The Golden Pencil: The Freelance Writer’s Resource

42 opinions for Open Comments Starts… Now!

• Anne Wayman
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:00 pm

  what’s on my desk at the moment is… a mess
  almost empty cup of cofee
  letter from the irs
  small notebook
  tissue
  Vet’s business card, speakers,
  folder with client’s book
  email from a client printed out…

  How about you? What’s on your desk?

• thePuck
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:08 pm

  While I have been writing and wanting to write professionally my whole life, I just recently started selling pieces online and doing the whole freelance thing. I have a lot of older pieces of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and plays…what should I do with them?

  Essentially, I still want to write books, both fiction and non-fiction, but the freelancing gig is pretty much full-time or more…do I make my own writing a priority at all? How much time and effort should I devote to my own writing, rather than freelancing and promoting myself?

• Michelle
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:09 pm

  My desk is a mess too, I have today’s mail, music CD’s, my journal, USB cables for just about everything you can possible plug into a computer and more books than my desk can hold. Here are some of the titles; Write Tight, Creating Character Emotions, How to Write a Book Proposal, How to Write Irresistible Query Letters and Self-Editing for Fiction Writers and one book that seems a bit out of place called The essentials of Yarn Design for handspinners. Oh yeah, there is also a stapler, external hard drive, bills and some homeschooling books I have listed on e-bay and wait is that a dust bunny I see looking at me? Anyway you get the idea.

• Anne Wayman
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:10 pm

  I don’t know that I’ve got any final answer, but the general rule seems to be to devote 1/4 or 1/3 of your work time to marketing… every darn day until you get a reliable income stream that’s high enough, then every darn day after that.

  A

• Anne Wayman
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:12 pm

  Michele… believe me, I identify (blush)

• thePuckWrites | The Golden Pencil Writing Site is holding an blogging “open-mic” on freelance writing! Join In!
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:14 pm

  […] Open Comments Starts… Now! This site has helped me get going and get better, and I want to share it with everyone. From 6pm to 8pm tonight (Thursday, June 12, 2008) they are holding an “open-mic”…just post comments and join the fun! […]

• thePuck
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:15 pm

  In your experience, is a publisher going to be more likely to pay attention to a manuscript when the author has an established body of work as a freelancer?

• Anne Wayman
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:17 pm

  Puck, yes, at least somewhat… if you handle your credits well… fiction? Or non-fiction?

• Michelle
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:20 pm

  Yes, publisher’s will take notice more if you have writing credits already, however they do on occasion pick up author’s who have never been published so don’t give up, send stuff in.

• Anne Wayman
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:22 pm

  Also, if it’s non fiction, consider self-publishing, but only the way Peter Bowerman outlines it in his book, the well-fed self publisher.

• thePuck
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:23 pm

  Both. I have several short stories and an outline for a novel (possibly a series) based around an overall mythos I have created. I also write more serious non-fiction, sort of non-academic philosophy and political and social philosophy.

  My concern is that things have been going well as I have been getting myself established, and I am really excited to finally be able to write full-time, but I don’t want to lose track of the real reason I wanted to write. So what I am looking for is a way of prioritizing my focus or a plan for moving from freelance to focusing more on my own work.

• Anne Wayman
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:24 pm

  Puck, I know what you mean… ghostwriting is my mainstay… and it is hard to keep doing my own writing… it’s a juggling act for sure… priorities and knowing what you really want are certainly part of the key

• Tammy Takahashi
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:25 pm

  Hi Anne,

  My “desk”? I have a desk? :)

  I have a question for you… I just published my book (woot!) and now my head is “marketing mode”. But I also have book #2 in my head, and wanting to pursue my fiction too.

  Oh, wait, and here’s the thing, I am homeschooling my 3 kids (10, 7, 4).

  Serenity now! Balancing my mom life and my job (marketing) and my wants (writing new things) is tough, tough, tough.

  Any thoughts?

• Michelle
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:27 pm

  Puck. What is the real reason you want to write?

• thePuck
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:27 pm

  Also, I have a possible ghostwriting gig, but I am unsure how to price things. The kinds of prices I see advised are really high, and make me uncomfortable. I understand the reasons, as far as royalties and credits go, but it seems insane to bid such high amounts when I am in my “getting established” phase.

  How would you suggest I approach pricing for ghost-writing, as a writer in the “getting established” phase?

• Anne Wayman
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:27 pm

  Hi Tammy… yeah, it’s tough… first of all, congrats on both the published book and the kids… suspect new writing, or a whole lot of it anyway, may have to take third place… from a career point of view you’re way more likely to do a great job marketing your book and getting royalties than any publisher… you do get to sleep once and awhile?

  What’s the book… pitch it here, why not?

• Anne Wayman
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:29 pm

  Puck, Michelle asks a good question.

  When you price yourself you have to be comfortable or you won’t be congruent. OTOH, you want to ask for enough so you’ll be able to finish the project with out huge money worries… make sense?

• Michelle
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:32 pm

  Hi Tammy, I home school 3 now ages 13, 14, & 16 and graduated one last year who is now in college and yes it is tough to juggle everything, that’s why my desk is such a mess, hee hee hee.

• Anne Wayman
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:32 pm

  wow, you home schoolers are brave… but I suspect you’re doing a very very good thing.

• Tammy Takahashi
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:34 pm

  Dammit, Anne. I thought you were going to say something like that. I’m a writer, I wanna write! :)

  I like marketing too, though. I’m a speaker and I love talking with people about the topic. The book is called Deschooling Gently: A Step by Step Guide to Fearless Homeschooling (available on Amazon.) I have two conferences coming up in August, one in March. I did a gig this weekend to a general audience. Got paid for it even.

  I so do love writing, though. Can’t a girl have it all?

• thePuck
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:35 pm

  Michelle…that has changed over the course of my life. When I was little, I loved to read, and I started writing stories that aped my favorite writers. As I got older, I wrote poetry because I wanted to be able to say things without having to explain what it “meant” other than the sheer imagery and nuance of the words presented as they were. Eventually, I started writing non-fiction because I was studying philosophy in school and realized I had some things to say of my own.

  Nowadays, I just write because it is what I do. I can’t not do it. When some buffer room showed up in my life financially, I did some research and found out that I could do the freelance thing and make a real living, so that is what I have been doing.

  What do I want to do with my writing…well, I want to get paid to do what I do already and couldn’t stop doing if I wanted to. Artistically, I want someone else, somewhere, to feel like I did when I was 16 and read “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse. I realized I had been changed, that nothing would ever be the same again, and I felt so grateful to the book that it brought tears to me eyes.

• Anne Wayman
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:35 pm

  oh, great title, and of course you can have it all… just not all at once ;)

• Anne Wayman
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:36 pm

  okay, here’s the truth… if you want to make serious money you’ve got to market… if you’re independently wealthy, well, write ;)

• Lisa
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:37 pm

  I wish I had a desk…and I’m having a really hard time with writers block right now. I had a contract with a client end badly and it’s shaken my confidence.
  Any ideas to get over it, move on and find new avenues?

• Anne Wayman
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:38 pm

  Makes perfect sense to me, Puck…

• Anne Wayman
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:40 pm

  Lisa… you know, I’ll bet that you weren’t the whole reason the contract ended badly… and even if you were, you’ve learned… how about congratulating yourself?

  And why don’t you have a desk?

• Gayle Trent
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:41 pm

  Anne, I saw an online resume for C. Hope Clark where she lists her most recent writing credits. Well, when I query editors or apply for writing jobs online, I send them to a page with ALL my writing credits. Hope’s credits are much more impressive than mine, but I wonder if my approach could be making me look less professional?

• Anne Wayman
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:43 pm

  hmmm… hope is dynamite for sure, but… look, the real reason employers want resumes and credit lists is to reassure themselves and their bosses… you might want to look at mine… http://www.anneayman.com/resume.htm
  It seems to work pretty well… do you have your own website?

• Gayle Trent
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:44 pm

  I do. Actually, I have more than one. My website underscores my novels, though, more than it does my freelance writing.

• Gayle Trent
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:46 pm

  Your resume looks wonderful. I’d hire you! :-)

• Anne Wayman
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:46 pm

  You probably need one that mostly markets you as a freelancer if that’s what you want to do, or need to… it may be that your fiction writing is scaring away some folks who want articles… it’s hard to know…

• Gayle Trent
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:47 pm

  Maybe I could set up two separate pages of credits?

• Anne Wayman
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:47 pm

  gayle, so model mine and hope’s… make yours look good…

• Anne Wayman
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:50 pm

  sure, two pages can work… make sure each focuses on a type of work you want… don’t mix fiction and non… that sort of thing

• Gayle Trent
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:54 pm

  Great. Thank you so much.

• Anne Wayman
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:55 pm

  you bet, let us know how it works out

• thePuck
  Jun 12, 2008 at 7:57 pm

  Gayle,
  I generally send different clips and cover letters for different clients. Different sets of credits would just be extension of that idea.

  I would think that tailoring your queries is good for other reasons because it shows you aren’t just flying blind.

• Michelle
  Jun 12, 2008 at 8:00 pm

  Has anyone here been to a writer’s conference? If so, which one and was it worth shelling out the big bucks for?

• thePuck
  Jun 12, 2008 at 8:01 pm

  Anne,

  What do you think about freelance sites like Elance and Guru? Would you recommend or warn against any of them?

• Gayle Trent
  Jun 12, 2008 at 8:02 pm

  Thanks. I do try to tailor the queries and clips, especially if I’m targeting a particular market rather than replying to an anonymous online job posting. When I query magazine editors, my pitches–in my opinion–are much better than the ones I send out when I’m going through job listings.

• Gayle Trent
  Jun 12, 2008 at 8:03 pm

  Hi, Michelle:

  I’ve been to a few conferences. One of the best things is getting to chat with other writers and to make networking connections. My first novel was published by an editor I met at a conference.

• Anne Wayman
  Jun 13, 2008 at 6:19 am

  good morning… re elance… I don’t like it because, at least the last time I checked, the bidding was visible, driving down prices - guru is a little better since the bids aren’t visable

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