Excerpted from How To Land High-Paying Writing Assignments: Insider Secrets to Getting Published – Over and Over Again Imagine that you are an invisible observer at a planning meeting for a national publication. The editors, associates, and assistants are sitting around an oak conference table in comfortable chairs. The room is brightly lit and someone […]
Hello! We are ThreeOlBags. Travel bags, actually. Our travel-writing group is made up of three creative, fifty-ish women who love the Lord, enjoy each other’s friendship immensely, and like to have fun.
After I received my copies of Dak’s Sisters from my publisher, Booklocker.com, I approached Schuler’s bookstore in Grand Rapids, Michigan to see about getting some books on their shelves. Booklocker.com did a great job getting the book printed and their cover lady, Cathi Stevenson, designed a remarkable cover for me. Seeing the book in print, Schuler’s readily agreed and took ten copies on consignment. Those sold rather quickly, so they took another 10, and then set up a book signing for me for a Saturday.
The Author of the First-Ever Book for Wives of Widowers (Or WOWs) Discusses the Three Laws of Personal Branding Branding is a word you hear a lot about these days. Brand names like Coca-Cola, Nike, and Home Depot are instantly recognizable. While the “generic” fad was big several years ago – remember all those black […]
My father always used to tell me that I could talk my way through anything so well that I should be an attorney. I agreed with him that my ability to craft an argument was well-tuned, but I didn’t want to spend my life defending the bad guys or evil corporations that could afford to pay the exorbitant fees that I envisioned charging. Instead, I sought to follow my heart using my “B.S. Skills,” as my father referred to them, to my best advantage on the written page. It has been a long, winding road with some steep hills along the way, but today I am writer and a happy one.
sweat equity, n.1: Work, especially manual labor, performed in return for a share in ownership, as of a home. (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.) If an author offers you a percentage of his or her future book’s profits as payment for your sweat equity up front, beware. I’ve learned […]
It was my first official day as a full time freelance. I was still asleep when the phone rang. (Yes, I slept in my first day on the job — tsk, tsk). It was my editor from a well-known entertainment trade paper.
Nine years ago I sat in my dermatologist’s waiting room mentally shuffling the remaining working hours left in my day. I felt unproductive, stalled… and itchy. I’ve gone to the same dermatologist for years; catching up is always the first order of my visits-zits and skin irritations must wait patiently. That day, as we chatted, […]
I built my freelance career on those three words. “You never know,” I’d say to myself as I followed up on a job opportunity, hoping it would lead to paying work that I could add to the other paying work I was doing. Eventually, I hoped, that pile of paying work would allow me to become a full-time writer and toss my day job.
As embarrassing as it is to admit, my first paid newsletter assignment was for a dormitory at the University of Massachusetts. The Stall Street Journal was proudly posted on the inside of every bathroom stall in the building. Despite it being read while dorm residents were busy doing other things, or that my writers received story assignments as punishment by the residence director, I loved the job.
