So Your Are A Published Writer – What Next?
Being a published writer is a great achievement and no matter what some people say, to me there is no difference to being published online and offline than perhaps the money you can earn. Published is published, regardless of the time and place.
Many offline writers lift their noses to us online folk. For some reason they consider their writing to be somewhat aloof to ours and while I don’t agree with that for one second, I do accept that some just agree to disagree with me.
Either way, once you are published and paid for your work, you are officially a writer. Congratulations!
What next?
Well, for starters you’ll have to keep track on all the places that are graced by your pen’s (keyboard’s) wisdom. Naturally this can become quite arduous, as the longer you write, the harder it gets to track all your public pieces.
An easy solution to tracking your publishing career
The best way to get on top of this is doing it from the very start. Once you got your first publication live, create a simple spreadsheet like the one I created for your perusal if you so wish.
You can download it for free if it is of any help to you.
On this spreadsheet you can record information that will help you to keep track of your activities online. This has two major functions:
- You will always be up to date with all your published stuff
- You can point a potential client in an instance to your goodies without spending hours searching for it.
I used various headers for the document and you can change them as you feel fit. Let me explain what I insert under each of these to make it easy to understand:
Article/Post Link: this is self explanatory I guess. Insert the direct link to your published posts and articles.
Date Gone Live: again, this doesn’t need explanation. It does help to keep track of this since you’ll have a great overview on your activities and growth.
Notes: I keep this for anything noteworthy, related to the actual piece I have written. Information that could help me in the future.
Contact Person: it helps to keep contact details handy. One never knows whether you need them again in the future.
Contact Email: same here. If you ever lose your address book details, you will still have a backup of your past clients and contacts.
Contact Notes: some clients have special needs. Things that are discussed during email conversations. Instead of keeping all the dozens of emails, use this section to note the most relevant points to remember.
$$$ Earned: If you get paid, keep track. If it is a guest post, just write “guestpost”. If it is a submitted article on an article directory just write “articledirectory”. I think you get the drift by now.
Reference Received: Like I mentioned in an earlier post, it is essential to ask your clients for testimonials every now and then. You can use them on your portfolio site. Marking this down will help you keep track on who to ask and who not.
Naturally all these pointers are merely a stimulation to get you into action with your own track keeping system.
Maybe you have something to add or to subtract. I look forward to getting your feedback.
Monika
About the Author: I'm a passionate freelance writer and problogger. To further build my business I'm also in the process of building my own niche empire which pays me residual income.
Brett Legree | May 6, 2008 | Reply
Monika,
Thanks for this today – now that I’ve been blogging for a while, and I have a lot of other ideas starting to come to the forefront, I need to organize the back end a bit.
The spreadsheet you provided will be a useful tool – I’ll give it a try tonight, before I get too far down the road
-Brett
Sara Ferguson | May 7, 2008 | Reply
I agree with the fact that writers who publish offline look down to those who publish online, I’m afraid it goes deeper.
Some people do not think you are a writer until you have a book out. I am published both offline, online, and do have books to my name, but find some writers will look down on you unless you do nothing but write books for a living.
What makes a writer? It isn’t how many books or publishing credits they have to their name, it is the writing. It doesn’t matter if you are even published, if you write then you are a writer.
If publishing is your goal, then keep records of everything. I have a file cabinet that has nothing but a copy of everything I have written over the years, dates published, what name it was published under, who published it, how much I was paid, people involved (editor’s names), addresses, and any other details. Everything is filed by month and year. I do keep a list on the computer like you suggest, but no matter how much I trust the computer I will always keep a hard copy of everything.
Monika | May 7, 2008 | Reply
@ Brett: It really helps to do that early on. Otherwise you will play catch-up like I did.
Hopefully the spreadsheet will be good for you, it is simple but works.
Feel free to adapt it to your own style anyway.
Monika | May 7, 2008 | Reply
@ Sara: Interesting insight. Thank you for adding your voice. Also, that point you raised about offline records makes much sense. Like you, I like to keep backups but haven’t bothered with this. I will print out a copy ASAP. I’m a backup phobic.
It is also a great encouragement for new writers to read what you are saying.
Sandra Mendoza-Daly | May 7, 2008 | Reply
Great article Monika. I would also encourage writers to make a PDF of any online articles. You never know when the link will be broken or gone forever.
P.S. I love your blog!
Cath Lawson | May 8, 2008 | Reply
Hi Monika – I was just reading an article in a writing magazine. The writer was saying that she used to write for offline markets but now does most of her work for online ones.
She was saying that although the pay was actually higher per word for offline publications, she was actually getting paid less, because she was getting less work. More money in total is definitely better than more money per word.
Monika | May 8, 2008 | Reply
@ Sandra: PDF’s are actually a great idea as well. Trouble is I have so many articles by now I would probably need my very own PDF factory. LOL.
Thank you for the compliment too. It is very much appreciated.
Monika | May 8, 2008 | Reply
@ Cath: there you go. I can actually believe that too. With the frequency of publishing in offline publications (mainly mags) the need for an article is obviously limited. Since most mags have an assembly of writers on their payroll it makes sense that they get less frequent work.
I guess that the secret lies in scoring enough offline work from a wide base of employers to allow for continuous income.
Personally I still believe in the power of diversity and that is why I am targeting offline publications next.