Writers Unbound

Work Opportunities

DEMAND STUDIOS
I write for Demand Studios, and overall it’s a good gig. They have several websites but you start out writing for eHow.com. You can write for eHow.com simply by being a registered member there, and you have the potential to earn money off page views. However, if you apply at Demand Studios, you get paid cash for every how-to article you produce. If you pick how-to articles
within your knowledge base, they can be simple and quick to write. You can include graphics or not. You can include resources at the bottom, which I’ve used to send people back to related articles at my website.You want to be careful not to overdo the self-marketing there, but if you have high-quality, related content, it’s a good opportunity.

The drawbacks? It takes a week or two to process an article from “Under Review” to “Published,” which keeps your queu full (you have a limit of 10 articles in progress at a time) so you can’t claim other articles to write until yours are far enough along in the processing line. There are lots of categories, but not always lots of articles to choose from. When there is a fresh infusion of available titles, they go pretty fast, and I can’t find a pattern or schedule for when those new articles are going to appear. So I just check out the available articles every other morning or so.

It isn’t a perfect system, and it’s a little pesky sometimes, but overall it’s an easy way to get articles on a major site with your name on them and get a quick cash infusion. Go apply!

More Work Opportunities

• Part-Time English-Language Editors - freelance, telecommute, part-time; you edit essays. $16 per 250 words. (Source: Atlanta Craigslist)
• I don’t like to post non-paying jobs, unless the byline is worthwhile, but this one sounds fun: a Music Writer for an online magazine, no pay, but “with great perks like free albums/music, free shows, and the chance to interview popular musicians,” or so they say. Freelance, telecommute, part-time; no pay. (Source: Los Angeles Craigslist)

Workshops - free online courses.

These courses are from the Open University, a UK based organization offering “high quality university education to all.”
Writing offerings include Approaching Prose Fiction, Approaching Poetry, Approaching Plays, Writing What You Know, What Is Poetry?, Start Writing Fiction, and Forms and Uses of Language.
Why take online courses? Oooh, I don’t know, maybe to keep yourself sharp, to learn new things, to have an imposed deadline, to push yourself to new challenges, to LEARN (duh), to stretch yourself, to become an expert in new areas, to generate writing ideas, to set yourself on a schedule, to produce material, to understand your craft, to grow.

Go get a job. Make it a good day.

Writing poetry - whether or not you’re a poet - is one of the best ways to strengthen your expression, cull your dead words, and become more aware of the sound and flow of your writing.
Even if you are a poet, getting started can be difficult.

Guardian Books hosts a Poetry Workshop each month. Here’s the summary: “Every month, our poetry workshop is hosted by a different poet who sets an exercise, chooses the most interesting responses and offers an appraisal of them…” Past poets include Sean O’Brien in February, David Morley for January, and Jean Sprackland for the last month of 2007. Matthew Francis was the poet for March’s workshop; he received submissions until April 27 and will, I assume, soon post his short list and responses. I don’t see a new workshop listed for April/May, but I’m hoping that’s just a delay on the part of the WebMaster.

I took a little time to go through Francis’s workshop for March. His first instruction is simple: Complete the sentence, “When I think of summer, I think of…”
Easy enough, and not exactly inspiring yet. My list was lack luster and predictable at the beginning: grass, playgrounds, vacations. (For some reason I went straight to summers as a child, not summers now, as an adult. Hm.) But, as Francis said, I started thinking of things “very personal to you, the sort of associations that not everyone else would have, while others may be general experiences that nevertheless wouldn’t occur to many people.” Thing such as (more…)

Frank Gromling, founder of Ocean Publishing, has been instrumental in bringing educational programs to authors and others in the book business. Gromling is president of Florida Publishers Association.

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Frank Gromling, president of Florida Publishers Association, founded the traditional press Ocean Publishing several years ago in an effort to bring quality titles to the marketplace. Gromling is my own publisher; he’s brought out two of my books. He learned firsthand the challenges of getting books into a reader’s hands and as a result, he shares his experience and expertise with authors who are traditionally and self-published as well as with small publishing houses. Gromling and other FPA members have put together a fall conference in hopes of assisting authors and other industry professionals who want to see their books succeed.

The FPA Conference at the Fort Lauderdale Marriott North runs September 14-15, beginning with a facility tour of HCI, home of Chicken Soup for the Soul products. There’s a Friday evening social, and attendees can enjoy vendor displays as they rub elbows with leaders in the publishing world.

Editors and staffers from Publishers Weekly and others in the industry will speak on Saturday. Sara Nelson, editor in chief of Publishers Weekly will keynote the Saturday luncheon. Cevin Bryerman, PW associate publisher, Louisa Ermelino, book reviews director, and Jim Milliot, Business News Director, will speak. Topics include how PW chooses its books for review, how news stories/editorials develop and the relationship of PW with booksellers, librarians and other publishing industry insiders.

Other Saturday sessions by experts will cover getting reviews, book design, bookstore sales and marketing basics.

Unless an author’s name is a household word, he or she may be challenged by the marketplace even if the title is worthy. The FPA conference aims to help authors of all persuasion to increase their chances for success with their books.

“We’re excited about the lineup of experts for this conference,� Gromling says. “We expect it will be well-attended by many who have an interest in publishing and bookselling.�

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Aspiring writers often ask me about writing workshops. Are they worth the time and money? Can they really help you take your writing (and maybe your publishing) to the next level? And if so, what workshops are the best?

Early in my career, when I left a wonderful job to freelance and all my loved ones thought I was crazy, I did attend writing workshops. One of the most significant to me was the SC Writers Workshop. I had just started freelancing, and I wanted a network. In later years, I’d find myself on the other side of the podium because I conducted workshops for this annual conference. At those workshops, I met people who would be influential in my career, and I won my first significant award for poetry.

I had a déjà vu moment last summer as I conducted the poetry workshop for the Southeastern Writers Association conference. It was the first day of the conference, and I gave a small introduction describing my ideas and attitudes about poetry. One of the workshop attendees raised her hand.

“So you mean it’s okay to rhyme poetry?� she asked.

I told her of course it is. It’s okay to do anything you want. It’s your poem. Form only comes into the picture when you’re marketing your poetry. So you’d want to market poetry that rhymes to a magazine that publishes formal work like sonnets.

Then the participant told me something that blew my mind. She said a poet at a workshop told her to never ever rhyme poems.

By the end of the conference, I was very glad I met the woman who asked me about rhyming poems. She was a very gifted formal poet. Only someone who appreciated diversity in poetry would really appreciate the talent this woman had.

This has happened more times than I can tell you, not just with poetry, but with other genres as well. For some reason—and I’ll never fully understand it—some writers who teach workshops want the participants to write in a single-minded narrow fashion.

I’d say if you run into someone like this, don’t bother with the class.

Constructive criticism is important—it helps us to see our work as others see it. But when a writer critiques the work of another, that work should be judged on its own merit on its own terms. When you offer your work to another for feedback, bear in mind the type of outlook the other writer has. If there’s a narrow-minded aesthetic at work, you’re better off buying a book on writing. In my humble opinion.

If you find a writer who inspires you and who offers positive constructive feedback that helps you to improve your work, then your money is well spent. Conferences also offer great networking opportunities during downtime like receptions and meet-and-greet sessions.

It’s important to view publishing as a different goal than writing. Publishing is about the business; writing is about the art.

Publishing has very little to do with talent. Otherwise, Emily Dickinson wouldn’t have been dead before her poems were appreciated and she was recognized as a cornerstone in modern American poetry.

Links to selected writers’ conferences

http://www.myscww.org/
SC Writers Workshop; annual conference is in October, usually at Myrtle Beach. S.C.

http://www.southeasternwriters.com/
Southeastern Writers Association; annual conference is in June, usually at St. Simons Island, Ga.

http://www.asja.org
American Society of Journalists and Authors; annual conference is in April, in New York City.

http://www.wcupa.edu/_ACADEMICS/sch_cas/poetry/conference/index.html
West Chester Poetry Conference usually held in June, in West Chester, Pa. Application and submission of poems required.

http://journalists.org/2007conference/
Online News Association; this year’s October conference is in Toronto, Ontario.

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