Niche never crossed my mind in the ICU waiting room. At the time, I could barely understand what had happened. Old people had strokes, not 49-year-old, otherwise healthy men, and certainly not my husband. Whatever had just happened, I told myself, it was a temporary thing. He would heal and we would go on with our lives.
Unfortunately, that’s not what happened…
In my 40-plus year career as an income tax preparer, all too often I would find that clients who were trying to earn money as self-employed, or as freelancers, but were not successful did not realize that they could deduct their expenses (losses) against their other income…
Writers are dealt a tough hand. We see little early correlation between effort, talent, and profit; we slave over details until our eyes water, just to expose ourselves to criticism. Small wonder that Googling “writers as masochists” returned more than 3 million results.
But, are you more of a masochist than necessary? Are you criticizing yourself more than the critics, demanding more of yourself than any editor would?
I’ve been freelancing for more than thirty years. I’ve replied with job applications to hundreds of ads for writers posted online. Over the last decade and a half, I’ve nailed freelance jobs with AOL, Arthur Andersen, Forbes Investopedia, and many more print and online publications.
Some of the editors at those publications told me that hundreds of qualified writers applied for those gigs. Why was I selected for the job rather than some other writer?
I was told they hired me because they liked my cover letter, clips and resume…
It’s a problem that plagues a lot of new freelancer writers and many are unsure about how to tackle it. Fortunately, there are ways to deal with an unresponsive editor.
Let’s face it: as a writer competing with millions of blogs, in a very crowded niche, the last thing you want to do is stand out in a bad way! And, many of us are too close to the problem to be truly objective…
Every author needs an audience, and there’s no reason why you can’t start building one right now in your own backyard. What follows are five easy steps to get you started…
A friend/colleague/stranger announces they have written something. A song, a story, an article for the school newspaper. And, not only have they accomplished this feat of scribtacular virtuosity, but…they want to know what you think of it.
Cue the dramatic horns of horror…
Reverse sticker shock hit me at the rise of freelance blogging. Were online publishers serious about offering just $10 – 20 per article?
What encompasses more than half the battle of getting a book published? Obtaining a reputable agent. Some would argue those are kind odds about the reality of the game. I’m here to impart that it is a game, of the shell variety, a three-way chess match in which the unaware writer is the pawn…
