I’ve been recommending critique groups for about 10 years now, and in that time have had only two authors join. Everyone else either still wants me to edit, or goes away looking for another editor who will tell them their work is ready for editing.

So here are some good reasons to join a critique group:

1. It doesn’t cost you anything. Well, that’s not quite true: it will cost you time and energy, as you’re expected to critique others’ work as well as receiving critiques yourself. But see #5, below. And the money you save can be better used when your book is ready for editing—and/or should you decide to self-publish, when you’ll need to hire all sorts of people like cover designers, layout people, and so on.
2. You can do it in person. Many writers prefer the weekly meetings that keep them focused and give them deadlines. Check for local critique groups through your chapter of the National Writers Union (you do belong, right?), at your local library, or check out this partial list.



3. You can do it online. If you’re not near a group, or prefer to have an assortment of critiques from all over the world, then online groups are terrific. The one I recommend is the Internet Writing Workshop, where you can participate in interesting discussions about the writing life as well as join critique groups for nearly any genre you can imagine.
4. Critiquing others’ work improves your own. I can’t say this strongly enough. Reading others’ work with an eye to whether or not it “works” will give you that eye when you come back to your own work. Not to mention the karma points!
5. You know you’re not alone. Writing is one of the loneliest activities on the planet. You create alone. You write alone. You read alone. And that’s all well and good, but when you receive your 48th straight rejection, it’s good to have people with whom to share it. People who understand. (And they’ll be your biggest supporters when you finally get that acceptance, too!)

So there you have it: five great reasons to join a critique group. Why not do it today? And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

Search brings clients to your website, but how do you close the sale? Get them to buy your book, your freelance services?

All the usual SEO recommendations come into play here: make sure that the site is easily navigable, that all your internal (and external) links work, that the call to action is clear and present on every page. But conversion—getting visitors to become clients/customers—really is, mostly, about content.

What creates content that converts? How do you listen to your prospect, meet or exceed her expectations, and get her to do what you want her to do, all on a single web page? Here are some tips:

1. Make sure that keywords link to the correct landing page for that keyword, and not to the site’s main page. Let’s take an example from the world of commerce: if a prospective customer keys in “boots,” he doesn’t want to be taken to a shoestore’s main page and left to find his way to the boots section by himself. Too much work. Your goal is to make what you want the customer to do … the easiest thing for him to do. You can extrapolate this to your own website content.
2. “Click here” is so 90s, and it’s not even effective. “Buy now” or “sign up now” is better.
3. Be sure that you include incentives in your copy. Give people a good reason to buy, and a better reason to buy now. Remember the TV commercials where they used to say, “call in the next fifteen minutes and we’ll throw in an extra set of steak knives”? Make the purchase something they feel compelled to do now by offering something extra — free shipping, an extra two months’ subscription, an added-on element.
4. Revise your copy as often as you can, but keep your product names the same. This way you’ll get both name recognition for the product along with fresh copy that catches the eye and makes the customer feel there’s something different (i.e., better) being offered.
5. People who use search to find something have a goal in mind. They are looking for something specific. Relevancy is the keyword here: offer what they want, but make sure that you can. The bait-and-switch some companies use for search is nothing but legal false advertising: don’t do it.
6. Take advantage of local search if you have a brick-and-mortar venue, even if it’s just your local independent bookstore; update what is in stock and make it easy for shoppers to reserve their item online, pay online, and pick up locally if they prefer.
7. Take a moment to review your website. Does it look professional? Do the pages load quickly and easily? Is navigation easy? Is it updated regularly? Remember that your website is your handshake, and there’s never a second chance to make a first impression.

And there you have it. It’s not difficult to create and maintain a website that gets results. Use these tips, and you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

How can you best use Twitter? Here are a few quick ideas that can take literally only minutes a day:

• Follow interesting people (especially authors, publishers, and booksellers)
• Welcome anyone who chooses to follow you. It’s a great idea to have a page on your website that’s an introduction to you and your books; give out that URL when you’re welcoming a new follower.
• Tweet often, but make sure your tweets aren’t all promotional. Include tips, teasers, and ideas others can use. At least one or two tweets every day!
• Promote your book(s), but only in every eight to ten tweets, otherwise people’s eyes will glaze over and they’ll stop reading what you have to say.



• Include some relevant quotations—amusing, inspirational, interesting—each day, because people like to retweet quotes, and you can gain new followers that way.
• You cannot read the tweets of everyone you’re following, but scan them every day and choose two or three that look interesting. Follow those links and, if possible, leave a comment on their blogs.
• Read more about authors and Twitter here.

And that’s it. Quick and easy, and a great way to use what’s become a ubiquitous tool. Do that, and you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

Note that I said “seen as an authority.” The sad reality is that the internet has changed the way we perceive others. The person who has invested years of her life to become an expert is easily supplanted by a Jane-come-lately who knows how to wrap Google around her little finger.

Authority is about perception. What people say about you is more important than what you say about yourself.

So whether you really are an expert, or you want people to think you are, here are some steps to getting there:

• Forget selling, it’s about teaching. The “hard sell” may still work when it’s a Jeep or a Honda you’re selling, but it doesn’t work in the internet world. What is valued online is content, knowledge, information. Use your website and your social media posts to teach people about your field of expertise. The more they see you teaching, the more authority you’ll be given.
• Content is king. Providing lots of foundational content that changes frequently will help you become the go-to authority in your field.
• Provide strong headlines. Most writers don’t think in terms of headlines, but they’re essential. Without a great headline, no one will even get as far as reading your content.
• Find your ambassadors. Every time you have a positive experience with a client, reader, or customer, use that person for a reference, referral, or testimonial. If you don’t ask, they won’t offer. Remind them to tell others about how great you are.
• Make them ask for you. In the heyday of direct-mail marketing, the power was in the list. Guess what——it’s still true! Whether you manage an opt-in email list (you can call it a newsletter if you’d feel more comfortable with that), have people subscribing
  to your blog, or accumulate followers on Twitter, the more people request contact from you, the higher your authority ranking will be.
• Don’t neglect SEO. Search engine optimization is still real. It needs to be integrated with social media, but it’s still one of the most important things you can do to boost the authority of your site.
• Take care of your people. Getting followers and subscribers is just the beginning. You need to be available to them, keep your updates current with them, and interact with them. The more you do, the more they’ll follow.

And that’s it. Not all that difficult, is it? The key to becoming (and staying!) an authority isn’t any kind of esoteric knowledge, but just going through these simple steps … and then doing them over and over again. Try it and see how it works for you! And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

That kind of availability is wonderful … and problematic. In a sense, there’s just too much information out there. One can spend hours drifting from link to link (and don’t tell me that you haven’t!) before getting a grip on oneself and finding just the information required.

From time to time I research something in a limited field of interest for one of my stories, and it occurred to me that there may be some of you out there who would like to bookmark these treasures as well. So sometimes I’ll create a post like this one, sharing my research findings. Who knows, it may be exactly what you’re looking for!

And recently I needed some information on train routes in the United States…

• An image of a US railroad map is available here. The image quality isn’t very good, unfortunately; one cannot expand it enough to be able to read the legend (or what one assumes is the list of names of railroad lines on the right side). It’s clearly intended to be a teaser for a large commercial wall map.
• The National Atlas of the United States offers a map of American railroads that allows the viewer to zoom on particular areas and move around the country (as you’re probably accustomed to with Google maps). However, the graphic image quality of this map is poor, and doesn’t provide any information about particular railroad lines or any other geographical details.
• This attractive color-coded map displays the lines of the seven currently designated Class I railroads in North America.
• Check out Amtrak’s current rail system across the United States.
• Here’s one that caught at my heart: abandoned railways, some of which have been repurposed, some of which are just a little sad.

Tell me there’s not a story in all that, somewhere! So take a few minutes to explore, to plot, and to write it. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!