JUSTIFIED contest news – enter now!

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Raylan Givens is one of my FAV TV anti-heroes. Elmore Leonard – the creator of Givens – is one of my FAV crime writers.

Now, the Killer Instincts Facebook contest pairs the two in a fantastic DVD and book giveaway – just in time for the release of Leonard’s latest book.

Here is what you can win:

One grand-prize winner will receive:
Season 1 of Justified on DVD
Season 2 of Justified on DVD
1 copy of trade paperback of PRONTO
1 copy of trade paperback of RIDING THE RAP
1 copy of trade paperback of FIRE IN THE HOLE

Two additional winners will receive Season 1 of Justified on DVD

Click this link to enter to win Justified swag:

https://apps.odylfarm.com/killerinstincts/Giveaways/2620

Don’t forget: Raylan, the Crowders and new crooks are coming back to FX this Tuesday at 9 p.m. CST! I just finished Season Two and cannot wait to see what’s in store next for Raylan Givens.

Writers Beware: Bad Companies Want Free Copy

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I’ve experienced a lot in my time as a journalist and freelance writer. One of the biggest scams in the industry is free work in the guise of job postings.

There were newspapers that would advertise jobs, then ask candidates to research the area, submit their best three to five story ideas along with a resume. I learned quickly that most times, these papers were out of fresh ideas for copy, so they did a blind posting, hoping for new ideas to pad their editorial calendars. And most times, there really wasn’t a job available.

Then, came the free work ads. Companies – particularly those working in social media – require proven freelance writers and journalists to pen free articles as part of the application process. Now, there are legitimate jobs that want you to prove your skills – especially if you are a green college grad – but there comes a point in a writer’s career when businesses must take you on reputation and clips. It’s not arrogance. It’s fact. Plus, proven writers are too busy with client work to have to justify their qualifications to a business.

During my job search, I applied for a few writing jobs online. It wasn’t easy to sort through the good from the bad – and the REALLY bad. Most ads are for content-driven sites that promise big rewards, but deliver little or no pay. Some are websites that seem legitimate, but something just doesn’t seem quite right. Very, VERY few are ads for legitimate companies searching for quality writers. Most of these ads are for full-time positions, rather than part-time, which doesn’t work for the contract writers who cannot afford to move.

After a tedious search, I decided to apply for a writing job at a site that provides content for clients. I didn’t find any red flags in basic searches, and the Better Business Bureau showed that the company had an excellent rating.

However, the company’s response to my query was less-than-stellar. Obviously, an experienced writer isn’t going to send the perfect email prose, but the errors in this email were serious red flags – including the fact that I had to submit a FREE article. I didn’t bother responding.

Check it out for yourself. I’ve edited out the company name and other identifiable information. I highlighted the ones that really got to me.

Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you it has been a busy week and a half here at {COMPANY NAME MISSPELLED HERE}.

Please do the following article for me and we will get back to you, please also note how long this article takes you to research and write.

Attached are the standards we are looking for in the articles please follow these guidelines when writing.

Please provide me a 425 word general article on the below keyword for {CLIENT WEBSITE HERE} Keyword: {KEYWORD HERE}

Understand that a general article in this case refers to an article that the clients name appears nowhere in the body of the article and needs to have a catchy title and include a resource box and look like the example included in the body of the PDF and save the file in word format for me. {NO PDF WAS INCLUDED; POOR WORDING}

{PERSON’S NAME HERE}

Project Manager

{THE PERSON LISTS A COMPANY EMAIL ADDRESS, BUT THE EMAIL I RECEIVED CAME FROM A GMAIL ACCOUNT WITH AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT NAME}

While this company may be legitimate, they may pay well and on time, there was no way I would send it free copy  - especially after this email.

I make it a point NOT to provide free copy to anyone. Not at this point in my career. I think freelance writers deserve a certain level of respect for their skills and experience – and legitimate companies should be able to decipher whether a writer is the right fit based on clips and references, and a general search of the writer’s blogs and social media websites.

What do you think? Should writers provide free content to prospective clients or full-time employers? Share your thoughts below!

How to be a Terrific Radio Show Guest

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Since the 1990s, I’ve rocked the radio control room, doing everything from babysitting the board during ball games to interviewing celebrities like Y&R‘s Eric Braden.

Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about what it takes to craft a radio show that audiences will like. Whether you are live during morning drive time, or recording a podcast for a blog, the principles and expectations are the same.

If radio shows are part of your marketing plan, keep this check list of  Dos and Don’ts handy to avoid being a bad guest.

How to be a Terrific Radio Show Guest

Be responsive. Provide any information your host needs before the interview. Some may want an extensive biography to write questions. Others may need photos and other media kit items. Ask them what they need, send a little more. The majority of hosts will tell you that they’d rather have too much information, than not enough. Also, return emails and other communications promptly. If you wait a week to send items, that is a sign that you don’t take the interview seriously.

Be on time. You’d be surprised at how many people are either late for an interview or a no show. Dead air is so much fun to fill!

Give notice. If you can’t be there, you’d better have a damn good excuse – and you need to contact your host at least an hour in advance. Text messages and emails are NOT appropriate – especially if they are sent minutes before the interview is set to start. You need to call the host. Leave a message, if necessary, but at least give the courtesy of a call. If you’ve lost your voice due to illness, have someone else call in your place.

Don’t use industry jargon. Unless the show is geared toward people in your own field, avoid jargon when possible. Use words and phrases that the average listener will understand.

Don’t talk above the listener. During most radio interviews, you will not be in a competition to outwit someone else in your field. You will be educating the public about what you do. That means you need to speak the language of the average listener. Not only should you avoid industry jargon, but you should also generate responses that are easy to understand for listeners of many ages and backgrounds. If you try to talk above them – which many academics do – then you will alienate them – and sound like a pompous jerk.

Never use the speaker phone. This causes static and echos in the recording. If you move, your voice vanishes.

Make time for the call. If you are in an office, make sure someone else is available to deal with customers and calls while you are engaged in the interview. Do not tell your host that you may have to hang up if someone comes into your office. You will never be called again.

Be prepared. Ask for questions in advance. Make adjustments to questions, as necessary – and only if the host says you can. If you are nervous, write out responses in bullet-point form – without full sentences.

Don’t read your answers. I’m hitting this point twice, because it is vitally important to the way you sound during a radio interview. As mentioned above, you should always write out responses in bullet point form. It isn’t a good idea to write the entire answer in paragraph form, then read it when you are live. Most people are unable to do this without sounding like they are reading a script. To audiences, this comes off as a robotic or lazy. Depending on your field, some might think you either aren’t qualified or aren’t quick enough on your feet to do a simple interview – which doesn’t bode well for business. Also, people who write out full  answers typically have a hard time answering additional questions that arise during an interview.

Related links

Create an Effective Media Kit

How to Pitch Your Work to Radio Hosts

Book Publicity for Beginners by Charlie Barrett

L.J. Sellers Talks Self Publishing

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L.J. Sellers is a master storyteller – and a terrific book marketer. The author is constantly networking with fans on social media, getting to know them while promoting her latest works.

Today, L.J. sits down for an interview at The Demented Muse. Find out about her career, self publishing and what authors need to know before they go this route.

Thanks so much for being here today, L.J.!

Tell us about your work. How many novels have you published yourself?
I have five novels in the bestselling Detective Jackson mystery/suspense series, and three standalone thrillers. At this point, all of my work is self-published. The first three Jackson books were at one point published by a small traditional press, but that didn’t work out for me, so I withdrew and went independent last summer.

The Jackson stories feature a homicide detective and his team and are set in Eugene, OR. Readers from around the world contact me daily to say how much they enjoy the series and to ask when the next book is coming out. My thrillers are eclectic: The Baby Thief involves an isolated cult and fertility science, and The Suicide Effect is set in the pharmaceutical industry, where I worked as a magazine editor for seven years. My latest, The Arranger, is a futuristic thriller involving a national endurance contest and a mysterious killers.

How often do you publish a new novel or short story?
For now, I’m publishing a new novel about every five months. Once I have ten or twelve books on the market, I’d like to slow down a bit. So far, I only have one short story, but I’m also getting ready to publish a collection of nonfiction articles.

Did you try traditional publishing venues first?
I spent 20 years querying agents and publishers, and I landed several good agents. I also had editors at major publishing houses read my manuscripts in one sitting and rave about them. But they never bought anything. I’m so glad to be finished with all that.

What are some common misconceptions about self-publishing?
From the publishing industry, there’s an assumption that if you self-publish, you’re either a hack or unwilling to pay your dues. It may be true for some, but certainly not all. On the other hand, writers now think self-publishing is easy. And of course, the process is fairly straightforward, especially if you contract out most of the work. But selling novels remains as challenging and competitive as ever. For self-published authors to succeed, they must spend nearly as much time promoting as they do writing, at least until they have a large readership and more than a few books on the market.

How important is the book cover? Should authors try to design it themselves or hire a designer?
An eye-catching cover is essential to attract readers. Some books will sell via word of mouth regardless of the cover, but most novels need to catch the attention of the online browser. A few writers might have the artistic and technical skills to create a professional cover, but not many. I strongly recommend hiring a graphic artist with a portfolio.

What are some key lessons you’ve learned since you published your first book?
1. Never give up. Set a goal and work toward it until you make it happen.
2. Don’t follow every promotional and social networking trend just because someone else is doing it. Some ideas look good on the surface, but they may not be cost-effective (e.g., book trailers). Other ideas may seem competitive, but they aren’t good long-term strategies (e.g., 99 cent price).

How important is marketing to the self-published author?
Other than writing a great story, it’s the single most important thing you can do. I consider everything that connects my name to potential readers as promotion, and that’s a long list: social networking, blogging, reader forums, book giveaways, conferences, newsletters, targeted e-reader ads, to name a few.

What social networks do you find important for marketing and networking with fans?
I use Facebook and Twitter extensively, but I also spend time on Goodreads, LibraryThing, and CrimeSpace. I also participate in reader listservs and visit various blogs and comment regularly.

One of the top gripes I hear from authors is that they don’t want to do marketing – and the top reason is that it interferes with writing. How do you balance writing time with marketing?
I don’t complain about doing promotion. In fact, I enjoy most of it, and I consider it as much a part of my job as writing. I like variety, and I love having 15 different things to do each day. I do the bulk of my promotion in the morning, then when I’m working on a new novel, I switch to writing in the late morning and write until about five. After dinner, I complete whatever else still needs to be done and usually work until 9:30 or 10:00. I love my life!

Can you make a full-time living by self-publishing?
I’ve been making a living from e-book sales since December 2010. Hundreds of self-published authors are also making a living, some of them are even in the high-tax brackets. All you need is four or five really good novels with a wide appeal.

What would you say to authors who have dollar signs in their eyes after hearing stories about others who make thousands per month selling their digital files?
It’s possible! It takes time to build a readership and/or produce enough novels to live on, but it’s definitely doable.

What else would you like to add?
The fiction market is very competitive, and book sales go up and down for inexplicable reasons. You have to have long-term goals, tenacity, and thick skin to be successful and stay in the game.

About the author

L.J. Sellers is an award-winning journalist and the author of the bestselling Detective Jackson mystery/suspense series: The Sex Club, Secrets to Die For, Thrilled to Death, Passions of the Dead, and Dying for Justice. Her novels have been highly praised by Mystery Scene, Crimespree, and Spinetingler magazines, and the series is on Amazon Kindle’s bestselling police procedural list. L.J. also has three standalone thrillers: The Baby Thief, The Suicide Effect, and The Arranger. When not plotting murders, she enjoys performing standup comedy, cycling, social networking, and attending mystery conferences. She’s also been known to jump out of airplanes.

Google +1: Will It Surpass Facebook?

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After several frustrating months of Facebook B.S., privacy settings changed, an overload of messages from groups that won’t stop – despite repeatedly changing my settings – I’ve longed for a new network to take the social world by storm.

It’s no wonder that Facebook is in the top 10 of most hated companies, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index.

Google hopes to change the way we network with Google +1, an interesting – but frustrating – new network that combines all things Google with the beauty of social media.

For the past week, I’ve experimented with Google’s answer to Facebook: Google +1. I found some things easy, other things incredibly frustrating.

Google +1 gives you the ability to stop comments on any post and put your friends into “circles.” When you post to your news feed – like Facebook – you choose which “circle” will see it. If members of your circle are not already members of the network, Google +1 sends them an email with your news feed updates. (Sorry to everyone who got those! I really didn’t know!)

Your “friends” are automatically imported from your Gmail account. If you hit a button to put them into a “circle,” they apparently get another email inviting them to the service.

Anyone can subscribe to you – sort of like Twitter. You cannot control it – which is a bit frustrating.

For some with Picasa accounts, they are required to link their photo albums to the service – they do not have a choice. That stinks and I’m thankful I don’t have one.

Anything you “like” with Google +1 will immediately show in friends’ search results. So, if I decide I want a blogger to know I liked their post, I click the button and my information is automatically imported into someone else’s Google search results as a recommendation.

I don’t like that AT ALL.

JR Raphael says it best in this PCWorld column:

That aside, Google +1 invades what I view as a sacred neutral ground. When I perform a Web search, I don’t want to see what my old college roommate thinks of the results. I don’t want to know if 20 random people approve of this link or that one. I want a clean, clutter-free page showing me the most relevant results based on aggregated global measurements — you know, that whole “algorithm” thing. To me, all the social stuff in search amounts to a bunch of added noise I simply don’t need.

I agree. I also find the service frustrating to use. (Have I already mentioned this is a frustrating service?) I don’t really have enough friends on the network to use some of the features – like the chat function. Maybe that is why I feel like I’m missing out.

Google Chrome users are able to important Facebook friends into their networks through a new extension, PCWorld reports. I didn’t have much luck with Chrome when I tried it, but it might be interesting to give it another go to see how the import function works – just as long as it doesn’t SPAM my Facebook connections like it did with my news feed items.

Or it could be that Google +1 is just another network and I really don’t need anymore to distract me from writing. Certainly, it is better than Google Buzz, which was tied to email, but I’m not sure it offers what I need to break away from the behemoth that is Facebook.

Of course, CNNMoney touts reasons people should switch to Google +1 in a recent post. A new post at Business2Community.com says that the Google +1 button could become the next hot social bookmarking tool – though I cannot imagine life without Delicious.

The Washington Post calls the site “empty” in a recent review.

For me, Google +1 is a confusing, sometimes frustrating social network that offers a few cool differences from Facebook. Right now, I’m not sure I like it enough to continue working with it.

For those who dig it, you can track your ratings at SocialStatistics.com, which offers a Top 100 list of Google +1 users. Ironically, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is the top of the list.

What are your thoughts on this new network?