Resources for Writers - No. 2

Here's the weekly list of 3 resources just for writers. Hope you can find something you can use.

Money

Want to know how much writers are actually getting from publishing companies? Check out Brenda Hiatt's Show Me The Money.

Rebecca Brandewyne has several links to articles from published authors about how much authors earn.

If you want to know what television writers are making, check out the info posted by Darren Barefoot.

There's a triple serving of food for thought to get your week started.

Retail Therapy For Writers, No. 1

Retail Therapy begins another somewhat-regular feature (is that an oxymoron?) at Sling Words. Why? Because as I said in a similar blog I wrote for my Performancing Blog, writers like to shop too. But when writers have money to spend, you won't find us at the mall checking out the latest Nike shoes or the hot new summer fashions. We'll be at the stores that sell computers, software, office supplies, and books.

Show me a writer, and I'll show you an office supply junky.

Anyway, I'm so in love with my new toy that it's not enough to tell it on one blog. Today's Retail Therapy is about a fabulous new keyboard.

Computers: Bad For Human Bodies

I don't know about you, but I spend too many hours a day, at least five days a week, at the keyboard. I go through keyboards the way some people go through running shoes. If you know me personally, you also may know that I've had significant back problems over the years so I take very good care of my body now. Still, I have bouts of pain in my neck, shoulders, and back, but they're usually controllable.

Of course, I prefer to have NO pain so I've learned, usually the hard way, what cripples me. There's nothing like lots of mouse usage to ignite pain. If I'm doing a lot of editing and a lot of graphic design work, you might as well take me out and shoot me because life won't be worth living until I've had a week or more to recover.

Since I've been heavy into designing promotional and gift items for writers for The WRITE WAY, my cyber gift shop, my pain threshold was reached at warp speed. I figured there had to be a better way. I found one.

Retail Therapy: X-Gene Wireless Imperial 2.4 G Series mini Keyboard.

I got my keyboard at Max Keyboard.

My new toy has taken some getting used to because it's a mini-keyboard which pretty much comes standard now with Dell and the others. I don't really like a mini-keyboard because my fingers are used to the wavy ergonomic style I've always bought since they first came out. Retraining myself to type on this has been a chore.

However, the chore has been worth it because this keyboard is designed for those who spend hours at the computer. Because of the way it's made, I don't have to reach for a mouse and move it around. I just love it! Let me tell you all about it.

Great Design

On the left top corner are two buttons that together make a kidney bean shape. They are left and right mouse buttons. On the bottom left top edge is a scroll wheel. On the right top corner is an optical wheel and just under that on the bottom edge is another left mouse or selector button.

This thing is fabulous. Your hands never have to reach for anything. All the controls are right there at your fingertips.

But Wait, There's More

Since this is a wireless keyboard, it has a USB gizmo that plugs into a computer USB port. The keyboard itself takes 4 - AA batteries. You can lean back in your computer chair with this in your lap and type and mouse away. I can even sit in a recliner in the corner of the study and type away, the wireless range is that good!

There's more still! There's no number keypad, that's why this unit is center-balanced so that it sets squarely in place in typing position. There's an F-Lock key if you need to use it as a number pad. Above the F keys on the left are programmable access buttons for your web browser, email, My Computer, and browsing forward and backward. On the right are CD music controls including volume and mute.

Specs

The X-Gene Keyboard is compatible with all Windows versions, even Vista I think. It truly is Plug and Play so if I have a lot of heavy typing as in first draft with little mouse usage, I can unplug the X-Gene, plug in my ergonomic, and type up a storm.

Price: $54.95. I checked lots of different websites and found the best price at Max Keyboards. When I ordered it a month ago, they even paid the shipping and upgraded it to overnight. Don't know if they do that for everyone, so don't quote me on that.

If you order, be sure and tell them Joan Reeves sent you. I like to let retailers know they have satisfied customers out there bragging about them and their products.

Retail Therapy For Laughs

Oh, and just for kicks, here's another Retail Therapy item. My daughter the artist designed this Tote Bag after a particular event which you can easily discern.Isn't it a hoot? Like Coco Chanel said: "The best revenge is living well." In this case, it only costs $14.00 if you want to proclaim your disdain for the Ex in your life.

Laughing and happily slinging words on my new keyboard!

Links, PageRank, & Web Crawlers

In discussing exchanging website and/or blog links with others, I find some do it; some don't. Many seem to think it's a social convention. They simply don't understand the business dynamic behind linking.

Web Linking Results

Here's what won't happen by exchanging links. You probably won't pick up a bunch of new readers. The Pareto Principle, commonly known as the 80/20 Rule, applies to just about everything so it probably governs this too. The reason you probably won't pick up new readers who rush out and buy your book is what I call the "preaching to the choir" rule. I have no stats to back up my belief that a majority of people who visit writers' websites and blogs are, well, other writers. They're not really looking for a new book to read. They visit for many other complex reasons.

However, in hopes of getting that 20% of the site visitors who are Joe and Molly Public, of which 20% of them may buy books, exchanging links does provide more exposure for you, your book, your name.

Google PageRank

The truly valid reason for exchanging links is that it will improve your Google PageRank. Big deal, you may reply. What's that?

Google PageRank is a major factor for determining where your site will appear in Google's SERP (that's Search Engine Results Page). When someone types in your name to the Search Box, you want your site to appear as the #1 listing on the SERP. Hopefully, yours does. However, what if they just typed in Texas romance novelist?

Do you know how many romance writers live in Texas? Sheesh, more than the number of high humidity days in Houston!

The way you get yourself to the first page of the SERP is by ranking high with Google. Just in case you're wondering, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, and the myriad other search engines also have their own version of PageRank as well as the other "importance metrics."

That's about all I'll say about SERP because there's so much else that goes into it that books could be written - and have been.

Background

PageRank is an algorithm developed by Larry Page when he was at Stanford. So you see the software name isn't because of the ranking on the page but because it's his surname. Sergey Bin joined him later and together they gave birth to Google.

Though it's just one of the factors determining Google search results ranking, it is the basis for all of Google's web search tools.

PageRank assigns a numerical value to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, i.e., a website, in order to evaluate its relative importance within the set.

PageRank was based on Eugene Garfield's citation analysis work in the 1950s, and Page and Bin did credit him in case you were wondering. By following links from one page to another, virtual webpage communities are recognized. Ah! Do those link lists begin to make sense now?

PageRank is just one of the algorithms. Another of the easily understood (and not a closely-guarded secret) "importance metrics" is the number of inbound and outbound links.

Are Links Equal

Without getting more technical, links have quality. A link from a home page is more valuable than a link from another page because web crawlers measure the distance from the root directory to the link. Just trust me on that.

You know about web crawlers right? They're bots, short for robot. They're software with the sole purpose of "crawling" over the World Wide Web. It visits a URL and identifies all the hyperlinks in the page, adding them to the list of URLs to visit in the future. They call this the crawl frontier. Now, there are ways to be attractive to web crawlers and there are ways to make them hate you, rather, your site. Perhaps that's a blog idea for the future.

Of course, links from high ranking sites have more importance so if you can get Stephen King, Nora Roberts, et al to put a link on their site to yours, the web crawlers will do a happy dance. However, for most of us, that just isn't going to happen.

Action To Take

So if you don't have links on your website and/or blog, start collecting them. If you haven't been exchanging links then start reciprocating.

Remember that's the golden rule about website links. Always reciprocate. I've had people who wanted me to link to them, but then they didn't post my link. Perhaps they forgot or had no time or didn't understand they were taking advantage or whatever. Since this is business, whether they understand or not, I now have a policy of giving someone 6 weeks to reciprocate with my link. If they don't, I de-link them. (Hey, maybe I just coined a word! I claim it!)

Win-Win

So follow the golden rule of linking and always post the reciprocating link in a timely fashion. All of us will see improved PageRank. More importantly, linking will be a win-win situation for everyone.

Resources for Writers #1

A lot of bloggers give lists of things. I like that. The problem is that most bloggers list so many things that I never have time to check them all out. I do two or three then postpone the rest with thoughts that I'll get back to the list another day. Unfortunately, for me, I usually forget. The note about the links to check or the print out (big waste of paper, I know!) gets stacked with all the other printouts to read or act upon.

So I've decided to do a weekly list, but to make the list more manageable by only listing three resources.

List #1

Monica Burns has created a resource page containing Microsoft Word Tools, Hints, and Shortcuts. It's a great place to learn how to maximize your use of Microsoft Word. The page also has a link to a downloadable Excel spreadsheet designed to compute word counts based on font.

Another great resource is Writer's Quest by Stacey Dennick. The reference site has links to encyclopedias, dictionaries, term papers, medical info, and much more that writers might need.

Gabrielle Luthy has a page chock full of topical links to articles and organizations of interest to articles.

Three is manageable, don't you think? For me and for you.

World Postage Rates

A few months ago I had to mail copies of my previously published books to a publisher in England. I had a crash course in how expensive international mail can be. I didn't even use the quickest, most expensive postage solution.

Then a friend wanted to submit to a German verlag, or publisher. We both started looking into how to obtain German postage for the editor to send a reply back from Germany to the United States.

In case you didn't think about it before, you can't put U. S. postage on a self-addressed envelope for a foreign editor to mail back to you. You must use the postage stamp of the country wherein the publisher is located or use an International Reply Coupon, IRC, which is a can of worms most editors choose not to open.

If you're writing for the international market, and many of us are, either freelance, book-length, or both, you need to know your postal options.

Common Scenarios

Harlequin, based in England as most of you know, is the target for a lot of submissions. If you want to send a manuscript to them, you must enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope for a reply from them. Everyone, including the publisher tells you to enclose an IRC, the infamous International Reply Coupon.

If you live in a small town, chances are you're greeted with a blank stare from the post office clerk when you ask for an IRC. Many of them don't know what you're talking about or if they do, the post office may not have IRC's available.

Don't bother trying to educate the post office employees. Even if you could get them to stock IRC's for you, many foreign publishers will toss them in the trash because their value, purchased in USD will be converted to local currency which makes them of much less value. Additionally, foreign editors usually hate the IRC if they even know what they are, and many don't. If you're set on getting IRC's and think it's smart to stock up, please be aware that each IRC has an expiration date.

It's easier to just go to the Internet and purchase the applicable postage which can be printed and enclosed with your manuscript package.

For the United Kingdom, Royal Mail is their postal service.

Germany is Deutsche Post.

For Canada, use Canada Post.

For any other country, use your favorite search engine. "Buy Country postage stamp" should do the trick.

U. S. Postage

Back to the United States Postal Service so I can tell you how to mail to an International destination without taking out a bank loan.

You can buy any kind of postage online, but deciphering the International requirements is a bit complicated. So here's the gist of it. For manuscripts, use the Priority Mail Flat Box that's marked "Domestic and International." You'll also need a Customs Form declaring the contents regardless of the value of the package. By the way, all international mail in Priority packaging is considered a parcel so you'll need Form 2976-A.

For letters or other information about mailing to or within the United States, the USPS site is chock full of information with examples to show you how to fill out the various forms. If you really want to know all the mailing options, print this USPS Price Guide.

Happy mailing!

Borders Selling Online Again

Shelf Awareness had the scoop this week on the revamped Borders website.

Though Borders has been AWOL for about seven years, during which their online sales were outsourced to competitor Amazon, they're again selling online. Their renewed web presence is part of their turnaround effort of course.

Using Borders Search

The Borders site is well-designed. I cruised it quickly this morning. It seems at a cursory glance to be easy to navigate. The Search engine worked okay. I usually enter my name and the titles of some of my books along with a few author friends' names just to check the accuracy of their Search response.

In several cases of lesser-known author names, the Borders Search pulled up the same American Library Association book that had nothing to do with the search parameters. Perhaps they're pushing that book?

Biz Is In The Details

In any event, online consumers now have another retailer to shop for their books, music, and vids. Baker & Taylor will do their fulfillment and Alibris will be their source for older titles. If you're heavy into shopping, you might want to sign up for their Rewards program which is good for the brick and mortar stores too.

If you're a writer as well as a reader consumer, you'll probably want to sign up to post some reviews. Just another place to showcase your name, hopefully with a tag line.

Paint Star: Free Is Good

I posted about PaintStar in my blog at Performancing. Then I thought, maybe other writers would like to know about this free software so I decided to let the Sling Words audience know also.

Have you ever wanted the mega-expensive Adobe suite but didn't want to shell out almost a grand for the whole badonkadonk?

Well, check out PaintStar which is totally free and does many of the same functions. I contacted the program's creator and learned it works not only on the older Windows versions but also on the infamous Vista.

Many writers create their own promotion items so a good digital illustration software is a nice tool to have. PaintStar is an inexpensive answer to your software needs, and it will keep your writer's overhead down.

Tell him Sling Words sent you.