by Catherine L. Tully
Just a quick resource post today for those of you out there who like listening to podcasts…
Freelance Switch has a whole bunch of great podcasts to offer through “Freelance Radio”. I love listening to these while I’m working out or walking. They are a great way to keep up with career-related information without doing more reading on your computer screen. Give your eyes a break and take a listen…
by Catherine L. Tully
If you are into social media (which you should be in my opinion), you need Hoot Suite. Seriously.
Hoot Suite helps you manage all of your social media accounts from one place, and it has a host of useful features, including:
- The ability to schedule tweets
- Easy updates on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook–all from one page
- The ability to shorten URLs without leaving the page
- Auto complete on your @usernames once you have used them before (I think this may be my fave feature)
- Statistics on how many people click through on the URLs you tweet. And yes–I’m serious!
I tried TweetDeck before, and while I think it looks much better (very slick interface), it is more confusing. I accidentally sent an update meant for Twitter to all of my social media accounts….
Not good.
If you are looking for a simple way to manage your social media without a big learning curve–this is it. I haven’t used the app yet–but there is one available for the iPhone as well. Check it out and you will really be glad you did! No more multiple log-ins and no more time suck. Do it all quick and easy.
I’m loving it!
Monica Shaw
Today we have a Q & A with Monica Shaw of Writer’s Residence, a site where writers can build an online presence; including a portfolio of their work.
But first a little background on Ms. Shaw…
Monica Shaw is an internationally published freelance writer who has been building Web sites since the early days of the Web. In addition to Writer’s Residence, she also writes a popular health and fitness blog at SmarterFitter.com. You can visit her own writing portfolio at monicashaw.com.
1. What is Writer’s Residence and who should consider using it?
Writer’s Residence is a website that lets writers create a beautiful website, writing portfolio and resume/CV quickly and easily through their web browser. The service is ideal for any writer who wants an easy way to create a professional website where they can showcase their work. This goes for freelance writers, journalists, authors, copywriters, and pretty much anyone who wants to make a living through writing.
2. How can having an online portfolio benefit writers?
An online porfolio is an invaluable marketing tool for writers. Like a printed portfolio, a website helps you promote your work, particularly when sending queries to editors and agents. You can also use your website to gain exposure to your writing by linking to your website in emails, on business cards and on social media sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter. It’s all about marketing. In fact, there’s a great interview on my blog with marketing expert Penny Sansevieri that addresses this specifically and I encourage you to check it out.
3. How difficult is it for people to set up a portfolio on Writer’s Residence? Is HTML knowledge required?
Writer’s Residence is designed to be easy. You can have a beautiful website up and running in 30 minutes or less by filling in a few simple forms through your web browser. No downloads are necessary. No HTML is required. We host it all so no technical knowledge is needed. All of the features are tailored for writers, which means you won’t spend time or money customizing a website with a bunch of features you don’t really need.
4. Is it expensive to set up a portfolio?
No, Writer’s Residence is not expensive at all. You can set up a portfolio for free with our 30-day trial. This gives you risk-free access to all of Writer’s Residence including a hosted website, support for your own domain, and unlimited uploads. After that, we charge $8.99 per month, which is cheaper than most website hosting services and has the added benefit of being specifically tailored for writers. There are no hidden fees and you can cancel at any time.
5. Is there any help or advice available if people have questions?
Yes. We love our customers and are always on hand to help with questions. You can contact us through e-mail or phone (we have both UK and US support numbers) and are guaranteed a personal response within 24 hours from either me or my partner, Tim. Since we created Writer’s Residence, you’ll get support directly from the people who built the site.
6. What else can you tell me about the portfolio, and where can people go for more information?
Writer’s Residence grew out of my own freelance writing career and I continue to use the site to host my own online writing portfolio at monicashaw.com. As a user and developer of Writer’s Residence, I have a vested interest in making sure it’s the easiest, most hassle-free service out there for writers wanting a website. I love it when our customers tell us that their websites helped them land writing gigs. It’s one of the reasons why we created Writer’s Residence in the first place.
For more info, people can visit our website at writersresidence.com or contact me personally at monica@writersresidence.com. I also write a blog about freelance writing with loads of useful tips and interviews at http://writersresidence.com/blog/.
This post is sponsored by Outright — Your Livelihood, Right Now. Getting your taxes right with free bookkeeping.
by Catherine L. Tully
If you are looking for ways to up your income as a writer you may want to think about adding photography to your skill set. These days digital pics are the popular choice and if you are somewhat “tech-savvy”, you can make some extra dough.
I’m not saying this is a totally simple thing to do, but if you already own a decent digital camera or have interest in learning, it’s well worth it. I have made good money sending in pictures with an article. What a magazine will pay for it varies, and that is where this handy book comes in–Photographer’s Market.
Photographer’s Market is full of listings where you can sell your pictures, and th 2010 version has all the latest and greatest markets. It is set up similar to Writer’s Market, so for most writers it will feel familiar.
If you don’t want to get into doing the photography yourself, perhaps you may want to team up with someone who does. Check into a local photography club to see if there is anyone who may be interested. While this will mean they will make the extra money, it will also help endear you to editors. Most of them love it if you can provide pictures to go with a piece you have written.
by Amanda Smyth
No promises on part 2. 
I’ll be the first to admit it. I am a lazy editor.
I DO enjoy reading the work my freelancers submit. Some days, my job is the best job in the world. I can kick back and read great articles from great writers on a variety of topics. I learn new and wonderful things from their articles and I bask in the warm glow of their musings. So what makes me a lazy editor? Well, the part that’s the most grueling is the actual editing.
And frankly, I’d rather just skim.
Audience: “WHAT? THE HORROR! But you’re an EDITOR! Don’t you love dissecting, cutting, pasting and mutilating our work?”
Me: “Not really. I’d much rather put my feet up and surf the interweb for funny pictures of cats.”
*Audience lights torches … Continue Reading
Today we have a special feature on a book that will help you become a better editor when it comes to refining your own work. Since this skill isn’t the easiest to master, editor/author Sigrid Macdonald decided to write a book on the subject. Here are the details in an interview with Sigrid…
1. The name of the book is “Be Your Own Editor”, so it’s probably best to start by asking what led you to write this book? Give us a little background and some history behind the inspiration.
I’ve been a writer for several decades. I started out doing articles for political organizations and op-ed pieces for the newspaper. Then I moved on to writing for magazines and finally, I wrote books. After I finished my first book, I was hired by a local company to be a manuscript editor. I knew nothing about editing but I was confident about my skills because I had been writing for so long — that faith in myself was misplaced!
Editing and writing require completely different skill sets. They look and sound as though they should be the same, because in many respects, editing is just like rewriting. On the other hand, writing involves a creative process of putting your ideas on paper, but editing involves the meticulous review of everything you’ve written to make sure that it’s structurally and grammatically sound and accurate.
In the old days, pretty much everyone who wasn’t a professional writer edited his or her own material. For example, most college and university students would never have considered hiring a proofreader or editor to go over their essays.
Nowadays, things have changed. Higher expectations are placed on students by professors in postsecondary education, yet many of the fundamentals of English composition and grammar are not being taught properly in the early years. Many of us are writing on websites, in the blog community or even self-publishing books. No one edits that work, whereas a professional writer can submit an article to a magazine, and the magazine editor will kindly and quickly remove any typos or awkward structural or grammatical problems. Not so when we do these things ourselves. Consequently, we may miss all kinds of redundancies, inconsistencies, misused words or poorly phrased sentences.
Be Your Own Editor is the book I wish that I’d had when I made the transition from writer to professional editor. I wrote it in order to share what I’ve learned about editing. So often, I receive inquiries about my services from people who can’t afford to hire me. That makes me feel really bad because my background is in social work and I want everyone to have access to services. This book is meant for all those talented, dedicated writers or students who can’t afford to hire a pricey editor, and could do a perfectly good job themselves if they put in a little extra time and effort brushing up on the basics of grammar and organization.
2. How did you discover the techniques you recommend in the book and perfect them? How specifically have they contributed to your success?
Many of the techniques in the book are quite simple. I talk about the need for consistency and clarity. I discuss how to compose an essay, blog post, article or nonfiction book. And I go into great detail about frequently misused words such as affect or effect, further and farther or between and among. I discovered all these things by either making mistakes in my own writing or catching them in my clients’ works. … Continue Reading
Today we’d like to bring Freelance-Zone readers a closer look at WritersCollege.com, a resource for writers who want to learn more about the craft. Enjoy this Q & A with Stephen Morrill, the Director, and be sure and drop by their site to check out all that they have to offer…
1. Can you tell Freelance-Zone readers a bit about when Writers College began and what it is?
Sure. It’s actually WritersCollege.com (that’s the listed name with the Florida Department of State and the trademark too). Started in 1998, it’s been a labor of love for me since then. (I have to love it because I make almost no money from it. The classes are very cheap and the teachers and overhead get the money while the students get the knowledge.)
Students may register online or by postal mail. All class materials go back and forth by e-mail.
2. What types of classes do you offer, and for what kinds of writers?
We offer about 60 online writing courses for beginners and experienced writers alike. They run the gamut from greeting cards (seriously – good income there – who knew?) to the various aspects of fiction, poetry, essays and the like, to nonfiction books, magazines, newspaper writing. We have grammar courses and even a course in photography for writers. I teach five of the courses and some 30 other teachers cover the rest. I suggest that people go to our catalog page to look over the full list. It’s rather long.
3. Who are your instructors and what are their qualifications?
Ah. This is the biggest sticking-point for most would-be teachers because WritersCollege.com is not an academic degree-granting institution and operates by very different rules. We actually expect teachers to know what they’re talking about. Specifically, we look for teachers with, in the following order of importance… … Continue Reading
by Catherine L. Tully
I often wonder what other writers have in their “bag of tricks”. By this, I don’t mean the things that they use to make their writing shine. I mean those items that help get them through the workday. The things that put a little pep in your routine and keep you going when the writing gets tough.
Here are a few of mine:
+ Legal pad and pen. I always keep a yellow legal pad and pen nearby. Sometimes I get ideas that I want to remember to return to during the course of the day. Other times an interview calls–early. There is no substitute for the list either. I’ve tried using my phone or the computer, but prefer to hand-write out my “to do” list for the day. What can I say? I’m old-fashioned.
+ Desk size calendar. Again, I’m a fan of the tangible here. I like to see the entire month at once and large as life on the desk calendar. I tend to think big-picture, so it really helps to have it all at my fingertips. I use colored markers to help keep things organized and easy to reference. (Plus, they’re fun.)
+ Secret stash. Come on. Everybody has one. Mine are “Mike & Ike” candies. I try not to pull these out unless I need a sugar boost, but there are there–just in case.
What are your “can’t live without” items? I have a pretty tame list compared to a lot of people I know in the field. I tend to not have a lot around me when I’m writing, although I do hang the occasional inspirational photo that I find in a magazine–or a quote that I am particularly fond of….
Anyone else want to share?
This post is sponsored by 
FiledBy – where authors can claim their free website and build their online marketing platform.
If you use Wordpress, how can you be sure you are getting the most out of it? As a hard-working writer, you can’t afford to miss out on the simple things that will make a big difference. Take a look at these strategies for maximizing your time and effort…or for getting started…
Brian Horn gives some great basics in terms of tagging and SEO.
Concerned about security? Check out Lorelle on Wordpress for the real scoop on how safe you are.
Just getting started with Wordpress? How about some recommendations in terms of themes? Editor Unleashed has a great post on this subject.
Google Analytics is a fantastic tool for understanding who is using your site, where your hits are coming from and how many you are getting. It has an amazing number of features you can check out. (FYI…you can’t use this with Wordpress.com accounts since they use their own tracking system.)
Blog maintenance is crucial. Take a look at this basic checklist for keeping yours up-to-date. And don’t forget to back up your blog too.
This post was brought to you by FiledBy
by Mike O’Mary
I am editing a book about creative writing. I’m very excited about it. It’s more of a “why” write, rather than a “how” to write. But in the process of talking about why write, the author sheds a lot of light on how to write, as well. I think it’s going to be a great book. I’ll tell you more about it as we get closer to publication later this year.
For now, I want to tell you about another book about writing. Editing this current manuscript prompted me to refer back to one of the first books I read about writing: Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande. If you are familiar with Brande’s book, you know the story…written in the 1930s by a woman whose teaching techniques incorporated right-brain thinking and transcendental meditation long before those concepts were popular…long before there were even names for those things! The book went out of print, but was brought back to life and light in 1981 with an introduction by John Gardner. The book is a treasure.
I said earlier that the book I am currently editing isn’t about how to write; it’s about why we write. Similarly, Becoming a Writer isn’t about how to write; it’s about how to be a writer. It’s very inspiring. If you’re not familiar with it, give it a read.
Another great book about writing is The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. But more on that book another day. In the meantime, I’m curious: what books do you turn to for inspiration or instruction or motivation when it comes to your writing?
Mike O’Mary is founding dreamer of Dream of Things, an independent book publisher currently accepting creative nonfiction stories for anthologies on 15 topics.
by Catherine L. Tully
Writers love to read. Those words are the inspiration behind this travel destination for writers—the Library Hotel in New York. This property has ten floors which reflect ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal System. Choose from: technology, social sciences, literature, languages, math & science, history, the arts, religion, philosophy and general knowledge. Better yet—each floor has a variety of subcategories which focus in on a section of the main theme. Each room features themed art and provides guests with a hand-picked selection of books that are related to the subject…
by Catherine L. Tully
I know. You probably won’t want to see this. But as a writer, you really do need to read on. Unless you plan some activity into your lifestyle, chances are good that the weight will creep up on you, and, eventually, your health will start to suffer. The New Year is as good a time as any to add a little exercise to your routine.
If you don’t own some hand weights (see left), why not get a pair? They are a great tool that you can use when you are taking a break between queries. Find some stretching exercises and bookmark them on the internet. Plan to take walking breaks–and then stick to it. If you can loop some activity into your day and start making it a part of your writing routine, you’ll be feeling better all the way around. Do it now. You’ll thank yourself down the line. I guarantee it.
Have you taken the time to sit down and write out your career goals for 2010? It doesn’t have to be an elaborate process…but I believe it is an important one. Setting concrete goals is something that keeps you moving forward, and I know from personal experience that it works. At least for me…
If you haven’t created a few goals for yourself, why not give it a try? Every year I set the simple goal of making more money than I did the year before. And I have yet to be disappointed. Doesn’t that sound nice?
So what are my other goals for the year? Here they are, for all to see…
+ Continue building my new dance blog.
+ Do more outreach to writers in the form of classes and seminars.
+ Each year I pick out a few magazines I would like to try and get published in. Then I work on query ideas for them throughout the year. Although I don’t have mine picked yet, I know I will try for at least 3 new, big mags. Perhaps an in-flight…
If you feel like sharing, you can list yours here. Either way, all the best to reaching them in 2010!
by Mike O’Mary
Hello Friends! Throughout my career as a writer, I’ve done creative work (mostly for fun) and corporate work (mostly for income). On the corporate side, I’ve worked as a corporate employee who sometimes hired freelancer writers and editors, and as a freelance writer and editor who sought work from corporations.
One of the things I learned by working both sides of the corporate fence is that corporations think in terms of budget, whereas most freelancers think in terms of hourly rate. Even I made the switch when I went from being a corporate employee to being a freelancer… … Continue Reading
by Catherine L. Tully
Everybody should do this. Seriously.
Fellow writer Jake Poinier has a survey out that will allow him to compile data for the 2010 Freelance Forecast–Boomvang Creative Group’s second annual survey of creative freelancers and the clients who hire them. This is a great resource, and if you fill the form out, you’ll not only be helping clients understand writers better, but you’ll also be entered into a drawing for a $100 iTunes or STAPLES gift card.
Not bad! (And if you can get a client to take the survey, you’ll have good karma. Jake says so. I have asked several of mine to participate….good karma is mine!)
