Working for RoyaltiesIf I had a nickel for every time a potential author wanted me to ghostwrite or edit for a percentage of royalties, I’d have more money than I would have earned from those fabulous offers. Why is it so unfathomable for some clients to understand that writers require payment? I guess because for…
Tag: freelance writing advice
Technology BitesNo, I don’t mean “bytes” – I mean that sometimes those programs that are designed to make life easier do nothing more than irritate, annoy, and make life living hell. I’m talking Microsoft. As you may recall, last week’s episode had me trying in vain to take a Word document full of addresses (seven…
Personal Trainer?Part of our job as writers is often knowing when to put the brakes on client emergencies. Tell me – can one have a true client emergency? What does that consist of – death by comma? Severely dangling modifier? A participle that fights back? I say this as I come off the heels of…
More On Body PartsThe flak over the Newbery-winning book that has the word “scrotum” on the first page is probably yesterday’s news (thanks to our country’s collective attention deficit disorder), but dontcha just want to revisit this topic? No? Too bad. Here’s a link sent to me by my friend Anne that describes how the…
The Folly of Industry It amazes me every time I go about the task of creating mailers and contact lists. First, let me say I hate Microsoft because it has yet to explain to me how to merge a document into labels without an hour’s worth of hair-ripping failures. Mail Merge Wizard, you say? Ha!…
Death to Paper Queries! I can’t believe it took me an hour to “dash off” a query to a major publication! It’s not the conceptualizing, nor is it the writing of the query. It’s the printing of the letter, the envelope, the sample clips and the stamping and mailing. I’m sorry – what century are…
Body Parts and Censorship If you were to read a book to a child that contained the word “scrotum”, would you be offended? Or would you see it as a no-nonsense description of a body part? That’s the controversy boiling right now over a Newbery-winning book The Power of Lucky by Susan Patron. The story,…
Breathe! Oy! (she said with her fake Irish lilt) What a week! I’ve been busy before, but this week topped it. How busy? I went through most of yesterday thinking it was Thursday! So I spent the day conducting three interviews, sitting in on a web demo of software, and writing three articles – all…
Why I Blog Another day, another meme. Today I’ve been tagged by both Kathy Kehrli and Kristen King and asked to list five reasons why I blog. So here goes: 1. I blog because I have to get it all out.The problem is there aren’t enough hours in the day or ears available when you…
Steady Work I’ll admit it – since my dry spell this past year (read that my “severe drought”) I’m much more concerned about sitting idle for more than a day. That started me on a search for regular work. And lo and behold! Didn’t I find two regular gigs? I’m here to share my hard-found…