Last month we asked you to write April's Cool Contest Challenge.

Here's your challenge for April by Beryl Hall Bray:

You're at your dying relative’s bedside and only have a few minutes to bridge the gap created by a dreadful argument. You have not seen or spoken to this person for ten years. What will you say?

Please keep the word count for April’s challenge between 75-200 words.

Beryl Hall Bray is currently taking a writing class, belongs to two writers' groups, is writing a novel, flash fiction, and a nonfiction book with an accompanying game.

Let me be an inspiration to all of you writers who have faced rejection.

Believe me, there will ALWAYS be rejections, and you’ll never like them. But you can persist, and by doing so, succeed.

In fact, when it comes to writing, I believe persistence is supreme, to borrow a Herbert Hoover-ism.

It’s the only thing that will polish your writing, making it, on occasion nearly irresistible to some publisher who will take a chance on putting your text into print.

Anyway, the people who are judging your efforts are flawed beings, like the rest of us.

Take my college professor who taught feature writing. She completely missed my talent, and I suppose I missed hers, as well. Possibly that’s why I simply stopped attending her class after the first few weeks of the semester.

Anyway, she flunked me, the only “F” I ever got through 26 years of schooling, and she only gave me a “C” in her publicity course. I suppose she’d find it ironic that I went on to become a best-selling book author, prolific feature writer, and fairly masterful publicist.

I never told her, because I was too busy writing, and succeeding!

My satisfaction comes from sharing this story with you, and to encourage you to rise above these “petty tyrants,” as Carlos Castaneda has called similar people who try to daunt us.

So, don’t cringe the next time you fail. Believe me, one day, you’ll be as proud of it as I am!

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dr._Gary_S._Goodman

Go into a bookstore and browse through the titles in the bestseller section. Book publishing companies hire high-priced people to come up with a title or “headline,” because book publishing is a big business; therefore a lot of contemplation goes into making their titles as commercially-viable as possible. Many well-known and highly successful books started out with other titles. According to Dan Poynter, the father of self-publishing:

• Tomorrow is Another Day became Gone With The Wind.

• Blossom and the Flower became Peyton Place.

• The Rainbow Book became Free Stuff For Kids.

• The Squash Book became the Zucchini Book.

• John Thomas and Lady Jane became Lady Chatterly’s Lover.

• Trimalchio in West Egg became Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.

• Something that Happened became Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. • Catch 18 became Catch 22

While you are at the store, notice how the other browsers pick up a book, scan the front and back cover, and then put it down again before going on to another book. The whole process takes about two seconds each. That’s all of the time you have to make an impression on a potential reader. In those two seconds, you must appeal literally to three of the five senses that human beings have, sight, speech, and hearing, and figuratively to the last two, touch and smell.

1) Sight: When someone first comes in contact with your book’s title, it is usually by seeing it on the front cover. So your title must be aesthetically appealing.

2) Speech: If a person stumbles over the words, it will add to the difficult in marketing your book. Even if you are writing only for family members and friends, and you are giving away your book for free, there is still an element of marketing.

3) Sound: Business philosopher Jim Rhone says in order to have effective communication, you must “Have something good to say, say it well and say it often.” Your title will be heard often, but will it be good and will it be said well?

4) Touch: Touch also means to “relate to” or “to have an influence on.” Figuratively, your title must allow itself to touch or be touched by being able to relate to your readers or have some type of influence on them.

5) Smell: Your title should figuratively give off an aroma. In other words it should project “a distinctive quality or atmosphere.” If the aroma the title gives off suggests that very little thought or concern was given to it, people will assume that the rest of the book is the same way.

On a recent Publisher's Weekly Bestseller list, out of 20 books, one had a one-word title; five had two-word titles; four had three-word titles; five had four-word titles; three had five-word titles; one had a seven-word title and one had an eight-word title. The point is, most honchos at major publishing companies believe that the simpler/shorter the title, the better. None of the titles were complex.

About The Author

Marvin D. Cloud is founder of http://www.mybestseller.com which publishes, market and sells, personal bestsellers. Visit http://www.mybestseller.com and claim your free Get Off The Pot Writer's Workbook. marvincloud@mybestseller.com

1. The latest "Ask the Book Doctor" questions will be up by Tuesday, April 11th. (Sean didn't get a chance to put it on the site tonight, but will tomorrow...or else he'll be forced to sleep in the closet with the cat and her kittens)

Bobbie Christmas is the "Book Doctor" and Author of Write In Style, a triple-award-winning textbook for writers of fiction and nonfiction, available wherever books are sold.

Bobbie loves to receive questions from writers and offer her expert advice. If you have any questions you need answered, please e-mail her at: Bobbie@zebraeditor.com

You can also sign up for her Free newsletter for writers to get tips, answers, marketing information and news of interest to writers. Go to http://www.zebraeditor.com/ and click on "Free Newsletter."

2. Christine Cristiano, Author of Obsessed: Diary of a Freelance Writer has a web site and newsletter that offers valuable market information and much more. You can check it out at: www.obsessedwriters.4t.com

If you haven't read Christine's book, you're missing out on a great read that will inform, inspire and make you laugh at your own obsessions about writing. You can get this great book on the CoolStuff4Writers web site.

3. Here's a new blog you need to check out. It's called "Writing Tips at garyspeer.com"

Gary offers "Tips for Writers and Musings on Writing and Life." For helpful hints and some fun, go to Writing Tips at garyspeer.com

If you have an announcement of the writing kind, be sure to email me at: sandy@coolstuff4writers.com

email: sandy@coolstuff4writers.com

phone: 732-364-3993

web: http://www.coolstuff4writers.com