I’ve had a rash of queries from folks asking how they find a way to be accountable in their writing, because while they are still quarantined, they are wasting the time away. Would you want to be the person who says, “Hey, how many words did you write today?” only for the other person to get testy about being nagged. Frankly, you want to write or you do not. Or you like what you are writing or you don’t. So are there any accountability options? Sure. 1) Join a writer’s group that requires X number of words per visit. 2) Keep a spreadsheet or calendar and set a minimum number of words per day. Mark the missed days with fat, red Xs. 3) Stay up later or get up earlier, with that time solely dedicated to writing. See Monk Mode Morning 4) Deny yourself privileges until a word count is done. 5) Set one hour per day, and dictate the hour. No exceptions. 6) Find reminder apps like Beeminder 7) Pay money for a personal coach (my least favorite). But you know . . . the responsibility is yours. If writing is not your thing, find something that is. It isn’t a mortal More
Connecting with Clients and Writing Markets
/ 2021-01-08Connections with our clients and writing markets form the cornerstones of a successful freelance business. When people remember YOU ARE THE WRITER, they hire you – but if clients forget your name, other writers get the job. When starting out, I had a small handful of customers. Building and maintaining client relationships has increased my number of active clients, and I’m still connecting with new potential markets every month. There’s no single secret. It took work, time, and trust. Here’s how to spark and maintain lasting professional relationships with your client list as a writer. Get to know more people Most freelance writers know people. Get to know business owners, budding entrepreneurs, fellow writers, local and international bloggers, and marketing teams. Join the Chamber of Commerce. Anyone you know can be a potential client or referral route, either now or in the future. I play regular contract bridge. I started corresponding with the team of Bridge Base Online some years back. Today, I write a daily column for one of Bill Gates’ favorite online bridge websites. Connect over questions Asking questions can establish a connection. Use questions to contact new markets, or probe clients that have been quiet for a while. More
Could UX Writing Be for You?
/ 2021-01-02UX writing is a growing area that generally pays well and is specialised without being impossible to break into. So what is it and could it be for you? What is UX writing? UX stands for usability or user experience, which is basically about how easy it is for people to use a website or app. UX writing basically refers to all the little bits of copy that guide people through processes on apps, websites, games consoles, software and more: instructional text, calls to action, labels, buttons, menu items, error messages, Help text and acknowledgment messages. Why is it growing in importance? More and more of us are carrying out tasks online, from registering to vote to joining a dating app to buying foreign currency. All these interactive processes, or user journeys, involve an interface between a human and a computer. Increased use of apps and mobile has created many more such interfaces. All the big players like Google, Facebook and Apple have UX writers in their design teams. If people (users) don’t have a user-friendly experience when they try to navigate a business’s processes, lost customers and money could result. Businesses have realised that it’s not just the design More
New Year Wake Up
/ 2021-01-02The year taught us that the norm can quickly change if not disappear, leaving us wondering what the heck do we do next. The year taught us that conforming can be good and bad. We learned that there are options to our lives with many throwing themselves in new directions. Some made bread, others read, others worked out, others protested, but the point was to take the gift of time we’d been given and mold something from it. I admit that when COVID first started, I saw it as two to four weeks of quarantine and time to rest and recoup and maybe write a little more. But when what might be seen as a long vacation turned into a serious, international, mind-blowing event, I had to realize what mattered to me. It didn’t come easily. I lost a parent then lost a congenial relationship with a son, both of us probably lost in the midst of pandemic behavior we couldn’t wrap our heads around. I lost touch with the audiobooks I did for the blind since I could not go in to record. I could not see people I wanted to see. So I decided to wake up. As More
Four Ways to Build a Business Case for Your Content Writing
/ 2020-12-19While content is a multimillion industry for big brands worldwide, there are still many business sectors – especially smaller businesses – that don’t see that content as worthwhile. They’re not necessarily against content; they may in fact quite like the idea of having a blog or publishing regular articles or ebooks. It’s just that their marketing budgets are finite, and they aren’t sure how paying a freelance writer like you to write content for them will yield a decent return on their investment. Here are some key ways to help you build a business case when selling your content work. Content is essential for SEO These days, by the time a potential customer gets in touch with a business, they will already have done a lot of their own research online. They will be looking not for sales messages, though, but for answers to real questions: How does a first-time mortgage work? If I buy a rabbit, will it get on with my cats? What’s the best way to migrate my accounting records to the cloud? Companies with a commercial interest in reaching the people asking such questions (e.g., mortgage providers, pet stores, cloud providers) can win favourable attention by More
Are You Zoomed Out?
/ 2020-12-19Whether you like it or not, Zoom (and its cousins) will be the gateway to appearances for a while. Very few bookstores, libraries, and other public venues will venture to host public events for quite some time. Some have grown accustomed to Zoom, and prefer the mode of communication. My question to you is this. . . are you tired of Zoom? I belong to a local book club, and they refuse to use it, preferring social distancing, masks, and face-to-face. I cannot decide if I want to attend with everyone sitting so far apart, mouth covered, such that they cannot hear each other, or prefer to be on my computer seeing them as they normally are. Per Psychiatric Times, “There is robust evidence on how eye contact improves connection—faster responses, more memorization of faces, and increased likeability and attractiveness. These tools that make interactions organically rewarding are compromised over video.” Per Wired.com, “Other things that might help to fight off Zoom fatigue are to block off times before and after meetings to catch your breath, and limit nonurgent calls to one or two per week. For short or informal conversations, you can even make a suggestion to switch up More
Selling to a Publisher
/ 2020-12-11A major reason many self-publish is control of the publishing process. Another strong reason is the long, hard experience of rejection from traditional publishing houses. Sometimes I think writers profess the former when the truth is more likely the latter. Rejection is painful. A lot of writers fuss about the arrogance of traditional publishing, or the unjustified ignorance of debut and novice authors by traditional publishers, as if traditional only likes certain types of personalities. These complaints ring hollow to me. Traditional presses want a book that generates serious money. In other words, they buy and sell to make a profit. The items being bartered just happen to be books. But they don’t give new authors a chance. . . or so many say. If you hire someone to fill a vacancy in your business, you seek experience. If you are a small enterprise, you might need someone more niche experienced, or you will accept someone with fewer years in the business. If you have a strong brand and a larger enterprise, you can be more selective. You have the power to choose those most seasoned, most awarded, and most talented. Writing and publishing are no different. Sure there is More
How to Use Google Alerts to Get Assignments and Build Your Career
/ 2020-12-11People might think of Google Alerts as something once upon a time helpful but not anymore. I’ve been using Google Alerts for quite some time. It’s enabled me to find submissions I wouldn’t ordinarily find, follow some successful authors, and make contacts to further my career. By customizing Google Alerts, you can be notified for . . . well . . . just about anything you crave to know that will help build your career and your wallet. Once you are logged into Google, go to Google Alerts (https://www.google.com/alerts) and get started. Set up alerts for publishers and sites that are closed to submissions. When they open, you’ll get notified quickly, and won’t forget to check back. I followed several publishers and sites and was able to sell a guest post to a blog often closed to outside submissions because I had an alert set for an open submission period. You can simplify the alert with something like “The Writer submissions” or “Re:fiction open submissions,” so when the publisher updates the submissions page, you’ll get an alert. Alerts can let you know when there is a special call for submissions at your dream publisher. For instance, you’re trying to publish a young More
Writers and Singers
/ 2020-12-11You hear a singer. Instantly you picture them, maybe recall that song or others they have sung. You remember where you were when that song impacted you. You know that singer is not like any other. You might not even remember their name, but in this day of smartphones, you instantly look it up. That is the type of writer you want to be. Someone reads something you’ve written and remembers you as being original . . . or leaving a mark on their life. It isn’t about the number of books you’ve published . . . or how you published . . . It’s about the mark those words leave on the world. It’s about being original. It’s about being memorable. It’s about taking time to mold your phrasing into its best form. You don’t want people to have just read you. You want them to absorb you such that they are thankful they took the time to take in what you’ve written. You want them to remember that impact well enough to keep your book on their shelves, tell their friends, and want to reread those words over again.
Seven Commercial Writing Job Titles Explained
/ 2020-11-21If you’ve looked at any recruitment pages recently, you may have noticed a lot of jargon creeping into job titles. Here we strip the acronyms and buzzwords away to reveal the – often quite straightforward – roles that lie underneath. UX Writer UX stands for user experience. What a UX writer does is craft the little bits of copy that steer users through key journeys on an app or website – opening a bank account, for example, or completing an insurance quote form or upgrading your access to a product. You’ll be writing the little bits of “microcopy,” such as button names, navigation labels, and calls to action. This is a growing specialty and often involves working alongside specialists who are testing customer behaviour, but a lot of it is common sense for the right kind of writer. More here B2B CRM Copywriter B2B just means business-to-business, so you’ll be writing for a company that sells to other businesses (rather than individual consumers). For writers, CRM (customer relationship management) generally means email. You’ll be providing the words for sales and marketing emails, plus landing pages: the page that people land on if they click on a link in the email. Bid More