Today I wanted to share a few writing blogs I read regularly that I think get paid less attention that they deserve. So many sites out there rehash the same information over and over and over again—they are worth keeping up with, for the rare occasion that they mention something new, but few sites really manage to offer new fresh content regularly. Each of these 3 are the exception to the rule. They continually provide new ideas and new perspectives from experts who are out there walking the walk every day.

The Renegade Writer

www.therenegadewriter.com

Run by Linda Formichelli, this site provides tips for the professional writer—Linda is full of great ideas for looking at writing in a different light. From her post on “Opposite Ideas,” a way to turn around evergreen topics to great unique new story ideas, to “How to make a full-time income on a part-time schedule,” the topics she shares are important ones for freelancers. They are practical and smart. She also offers a free packet of 10 Query Letters, for writers who are trying to perfect their pitch. Personally, I love reading other people’s queries and learning what I can about what lands an assignment (and what doesn’t).

Dollars and Deadlines

www.dollarsanddeadlines.blogspot.com

Written almost exclusively Kelly James-Enger, Dollars and Deadlines is one of my all time favorite blogs (and not just because I was the winner of one of her recent giveaways—stay tuned for her critique on my query letter). Kelly has done it all—she is a ghost writer, writes magazine articles, has written and published books (both self-published, POD and traditionally). She shares everything in a matter-of-fact, up front way like in this post on POD (Print on Demand) sales that breaks down what she’s actually made on one of her books and how it stacks up to books she has published in other ways. She also puts together great post round-ups, like her month of templates (13 in all! Including a query, an LOI and a trade pitch) or this one on 10 Common Freelancing Mistakes and how to fix them. Basically, this is a site you don’t want to miss.

Pro Copy Tips

www.procopytips.com

Pro Copy Tips is a different beast entirely than the other two sites mentioned here. Dean Rieck has been writings copy professionally for 25 years as a TV producer, fundraising development director, agency creative, textbook writer and freelancer. The man can write sales copy. He pulls no punches on his site—he shares the things kind of “real” information that so many others dance around. Dean shares the kind of information that you know you should know… like this post, on How to Write Hot Button Sales Copy in a Recession.

His posts are examples of what blog posts should be… each convinces you he knows his business in a way you can never hope to do, while helping teach you how to do it. It gives you information you want, while simultaneously demonstrating his expertise. I wish I could write like Dean (hey, I’m working on it). Other posts of his I’d recommend? This one (on the psychology of fixed action patterns—by taking about a male robin), and this one (12 Boring Copywriting Tips that Lead to Exciting Results) and this one (about writing compelling teaser copy). Seriously guys, check him out.

[Photo Credit: Phil Scoville]

He knows he can count on me to deliver the quality he needs and to understand the publication’s audience and tone. So it just makes sense to him to give me the work, rather than assigning it to another freelancer. As my most regular client by far at this point, when he emailed me recently asking me if I had time to take on an emergency assignment, it was really hard to say no.

Why I Accepted the Assignment

First of all, the piece would mean another $250 added to my bank account; and since I’m still new enough that the future feels uncertain, that made for serious temptation. Second, I didn’t want to tell him no, because it might mean he wouldn’t come to me with similar pieces in the future. Third, it didn’t seem like a time consuming assignment; it was just a company profile, so it only required doing one interview and writing the piece up based on that information.

What I didn’t count on was how difficult it would be to reach someone at the company who could set me up with someone to interview on such short notice; I only had 3 days to turn around the assignment.

Where Things Went Wrong

The piece might only require one interview, but I had a lot of difficulty getting someone at the company on the phone to do that interview. They were all at an industry event, and weren’t available. I kept the editor in the loop, and he pushed back my deadline from Friday to first thing Monday. Finally, after trying since Tuesday, I got someone on the phone on Friday evening.

That was the same weekend that I spent 4 hours at the vet while on deadline for another assignment. So I didn’t get to do anything with that interview until Sunday. On Sunday I worked all day on the piece; I transcribed the interview and pieced it together any additional information I needed from their website and a special anniversary site they had created for their 50th anniversary last year.

I finally finished the profile just in time for the extended deadline, and sent it out at 2:21 AM Monday morning. In the end, it was an extra $250. And once I got the interview, the piece didn’t take that long to put together. But not being able to get ahold of someone at the company almost made me miss the deadline (if I didn’t know the editor so well, it might have been a huge issue—fortunately, by communicating what was going on, I managed to get an extension instead) and an unexpected emergency threw things even more out of order. While I would probably still accept the assignment if placed in the same situation today, I’d definitely have more to think about…

What about you? Ever not thought out accepting an assignment? Had something crazy go wrong? Or maybe just bit off more than you could chew…? Tell me about it. 

P.S. Check out my guest post from last week over at Diary of a Mad Freelancer. I share some secrets I learned while working behind the scenes as a business to business magazine editor. 

[Photo Credit: Klynslis]

She has a large fenced backyard where she puts the dogs out during the day. Saturday night I let the dogs in, and one of them had a large gash down his side; he was bleeding all over the place. You could see the muscle underneath. It was terrible.

I called my uncle, who lives down the street, and we hauled the dog down to the emergency vet clinic half an hour away. We were there for four hours.

And, as if all that isn’t bad enough—I was on deadline for a client project. Ut oh. 

Clearly I wasn’t going to email my client while the dog was bleeding on the floor. Fortunately, I hadn’t been procrastinating; the project was mostly done. When we got home from the vet clinic that night I hopped straight on the computer and emailed her to let her know what was going on. I told her that I’d had an emergency (and what it was) and that I’d still have the project finished that evening, but it would probably be VERY late that evening.

True to my word I stayed up late that night until the project was finished and emailed it over to her. She emailed me to thank me for keeping her in the loop and we’re already discussing her next project.

Sh!t happens; the key is keeping your clients informed and then doing your best to make things right.

Have you ever had something go wrong while working on a project? How did you handle it? 

PS. Check out my guest post over on Suess’s Pieces today, From Writer to Writer, where I shared my top tips for freelancing. 

[Photo: Scottie and his staples]

Oh, and one more thing: she asked me if I’d be a judge for the writing contest. So sharpen those pencils (dust off those keyboards?), check out her prompts and  link to your contest entry over on her blog. I can’t wait to see some familiar names and sites as part of the contest.

How the heck will I make any money?

Well, I’m glad you asked. As a new freelancer, there are people who think I’m crazy, leaving a stable job and a life where I manage to make ends meet every month, for a life that’s unpredictable, where I’ll never know where my next dollar is coming from. But what they don’t know is that I’ve got a plan.

The Big Bold Plan

In most lines of work when you want to start a business, a business plan is the obvious first step. Laying out what you plan to sell, to whom, how and financial projections. Just like in any other type of business, a freelancer needs to think about these questions. While it may be possible to freelance and make enough money to survive without thinking out an income strategy, life will be much easier with one in place.

Writing one doesn’t have to be complicated. Personally, there are three ways I plan to earn income–essentially, three services I will market and perform.

First, since my full time employment was as a writer/editor at a magazine company, I plan to continue pitching and writing for magazines. I left my company on good terms and my previous boss has agreed to give me a regularly paying gig as a monthly columnist.

Second, I’ll be pitching my skills as an editor to a number of ebook writers. I’ve already worked with a few authors and small business owners, helping them craft ebooks as a additional revenue stream for their businesses, and I want to grow my share of this market.

Third, I will continue to work as a freelance copywriter, helping small business owners put their passions into words. This includes writing website copy, brochures, press kits and other tools that help small businesses grow.

Go For the Goal

In order to hold myself accountable and ensure my biggest fears don’t come true and I don’t run my savings account dry with nothing to show for it, I’ve set a number of goals for myself.

I’ve estimated my cost-of-living and created an excel sheet with my savings, how much I plan to pay myself each month, and financial income goals… which all sounds really boring, but I’ve already booked enough work to make my September and October goals and being able to see how things will work out has helped ease my fears of the future.

In order to share with the big wide world that I’m open for business (and to bring in work so I can hit my November-and-beyond goals) I’ve been guest posting at a number of sites, revamping my social media accounts, doing some advertising and doing a hell of a lot of pitching. I’m planning to create an ebook on how to set up a basic wordpress website, since that’s something I get asked about at least twice a week.

Superb Support

Finally, I have a number of people who are helping me making this possible. First, there are my fellow freelancers–people really doing it–who have volunteered their knowledge and experience. They willingly share what they know and offer their advice when asked. Second, I have a number of industry connections who have promised me work and recommendations. Third, I have my family and friends, who are excited to watch me take on this new adventure… and an adventure it will be.

Freelancers, what do you wish you’d done before going full time that I haven’t mentioned here? Do you have a business plan? And for the other newbie’s out there…. Any questions on my plans that might help you in the future? 

[Photo credit: flickr.com user Lauren Garza]

I arrived in NC on Tuesday about midday and spent that evening as well as the rest of the week working. The thing that surprised me most? How much it doesn’t feel like work. Not having to go into an office and sit at a desk for 8 hours a day has meant I work from about 9:30 in the morning until close to midnight most days–but there are many more breaks, including some that last a couple of hours. As a result, I feel fresher and actually accomplish more.

I’ve also been surprised by how busy I’ve been. I expected my first few weeks to be full of downtime, as I worked to fill my client roster. Instead I’ve written guest posts for several sites and landed a new editing client; I researched sources for two articles I have in the works for a bridal magazine and interviewed others for a piece I’m working on for Pet Business. I also began to put together a new project that will hopefully create some reoccurring revenue with a minimal input of time each month (more on that later). Basically, I’ve been crazy busy.

While freelancing part time I didn’t understand how full-timers could just not have time to market themselves. Duh, I thought, it’s important and it should be a part of your week. But during week one I didn’t have any time to work on personal projects–with the exception of beginning to break down what I have to do to launch a syndicated newsletter.

Another thing that I just didn’t get was how hard it would be to stop working. As I mentioned, I’ve worked from 9:30 until midnight most days; this weekend I knew I needed to step away from the computer. But upcoming deadlines combined with not knowing many people in my new locale, it makes it way too easy to justify banging on my keyboard for just a little longer. This weekend I wound up putting things down and helping my Uncle build my Grandmother a new shed (yeah, I did that). But clearly shed-building is not an every-weekend occurrence. So some other way of finding balance needs to happen.

That said, it was a pretty damned good first week, all-in-all.

More From Me

Check out some of places I visited on the inter-webs this week (more to come):

• The wonderful Thursday Bram interviewed me about going freelance full time. I shared what financial steps I took to prepare for going freelance and what I’m looking forward to most. 
• I posted over on Wringing Out Words why even a self published author needs an editor. The piece got some great comments, and the piece explains not just WHY an editor is a good idea, but WHAT you pay that editor to do.
• And finally, my favorite piece of the bunch, I shared what inspired me to walk out on a rather comfortable life and take the big risk that freelancing truly is–why I exchanged feeling “comfortable” for feeling “challenged.”

[Photo credit: flickr.com user L Gnome]

This is a new series here on Jargon Writer. I announced recently that I’m heading into the world of freelancing full time–but I learned a lot while working full time as a trade editor, and wanted to share those lessons and tips with you. 

In the last three years I’ve done more phone interviews that I could count for more articles than you’d want to read. During that time I’ve picked up some tips and tricks for keeping the interview process smooth, your information organized and to ensure you come off as professional as possible.

1. Send Questions Beforehand

Generally when you talk to someone who isn’t a professional public speaker they say “like” and “um” a lot. They use filler words while they think. By providing your interviewee with the questions ahead of time they can prepare their responses–or at least think a bit about them, which will make for smoother responses that they have to think about less–and therefore fewer “um” and “likes.”

2. Ask: Is this still a good time for you?

Once you get the person on the phone immediately ask them if it’s a good time for them to talk–even if it’s a time of their choosing. Sometimes things come up and if it’s no longer a good time they will rush the interview or be distracted. In either case, it’ll be a less informative interview. If they need to reschedule set up another time to talk. They’ll appreciate your courtesy.

3. Re-state What the Piece Will be About

Turn on your voice recorder, then briefly explain what your story will be about, who the audience is and the angle you’re planning to take. Likely in your initial point of contact (whether on the phone or via email) you told the person what your article was going to be about, but it’s always a good idea to rehash this information so that it’s fresh in their mind. And by doing it after you turn on your recorder, you have that information up front so that when you begin playing back interviews, you can immediately tell what piece that interview was for.

4. Ask the Interviewee For Their Vitals

Ask the interviewee to spell out their full first and last name, get their job title and their company name right at the beginning of the interview. If the company name is more than one word, confirm that they use a space between them (horror story–I once forgot to do this and we had to pay extra to pull the page back from the printer at last minute to fix a company profile where I had inserted a space and it didn’t belong). As with my tip in rehashing the topic, doing this before asking questions means when you go through your interviews later you can easily identify who each interview was with–and you can check final citations after writing your story without having to re-listen to the entire interview again.

5. Take Typed Notes & Don’t Transcribe

Transcription is definitely the most time consuming (and in my mind, least fun) part of the writing process. Fortunately, if you take good notes during the interview you may be able to avoid it completely. Instead of transcribing an entire interview, I generally go back and just listen to the interview a second time while re-reading the notes i took. When I come across a good point or a statement that would make a good quote, I transcribe just that section. This alone has saved me hours when writing pieces.

Do you have any interview tips? Disagree with one of my points (like that you should send questions before hand, which I know is controversial)? Ever accidentally add a space to a company name where it didn’t belong? Tell me about it! 

[Photo Credit: Martin Cathrae]

Things I’m worried about :

1) My funds. I’ve set aside enough for 3 months living expenses at my current lifestyle; but I’m cutting expenses by moving into a place with cheaper rent. However the move requires acquiring a car. So there’s that. Still, the amount I have set aside should last me 6 months at my estimated cost of living in the new location–yet I’m terrified it won’t be enough, and that I won’t be able to make money to replace my savings.

2) My diligence. That once I’m out of an office and working from home I’ll find I lack the motivation necessary to truly succeed. That I’ll become lazy, and get up each day around noon, never change out of my PJs and fail to overcome the fears listed here because I never truly try. I’ve been in positions before where fear of failure prevented me from success. And I’m scared it’ll happen again.

3) That I will try, but I’ll find I’m just not good enough. That my writing will never by published or paid for; that somehow the freelance work I’ve done up until this point and my job as a writer and editor has been a fluke accident and no one will ever pay me to put words down again.

4) Even though I know how much work it will take to be successful at this, that my friends and family won’t understand and that I’ll lose people who are important to me because they don’t get how hard I’m trying not to fail. In large part my ability to go freelance is because of the support of those I love–without them, I’m not sure where I’d be. And I’m worried they don’t understand what this is going to cost/require of me.

5) That I’ll be miserable. Even though this is what I’ve wanted to do for the last 6 years, I haven’t ever worked for myself before; I’ve never freelanced full time before. So I’m scared that once I am, I’ll find I don’t enjoy it or that I’d prefer to work for someone else.

Fellow freelancers, what were your fears? Were they unfounded? What new things have you found to fear instead?

[Photo credit: ZoeLouisePhotography]