Words on the Page

Writers Worth Week, Day Five: Bringing it Together

Posted on by lwidmer

I’d like to thank Blogger for giving me minor coronaries as it decided to break yesterday and only now get up and running. I have no idea if this post will even show as my last one from yesterday is still MIA. The final stop on the Writers Worth Week blog tour is the blog…

Writers Worth Week, Day Four: Define Your Target

Posted on by lwidmer

What I’m reading: Sweet Thursday by John SteinbeckWhat’s on the iPod: Tupelo Honey by Van Morrison Hurry on over to Jenn Mattern’s All Freelance Writing. Jenn, who is a writer and business person we should all emulate, has given yours truly the space to rant on about more things worth-related. Give her comment love, will…

Writers Worth Week, Day Three: Improve Yourself

Posted on by lwidmer

What I’m reading: Sweet Thursday by John SteinbeckWhat’s on the iPod: Summer Nights by Rascal Flatts I must be nuts. Riding the fumes of my business/vacation trip to Vancouver, I schedule Writers Worth Week. Then right smack in the middle of that miracle of scheduling – today – my mother arrives for a visit. I’m…

Writers Worth Week, Day Two: Create Your Own Reality

Posted on by lwidmer

What I’m reading: Cannery Row by John Steinbeck (finished it!)What’s on the iPod: Soul and Skin by The Clarks Thank you all for a fabulous start to Writers Worth Week yesterday! It was a great outpouring of support and suggestions. You’ve proven once again that the writing community is the best support system on the…

Welcome to Writers Worth Week!

Posted on by lwidmer

I’m baaaaack….. Okay, I’ll admit to writing this before I left, but I know I won’t have the energy after the cross-country flight that gets in late in the evening. So forgive me that, okay? Today kicks off the fourth annual Writers Worth celebration! I have blog posts popping up all over the Internet this…

Things That Make My Head Explode

Posted on by lwidmer

Ahhh….. Lent is over. I will now resume my usual level of skepticism and pointing out of major stupidity and disgust. I was getting used to the kinder, gentler life, but some things just ache for outrage and complaint. For example: AOHELL: Kathy Kehrli over at Screw You! pointed out this move by AOL, in…

Meltdowns and Ensuing Mayhem

Posted on by lwidmer

By now I hope I’m sporting my “eh” lingo and fighting off the urge to eat peameal bacon. I’m also hoping we were able to score hockey tickets while in Vancouver, but I’m not holding out too much hope. A Twitter colleague sent over an interesting link. It’s an Internet-based meltdown of an author over…

The Reliability Factor

Posted on by lwidmer

By now my time at the conference has ended. In two days, I hope to have secured enough work to sustain me through December. We’ll see. I was busy right up until the last hours before bed on Friday. I wanted to arrange for some posts, but I wanted to get things squared away for…

Free Wisdom for the Asking

Posted on by lwidmer

The conference continues and I hope by now I’ve managed to secure at least one client. One client project pays for the entire trip. Two is gravy. I’m shooting for a banquet. Because of my absence, I wanted to leave you with some of the best blog posts from the last few weeks. Give these…

Monthly Assessment: April 2011

Posted on by lwidmer

I’m not here, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have oodles of fun hashing over our monthly goals and near misses, right? So let’s get busy seeing where things are going right or wrong: Queries –I must have sent out fifty LOIs. I have 25 written down, but somehow I think I forgot to note…

Devon Ellington

Most of it was spent on the final edits for the book coming out in July, working with my editor. I have to hit "send" on the final galleys today, scariest part of the process for me.

Then, that awful class, which I'm still getting over, and starting a good one.

I have a lot to do in the yard, and I have another book to write, so I need to get going. I'd like a nap instead.

Jenn Mattern

April was pretty good to me. An old client came back. Ad revenues were up a bit after a previous slump. And while I fully expected to lose a long-time client (because I decided it was time to be blunt about some problems and refer him elsewhere if we'd outgrown each other), he stayed on with a nice-sized order. And there were fewer hassles than I've had in a long time. Now let's say "Yay for May!" and hope for the best again. 🙂

Cathy

I like the Yay for May theme, Jenn!

Maybe all the rain is a good thing because it's keeping us all buckled in our seats. 🙂

April was a good month for me, too. I gained a new client who has multiple projects – 3 to start with – that looks like they will turn into one of those "anchor clients."

And on that note, one of those anchor clients just sent 3 more projects my way-woo-hoo.

I have my nephew, his wife & 1-year-old baby coming in a couple of weeks so I'm trying to crank out a bunch to have SOME time to spend with them.

Paula

April showed a big improvement for me, unless you consider consider how that "improvement" is simply having my income meet my modest monthly goal instead of lagging behind.

I sent five LOIs; no replies, so I will begin following up this week. Sent two quasi queries to a pair of long-time editors. ("Quasi queries," since they e-mail their top writers the broad subject they want to cover, then ask us to offer up specific suggestions. One was assigned. They should make assignments on the other one soon.

I replied to one posting but never heard back. I also saw a job post at a knitting group I belong to. It was writing web copy and pattern decriptions for a small company that design and market knitting patterns. They loved my resume,and I believe they checked out my LinkedIn profile. They sent me a couple of examples and set up a conference call. The call wasn't great,but wasn't horrible, either. I asked all the right questions – a couple of times they actually said, "What a great question – we'll have to think about that and let you know." They asked me to put together a quote for the web copy and get it to them by a specific date. Within an hour they sent a cryptic e-mail telling me not to start working on anything because "we don't feel the call went well." Could that be code for the fact that I expected actual payment, not just "free" yarn? (That's what the blog is for.) When I vented to my sister, she said I probably dodged a bullet, so I should be glad they told me to stop work before I began.

For existing clients I did a series of small projects, wrote four columns, completed two articles, started two more, and fit in a small editing job.

No referrals. No new clients.

Earnings were about $200 above my monthly goal. My campaign to collect past-due payments from a slow-paying publisher seem to be working. Amazing how setting a deadline to heard back by today and adding the words, "…or I will be forced to use alternate means of collecting my fee…" resulted in an immediate reply from the owner, who seemed surprised to sense my "concern" about the lack of payment. Well, d'uh, dude!

They owe me about the same amount as my monthly goal. So if they pay up, I'll be screaming "Yay for May!" too.

Paula

Sorry for the multitude of typos in my post above. Not only is it Monday, but it's Allergy Headache Monday, coupled with Muscle Pain Monday thanks to a Sunday afternoon of back breaking yard work.

Jenn Mattern

Cathy – That's a good way of looking at it! It definitely keeps me in when it's dreary and wet outside. On the other hand I love watching the rain and there's a window next to my desk. So then I have to draw my curtains or I'll never get things done. 😉

Paula – I feel your pain. Sometimes Claritin and Excedrin are the only things getting me through the morning.