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…

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/.

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.

This post was sponsored by Outright — Your Livelihood, Right Now.  Getting your taxes right with free bookkeeping.

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

I hate to be the one to ruin it for all of the lazy editors in hiding, (you know who you are) but nothing is more loathsome, tedious and grueling than having to go through an article word by word, comma by comma and space by space, tearing things apart and fitting them back together in some new and wonderful Frankenstein version of its original form.

Do I do this? Yes. Do I enjoy it? No. (There are cats wearing boots in that minimized window over there just waiting for me to put the finishing touches on these pieced-together articles. Grumbles!)

My absolute favorite go-to writers (Hello, Freelance-Zone!) are the ones who understand how deeply lazy I am and don’t mind. They turn in great articles full of compelling information and clean copy and they follow directions from the client to a T. They turn in work that I can sit back and enjoy reading rather than work I have to take a chainsaw to. And for that, I am able to turn their work in to clients earlier than anticipated. Happy clients pay bills faster, which means my freelancers get paid faster, and I am thus left in peace to enjoy my “Cats Wearing Argyle Sweaters” blog. Everyone is happy.

And so I say to you, please do not stand in the way of my continued laziness. Grueling work makes me mad, and you don’t want to see me mad!

Sigrid Macdonald

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.

 In order to become an editor, I purchased The Chicago Manual of Style guide, read Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss and subscribed to the “quick and dirty tips” by Grammar Girl on iTunes.  I also read, and would highly recommend, Stephen King’s wonderful autobiography called On Writing.

How has this knowledge contributed to my success?  It’s taken me from a writer who had great ideas with fairly good grammar skills to a writer with what I hope are excellent writing skills!

3. What advice do you have for a struggling writer trying to get ahead in the business? How does your book factor in to that advice?

My main advice would be to watch your Internet presence.  We do so many things automatically online and aren’t always careful enough.  It’s important to take the time to write a proper e-mail.  It’s critical to put up a website that is well-constructed and easy to navigate, and lacks spelling errors or typos; good luck trying to sell something if you have a number of misspellings on your site! Customers will click away in a heartbeat.

The only exception to this rule is on social networking sites like Twitter, MySpace or Facebook.  In fact, I wrote an article about why people should misspell words on Facebook.  I was being facetious, but frankly, I don’t believe we should rigidly punish ourselves by proofreading every single comment that we make when we’re chatting back and forth with old friends.  There is a time to be on-duty and a time to be off-duty.  Know the difference and your business and reputation will flourish.  Of course, this only applies if you use social networking for fun.  If you’re promoting your business on there, all of the regular spelling and grammar rules apply.

4. How soon until someone faithfully taking the advice in Be Your Own Editor can see results? How long did it take in your own case?

People can benefit by the tips in BYOE immediately.  It’s meant to be a reference guide, so nothing has to be memorized right away.  After people read Be Your Own Editor, they can go right back to the part that interests them at the moment.  Some people may be writing novels or short stories.  There is a long chapter on fiction which discusses character development, plot resolution and how to establish realistic sounding dialogue.  Other people may be writing music reviews or articles on the US presence in Afghanistan.  They may be more interested in the chapter on organizing nonfiction and looking at appropriate resources or ways to cite references.

In the short run, people can take quite a bit of information from BYOE, but it will take substantially more time if they want to commit large parts to memory, and for it to become second nature to write that way.  In my case, it took me about a year or more, but it was much like whitening one’s teeth — I could see a steady improvement month by month!

5. What’s the most important part of the book for you personally? What do you hope writers will take away from it?

To me, the most important parts of the book are the sections on word usage and punctuation.  It’s astonishing to see how many people confuse plurals with possessives, and put apostrophes in words like DVDs or pictures (e.g., “I’m sending you some recent pic’s and DVD’s” is totally wrong!  Just because something ends with an “s” doesn’t mean that it requires an apostrophe.) Likewise with word usage.  It’s important to know when to use loath or loathe, compliment or complement and stationery versus stationary.  You can always look that up in a dictionary or style guide, but the latter costs almost $100 and mine is 900 pages long. That’s like weightlifting!  Be Your Own Editor is 156 pages of dense information written in an informal and occasionally humorous style.  It doesn’t feel like homework.

6. Do you have any success stories you can share about people who have taken your advice and gotten results they’ve come back to you about?

The book was just released a couple of weeks ago, so I don’t have success stories yet. I published it myself, but it has since been picked up by TotalRecall Press in Texas and they will be releasing it on Amazon within the next month or two.  After that, I’ll ask my readers to let me know how it has affected their writing.

I compare my advice to Tony Robbins’ sage words.  Robbins is keen on action.  Reading about how to do something is all well and good, but if you don’t implement the suggestions, you won’t be any farther ahead. BYOE is meant to be read once to understand what’s in it, and then reread several times by section, to study and act on what’s in it.

I also have several pop quizzes so that people can test themselves and their knowledge before they begin, and after they have been working on the grammar or punctuation exercises for a while. 

And almost all the chapters can stand on their own.  So, if you hate creative writing or have no interest in it, but you want to know how to make your website and blog shine, just skip the chapter on fiction.  You don’t even have to read that part in order for the rest of the book to make sense.

7. Any new projects on the horizon? What’s next for you after this?

Yes, I’m always busy with something!  So far, I’ve written two nonfiction books and one novel.  My new book is a work of fiction that I’m co-authoring with my sister, Kristin.  It is based around her life and is called 100 Blind Dates.  Since we are currently negotiating with our agent and dealing with various publishers, I can’t give out much more information about the plot, but suffice to say that it will send a strong social message about dating for people with disabilities (in my sister’s case, a visual impairment), and it will have many comic moments.  The plot will be something like Sex in the City meets the White Cane.

Those interested in purchasing a copy of Be Your Own Editor can buy it on Lulu or visit Sigrid’s blog. ]]> http://freelance-zone.com/blog/advice/top-editing-tips-from-a-pro/feed/ 0 http://freelance-zone.com/blog/resources-blogs/classes-for-writers-at-writerscollege-com/ http://freelance-zone.com/blog/resources-blogs/classes-for-writers-at-writerscollege-com/#comments Mon, 12 Apr 2010 11:00:54 +0000 Catherine L. Tully http://freelance-zone.com/blog/?p=4502

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…

• Real-world experience in doing the thing they will teach. The more recent the experience, the better. The longer the writing career, the better.
• Publication in widely-read media, and the more the better. Obscure scholarly journals don’t count.
• Ability to relate to students’ needs, and willingness to be flexible enough to meet those.
• Educational background that contributes to their subject, and ability to teach that subject.

We’re not dogmatic about the above because circumstances and writing genres vary widely. But it’s a starting point. Would-be teachers — and we’re always on the prowl for additions to our catalog — can read up on it on our site.

4. What are some of the advantages to taking classes via Writers College as opposed to other places?

Well, our motto is “You can go to school in your pajamas” and the convenience of being able to sit down, in your own home and at a time of your choosing, to read the lessons and do the homework, is a major benefit.

But do not underestimate these courses. I have taught some of mine, as distance learning classes, for several university systems. Some of the teachers have had similar experience. These are serious, professional-level educational courses.

You get three things from our classes:

1. Written lessons that are sent by email or (sometimes) posted to private web pages, but easy to access in any event. And, of course, you can print them out for later reference.
2. Homework assignments that your teacher reviews.
3. The teacher’s brain to pick for as long as the course lasts. These teachers are grizzled warriors in the writing trenches and can answer most questions you might have, not just about the immediate material, but about the writing lifestyle.

5. How long do courses run, and are they costly?

We have standardized 4, 6 and 8-week lengths. Most courses offer an option to double that time limit for a small extra fee. We don’t really push that but we do offer the option only because some people are really busy and need two weeks to do one week’s homework assignment.

Your course starts the Monday after we receive your registration, so every student gets on-on-one attention. We do expect the student to complete the course within the time frame. The current price is pegged at $30/week, so a four-week course would cost $120.

But we also offer – and so far as I know no one else does so – a ten-day, no-questions-asked refund policy. If you tell me, within ten days of the course start, that you want out, you get your money back.

6. Where can writers go for more information about courses?

Thought you would never ask. The web site and the course catalog. Each course catalog listing also lists the email of that teacher. You are welcome to ask questions of myself or of the teachers before you decide to try us.

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:

• + Orange La Croix. This has been a staple of mine for years now, and continues to be a mainstay. Both tasty and calorie-free, it’s the perfect thing to sip on. Well, at least for me. After my initial cup or two of coffee in the morning, I try not to do caffiene unless I really need it.

+ 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?

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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.