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Inexpensive Audio Coaching For Your Writing Career

Starting today, I am launching a new branch of my business.

I am very pleased to announce my first audio coaching MP3 available for immediate download for the cost of a cup of coffee (even less than a fancy cup).

Introducing, Writing Career Pep Talks With Christina Katz. The first audio is just a bit longer than 30 minutes. The topic is: The Habits Of Successful Mom Writers.

Check it out here.

I gave this talk for free to the first hundred moms who signed up almost two weeks ago and the response to the content of the call was extremely positive.

If you are feeling like you need a little pep talk to get you motivated to do your best in the New Year, I hope you will purchase a copy of your own and listen to it as much as you like.

I will be offering another free pep talk in mid-December to celebrate the launch of my latest e-book, Permission Granted, 45 Reasons To Micro-publish, but you must be subscribed to my newsletter to be invited.

Registration will again be limited to the first 100 who register.

The invite will go out soon, so be sure to sign up for my newsletter, The Prosperous Writer.

You can sign up for the newsletter here.

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To get into the holiday spirit, I am giving applicants two whole weeks rather than just one to apply for The Writer Mama Scholarship this time around. Happy holidays, mom writers!

Are you a mom, and you would love to take the Writing and Publishing the Short Stuff Class that starts Wednesday, January 22nd, but you would not otherwise be able to afford it?

Then you qualify for The Writer Mama Scholarship!

The application process for the next available scholarship for Writing & Publishing The Short Stuff Class begins today! I am accepting applications until Sunday, December 15th at midnight.

One full scholarship is granted each time the class is held, five times per year. Please read this post completely and double-check your application before submitting. The recipient will be announced on Monday, December 16th in this blog.

Please feel free to spread the word about the scholarship, even if you do not intend to apply. This is a full scholarship. The recipient commits to participating fully in the class and delivering all six assignments on time.

Please do not apply if you cannot make the commitment to participate in the class, which involves reading the weekly workbook, completing your assignments, and learning from your classmates work. (To learn about what you will get out of the class, please read the full class description.)

No additional time or special coaching is offered with the scholarship. It’s up to the scholarship recipient to make the most of the class.

Please note that this is a scholarship, not a giveaway. This scholarship is only for moms and is offered by class instructor, Christina Katz (that’s me).

One scholarship is available per WPSS class. The scholarship is not transferable if you fail to complete the class. The scholarship is also not transferable in the case of illness, family emergencies, a move, etc. If you have already paid for the class, you do not qualify for the scholarship. If you have already taken the class, you also do not qualify.

What is written in your application is private and your personal information will never be shared or sold beyond announcing the name of the recipient. The only way to qualify is to apply each time. No one else will view your application.

The application questions are below. Copy and paste them into a Microsoft Word document (to take the class you must be able to create and read Microsoft Word documents—no exceptions). Attach your application as a Word doc to your e-mail. Please answer each question concisely and completely.

Send your application to: “christina at christinakatz dot com” – this is the only email address for the scholarship. If you do not receive the scholarship, save your application for future scholarships and re-apply. Always add in your most current publication credits, since they are important. Put “WPSS Scholarship Application” in the subject line.

The scholarship recipient will be chosen based on the following criteria: demonstrated effort, need, and enthusiasm. The most important consideration is demonstrated past effort, so please don’t skimp on details of your past writing efforts. Applications accepted from U.S. residents only at this time.

To register for the class as a non-scholarship candidate, please visit the registration page. Space in the class is limited.

Please Note: The Writer Mama Scholarship is only for moms who legitimately cannot afford class tuition for whatever reason. So if you work at home, earn money, receive money, or your spouse or partner earns enough money for you to afford the class, please expect to regular pay price. My classes are kept affordable, specifically so moms can take them!

Here’s the application:

[Copy and paste the following application form into a Word doc, then simply fill it in:]

Name

Address

Email

Phone

Have you read the book, Writer Mama? How about my other books?

How long have you been reading my blog(s)?

What version of Microsoft Word software are you currently using?

Have you applied for The Writer Mama Scholarship before?

Write a short response to each of the following questions:

Please write one short paragraph about why you want to take the class, Writing and Publishing the Short Stuff.

Please list by publication name and date only, any publication credits you’ve accumulated thus far. Briefly list any other experience you think is relevant.

Please briefly state why you are unable to afford the tuition for the class at this time.

[End application.]

Thanks for applying for The Writer Mama Scholarship!

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Happy November articles on this first day of December!

If you’ve read Write For Regional Parenting Publications For Fun & Profit LINK and you want to kick your article-writing productivity and prosperity up a notch, I hope you will consider taking my Writing & Publishing The Short Stuff class and following it with my Beginning Level Dream Team.

What better gift to give yourself in the New Year than the ability to earn money writing parenting articles on topics you want to learn more about anyway?

Here are some of my latest articles for my parent readers:

The Compassion Cure: Let Kids Catch You Being Generous in MetroParent LINK

Available everywhere digital books are sold!

Gratitude Games, Fun Ways To Reawaken Appreciation In Kids LINK

Thanks You Notes, A Simple Approach LINK

A Puppy As A Present, 10 Ways To Survive The First 10 Days LINK

Ho-Ho Hanukkah! How To Balance Hanukkah & Christmas Celebrations LINK

10 Ways To Keep The Hush In Your Holiday Rush LINK

Ready to pen your own parenting articles?

Check out my helpful how-to e-book, Write For Parenting Publications For Fun & Profit and learn how.

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1. Myself. All of the hard work I have put into my writing career into action over the past 14 years. All of the money I have invested in my development and growth. All of the awesome people I have worked with and come to know.

2. My student and clients. All of the hard-working folks whom I have had the pleasure of working with over the past 12 years. Thank you for helping me keep my head in a better world for writers and my feet on the ground of whatever we have to deal with today.

3. Technology — all of it. Thank you, Universe, for blessing us with great minds, forward-thinkers, and the amazing folks who share and carry out their visions with the world. Where would be without them? I cannot imagine.

4. Formal education. It may not have always given me exactly what I needed, but it always taught me how to think, how to persevere, and how to work hard to succeed amidst stiff competition.

5. Arts education. Thank you for teaching me to trust the right side of my brain, which had been neglected in my early life. Thank you also to all of the authors, teachers and mentors, who have helped me in this regard.

6. My readers and fans. Thank you for affirming what it took me years to believe — that I have value to contribute to the whole.

7. Steve Jobs and Apple. I so wish that I had tried to communicate with Steve Jobs while he was alive. His work specifically has blessed my life so incredibly. Thank you, Steve Jobs!

8. The creative process. I love nothing more than to be totally immersed in a creative project. It’s the best feeling in the world to know that you are working hard to put ideas into words that will actually reach and be read by others. Thank you everyone who has ever been involved in this process with me.

9. The publishing world of today and yesterday. I recognize that publishing is evolving, and we need to honor all of the stages of it, if we want to progress with any kind of compassion and dignity.

10. The people who have supported me, who have championed me, who have encouraged me or helped me when I needed it most. You know who you are. Never underestimate what a tiny word of kindness or a brisk piece of just the right advice can do for a person who is floundering. We are all human. We all need help sometimes. And as much as I have spent the past 12 years serving others, I have also been helped.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I wish you a very happy Thanksgiving and a very fulfilling and prosperous writing career!

~ Photo by Ruocaled

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Quote 5: Permission Granted, 45 Reasons To Micro-publish

If the folks in traditional publishing have not figured out by now that most self-publishing authors stopped listening to what they had to say after they kept rejecting their and making them feel like less, than I think they are in for a big surprise in the coming decade.

Self-publishing writers are not going to be flocking to the doors of traditional publishing houses to avail themselves of new self-publishing services.

And the idea that they would, with all of the technology and assistance that is now widely and inexpensively available, is just silly.

Learn more about what the future is going to look like now that publishing is on a spectrum in my new book, Permission Granted, 45 Reasons To Micro-publish, on sale now in PDF with more digital formats rolling out soon.

In the coming years, writers will care less and less about publishing brands and care more and more about their own name as a brand. Anyone who is not viewing aspiring authors as a brands that might potentially change the world is just sleepwalking.

Aspiring authors and writers who have previously experienced a lot of rejection, usually from the folks in traditional publishing, tend to be a pretty scrappy, determined bunch. ~ Permission Granted, 45 Reasons To Micro-publish By Christina Katz

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Now available globally via every digital book retailer under the sun! Click here to see the full list.

Today is the official launch celebration day of one of my new micro-publications, Write For Regional Parenting Publications For Fun & Profit!

If you would like to support me on my book launch celebration day, please feel free to purchase a copy of the book or recommend it to your friends.

The registration period for today’s free conference call is now over.

If you missed your chance to get in on today’s pep talk, The Habits Of Successful Mom Writers, never fear. I will be posting the audio for sale in my shop at a very low price next week.

I will be scheduling another free pep talk in mid-December to celebrate the launch of my micro-publication, Permission Granted, 45 Reasons To Micro-publish, which is part of my Future Is Frictionless series. You can learn more about it here.

If you missed out on today’s free conference call and you want to make sure you don’t miss another, be sure to sign up for my e-zine, The Prosperous Writer, which is where I broadcast news about upcoming free calls.

Space on free calls is limited, so please don’t wait next time around to register. Jump on the free registration the first time I announce it. Even if you miss the call itself, those who register for free calls have 48 hours to call in and listen to the recorded call for free.

As per my usual advice to writers, I will be rewarding myself with a special treat this week to celebrate all of the hard work I poured into the many drafts of Write For Regional Parenting Publications For Fun & Profit.

As I celebrate, I will also be thinking about all of the awesome mom writers I have worked with over the past twelve and a half years, as well as all of my wonderful Dream Teamers, who I have been working with ten months out of every year for the past four years.

Wow. Sometimes I even impress myself. 🙂

Thank you for helping me celebrate the launch of Write For Regional Parenting Publications For Fun & Profit.

I look forward to many more years of serving writing for publication needs of mom writers!

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One Space Between Sentences, Not Two, Is The Standard Now

The Writer's Workout is chock full of insights every writer needs to know.

I caught a tweet from Diane Lynn referring to her blog post over at Write Beginnings.

She said she was reading The Writer’s Workout and she was shocked to learn in Chapter 60, “Check Your Formatting,” that the standard in publishing today requires writers to put one space between sentences, not two, as was originally taught back in the day.

Here is the solution I proposed in The Writer’s Workout for writers like her:

If you use Microsoft Word (it’s highly likely you will since it’s the word processing software most publishers use), compose your document, finalize it, and then go up to the “Edit” tab and select “Replace.”

You will see a box that says, “Find and Replace,” which contains two fields for you to fill in. Fill in the top box with two spaces (hit the space bar two times) and fill in the bottom box with one space (hit the space bar one time). Then hit the button that says “Replace All.”

And voilà! All those years of habitually typing in two spaces instead of one can be remedied without the need for a typing recovery program.

It’s important to get into the habit of correcting a document before you submit your work. Don’t give editors an easy reason to take a pass.

Diane decided to search the Internet to confirm that my advice was correct.

In the end, she decided that this is an issue she will need to address in her writing. She wondered if she was the last person in the world to find out about this convention, but I assured her she is not.

Each round, I typically have two students in each Writing & Publishing the Short Stuff class, who need to learn to change the habit. So, if like Diane, you find yourself stuck in the same old typing school habit, don’t feel badly. Just use the shortcut until you are able to break the habit.

Or never break the habit and always use the shortcut. It’s nothing to be ashamed about.

You’ll find this and other extremely helpful advice for writers in my Writer’s Digest book, The Writer’s Workout.

Happy habit-breaking!

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Quote 4: Permission Granted, 45 Reasons To Micro-publish

I sometimes find myself in the unenviable position of needing to discourage a writer from the pursuit of a book deal, at least in the short run.

In the past, it was quite the opposite. I used to encourage every writer I met, if I thought they had a good book idea and the skills to break in.

But then I watched one of two things happen. Either the writer did not break in and was heartbroken.

Or the writer did break in, and nothing turned out, in the end, the way the writer had hoped.

I paid close attention to the effort expended and the results gained or not gained and what I have come to realize is that the problems in publishing do not necessarily spring from writers.

We are living in a culture full of promising, able, and skilled writers.

However book publishing has created a dynamic with regards to writers that simply must change.

To be as fixated on book deals and best sellers as we are as a community of writers is to put ourselves in continual danger of being mislead.

So I suggest that we change our focus. As a community of writers, we stop obsessing about book deals and best sellers and we focus instead on readers and meeting their needs.

We build ownership and do not allow our egos to be seduced, and eventually end up with something much more reasonable and realistic than what traditional publishers can offer the majority of writers today.

This may sound radical, but it isn’t. Focusing on micro-publishing instead of on traditional publishing in the short run, is simply a signal that writers are growing up and taking responsibility for our own fates.

And this makes us a lot less easy to seduce, wrangle and lead astray in the first place.

Traditional book deals are for some day, maybe. But micro-publishing is a goal you can reach, if not now, then much sooner than some day. ~ Permission Granted, 45 Reasons To Micro-publish By Christina Katz

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Gift A Friend The 21 Moments Writing Challenge In January

Register for your next round too -- now available in five levels!

Did you enjoy taking the 21 Moments Writing Challenge in 2013?

Do you know someone you think would enjoy it, too?

Then, consider buying them participation in the January round as a holiday gift.

21 Moments is for any level writer. The only requirement is a desire to write.

The series of writing prompts has been so popular that, beginning in January I will be offering five rounds!

NaNoWriMo is only one month out of the year and it’s only for folks who are working on long projects.

21 Moments is nine months of the year, it provides writing inspiration and guidance for those who do not know where to begin, and you get a chance to submit your best moment and win the next round for free to help motivate you to keep going.

21 Moments Writing Challenge is created and developed by Christina Katz explicitly for writers who are ready to write more and write better, the 21 Moments Writing Challenge is a terrific bargain at only $21 per round.

If there are two things writers in the 21st century need to learn and need to learn now, it’s how to write short, tight, and well.

Buy a round for you or a friend this holiday season and start drafting your moments. You both deserve it!

Register here for the next round, for you or a friend or both!

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Dream Teams With Christina Katz: 2014 Registration Now Open

I start a new round of Dream Teams on January 1, 2014 and registration for participants is now open.

Dream Teams are five-month accountability groups for writers who have taken my classes.

In order to participate, you have to have a few things going for you:

  1. You must be a former student
  2. You must want to focus and work on the goal of the team
  3. You must be ready and willing to succeed
  4. You must be prepared to work with me for five months straight
  5. You must be accountable for your success
  6. You must be ready to say goodbye to excuses

That’s it!

The first-level Dream Team is the Beginning Dream Team. If you took and completed my class, Writing & Publishing The Short Stuff, then you qualify to register.

And exciting news! I now have a new Essay Writing Dream Team available for veteran Dream Teamers, who wish to add a second Dream Team to their writing schedules.

Get the full scoop here.

And if you want to join in but have not met the requirements yet, then please check out my classes page.

Next round of classes begins in January and puts you in position to join the next round of Dream Teams that begin in August, if you don’t have the prereqs yet.

If you have read Writer Mama LINK or Write For Regional Parenting Publications For Fun & Profit LINK, what are you waiting for?

Register now and get started building up your portfolio of published writing clips.

I love working with mom writers and I have been doing it consistently for the past twelve and half years straight.

Hope to work with you soon!

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