We’re spending this week on our property in rural Western Maine. Richard has us online via a dish and he’s building a storage shed while Mason and I “rough it” inside the RV, with the air conditioner running and the refrigerator stocked full of yummy stuff… that can be cooked on the stove or in the microwave (no campfire required!). We do use the campfire at night for the s’mores. Some things just aren’t the same in a microwave…
You did it! Your book is finally in print! After months of sweating over details like editing and cover colors and even the final list price, you’re ready to start that marketing campaign! You’ve even figured out that you can make more money buying copies at your author discount and doing your own fulfillment at appearances than you would if you sent potential readers to your publisher’s website. But, wait…
You just tried to place an order for 100 copies of your book…and discovered that your publisher is charging you around $1 per paperback book for shipping and handling! Say what?!
Chaleen:
That was a great article, and it’s the truth. I realized it a long time ago, but I never really understood until I started musing on it myself a few weeks ago. It’s a fact though: To make money as a freelance writer or artist or musician or whatever, you have to view yourself as a high priced prostitute. It’s just a fact…
Whether you write magazine features, flash fiction or articles for the web, freelance writing has its ups and downs. It’s never boring, but late payments and heavy handed editors can sometimes take the wind out of our literary sails. I write because I enjoy it, but it’s also work for me and the money I make doing it comprises a substantial amount of my income…
I want to use a photo I found in an old newspaper in my book but I can’t find the copyright owner and the newspaper is now out of business. How can I determine if it’s in the public domain?
My recent freelance success has been based on some of the worst experiences in my life. Without divorce, job loss and a number of illnesses, I wouldn’t have the successes I have experienced in my first year as a freelance writer…
Relm Publishing LLC / relmpublishing.com / Cathy Turner /
Southern Communities Magazine / developmentsandcommunities.com /
Southern Mountain Planned Communities – THIRD COMPLAINT!
After Frank was finally triaged (He sat in the waiting room, bleeding, for about 40 minutes, until people started complaining. They even triaged a little girl who was laughing and skipping around her mother in the the E.R. before they looked at Frank!), we saw a doctor. They didn’t order x-rays or anything else. The doctor looked at him, felt the wound, and said, “I’m going to glue you right up.”
I thought he was kidding…
Many novice writers think that being published, having an idea and your name in print, is the “biggy”. It is the ultimate sign of success, the breaking of the cherry, so to speak. Time and again the old-timers warn that seeing your name in print is NOT a good reason to want to write a book- or anything else for that matter. Heck, if that is the be-all end-all, then go stand in the park with a shot gun and start shooting pigeons. Believe me, in no time at all you WILL be asked to write to your heart’s content and sign it, and I have a pretty good feeling your little story will end up in print all over the papers, perhaps even nationwide! Fame is easy, rites of passage, not so much.
Think about it. Does a woman’s first pregnancy mean she is no longer a virgin? Does the birth of her first child indicate the first sexual encounter? Not on your life! At least, not too often these days…