Helping a Reporter Out has Never Been Easier through HARO

Do you ever find yourself in that situation where you’re working on an article and you need to get a hold of an authoritative resource? Have you searched endlessly in the search engines for what you need only to be sorely disappointed with the results? And what happens when you do find a resource? Now you have to take an extra step and contact them which–depending upon how quick their turnaround is you might miss your deadline.

Started through a Facebook group by PR guru Peter Shankman, HARO is a great solution to your “need for resources” woes. I’ve used HARO for this blog, an upcoming five day marathon of articles about the most common questions I hear from writers. Up until that point, I found it very difficult to get agents to respond to me, but through HARO I got so many responses I’m still sifting through them!

One of the reasons why I like the group so much, is because of the way that Peter manages this free service. He’s transparent, he’s real, and he advocates “being nice.” Just this morning, he mentioned to subscribers to do one nice thing every day in his introduction which is part blog, part “welcome to the community.”

This morning I thought of you, my readers, because there was a call for “Diet, Health and Cookbook Authors.” If you fit the bill, please contact me and I will be happy to send you the listing.
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July 24, 2008
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When Fan Awards Make a Difference: Diana Jones and ENnie Awards for Gaming

As most of you know, I’ve done a lot of writing and editing within the gaming industry. Like other industries, there are some industry-facing and/or fan awards that softly bolster the businesses that do their very best. There are two awards that are typically presented at GenCon Indy that not a lot of folk are aware of; one is The Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming, and the other are the ENnie Awards.

Diana Jones Award

I had the pleasure of sponsoring this event through Flames Rising last year and was on hand to take pictures and throw in support.

Attracting international attendees, there are folk from Scotland, Ireland, Germany, France, the UK and as far away as Australia have come to Indianapolis for this convention opener. The Awards commemorate the “excellence in gaming” and while for many folk that might mean “excellence in design” — the Diana Jones awards has a different take on it.
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July 22, 2008
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Dr. Horrible by Joss Whedon: One Supervillian – One Musical – One Week

If you follow any of the places I go like Wizard World 2008 or GenCon, you probably also know I’m a huge supporter of other people in the industry–artists, writers, fans, etc.–who do exactly as I do. Many of us have a full time job and career, but are passionate about the hobby for fun times and the great people associated with it. Then there’s the unsung actors, stars of television shows and script writers, that aren’t as well known as the Angelinas, Lindsays, or Nicoles of the world, but they are out there pounding the pavement because they love what they do.

If you’ve enjoyed Buffy: the Vampire Slayer or Firefly, you probably know the name of Joss Whedon.

His new venture is two parts-comedy, one dash of “evil” in the style that he knows best. Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog capitalizes on Whedon’s rabid fan-base by offering three acts of an online musical starring Neil Patrick Harris as the villain, Doctor Horrible, Felicia Day as his love interest, Penny, and the unforgettable Nathan Fillion as Captain Hammer.

While most people are flocking to the blog (rumor has it fans crashed the site on the first day because there was so much traffic) there is a “master plan” attached to this dastardly selection of musical bad-er-goodness. (Yes, the cast can sing. And good, too!)

It is time for us to change the face of Show Business as we know it. You know the old adage, “It’s Show Business – not Show Friends”? Well now it’s Show Friends. We did that. To Show Business. To show Show Business we mean business. (Also, there are now other businesses like it.)

ONE WEEK ONLY! AN INTERNET MINISERIES EVENT!

It is definitely well within the Whedonverse which, if you’ve watched any of Joss’ creative works, will probably mean that there won’t be a happy ending to this sordid tale of supervillainy woe. While it may not be for you, I’m spreading the word anyway because even if you don’t like the content of this musical extravaganza–you gotta love the idea and wonder why you didn’t think of it first.

July 18, 2008
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Need Free Art? Here’s my Review of 5 Copyright-Free Clipart and Photo Sites

You may have noticed that from time to time I drop in a few pieces of clipart or photos in between my posts. I’ve taken some of the photos myself, other times I’ve relied on images tagged with Creative Commons because I don’t have time to focus on my graphic design skills but am very conscientious of the fact that like writing–art takes time, money and materials to make. Creative Commons has give me the ability to know what my rights are to an artist’s work, for some of the same reasons I described for writers in my post entitled, “When do you need a copyright?.

Finding these resources isn’t as easy at it might look because sometimes the word “free” simply means “you don’t have to pay.” That doesn’t always mean that there isn’t some other catch associated with getting the artwork or that there aren’t any copyright restrictions. From subscriptions to spam, there’s often other headaches that come with searching for open source clipart and photos.

Here’s five resources that I rely on from time to time. For your convenience I’ve reviewed a few of them in a more structured format to provide you with the highlights and a little bit more detail than I typically go into. The ratings are from 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest rating.

Openclipart.org

From the home page, Open Clipart is extremely straightforward about the goal of their site.

This project aims to create an archive of user contributed clip art that can be freely used. All graphics submitted to the project should be placed into the Public Domain according to the statement by the Creative Commons.

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July 17, 2008
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Can Online Novels be Successful? Find out from Novelist, Ryan A Span in a Guest Post

Hi everyone, special thanks to my guest bloggers who are helping me frame up some great posts this week. The first guest blogger I’d like to introduce is Ryan A. Span, who got his start posting an online serial novel. Ryan is blogging today about his experiences posting a well-read online novel which led to print publication through a small press publisher. Ryan’s writing style is kind of interesting, because he shoots straight from the hip and doesn’t look back. I hope you enjoy this post as much as I enjoy exchanging emails and interacting with him; Ryan’s a really nice guy and very passionate about what we all love to do–write.

About Ryan A. Span

Ryan A. Span is 24, lives in Britain with his girlfriend, and writes books because he doesn’t know how to do anything else. Ryan is the author of Street: Empathy, his cyberpunk debut published by Gryphonwood Press, part of the free-to-read online serial Street.

What it’s Like Being an Online Novelist

One fateful evening in December 2006, I was sitting in front of my latest novel-to-be and decided that this was the one. I’d toyed before with the idea of making regular online releases of my work but had never been quite convinced I had it in me. This time, though, I knew I was holding a story with the potential to go all the way.
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July 14, 2008
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