It all started in October, when I answered an ad for a freelance writer. I was to write articles and blog entries. The pay was alright, $75 for articles and $50 for blogs. The editor had me working daily; I was thrilled. She was full of praise over my pitches and articles, and made comments such as, “Work your magic.”
I was raised in a middle-class, university-educated, secular Scottish home, while a friend of mine grew up in a sprawling and deeply religious Texas family. I’m always fascinated to hear about her marriage, her experiences at Bible camp, and her rebellious and reactionary adolescence. I realized that she was equally interested in my life with my girlfriend, and dealing with my father’s mental health issues. She thought that her life was normal and slightly dull, just as I thought the same about mine; yet to one another, our lives were completely different and completely fascinating.
On Monday and Tuesday, we worked frantically on business stuff and Max got ahead in his school work. We wanted to get caught up so we could take some time off when our oldest son, Zach, arrives this week. However, a large Nor
One of the biggest mistakes new authors make is believing that blindly mailing copies of their book (or, worse, emailing copies of their ebook) will result in sure-fire coverage by book reviewers and journalists. They waste this valuable opportunity by making several common mistakes.
This week:
Traditional publishing versus self-publishing is a big issue. I have experience with both. My first book was taken up by a mainstream publisher in 1983 and was swiftly followed by others. Within ten years I was “head-hunted” by Hodder and was commissioned to write several books. One of these, The Last Mountain, became a Sunday Times No. 4 bestseller.
Success in life is often about timing. Being in the right place at the right time, or filling a precise need, can shift your life where you least expect.
Sometimes, I receive emails that just don’t make any sense to me. For example, occasionally people write to me under false names, sending false allegations about one company or another, or feeding me a completely false news story. Of course, I investigate these before I publish them and it’s not too hard to figure out if somebody has fed me outright lies about one outfit or another. Perhaps it wouldn’t be such a stretch to think some people have tried to get me to publish lies just so they can smear my name later for doing so. Let’s face it, after a decade of WritersWeekly Whispers and Warnings, I now have more enemies than I can count…or even remember.
Then there are the emails from people claiming to be long-time readers, who insult me for just plain doing my job – protecting them from industry scum. This week, I’ll share one of those with you (edited and consolidated – we exchanged a couple of emails). After receiving this email, I felt like I’d been hit over the head with a purse after trying to help a little old lady cross the street.
This Week:
In October 2002, Jim Wier, CEO of the Snapper lawn mower company, paid a visit to Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. Wal-Mart had been selling Snapper lawn mowers for three years, so Wier’s reason for making the trek to Big Box Mecca wasn’t to put on the usual dog-and-pony show that so many manufacturers reduce themselves to in an attempt to get the world’s largest retailer to carry their products. His purpose was the exact opposite: Although his contract with Wal-Mart was worth tens of millions of dollars, he wanted to tell a Wal-Mart vice-president in person that Snapper would no longer sell its product through Wal-Mart.
