Writing Junkie

Hiring a writer

2008-08-16T13:37:00.000-07:00

If anyone who reads that has ever hired a writer or has thought about, I would like to know how you determine what to offer in payment. Is it based on your budget? Have you researched the market to discover what a writer might charge?

I was looking for freelance work, something I do frequently, and I found a notice for a writer. The pay was a penny and a half per word. I wondered then, as I do many times when I read job postings, how that fee was set.

If you're a professional writer, how do you set your fees? Do you charge based on time spent, or per word published or some other way?

Self publishing

2008-08-06T09:32:00.000-07:00

I interviewed an author a few weeks ago at a book signing. As a reporter (my day job), I cover a lot of events and had previously met this author when she released a new book.

At her book signing, we spent some time talking about another part of her business -- publishing books for others. She's not a traditional publisher. She takes whatever someone pays her to publish and publishes it.

I asked her a lot of questions and she talked about what she does for people who use her to publish their work. Looking from a certain standpoint, she made a lot of sense. For example, she pointed out what a slim slice of the pie actually goes to the author from a traditional publishing house. She also mentioned that publishing companies don't send their authors on book tours the way they used to do.

So I thought I'd ask and see if anyone out there self publishes or is thinking about doing so and what kind of experiences have you had?

If anyone has thought about it, what's your opinion?

Pay writers what we're worth

2008-05-31T11:46:00.001-07:00

Recently, I was made aware of yet another website advising against paying a professional wage to writers. Look here.

This is my response, if the webster posts it.

In defense of paying a professional wage for professional services, let me first say I have, among other qualifications, five years experience as a technical editor for a major, international company who successfully competes in a global market against companies like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Gumman.
In this capacity, I edited documents written by experts in their field. I’ve had numerous discussions with those experts about what they’ve written. Almost without fail, they had written something that, had I edited the grammar errors, etc., without discussing the edit with those experts, I would have edited the document to contain inaccurate information. Why? Because, as you’ve pointed out, they are not writers. They write, in my experience, the way they talk. That writing, when read as it means not as the “writer” meant, is not understood as it was intended to be. Numerous times, my experts would respond with, “That’s not what I meant.” And when I asked them to read it as someone else might, they suddenly understood how what they wrote could be misinterpreted.
That is one difference between what a professional writer brings to the table vs. experts and typists. How worse do you think your foreign experts who don’t really understand English very well would do? Another difference, and this is the one that should make you sit up and take notice, professional writers have ethics and behave in a professional manner, which means you run very little risk of being sued for copyright infringement, plagiarism, invasion of privacy and/or libel. Professional writers may not be experts in the particular subject that is the topic of their copy, but they know how to research and vet their sources.
I’ve come across a forum where web designers discuss copying information from other websites and using it for their own purposes. And if the original writer happens to come across those sites, the writer won’t sue, they advise, because it would be too expensive. Don’t bet on it. I would and every writer I know would sue.
What if your information is incorrect? What if it’s been “edited” into being incorrect? What if you get sued? Where is your $2 writer then? What about the comma placement that cost a major company $2.13 million? Google “Rogers Communications Inc.” and “Aliant Inc.” and see what you get. And you think all you have to worry about is a spelling error. Wait until you get sued and lose your business, your house and any other property you may have.
Do you truly understand your liability as the “disseminator” of what you publish?

What do y'all think? And thanks to Lori for sharing.

Working on a novel

2008-03-13T09:34:00.000-07:00

I have been working on a novel for sometime. It's progressing slowly. My main goal right now is to work on it every day.

I've written the beginning and have made lots of notes about how I want it to progress. I even visualize the characters moving through the story as though I'm watching it happen on TV. I'm kind of excited even though it isn't going as quickly as I'd like it to go.

It seems that, for me, I'm always writing something. I think that's the way it should be. I have planned to have this finished by the end of the year. That would be great.

But as I am reminded all the time and as I have heard other writers say, it ain't easy. Maybe that's one reason it can be so worth doing.

How many people who read this particular blog are also working on a novel, several plays and other exciting projects?

What is everybody else working on? How is it going?

Hey, Arby's!

2007-05-16T11:39:00.000-07:00

First, let me say I really like eating at Arby's. I really enjoy those potato triangles. I think they're called potato cakes. I like curly fries. I like anything with Horsey sauce on it, too.

But this current promotion the company has on TV? Maybe it's a little thing but it should be $5.95 every day, not everyday. Sometimes, it's appropriate to use the term as one word, as in everyday turn of events, or an everyday meal or something like that. But when someone says or writes every day to mean every single day, then it's appropriate to use two words. Every day is more like every night, not everything.

I don't know why this bothers me so much. It seems to me to be a very common mistake. Maybe that's the problem. Is this a reflection on our education system or does it reflect more on the lackadaisical way we look at our language?

I think it's both. Sometimes I feel as if I'm swimming upstream with a banner saying, "Grammar matters. Vocabulary counts."

Is anyone paying attention or am I sinking?

The difference a word makes

2007-04-13T14:15:00.000-07:00

I find myself wondering when I see an advertisement on TV, or print media or hear it on the radio what people are thinking.

I know marketing companies who produce some of these ads make a lot of money but what really are they thinking?

Why don't they know the difference between every day and everyday? Or the difference between due and because of? Or imply and infer? Or even between between and among?

Or do they just not care? I was driving down the road one day and saw a homemade sign at a house. The sign read, "Pot Plants for Sale." Surely, the writer meant potted plants, don't you think? And why is that people don't seem to know the plural of their family name? How many times have you seen a family name proudly displayed on a mailbox or the front door with the singular possessive version? As in, The Smith's. What? Don't you think what is really meant is The Smiths? Or even, possibly, The Smiths'? Surely there is not just one Smith living there. Even if there is, would he or she be known as The Smith?

In my ancestral country of Scotland, the head of my family's clan is known as The MacLeod. But that's there. And besides, there's only one of him. He is The MacLeod. But in the United States, we don't recognize people that way.

I heard a radio spot advertising a company that helps people increase their vocabulary. The spot contained a grammatical error. To me, it was a glaring error. If I had heard the spot only once, I might have let it go.

Unfortunately for me, I heard that spot every day for several weeks and it simply got on my last nerve. So I searched the Internet, found the company and sent them an email.

The owner of the company emailed back, we corresponded maybe twice and his final response was, "Our editor was concerned but our marketing people love it." The result was that they were going to keep the spot the way it was.

I thought, I even explained this in my email, that because of that obvious error, created to make something rhyme or to create a catchy phrase, the company totally lost credibility with me. I wouldn't use their services and I wouldn't hire anyone who did. The president was not impressed.

So what do you think? Is it silly to care? Am I the only who does? Or we going to reach a point where English doesn't even exist as a language anymore because everyone who speaks it does so in a dramatically different way?

Is it just me?

Always in marketing mode

2007-03-29T06:19:00.000-07:00

To any and all writers who may read this -- are you always in marketing mode? In other words, is everyone you meet a prospective client? Do you have business cards and an elevator speech?

An elevator speech is what you have to say about your business that can be said in those sometimes uncomfortable moments in an elevator. "Hi. I'm so-and-so. This is what I do. Here's my card. What do you do?"

I admire people who do that and do it well. I think we've all met someone who's obsessive about marketing and whom people hate to see coming. But there are those few who seem to always be in the marketing mode but aren't obnoxious.

I think it's because they have a sincere interest in what the other person does and make sure to include an expression of that interest.

What do y'all think? What works for you?

Advice to a latte writer

2007-03-27T09:05:00.001-07:00

A colleague posted a message on my favorite writers forum, www.aboutfreelancewriting.com, that she'd read an editorial in her local paper by someone who said she sat in a cafe, drinking her favorite latte, being a writer.

I don't think the Latte Writer, as I've come to think of her, truly understands what she's doing. Thinking that you're a writer because you can string words together is like Uncle Joe thinking he's a carpenter because he can put some pieces of wood together.

You know who I mean when I say Uncle Joe, don't you? Everybody has an Uncle Joe, or a cousin or neighbor or somebody who thinks of himself as a woodworker and gives all his creations away -- creations like the chair no one can sit in because Joe used the wrong wood and the chair won't hold anyone's weight; or the table that's in the attic because none of the legs is the same size as another leg and so the table wobbles; or the cabinet you can't use because Joe didn't vacuum the sawdust before varnishing the thing so there's schmutz all over it.

You get the picture. Writers are like that, too. Changing from a Latte Writer into a professional writer takes the same effort and conscientiousness that Norm from the Yankee Workshop on PBS takes with his woodworking projects. Norm, unlike Uncle Joe, knows what he wants to build; finds, buys or creates a design; measures everything three times; uses the right tool and takes no shortcuts. He's not too proud to accept guidance from someone else. He strives to improve. He's a master craftsman and it shows in his work.

Writers who are masters at their craft do the same. We read dictionaries for fun. We know the difference between imply and infer, compose and comprise, everyday and every day. If we're writing for anyone, even just a Thank-you note, we use proper grammar and vocabulary words. We double-check our spelling. We work at our craft to improve the results.

Now, I'm sure, if our Latte Writer ever reads this, she says to herself that she must be a writer, she's been published.

And Uncle Joe knows he's a carpenter because he can build "things."

You get what you pay for

2007-03-23T11:47:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned this website before www.aboutfreelancewriting.com. It's a forum for freelance writers to discuss all kinds of issues.

A poster there just vented about an ad he saw for a freelance writer. He applied and received an email admonishing him (in advance) about the quality they wanted, their high standards and so forth. Then the pay is like $2 an article.

It struck me (and surprisingly for the first time) that prospective clients who offer such low pay are actually attracting the types of writers they don't want. Who would work for pay that insultingly low except someone who is really not a professional writer?

It's easy to claim you're writer. It's even easier to think of yourself as a writer. In fact, many writing coaches encourage that. "You write, you're a writer." But it isn't that simple.

If I sit down at my computer and type this as a story:

I saw the car. I went to the car. I opened the door and got in the car. Then I sat down and got out the key. I didn't have the right key so I goes back inside my house, after getting out of the car, ...

And then claim I'm a writer, is that accurate? Someone may think that's profound; but, I don't. I don't really consider it writing until, and unless, someone pays me for it. That makes me a professional.

Sitting at a coffee house and sipping tea and writing in a journal may help you mentally with the process. In a sense, you are a writer if you write. But I would like to add something:

To consider yourself a writer, you should think of yourself as a craftsman -- learning and always striving to become better. Otherwise, you're as much a writer as a person who sits behind the wheel of a car and steers to the left is a racing car driver. OK, so you go fast, too. What will that get you but a ticket?

So, one more time, if you are looking to hire a writer and the responses you get do not live up to your standards, maybe the problem is what you are offering as compensation. Think about this, would you work for $2?

A professional writer won't because he or she can't afford to work for that little. A well written article includes research, interviews, writing and rewrites. In my day job, I write a weekly column of about 500 words. Because it's my column, I can write whatever I want and about whatever I want.

Because it needs to make sense and there's a minimum length, it has taken me DAYS to write. Days of reading the news, observing things in my life, thinking, writing, rewriting, realizations that the particular subject does not inpire me 500-words worth, so beginning all over again.

For a 400-word article, I may have to do research and interviews as well as writing and rewriting.
Trust me, every writer rewrites. There is nothing that can't be improved. Good enough isn't good enough for a professional writer.

All of this is time-consuming and creates angst and ulcers. And you want me to accept $2 for that?

Using someone else's work

2007-03-22T09:10:00.000-07:00

Warning: Vent follows, hopefully not too whiny.

You're probably thinking, "You've already written that story, chickee." You'd be correct; however, this is from a different perspective.

I wandered around and found a website forum. One discussion was about copywrite issues; one of the poster's even wrote that writers can sell various writes and may give up all writes.

*big sigh* If you are using what someone else writes, you may not have the right to do so. OK? It's a right, not a write. Hello? If you don't know the difference between copywriting and copyrights, then perhaps you should hire someone who does.

One poster said using someone else's work, for example reposting something on your website without receiving permission from the author and without acknowledgement even that it's someone else's work, is OK as long as you don't get caught.

Another poster confidently stated that writers wouldn't find out and if they did, no one would sue unless there's a lot of money involved, like thousands a month.

And writers wonder why we don't get respect for what we do.

To anybody, anybody who works for a living -- if someone copied something you did and, without paying you or recognizing you as the originator of said work, and presented it as their own work, how would you feel and what would you do?

Not understanding the concept

2007-03-21T10:55:00.000-07:00

I just checked out an ad for a writer. The poster wants 400-word, grammatically perfect articles and wants to pay $1.80 an article.

How did he/she come up with that figure? Then the poster says he/she will contact you if you are "up to the standard."

What standard? $1.80 is a standard? Just in case the poster ever sees this, pal, you get what you pay for. What would I do with that kind of money?

I really would like someone who regularly posts ads looking for writers to tell me what you are thinking when you offer substandard pay. Anybody?

My favorite gig

2007-03-21T06:04:00.000-07:00

Since my main, paying job is as a reporter, I have lots of places where I have to be at specific times. I have learned over the years how to meet deadlines, how to plan stories and how to find out what's going on.

I've learned to overcome my shyness. I've learned to actually listen to what people have to say. I know, not just think but know, that everyone has a story. I think being a reporter is probably the best thing for me. I have learned so much about writing and the business thereof through this work.

So, just to start y'all thinking -- what is your favorite gig? What do you think has helped you hone your writing skills the most?

What's a vacation?

2007-03-19T07:35:00.000-07:00

I hear people talk about vacations; I'm even fairly certain they exist. But is there really such a thing for a writer?
Even if I'm not carrying a notebook with me, or a tape recorder, I still find myself scrambling for napkins at restaurants so I can jot down an idea for a story. If I'm not physically writing, I'm mentally writing.
Just curious if that happens to all of you. Can you really take time off from your writing? Do you?
Or are you always thinking, "That would make a good story." If you've just finished reading a book or watching a play, movie or TV show, do you tell yourself how you would do the rewrite?

Writing college papers

2007-03-15T08:08:00.000-07:00

We've had this discussion on a writing forum I frequent (www.aboutfreelancewriting.com). You're a writer, working for yourself and trying to pay the bills. You see an ad for a writer and it turns out you're writing term papers. Is it ever OK?
My feeling, across the board, is a resounding, irrevocable, "No! It's not OK." In college, I knew a young woman whose boyfriend wrote all of her essays, term papers and so forth. It was cheating then and it's cheating now. No matter how strapped you are for cash or how desperate you are for work, it's cheating.
This young woman, who thankfully changed her major, was planning to be a teacher. That was kind of scary to me. Knowledge is important. You have to earn that yourself. College, just as any activity in life, is a challenge. If you aren't up to it, you aren't. That's life. You take another path or you buckle down and work harder.
I struggled through college. I have subsequently been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. But back then, I had no idea why college was so tough. Having someone sitting next to me who pays to have someone else do his or her work is an insult to me and the struggles I experienced.
College is a means of learning and that diploma is recognition of success. How would you feel if you discovered your doctor didn't really do his or her own work in medical school? Or what about the engineer who designed that bridge you drive over with your kids in the car?
I think back to a standard of ethics I learned in boot camp -- If you think it might be wrong, it probably is. So if you find yourself considering a job that makes you uncomfortable, rethink your situation. Do something else.
And when you're offered a so-called job writing term papers, take the high road and just say no.

Where's the money?

2007-03-14T08:29:00.000-07:00

Why do so many prospective employers want writers to work for little or no money? My feeling is that since everyone supposedly learns to write in grade school, their thinking is that writing is easy.
My response is that anyone who believes writing is easy should pick up a manual and read it. For example, look at your car owner's manual. Think about something you want to know and try to find it.
The last time I did this, I was trying to discover the meaning of the phrase, "Passenger side airbag is not activated," which was displayed in red in a small area above the radio.
I couldn't find a switch to turn the airbag off or on so I looked in my owner's manual. All I could find was a paragraph on a page that said the car had airbags. Since I routinely have a passenger in my car, the status of the airbags is important to me.
As other examples of poor writing, just look around you. Read advertisements, text books, how-to manuals, anything. Am I the only person who has read these things and was left wondering what the writer was trying to communicate?
Have you ever received something in writing from a friend, a supervisor, an employee or anyone else and had no idea what was meant? Have you thought you understood and only later realized you didn't?
Writing well is important if you want to be understood. If you are considering hiring a writer, there is a reason for that. It is the same reason you hire an architect to design a building rather than drawing the plans yourself. Architects are professionals who design buildings for a living. They understand the need for a weight bearing wall at a certain place and other things that together create a solid structure.
If you are hiring a true professional writer, it is because the writer understands how to structure words in a way that creates a solid piece of writing. A professional communicator communicates your thoughts and ideas in a way that is clear and easily understood by your target readers.
We deserve to be paid a professional fee, especially, if you are using our work to promote yours or earn money.