How professional are you? What impression do you make with potential editors, clients and other writers?

Last year I joined up with a well known online community (Note: When I originally wrote this I named the site. I decided not to name them in the newsletter thanks to advice from subscribers to my InkSplatters list) to write a regular column about the Internet. It took almost a year for my application to be accepted. This was mostly due to it being misplaced or forgotten. I'm still not sure what happened. Eventually, I was accepted to write the column. The editor wanted me to be especially careful with grammar and punctuation. She wanted each column to be professional.

When I wanted to go into the site and update the column, add more links and all the other stuff you do when you write a column for a website, I couldn't access anything. I had no editor screen. I emailed asking for help. She replied that I must be doing something wrong and gave me a list of instructions. However, I still couldn't get to any editor screen. It just wasn't there. I emailed with a few other people at the site about the problem but got no further. Months go by and a new editor starts to head up the Internet/ Computer section of the site. He writes to ask if I'm interested in doing the column or have I forgotten it. To make a long story short, you can still see my dead end column up at that site. The spammers are making use of it.

The point to this is not bad mouthing anyone or any site, it's showing how people can be unprofessional at all levels. You don't have to be some newbie writer to be unprofessional. But, you should watch for it and do your best to look like you know what you're doing and you know how to do it well.

One way to be professional is organization. If you have a few balls in the air make sure you know where they are, which one you need to catch next and when the next one is ready to be tossed. Don't lose track of important details. I'm not good at this myself. But you can always improve. Just cause you messed up one day doesn't mean you can't do better the next day. We're human and adaptable for a reason.

Another way to be professional is to learn, find out what the expected standards are and use them. Write a query letter without irrelevant personal comments. Save chit chat for friends and people who are interested in what you have to write. Don't forget or be too timid to include your terms, your contract, along with the ideas you are submitting. Make it clear writing isn't some hobby you do without pay. It's more professional to present yourself as a professional, showing what you can offer and what you expect back for your work.

Are there ways you could be more professional? Read some of your past business correspondence and see how you could improve. Did you find any typos? Did you chit chat a bit too much? Was your proposal specific enough? Know what you need to fix so you can write a better query next time. Also, if you get into the habit of being professional it becomes easier and it will leak out into all the aspects of your writing career. One other plus, the more professional you are the more you will feel like a writer and less like someone trying to be a writer.

Hitting their sweet spots has never been more important than for someone writing on the Net. What is a sweet spot? To take it out of writing context, think of yourself driving over a bumpy train track but steering your car to the side, to a spot where it's not bumpy. That, sweet spot, is the easy on your car and yourself.

In writing the sweet spot, as I think of it, is hitting just the right word or phrase. Something that your reader is looking for and has a personal 'thing' for. For instance, to appeal to women you can use words like 'diva, goddess, grrl'. Phrases like 'adventure living, backpacking, Earthy' appeal to nature lovers. There are better choices but those are the current pickings of my brain. Hope you get the idea.

Anyway, those catchy phrases and words are even more important online because people will be searching for them. Your article will be picked over by search spiders and those catchy, sweet spots will be caught in their web and added to a mind boggling list. You may not be first on the search list but you will appear somewhere. That's why those sweet spots should be considered, not just in titles, subtitles and descriptions but throughout the article or essay. Don't go crazy over it. Too much is not a good thing. But keep them in mind and don't think it's too cliche to use the odd cliche if it's an effective sweet spot.

Consider some of your own sweet spot words and phrases. Which appeal to you especially? Why?

One way to find sweet spots for a certain group of people is to join one of their online discussions, chats or boards and keep track of what comes up frequently. Let me know if you come up with more sneaky ideas.

How do you deal with disappointment or rejection? As writers we are going to get some of each, as long as you keep sticking your foot in the door and sending out your work. Which, of course, you are doing, right? Right?!!

Anyway, I skimmed a magazine article this morning and really liked two of the points they made. One was to immerse yourself in something new and the other was to take a reality check. The third was wrap your mind around it. But, that sounds a bit too much like dwelling on it to me. If you dwell on it that cancels out the other two.

Still, I really like the two ideas. Don't you feel better when you start something new. You're learning and researching new ideas and have the satisfaction of stepping away and keeping going. So they didn't like your great idea. You can keep it around for another try with another market or you can change your point of view or your angle on it. You can even toss it completely and work on something totally new. Develop a new passion.

Taking a reality check is great too. So they didn't buy it. Does that mean you're doomed to failure as a writer? No, of course not. You just had one editor that turned you down. It's disappointing but not the end of the world. Move along, nothing much to see here. But, now you can implement something new, as above. These two things work together so well.

Next time you need to get over disappointment remember reality checks and new passions. That should keep you busy, motivated and writing.

I've never liked being a salesperson, yet as a writer we are in fact, salespeople. You can't get around it. We sell ourselves as credible sources for information. But, we also sell our ideas and our writing itself. If you've ever thought "Why should anyone read my stuff?" You can understand the relationship between sales and writing (even before publishing comes into it). We want readers to buy into our writing, to be believe what we write, take it seriously. So, we have to sell it.

The following comes from: How Stuff Works - http://money.howstuffworks.com/sales-technique1.htm

"The foundations of most modern sales techniques lie in five stages of action. These began in the 1950's and include:

Attention: You have to get the attention of your prospect through some advertising or prospecting method.

Interest: Build their interest by using an emotional appeal such as how good they will look to their boss when they make this deal that will save the company thousands of dollars!

Desire: Build their desire for your product by showing them its features and letting them sample or test-drive it.

Conviction: Increase their desire for your product by statistically proving the worth of your product. Compare it to its competitors. Use testimonials from happy customers.

Action: Encourage the prospect to act. This is your closing. Ask for the order. If they object, address their objections. There are then many variations of closing techniques that can help get the business. "

It's not too hard to see how that applies to our writing. Think of copywriting, fiction writing or even writing an instruction manual. The first thing you need to do is pull them in, catch their attention. You do this by surprising them, perking their curiousity, giving them what they want or showing them you have what they need. Whichever works for the writing you are doing. In website reviews a catchy headline is everything. If it's a book you need a great opening line. Magazine articles use headlines and highlighted phrases in the article.

Interest, desire and conviction sort of roll into one theme, keeping your readers reading. How do you pull them through your writing? Some may only read the catchy beginning and then skim to the end for the conclusion. Keeping their interest through the middle is the real trick. This is where your writing style comes in. Don't let them stop reading, keep providing content they need, want and must have. Keep the writing lively rather than droning on.

Then, as with any good sales pitch, you want them to take action. If you are writing fiction you want them to leave the world you created feeling they have left something of themselves behind when they read that last word. If you are writing copy for sales you want them to understand how important the product is. If you are explaining how something works you want them to feel confident enough to proceed and use the product. Even if your only purpose is simple entertainment, you want them to buy that from you. In order for it to be bought, you have to sell it.

"When I'm stuck, I imagine my best friend in a tough situation. 'You've got to help me,' my friend (character) says. 'I can't get out of this without you.' 'Sorry, I'm just not in the mood,' is not an option. 'I'd rather scrub the kitchen floor,' is not an option. I have to help my friend. I probe, ask questions. How did you get where you are? Where would you like to be? What tools do you have to help you?" - Camille Minichino

"Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work." - Stephen King

"Technique alone is never enough. You have to have passion. Technique alone is just an embroidered pot holder." - Raymond Chandler

You've got the greatest idea! It's sure to be a billion dollar blockbuster, rivaling Stephen King and that other writer whose name you can't quite remember though it's on the tip of your tongue.

But, is your idea a good one, really? Some of our ideas seem really super charged at the time, when we have that first burst of passion as the idea evolves. But, not every idea is going to be publishable and practical.

Here are guidelines from Cheryl Sloan Wray and her book 'Writing for Magazines'. (Paraphrased by me).

1. Are you really passionate/ interested enough to spend the necessary time developing, researching and writing this idea?

2. Can you narrow the focus? Some ideas need to be broken into smaller chunks to suit the market/ publisher you are aiming for.

3. If your idea is already narrow, or would appeal to a small, exclusive percentage of the reading public, can you bulk it up? Can you add more points, bring in another slant or find more sources?

4. Can you market this idea to several publications? You want to have a selection of publishers to choose from so you aren't twiddling your thumbs if the first of them aren't keen on it.

5. Imagine yourself as the reader of the publications you have chosen. Are you sure their readers will be interested in your idea? If not find other publications to appeal to, or slant your idea in a different, more appealing direction.

6. Describe your idea in 15 words or less. Then, in another 15 words, tell why readers will be interested in your idea/ topic.

7. Will this idea be expensive to research or take up a lot of time to develop? Is it going to cost you more than it will bring in for you? You can't forget your bottom line after all.

The last point is the best I think. How many of you keep track of your expenses? Do you know if you actually clear more than you spent on each article/ manuscript? Don't skip your time either. Time is money and that includes you!

Hope this helps bring you some clarity, focus and profit from your greatest ideas. Keep them churning!

"Any man who will look into his heart and honestly write what he sees there will find plenty of readers." Edgar W. House.

"Why do writers write? Because it isn't there." Thomas Berger.