Creating a Newsletter—The First Page by Rochelle Weber, Newsletter Editor #MFRWorg

In November, we covered creating a header for the first page of a newsletter. Since the MFRW Newsletter broke ninety pages, we’ve discussed the difference between a newsletter and a magazine.  One of our members posted an article that discussed the differences.  Length was one.  Most newsletters run between one and twenty-four pages.  I guess we passed that a few years ago.  Another major difference was the cover.  Most magazines have a photo on the cover with a headline and teasers about the content inside, which usually consists of articles and advertising in non-industry-specific language.  Newsletters tend to have articles on the front.  Of course, I like to add some sort of artwork to the front of my newsletters as well.  It would be a pretty dull publication without some sort of illustration.

So, how do I lay it out?  I add text boxes for the articles I put on the front page.  In the case of the MFRW Newsletter, we put our Featured Author on the front page.    We start with the person’s biography one the left and an interview on the right.  We put the author’s photo in the top right-hand corner, and if there’s room we put his/her contact info in a box at the bottom left.  Again, I use IrfanView to size it.  I like 1.5 inches wide, and I keep the aspect even and let IrfanView decide the length.  We outline the Contacts box in pink.  Our headings are in brown and the links are in hot pink.  The text box for the biography takes up about one-third (1/3) of the width of the page.

As for the interview, the submission form contains several questions for each author to choose from—some serious ones about the craft of writing, some funny ones that may give us an insight into the author him/herself.  And it just occurred to me that since we’re a marketing group, I should probably ask about their favorite marketing technique. I’d better add that to the form as soon as I finish this so I don’t forget!

Depending on how well that fits in the remaining two-thirds (2/3) of the page, it can be one wide column or two narrow ones.  I’ve found that when info doesn’t fit in one column, it sometimes will fit in two. To create columns in Publisher, click on the Columns Icon next to the Paragraph Icon (¶) just to the right of center on the top toolbar.  It should give you a drop-down icon that allows you to choose the number of columns you want by highlighting the columns in the icon.  You’ll then have two columns that are exactly the same size.  To increase the size between columns, go to Format, Text Box, click on the button in the lower right-hand corner that says Columns, and where it says “Spacing,” change that number.  I like 0.25 best.  If I figure out a way to make that the default, I’ll let you know.

Now, all you need to do is figure out what you want to put on your front page!

And, going back to the difference between a newsletter and a magazine, I’d love to add more articles to the MFRW Newsletter.  It’s definitely big enough to be a magazine.  Just think, me, a magazine E-I-C.…  I still wouldn’t get any money for it, but it’d look good in my bio!  Wouldn’t you folks like to be the Cover Models for a magazine?

Rochelle Weber is a Navy veteran and holds a BA in Communications from Columbia College in Chicago with an emphasis on Creative Writing. “Would you like fries with that?” Her novels Rock Bound and Rock Crazy are available in both e-book and print. She edits for Jupiter Gardens Press, and is the Editor-in-Chief of the Marketing for Romance Writers Newsletter, winner of the 2013 Preditors & Editors Readers’ Poll for Best Writers’ Resource.

Rochelle battles bi-polar disorder, quipping, “You haven’t lived until you’ve been the only woman on the locked ward at the VA.” Her song, “It’s Not My Fault,” won a gold medal in the National Veterans Creative Arts Competition. She lives in Round Lake Beach, Illinois. She has two married daughters, four grandchildren, three step-grandkids, and one step-great-grandkid. Two cats allow her to live with them and cater to their every whim.

You can access the MFRW Newsletters at:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/MarketingForRomanceWriters/files/MFRW-Newsletters/

Or:

http://issuu.com/mfrw/docs

Interviews for Newsletters

Back again.  This month I’m talking about how to do interviews for your newsletters.  Interviewing an author for your newsletter is basically the same as doing so for a blog.  However, if you’re printing your newsletters and mailing them out or if you want to keep them to a format that looks like a page, you have space issues that differ from those involved in posting a blog.

As far as the questions go, they’re pretty much the same.  “How did you start writing?”  “What inspires you?”  “What is your ‘process’?”  And the fun ones—“Long, hot, sudsy bath or steamy shower?”  “Steak or lobster?”  “Chocolate or Cheesecake?”  “If you were stranded on a desert island…”

Or, you can interview a character.  “Why do you think someone would write a story about you?”  “Tell me about your hero. How did you meet him?”  “Why don’t you think your relationship with him will work?”

What other material do you plan to use?  A blurb from your guest's book?  An excerpt?  Buy links?  Contact info? It helps to figure out in advance how much space you have in your newsletter and how much space you can give to each item.  Back in the days of electric typewriters, one page of pica type double-spaced equaled three-hundred words.  Using Garamond 11 point type, justified with 1.15 line spacing, I can fit about 200 words in a text box that measures 5.5 inches wide by 4 inches tall.

How long your interviews, blurbs, or excerpts run will depend on whether you want to start them on one page and finish on another.  If you do so, don’t forget to add (To be continued) at the bottom of the first page, and (Continued from Page *) at the beginning of the piece when you pick it up on another page.  I suggest you present intros to both your guest and a taste of what you’re doing on you’re doing on your front page, and then get to the meat of your interview, blurb, excerpt, etc., on the inside.

 

It helps to set up a template to work from and a submission page you can send to your guests so you don’t have to type the same thing over and over.  You could maybe come up with twenty questions and ask them to chose five to answer, and then provide space for their blurb and excerpt, letting them know the word count you can accommodate.

 

In journalism, there are two major principles:  the six Ws—Who, What, Where, When, Why and How, and the Inverted Pyramid.  Always give the meat of the story first, and then go into details later.  The smaller the detail, the farther down the page it belongs.  That’s why journalists fight for headlines and stories on Page 1 “above the fold.”  The six Ws are in a specific order, which should not be tampered with.  People want to know who did what to whom.  Next they want to know where and then when. They’re less interested in why or how.  That info can go on page three below the fold.

Now, I’d like you to meet my next Assistant Editor, Barbara Donlon Bradley.

Writing for Barbara Donlon Bradley started innocently enough. Like most she kept diaries, journals, and wrote an occasional letter, but she also had a vivid imagination and wrote scenes and short stories adding characters to her favorite shows and comic books. As time went on she found the passion for writing to be a strong drive for her. Humor is also very strong in her life. No matter how hard she tries to write something deep and dark, it will never happen. That humor bleeds into her writing. Since she can’t beat it she has learned to use it to her advantage. Now she lives in Tidewater Virginia with two cats, one mother in law—she’s 85 now—her husband, and teenage son.