Virtual meetings are becoming the new normal for job interviews, writing groups, workshops, author talks, readings, press calls and more. Finding a way to be as professional and effective on screen as you are in real life is a bit of a learning curve. Here are a few pointers… Video Platform There are lots of platforms to try now, many with features like screen share for free – here’s a useful overview. If you’re using someone’s else platform always do a dry run, to check you’ve downloaded the software OK, and sound and connection work. Watch out for sessions that are time-limited, as with Zoom. (Remember that poor sound will be far more frustrating for your audience than poor visuals.) If possible, have a back-up plan too – another password or login that people can use, or another platform to try. Wardrobe Avoid jangly earrings and bright make-up. Avoid bright colours, stripes, logos and other distracting clothes and accessories. Wear a smart-casual outfit in a darker shade, something that you feel comfortable in. Tuck the tail of your jacket under your rear to keep it looking tight-fitting and to stop it riding up as you speak. More tips on how to presentable here and here. Posture Prop your More
When It Isn’t Fun
/ 2020-05-22Each time to ascend to a higher rung on the ladder of personal evolution, we must go through a period of discomfort, of initiation. I have never found an exception. – Dan Millman, author of Way of the Peaceful Warrior and 16 other books of inspiration During this Time of COVID-19, we have learned to make do with less. While some are chomping at the bit to get back into the world and renew their busy-ness, there are just as many who’ve learned to maintain their simpler way of life. This isolation was discomforting for many. We learned to practically forage for our needs. So we adapted. We studied the pantry and got creative with what we had. We took online classes, and we wrote more words. But we did so with worry in our minds. Throughout all of this quarantine, we grew concerned. Some of us took stock of what we had and who we were. We might have even decided that the path we were on wasn’t the one we wanted after all. Some businesses have taken off. Some businesses were created. But none of this happened without us experiencing change and loss. When I posted on More
The Journey of Editing Autobiography and Memoir
/ 2020-05-15Are you an editor of fiction who would like to venture into editing autobiography and memoir? When I took my first autobiographical editing job in June last year, I soon recognized a whole different ball game – and a fresh learning curve. Autobiography… Or Memoir? An autobiography recounts the whole story from beginning to end (“Long Walk to Freedom” or “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”), whilst a memoir tells of a certain section, time or series of events (“My Booky Wook” or “My Squirrel Days”). It’s Not Quick Some editing jobs are cut-and-dried in a few weeks, but a developmental autobiographical or memoir edit can take months. Prepare for this or prepare to let the client know as soon as possible about any apparent change in delivery date. It’s the Lack of Mistakes Spelling errors are easy to edit, but clients with flawless spelling are harder to edit. You assume they won’t make spelling errors, and you can miss them. Look carefully and don’t assume. Meet Your New Friend: Style Sheets Start keeping (1) style & punctuation sheets, (2) a sheet for every change made, and (3) a chapter sheet. Save every single version of the manuscript as More
Easy Tracking
/ 2020-05-07Submitting queries and manuscripts nowadays is as easy (and cost-effective) as a single keyboard click. But while programs like Submittable keep a list of e-submissions sent to certain sites, not every publisher uses such a program. Without it, can you pinpoint exactly where and when you sent out every piece, query or pitch in the last five or ten years? I can, and so can you. Starting out as a writer, my submissions, a huge paper chase of labels, letters and receipts, and it could get expensive. It also could get confusing trying to keep track of what I sent, when and where I sent it, and whether it sold. Often sales were “payment upon publication,” with a dangling future, and once I forgot about a promised check, unable to recall if I had gotten paid or not. After an embarrassing phone call where I was informed I had been paid months before, I developed my system. A good tracking system is even more critical today. Because electronic submissions are easy and inexpensive (reading fees, when applied, are still cheaper than postage), we tend to submit a greater volume of work to a greater number of publishers. That increase means More
The Race to the Bottom
/ 2020-05-03The problem with freelance sites where you compete for work is that the low price usually wins. Same goes for pitching to magazines and customers . . . the lower you value yourself, the more likely you’ll get stuck with that price. Not only will you get paid for less than you are worth, but you get labeled as someone who works on the cheap. The problem with racing to the bottom is that you might win. You do not have to lowball your value in order to work. Unfortunately, in the publishing industry, we seem only to think we can either be the cream rising to the top or the lowball, scrambling for quantity instead of quality. You can ride the middle ground, always striving to rise, but starting at the very bottom, working for pennies, means you have further to go to reach a respectable wage. Why do that to yourself? Why compete with third-world companies where engineers and doctors are freelance writing to make ends meet and are satisfied with writing 2,000 words for $10? You compete against way more competitors at the bottom. That’s where way more people underestimate themselves and hang out. You compete against More
Backing Into Large Publications
/ 2020-04-24Freelance writers have to be motivated to reach for the brass ring. To some of us, that means publishing in a major magazine or national newspaper, a difficult achievement even with a substantial number of clips. A plethora of authors vie for the top spots, and once they’re in, they hold onto them. Fortunately, there is a back door to many of the major publications that offers a way to at least get your foot on the bottom rung of the ladder. Vox, The New York Times, Writer’s Digest, The Writer’s Chronicle, Good Housekeeping, and even The Boston Globe offer opportunities for writers to submit low word count essays or blog posts about personal experiences, your writing journey, and even career advice. Writer’s Digest looks for 600-word essays for their 5 Minute Memoir about the writing life, and the payment is $300. The guidelines are specific, including the email subject line, so be sure to read them before you submit! It can be difficult to pry open the door to Vox, as it’s one of the premier websites for explaining the news. Fortunately, they are looking for first-person narrative essays. They don’t have a word count listed, but they do More
Trident Media Group Literary Agent Mark Gottlieb on Overcoming Panic in Publishing During the Pandemic
/ 2020-04-17“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me.” –Frank Herbert, DUNE Fear has taken hold of the minds of many people in trade book publishing during the pandemic brought on by COVID-19 and rightfully so: Scholastic temporarily laid off over 100 employees, Rowman & Littlefield has ceased paying salaries to their entire company, Markus Dohle released a company-wide letter to Penguin Random House that everyone at the company will have to tighten their belts and Macmillan closed the imprint Thomas Dunne Books while laying off a number of employees… Publishers have gone as far as to push publication dates out, and authors that are having books published during these current troubled times are having to turn away from live book tour events, to online media. Outside of publishing, the world seems even scarier, and we must all remind each other that we are in this together—more than ever, we all need to treat one another with kindness. Even with that in mind, we must respect that some hold onto the view that things look grimmer than More
Nine Unusual Ways to Make Money from Writing
/ 2020-04-10Look beyond blogs and ghostwriting for unusual assignments that may be a match for your skills. Editing stories of popular writers on Medium You can make money by writing posts as part of the Medium Partner Program, but in this fascinating article , writing coach Nico Ryan describes how he makes more by fine-tuning the posts of Medium contributors whom he considers to be rising stars. He gets paid partly on a performance-based basis, so a piece that gets loads of traction will earn him more – and his client too, of course. Writing verse and jokes for greetings cards There’s a whole industry of artists and writers who supply the fresh jokes and verses that are always needed for greetings cards. Though the word count is deceptively low, there’s a real knack to coming up with good fresh material, and the pay for successful writers is more than you might imagine. Find out more here and here. Writing dating profiles Yes, this is a thing and it’s not hard to see why. If you’re not a great writer, but you’re keen to meet that special someone, why wouldn’t you seek some professional help to present yourself to best effect? Writing jokes Some radio and TV shows (such More
The Fear of Writing Poorly
/ 2020-04-03Just as a good man forgets his deed the moment he has done it, a genuine writer forgets a work as soon as he has completed it and starts to think about the next one; if he thinks about his past work at all, he is more likely to remember its faults than its virtues. Fame often makes a writer vain, but seldom makes him proud. ~W. H. Auden You might be surprised at how often an author fails to go back and revisit their prior works. If I wasn’t reading them into the Talking Book Services for the blind at the South Carolina State Library, I probably wouldn’t read my work again either. Like the quote above, reading old work opens an author’s eyes to the faults rather than the strengths. I cringe at word choices, phrasing, comma choices, and so on, wondering how many people read those spots and scowled. Every writer does it. But for some, the thought of those scowls and regrets stops them from publishing in the first place. Yet, for others, they write a first draft, correct the grammar, and publish, neglecting the layers of edits required in between. Then there’s the majority who worry where they More
Ten Lessons from Entering Hundreds of Short Story Competitions
/ 2020-03-28Do the Obvious Stuff Follow the submission guidelines. Get the formatting right. Make sure the story is anonymised if it has to be. Check you haven’t left any details in the doc from a previous contest requirement. Don’t send a 500-word bio when they want 75 words max. Look for Author-Competition Fit Contests typically change judges every year, but you still can learn the sense of story flavour that seems to do well. Some competitions will have a better fit for your work than others, so consider re-entering competitions where you’ve been successful before. Use Competitions to Free You from Creative Blockage Story contests get you writing again when you’ve been blocked. Choose one with a soonish deadline and an interesting prompt – and get cracking! Work That Title We all know the importance of starting strong, but judges wish more attention was paid to titles. An original title helps a story stand out, and too many have very similar titles, e.g., “The Visit” or “An Affair.” Also, with a very common title, if the shortlist is published without the authors’ names (as is often the case), you’ll have the agony of waiting to see if that story is really More