I received an email this week from a writer I’ll call “Susan.”
She needed my advice about a “client” who owed her a few hundred dollars. He hired her last year to write an ebook for him. What mistakes did this writer make to contribute to the scammer’s success?
It sometimes looks as if writers are the most vulnerable set of talented workers in this world. If only employers knew what writers go through to complete their projects!
As freelancers, we all appreciate how valuable our time is. The less time we spend chasing work, the more time we can actually spend writing.
Like most freelancers, I peruse the Internet in search of projects on a regular basis. Over the years I’ve secured a variety of assignments for a number of different publications through this means…
It never ceases to amaze me how excited or infuriated authors get about their Amazon ranking…
I recently had a bizarre run-in with a copyright-infringing web site owner who went crazy when I found that they’d illegally published one of my articles. But their extreme response taught me a valuable lesson that I now want to share with you. It’s a lesson about making sure you keep your private information private – always.
There’s an entire industry of people online now who making a living out of subcontracting writing work out to other writers – often for far less than they’re being paid by their client. I have nothing against hiring ghostwriters, nor against ghostwriting. However, I do have a problem with someone taking a “job” for $500, and paying another writer $5 to do it.
We were recently notified by a travel writer that some of her work had been posted to a website without her permission. The site’s owner immediately responded to the writer and apologized, then she surprised us all by writing this:
“I would hope this wouldn’t be necessary but understand if you want to proceed and will respond through my attorney. I am actually shocked by your attitude. My material and articles have been published without my agreement all over the internet. I take that as a compliment and am willing to share my thoughts and experiences. I am actually very saddened by your email.”
I sent a magazine a story a couple years ago now, and after repeated follow-ups (I’m a pretty patient person still working toward my first print fiction clip), I got word this summer that they had accepted my story for publication in their next issue. The e-mail said that their publisher had been in a life-threatening accident and was recovering, but they thought the next issue would be out soon. That was in July. I sent them an e-mail again in November to request an update as to when that issue would be coming out, but I haven’t received a response yet. In the past, I always got a response within a couple days. I can’t find any info about them when I do a web search, but they are listed in the 2006 Novel and Short Story Writer’s Market.
I have written for a national publication and was told by the senior editor that the pay per article was $50. I received that amount for my first article for them. I have two more deadlines to write for this magazine –two articles that I pitched.
This magazine had a listing on another website and I contacted that person, who is the deputy editor, to inquire on what they were looking for and what they paid. She emailed me back saying they pay a flat rate of $350 for the same amount of words I am supposed to write for the next two articles.
The old bait ‘n switch book review scam!
