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Someone recently emailed me, upset that a book contest charged a $70 entry fee. The first prize was a strong four figures, and I knew the credibility of the sponsor. Therefore, I had no problem posting the contest. The complainer called the contest predatory and told me not to respond to their complaint. Apparently they just wanted to vent to me, but I could not let this generalization go. Of course, I replied. Generalizations like this hurt the industry, I said, and went on to state the following. As I teach at conferences and to anyone who will listen, contests that do not charge entry fees are more likely to: not pay out, pay less, attract less quality writing, and be less reliable. Unless there is a deep-pocket sponsor, someone has to come up with the prize money, cost of advertising, and payment to the finalist judges. Having judged many contests, sometimes being paid and sometimes not, I know what it takes to judge a contest that allows book-length submissions. A judge can receive 100+ books in the mail/email to judge in six weeks, and there are often multiple judges. If anyone says there is one judge, that judge is More

When I started freelancing, I was a pure writing whore. I’d write anything for anyone for almost any price. It’s what most writers do. Their brain says get paid to write with little thought given to branding the career. Defining your specialty, choosing your niche(s), at first blush feels like setting limitations on potential work. What if there isn’t enough work in the niche(s) you like? What if you don’t feel like enough of an expert in the niche(s)? What if you go all out in one niche only to learn there’s more work in another? When you start a business, you have to define yourself. My son opened a strength training gym. I joined. I love it. The members, however, are slow coming in. But those coming in are sticking around. Why? Because they like the focus. They like that someone catered to what they love . . . functional strength training. They found their niche. He provided a niche. The union is usually longer-lasting in these situations. Your goal is to land consistent paying work, repetitive customers, and establish a name for yourself. That’s harder to do when you do everything. Those needing freelance writers prefer to connect with writers More

Storyteller and mythologist Martin Shaw is as much a philosopher as anyone I’ve read. He’s Irish and steeped in that history of storytelling, which if you’ve read such stories, know they are quite rich in lesson. In a recent post of his in Emergence Magazine, he spoke of embracing mystery, which could be interpreted in embracing uncertainty as well. It also spoke of embracing who we are, in all its uncomfortable uncertainty.  So studying mystery turned into a study of ourselves. “Accept the challenge of uncertainty. As a matter of personal style. It’s the right thing to do. We get older, we find life is riven with weirdness. We should be weird too.” Like water seeks its level, most of the world seeks a level life. As you can read in abundance on social media, most folks fight change, seek blame, and strike out at life not being the “normal” they wish. The real goal should be embracing who we are and what we wish to become, not make others fit our mold. “Stay honest to the shape you came here to embody. Refuse to be a hologram or engage in acts of ventriloquism.” Writers, especially, seek originality. But all too often More

I freelance off and on as my schedule permits or my bank account demands. I usually use https://www.freelancer.com (lowest membership level), and https://www.upwork.com (free version) for budgetary reasons. Ghostwriting fiction has taken the lead as my favorite type of work. It has a lot of perks but there are things you should know if you want to make it your career. Landing my first job was not as easy as I thought it would be. I was new to the game. There are plenty of veteran ghostwriters bidding on the same jobs out there. Not having a successful work history on a particular platform meant I needed to put a lot more effort into convincing someone to hire me. This proved true no matter how much ghostwriting work I had under my belt elsewhere. My freelancing portfolio consists of everything from content writing to children’s book illustration, book layout, and creating marketing materials. Adding ghostwriting fiction to the list was another skill that I had to prove. Since most ghostwriting is done under an NDA (non-disclosure agreement), this meant that I needed to use samples of the writing I’ve done under my name or pen name. I don’t typically write More

When submitting your writing to a magazine or publisher, expect to include a short biography along with your pitch or query. While it should not matter as much as the quality of your writing, you want to make sure that your “bio” does not turn them off from the start. Even if you sometimes suffer from impostor syndrome, your bio is where you have unfettered license to brag about yourself and your accomplishments. This does not mean, however, that you should list every publication you’ve ever been in or award you’ve been nominated for – even if you’re very proud of that essay contest you won in fourth grade. Such bios make you come across as unprofessional or insecure. First, there are two golden rules: always stick to the word count, and always use third person. If you write in different genres, you’ll want to have bios for each genre. For instance, if you are a poet and a travel writer, you will want to have separate bios, each dependent upon the type of publication you are pitching to. Why have multiple bios? Let’s say you are reaching out to a top market like Conde Nast Traveler to pitch an More

Regardless how famous an artist is, they started as an unknown. It took writing several REALLY GOOD if not GREAT stories to gain traction. Then and only then did the public want to know who the author is. The public wants the picture and the story first and foremost. Only if they are attracted to it do they maybe want to know about the artist. Artists often grow so wrapped up in their work that they forget it isn’t about them. It isn’t about their struggle in traditional versus self-publishing. It isn’t about the research or how long it took to write the story. It isn’t about the hours put in or the doors slammed in their face. It’s about the subsequent final creation, and people liking that creation. That’s the ultimate priority. Writers, especially new ones, need to stop shouting ME, ME, ME. AVOID: I’m an author who wrote this story. INSTEAD: (Insert title) about (insert one liner) is available at (fill in the blank). AVOID: My book is on sale. INSTEAD: (Insert title) about (insert one liner) is available at (fill in the blank). AVOID: I’m tired of people not appreciating how hard it took to write this More

There are reasons you make presentations as an author, and they widely vary. This year, my appearances took place for the following purposes: 1) To discuss a particular book after the audience has read it., usually the newest release Edisto Heat, 2) To talk about how I became an author . . . my writer’s journey, so to speak. The audience is usually readers more than writers. 3) To talk about the details of writing a book/serious/genre. The audience consists of writers more than readers. 4) To talk anecdotes of being a writer. 5) To talk some aspect of FundsforWriters (grants, contests, crowdfunding, etc.) Note that the purpose “To sell books,” didn’t make the list. When I see an author signing or presenting, I can usually tell within two to three minutes that they are selling, not presenting. There’s something glaringly crass about letting an audience know you are there to sell books. No, instead, you are there to impress the audience. You are there to educate the audience. You are there FOR the audience, not for yourself. You let the moderator, book club president, librarian, or introducer, even the audience themselves, say or ask if books are for sale. The words More

Flourishing as a film and television writer today is as challenging as ever, especially in an age when online screenwriting “masterclasses,” open-source software, and direct-to-buyer email queries have broadened industry access to millions. As such, producers and agents need to be more discerning than ever when wading through material. How do they separate the pros from the amateurs? One way is to determine whether the writer is a member of the WGA. What exactly is the WGA and who can join? The WGA, or Writers Guild of America, represents writers in film, TV and radio, with branches in Los Angeles (WGAw) and New York (WGAe). Some mistakenly refer to it as a “union,” although it’s not – it’s a guild – meaning that while they collectively bargain rates and standards with the studios, they do not help their members find work. They are open to anyone who sells or is hired to write a script by a WGA signatory company. They do not represent book authors, journalists or columnists. What are the requirements for membership? The WGA website outlines their system for gaining membership, but here’s the need-to-know in a nutshell. They work on a “unit system.” Every time you More

A recent letter from a fan friend prompted me to share how important memoir is. And this might give you an idea on how to start a project in your own community, paid or otherwise. Dear Hope, I totally concur with you that you never know just how much putting one’s thoughts on paper means. Your recent Editor’s Thought Column gave me pause to share some thoughts about memoir writing.  As a junior high English teacher for more than 25 years, I had my students put their thoughts in three pages of a blue book weekly.  Some students barely made three pages, but some wrote much more.  Years later I ran into some of my former students who told me they still had their journals.  That made me very gratified, and one said she was glad I had her write her feelings about 9/11 which she values as a first-hand account of this event 20 plus years later. After retiring, I continued to journal and wanted to share this experience. I began to teach a memoir workshop at our local library.  That has become successful monthly gathering of mostly retirees who have share wonderful encounters such as being invited to More

As little girl, I wrote stories. I wrote fiction, silly songs, and bad poetry. In the 1980s, at a friends’ birthday sleepover, when camcorders were all the rage, the mother of the birthday girl pointed the camera at me and asked my nine-year-old self what I wanted to be. “A writer,” I said. “Oh, you want to be a nerd,” she teased. Everyone in the video laughed. After a B.A. in English, a master’s in communication, and part of a PhD in Language and Literature that I left and didn’t finish, I found myself underemployed with a young child. To make ends meet I pieced together blog writing with adjunct teaching for community colleges. When I found a job as editor of a very small-town newspaper, I grabbed it. I didn’t know AP style, and I had never done newspaper reporting, but this was my chance to really write. I convinced the publisher I could do so by taking a trial run and giving him a sample 500-word story. That smalltown newspaper turned out to be one of the best career moves I ever made. There’s not a lot of hard news in tiny towns. I mostly tell stories — More