For Writers - Six Ways to Bump Your Sales

My husband and I have owned and operated a computer sales and service business for over fifteen years. We are considered a VAR business; that is, a value added reseller. We use pre-manufactured components to build, load with software, and make computer systems Internet ready. Upon delivery we’ll install and test the unit. For service calls, we’ll pick up a malfunctioning unit, take it into the shop and return it – fixed. The pick up and delivery aspect of our business is an additional value that can hardly be purchased anymore. Our customers love it. Operating in this way has helped us stay in a very competitive game and it’s slopped over to my writing. It can for yours, too.

Of all the ways to get an editor to look at your work, none is more effective than that little extra something that tells him or her you’re the one for the job. Professional queries, meticulous research, a command of the King’s English – good practices all – but these things you should be doing anyway. By adding a little something extra you can greatly improve you chances of a sale.

1. Read your editor. Editors write and they have something to say. Look at the editorial page of any glossy magazine and you’ll find out something about that person – the editor. Look at her photo. See that smile? This is a nice person who wants only the best for her readers. Read her editorials and her blog if she has one. Realize she is a reseller, too. She wants to buy work from you that she can pass on to her readers. Appreciate that. Absorb and comment (briefly) on her blog or in reference to an editorial when you query. Let her know that you know and value the work she puts into her publication.
2. Offer extras. Is your query about a piece that required several hours, weeks, or months of research? No doubt you didn’t use all of it. Put together a sidebar or add links to websites and blogs that tie in with your subject. Offer photos or links to free photo sites that would compliment your work. Be excited about offering a bit more than what was asked for.
3. Use quotes. Nothing sets the mood for a piece like an appropriate quote. If you write humor, for instance, find a Will Rogers, Mark Twain, or Jerry Seinfeld quote that suits the focus of your article. Quote a president for your essay on the history of pets in the Whitehouse or find a pithy saying about farm manure for your Grit article. I used a quote by Ian McEwan for a Children’s Writer Guide  assignment. I wanted to equate fine architecture with story building and his quote set the stage beautifully for the slant of my article. Search the Internet for who has said what about your subject and consider using what you find.
4. Be a willow. You’ve seen these lovely trees blowing in the wind. They weather the most brutal storms by being able to bend nearly to the ground when the tempest comes. Demonstrate your own bending power by staying open to what the market, readers, and editors demand. Change your slant, do more research, or cut and revise whole segments of your work. Do whatever is necessary to finalize the deal. No editor will fault you for it.
5. Show staying power. It can’t be said often enough that persistence pays. That does not, however, mean that being a pest pays. Editors will fault you for that. But there are times when you must drop back, re-group, and get your bearings. Then you must surge forward as though you’re the best writer in the world. This kind of thinking fends off failure and impresses editors.
6. Read other writers. How often have you read a great article, taken away something valuable and then gone your way without one scintilla of curiosity about the writer? I used to do it all the time until the name of one writer who consistently has her work published in Parade magazine intrigued me – Lyric Wallwork Winic. I went in search of her and learned that she really has no reason to fear me as a rival – at all. It never hurts to aim a little higher, however, and knowing the work of other writers helps us to aspire.

Nothing will trump hard work and determination in any endeavor in life, but doing a bit more is like putting a lovely bow on the gift you’re presenting. The value of it cannot be overestimated.

Image: Scottchan                                http://www.freedigitalphotos.com/

Romancing Your Life - It Helps

What romance means, first and foremost, to most women and girls is love. And strictly speaking, it’s the pursuit of and hanging on to, the love of a man. It’s always a wonderful time in our lives when our hero, at last, walks through the door, dashes up the staircase or swings in on a vine to swoop us, his own true love, into his arms. That definition of romance will never die and shouldn’t. But perhaps we can expand the definition of romance a little. Okay, maybe a lot. In my opinion one of the true and lasting methods of coping with life’s problems, large and small, is to romantasize them. Let me illustrate.

You know those little clear stickers they put in car windows with the letters AWD? I realize what it means; all wheel drive. But I’ve decided that it could mean something else and in my mind it does; attractive woman driving. That’s  my favorite, but awesome, adventerous, assertive, agreeable or acclaimed could also be used. So what I’ve done here is I’ve “romanced” the term. Pretty cool, huh? Looking at that sticker brings a smile now where formerly it meant little. I already expected all my wheels to drive anyway.

Recently I listened to a popular radio talk show host who came on the air all huffing and puffing about a tangle she’d just had with someone. After grousing about it for a bit she remarked that she’d found a way to cope with this person and all the other odious people in her life. Henceforth she’d imagine herself the heroine in a romantic novel and take on the noble characteristics of that woman, dealing with each situation in like manner. So there, you brute! She’d hold her head high, snuggle into her midnight blue velvet cape, and struggle valiantly just as, perhaps, Scarlett O’Hara did when fighting for Tara or like Elizabeth Bennett who stood up and gave Mr. D’Arcy a thing or two to think about. How romantic can you get? That talk show host had resolved to cope by romancng this part of her life. Bravo!

Sometimes we have to step back from our everyday life and see it through other eyes. My sister visited last spring and I was quite stressed that I hadn’t been able to finish painting our walk-in pantry in time for her arrival. The pantry is an old thing and hadn’t been touched with roller or brush for twenty five years I’m ashamed to say. But she thought it was wonderful. The cupboards and walls, which I’d just managed to get done, were in a color and texture she loved. The open shelves at the far end of the pantry sparked her imagination. Standing back she gave it a good bit of concentration then offered advice on how to decorate and even leant a hand with the rest of the painting. She’d put some charm and romance into the effort and now that it’s finished I can’t walk through it without thinking of her.

I have to include in my expanded definition of romance the four seasons. In the spring I plant my annuals unevenly so they’ll grow as they please or go charmingly astray along a path or patio border. When the vegetables go into the garden I always hope the pumpkin vines will run rampant and we’ll find hidden globules of orange plumpness under the gigantic dark green leaves in the fall. Last year as my husband and I tramped through the rows of tomatoes, pulling them up before first frost, I noticed a distinct clump of leaves and debri between two plants. When I got nearer a little field mouse dropped from the nest and scurried away into the green bean bushes. Poking her head out at intervals, she seemed determined to return to the nest, now on the ground. We shooed her a couple of times, but she kept returning. Stopping, then, to watch we saw her run to that spot in the ground and dig frantically. In seconds she had the tiny pink body of her baby in her paws and ran pell mell back into the green bean bushes. Now was that a brave little mouse or what? The power and romance of a mother’s sacrificial love can never be underestimated!

No woman of my acquaintence has ever been completley happy with her looks. That discontent pervades in our image driven culture and has fueled a billion dollar industry in cosmetics, hair care, weight loss programs, and plastic surgery. But would it be so awful if we began to love the imperfections in our sisters? Put the best possible spin on an extra ten pounds, a less than brilliant smile, or a series of very bad  hair days? It’s what character is all about; like those memorable icons in a Dickens novel. Yeah, I’ll be Esther from Bleak House and you can be Belle from A Christmas Carol. How does that sound? We’ll look at each other through sepia tones and toss our heads and hug each other when the joys and sorrows of life hit.

So, maybe you’re still waiting for your true love to swing in on a vine to claim you, or maybe he’s been alongside you for years. But your life can be full of romance no matter. It’s all in how you look at it. So get out your rose colored glasses and romance your life. It really does make a difference.

Image: digitalart                   http://www.freedigitalart.com/ 

Mr. Rooster

 

A few days ago I received word that my poem, The Crooked Rooster, was awarded third place in the Children’s Writer (Institute of Children's Literature) poetry contest. I’m so pleased. If you have children or grandchildren they might enjoy this bit of fun.

 

The Crooked Rooster

By Susan Sundwall

There was a crooked rooster

Who had a crooked crow

And everywhere the rooster went

He’d cock-a-doodle DOE

He could not wake the farmer

He could not wake his wife

He could not wake up anyone

To save his rooster life

Finally in despair one day

He went to Chicken Lou

Who told him what he had to do

Was wear his other shoe

“You cannot strut around all day

With only one shoe on!

It throws your crowing out of whack

And messes up the dawn!”

Crooked rooster limped away

All sorry for himself

He spent the whole day searching

In each corner, nook and shelf

That night he wandered to the barn

And said to Little Pup

“I’ve got to find my other shoe

Before the sun comes up!”

Little Pup looked up at him

She wasn’t one to scoff

“The answer to your problem

Is to take the one shoe off.”

“Why, I was thinking that myself”

The crooked rooster cried.

“I didn’t like them anyway

They always come untied!”

He bent and took the one shoe off

Then strutted through the door

And no one in the barnyard

Called him crooked anymore

So now the farmer and his wife

The pup and Chicken Lou

All rise up with the sun each day

To cock-a-doodle DO!

 Image: Idea go                  http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

Little Language Lesson

I once proofread material for a man who wrote political commentary. He was focused, articulate and fearless in his thoughts and opinions. But he didn’t seem to know the difference between ‘then’ and ‘than’. It made me nuts. I destroyed his clean white copy with my red pen when I saw these words improperly used and he was frequently amazed at his own misuse of the terms. He wrote ‘then’ when he meant ‘than’, All. The. Time. I did the proofreading as a favor to him and didn’t get paid, so imagine an editor reading small, avoidable errors and finding the intrusion too jarring to continue with your piece. Ugh. Here are three other examples of such abuses that bug me.

 

1. There’s no such word as alot just as there’s no such word as alittle. Yet the use of this non-word, alot, has become alarmingly common. Please, please don’t ever use it. A lot is always two words.

2. Use it’s and its properly. It’s is a contraction of it is ie: It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood. The term its, without the apostrophe, denotes possession ie: The clock lost its ability to tell time.

3. Please don’t write your when you mean you’re. This, too, is becoming quite commonplace.  Again – your indicates possession ie: The Prize Patrol is on its way to deliver your check. And then we have you’re, a contraction of you are ie: You’re looking mighty fine today, sweetie.

Okay, that’s it for today – rant over.

Image: graur razvan ionut      http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

Sam Bakes

About a week ago I was busily mixing up a double batch of gingersnaps when the back door opened and in pops our grandson, Sam. He’s a nine-year-old walking bundle of energy most of which is channeled into the many sports he loves to play. His dad was there beside him and suggested Sam get his chef’s apron and give Grandma a hand. And he did even though cookie baking doesn't exactly qualify as a sport. I scooped the cookie dough from the bowl and Sam rolled them in sugar. He plopped them onto the cookie sheet and into the oven they went. In between batches we played UNO. Yes, he beat me, and with relish but I didn’t go down easily! No sir. It’s all in the cards, after all.

A few unexpected hours with Sam, or any of our other grandchildren, is always a joy. It’s also what great  memories are made of – especially on my end. It makes me realize how fast time goes and how far Sam has come from the following incident. I wrote this just before he went to kindergarten and a slightly longer version was published in The One Year Devotional of Joy and Laughter last year.

Sam is a quick study with a great attention span, and he also has the ability to retain all the details of his favorite subjects. When he loved trains, he knew about coal tenders, the difference between diesel and steam engines, and the names and functions of all his plastic train cars. Next came pirates, then airplanes and most recently, dinosaurs. With these pre-historic beasts he knew about books, movies and computer games with dinosaur themes. This included the names, weight, whether they were herbivores or carnivores, and in what time periods, Jurassic, Triassic or Cretaceous, they had each lived. Smart kid.

One day on our way to the library, I was lamenting that he would soon be in kindergarten and how much I would miss him. But I also told him he’d be learning more things than he could ever imagine.

“Oh, Sam,” I said, “you’re going to learn so much in kindergarten. Why, you’ll know more than Grandma ever knew, from day one!”

There was a thoughtful pause from the back seat of the car, and then he responded, “Grandma, I think it will be day ten. You’re pretty smart.” 

I’ve begged each of the grand kids to stop growing, but alas, they have not listened to me. I guess I’ll just have to hope they pop in when they can and offer to help me bake. I'll have chocolate covered beaters, warm cookies, cold milk and an open heart all ready for them whenever they do.

Pretty Patterns for Pennies

I wrote this for Prairie Times several years ago. I hope some of my readers remember the days when you could get paper patterns of all sorts for mere pennies - days long gone but fondly remembered.

Nowadays no one would dream of taping coins to a piece of cardboard and sending them through the mail as payment for, well—anything. This thought occurred to me as I carefully unfolded the old yellowed news clipping, a treasure among many that I’d stored away. There, right next to a recipe for creamed turkey and ham tidbits, was a Marian Martin pattern for doll clothes. It would cost the home sewer thirty cents, to be sent in coin, and contained pattern pieces for a complete set of clothes for a 14”– 24” doll.  The set included a pinny (pinafore), coat, hat, party dress, sailor dress, blouse and underwear.

From the 1940’s through the 1960’s patterns like these were available in hundreds of rural and small town newspapers across the country. As I looked at the charming ad with its black and white sketches of the doll and her wardrobe, I remembered many other kinds of patterns offered for just pennies in these papers. It was, for instance, a popular pastime to make covers for small appliances like the toaster. Sometimes, as an added incentive, the pattern company included an iron on transfer outlined in bright red or navy ink. After the item was sewn, the transfer was embroidered in colored threads. This was especially appealing at holiday time. A jolly Santa, fat jingle bells or holly sprigs are some of the transfer patterns I remember.

Apron patterns were extremely popular. It’s truly amazing the number of designs there were for aprons. The pockets alone had shapes like tulips, hearts, daisies or ovals. It seemed every Sunday for months the papers would feature some pattern variation on this indispensable item of kitchen wear. Apron patterns also frequently came with iron on transfers and were put to use on the gift aprons women gave to each other.

When a friend of mine inherited an old home chock full of furniture, pots and pans and other household items, she gave to me an old apron. It was in excellent conditon, made of polished cotton in a bright floral print with an organdy ruffle trimming the skirt. A delightful piece of the past I will stow away to show off or look at whenever the nostalgia bug bites.

I don’t know if I would have the patience now to make doll clothes for my granddaughters or if I’d want to. Children are so instantly gratified these days that I wonder if the delight of anticipating a gift in progress is lost to them. I hope not. For now the little news clipping will stay tucked in among my memorabilia.  It will remind me of a time when a pattern could be bought from a newspaper with coins taped to cardboard and sent through the U.S. mail. 

Image: digitalart   

Stephanie Reviews

Every once in a while I’d like to post something that touches the heart and has a little grit to it. Something that will invite you to wrestle with exactly what you believe about the world, your life and where we’re all going. In light of that I’m posting a review of Sam Harris’ book, Letter to a Christian Nation, written by my sister, Stephanie. Mr. Harris is an atheist and my sister is a Christian. She answers him well and her last paragraph is in line with my own thinking.  Her lead-in to the review is posted in Susan’s Extras. She was responding to another family member who sent the book to several of us. That family member’s thinking is in line with Mr. Harris.

My Response to Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris

I agree with Sam Harris on one thing:  the origin of life is unknown.  Those of us who take the time to consider this perplexing notion will have to come to some sort of conclusion.  We all believe something.  One of us is right and the other is wrong.  In the end if Sam Harris is right, then he will never have the satisfaction of knowing it. He won’t be able to say “I told you so”, but that doesn’t matter.  Sam Harris contends that religious people are stupid…that they have imaginary friends and believe in fairy tales.  He contends that all wars have been started by religious fanatics and finds religion “dangerous” to society.  He believes that if everyone held to an atheistic worldview then we would have healthier and happier lives and we would experience world peace.  That being said, the only point worth discussing is whether or not there is a god because everything else he purports in his book rests on that one question.

The problem is that almost everyone who has ever lived on planet earth believes in some sort of higher power, and Mr. Harris thinks they are therefore stupid and unthinking.  In my opinion the majority of humans believe in a god because they have an innate sense that something exists that is greater than them.  If most humans believe this then there must be a reason for it other than just being stupid.  Everyone looks at nature and is in awe of it…even Sam Harris.  He has come to the conclusion that those very things in which he is in wonder of exist, not for our pleasure or purpose, but rather they exist merely for the sake of existing.  He looks at the natural world around us and is awestruck, but he can’t seem to allow himself the possibility that life was created by a higher power.  Rather he chooses to believe that it all just came about randomly and for no reason….it was all just an accident.  It takes just as much faith to believe in evolution as it does to believe in a creator because no onereally knows.  But I have to wrestle with more than my mind.  I have a heart to contend with.  I have a desire that is unexplained….a longing for something more (I believe its call hope), and so do 88% of Americans apparently.  This is a phenomenon that can’t be ignored.  If we evolved from primal apes then how is the fact that every civilization since the dawn of man has bowed down to worship a god?   Sam Harris ponders this thought as well, but has no real answer.   If most of humanity is compelled to believe in a god then one must wonder why and at least ask the question even if you are an atheist.  If humans evolved then this sort of thinking has been a natural part of the evolutionary process.  Belief in god was obviously unavoidable so I’m curious why Mr. Harris is so upset by it.

I think most people believe in a god because it is natural to do so.  We are spiritual as well as physical beings.  How does a flower bloom from a seed planted in the soil? What “causes” it to grow?  If there is no spiritual nature to life then why do our hearts beat?  Something is causing it to move.  Medical science can’t explain it….IT JUST DOES. I’m not crazy or stupid or delusional because I believe in a powerful spirit that resides in every human being.  It’s how I explain life.  It’s the only thing that makes sense to me.  We are mind, body and spirit.  Sam Harris is closed minded in this regard….he can’t get out of his own head.  If he can’t prove it scientifically then he rejects it.  If anyone concludes after serious thought and research that the universe must be the result of intelligent design then Sam Harris thinks they’re an idiot even though he readily admits that neither he nor science actually knows the answer.   Just because you can’t prove something empirically doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.  There are things we will never know or understand and I’m okay with that.

If I’m wrong and there is no God, then I’ve spent my entire life pursuing what makes me happy and I’ve lived a full life regardless.  If I’m right, then I have everything to gain and nothing to lose…it’s a win-win for me.  In the end, Sam Harris is not going to bully me into thinking that every human and global tragedy is a direct result of a delusional belief in God.  The world will not come to an end because of my or anyone else’s faith, but if it does (as Sam Harris contends) then rest assured  another random chemical reaction somewhere out in space will occur and slowly evolve into a new world with unsuspecting inhabitants.   Maybe the next evolutionary process will produce a far more intelligent species and they can live happily ever after in their godless world.  Until then I will continue to have hope that there is more to this life than just existing for a few decades and then disintegrating.