There are three key periodical submission tips to follow when sending content to online outlets and print media publishers. I list them from least important to most important, but if you don’t get past the first one, you’ll never get to the second. And you must pass the second step to even have your writing […]
Third-person omniscient is out of favor. Do you wonder why? While we could attribute it to a trend, the best explanation I have is that we’re so conditioned to watching TV and movies, which limit us to the camera’s vantage (third-person limited, if you will), that as readers we expect books to do the same […]
With More Reasons to Have Operators Work at Home Comes the Need to Better Oversee Them By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Around the world, many jurisdictions have enacted stay-at-home mandates to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. Other areas are pursuing a “stay home, stay safe” recommendation. This scenario hits answering services doubly hard. First, as […]
Microsoft Word is expensive, but it is also the de facto standard for writing and publishing. I urge you to use it if possible. Even so, consider these word processing options. As an alternative to purchasing Word (or Office), you can check out Office 365. It includes Word, but instead of buying the software for […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD The month that follows March kicks off with some tomfoolery; we call this April Fool’s Day. As a publisher, each year I receive some April Fool’s Day press releases. While the best ones quickly become self-obvious, there were a couple that I wasn’t sure about. I scowl and press delete. This […]
Discover How to Effectively Work in a Home Office, Whether Long-Term or Short-Term By Peter Lyle DeHaan, Ph.D. I recently celebrated twenty years of working from home. For the first year I divided my time between my home office and a traditional office. I followed that with a couple more years that included travel. But […]
Have you ever wondered if you have a marketable book? Most people have, especially anyone who wants to make a living from writing. You can pay someone to give you their opinion on what’s marketable before spending hours writing. Although you can do internet searches to find them, I recommend going to the websites of […]
Reading helps us understand what is marketable before we spend hours writing something that’s not. So does talking to others in the industry, especially agents, editors, and publishers. Also, look at the publishers’ current releases. As a starting point here are some general principles of what is not marketable. Though there are exceptions, they are […]
A writer found some clip art they’re interested in using in their book, but they also had concerns. The terminology is “Royalty-free clipart for commercial use.” Is it safe to use? First, let me say that I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. Given that, in my opinion, the phrase gives […]
Two Tips to Streamline Your Answering Service’s Procedures By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Last year I shared several articles about finetuning the processes in your telephone answering service. The three key areas are streamlining sales, streamlining client onboarding, and streamlining customer service. Beyond that, we looked at fine-tuning billing and collections, agent hiring, and agent […]