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Write Now! 2009 Writers’ Conference

It’s that time of year again! Time to sign up for the TAF writers’ conference. If you’re interested in freelance writing, or you’re already a freelancer but you’re not doing as well as you’d hoped, this conference is for you. With top notch instructors and two tracks of classes, you’ll find both the inspiration and the skills to take your writing (and your earnings!) to the next level. Last year’s participants enjoyed the conference so much, they predicted it would be a huge success going forward. And registrations are already pouring in. There are only 100 spaces available, so don’t wait! Sign up today. Here are the details:

NONFICTION WRITERS CONFERENCE
Triangle Area Freelancers (TAF) will hold its second nonfiction symposium Write Now! 2009 Writers’ Conference at Wake Technical Community College’s Northern Wake Campus on Saturday, April 18, 2009, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Local novelist, nonfiction writer, and private editorial consultant Peggy Payne will deliver the keynote address. Her most recent novel Sister India is a New York Times Notable Book.

The conference classes, taught by nationally published writers and journalists, are presented in two tracks. “The Craft of Writing,” will include topics such as Finding and Developing Marketable Topics, When Being There Makes All the Difference, Breaking into Triangle Markets, and Avoiding Freelance Faux Pas. “The Business of Writing” will focus on Writing for the Web, Taxes and Other Boring (But Important) Stuff for Writers, The Legalities of Freelance Writing, and The Writer’s Life.

Registration information is available on the TAF website:
www.triangleareafreelancers.org. Online registration is available with payment made through PayPal. The cost of the conference is $59 ($49 for students with a valid ID and seniors 65 and over). Only 100 seats are available. The registration fee includes a continental breakfast, box lunch, snacks and beverages. For more information, call Donald Vaughan at 919.873.9833.

Sell What You Have: Lessons learned from the rich young ruler. (Lk 18:18-23)

The words pierced me like a carefully targeted arrow hitting its mark. Yet, I was neither rich, nor young. Neither was I a ruler. Or was I?

There were some things he’d gotten right, this young man who stood questioning Jesus. Yet, there was more required of him. He ruled. But he lacked the ability to exercise dominion in the arena of marketing.

As a young writer, aspiring to see my articles in print, the revelation flooded my understanding, jolting my little world of I-don’t-like-to-do-marketing. The words bathed me with new understanding. “Sell what you have.”

It only takes a moment for the higher thoughts of the Lord to penetrate and shatter the hidden secrets of the heart. I, like the rich, young ruler, was holding on to my writing as he did his possessions. With a change of thinking, I pondered the words. “Sell what you have.”

What you have…not what they want.

Sell it! Don’t give it away.

Sell what you have.

You’ve got it, something others need to survive, overcome, endure…succeed.

What have you already written? What have you written that has value? What are you storing up in barns, even building new barns to hold, instead of getting it out into the arena of valued product?

Writer’s rich with ideas must accept the challenge Jesus presented to the young ruler. It requires a change of focus from possessor to promoter. From marks to market. From my possession to my responsibility to get the message out.

What could the rich young ruler have done? What can we, rich young writers do?

Accept the challenge and obey the command.

Hear the affirmation in the command. Ponder this for a moment. Jesus told the man, “Sell what you have.” He obviously knew what the man had. According to the young ruler’s response to the Lord, he kept five of the ten commandments. Jesus did not discount the accomplishment. He could just as well have said, “Don’t keep the secret to your success, the ability to keep these commandments, stored away in your own barn. Make this available for public consumption. Feed those who are struggling with that which you have mastered.”

Jesus’ words of command were also words of encouragement. It was an affirmation of the young man’s wealth. I know what you have. Sell it. Get people to make an exchange. At the same time He was also saying, “There are people out there who are willing to pay for what you are storing.”

Think about this for a moment. This is Jesus speaking. He knows who you are and what you have to offer. He knows the needs of the people and he’s standing before you with one simple command. “Sell what you have.”

Package what you have for public consumption. Someone needs it. Someone will buy it….and you will experience new life. Isn’t that the essence of what Jesus said to the man?

Let’s take this a step further. Let’s brainstorm together. What unmerited thinking shackled the rich young ruler? Could it be summed up by saying, “I don’t know how? I don’t have the time. I’ve never done that before.” After all those are some of the excuses we’ve been using isn’t it? I don’t know how to find out who needs this information. I don’t know how to query an editor. I don’t know how to edit the article. I don’t know how….? Fill in the blank yourself. I’m sure you, like myself, have said it enough times to know the refrain by heart.

Here’s a thought to ponder. This ruler was being challenged by the Lord to expand his knowledge base. Yet, he was content to just possess. Many in the body of Christ stand at the same threshold. We possess knowledge of the Christian life. We have overcome in several, if not many, arenas. We have some trophies and we sometimes recall the moments of triumph. But have we recorded those victories, the lessons learned and the encouragement for others?

I want to leave you with this thought today. Are you a rich young ruler? Are you secure in your level of accomplishment? Take this challenge today. What truths have you mastered? What area of your life has been transformed. What food for thought do you have that others will be nourished by? Write them. Record them and pass them on. They’re valuable and someone will make an exchange (buy) in order to reach the level of success you are basking in today.

–Debbie Howard

Oversold!

Maybe I just have the kind of face that makes people feel comfortable talking to me, but lately strangers have been telling me their personal problems. Just the other day a lady was telling me how dry her skin was, especially in the winter. Fortunately, she said, she’d found a great moisturizer that made her skin as smooth and supple as a baby’s tuckus.

Then a guy confided that he had erectile dysfunction, but that he had stumbled across a medication that helped him rise to the occasion. His wife now apparently had a smile on her face you couldn’t erase with a belt sander.

The fact that these people are all on television just makes it worse, because I can’t tell them to just shut up and keep their icky secrets to themselves. There was a time when TV advertising involved a guy in a suit holding up a bottle of oil made of compressed snakes or something and telling you how great it was, or perhaps a black-and-white animation of hammers clanging in someone’s skull, followed by a pitch for aspirin. If I’m dating myself, so be it – there seemed to be far fewer commercials in those days, and they pitched stuff I actually needed.

But now advertising pervades every aspect of our lives, whether we’re interested in the product or not. There’s a scene in the movie “Minority Report” where Tom Cruise’s character walks by a video display and is addressed by name and assailed with advertising targeted specifically at him.

We’re not quite there yet, but we’re close.

If you’ve ever bought anything on Amazon, for example, on return trips to the site you’ll see offers for books or DVDs similar to what you’ve bought before. Computer trojans infect your PC, watching your buying habits so they can report them to a central site which in turn sends you spam. We’re even targeted with product placement on TV these days.

I don’t know about you, but when I think of the word “target,” a gunsight springs to mind. Well, actually, the first thing that comes to mind is a certain department store – because of their pervasive advertising. I don’t think of being a target as a good thing, especially if you’re a deer. But then, at least they don’t have to watch commercials.

Sure, in the old days there were door-to-door salesmen, but you could always tell them where to put their Electrolux and various attachments. Marketing is now a strictly one-way medium, “served” to you on TV, in movie theaters, on your cell phone, land line, the Internet, billboards, magazines, newspapers, email and other conduits. It’s all given me a bad case of TMA – Too Much Advertising.

All those ads clamoring for attention remind me of the overly zealous salespeople on commission who just won’t leave you alone when you’re trying to shop at your local Buy More. Excuse me, but if I need help, I’ll ask for it. Instead, I get an ever-increasing horde of salespeople, all trying to guess what I want to buy or sell me something I don’t want. Enough already.

But I think I have a solution.

Many of us have signed up for the Do Not Call registry, which prohibits unsolicited phone marketing. How about a Do Not Sell rule, where I accept advertising only when I request it? If I see, for example, a really cool car I’d like to know more about, I email the auto company a request for more information, with the understanding that there will be no more communication unless it’s initiated by me.

I can see advertisers rushing to adopt this plan, since they’ll hear only from people who are seriously interested in their products. It’s a revolutionary idea that’ll change the face of advertising forever.

Also, the color of the sky in my world is chartreuse.

- MAC