|
|
| Writing Information |
|
|
|
|
A Freelancers Journey, Part One
Today it begins. I have always known I was a freelancer. The phrase my family uses to describe me is "not a nine-to-five-er." That said, nine-to-five does carry some not-so-romantic but comforting benefits. Health insurance. Travel reimbursement. Gas mileage. A regular paycheck. But alas, I'm the daughter and granddaughter of entrepreneurs, and I'm also of the "ownership society." I love to write. No such thing as retirement--writing is who I am. But with that ideal and that passion comes every writer's downfall. Running a business. Getting paid. We right-brained people with our horrendous filing cabinets and hard drives/Zip drives full of e-mails have to spend time organizing, like any businessperson. I had a conversation with a fellow writer/content provider in which we both confessed neither of us knew how to charge for our services. Although University of Southern California master of Professional Writing Program does give great training in the business side, most writing programs in my experience don't teach marketing, recordkeeping, fee-charging, and work-for-hire contracts, let alone publishing contracts. Today while tracking two possible freelance jobs (I'd like to give a plug to David Copeland's Freelance Daily, http://freelancewriters.blogspot.com/, a terrific daily newsgroup with tons of freelance leads, also PayingWriterJobs, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PayingWriterJobs/, AbsoluteWriter, http://www.absolutewrite.com, Writers Weekly, http://www.writersweekly.com, and of course, my local paper, http://www.thedesertsun.com/), I found my e-mail inbox inundated with back and forth e-mails. While I admit my e-mail organization system resembles my filing system at times, I finally wised up. On my computer, in Windows, I have a folder with subfolders for e-mail. I created a separate directory, "freelance". Then I assigned every potential or actual freelance job its own folder with a client identifier number where appropriate and otherwise the name of the client/publication. I also created a Work For Hire agreement today. My own--usually when I work with a publication I'm required to submit an invoice. However, a publication you have a relationship with is different from a client that doesn't know you and vice versa. This is new ground for me. I've signed three book contracts, entered into three royalty agreements and two bona fide collaboration agreements, signed screenplay, magazine, fiction, and poetry release forms, sent more contest applications than I can count...but my own Work For Hire agreement...now I feel I've passed the "novice" mark and can proudly call myself a full-time freelancer. Freelance entrepreneur. No. Writer always works. To quote Harlan Ellison's business card, "I write." But will I stay organized? Continued next week... Kristin Johnson is co-author of the "highly recommended" Midwest Book Review pick, Christmas Cookies Are For Giving: Stories, Recipes and Tips for Making Heartwarming Gifts (ISBN: 0-9723473-9-9). A downloadable media kit is available at our Web site, http://www.christmascookiesareforgiving.com, or e-mail the publisher ([email protected]) to receive a printed media kit and sample copy of the book. More articles available at http://www.bakingchristmascookies.com
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Bring Out the Natural Writer in You Think you can't write a book that will sell? You aren't a natural writer? In fact, you don't really like to write? Editing Secrets Once you've plotted out your book, developed the characters and written the last word of text, the real work begins. As busy editors are bombarded with hundreds or even thousands of submissions a year, it's more important than ever that authors apply their own editing skills to their manuscripts before putting them in the mail. Checking your basic grammar and spelling are of course important, but authors need to go beyond surface editing if their work has a chance of catching an editor's eye. The Power of Punctuation Punctuation, when used creatively, is powerful. Note, however, that when I say 'when used creatively', I don't mean that you can make up the rules. How You Can Become a Certified and Profitable Proofreader A certified proofreader is one that has taken a few courses and learned the proper way to do proof reading work. It is essential that individuals who want to become proof readers, have qualifications that can help them to prepare work that is of high quality. There are many different things that you can do to get this security in your work, but for a proofreader getting to be certified is a solid step in the right direction. Check Your English Grammar With This Easy Technique As an International language, English has been used widely in online world. Whether you use it to write a sales letter, a follow up, ads headline, an article, and so on, you need to use it correctly. Your Words Will Determine Your Business! Be careful when you write. Using Technology to Improve Your Final Draft One Saturday afternoon, I sat in a packed conference room with about 150 other would be writers, listening to a conference instructor tell us the keys to self-editing our manuscripts. The number of people in the room spoke to how important it is to make sure your work is crisp, and as close to publishable as possible. Of course, the numbers also told me how many of us don't feel completely sure of our editing abilities. Become an Instant Author by Playing Well with Others You wrote a tips booklet. Maybe more than one. Oh wait, are you one of the people who still hasn't done one yet? Not to worry. This is not leading up to any kind of guilt trip for you. This article is going in a completely different direction. Stay with me on this. I Am Biodegradable - My Writing Is Not My dad was wrong. I just discovered that I am good for nuthin' after all. In fact I've been good for nuthin' all along. I am 100% biodegradable and that means I can be recycled into nuthin'. It also means that no matter how much I waste, no matter how much I consume, no matter how much I pollute, in the end I am environment-friendly. Best of all, I now have an end use. To Write Successful Business & Academic Communications, Learn the Architecture of a Story Human beings seem to be born with a gene for telling stories. Stories from our families, our communities, and the media form our worldview and shape our lives. In fact, scientists have discovered that our ability to create stories is intricately connected to our ability to learn. This is because our brains seek to create meaning through relationship, which is what stories do so well. Characters In A Romance Novel Before you even begin writing your novel, you need to know who your characters will be. Minimally, you would want two major characters, the hero and the heroine. They will interact mostly with each other throughout the novel. How they interact with each other will determine the outcome of the story. Will they resist each other in the beginning of the story and by the end, fall in love? Or will they fall in love in the beginning of the story and then be driven apart by conflict? Once you've chosen them, then you need to decide what age they are, their personality traits, and their names. Review of A Classic: Finneys Invasion of The Body Snatchers To keep it simple and basic: Jack Finney's Invasion of The Body Snatchers succeeds first and foremost because it's a great story. If there was nothing else to be said about it, just that it's a great story, that should be more than enough to keep it on the bookshelves for the next generation to enjoy as much as the last. Publication Road The journey to having my first novel for children published has been riddled with road blocks and shonky bridges. The good news? At every rickety stage I've picked up tips (and anti-tips) which I'm happy to share with everyone... The Authors Life: 14 Hints on Creating a Career Plan 1. Remember publication is a business; writing is an art. Get those confused at your peril. Treat publication as you would any enterprise--as a professional. Meet deadlines, learn about the industry, and grow in your craft. Write Strategy: Think, Believe, Attack Think of writing like karate...it's about DISCIPLINE. A Simple Contest with a Strong Message: Wake Up Your Writing Spirit The Blogfest 2005 Writing Contest has only been running for two weeks and already the results are overwhelming. And not because we're getting far more entries than we expected. It's because along with entries, we're also getting heartfelt messages from writers all over the world. I've run a few contests before and received quite a few entries, but I've never been personally emailed and thanked by so many writers. Write For Yourself First It would be very selfless or noble of me to tell you that I have created my web site only to help you and the rest of humanity. The reason for me spending so much time and energy into my writing and this site is selfish. And I must remind myself of that from time to time, especially when I move into a down period and I am asking myself "why." When I Run Out of Ideas I do on occasion run out of ideas for my column writing. I do this after finishing a huge writing project like a book. I am just plain "written out" and am fresh out of things to say. When this happens, I turn to the news and am rarely disappointed. Recommendation Letters Demystified There is a lot of confusion about recommendation letters. Message to Online Writers: Dont Give Up On A Good Idea The writing community is a strong one, with many new "members" joining daily. All theser writers are finding or looking for their particular niches. Many are looking for solid information on how to get started making money through online writing. Others use newsletters to boost their fan base, market their work or services ... you all know exactly what I'm writing about, since most of you who are reading this are in the same position.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2005 |