A guest post by Anna Lewis
Anna Lewis is the co-founder of the online print-on-demand self-publishing service CompletelyNovel held the Author Blog Awards in April 2010. You can also find Anna on Twitter – http://twitter.com/anna_cn

For anyone who is aiming for a career in writing, blogging is a fantastic way to hit the ground running. Find out about the main benefits of blogging and pick up a few tips to get started.

Blogging can improve your writing
Ever read Malcolm Gladwell’s book ‘Outliers’? One of the main messages of the book is that to excel at something, you need to put in the hours….around 10,000 of them in fact! You might not have that much time to spare, but the essential message is that the more time you can devote to writing the better your writing is likely to become.
There are very few successful bloggers who don’t blog regularly, and blogging regularly means that you have to write. You need to decide how often you will write a blog post and stick to it. Writing a blog is not like keeping a diary – it’s a public commitment, which means there is much more incentive to keep it up!

Use your blog to build up an audience
If you have an idea or are are working on a book which you are looking to either publish yourself, or get published, it will be very valuable to have built up a readership and a connection with your potential audience. Writing a blog is a great way to do this over time. Your publisher will definitely thank you for it later!

Your blog could get you published
Blogging could help you find someone to publish your work too. The recent winner of the Author Blog Awards was Emily Benet whose blog ‘Shop Girl Diaries’ caught the attention of a publisher – as a result, they asked her to turn it into a book. Having already shared your writing online and received good feedback is a real selling point.

So, ready to start blogging? Here are a few handy tips:

1. Don’t expect to have thousands of followers from day one – you’ll probably end up very disappointed. To begin with, just concentrate on writing, improving and creating quality posts.
2. The best blogs tend to have a focus that is beyond a person’s day to day life. Blogging from a unique perspective will make your content much more interesting and will help your readers know what to expect.
3. Link your blog to profiles on other networks such as Twitter and Facebook – it will help you to extend the reach of your blog and connect with others.

Links: Malcolm Gladwell: http://www.gladwell.com/outliers/index.html
Author Blog Awards: http://www.completelynovel.com/author-blog-awards
Emily Benet: http://www.completelynovel.com/publishing-news/how-to-be-top-of-the-blogs-Emily-Benet

A guest post By Mark Love

Mark Love is a former freelance reporter and author of several short stories and three novels, “Balancing Act”, “Fade Away” and “Desperate Measures”. His books are available at www.internationalagora.com. You can also read his blog write now.

There’s a line from an old rock and roll song that goes “Don’t always know what I’m talking about” and when it comes to professional communications, it’s a very true statement.

The ability to communicate clearly should be something that everyone is capable of and comfortable doing. But there is a world of difference between a casual conversation with friends and writing a business document. Sadly the shorthand expressions that are so prevalent in modern technology continue to invade the professional landscape.

Years ago, when text messaging was first bursting onto the scene, I received an email from a colleague about a problem I had resolved for him with another employee. This is how he signed his email, “LOL, Bob.”
I was immediately confused. Now I didn’t know this man that well and I surmised that he appreciated my assistance, but the signature line left me puzzled. Rather than play tag with more emails, I called him. When he came on the line, he was very friendly and talkative. That is, until I asked him what he meant with the signature line.

“LOL,” he said, as if it was plain as day.
“Lots of love?” I asked.

There was a moment of stunned silence. “No way! It means ‘laugh out loud’. Why would I tell you lots of love?”

I explained that I had no idea what he had been trying to tell me and encouraged him to refrain from such abbreviations in the future. The next time he stopped in my office, he wore a sheepish grin on his face. “I assumed everyone knew what that meant.”

And right there was his mistake.

You can’t assume anything.

Imagine if Bob had been a female and I had interpreted the message the same way. This could have led to a case of sexual harassment.

The multitude of text abbreviations have slipped into professional communications and can cause more delays, more problems and confusion that simply writing what you meant. I’ve worked in Human Resources for many years. A part of my duties have always included recruiting, which means I’ve seen thousands of resumes and cover letters. This is your chance to make a great first impression. In today’s world, where the competition for jobs is high, a simple mistake can have a huge impact on whether or not your resume actually gets considered.

Abbreviations run rampant through the business world no matter what type of industry you might be in. There is a time and a place for using abbreviations in business, but it’s important to make sure that your audience knows what those abbreviations mean. In publishing POD means print on demand. In transportation POD can mean proof of delivery: different industries, different meanings.

Business writing has no room for slang. This is an arena for clear, concise methods of communication. Slang or texting abbreviations can make you appear lazy and if it causes your reader to stop in midsentence and search out the meaning on Google, you’ve just lost your audience. And in today’s competitive world, you can’t afford to lose your audience.

So when you’re writing, get it right. Take the time to read your messages out loud making sure that what you are trying to say is coming across clearly. The more often you do this, the easier it will become and soon, it will be a natural part of your methods of communicating. Because the last thing you want to do when you’re writing professionally, whether it is part of a presentation, a proposal, a cover letter or a resume is to leave your audience with the feeling that ‘You don’t always know what you’re talking about’.

C ya,