NaNoWriMo is here

What is NaNoWriMo? It is National Novel Writing Month. It is the time aspiring writers write 50,000 words in a month in a type of online marathon. Everyone that completes the task is a winner.

 

The website is:

http://www.nanowrimo.org/

 

Signing up is free and they offer support, a cool blog of famous writers and even a cool store (yeah I just bought the T-shirt and other gear.)

There is also a local group I intend to try out of other novelists doing the same thing. I was not too lucky with a writer’s critique group before, but I intend to remain optimistic.

I have a novel I have played around for awhile, but it is a new idea that I intend to write about- a first story account from a cat who solves crimes involving the paranormal. Sounds weird right? I wrote a short story involving this cat, and my wife says I just have to roll with it and create a full length novel with the cat as the title character. We shall see!

On other news- I will be teaching a class on getting your book published in February in Hickory NC. If anyone is interested it will be a full day event (I think $100 per person) and it should be informative and fun. If you are interested, feel free to contact me or watch for updates here.

That’s about it I suppose. I am thinking hard about a plot with a cat that talks to a gypsy fortune teller that can actually communicate with him.

Back in the Proverbial Saddle

It has been quite sometime since I have written on my blog, although I see that people are still coming to read my meanderings. So quick update:

 

How To Open & Operate A Financially Successful Personal and Executive Coaching Business: With Companion CD-ROM (co authored)

eBay Income: How ANYONE of Any Age, Location, and/or Background Can Build a Highly Profitable Online Business with eBay REVISED 2ND EDITION

 

Both of these books are supposed to hit bookshelves before the end of the year.

 

The Complete Guide to Growing Your Own Hops, Malts, and Brewing Herbs: Everything You Need to Know Explained Simply (Back-To-Basics)

This title I believe just came out this week. I need to verify that!

 

In the meantime I have been doing a ton of freelance work on Gluten Intolerance, NLP, Hypnosis, and real estate. Friends have told me that I need to go on Jeopardy with all of the information crammed in my head. I’d probably just freeze up and drool.

 

So my new book is:

 

The Complete Guide to Water Storage: How to Use Tanks, Ponds, and Other Water Storage for Household and Emergency Use

It is actually much more exciting than it sounds. I have a good friend working with me who is an expert, so we can drink homebrew and compare notes.

 

The other thing I have started is Book coaching. I will talk about how this started in a later Blog, because it is an interesting story and turn of events.

So if you are interested in having me look at your manuscript or need someone to help motivate you to write and help you along the way- I am your man- send me an email.

Writing sometimes sucks

I have been working hard to finish my current book on beer gardens. It is complete. At this stage the publisher, fact checks, checks for plagiarism, spelling, grammar and they will comment on content. They will then return my poor butchered manuscript back for corrections.

This is tough and sometimes it just sucks. No one likes criticism, especially writers. I have a good friend who is writing a book and she does not want me to read it because she is afraid I might criticize it.

My true feeling is that writers need ALL of the criticism they can get. it is was makes a perfect copy not only top publish but also to send around to get a publisher or agent in the first place. This process makes it more likely someone will read it, because I can tell you sometimes my grammar sucks. I need someone objective to look at my work and shred it to make it better and me a better writer in the future.

Elance Upgrade

I was a little shocked when I logged onto my account on Elance. For those of you that do not know what Elance.com is, it is a marketplace for buyers and freelancers to get together.

 

Buyers place jobs that freelancers bid and and then the buyer chooses the best candidate and the work begins. This is where I get at least half of my work from. Elance charges high fees for bidding credits and then they charge a fee when you get paid.

After a job is completed, the buyer (and freelancer) have the ability to leave feedback and a score. The average of the scores for the past six months, the number of jobs and even lifetime average used to be displayed with my name when I bid on jobs.

Now they have created a level system. It is too complicated to describe here, but it includes how quickly I am getting jobs done, my feedback scores, and so on.

One of the GREAT things is that they are now penalizing freelancers for low balling bids. This creates price erosion and I think it is a great addition. It helps the average freelancer to make a decent wage.

 

I have not mentioned coffee in awhile, but I just bought a new “kit” for my coffee press. it contains a stirrer (dog ate it, grrr), a glass beaker that is graduated, a cleaning spatula (dig out the grounds), and a four minute timer that attaches to the press. I cannot find it online, only in the stores. If you have a press it is a great kit.

This is the press I use. Click and buy one. They are durable and keep your coffee hot. They make about 4 regular sized cups of coffee at one time.

Not all Work is Worth It

As I look for freelance jobs, sometimes there are jobs that seem like they pay a lot, but when I read the fine print I find that there is much more to it.

 

A perfect example is a job that lists a fee range of $1200 for articles. That sounds like a nice pay day right?

Often these types of jobs will have you write 400 articles. Yes, I said 400. So now you are working for $3 per article. These must be 500 + words, with keywords, all original and all the rights go to the client. Now how lucrative does it seem? Always ask for details before agreeing to a job.

The other type of job that can be misleading are the jobs advertising for an eBook. The job says they will pay $1000 for it. There are two areas that I look at before agreeing to this type of job. If there are 30 pages, which is the average size of an eBook, then this is a great paying job. If however it is over 200 pages, then I will be doing a whole of of work for about $5 a page.

The second thing I look at are the terms of payment. If an eBook is to be drug out over 3 months, then I will be waiting a long time for a payment, which means that the client has no money and is planning on trying to sell the book, before paying me for it. Do not work this way. The likelihood of you ever getting paid is slim.

Look carefully at the jobs before you bid or accept them. It can save you time, which means more money in the bank.

 

Have an Inky day!

Find Other Work To Do

These past few weeks I am reminded why I need many skills to be able to continue as a freelance writer.

 

I am able to do a number of things in a pinch to continue the money flow when things slow down- and last month it was slow.

I use the skills I learn while doing my jobs. One of the greatest skills I learned was WEB 3.0- which essentially is using social media (blogs, Twitter and Facebook) as marketing tools. I have a number of clients that I increased their sales (and I got paid) by being able to upgrade what they had.

The other thing that I learned to do was set up accounts to sell books on Amazon and create Kindle books for sale on Amazon.

Everything I learn from creating articles and ebooks for clients I tuck away, because you never know when that information might pay the rent.

 

Have an inky day.

Finished the Next Part of the Beer Book

I sent in my next 20k words to the publisher Friday. May not sound like a lot but let me break it down for you.

350 words per page. So that is about 57 pages. I had about 9 days to do it, so it was about 6.3 pages a day. When you are creating a non fiction book you must do research and so while a little over 6 pages may not seem like a lot there is time to research, and then create things in a logical order that fits with what the rest of the chapter and book is about. There are considerations like placement of the information, illustrations or graphics that may go along with it, and defining new words both in the text of the chapter and as a word to place in the glossary. I have to update the table of contents, edit, re edit, proof, re edit, write a little bit more and edit, re edit, re edit, proof, re edit. You get the point.

So I am left with at best creating 1 page per hour of solid submitable work. In between I have to eat, walk the dog, communicate with other human beings and do other things that life requires. I end up working between 10-12 hours a day. This is not all at once, it is broken up between 7:30 AM- 11:00 PM or later.

This is not a post to complain, rather it is a testimony of the reality of making a living as a writer.