Here are three great creative writing tips from Mark Victor Hansen, co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.

Here are my top 3 tips for anyone who has ever dreamed of writing or publishing a book.

1. Have a mentor- He had 44 great and inspiring mentors on his road to success, and says he couldn’t have done it without them,
2. Start at the end- You must have a goal, your ideal end result.  This helps direct your writing and keeps you clear and focused.
3. Know your target audience- Knowing your target customer is crucial to the success of your book as a business.  If you don’t know to whom you are writing, you will not know what to write, or how to market your book.

P.S. Looking for some personal mentoring? Check out my eBook Mentoring Course today.

Val Waldeck

Announcing Val Waldeck’s
Ebook Mentoring Course

DISCOVER HOW TO CREATE, PUBLISH &
PROFIT FROM YOUR OWN eBOOK

Would you like to learn how to create ebooks, publish, market and sell them on the internet? This very special 8-week creative writing Mentoring Course will teach you how to do that. You will save a lot of time, money and effort and learn “the ropes” in an easy step-by-step method.

Whether you are a beginner or an experienced writer, this e-course will take you to the next level.

Perhaps you have written a book already – or are in the process of writing one. This e-coaching is for you as well. Have you ever thought about publishing your book in electronic form so people all over the world may have easy access to your work. Nearly half the book sales by Amazon recently were for digital (ebooks) and this is the wave of the future.

Even if you are still working on your book, it is possible to publish an short version as an ebook to awaken interest in your subject and get people’s attention.

Click here for more information.

Val Waldeck

Selling products on the Internet has always been a problem for South Africans. There are solutions, but they are generally expensive.

Now PAYPAL has come to South Africa (March 2010) and, at last, we have a viable ecommerce option. An important restriction is that they are partnered with First National Bank and you have to open an FNB account (if you don’t already have one). A simple savings or transaction account will suffice.

The big problem for non-techies is how to make a PayPal payment button and put it on their website so people can pay them directly.

I have just released PAYPAL BASICS FOR NEWBIES and this will take you step-by-step through the process. Take a look here:

PayPal Basics For Newbies

If you don’t have a website, go to www.blogger and follow the easy instructions to start a free blog. You can put a picture of your book or ebook there, together with a PayPal payment button and get paid instantly. (Use the text widget to copy your PayPal generated code to.)

PayPal is a secure eBay Company and so easy to use. I highly recommend you look into this. It is a great way to share your work with the world.

A Really Useful eBook

Val Waldeck

There are a LOT of eBooks available that explain “how to write an information product” – but there are few that cover WRITING TIPS that actually aid eBook authors in WRITING THEIR MATERIALS and helping them through the common struggles and needs that all writers experience.

Jimmy D. Brown provides writers, from all levels and writing styles, with some unique and traditional methods to become the best writer possible.

Regardless of what your goals are for writing an eBook, these ideas are guaranteed to make the WRITING of your eBook easier and better. These are great tips for creative writing.

Go here for more information:
30 Writing Tips For eBook Authors

Many great writers have only become successful because they persevered. They faced rejection, discouragement, and deterrents. But they persevered with their creative writing.

Margaret Mitchell got rejection letters from 38 different publishers before anyone finally deigned to publish her novel, Gone With The Wind. How many talented writers are there who gave up without ever making it into print because of misguided rejection?

Rudyard Kipling managed to sell one article to The San Francisco Examiner in 1889, but the paper then rejected any future submissions, saying, “You just don’t know how to use the English language.”

John Kennedy Toole, meanwhile, received so many rejection letters for his novel, A Confederacy Of Dunces, that he finally killed himself. Only the persistence of his bereaved mother led to the eventual publication of his novel and its receipt of the Pulitzer Prize in 1980.

Other famous authors whose works were initially rejected include Richard Bach – Jonathan Livingston Seagull (140), Stephen King – Carrie (30), Richard Adams – Watership Down (26), Thor Heyerdahl – The KonTiki Expedition,(18) Laurence J. Peter – The Peter Principle (16), JK Rowling – Harry Potter books (12) and even Beatrix Potter – The Tale of Peter Rabbit (8). She finally published it herself.

Kenneth Taylor’s idea for the Living Bible was rejected by Moody Publishing House. He published it himself from his own garage and within the first ten years over 50 million copies had been sold. It led to the establishment of Tyndale House, Publishers of the runaway successful “Left Behind” series.

So in the words of Winston Church, “Never give in! Never give in! Never, never, never, never – in nothing great or small, large or petty. Never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.”

Source: Nico Bougas

Go here for information about the exciting Writing Seminars in Durban and Johannesburg, April 24 and 28 with Dan Poynter, author of the Self-Publishng Manual and myself.

Writer’s Seminars with Dan Poynter & Val Waldeck

The Writer’s Seminars in Durban (April 24) and Johannesburg (April 28), South Africa, are going to be very exciting and informative.

I will be dealing with the nitty gritty’s” of getting your book down on paper, turning it into an ebook and, selling it online. I will also be sharing about the exciting new ecommerce solution for South Africans presented by PayPal and First National Bank and showing you exactly how to get connected.

Dan will be sharing about selling books abroad and giving you firsthand information that you would normally pay hundreds of dollars for – which translates into thousands of Rand. Dan Poynter’s seminar is not the same as previously presented in South Africa. He is going to take you beyond borders into areas you have never dreamed of.

If you want to get started – or get your book noticed around the world – don’t miss this seminar.

It is a recession-busting price too! More information here:

http://pilgrimpublications.biz/advice/writers-seminars-2010/

This is an opportunity in a million.

Val Waldeck

P.S. The Early Bird special price expires on April 17. Get in now!

Please leave a comment for me by clicking on the comment/no comments link above.  Appreciate it.

The internet has opened up tremendous opportunities for anyone who wants to have their own online business. The sky is the limit for creative writing.

Previously, people dreamed about owning a business, but became discouraged at the high costs involved.  Technology has now made it possible to run an online business with very little financial capital. In fact, some very successful online businesses have been built, quite literally, out of “thin air”.

The lifeblood of internet business, whatever type of model you use,  is TRAFFIC. You can have the best website, the sharpest squeeze pages, the greatest products in the world, but if no-one comes to see them, you’re dead in the water. If you’re willing to do some work using the right methods, you can go a long way to getting that traffic!

There are basically 2 ways to get the traffic. You can BUY it, or you can ATTRACT it. Many have worked hard at advertising an online business and ended up with little more than a maxed out credit card for their trouble.

Here are some methods you can use:

1. Viral Marketing
2. Giveaway Events
3. Membership Sites
4. Article Marketing
5. Social Sites – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
6. Squidoo
7. Forums
8. Traffic Exchanges
9. Joint Ventures
10. Ad-swaps
11. Free gifts with affiliate links

If you want more information, I recommend Phil Morgan’s “Minimum Budget Maximum Traffic” audio course, where he shares some free (or almost free) techniques on how to attract traffic to your product without breaking the bank.

More information here:  Minimum Budget Maximum Traffic

Remember, no one will buy your product if they don’t know it exists!

Blessings!

Val

Someone asked me a question recently about getting their book published without spending hundreds of  Rand or Dollars. They are unable to find a Publisher willing to take on their book.

I am delighted to be able to assist with some great advice about creative writing. Please feel free to send me your questions and I will do my best to help you.

If you are going to self-publish, the first thing is to get your manuscript typed. Use Microsoft Word and I suggest using the A5 page setup. (That’s half the size of the regular A4).  Use a nice font like Verdana, Bookman or Arial.  You will be able to see what your book looks like as you type. That will save you a lot of setup costs.

Next, get a stunning front cover. Contact Clive Thompson for a quote. He does a really nice professional job.  Remember, the cover sells the book. Tell him the size of your book and the number of pages so he can get the spine right.

Next, turn your book into a PDF.  Here’s a link to some free software that will easily do that for you – www.pdfill.com. Upload your book and cover picture to a Print-On-Demand Publishing Service.

1.  If you live in South Africa and are wanting to print just a few copies and you are not too worried about “bookshop quality” – contact Lithotech Digital Image Printing -  ids@lithotech.co.za.  You pay approx. ZAR twelve cents per page (or thereabouts) for a black-and-white interior and a full colour cover. The cost is the same whether you print one copy or one hundred copies. This is great for short runs.There are POD companies in the USA, but it costs quite a bit to get the books to South Africa. This is your cheapest option.

2. If you want a quality book, sign up with www.createspace.com in the USA. They are an Amazon.com company. Just upload your PDFs to their system (they will help you do that) and the company will prepare your book for sale.  They will also put it in the Amazon.com database so folk can buy it. They handle all sales, posting, finance (but not marketing)  and give you a 50% royalty. You set the price of the book upfront. This will give you a nice quality paperback, which you can import to South Africa at quite a good price.  The only cost to you is the initial copy you have to buy in order to authorise the publication. That will set you back about USA $12. Visit their site and take a look. They even give you a template for the cover, which you can send to your cover designer.

There are other companies that do similar work and a search on Google will help you find them. However, I work with these two and highly recommend them.

The sky is the limit!

For all your creative writing editorial and graphic requirements

Contact these good folk for quotes.

• Clive Thompson - Professional Layout and Cover Design
• Mos van Schoor - Professional Editing
• Anne Erikson – Professional Technical Writer, Copy Editor and Proofreader.  Member of the Professional Editors’ Group (PEG).
• Val Ludik – Professional Proofreading

You will find everything to you need to know about creative writing, publishing and marketing your book in Dan Poynter’s eLibrary.

Dan Poynter’s amazing eLibary CD includes the famous and popular “Self-Publishing Manual” (Volumes 1 & 2).

Valued at much more than $100 , Dan Poynter’s Book Writing/Publishing PDF eLibrary includes:

• Writing Nonfiction
• The Self-Publishing Manual (Volumes I & 2)
• Is There a Book Inside You
• Book Publishing Encyclopedia
• Successful Nonfiction

Plus:

• Poynter’s Secret List of Book Promotion Contacts
• Book Marketing Special Report
• Book Writing Information Kit
• A complete list of his other products.

Order your copy of this invaluable Library today