28,000 subscribers

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 […]

Author Raven Digitalis hired me to be their publicity assistant in November 2024. Opportunity knocked and I answered, anxious to step in for the potential fun and experience. While authors frequently need editors and proofreaders, they also would use an extra hand. Here’s what I learned by becoming another writer’s assistant. Writers Hiring Assistants I was […]

Unlike novels, screenplays are not in and of themselves an end product. They’re merely blueprints for something else, like a movie or TV show. They’re a roadmap showing filmmakers how to express a story in a visual medium using tools like cameras, lights, actors, editing and music. They’re not meant to be all-encompassing narratives that […]

Ello, ello, Hope. Happy New year of the (sneaky) Snake sign!!🧧🎍🧨 I’ve just read your recent email letter (dated January 24, 2025) and have some comments about the article: Using Your Pseudonym, by Alex J. Coyne. What I want to share: it is totally fine to get paid in the pseudonym and it can easily be […]

Do you want to hear how an author got published after five years? Do you want to hear how many times they were rejected? Do you want to hear the pros and cons of how they chose their agent, indie publisher, or self-publisher? Do you want to hear about the pros and cons of how […]

The Dark Half is one of my favorite Stephen King books, because it’s the one where an author’s pseudonym comes to life. Pen names like Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling), Anne Rice (Howard Allen Frances O’Brien), and Stan Lee (Stanley Martin Lieber) are common. However, why use pseudonyms or pen names — and how? Here’s why pseudonyms […]

I worked for a mainstream news website called The South African until mid-2024, producing freelance articles that connected its success to the amount of total article views (hits) each week. Through this wild ride, I learned how to increase post views for online writing. Writing for Hits: How I Ranked Top 3 I ranked as one of […]

In doing my regular reading in an attempt to stay on top of all that is evolving in the writing world, I ran across several articles that carried the same trend. They talked about how they started . . . a decade or more ago. When you give someone a podium, they are going to […]

As I checked on a previous FFW newsletter from a couple of weeks back for information about a publication opportunity, something occurred to me. My email history held a years’-deep stash of FFW issues. With excitement, I spent hours following the trail revisiting these old issues going several years back. Frankly, what was old became […]

Many of you would read that headline and roll your eyes. Others, however, would be eager to hear the difference because they are relatively knew at this business. After all, they just want someone who reviews their work before it is published. What does it matter what you call them. A Beta Reader 1) Is […]

I live in the Southeastern US, and today it is snowing. People lose their minds when it snows in SC. So funny and silly to watch and listen. I left the gym this morning thinking that I had the rest of the day to write. I listened to others in the gym. They were going […]

As a writer with disabilities, I took a while realizing that I could earn money writing about my disabilities. The chance to write articles relevant to the Deaf community for a national newspaper was a game changer. There are a few ways writers living with disabilities can earn money writing about their disabilities. Your Author […]