Published on September 5, 2012
I have written four articles for a national women’s magazine, one every month or two. The magazine’s policy is that writers are paid 60ish days after publication. The first was paid late (in the meantime, I was working on the 4th) and, after much haranguing, they finally paid about a month late with excuses about how the financial department was held up due to this or that. Now we’re at over 90 days on the second… so I’m detecting a pattern. I never signed a contract (I know, I know…). My emails asking about payment for the second are going largely ignored (my contact keeps saying, “I’ll check on it for you!” and then never responds).
Published on September 5, 2012
I was 55 when I was first published by a magazine. MIDWEST LIVING had asked readers to write about their most unforgettable winter experience for an upcoming issue. At the time, I was trying to get started as a freelance writer. As I had had an unforgettable winter experience (during the Ohio blizzard of ’79, I’d saved a young boy’s life), I hastily put together an essay on what had happened, and sent it in. To my delight, they published it and paid me $50.
Encouraged by this small triumph, I sent another small essay I’d written about my dog to FIRST FOR WOMEN. They published it and paid me $300. Then, a long dry spell. All my submissions were steadily rejected. I began to question my ability as a writer. The first two accepts had been a fluke, I told myself; I was 55 for crying out loud, a bona fide senior citizen. I told myself I should be content just sitting out my remaining years in my rocking chair.
But those first two sells had lit a fire inside me so I continued sharpening my writing skills along with my pencils…
Published on August 29, 2012
Since our house is only a few feet above sea level, and since Isaac was forecast to give us a 5-7 foot storm surge, late last week we packed up our important stuff, moved a bunch of it to storage, put the most important things in the RV, and returned home to elevate some of our furniture. We also unplugged electronics, and moved some boxes up to counters. We canceled our reservations at a campground in Georgia, which was Evacuation Plan A (Georgia was supposed to get it worse than the Bradenton, Florida area) and made a reservation at a campground in Kissimmee, Florida (Evacuation Plan B), just outside of Orlando…
Published on August 29, 2012
Thank you Angela,
I’m sold.
A rep from Xlibris has been calling and bugging me every day! Now I have something to compare them to (BookLocker.com), and prove that they are not the best as they proclaim.
Thank you again…enjoy your day.
CC
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: BookLocker is adamantly anti-spam and anti-telemarketing. If you like us, fine. If you want to use someone else, that’s fine, too. We don’t stoop to begging authors for their business so you will never receive spam or a telemarketing call from BookLocker. We’ve never done business that way and we never will.
Published on August 29, 2012
While most towns nowadays have only one newspaper, they will generally have multiple radio stations. For a writer, this means multiple opportunities to write spots for radio salespeople who want effective ads for their clients.
Published on August 29, 2012
Remember me? I miss you. You are by far the best publisher I’ve met so far. You answer e-mails, you keep promises, and you pay royalties on time to your writers. My current publisher doesn’t do any of that, and that’s why I’m contacting you. I plan to enter a complaint into your Whispers and Warnings section, but I want to touch base with you before I do it, and explain.
(My other publisher) started off as a dynamic, responsive and very active publisher when she initially persuaded me to sign on. In September 2011 she did the royalty accounting and paid me a big check for the months up to and including May 2011, which covered the first month of my sales surge. I sold over 17,000 e-books on Kindle that May. In June, I sold over 19,500, over 10,000 in July and over 6,000 in August. I don’t have exact figures because she never sent me exact figures after May.
The problem is that she has not paid me royalties covering the period June 2011 to the present. And, she stopped sending me monthly sales figures around the same time. Also, she stopped answering my e-mails, except for very occasional one- or two-sentence responses that never mentioned royalties. It has now been 14 months without a royalty payment to me.
Her other writers I am in touch with have similar problems with her, all centering around a lack of communication, missed deadlines and royalty problems.
What else can I do?
Published on August 29, 2012
Little did I know ten years ago, when I decided to send my manuscript to BookLocker.com, that I would one day be standing at a podium with the Canadian Minister of Veterans Affairs accepting a prestigious award.
Published on August 22, 2012
We’re watching the forecast with a great deal of caution and a bit of worry. We already had Tropical Storm Debby so we think it’s somebody else’s turn to get a boatload of rain. 😉
Published on August 22, 2012
worst book proposals and query letters
Today, I’m going to share another installment of our popular column, World’s Worst Book Proposals. Yes, we can learn from others’ mistakes!
Published on August 22, 2012
Letters will return next week.
