Janis Bell takes more than three decades of teaching experience and distills it all down into a single, helpful volume I would personally love to buy for every writer in the world. When do you use “you’re” as opposed to “your”? It’s just one example, and seems obvious to some, (and it should seem obvious to more) but these writing hangups occur with annoying frequency, especially in cover letters and queries.
It wouldn’t shock any regular FZ reader to learn that I routinely delete cover letters that contain abuses of the apostrophe, but for new writers this may seem a tad excessive. You won’t have to worry about YOUR letters getting the axe if you follow the simple, clear instructions in Janis Bell’s great book.
Clear, Well-Lighted Sentences is a must-own for any beginning writer. How do you make the name “Charles” possesive? Bell spells it out. Do possessive pronouns have apostrophes? Find out. Yes, this is what many would call “the boring stuff”, but if you want to know WHY it gives me the screaming fits to see a storefront sign which reads “Closed Sunday’s”, get yourself a copy of Clear, Well-Lighted Sentences and learn how to improve your writing in ways you never even imagined.
Freelancers and those who employ them often run into situations where judgement calls need to be made. Are you a freelance writer dealing with a difficult situation with an editor? Are you an editor trying to sort out issues with your freelancers? Here’s a handy do-and-don’t list to help you regardless of which side of the desk you find yourself;
10. Re-evaluate your relationship with any publication that makes excuses for not paying you. Editors, do the same for any freelancer who makes frequent excuses for not delivering the goods as per your arrangement. You don’t have to terminate the relationship right away, but letting the other party know the issue is on your radar is a good thing in any case.
9. Don’t backdoor your writer or editor. If there is a situation that needs to be discussed, TALK about it. Don’t let your writer or editor know after the fact that there was something that needed urgent attention. This can include everything from telling your writer you found major errors in fact in a pending article to letting your editor know that your interviewee was hostile and might be a source of trouble in the future.
8. Freelance writers should know the terms of their relationship with the editor in full including payment dates and conditions, fact checking needs, the urgency of deadlines and what happens if either party needs more time to deliver according to the terms of their arrangement. Sometimes companies get in financial trouble and have to delay payment by a few days or weeks. Sometimes freelancers get bogged down and can’t deliver the articles strictly on deadline. Each side should understand how to proceed when these issues occur. Continue reading Working With Freelancers: A Handy Do-and-Don’t List→
WARNING: The following contains EVIL HUMOR and is not for the easily alarmed. It’s Friday, I’ve had too much caffeine, and in my current state of mind I think things have been far too serious round here as of late–not that there’s anything WRONG with that, but it’s time to lighten up a bit. So without any additional fanfare, read and learn.
What follows is a fictitious example of a bad query letter taken from the thousands of real e-mails I’ve gotten in the last few years…the EVIL HUMOR comes in because what I put in italics are the ACTUAL THOUGHTS of editors who read this crap. Not all editors are as EVIL as I am, but many share my penchant for EVIL HUMOR and feel the same way I do when they read the following: Continue reading Freelance Writing: Anatomy of a Bad Query Letter→
Paul Lima cuts right through the crap in his Six Figure Freelancing blog. Do you want to earn six figures? Lima gives some sound advice; pick up the telephone. One of the recurring themes in ALL blogs I’ve read on high-dollar freelancing is the connection of two words that makes even the most hard-core fulltime freelancer cringe: cold calling.
Lima is absolutely correct. My own personal foray to the outer edges of five-figure work has included cold calling, but not nearly as much as Lima wants YOU to do. The reason I don’t do much cold calling in my line of work has nothing to do with me being a total badass freelance genius–it is purely circumstantial. But the fact of the matter is, if I want to break the glass ceiling and actually MAKE six figures next year (as opposed to the high fives I earn now) I WILL have to make more cold calls. Yes, it’s been on my mind a lot lately for obvious reasons. When you’re that close to hitting the holy grail figure for the first time, you really want to GO FOR IT, know what I mean?
Cold calling is absolutely vital, and not just for the kinds of freelance writing Lima does. There is huge money in corporate writing, but there is just as much in other sectors…but you will have to let your fingers do the walking, as the old telephone book ad used to say. A freelancer like me, with a strong background in interviewing, being live on camera and behind the mic, and chasing stories has no trouble picking up the phone. But if you don’t have that killer instinct for telephone calls, you need to learn it. Wanna know how? Here are a few hints to developing those ninja phone skills: Continue reading Six Figure Freelancing: How to Make That First $100,000→
Freelance writers who branch out into photography make themselves much more marketable. It’s one thing to make a pitch to an editor with the story, but another altogether to say “I can provide pictures of the balloon race, too!” Your photos lend an immediacy to any article that the plain text might not be able to provide.
Tad Crawford’s Business and Legal Forms for Photographers is an important volume to own if you want to get paid for your pics. This book and CD-ROM combo has the right forms you need for just about any situation where you and your camera need a piece of paper making the gig official. Do you need a contract or agreement to shoot a wedding, news assignment or simple head shots? If you shoot images for any story and your pic have recognizable faces in them, you’ll need a copy of the model release found in this book. Do NOT publish those people’s faces without the legal protection that a model release gives! Continue reading Business and Legal Forms For Photographers→
Freelance writing comes in two basic stripes; the stuff you do for free to get started and the stuff you get paid to do. Once you’ve started moving out of freebieland and into the paying gigs, it gets more complicated. Low paying gigs, high paying gigs…every freelancer’s dream is to move into that dollar-a-word zone where you earn the same kind of cash for one article as you do for all the work you’re currently putting in now.
A buck a word is a great goal, but until you are working for publications or editors who are willing to pay that, consider a few strategies to help you earn more money with the gigs you are able to land at your current skill level. Here are my current five favorites:
5. Manage your time as well as you manage your money. If you are working on a low-paying pro blogger gig to supplement your income, make sure it doesn’t eat more time than the money is worth. I once wasted about six months writing for a blog that kept reducing the pay and increasing the expectations. My actual hours spent researching and writing grew disproportionate with the actual pay. In the end, I cut the blog loose because I spent far more time on it than on better paying gigs. It turned out to be one of the best moves I made that year. I started working fewer hours and making more money just because I dumped a timewaster. Continue reading Make More Money Freelance Writing: Five Steps→
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Janis Bell takes more than three decades of teaching experience and distills it all down into a single, helpful volume I would personally love to buy for every writer in the world. When do you use “you’re” as opposed to “your”? It’s just one example, and seems obvious to some, (and it should seem obvious to more) but these writing hangups occur with annoying frequency, especially in cover letters and queries.
