Thanks for the great tipsheets Marg! The latest one reminded me that I am always confused over the proper use of who/whom. Is whom just outdated now? I don’t seem to see it used much anymore. No matter which I choose, it always sounds weird!

Would love to see it mentioned in an upcoming tipsheet if you can.

Best regards,
Karen

Hi Marg

Re: Today’s Tip: 15 Commonly Confused Terms

I always enjoy your tip sheets, but this week’s was especially handy. Well, they’re always excellent, but I think you know what I mean. When we speak we don’t always reflect on how to differentiate between similar words and how to spell them. So, when it comes to writing, I always seem to have to use my dictionary. This tip sheet was a good reminder on some commonly confused words. Thank you so much.

I’m not asking you to reciprocate, but just want to let you know that I have links from my website to a couple of your sites and hope you don’t mind.

Kind regards

Lena

Lena Nilsson
Email: lenan@iinet.net.au
Web: http://www.redpindan.com

P.S. Once a upon a time you were my tutor when I undertook a Creative Writing Course for Children. I’m still writing and using your valuable advice on a daily basis.

Dear Marg,
Nice job with your writing tips. Great idea to set up this blog.

All writers want to get published.

A common challenge in reaching that goal is writing a compelling query letter—one that opens the door into the publishing world.

Drawing on my experience as a former publisher, Time-Life editor, and UCLA instructor (teaching marketing to writers) I’ve developed a unique method that can help writers learn to craft query letters that get them what they want—an agent, a publisher, and shelf space at Barnes and Noble.

To help writers get published, I’m offering (for a limited time), a complimentary, 31-page Query Workbook which can be accessed at http://www.getpublishednow.biz.

Please tell your writer friends, study group members or newsletter subscribers about this helpful learning tool. I thank you, and so will they! I’m happy to send you the PDF link, but need an email address to do so.

Molli Nickell
http://www.getpublishednow.biz
Helping writers get published since 1998
Teaching/speaking at the SCBWI Southern Breeze October, 2008 http://www.southern-breeze.org
Teaching at the FWA November, 2008, conference http://www.floridawriters.net

Thanks for your comments, Karen, Lena and Molli!
I always appreciate hearing back from people, and I get some great ideas for future articles and tips that way, too!
Karen, I have to confess: who/whom is one of the rare things that I have a mental block about. I don’t know how many times I’ve researched it or had it explained… but I never seem to retain it! Sometimes I find it easy: the right choice seems obvious – but at other times, I sit there and vacillate between one and the other!
I guess we all have those things that just don’t stick!
Guess I’ll stick to the things I know well… and see if someone else can explain it so logically and clearly that there’s no longer any doubt!
Molli: I recently heard from elsewhere about your query workbook, so it looks like the word is getting around – I’ve just signed up for it myself. Nice looking website, by the way!
Lena: I certainly don’t mind the links to my websites – I appreciate the faith you have in me and my advice! Do stay in touch.
Cheers
Marg

Your lateast Writing for Success comments about James Patterson are so true – and can be applied to so many other writers. There is an awful lot of rubbish being published because the writer is deemed “marketable” and not because they tell a good story or their prose is something special. Strippers, lap dancers, adventurers, con-men, bankers et al are for more likely to get published because of their showbiz ability than some poor writer who shrinks from the limelight. Look at Sydney Bauer’s books – if you can. Badly writing (over-written0, full of tautologies, dangling modifiers, repetitive phrases …. on and on and on. But, bioy, can she sell a book: blond and personable. That’s what it takes to become an author.

You’re right, Tony… ‘fame’ of whatever kind is definitely a carrot for many publishers. They need books that sell to make sure they stay in business… and it’s quite probable that a lot of what they publish is not what they’d CHOOSE to publish if they didn’t have to worry about money.
However… writing’s not only about earning megabucks, thank goodness. Many writers plug along earning tiny incomes just because they love it (even if they have to stay in other employment to feed themselves). Others are content to earn some kind of a wage, as long as they can keep writing.
Marg

I have been keeping a file of your tipsheets but have missed several. Do you have archives of tipsheets for #s 73, 74, 80-82, 84-89, 90-99, 120 and 121? I would be pleased to complete my file.

Hi Doris,
All the ‘Series’ tipsheets – like the ones on self-editing and the Kickstart Program for writers – are now mini-courses in the members’ section of the website.
Now that the Membership site has opened, all new tipsheet articles will be available in the archives section (available to everyone for one month after publication), after which they’ll be moved to the members’ section of the site. However, I’ve left a large number of articles in the database for public use.
The tipsheet itself will continue to be sent to subscribers free of charge, so everyone can take the opportunity to build their own database of writing tips.

Great website….

Keep it up guys!

http://www.twitter.com/zoralielda

Marge

Anyway you write a Tipsheet is invaluable…it’s the content that makes our hearts sing. The print is a secondary concern to all those writers who wait impatiently for the next issue.

Congratulations on your new endeavor. This will be a magical adventurefor both you and Rob. Enjoy!