Editorial Views
How To Be The First Writer In Your Chosen Field To Succeed.
Want to write a best-selling book before anyone else from your writing class? Or, maybe, you want to be the first to break a six-figure income before any of your copywriter friends.
It doesn’t matter what writing field you are in: creative writing, ad copy writing, newspaper or magazine writing, online writing ... whatever. The answer to success is still the same.
Let me tell you a little story first. It’s about two boyhood friends I’ll call George and Edgar. Now George and Edgar grew up together. They went to the same schools. They both graduated with honors and they both started their careers at the same local small magazine with similar desires to succeed.
Twenty-five years later, George and Edgar went to their high school reunion. George was still working at the same magazine, trying hard to make ends meet and keep the bill collectors from his door. Edgar, on the other hand, drove to the reunion in his new Cadillac, right after returning from a three-week vacation to faraway exotic lands with his family.
At the reunion, during a casual conversation, George learned Edgar had published several best-selling books and now had his own publishing company and magazines of his own.
So why did George end up poor and Edgar rich?
They both had the same intelligence, talent, and desire to succeed. They both had opportunities over the years. So what was it that made the huge difference in these two lives?
The answer is K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E!
Edgar had simply acquired more information about his chosen profession and used it to his advantage when opportunity knocked.
So if you don’t want to end up like poor George, you should fill your head with as much information as you can find on your writing field. And today there is no better way to gain that knowledge quickly and easily than by downloading inexpensive writing eBooks.
The Internet has thousands of ebooks for writers and ebooks on writing. A Google search will find them for you with a simple click.
And here’s a secret you may not know: Many of these writing ebooks come with extra FREE bonus reports. This is an easy way to gain even more additional knowledge.
So don’t end up like poor George. You can do something right now that will ensure your future success. Remember: Information is king!
Be like Edgar. Learn everything about all aspects of your chosen field. And some day you too will drive up to your high school reunion in your new expensive car. All eyes will be upon your perfect tan, the one you got from that recent vacation to those faraway exotic lands.
You’ll be smiling. And you should, because you had learned the secret to success: K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E!
How NOT To Make An Editor's Day
Ever since the gruff, profane, irascible New Yorker editor Harold Ross barked at his young staff, all editors in fiction, film, TV, and real life have been depicted as Ross clones.
My first editor, in fact, made Perry White or Lou Grant look like Don Knotts. He embodied all of Ross's gruffness and seemed to take unusual, sardonic pleasure in reducing his new reporters to tears.
"This is a piece of crap, Burke!" is how he reacted to my first article, which, of course, I thought to be a masterpiece. Then with a wink to the staff, he ceremoniously tossed my copy in a nearby wastebasket. Later I learned he did this to all rookie reporters. This was my initiation to the bizarre world of publishing.
When I became an editor, I vowed to be a kinder, gentler version of Ross. However, during my three decades with the title, I found myself more impatient than Ross with some writers.
For instance, there were those writers who ...
(1) failed to include a SASE for a reply.
(2) liked to talk about writing, rather than doing it.
(3) dispensed "constructive criticism" about my publication.
(4) did not heed, read, nor, apparently, need editorial guidelines.
(5) expected an immediate reply to a query, preferably by phone.
(6) submitted handwritten or badly typed manuscripts.
(7) included pages and pages of credits and clips.
(8) left it to me to change all errors and misspelled words.
(9) placed insufficient postage on a return SASE.
(10) ... and (my favorite) told me how to do my job.
These are some ways not to make an editor's day. There are many, many others. But, as you can see, I'm at the bottom of the page. So now it's your turn. Send me your views. Come on! Make my day.
E. P. Ned Burke
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