where bloggers can discuss blogging issues, tips and tricks, and get general information.” ~ Kristen from Bookworming in the 21st Century

Kristen (see below) and Kate from Neverending Shelf encourage bloggers to join The Bloggie Cult to maximize the help bloggers can give each other.

Only one more mini challenge to go! 🙂

 

Every piece of writing needs to be clear and precise. With microscope in hand, Inksnatcher’s writing and editing service will hone any work until it glitters in the light of a 1,000 watt bulb. INKSNATCHER.COM

 

 

Tag your blog posts and back up your files January 18, 2010

And on we go with the bloggiesta mini challenges.

Beth from Beth Fish Reads tells us the benefits of making a short tag list. After looking at her tag list, I can see why she wants to make it shorter! 🙂

Some suggestions for this list would be:
Book reviews
Marketing help
Wordpress help
Blog post help
Grammar and punctuation
Sally’s writing
News for writers
Authors
Agents/publishing houses

But how do you add a tag list to your homepage?
Beth has a list of suggestions for Blogger and WordPress.org. Making a list for WordPress.com is pretty easy—Wordpress has two choices:

A tag cloud tracks all the tags you place on each post.
A category cloud tracks the categories you have put each post into.

You can find both on the widgets page of your dashboard.

What I think I’ll do over the next few days is increase my category cloud (down at the very end of the right column). Rather than have all my posts divided up into three categories, I believe it will be more efficient to have them split into the tag labels I suggested above. While my tag cloud is helpful, it is too random for those who want to be efficient with their time, and, because I am such a helpful blogger, I will fix that. 🙂

Jackie from Farm Lane Books wants to help us never cry over a lost blog, and she tells us how to back up everything with two clicks. (I’d say “with two shakes of a lamb’s tail,” but not many of us have one of those lying around, or do we . . ?)
                                                                 

 

Every piece of writing needs to be clear and precise. With microscope in hand, Inksnatcher’s writing and editing service will hone any work until it glitters in the light of a 1,000 watt bulb. INKSNATCHER.COM

 

 

Copyright your blog posts and speed things up January 17, 2010

Maw Books’ second Bloggiesta challenge has passed, but I approve wholeheartedly of the slow and steady method of starting/finishing the race (mostly because I forgot about it). I encourage you all to complete everything on the challenge list because it just makes sense.

Danielle from There’s a Book challenges us to create a blogging cheat sheet.
This list could include:
URLs you use repeatedly,
blog post templates,
links to royalty-free photos,
author interview templates,
book review templates.
                                                                                                                   
A great idea, posted by some of Pam’s readers, was to put the completed cheat sheet into Google documents so it could be accessed it from anywhere. Danielle has posted her mock sheet here.

Pam from Bookalicio.us helps everyone to keep ahead of copyright issues by giving advice in how to:
update the homepage,
pay the fee for copyright registration,
check to see if people are posting your work as their own,
add an automatic copyright to your feeds.

Pam also suggests a WordPress plugin to help your SEO.

I used a different widget that works with WordPress.com. I’ve added it to my cheat template, and you can check it out at the bottom of this post.

Comment here when you have completed both mini-challenges so I can give you a high five. 🙂

Sally

P.S. Don’t forget to keep posting your five comments a day on other blogs.

 

Every piece of writing needs to be clear and precise. With microscope in hand, Inksnatcher’s writing and editing service will hone any work until it glitters in the light of a 1,000 watt bulb. INKSNATCHER.COM

 

 

Writers’ goals for 2010 January 14, 2010

Despire going AWOL last week, thus missing the bloggiesta weekend, I am still committed to doing everything suggested on Maw Books’ second bloggiesta challenge.

The first mini challenge is by The Book Lady. She asks a lot of questions I didn’t really want to answer, but here are some of them:

How’s your routine working for you?

How would you like to see your blog grow in 2010?

What are you going to do to get there?

Set goals related to the topic of your blog.

Identify a way to reward yourself or celebrate each increment. This was the easiest to answer easy—Starbucks and chocolate.

Pam from Mother Reader challenges everyone to “comment on at least five book blogs a day.” This would entail commenting for twenty days. She also challenges you to “leave your first ten comments on blogs new to you.” Part of the challenge is to write comments that actually show you have read the post, so no bland spam-like comments count!

Start on these two mini challenges and see how you do.

 

Every piece of writing needs to be clear and precise. With microscope in hand, Inksnatcher’s writing and editing service will hone any work until it glitters in the light of a 1,000 watt bulb. INKSNATCHER.COM

 

 

Your life in six words January 10, 2010

I am shamelessly stealing this idea from Kate Ward’s post on Shelf Life.

Post your life (so far) in a summary of six words.

 

Every piece of writing needs to be clear and precise. With microscope in hand, Inksnatcher’s writing and editing service will hone any work until it glitters in the light of a 1,000 watt bulb. INKSNATCHER.COM

 

 

Submission service for authors January 6, 2010

“Writer’s Relief is a highly recommended author’s submission service . . . We help creative writers get their work to the best-suited agents and editors in the most professional format possible.”
                                                                 

                                                                 
In a nutshell, Writer’s Relief helps you, the writer, find places to send your work. They have a team of people ready to find markets that might welcome your writing pieces. Depending on the package you buy, they will even write your query letters/cover letters, proof and format your manuscripts, and prepare your mailing labels.

                                                                 
Take a look at their site—it is full of helpful information. Sign up for their newsletter, buy a t-shirt, order an e-book, or try and get accepted into their “by invitation only” elite writers’ service.
                                                                 
“Our FREE Newsflash for Writers (an e-mailed newsletter) contains the best, most up-to-date information on publishing industry etiquette . . . markets, literary agents and editors . . . contests, anthologies . . . grammar . . . self-publishing, writing scams . . . and much more!”
                                                                                                                                  
It looks as if the cheapest service runs at about $10 per submission, but if that translates into $100 payments for each accepted piece, things should even out fairly quickly. A mail out of twenty-five queries would then cost $250. There are some great testimonials on the site, and the company has been around for years. This is not some flash-in-the-pan outfit.

Having said all that, there are many who feel that paying someone to find markets for them is a scam. I can’t figure out how paying someone to do hours of work for you is bad; that’s how the world works. The thoughts presented by those who actually used the service (not those who just formed an instant opinion without experience), in this forum’s thread seem to validate the service. Make sure you read through to page two.

I’d say that if you are really busy and just don’t have the time to look for paying markets, and you have some spare change, sign up for a year. It could be worth it.

 

Every piece of writing needs to be clear and precise. With microscope in hand, Inksnatcher’s writing and editing service will hone any work until it glitters in the light of a 1,000 watt bulb. INKSNATCHER.COM