Posts tagged: quotes

What must you have in your book?

Take an hour, for starters. Go some place where you won’t be disturbed and write down your book’s purpose statement. It may be easier to start with a working question, like “What will your book be about?” The answer is the “purpose statement.” Your book will help realize that purpose. The statement might be: “The [...]

Monday May 13th, 2013 in , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

How to Interview a Famous (or Infamous) Person Abroad

Some years back I was headed to northern South America to write five or six travel articles. I got tickets to/from Manaus, Brazil, on the Amazon River, and planned to divert to Quito, Ecuador, and Bogota, Colombia, if I had time when I returned. A lot to squeeze into three weeks. I followed the process [...]

Wednesday February 13th, 2013 in , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

Think smaller and write/sell more booklets, short books, and blogged books

That was the gist of a very well organized and enthusiastically presented one-hour feature presentation by Nina Amir to the BAIPA (Bay Area Independent Publishers Assn) gathering in San Rafael, CA on January 12. Nina, the Inspiration to Creation Coach, is the author of Writer’s Digest’s How to Blog a Book: Write, Publish and Promote [...]

Tuesday January 15th, 2013 in , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments »

Interviewing famous men at the urinal

Sorry, ladies, but this is one place where male reporters have a leg up, so to speak… Don’t despair. I only interviewed one famous man, or any man, that way once, and that was by chance. But it worked, and since that was all I needed at that moment it let me dance (better said, [...]

Tuesday November 27th, 2012 in , , , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

Four ways to get magazine or newspaper interviews

Over the past 30-years, in my “Writing Travel Articles That Sell” seminar, I’d talk for about 20 minutes about interviewing. The entire process has almost completely changed during that time. First, though, why bother to interview at all? Who really cares? The editors who will hopefully buy your article (even book) care a lot. It’s [...]

Friday August 24th, 2012 in , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

What do you do first to deduct your travel-writing trips?

Two premises: (1) you want to write and sell something about a coming trip, and (2) you want to be able to keep all of the money you earn, or at least increase your IRS tax deduction as much as you can. Good thinking—and totally legal. You are supposed to take every deduction allowed. More [...]

Monday August 20th, 2012 in , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

How do you set up a magazine (or newspaper) interview?

Most of the articles you write should include at least one and often three interviews, plus of course facts, perhaps some anecdotal material, and probably some artwork (usually photos). In fact, the most persuasive items selling the article are the interviews or quotes you promise the editor in your query letter. Like a piece about [...]

Monday July 30th, 2012 in , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

You should be quoted (almost) everywhere (almost) all the time

The first question is, “How often are you being quoted?” The second question is, “Who cares?” If you’re not seeing your best words in print often enough, the person who may care most is you! And that’s a very important person indeed. Why is it important? It can directly affect your posterity, perceived expertise, and [...]

Friday July 13th, 2012 in , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

A lifetime formula for selling 75% of the nonfiction you write

If you want to sell almost everything nonfiction that you submit, including 75% of what you send to editors, here’s the not-so-secret formula: • Before submitting any copy, first send a super query letter to the editor asking if she/he would be interested in your preparing and sending an article about ____. (If you’re unfamiliar [...]

Tuesday June 26th, 2012 in , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

How to very profitably resell derivative rights to your writing and photography

Selling the rights is easy. Finding them and keeping them is a lot harder. First, what are derivative rights? “Derived from another source, spin-off” says the Oxford dictionary. But I mostly know them as second or reprint rights. And why are they important? Because every sale without a tail (some restriction of your reselling the [...]

Tuesday June 5th, 2012 in , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »