Uncategorized | Words on the Page

Learning to Trust Your Gut

Posted on July 6, 2011 by lwidmer

If you’re around at 2 pm ET/11 am PT today, meet up with Anne Wayman and me for the #writingsquared tweetup! Bring questions and advice – all are welcome. Interesting day yesterday. Got a small project done, managed to stay awake long enough to get an estimate back to a client on a big project,…

Celebration and Recovery

Posted on July 5, 2011 by lwidmer

How was your holiday weekend? How was the 4th or Canada Day for you? To paraphrase Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes, the time of my life was had this weekend. It started Friday with time alone with the husband. Saturday was the farmer’s market in the morning and the pool in the afternoon. Sunday was…

Worthy Tip: Take This Job, Not That Job

Posted on July 1, 2011 by lwidmer

Rabbit! And happy Friday to you. Good day yesterday – well, before the bad news anyway. I managed to coordinate my upcoming article interviews, work on a personal project, then clean and shop for the writers’ group (I hosted). It has been gloriously sunny, dry, and cooler (79-80) here the last two days, so I…

Monthly Assessment: June 2011

Posted on June 30, 2011 by lwidmer

Busy morning yesterday, but the afternoon was quiet. I took advantage of it. Instead of marketing like mad (my usual routine), I spent time on personal writing projects. I was able to make good headway on a few things, which feels pretty satisfying. If only there were checks involved. Someday… It’s time for the monthly…

Kicking Down Roadblocks

Posted on June 29, 2011 by lwidmer

Interesting day yesterday. I was hard at it contacting folks from the conference when the phone rang. The client who was supposed to give me a call actually did. On time. I’d forgotten. Very strange! That meant I answered as though I were approaching a telemarketer – an abrupt “Hello” instead of my more office-y…

Fee Schedules: Pros and Cons

Posted on June 28, 2011 by lwidmer

Thank you all for your birthday wishes. It was a lovely day punctuated by calls from family and time spent with family nearby. That and some peaceful moments -it’s all I wanted. Despite my best intentions, I did not take yesterday off. I tried. Really. But I sat on the swing writing in my journal…

Balancing Act

Posted on June 27, 2011 by lwidmer

Superb weekend. I spent three and a half hours in the garden Saturday morning and by noon, I was aching in places I never thought could ache. My knees were red for hours. This is all good. The garden looks spectacular and I feel grounded again. I followed that feeling up with a trip over…

Randomness That Works

Posted on June 24, 2011 by lwidmer

Superb Webinar yesterday! Thanks to one and all who attended and asked such great questions. Anne and I were happy for your presence and participation. If you didn’t get a chance to join in, drop either Anne or me a note. We’ll be happy to let you know when the next one is and see…

Simplifying

Posted on June 23, 2011 by lwidmer

Today’s the day! There’s still time for you to register and attend the Unlock Your Hidden Profit Potential Webinar, starting today at 1 pm PT/4 pm ET. Anne and I intend to deliver solid information and have fun in the process. Bring your questions and join us. Click on the link to your left. Busy…

Worthy Tip: Use Your Head

Posted on June 22, 2011 by lwidmer

Don’t forget: tomorrow is the Unlock Your Hidden Profit Potential Webinar! Join Anne Wayman and me for an hour of ideas and exercises to shift your perspective and help capture more opportunities. Click on the link to the left and join us! Thanks to Dr. Freelancer Jake Poinier for alerting me to this informal study…

Devon Ellington

June 22, 2011

A lot of them are so desperate to see their name in print/build credits that they'd rather do it that way than hold out for better rates.

That's driven by the plethora of lit mags that pay nothing. Because so many fiction markets have gotten away with low or no pay for years, now the non-fiction markets are looking at that and trying the same thing.

In my opinion.

I don't agree with it, but I think it's a factor.

Lori

June 22, 2011

That had actually surprised me to learn when I'd first heard about it, Devon. It's why I never really pushed my short stories. I'd rather be paid than have to either get nothing but a byline or pay them (another strange business model – you pay for them to publish your story in their magazine).

I get the desperation part. I was desperate once, too. But my first sale netted me $50. In 1989. It was a short opinion piece, and honestly, I was thrilled when that check arrived.

Wade Finnegan

June 22, 2011

The chart was unbelievable. What is wrong with American writers? I was looking over the Writer's Market and the lowest rate was about 25 cents a word, so these other writers weren't included in their survey. I concur with Lori that these writers aren't professionals. Unfortunately, they give true professionals a bad name. The idea to take away from all of this is don't settle for less. Do the work, dig around, and fine the good paying markets. It's not easy. I'm struggling with it right now, but I'm not going to work for peanuts regardless of how desperate I am.

Lori

June 22, 2011

Shocking, isn't it Wade? What shocks me most is that people accept this kind of mistreatment willingly. I know times are tough – they're not THAT tough!

Jake P

June 22, 2011

Thanks for the hat tip, Lori!

I long ago stopped caring about seeing my name in print (other than in the "PAY TO THE ORDER OF" line on the check). Even my mom doesn't care anymore, ha.

In any event, I think it's a pernicious combination of name-in-print and not-resourceful-enough. I liken it to the girls who go to Hollywood to become actresses, but resign themselves to "I'll wait tables and get discovered." Newsflash: No one is a good enough writer to simply "get discovered," and plenty of hacks make a ton of dough. There's a happy medium in there somewhere, but you gotta hustle at least a little bit.

Paula

June 22, 2011

Maybe for next year's Writers' Worth Week it might be interesting to target various legitimate writers' e-zines and websites that share market and job listings. A lot of them have limits – maybe the listings have to pay at least 10-cents a word; maybe they have a "no content farm" policy; one won't list jobs that pay less than $10/hour (and even then stresses how low that is). But how often do you see listings at those places that are $1/word or more? Not very.

Granted, the number of markets paying over $1/word isn't huge, but sometimes I get the feeling that the writers posting those weekly listings hoard the better paying markets for themselves and only share low- and mid-level markets. (Yet another reason to ignore job listings.)

Paula

June 22, 2011

Oh – I got off track, as usual. I meant we could target the places that post job and market listings by encouraging them not to include listings that don't meet certain criteria – a minimum acceptable per-word or per-assignment rate, and a minimum acceptable hourly rate.

Krista

June 22, 2011

For 25 cents an hour I'd just go pick up cans on the side of the road. At least then I wouldn't have to pay tax on it.

I think I got extremely lucky in that one of my very first freelance contracts was also one of my highest paying. I knew right from the start that it was possible to make a good wage if I could connect with the right people.

Lori

June 22, 2011

And Krista, you might make more at the recycling center for all that aluminum. 🙂

Superb point – connect with the right people and you've built a great foundation for a career. It's not hard. It takes trying different things and really networking, but it's not hard.

You're welcome, Jake. 🙂 That's the kind of byline I get excited about, too. LOL

Paula, great ideas! I hope to have the time to put that together. Could work quite well!

Ashley

June 22, 2011

That's really horrific. I can find a million things better to do for free for an hour, even if it's just staring at the wall. Even if you were desperate for money, what will that 25 cents buy you? A stick of gum? Yea, I'll keep my hour, thanks!

Devon Ellington

June 23, 2011

There are a lot of prominent lit mags that don't pay, and a lot of struggling but good mags that don't pay their writers or their staff.

I can understand a start-up with a great idea and trying to get grants (many lit mags are sponsored by universities who apply for funding — yet they teach their students that their writing isn't worth anything).

If the mag starts out not paying and then works its way into paying and then paying higher, I'm all for it. Places like GLIMMER TRAIN pay very well, in fact, at this point. But when a magazine has been around 5, 10, more years and STILL doesn't pay? Something's wrong with that scenario.

I appreciate a lit mag that makes an effort to pay SOMETHING rather than NOTHING, but I also feel that, after a certain number of years and advertisers and grants, they need to up the pay scale for everyone — staff and writers.

Lori

June 23, 2011

Ashley, if you write an article about staring at the wall for an hour in protest, I bet you could get more than 25 cents for it. 🙂

I remember getting Glimmer Train's first issue and invite to submit. I didn't back then, but I was duly impressed with what they were trying to put together. Proof that lit mags CAN do well with a bit of planning and effort.

Agreed on all counts, Devon.