What a day

Hectic. And I didn’t do a lick of shopping today! Just spent half the day trying desperately to track down an interviewee for an article I had worked for a couple of weeks ago. I eventually succeeded, but it was touch and go. Just so glad it’s all over.

I’m at — hush hush –47, 139 words for 2008 National Novel Writing Month. Eek. I’m bummed because I know I won’t be able to finish it. That is, unless I’m willing to cram the remaining 3 years of World War II into the last 3,000+ words. In other words, No. But I’ve reconciled myself to that reality and am only wishing that November wasn’t so bloody short.

When work is a work-in-progress…

There seems to be a rash of broken promises by editors of late.

Well, okay, maybe it’s not a rash necessarily, but definitely a worrisome trend nonetheless.

Recently I received an email from yet another editor — from whom I’d received an assignment to write a travel piece — letting me know that, whaddya know, they changed their mind about the article and that they would not be accepting it. Weird thing is that the editor had sounded so enthusiastic about it when I first pitched him the idea, or at least as enthusiastic as one can get over email. The fee was a mere pittance; I just wanted another project to include in my portfolio.

This is the 2nd time this year that this has happened to me; the first time was with an actual print newspaper who assigned 2-3 big articles to me, then rescinded their acceptance a month later, after I’d already done all the work, when they abruptly switched editors. Not professional, not cool.

Sometimes I do wonder if I chose the right vocation to pursue. Freelance writing has its advantages, the freedom to write what one wishes being first and foremost. Independence. No boss telling me what to do. No strict schedule to adhere to. No fussy or whiny or otherwise boring co-workers to have to deal with. No office politics.

Still, the downsides are making themselves much more visible of late. Constantly chasing after work that in the end pays very little gets awfully tiring and demoralizing. It can be lonely. Not having a strict schedule to adhere to can mean weekends and evenings spent working. And the marketing can be exhausting, especially for someone like myself to whom it doesn’t come at all naturally. I mean, writers choose the profession partly because it means not having to deal with people, right?

I still have several projects to complete before we leave, so it’s not as if I’m hurting, although I could always use more. Again, the pay on most of them is shockingly low, and even then I won’t see most of those checks until after we return from Singapore. (Why can’t everyone use PayPal?) I know that building a business takes a lot of time and a lot of sacrifice. It’s just that sometimes, when you can’t see the pot at the end of the rainbow, you begin to wonder if it’s actually there.

And now for something not-entirely-or-completely different…

Am reading a fascinating book by Anna Fels called Necessary Dreams: Ambition in Women’s Changing Lives. In it the author, a clinical psychiatrist, writes about the ambivalence women feel towards ambition and its role in their personal and professional lives. Fels points out several times that women of color from working-class, low-income backgrounds are more likely to embrace their ambitions without hesitation, as their upbringing has generally been more geared towards achieving success via employment and professional careers rather than some amorphous definition of womanhood, one that involves selfless motherhood, economic and emotional dependence on a male spouse, and an almost narcissistic obsession with physical appearances.

I can see that. Not that I don’t already have a narcissistic obsession with physical appearance (hey, I admit it, I run not just because it feels good but also because it makes me look good), but having grown up in a poor home headed by a single mother, I’ve never been shy about wanting professional success, which to me means both power and money. I meditate endlessly on the line between making money and making art, but at 36 years old, I’m beginning to realize that one doesn’t necessarily have to sacrifice one in order to pursue the other. Playing the whole starving artist role gets sooo old sooo quickly, y’know?

Anyway, the book can be rather dry at times, and awfully academic, despite Ms. Fels’ claim at the beginning that she intends for it to be read by a mainstream audience, but it’s an interesting and thought-provoking one all the same. I’m at that stage — yet again — where I need to rethink my “business plan” and figure out if what I’m doing is worth pursuing for another year, or if I need to tweak it all again so that I can maximize return for my efforts. Reading this book highlights some weaknesses in my approach to my business and my ambitions. I guess it’s back to the drawing board. Again.

MaNoWriMo temporarily derailed

I don’t know why, but the columns I write and which I think are so-so (and which, more often than not, only took me an hour or two to pen) often end up being the one receiving the most comments (good or bad), usually via personal email to me.

Anyway, just for fun, here’s one I wrote that I particularly like. Bonus points if you get the film reference.

Alas, MaNoWriMo is off to a slow start. I ended up having to put it aside for a little while on Friday while I focused on a few last-minute assignments from a new local magazine that’s coming out in mid-September. At this stage in my career, money must come first, I’m afraid.

I ended up landing three separate assignments, including a personal essay about being a relative newcomer to Grand Junction. Those are always fun to write — no interviews, no travel, no transcribing. Yay! I won’t actually be here during the magazine’s official launch party, which is a bit of a bummer since I ordinarily never turn down free food, but I’m excited to see it once we return from Singapore. No matter how many times I’ve been published, I always love seeing my name in print. What can I say? I’m vain.

The assignments came at a rather good time, too, what with the trip (is it really just over two weeks away? Gaaaaaahhh!!) and the fact that July was a totally dead month for me, freelancing-wise. I sent out over 30 queries and landed exactly 2 assignments. I’ve made the decision that I’m going to back off querying most of these new, online publications, especially those that advertise for writers on Craigslist. I’ve done enough blogging to know that making any decent $$$ off of them requires tremendous work, and quite frankly, if these folks can’t even be bothered to put together a decent Craigslist ad, I don’t have much hope for their “sure-to-be-phenomenally-successful” blog or magazine or Website or whatever. If I’m going to put in that much work for measly “revenue share” (which they always make out to be a lot more appealing than it is) or a pathetic $2-5/post (while demanding anywhere from 20-50 posts a week), I’d rather do my own blogging and get all the revenues.

So far I’ve landed a handful of assignments for Singapore, which thankfully will be a nice addition to our travel fund. I’m still on the lookout for more, but with just over two weeks left until departure (Gaaaaaahhhhh!!), I’m not optimistic. I’ve got another couple of assignments for the local paper, and I’m finishing up some administrative work for a local nonprofit that will also bring in a few dollars. Every little bit helps.

Ohhh… and here’s something funny (well, funny to me): I learned something the other day about a former boss that made me realize just how incredibly, incredibly happy I am to be a freelance writer. It can be such a challenge sometimes, especially when you do something like write 30 queries over 30 days and end up with two small assignments, but then you hear news like that and you think, Oh yeah, that’s why I left Cubicle Nation. And my heart is so glad.

My definition of compensation vs. their definition of compensation

I applied for a blogger position with a career/college site the other day (or was it last week?), and the following is a little sample from their automatically generated response:

We would like contributors to blog about career and job topics and as compensation, we will be giving away 4 $50 American express [sic] gift cards to four bloggers who will be selected at random at the end of the month. Each month, every blogger will be eligible to win even if you were a winner in a previous month.

Eh…hold the phone. Since when has compensation been determined by a random raffle drawing?

Yeah, I didn’t apply for that one. And I hope no one else who responded to this stupid ad will either.

10 Things Writers Don’t Need…Necessarily

I think I speak for a lot of writers when I say that office supplies and high-tech toys are cool. I love going to Office Depot, Office Max, or any stationery store, for that matter, and just inhaling the smell of all things office-related. I once had to go shopping at an Office Depot after being hired at a nonprofit, and I was told to pretty much get what I thought I need, as my position was new and therefore had nothing to its name other than a title. I went bananas, piling pens, pencils, legal pads (yellow!), notebooks, staples, and all manner of supplies before my supervisor gently took my hand and restrained me from making what would have undoubtedly become yet another regrettable purchase.

When my novels sell a gajillion copies, and I become rich and famous, I will probably do that again — go berserk at an office supply shop, that is — but in the meantime, in light of my meager income, I’ll satisfy myself with browsing through random office supply catalogs. Even a quick perusal elicits sighs of ecstasy, but in the midst of my swoons of happiness, I recognize that there are just some things that writers don’t really need and could do very well without.

AlphaSmart. If you don’t have a laptop but are instead tethered to your desktop PC, this may be a good option for you if you don’t want to spend several hundred dollars on a notebook. Still, if you have a notebook — and most writers I know do — the AlphaSmart really is just another excuse to play with a new toy and distract oneself from actual writing. Sure, it’s cute and portable and doesn’t have to “boot up,” thereby saving oneself valuable seconds of time. But it doesn’t offer Internet access or a full monitor, so freelance writers who need the research capabilities of Google and Wikipedia will be SOL if this is all they have while on the road. For an extra couple hundred, you can get a decent Linux laptop online or at your nearest Wal-Mart and get word processing and Internet browsing, all in one computer.

Blackberry. I soooo want one of these. I saw the Pearl at my local Best Buy the other day for less than US$100 and almost snatched one. But if I really, really think about it, I’ll admit that this unwieldy gadget has little use to me except satisfy this neurotic need I have to check my email every five seconds. That’s the last thing I should be doing, especially if my month is dry and I need to hustle and get a dozen queries out the door. I already resent the fact that some people get upset when I don’t answer my regular cell phone, as if that little trill is some kind of dog whistle that I have to heed. Imagine what a Blackberry would do to my sanity. No thanks.

A Virtual Assistant. I’ll admit, I want one of these soooo badly. I looked into hiring a local VA a few months ago when I was blessedly swamped with work, but reason prevailed when the woman quoted her per-hour fee: $40. That’s just for transcribing, mind you, not balancing my books or even answering my phone. Very busy, six-figure freelancers can and should hire a VA to handle their routine paperwork, scheduling, even research and, yes, answering their phone. But since the majority of freelancers still have to hustle to make three figures a month, we really shouldn’t be sharing that money with anyone when we can do it perfectly well ourselves. If you must, hire your son or wife at below minimum wage (if at all) to help you out. Otherwise, stick it out and do your own work for the time being until you make enough so that a $20/hr secretary seems like a bargain when you compare how much you make.

Fancy bookcases with glass shelves and interior lighting. I dream about having my own expansive, wood-paneled library with floor-to-ceiling custom bookcases and one of those sliding ladders that can traverse the length of the room. I even dream about those cool bookcases from IKEA with the frosted glass doors and, yes, interior lighting. But for now I happily settle for the cheaper, plain-but-sturdy particle board BILLY bookcases from IKEA. With the optional top shelf, it almost looks as if I have floor-to-ceiling bookcases, and they stand up better to the weight of my many, many books than just about any comparable bookcase at Office Depot or Office Max. All you really need is something strong to carry what is likely a massive and still-growing book collection, so until you make that six-figure income, stick with the basics that will do the job for a fraction of the price of those fancy-schmancy “wood” bookcases.

Fancy desks/workstations. I once had a cherry wood L-shaped desk, complete with a full hutch that took up nearly an entire wall, at a previous job. It was brand new when I took the position, and they hadn’t exactly measured the office dimensions before ordering the giant. It filled the entire space and dwarfed me behind it. Still, I loved it. So much room, so much shine! It cost over $1,000, but hey, I didn’t have to pay for it. Now that I do, though, I’m content with my IKEA desktop and a 6′-folding table I bought separately at Office Depot to create a makeshift L-shaped workstation for myself. It’s not exactly Wall Street, but frankly, it’s not just functional but comfortable as well. Total cost? About $200.

There’s plenty more non-essential goodies I would love to have but know that I don’t really need, and I’m sure you do as well. What office supplies/equipment/gear do you lust after, even knowing that your life won’t necessarily be any better off with it?

10 Things Writers Don't Need…Necessarily

AlphaSmart. If you don’t have a laptop but are instead tethered to your desktop PC, this may be a good option for you if you don’t want to spend several hundred dollars on a notebook. Still, if you have a notebook — and most writers I know do — the AlphaSmart really is just another excuse to play with a new toy and distract oneself from actual writing. Sure, it’s cute and portable and doesn’t have to “boot up,” thereby saving oneself valuable seconds of time. But it doesn’t offer Internet access or a full monitor, so freelance writers who need the research capabilities of Google and Wikipedia will be SOL if this is all they have while on the road. For an extra couple hundred, you can get a decent Linux laptop online or at your nearest Wal-Mart and get word processing and Internet browsing, all in one computer.

Blackberry. I soooo want one of these. I saw the Pearl at my local Best Buy the other day for less than US$100 and almost snatched one. But if I really, really think about it, I’ll admit that this unwieldy gadget has little use to me except satisfy this neurotic need I have to check my email every five seconds. That’s the last thing I should be doing, especially if my month is dry and I need to hustle and get a dozen queries out the door. I already resent the fact that some people get upset when I don’t answer my regular cell phone, as if that little trill is some kind of dog whistle that I have to heed. Imagine what a Blackberry would do to my sanity. No thanks.

A Virtual Assistant. I’ll admit, I want one of these soooo badly. I looked into hiring a local VA a few months ago when I was blessedly swamped with work, but reason prevailed when the woman quoted her per-hour fee: $40. That’s just for transcribing, mind you, not balancing my books or even answering my phone. Very busy, six-figure freelancers can and should hire a VA to handle their routine paperwork, scheduling, even research and, yes, answering their phone. But since the majority of freelancers still have to hustle to make three figures a month, we really shouldn’t be sharing that money with anyone when we can do it perfectly well ourselves. If you must, hire your son or wife at below minimum wage (if at all) to help you out. Otherwise, stick it out and do your own work for the time being until you make enough so that a $20/hr secretary seems like a bargain when you compare how much you make.

Fancy bookcases with glass shelves and interior lighting. I dream about having my own expansive, wood-paneled library with floor-to-ceiling custom bookcases and one of those sliding ladders that can traverse the length of the room. I even dream about those cool bookcases from IKEA with the frosted glass doors and, yes, interior lighting. But for now I happily settle for the cheaper, plain-but-sturdy particle board BILLY bookcases from IKEA. With the optional top shelf, it almost looks as if I have floor-to-ceiling bookcases, and they stand up better to the weight of my many, many books than just about any comparable bookcase at Office Depot or Office Max. All you really need is something strong to carry what is likely a massive and still-growing book collection, so until you make that six-figure income, stick with the basics that will do the job for a fraction of the price of those fancy-schmancy “wood” bookcases.

Fancy desks/workstations. I once had a cherry wood L-shaped desk, complete with a full hutch that took up nearly an entire wall, at a previous job. It was brand new when I took the position, and they hadn’t exactly measured the office dimensions before ordering the giant. It filled the entire space and dwarfed me behind it. Still, I loved it. So much room, so much shine! It cost over $1,000, but hey, I didn’t have to pay for it. Now that I do, though, I’m content with my IKEA desktop and a 6′-folding table I bought separately at Office Depot to create a makeshift L-shaped workstation for myself. It’s not exactly Wall Street, but frankly, it’s not just functional but comfortable as well. Total cost? About $200.

Rejection bites

I’ve received plenty of rejection letters in my day, but I’ve yet to get used to them. I actually prefer never hearing from a publisher or editor over getting that dreaded NO letter. Still, any creative freelancer (or any small business owner, really) has to get used to being rejected, and possibly rejected often. Here are some things I’ve learned over the years that have helped me to deal with the inevitable gloom and doom feelings following the receipt of the big, fat No.

This one’s #1, and everyone knows this but it bears repeating: Don’t take it personally. I think women in particular suffer from this “disease to please,” but one will likely never know why an editor chose to reject an article or query. It could be that she was having a bad day; she may have just accepted a very similar query or article to yours; she may have wanted someone with more established credentials in the field in which you’re pitching (healthcare, technology, etc.); or she may have just not have believed that your pitch fits into her publication’s content profile. Whatever the reason, 99% of the time it has nothing to do with you or your writing talent, but rather other factors that you have no control over.
Don’t wallow over the rejection to the detriment of your writing productivity. As freelance writers we can’t afford to waste time, as that’s part of what we’re selling other than our writing talent: our time. It’s perfectly fine, even recommended, to mourn the rejection from a particularly favored publication, but don’t let it last longer than five minutes. Yup, 5 minutes.
After that brief mourning period, get back to work. Look through your list of possible markets (Writer’s Market is a great resource) and see if you can send your rejected query to another publication. Let’s say your article offers advice on how to find a professional wedding photographer on a limited budget. Writer’s Market‘s online edition lists six wedding publications, but there are dozens, if not hundreds more that aren’t listed on there. Indeed, a 2007 article in MediaLife Magazine says that there are 135 bridal magazines on the market, and that’s just the United States. Make sure that you tweak the query to match the needs of your target markets before you send it out.
Send another query to the same editor. I once exchanged several emails with the editor of a $$-priced market with a large national circulation. She liked my first query but didn’t think it quite fit their market. I emailed her back a couple of days later with another pitch, which she again politely rejected. However, she added that I was getting closer to figuring out her publication’s needs and encouraged me to keep pitching. (They were awfully picky for a $200/article market, but anyway.) I ended up temporarily closing up my freelance writing business for a couple of years after my day job got enormously business, but I know I would have eventually landed an assignment with that editor had I continued to pursue it. Querying soon after a rejection helps keep your name in front of the editor and establishes a relationship with her — always a plus when you’re working in this business.
Keep working! As you send these queries out, don’t just sit around and wait to receive acceptances or rejections. It’s a percentage game: the more queries you send out, the more acceptances you get, the busier you’ll be. And the busier you are, the less likely you’ll succumb to depression because of a rejection or two. If you need extra motivation to send out those queries, sign up for Kristen King’s 2008 Query Challenge on Inkthinker. Pretty soon you’ll be too busy to even think about the rejections.

How about you? How do you deal with the rejections that come your way in your freelancing?

Be a professional writer: Always follow deadlines!

My former graduate thesis advisor’s memorable words ring in my ears as I type this: It doesn’t have to be perfect; it just has to be finished. A Plurk friend wrote earlier of the agony of finishing a post she wanted to upload on her blog, and I consoled her by sharing my advisor’s nugget of wisdom. She took it to heart and finally found the energy to finish her article — no small feat when you think of the perfectionist tendencies that lurk in the heart of every good writer.

I learned very soon after beginning my column for the local paper that perfection is highly overrated. Rather, what the editor cares about the most is that you turn in your piece on time, preferably with few or no glaring errors to correct. Of course you’re expected to turn in a good piece, but they already know that you can write, otherwise they wouldn’t have offered you the opportunity to contribute to them, right? Still, what’s just as important is that you can submit on time, every time.

I’ve made this mistake more than I care to admit, where I didn’t take a deadline seriously and ended up infuriating an editor. I don’t do this anymore (honest!), but they were painful mistakes that I hope to spare you from making. Writers enjoy the dubious reputation of being artistes, languishing in their salons or over their laptops, waiting for their muse to appear before they dare write a single word.

Unfortunately, that’s not going to fly at all in the professional world, which is where all freelance writers must live and work. If you want to consistently land assignments and be hired, you must produce and you must do it on deadline. Every. Single. Time. Nearly every writer suffers from procrastination, and that’s fine. Who hasn’t fired off a piece hours just before a deadline? I’ve submitted my column more than once with just a minute or two to spare. But I’ve always delivered.

Editors want to know that they can count on you, that you will be a professional throughout the entire writing and editing process. The final days and weeks before an issue goes to print (or, for those publications that exist solely online, the before the issue is published electronically) are almost always very hectic periods for the entire editorial staff, and the last thing they want is for a writer to flake out on them and fail to deliver on time. Trust me — if you don’t think you can handle a tight deadline, don’t take the assignment in the hopes that you can slide it in a few days or even hours after. The editor will not appreciate it if you make her work extra hard, especially if you’re a newbie.

If you have a longstanding working relationship with an editor and you find during the course of your research that you’ll need more time than you had originally allotted, let her know immediately. Don’t wait until the day of or even the week of the deadline. The more notice you give her, the more helpful she’ll be in giving you more time.

In the case of my blogger friend, if you’re the publisher and your blog has a regular posting schedule that readers have begun to count on, stick to it as closely as possible. There will always be days when your post doesn’t seem to sparkle as much as the others, or when you can’t seem to find just the right ending.

Trust me. If you, say, post three times a week every single week, that’s over 150 posts over the course of a year. One or two weaker posts isn’t going to matter in the long term. What your readers are looking for primarily are reliability and good, useful content. Some posts just aren’t going to resonate with some of your readers, while others will find them compelling. And more often than not, the posts that you consider to be your weaker efforts might actually turn out to be the some of the most popular, the kind that others link to and Stumble. Sometimes, even the imperfect ones turn out to be the ones that spark the most conversations among your readers.

Content is king, but no one ever said your content has to be Shakespearean. Trust in your good ideas, and put them out there. The more you write, the better you get, so don’t sweat about the little imperfections here and there. You’ll find fewer and fewer of them the longer you work at it.

Book Giveaway: Robert W. Bly's Getting Started as a Freelance Writer

Shai Coggins over at b5 Media had the fantastic suggestion to do a blog giveaway on our sites. I’m not a b5 member, but I have done some giveaways at my other blog and really enjoyed the feedback and participation from readers. I hadn’t thought about doing one for this site, but why not? Writers love getting free stuff! Well, this writer does, anyway.

So herewith, my first Interior Designs giveaway: your very own copy of Robert Bly’s new book, Getting Started as a Freelance Writer (Expanded Edition). A lot of you probably are already familiar with Bob Bly, he of the high-six-figure-income copywriting fame. This new Expanded & Revised version just hit bookstore shelves a couple of months ago, and already I’ve devoured it and its hard-hitting, practical advice on making a more-than-decent living as a freelancer. Bly offers tons of tips on everything from marketing and productivity to writing poetry. (I know. Bly writing about selling poetry? Wow.) He doesn’t really delve much into blogs, though, other than a three-page section titled, Do You Need a Blog? Still, anyone who makes a living writing — on- or offline — can benefit tremendously from Bly’s advice on how to be a more productive and high-earning writer.

The rules? Very simple. Just leave a comment below about your favorite writing book. It can be this one, or maybe Jenna Glatzer’s Make a Real Living as a Freelance Writer, Naomi Wolf’s The Treehouse, or even Little Women (I think Jo March was my first writer-heroine). Don’t just tell me the name of the book, though; make sure you tell us why you love it so! I’m always on the lookout for good reading material, so this is my excuse to troll for new ones.

At the risk of sounding redundant, let me reiterate: Comments must include both the name of the book and the reason why you like it in order to qualify.

The giveaway is good for two weeks, so make sure you get your comments in before the deadline at 5pm Mountain, Tuesday, July the 22nd. And don’t forget to check back here on the 23rd for the winner!

Good luck!

Book Giveaway: Robert W. Bly’s Getting Started as a Freelance Writer