It’s difficult providing estimates and proposals for creative writing services. As writers, we often sound vague when walking the client through the scope of our writing work. It seems sketchy to tell them that we curate, create, collate, read, mull over, write, rewrite a million times, edit vigorously and then only reluctantly submit. While reality plays in the back of your mind, you find it a daunting task to quote the right price and obtain quick client approval. Invariably from the client side there are negotiations, promises for future work, repeat orders, and similar such. Hear them out and heed them but make your own decision. As an independent writer for the last six years, I have had countless good and bad incidents when it comes to ‘quoting well and getting paid.’ Here’s a three-pronged approach that helps you get more projects that pay, if not handsomely, at least decently. Cement the Work Scope Everything starts and ends here. In your initial client informational call ask probing questions to understand what exactly he or she means when they seek writing support. Is it editing, rewriting, creating, or just collating? You must nail this, because when a client says ‘improve this More
The Value of Your Time
/ 2022-02-13Work every day. No matter what has happened the day or night before, get up and bite on the nail. ~Ernest Hemingway For months, maybe years, you write on a project. Then you publish it. We won’t get into the pros and cons of self-publishing versus traditional, but let’s just say you have some say-so into how much your books are sold to the public. You price it down, in hopes of snaring eager readers for whom that matters. A few months go by, and you get impatient at your book sales and decide you need to offer something for free. After all, so many blogs out there talk about the catalyst of a bait sale, where you entice someone for free so that they’ll buy your other work. Since you have more than one book for sale, you hope it balances out . . . give away one to sell one, or two, or three if you have a series. But you have forgotten the impact of a sound first impression. You started out with a lower priced book. You followed up with a free one. The first impression of a reader, bookstore owner, or librarian is that you More
The Art of the Upsell: How to Land Five-Figure Freelance Writing Contracts
/ 2022-02-13Your freelance writing business works well offering one-off services and monthly retainers, but your earnings haven’t changed. Of the many techniques I’ve used in my business, the best results came from adding a few additional lines to my proposals. This effortless technique is what I call the art of the upsell. 1—The Deadline Upsell When we book clients, we don’t always give them the absolute soonest date we can complete the project. Adding in some cushion allows us work on other projects or create a safeguard should any obstacle or emergency get in the way of completing the project on time. But, as you know, many clients would prefer to receive their projects finished yesterday. Take advantage of their immediate need to add a rush fee on top of your normal project costs. This can increase your earnings exponentially, depending on how quickly they prefer to finish the project. 2—The Revision Upsell Most freelance clients will want to make changes to the first draft, and some clients might want to make even more revisions. If your main project fee only calls for two rounds of edits or writing, this work lands outside your contract. You can solve this challenge More
Make Yourself Worth Reading
/ 2022-02-13I received a LinkedIn notification of a book release, from a man I respect. The premise was intelligent, and I perceived the plot to be in-depth and a challenge, which thoroughly tempted me. The problem was: 1. About six other authors I already read have books out. Some were released the end of 2021, some just coming out, some due out in the next couple of months. 2. I belong to a book club, and that’s about ten books I’m obligated to read. 3. I have a dozen books to be read on my nightstand that I seriously want to read and digest to groom my own genre. 4. That doesn’t count the bookcase in my bedroom that holds the secondary TBR (to be read) stack that I’ve hoarded for a couple years. Books I refuse to give away because they showed a crazy amount of entertaining promise. So, here is a book I want to read. I suspect it falls into the bookcase category in terms of priority, which pains me, because I want to read it now. I just can’t because of the others that hold MORE promise to me, or that I’m more obligated to read. Which means More
On Book Banning
/ 2022-02-05“Having the freedom to read and the freedom to choose is one of the best gifts my parents ever gave me.” ― Judy Blume, bestselling children’s author Book banning is back in vogue. I don’t care which politics people adhere to or whether or not they have children, but I am not fond of book banning. Years ago, every six weeks when my children received report cards, I took them to the bookstore where they were allowed to buy whatever book they wished. I did not care if it was age appropriate. I did not care if it had a warning on the cover. I did not care if the person at the register looked sideways at me for allowing my children to read something that might lean too adult. Why? Because the rule was whatever book my sons purchased, I would be reading it, too, and they had to be willing to discuss it with me. I want the liberty to read anything. I want the liberty to try and understand why other people think differently. I want to read about worlds I probably won’t enter, or read about the ones I may be faced with some day. I want More
One Door Closes, Another Door Opens
/ 2022-01-28“Sorry, but we’re in crisis mode over here. Everything nonessential is getting cut. But call us when this COVID thing is over.” Just like that, my two-year university contract doing international education strategy development vanished. Worse still, my consulting business appeared to be sliding straight toward a cliff. Higher education was on the skids, and my source of income had flatlined. Could I wait this out, or was it time to cut bait? In March 2020, no one knew how things would play out. What I did know is that I was 62 with no evident skill set that I could, in a pinch, or a pandemic, leverage to generate revenue. My background included a PhD in political science and a lackluster academic career that I had left 15 years earlier to run an educational foundation, which I then parlayed into consulting work in international education. But with existing gigs evaporating and universities concerned for their survival, the prospect of hustling new clients looked bleak, not to mention exhausting. It was time to move on. I just needed to find a talent that I could monetize, was good at, could do anywhere, and was in demand. Being late in life More
Your First Book May Not Be the One to Publish
/ 2022-01-28The point is to learn how to write anything book-length, and the first one you write, actually reaching THE END, may need to be your trial run. You really need to see if you can do this first, and that book, with all its warts and scabs, could show more of your flaws that you care to reveal. Most successful writers have a novel that didn’t get published. “I wrote two books with this poet character, neither of which was published, but the important thing is it taught me I could write a book. Maybe not a publishable book, but a book with a beginning, middle, and end. …I (learned I) love being in the middle of novel and knowing where I’m going next. Taking that long path.” ~Peter Swanson, the Sunday Times and New York Times best-selling author of eight novels, including The Kind Worth Killing, winner of the New England Society Book Award, and his most recent, Nine Lives. Peter Swanson, in an interview with CrimeReads.com (https://crimereads.com/shop-talk-peter-swanson-on-why-hell-never-outline-a-mystery-novel-again/), now can write for a living. His first two novels, mysteries about a poet, landed him an agent then a publisher. Then both quit their jobs and left him with nothing. More
Taking Virtual Events from Sucky to Success
/ 2022-01-21After enduring 21 Covid months cringing through virtual events, the experience boils down into a secret sauce for going pro when going on camera. Shifting a virtual event from the level of suck to success is a skill every author needs since virtual connections increase opportunities for professional exposure and more book sales. Seven easy (and cheap) tips can shift you from novice to pro. Camera Positioning: Eye-to-Eye Position the camera just like real-life communications at eye level. Looking people directly in the eye is the most personal connection in life. The camera is the viewer’s eyeballs. A laptop camera on the desk shows your nostrils; a camera set on top of a monitor is a recipe for neck strain. Set the laptop on books or platform with the camera perpendicular to the keyboard and even with the eye. Put the camera in front of the monitor at eye level. Look in the Camera Lens It’s tempting to look at the screen when participating in a virtual event. When answering a question in real life, look at the questioner. In a virtual event, the question comes from the speaker on the other side of the lens, not the monitor. It’s More
Planning for When You’re Gone
/ 2022-01-21Earlier this year I lost another family member. At the funeral, I caught myself giving more attention to the impact this person had on other people, and how it’s not about how they died but how they lived. Yeah, maybe trite and cliché, but the shift from mourning to celebration mattered to me. To pine too much over the loss is to deny them recognition for what they donated in life. As writers, we hope to have donated something to be remembered. That revelation took me home to tweak my own plans for when I’m gone. While losing someone is a burden on whomever is left behind to take care of affairs, methods can be used to lighten the load. I already had a will, and my intellectual property is specifically mentioned in it and handled separately from other assets, but I refined my plans. Hopefully, these ideas can help you. 1) Make sure someone you trust is in charge, and while you are still around, hold conversations with them so there is no doubt what you’d like to happen. Their questions might tell you what you forgot to cover. 2) Plan for your intellectual property specifically, on its own. More
Kickstart Your Writing Career with Corporate Know-How
/ 2022-01-14When I started my writing career, I maintained my corporate job, which offered me the stability I needed after surviving leukemia and the respite of part-time work during my long convalescence. I took a very business-like approach to jumpstart my writing life. Find feedback fast Corporations invest in intensive employee feedback to help people grow fast and produce better results. Employees can be more efficient only when they know how to leverage their strengths and mitigate their weaknesses. As a lifelong self-doubter, that kind of feedback helped me grow into managerial roles in the corporate world in less than two years. Naturally, I wanted feedback on my writing to grow just as quickly. I found NYC Midnight, a series of writing challenges with prompts, tight turnaround times, and feedback from judges in the film, publishing, and literary industries. With this method, I produced at least two pieces of writing for each contest, which cost me far less than what a professional critique would have for one short story. It also forced me to commit and create a portfolio of good work in short spurts. I didn’t win any of the competitions, but I came away with constructive feedback that might have More