
Today, I am host Esther Chilton with a post about her new book Publication Guaranteed (Well Almost!). Esther has a lovely blog where she gives all sorts of writing advise and assistance here: https://esthernewtonblog.wordpress.com/. Esther also provides editing services which I have found tremendously helpful in moving my writing and my books forward towards publication.
Over to Esther
First of all, many thanks for having me, Robbie! Robbie kindly offered to have me on her blog to talk about my latest book, Publication Guaranteed (Well, Almost!).
After writing two short story collections and while working on a third, an idea came to me about starting a series of writing craft books. I’ve been a tutor for a creative writing distance learning course for over a decade and I love helping students achieve their dreams, but many of them struggle to become published in this ever-competitive world. So I thought about writing a book to help students and other writers to become published – on a regular basis. The topics in the book include readers’ letters, fillers, articles, short stories and competition writing. In the book, there’s information on market research, how to set work out and send it, as well as lots of useful tips, examples and writing exercises to spark ideas and build on writing skills, all with the aim of publication.
Here is an extract from the chapter Amazing Article Ideas. Writers often find it difficult to know what to write about and where to get ideas from:
Your own experiences
Open up any of the women’s weeklies and you’ll see pages and pages of true-life stories. These range from stories about ‘my operation’, to overcoming an illness/divorce/death in the family, to doing something special, to an amusing pet story. If you did something a little different for your 40th/50th/60th/70th birthday, you could write up your own story for one of the magazines. Similarly, a women’s weekly would love to hear how you recovered from life threatening surgery and went on to have a baby, jump out of a plane or gain a well-earned degree. Your experience needn’t be sensational. True, the magazines do feature many jaw dropping stories, but they also publish lots of heart-warming ones.
There are plenty of other magazines that want to know about your experiences e.g. there are several cat and dog magazines, which invite owners’ stories. Or if keeping chickens is more your thing, there’s a number of smallholder magazines crying out for useful information and advice.
It’s easy to overlook your experiences and to believe no one is likely to want to hear about them. Rest assured, they certainly do e.g. if you volunteer for a charity on a regular basis or were made redundant and have started your own business, one of the women’s glossies is likely to want to hear about it.
Writing exercise
Write down five things that have happened to you – have you won any special awards? Have you helped someone achieve something? Have you or a member of your family overcome an illness? What about a dramatic career change? Did you hit your 60s and decide to learn a new skill? These are just five ideas I’ve come up with quickly and I’m sure you’ll have lots of different experiences to list – ones you can turn into an article for a variety of publications.
If you’d like to read more, the book is available from Amazon, as an ebook. A paperback will be out later in the year.
About Esther Chilton
I’m a freelance writer, copywriter and writing tutor for The Writers Bureau. I also have my own editing, proofreading and advice service. You can find out more about it here.
My love affair with writing came about as a result of a back injury, when I could no longer carry out my job working in a bank. That injury led me to the wonderful world of writing and changed my life!
I joined The Writers Bureau as a student and since then have never looked back.
You can find out more about Esther here: https://esthernewtonblog.wordpress.com/about-me/
Reblogged this on Ed;s Site..
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Thank you, Ed.
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Sharing! ❤
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Many thanks, Bette 😃
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Thank you, Bette.
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Thanks for introducing us to Esther, Robbie. As someone who’s had a couple back surgeries, I love that her back troubles lead her to a writing career.
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Thank you, Jill. Good to meet you. I hope your back is okay now.
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It is, thank you.
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I feel very sorry for people who have back problems. I have pain but mine is caused by stress and tension and physio helps a lot.
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Stress and tension certainly don’t help. I’m glad physio helps you, Robbie.
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A lot of people are looking for this type of useful resource. Sharing!
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Thank you, Liz. Esther has helped me hugely with my writing.
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Thanks for your comment, Liz 🙂
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Many thanks Robbie. I have just bought Esther’s book. Looking forward to reading it.
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My pleasure, Brigid. I am glad this review interested you.
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Many thanks for your comment, Brigid. And an enormous thank you for the review. It’s so kind of you.
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Really useful information, Robbie and Esther. Thank you. Sharing!
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My pleasure, Jacqui. I think Esther is very good at what she does.
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Many thanks for your comment, Jacqui.
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Beautiful review, Robbie and Esther sounds like a very brave lady. I too would love to read her book. Will go and download too.
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Thank you, Kamal. If you are interesting in writing and learning more about the craft, Esther is very knowledgeable and helpful.
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You are welcome Robbie and thank you so much for this information. I would love to take her help in writing a book which I have already started as short stories.
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good luck with your new book – sounds like it has loads of useful info!
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It does, Jim. I have found Esther’s advice on writing to be invaluable.
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Many thanks. I do hope the book helps people.
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A very thoughtful way for her to share her expertise with a larger audience. Thanks for alerting us to her.
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My pleasure, Elizabeth. I have been pleasantly surprised at how many of the writers in know whose books have been edited by Esther. A testimony to her skills.
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Absolutely. Too bad more self published writers don’t realize they need an editor!
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I’ll bear this in mind when it comes to looking for an author for mine, when it’s ready. Blessings for sharing and writing J x
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I’m glad you found this information useful.
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Thank you for sharing, Robbie and Esther. I have back problem from stress also, Robbie. For a while I thought I had problem with the spine, but the x-ray showed the spine was okay.
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It is the same for me, Miriam. I hope it will improve when I stop working. In the meantime, I go to physiotherapy and do exercises.
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I did acupuncture for a while but I think it’s a matter of getting relaxed. Right now, I wake up when the sun comes up around 6 am, sometimes I lay in bed to give my body for resting time. I like to go to the bedroom early to read, that’s resting for me also, but my hubby wants me to spend time with me in the evening because I’m on the computer all day after I get up.
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I can understand that he wants to spend time with you, Miriam. I have the same thing.
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Many thanks for your comment, Miriam 🙂
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I have used acupuncture and find it a great help for pain and for relaxation.
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My pleasure, Esther. 🙂
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Thank you Robbie for introducing Esther, and she sounds like she has a wealth of knowledge to share in the tips for publishing..
Many thanks… ❤ and Much love ❤
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Esther is very knowledgeable, Sue, and I have learned a lot from her. She also has a lovely book of short stories which I have read and reviewed.
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Wonderful Robbie, I have bookmarked her site, As you never know when I come to search for a few tips to help me along the road… Though for now that idea is shelved… But not forgotten.. 🙂
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Thank you for reading, Sue.
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Thanks for the introduction. I’m sure Esther book will help many people start writing or find new topics to write about. Good luck!
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ESther has helped me no end, Olga. I wish her every success with her book.
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Great to see Esther here, Robbie! I enjoy her blog and she has some great advice.
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I agree, Mark. Thanks for visiting and commenting.
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Many thanks, Mark. Glad you enjoyed it.
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Thank you for introducing us to Ester. I visited her blog and followed.
It is so interesting to gain knowledge, meet authors as I embark on writing my first book ever. There is so much to understand in all this.
This post has many useful tips that I need to explore to gain confidence.
Thank you for sharing this.
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My pleasure, Bella. Esther has helped me tremendously.
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I may take her help too
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Many thanks for your comment, Bella. Good to meet you 🙂
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Likewise
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Thank you for this. I will hunt the book out and buy it. I’d never thought about writing for magazines. I shall now look into it. Blessings Joy
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Hi Joy, Esther’s advice has been invaluable to my growth as a writer.
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