Articles by Caroline

The Miracle of Life
By Caroline Chaplin

I recently became a grandmother for the first time. Little Elisa Josephine was born just over a month ago in Holland and in true grandmotherly style, I hot footed it across to see this new little being when she was just two weeks old. I was totally unprepared for the depth of emotion I would experience, and the instant bonding with another generation of Chaplin’s that occurred. I was blown away by this beautiful new soul and the miracle of her life. Those perfect little hands, those tiny ears… I could go on forever! It has added incredible impetus to my embracing of the technological age in the form of my learning to use Skype and to put pictures on my cell phone to show off to friends!

Now I may be a besotted granny but this joyful experience did bring two things home to me. Firstly, how often we rush through life without really stopping to savour the moment. We get so hung up on paying our bills, buying our new car, moving on, moving upwards, that we forget to just stop and breathe. When did you last look around you in awe and recognise just how truly amazing it is that we are here and that we exist at all? Life is pretty awesome when you stop to think about it and also very fleeting. I can certainly vouch for the fact that time speeds up as we get older. We become so immersed in the game of life that we fail to stop and appreciate the fragility and brevity of our existence. It is a good discipline to step outside of one’s self occasionally and to ask the question: “If this was my last day left, how I would choose to spend it?” What would you do differently and who would you contact if today was the day your “transfer papers” arrived? Who do you need to mend your fences with? Who needs to be told you love them? What peaks have you yearned to scale and left for later?

Secondly, introducing myself to this new little human being and experiencing her uniqueness made me reflect on how much we hide or deny ourselves as we go through life. When we are born we are complete within ourselves and we demand to have our needs met. We cry when hungry, cold or wet, we smile when we are happy.  We have no angst or fear of rejection. That only comes later. We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are perfect droplets from the river of life. Slowly life teaches us to relinquish parts of ourselves and unless we are grounded in a really strong self image, we start to dilute the essence of who we are, in order to fit in and to gain approval. Of course it is necessary for us to learn to live together and value each other but the sad part is that in diluting ourselves we often deny the very essence of who we are, the skills and talents that we bought into the world to share with others. We stop basking in our own individuality and allow mediocrity to enter in. We allow ourselves a diluted existence where we never taste the full flavour of being alive. There is a saying that God has a plan for this world and will achieve it with or without our help, but it is so much more fun to be part of the action!

Inner fire

“Learn to see and then you’ll know that there is no end to the new world of our vision.” Carlos Castaneda
Have you ever looked at a beautiful painting and marveled at the ability of the artist to perceive something, ether tangible or in his/her minds eye, and then create a work of art that leaves you breathless, tugs at your heart strings or in some way evokes another world for you? Have you listened to a piece of music that makes you soar?  You may envy the artist and wish you had the necessary technical skills, but more than that, there is an inner vision, a knowing and a wish to reproduce that vision and share with others.
The artist has an inner vision then learns the skills needed to create an end result to that inner vision.
Learning to create a new, or different, life for oneself works on the same principle. First you need an inner vision and then you take steps to learn the skills needed to bring about that inner vision.

Most people either do not have a clear vision of where they would like to be, or they keep changing their minds. You need passion and persistence.  Inner fire will link you with the creative forces of the Universe and you will begin to attract to you people and circumstances that will assist you in reaching your goal.
Inner vision on its own is not enough, having a dream is your first step but then you need to find a way to get to your destination. Learn the steps to be the best at whatever you desire to be, find people who will support your vision and dreams, find new ways of thinking, whatever it takes. Slowly but surely you will find that your life is changing, new strengths are developing and new doors are opening. Nothing happens on its own without effort and work but your fire vision is the first step in reaching your dream so feed it well.

“The only limits are, as always, those of vision” James Broughton

 

 

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Getting yourself published can be a nghtmare. Here are a few tips on writing articles or getting your book published. They are only tips and not meant to be comprehensive. For more details I suggest you browse the internet. I have included some thoughts on design of adverts and marketing material as well.

 

GET PUBLISHED.

A self help manual by Caroline Chaplin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contents

1. Guidelines for getting articles published in magazines

2. Guidelines for publishing books
2.1 Hard copy printing
2.2 Finding a publisher
2.3 Self publishing

3 Using the internet.
3.1 Email newsletters
3.2 E- books
3.3 Creating awareness

4. Guidelines for creating adverts, business cards, fliers and marketing material.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1.Guidelines for getting your articles published in magazines.

Identify why you want to write and why you want to get articles accepted in magazines and journals.
Most people write articles for two reasons. Firstly they want to share their knowledge and secondly they want exposure to help increase their business. Getting articles published on a regular basis is an excellent way of increasing public recognition of yourself and your work/brand. It also helps in building a professional reputation.
You need to remember the following points:
• Most magazines do not pay for articles, having your name “out there” is considered payment enough. This of course can change once you have built up your reputation and there is a demand for your writing. You need to be mindful of the fact that publishing is a hugely costly exercise and most publications do not make vast profits, so they are not getting rich on your labours!
• The exception to this is paid-for advertorial, where you pay for the space and promote your products or services but this is usually very costly. You can find the rates for advertising or advertorial on the websites of most magazines.
• Editors get inundated with articles so be patient if you don’t get an immediate reply.
• It is good practice to send the editor an email asking permission to send through an article before you actually email it. The editor in question will then email you back any guidelines or procedures to be followed for submission.  Once the article has been emailed through do not hound the editor regarding its acceptance. Most magazines work three to four months in advance and some even longer, so be patient. Editors generally work under a great deal of pressure and do not have a lot of time to answer queries.
• Do not email exactly the same article and accompanying pictures to every editor you can think of without letting them know you are doing this, it is embarrassing for publications when they duplicate each other and you will quickly get your name struck off the list of potential writers. If you need exposure in different publications then send different wording and pictures to each publication.
• Do not preset your article and expect your design to be complied with, magazines have their own style sheets and layouts.  Send your article as a Word document and pictures as separate j peg attachments (high resolution). If you have a lot of pictures for an editor to choose from then send them all as low resolution versions first and then you need only send the ones chosen at high resolution once the article is selected for publication.
• Run a spell check as it is not the editor’s job to rewrite your work for you.
• Check the type and length of article a specific magazine publishes before you send yours in. Some publications have a specific style which you will need to follow. Generally speaking most magazine articles are less than 1500 words, so sending in 5000 word articles just makes work for the proof reader, even if your article is very good. You also run the risk that cutting will be done in a way which changes the focus of the article.
• Write on topics that are of interest to readers and offer them new and valuable knowledge. No one wants to read the story of your life unless you are a megastar level. Nor does any one want to know your philosophical views on the Universe. We all have our own opinions!
• Put you name and contact details clearly at the bottom of the article if you want them included. Don’t expect someone else to remember this for you, editors work under huge pressure at deadline time and it is easy to overlook a small thing like this, but important for you if you want recognition.
• Get a friend to proof read your article for you before sending in – we don’t see our own mistakes.
• If you are using the internet to research for an article make sure you write using your own wording and do not cut and paste. Plagiarising breaks copyright law. Check your references and include them.
• Be concise, do not repeat yourself, do not pad and do not be over flowery in your language.
• Avoid life histories. No one else is interested.
• If you are trying to make a living from journalism then negotiate payment on acceptance of the article  rather than payment on publication which may take months.

Great tip for adding value
Offer a giveaway – a copy of your book if you have written one or a free consultation or treatment. Giving back shows a generous spirit and a willingness to share.

Tips to improve your writing style can be got from:
http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/jun03/bell.htm
http://www.icantgetpublished.com/periodicals.html
http://www.businessknowhow.com/internet/getpub.htm

I have included the following guidelines from Infoshop Newswire (http://news.infoshop.org/staticpages/index.php?page=20050108131646817) because they are so pertinent and most aspiring writers would do well to apply them, regardless of which periodical they want to submit to.

How to get published on Infoshop News
1) Familiarize yourself with our editorial policy.
2) Acquaint yourself with the types of stories we carry. Look at the topics page. We try to feature a range of topics, but some topics such as anarchism and activism are a higher priority for us.
3) Make sure the headline of your story is concise, capitalized correctly, and describes the content of your story. If your title is vague you give people a reason not to read it.
4) We prioritize news from the alternative media. On slow news days, our wire has more news from mainstream news sources. If you submit a news story from a corporate media source, don't take it personally is we decide to not run it. We run news from the mainstream media that contains news and/or views of interest to our audience.
5) Make sure that the text of your story has *2* line breaks between each paragraph if you post it as text. We like HTML, but keep it as simple as possible. Don't submit HTML that contains weird styles, lots of tables, or internal style sheets.
6) Use standard grammer, punctuation and style. If you don't capitalize the first letter of each senence, we won't accept your story. We don't accept writing that looks like it comes straight from an online chat.
7) Paragraphs are important tools of effective written communication. Learn how to use them in your writing. Break up long paragraphs. Breathe!
Reasons why your contributed post was probably rejected.
1) Extraneous crap in the text of the contributed story. Just because you can copy and paste from a new site does not mean that your editing duties are over! If your contribution from another website contains extra junk, it will usually be rejected unless the story is really important. Please help out the Infoshop News volunteers by prepping your contribution properly.
2) Material which doesn't match the flavor of this website.
3) Material which advocates liberalism, socialism, or other political tendencies which aren't anarchism. Material written by non-anarchists is welcome, as long as it doesn't promote any party or ideology.
4) Comments about discussions on this website or anyplace else are almost always rejected.
5) News about meetings which aim to get people to organize a protest are not acceptable. We publish announcements of protests, not half-ass efforts to get people to protest some public event.
6) We're not interested in airing your dirty laundry. Please find another place to air it out. We are not in the position to provide a forum for personal disputes. We will make exceptions to this, but not very often.
7) Not every news story from the corporate news media is inherently interesting or important enough to share with our readers.
Last Updated Sunday, January 09 2005 @ 10:40 AM CST|

 

2. Guidelines for getting your book published.

2.1 Hard copy printing.
Honing your craft.
Writing styles have changed a great deal over the centuries. Most of us would struggle nowadays to read early authors such as Chaucer. People are overloaded with information and time is scarce, therefore your book needs to be well written and well crafted. Join a writing group, either on line or in person and start sending in short articles for other aspiring writers to comment on. This will help improve your writing skills as well as creating a network for you. It also helps in getting your name recognised and in getting noticed by a publisher.
http:// suite101.com is a great place to start.
Authonomy is a writer’s network hosted by Harper Collins UK. www.authonomy.com
There are ten steps involved in the writing process:
1. Read
2. Examine your values
3. Learn about publishing
4. Research
5. Write
6. Rewrite
7. More research
8. Query
9. Submit
10. Persevere

2.2 Finding a Publisher
Before you send off your manuscript to a publisher, do your homework. Before you send do a Google search on the name of the publisher plus the words 'vanity' or 'scam' to make sure that the publisher is reputable and not just taking your money. You should not end up paying the publisher. Make sure the publisher you have selected does actually print your specific genre of books; it is pointless sending a book on sports to a publisher of cookery books! Conduct a study of their publications and get a feel for format, length, writing style etc. Go on-line to their website and read up on their submissions policy. If you want to try to find a publisher then you need to do some research and find one who publishes your genre of books and is currently taking on new authors. Sending a proposal of your book may be a good way to go or sending an outline or sample chapter. Do not send off your whole book without making sure you have copyright protection and remember that rejection will happen.
Once you have identified a publishing house then you need to keep sending your manuscripts in one after the other. Don’t quit if the first one gets rejected.

Websites with publisher’s information:
http://www.llewellyn.com/history/submit.php
http://store.innertraditions.com/pages/info/manuscript
http://www.crownhouse.co.uk/
http://www.impactpublishers.com/
http://www.panmacmillan.com/
http://www.penguinbooks.co.za/publishing/publishing.php
http://www.dorrancepublishing.com/
 
You can also look for a literary agent such as the Laura Boon Literary Agency. An agent will take a percentage of your revenue (usually 15%) but generally has contacts with publishing houses which will work in your favour. An agent will also negotiate your contract and royalty payments for you. You do not pay an agent up front, only after you have secured a contract and received money from the publisher.
You can also check out http://www.writersworkshop.co.uk  and http://www.writers.net/agents/country .

• Don’t send your entire manuscript off to a publisher or agent without first establishing some sort of copyright protection. Other wise you risk seeing your work with someone else’s name on it. A copyright is an exclusive right given to an author for a certain number of years (usually 50 years). You can create copyright by putting the words "copyright" or "copyright reserved" or "copyright Smith 2009" (i.e. copyright, followed by name and the year), or the copyright symbol, name and year e.g. © Caroline 2009.
• You can also obtain copyright protection in SA, if you are South African or if your work was produced in SA by registering your work. If you think you are going to make serious money through publishing then it is worth doing this. Anyone can obtain copyright protection provided the country they are a national of is part of the Berne Convention. (The Berne Convention is an international agreement on copyright by which member countries grant each other copyright protection). In South Africa the forms to apply for copyright are available to download on http://www.cipro.gov.za/products_services/copyrights and it costs about R600.00 to apply.
• You can also look at common ground publishing whereby your work is freely available and may be copied by anyone providing the work is kept intact and you are acknowledged as the author.
• Don’t let your work down with silly errors and grammatical mistakes.
• Try to get some critical appraisals of your work from editors so that you can improve.

2.3 Self publishing.
Many first time writers choose the self publishing route because they can’t find a publisher but believe that their book is of value and will sell. This does mean a lot of work, time and energy but if you get it right then you retain more of the profits from your book. Once you have successfully published a book, it becomes easier to get accepted by a mainstream publisher because you have a track record.
Once you have written your book you need to get it proof read and then set professionally. Using a friend or relative to proof read is fine but use more than one person and try to find someone with editing skills.
If using Microsoft Word then run a spell check.
Get printing quotes from more than one printing company. Printers’ quotes can vary astronomically. Make sure you understand exactly what you are being quoted on in terms of paper thickness, cover, type of binding, size of page and number of books etc. Remember that if you don’t have a credit account with the printer you have chosen then you will have to pay on receipt of the goods. Most printers require surety for credit accounts. Payment terms can vary, negotiating for 30 days credit helps with cash flow.

It may be many months before you see an inflow of cash if you are publishing a book so you need to budget for it.
You then need to work out how you will make the public aware of your book and get it into shops. Distributors and shops take a mark up of your sale price so work it out carefully or you may find that by the time you have paid the printer you are out of pocket.
Typically bookstores such as Exclusives can take 30% - 40% of the selling price and a distribution company will take 30% of cost to shop price.
Trying to get your book accepted and displayed in the major bookstores is a time consuming and exhausting process. It also requires ongoing attention to accounting, numbers sold and payments. I would recommend using a distribution chain such as On the Dot Publishing, PSD or Blue Weaver for outlets in South Africa.
Cheap print on demand options such as Amazon and Lulu may be a good alternative to explore when you are beginning. They also offer a degree of marketing. These also give you access to a global market
If you want to earn income as a technical or professional writer then you need to build a portfolio. Here are some ways that you can build a collection of articles and press releases that will become the foundation of a portfolio.
• Work with Non-profit Groups
Non-profit groups often seek volunteers to write feature stories for their newsletters. If you offer to write for a non-profit group, there is a good chance that your work will be published in a professional-looking document with the logo of a respected organization.
• Work with New Businesses
Find a new business that appeals to you, contact the owner and express your desire to help. Be willing to sign an agreement that defines you as a volunteer and that your stories are “free.” If you do a good job your efforts may lead to regular paid work.
• Blog
Publish your own blog on a topic that allows you to establish your credibility.

3. Using the internet.

3.1 Email newsletters
E mail newsletters are a great way to keep people connected with you and send them regular updates on whatever you are offering. Newsletters feel personal because they arrive in your inbox, so are a great way to build and maintain relationships with potential clients. There are plenty of free templates that you can download and which will give your newsletter a professional edge. Remember to keep the overall size of your newsletter to around 100KB, readers do not take kindly to huge downloads which take hours to come through and chew up their bandwidth. Check the size of your newsletter and particularly that of individual pictures or graphics that you are including. You do this by right clicking on the item and then clicking on “properties” This will bring up relevant information including the KB size. If your picture are too large and you have Photoshop you can make them smaller by clicking on “Image” and then “Size” and changing the DPI to 100 then saving for web as a medium jpeg.
If you do not have Photoshop then it is worthwhile finding someone who can help you and who is not over pricey.

Remember to have an “Unsubscribe” button at the bottom of your newsletter so that people can let you know if they no longer want to receive your email. You need to make sure this is hyperlinked so that it comes back to you. Be diligent in taking out of your list any unsubscribe requests otherwise you are spamming and risk having your email address blacklisted. You can build up your list by taking names at talks and workshops as well as inviting people on your list to send your email on to a friend. Once or twice a month is a good number of newsletters to send out. People get swamped these days so don’t overdo it. You can also use your newsletter to offer discounts, products or competitions. Keep the content simple. People get a lot of emails so they need to be able to skim for pertinent information. Users will often avoid signing up if they feel crushed by information.
Your newsletter database is an important asset so guard it well and make sure you have a back-up copy. Do not just hand over your database to someone else to run for you unless you are sure they are trustworthy.
Learn to do things for yourself wherever possible.
Free email newsletter templates are available on many websites such as
http://www.templatesbox.com/free-newsletter-templates/index.htm
http://www.mailchimp.com/resources/html_email_templates/
http://www.campaignmonitor.com/templates/
You can browse for more.
An easy to use and inexpensive mailing system is the one provided by
www.jam-software.com/smartserialmail/
Joomla also offer great templates both for websites and newsletters as well as on going support. www.joomlafreetemplates.com/
The following page shows a sample email template which looks good. You can find lots more on this website: http://www.campaignmonitor.com/templates/ that you can download and use for free.

 

3.2 E-Books

E-Books are books that are sold, usually as PDF’s, over the internet. PDF stands for "Portable Document Format", a file format created by Adobe. You need special reader software to open this type of file and a PDF maker to create the document but both can be downloaded for free. The advantage of a PDF file is that it can’t be changed once you have created it but it is easy and compact to send by email and for people to open and read. PDF documents are also virus free and look professional. You can also use an EXE e-book which looks and works look a website but this will only be able to be opened by people running Windows on their computers.
 If you want to publish but don’t have a publisher or the finance for self publishing, this is a good way to start. This works well for “How to” books or small books containing information that you can then sell to visitors to your website. It is not yet a particularly satisfactory method of selling fiction, but when the Kindle becomes more available this will change. You can do the work and create the book as a Word document which you then save as a PDF.  The main disadvantage of E-books is difficulty in creating awareness of your work. Some websites do sell E-books for a commission and you can also advertise in magazines. Bid or Buy is a South African website that you can load both E-Books and hard copy books onto. E-Bay is tricky because they don’t officially allow E-books to be sold over their site. You can also try Gumtree. It takes time and persistence to build up a regular stream of customers willing to buy your products over the internet, so patience is needed. You will also need to install a method of receiving payment such as ToCheckout. PayPal.is a problem at the moment in South Africa. You will need to download a PDF distiller which you can do from www.verypdf.com . This freezes your book so that it cannot be altered when you email it to someone and it also makes it fairly small, kilobyte wise to send.
You can get sophisticated programmes that will create an e-book with pages that flip etc (try www.UniFlip.Com) but I would advise starting out more simply. http://www.ezau.com/latest/articles/create-ebook.shtml contains a lot of useful information. OpenOffice is a free PDF e-book creator.
Free e-book templates are available from http://www.ebooktemplatesource.com/pdf-ebook-templates.html

A very good method of selling your E-Book is to offer a free gift with it – such as an e-book by another author – if you browse the internet you will find websites that offer free e-books that have no copyright restriction and you can happily include these as a bonus for anyone who buys yours.

3.3 Creating Awareness
Always remember that money comes from people, therefore you need to keep creating awareness of yourself, your books or whatever it is you want to sell. Give talks; join Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. If you have written a book then send a copy to every editor of relevant publications for review purposes.

4. Some guidelines for creating adverts, business cards, fliers and marketing material.

 

The first rule for creating effective marketing material is to sit back and think about what you are trying to achieve. Too many people rush headlong into making up adverts, fliers etc. with no real understanding of where they are going, what they want to say or who they want to read their material. This then becomes an expensive waste of money. Identify your business, create a short term and a long term goal and set steps for achieving both. For example if your dream is to establish a beauty salon and you are currently working as a hairdresser then your short term goal may be to go out on your own and attract clients and your long term goal to find a premise where you can establish a complete salon, with other beauticians also operating and offering their services. Build the short term goal with a view to the bigger picture.
Getting your branding and marketing material right is vital. Too many changes create confusion and prevent your future clients from recognising and identifying with you. Points to remember:
• Wrong wording creates mis-information .
• You need to create a desire for what you are offering.
• Be concise.
• Use consistent fonts. The temptation to use many different fonts leads to a confusing and unprofessional message.
• It is estimated that readers flick over adverts in less than 10 seconds so make sure your message is powerful enough to be absorbed in that time. Three or four well chosen words are better than too many. Avoid the temptation to write your whole life history in a quarter page space!
• Avoid technical words and go for easy to understand, emotive terms.
• Be consistent.
• Make sure your contact details are clear and obvious.

Branding.
• Decide on a logo or design that you can stick with for a long time, tweaking marginally for the occasional update. People need to recognise and identify with your logo.
• Good branding delivers your message clearly, confirms your credibility and connects your target prospects emotionally.
• It is worth paying for a designer to create this for you or using a good downloaded image or template. Joomla is a content management website system that is designed to be easy to use. This is an excellent place to start and there are nice free designs that you can download. Remember that if you download images you need to sure you have permission and are not breaking copyright. There are good free sites that you can browse through to avoid incurring expense eg. Stockxchange  http://www.sxc.hu/ . You can also try www.freedigitalphotos.net and www.freephotos.com.
• Search for free publicity such as doing give-aways, free trial or discounts. Offering these on the air, in magazines or on websites is an excellent way to gain free exposure.
• Work out your budget. You need on-going awareness, therefore it is better to have a small advert in several publications on an ongoing basis than to have a once off big advert. Narrow your choice down to a couple of the most pertinent publications and be consistent.
• Be professional – photocopies look tacky and it is not expensive to use a print shop.

The following websites contain good advice to help you create advertising and effective branding:
http://www.bizhelp24.com/marketing/advertising-your-business-offline-18.html
http://www.esmalloffice.com/SBR_template.cfm?DocNumber=PL12_0100.htm
http://www.marketingtoday.com/marcom/writeads.htm

Here are seven low cost ways of marketing your business.
• Press Releases. Write good press releases and send them to newspapers, magazines, and television and radio stations. If only one of these media outlets airs your story, you'll have free access to thousands of people. Make sure the headline grabs readers' attention in as few words as possible. Have a lead sentence that will draw the reader into a convincing piece. Use active verbs and get to the point quickly.
• Trade Shows. This can be expensive, but good shows are a great way to build your business. Have plenty of promotional materials ready to hand out and do follow up your leads after the show.
• The Internet. A home page for your business is relatively inexpensive and can reach many people. Use newsgroups that focus on areas similar to your line of business to draw attention to the site. Make sure you include a phone number or email address so that interested visitors can contact you. If you are a retailer, consider putting photographs of your products online, even if you're not ready to let people to order your wares over the Internet. Advertising on Google and other search engines can be an easy and inexpensive way to drive a lot of potential buyers to your e-commerce Web site
• Direct Mail. Direct mail results depend largely upon how much you're willing to spend on finding your target market and delivering quality materials to them. The per-customer cost is much higher than you'll pay for print ads, but if you create a finely tuned list of recipients, you will reach more highly qualified prospects. Few small firms are qualified to do their own direct mailings, so find a reliable specialist to do the work for you. Interview at least three or four mailing list vendors before you commit your money to a direct mail campaign.
• Yellow Pages. Most newspapers and magazines get thrown away within days, but consumers hang onto the yellow pages all year. It helps to cross-reference your listing. If you do yard work, for instance, list your business under landscaping, maintenance, and home improvements. You want your ad to stand out, so consider taking a larger ad or hiring someone to design it.
• Public Service. This is a great chance to do well by doing some good. Sponsor a local charity or join in their fund raising events. Donate your product to local charities or speak to students at area schools about your business. All of these are terrific ways to position your company in a positive light in your community.
• Competitions. Periodic prize drawings can help create interest in a retail store or other business. Promotional materials like T-shirts, coffee mugs, or pens with your logo also help spread the word.
 
For queries or consultations, you can reach me on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Good luck with your business venture!