The Auto Auction Group

The very good old Chinese motto has an immense significance; the slogan described the truth that each & every person accepts an event much more if it is watched. By the use of video production or videography it’s realistic to film a sequence of occasions. Vidify’s online video distribution partnerships ensure your video commercials generate awareness and impact within the right circles, fast.

At the present time in many different company presentations, video is repetitively adopted. By employing video production it is viable to give the crucial info to quite a lot of potential customers to help sway them. Online Video production currently is employed for many different jobs; however, several short format online videos & awareness related presentations are usually manufactured in order to accomplish particular company goals.

Audio video productions are currently in style and as a result are used in roughly any form of corporate activity. Creative agencies generally work with a certain type of client or an organisation that are looking to develop a short format video, a presentation or a collection of video clips. The total work of video production is usually carried out by freelancers; yet there are one or two good creative agencies around at the moment.

The participation of music composers, cameraman & script writers can also be very common when creating internet video productions. Furthermore, advertising agencies and PR firms have very recently become involved with online video production and marketing.

The main challenge for today’s writer is getting their book noticed by a publisher. There are several good writers in the field looking for book deals. I was one of those writers trying to get my book published and like so many others after receiving rejection letters, I decided to learn about the world of self-publishing.

Self-publishing can be rewarding in order to become a self-published author you have to have motivation and the will to succeed. How do you decide if you should self-publish your book or not? Ask yourself the following questions:

1)Can you be a businessperson as well as a writer? Writing is a quiet occupation, while business demands proficient communication skills.
2)Are you motivated enough? You will need to see your book through from beginning to end, and this can be a lengthy process.
3)Are you willing to take a risk? You can’t be afraid to take the plunge, you have to believe in yourself!

Tracy Lyn Moland, the self-published author of Mom Management – Managing
Mom Before Everybody else, states that when she started to write her book, she didn’t realize self-publishing was even an option. Tracy Lyn discovered that a well-defined business and marketing plan had to be put into place. There were also different considerations to be made such as learning what market to target your book to, who to hire to design your book cover, layout and editing and how to get the book into bookstores and online. Tracy’s favorite part of self-publishing has been the control she was able to maintain over her book.

As a self-publisher you need to be aware of your personal marketing abilities, in order to get your book sold, you have to get out there and sell it. The advantages of publishing your own book can be plentiful.

By choosing to self-publish, you only have yourself to convince. You have the enthusiasm for a book that you have written, and you know that there is a market available for it. You don’t have to give anyone else the final say of what you put in your book, how it is to be marketed or any thing else. You have complete and total control when you self-publish. Once you have successfully self-published your book you can always negotiate with a large publisher to produce your book since you have experience in the market.

Your book can be printed in just a few weeks instead of waiting for a large publisher, which usually takes over a year to print and get into bookstores. By that time you could be on your second printing. You can also get distribution for your book through Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com just as easily as any larger publisher can.

You have complete control over your project, right down to the design, without having to deal with a third party. As the sole owner of your material your have complete rights and can set your own price with all profits coming to you. If a large publishing house publishes your book you may only see 5%-15% of your book profits.

Large publishing houses take months to publish material while you can have the process completed in a significantly shorter amount of time. Also, there is not always an interest from large publishing houses in special interest projects you may have written about, such as local history, how to books, or books that appeal to the general public.

Some of the disadvantages in publishing your own book are that you may not see results right away. You are an unknown author and you have to market and sell yourself and your product. Even if you have written an excellent book you need to find ways to get noticed.

Also, there are costs involved. Initially, you will need money to have your books printed from an independent printer. This can cost anywhere from $1-10 per book depending on how many books you have printed, the number of pages, etc. You also need to learn how you would like your book set up. Is it going to be soft cover or hardcover, there are different bindings and other options that will be asked by a printer when you decide to publish a book. There are also costs involved in shipping your books to bookstores and marketing your book.

You will also learn that everyone has an opinion and not all will like what you write no matter if you have self-published your book or a large publisher has decided to add you as one of their writers.

Ellen Parlapiano one of the authors of Mompreneurs Online (published by a larger publishing company) states there are advantages and disadvantages of working with a publisher. “Our books have opened many doors for us…and we always say that although you don’t get a lot of money writing books, you do boost your income in other ways. We have done corporate consulting, professional speaking, and spokesperson work for companies–all based on the buzz we have built for our books and ourselves. Simply writing and publishing the book is not enough–you must establish yourself as an expert in your field!”

There is a lot to learn when deciding to self-publish a book. Find out all you can about publishing your own book before deciding to take the plunge. While self-publishing can be rewarding it also is very challenging and you may need more time to market and sell your books which in turn leaves less time for writing. In the long run self-publishing has been very rewarding and profitable for my books. From the beginning point of writing the book to designing the cover, it’s well-worth it in the end when you see the final result.

About the Author

Annette is a self-published author and a runs a book and hobby web site. http://www.bookdrawer.com

I had written this poem way back 1998 when I was in fourth year high school for our school paper. I was awestruck by the fact that I’m going to finish high school and pursue college in another school. I had written this for the purpose of imparting a legacy to the juniors before I graduate, after all, the poem is about leaving and cherishing what you have before you leave. Of course, to a deeper sense, death is the topic of the poem. I sort of, sugarcoated the topic by using the word, life, in the title, and not the other way around, so as not to disappoint the readers. I compared life to a garden, and connected the actual everyday garden activities to death.

This poem is poems within a poem. It is a trilogy of poems actually, by which, each has its own separate meanings but unified message. I employed one of the Japanese’ way of writing poems which is the tanka technique. It is very strict when it comes to syllabication. A poem should be composed of five lines only, in which, the first line is composed of 5 syllables, the second line with 7 syllables, the third line with 5 syllables, the fourth line with 7 syllables and the last line with 7 syllables.

This is published in our school paper only. Also, I have not yet entered it in any contests.

Tankas About the Garden of Life

by Jocell Siyangbigay Maranan

I

Everytime I pull

Those stubborn and growing weeds

They keep coming back

Whenever skies cry too hard

So everyday’s a workday.

II

If you come to pass

Seeing an orchid yonder

Smell now its fragrance

As long as humans can breath

Because it blooms once a year.

III

Prune those large branches

If you please, Sir Gardener?

So I can pass through

And pick those roses over there

Where are you, Sir Gardener?

About the Author: Jocell Maranan’s Short Biography: Jocell Siyangbigay Maranan was born on February 9, 1982 in Batangas City. He is the third of the five children of Mr. Juan A. Maranan (deceased), a public school teacher, and Mrs. Cecilia S. Maranan, a registered midwife. His father died at the age of 62 when he was 14 years old. Because of this, his mother struggled in raising him and his siblings solely. At an early age, he showed signs of eagerness to go to school. He spent his kindergarten days in Bauan East Central School, elementary in St. Theresa’s Academy and high school in Sta. Teresa College.

Source: www.isnare.com

DEFINITIONS

Retail margin is basically the difference between your book’s wholesale price and your book’s retail price. For example, a book with a cover price of $10 and a wholesale price of $5 has a 50% retail margin.

Wholesale price is the cost of your book to a retailer. To use the same rudimentary example, a book with a cover price of $10 and a retail margin of 50% will be sold to a retailer for $5.

Retail price is the same as cover price or selling price. This is the cost of the book to the end consumer (the reader). The retail price is typically printed on the cover of the book and also “embedded” within the barcode on the back. For example, a book with a wholesale price of $5 and a retail margin of 50% will have a retail price of $10.

As you can see, retail margin, wholesale price, and retail price are interconnected. By having two figures, the third can be calculated.

The fourth definition to be aware of is the trade discount, which is the percentage off the retail price that a wholesaler or distributor pays for your book. Since the retail margin is a portion of the trade discount, the trade discount always exceeds the retail margin. Distributors typically expect between 50% – 70% in order to provide an acceptable margin to the retailer.

MAKING DISTRIBUTION WORK FOR YOU

It should come as no surprise that the amount of distribution your book enjoys rests largely upon its trade discount. Generally, the higher the discount, the greater the distribution.

Think about it – distributors want to make money, too. So do retailers.

While your book’s trade discount is but a piece of your pie (albeit a big piece), it is the entire cake for distributors and retailers, who together must split the take. The greater the number, the greater incentive they have to distribute your book, sell your book, and market your book, etc.

The proper trade discount depends upon each author’s intentions, and can vary from author to author just as readily as from book to book. Obviously, the higher the retail margin, the higher the cover price, so authors interested in maintaining the lowest cover price possible will often opt for a lower retail margin.

Conversely, those authors who long for the best distribution possible will elect a higher trade discount, even though their cover price will increase accordingly (or their profit will decrease accordingly). Non-fiction or niche-markets are less affected by higher retail prices and greater distribution is often advantageous in finding those markets.

Often, the author will have little to no say in what trade discount to offer for their books — its whatever the distributor mandates.

Trade discounts can be as low as 20% to successfully get listed on Internet retailers like Amazon.com, who manage to make a profit with such low margins through EDI (electronic data interface) with distributors like Ingram and on-demand publishers like iUniverse and Outskirts Press.

By comparison, trade discounts can be as high as 75% – 80% when dealing with a niche wholesaler, or when attempting distribution for a book that does not have a proven market. In these cases, the distributor may be padding the coffers a bit in anticipation for a “harder sell” and perhaps, also, in preparation for offering an increased retail margin to close the deal.

INDUSTRY STANDARDS

Industry standards for retail margins are difficult to define because, ultimately, it comes down to negotiation between all parties involved. Publishers have the power to negotiate with distributors, who have the power to negotiate with retailers, who have the ability to negotiate with the reader, but the typical trade discount is around 55%, which allows for a typical retail margin of 40%.

Publishing-on-demand is removing some of the participants in this little dance, and as a result, the same piece of pie is being divided among fewer people, resulting in more money for the remaining players (especially the author).

About the Author

Brent Sampson is the President & CEO of Outskirts Press Publishing at http://www.outskirtspress.com and author of Publishing Gems: Insider Information for the Self-Publishing Writer. Information at http://outskirtspress.com/publishinggems

I know ya’ll are gonna think I’m pulling your legs, but I swear on a stack of BTO CDs that I received the following email just a couple of days ago….

Ed,

I just wanted to drop you a quick note and tell you how much I enjoy reading your various writings. I get “Free Wheelin’” in my local paper, and after reading some of your columns I went and purchased your first book. I’m also pleased to learn that you have a second one that’s just out. Congratulations on your writing successes.

My name is Peggy, and I live in Tampa, Florida. To be more precise, I live in a nudist resort just outside of Tampa called “Eye Full City.” I find the lifestyle to be exhilarating, and I actually find that it stimulates my creativity. My hobby is painting landscapes, and I always do my best work when my mind is free of stress and my body is free of clothing.

I was wondering if the same thing might be true of writing. Have you ever written anything while in the nude? If not, would you consider doing it if you felt it would help your creativity?

Looking forward to your answer,

Peggy Pinkapples

Let me first go on the record and state that I didn’t write Peggy back. Didn’t even think about it, to be honest. A woman that paints in the nude and asks a stranger if he writes his stuff while naked is not a woman I’d want to know. Frankly, the only flakes I want to become acquainted with are in my favorite cereal, Post Raisin Bran – not naked female ones from Florida. Plus, I’ll bet you anything and a dollar that there are mops in my closet more attractive than this woman is. There’s no doubt about it in my mind at all – let’s face it, if she was a fox, no self respecting husband/boyfriend would let her go prancing around naked all the time.

Even though I won’t be getting to know her, let me be sure and answer her two questions. If I don’t, there are guys out there like Jackie Little, Mike Griffin, and Greg Berryhill who might be tempted to get all sorts of rumors started about what my answers might be. Her first question was,

“Have you ever written anything while in the nude?”

The answer to that is an unequivocal NO! I write in an old wood chair, and most of the time it’s a cold wood chair. Make that a very cold wood chair. There’s a better chance of me writing in a pink tu-tu than there is of me writing naked.

The next, and thankfully last one,

“If not, would you consider it if you felt it would help your creativity?

NO! Being naked, cold, and embarrassed would not help my creativity in the least.

You know, stuff like this makes me wonder what’s the world coming to? Why’s there all this hoopla about being naked in public places? Last night, they had someone on Entertainment Tonight who’s starting a nude airline! I kid you not! You buy a ticket to fly somewhere with them, and as soon as the plane is in the sky and the pilot turns off the “fasten seatbelt” sign, you’re free to drop your drawers! Can you imagine it? People walking up and down the aisles of the plane naked as jaybirds. What if the plane happened to hit some turbulence, and some eighty year old guy with a flabby gut was headed down the aisle? It’s too horrible to even think about. Or what if some nudist spills a cup of hot coffee in their lap? The one positive thing about that would be the creative cussing that would slip from the scalded person’s lips, but the rest would not be pretty.

Frankly, not everyone is meant to run around naked, and I’ll freely admit to being one of those that needs to stay clothed. Being naked needs to be confined to just two activities, and let’s face it – we all know what they are, and I’ll keep my editors happy by not going into detail about them here. Other than that, we ought to keep our clothes on at all times. May as well keep some level of mystery going about things as the vast majority of us aren’t candidates for centerfolds when we’re naked. As Ed Jr. told me one time years ago, it’s one thing for people to think you’re a haint, but it’s a whole ‘nother thing to go out of your way to prove it to them…

About The Author

Ed’s latest book, “Rough As A Cob,” can be ordered by calling River City Publishing toll-free at: 877-408-7078. He’s also a popular after dinner speaker, and his column runs in a number of Southeastern publications. You can contact him via email at: ed3@ed-williams.com, or through his web site address at: www.ed-williams.com.

If you put up that merchandise on eBay at 80% off retail, you will still be working on a 100% profit margin. There also opportunities to buy wholesale eBay products by going to donation centers and making offers for a large quantity of goods. You will have more merchandise this way than if you shopped for items in the store section of a thrift shop. At the end of the day, my experience shows that the easiest and fastest way to find wholesale eBay products is by simply getting in touch with wholesalers that specialize in eBay wholesale products. They can give you the best selling wholesale eBay products as soon as you need them. Which saves you the time of having to find wholesale eBay products on your own.. Get Buying Food From Wholesalers at Salehoo wholesale directories, see how Salehoo can help your business. One requires mastery of several fields in order to achieve success. Read on to find out more about Buying Food From Wholesalers and Salehoo Wholesalers. Wholesalers should look for suppliers with a reputation for supplying the highest quality tea. More on Buying Food From Wholesalers at Salehoo wholesaler directory.

Don’t be afraid to ask the wholesale supplier any questions regarding their products and their delivery options. Remember that it ’s through a supplier’s customer service that you can really determine whether or not they’re reliable. Read on about Buying Food From Wholesalers and how Salehoo wholesale directory can help you. Free dropship programs should be your target. More on Buying Food From Wholesalers below.

If you’re ready to start your own wholesale business, you need to find supplier that will supply you with the products you wish to sell. However, when you’re first starting out, you may find that this search takes time – especially when you don’t know where to start. Find out more about Buying Food From Wholesalers and how Salehoo wholesale directory can help you start your own business from home. com charges sellers 15% to 25% of the completed transaction depending upon the level of value-added services provided Angrick says. Buying Food From Wholesalers: Find out how Salehoo wholesale directory can serve YOU!

Get: Buying Food From Wholesalers at Salehoo wholesale directories, and get a head start in your own startup business. The only way to thrive in your startup business is to get quality products cheaply, and from 100%, weekly verified wholesale suppliers from all over the world. CLICK BELOW for FULL DETAILS Inside

Most of us know that writing an article is the best and the
cheapest way to get targetted customers to your website. But how do
we go about it?

You may be thinking, “I’m not a writer. I don’t have the required
talent. I’ve not written anything in the past.”

One thing you must understand is you need not be a professional
writer to write an informative article consisting of about
300-500 words. All that is required is your knowledge about the
given topic which you want to write. This knowledge can be
attained through your own experience and reading through other
articles.

The best thing to do is just browse through the articles in various
ezines. Pick up the topic of interest to you and start reading as
many articles as possible preferably at a stretch. You will be
amazed to know that you too can produce such simple articles.

The next question which may pop up in your mind is “Already so
many people have written articles on this topic and how can I write
about such a topic again?”

Don’t get disappointed on this issue. Please remember each one’s
article is a unique piece when they write it in their own words.

If you have any doubt, give it a try. Give a topic to 10 people
and ask them to write an article on that topic. You won’t believe
until you see them, all of them will be a unique piece.

You will be surprised to see that when you write your thoughts on
the paper and publish it as an article there will be lot of readers.
The only thing you have to be careful is that your article is
informative and easy to understand for a common man.
Once you start writing you will notice your depth of knowledge
on the subject and your hidden talent of writing.

If you can write an “How to” article you can be a successful
writer. Millions of people will be browsing through the net for
the “How to” articles.

Try writing your own experience when you faced a problem how did
you solve it. That information might of help for many others.

Just keep writing.

About the Author

Lakshmi Menon is the owner of
http://www.net4homeincome.com

GET RICH WRITING FICTION
Copyright 2005, Michael LaRocca

Some of us write simply because we can’t not write. Ideas grab
us, move us, and demand to be written. We strive to make it as
real as we possibly can, to improve at our craft every day,
hopefully to make it into the realm of literature as well as
entertainment. We want to craft an entire world where the places
and people are so real that the reader doesn’t feel like he’s
reading a book as much as he is going to another place. In the
lofty world of literature that we strive for, the reader will
still think about the book after reading that last page. It’s
our gift to the reader, something to take with him. Given
sufficient skill, this can even happen long after we are dead.

Then we learn that doesn’t sell. Oh, there are exceptions. Some
novelists make a living by consistently writing quality
literature. But, there are quite a few best sellers who have no
such goals. They write for money, and they make it.

Even the writer who has written great literature has trouble
marketing it that way. We have to look at our “target audience.”
Who will buy this book? Let me see, our heroine survived spousal
abuse, so there’s an audience. There’s a suicide, so we can get
the bereavement crowd. Where’s the setting? We can get a local
audience. The hero’s a cop. Maybe the teen boys will go for that.
Nah, too light on action. But there’s a romance. Maybe we’ll
market to the romance readers. Give the hero bedroom eyes and
pass him off as a romantic hero. Yeah, that might work.

But if you want to write to get rich, even that’s not enough.
Nah, the time to think about your reader is before you write
the book, not after.

Throw in lots of gratuitous sex, preferably extramarital. One
(and only one) character who flirts and is sorely tempted and
walks away from “love” to remain true to his wife.

Use taboo words for shock value. Ram, hump, scream, oral sex,
voluptuous, female orgasm (the great revelation). Make sure a
lot of your leads enjoy sex. Horny women are a good way to pull
in the readers you want. We all know men are horny, but most of
your readers haven’t discovered that some women enjoy sex too.
Tell them this. Give the female readers a balm for their
consciences and the male readers someone to dream about.

Your heroine should be tough, sweet, sensitive, and very horny,
and has to think she’s not attractive even though every guy in
the book except her husband falls off his chair with a tent in
his pants.

Don’t let the length of a novel faze you. Just throw some people
on the stage, move them around a bit, and get them into bed.
Then, change the rules so they have to move around a bit again
and get them back into bed. (It doesn’t always have to be a bed.
Office desks and car seats work too.) When the book’s long enough,
stop. Don’t worry about the “climax,” because people are
climaxing all over the place.

Exotic locales. Foreign countries with beaches. Lots of rich
people. Remember that you’re writing for the lowest common
denominator, because they spend most of the money that you’re
trying to reel in. Make it sleazy. No one ever went broke
underestimating the public.

How to publish? To do it right, write the sales pitch before you
write the book. Make sure the book follows the pitch and the
formula. If your cover letter alone has eight typos, no problem.
Nobody cares. The publisher will wanna rush this baby to print
and get you, or an attractive stand-in, doing as many TV
appearances as possible before the book reviewers have time to
draw breath. Heck, your target market doesn’t read book reviews
anyway! Also keep in mind that once that reader buys your book,
you’ve won. They won’t get a refund just because you’re
illiterate. So don’t worry about hiring an editor. Hire a
publicist!

Think Hollywood. You want your book to become a movie. It
doesn’t have to be a good movie, because most of them aren’t. It
just has to sell, baby, sell! Write parts for all the hottest
stars. True, today’s hottest stars will have faded by the time
they start filming your movie, but no matter. Someone just like
them will replace them.

I’ve been doing it wrong for all these years. I started writing
over 20 years ago, and the five books I have on the shelves are
enough to make it a hobby that barely pays for itself. Meanwhile,
I work at a job for my money. But if you follow my advice, you
won’t make the same mistakes I have. You’ll get rich!

About the Author

Michael LaRocca’s website at http://www.chinarice.org was
chosen by WRITER’S DIGEST as one of The 101 Best Websites
For Writers in 2001 and 2002. His response was to throw it
out and start over again because he’s insane. He teaches
English at a university in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province,
China, and publishes the free weekly newsletter WHO MOVED
MY RICE?

© 2004 gggems.com All rights reserved.

Gem adventure of the Swiss twins. ( Novel ). literature best seller.©

June 26, 1988.
The plane landed early – something extremely rare on the AirMad
line serving Tananarive. Mrs. Nory was standing on the airport’s
tarmac, right next to a gendarme. Her son, her brother the
airport’s director and some vague relationship accompanied her.

She welcomed her daughter Tina coming back from Belgium. The nine years she had spent there,had metamorphosed the young lady,
she almost became vazaha. “foreigner, in Madagascar language.”

Tina caught the stair’s metallic fence. Her blue dress was floating in the overheated air, sweeping
the black tarmac. She saw some familiar silhouettes far away. The young woman showed
a movement of retreat, perhaps, her diploma of chemist engineer, acquired recently, would help her
blur the vindication of the assistance who came here to meet her, she thought .
John and Alain followed the lady. She had met the twins during the stop over in Rome and got
acquainted with them. This meeting was not fortuitous, because it was her mother who arranged it.

Readjusting her scarf, Mrs. Nory moved on. – I see her, she is not in a hurry to go down, she said.

The lady did not take of her black glasses to kiss her daughter. This coldness, intrigued Alain.
And, Tina introduced her new friends, the precious stone experts, waited impatiently in
Tananarive.
Then, Alain noticed a certain ambiguity and even of condescension from the clever lady with her daughter.

Both vazaha precipitated towards a wooden shelf. They filled in the immigration forms.
Details on their origin, the goal of their visit, the exact sums imported was explicitly asked to them.
Then, a police officer gave them a lined sheet to be made plug to each hotel in which they would go down.

Charged of cumbersome parcels, Alain painfully cut through the crowd.
The twins separately took seat in two cars brought here to pick up them. John went up in
the roomy BMW with the mother. And the prodigal girl took seat right next to Alain, in the Peugeot.
Driving fast, compressed against the door, Alain noticed a black Mercedes coming in opposite
direction.
– This is my uncle, the president of the national assembly, shouted Tina, She then added that the
man – a famous reverend – had the habit to harp virulent Marxists sermons to his flocks.
The hearse color limousine disappeared behind enormous billboards marking out the road of the dike.

—————————————

- To the Terminus! Ordered John to the taxi driver.
The hotel Terminus was located at the center town, opposite to the railway station at the corner of the Independence Avenue.

Large house plants decorated the hall. It was a building of the purest colonial style.
Inside, the atmosphere of the Twenties was perpetuated. A large staircase of brown wood
led to the rooms, the employees – flexible and trained – waxed it several times per day.
The owner, an old and little vulgar settler, directed her staff with an iron hands.
By derision, the employees called her “tara shambo”, as the Madagascans named former colonists
who were too late to take the last boat to the decolonization . Mrs. Morvan – her real name –
was everywhere at the same time. Like a sheepdog, she was ready to bark her sheep at the
least prank. It should be said that the staff had of it the attitude. Always dressed in white
immaculate blouses, she had kept this subjected position which characterized the relationship
that natives had with their Masters during colonial times.
All were bare footed. Their miserable wages guarantee calm and rest to the establishment’s
customers.

A porter ran into the lobby. He relieved the twins of their two larger bags and invited them to follow
him. John, climbing the stairs, slipped on the soaped steps. He hung up again himself to the fence.
- This is Holiday one ice, launched he to his brother desperately trying to follow the guide.
- You know, Al, it’ll be necessary that you call Coco without too much delay, recommend he, as if
this hitch had shake his meninx.
Coco was not a parrot and even less a vazaha! In Madagascar, one called everyone by his first
name and even more readily by his small name…

Alain Darbellay GGGEMS.COM

Alain Darbellay is looking for an editor to publish his novels in USA.

literature best seller. Extracts of the novel.

© 1987 – 2004 gggems.com All rights reserved.

About the Author

http://www.gggems.com/gem_adventure.htm

Alain Darbellay is the author of several novels about precious stone. His amazing gemstone research in producer countries driven Alain Darbellay to write articles about precious stones too.
The unique atmosphere that Alain Darbellay transmits in his novels is due to the association of a long experience in the gemstone field and to have passion for meeting people.

At some point in their careers, many writers may teach writing courses, either before a “live” classroom audience or, these days, online. But how does a new teacher develop that first course proposal? What elements should go into it?

Sometimes a prospective employer may offer guidelines or forms, and when those are online they help everyone. Check your local adult education center’s website to see if it offers online proposal guidelines. Read whatever information you can find for online writing classes at your favorite writing sites, too.

In most cases a proposal will need to include at least five basic elements:

1. Your contact and personal information (such as citizenship status, for payment purposes) as well as your professional biography.

2. Your sense of the target audience for your class.

3. Your sense of what students will gain/learn from your class.

4. Your sense of course expenditures (including costs for guest lecturers or other needs, especially for “live” classes).

5. Contact information for individuals who will serve as referees for you.

Still, if you can’t find the specific program proposal guidelines and requirements that you need online, you must contact program directors at local colleges/continuing education programs by phone or e-mail, yourself. Explain that you are a writer who is interested in learning about the procedures for proposing courses. Be forewarned that institutions and programs operate on different schedules; some may plan ahead just weeks at a time, while others may have an entire academic year already set the previous winter.

Fine. What if, after all that, you’re simply instructed to send a cover letter and a general course proposal? What then?

I trust all professional writers to handle cover letters. You should also take this opportunity to update your resume or c.v. and review your list of references in case you are, indeed, asked for that information as the screening process continues, too. It’s also a good idea to review your clip file and consider which of your writing samples you might submit if requested to do so.

As for the proposal itself, here are some additional elements that will render it immediately more professional and complete:

6. Your name, title (“Instructor” is fine if applicable!), and, again for “live” courses especially, a note about your office hours, if you plan to hold them (“by appointment” or “to be determined”). Place this information in the top left-hand corner.

7. The course title. Be sure it accurately reflects the course content. One of my early course was titled “The Historical Novel: A Writing Workshop.” I like poets and essayists and playwrights just fine, but this course wasn’t for them!

8. The course description. Catalog copy generally runs tight. Try to describe your course in no more than 75-100 words; be prepared to cut this description even further. View samples from previous catalogs or listings to get a sense of the institution or program’s editorial style. Be direct about the purpose/goal of the course.

For example, here’s a description for the historical novel workshop mentioned above:

“This workshop is for writers of historical novels. Through tailored writing exercises and discussion of selected texts, the course will address issues of particular challenge to historical novelists: use of ‘real’ characters, setting, and tensions between ‘fact’ and ‘fiction.’ Primary focus, however, will be on critiques of students’ work.”

9. Prerequisites (if applicable). A line such as: “Students must submit a one-page synopsis and five pages of their work-in-progress” signals from the start that only writers particularly committed to their work should enroll.

10. Schedule of meetings and reading/writing assignments. This doesn’t necessarily have to be set in stone, but you’ll acquire–and convey–a better sense of your own course if you think ahead to the class meetings and to how you will be making use of each. One writing program director once advised me that prospective students tended to respond favorably to having some mention of the authors they’d be reading for a course within the description, so it can make sense to provide the same information, in even greater detail, for the “authorities,” too.

Once you are preparing the actual syllabus for a course, you’ll want to delineate additional policies. Depending on the class/institution, you may need to think about grading policies. And a writing workshop benefits from a set of critique guidelines everyone understands from the start.

But don’t worry too much about that. Yet. Start with the proposal, and add that to your writing practice.

© Copyright 2004 Erika Dreifus. All rights reserved. Article reprint permission is granted provided that the entire article–including the About the Author information–remains intact and unaltered. Please send a courtesy copy of the reprint to erikadrei@yahoo.com .

About the Author

Dr. Erika Dreifus is a writer and writing instructor in Massachusetts. She edits the free monthly newsletter, “The Practicing Writer,” and is the author of “The Practicing Writer’s Primer on Low-Residency MFA Programs.” Visit her website at http://www.practicing-writer.com .