Blog Your Novel Month

After creating this blog entry about Dean Alfar and how he "blogged his novel" Salamanca in 30 days, during the 2004 version of NaNoWriMo, that's when it hit me. Why not make a great thing of it. And it's a great idea, actually. Writing in public will make us feel less alone while writing our Great Blank Novel. (Fill in the Blank with your respective Citizenship). I, myself, feel that the solitary nature of my chosen profession has hindered me from writing that first novel (need not be "great"; I’ll settle with "bestseller").

So here's the concept. I'm aware that this has already been done within the context of NaNoWriMo, but my idea is to do this thing as a separate event since it merits its own month of the year. We will make this coming October -- to give us ample time to prepare, and to spread the word -- Blog Your Novel Month or BlogYoNoMo (pronounced blog-yoh-noh-mow, but we are not too anal about the name so you can pronounce it however you want). Sounds great, huh? So far, here are the guidelines that I came up with (feel free to give suggestions but I still have the last say, of course):

1. The event will start on October 1, 12 AM(MN) US New York/Eastern time, that would be October 1, 12 PM(NN) in the Philippines, and will end on October 31, 12 AM(MN) US New York/Eastern, or October 31, 12 PM(NN) in the Philippines. (Check the World Time Server's time converter for your respective local times.)

2. You may blog your novel here at WriteLit.com, or on your own blog, be it a free blog or a blog set up on a paid host. You may or may not enable posting of comments. It's all up to you depending on whether you feel comfortable others saying something about your work while you are writing it. For this purpose, I’m creating a new content type here at WriteLit.com called blogyonomo-no-comment and blogyonomo-with-comment. You may also choose your default blog, of course, with its default “comments enabled” setting.

3. Before the start of the event, you will announce at WriteLit.com the URL or web address of where you are going to blog your BlogYoNoMo novel, e.g. mynovel.blogspot.com or mysite.com/myblog/mynovel, etc. If you are going to use the blogyonomo content types, just indicate your account page, e.g. writelit.com/user/myusername.

4. You may write in any language: English, Tagalog, Spanish, Tagalog, Arabic, Chinese, Cebuano, Bikol, etc.

5. At the end of the event, on October 31, you will post the URL or web address of your final blog entry at WriteLit.com. You have the option of not publishing the last chapter or final two chapters of your novel, so as not to spoil it for your readers when your great novel finally sees print, especially if you are employing a surprise ending.

6. You will display your work for at least a month. After that, you may or may not delete your "blogged novel."

FAQ

Is BlogYoNoMo affiliated with NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)?

No. BlogYoNoMo was just inspired by NanoWriMo. However, the timing of BlogYoNoMo is significant, since it actually complements NaNoWriMo. You may, for example, revise or finish writing unfinished novels during NaNoWriMo (in November).

Who will own the rights to the novel after I finish writing it?

You own all rights.

Since I am publishing my work online, does it mean that I won't be able to send it to a publisher anymore?

By and large, publishing online means that you've only used your Internet Rights to your work, so that means the First Printing Rights is still available. If a particular publisher still rejects your novel because it has been published online (emphasis on the phrase “has been” because remember that you have the option to delete your blog), I'm pretty sure there are many publishers who would want to publish your work -- assuming it's good -- because it makes great marketing sense actually. Bands and other artists are actually doing this now -- letting people download or view digital version of their works to great results. A great example is the British band Arctic Monkeys who grew a large following when they allowed their music to be downloaded for free online. And closer to home is the debut fantasy novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow. The novel was released online and for free the same day that it went on sale in bookstores. The result? The first printing was sold out ahead of schedule, and the book is now in its sixth printing, as free downloads (to date 650,000) racheted up print sales. What I'm saying is that if you blog your novel, you are already ahead of the pack since publicizing one's work is already a quarter of the battle -- the other parts are writing a first draft, revising it, and then having it published.

Moreover, the version of the novel that others will see will actually be your first draft. And I'm sure it will be largely different from your final work. Those who have read your first draft will alert those who don't usually go online to your work. In other words, we're expecting word of mouth to push your work to the bestseller list! (Hopefully).

Can I start on my novel, even before the start of BlogYoNoMo?

Of course, you can. That's the whole point of BlogYoNoMo -- to force you to write!

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You may reach me, Dino Manrique, the publisher of WriteLit.com at writelit at gmail dot com.

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Who owns WriteLit.com?

WriteLit.com is published by Dino Manrique.

A graduate of Ateneo de Manila University's B.S. Computer Science progam, Dino is a web developer and freelance writer who has written literary works -- short stories, poetry -- for Philippine publications such as Philippines Free Press and Philippine Graphic. He has also written for international magazines and web sites, including Pool & Billiard Magazine, Billiard's Digest, Doll Magazine, San Francisco Weekly, New Jersey Journal, and Asia Times Online among others.

Included among his unpublished works is the unproduced historical screenplay, Ang Heneral at Ang Supremo, an imagined and well-researched account of the feud between two of the Philippines' national heroes, Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Aguinaldo.

He has also developed websites for independent filmmakers (JP Carpio's Balay Daku and Ellen Ongkeko-Marfil's Angels), scriptwriter Ricky Lee, and another website on writing and literature, FilipinoWriter.com.

He is currently working on his thesis as part of the requirements for an M.A. English Studies-Creative Writing degree at the University of the Philippines, Diliman.

Aside from writing and web development, he is also passionate about filmmaking and singing.

Dino, who was born and raised in Iriga City, Camarines Sur, is based in Loyola Heights, Quezon City, Philippines. You may reach him at writelit [at] gmail [dot] com.

How do I add an Amazon Product in the WriteLit.com database?

To add an Amazon Item in the WriteLit.com, just go to your Navigation menu and then to create content->amazon node.

To add an item, just enter the ASIN or the Amazon Standard Identification Number in the field provided. In case of a book, the ASIN is usually the ten-digit ISBN which can be found on the back cover of your book or inside its pages (there's a new thirteen-digit ISBN which is not the ASIN). You can also see the ASIN on the URL or web address of the Amazon item. Usually, it's the first ten-digit number in the URL of the Amazon item.

For example, Anne Lamott's book Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life has the following URL: http://www.amazon.com/Bird-Some-Instructions-Writing-Life/dp/0385480016

The ASIN is the ten-digit number 0385480016.

When you preview or submit the Amazon node, the WriteLit.com site will automatically fetch the item or book's info -- Title, Cover, Author, Price, etc. -- from the Amazon website, and you don't need to enter any other data aside from the aforementioned ASIN.

Amazon Tags (Or how to link to Amazon items)

Note that the Bird by Bird Amazon title above -- Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life -- is actually an Amazon tag. You can use tags to link to a book's title or to its cover (while posting an entry in your blog for example).

To link to an Amazon book, use the following syntax: [amazon title|cover|info asin]. That is, choose either title or cover in the tag (the word 'info' is not working properly right now and does not link to the item in Amazon). (This tag and instructions how to use it can be found in the Input Format menu below the rich-text editor). If you use the word 'cover' for example it will produce the following output:

To review a particular Amazon book or item, go to how to submit a review.

How do I advertise at WriteLit.com?

You may advertise at this site via Text Link Ads. Your ad will appear as a text link on the left sidebar of all pages of the site. You may view the WriteLit.om advertising package at the Text Link Ads site.

How do I include photos and videos in my posts?

I have just added the ability for you to add photos and videos to your posts, that is without uploading them directly to the site. In other words, you can now "hotlink" to photos which are served in sites which allow hotlinking such as Flickr.com and Photobucket.com (I personally prefer photobucket because of the upload limit); you can also embed videos from sites which allow external sharing or embedding such as Youtube.com or Google Video.

How to Include a Photo in your Post

To hotlink to a photo, enable the rich-text editor. Position the cursor where you want to insert the photo. Then click the Insert/edit image button (the "tree" button). Enter the Image URL and other info.

Some rules. Just make sure that you are hotlinking to images which are residing in sites and servers which allow hotlinking, or to your own site or server. Otherwise, your post will be unpublished.

Also, be careful not to ruin the site's layout by posting a very large image. If you have a large image, you may set the Dimensions in the Insert/edit image window. Let's set the maximum dimension to 400 pixels X 300 pixels.

How to Include a Video in your Post

To embed a video, just disable the rich-text editor and paste the embed code where you want the video to appear in your post. Or if you don't want to disable the rich-text editor when embedding a video, just click the HTML button and paste the embed code on the resulting pop-up window. Then click the Update button (on the pop-up window).

I have enabled embedding videos from these hosts: YouTube.com, iFilm.com, NowPublic.com, Revver.com, Imeem.com, Video.Google.com. Tell me if there are other sites and hosts out there which allow external sharing of their videos so I can enable them in the site's settings.

How do I post a news item?

To submit a news item from an external site go to your Navigation menu, and go to create content->weblink. Then choose News from Web Link Type menu.

Enter a summary of the news on the text area of the Body field. You may also paste a short excerpt from the news item, and enclose it in quote tags, like so:

How do I use my blog?

WriteLit.com is structured in such a way that you can enter almost anything in your blog. However, we encourage you to post narratives of  your writing and reading life in your blog. Here are just some examples of how you can use your blog.

1. Post about your works-in-progress.
2. Share your thoughts about works you've read.
3. Tell us your experiences attending workshops, book launches, readings and other literary activities.

Of course, you can also use your blog as your personal journal. Note: Regarding particular information, announcements, or content which are related to the sections (e.g. details about a new job, submission guidelines of a magazine, a work-in-progress, a finished literary work), it would be best to use the other content types in the "create content" section of  your account. So as a rule of thumb, to post the content itself, use other content types (article, forum topic, literature, work-in-progress, market, job, event, review). For narratives about these content types, blog. :)

How do I use the TinyMCE rich-text editor?

The TinyMCE rich-text editor is enabled by default in textarea fields where you have to encode/input your content. TinyMCE allows you to format your post without manually inserting HTML codes. You can turn TinyMCE on or off by default in the edit/account settings of your "my account" page. If you have disabled TinyMCE by default, you can enable it by clicking on the enable rich-text link at the bottom of the textarea. However, you can always turn off TinyMCE anytime and manually format your post with HTML codes by following the rich-text editing instructions beneath the text area.    

What are WriteLit.com's Submission Guidelines?

At WriteLit.com, you get to earn from Google Adsense for every post you make (Right now, this is in the BETA stage, meaning we are testing it for at least two months, starting this July of 2006, and if everything works fine, we'll continue with the program. However, during the BETA stage, you can already earn. Update (October 4, 2006): the BETA stage has been over for at least a month, and everything seems to be working fine. So I now officially declare this page our Submission Guidelines page). Here’s how it works:

1. You create an account with WriteLit.com.

2. You create a publisher's account with Google Adsense if you don’t have one. You will be asked for the name of your site. You should, by order of priority:

a. Enter the name of your site -- http://www.mysite.com, for example -- if you already have one.

OR

b. Create a blog at http://www.blogger.com. You will then have a blog name in the form of http://yourblogname.blogspot.com. You should then enter this blog name when applying for a Google Adsense account.

Important: In applying for a Google Adsense publishing account, we discourage you to use your blog name here at WriteLit.com (e.g. http://www.writelit.com/blog/yourusername) or the site http://www.WriteLit.com, itself, to avoid complicating things (this has to do with click fraud which will be explained below.)

3. You enter your Google Adsense publisher ID (pub-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX) into the designated box in the "revenue sharing" tab of your "my account" page on WriteLit.com.

4. You login and post entries of any content type (blog, literature, forum topics, events, etc.) at WriteLit.com. Make sure that it is an original entry and/or you’re not violating anyone’s copyright.

5. WriteLit.com serves Google ads with every post you make. One time the ad is yours, the next time, it's WriteLit.com’s (in other words, 50-50 sharing).

6. WriteLit.com visitors click the ads. You make money. We make money. (Important: Do not click OR tell others to click on the Google ads served ON YOUR OWN POSTS. This is called click fraud, and you risk losing your Google Adsense account since Google Adsense is very strict about these things. It is okay, however, to click on non-Google ads).

7. Google sends you a check. Google sends WriteLit.com a check.

How much can you earn?

Google Adsense pays you anywhere from $0.02 to $1.00 depending on the type of ads served on your posts. The more frequent, and the higher the quality of your post, the more likely users are going to click on your Google Adsense ads. (To ensure the quality of the posts, I’ve enabled user voting for all posts. Don’t be discouraged by low votes. Just take it as a form of encouragement to do better.)

Also, the higher traffic we get, the more clicks we get, so I encourage you to invite as many friends as possible to our community.

What language can I use in my posts?

You can use English in your posts. You can also use other languages as long as you include an English translation whenever you mean your post to be read by the entire site (as opposed to a specific group for example). As a general rule, WriteLit.com encourages translation, so that we can learn more about each other's culture.   

When should I use the Forums?

Use the forums mainly to ask questions. You can also use it to post your opinions, informal polls, etc. if you don't want to post your entry in your blog.

Why can't I see the TinyMCE rich-text editor?

Your browser may not support TinyMCE. You can see the TinyMCE compatibility chart here. As you can see the following browsers support TinyMCE: Internet Exploret, Firefox, Mozilla, and Safari. I, myself, am using the Opera browser which does not support TinyMCE.*  Thus, when I post content, I use the Firefox browser. *(However, Opera is the fastest browser I've used so far, and I encourage you to try it. It also comes with a ready RSS tool, which is very useful when you want to subscribe to specific content. When using Opera, just click a particular XML graphic of WriteLit.com, and you will get automatic RSS feed from this site).