News Writers Required

The Slant is a topical website based in the UK and they want news related stories. I've worked for a number of news sites before but this is a new one that I've come across so I don't have any experience with it

There is a number of categories you can choose from including arts, business, sports and technology and they ask that articles have a hint of humour

To get started you need to submit your piece with a maximum of 300 words and a minimum of 200.

They state that if you don't hear back within a few days that your work will have been declined.

From what I can tell there is no pay but it's a good way of developing your news writing skills, getting your name out there and building up a profile of work which you can use should you apply to other sites and are asked for samples of work.

http://www.theslant.co.uk/writers-wanted/

John Grisham Ford County

John Grisham released his latest book called Ford County back in October last year. This is the first time he has released a book made up of short stories. All of the stories are set in Ford County, Missippi which was the setting for his debut novel A time to Kill and where Grisham grew up.

I've liked the majority of his previous books but I could take or leave the last few. From the reviews I've seen Ford County sounds pretty good and its different format of being a series of shorts should be interesting.

The book is made up of seven stories and its got largely good reviews on Amazon. After being disappointed with the last few books I'm looking forward to getting my copy of this one.

If you have a review of the book then please let me know.

To see John Grisham reading an excerpt and talking about the book go to the following link and press the Youtube link.

http://www.jgrisham.com/ford-county/

Tutorial Tub

I've found another site that needs people to write tutorials. They accept articles on a wide range of subjects such as food, hobbies and computers or How to pimp out your Myspace page.

The articles must been orginal and once accepted you'll be given your own page on the site. From what I understand the revenue you make will come from Google ads placed on your page so you'll need to pick a pretty hot topic if you're going to get people to your page and earn some money.

To get started you need to fill out the Sign Up form and then you'll be able to submit your first tutorial:

http://tutorialtub.com/

Free Writing Software

If you've ever sat down to write an article or are in the middle of writing a book then you've no doubt experienced writers block. No matter how hard you try there are no new ideas coming. I've been there a few times recently so did a search to see if I could pick up any tips to help.

I've come across some software called WriteSparks! I've not had time to test this out for myself yet but thought it was worth a mention. You can try the lite version at no cost for 14 days all you need to do is fill out a form with your name and e mail address.

The software is meant to help trigger the imagination and the full version includes plot, prompts and all manner of other things to help you rediscover your creative spark.

http://writesparks.com/campaign.html

Tutorial 9 Get Paid to Write

Tutorial 9 are a US-based company looking for writers. If you know enough about Photoshop, hotography or websites and blogging then you could earn up to $300 for each article that gets accepted.

You can expect to get $150 - $300 for tutorials. If you are writing a round up or a piece on blogging then this can pay up to $150.00.

If your work is accepted then you'll also have your biography included on the page and the opportunity to promote your own websites.

You have the option of adding video and pictures to your articles. All work must be original and have not been published anywhere before.

Before submitting your work the guidelines are worth a look:

http://www.tutorial9.net/get-paid-to-write/#instructions

I'm currently revising posts and links on this blog and I'm not sure if Tutorial 9 are still accepting articles.  You can visit the site here.

Free eBook Classics

The Book Depository are currently offering free eBooks. They've got more than 11,000 available. Books cover all genres and some of the best known authors are available including Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, Rudyard Kipling and George Elliot.

How to find them:

When you go to The Book Depository homepage you'll find a link for 11,000 eBooks. It's next to the link where you have the chance to win a Netbook. You'll then find the list of some of the most popular authors and there's a banner at the bottom which you need to click to take you to the page you need. To the left of the page you can choose the category that you want.

Requirements for Downloading

You just need to be able to read PDF files. Underneath each book is the price and the free eBook link, click on that option and you'll get taken to the download page.

There aren't any additional costs and you don't need to check out.

Self Publishing Ideas

If you've come to the end of your book and you're thinking it's time to start finding out more about self-publishing then you've probably done a Google search by now and found some of the different options available. I'll go into more detail about the publishers that I've found another time but here I'll detail some of the options for publishing your book, and how to make it affordable both to you and your buyer.

I've noticed some of the Print on Demand publisher's fees aren't too high but then you'll only get a commission per sale. This can amount to just a few dollars. If you were to list this on somewhere like eBay or Amazon you could easily end up losing money on every copy you sell or just making a few cents which I'm sure for most of us isn't the idea.

While I want more than anything to get my book out in a proper hard copy format the difficulty of finding affordable publishers will mean it won't prove too easy but if I just want to get my book out there and start selling it myself until I can find a suitable publisher then I've found a few other options.

I know of one person who sells his book on eBay just by making it available on two discs to his buyers. In my opinion, it's not the idea format for selling it but people don't seem to mind it that way and that is all that matters. He sells it for around £8-£10 each time and and as far as I know the only outlay he has is the cost for the discs,which is hardly expensive, and the postage. If he ends up with £5-6 profit or maybe a little more per sale that's still better than you'd get from most publishers whether your work is self-published or not.

The other idea is to sell it as an e book. There are plenty of sites out there where you can sell an e book. There are plenty more sites where you can format your e book and design covers. Some sites don't require an ISBN either which means you can get started straight away.

I've also been looking at Lulu as an option for publishing my book in paperback format and from the estimated prices I've obtained it could just be feasible and affordable to publish it that way. I just need to finish the first manuscript so I can work out the exact page numbers and the precise costs.

The last option I've found and perhaps the most promising is Kindle on Amazon. They have recently said that their sales of Kindle have overtaken sales of books in other formats which came as a surprise to me because I'm not too keen on reading off the screen but plenty of other people seem to like it. Publishing in this format couldn't be much easier. If you already have an Amazon account then all you need to do is go to the Publish on Kindle option. Click the Kindle page and you'll find a link which takes you to a 73 page PDF guide which tells you how to start selling in that format. The Kindle service does not cost anything to publish your work. Follow this link for more information:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=gw_br_dtp?ie=UTF8&docId=1000234621&pf_rd_p=74672262&pf_rd_s=left-nav-3&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=507846&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0BA0C16Y7P9CAFKETN4Y