Writer’s Worth Day

Lori Widmer at Words on the Page has declared today, May 15, as Writer’s Worth Day. Lori is on a mission to educate writers that they deserve to be paid a reasonable rate for their work.

I know my readers are interested in this subject. Every time I check my stats, How Much Will It Cost? Average Freelance Editing Rates is second only to the home page in number of visits on this blog. The most popular search term readers use to find me through search engines is freelance editing rates.

Beginning writers often think they have to charge very low rates to get business. They discover that low prices may bring projects, but not the projects they want. Instead of enjoying their work and making a fair profit, they find themselves doing work they don’t like, dealing with difficult clients, and never making enough money.

I owned businesses for many years before becoming a freelancer, and I learned that customers who want low prices are usually the most difficult people to work with and the most likely to pay late or not at all. In my interior landscape business, a business owner called me to order a few plants. She asked me to give her discount price to care for the plants since we maintained the plants in the office building. I thought it made sense—my technician was right outside her door every week watering plants in the corridor. It wouldn’t take but a few minutes to step inside her office and tend to the handful of plants she ordered.

That woman and her five plants turned out to  take more time and energy than many clients with dozens of plants spread out over a whole floor. She screamed at the technician because one of her plants had a few yellow leaves, even though we explained that it was normal for plants to lose a few leaves each week. She called to complain that the technician was late, even though we made no commitment of when we would be there except during business hours on a specific day. She was always late paying the few dollars we charged her each month. Finally, I wrote her a letter saying that we obviously were not able to meet her needs, and we wanted her to find someone more appropriate for her needs. I refunded every penny she had paid me, including the cost of the plants, and told her to keep the plants. It was well worth a few hundred dollars to avoid the aggravation.

That lesson from another business taught me to charge a fair price for my work when I started freelancing.  If you’re new to freelancing and haven’t been in business before, you may be tempted to write a custom sample or take on a project at very low rates to get experience. Imagine the woman described above as your writing client. Instead of screaming about a few yellow leaves, she’ll be screaming about a word or comma she doesn’t like. Instead of calling your boss to complain that you’re late, she’ll be harassing you about a deadline. Instead of being late paying me the few dollars she owed me, she’ll delay paying you the few pennies you agreed to.

You can build a portfolio and experience without subjecting yourself to that. Write articles for your own blog or Web site. Donate your services to a nonprofit organization you support—just ask for a byline. Submit to an article database that others recommend as a marketing tool.

But don’t give your work away to a client who should be paying for your talent and skill. Maybe you don’t have enough experience to charge $75 or $100 or more an hour, but you don’t have to accept less than minimum wage.

You can find examples of typical rates and information on how to determine your prices in the following articles:

Editorial Freelancers Association
How Much Should a Freelancer Charge?
How Much Will It Cost? Average Freelance Editing Rates
How to Set Your Freelance Writing Rates
National Writers Union Survey of Freelance and Contract Writer Rates
Professional Fee Guidelines for Canadian Writers
Putting a Price on Your Capabilities
What are your prices for writing and editing services … and how much value do you give?

Guest Post at Confident Writing

Today I have a guest post at Confident Writing on Stick-to-it-iveness.

Joanna Young is conducting a writing seminar in Sardinia–don’t you feel sorry for her? During her absence, she invited other bloggers to guest post on the themes she has covered so far this year. Of course, I chose writing and tenacity.

I hope you’ll stop over at Confident Writing and say hi.

Thanks to April Commenters

	Thank you to the 125 commenters who left 175 comments in April. Your comments extended the conversation and added value and interest.
Top Contributor (12 comments)
wilson	Will You Mind
Major Contributor (9 comments)
Sriraj	Sriraj.org
Outstanding Contributors (4-8 comments)
Andrew	Good Honest Dollar
Helen Ginger	Straight from Hel
Anne	EZ Insurance Quotes
Bluestocking	The Bluestocking Guide
Terry	Pulse Uniform
Significant Contributors (2-4 comments)
Jeanne Dininni	Writers’ Notes
Jennifer	Piper Partners
Beatriz Kim	Beatriz Kim’s Memoir
Karen Swim	Words for Hire
Matt Keegan	Matt’s Musings
Renae	Morning Coffee
Rick	Velocity Networks
Stacie Vander Pol	n/a
T42P Laptop	T42P
Truby	Easy Stress Relief
Important Contributors
12mim	12 Month Internet Millionaire
air purifier	Breathe Better Air
Alex	WordPress 2.0 Spot-Er
Alina Popsecu	Words of a Broken Mirror
Amanda A.	Acai Berry Supreme
Andrew	Connectra
Andrew	VRTNO POHIŠTVO
Atmosck	n/a
Bakugan	Bakugan Buzz
Barbara Ling	Virtual Coach
Betty Sullivan La Pierre	Betty Sullivan La Pierre
black pride	Black Pride
Brad Shorr	Word Sell
Brandon	Hammond’s Video
Brandon Simpson	n/a
Cath	Cath Lawson
Cesar Alagar,Jr.	Cealagar
cheating spouse	Is Your Spouse Cheating?
Chaitanya Sagar	P2W2 Excel Expert
Chris	Executive Search Chicago
Chris	ITC Electronics
Christian Church Pastor	GospelHall.org
Connie Arnold	Inspirational Poetry of Joy and Peace
cookies franchise	Mrs. Fields Franchise
cooking games	Cooking Games
Dan	Daniel Molano
Dave	Workitect
David	Bloom House
David	SEM Labs
David White	Golf Gear
Dawn Colclasure	Dawn Colclasure Blog
Deb S.	Media by Sistrunk
Dr. Bruce	Faith and Facts
Ebony Tan	Reverse Cell Phone Lookup
Elaphotography	Elaphotography
Fantasy Girl	Best Fantasy Stories
flyer printing	Outsource.net
gagan	Miami Web Designs
George	Digital Third Coast
Gus	Geschenkewunder
Hilary	Employment  Background Investigations
Jack	Gry dla dzieci
Jacob	Chronic Bad Breath Cure
Jeff	Jeff o Now
Jermaine	Love Poems
Jimmy	Post Classifieds Blog
Joanna Young	Confident Writing
Joe	California Home Loans
John	J Squared Web Design
John P	US Free Ads
Julie	Williamsburg Golf Vacations
Laura	Montepellier Beauty Blog
Leo	Variable Annuity
Life Coach	Life Coach UK
Lloyd	Craison Legal Marketing
Lloyd	Perfect Bar Stools and Chairs
MarcyOne	1 Wedding Source
Marites	Pinay Lighter Side
Matt Keegan	Word Journey
Meryl K. Evans	Meryl’s Notes
Mickymar	Lilyputts
Milo	Phil & Ted’s Vibe
my web design	iNowWeb
Nancy	Insurance Quotes 4 Free
naru to	Scriptse
Nico Lorenz	The Brewed Life
Nussaibah	Ode to My Tainted Dreams
Paul	Microlise
Paul	Mini Marquees
Paul	Quick Property Sale
Paul	World of Mowers
Philip	Philip James Salon
pluto facts	Planet Facts
Portugese Embroidery	Portugal Web
PPCF 2.0	The Pay Per Click Formula
Real Estate Videos	RealeFlix
Rebecca Talley	Pursue Your Writing Dream
Review	Uprinting Reviews
Richard	Littman Brothers
River	Ezine Articles: Reverse Cell Phone Lookup
Robin	My Two Blessings
Robert Hruzek	Middle Zone Musings
Robyn McMaster	Brain Based Biz
Rosy	Goji Juice Goodness
Ruth Searle	Learning to Play Piano
Salwa	Blogriffic
San Diego Marketing	OTOI Marketing
Saudi Arabia	Unboxed
SEO Freak	Ecombase
SEO Tips	Lazy Jon
Sharon	Scraptown
Solomon	Creative Solomon
Spot	Spot Cool Stuff
Sriraj	Green Card Through Marriage
Stefani Twyford	Legacy Multimedia
Steve	Muscles Web
Sunlight Bingo	SuperFree Bingo
Susan	Neuroscience Blog
Terro	The Plum Duff
Thomas	PC Territory
Tom	Adjuvant Chemotherapy
Tom	DataLab
Tom	Netrostar
Tony	AC Doctor
Tracy	Science with Me
Van	WorldNet Long Distance
West Sussex Orthodontist	Forty Five Dental
Word Search Puzzle	Free Word Search Puzzle Games

 

Lessons from Community

A few years ago, when you talked about your community, you meant one of the first two definitions at Dictionary.com:

1. a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.
2. a locality inhabited by such a group.

Today, you’re just as likely to mean any group of which you are a part that shares common interests. Often, the communities we belong to are virtual: blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, Plaxo … and an infinite number of other groups, tightly or loosely structured, formal or informal. 

This month, Robert Hruzek at Middle Zone Musings has challenged us to write about What I Learned From… Community for his monthly group writing project. Compared to most bloggers, I’m a social media dud. I’m on Facebook and LinkedIn (and many more that I thoughtlessly joined when someone sent me an invitation). However, when I see “what are you doing now?”, I draw a blank. I’m not doing anything that would interest anyone else. I’m a poor friend to all the people I’ve invited or accepted as friends on the various social media networks. It’s not that I don’t want to connect with people—it’s just that sending a virtual plant or talking about what I’m doing or taking a quiz to see how much we’re alike doesn’t make me feel connected.

And the idea of Twitter is overwhelming to me. I see snippets posted on blogs, and they either don’t make sense to me or they seem to be a waste of time. I know many, many people love Twitter, make real friends, and find it productive. However, it appears to me to be like talking to people at parties—something I’m really bad at doing.

Guess I’m beginning to sound antisocial and the last person to understand community, much less learn anything from it. But I have a wonderful little community right here on my blog, and I’m part of the communities of other bloggers. Although I post a fair amount about writing, publishing, books, and authors, I have deliberately made this a personal blog so I’m not limited in what I write about. I post about my Christian faith, patriotism and troop support, and random musings.

That creates several sub-communities among my readers. Some like to read my Christian posts; some want to read about writing, publishing, books, and authors; some enjoy both; and some just find an occasional post of interest.

I’ve learned that small communities form when people share interests, even if only some of the interests are shared.

I confess I don’t pay as much attention to blog stats as I should. Recently, though, I looked at where my visitors come from and was surprised to see how many come from India, which is second only to the US. I have no idea why so many people from India visit my blog. If you’re one of those readers from India, maybe you can share in comments what attracts you here.

I’ve learned that geographic location or native language aren’t very important in determining who makes up a virtual community.

A significant number (125 to 200 each month) of my readers leave comments. Often, the comments are more interesting and informative than the post itself. Readers share their own knowledge and experience, which adds perspective that is missing from my post. They ask questions, which allows me to expand and explain my thoughts. They challenge me with different opinions, which requires me to evaluate and defend my own opinions and beliefs.

I’ve learned that conversation makes community interesting, entertaining, and educational.

DoFollow motivates many bloggers to leave comments, but as long as the comments are relevant, I appreciate them. Unfortunately, it’s becoming more difficult to separate legitimate comments from spam. Unless the person has left comments before, I delete comments that just say “great post” or “keep up the good work.” In some cases, those may be sincere, but so many of these are spam that I think they all are.

The spam that irritates me the most are those comments that quote part of my post or an earlier comment. If they quote my post or my comment, I catch it easily. But when they quote someone else’s comment on an old post, it’s not so easy to catch. So when I get comments on old posts, I go back and read all the previous comments before approving a new one. Although I could cut off comments after a certain time period, I don’t want to do that because I get valuable comments from people who go back and read the old posts when they discover my blog.

I’ve learned that some people try to gain the benefits of community without adding value, but that just makes me appreciate the community members that contribute even more.

Above all, I’ve learned that even a shy wallflower can be part of community and love it.

National Day of Prayer 2009

The National Day of Prayer has been observed on the first Thursday in May since 1952, when it was designated by Congress and signed into law by President Truman. The day is for citizens of all religious and spiritual traditions to come together in prayer for the welfare of our country.

The National Day of Prayer Task Force organizes and encourages Christian prayer events on the Day of Prayer. You will find information about events around the country as well as prayer resources on the site.

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. ~ 2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV)

2009 Prayer for Our Nation
by Beth Moore, Honorary Chairman, National Day of Prayer Task Force

Father in Heaven,
We lift our eyes toward Your Throne, where You reign in righteousness.
Your Word assures us that when Your people cry out in sincerity and humility, You will never turn a deaf ear to us.
We call upon You now, seeking Your forgiveness and favor.
Look over this fevered landscape and heal us, Lord.
Drop knees to the floor and raise eyes to the sky, for we know where our help comes from.
Unite these States again in devotion to You, and blur every dividing line.
Do not give us over to our sins. Give us, instead, over to passionate prayer that moves Your heart.
“May Your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in You.”
In the Name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ
Amen

Prayer for Our Country from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer

ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage; We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favour and glad to do thy will. Bless our land with honourable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogancy, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Presidential Prayer Team is holding an online prayer rally for the National Day of Prayer. I spent half an hour in the prayer rally in the wee hours of the morning.

If you are outside the US, you aren’t left out. The Global Day of Prayer is coming up on May 31st.

Making a Way and Other Overused Expressions

Most of us tend to overuse certain words and phrases. Sometimes we recognize the problem.  I often reply to comments with “I’m glad you found the post helpful/useful/valuable.” I know I’m repeating myself, but few blog visitors read comments and those that do probably read the comments on a single post rather than on multiple posts. So readers may not notice the repetition of an expression that I use a lot because, unlike many overused expressions, it says what I mean.

Often, however, we don’t even realize we are repeating ourselves. Someone else can pick up our overused expressions easier than we are ourselves—that’s one of many reasons having other people read your work can improve it. A couple of  advance readers of Dream or Destiny pointed out how often I used the word “rage,” often when it wasn’t a good description of the character’s emotions. I searched for the word and was amazed at how many times I’d used it. Replacing that repeated—and often inaccurate word—with a variety of other words made the book much stronger.

Lately, I’m seeing “making [a] way” overused in almost everything I read. Just as you may never have noticed blue cars before, as soon as you bring your own new blue car home, you see blue cars everywhere. Since I’ve been paying attention, I see “making [a] way” everywhere.

I first noticed it in a popular novel written by a best-selling author and published by a large, traditional publisher. It went something like this:

She made her way down the hall to the kitchen for dinner. After she ate, she made her way to the study to think about how hard it was for a single mother to make her way in the world. She had to make a way to earn more money. Her thinking didn’t produce any good ideas, so she made her way to the bedroom to get ready for bed.

Of course, this is what my husband Jack calls “embellished for effect.” However, “make a way,” “made her way,” or some variation appeared every few pages. The story was great, but I almost quit reading the book because the repetition of that phrase distracted me so much. How did the overuse of that phrase escape the editors?

After I finished the book, I started to edit a nonfiction book manuscript. I found the author “making his way” repeatedly. So I took a break from that job to do a sample edit for a client wanting a quote for editing a novel.

Yep, in the five pages I edited as a sample, I pointed out nearly a dozen repititions of “make  a way.”

Am I seeing blue cars (“making a way”)  just because I saw so many in that first novel or is everybody “making their” way time and again today?

Whether it’s “making our way” or “rage” or another overused expression, we strengthen our writing when we eliminate repetitions of the same word or phrase.

photo credit: Paul Beattie

Memoir and Family History: Part 6—Publishing and Distribution

Some memoirs and family histories will appeal to a wider audience and be appropriate for traditional publishing. If your story falls into that category, this installment won’t apply to you. Since the percentage of personal and family stories that are published by conventional publishers is small, I will focus on self-publishing and subsidy publishing in this section.

If you self-publish, you handle all the aspects of publishing yourself, negotiating and contracting with providers for work you cannot do yourself. If you use a subsidy publisher, you pay a publishing company to publish the book for you, an option if you are publishing a trade paperback or hardcover book. Learn more in the Self-Publishing Primer.

The first step is publishing your manuscript is to choose your format. Your choice will depend upon the size of your audience, your financial resources, and your method of distribution.

Your options include:

• Loose-leaf binder—If you are distributing copies only to immediate family members, you can print the pages on your computer printer or at a print shop, then insert them into three-ringer binders. This is inexpensive and easy; it also allows for additions if you write piecemeal as my mother did. You can print on high-quality paper and choose a binder with a clear plastic cover that allows you to insert a page as a book cover. If you’re printing only a few copies, you can include color photos in your book; color printing is too expensive in most other formats.
• Spiral bound—If you’re printing dozens or a few hundred copies, you can take a computer file with a camera-ready manuscript in a word processing program to a copy shop. The copy shop can print the pages (which can be either 8.5” x 11” or 5.5 x 11”) and bind the books with spiral or comb binding.
• E-book—You can convert your word processing file to a PDF file for electronic distribution. Adobe will convert up to five files for you at no cost, and there are several other free online servers to convert Word or other files to PDF. When you have your book in a PDF file, you can send it as an e-mail attachment or create a Web site where the file can be downloaded. An e-book is the most cost-effective way to deliver your book, but most people also want a physical copy of the book. You might consider offering the e-book for free and charging for a print edition.
• Trade paperback or hardcover—Trade paperbacks are larger and higher quality than mass-market paperbacks. They can be printed in small print runs (usually most cost-effective for at least 500 copies) and can also be printed digitally as print on demand (POD). Hardcover books are the most durable; however, they are also the most expensive and generally require a fairly large print run.

After your books are printed, you are ready to distribute them. This can be done in several ways:

• Gifts—If you publish loose-leaf binders for family members, you will probably give the books away because the cause is minimal. The cost is even less for e-books, so they can be freely given away as well.
• Sales—If you publish larger quantities or more expensive formats, you will probably need to be compensated for the books. Determine all your costs for writing and publishing the book and divide that number by the number of copies being distributed to determine the unit cost. You can sell the books at cost or increase the price to make a profit. Taking advance orders can help generate money to pay printing costs as well as help you determine how many books to print. Since most people tend to procrastinate, it helps to offer a discount for prepaid orders received before the specified deadline, which should be before you place the printing order. Even if you base your print run on the number of pre-orders you receive, be sure to order extra, both for late orders and for your future children and grandchildren.
• Combination—You may decide to give away books to immediate family but sell to extended family and others. Or, as mentioned earlier, you may give away the e-book and sell the print book. You might sell the book to everyone, but charge family members only the actual costs and charge other people a higher price. The choice is yours, based on your resources and desires.

No matter what format you choose or how you distribute your memoir or family history, you have created a legacy that will last—not only for your children and your grandchildren, but also for generations to come.

I hope you have found this series on writing memoirs and family histories helpful and wish you joy and success in your personal and family story writing.

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