Writer's Tips from Jorlan Publishing

Writer's Tips Newsletter — Summer 2006

Upcoming Interviews: We will be featuring interviews with several published authors and other industry professionals in future issues of Writer's Tips. T.A. Barron (The Great Tree of Avalon, The Lost Years of Merlin); Mike Tunnell (Mailing May, Wishing
Moon); Ann Cannon (I Know what You Do When I Go to School, Charlotte's Rose); Rick Walton (Bunny Christmas, Bullfrog Pops!); Jill Davis (editor for Bloomsbury Children's Books); and Edward Necarsulmer (literary agent at McIntosh and Otis), have all agreed to be interviewed.

Be sure to tell your writer friends! Subscribing to the Jorlan Publishing Writer's Tips Newsletter is free and easy: http://www.jorlanpublishing.com/WritersTips.htm

Editor's Note: I was interviewed by Natural Moms Talk Radio recently, and that show will be available for download on Wednesday, July 5. If you're interested, you can listen at: http://NaturalMomsTalkRadio.com.

Have a fun and safe 4th of July!

Setting Up Your Author Website

by Lana Jordan

Every author needs a website. You can pay someone else to do it for you. Or, you can do it yourself. Easier said than done? Nah.

There are many options available to the web design novice. Setting up and maintaining your own website is not as hard as you
might think.

1. Secure Your Domain Name

The first step is to secure your domain name, which will be your URL or website address. Ideally, this should be your name (or pseudonym) with a “.com” at the end. If you have a particular book that you’re promoting, the domain name could be the title of the book with a “.com” at the end. For example, I have an author website at www.lanajordan.com and a book website at www.trickatrickster.com. You may choose to simply include all your books on your author website. Or, you may want to add another website for each book you write so that you can direct your target market straight to the appropriate site. As with most things, there are advantages and disadvantages to each approach.

Obviously, the big advantage to maintaining one author website is simplicity…unless you have so much information for each individual title that it becomes overly complicated to navigate! On my main author website, I promote both of my books. But on my book website, I have excerpts, pictures, reviews, and more. There’s even bonus material related to topics in that particular book, such as a recipe for a dish mentioned in the story. My main author website has a generic theme, whereas my book website focuses very specifically on the theme of the book, right down to the twinkling night sky background (which would be completely inappropriate for my author site).

If you’re not sure which way you want to go, it would be a good idea to buy the domain names for both an author site and a book site. The cost is less than $10 a year per domain at most registries. It’s best to purchase the URL(s) yourself rather than pay a designer or other service provider to do so on your behalf. There have been instances of domain names being held “hostage” by unethical designers when clients decided to stop using their services. Such disputes can be costly and time consuming to sort out, yet easily avoided by registering your domain(s) yourself.

Article continues, click here to read more.

NEW Online Class!

Professional Critiquing and Mentoring

Class description: Have a coach to guide you as you hone the craft of writing and prepare your work for submission to agents and/or publishers. Goes beyond editing to provide help with your writing in areas such as scene and sequel, show-don’t-tell, and hooking your reader from the moment your book opens. This is a class that provides personal feedback and interaction on the writing process — POV, plot development, and character development. Helps you connect your reader with your character, improve story flow, and beef up character motivation. Be the best writer you can be!

Instructor: Heather Horrocks, author of Women Who Knew the Mortal Messiah and experienced writing mentor.

Cost: $80 for detailed feedback/mentoring.

Registration deadline: July 10th.

Schedule: July 10 – August 4, 2006

You may submit up to 10 double-spaced manuscript pages each week during the four weeks of class for detailed critiques and mentoring help with your writing.

Click here to register. Within 3 days after you've registered, you will be sent a confirmation email for participation in the class.

Writing Tip of the Month

"Travel is a great way to put more information in your cauldron of story." — T.A. Barron

Writer's Tips Editor, Lana Jordan

Lana Jordan is the founder of Jorlan Publishing, for which she does consulting and editing. She is the author of two books, Journey to Motherhood (pregnancy and childbirth from a mother's perspective) and The Sleepytime Ponies Trick a Trickster (bedtime read-aloud for ages 4 and up featuring magical flying ponies; humorous Mouse Deer folk tales; and dreamy illustrations). Available from the Jorlan Bookstore and Amazon.com. Lana was also a contributor for Book Marketing from A to Z, by Francine Silverman and Megan's Party, by the Megan's Party Mom Squad (free eBook from the Jorlan Bookstore).