Novel writing is a whole different animal.
When you are writing your novel:
First and foremost you have to have a scintillating eye catching title that demands attention. Without a fantastic title that hooks people in and rips their interest onto you and away from whatever else they were doing you are doomed. So spend time on this first.
Get your title done first.
Once it is done it will guide your thinking for the rest of the book.
Remember to use alliteration or rhyming in your title (preferrably both) because these type of sounds and word play resonate in the mind and are far more memorable for people.
Of course it has to make sense, build intrigue, mystery and curiosity.
Short is key here to.
I realize that is a great task for a title but people do judge books by their covers. You can write the greatest novel in history and with a dud title none will read it.
That's just a fact of life so deal with it.
The second part of your novel is the body or actual book part.
When you are looking to publish your novel you should only write a basic outline and a few writing snippets.
Snippets are short pieces of writing that show the publishing company's editor your writing style and level of skill.
Publishers as a general rule never buy whole, finished books. There are a number of reasons one of the main ones being the author is too close and too attached to the work already done. Don't make this mistake!!
You'll want to hire a good book agent that has connections. They will usually be expensive in the form of a high percent commission of your advance (money paid to you upfront by the publisher which these days is usually pretty small especially for 1st time authors), and a percentage of your royalties (monies paid to you based on every book that sells).
The royalties are the real beauty of the writing a book, song or any other piece that grows and gains notoriety/mass exposure.
You wrote the piece and now it is paying you over and over because it got popular and people are using it.
Many good agents won't take on 1st time authors so you have to sell your book to your agent first. Prepare a good salesletter in the format agents are used to receiving. Their are services you can hire to write this for you.
Along the same idea as the press release their is a certain format agents and publishers expect so make sure to follow that format or your page goes straight to the trash.
The trash is death and destroys all your hard work.
You are probably thinking "I don't want to pay all that expense, I just want to write my book, send it to the publisher myself and keep all the profits".
That would be a big mistake. The true purpose of a book and especially your first book is to make a name for yourself, build a fan base, and get speaking or other publicity engagements. Your first book builds YOU!
You will make very little money off it because the advance is small and the royalties even smaller. Rome wasn't built in a day.
Neither will your popular best-selling author status.
Once you have 1 successful book though it opens the doors to higher advances and royalties because you are an established name, have a fan base, and publishers know you are a proven commodity and will sell.
From their perspective they have costs involved in production and promotion and want to know their money is being spent on a seller/winner.
Keep this in mind in the beginning.
Once you have your publishing approval based on the title, outline and snippets you wrote now is the hard part.
You have to actually write the damn thing.
You'll want to keep things interesting, intriguing, mysterious and throw curveballs to people in your storyline.
Predictability kills you.
Ask yourself "what are humans interested in?"
WOmen especially are interested in drama, human conflict, relationships, sex, gossip, family issues and turmoil, and the news. And SEX.
Men are interested in violence, gladiator style combat, sex, gossip, championship stories, triumphs, domination. And SEX.
Use these topics and things people are interested in and weave them in your story. All the great movies and novels of our time do this. There's a reason. Because it works.
Follow the formula. It won't let you down.
These are the basics of human psychology and will serve you well.
Be as vivid, imaginative and pictorially descriptive as you can. Describe the sights, sounds, and feeling in great detail.
The 3 main modes people communicate in are: visual, auditory, kinesthetic (feelings).
Use that in your story to engage all types of people.
Keep it interesting, throw in some plot twists, and have a twist in your ending and your novel will be a smashing success.
The next type of writing is cover letters, resumes.
Your goal here is first to GET ATTENTION. Without the attention of the human resources person the battle is lost. Your resume goes right to the trash and your time and energy to make and send it are wasted.
Don't let that be you.
Be different.
Your resume is your marketing piece.
It works for you 24/7 when you do it right. It gets on the recruiter or human resource person's desk and either begins working for you to convince that person to hire you or it falls flat and goes to the trash.
Make it interesting and eye catching.
Don't go crazy with weird colors.
You can use a sligthly different color than white. Use a thick paper stock that is weightier and feels different than the standard stuff the other 5,233 people applying for the job have sent in.
Add a thumbnail photo of you at the top right or top left.
This seems weird and that is the point. Noone else is doing it and the whole goal is to get attention.
Also, it has the double benefit of making you human and helping the recruiter connect with your face. You get out of the 'just job seeker #4675' mode the recruiter may be in.
THey step up and say "hey who is this guy/girl? Obviously this is a good picture, their credentials are good for the job, I am going to call them."
BOOM.
Your resume has accomplished its job.
It only has to do 2 things for you.
1. Get Attention
2. Make recruiter call you
That's it and when you attempt to make it get the job for you that is where you are going to fail. It is 1 sheet of paper and only 1 side of the paper. DOn't make it do too much.
Other creative ideas you can use are to include a link to your youtube video that explains why you'd be good for the job and what value you add to the company.
Very important to "Sell" them on what you bring to the company not a tell all about your skills or why YOU want the job. They don't care about that.
Hiring and firing employees is hugely expensive and companies hate making mistakes.
Sell what you do for them.
You could send a cd or dvd to them and obviously it would be in a different package and size than paper resumes so would get attention. The downside is with all the viruses going around they may not play it out of fear.
If you do this include instructions on what you want them to do and an outline of what is on the disk. Also, include a copy of your paper resume in there so they have something to look at should they choose not to play your cd/dvd.
Also, you could send your resume via UPS/FedEx. Use an overnight envelope or even a somewhat large box. They will be wondering what is this, I have to know.
This will definitely get the person's attention because everyone opens FedEx/UPS envelopes.
ONce, you have their attention you are halfway there.
You can also get on linkedin.com and make connections there to various companies and workers at those companies.
Networking is key in life.
The more people you know the better.
OF course, the more powerful and connected your network is, the more you make and the easier time in life you have.
I have heard many stories from friends and online associates that have used linkedin.com to make a connection and get their foot in the door of recruiter's offices.
Don't underestimate the power of this resource.
There are a thousand other things you can do to get attention that are out of the scope of this post.
Be creative.
Ask yourself, "how can I get the attention of this person that culls through 3245 resumes per day?" "What do all of them do that I can differentiate myself from in a good way to get that phone call?"
Answer these 3 questions and you are a lion's share of the way there.
There are many other types of writing including poems, songwriting, haikus, outlines, bibliographies, nofiction books, tutorials, white papers, training modules, notecards, etc.
You and I will talk about these in upcoming posts so stay tuned.
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