Creating the Perfect Antagonist

 

Creating the perfect antagonist is as difficult as creating a protagonist. If you pick up a children’s book about superheroes, you will notice one thing about the antagonists in the book, there is usually no deep motivation behind their actions. Most times it is about “taking over the world”, which works for children but not for adults. Your antagonist must be multi-dimensional and his motivation must be believable to the reader. So since “taking over the world” doesn’t work for adults, how can you create the perfect antagonist?

1. Give them a human side: Many people write antagonists as a device to move their plot forward. It is so clear the antagonist is in the story simply because the protagonist is there. This does not work. Flesh out your antagonist and give him or her a genuine motivation for doing what he or she does. Let your reader empathize with this evil character and come to the conclusion that if he was in the antagonist’s shoes, he will probably do the same thing. The best way to give your antagonist a genuine motivation is by giving him a history an everyday reader can relate to. A painful childhood, abusive parents, a mental illness, etc. However, if your antagonist is not human, try to give it a human touch.
2. No one is purely evil: As stated earlier, this is for children. Many times, our villains become caricatures or just simply cliché. Pure evil is dull and predictable and this should not be how you write an antagonist. George RR Martin’s “A Song with Ice and Fire” books give us a classic villain test. There are a lot of Villains in these books, from the Night King to Cersei and Jamie Lannister to Little Finger and so on. But the villains the readers love the most? Cersei and Jamie of course. Why? Because they are the only two written from their point of view. The reader gets to see the world from their own eyes, and note that no one is evil in his own mind.
3. Abstracts do not work: You might be tempted to make your antagonist a corporation or a company or some form of organization. Truth is, readers cannot relate to this. So what do you do? Give that entity a face. If it is an organization, the CEO can be the face or if it’s an evil secret society, the leader of that occult can be the face. George Orwell’s 1984 stresses the importance of having a face. The Insoc Party was obviously the antagonist in the story, but then there were Big Brother and others like O’Brian who represented the party.
4. Don’t make your Antagonist a wimp: While the protagonist is the hero and will ‘win’ in the end, it is important to make your antagonist equally capable or even more capable than your hero in some areas. There is a lot of tension when the reader knows that his beloved hero can be outclassed by this villain, especially if your hero has flaws and the villain is superior in those areas. For instance, if your hero is impulsive, having a calculating genius as a villain will make for good reading.
5. Give your mysterious Antagonist Proxies: If you are writing a book where the antagonist is a mysterious character, your reader should not know till a certain point. It is wise to give him proxies or pawns that the protagonist can deal with before he gets to the final battle. Also, creatively throw the readers off your scent by placing dummy villains here and there. For instance, if there is a secret killer in the village and no one knows who it is (even your reader), it is wise to keep the reader’s mind wandering by throwing clues in the wrong direction. Let your reader be convinced this killer is other people rather than the actual killer. This is difficult to do, but if properly done, could make a classic crime fiction.
6. The antagonist is not always evil: Think of someone in your life who is holding you back from doing what you want to do because he or she feels they know better? They believe this decision to hold you back is for your good. This person is an antagonist. A husband that does not want his wife to work because he is protecting her, a parent choosing a career for their child despite their child wanting something else, etc. These antagonists love your main characters and their actions are not from a place of malice. That’s another superb quality you can give your antagonist.

 

Samuel Ejedegba.

6 Unique Corporate Event Ideas

 

Because corporate events can be quite boring and often planned without too much thought – here are 6 unique corporate event ideas for you to use to engage your employees and share the joy internally!

#1 Visit a Local Producer

Take your team for a fun and educational experience at a local vineyard or brewery – or for a non-alcoholic alternative head to a farm or local market to see where local produce comes from.

#2 Arrange a “Family Day”

Plan a carnival or fair for your employees to enjoy with their family. This is a great way to connect their work-life with their family-life.

#3 Plan a Company Ball or Costume Party

Plan a classy ball or costume party for your employees. It is a fun and creative way to get them to relax and socialise – and perhaps even compete for a ‘best costume’ prize!

#4 Celebrate the Holidays Together

Since it’s considered the season of giving, plan a Christmas charity event and give different departments the opportunity to raise money for homeless shelters or food banks.

#5 Plan a Volunteering Activity

Get your team of employees together to volunteer for a cause of their choice. Plan something where your company and its employees can ‘give back’. It’s a worthwhile team-building experience!

#6 Break a World Record

This will inspire and motivate your team and give employees the opportunity to create a long-lasting legacy for their company. Breaking a world record is quite the achievement – something that you can keep trying each year!

Culled from: Azavista

6 Tips For Effective Event Promotion

 

Would you like to conduct an effective event promotion? Let’s take your hand and walk you through it.

Read on.

One of the best ways that you can get your business in front of potential customers is by hosting an event. They can come in many shapes and forms, from seminars and debates to conferences and exhibitions, but they all serve the same goal of getting people who are important to your company into the same room and interacting with one another.

As this article from Forbes (emphasis mine) outlines, an event can make your business more familiar to people and help your brand to become more approachable. It’s a chance for you to show your customer base how much you value them by providing quality speakers and content. Your event can also provide valuable time for networking between people who probably wouldn’t have connected otherwise.

However, the main challenge for you as an organiser comes when you have to get your event out there in front of its intended audience. Without effective promotion, the value of whatever you are planning will plummet, taking a lot of your brand’s credibility with it. Taking this into account, let’s take a closer look at our top six pointers for effectively promoting your event.

6 tips for effective event promotion

1. Plan ahead (way ahead)

You should be looking to plan your event with enough time to comfortably organise the agenda and promote it. There is no set recommendation for this, and how long you need can depend on a number of factors. For example, large events will require a lot more time to organise, as well as needing extra time to advertise if you are targeting a high number of attendees. Furthermore, a public event will need wider and more intensive promotion compared to a private affair. You need to take these things into account and set a date you know gives you plenty of time to organise.

2. Find sponsors and use them to aid promotion

Even though the main role of your event sponsors is to provide funding, they can play a valuable role in its promotion too. If your brand is growing and in need of a helping hand to boost your event’s profile, securing a well-known partner can be a valuable asset. Not only could their name grab potential attendees’ attention, but they can use their considerable network of influence to further the reach of your promotion. They have a vested interest in more people seeing their own branding, so they should be more than willing to assist you in increasing awareness.

If you don’t quite know where to start looking for a sponsor, a service like SponsorMyEvent can put your event in front of a large audience of companies looking to do exactly that.

3. Get your event infrastructure in place

In order to conduct an effective event promotion, before you begin you will need to create a landing page or website where people can be directed to get full details, as well as to book their place. If you don’t have the expertise to do this or your website doesn’t have the capability for ticket sales, consider using an automated system, such as EventStop, which has an easy landing-page setup and will allow you to conveniently manage attendance of your event. Not only will it allow people to pay any fees themselves, but its registration, tracking, and reporting features mean that you don’t have to dedicate a whole team of staff to tracking everything, freeing them up for more pressing tasks.

4. Use social media to get the word out

Once you’ve got somewhere to direct people, you can begin to promote the event across your brand’s social media accounts. If you start this effective event promotion process early, you can use the booking of speakers and the addition of sponsors as an excuse to update your message across different platforms. Always remember to share the link to your website, while getting your sponsors to share your posts or create their own about your event. Furthermore, you should always be ready to interact with anyone who comments or asks questions about your social media posts as this will help you to look approachable while fielding essential questions.

5. Use direct marketing to reach everyone else

Another way of letting your customers know about your event is by carrying out a targeted email campaign, where you send out personalised invites directly to their inbox. This is useful if you’ve built up a large customer database over the years or if you have access to the details of people whom you know will be interested in attending your event.

6. Hold a detailed review of your event

Once the dust has settled on what has (hopefully) been a successful event, it’s important that you get your promotion team together and have a closer look at what they did well and what could have been done better. The findings from this kind of review can be used to inform how you go about publicising your events in the future, allowing you to operate much more effectively without wasting resources on things that don’t work.

Follow the six tips in this article and you will be well on your way to planning and promoting a very successful and well-attended event.

How To Market A Paid Event

 

When businesses and organizations have a product, service, idea or cause to promote, they often host paid events for their target markets to attend. Paid events include conferences, networking events, trade shows, webinars, virtual conferences, teleseminars, retreats, seminars and charity. Businesses and organizations attempt to increase event registrations by gaining exposure through online and offline advertising efforts.

1.

Use your existing email list to begin marketing your paid event, if you’ve already acquired email addresses from individuals who have purchased products or services from your company in the past, asked to receive information and updates about your company or its programs and events. Your in-house marketing list is composed of people who have expressed interest in what you do or offer, so they’re the most likely audience for your paid event.

2.

Search for companies who offer complementary products and services, and whose target markets are similar to yours. Find out if they offer advertising placements in their email newsletters or on their websites. If they do, cross-promote your events, products or services, if you have a similar size readership, or purchase advertising space to promote your paid event.

3.

Include information on your company website about the paid event you’re hosting. Add a call-out box of text to the top of the website with the name of the event, two or three sentences that state the purpose of the event, its location, time and a contact number or email address. Make the area clickable so that it goes to a portable document file that details information about your event and registration, or a full web page that includes a sales letter about the event and registration instructions.

4.

Hire a writer to craft a press release you can send to the media about your event. Determine which members of the media, including bloggers, are most likely to have audiences who would attend your event, and then email your press release to them. Your press release should direct people to the area on your website that discusses the event, as well as provide them with a way to get in contact with you for interviews and questions.

5.

Send an email to local business, professional and community organizations, announcing your event, if your event topics are relevant to the groups’ members. Include a link to the page on your website where you’re advertising the event and registration information.

6.

Use social media to push the message about your paid event. Begin posting about the event before registration starts, so that people are already aware that it’s coming soon. Post links to your event information and registration pages, upload videos promoting the event and even host trivia about topics related to the event to get people on your social media networks excited about registering for your event.

7.

Advertise your event in print advertising on a local or national level, depending on the purpose of your event and your target market. Magazines, newspapers and newsletters that target the audience you want to attend can help you increase registrations. You can also send printed invitations and event information to individuals who you already have on your address mailing list, similar to the email marketing message you send.

8.

Get excited about your event and show potential attendees your excitement by developing a series of videos to promote the event. You can use the information to introduce the purpose of the event, highlight guest speakers or showcase testimonials from individuals who attended your events in the past. Use these videos on your website, blog, event-specific websites, in your press releases, email marketing and on your social media profiles.

9.

Offer incentives for signing up early to help increase registration during the initial sign-up stages. You can announce a giveaway that only first responders are eligible for, or you can offer a discount on the registration fee for early bird registrations.

Five Habits to Avoid in Fiction Writing

 

As with personal documents or academic writing, fiction writing can be challenging. Our editors have encountered five problems on a regular basis. By avoiding these habits, your fiction writing will be greatly improved.

1. Generic verbs and nouns

Imagine trying to paint everything in the world using just four colors. The results would probably look pretty generic. When you are a writer, your language is your medium. People, places, and things (i.e., nouns) have names, and it's your job to know what they are.

Precise nouns work wonders in fiction writing because nouns have connotations or meanings that go beyond their dictionary definitions. If one character gives another character flowers, tell readers what kind of flowers. Are they tulips or columbines or snapdragons or peonies? This information could hint at what time of year it is (tulips are pretty scarce in September) and could also tell us something about the character who gives the flowers. Four dozen roses are expensive—does this person have money or like to show off? A bouquet of wildflowers might have come from the character’s backyard—perhaps this person likes to garden.  

A similar thought process should be applied to the selection of verbs. There are at least 12 synonyms for the verb to laugh, and each one evokes a specific image. A character could express amusement by cackling, chortling, chuckling, giggling, guffawing, snickering, sniggering, tittering, crowing, whooping, simpering, or smirking.

Precise verbs contribute greatly to characterization. If a man walks into a room, all your readers know is that he has entered. He could be anybody. But if he limps in, right away readers want to know if he is old or injured or tired. If he runs in, readers know he is energetic or excited about some piece of news. If he swaggers, readers wonder if he is full of himself or perhaps just drunk.

2. The exception: He said, she said

Reading good dialogue makes readers feel like they're actually listening in on a real conversation. Because of this, it can be very disruptive if the author keeps butting in to tell readers that the speaker intoned or declared or asserted or retorted. It may seem like using "said" repeatedly in dialogue tags is repetitive, but in fact the little word is so inconspicuous, it just fades into the background—which is exactly what we want when we're trying to listen in on a good conversation.

The rare deviation is fine (asked, in particular, seems to be okay once in a while), but if you find yourself using a colorful synonym for every dialogue tag in your manuscript or screenplay, you may be doing more harm than good.

3. Adjective/Adverb-a-rhea

Sometimes a well-placed and specific adverb or adjective strengthens or clarifies an image. However, many writers, in a misguided attempt to make their fiction writing descriptive, overuse these words. If you master the use of precise nouns and verbs (see tip number one), you'll almost certainly avoid the bad habit of propping up a weak verb or noun with a host of intrusive modifiers, as in the following example:

Carrying a steaming and fragrant mug, she walked angrily and loudly into his office.

Why write that, when you could have simply said:

Carrying her peppermint tea, she stormed into his office.

The second sentence actually gives us more information using fewer words.

Furthermore, when editing your manuscript, be especially wary of adjectives that don’t actually convey much...

interesting, lovely, exciting, beautiful

...and adverbs that introduce redundancy...

stereo blared loudly (blared implies high volume)

scrubbed vigorously (scrubbed implies intensity)

...or contradict the meaning of the verb or adjective they modify.

slightly pregnant (with pregnancy, you either are or you aren’t!)

very unique (something is either unique or not unique)

4. Inconsistent point of view

An author of fiction must choose the perspective, or point of view, from which a story will be told. In first-person narration, one character tells the story in his or her own voice (using "I"). Third-person narration can be either limited (an objective narrator tells the story by focusing on a particular character's thoughts and interactions) or omniscient (the narrator sees and hears all).

No single point of view is better than another, but once you have made a choice, be consistent. If your story is told in first-person, then remember that the narrator must be present in every scene he describes to the reader; otherwise, how would the character have the information?

Similarly, a limited third-person narrator who hears only Tom's thoughts tells the story for the first four chapters, the reader should not suddenly be privy to the mailman’s daydreams in chapter five.

Of course, there are some great examples of novels that experiment with point of view by switching between narrators. But even in these stories, some kind of predictable pattern is imposed for clarity, such as a change in narrator from one chapter to the next, but not within a chapter.

5. Unnaturally expositional, stilted, or irrelevant dialogue

Read your dialogue out loud. Does it sound like the way people actually talk (without all the ums and ahs and boring digressions, of course)? Do the characters rattle off factual information you are trying to jam into the story? Are they talking about the weather? Because if they're talking about the weather, you'd better have a good reason for it. Otherwise, the reader will feel bored, and a bored reader closes his or her book and turns on the TV.

All of this advice is important, but by far the worst habit a fiction writer can develop is the habit of giving up too easily. Keep writing every day. If you need help, remember that our manuscript editors are available 24/7 and that they can help you tackle all of your manuscript mishaps.

Culled from Scribendi

10 Easy Marketing Tips for Increased Brand Visibility

 

Marketing your business can seem like a daunting task, and sometimes we just need a little guidance to set things in motion.

Here are some tips that you can easily implement into your monthly routine to ensure that your brand is communicating properly with your target audience. Follow these steps and you will be on your way to engaging your audience and seeing progress in your success!

Be personal and authentic in your communication

With social media at the forefront of our marketing and communications platform, it is imperative that you communicate on a personal level. People are more inclined to participate with your brand if they know there is a real live person behind the brand identity who cares about them. Newsletters are more appreciated if they’re written from a personal perspective, addressing the individual with expert advice that can help the audience reach their goals.

Leverage your Network

Your friends, colleagues and social network are your biggest asset. Ask for referrals and testimonials from people you know or have done great work for. As is tradition, we are more likely to purchase a product if our friends have had a great experience with it. Create a “Friend Referral Program” or provide other incentives — like deals, discounts and rewards on your services — when people say good things about your company. Doing this consistently will greatly expand your network reach to a genuinely interested audience.

Google rankings

As we all know, getting to the top of Google can be an expensive and time-consuming endeavor. Have no fear: there are lots of ways to build your search engine optimization rankings without blowing your budget.

Our number one recommendation? Put your business on Google maps: this is a great way to get to the top of the list! Being consistently active on Twitter and Google Plus are fun, easy ways to increase your Google ranking, while adding shareable links to your Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest posts drives traffic to your website or blog.

Create your own TIPS

People like tips! A quick, fun list is a great way to provide useful information to your audience. If you want to kick it up a notch, create a video for them! Video is a great way to show the face behind the brand, creating an indelible personal connection.

Photos are king

People love to share inspirational, sarcastic and funny photos. Join the trend by putting together some current text and quotes that appeal to your crowd and the type of people you think would appreciate it. This is a great way to access your fans’ network without being “markety.” People will see who created the image and share it via the original source (you), creating brand visibility and adding a few likes along the way. Plus, you’ll probably make someone’s day!

Collaborate with the competition

Working with other like-minded business owners can help promote new ideas and products. Because your audience already exists on social media — and so does theirs — collaborating is a natural and friendly way to seek out social media users who are interested in learning more about the products or lifestyle you offer.

Create contest giveaways

People love to win things! Especially if those things are highly valuable, unusual or difficult to acquire. Make sure what you’re giving away is a conversation starter, something that people want to tell others about. Use Facebook ads to further promote your contest, as the ads employ a targeted tagging system to ensure you’re reaching the right people.

Knowledge is power

Know your audience and your competition. Follow the old corporate adage: don’t try to be something for everyone, aim to be everything to someone. Before you jump in the deep end, learn to understand whom it is you’re communicating to and what value your product or service can add to their lives.

To do: create online polls using Survey Monkey, pay attention to Google Analytics and Facebook Insights, and most importantly, listen carefully to responses. Offer an incentive for participating, like a free coffee or a gift card. Speaking of listening, keep your ears open to what the competition is doing. Be bold and willing to stand out and strategize over the long-term!

Partner with a charitable organization

Choose a cause you love and partner up with an organization whose mission is similar to yours. Get your staff and team out there helping out with a soup kitchen, throw an event and split the proceeds, or host an auction. You’re already a good Samaritan, so why not share your social consciousness with others? This alone helps your brand stand out and become a valued part of your community.

Capture information

Almost every message you put out there should come with a call to action. Add a newsletter sign-up form to your website, make a database of loyal clientele, and reach out to them on a regular basis. Offering incentives — “Sign up to our newsletter and receive 10 tips to...” or “Share this contest for more chances to WIN..” — is the strongest way to get your audience to participate, and it lets you find out what works for different segments of your market niche. Show them that you are grateful: a simple reward goes a long way.

Marketing is the key element to a successful business. TRW Consult, a brand and marketing agency, works on marketing campaigns regularly and can help your business make the best decisions. So contact them now!

 

 

Huffington Post

 

When Literary Agents Screw Up: 7 Ways That Things Can Go Wrong

 

We like agents. Like and respect them.

Their job is exceptionally demanding: nearly all reading work is done outside of office hours and since agents read a lot, that means they’re working late pretty much every night.

And they take risks. When an agent takes on a new writer, they’re committing upfront to a lot of work which will only be repaid if the agent is correct that the writer’s manuscript is or becomes saleable, with the agent’s help.

Given how fierce the competition is, it’s impressive that agents have the confidence and commitment to keep fishing from the slushpile – yet fish they do.

What’s more, an agent’s skills are very varied. Literary excellence lies at the heart of things, of course, but they need to be as pushy as car salesmen when it comes to auctioning a manuscript, as tough as lawyers when it comes to negotiating a contract, as silky smooth as a diplomat when it comes to smoothing ructions between authors and publishers and, of course, a good agent always has a firm strategic overview of their client’s career development.

So – we repeat – we like and respect agents in general, but there are always exceptions. Agents who are no good, or decent agents who mess up now and again. We’re not going to name names in this post but there are patterns that do recur and which really, really shouldn’t.

#1 The three-year-old good-bye

Sometimes, things don’t work out. That’s fine. An agent takes on an author. Tries to sell the manuscript. Can’t. Hates the second MS that the author produces. Decides that enough is enough. That story – or variants on it – are common enough. And that’s okay. Picking manuscripts from the slushpile IS a chancy business and agents can’t get it right all the time.

But it matters how an agent breaks the news. A professional client phones the author and says, ‘Look, I loved your first MS and made an honest effort to sell it. I didn’t succeed. In all honesty, I don’t like this second MS and I’m not sure that I’m still the right agent for you. I wish you the very best of luck in your future career, but I think we need to part company.’

Obviously no author loves that. On the contrary, any normal author will obviously feel upset and alarmed. But at least the conversation is direct, truthful and non-accusatory. It is, in fact, a professional way to break bad news. What we hate – and what is far, far too common – is that agents break the bad news in incredibly bad and stupid ways. The classic version of this is that the author emails the agent.

No answer.

Politely reminds the agent that he/she had a question, and asks for a response.

No answer.

Repeats the reminder, pointing out (still politely) that the question is (a) important and (b) still unanswered.

At which point the agent tantrums back, ‘Well, if you keep hounding me like that, I think it’s pretty clear you no longer trust me as an agent, and without trust, what are we? GOODBYE!’ [And slams phone down, forever.]

That’s not okay. It’s just not how any professional behaves ever. Yet we do hear stories along those lines at least once a month, and involving numerous agents, some of whom work at very well known and prestigious agencies. For sure, sometimes the author in question has been too pushy, or even crass, in demanding excessive amounts of the agent’s time. But not always. Sometimes the agent has simply failed to deliver bad news in a professional way. That’s not fine.

How often does this happen? Often. It’s the complaint we hear most frequently.
How bad is it? 3/5 bad, where 5 is worst

#2 Agents don’t communicate key info

Agents are agents. You – the writer – are the principal. That means that while your agent may execute business on your behalf, they are only ever a proxy for you.

And obviously, you’re nicely brought up and you won’t ask stupid, excessive or intrusive questions. But you do, for example, have a perfect right to know things like this:

– how many publishers have seen my work?
– which editors at those publishers did you send it to?
– why – briefly – did you choose those editors/publishers?
– what (roughly, and maintaining any necessary confidences) did those editors say in response?

It’s YOUR work and you have every right to know those answers. Indeed, you shouldn’t really need to ask those questions: it should be completely routine for agents to discuss those things with you. You may, of course, choose to say, ‘Look, you know this area vastly better than I do. I trust your judgement, just go out there and do what you can.’ But if you ask the questions mentioned – or others of equal significance – then you should damn well get answers. Yet some agents are feeble about giving answers. Again, not okay.

How common? Fairly common – much more so than it should be.
How bad? 4/5

#3: Agents don’t guide you through the publication process

You’re an industry newbie. Your agent isn’t. So a non-negotiable part of their job is to hold your hand in your journey to publication. That doesn’t mean you get to talk over every tiny detail with them: agents have limited time and you need to be sober about how much time and attention you (and your particular project) can demand.

That said, we recently heard about an author who had never been to a meeting with their publisher, and hadn’t even seen their book cover prior to publication. That’s appalling behaviour by the publisher, of course, but an agent should not have allowed that to happen. It’s not okay. Ever. Under any circumstances.

How common? Very rare, fortunately.
How bad? 5/5

#4: Not properly considering an author’s priorities at auction

What does an author want from a book deal? Well, publication certainly. Money, yes. But what else? Might you want a prestigious publisher? Or an editor with whom you have excellent personal chemistry. Or one who has a more holistic and flexible view of your likely career path than another.

In short, you may have numerous motivations, only one of which is cash. And your agent has to respect that. He or she needs to get the best available offers, then lay them in front of you and ask: which is it to be? Obviously you’ll rely on your agent’s intelligence and advice in making that choice. You’ll want to meet, or at least speak to, your putative editor. Then you’ll make your decision taking everything into account, not just the money.

Most agents we know will totally respect this. Indeed, if you probed them about it, they’d suggest – rightly, in our view – that if Publisher A offers 10% less cash than Publisher B, but is a better fit in all other respects, that ‘lower’ offer would prove more lucrative in the long run, as your career prospects will be better. So most agents will respect your non-financial motivations and will work hard to find the right fit as well as the right cash.

But not all agents. Again, we heard about one agent recently who boasted to a senior publisher that she never allowed her clients to take anything but the highest advance. She made that seem like a feat of machismo, of negotiating prowess. But that’s bullshit. It’s terrible agenting and it betrays the client. It shouldn’t happen.

How often? Hard to know. We think rare, but we could be wrong.
How bad? 2/5

#5 Talking crap in public

Most agents we know are open, approachable and warmly encouraging of new talent. That extends even to those senior agents who, realistically, aren’t going to get most of their new clients from the slushpile. But even those guys know that some of the biggest stars on their roster started out as total unknowns, and they respect the huge community of unknown writers toiling away out there.

But.

There are also agents who – in public, and to audiences containing wannabe authors – speak incredibly disdainfully of unpublished authors. When agents do that, it’s incredibly corrosive. The stories instantly spread on the internet and a false, but highly destructive, meme gets spread that agents hate writers. That the industry is snobby and exclusive. That agents are always secretly laughing behind the backs of the as-yet-unpublished.

Our Festival of Writing is a place for agents to meet writers, offer feedback on work, mix and mingle, answer questions. That helpfulness, that warmth is the real truth about agenting, but one snobby and stupid comment can destroy those good impressions in a moment. We don’t like those attitudes and we wish they would vanish.

How often? Rare, it just gets highly reported.
How bad? 1/5 [it’s normally only a moment of stupidity]

#6 Consorting with muggers

Some agents have ties with vanity publishers – the old-fashioned sort who demand stupid money upfront for a product that they know damn well will never sell in any meaningful quantity.

We have no problem with self-publishing per se, but for almost all purposes these days the natural entry route is e-publishing. That’s cheap (or even free) and reaches a massive audience. The idea that agents, of all people, should be inviting writers to hook up with vanity publishers is simply disgraceful, yet we know at least one agent who has a habit of doing just that.

How common? Not too common, thankfully.
How bad? 5/5 This behaviour is utterly unethical in our view.

#7 Charging reading fees

No literary agency should ever charge you to read your book, to send it out to publishers, or levy any other compulsory upfront fee. This matters because agents are kept honest by having to work on commission. If they think your book isn’t going to make it with publishers, they won’t make money from it, so they will politely reject your work. If they could make a few bucks just by stringing you along, then unscrupulous ‘agents’ would no doubt do just that.

Luckily, the practice of charging reading fees is exceptionally uncommon these days. We can think of one US-based scammer and two UK-based ‘agencies’ operating like this in the last ten years. And fortunately, the agent-as-scam business model doesn’t work: the scammers always go broke.

How often? Very rare.
How bad? 4/5

Oh, and we know we promised you seven ways that agents can fail, but here’s one last one: a bonus to you for reading so far.

#8 Agents demand exclusivity and then never do anything

Sometimes agents demand your manuscript in a burst of excitement, ask exclusivity as they read it, and then, nothing. Nothing at all. An echoing void.

There’s probably not much more to that behaviour than poor time management, but it can really mess up your life. The good news here is that you don’t have to let it. First, you should never offer exclusivity for more than a week. Secondly, we’d gently suggest that you don’t offer exclusivity at all. If an agent wants your work, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t compete for it. (It’s different if an agent is working on a set of suggested editorial notes: then it IS reasonable for them to ask for something in exchange, like exclusivity.)

And if you feel you’re being ignored, then don’t do nothing. After a couple of weeks has gone by, just drop a simple note that says you want to go on seeking representation and, while you’d warmly welcome that agent’s involvement, you will be going out to other parties as from Monday, or whenever. Don’t pick a fight. Just make it clear that this pause is not forever. Any half-decent agent will totally respect your right to do that, so don’t be afraid to do so.

How common? Yep, pretty common, we’re sorry to say.
How bad? 1/5 – you can always just walk away

Culled from Jericho Writers

Writing Tips: How To Create More Conflict In Your Story

 

Conflict in your story has to be an emotional ride for your readers. Conflict keeps your readers engaged and turning the pages. You may know this, but you’re still wondering how to implement the information.

What is conflict? A conflict in a story is a problem the main character needs to solve to achieve their goal. Without conflict, there is no story and no character development.

Conflict and high stakes relate to one another. If the character doesn’t resolve the conflict, what is at stake? What would your character lose? This is the question you should ask yourself when you’re thinking about the conflict in your story.

Stakes are essential in a story because it keeps the plot moving, challenges your character, and keeps readers turning the pages. Without stakes your plot will become flat, the pacing of your story will slow down, and the conflict will be non-existent.

Now, with deciding what your story stakes will be, it is important not to overdo it. When the stakes are too high, you risk your plot becoming unbelievable and comical.

To keep your readers engaged in your story, tone it down. Use the pull-back method. If your stake is over the top, write it down anyway. After reading it pull back 30-25% and write it again. This method will help keep your stake high but also prevent your story from being overly dramatic.

There is another concept for conflict, and that concept is death.

Why is death a great concept for conflict and high stakes? Because nobody wants to die. The ultimate fear in our society is death.

We know our time in life is limited and we don’t know when we will die, so we try to live our best lives every day. When something or someone threatens that hope, we try everything we can to prevent that from happening.

Physical death is obvious. It is the death we are all familiar with, but today I will introduce four types of death you can use when you sit down to write your story again. They are professional death, psychological death, social death, and ego death.

1. Professional Death

Professional death is when your lead character’s career or life purpose is at stake. In our society as children, they often ask us, “who do you want to be when you grow up?” Or “What do you like to do?”

There is a saying, I’m sure you’re familiar with: Life is not worth living if you’re not doing what you’re passionate about. Being fulfilled and living your life’s purpose is important in our world. There are claims having a purpose or doing the line of work you love prolongs your life.

Example: Let’s say a detective who's sober for many years has lost his daughter. He has broken his sobriety and is under the influence at his job. His boss has given him a warning he will fire him if he doesn’t get it together.

Your character loves being a detective, but he is going through a hard time. He doesn’t want to do anything else in life. His boss hands him a case giving him one last chance to prove himself; a murder that may link to his daughter’s disappearance. He takes up this case hoping that it will save his job and give him closure in life. If he does not solve this case, he can lose his job and career and when you lose something you enjoy it can feel like death its self.

2. Psychological Death

Psychological death is when a part of your lead character will die if they don’t win the conflict. The most common one is love. This death plays on the emotions of your readers.

With love stories, you know at the end of the story the two characters will be together. During the story, to keep your readers turning the pages, create an illusion of your character experiencing psychological death throughout the book.

To achieve this create obstacles and complications that would keep your lead character from getting their true love.

Psychological death applies not only to love. It could be anything that your lead character believes they can‘t live without and holds your character together. Another example, Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye is trying to remain authentic in his life and believes if he doesn’t he will die.

3. Social Death

Social death refers to the condition of people not accepted as fully human by broader society. Diverse scholars applied the expression to describe racial slavery, political economy, and other examples of social ordering.

A loss of social identity, a loss of social connectedness, and losses associated with the disintegration of the body.

Social death is when a group of people have their identities taken away and forced to assume a new more degrading identity. The person being ostracized will adopt the new identity and believe who they are and they deserve to be getting the treatment they’re getting. They will blame themselves why they’re ostracized.

Example: You can have your main character be part of an ostracized group in your story. With their new identity living everyday life living less like a human. Then your character realizes that this isn’t who they are, and they used to be somebody, and the way he and his people are living isn’t right.

First, your main character will have to reject the conditioning the people in power gave to him and adopt a new identity. This will show internal conflict, then he would have to convince his own people of his revelation. Some people will follow and some wouldn’t.

Then he will have to face the conflict with the people in power who don’t want your main character to fight back but want to keep things the way they are. With the example of social death, there is conflict coming from all sides.

4. Ego Death

Ego death is a loss of subjective self-identity. It is a term with significant ties to spirituality, mythology, and mysticism.

Ego death is a symbolic transition that results in a person being spiritually awakened.

The ego is our identity which we have created for ourselves. The ego is made up beliefs of ourselves like our personality, talents, and skills. When we form thoughts about ourselves that we agree with we form a self-image which contributes to the ego.

Ego death is where you have a dissociative experience of self. Everything you’ve identified with fades and a person panics and tries to hold on to these beliefs because without them they would cease to exist.

Example: There are ways to create conflict with the concept of Ego death. You can create a lead character that has everything he/she wants in life, but then realize their self-identity is a false illusion. Now your character doesn’t know what to do with themselves and wants to find answers.

The character is experiencing conflict because everything they once knew and believed can’t be trusted. You can go further and brainstorm how this new realization creates conflict with your character’s family, friends, job, and environment. How does your character resolve the conflicts?

Culled from The Creative Penn

What You Can Learn from Web Analytics

 

Most companies invest a lot of money in the design (or redesign) of their websites — and the sites are usually expected to perform a significant business function that justifies their cost — and even their existence. Therefore, no site is really complete until you’ve added some sort of tracking code. Generally, these codes get integrated into the HTML pages right before launch; fortunately, they’re an easy addition.

Tracking systems allow you to see not only where users are coming from geographically (which is always interesting), but also can tell you what kind of browsers and computer systems they are using, and what pages users spend most of their time on. This is important information for user interface design decisions. For example, if the site analytics show that there is a significant drop off on the payment confirmation page, you may have a design problem that is adversely affecting sales conversions. By looking at the site analytics on a regular basis, you can spot trends and be better informed about where to invest in site upgrades.

Using Google Analytics

Far and away the best free web-analytics package is Google Analytics. To get started, you simply sign up for a Google Analytics account — then you copy and paste the JavaScript code that Google provides into every one of your site’s pages that you want to track. What’s nice about Google Analytics is that if you’re using Google AdWords — Google’s keyword-purchasing advertising program — the analytics reports (like the one in the following figure) include information on how well your keywords are performing. The reports can be saved as PDF files and e-mailed out to your team members.

This sample PDF report dashboard for Google Analytics shows an overview of the things you can track, such as where your site traffic is coming from.

What Google Analytics can show you about your site

What exactly does Google Analytics track about each page of your site and how is it useful? Here is a handy reference with an explanation of each item.

• Traffic sources. For a given time range that you can set, Google breaks down where your web traffic comes from. Organic traffic means that someone found you via a search (whether through Yahoo!, Google, Bing or other search engines). Direct traffic means people entered your URL. Referral traffic shows you what sites are linking to you and what page they are linking to. This data is good to know when contemplating an online marketing strategy. If you see that the bulk of your traffic comes from (say) YouTube referrals, you may decide to focus your marketing there.

• Browsers, platforms, and screen resolutions. Of particular interest is Google’s information on what browsers people are using to view your site, which platform (Mac, Windows, or mobile) they’re using, and what screen sizes they have. This is invaluable data when it comes to optimizing your site to perform well and look good because you know what browser and screen sizes to give the highest priority as marketing targets.

   

• Top pages. Interestingly, your home page is not always the first page — nor the most visited page — of your website. Often an internal page is leaps and bounds ahead of other pages. It’s always interesting to look at these top pages and understand what may be driving so much relative interest. Additionally, you can view your top pages by country (what countries are visiting those top pages).

• Demographics. Google lets you see what countries (and even what cities) people are from that are visiting your site. Clearly, this is useful data because it lets you know where you might target offline advertising efforts.

  

  Google tells you what your top (most-visited) pages are and who’s visiting them.
  

  A map view shows you what countries and cities your visitors are coming from.
   
   
   
  Culled from Dummies

5 Benefits of Personal Branding for Authors

 

When I was growing up, my grandfather used to say, “Get an education because once you have it, no one can take it away from you.” I feel the same way about authors and their personal brands. As authors, once you build and establish your personal brand, no one can take it away from you.

For some authors, the idea of a personal brand is uncomfortable. Some tell me that they don’t want to “be a brand.” Building a brand doesn’t have to be scary. Branding is simply sharing your stories and expertise while building trust — that’s all it is — and it’s so important in today’s market.

Fair warning though, branding is not something you do for a few weeks before your book comes out. Many people, including myself, did not see the benefits of investing time and energy into a branding strategy for 18 months to two years. So if you want to take more control of your writing career, then get serious about your personal branding strategy. Here are five benefits that make it worth your time:

1. Show Your Uniqueness. Investing time and effort in your personal brand is crucial to your success as an author. If you are asking, “What’s in it for me,” you should know the most important element of a personal brand is that it helps you be yourself, stand out from the crowd and carve out your niche. After all, there is no competition for you. Your brand is the essence of who you are. There’s a huge difference from an author who has worked to develop a strong personal brand versus an author who hasn’t invested any resources in developing an online presence. Consider your brand as your digital reputation, resume, platform and an extension of your business card. Your personal brand will make you more valuable to publishers and agents. Together your book and your brand are credibility builders and door openers.

2. Control the Perception. Branding is about how you are perceived in the market, and today you have control over that perception. Personal brand management is about cultivating the pieces that tell your story. You build your reputation with your willingness to share your knowledge and expertise. In today’s socially connected world, our reputations have become global, making our brand more important than ever. Social media has given us an opportunity like never before to communicate with others and shape personal brands with a myriad of online tools. You can proactively build, maintain and protect your good name in the public eye by authentically investing in your brand.

3. Build a Following. Each social media outlet offers you the opportunity to build a following by generously sharing your time. With focused effort, a plan and allotted time, you can become known as an expert in your industry. Before putting in your time though, make sure you take time to think of the goals.

4. Leverage your brand. When you invest time in building your personal brand, you can leverage it to get more online reviews, write and publish other books, secure speaking engagements and build your business. Your book and your brand can be the gateway for other entrepreneurial pursuits, books, services and revenue streams. Look at leveraging your brand as an opportunity builder.

5. Learn From Your Readers. Branding helps your readers and potential readers to understand who you are and what your value proposition is so they can make an informed buying decision. As you build a following, you will be creating your ideal audience — readers interested in what you have to say and interested in buying from you. You in turn can learn about them, about what they like and need. Online branding is building a relationship based on trust and common interests. Done correctly, you’ll get as much out of it as you put into it.

Your brand is the story of your career. It may take time and money and effort to cultivate but once you establish it no one can take it away from you. Here’s a blog on developing your digital marketing blueprint to get you started.

Culled from Huff Post

How to Find Your Distinct Niche As a Writer

 

In a world filled with a million and one people who can properly carve out their thoughts and turn them into words, it is important to make a difference.

When it comes to themes and topics, there are two types of writers: the generalists, who write on a variety of themes and topics; and the specialists, who write on related/similar themes and topics.

As a writer, you can choose to be any of these, depending on how vast your thoughts are. However, if you choose to be a specialist – that is, finding a distinct niche for yourself – this article will be of great help to you.

Many people believe that specialisation limits you. On the contrary, it frees you.

Focusing on a distinct theme when writing gives you the room to improve your knowledge about that theme/topic. In that process, you gain expertise. Expertise births quality content and allows you to explore every angle of your chosen field.

Focusing on a specific niche is proof that you have extensive knowledge about that topic. For instance, if Asa has a blog where she writes about everything and anything, ranging from food, clothes, finance, travels and more while Meyimi has a blog where she focuses on financial tips for everyone and anyone, who would you approach for financial advice? Meyimi, obviously! Why? Because you would feel that she has more knowledge on the topic of finance since that is what she focuses on.

If you decide to specialise, finding your distinct niche is the first step to take. Here are some essential tips that will guide you in finding your niche.

 

Essential Tips for Choosing the Right Niche

 

1. Find out what you enjoy writing or reading: What are the topics that you could write, talk or read about all day? What are those areas you have numerous opinions about? These would help you through the process of selecting your focus niche.
2. Find out what you are good at or are interested in getting better at: Your love for something does not equate to your ability to do it well. You might enjoy cooking but not make tasty meals. This also applies to writing. For instance, I enjoy writing about politics in Nigeria because I enjoy criticising politicians and stating my solutions to political and economic problems. However, I am not so great at it. To find your niche, it is important to consider a topic that not only interests you, but that you are very good at, or at least, you are interested in getting better at.
3. Be consistent: In situations where your interest is different from what you are good at, you can practise writing the things that interest you more often. This consistency will help you get better. As popularly said, “practice makes perfect".
4. Explore several niches: If you are a new writer and are finding it difficult to figure out what you enjoy writing, you might try exploring a variety of themes. That is, you could try to be a generalist for a while. Explore writing different topics, then create a pro and cons list for each field. This list would help you find that area that would then become your niche.
5. Focus on your audience: Many people are of the opinion that people’s opinions do not matter. This is the case if such opinions are in relation to your personal life. However, if your written pieces are for the public's consumption, their opinions matter as well.

Taking your audience’s thoughts about your pieces into consideration would help you easily find your “not cliché" niche. Which of your pieces do they enjoy reading the most? What topics do your readers engage with most? What themes do they think you write intelligently on? However, if their thoughts and opinions are not in line with what you enjoy writing about, you could tailor their opinions to what you enjoy. For instance, if you enjoy writing about food and your audience think you do better with your episodes on politics, you could use different food types to metaphorically describe politicians. Doing this could help in setting you apart from other writers.

It is important and professional to have a niche; it allows you knit your wide range of ideas into one and gives room for creativity. Every topic has different aspects and sides to it, and it is advisable as a writer to explore all these aspects.

 

The Dark Side Of Marketing: How Adverts Destroy Businesses

 

Companies focus on the pros of marketing. With the right amount of investment and the correct target audience, you can increase traffic one hundred percent. This will lead to better lead generation and a boost in sales and profits. Usually, this is how bosses think when they consider advertising, but the cons go under the radar.

Yes, being witty and creative and unique can raise brand awareness; however, there is a dark side to the industry which turns off customers. Slip into this category and the firm’s reputation may take a hit from which it can’t come back.

Here’s how adverts destroy businesses and the solutions.

Too Annoying

In the past, shoppers used to have to walk past billboards and fliers before they saw a company’s message. Even if they were everywhere, they were unobtrusive because the advertising was passive. You saw it, but you never had to engage. Today is different thanks to the internet. Now, one click can result in endless pop-up ads which relate to nothing whatsoever. The result is an annoyed and frustrated shopper that would rather leave than continue with the experience.

The solution is simple: think before you accept advertisements. If it’s vital for monetary reasons, then keep it to space on the pages. Avoid pop-ups at all costs.

Not Trustworthy

There are millions of adverts on the Worldwide Web, and all of them look the same. So, it’s difficult to tell which are real and which ones are fakes. As a result, online consumers avoid them like the plague because the risk isn’t worth the reward. Sure, they may get 10% off their next order, but they may give a hacker access to their bank account.

One way to attract attention while being trustworthy is through SEO. www.vistacomm.com shows that shoppers are more likely to click-through on a search engine rather than an ad. So, pleasing Google can lead to a better conversion rate.

They’re Plain Bad

Ads are annoying, but only if they’re bad. It turns out customers don’t have them equally; just the ones which waste their time. www.vieodesign.com puts this into perspective by saying 91% of people are bothered by intrusive ads, 87% by too many of them, and 79% by trackers. However, none of the samples were bothered if the quality was high because it added value.

The obvious thing to do is make sure the marketing effort correlates with the audience beforehand. To do this, set up a focus group and ask for feedback.

Misleading

Also known as click-bait, it’s when a title refers to a search term but redirects them to a different page. As soon as they land and read a few sentences, people tend to bounce. Okay, the traffic rate is high but the conversion rate is way down, and that’s what counts. 15% of all ads trick people into clicking so you can imagine a person’s frustration.

As tempting as it is, you have to avoid clickbait. Be real and genuine because that’s what counts.

Wouldn’t that get you to click on something if the shoe was on the other foot?

 

Do you and your business need help marketing the right way? Contact TRW Consult here.

 

Culled from Open Business Council

5 Things Every Author Needs to Know about Book Cover Designs

 

Even though people are always told not to judge a book by its cover, the truth is most people still do - which is why authors must pay extra attention to their book cover before the book gets published. So, below are 5 things every author must know about book cover design before publishing:

1. It needs to have the right thumbnail size: In this case, if your book is going to be published online, like on Amazon, Iwe, Smashwords or Kobo, you need to know the exact thumbnail size of the site, and tailor your book cover size to suit it; that way, the book title and other relevant details would be visible.
2. Don’t be too literal: It is advisable to either state the title or use an interesting concept as an image; or use an image that depicts the book, but with a different title. For instance, if the title of your book is “Umbrella”, don’t use an Umbrella as the book cover’s image; it will come across to your readers as being too boring.
3. Avoid being too sentimental: Of course, once you have a book, it becomes yours and it is easy to attach feelings to it; but using the face of someone you know, like a relative or best friend, when it has absolutely nothing to do with the book, is not advisable.
4. Have a lot of design concepts to choose from: Ask your graphics designer to design three or more book covers for you and choose the one you think is best.
5. Ask for feedback: After you have decided on one, ask for feedback - from your friends, colleagues or even strangers to know their opinions of how the book looks, and if they would be eager to buy one if they see such a book cover. Also, don’t take feedback too personally; rather, use it as a means to get a winning design.

Asides from the tips listed above, always remember that your book cover should evoke an emotion that is part of the story your book tells, and have fun while choosing the book cover that best suit your needs.

An Editor's Guide to Writing Ridiculously Good Emails

 

There’s an epidemic out there—an epidemic of bad emails.

I really realized it after about the fifth time my boss commented on an email I sent her to look over: “That’s a really good email!” I hadn’t thought it was anything special, until I started to pay closer attention to the emails I was receiving. There were horrible grammar errors, embarrassing spelling mistakes, incorrect names, emoticons, lack of proper greetings or pleasantries, and plain old bad writing. I could go on and on.

It’s not that we’re incompetent, people. We’re just not putting the care into our emails that many of them deserve. The care, say, an editor might give an article.

So, to help us all improve our workplace communication, here is the editor’s guide to writing emails that will earn you respect (and responses). Keep these ideas in mind next time you’re going through your inbox—and see what an impact a few small changes have.

Slow Down

I know we’re all on a race to get to inbox zero. And sure, in some cases, firing off a quick email makes sense: when you’re in the middle of a long thread of communication with a close colleague, when you’re just firing off a document to your boss, and the like.

But, for the most part, effective communication (and good writing) takes time. It takes time to formulate your thoughts, to figure out what you’re actually trying to say, and to write your message out in a clear way. And ultimately, that’s what email is—a form of communication. Not a task.

So, next time you have to write a more in-depth email to someone, give it the time it deserves. Block it out on your calendar if you have to. And I’m not talking five minutes per email—it’s not unusual for me to spend upwards of 15 minutes on a good email, especially if it’s my first communication with someone I want to impress. Let yourself have that time, and don’t feel like you’re being slow or unproductive. Feel like you’re doing it right.

Make Sure it Has a Beginning, Middle, and End

Just because we live in a 140-character world, doesn’t mean your emails should be that way. In fact, we’re going to have a little throwback to high school English here and the classic hamburger-style essay; that is, every essay needs an intro, a body, and a conclusion.

You should think about your emails having the same structure. Each section doesn’t have to be long, but especially in initial communication, it should be there. So, what should each section include?

Intro

Always start with a greeting—it may feel archaic, but it really makes a difference. Then, depending on the nature of your relationship, the opening paragraph is a great place for a friendly greeting (“I hope your job search is going well!”), a reminder of the context of your conversation (“It was so nice getting to chat with you last week.”), or a preface about why you’re reaching out (“I wanted to touch base about…”).

Body

This is where you get to the crux of your email. The most important thing to remember here is to give your recipients all the information they need to take whatever action you’re asking of them. This includes giving any contextual information, details, or data that’s necessary, and presenting it in a logical, cohesive way. If the email is being sent to convey information or a decision (rather than ask a favor), make sure to include reasoning or explanation.

Conclusion

The conclusion of emails is a bit different than the conclusion of essays. Instead of summarizing what you already talked about, you should be wrapping it up with action steps. If you’re asking to meet for coffee, propose a date and time. If you’re getting input for a project, remind your colleague exactly what you need and when. And, if you’re just giving information, remind your contact that he or she is welcome to come to you with any questions. Finally, at least in your initial email, always close with a greeting and full signature.

It may seem like a lot, but as I said, it doesn’t have to be long. For example, this is an email I might send to someone I want to grab coffee with:

Hey Dave!

It's so nice to meet you! It was so great getting to chat with Alex, and when she mentioned she knew you I jumped on it. 

I love what you guys are doing at your company, and it would be awesome to chat with you about how you think about online publishing, your recent re-design, and other things about the work that we both spend our lives doing.

Do you think you'd have a bit of time in the coming weeks to meet up? I'd be happy to swing by your offices or grab coffee—whatever is most convenient for you!

Best, and happy Monday.

Erin

So much better than, "Hey Dave, want to grab coffee sometime?" right?

Proofread and Fact Check

Once you’re done typing your email, you shouldn’t just send it off into the world. Always re-read your emails, at least once. Besides just checking for basic spelling and grammar mistakes, you’re also fact-checking things like name spellings, events you refer to, or dates you mention. Addressing an email “Hey Jon,” when it should be “Hey John,” might seem like a small thing, but your contact will notice—and first impressions make a huge difference.

This is also a good point to think about the tone of your email. Does it sound too business-like when you’re just trying to be friendly? Are you too enthusiastic with the exclamation points and emoticons at the expense of professionalism? Try to step back and consider how someone reading the email for the first time will react to it—and adjust accordingly. For particularly important emails, I also ask someone else to look it over for me—an extra set of editorial eyes has never hurt anyone.

 

Think How You Would Feel if it Went Public

Finally, before hitting send, think about how you would feel if this email was read by anyone but the person you’re sending it to. What if, somehow, it landed in your boss’ inbox? What if it got published on the web? (Hey, it happens.) This is a great final gut-check to make sure your emails sound respectful and professional and ultimately represent how you want to be portraying yourself to the world.

I know, it sounds like a lot of work to put into one email. But with the number of bad emails we all get every day, people really will notice the difference when a good one lands in their inbox. And that could be the difference between getting ignored and getting what you want.

Culled from The Muse