UND-Pilsa Blog

I’m talking about the humble, sometimes admired and often despised cliché.

Originally a French printing term, the cliché started life a hundred or so years ago in a completely different format. It was a block of semi-permanent printing that could easily be inserted into a document being readied for a printing press. It’s a noble origin that has, over time, come to mean something completely different. Today we know a cliché as a term that has lost its original meaning and impact thanks to overuse. Perhaps the cliché was once a novel, humorous and unique statement, eliciting laughs and acknowledgement of its wit from an audience. Today the tired old cliché is more likely cause listeners to sigh and roll their eyes in boredom than consider the user an intellectual, humorous person.

Clichés have been around for centuries, and they’re not about to go away. Whether we like them or not there is a place for them in the world of writing. Clichés can work very well in the comedy genre, especially when a twist is applied in a genial, unexpected sense. Take the rather hackneyed phrase: when in doubt, consult your inner child. This is a wonderful cliché because of the possibilities it offers the writer. It can be twisted to fit almost any situation. Here are a few examples:

Another cliché could be applied to provide an alternate ending: when in doubt… don’t! It’s better to stay silent and remain a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt!

A familiar catch line could be applied, particularly one synonymous with a service or a product, such as the Yellow Pages: when in doubt… let your fingers do the walking.

Proverbs have somehow avoided becoming clichés, because over time they’ve acquired a wise, solid reputation for being words of advice with their basis in common sense and logic. This makes them the perfect companion for clichés: when in doubt… remember; every dog has his day.

Another use for clichés is to create a bond between writer and reader. This works well in modern culture, a good example being the avid “Star Trek” fans known as “Trekkies” . Phrases like: “Beam me up, Scotty” and “to boldly go where no man has gone before” are synonymous with the television series. An episode of the cartoon series “Futurama” was titled “To Boldly Go Where No Fan Has Gone Before”, establishing an instant rapport with Trekkies all over the world. Similarly an episode of the world’s most popular carton series “The Simpsons” was titled “Homer Simpson - This is Your Wife”, a tribute to the famous television series of the 1970s and 1980s called “This Is Your Life”. This episode, written by British comedian Ricky Gervais, was based on the current reality television phenomenon, with a satirical take on shows like “Wife Swap” and “Trading Spouses”.

Another way clichés can be applied to writing is with the use of stereotypes - characters that can easily be identified with certain traits and situations. An example of this would be an insurance salesperson or used car dealer - in the word of clichéd stereotypes both are slick, smooth-talking and well dressed characters that cannot be trusted. Another example is the colloquial description of the devil, with his horns, forked tail and pitchfork. Characters like these can be very useful for a writer, because the reader can instantly picture the character described as “the car salesman” . Such is the power of the cliché that the writer can embellish his character even further, applying a twist to the physical description to enhance the clichéd stereotype. That oily salesperson could have a facial tic or greasy hair. He could stutter when he’s about to close a deal.

Regardless of these uses for it the general consensus is that clichés should be avoided in writing whenever possible. Such is the aversion to the cliché that there’s actually a phrase to counter its use: anti-cliché. It’s almost exactly the way comedians have been known to use the cliché. A famous example of twisting the cliché for embarrassment - “I wish the earth would open up and swallow me whole” - can be found in J R R Tolkein’s “Fellowship of the Ring” , when an embarrassed Frodo “falls through the floor” after slipping the ring onto his finger.

Critics say use of clichés makes writing dull and uninteresting, because most clichés are so well known readers will not absorb the detail it describes. Proofing or editing your own work will help identify clichés that have slipped through without warning, confirming just how insidious the cliché has become… many times we’re not even aware that we’ve used one!

Ask yourself if the phrase or word you’re considering is regularly used in casual conversation, the media and advertising? If the answer is yes then look for another way to express your words.

Replace one or more of the words in a cliché. Jilly Cooper once described a character as having a “French fry on his shoulder” , a classic and hilarious twist on the tired “a chip on his shoulder”.

Try to find a new way to write the cliché. Instead of using “the light at the end of the tunnel” consider something like “the light at the end of a damp, very long and extremely dark tunnel” .

Rewrite a traditional cliché to give it new meaning. “Many hands make many mistakes” is a humorous take on “many hands make light work” . It’s also a great way to use alliteration.

Use a thesaurus - but with care. Make sure the synonym selected will work with the description or detail of the character or event. Excessive reliance upon the thesaurus can distract a writer, so the phrase finally used sounds worse than the original cliché.

While clichés can be difficult to avoid, and do have there place in certain aspects of writing most writers and readers will probably with the unavoidable and totally perfect cliché to end this piece. I couldn’t have said it better myself…

… avoid clichés like the plague!

This article has been submitted in affiliation with http://www.Facsimile.Com/ which is a site for Fax Machines.

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Many of us would rather die than stand up to speak in public. You know the feeling don’t you? The sweaty palms; the dry mouth and red face; the total lack of rational thought only replaced by absolute PANIC.

OK maybe a little exaggerated, but I’ve been there myself and I’ve seen otherwise strong people reduced to gibbering wrecks at the thought of having to do this.

Now I’ve also been on one or two public speaking courses - the last one was run by an actor, sorry an AC-TOR, a real thesp and we spent a lot of time breathing(?) and talking in strange accents! I’m not sure how much it helped, but the day was fun, so perhaps it did do some good.

What I’m going to suggest though rather than going to one of those public speaking courses that may or may not help is to follow some simple guidelines and then read and practice my suggestions.

First off try to be sure that your part in whatever public speaking engagement you are involved with is brief. This means you know your agony will be short and there will be less time for the audience to get their aim (ha-ha).

Prepare your speech carefully, writing it out in full. Two sides of A4 in normal handwriting will take about three minutes to read. Read it out loud in front of a mirror several times until you start to feel whether it sounds about right. If you find yourself changing the words as you read it out, then change them on the paper copy. Only when it feels right and sounds natural should you continue.

Continue reading it out loud in front of the mirror, but try to refer to the paper less often; you will find this gets easier after several readings. When you can run through the whole thing without referring to the written version you’re almost there.

Next get the paper typed up so that you can refer to it as necessary. Break it up into paragraphs so you can pick up the point you are at easily if needed.

When you get to your engagement have your paper handy, take a deep breath then stand up. wait for the audience to settle, look around the room and smile at someone you know or just anyone.

Start without referring to your paper, confident that it is in your pocket if you should need it.

For more public speaking courses to overcome your nerves visit my Public Speaking Courses website.

Peter Fisher is Managing Director of Career Consulting Limited which provides expert help for career and performance management. He is an expert author and career coach. His advice on Pulic Speaking Courses at http://www.public-speaking-courses.com provides every help with overcoming your nerves and mastering the art of public speaking. For general career change advice visit http://www.your-career-change.com

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Set a Goal for Something You’ve Always Wanted to Do

• You say, “I am generally satisfied with my life, so should I still set goals and what kind of goals?” I hear exactly what you are saying. I love my life. It is busy and filled with the work and play I enjoy. I find, however, that there is always a new risk to take, a new and enriching endeavor to tackle, and a subject or skill to learn. In this fast changing world, there is something new happening everyday. I am not suggesting joining the frenetic pace, but how about trying something you have always wanted to do?
• I am a storyteller and a couple of years ago decided I wanted to enhance my telling by adding a drum beat to certain stories. I set a goal to learn how to drum and the minute I did, I received a community bulletin offering a continuing education class in African drumming. What fun I had! I am not a professional drummer by any stretch of the imagination, but I do have a Djembe and know enough to use it with pizzazz during certain tales. What I am attempting to stress here is that goals don’t have to be heavy and rigid or overwhelming. They can and should add joy and delight to your life.

Goals Will Enhance Your Freelance Career

• All right. Goals are powerful. But how can they enhance my freelance life and career? Even if the goals you set are not directly related to your career situation, every goal you reach will strengthen your confidence and self-esteem, both of which add to your presence with clients and when networking. Every goal that forces you to take risks will help you take more risks as a freelancer, therefore giving you a unique and special style of your own.
• The freelancer with confidence and style is the freelancer who will be hired in today’s tough job market. The freelancer who takes risks will help clients take risks. And, the freelancer who sets goals will accomplish everything he or she desires.

Remember, there is one more important part of goal setting. Goals that are set without taking action on them are the beginning of delusion. Goals with action are the beginning of miracles. So set some goals and get busy.

Chris King is a free agent, professional speaker, storyteller, writer, website creator / designer, and fitness instructor. Chris has what she calls a “Portfolio Career” –many careers at the same time. If you wonder if you could handle and love having a “Portfolio Career” you will find a free assessment to take at http://www.creativekeys.net/portfoliocareertest.htm Sign up for her eclectic E-newsletter, Portfolio Potpourri, at http://www.freelanceliving.com You will find Chris’ business website at http://www.creativekeys.biz

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There is something I’d like to talk about… from the angle
of an ezine publisher.

That’s “How to submit articles to an ezine, and get
published”.

Put yourself in a publisher’s shoes. How do you feel if,
one day, you receive an article submission email which ends
with “if you want remove from this list…”? I did not ask
to subscribe… for crying out loud…

~~ Do not add a publisher to any list ~~

If you have an article service list, ask the publisher to
subscribe. They normally would, if they like your works. If
they don’t they won’t publish your works anyway, why bother
adding them to your list.

If you have a large list of publishers and article
submission groups to send your articles, use a bulk mailing
software such as Groupmail. You can personalize the email.
And the free version can send to up to 100 recipients at a
time. That should be enough. Get a free download here…
http://eLaguna.neet/groupmail.htm

Now put yourself in a publisher’s shoes again, how do you
feel when receive — at your article submission address –
an email addressed to “dear publisher”? This person does
not mean to send article to us… just any publisher, right?

~~ Know the ezine you are submitting your article to ~~

No need to chit-chat with publishers. No need to go “I love
your ezine”, etc. But a little of “hello what’s up” is nice.
Personalize the email. Address publishers by name. You
should also send the kind of article the ezine publisher
is looking for. If you send an article against solo ads to
a publisher who sends more solos than the ezine, don’t ever
expect to get published.

Some publishers accept ONLY article within a certain topic.
And they say so in the ezine. Please respect the rules.

Put yourself in my shoes again (I have several pairs), what
if you receive email from a certain author (who happens to
be a fast writer) everyday? Do you finally stop reading his
emails? I do.

~~ Do not submit too often ~~

I used to receive daily submission from an author. I thought
it was funny. There had been too many emails from him that I
did not read it anymore. Latest news… the poor author was
accused by some publishers for spamming! Worst thing was
he did not send the article to the article submission
address, but the publisher’s contact address…

~~ Send it to the right place ~~

Be sure you send your article to the right address, with
the right subject line. Most people filter their email.
If your article does not make its way to the “articles
to read” (or whatever) folder, the possibility is that
it will never be read at all.

The other not-so-important-but-nice-to-do thing is
formatting. I take me more time to read and publish an
unformatted article. It might not get published by a
publisher who is busier than I am.

~~ Format your article ~~

To be safe, do it 55 characters per line (press the ENTER
button at the end of every line). I do not know any
publisher who publishes less than 55 chars/line. It is a
good idea to put summary of the article together with
word/line counts with your submission as well.

Each publisher has his/her rule about the format. You have
to follw it. Make it easy to read. Put more white spaces.
And use common language. The article should not be too
long or too short. I think 500 words is a nice length.

Last but not least…

How would you feel when you receive this message “Hey…
you… need some money? here’s my article” Well, I can use
some money, but I just hate you for saying so. I normally
reply to these people with the information of how to order
a solo ad in my ezine.

~~ Make offer with respect ~~

If you are offering a profit sharing program, or any kind of
partnership to a publisher, do it with respect. Use terms
like “please consider…”, “if you would like to…”, or
such. Make publishers feel you are proposing a win-win
partnership. Do not write as if you were giving them a favor
because you actually are not! Do you need your article
published, by the way?

Consider these. Send your article again. This time be more
thougthful. Now the rest is up to the content of your works.

Good Luck, and Have Fun Writing

About the Author

Nucha Aquino is a Work-At-Home-Mom who loves to travel.
She currently teaches International Business and Management
in a Graduate School in Laguna, Philippines. When the baby
is asleep and there is no class, she writes about her
International and Business experiences in her 2 ezines:
Small-World Ezine at http://small-world.netfirms.com , and
eLaguna’s eBiz Tips at http://eLaguna.net/newsletter.htm

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I’ve been involved in publishing for over a decade now as an author, editor, and project manager; however, it wasn’t until just a few years ago that I decided to move into self-publishing. Indeed, my first few projects involved consulting for others and, now, I am involved in my own, personal projects. It has taken a while for me to come back around to my own works, but in the process I learned how to minimize time and expenses in producing a book and getting it to market.

This short article will not try to explain every aspect of book publishing in detail, but it will brush on a few of the important topics. I have a few other book projects in the making that will detail the book self-publishing process; however, in the mean time, this should give you a good basis of understanding.

The Idea

The most difficult part of creating your manuscript is deciding on the topic. We all have ideas. It’s part of our being. Ideas pop in and out of our heads all day long; however, we usually dismiss many of them as useless or too simple to be of use. You would be surprised at how many people want simple and easy-to-understand information! Readers want books that teach, inform, and entertain.

When you sit down and really think about all you’ve learned throughout your life, you’ll be amazed at how much you really know! Your life experiences alone could fill a library! Even if you feel that you don’t have any knowledge that would be of interest to anyone, you can start small. Research a market that interests you, find your competition, learn all that you can about a specific subject, and then write about it. Your ideas are important, as your knowledge and point-of-view are unique and of interest to others.

Planning the Product

I always suggest keeping your book concise and informative. This provides a small footprint, yet it also allows your readers to purchase your book at a reasonable price. Keep it around 100 pages, which, once in book format, equals about 50, two-sided pages.

The core content of the manuscript consists of a title page, copyright, table of contents, figure and table references, acknowledgements, forwards, content, appendices, index, and back page. This list is the basic minimum requirements to support the information necessary to present your book and its content. Of course, you can add other items such as a glossary and a preface, but such inclusions are at your discretion.

It is best to produce your book in the standard 5.5 by 8.5 format in both print and PDF. I always suggest PDF to my publishing clients because it is one of the few cross-platform (i.e., Mac, PC, PDA, and UNIX-based machines) document distribution products available today and it is the most popular.

The Manuscript

Once you’ve focused on an idea, you’ll have to create an outline or table of contents to define the content. The best way I’ve found to do this is to break the idea down into blocks of contiguous information — similar to assembling a pyramid. Step through your idea and ensure that you are building from, for example, the most general information to the most specific information. Check the outline several times, and have a friend review it, to ensure that gaps are filled in appropriately.

You can actually over-rewrite your work to the point of frustration and burn-out. Ensure that you’ve planned and researched appropriately to provide a solid foundation. In this way you can develop a first draft and then perform substantive and grammar edits. Then, perform a technical edit and a second draft. Once the second draft is complete, move into a final copy edit then, once you produce galleys or a sample version of the finished book, perform a proof read. Don’t rework any of the core steps of document development, but ensure that each step is completed with quality in mind. This ensures a solid product in a short amount of time. If you would like to update or add to the information in your first release, provide a follow-up revision.

ISBN and Copyright

Once you’ve started your manuscript, order your group of ISBNs. You can sign up for your ISBNs at http://www.isbn.org for about $240 for 10 ISBNs. However, additional fees can be imposed based on express orders. This is why I say, order the ISBNs while you’re writing the manuscript so that you can afford to wait the 10 days for standard, free, delivery.

You will have to convert your ISBN numbers to EAN barcodes to apply to the back page of your book. The barcode must consist of the ISBN you assigned to the book as well as the coded pricing of the book. You can have a vendor generate the barcodes for between $3 (http://www.toupin.com/serv_writing.asp) and $20 per barcode or you can download and use the Barcode Maker (http://hem.passagen.se/sams/barcode.htm) to generate your own barcodes. For the price, it will pay for itself in just a few ISBNs for your books.

Once you have assigned one of your ISBNs to a book, you can register it in Books In Print (http://www.booksinprint.com/bip/). This is how booksellers are able to access your information and sell your book through their outlets. Additionally, you’ll want to register your manuscript-in-progress with the Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication (http://cip.loc.gov/cip/ecipp14.html). This registers your book for access by libraries and government archives. You will be e-mailed the CIP data to be printed on the copyright page following the heading Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data.

To protect your work and ideas, copyrighting your book is a simple and inexpensive process. There are actually several different methods of protecting your work including government and commercial organizations. The primary sites are the government copyright office (http://www.copyright.gov/forms/) and WriteSafe (http://www.writesafe.com/).

Production

There are many different ways to produce your books; however, costs range from a $1,000 initial setup plus the purchase of a few hundred copies down to no setup fees and pay-as-you-go. The final choice is yours, but my direction involved a local printing company and a pay-as-you-go scheme. With this approach, reduced initial costs are reflected back to the readers and your profit potential is seen immediately.

Three places that I’ve experimented with to print some of my books include Kinko’s (http://www.kinkos.com/), InstantPublisher (http://instantpublisher.com/pricing.htm), and Mimeo (http://www.mimeo.com/). Of course, use these for starters to experiment with your books. Eventually, you’ll find the right bindery for your needs. You can locate many publishers via Google.com or AllTheWeb.com using keywords such as online printing, book printing, and print on demand, but once you get some experience behind you, the choice will be much easier.

Marketing and Distribution

Once you assign and register your ISBN for your manuscript, it becomes available to the multitude of book stores around the globe including Amazon, Borders, Barnes&Noble, and various other major book sellers. Now that you have your book out there, the trick is to have people purchase the book and have book stores stock copies on their shelves.

To have the book stores purchase in quantity, you’ll have to devise a solid marketing plan to their acquisitions personnel. In many cases, book stores will simply sell your book to their customers as it is requested, but if you can get them to buy in bulk, that’s greater exposure and sales for you!

You can also license out the content to various professional speakers. Speakers are always looking for ways to provide quality information specific to their presentations. They might use your content in a handout, or perhaps for sale in the back of the room. Locate those speakers that fit within your audience and contact them. Find out their needs for their next presentation and work out a deal for them to resell your books. I’ve had many speakers use my articles in their presentations and the exposure and feedback has been overwhelming.

Of course, you should always locate affiliates to help sell your books. One way is to offer them a percentage of the gross sales or sell them copies of the books at a discount. Either way, you will have agents out pushing your books for you to make money for them, as well as for you.

Always provide a web site that boasts the benefits of your book. Use a book cover maker to create a book image on the web site. One quality book cover creator is called CoverFactory (http://www.ans2000.com/a2k_coverfactory.php) and provides numerous capabilities to generate professional looking covers for books, software, and services.

Free content is an important way to bring people to your site and let people know about your book. You can provide rewritten excerpts from your book as articles and submit them to various article announcement lists, press release sites, zines, and directories. I’ve been able to locate and associate with over 1,000 sites and lists that accept and publish my articles. This provides outstanding coverage for my sites, services, and products.

Sales and Returns

Since you are the publisher, you now have to determine how to handles sales. It’s important to define how you will handle direct sales and shipping, bulk sales, and affiliates. You want to ensure that your sales go smoothly as well as provide enough of a margin so that everyone profits.

When collecting funds, it’s important to accept credit cards through one of the popular merchant vendors. To minimize expenses and provide a common and secure payment mechanism, I use StormPay (http://www.stormpay.com) and PayPal (http://www.paypal.com). Since people have their likes and dislikes of online payment vendors, using both allows many different types of users to submit payments. Of course, you must always determine how to handle returns as part of a quality customer service program.

What’s next?

Obviously, the information provided here is merely an overview of the entire process. However, I am working on a book that provides all of the details of producing your own book under your own imprint. Publishing provides excellent return monetarily as well as through enhanced self-esteem. There is quite a feeling that comes with getting your message out there and having people return positive feedback. Perhaps, once you self-publish a few of your own titles, you can work on publishing other authors and open a full-fledged publishing house. In this day, such a venture is not unheard of!

Edward B. Toupin, Ph.D., is a published author, life-strategy coach, counselor, Reiki Master, and technical writer living in Las Vegas, NV. Edward works with people to help them strive for a richer life. He also authors books, articles, and screenplays on topics ranging from career success through life organization and fulfillment. Check out some of his recent print and electronic books as well as his articles covering various life-changing topics! Contact Edward at etoupin@toupin.com or visit his site at http://www.make-life-great.com.

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