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In 2021, I had the idea for a book in which I’d celebrate a different fake holiday every day for a year. (You know, Talk Like A Pirate Day, National Cabbage Day, Bubblewrap Appreciation Day and all the rest.) My publisher of the time loved the idea and commissioned the book – to be called Awareness Daze – paying 50% of a small advance up front. I did the work, spending a grueling but fascinating year doing silly things and finding out about all sorts of worthy causes. My first draft came in at 210k words which, unsurprisingly, my publisher wanted to cut in half. That took me several more months. But it was all good: the book was scheduled for publication, we had a marketing plan and a great cover design, and I even sold an article to a national paper about my silly challenge. Then, about three weeks before going to press, my publisher went into liquidation. End of book, no more advance. All the interest generated by the article fizzled away. After a few days of stewing, I tried to salvage something from the debacle. I approached various other publishers but no joy. But then, out of More

A lot of writers are losing their minds about the article in The Atlantic about a pirate site illegally taking copies of titles, posting them, and letting Meta use them to train their AI program. The Authors Guild has already joined with publishers and the federal government in pursuing this. (See AG article here.) (quote from AG article) Legal action is already underway against Meta, OpenAI, Microsoft, Anthropic, and other AI companies for using pirated books. If your book was used by Meta, you’re automatically included in the Kadrey v. Meta class action in Northern California without needing to take any immediate action. The court is first deciding whether Meta broke copyright laws, with a decision expected this summer, before officially certifying everyone as a class. If your books have been pirated and used (you can tell on The Atlantic article where they have designed a place to search for your titles), you are already included in the lawsuit. I am reading all sorts of comments by authors. Someone ought to do something. (Somebody already has. Read above again.) This is the government’s fault because it has been dismantled by Trump. (Um, big no. This predates Trump and has nothing to do with politics.) Who More

I heard this line at a writers group, no less. This line is turning into a common remark that I hear each and every time I appear somewhere. I’ve heard it from people you’d never imagine, too. Teachers, librarians, parents who wonder why their children don’t read, and, yes, other writers. Who has time to read? The remark stuns me each and every time. You make time to read. Like you make time for anything else important. If your job involves books, reading, or learning, why are you holding yourself back? Why are you refusing to better yourself? Why set the bad example? Why don’t you want to read? Not to read tells yourself and those around you (ahem, parents and teachers) that it isn’t important. You are setting the example that books are what you do when you don’t have time for anything else. My grandson asked me just yesterday why I was reading a different book that day. We were on our way to Ju Jitsu and I read in the lulls between lessons. I told him that I finished the last one. He asked how many books I read, and I said I try for one book every week More

Because of job cuts, I’ve recently returned to the freelance hustle in my mid-50s – and I’ve encountered lots of negativity and defeatism. My fellow 50-somethings are lacking confidence, can’t cope with new tools and software, think editors only want young talent, that AI is making them redundant… I felt all this, too, at first. But after a few weeks of putting myself out there, the work has started to come in. Persistence paid off, and even some patchy networking with old connections made a difference. And it occurred to me that older people have quite a few advantages in this game: •    More contacts to draw from.  Having worked as a writer my entire career, I realised that I have amassed lots of contacts and different networks to tap. One potential new client is someone I worked with about 10 years ago, whom I messaged out of the blue via LinkedIn. Another is the client of the brother-in-law of a former coworker whom I first hired at an agency 16 years ago! •    An awareness of the cyclical nature of content  The longer you’re in the game, the more you see that ideas come round again. They can be re-purposed or More

I remember writing my first letter to author François Bloemhof in 2000. As a young author, I was delighted when he actually answered—and the feeling has never quite worn off when writing to other authors. Writing to another author grows your connections and knowledge whether thanking them, admiring them, or just exchanging like-minded ideas. Here’s why you should be regularly communicating to other writers. Ask for Unique Writing Advice Writing to authors you enjoy or admire could be the best way to answer your own, burning writing questions. I contacted award-winning author Jeffery Deaver (The Bone Collector, The Blue Nowhere) in 2016 asking for some writing advice. I was so impressed that I used his answer in a piece later published in ReFiction. Best-selling author Deon Meyer revealed to me how he created fictional detective Benny Griessel for this article. If there’s something you want to know from a fellow writer or author, visit their website (or publisher), find the email address, and ask. Regardless how famous, they just might respond. On Paper Praise & Reviews François Bloemhof was the first author I asked to review my short story “Bully.” I’ve always been proud of having an award-winning author’s thoughts on my first fiction publication: “I like this story More

I am a big fan of Colleen Welsch at The Freelance Writer’s Guide. She has a big personality, but she is down to earth as well and so darn full of common sense. If I were returning to fulltime freelance writing, she’d be the person I’d go to in order to get back on track. Thanks to a recent post of hers and lots of recent experience I’ve had from writers pitching FundsforWriters, I decided we needed a crash course in how to set up a freelance writer portfolio. You would be amazed at the number of pitches I receive from people who have no website, no professional social media, and no online writing portfolio. They TELL me they are writers. They TELL me they’ve published elsewhere. They TELL me they’ve been freelancing for 5, 8, 10 years. However, without a hardcore search, I cannot find proof of same. I don’t have time for that. So guess what I do? I reject them. I do not have time to research a writer and find proof they are who they are, especially in these days of AI. Our features ask that the writer talk about writing success, and to write about the topic, they More

We are not defined by our rejections….or rather we shouldn’t be. Nobody knows about them . . . or should. We ought to be defined by our efforts and success. Don’t talk too much about rejection, or about trying hard and not getting anywhere. Yet many people want to talk about how hard they’ve tried, how the process isn’t fair (like anything is supposed to be fair). how many rejections they’ve achieved, or how many years they’ve invested into a manuscript that doesn’t seem to go anywhere. Nobody wants to hear any of that. Except maybe others who want to fuss about not making it. Is that the energy you want to surround yourself with? When you live in a world where you define yourself by rejection, wasted hours invested, and an inability to make it, you become that person. You don’t live for success. You wait for failure to happen, to appear around every corner. Decide which you want, success or failure, positive or negative, and live it, strive for it, aspire to it. But to make excuses, to fuss about the unfairness of it all, to criticize Amazon and all the booksellers out there, to claim agents only More

Stories about my daily life never seemed like writing that could sell. Who cared who I was or what I had done. But an editor of a publication pointed out that international readers would find my everyday cultural experiences interesting and fresh. I wrote the first feature about daily life in rural Southern Africa—and surprisingly, readers wanted to know more. What I’d thought “regular” experiences were, proved not to be so regular to others. Daily life can be someone else’s unique read. Your Regular Stories Are Unique Living in a rural South African township differs from suburban living: further to stores, minibus taxis, informal traders (or spaza shops), water shortages, and isiZulu—a language I don’t speak much of. However, an editor pointed out that people have little context for pit toilets, water shortages, and amagwinya (deep-fried dough). My daily experiences were indeed unique. So I wrote 365 Days in Inanda, telling readers what living in a rural area away from suburbia was like. Local police wouldn’t drive into Inanda citing bad visibility in lieu of real reasons. Insiders’ views of this area were rare. I had a story to tell, it seemed. Using Daily Experiences As Writing Material Anything you’ve experienced, whether bowling More

I am often asked how should someone start writing. They tell me they’ve always wanted to write. They think about a novel. They would love to write for a living. How did I start? When did I decide I liked writing? Many of these are people looking for Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, then VOILA….arrived. They are writers.   I do not remember when I started writing. I just always have. When I wanted to, I did. Did I start writing because I wanted money? Nope. I wrote because I found writing powerful. I submitted knowing that when I did, I was making a permanent impression. I could open doors or burn bridges based upon how much effort I put into the words. Writing tells the world a lot of things about you, like: How intelligent you are How creative you are How motivated you are How professional you are Writing, honestly, speaks loudly for you without you ever meeting people or saying a word. It’s why you don’t publish, post, or submit without having done a lot of writing, a lot of editing, a lot of thinking about the purpose of the writing, and a lot of study More

I was recently made redundant from my day job so am now, at the age of 56, back out there having to hustle for freelance work. I naturally began to reach out to my so-called network. But I quickly realised that I haven’t been great at nurturing contacts and keeping in touch with people over the years. It’s a bit like my performance on social media. As writers we’re constantly told we need to self-promote, but I always feel uncomfortable and a bit imposter-ish putting myself out there. And as I’ve had two books to promote recently, I’ve been forcing myself to be especially annoying. When networking or posting, I think things like: Surely people are sick of me by now? Is anyone even looking at these posts? I feel like I’m constantly begging it, as my teen daughters would say. I looked up former clients and business contacts, people I once hired or were hired by. But so many of these relationships were so dormant it felt nakedly desperate. There is no easy way to message someone out of the blue after five years and lay claim to a fond friendship that has mysteriously lain dormant until the moment More