ichard took me on a surprise weekend trip to Conway, New Hampshire. We visited that beautiful down years ago and it was lots of fun to return. The town is in a valley and snow-capped mountains tower in the background. Our hotel room had a breathtaking view of the White Mountains and Mt. Washington can be seen from almost anywhere in town.
There are lots of snakes in the Print on Demand (POD) industry. And, while most companies charge too much, way too much, there are a few that offer good services at reasonable prices. And, some of those even offer pretty good customer service! I thought it would be fun this week to come up with a list of “Best Practices” for the POD industry.
Hi Ang,
I loved your two articles on What Recession?! I publish a little alternative spirituality newsletter. For years I’ve been telling our subscribers not to read “bad” news, and get themselves all down and depressed.
As you pointed out in today’s article, there’s plenty of good news out there. If more of us focus on the good, then more good will come to all of us. It’s really pretty simple, at least in my opinion. Focus on what you want. Now, if we can convince the rest of the world to do that . . .
2009 has so far been my best year yet. So I echo your words — “What recession?!”
Thanks so much for all you do for us freelancers out here. You’re truly an angel!
Hugs,
John
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Chief Joseph Newsletter
Conversations With Chief Joseph & John Cali
https://www.greatwesternpublishing.org/contactus.html
https://www.greatwesternpublishing.org
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Angela,
It’s all about positive thinking, isn’t it? Law of Attraction. Have a positive attitude and positive things will happen.
In my town restaurants are slow, the parking lots are not full.
And yet an old favorite place of mine just reopened, generating a few waitress, chef, busboy and hostess jobs.
In my town, plant nurseries are really slow. I own one of those plant nurseries.
And yet today, Wednesday, I had two new people come in. They’d never been here before. The kicker is that one of them actually spent money. I never get customers on Wednesday! Small bit of success, but I’ll take it.
In my town cabinet shops are failing. My husband owns a cabinet shop.
And yet, today, I have two bids to submit for future work and two jobs that I have a contract on. (I get to pretend to be the secretary.) Not so long ago I was begging for work and borrowing money from my retired parents! Not fun.
Recession… yes, it’s there. But it’s looking up!
—
June K. Brown
Key Largo Blue Plant Nursery and Woodworks
See my articles in Horizons Magazine! Animal Spirit Guidance, By June K. Brown
Visit my Web site at https://www.Moonmother8.com
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I’m in Australia but we also are being affected. I did lose a regular writing job with an American website late last year but, other than that, my writing career is thriving. I keep getting more and more assignments. I’m lucky in that I have several regular jobs but over and above that, am continually getting new work. Just today, I was offered a column with a national magazine.
Having been self-employed for 25 years, I know that there’s no need to ever worry. In fact, worry creates the very problem we’re trying to avoid.
Thanks,
Charmaine
Waking up early, putting on the required business attire, commuting to work, and having someone tell you what to do. Or getting up when you want to, staying in your pajamas, and working from home as your own boss. Which one sounds more fun to you?
Sometimes all it takes to succeed is to ask a simple question. Several years ago, when I was new to freelancing, I came across an ad for literature study guides aimed at homeschoolers and small schools. They looked like great guides; in fact, they looked like guides I would use with my own students and children. They looked like guides I could write.
COMPLAINT about Joseph Cherian / Emirates Parent Plus / Parent Plus Magazine / emiratesparentplus.com / Spear Publishing / spearme.com – Author alleges she’s owed $100.
Ed Hubbard / Witchschool, Inc. / witchschool.com – Writer alleges she’s owed $50 and that the publisher is ignoring her correspondence.
Thanks so everybody who sent me empty-nest-syndrome support notes last week! They really did help. Ali’s leaning toward attending the nearby school for two years so I am quietly breathing a sigh of relief. But, she hasn’t signed the papers yet so I’m still a bit nervous.
Three weeks ago, I published this article: What Recession?! Plenty of Freelance Jobs for Writers!
In the article, I talked about how the media keeps telling us the sky is falling…but that every restaurant and store in our town (and other towns we traveled through, down to Virginia and back last month) seems to have a full parking lot. I received lots of emails from readers who reported the same thing in their towns.
You can read a couple of the emails I received about the article HERE.
This week, I’m going to share some links to more good publishing financial news with you…
Hi Angela,
I just read Julie’s article in this week’s WritersWeekly. Since the woman she had a contract with is a known fraud AND she requested a W-9, Julie may want to put a fraud alert on her credit report, if she’s a sole proprietor and her Tax ID is also her Social Security number. It may be nothing, but on the other hand, the “editor” went to all that trouble of asking for a W-9…so it may be worth the peace of mind.
Thanks for all you do!
Pam
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Hi Angela,
I am responding to “It Sounded Too Good to Be True” in the March 11th edition of your newsletter. One of the reasons the author thought the phony publisher was on the up and up is because the author received an official looking contract. I present a work of caution. Many identity thieves are now posing as legitimate businesses to get people’s life histories, bank accounts and social security numbers. These con artists have no problem getting this information because they have their victims fill out official looking forms.
Such a scam hit the Las Vegas area last year. This con artist was posing as a mortgage broker. He would contact people out of the blue and offer them a “too good to be true” refinance deal. He would then show up at their home with a bogus story on how he selected them for this great offer. He also had his victims fill out official looking forms. These forms had spaces for the victims to list all their bank account information, work histories, social security numbers, etc. The con artists would then tell his victims he would be contacting them in a week or two with their refinance loan. Only problem, he never re-contacted his victims.
After three weeks without contact, one family called me because of my prior law enforcement background. I advised the family to contact their bank. The loan manager at the bank could not locate any record on the mortgage broker. But, she did find some unusual activity on their bank account. Because of the loan manager’s swift action, the family was able to recover their money.
The moral of the story is be very careful whom you give out your personal information to. Be especially leery if they contact you out of the blue.
S. Patrick Culshaw
Are you an author whose book has been picked up by a small, independent press? Or was it picked up by a large press, but you’re not the “flavor of the month” attracting all the imprint’s marketing dollars? Perhaps your book is self-published?
In any of these cases, as most published authors will tell you, getting your book into print is akin to elementary school, when compared to the high-school hard knocks of trying to market and sell your book. Your book, if you’re fortunate enough to get it in the bookstores at all, is competing with hundreds of thousands of others.
