Top Ten Must-Haves for Aspiring Authors

Here are the top ten things I believe every writer must have if they aspire to be a published author. ~Cheryl Kaye Tardif, bestselling author

1.	Domain name - you can register and buy a domain name, preferably your author name, at Namesecure.com or other domain registrars.
2.	Website - you'll need a website that looks professional and that you can have your domain name linked to. Do not use free site companies as the ads they place will make you look like an amateur.
3.	Blog - you can easily set up a blog and link it to your site so people can find it easily. Try a blog from Blogger.com or Wordpress.com for easy to maintain templates.
4.	Twitter account - a Twitter account will put you and your work in front of people instantly. Try to tweet something every day and you'll have people following you in no time. The more people who see you, the more potential sales you could have when you are published.
5.	Facebook & MySpace accounts - these accounts will help you connect with other writers and published authors. You should also connect with publishers, libraries, schools, agents, editors, magazines etc. Learn from your 'friends' here, connect with them, build genuine relationships, and when you're ready to have a book blurbed, you'll know who to contact.
6.	Talent - you must have a natural talent at not only thinking up a good story or telling a good story but writing a good story. Without natural talent, all the writing courses in the world can't help you.
7.	Ability to take constructive criticism - you won't go anywhere if you refuse to improve and all works can be improved. If you want to go far in this business, you'll need to learn to leave your ego at the door. Feedback and criticism is a gift. Take a few days to think about any feedback you get. Ask yourself if changing things would make your work better. If you get the same comments from a variety of people, listen to them!
8.	Persistence - this is a slow moving business and you must be able to persevere no matter what. You WILL get rejection letters. Your work WILL be rejected. But it's a numbers game. Wade through the nos to get to that yes! Keep moving forward no matter the roadblocks.
9.	Dedication - you must dedicate yourself to writing the best possible works you can and to always learning about the craft of writing and the business of publishing and promoting.
10.	Belief! Without belief in yourself and your skills as a writer you won't go far. If you don't believe in yourself, why should anyone else? You must believe without a shadow of doubt that your work deserves to be on a bookstore shelf. Without BELIEF, the first 9 must-haves will be useless.

Twitter 101: Using the new Retweet feature

Retweeting is a social way of acknowledging that someone's tweet has value and should be shared. When you see a tweet you like from one of the people you're following, you can re-send that tweet as a "retweet". The old way of doing this is simply to copy and paste their message and add "RT" plus their Twitter name @cherylktardif, then the message.

But Twitter has created a new automated Retweet feature. Most people seem to like the ease of this new feature, but many don't like that they can't add a personal comment to the message. The Retweet feature allows for no editing or adding of text. But that's also a plus as you don't have to figure out how to edit someone else's tweet to make the old "RT @cherylktardif" lead in fit.

The advantages to having one of your messages retweeted by a follower is that your message then goes out to all THEIR followers. Like the old shampoo commercial, "and they tell 2 friends, and so on and so on..", your tweet goes viral.

So here's how you now retweet using the new feature:

1. You see a message on your home page (which shows tweets from those you're following) and you know all your followers should see.
2. Retweet it by hovering over bottom right of the individual message. This activates the Reply link and the Retweet link.
3. Click on "Retweet".
4. A message pops up asking: "Retweet to your followers?" Click "Yes".

That's it. You're done. That tweet has been retweeted to all your followers. If you'd like to verify this, simply go to the top right, right beneath your twitter name and click on #tweets (the # being however many tweets you've sent out in total).

Twitter 101: Creating Twitter Lists

Twitter recently introduced Lists so that you can organize the people you're following and find them much easier. You can catagorize your lists in any way you like.

Let's say you want to make a list of your favorite authors:

1. Decide what kind of list you want to make. For this example, we'll use your "favorite authors".
2. Decide who your favorite authors are and search for the first one on Twitter. You can do this in many ways. You can look for them in your "Following" or "Followers" links (top right of your Twitter home page). If you'd like to add an author that's not in either, you can try searching for them by clicking on the "Find People" link at very top right of home page.
3. Click on the first author you want to add to your "favorite authors" list.
4. You'll see a grey box marked "Lists". Click on it. If you've already made a list, you'll see it listed first with a square tick box to left. You'll also see "New list" below.
5. Click on "New list" and give it a name: "favorite authors". You can add a description if you want. If your title gives enough info, don't bother with the descr.
6. Select "Public" or "Private". It's advantageous to select "Public" if you want to help promote the people on your list. Some lists you might want to make only for you.
7. Go back to step 2 and locate other authors for this specific list and follow steps 3-7 until your list is as big as you want. You can always add another person to any list by going to their page and following same steps.

That's all there is to making a Twitlist.

Viewing your lists:

1. You'll find all your lists (ones you've created and ones you're following in the "Lists" section underneath "Saved Searches" on right side of home page. Your lists that you've created will show first, then ones you're following.
2. For easier viewing of the same thing, click on the "Listed" link at top right beside "Followers". The "Lists following you" shows any list where someone has added your name. The "Lists you follow" is just like the ones you see beneath "Saved Searches".

Lists are a great way to keep track of people since the list of your followers isn't easily searchable.

Writers and editors: different roles, same goals

by Denise C. Baron
(originally published on Ragan.com)

The marriage between a writer and editor can be a glorious one, or it can be a relationship full of strife. As in any marriage, the glue that will hold it together combines mutual respect, appreciation and admiration of each partner's skills and the role each person plays.

Marriages tend to be most successful when the partners are also each other's best friend. They might not always agree, but they manage to work things out compatibly.

A writer's best friend should be his editor. I say should be, because that's not always the case. In a perfect world, a writer writes and an editor improves. Ultimately, the beneficary of their alliance is the reader.

Although you'll find many a talented writer/editor out there, not all writers are cut out to be editors and vice versa. So being a writer doesn't automatically entitle you to consider yourself an editor, nor can all editors write particularly well. What good editors can do well is recognize good writing when they see it and, in wielding their blue pencils, ensure they preserve the writer's voice.

Good editors will take the text the writer has labored over and artfully make it even better – and the writer gets the glory. They correct mistakes, rearrange text where warranted or necessary, amend for house style, confer with the writer, and occasionally suggest overall improvements.

What good editors don't do is equally important. They do not feed their egos by making changes willy-nilly. They do not need to put their stamp on the writer's piece to prove anything. They're already where they are because they've earned the privilege. Truth is, they'd much prefer getting clean copy that is publication-ready; the reality is that's rarely the case. And that's OK, because if all writers submitted perfect prose, these people would be out of a job.

Then there's the incompetent editor. The damage this person can inflict is unlimited in scope and may include whitewashing the writer's text, making it conform to a faceless style, or otherwise stifling what distinguishes one writer from another: the personality, the voice. This person should not be editing anyone's copy but should be praying for the writer's forgiveness – and a lenient penance – and then seeking a new line of work.

Similarly, career writers who fail to understand that theirs is a vocation of lifetime learning may be unsuited for the task. Good writers are on a never-ending quest to improve; what they know for certain is that they don't know it all. And so they strive for perfection. Every day. It's the only way they eventually can become great.

Still the so-called writers and editors lurk. It's no wonder that the writer's lament is that anyone can do his job. That's because everyone writes, right? Who in business today has not composed a memo or an e-mail or even an instant message? Isn't that writing, after all? Doesn't that make everyone a writer?

Uh, no.

A writer doesn't merely put pen to paper or finger to keyboard. What a writer does is create. A writer captures ideas and transforms them into verbal pictures for the reader. Pictures that do indeed tell a story. Pictures that captivate the reader. These pictures are powerful tools. They can make you laugh or cry, enrage or delight you. Mainly, though, they will make you think.

Next time you find yourself reading good writing, listen carefully to hear the writer's voice. Some writers sound witty; others sound academic. Some sound like people you can envision yourself hanging out with; others sound too intimidating for that. What you're listening to is the result of the writer and editor working in harmony.

Just like a happy marriage.

Denise C. Baron is a director of global communications with Merck & Co., Inc. This article was reprinted here with permission from Denise C. Baron.