Category Archives: reading

advice, freelance money, reading, resources

BigDifBooks — Making a Big Difference in Kids’ Lit . . .

by Erin Dalpini

Dreaming of becoming a published author? Here’s an avenue you may not have considered—publishing a kids’ book. It’s simple, it’s fun, and it’s free, that is, if you work with BigDifBooks. This up-and-coming company’s transforming the way children’s literature is published, thanks to the marvels of e-book technology and a group of folks committed to sharing great stories with kids.BigDifBooks

Tom Watson, founder of BigDifBooks, joined us again to discuss his passion for children’s literature—the inspiration behind his company—and more. (By the way, if you missed our last post on BigDifBooks, check it out here.)

Freelance-Zone: Why did you make a website for kids’ books? Why might a freelance writer want to write a kids’ book?

Tom Watson: The whole idea is to give kids (and parents) access to original stories for very little money–or none at all. I probably wouldn’t have started our company if I wasn’t a parent myself, to be honest. I’m kind of a kids’ book snob. Continue reading BigDifBooks — Making a Big Difference in Kids’ Lit . . . →

advice, Business, freelance money, reading, resources

Review: Peter Bowerman’s The Well-Fed Writer (2nd Edition)

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By Erin Dalpini

“Have you ever dreamed of becoming a writer but never took it too seriously, because after all, the words ‘starving’ and ‘writer’ are pretty much joined at the hip?” asks freelance copywriter and author Peter Bowerman in his updated edition of The Well-Fed Writer.

Well, have you?

Bowerman’s query brings up the quintessential conflict that faces all freelancers and wanna-bes at one point or another in their careers—how to write away the workday, without having to pinch pennies.

Maybe you’ve already made it past that point.

Great. This book is still worth your while.

Or maybe when you read the opening question, you thought, “Yeah, that’s pretty much me in a nutshell.” That’s even more reason to check out Bowerman’s aptly-named The Well-Fed Writer, in which he shares a slew of industry secrets that will assist you in successfully marketing yourself and your writing.

Compartmentalized into useful chapters such as  “Money Matters: How Much to Charge and How to Get Paid,” “Learning to Love S&M (Sales and Marketing),” “Where’s the Business?” and “The Well-Networked Writer,” this book touches on all the fundamentals of freelance copywriting while maintaining the spunk and attitude often lacking in the average guidebook.

I have to admit I was quite skeptical about “commercial” freelancing when I first started reading The Well-Fed Writer. Continue reading Review: Peter Bowerman’s The Well-Fed Writer (2nd Edition) →

advice, reading

Top Editing Tips From A Pro

Sigrid Macdonald, Author of Be Your Own Editor
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. Continue reading Top Editing Tips From A Pro →

editorial, podcast, reading, resources, social networking

Grammar, Grammar, Grammar!

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This post is sposnored by FiledBy – where authors can claim their free website and build their online marketing platform.

grammarby Catherine L. Tully

I know I have mentioned this great resource before, but only in passing. Grammar Girl is a heavy-duty tool for the writer–new or experienced. Mignon Fogarty is the name behind this character, and her “Quick and Dirty Tips For Better Writing” include goodies such as:

  • Affect vs. Effect
  • Toward vs. Towards
  • All Right vs. Alright
  • Lay vs. Lie

These are excellent, bite-sized tips for the writer that can mean the difference between getting a query nod and having the editor hit delete. Let’s face it–in this business, you’ve got to know what you are doing when it comes to grammar and sentence structure.

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It doesn’t really matter how you decide to keep up with Grammar Girl. She’s on Twitter and she even has her own podcast on iTunes. A little honesty? It’s the only podcast that I have actually downloaded and listened to on my iPhone.

Naturally, if you prefer a good, old-fashioned book you can go that route as well.

Why am I so excited about this? Well, grammar is huge, and it is usually presented in the most awful, boring format. Grammar Girl gives it to you straight, but in a palatable way, without taking too long to get the point across. I’m a serious fan.

This post was brought to you by FiledBy

advice, reading, resources

John Updike’s Writing Wisdom (part I): Book Reviews

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by Erin Dalpini

I’m working on a new project—a book review of a contemporary novel I recently read; although I’ve done this before, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what makes a fantastic book review.

Last fall, when I was doing some research for a review of Toni Morrison’s newest novel, A Mercy, I dabbled around on the Internet to see what others were saying about this book so that I could join in that conversation. I’d already read the book and had formed an impression of it, but I knew I needed to know what the experts thought.

One of the first pieces I found, a review in the The New Yorker caused me to sit up and take notice—it was an engaging, entertaining, and also gave me some new insight into the novel. When I looked for the byline, to my surprise, it was the literary legend John Updike. Updike, though best-remembered for his extensive body of fiction (short stories, novels, poetry), produced an equally-impressive array of literary criticism and essays. In short: the man was prolific. And he had an extraordinary way of making a book review anything but mundane. This piece was sharp, witty, informed, concise—essentially, it was the best book review I’d ever read and it left quite an impression on me.

So, returning to the writer’s block, I was curious: what did Updike have to say about writing book reviews? And what do modern day writers do when they have an obscure question like that?

Right. Turn to Google.

I was fortunate early on to stumble across a post (from a book blog I promptly bookmarked) pointing to hidden treasure: an older post, from the blog of the National Book Critics Circle, citing helpful tips from the master himself (one that’s so dated it redirects readers to the new host that, from what I can tell, does not have the piece archived). The advice is from Updikes’s Picked Up Pieces, a collection of his assorted prose. Three points (of six) I found incredibly helpful… Continue reading John Updike’s Writing Wisdom (part I): Book Reviews →

reading

J.D. Salinger, the Anti-Freelancer, Dead at 91

JD Salinger RIP

J.D. Salinger, author of Catcher In The Rye, has died at the age of 91.

Most writers want to hit it big and milk the cash cow for all it’s worth. Not so in J.D. Salinger’s case; he wrote one novel and a collection of short stories and by 1959 he’d had it. According to Time, Salinger still wrote but never published. After dying at home of natural causes, will any of his unreleased work ever see the light of day?

America has lost one of its most influential (even though profoundly inactive) voices. Catcher In The Rye was required reading for probably 99% of the entire currently active freelance writing world. Salinger was a mystery, but there’s still hope that we’ll get something more to read posthumously by what many describe as the “hermit crab of American letters.”

J.D. Salinger 1919–2010