“…the right words for the right occasion”
I thank you all for following along with my blog. I’m sorry that I haven’t been able to post as much as I would like.
As I have explored other blog formats, I have been contemplating other avenues for this blog. I will keep you apprised of any changes that come up.
I would like to do so much more with this blog and will continue to investigate the best possible avenues for you to be able to follow along.
In case some of you didn’t know, Preditors&Editors has been fighting against legal action launched against them by PublishAmerica.
Preditors&Editors is a site that is known for providing writers with information regarding those publishers/agents/editors that may or may not be worth working with.
It is strongly-held perception among the mainstream writing industry that Publish America has a reputation for publishing anything, whether or not it worth publishing or not. Unfortunately, it is this reputation that has gripped the entire self-publishing world. With self-publishing, everybody and his dog can get published without having to even edit or learn about the craft of writing – verb tenses, point of view, grammar, punctuation.
PublishAmerica has led the way in this regard. But, they are not by any means the only ones we need to be careful of.
Anyway…Preditors&Editors has made it no secret what their opinion is of PA, based on the information they’ve received from past clients. PA didn’t like the comments, so in true American fashion, they sued P&E. A similar thing happened to the site AbsoluteWrite.
Yesterday, I learned that PA has “won” in the latest battle and that P&E has been asked to pay $250,000 in fines.
Has it now become a crime to warn people about companies that might or might not have a good reputation? It isn’t P&E that has bookstores turning down anything with PublishAmerica on the spine. It isn’t P&E that has respected book reviewers not looking at anything that is self-published. It isn’t P&E that is hunting down those people who had a bad experience PublishAmerica. Quite the contrary. PublishAmerica has done this to themselves, and unfortunately have negatively affected the self-publishing brand so that anyone that’s self-published has to swim upstream just as much as if the writer had pursued the traditional publishing route.
In a writing world where publishers are laying people off and new writers are not being picked up, we can’t afford to have businesses and writers that are just out for themselves. There have to be standards adhered to to make a business successful and reflect well on the industry.
In the real world, if someone criticizes your quality of work, you learn what you need to to change it and improve your output. Unfortunately, in the writing world there are a bunch of writers and publishers (not just PublishAmerica) who do not feel that they need to change a thing and these are the writers and publishers that take away a valuable opportunity for those writers who work hard to hone their craft and produce excellent books that the traditional publishers pass up – I have read several.
This perception of the self-publishing world will not change until companies like PublishAmerica and others buck up and do something to change their business practices and improve their reputation. It’s going to tough, yes, but it needs to be done. PublishAmerica has the power and influence to provide worthy writers with the chance to see their name on the cover of something they’ve worked hard for. Instead of spending money on suing the messenger of bad news, they should heed the bad news and lead the self-publishing industry to a level of respect and integrity.
Some of you on my forums know that I have landed a new job, which is starting out as part-time, but really should be full-time because of the work available. As for me, it will be part-time until such time as I finish off a few other things.
It has presented me with the challenge of tight, unequivocal deadlines, and other time-demanding projects.
One of the things I encourage on the Writing&Publishing Yahoo group in particular is setting goals for each week. I always say make them specific and realistic. At the beginning of each day and each week I set goals for myself based on what I really need to get done and what is reasonable. If I know I need to write 20 articles in two weeks, my goal for the week will be to write at least 10 of the maybe 1 or 2 a day as is possible.
If you’re going to say, I want to write 1000 words a day, but know that you struggle with just sitting down to write, make the more specific and proactive. Add to that goal to sit for maybe 15 minutes. Don’t put a word limit on it until you’ve conquered the struggle of just sitting down. That may also mean finally evaluating your schedule to see where that 15 minutes might be possible. Establish one habit that will lead to establishing another.
“If one problem’s too big to solve, solve a smaller problem, first.” (Ms. Frizzle, The Magic School Bus.)
It’s amazing what can happen in 24 hours. Yesterday morning at this time I was fretting over baby Brent not sleeping through the night for some reason, fighting for sleep and wondering if I should pursue returning to an office job or stay at home.
This morning, I’m sitting here with baby Brent still asleep trying to get some work done and deciding on which of the projects I currently have I need to give up.
I received a phone call end-of-day yesterday from a gentleman looking to hire a freelance writer to help him with his consulting business. This will be an ongoing project and could make up the bulk of my monthly income.
I am also still happy dancing from learning that one of the three anthologies I’ve been working on will be released – or at least ready to print – in May. Add to that the promise of royalties starting to come in from books I’ve edited and the promised release of 7 more this year (at least)…and you can see 2009 is shaping up to be a busy and exciting year!
Gotta get to work!
Someone once told me that as a self-employed individual particularly one who deals with writers and books, any book I buy can be claimed as a business expense.
Since books are an obsession my initial thought after hearing this was WOOHOOO!!!! I’m free to buy whatever book I want! Or, at least I thought I had a license to buy any book I wanted. Unfortunately, budgetary realities set in and I’m still quite a few books short on J.D. Robb, Iris Johansen and a few others in my collection…and I still have about 300 books sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read!
In the midst of my normal mystery and adventure titles, I have added Harry Potter (read all 7 books in less than 3 weeks), The Chronicles of Narnia, A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Eragon Trilogy, and will probably read The Fire Within series, as well. There is no shortage of reading material in our house…unfortunately, my 12-year-old doesn’t seem to see the same treasure trove that I do.
As far as what I do in my leisure time goes – whatever that is – reading is usually one that gets cycled through quite often not only because of the beckoning of 300+ books (think of a book-centered Toy Story) but because I love to read. I love to escape reality for a few minutes and lose myself in a world of make believe.
Reading has not only become a job for me, but a joy, as well – if somewhat of an obsession.
As I come to the end of 2008 and the start of 2009 I’m forced to look back at the year that was – its successes and failures – and look forward to changes and hopes for the new year.
In 2008, I became solely self-employed, and a mother again. I learned how important it is to manage your time and develop ways of keeping myself on track work-wise and housework-wise. I learned that I could be self-disciplined enough to work from home. I have learned that I must balance royalty paying projects with cash paying projects – although I can’t say that I’ve learned how to do that successfully. I’ve learned about markets that I can write for for a decent amount of money. I’ve learned that there are people out there who think that less than a cent a word is good pay. I’ve learned what freelance job sites offer the most opportunities for good paying jobs and how to apply for them.
I started a website (okay, that was late 2007, but it didn’t really get off the ground until 2008), and two blogs. I was invited to participate in a writers’ blog, as well.
2008, I can’t deny (even though I started a sentence with digits!), has been a good year. I have started the career I’ve always wanted. I’ve had good back-up from my job in the Canadian Senate. My to-do list is always full.
In 2009, I plan to tackle that always-full to-do list. One thing I’ve discovered in 2008 is how easy it is to get backlogged and discouraged when that to-do list doesn’t seem to be getting any smaller. It’s heartening that I always have lots to do…but that doesn’t always include my own writing. I have one psychological thriller, one novel, one romantic suspense and one devotional started, but none of them are ready for publication, yet. The psych thriller and suspense books are very close to being “done” – that is, I’m at the editing stage with them. But the fact that they remain on my desk uncompleted and almost mocking me as I come to the end of another year tells me that in 2009, I must make an effort to finish them – NO! I will finish them.
“Finish” in this case means, my psychological thriller and romantic suspense books will be finally edited and ready to query; my devotional will be planned, pitched, and ready to go to print; my three anthologies that I’ve been editing stories for will be printed; my novel will be written, maybe not necessarily edited, but at least written.
I want to be more discerning in the projects I take on. In addition to my own work, I will be taking on one full-length freebie project, one partial freebie project, one ghostwriting project, one transcription project (regular) in addition to a weekly transcription project, a new position with a California publisher, hopefully, by the summer.
In between all this I also have plans to attend the Write! On Canada conference in Guelph and the Editors’ Association of Canada’s annual conference in Toronto. (See what I mean about that to-do list. That to-do list is one of the reasons I’m typing this before 5am.)
In short, I have a challenging but potentially profitable and productive writing year ahead and I’m looking forward to it!
I’m back…that was a longer hiatus than I’d intended. It started with a one-week posting stint on another writers blog I participate in on a rotating basis (everydaybloggers.blogspot.com). Then I got swamped with a new article editing project and two transcription projects and I’ve only just now come up for breath.
This has led me to today’s post about learning to say, no.
When I decided to work from home, one of my goals was to spend more time doing housewifey type things, because with my busy work and commute schedule nothing was getting done. Well, my commute time has been filled in with freelancing and my working hours are about the same as when I was working full-time and freelancing part-time. And, my house is still in the same state.
It’s not a good thing for me to be stressed and having to juggle freelance life – job hunting, the pressures of being responsible for bringing in my own work, finding work, writing and editing for that work – with the unpredictable schedule of a relative newborn (he’s nearly 4 months old now, so not really newborn any more) is a challenge. I normally just try to go with the flow, but when bills are piling up and the bank account seems to be sinking lower and lower, I find I have no choice but to still spend nearly 12 hours a day in front of the computer working.
Is that a legacy I want to pass on to my newborn who faithfully sits beside me day in and day out watching me work. Do I want him to get the idea that mommy only ever sits in front of the computer all day and so that’s what he should do? No.
I want him to learn how to manage time successfully so that things get done and are kept on top of, and that there will always be time for him…not just me waiting for him to go to sleep so I can concentrate, without interruption, on the next project.
So, mommy-hood and writing career are still battling with each other.
I guess this will be my New Year’s resolution. I answered one pollster’s question about what I wanted to do in the New Year and I said, I wanted more free time. I have a gazillion books sitting behind me waiting to be read. I have four books of my own sitting there waiting to be finished and a whole host of others waiting to be written. I have a new baby who will be walking and talking before I know it. I have a 12-year-old who is growing into a young man and future high school student. Perhaps this is the work-at-home version of supermom…but I’m quickly realizing that whether I work outside the home or from within the home, there still needs to be balance.
Here’s to finding that balance in 2009.
Ever look at your to-do list and notice that you just keep writing down the same things day after day and none of them ever seem done and the deadlines associated with them an upcoming projects seem to taunt you.
I have found that the last couple of days. Almost week to be exact. Last week was one of those where I was so insanely busy with taking care of house things, that writing/editing really took a back seat even though I tried to get to it. When things are on my to-do list for too long I tend to get very frustrated and annoyed…like the list itself is nagging at me…but I need the list to remind of what I need to be doing and to be a testament to my work achievements as I get things done – Hmmmmm.
Anyway…I managed to check off two things from my to-do list today and I’m heaving a sigh of relief. My inner workhorse needed a boost.
I took on three new projects this week, but with my husband working midnights and some housekeeping type things that have been driving me batty – and in my attempts to get more on top of the housekeeping – I’ve been absolutely swamped this week.
So, I was quite happy (not to mention, relieved) when one of my clients e-mailed me to tell me that the conference she was presenting at – for which she had hired me to write something – was postponed until January. I had promised her that I would have the project completed and sent to her by today. As the week dragged on, as hard as I tried, I just could not seem to make it to the computer to get more than one of her assignments done which meant I would have to cram them all in on Saturday. Well, now I have a few more days.
One of my new projects is an ongoing transcription job for a dental office in California. I worked for 6 years as a transcriptionist for an oral surgery practice – slightly more specialized than general dentistry – so this project was perfect for me. They sent me a link for their digital recorder and a few files to try out to make sure the download worked. Unfortunately for them – but, fortunately for me – it didn’t. This means I have a few more days to clear out some other things, which have been nagging at me and I (and they) will have to rely on my 100wpm typing speed to get them unbacklogged. (Is that a word?)
Anyway…I am planning to take the weekend and get a proofread done, which is due urgently and to get a good bit done on a content edit. I have three books to critique, as well, and will be participating in a judging contest for the Silicon Valley Romance Writers Association….gotta get reading!
I won two, today! One is a daily transcription job for a dental office in California. I worked six years as a transcriptionist in an oral surgery firm, so this job was perfect for me (and them). Most medical transcription jobs are – well – medical and I’ve been tested up here and been told that I don’t have the terminology for medical.
The second is to write a book for a pastor based in New York. It’s not well paying, but it is the one I’m most looking forward to. We talked for nearly an hour and I really like his idea, and will be very proud to get this done for him!
