Letters To The Editor For April 28th
Letters will return next week.
How to Determine if a Ghosting Project is Right for You By Ami Hendrickson
Much of the work that keeps me busy as a full-time writer comes from ghostwriting and co-authoring. Being willing to ghost is what helped me make the jump from article writing to book authoring.
Whenever I am faced with a potential project that will involve putting my words to work for someone else, I take the time to analyze it from several different vantage points. I essentially apply the following filter of “Six P’s” to the project. These filters have served me well. If you are considering ghosting work, I suggest that you first answer the following questions…
I Have a Trademark! How Can That Church Use My Property?!
I have a (specific term from my book title) trademarked and the word will be part of my forthcoming book’s title. I recently noticed a church using my trademarked term on a project they’re promoting.
How do I delicately handle this? Do I gently ask them to stop? It’s a church doing really good things but not in the way that I’ve used my book. The name has been officially trademarked and I really want them to stop using it.
DAYS 55-57: “Kids! Mommy and Daddy are Scared!”
We left Liberty Harbor RV Park on a sunny, beautiful afternoon, intent on arriving in Connecticut before dark. When we’d arrived at Liberty Harbor, we’d simply gotten off the freeway, gone under the overpass, turned left, and driven a mile or two. When we departed, the GPS led us a completely different way, seemingly into a nearby neighborhood. Before we turned right, onto a residential street, Richard noticed there were two fire trucks blocking traffic. If we’d turned, we’d have been stuck there for hours.
We kept going straight and ended up in a grocery store parking lot. That was easy enough to get out of and we waited a moment for the GPS to give us an alternative route. We ended up in that neighbor again, albeit on a different street, a very narrow passage with endless cars lining both sides. I remember passing the freeway at one point, going right under it, and wondering why the GPS was sending us a different way. It was a Saturday and there were lots of people outside enjoying the weather. There were also lots of junk cars, tattoo parlors, liquor stores, and other unsavory things that made us start to feel a bit nervous. At one point, men got out of two cars right in front of us, blocking traffic. They each went to houses on different sides of the street. We had no choice but to stop and wait. I heard a woman yell outside, “Leon, move your (BLEEP!) car!”
Read more HERE.
This week’s Maxism:
“When I jump up and down, I can hear lemonade in my stomach!”
Hugs to all!
Angela
P.S. DON’T FORGET! THE SPRING 2010 24-HOUR SHORT STORY CONTEST IS THIS SATURDAY! Each contest is limited to 500 entrants so don’t delay if you want to participate.
1st Place: $300
2nd Place: $250
3rd Place: $200
Entry fee is $5. You can see the complete list of 85 prizes and sign up here: https://www.writersweekly.com/misc/contest.html
How to Collect a Court Judgment
So, you sued that deadbeat publisher in small claims court and you won. Congratulations! After the satisfaction of winning settles in, you start to wonder when he’s finally going to pay you. You do some research and discover there’s still really no way to force him to send you a check.
Letters To The Editor For April 21st
This week:
- MORE SO-CALLED “WRITERS” COMMITTING COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT
- THAT LYING STRANGER!
Op-Ed: ACCURACY AND TRUTHFULNESS ON THE INTERNET By Laura McBride
The Writer’s Weekly article about copyright infringement put me in mind of a few times it has been done to me, and, as well, the problems created by non-journalists using the Internet without benefit of instruction.
I Found My Copyrighted Material on Gather.com, Too!
I found a story of mine on Gather.com – copyright infringement. I am so glad you published your article.
I saw the response you received, which of, course, sounded like a run-around. I would like to be paid for my story on their site. I love your idea of invoicing. What shall I charge for a 600-word humor column? That’s what was filched.
Try Something New…Like Speechwriting By Laura Yeager
In order for someone to be successful, she often has to try something completely new. I became a successful paid speechwriter just by “going out on a limb” and attempting something novel and different.
DAYS 52-55: “Mommy! I’m Scared!”
After lunch on Friday, we took a cab to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Max had been waiting for this homeschooling field trip for weeks! We looked at the medieval outfits first…chain mail, suits of armor, things like that. Max had recently studied medieval times and was really enjoying seeing real armor and other protective clothing that people wore back then. He also thought the real swords and other weapons, laden with gems and intricate etchings, were pretty cool. He was having a great time! Mason, on the other hand, was bored out of his mind. He likes museums but he wanted to see some trains…and he kept asking about trains, over and over again. I figured out a way to placate him. I told him, “They have lots of paintings here, Mason. Let’s hunt for a train painting!”
That seemed to work. Now, admittedly, I figured we would NOT find a train painting there, but hunting for one would keep Mason busy until we got to the gift shop, at which time he would most certainly forget all about trains. But, we didn’t plan on stopping by the gift shop until the end of our visit.
As we were leaving the medieval display, and moving to another, Mason was once again saying, “Where’s the train painting? I wanna find the train painting.”
I gently reminded him, “Keep looking, honey.”
At that moment, a nosy man with a kid in tow leaned down to Mason, sticking his nose into OUR business, and said, “I’m sorry to disappoint you, young man, but there are no paintings of trains in this museum.”
You should have seen Mason’s face. It was like the man told him there was no such thing as fairies. Mason went from frown to public meltdown. I wanted to have a meltdown, too. I mean, the guy had a kid. He must have known I was trying to divert Mason’s attention for a few hours. I wanted to throttle that man!!!
Read more HERE.
I have another Masonism for you this week.
Mason (age 3) announced this week, “I need to make a train cake tomorrow.” He then paused, looking upward and drumming his fingers on his lips, and added, “And then I need to put it in the fridge.”
Hugs to all!
Angela