Want to Take a Writing Class from James Patterson? Now You Can...

David Rogier and Aaron Rasmussen Photo Credit: MasterClass

Celebrities and public figures are often thought of as "untouchable." If you're lucky, you'll run into one at the airport or a restaurant and get an autograph or selfie with them. So, imagine having the opportunity to have Dustin Hoffman better your acting skills or James Patterson hone your manuscript or Serena Williams enhance your backhand? Need a voice coach without trying out for the television show The Voice? Take voice lessons from Christina Aguilera and performance coaching from Usher. Annie Leibovitz explains light, shutter speeds, apertures and more in her photography class.

Photo Credit: MasterClass

Yes, thanks to a new platform for educating niche genres by the best in their fields, all of those scenarios are possible. MasterClass founders David Rogier and Aaron Rasmussen took time out from their hectic schedules to answer some questions.

HH: Explain how was this idea born, let alone executed?

"Aaron and I knew we wanted to work together since we first met.. We both shared a passion for learning and neither of us had a great school experience growing up. I was always getting in trouble for being so inquisitive, and Aaron kept running out of classes to take in the tiny town he grew up in. We decided our mission was to make the kind of classes we wish we had growing up -- classes with riveting and engaging lessons taught by the world's best. When we reached out to our ideal potential instructors, we were thrilled they were excited to be a part of MasterClass!" - David

Photo Credit: MasterClass

HH: How did you get all of these experts/talents on board with the idea?

"When we started reaching out to potential instructors, we found that that many of them were excited to teach. All of our instructors really want to share what they've learned along the way, and most of the time they'd come to our first meeting with exciting and brilliant ideas for their classes." - Aaron

Photo Credit: MasterClass

"One funny story from when we were first starting out...we knew we wanted James Patterson to teach, but didn't have any connection to him. So, we sent a few cold emails to his representatives. We didn't hear anything back, then a few weeks later I'm walking down the street and my phone rings, and I hear, "Hi, this is James Patterson." I almost fell over with shock. Before I could process what was happening I blurted out, "The author?" Luckily, James laughed and we had a great conversation. He had seen our email, loved the idea, and just called us up to find out more." - David

HH: Is there anyone you wanted that you couldn't get?

"We have been very fortunate to work with some really great and well respected instructors for the launch of MasterClass. We also have many more instructors on board that we have yet to announce. David and I each have people that we would personally love to learn from. For me, it would be amazing to have James Cameron and Christopher Nolan as instructors. Both are fantastic storytellers and visionaries." - Aaron

Photo Credit: MasterClass

HH: How do you see this concept expanding as technology advances?

"All of our classes include opportunities for instructors to connect with students and for students to connect with one another. We're constantly testing new ways to forge these connections to enhance the learning experience, and technology plays a huge role in this process. We recently hosted an office hours session with Dustin Hoffman in LA where he Skyped with a student in Sweden and critiqued his performance in real-time. This wouldn't have been possible several years ago." - David

Photo Credit: MasterClass

"Each class has interactive assignments to encourage students to practice the skills they learn. For example, James Patterson's class includes a tool we call the "delete-o-matic" which enables students to make edits to several lines of text then compare how their edits differ from those of James himself. We're excited to create more technologies that help our students learn." - Aaron

Photo Credit: MasterClass

HH: What kind of response are students having to your classes? 

"The response has been amazing. Our students are learning and improving their skills every day. As an example, we got an email from the mother of a young student in Dustin Hoffman's class. The tips Dustin gave in his class helped her daughter get cast in her first big role! We had a mini-celebration for her in our office when we heard the news. Similarly, we have students who are beating the best players in their tennis leagues and having their writing published for the first time. It's amazing to see the impact our instructors are having on the lives of their students! Our ultimate wish is to have one of our current students come back to teach their own MasterClass someday." - Aaron

Thank you, David and Aaron.

For more information or to take a class on MasterClass, visit their website.
Follow Heather Hummel on Twitter: www.twitter.com/HeatherHummel
This post originally appeared on the Huffington Post

Q&A with Best-Selling Author Renee Carlino

If you love a good New York City love story, you will fall in love with Matt and Grace. Before We Were Strangers  (Atria Books, August 18, 2015) by Renee Carlino is a complicated love story of missed opportunities and the influence that outside factors have on a couple’s journey…or is it all really just part of their journey? I pulled Renee away from her writing desk to answer a few questions for her ever-growing fan base.

HH: What was your inspiration in using New York City as the backdrop to Grace and Matt's story?

RC: When people normally ask me what BEFORE WE WERE STRANGERS is about, I  say it's about a guy who sees "the girl who got away" on a New York subway fifteen years after they last saw each other. But I think BWWS is really about how people, rather than places or things, can color our experiences. I thought Matt and Grace would fall in love with New York together. Through their exploration of the city, they got to know each other, so NYC made for a great backdrop. There is an undeniable energy there, but I also thought it could be a place where one might feel extremely isolated among the masses, which is how we find an older Matt at the beginning of the book. I've been to a lot of cities in the US, but every time I visit New York, I get a sense of vitality and togetherness, yet at the same time I feel extremely small. I see New York City as a versatile character that I can use in many different ways to help tell a story.

HH: Both Grace and Matt are complex, deep characters...do you spend a lot of time character sketching before writing? 

RC: I usually know the big pieces before I start the book. Through the writing process other characteristics will develop, like the way Grace smells her food or swings a door open wider than the average person to accommodate her cello case, even when she's not carrying it. They are alive in my head and not based on a real person, so I suppose I am sketching them but not necessarily on paper. I do flesh the characters out much more in revisions so I enjoy the editorial process and find it extremely beneficial and rewarding.

HH: On a Saturday night would you rather be home in sweats or out in a LBD and heels? 

RC: I love my sweats and being a writer allows me to be in them an awful lot. I don't know any writers who get ready, do their hair and put on make-up to sit at the computer for six hours, so on a Saturday night I enjoy getting dressed up and going out when I can.

HH: Explain the muse of music as a prominent theme in your novels. 

RC: I just cannot live without music, so it finds its way into all of my books and it is the best food for my imagination. For BBWS, I remembered watching Nirvana Unplugged on MTV and thinking about the cello player. I wished that I could play like her. When I started researching this book, I found a more recent youtube video of Lori Goldston, the same cellist. She was playing in a station in Seattle. As soon as the music began, I got chills. The way she describes her instrument in the video is inspiring.

HH: If you could meet one of your characters in person, which one would it be? 

RC: I would want to meet Matt from BEFORE WE WERE STRANGERS. He's closer to my age, he and I share a passion for photography and I think I would have a lot of questions about his work for National Geographic. He seems like he would be a great conversationalist, which is high on my list of good qualities.

Thank you, Renee!

Click here to read my New York Journal of Books review for Before We Were Strangers: A Love Story.

If Everyone Is Working for Free, How Is Anyone Supposed to Earn a Living?

Have you or your company ever hired someone from a website such as Freelancer, oDesk, Fiverr, eLance, or another popular site for outsourcing gigs? Alternatively, have you or your company offered services on one or more of these sites? If so, you are a part of the Global Online Employment trend that has been booming for quite a while now.

I personally have used a few of these sites as a resource to clients seeking a ghostwriter for their books and bios. Yet, I found that the competition was too willing to bid low dollar amounts for their work or they lived in areas where the cost of living was significantly less than mine, thereby being able to bid lower and still earn a significant living. As such, my bids were frequently four and five times higher than most (except on Fiverr, which is a fixed amount). Sometimes I landed the gig anyway, sometimes I didn't.

I also recently posted a photo captured in a chain restaurant and Tweeted it via Instagram. Within moments, I heard from the restaurant, which wanted full rights to my image to use for their social media campaigns. The catch was, they didn't want to open their wallets to pay me for it. My thought was, "I go into their establishment and open my wallet for their product. They come to my establishment and request full rights to my product, but don't want to pay me for it?" As a professional photographer, this aggravated me. So, I began to question, If everyone is giving away their work, how is anyone supposed to earn a living?

To find the answer, I reached out to Freelancer's Nikki Parker, Regional Director, North America & Oceania.


Photo Courtesy of Freelancer
Q: Let's start with some statistics. How many people actively use Freelancer?


Freelancer currently has 10.7 million members. The term "active" varies for each user, as we have people who spend their entire work day bidding on projects or we have employers that need to use Freelancer.com at specific times of the year, e.g. tax time, end of financial year, annual reports, etc.

Q: There are many websites like Freelancer that create a marketplace for creative entrepreneurs. How have they impacted the way entrepreneurs earn a living?

Thanks to the internet the way that we connect, collaborate and work has changed quite dramatically and it is opening up a world of new opportunities.

When working online in a global marketplace like Freelancer.com there is the opportunity for employers and freelancers to barter and enter into an agreement to work on specific projects that suit both parties. An employer will choose to work with a freelancer after they have weighed up the freelancers skill, past experience, online reputation, length of time required to complete the project and the overall price and a freelancer can decide what projects they work on.

Q: How do creative entrepreneurs compete in such a competitive environment?

On Freelancer.com there are freelancers who are charging an hourly rate significantly higher than those they could command in their countries and for freelancers from the developing world they are able to earn their weeks wage in just one hour. Freelancers working on Freelancer.com certainly do not give away their work for free, in fact, it is quite the opposite and they are able to sell their services and work with global clients they would not previously had access to. Freelancers working on the site are not only able to make a living for themselves, but they are also able to lift their families out of poverty. A freelancer can choose what work they bid for and work on and if they deem a price range too low for that service they can focus on other projects.

Q: Isn't this highly competitive environment more difficult for those who live where the cost of living is higher? 

We are seeing a lot of savvy entrepreneurs and business owners who have typically sold services, e.g. web design or development, and have now realized that there are others around the world who are offering more competitive rates. Rather than see this as a challenge they are seeing this as a huge opportunity. They are now outsourcing pieces of work to global freelancers and refocusing their efforts elsewhere, e.g. building up a client base, sales or marketing for their business.

Businesses who recognize that the way we do work is changing and who adapt to these changes will be able to take advantage of the world of opportunities and a global workforce that they have at their fingertips.

Q: Is there a place in Freelancer.com for entrepreneurs who are accustomed to billing higher dollars for their work?

Yes I definitely see high quality freelancers charging well above the "average" bid price and landing the job! Ultimately if I need to get work done as an employer I have to pick someone who can do the work, irrespective of price. I genuinely believe marketplaces like Freelancer.com are opening up incredible opportunities for both freelancers and employers to get great work done, earn a good income and collaborate with clients from around the world.

I admit that Nikki opened my eyes to a different angle. However, I still won't give my photographs away for free to an establishment that will profit from them, and yet where I pay (make that "paid") for their products.

This post originally appeared on the Huffington Post.
Follow Heather Hummel on Twitter: www.twitter.com/HeatherHummel

Is Your Author Bio Up to Par? 10 Tips on How to Write an Author Bio

Kind of like kids knowing they need to eat their veggies, authors know the importance of a well-crafted bio, but that still doesn't mean they like writing one.

Several years ago when I taught writing workshops through Barnes & Noble in Charlottesville, VA, the first exercise I had students do was write their author bio. The cringing, seat shifting, pen-tapping task gets them every time, and every single one of them groaned in unison. And yet, by the end of that first class, they proudly took home a well-crafted bio to stick on their refrigerator. To my surprise, each one returned the next week to see what hoops I'd make them jump through next.

That teaching experience taught me that authors really, truly despise writing their own bios. To help the medicine go down a little easier, I came up with my top 10 tips for writing a quality author bio:

1. You will need up to three versions of your bio. (Yes, I thought you'd love to hear that!) Write an extended bio for your website, proposals, interview sheets and media kits; a medium length bio for queries, guest spots on other websites and shorter marketing material; and a brief bio as a byline or for limited character social media websites.

2. Go ahead -- brag! Start with your greatest writing achievement. As an aspiring author, even one published article in the local paper counts and should be highlighted.

3. Leave your demographics for the end and keep it brief. Though the mere fact that you were born is awesome, as a new author, it's more important to establish yourself as a writer first.

4. When listing book publications, should you have any, italicize the title and do not put in quotation marks. Include the publisher and year published in parentheses after the title: i.e. Title of Your Book (Publisher, 20_ _).

5. Refer to yourself in the third person. On the longer bios, I personally like to interject "Heather" a few more times rather than using the pronoun.

6. The credibility an award gives a book can change the life of it! However, note only awards that are relevant to your writing. For example, if you write nonfiction gardening books and you won an award for your outstanding garden, then brag about it. Alternatively, if you won a blue ribbon for your brownies, but you write science fiction, leave out the blue ribbon (but feel free to send me the brownies!). Be sure to update your bio as the awards come in. When two of my books won awards within the same month, I immediately updated my author bios on my website and other places.

7. BS? BA? BIS? MBA? Ph.D.? When it comes to education, much like awards, if your degree is relevant, then note it. If you have a Ph.D. in psychology and are writing a book on teenage bullying, then certainly note it -- it's a credential. Alternatively, if your degree is in architecture and you changed careers to write children's books, unless your book is about how to build the coolest Lincoln Log cabin on your block, you can leave the degree out (especially in the short bio). I have a BIS degree in English and Secondary Education from the University of Virginia. These credentials support me as a writer, writing coach and workshop instructor, so I use it in my long bio.

8. Your bio will change dramatically as your career advances. In that same Barnes & Noble class, I showed student my 2007 bio and my then 2010 bio. It's amazing what a difference three years can make. I started my 2007 bio with the fact that I "reside in the midst of the Blue Ridge Mountains" because I thought it sounded really cool and literary at the time. I learned that where you live isn't so important. It was my publishing credits that advanced my career and changed my bio. Think of it like this -- it's not where you write, it's what you write!
Bonus: If you haven't read Stephen King's On Writing: 10th Anniversary Edition: A Memoir of the Craft, I highly recommend it.



9. If you can, have a professional (or at least a really good) photographer take a quality author photo of you. I used a photographer in Colorado and it took more shots than words on a page to capture the perfect shot. Once you have it, use it shamelessly. Most authors are not recognized by what they look like unless they're John Grisham, who resides here in the midst of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and author of dozens of books including, A Time to Kill: A Novel and Rogue Lawyer. But, an author photo is needed for your book's jacket, your website, social media and press kit (at the very least). Take the time to do it right. (You can read my previous article titled "The Relevance of a Professional Author Photo.")

10. Browse the Internet and look in the books on your bookshelves for ideas. Especially read the bios of authors who write in your genre.

11. Bonus tip: Read your bio aloud when you finish writing it. You'll know immediately if something doesn't sound right.

Follow Heather Hummel on Twitter: www.twitter.com/HeatherHummel
This post originally appeared on the Huffington Post.  

Why Agents Reject 96% of Author Submissions

Did you know that 96% of authors seeking agents are rejected? Flip it around, and it can be said that only 4% of them land an agent. Peruse through Writer's Market and you'll see that right alongside an agent's address is their acceptance rate.

The reason for rejections typically comes down to a few key issues. Follow these solutions, and my bet is doors will start opening.


Photo Credit: Heather Hummel Photography
 
1. Problem: Failure to Follow Submission Guidelines.

Every literary agent has their own, specific submission guidelines. Failure to adhere to these guidelines will often put your query letter in the trashcan, either the virtual one or the metal one, faster than a shooting star disappears into the galaxy.

Solution:

Pay close attention to each agent's individual submission guidelines. Visit their website and click on Submission Guidelines. Read them in detail and find out the answer to these types of questions: Do they only want a query letter? Do they want a query with the first five pages? Do they want a query and the first three chapters? Do they only accept queries via e-mail or via snail mail? Are the submission guidelines the same for e-mail as they are for snail mail?

Once you know their guidelines, follow them to a T. Remember that each agent has different guidelines, so expect to spend a lot of time researching them.

2. Problem: Genre Confusion.

Not all men prefer blonds and not all women prefer tall, dark and handsome. The same rings true here. Not all agents want whatever genre you're selling. Sending a query for a romance novel to an agent who only accepts nonfiction genres is a huge waste of time. Not finding out what genres grab an agent's attention will only set you up for rejection.

Solution:

Use resources such as Writer's Market or AgentQuery.com and perform a search of agents who represent your specific genre. From there, visit your selected agents' website and verify that their bio matches what the resource says. Agent information from an outside resource can differ from the agent's website; therefore, always defer to the agent's website.

3. Problem: Let's Face It: Your Query Letter Sucks.

A bit harsh? Consider that in a recent informal survey I did on Facebook, 10 out of 10 people said they hate writing query letters. The reason was unanimous...because they simply aren't good at writing them. If someone is not good at writing them, I am certain agents will agree.

I am the minority in that I embrace the query letter challenge like a kangaroo to her joey in the pouch.

Solution:

A rock solid query letter needs a few components to grab the attention of an agent.
The opening paragraph should not rave about how your book is the next (fill in the blank famous book/author). Instead, the opening paragraph is meant to stylistically make a pitch regarding your protagonist and book in a way that the agent will fall in love with them.

The second paragraph ought to provide the synopsis. Do not include every little detail like the color of the protagonist's hair, what day of the week she gets her manicure, or all the friends she meets along the way. The synopsis is meant to summarize the essence of the obstacles she overcomes. Stick to the big picture details.

The third paragraph is all about you. What relevant credentials, honors, and awards have you or your books achieved? In other words, why you and not the next author in their inbox?

Lastly, the closing paragraph should recognize the agent's submission guidelines, why you felt they were a good fit for your novel, and an action to take...i.e. requesting the full manuscript.

Note: Include all of your contact information: address, e-mail address, and phone number.

4. Problem: Nonfiction is a Different Beast than Fiction.

Did you know that 70% of nonfiction books are ghostwritten? What most people don't know is that rather than hiring a ghostwriter to write their entire book, what they really need first is a complete book proposal, three sample chapters, and a cover letter. A book proposal is made up of many components, such as an overview, competitive titles, marketing, etc., and runs at least 10 pages.

The problem in this case is that most people don't know that to pitch to an agent, they need a proposal and only three chapters written, not the entire manuscript. Once the book sells to a publisher, the rest of the book is written.

Solution: 

If a nonfiction author is going to write their book rather than hire a ghostwriter, they're best served educating themselves on how to write and pitch a proposal to an agent. Alternatively, they can hire a professional ghostwriter to write their proposal and sample chapters. Because 70% of nonfiction books are ghostwritten, agents expect a nonfiction author with a big platform to hire a ghostwriter for their book(s).

5. Problem: Spelling and Grammar

I shouldn't have to state this, but I will. If you're submitting a query letter to agents, ensure that all spelling and grammar issues are resolved. This industry thrives on the written word, and typos or shortcuts are a turnoff.

Solution: 

Hire a professional (not your Aunt Rose) to read your letter. You should also read it out loud. It is amazing how many errors you can catch when you read material out loud.

The query letter editing and reworking that I have done with clients has increased their agent response rate from almost 0% to at least 75%. Many of them have gone on to land agents and multi-book deals. Following these five guidelines ought to help increase your odds of landing an agent.

One last note. Patience and persistence are a huge part of being successful in this industry. I'm sure you've read enough about all the big authors who were rejected, but, it was their persistence that paid off in the long run.

Follow Heather Hummel on Twitter: www.twitter.com/HeatherHummel
This post originally appeared on the Huffington Post.