WordCount rerun: Think big
If big media can beat the recession by repackaging what they do to get more customers, freelance writers can too. Here’s how to copy what the big boys are doing.
Freelance link love, for Friday, May 30
Here’s what I’ve been reading this week: The Editor Unleashed The Editor Unleashed Guide to Good Blogging – Good advice from the former editor of Writer’s Digest. The Huffington Post 13 tips for actually getting some writing done The Urban Muse I Said, He Said, We Said – Picking a point of view for your [...]
Is it time for freelancers to take a full-time job?
On Monday the House voted down the Bush Administration’s $700 billion Wall Street bail out and stocks took their biggest dive in 20 years. People are freaking out over lost retirement savings and whether they’ll be able to make their mortgage payments. There’s a presidential election in five weeks, and who knows what change that [...]
Taking Time Off
Sometimes even the most hard-core freelancer has to step away from the keyboard and recharge the old writing batteries. I did last over the past week on a trip to central Oregon. Not far from Bend, I hiked the Deschutes River Trail, which passes waterfalls like this one, Dillon Falls. I also skied at Mt. [...]
A Few Words on Writing Short
There are no short cuts to writing short. It’s hard. It takes practice. Even Mark Twain thought so, as he famously said: “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” There are, however, a few good reasons to try: FOB – A magazine’s “front of the book” [...]
Taking My Own Advice on Beating Bad Times
It happened. Earlier this week, the editor of a magazine I’ve been writing for told me she can’t buy more freelance pieces until summer because of budget cuts. It’s the first time in years that economic cutbacks have directly affected my business. It’s also bad news because I’d just pitched a story I thought was [...]
WordCount Q&A: Marketing your freelance business in bad times
The publishing industry is in tumult. Publications are trying to do more with less – less advertising revenue, editorial staff and readers. Throw worries about a recession into the mix, and it means trouble for freelance writers who depend on magazines, newspapers and customer publishers for their livelihoods. Or does it? Not necessarily. Hard times [...]
Best Blogs for Writers
When writers aren’t writing, they’re reading about how to be a better writer, or be a better marketer of their writing, or about who else they could be writing for. That’s what I found when I asked freelance, newspaper and magazine writers and editors to name some of their favorite blogs for writers. It’s an [...]
The Myth of the Paperless Office
Computers were going to wipe out paper. That’s what we believed back at the dawn of the PC era. Twenty-six years later, people are still overwhelmed by the stuff. Face it, getting rid of paper completely won’t happen. It’s too big a part of our lives. The thing is, it doesn’t have to be as [...]
Asking the Hard Question – Top 10 Interview Tips
Not long ago, a writer in a freelance group I belong to posted a question on the group message boards. She had an interview scheduled with a subject who had a reputation for being grouchy and wanted to know how to prepare. It’s a great question. Reporters are thought of as thick-skinned hacks who can [...]
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