Those of you who have been with me for a while know that I’m passionate about writers valuing their talents appropriately – hence Writers Worth Day, my mid-May mini-fest to remind the writing world that we too deserve decent wages. But talk on several forums I frequent have turned to education of our peers. For…
Year: 2009
When to Walk Away
I had a nice email conversation with a blog regular the other day. She was relaying her frustration with bidding a large job. In giving all the details, it sounded like a pickle until she typed this line: “Any per-page rate I try to quote blows their budget away because of volume.” Up to that…
Why Content Mills Have That Reputation
Not to open Pandora’s box again, but my better half came across an interesting post that speaks directly to why content mills have a less-than-stellar reputation. He frequents a Scottish forum, and one of the forum members was livid recently. It seems her published book was plagiarized. The alleged thief posted a good portion of…
How Low Should You Go?
Beginning writers (and those still not up to their earning potential), this is for you. The eternal dilemma: how little is too little payment for any job? When you’re starting out especially, the problem becomes how to build a credible list of accomplishments and make decent money. That’s how some get locked into writing for…
Monthly Assessment – October
Oh my lord, was this a long month or what? We had an extra few days to play with, which turned out feeling like an entire extra month stuffed into October. While the time may have flown by on the calendar, there were a lot of days to contend with. October is a critical month…
Working Like a Pro
A while ago I was part of a two-person writing team that the client had assembled. This particular client was just forming a business, so there was a bit of miscommunication on meeting times, call times, etc. In one case, the client had made, and missed, two separate conference calls. Frustrating as it was, we…
Repositioning Your Brand
You’re a brand. You know that, right? Whether you’re just starting out and trying to define your career or you’re a few years or decades into it, you have a perception in the market. Beginning writers – you struggle with this most, but it’s not tough to position yourself in a way that secures a…
Too Busy? Charge More
It’s been a busy month for me – busy to the point where I’ve ignored my workouts, haven’t read books, and glance through magazines in passing. My husband said, “Time to raise the rates.” He’s right. When the work is coming in faster than a writer can handle it, that’s an indication the price is…
Myths About Queries
Welcome to a new week! Since so much of last week was spent in direct contact with new-to-this-blog writers, I’m assuming there were some newbies in the crowd. And hopefully, a few have stuck around. If so, this post is for you. And veteran writers? You, too. Remember what your first query letter looked like?…
Exhaustion
It’s been a long week with both work and this blog. Normally I put up my post, enjoy your company, and go about my business. Wednesday (and spilling over into Thursday) I played hall monitor and basically let people run rampant here in an attempt to allow two sides to speak at once. For that…