We’ve had a really unusual winter this year. As I am writing this, there is no snow on the ground. Yes, that’s right. It’s supposed to be the coldest, nastiest time of the year for Mainers. But, it was in the 50’s last weekend, sunny, breezy, and downrights Springish! I ran errands on Saturday and didn’t even need a sweater.
We recently ran an article on low-paying Bottom Feeders. Basically, there are people, with seemingly no business experience, who are starting fledgling websites online and offering ridiculously low fees to writers. Unfortunately, sometimes new writers don’t know any better and find themselves spending hours writing an article that will bring in less than $10. They then learn they’ve sold all rights to the greedy company. In some cases, they may even find their articles online later, appearing under somebody’s else’s name. (If a firm buys all rights, they can do pretty much whatever they please with it, including putting their name on the article.) Some people buy articles for pennies and turn around and sell them for hundreds.
This Week:
Admit it. You are a successful freelance writer or journalist. You enjoy a great relationship with the same editors and write for the same publications. It’s a great life. In fact, make that a darn wonderful life. Why change it? Because in today’s world it’s easier than ever to move beyond your own backyard and out into that big, bold world of untapped markets.
While I consider myself a fairly good salesperson, I am eighty years old and wonder if self-marketing is for me. I wonder if I have the physical energy to get involved in self-publishing.
At the same time I have come to trust WritersWeekly in a number of areas. But I still wonder, Can an old man market a book?
A few weeks ago I noticed an article in WritersWeekly by Jimmy Moore in which he talked about how blogging was helping him build a market for his book. The piece rang a bell for me because it closely parallels my experience with podcasting. The American Oxford Dictionary declared “podcast” to be its word of the year for 2005. In a little over a year, the technology went from non-existent to hosting thousands of shows (National Public Radio alone puts out 234 podcasts).
At the new sonogram, she was MUCH bigger and they couldn’t get her entire body on the screen at one time. She was moving her mouth (chewing) for a few minutes, and later was sucking on her finger. Max thought that was just the neatest thing in the world. (He thought the blue goo they put on my belly was pretty neat, too.) Needless to say, we were all absolutely shocked into hysterics, when the technician panned over Izzy again and a very prominent, very large…
This Week:
One of the biggest problems with seeking an agent is that you may actually find one. Not unlike the ever popular quest for a boyfriend or girlfriend, it’s easy to overlook some rather annoying qualities when you just want an agent so badly.
I was wondering if there is a way to access markets older than last week? I recently saw a listing for a trade magazine looking for articles about good employee management practices but now I can’t find it!
