Monthly Archives: November 2006

Amen, Jerry Simmons!

Jerry Simmons from WritersReaders and I have discussed the fact that many POD authors and self-published authors don’t invest in an editor for their book.

Thanks to Jerry for this post about The Importance of an Editor. Jerry isn’t a book editor, but he is a veteran of the publishing industry. He knows his stuff! Enjoy.

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Professor Gibbs caught

You just never really know about people….

In 1991-ish, I took the class “Ad Copywriting” with Professor Gibbs at Shippensburg University. He was a great Prof. Everyone loved his class. He was animated, kind, and had actually worked in the communications field.

Fast forward to a few months ago and I hear that he was a fugitive–being sought for charges on child molestation. Tonight on the news, I see he was caught in Panama.

Last year a client of mine was charged with possession of child porn. I found this out through a google search, confronted him, and “fired him”. And he was a relaively well-known guy.

What’s more amazing to me than the fact that these people committed these crimes is the fact that they think they’re too smart to get caught. I’m glad they’re not.

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On writing Fast and Editing Slow

It’s funny how many sub-specialties are in the writing field. One that I’ve been gaining experience in is salesletter copywriting. If anyone would like to send me a great Christmas present this year, how about enrolling me in Lorrie Morgan Ferraro’s Red Hot Copywriting Bootcamp? She has some great tips on her website. Another copywriting resource is Ryan Healy’s blog. In one of his recent posts, Write Fast, Edit Slow, he talks about his process of writing. I have to agree with him.

I NEVER have writer’s block anymore. Why? Because even if I can’t think of exactly what I want to say, I write down the closest approximation. It’s almost like it’s a recording in my head that I’m transcribing onto paper. I can knock out a very rough first draft pretty quickly. It may not be pretty. but I’ve gotten the main ideas down. Then, I can always re-read what I originally wrote and come up with a better way to say it. As I always say, it’s always easier to edit than write.

Need to learn how to edit your writing effectively? Read Write It Right: The Ground Rules for Self-Editing Like the Pros, co-authored by yours truly. It gives you an easy 5-step process to self-editing your writing, leading to clearer communication with those who matter!

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History in Action Toys–Check it Out

I don’t make a habit of plugging all my clients’ products and services, but these you need to check out. My client, Sterling Ashby, has created History In Action Toys and his first set of historical action figures are available for pre-order. This first set is of three “forgotten” African-American heroes–Bessie Coleman, the determined aviator, Benjamin Banneker, the pragmatic observer, and Matthew Henson, the resourceful explorer.

These are high-quality, professionally designed, and highly “playable” toys. Check them out!

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Monday morning ramblings

My brain is in overdrive this morning. My apologies in advance.

1. I got an IM from someone on MSN messenger asking me if I was hiring any writers. I told her I wasn’t, and she said to let me know when I was. Umm okay. The thing is, we do business with people we have a relationship with. I have no idea who this person is. I haven’t seen her website, I don’t know her from a professional group, I’ve seen no writing samples, and I don’t know what type of writing she does. People need to network effectively…that’s how you have a chance to get overflow work. If you need to brush up on your networking skills, let me suggest Entrepreneurial Freedom for starters.

2. I have a new client who is an actor/screenwriter. Now, I know other VAs are working in this niche, but I really didn’t think too much about it until I got this client. Another interesting note is that this new client was a referral from his brother, a former client of mine working in the financial services industry. You just never know who knows whom. I still keep in touch with the former client. He knows that I focus on editorial services now, and voila.

3. I posted some new pictures on Myspace. If you’d like to see pictures of my kids dressed up for Halloween and my exquisite pumpkin-carving skills, click here.

4. There was an article in yesterday’s Harrisburg Patriot about MySpace becoming “Our Space” and they profiled local people who had gotten in trouble for some of the private information they posted on their public myspace account. Folks, if you wouldn’t shout out the message on your blog post into a crowd, don’t post it online. Your blog, your myspace account, etc., is not a private diary with a lock and key. It is public information. I try to keep the Hidden Blog mostly business related, where I may talk about my kids, vacations, shopping bargains, etc. on my myspace account. But I never post anything that would embarrass me tomorrow, 5 years from now, or 50 years from now.

Have a great week!

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Do You Remember the Underpants Gnomes?

Back many years ago, my husband and I watched South Park faithfully. Ed can do a mean Cartman imitation. One episode that particularly sticks out in my mind was the one about the underpants gnomes. It’s been many years since I’ve seen it, but the premise is these gnomes were stealing underwear from people.

When the South Park crew asked what they were stealing underwear, the gnomes said, “Step One: Steal Underwear. Step Three, Make a Profit” The South Park crew asked, “What’s Step Two?” The gnomes said, “Step Three is Make a Profit”. They didn’t know what Step Two was.

Do YOU know what Step Two is? I’ve seen this with new virtual assistants quite a bit. They think Step One is to declare themselves a virtual assistant, Step Three is to make a good living and have a balanced life. But they don’t stop to consider Step Two.

Step Two is why Jeannine Clontz and I wrote Entrepreneurial Freedom. Step Two is actually many steps. It’s your technical (project skills), it’s your business skills (how you organize and run your business), it’s your attitude, and it’s your perseverance.

Do you realize that opening your VA practice means you’ll have to wear all the hats of a business? You’ll be the employee, the boss, the marketer, the salesperson, the CFO, the mailroom person, etc.? Once you’ve achieved some success, you can start delegating that? Do you take on any work that comes your way or do you stick to the projects you excel at and enjoy? Do you set competitive rates, or do you try to be the lowest bidder? Do you have your clients sign contracts or do you just hope your client pays on time? Do you invest money in conferences and training or do you just keep doing the same old thing? Are your goals to fill all your available hours with client work and turn anyone else away, or are you going to expand your business to have others working for you so you and your child can be at the moview while someone else is making you money? All these and much more are what leads you to Step Three: Making a Profit.

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The Prestige and Entrepreneurial Obsession

Last night I went to see The Prestige with a group of my girlfriends. This was a nice departure from the usual “chick flicks” we see. I won’t give any spoilers here, because if you like “thinking” movies, you should go see this.

I was struck as I watched this, the competition between two up-and-coming magicians, that the movie paralleled an entrepreneur’s life. To become really successful in business, we need to be inventive and come up with the new thing that “wows”–that’s what differentiates us from our competition.

For example, right now, I’m thinking of what to write for my next book. What is going to be really unique and marketable? What is going to really benefit someone? You never stop thinking of your next move. Now in the movie, the characters became very devious and sometimes violent, and I can’t identify with that. But the movie definitely made me think. It took four of us discussing it over an ice cream sundae at Friendly’s to fill-in all the parts that confused us.

I also thought about how I can easily become obsessed with work. It’s on my mind all the time. Not client projects…but bigger dreams of where to take my business and how to get there. It’s nothing for me to have my laptop in front of me surfing bulletin boards and blogs when I watch TV at night. I “talk” to my professional contacts and other VAs more than my real-life friends. I spend more money on business conferences than I do on vacations. This reminds me to get out and go to dinner, a movie, and ice cream with my friends as often as possible. It’s refreshing to the soul. It’s far too easy to get wrapped up in your virtual, entrepreneurial world.

All that said, I wouldn’t change what I do for a thing. I never had even 25% of the passion for any “job” I ever held as I do for The Hidden Helpers. The flexibility is amazing. I can volunteer at my son’s school, I can put my boys on and off the bus, I can show them first-hand that they can start their own businesses and be successful someday, I get to travel to conferences and business meetings and meet some really interesting and inspiring people…it’s far more exciting than any “job” I’ve ever had. It’s not for everyone, but it “is” for me.

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Your writing symbol tip of the day

If there’s a really common error I see in the writing I edit, it’s people not knowing the difference between a hypen, an em-dash, and an en-dash. One thing to remember: do not put a space before or after either of them. (unless you’re doing a hard return from one line to another. Here’s a brief explanation of each:

A Hyphen is the short horizontal line that you use to separate compound words like twenty-seven or all-important.

The Em Dash is the longest of the three lines that is commonly used to separate a sentence. For example, I loved reading all the VA books[emdash]but Entrepreneurial Freedom was my favorite.

The En Dash is longer than a hyphen but shorter than an em dash. The en dash means “through”, so if you were to write: Read chapter one, sections 1[endash]12; pages 5[endash]42.

If you have any questions, please email me for a free example of these in word. Wordpress is not allowing me to give you any visual examples with the exception of the hyphen.

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