About once a week (sometimes more), we hear complaints from authors about misinformation and downright lies they’ve been told by bookstore clerks and managers. Just today, I received this one from a Print on Demand (POD) author…
I don’t know what I would do without your experience and advice. I have recently lost my job and am working very hard to get my writing to pay my monthly expenses. Not an easy journey.
-M
PUBLISHER’S RESPONSE:
M.,
There are lots of paying markets for writers here:
https://www.writersweekly.com/markets_and_jobs/summary.html
I’m also giving you a free, one-year subscription to The Write Markets Report.
Good luck! 🙂
-Angela
Have you ever equated your writing projects to a line of pots on a simmering stove? The more you looked at this stove, the more you realized that the one good meal you envisioned to spring from those pots has not happened. Sure, you may have a satisfying dish, but there are so many others left unattended, burning, because you simply have too much going on.
I work with a not-for-profit company, writing materials for them such as volunteer handbooks, procedures and policies. I am a contractor, and I submit monthly invoices to them. I did not have a contract until now, and now they are asking me to sign something which includes the lines:
“All Copyright in all works, (including those works originating prior to the signing of this contract) procedure, policy, training materials, discovery, invention or process made, designed, drafted or discovered by you whilst engaged by the Organization will be the property of the Company…”
I’m not okay with this at all and I’ve mentioned to the CEO before that these documents are my intellectual property. It wasn’t work for hire. They were paying for my time in constructing these materials. Do I have a right to the materials I have already written? I want to keep working with the organization but I feel they’re making a huge assumption here. I have also written an extensive groundbreaking document for the organization that I wish to draw on in future works. I’d appreciate any advice you can give, I’m so confused.
“Why should I work with you?” is a typical question most people will ask when stumbling over one’s products and services for the first time. What people really want to see when they are thinking “are you a good fit for me?” is if your “story”, and why you do the work that you feel you’ve been called to do, really fits into their “why.”
After Mason (age 6) asked me two days in a row where babies come from, I could no longer avoid the inevitable. I pulled up a lovely (ahem) graphic of a uterus on the Internet, and explained in very basic terms about how the baby grows in there.
But, that wasn’t good enough for Mason. Tapping the pink uterus cartoon on my computer screen, he said, ” But how does the baby get IN THERE?!”
Awhile back, I found some of our original paying market listings for writers featured on the The Markham Village Writers’ Group website, markhamvillagewriters.com. Below are copies of my exchange with the founder and moderator of The Markham Village Writers’ Group website, Donna Marrin. I have paraphrased the responses by Donna Marrin below. Needless to say, we were pretty shocked that someone running a website for writers thought it was okay to pluck original content from other websites!
I am looking for a writer. Can you help?
-Ricardo
ANGELA RESPONDS:
Please send your ad to me at angela -at- writersweekly.com. The ad must state the amount you plan to pay the writer.
Past clients usually make the best future clients. They’re already impressed with your work ethic, they know why you charge what you do and they love your style. You don’t have to dazzle them with flashy advertisements to reel them in, and you don’t have to walk on eggshells when you deal with them because you’re already familiar with the way they do business.
My brother in law has a traditional publishing house, small to be sure. He has ceased dealing with Ingram not only because of the discounts they demand, but also because of the mountains of returns he gets months later of books with torn covers, etc.
What is your experience?
