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Pitching is an incredibly important part of freelance writing—as important perhaps as the writing itself. That being said, have you ever given thought to the timing of your query, article, or essay? Timing your query, article, or essay for a holiday, especially the big holidays such as Thanksgiving or Christmas, is a no-brainer. You submit […]

An individual wrote me asking this in pretty much these words. They had a children’s book out, a month or more old and hadn’t garnered a single review. They asked how to get reviews and how to get their book on a list that others would see. So many writers push to get a book […]

I had a philosophical discussion with someone this week who didn’t like the way a particular state they visited did certain things. I don’t want to get into a political discussion here, so I’ll keep it general. I also won’t mention the state. I’m a rather live and let live type of person. I told […]

Being a writer is a personal decision; we choose to share our stories in order to be seen but what about the privacy of the other people involved? A couple of years ago I pitched a personal essay about my first Christmas in the UK with my partner and his family. It was a warm, […]

I’m a writer and author working at Op Cit (https://johndunnshops.com/project/op-cit-books/ ), a locally-owned, independent bookstore in Taos, New Mexico. They’re also in Santa Fe. Formerly called Moby Dickens, the Taos shop has been open almost four decades. My fifteen years of employment there has provided me with insights worth sharing. First, the sheer volume of books […]

I received an email from a frustrated reader this week. This excerpt pretty much sums it up: “I’m still doing medical and legal transcription (keystrokes for pennies) which leaves me unfulfilled and often angry about writing.  I think this is what prompted me to reach out – your writing prompted by anger (see last week’s newsletter). […]

When I am sad, mad, frustrated, or disenchanted with life, I usually do one of two things . . . write or go outside and absorb nature. Recently, since I’d spend the previous two days in nature planting a very large garden, I chose to go to the keyboard. I shut the door and wrote. […]

Corporate blog writing lets a writer step into the name of a company or brand, creating posts to promote or inform readers and entice possible customers. Corporate blogging isn’t sales copywriting, but instead content that keeps customers and readers coming back to a site or blog because they crave more. Here’s how corporate blog writing […]

There isn’t a better compliment on the planet than this. I was at a book signing, having just spoken to attendees about how I got to where I was with writing, and how I put some of my stories together. We got to the end, when folks bought books and came up to speak, and […]

When my youngest of three children started kindergarten, I returned to teaching English at the community college after a ten-year hiatus. I became so disillusioned with problems in the classroom (students texting under desktops and aggressively asking me to alter their grades), I decided instead to teach adults who were in love with writing. I […]

I received an email from someone with CAPS and exclamation points about a FundsforWriters sponsor charging for her services. The promotion promised the customer would attend and walk away with a pitchable submission. The reader was upset the promoter neglected to say in that sentence you had to pay $20 per month for the experience. […]

An indispensable tool, the back-of-the-book index enables nonfiction readers to find information efficiently and quickly. Writing those indexes offers another income opportunity for freelancers. As a lover of nonfiction, I decided to add indexing to my freelance writing and copy-editing business. What better way to spend my time than going through a biography or how-to […]