Confession #6: A Bad Website is Much Worse Than No Website at All

Everyone pretty much feels like they should have a webiste today. This is true. In the digital world in which we live, you should have some sort of website if you are trying to sell something or disseminate some sort of information. It’s important. A person or company’s online presence tells a lot about them/it. However, a bad website will hurt your reputation far more than not having one at all. I’ve come acros some truly bad websites in my time here at the UPF while searching for contact information for scholarly journals or doing research and also just in my travels across the internet in general. So here’s my top 5 pet peeves when it comes to bad websites

1.  Animation: Nothing on your webiste should move. Like ever. Unless it’s something really awesome like this (Seriously, check it out. It’s amazing) If you can’t compete with that level of awesomeness, the answer should just be no. Don’t insert any sparkly or animated banners. Don’t insert cute graphics of animated woodland creatures or whatever. You might think that they’re brilliant. But I guarantee you that 99.8 percent of the population won’t find them as adorable as you do. If it doesn’t have to move, it shouldn’t.
2. Bad Colors: A bad color scheme is like the kiss of death for a website. Neon colors are almost never appropriate. They especially should not be used for text. Ever. In fact, no color should really ever be used for text unless it’s a dark neutral color like black, brown or dark blue. Let’s take this website for example The green writing makes me feel like I’m going blind. The company is legitimate, but I feel like I just stumbled onto a really really bad internet scam. It’s definitely not a place I would ever buy anything from.
3. Bad Colors Continued: Colored backgrounds should be a border, not the background for your text. The last website is also a prime example for this. Even if the text was white, it’s much harder to read white on black than it is black on white. There are always exceptions to every rule, but the majority of your text should be on a white or similarly colored background. To get someone to stay at your website or revisit it, you want it to be as readable as possible.
4. Too much scrolling: Scrolling should be at a minimum and definitely never horizontally. Think carefully about the amount of information you put on each page. Because if it wasn’t my job, I never would have waded through this site for the newsletter contact information. Having too much information is as bad as not having enough. You want to tease the reader to convince them to move from page to page in the site. Give them just enough information to keep them interested. That’s why news stories are almost always broken up onto multiple pages. If someone feels overwhelmed by the amount of information you are throwing at them, they aren’t going to stay on your site for very long.
5. Contact information: This is probably my biggest pet peeve. If you want people to be able to get in touch with you, make it as easy as possible. I spend hours at my internship trying to find contact information for people. Sometimes it’s literally impossible. Don’t be one of those people. If you want them to email you, give them an email link. If you want them to facebook you, give them the link to your facebook page. The point of every website should be engagement. People can’t engage with you if you don’t give them the opportunity.

There are other things that makes websites bad, but these are the biggest things to avoid for me personally. Websites should be clean and attractive. A messy website is like inviting people over to your house with dirty dishes piled up in the sink and garbage all over the floor. You don’t want people to see your mess in your real home. You shoudln’t want them to see it in your online home either.

Confession #4: Revisions How I Loathe Thee

Part of writing anything is revision. Whether it’s a novel, a short story or even catalog copy, you’ll probably drive yourself crazy with revisions. I feel like I’m having PTSD flashbacks of Reporting (the second most dropped class at the University of Florida) as I’m sitting here at my desk trying to revise my catalog copy. I can all to vividly remember sitting in that computer lab in Weimar Hall praying that there weren’t any fact errors in my story and that my commas were all actually necessary. I still have nightmares about it two years later. And I still struggle with commas. Personally, I think that they should be used for dramatic effect only and have no bearing on actual grammar. I might be alone in this opinion, but I think it’s a pretty valid one.

I’ve been dealing a lot with revision this week from my creative writing workshop and my internship. So I thought I would put together a list of tips on how to deal with it. Everyone is going to have to face it at some point or another. The important thing is handling it well and learning from it.

1. It’s not personal. When someone tells you to  make changes, it’s probably because every word you wrote is not as divinely inspired as you believe . It’s because they want to help you become a better writer. It is not because they have a personally vendetta against you.
2. Take a step back. Let your piece sit for a few hours or days depending on how much time you actually have. Fresh eyes make everything better. You’ll see things in a new light and better be able to make changes.
3. Every point is valid. If someone points out a problem with your piece, then most likely there’s a legitimate problem. You are not your own audience. Of course you understand every word. You’re the one who wrote it. The thing is, it doesn’t matter if you understand it. What matters is that everyone else does.
4. Really, it’s not personal. Don’t think it is. Don’t get majorly offended when someone tells you that your tone is wrong for the character or totally marks up your piece with a red pen. It’s not that they hate you or your work. It’s that they are trying to make it the best it can be, and consequently make you the best you can be.
5. Be open-minded. Go into any revision session open to what everyone has to say. Don’t go into it combative. Everyone will only get frustrated, and you won’t get the helpful criticism you need.
6. Let the criticism you receive marinate. Don’t immediately start making changes. Think long and hard about what was said to you before you start ripping your piece apart. You’ll only make yourself crazy doing that.
7. Remember that it’s only one person, or even a few people’s, opinion. While you should listen to everyone’s advice, that doesn’t mean you have to take it. In some cases, like when you’re at your internship writing catalog copy, you do have to accept all the changes. But in that case your boss has been doing this a lot longer than you have and knows what he’s doing far more than you do. Most of the time though, you are still the author and it’s still your artistic integrity. Do what feels right in your gut. 

If it’s not already clear, the important thing to remember is that it’s really not personal.  Your writing can always be better. Whether you are a best-selling novelist, a journalist, or a struggling writer just trying to get some attention, your writing can always be cleaner, flow better and generally just improve. The best writers are the ones who can take and apply criticism the best.

How to: Write a Pitch Memo

Today I’m going to give you a bit further insight into the publishing world by explaining how we do one of the most common tasks here at the UPF for the marketing department. I’m going to explain how to write a pitch memo. Basically a pitch memo is a letter to a media outlet asking that they write a review of your recently published book. In publishing, you only ever pitch to general editors or book review editors. You never go to the exact person that you want to write the review because your publication might think that journalist/scholar or whatever has a vested interest in your book. So here are my steps to writing a pitch memo:

1. Make sure you have the absolute right contact information. People change jobs pretty frequently these days, and this info can be hard to get sometimes. Especially with scholarly journals. Those are a pain in the rear.
2. Learn as much as you can about the publication. See what their recent articles have been about. Does you book seem to fit? If not, you should probably start looking for another media outlet.    
3. Read as much of/about the book that you can. Try to find a really interesting fact or two. You need to be able to give your pitch memo as much of a sense of urgency as possible and spark some interest in whoever will make the decision about whether or not the publication reviews your book.
4. Start the actual pitch memo with that interesting fact/sense of urgency. It’s like the lede in a news story and should be its own paragraph.
5. Give a brief description of the book. Make it sound as interesting as possible, but also be accurate and concise. You want to catch their interest, not give away the entire book so that they feel like they don’t need to read it.
6. Talk about how your book fits in with their publication. Use your research about them to talk about how it fits with a recent article or series that they did. Like I said before, if your book does not fit they probably won’t review it, and you are wasting your time.
7. Give plenty of contact information for yourself. You want them to feel like they are your priority and this includes being explicit about how they can get in touch with you.  
8. End your letter charitably. Thank them for their time. They are a busy person, just like you. Make sure they know that you appreciate their time and consideration.
9. Proof read. This means more than just using spell check. Read over your letter a couple of times and maybe even out loud. Make sure you don’t have any awkward phrasing or missing words. Bad grammar is like a death sentence in the world of the media.  
10. If you are sending this out to more than one publication, make sure you tailor it to each publication individually. The beginning of your pitch can be the same from publication to publication, but make sure that you mention specific things about each one and how your book fits in their bigger picture.

And there you have your pitch memo. This isn’t a guarantee that they’ll write your review, but it will help get their attention if you have a well-crafted and interesting memo for them. Also, don’t be afraid to follow up with them if you don’t get a response. This does not mean to badger them constantly, but the more time you invest in them, the more time they’ll invest in you.

What I’m Reading: Les Miserables

I talk a lot about the UPF in this blog, which is pretty much the point, but I’d also like to talk a little bit about what I’m reading outside of work. Right now I’m in the middle of Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. I had the opportunity recently to see the Broadway show with a friend and instantly fell in love. The book is kind of a beast though. I bought a copy for my Nook, which might be the greatest thing ever invented, and it’s over 1200 pages long. I decided to go with the unabridged version in part because I’m crazy and also because you get such a better glimpse into the author’s head when you read all of their original words. I’m also a bit wary of abridged versions after a copy I read of Jane Eyre altered the ending to where Mr. Rochester was only blinded in the fire and Thornfield was only minorly damaged. It was meant for kids, so I can see why they did it, but you can imagine my horror several years later when I read the unabridged version and Mr. Rochester was permanently disfigured and Thornfield was burnt to the ground. I haven’t read an abridged version of anything since.

For anyone who is not familiar with the story Jean Valjean is a convict who went to jail for stealing some bread to feed his sister’s starving child. He’s released from prison, but everyone still knows that he’s a convict and won’t take him in or give him work because they consider him a criminal. After a priest is kind to him, Valjean makes a vow to God that he will be better and do everything in his power to be a better man. He ends up changing his name, opening a factory and becoming mayor of a town that he almost single-handedly made prosperous. The problem though is that he broke his parole and is being hunted by a police inspector named Javert. He meets the once lovely Fantine and promises to take care of her child, Cosette, while Fantine is on her deathbed. He takes in Cosette and spends the rest of the book protecting her from his past while rebellion stirs in the heart of the impoverished people of France.

I love this story. It’s absolutely marvelous, and I’ve listened to the soundtrack for the musical almost non-stop for the last two or three weeks. I would make an excellent Eponine, if I do say so myself. When I sing along to “On My Own” in the car, the audience on the recording is always very enthusiastic. The one thing I’m having a hard time understanding in the book though is Hugo’s need for such long portions of historical context. I’m currently in the middle of an almost blow-by-blow account of the Battle of Waterloo. A friend told me what the reason behind it is supposed to be, but I’m still not entirely sure that I understand. I feel as though it was really unnecessary for the time the novel was written in. People probably would have already been familiar with the details of the Battle of Waterloo. Obviously the story is incredible as it has lasted for so long and had such commercial success, but I do wonder what the point of all of the historical accounts are. Don’t let that dissuade you from the book though. It’s actually not that difficult of a read when the plot is moving. Any one who loves classic literature is bound to fall in love with Valjean and all of the other colorful and exciting characters that Hugo has created. On a scale of 1 to 7, I give it a 5.

For any fellow Nook owners out there, here’s the link to the unabridged copy that I own from Barnes and Noble.

Confession #3: Review copies just might be the best part of my job

Part of the reason I applied for this internship is because I absolutely love books. I’m pretty much an insatiable reader and will devour pretty much any book I can get my hands on. You can imagine my excitement when on my first day here at the UPF I was given two advance review copies of books that are coming out in the Spring/Summer season for 2012. I recently finished the first book, Trout,  and I must say that it was kind of amazing. It’s one the first true crime books published by the UPF, and is definitely a hit. It deals instead with the Trout Auto Parts chain in Pensacola, FL and the true story of a murder that took place there in 1991.

Patrick Bonifay, Clifford Barth and Eddie Fordham were three teenage boys hired to do a very adult crime. Patrick’s uncle, Robin Archer, offered his dirt poor nephew a suitcase full of money if Patrick killed the man who got him fired from his job at Trout Auto Parts. The problem was that the man who Patrick was supposed to kill, Daniel Wells, called in sick the night of the murder, and an innocent man lost his life that night instead. The book goes into the details of the boys lives before the murder as well as the aftermath and how everything changed for them forever. It also explores the history of sentencing minors to the death penalty and whether or not they can truly be held accountable for their actions at such a young age.

I personally found this book fascinating. It was so interesting to get a real glimpse into each character’s mind. You got to know the characters of the book so intimately as it progressed, and it made the outcome seem all the more tragic for it. You really start to feel for all three boys and wish that things could have been different for them. I also really enjoyed all of the psychology in the book and reading about the history of sentencing juveniles to the death penalty. I even found myself looking up some of the other cases mentioned and wondering what punishment I would recommend if I’d been a juror in one of the cases. Trout is a gripping book from beginning to end and is a great read for fans of crime books everywhere. You can click on the image to go to the book’s page on the UPF website for more information and to pre-order a copy for yourself. It officially goes on sale April 15.

Confession #2: Writing always calls for a ton of revision

I mentioned in my last post that I’m currently working on copy for the Fall/Winter catalog. It’s just like writing an article or a press release. Your beginning needs to be the most interesting fact you can think of. The middle needs to contain all of the actual necessary information, and the end needs to seal the deal. It’s a pretty simple formula. And the thing is like 300 words tops. Quick, easy and relatively painless. Except maybe not so much. When you write for the catalog, you are trying to sell the book. You have to convince book store owners or other experts in the field that this book is new and exciting and that absolutely everyone with an interest in the topic needs to read it. This can feel like a lot of pressure.  Here’s a bit of insight into my particular process:

1. Open a blank word document and stare at it for at least five minutes. Then maybe go to the water cooler and refill your cup. Writing makes you thirsty.
2. Stare at that blank word document for another five minutes or so. Think about what you’re going to do when you get off work. Maybe pull out your iPod and search for some inspirational music to write to.
3.  Pull out an old catalog and read someone else’s copy. Decide what you like and what you don’t like. Then read some more copy. Soon you’ve read the whole catalog twice and you’re no closer to coming up with something than you were 40 minutes ago.
4. Finally type in all of the information you already know has to go on the page. Now your word document isn’t quite so blank and scary anymore. Maybe you can actually get something written.
5. Stare out the window at the couple fighting outside the apartment complex across the street. You can’t actually hear what they’re saying, but body language speaks volumes. He definitely cheated on her.
6. Come up with a lede. Then decide it’s total crap and delete it.
7. Oh look, you’re cup is empty again. Take another trip to the water cooler.
8. Time for a snack!
9. Write another lede, delete it and then decide to skip it all together. You’ll figure one out later.  
10. Make a to do list of all the other things you need to get done that day. Include all of the things you’ve already completed so that you have something to check off. You’ll feel slightly better about yourself and the fact that you are struggling so hard to come up with something for that catalog copy.
11.  Finally get something written. You’re not sure if it’s crap or not, but if you leave it alone for a few minutes (or days), maybe it will become clear.
12. Start a blog post about your struggles. Then maybe someone out there in the world can empathize with you.
13. Reread your catalog copy. Come to the realization that you used the same phrase (“Civil Rights Movement” for example) in almost every sentence. That probably isn’t necessary.
14. Try to come up with another way to express said phrase.
15. Write your lede! Be incredibly relieved that you finally have one that doesn’t sound like crap.
16. Save your work and close the word document. It’s not due for a week or two. Decide that you’ll wait a bit before revising it again.
17. Decide after revising it for the fifth time that it’s finished and put it in the appropriate drive for your supervisor to read it. Maybe go back and edit it one or two more times before he actually reads it. Just to make sure it’s perfect. Or at least make sure it doesn’t suck completely. As a writer, you’ll probably never be fully satisfied. Accept this. It will make your life so much easier.  

And tada! You’re finished! At least you are until your supervisor actual does read it and decides that he wants you to make changes. You know this is going to happen. Accept this too. The more eyes that read and revise it before it actually gets printed, the better it will probably be. This is also true of almost everything that you will ever write.