My mom came to visit for the weekend. I hadn’t seen her in a year and she was only here for about three days total so I was very sad to see her go. I don’t know when we’ll see her next so that made her parting all the more painful.
It’s rare, very rare, but every once in awhile, we initiate an investigation on WritersWeekly Whispers and Warnings and we become acquainted with an individual who appears to be trying to do the right thing, even though they’ve obviously gotten in over their head.
Letters will return next week.
Through the years, I’ve heard too often from people that I should write my own story about all the events that have happened in my life. Of course the people who know some of these aspects are family, friends and coworkers. But if I do what everyone requests, it’s going to be a story with huge chunks missing or, at the very least, people important to those chunks.
I wrote a travel piece for an online website, which I had heard good things about. Although the pay was low, many postings about this site said they paid on time and that writers had no problem with the editor. I wrote an article for them about a ghost tour I took.
My article appeared on the website at the beginning of October. But it wasn’t really my article. I expected some editing – buried lead moved to front of story, etc. But they actually added paragraphs of detail that were not mine, including a location and ghost story that I neither visited nor heard. I would say about 50% of the story is actually mine.
I have had editors make changes before. One of my editors even added a paragraph to my article, due to some last minute information I received. But I provided her with the information and she sent me back the manuscript to review and approve what she added.
I am not sure what to do. I don’t care at this point if I receive the $25. I am worried that I won’t be able to resell this article with all the changes. And I haven’t been using this as a clip; I don’t want to explain why the clip is so different from my manuscript.
This Week:
Richard’s mom and her boyfriend left on Tuesday morning. We had a fun visit and, on leaving, his mom hugged me and said I was a “good hostess.” So, I want to thank all of you who sent in easy recipes for me to use while they were here! I’ll admit, we did eat out while they were here, too, but that sure can get expensive. I enjoy cooking at home much more. We took them to Bar Harbor for a day, to our favorite antique mall, and spent Sunday driving to our land, which was resplendent in its fall colors! It was gorgeous and we are dreaming of next spring when we’ll start building.
This Week:
In order to determine whether podcasting is a good choice for your book promotion efforts, you need to learn the basics of podcasting.
I heard through the grapevine that a major retail chain store here in my hometown was looking for a full time copywriter. I sent over my resume and writing samples to their inside ad agency. The creative director said that they would be sending over a little exercise “to see what their applicants could do with a pair of assignments that we might actually take on.”
With marketing in mind for two states (where they are planning on opening stores), for the “test,” they want one :30 second grand opening TV spot and one :60 second radio spot. In addition, for another campaign, they want one :60 second radio spot targeted at teens.
Sounds to me like a lot of work for free. I’m not going to do it. I don’t need the work that much but want to reply in a dignified way. What are your thoughts?
