Letters and Comments

Letters To The Editor For June 13th

Published on June 13, 2007

  • We're Raising Our Freelance Rates!
  • Dog Germs and Lessons Learned
  • Trying to Set an Example!
  • From the 1st Place Winner of the Spring 24-Hour Short Story Contest
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Literary Pubs Usually Equal Crappy Pay

Published on June 6, 2007

Angela, Loved your comment to the reader complaining about literary publications saying they cannot afford to pay since they don't carry ads. These publications get my goat. Even as nonprofits, they are required to operate in the black. They are required to have a budget, and they function as a business with all the expenses and issues of the for-profit publication down the street. The for-profit would go under if it could not pay the bills. Why not the journals? …

Letters To The Editor For May 30th

Published on May 30, 2007

This week:

  • Authors Who Avoid Traditional Publishers
  • Signing Back-Dated Non-Compete?!
  • Do You Owe Writers Money? by "In-Debt Chet"
  • From the Spring '07 24-Hour Short Story Contest 1st Place Winner
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Thanks!

Published on May 16, 2007

Thanks, Angela. Your check arrived today! You're one of the best for paying promptly! Dawn …

Letters To The Editor For May 9th

Published on May 9, 2007

Do *Not* Edit A Chapter As a "Test!" Dear Angela, Last year, I contacted a writer about a job listing editing a book. I included a copy of my writing resume, testimonials, contacts, rate sheet, and a list of links to articles and sites I had written and/or edited. The writer replied promptly with a request that, as a test, she was having all applicants edit a chapter. I had just read something in WritersWeekly about that very subject a week or two before and responded to the writer that I was a professional and the information I sent should be sufficient to determine whether or not she wished to work with me. I didn't hear anything for a few days, but evidently she heard quite a lot. Her next email mentioned that, because so many of the people who responded balked at editing a chapter as a test, she was going to make her decision based on a test paragraph. Looks like I wasn't the only person reading WritersWeekly at the time who caught onto this scheme. Thanks for alerting us to the scams. As always... J M …

Letters To The Editor For April 25th

Published on April 25, 2007

This week:

  • Selling Books at Book Fairs?
  • Angela's Memory Triggers/Autobiography Class
  • Don't Buy Window Vista! You will be sorry!!
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Letters To The Editor For April 18th

Published on April 18, 2007

This week:

  • WritersWeekly Saves Reader $3K
  • World's Worst Book Proposals
  • Selling Stock Photos
  • Kudos!
  • Angela's Paranoia - Children Who Are Choking
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Letters To The Editor For March 14th

Published on March 14, 2007

  • Add a "Publish-By-Or-Pay" Clause to Your "Pays On Publication" Contracts
  • Promote Your OWN Website, Not Your Publisher's
  • Giving Writers Leverage
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Newspaper Contracts

Published on February 28, 2007

Hi Angela, Just got done reading the letters to the editor. Linda Odum sent in a letter with the information, "Most newspapers do not have contracts and the writer is free to send an article to as many places as she wishes." I would caution other writers to check with these newspapers before making such an assumption. My local paper is for a small town, would not be considered national or even to have a big region like Chicago or other cities. And this small local paper has an all rights contract for writers - the infamous 'work for hire' type of contract. Other writer friends have mentioned other small town papers that do this as well. The reason I was given (not sure if this is the true reason or not) is this allows the wire services like AP, etc. to pick up these articles. I realize this may not be true for all locations. In my case, my small town is home to the Mayo Clinic as well as an IBM campus. Any locally reported news could be of interest nationally. However, a writer who does receive a contract will receive it at the beginning and not the end of the assignment. You will find out when you pitch to your local newspaper (or small newspapers in other locations) what their policy is. Linda offered some good advice, but small local papers are not as easy to use for resale as it would appear. At least, not in my area. Thanks for the great resource! Anna …

Letters To The Editor For February 21st

Published on February 21, 2007

  • EIN vs. Social Security Number
  • Whose Fault is It That I Didn't Get Paid?
  • Simple Formula for Determining Writing Fees
  • Balancing a Large Family while Working at Home
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Letters To The Editor For February 14th

Published on February 14, 2007

  • Social Security Number vs. Employer Identification Number (EIN)
  • Simple Formula for determining writing fees anywhere in the country
  • Traditional Publishing vs. Self-Publishing
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Letters To The Editor For January 31st

Published on January 31, 2007

This Week:

  • The WritersWeekly Quarterly 24-Hour Short Story Contest
  • Check Your Country's Bad Check Laws!
  • WritersWeekly Readers Care!
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This Week:

Published on January 24, 2007

  • Learn To Lie
  • Should Haute Living Magazine Pay This Writer?
  • This Collection Technique Worked
  • Former Bank Employee Offers More Advice About Bad Checks
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Possible Scam Targeting Authors

Published on December 20, 2006

Hi Angela, I received a similar scam email targeted at my fine arts business. It took about three rounds of emails to discover that the person writing me ordering 5 paintings for her parents' anniversary was trying to pull a scam. It also had the "my shipper will pick up" line. They said they were in England but they definitely had details about my art and my website that sounded credible...for the first few emails. What they are doing is a more personalized version of the "Nigerian Banker Email Scam". They expected to give me a check that included their purchase from me plus an amount that they needed to pay their shipper. They then suggested I deposit their check and pay out their shipper with the excess cash they would pay me. Obviously, had I been naive enough to do this, their check would have bounced and they would have succeeded in scamming "the shipping costs" from me. It's the penny ante game from the streets of NYC taken to cyberspace. And while I agree one should never give out home information to a stranger, this scam is about money. I was tempted to arrange the drop- off and pick-up and have a police officer waiting at my door! Alas, when I suggested that they pay via credit card instead, the "client" who wanted to buy five small paintings from me disappeared and never contacted me again by email. Best wishes for a happy new year! Katy …

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