Landing a big business gig is not impossible. Like any other kind of freelance writing job, it takes a bit of perseverance. The first step is to do some research. If there is a particular brand that blows your skirt up, check out their web site. See if they have a blog. If they do, spend some time in the archives. See if you can get a sense of the article authorship. Are the articles always attributed to the same person or are several or numerous authors mentioned? This makes a difference because if there are a lot of different folks, chances are they are using freelance writers.

Don’t go into this process thinking that there is no way a big business would want little ol’ you. Push for a single guest article and see what happens. Sometimes that much of a foot in the door is all it takes to work your way into something bigger and better. If you’ve researched the site as you should, you will come across the correct department or individual to contact. Jump in with a short and sweet pitch. Tell them why you love the business and what you think you have to offer. Don’t flood them with samples and links to all the stuff you’ve done. Remember that short and sweet is best.

What if you find a business that doesn’t have a blog? Win! Time to put on your sales hat and dive in. Work to find the right contact within the business. This requires a bit of finesse on your part. Don’t just send an arbitrary email and hope for the best. If you are really passionate about the business then you need to be passionate about them starting a blog. My best advice is to pick up the phone. You would be amazed at what can be accomplished through a personal phone call. These days, folks just aren’t used to it. Finding the correct department may be the toughest part of this gig. Try for the marketing or communications department. Human Resources may also be a good first step. Be persistent but not pesky. Keep a smile on your face as you speak. There’s a good chance that you’ll end up where you need to be.

If you don’t end up being the WalMart blogger, why not shoot for something closer to home? Most communities will have businesses large enough to support a blog. Time for a personal visit it seems. Cutting your teeth on a mid sized local business builds your portfolio and ultimately leads to other work.

It’s not impossible to land a big business blogging gig. It just takes a lot of work. If you are willing and able to do the leg work, the rewards could be tremendous.

From a freelance writer’s perspective, many of the writing conferences I see are geared to folks that are writing fiction and seeking a publisher. For me, the only fiction I write that is continually accepted is sent to the IRS every April. So I would be more interested if indeed the conference was geared especially for freelance writers.

Potential Benefits

No rocket science here, folks. A writing conference is an opportunity to learn something new that could help your freelance writing business. Chances are good that you will meet some folks that you are drawn to and with whom you are able to connect. The relationships established at these conferences can be long term and beneficial to everyone involved. As well, sometimes it’s important to see what is happening in the freelance writing world through a portal other than your computer monitor. I tend to think that anything worthwhile is accessed through the Internet and that I know about most of the big stuff out there. Truly, this attitude is arrogant and a bit short-sighted. I think there are discoveries to be made.

Potential Downfalls

In my previous life, I attended a lot of conferences. I attended local and national conferences often as a presenter. Other times I was a mere attendee. I enjoyed these conferences for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was the opportunity to travel and see different parts of the country. At the time, I was living in Alaska and trust me, any chance to get the heck out of Dodge for a week was welcome – especially in January. With that said, I freely admit the conferences were on my employer’s dime. Conference fees and travel expenses were all paid for by someone else.

The perspective changes a bit when you are looking at coughing up a grand (or more) for a conference. The danged things are expensive and you had better figure out the cost/benefit thing before you sign up. As well, the first time you attend a conference you are rolling the dice. A particular conference may not be beneficial to you at all and you won’t know until you go.

Another potential drawback is the temptation to:

Catch up on your sleep in a comfy hotel room.
Catch up on the newest pay-per-view movies in your hotel room.
Explore the local community. After all, you came all this way. Who knows when you’ll get to St. Louis again?
Hang out in the vendor area instead of going to the breakout sessions.
Work on a client project because you are up against deadline.

The point here is that a writing conference may be a good thing for you but you need to do the research and you need to be self aware in terms of how you may respond to the temptations listed above.

Have you been to a conference? What was the experience like?

Writing Other Than Freelance

I know that a lot of freelance writers tend to write in addition to the writing they get paid for. I know that is the case as far as I am concerned. I do have a couple of personal writing projects that are always waiting in the wings. For me, these projects always seem to end up on the back burner (sometimes for months) and progress is very slow. It makes it seem as if they will be perpetual. I’m generally pretty good at multi-tasking but this area escapes me.

I guess what I’m wondering is how my fellow scribes balance their paid writing with their personal writing. Do you have writing that you do for you? If so, do you set aside specific time to pursue the personal writing or do you “catch as catch can?” Or perhaps you set aside a special day a week or month where you do no client work at all.

Book Proposal Question

I’m working on a book project for a client. Most likely we will pursue the traditional publishing route. One of the folks involved in the project relayed some information from a friend who was recently published. According to this person, as part of the query he let the prospective publisher know that he had a (fairly substantial) sum set aside for marketing and promotion. This is the first I had heard of this and I’m wondering if any of you that have done book proposals for a client have heard of this. If so, how did it turn out? Do you feel that it made a difference in the publisher accepting the proposal?

Big Project Thoughts

What is your take on taking on big writing projects. By “big” I mean books and the like that may take many months to complete. I think the potential is there to make some pretty good money, but frankly, taking on a commitment that large scares the hell out of me. (I have a list of “fear of commitment” references, shoot me an email and I’ll forward the list of previous girlfriends) Part of the fear of these big projects is based on how many things typically go wrong on small projects. In my mind, I see issues rising exponentially. Am I making too much of this? Do I have my risk/benefit ratios bass ackwards? What have your experiences been in this regard?

Thanks for indulging me with your answers to these questions. Hopefully we can get conversations rolling that will enlighten and entertain.

I think I’ve mentioned before that I often write an article based on a title that pops into my head. Sort of reverse engineering for blog posts. Weird, but it works. If nothing pops into my head then I get a bit frustrated and will close down shop for a bit until I’m able to approach things from a different perspective.

After doing this for so long, sometimes I feel like I’ve said all there is to say about freelance writing. That’s where I am at this moment. No topic seems fresh or interesting to me, and the last thing I want to do is to insult the readership here by posting something that is not worthy of my skill nor worthy of my reader’s time. This happens from time to time on my own blog as well. I’ve found that when my well has run dry, it can be helpful to ask the readers to delve into their well and provide ideas for what they would like to see. That is exactly what I’m doing here, now.

I’m interested in knowing what you folks would like to see posted here. I know I do a lot of opinion posts and it occurs to me that maybe you would rather see more straight tips about freelance writing. Even though I feel as if everything has been covered, is there any topic you feel hasn’t been covered well enough? Is there an area about freelance writing that scares you because you feel like you don’t know enough about it? Also, would you like to see more top ten lists? How about book reviews?

I guess what I’d like to say is that pretty much anything is fair game and I’d be happy to tackle most any subject. The thing is, when I research an article I learn a lot as well.

So, let’s hear it. What’s your pleasure?

From the FAQ Smashwords page:

What types of books work best on Smashwords?

Straight form narrative (all fiction and some non-fiction), biographies, memoirs, poetry, essays,
narrative-heavy non-fiction, scripts, screenplays and plays. Yes, the book can contain images.
Follow the instructions below.

Will my finished Smashwords digital book look like my original print manuscript?

Often, it will look different. Don’t try to make your ebook look like an exact carbon copy of your
print book. Such an objective is ill-conceived. Ebooks are different from print books. If you
carefully follow the Style Guide, you’ll get good results.

Do I own my copyright if I publish with Smashwords?

You own your copyright. When you publish with Smashwords, you grant Smashwords a non-exclusive right to publish, promote and distribute your book, as well as samples of your book. Because the relationship is non-exclusive, you can publish and distribute via other services, if you wish.

Is your publishing agreement exclusive?

No. It’s non-exclusive, so you maintain all rights to your work and have the freedom to publish anywhere else you like.

How is price determined?

You (the author/agent/publisher) set the price for your works. The price can be free, any price above $.99, or reader-sets-the-price. In instances where your book is distributed to other online retailers, the retailers do not discount your work. If you select reader-sets-the-price, such books will default to a price of $4.95 at Smashwords’ retail partners because none of them support the Reader-Sets-the-Price option (Note: As of December 1, 2010, we can no longer distribute Reader-Sets-the-Price books to Barnes & Noble). If you would like to set a separate default price for retailers only, go to Dashboard: Settings. Once you make a price change at Smashwords, we will automatically notify Smashwords retailers of the price change in our once-weekly updates to them. Please allow anywhere from two days to two weeks for price updates to reflect at retailers (usually it’s about a week or less).

Where will my book be sold?

As an ebook publishing and distribution platform, Smashwords will distribute your books via multiple online channels, including but not limited to the Smashwords.com web site, major online retailers (Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, Baker & Taylor (operates Blio, a popular e-reading app, and also operates Axis360 which distributes ebooks to public libraries), the Diesel eBook Store, others coming), mobile phone appvendors (Stanza on the iPhone/iPod Touch; Aldiko on Android; Kobo on all mobile platforms) and other online venues.

How often are my revenue shares paid?

Quarterly. Our Terms of Service states that authors’ earnings will be paid within 40 days of the close of each calendar quarter, though we usually pay in 30 days.To qualify for payment, accrued earnings must be over USD $75.00 for U.S. authors who want paper checks, and $10.00 for all authors who want electronic payment via Paypal. All authors and publishers outside the US are paid via PayPal. Unlike sales transacted at Smashwords.com,where you receive instant notification and account credit, sales at retailers are reported back to Smashwords on a delayed basis, and there’s a lag time between the end of the quarter and the time we receive the reports and the payment. Once we receive the reports, we will reflect this data in your Dashboard. For each quarterly revenue period, you will be paid your share of all payments received from retailers as of the last day of each calendar quarter. Considering that all retailers pay on a delayed schedule of 30-60 days, this means that often, your Dashboard’s retail sales reports and payments will only include the first or second month’s receipts for each quarter, as well as all previous receipts.

These FAQs address the most common questions. To access the rest of the FAQs, go to

http://www.smashwords.com/about/supportfaq

For the record, I have to say that I love these guys. I have several books published there and I’ve been signed up with them for a few years now. They are totally free and Smashwords is quickly becoming one of the most recognized e-book publishing sites on the planet. Me thinks they deserve it.

Here’s a step-by-step guide:

Go to Smashwords.com and sign up for a free account. It only takes a few minutes. While there, poke around the site a bit and have a look at the titles. I think you’ll be amazed.

Publishing your first e-book is a snap. The very first step (and the most important one) is to download the Style Guide. It is your Smashwords publishing best friend. Whenever I publish a new e-book, I have the Style Guide open for reference. Read the Style Guide to get a feel for the basics. I’ll sum it up in a few words: Put your text in a Word document and remove most formatting. The Style Guide will walk you through the process of doing that.

From the Dashboard, you will be able to select “publish.” The site then guides you through the process. You will set the price, upload your cover, add short and long book descriptions and choose your tags. Choose your book file and you’re ready to go. You have the option of publishing in all of the popular e-book formats. Once you submit everything, the Smashwords “meatgrinder” will convert your properly formatted Word file into your chosen e-book formats.

Once the conversion is complete, you can get a free ISBN and if you have done your front end work well, the book will be included in the Premium Catalog for distribution to some heavy-hitter e-book players like Apple and Sony.

Once you have published, your work has really just begun. I know I’m taking a giant leap here, but I’m going to assume that you want folks to find and buy your book. If that’s the case, Smashwords also has a free Marketing Guide that is pure gold. The Marketing Guide will help you to be a very successful e-book author.

This has been the most basic of primers to publishing your work at Smashwords. The next post will go into more detail and will offer you strategies to avoid most of the pitfalls that cause frustration.

If you go to Smashwords and publish, I’d love to hear about your experience and I would be happy to try and answer any questions you may have.

As you can imagine, I’ve recently had an experience along these lines.

I had a potential client get in touch recently. In terms of background, it’s important to know that this person is a friend and former neighbor. He told me of a project he wanted done for his business. We met and after hearing what he was looking for, I explained what I knew a project like this would entail and what the most likely time frame would be. We came to agreement on price and he promptly cut me a check to get the work started.

Soon after, things started to go south.

From the outset, I told him there way some key information that I needed from him before I could proceed in earnest. The project necessitated a specific A-B-C order. B and C were moot until A was known. Within about a week I started receiving messages asking how the project was coming along. My initial replies were friendly enough, specific and clear. I needed “A.” Next, he wanted a face to face meeting to again discuss the project. We met, I reiterated the need for “A” and all he wanted to discuss was “B.”

Shortly, I started receiving terse text messages wanting a project update. My messages back were a bit less friendly than before and clearly stated the need for “A.” Finally, he sent a document that provided some information, but not everything needed. Almost immediately, he wanted to have a meeting between me, himself and another key player whom I’d been in phone contact with. First, the meeting was wholly unnecessary given where the project currently was sitting. Second, a phone conversation would have worked just fine. Finally, he wanted the meeting to be late in the evening in a town 40 miles away. With much inner grumbling, I agreed to the meeting. I made the drive only to find that he wasn’t going to be able to make it and he neglected to inform the other key player that there even was a meeting. I fumed.

It was about then that I began serious consideration to returning the initial funds and firing the client. In addition to being miffed about the meeting, all I could think of was that if things were this bad early on, what the hell would it be like six months down the road when we were in the thick of it.

I haven’t fired him yet, but I think it probably isn’t too far in the future. So, my title question still stands: When do you fire a client? Have you ever fired a client? When did you do so and why did you do it?

Maybe you’ve never considered setting such lofty goals for yourself. I know I certainly haven’t. But I think sometimes it just happens with folks. You know, right place at the right time and all that. I have to admit there has been a time or two when a post of mine has gone mini-viral and my head has swelled a wee bit. With that said, I’ve never set out a serious set of goals to try and be the next world famous blogger.

In the case of Mr. Brietbart, he made his fame by not being afraid to tackle issues head on and he didn’t seem to care too much about who he may piss off in the process. Is that what it takes to make an impact? These days that seems to be the case but I’m also not quite that cynical. I think you can make an impact on folks without being in their face. I don’t have an in-your-face mentality so I’ve kind of resigned my self to the fact that the chances of me being rich and/or famous as a blogger are fairly non-existent. I do believe I impact other writers, but not necessarily in earth shattering ways. I think I impact through inspiration and at times through clever or at least different ways of looking at things. That’s okay with me and I could stay true to this path for years on end. That may not be true for everyone, however.

If you wanted to make a profound impact on folks, make a name for yourself, how would you do it? Would you take a “shock and awe” approach or would you put your nose to the grindstone and plug consistently ahead? I think that most of us know in our heart what we are capable of. We know what our personality type would allow and what it wouldn’t.

What I’d like you to take away from this is that most likely, in some way, you impact folks with your writing. Are you happy with that or do you want something more? If you do want something more are you willing to take the steps to do so and what do you think those steps would be?

In last week’s article, I approached the topic of pleasure writing, the writing we do for ourselves. This got me thinking about the folks at Downton Abbey and how important writing letters was for everyone. It won’t be news to anyone, I suspect, that no one writes letters anymore. Even me dear old Mum uses email. I’m thinking maybe we need to return to the old ways now and then.

When I wrote about pleasure writing, I didn’t include what may be a very worthy form of writing: The good, old-fashioned, hand written correspondence. Think about it. when was the last time you wrote a letter to someone, put it in an envelope and took it to the post office? For me, I’m pretty sure it was when I was told I had to write a thank-you letter to Aunt Smellby to thank her for the sweater I had received at Christmas.

What can letter writing do for a freelance writer? I guess that’s a fair question. The answer is, I’m not sure. I think that maybe the act of doing something so kind (Do you remember what it feels like to receive a personal correspondence?) may pay the dividends that come with an act of kindness. You feel pretty good that you brightened someone’s day and that feel-good feeling may be the driving force behind your next article. As well, letter writing is writing without a net. No backspace keys here, folks. It forces you to really think about what it is that you want to say and how you are going to say it. Are those worthy skills to hone as a freelance writer? I think so.

Even if there are no profound benefits for you as a freelance writer, what about the idea of returning to a simpler time, even for a short while? Wouldn’t it feel great to do something so quaint and simple?

Have I gone completely daft or is this a good idea? Do you think you may take the time to write a letter to an old friend or a family member?

Writing For Yourself

I’m thinking that you probably didn’t start your freelance writing career with no writing under your belt. Maybe you wrote stories for fun. Maybe you kept a journal to keep your head on straight. The point is, you were a writer before you were a freelance writer. How do you get back to those heady days of writing for yourself, for pleasure?

First, this idea of writing for yourself is critical for longevity in the field. Writing long-tailed keyword articles for days on end will burn you up and burn you out. Your mind needs a break. It’s almost impossible to keep up the crazy freelance writing pace that pays the bills if you don’t break the routine now and then.

Writing for yourself is a reward in and of itself. Consider the unbridled bliss when you take an afternoon off, head to a favorite spot with the laptop (or notepad) and spend a few hours crafting a story. Turn off the iPhone, leave your email program closed and just immerse yourself in the pleasure of doing what you love to do, for no one other than you. The story may be crap. It may never see the light of day, but I guarantee you’ll have fun doing it.

An unintended consequence of writing for yourself is that you will become a better freelance writer by doing so. Working your creative muscle opens new channels and spawns new ideas. It’s the equivalent of a high colonic for your head. I find that when I take a bit of time and do some writing for myself, my paid writing comes easier and is a lot more fresh and engaging.

If possible, you should try and do a bit of writing for yourself each day. It doesn’t have to be a story or a chapter of your novel. Writing for yourself can be as simple as jotting down a few lines in a journal. Sometimes I’ll write a book review over at Amazon when I’m feeling the need to write for myself. Bringing back memories of a good read puts me in a proper writing mood.

I think that the writing you do for yourself in this vein needs to be unstructured with no rules or limits applied. Rules and limits imply pressure and writing for yourself is about release, not pressure. I know it can be hard to do, but when writing for yourself you should consider throwing the rule book out. Just have fun with it. If, at the end of your writing session you are completely embarrassed by what you wrote there is always the delete key.