Writers Unbound

Light always abounds within us: celebrate! photo by Mary MacIntyre

In October 2006, Reilly was featured on the front cover of The Bulletin magazine in Australia under the heading Who Wants To Be A Billionaire.[5] In December 2006, The Podcast Network was selected by EContent Magazine as one of their Top 100 “Companies that matter most in the digital content industry”.[6] In April 2007, Reilly was named one of the “40 Biggest Players Of Australia’s Digital Age” by B&T Magazine.[citation needed]

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imagination circles and rocks

It’s hard to beat these 2 videos. As writers want to expand their words from text to video or radio (audio) may switch around whaat you might want to say. The old bards found an easier transition, both my memorizing verse or old texts, and then by using song to tell their story.

Your well crafted script may lose its power when tranlated to audio. Sometimes you must imagine how the audience will hear what you want to say. Words then must create conversation and pictoral scenarios. Yes the audience must be able to immediately visualize what is transpiring.

Video provides more challenges. Will the person be comfortable relating verbal iniformation with image? Can the dialogue hold the viewers attention? Will the message empower the viewer?

Given these elements of text, the writer becomes consumed with the multiple inputs necessary to capture the audience’s imagine in very concise clips. How will you arrange image and audio to enhance your work?

If you are confident about procedures to address these issues, please feel free to comment her and we can start a dialogue.
Feel free to copy and share these thoughts. Also feel free to contact me about stories you would like to sahre.

journeys call us to return; walking always photo by Mary MacIntyre

These cloudy days make me happy. First they have brought rain to my plants. Second they have completed 50% of the work I need to do on my “landscaping” PT gig. We don’t have much rain here, and so every drop is a blessing.
Article writing is very similar.

Move beyond the obvious...dream a little

Well, as you can see, youtube again is a fast way to get down to earth tips. In an upcoming blog we’ll continue. Begin thinking of your purpose for for/as a writer. Balancing what you want to accomplish, and various assignments will make a far more productive journey.

Getting into the niche article database (versus the big guys) and a few opportunities for magazine submissions.

Article databases are kind of a standby for freelance writers. It’s easy to join, free (or low-cost), and if you produce enough content and get enough page views, you can bring in money long after you’ve published the article. Actually, that little phrase “long after” is the key to understanding those big databases. It takes time to build up enough content, and get enough page views, to make any significant income. And there is plenty of competition.

Still, the lack - or long turn around time - on pay is often ignored because if you do get enough content and enough exposure, you can get payback in referrals from the sites that use your content. Your content there also gives something to potential clients: they can easily see your writing style, your ability to produce, your expertise. Maybe it’s not about the money.

I’ve not brought myself to do anything at the really big sites, like Associated Content or Ezine Articles. They’re just so big and so, well, not special.

The compromise I’ve found is in smaller, niche article databases. One I’ve found is Wahm-Articles.com. There is no monetary compensation, no ad revenue, no page view rates. It’s strictly for advertising, referrals, and building your expertise. That’s okay. I’m not expecting to make money from these article databases, just gain clients and experience. It makes sense to me to go with a smaller database that targets the same audience I’m after - in this case, work at home moms - and take advantage of 1) less competitive masses and 2) the expert appeal that comes from being part of a specialized site.

There are other niche article databases around… and of course, this opens up the whole “Should a freelance writer have a niche or just generalize” debate. I won’t get into that here. (You might think you know my answer because I have a wahm niche… but don’t make too many assumptions.)

Below you’ll find a list of a few niche article directories to get you started. I haven’t read through much on these sites, so make sure the guidelines and the content fit what you’re after.

• Education Articles for k-12.
• Online Education Articles
• My Family Living: Family Articles Seems to cover more than family living.
• Recipes and Cooking Articles
• Work at Home Articles Topics include Affiliate, Financial Issues, Marketing Online, and WAH Tips.
• Travel Articles

Make it a good day.

Image Credits: rochelle et. al. at Flickr.

The Market is Open

Monday morning. Freelance writers groan, yawn, grab their robes and pad into their kitchens, stand waiting as the coffee brews. Computer flickers on and one hand meanders with the mouse while the other holds the PopTart away from the keyboard.
Five job sites to check, a few good possibilities for the day. Ten minutes later, there are ten tabs open, a half-consumed strawberry frosted square sitting by the notebook and a hand alternating between pencil-scratched notes and mouse clicks.

It’s Monday. The market is open. What will you do this morning? Do you have a plan? Do you have an inkling of what your week holds? Are you squeezing in an hour or so before it’s off to your real job? Are you feeding and dressing kids before you get some silence and time to work?

Don’t Write!

Two suggestions for the way you spend your writing time today:
1) Market
2) Manage

Egads, Batman, I didn’t even say write! I know, I know. Let me quote a few people who know lots more than I do about this sort of thing.

You Could Take My Word For It, Or…

Seth Godin, for example, whose interview in the 2008 Writer’s Market got me thinking about this writers-need-to-market-more topic. Of course, writers marketing themselves isn’t a new idea. We talk about it, blog about it, write about it. There’s the whole universe of blogs about blogging. Marketing is necessary. Often, though, we still don’t give it enough attention or don’t give it the right kind of attention.

A Decent Marketing Plan

The interviewer of the Writer’s Market article, Anthony Tedesco, asks this question of Godin: “What marketing plan would you recommend for an author who has time but not money to spend?”
Answer: “Build a blog and a squidoo lens. Contribute to bulletin boards and forum. Give help, don’t ask. Build a permission database of people who want to hear from you. Then write.”
Then Tedesco asks another question: “What’s the best book marketing plan when the budget is somewhere around “sky’s the limit”?
Answer: “Same.”

Don’t Be Cheap

One word: networking. But not sleazy, slicked-back-hair, “Have I got a deal for you” networking. Ew. Don’t be the QVC of the writing world. Have a little class. I think the key is this four-word sentence of Godin’s: “GIVE HELP, DON’T ASK.”

In this post, Godin elaborates: “it takes about six years of hard work to become an overnight success. So, if you’re going to write a book in six years, please start now and focus on hard work, breaking new ground and being a standup guy.”

Marketing is only as good, valuable, and effective as the product it seeks to promote. If you cheat on marketing by posting a few comments here and there, polishing up the surface of your site, and then shamelessly self-promoting, you will end up with, possibly, an initial rush of interest followed by silence.

So. The lesson, in brief? Dedicate significant time from your week (start today) to helpful marketing. Read, and leave insightful comments. Answer questions. Offer help. Guest post for no charge. Follow up with people. Get cards made, and give them out but only when appropriate. Make the other person’s interests more important than your own.

Manage Yourself

I didn’t forget Suggestion #2.

Take at least an hour on Monday to create a plan for your week. Set goals, make a list, block out time, brainstorm ideas, construct outlines, gather resources.

That’s it. The rest is up to you!

By the way, if you still don’t like wasting all this time on Monday, then go ahead and write on Mondays. Just do your marketing and managing on Sunday night.

Make it a good day!

Hi Writers, Once again I’ve received questions on freelance writing bid sites such as elance and guru.com. They’ve obviously got a bad rep in the freelance world, and I am one of the very few who is happy with my experience.

The main reason for my happiness is one of my biggest customers. I edit materials for a company 4-5 times per year at an hourly rate of $30-80 per hour- depending on the subject of said materials. Obviously that’s a big range, but this is an educational curriculum company, so the subject and level (K-12) has a lot to do with the amount of fact hcecking I have to do. Either way, it’s not a rate to sneeze at!

This company found me through iFreelance last Spring, and has used me for about a year now.

Last fall I met a mortgage/real estate broker who offers short ebooks on his website. I edit and format his ebooks for $150 per book. They usually take me anywhere from 1-4 hours. Again, not bad. This customer found me on elance and has used my services twice.

You do have to invest money in a bid site. That alone can throw people off. I don’t particularly like paying for jobs. I struggle with it every day. However, when I did my 2007 taxes, I used my records to compare the cost of elance to the customers I obtained from elance. The cost was about 6%  of my total elance income.  

Bid sites can work. However, you need to be smart about how you use them. Here are some ways to make bid sites work for you.

• Begin at the beginning. Veteran writers are not going to get the rate they  deserve on bid sites without any feedback on the bid site. That’s really silly, but that’s the way it works. Join a site when you are just starting out, that way you don’t have to compromise your rates.
• DON’T COMPROMISE YOUR RATES. Come up with your bottom hourly rate and stick to it. Most of the complaints about bid sites focus on the low paying buyers. Who cares? Ignore them. 
• Focus on the companies. I have found that the most reliable and best paying buyers are mid-sized American or UK-based companies.

I think my success with elance is due to these 3 guidelines. I have noticed that little by little, as my company grew, I needed elance less and less. I generally use elance for some quick turnaround projects that I need to meet my monthly income goals.

Good luck. And, if it’s not working for you— DON’T waste your writing time on it.

Greetings readers and writers. Last week we began this 5-part series on finding markets for your magazine articles. I hope some of the resources I gave were new and useful to you.

My challenge today: to gift unto you a good variety of personal bookmarks of “potential markets” that I have earmarked while browsing the net/applying for jobs/chatting and networking.

All of these “potential markets” had a call out for new material or a blog post, or were the subject of freelancers discussion within the last 6 months.

Most of these links are directly to their “writers guidelines,” which is, of course, your best jumping off point.

Now, onto the list, in no particular order!

• From Brave New traveler, a list of over 50 travel magazines that want to publish you!
• Babble.com Writer’s Submissions page.
• Chicken Soups Calls. Ok, not particularly magazines, but a good place to sell short, personal essays.
• Skirt Magazine writer’s guidelines.
• Faith, Hope and Joy: The Unexpected Side Effects of Cancer is accepting short personal essay submissions until December 31.
• So you want to contribute to Grandparents.com?
• Highlights Magazine seems to release new calls every couple months.
• National Parks Conservation Association has writer’s guidlines available.
• Wow. Poets and Writers has a large, varied listing.
• Back 2 College is a magazine aimed at adults reentering college to start or finish a degree.

Well, I have many, many more. If you’re not seeing a particular genre in which you’re interested, leave a comment and I will be happy to see what I can come up with!

markets, writers, submissions

Hello and welcome back! We’re in the midst, nearing the end, of a market-finding series, suggested a week back by a reader who wanted to know where/how to sell more stuff. I’ve focused this series on targeting magazines.

I’m going to deviate a bit and look at Ezines today. If you’re a regular reader, you know that I gave a general intro to ezines here, including pros and cons, which I think are worth another read.

However, the bottom line in that post, in relation to markets and market series, is that ezines might just be worth your time, especially if you are a new writer. (And, honestly, even if you’re a veteran.)

Instead of rehashing the whole old post (please, take a look at it), I’d like to highlight some of my fave ezines, and perhaps jog your query writing hand in the process . I may have mentioned some of these in past posts or my other blogs, as I am drawing from my bookmarks here.

 Women on Writing: Pretty self explanatory title, huh? It’s a very chatty read, be sure to match your writing style to theirs.

Work Home You: I’m am such a fan of this magazine, and honestly, it’s on my query list, if I could just find a minute!

The Muse Marquee: I will admit that I’m not sure if MM accepts queries from outside readers. However, I also admit it’s one of my faves, so hopefully you’ll garner some inspiration anyway!

As always, BEST to you!

ezines, magazines, getting published