Jen's Writing Journey

Welcome to May! Here are some of the best links of the past week to help motivate us as we begin our new writing week.

The Business of Writing | Craft | Fiction | Freelancing | Platform | Money

The Business of Writing

• Ads Open a Fresh Chapter in the New World of Publishing: Will you, as a reader, stand for ads in your books? Would you, as a writer, be willing to drop a name or two in exchange for a little cash?
• 17 Great Information Sources for eBook Authors: A set of sites that will help you self-publish your book.
• On Agency Agreements: Info about the contract you will sign with your agent.
• Writing versus Publishing: Why do you write? And why do you seek publication? Are the two intertwined?

Craft

• What Inspires You to Write? Johanna Harness discusses how applying our creative selves to another art form can help us as writers.
• Watch That Tone of Voice, Missy: A good discussion of tone and how to set it.
• 30 Days of Writing Tips, Day 2: Read It Out Loud: You will find different types of errors and areas for improvement when you experience your writing in different formats.
• Beyond the Book: Thea Harrison on Where She Gets Her Ideas: I always love reading stories about how published authors get their ideas. It is fun to see the similarities and differences in all of our processes.

Fiction

• I Write Romance Novels, So I Must Be a Pervert: Is your fiction you, or are you able to separate your work, even when it contains unpleasant or difficult topics, from your life? Do you think the parents were justified in being unhappy that Judy Mays is teaching their high school age kids?
• Better Than Renting Out a Windowless Room: The Blessed Distraction of Technology: Is your novel still languishing unfinished? What can you do to be more disciplined and get it done?
• 30 Seconds to Grab Em or Die: How can you ensure that your first few lines capture the attention of editors, agents, and readers?
• If You’re a Writer, Read This: What a nice reminder that we need to persevere, even when we feel as if every word we type is pure, unadulterated crap.

Freelancing

• Short-Term Money Is Killing Me: How do you balance your short-term client work with long-term projects and your own projects?
• Shh, Mommy’s Working Now: A nice look at how to work while you are caring for your kids. Do you get up early? Stay up late? Or work while they entertain themselves?

Platform

• 5 Keys to Promoting Your Book with a Blog: Julie Isaac gives some great ideas to help you invigorate your blog posts and engage your readers in the act of promoting you.

Money

• Confused by Your Book Royalty Reports? Chip MacGregor helps you decode your royalty reports.

Related Posts:

• Writing Roundup, June 24
• Writing Roundup, June 10
• Writing Roundup, April 18
• Writing Roundup, February 2, Groundhog Day Edition
• Writing Roundup, July 22

The Business of Writing | Craft | Fiction | Freelancing | Platform | Money

The Business of Writing

• Critique My Query: What can you learn from this video query critique? What lessons will you use to punch up your queries and make the sales you need?
• Publishing Your Book Digitally: Some things to think about when you consider self-publishing.
• The Most Popular Publishing Stories of the Week: These are some good ones, including the Time 100 and GE as a publisher.
• Digital Book Subscriptions: Dear Author presents their take on the concept of digital book subscriptions. Do you think the system would work for you as a reader? How about as a writer?
• Faking It: So, yet another memoir is revealed to be faked to some extent. Is it a big deal? Do you expect absolute truth from a memoir? Is it realistic to?

Craft

• 10 Best Books for Aspiring Writers: I will admit I’ve only read about half of these books. And I was surprised not to see On Writing on the list. Have you read these books? Are any of your favorites missing?
• Writing That Matters: Whether you are a freelancer or a novelist, you need to make sure your writing matters enough for someone to spend their hard-earned money on.

Fiction

• Simon Says … William Simon, That Is: How do you increase the tension in your story? A big fat gun can be a good way. William Simon guests at Musetracks to give you the information you need about guns to make them real, even if you’ve never even seen a gun in real life.
• Primary versus Secondary Characters, Part 1: A great set of posts (part 2 is here) to help you keep you characters straight.

Freelancing

• A Freelancers Guide to Cloud Hosting versus Geo Hosting: Are you prepared for the time when your site traffic outpaces your hosting plan’s capability? This is a great description of the cloud hosting option, which can be much more cost-effective than buying your own dedicated server and connection.

Platform

• Building Your Reputation as a Guest Blogging Powerhouse: Guest blogging can be a great way not only to increase your profile in the world but also to build incoming links to your own blog or website.
• Author Marketing 101: Keep your angst to yourself, and spend most of your time actually writing, not marketing, are the two gems I got from this outline of marketing ideas. What did you learn?
• The Fate Factor: How much of your marketing is hard work, and how much is fate, luck, or the universal energy converging in the right place at the right time? Does it matter?

Money

• How I Learned about Frugality from Decluttering: This reader at Get Rich Slowly looks at the lesson to be learned from throwing out the junk. I mean, why not be more careful when buying stuff so that you don’t have to waste your time decluttering in the future? But what does this have to do with writing? Well, I find myself loading up on writing books and other procastination vehicles when my story isn’t flowing freely. This costs money and prevents me from earning money because I’m spending my time reading instead of writing. Can you cut your writing book budget and increase your writing cash flow?
• The Value of Maintaining an Inventory of All Your Stuff: Awesome freelancer Thursday Bram wrote this piece for Money Ning. The tips she gives a re general, but their is also a further benefit for writers. If you have a good inventory, you will have an easier time with your taxes–you’ll have the records you need all in one place.

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Craigslist can be a great source of writing jobs, but it can be littered with scam artists and postings for free content. Last time I checked, my mortgage company doesn’t care a thing about any exposure I get from writing for free–they prefer that I use actual money I have earned to make my monthly payment. I’m assuming you are all in the same situation, but if you have found a creditor who takes exposure in trade for payments, let me know!

Because making money doing what I love is my goal, I have learned to look beyond craigslist to find jobs.

1. Network in person. Attend local networking events to meet people, hand out your business cards, and put a face to a name. That personal connection can help you be top of mind when the business owners you meet need a writer.
2. Look at non-journalism job boards. There are a lot of non-specific job boards you can use to find writing work. For example, if you have expertise in a field that has a nonprofit associated with it, you can look at job boards specifically posting nonprofit jobs. Search for your field to find associations tied to that field or generalize a little with a search for “writer” or “freelance.”
3. Use postings for full-time jobs to help you find markets to query. Typically, a person gives two weeks notice when they leave a job. Unless there is a succession plan in place, the company takes at least four weeks to replace the person. During that time, they may need a little extra contract help to get them through the hiring process and the first month or two of the new employee’s tenure. If you do a stellar job, you may be able to get regular work even from a company that didn’t plan to use contract help in the long term. You can find these opportunities in the local paper or local online classifieds.

Where do you go to find work?

Related Posts:

• Writing Roundup, June 24
• Writing Roundup, June 10
• Writing Roundup, May Day-ish Edition
• Writing Roundup, April 18
• Writing Roundup, March 28

The Business of Writing | Craft | Fiction | Freelancing | Platform | Money

The Business of Writing

• Brainstorming Non-Bookstore Sales: If you don’t sell your book in a bookstore, where can you sell it? And why?
• Publishing Your Book Digitally: Some things to think about when you consider self-publishing.
• Book Publisher Challenges: Discounters: How can a small publisher–with a thin margin–handle discounting?
• 99 Cent Ebooks and the Tragedy of the Commons: Last week, I pimped Jane Friedman’s new book as a good deal and $1.99. Here, Nathan Bransford discusses the effect on the 99 cent ebook on our economy as writers.

Craft

• 20 Great Similes from Literature to Inspire You: A little lesson in the difference between similes, metaphors, and analogies, followed by some examples from great literature. Do you have any faves from this list or from another written work?
• Writers: Are We Always Honest with Each Other? A look at our ability to give feedback to our fellow writers.
• A Foolish Consistency: If you have spent any time on the site Television without Pity, you know that fans of your work do not find consistency foolish–they find it essential. Of course, it is not just essential in fiction. Consistency helps all writing read better.

Fiction

• Deep POV: How to Avoid Head hopping: The final installment on a primer in deep point of view.
• Where Do Ideas Come From? Is it the muse? The energy of the universe? Or your own writer brain generating your livelihood? Kelly Boyce discusses her process.

Freelancing

• Query Critique Week: Shyness Query: Have you made some of these missteps in your own queries? How can you use James-Enger’s tips to make your queries dazzle?
• Magazine Writing Questions Answered: A look at some of the big questions about writing for magazines from an experienced freelancer.
• Self-Employed? Home-Based Business? Tax Info from an IRS Spokesperson: If you are still working on your taxes, well get off the Internet and get to it! Seriously, though, here are some tips that can help you finish things up today and help you prepare for next year.

Platform

• Building a Global Author Platform with Social Media: Does your platform need a boost? These tips can help you grow to where you need to be.
• 5 Innovative Poets to Watch and Learn From: How can these poets work inspire you to invigorate your own writing?
• The Importance of Branding: Do you have a brand?

Money

• I Heart Tax Prep: Did you learn anything about your spending patterns when you did your taxes this year? Did you enact some changes for this year?

Related Posts:

• Writing Roundup, June 24
• Writing Roundup, July 22
• Writing Roundup, June 10
• Writing Roundup, May 9
• Writing Roundup, May Day-ish Edition

The Business of Writing | Craft | Fiction | Freelancing | Platform | Money

The Business of Writing

• Guest Post by Mark Coker, Creator of Smashwords: J.A. Konrath hosts the creator of Smashwords. Coker provides some interesting insight into self-publishing.
• The First Ever Write It Sideways Blogging Contest: Here is a nice opportunity to get some publicity and some feedback on your blog or website.
• Top 10 Blogs for Writers: Do you visit these blogs regularly? Which ar your favorites? I’d love to hear your recommendations in the comments.
• An Interview With Jane Friedman About “The Future Of Publishing: Enigma Variations” E-book: Jane Friedman shares her predictions for the future of publishing. Have you bought her book yet? At only $1.99, it is a darn good deal. (I bought it, but it is still in my virtual TBR pile. I’ll be posting a review when I finish.)
• Sell Your Books to Organizations: Does your book have appeal to a large organization? If so, this post can help you find the right ones to approach.
• Book Distribution in the Digital Age: The New World Order Emerges: What lessons can we learn from the digital shift in the music industry?

Craft

• Grammar’s Dirty Little Secret: I love the Fake AP Stylebook Twitter feed. And they are right: grammar is simply a construct. Certain rules apply over multiple style guides, but many differ. This really makes grammar look like smoke and mirrors to those who don’t work in publishing in some way!
• Does Pro Editing Pay Off: This is a nice look at when you should spend the money on an outside editor and when you should keep plugging away on your own.
• When You Hate the Book You’re Writing, Part 1: Are you sick and tired of your book? If so, you can commiserate with Lynette Benton and, I hope, get some tips to help you fall back in love.

Fiction

• Why You Need to Make Yourself Completely Unavailable: This post, which argues that sometimes we need to completely disconnect to enhance our creativity, makes me think of Stephen King’s suggestion of writing with the door closed for your first draft. The Internet, TV, even family members can distract us from our creative processes.
• Just Write the Story: Quit tying yourself up in knots and just write. You know, back to writing with the door closed. Turn off your inner editor and get that first draft done.

Freelancing

• 6 Great Ways to Use Email Marketing to Find Work: Is email part of your marketing plan? If not, this post might help you integrate it successfully.
• Carve a Niche and Create Your Own Demand with “Query-Free Freelancing”: How would your freelancing business change is you didn’t have to spend so much of your time pitching and querying?
• Marketing a Key Component of Freelance Work: The SCORE counselors discuss marketing tips.
• When (and How) to Leave Your 9-to-5 for the World of Freelancing: Do you have a day job? If so, do you know when (or if) you will leave it to devote your entire work time to freelancing?

Platform

• 30 Inspiring Ideas to Develop Content for Your Blog: A great source of inspiration when you are struggling for blog topics.
• The Aspiring Author’s Blog Isn’t Just about Platform: Are you blogging? What are you hoping to gain from it? This post will help you focus on what is important, especially if you are a newer author.
• Author, Sell Thyself: An interesting look at the importance of marketing ourselves as writers, not just the books we produce.
• How to Grow a Blog Community with Social Media: A nice video with tips to create more engagement in your blog.

Money
I’m going to send you to the entire money week discussion on Nathan Bransford’s blog (remember, I mentioned it in Friday’s post). He did a great job of looking at the different financial issues we need to think about for our futures.

• Self-Publishing versus Traditional Publishing: Which Will Make You More Money?
• How to Make Money from Your Web Presence
• How to Use Kickstarter to Fund a Self-Published Book
• How Will Authors of the Future Make Money?

Related Posts:

• Writing Roundup, July 22
• Writing Roundup, June 24
• Writing Roundup, May 9
• Writing Roundup, April 18
• Writing Roundup, June 10

Nathan Bransford has been running a series this week on how writers can make money. One of his posts led me to a 2008 editorial on how authors might sell books at a low cost (or even give them away) to market their ancillary activities, such as live author readings.

This all makes me wonder whether we need to return to the old-school model of artists and their patrons. A writer would receive a stipend (or just send all of their bills) to a wealthy patron who would cover their expenses so they could just write and share their writing.

Would writers thrive under such a system? Would patrons exert influence over our finished work such that we would feel like “the man” was keeping us down? How would we share our work beyond our patrons?

Read the editorial here, and check out Nathan’s posts on his blog.

Related Posts:

• Writing Roundup, February 2, Groundhog Day Edition
• Book Review: Overcoming Underearning by Barbara Stanny
• Writing Roundup, June 24
• Writing Roundup, June 10
• Writing Roundup, May Day-ish Edition

I have always enjoyed referring to myself in the third person. I know many people find it annoying, but it amuses me.

Because of that, I often refer to myself as “Jen” in my internal monologue. Well, until recently, that is.

I have caught myself using “Mommy” in my internal monologue even when my son isn’t around.

It all started innocently enough, with conversations with the baby in which I let him know that “Mommy is hungry” or tired or whatever else I think he should know at the time. But I didn’t notice it creeping into my head.

Now that I am a mom, I find myself identifying in that role more and more. Now I’m not just Jennifer Roland, writer and editor, I am also Jennifer, wife and mother. Those shifting roles have led me to pursue more mother-focused writing assignments. I’ll keep you apprised as that specialty grows.

How have your life roles affected your writing identity and career?

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In March of last year, my dog died. He was only three years old, so it was quite unexpected. I’ve lost pets before, so I know it is possible to get through it, but this time was different. I was also pregnant at the time.

I looked all over the Internet and the pregnancy magazines trying to find an article that would reassure me that my grief would not affect my pregnancy negatively. I found nothing. Everything written about pregnancy and grief seemed to focus on the loss of a pregnancy.

Of course, when you are pregnant, all you do is pee and go to the doctor, so I was able to talk to my midwife first to reassure myself and second to find out whether she knew of any resources. She also drew a blank, even looking in the specialized medical literature. (Note to obstetric researchers: This is a topic you could differentiate with.)

Now that I knew that my negative emotions and stress would most likely not cause complications for my baby, I looked ahead to find ways to process my grief. Like most writers who lose a beloved pet, my first instinct was to write an essay about Aries and how amazing he was in his short time with us. And I did that, but I did not look at that essay as a publishable item. That was just for me.

Instead, I decided to tackle the topic no one had and write an article about how women can cope with a loss during pregnancy that is not related to miscarriage.

I found other women who had experienced loss of a parent or a pet while they were pregnant. They told me about how they, like me, felt guilty when they were excited about their pregnancy. They shared their sadness that their child would never know the person or pet who had died. And they talked about how they processed their grief. Some focused on their little bundle of joy. Some looked to maintain the connection between their baby and their lost loved one. And some found amazing ways to honor their fallen through action.

I found experts to talk about how women could process their grief and maintain a healthy emotional balance. In the process, I created a resource that all women can use to help them handle a negative situation that happens during their pregnancy.

Read it on Pregnancy360.com, then come back here and let me know how you have used your life experiences–positive and negative–to influence your writing. We talked a little bit about this last week, so this week, let’s drill down and give some specifics. Links to your work online are appreciated!

Related Posts:

• Book Review: The Productive Writer by Sage Cohen

Visit me there for tips to get good clips.

My post will be of  obvious use to a new freelance, but those of you who are looking to branch out into a new specialty should find good ideas there, too.

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Confidence is one of the most important factors in landing a gig.

With confidence, your query letter, job post response, or proposal will soar. It will be obvious that you are a consummate professional, aka the right writer for the job.

As we begin this week, I challenge you to send out at least one query or job proposal. But pump yourself up before you write it. Be your own biggest cheerleader. Then, and only then, are you allowed to sit down and draft anything. See the difference in your finished product when you enter into it knowing you are the best person for the gig.

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