I came across an interesting article, Writing For A Book Packager: How To Cash In On An Often Under-Exploited Market by Rusty Fischer, while looking for sites with information on writers markets to add to my growing writing resource directory. I’ve not heard of a book packager (also known as book producers) before today and had no idea what one did or how one might be a good resource for writers. I love making new discoveries and this was definitely a new discovery and one worth exploring by freelance writers or by new writers that haven’t broken into the freelance market and would like to give freelance writing a try.

Basically a book packager is hired by a publishing company to put together a book or series of books on a specific topic. These book packagers often hire freelance writers that are experts in the specific field that the book series is focused on and in some cases they get their name placed on the cover (not sure if all books include the freelance author’s name). Sounds intriguing so far.

The article offers several freelance authors success stories. The one that grabbed my attention was:

Another project, this one a continuity project of arts and crafts cards for preschoolers, shipped out weekly from a huge New York client, has provided unexpected opportunity for another fortunate freelancer. One day, unsolicited, we received a professional query letter accompanied by several wonderful children’s poems. While we had no use for them at the time, it turned out that, weeks later, our preschool card client wanted to add a new section to its cards: Whimsy!

Our unsolicited poet was the first person we called. Now she earns ten dollars per line. At eight lines a poem, six to eight poems a week, that’s not too shabby!

The article includes several ways to find book packagers and how to query them. I did a search on Google and found another article offering information on book packagers, Why Publishers Use Packagers (this article is on a book packager’s site). Apparently there are a large variety of subjects that book packagers put together for large publishing houses and this seems to be a growing enterprise and a viable resource for freelance writers.

Here is an interview with Dori Butler, a children’s author, on Working With Book Packagers. And here is yet another article on Book Packaging: Under-explored Terrain For Freelancers. Guess I’ll add another category to my resource directory for book packagers. It looks like an exciting avenue for writers to explore.

When I was researching writing contest scams I came across Today’s-Woman.net, a writing resource for poets. I landed on the Writers Warning section of the site where the focus is on warning writers of dishonest publishers, scam contests and fraudulent businesses. My first thought was, “Wow, this could be a great resource for researching writing scams.” While the basic information is good and sound, I became a bit sceptical as I started reading about some of the online businesses accused by the sites founder, Rose DesRochers, of being fraudulent. The first warning I read was about WritersWorld.co.uk and its owner, Mr. Graham Cook. Apparently Mr. Cook commissioned Mrs. DesRochers’ husband, Shawn DesRochers, owner and founder of Invision-Graphics Inc., a design and Web development company, to redesign his Web site but failed to pay the agreed amount for the work in the time frame agreed on. Okay, I’m thinking, “what does this have to do with writing and just because someone doesn’t pay for a product he never actually used doesn’t make his business a fraudulent one, does it?”

Okay, so the guy might be a slime-bag and made financial agreements he didn’t, wouldn’t or couldn’t keep but what does this particular issue have to do with writing? Yes, I realize that Mr. Graham Cook’s Web site is a print-on-demand book publishing business but is his business fraudulent? Is the business deceiving customers? So, I continued to read further and believe me, there’s a lot to read about Mr. Graham Cook on Today’s Woman. Apparently Mr. Graham Cook advertised his business on Today’s Woman and promised a commission for every book ordered from the advertisement and a discount for members of Today’s Woman. Well, you can guess the outcome.

I did a search for WritersWorld on Google and there is viable evidence from other sources on Mr. Graham Cook and his fraudulent business practices, including a Class Action lawsuit. Writers should be very wary about using his services. While Mrs. DesRochers appears to be correct about Mr. Graham Cook and his business practices, informing the writers community of his dubious exchange with her and her husband on not paying for Web development was curious and in my opinion, inappropriate. I asked myself why, why put that information on a site about writing? All the other information about Mr. Graham Cook was something writers needed to know in order to make an informed decision but did they really need to know that he didn’t pay for a service implemented by Mrs. DesRochers’ husband?

I decided to check out the other businesses Mrs. DesRochers has accused of some type of dubious practice. Jeff Paris (alias zerofunk), owner of Zware Creations and PoetryScams.com has been accused of harassing Mrs. DesRochers and her husband and making physical and libelous statements about them. Then she goes on to state that Mr. Paris has a history of mental illness and accusing him of stalking them all over the Internet and provides screen shots as proof. Wow, I’m blown away. What does this have to do with writing and warning “writers” about a particular business or Web site that might affect them in some way? Now it looks like Mrs. DesRochers has a vendetta and she’s using her Web site to vent her frustration, which only adds fuel to an already raging fire.

If Jeff Paris was posting inappropriate remarks on the forums at Today’s Woman, then there is where it should have been handled, certainly not on a public page that’s supposed to be about warning writers of what to look out for. A page that anyone can read and the information only makes Mrs. DesRochers look immature and vindictive. Her writing style is manic and repetitive, with lots of punctuation and sentence structure errors, making it hard to read. As a writer she should at least proof-read her writing before putting it online for the whole world to see or let someone else edit it for her. I know that editing your own writing isn’t always the best thing to do and my writing is not perfect but when you are going to discredit someone, you’d better look credible or you risk looking like a real doofus.

The waters get even murkier as I explore what Jeff Paris has to say about the DesRochers’. There’s a lot of accusations thrown back and forth, each blaming the other. Now, these are 40 something adults that haven’t figured out that they are active participants in their own victimization. I’m still not sure what caused the problem between these people. Each has their own version of the ensuing events with their own “selective” screen shots as proof and honestly, I don’t care how it started or who started it. The only reason I am writing about this is because I added the warning page from Today’s Woman to my Writing Resource Directory under Poetry Scams after Mrs. DesRochers submitted it. This caused me to take a closer look at the site and while there is some good, viable information for writers, there’s also some inappropriate and questionable content, which has lead me to write this post.

I originally though of removing the link from my directory but then though I’d leave it since there is some valuable and verifiable information on the warning pages. I’m linking this post to the directory listing so that those who may find it via my directory can read this and know to be discerning when reading some of the content. Never believe everything you read online. Always do more research before accepting that a business or person is less than reputable or even completely credible. If you feel uneasy or find yourself questioning the information, trust your instincts, you’re probably right or at the very least, have reason to question if the information is true or just a sampling of the truth.

The one piece of information that showed me that Mrs. DesRochers might have a problem was this post on VirusHead.net, which lead to James Landrith’s post on his experience with Mrs. DesRochers. These two people seem rational and credible while much of the other information I found was irrational, ugly, inflammatory and disrespectful. I’ll let the words of those involved stand for themselves. An example: on a ICQ forum. I’m sure you can figure out who’s who.

Just for clarity: I didn’t write this to discredit Mrs. DesRochers or anyone else for that matter. My intent is to inform with enough information to allow my readers to make up their own minds about whether or not to use a site and if it feels like a good fit for them and their creativity. I, of course, have formed my own opinion and that opinion does weave in and out of this post but hopefully the information is presented well enough that my opinion does not cloud the issues presented here even more than they were already. Do your own research if you are a writer looking for a place to land and commune with other writers. Tread softly and leave no footprints until you’re sure the sand beneath your feet is warm and inviting.

I’ve set up a writing resource directory in order to keep my sidebar less cluttered and to be able to organize and categorize online writing resources. It also allows me to write a short description of the sites I include in the resource directory and link to related blog post I have written or will write in the future. I’ve moved the links I had listed in my sidebar and added a few more to the directory. It’s a work in progress and I will be adding more writing resources as time permits. I may expand the directory to include articles about writing but for now I’m only listing main sites or full featured sub-pages and sub-domains.

I do want to add blogs that are focused on writing eventually. Blogs about writing are not all that easy to find but with Google’s new blog search feature it might be less tedious. There has been an influx of blog directories and search engines in the past year or so but most are just not well organized with well defined categories that include relevant listings. At lease they weren’t the last time I looked.

Most casual Internet surfers do not know how to use a directory, in fact I’d guess most don’t know anything about the biggest directories on the net today, except for maybe Yahoo but I’m guessing they use Yahoo’s search feature rather then their directory. As the search engines have gotten better at returning relevant sites from a search query, directories have become less important. It’s a shame really. Directories, especially human edited directories, are a great resource and once you understand how to use one it will make your online experience much more productive and enjoyable. I may write a tutorial on how to use a directory. It might benefit those who happen across my little writing resource directory once I get it fleshed out with lots of well organized writing sites.

The writing resource directory does have a feature that allows anyone to submit a site for possible inclusion. I’m going to allow others to submit sites if they know of a good resource or own a site about writing for now. If it becomes a spam magnet, I may remove that feature. It also has the ability to offer featured listing, where a site owner pays for a top-of-the-page site placement. I don’t know if I will implement that feature in the future or not. I may just use it to place sites in that I think are authoritative and/or exceptional resources. I’m just exploring the possibilities for now.

Anyway, for anyone passing by my little piece of cyber space and you happen to know of a good resource for writers, please visit the directory and submit the site or leave a comment here with the url and I will check it out. If I think it’s a good resource, I’ll add it. If you do visit the directory and have a suggestion or would like to comment, please do, I’m all ears.

The Soul Food Cafe is an interesting site and well worth visiting if your are interested in any form of creativity. While the site focuses on writing, any type of creative genre could benefit from exploring this site. From the site:

The Soul Food Cafe aims to promote creative pursuits as a daily practice. The site is quite literally overflowing with healthy and tasty morsels for every artist. It’s full of tips, techniques, references and encouragement.

I think Heather Blakey and her creative companions are doing an exceptional job. They have writing prompts along with a myriad of exceptional creative ideas under the page entitled Box of Wonderment. There’s an Advent Calendar where for each day in the month of December a new creative task is uncovered and highlighted on a map, all interactive and designed to nurture your creativity. There is a theme for each Advent Calendar. This years theme is a journey down The Silk Road. It’s presented like a travel log where each traveler recorded their day by day activities. The travelers are Passport Holding Travellers, each with their own creative space on the site. If you want to be inspired and try something different, then join in the journey down The Silk Road.

There is so much happening on this site that its not easy to find your way around. It could take days to wonder through all that’s being offered and figure it all out. There is a page entitled Writing Directory that does offer a kind of organization to all the pages, like a site map, sort-of, kind-of, well … maybe. When you land on the front page it can be confusing as to what is actually being offered. It jumps from one thing to another, all presented in creative-speak (lots of metaphors) that could be a turn-off for some or leave you so confused that you will not explore the site enough to get what’s being offered. That’s the only drawback of this site. It is worth the time to figure out how to navigate through the pages or figure out how to find what you might be looking for from a site about writing. Being an avid surfer, I have developed a sense of what to look for and if I don’t see it right away or can’t find something that looks familiar, I might move on and not explore the site further. I went back to this site several times and really didn’t get the richness of the experience it offers until I started writing this post and was forced to look closer and find the organization within what appeared to be creative chaos.

I do like the sites design, the way it looks and I love all the creative-speak. The creativity drips off each page, making you want to fall into it and get lost within it, hoping that you will emerge refreshed and inspired. The images are thoughtful, the text is easy to read and the creator has fully embraced her muse. Embracing the muse is something that would benefit us all, even those who don’t think they have a creative bone in their bodies. You might surprise yourself but I don’t think you’d surprise Heather Blakey.

Enjoy the journey!

I haven’t been very inspired to write for a long time but I’m never too far away from my muse to not hear her calling to me. She prods, pleads, even tries to seduce me with stories just waiting to spill onto a page but I’ve become very good a resisting her, even ignoring her but she never stops and is always leading me back to her, even when I think I’m running away. Her latest trick, yes I said trick because trickery slides right past my resistance, was a subtle impulse to create an organized list of online writing resources. It took awhile for the impulse to take hold and actually drive me in that direction. I played at looking for writing resources and did a few posts on some of the sites I used to actively visit and participate on. It was like revisiting the past in the hope that it would inspire future movement toward writing. It didn’t and once again I chose a different path. At least I though I did.

I spent the last month upgrading to the latest version of WordPress and redesigning the layout of this blog. It was creative and creativity is what my muse thrives on, though she would prefer to be creative with words that paint masterpieces in the minds of those who might read her unique take on reality. I’ve resisted by doing creative things, anything that doesn’t require me to write, for others and that has kept me busy enough to fend off my muse and her seductive ways. But now I find myself with nothing to do creatively and feel a little lost. Now, I could take this time and take care of my home, you know, all the things that need to be done but have put off for the sake of creativity. But I don’t want to clean my house, rake the leave mounds in my yard, wash my truck, or any of the things I should be doing. No … I instead need to find my next creative adventure and writing wasn’t going to be a part of that plan.

I have a domain name that I purchased about three years ago that I haven’t developed a site for. The site is/was going to be about hair. Being a hairdresser for 40 years has given me a unique perspective on the industry and I have a lot of information I can offer, not on how you should style your hair but more about taking care of your hair and how to communicate with your hairdresser. It was going to offer basic information on the science behind hair color and permanents and what can and will happen to hair when chemicals are introduced, even when done professionally. The site was to have reviews on professional hair care products and what should and should not to use and why. But the concept has not even begun its metamorphose. Why? Because it will require a lot of writing! But more than that it will require me to organize the information in a way that will be useful for others. Note the two words, writing and organize because I’m leading up to uncovering the trick my muse has masterfully executed. In fact, it was so well executed that I didn’t discover it until I started writing this post.

I have another domain that I purchased when I decided to explore being a website host. My plan was to start out small and only host for people I know, mostly friends. I started out with one client and I currently have 5 clients, all of which I designed sites for. After having to move my clients from one reseller account to another because the original host I used disappeared, I decided that hosting wasn’t my thing. As a reseller I can not charge the low prices that many hosting providers can offer now and in order for it to actually provide a moderate income I’d have to service a lot of clients, much more than I want to be responsible for. I just do not have the knowledge required to become a system administrator, nor is that something I want to learn more about.

So, my hosting domain just sits there with a coming soon message on it. With nothing else to do I started exploring what I could do with that site. My initial thoughts were to develop and sell website templates or to sell someone else’s templates but that didn’t stick. It wasn’t exciting enough. I like designing for people I know or for people I can get to know. I think a sites design should say something about the owner and the best way to accomplish that is to know something about them. Designing for some enigmatic person just doesn’t inspire me. Then I began to think about moving all my posts about computer security and spam issues over to that domain and create a directory of authoritative sites offering information on computer security and spam issues. I think it’s a good idea. I have people asking me for security guidance all the time. If I can send them to an organized list of sites with computer security focused products and information, it could save me some time in the long run.

Deciding that a niche directory was something I could easily do, since I have several years experience editing on several large web directories, I went in search of a script I could use to create my little niche directory. I found one but in the process I also found myself wanting to use it to create a directory of websites about writing. I knew that linking to sites about writing in my sidebar would be impossible. Well, not impossible but it wouldn’t be easy for anyone visiting my blog to find what they may be looking for and it would make my sidebar very long and cluttered. To be honest, I have no idea why my focus changed from a computer security directory to a writing resource directory. I have the ability and enough interest to create either one. Somehow my muse planted a seed that I believed to be an oak tree when in reality it was the beginning of a whole damn forest.

I have setup the script but I’m still tweaking the design and layout. There are a few things I want to add to the script but one was out of my skill range so I’ve asked for help. I’m hoping it will be possible to implement the feature I want, we’ll see soon enough. In the mean time I’m working on the directory’s structure, the organization of categories. I was doing some research on the categories and came across a site about writing or creativity with a writing focus. That site spawned this post but as you can see, I went in an entirely different direction. I started writing this with the intent of give my visitors a good writing resource to explore without a whole lot of commentary from me. Surprise, surprise, here I sit after spending my whole morning writing a post about not writing which is, even to me, unbelievable. I’m in absolute wonderment of my muse.

I think I will call my muse Silvia. There is one person in the world that might know why I chose that name. If she happens by and reads this post, I know she will smile. I will post about the site that spawned this post tomorrow. It deserves it’s own space and some of my visitors may not read far enough to see it if I place it here.