RVing or Not--This Warning could save your life!

Whether you are driving your motorhome, pulling a trailer, or simply driving across town in your family car to pick up groceries, here is one warning that most drivers never learn about until it is too late. Whether it is ever mentioned in State driving manuals that are given out for those taking driving tests, I can’t say. And it’s doubly important for RVers to be aware of this danger.

First of all let me say that the last state we got our driver’s licenses in didn’t even have drivers manuals, never mind that new drivers and new arrivals in the state had no way of knowing about local laws or safety issues. And the state we’ve just moved to gives a driver’s test at 16, and drivers keep their licenses for the basically the rest of their lives. So state residents will likely never have to take a written test again after their first one, even though laws change and new dangers emerge. Someone who recently moved here told me her license was good for 45 years! How many older drivers on the road were issued licenses before the first Interstate Highway was built? How did they learn the rules of driving on high-speed highways with entrances and exits unless they read it in a drivers manual?

Anyway, safety is a serious issue that should be routinely covered in the media, especially when it concerns something almost all of us have done at one time or another. And that is driving with the cruise control engaged when it is raining! If you are driving on wet pavement while it is raining, turn off your cruise control.

Even though I’ve been aware that this was a frequent cause of accidents, rain is so unusual here that when I drove out of the garage this morning, I immediately turned on the cruise control. I had driven across town before I remembered to turn it off.

Cruise controls were designed to make driving more relaxing, but when the road is wet, they increase the risk of skidding. Remember to turn yours off when roads are wet.

Write blog content for clients

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again because it bears repeating. Any type of writing you do will make you a better writer. That’s because you build speed and improve your writing skills as you produce content—no matter what type of content that might be. And if you can make money doing it while you get more experience to list on your resume, why not seek out small jobs that you might enjoy.

Almost every small business now has a blog or Website on the Internet, and business owners often don’t have the skills, time, or patience to sit down and write content to keep their Web presence lively and topical. Your veterinarian’s office, local real estate agents, retailers, hair salons and numerous other local businesses already have a blog or site. Check for some local businesses on the Internet and read their content. Does it look sloppy, unprofessional, hurriedly written? If so, you may want to contact the owner and offer to take over that “chore” for their business for a set fee. And no, don’t tell them how bad their site looks. A bad site is only a lead for you to a business owner who needs your services—not someone who will welcome your criticism. A little diplomacy with a huge desire to help will get your foot in the door. Tell them you noticed their site and comment on what a huge job that must be on top of running a business, then listen to what they say. If they sound open to a proposal, tell them that you are a writer and can produce professional but enticing copy for their site for a small fee. Stress how you can help improve their business while saving them valuable time.

Other business owners want to increase their visibility on the Internet, so contacting them with a brochure or a list of types of writing you produce may well land you the job of producing copy for them. If they don’t have a site at all, you can find programs to design and maintain the site for them, or partner with a Website designer and market your businesses as a joint effort.

Producing copy for a blog or Website is not going to make a lot of money for you, but you can quote a price of a few cents per word, or a set fee per week and look forward to having a regular paying gig. You’ll also find that this opens the door to many more opportunities to write content for the Internet, and it will also create opportunities to produce other types of copy for your existing clients. And it adds to your credibility as a writer!

We’re still in a recession with more and more businesses closing because they can’t afford to advertise, and their expenses are creating black holes that they may never climb above. Yet a recession makes it necessary that businesses keep their names at the forefront of prospective customers’ minds, and they often need to be reminded of that fact. Those whose names are most public when the recession ends will see their businesses boom from that point on. Make sure you're in on the boom with them!

The following article failed to make it onto the blog in October. Hope it is helpful.

Writing and Publishing Your Own Small Book

For small numbers of books, and for those containing less than 100 pages, it’s much easier to design, layout and print them yourself. Here are the directions for laying out pages for a small cookbook or any other type of little book you want to produce on your own without using a publisher or traditional book printing company. This type of book doesn’t have to look homemade; instead, it can look as professional as any, but it can be easier and faster to do it this way than having to deal with out of town printers and traditional publishers.

However, if you are interested in a do-it-yourself project and want to turn it over to a professional, there are cookbook printers who can do a wonderful job. Morris Cookbooks comes immediately to mind, since they print many of the cookbooks that are sold by non-profit organizations. They’ll provide you with directions for laying out the book according to their format, and can provide cover design, etc. Contact them at www.Morriscookbooks.com. But for others who don’t want to go that route, the following can help you produce a perfectly acceptable book that you can give to friends or sell through your local book outlets and gift shops or by mail or the Internet.

Since some of you probably use Windows and others, Vista, it would be impossible for me to provide directions for both, but if you use Microsoft Word, you should find the following settings on the toolbar at the top of your computer page. The example I use is for a cookbook, but could apply to any type of small book.

To lay out your book’s pages, select “page setup” and choose paper size 11 inch x 8.5 inch in landscape mode.

Choose size of borders: 1.0-inch for left margin and all others, .75-inch.

Choose two columns, select 4-inches wide for each column and 1.5-inch for spacing between columns. This layout creates two pages out of one and leaves enough space on the left side and in the center for binding after being cut in half. Both pages will be identical.

To get started, it is best to have your recipes already typed up and sorted. For a plastic comb or wire bound, follow these directions since pages will be cut in half to form two books. Type or copy a recipe on one page, then copy and paste it onto the other page. To test to make sure spacing is correct and that left margin on both pages is slightly larger, print one copy and fold it in half. If it looks fine, continue typing or copying in your recipes, 1 or 2 per page depending on how you want to set it up.

After all the recipes are typed in, print the pages and then decide which order they should be in, using a paperclip or other fastener to hold them together. Now you can go back to your computer and number the pages. You can also create a table of contents page, index, and any other type of information you want to include. Organize your pages in logical format, such as main dishes, salads, breads, desserts, etc. Decide if you want a dividing page between each category, and plan for that.

If you will be creating a small booklet that will be stapled together at the spine, each full 8-1/2 inch by 11 inch page should hold two separate typed pages since you will be having it printed so that they can be stapled in the middle inside a cover. Again, don’t bother to number your pages until you’ve printed out a copy of the complete contents and have placed them in order. You may have to do some cut and paste on your copies, then shift pages around in your computer program to get the book layout correct.

If the above is confusing, contact me and I’ll try to explain it more clearly. When you get into the project, the directions will make more sense. Also, it helps to have on hand published books similar to what you envision yours looking like so you can visualize the layout and how pages tie together as they’re put together in a book.

Next, design or find clip art suitable for the cover, or use a photograph, and title your book, then copy and paste the cover side-by-side on one landscape mode page just as you did the recipe pages for a ring bound book. For the stapled book, the front and back cover will appear on the same 8-1/2 x 11 page.

Once your pages are in order, have been proofread and retyped, if necessary, and the cover designed, print the complete book out on your desktop printer in “best” printing mode and take them the copies a quick copy center to have them printed and bound. Place your copies back to back like you want them printed and make sure numbers are in sequence for the ring bound book. Remember that each printed page makes two books, so if you have 25 originals, it will create 50 books.

The printer will have a selection of bindings, but the wire and plastic comb spines work best for cookbooks, which need to lay flat on the counter for anyone to cook from them. Other types of books might be stapled at the spine. You can choose the type of cover stock you desire from plain card stock, coated stock, or have the covers laminated.

Then distribute your book. If you want to sell them, contact local restaurants, gift shops, beauty shops, and anywhere a willing owner will sell them for you. It will be best if you’ve made these contacts before you ordered printed copies so you’ll know how many copies you need. You will want to order extra for individual sales by you, and sales made over the Internet or by mail.

If you can partner with a local restaurant before you get started, you may be able to feature some of their most popular recipes in a cookbook, as well as your own. If you come from a geographical area that is famous for its fruit or vegetable crop or a particular type of livestock, etc., you might be able to come up with favorite local recipes to feature in your cookbook.

As an alternative to a cookbook if you live in a popular tourist destination, you can produce a book on local historic sites, history, attractions, scenic drives, local hiking trails, or any number of features that would likely appeal to tourists and sell them through shops, restaurants, bookstores, etc. Don’t forget to approach places like the Automobile Club and local organizations or Chamber of Commerce for possible mass sales of your book.

Good luck with your project. Whether you're doing it simply for the pleasure of sharing favorite recipes with friends and family, or planning to make yours a bestseller, you should enjoy getting your words into print, from start to finish.

Books Published in Minutes

Technology is forging ahead so quickly that it’s hard to keep up with new advances. Just yesterday I heard a report about a new machine that is capable of spewing out a printed and bound book in only minutes. Looking for a rare, out-of-print book? You can print one out for only $15.00. Do you have a complete manuscript and want to see it in print immediately with your name on the cover? You can do that, too, although it wasn’t mentioned whether the machine set up the book layout from a typed manuscript, or if you had to insert your manuscript already formatted as a book, or what the cost might be for having a copy printed from a manuscript. It also wasn’t mentioned whether photos or other artwork could be included.

This particular machine is located in a bookstore in London, and so far there are only a few of the machines built, but someday soon we’ll all be able to find them in our own neighborhoods. Then all aspiring authors can create a trial copy of their masterpiece before they ship it out to a publisher (or printer, if they plan to publish it themselves). Or those desiring a small number of memoirs to hand out to friends and relatives can have as many copies printed as they wish.

The best thing about having a trial copy printed is that, once it is in book format (printed and bound) and the author reads through it, any mistakes jump out like huge red flags. For some reason, once a writer reads over their book several times in the same computer format, it’s easy to overlook the little mistakes, and the same is true for proofreaders and editors, no matter how carefully they might read the manuscript. That’s why, when I worked for a publishing company, every line was read by 10 different people ten different times, and in formats from rough draft to final printed format with photos added, just as that particular page would appear in the magazine. And we did find mistakes sometimes right up until that final printed format, but I never saw a single mistake make it into the magazines that were finally distributed to subscribers and sold from magazine racks in stores.

The world of publishing is one of the greatest beneficiaries of new technology, and we’re going to see more and more changes as technology speeds forward. Already, traditional publishers are having to rethink how they will compete in a new world of “print on demand” publishers, and soon, “print on demand” writers, themselves. And already, those publishers are picking and choosing to publish only those books from celebrities or those that have potential of becoming blockbusters. So that means that we all, as writers, have to be thinking about our futures in the book publishing business.

We’ll certainly have more options to see our books come into print, but we’ll all also have to learn how to market our own books and find outlets to distribute them. But wait, don’t most of us, even those whose books are published by major publishers, have to do that already? For quite a few years now, publishers have not budgeted marketing help, book tours, or publicity for anyone but their celebrity writers. And advances have shrunk to almost nothing for all but a few celebrity writers, and by celebrity, I mean celebrities and those celebrity writers who have already proved their success through numerous previous bestsellers. You know their names: Ann Rule, Dan Brown, and many others.