The nonfiction rate came from a major magazine with a large distribution; the fiction rate is a “professional writer’s rate” advocated by the Science Fiction Writer’s Association. When you have a chance to sit down and look at all the different publishers yourself (the most common one being Writer’s Market’s paid subscription service, you’ll often see that nonfiction consistently pays more than fiction does.

What does this mean to you?

Doing a cost analysis like the one I had provided above will help you understand what your writing is worth to you. Sometimes, finding the work (aka lead generation) takes more time than actually doing the work. This is one of the reasons why it’s essential to ensure you negotiate your rights in your favor. There are publications that will accept reprints; your ability to reprint your edited and polished work is like earning free money.

Don’t forget, that there might be hidden costs to working on a project that you are not aware of. Even though we have the fortune to write in the digital age, some publishers ask for submissions by mail. This can add quite a bit of expense to you, depending upon the length of the work, because you’ll have to pay for postage, quality printing on good paper and postage tracking.

The other thing a matrix like this will point out, is how long it takes you to write. Some writers are more prolific than others and, as you can see in the above example, you do have an added incentive to write well and write quickly. Specializing in a particular genre or nonfiction area like gardening or health will inevitably speed up your process, too, but it also may limit your ability to get published in other areas. There are positives and negatives to both approaches.

Tracking Your Submissions

Whether you’re submitting one story or several, you’ll need to factor in additional time (ergo money) for “project management.” Remember, some publishers frown on simultaneous submissions while others don’t mind as much. Either way, setting your submission process up through a project management system (like Voo2Do: the Free Web-Based Task Management Tool) is a smart idea that will save you time and money in the long run. Organizing your emails, submissions, and contacts can add a layer of time to your efforts; keep that in mind whenever you’re responding to projects, too.

Sometimes, managing editors utilize email as their form of task management, but it doesn’t always work when there’s a high amount of creativity involved. In this case, suggest better tools to decrease the amount of time spent on a project. For example, if there is a lot of back and forth discussion with several writers over email, recommend a Skype conference call, live chat, or set up a Yahoo! Group to leave a trail where all contributors can track communications.

Remember, the less time it takes you to set expectations, brainstorm and manage a project, the more time it will give you to complete the project.

What are Your Experiences?

I’d like to turn it back to you now, and invite other authors to post comments on this blog post. If you have experiences you’d like to share with others please feel free to educate, inspire, and contribute. My experiences and my take might be different than what you’re going through, and I’m always happy to hear from others.

Happy scribing and Good Luck!

I did a full write-up of the con through this article on Flames Rising, “Impressions of Wizard World 2008.” Additionally, I asked a few of the artists I had met to write some guest blog posts on topics related to our universe: first convention appearance, copyright and image rights, etc. If you have something you’d like to know about hiring artists or working with them, feel free to contact me with your questions and I’ll feature them on my blog. The artists I met were very enthusiastic and dedicated to the concept of working within a community; I’m sure that one of them would be happy to answer anything you might want to know.

My next big convention will be at GenCon Indianapolis where I will be working the Abstract Nova booth. Fortunately, this company is really great to work with and understands that my day job comes first. In my reflections of a gaming industry freelancer, I had talked about some of the positive and negative experiences I’ve had in the industry. My first writing credit in the gaming industry was through this company, and I’m happy to support its efforts to grow.

This week is going to be a bit on the light side for posting: I just had two, really great pieces of news come through the pipe and my deadline for the last novella is looming. With a shorter workweek due to the July 4th holiday, things are extremely busy in my world.

The two that I have in the hopper do continue the discussion about getting published and where to look: thank you to everyone who provided quotes for my upcoming posts. I will get to those posts as soon as I can.

Happy scribing and please, don’t forget to write!

“I always wanted to know how one goes about getting published or pitching their works to creditable sources to see if they are of value or maybe it’s best I stick to business writing only.” –Thomas Cristel for Bed & Breakfast La Torretta Bianca in Italy

After I read his email, I sat back in my chair and hit my head. You see, I interpreted his question as a multi-layered one, that had several meanings. First, Thomas (who professionally writes white papers, articles, etc.) reminded me of the many writers out there who might stop themselves from submitting a different style of writing because they’re unclear of what their writing is worth. Second, he wanted to know what the process was for submitting work was and if it was worth the trouble.

Folks, this is a tricky question to respond to, because whether or not any writer gets published has absolutely nothing to do with how “good” the writing is. Ab-so-lute-ly nothing. Before you shake your head in bewilderment, let’s take a look at why this might be. Pick any magazine and read every article all the way through. Tell me how many of those articles you liked, disliked, loved or hated. Recently, in my copy of Self Magazine, I read an article that I couldn’t believe was published because it had no cited references or resources–yet it was talking about a topic that warranted it. I thought it was so bad I couldn’t even finish reading it. (Protecting the writer here, folks, so no names.) However, the article made it past an editor, so somebody thought it was excellent.

I challenge anyone to tell me what the hard and fast rule to determining “good” writing is. “Good” fiction is even more arbitrary because, unlike articles, it really is a lot like artwork. Fiction is often based on a mixture of personal opinion and that dollars and cents factor—sales (or potential sales). Sometimes, agents and editors are looking for what sells, which isn’t the same thing as what’s “good.” I review books through Penguin, Tor and Daw on occasion, and I’ll often check the blogosphere to take a pulse of the buzz or what other readers are thinking. You’d be surprised how many readers complain about the quality of a book but go out and buy every single book in a series because they are hoping the next one will be better than the last. This might send a confusing message back to the publisher because they’re seeing the book sell. To them, the book was a “hit” because it sold copies even though the readers didn’t like it.

When you put the thoughts in your head that your writing might not be “good enough,” you are doing something that comes naturally to each and every writer out there. Writers are, by our very nature, our own harshest critics. This, more than anything, is the reason why you have arrogant authors, shy writers who don’t make public appearances and everything else in between. We don’t know what the “standard” is, because writing is a creative art judged by arbitrary standards. So please, let me be clear: if a publisher ever rejects your work, it may not be because your work sucks. There are 10,000 reasons why an editor might reject a submission and it might not have anything to do with you. Don’t take rejections personally. This doesn’t mean you should have blinders on, though; ensuring that your fiction is top-notch is a bit of a balancing act.

So Thomas, first things first. I would strongly encourage you (and any other writer) to take your best shot. I would not, at any point, give up your day job to write fiction unless you can afford it. Next week, I’ll also be covering the ins and outs of submitting your work and how to determine what your return-on-investment (ROI) is. Afterward, I hope you’ll feel confident to venture out on your own. In the interest of helping you get started, I’d like to close today’s post with a few, brief tips on how you can help yourself get ready to submit your work.

Getting Yourself Ready for the Fiction Submission Process

Decide What you Want to Write based on What you Enjoy Writing: This may sound like a pretty simple thing, but it’s really not. Writing fiction isn’t as easy as people might think because there’s this whole marketing thing that you have to think about. So let’s make it really simple. If you like science fiction–write sci fi. If you like romance novels, try your hand at writing passionate short stories. Try not to write something that you don’t enjoy because guess what? If you’re successful, you don’t want to be caught writing stories you hate.

Experiment First by Writing a Short Story and a Novella: Here’s something that’s not self-evident. Some writers are more talented when they write a novel than a short story because the writing techniques are not as similar as you might think. Even if you’ve never written a piece of fiction before, I highly encourage you to play around with the mediums a bit and find your niche. You’ll be more likely to continue writing if the work comes naturally to you.

Join a Writer’s Group: Here’s another strong recommendation that I have. Please, please, please talk to other writers. Please. One way to do that is to join a writer’s group (either face-to-face or online). There are several online writer’s groups that are either focused on a niche (like the PIT writer’s group at Permuted Press which is a horror small press publisher) or open to a wide range of topics like Critters.org. A writer’s group is invaluable because you’ll get real people reading your work and critiquing it. What better way to get your story ready for publication than to have that invaluable insight?

Give Yourself a Break: I’ve talked a lot about goals on this blog and, most recently, what it means to value your work. When you’re just starting out, give yourself a healthy buffer of time before you call it quits or decide to move on to something else. You’ll have to figure out how dedicated you’ll be to writing, editing and submitting fiction because it can add a lot of time to your day. The less dedicated you are to the craft, the more time you’ll have to allow for that imaginary “stop-this-isn’t-worth-it” sign.

Research the Publications you Want to be Published In: Before you even make the decision that you want to be published in a particular publication, you’ll need to do your homework. Read as much as you possibly can on the topic/type of story that you’re writing. When something sounds good to you, buy the book or magazine and stick it in a box. Once you’ve collected enough, you can use them to figure out what kind of stories you’re interested in writing or publishing and to understand what the editor might be looking for. Nine times out of ten–if you’re not familiar with a publication? Your chances of getting published are greatly decreased.

Thank you so much to everyone who commented on my blog this week and I appreciate you sticking with me. If you have a question or have suggestions for features in an upcoming post, feel free to contact me. Have a fantastic weekend! I’m off to Wizard World Chicago where I’ll be shooting photos, networking, and geeking out.

Happy scribing! And DON’T give up on your dreams!

“They’re not talking about us.”

That statement, a frustration voiced by a Fort Atkinson resident about his flooded neighborhood, also provided a concise reason why writers like us write.

I’d like to thank Monica for the opportunity to guest-blog here. “Words on the Water” seems the most fitting place to blog on writing about floods and the stories surrounding those floods.

There’s a 30-county region of Wisconsin affected by various forms of saturation. But, as a freelance reporter for a small-town newspaper, I’m only concerned with one, Jefferson County. The newspaper covers three main cities here: Fort Atkinson, Jefferson and Whitewater (which is divided by Jefferson and Walworth Counties.)

My usual beat is Whitewater, Wisconsin. It was spared major flooding, so my editors asked me to cover some flood-related stories, which affected the cities of Jefferson and Fort Atkinson most drastically.

Except half the stories I covered this week were other stories — stories that the flood did not have any affect on at all. Despite evacuated homes and businesses, there were other things people wanted to talk about. I’ll get to those in a moment.

The floods had their own tales, which were stories for me to tell.

The Rock River surpassed its banks in Jefferson. The main east-west artery into the city was already closed for a re-surfacing project. The rising waters took out the detour routes one by one, like victims in an Agatha Christie novel. First the one bridge was closed, then a local burger place closed, then the meat-packaging plant, then the cat-food plant, then the other bridge closed.

This deluge headed south to Fort Atkinson, which was only made worse by the Crawfish and Bark Rivers (tributaries each already flooded) which converge into the Rock River in Fort. Homes and business along the shore, and others not along the shore but still too close were evacuated.

The editors call me. They are evacuating an elder care facility in Fort. Can I get there to cover it? Sure. I get there, camera in hand. I walk knee-deep into water to get decent shots. I snap the flooded entrance surrounded by defeated sandbags. I slosh around back and snap a nurse pushing a wheelchair-bound patient across a bridge of pallets and planks.

I speak with people. I get their story. I get this story. I go back to write it up.

Editors call again. The Secretary of Health is coming to Jefferson. Can I cover it? Sure. I take detours around the now-submerged original detours. I meet the Secretary. I get her story. I get this story. I write it up.

Another call. A Fort resident sent flood pictures to CNN. He’s going to be on live via phone in 30 minutes. Can I cover it? Sure. I go to his house. I watch him speak on live TV to a CNN anchor. When it’s over, I get his story. I ask why he sent the pictures.

“They’re not talking about us,” he said. “They talk about Iowa, Illinois and Missouri. They are not talking about us.”

And that is what we, as writers, do as our calling. We make the stories known. We make sure the stories are told. We find those stories in emergencies like evacuations, and in secondary detours, and in flooded burger joints. Writers communicate stories, even the stories that are not ours: “They’re not talking about us.”

We talk about them in fiction, poetry, plays, and newspapers.

Those other stories I mentioned? As Jefferson and Fort sank this week, other people wanted to be “talked” about: As the National Guard arrived in Jefferson, I covered the Rotary Club Annual Award Luncheon. As FEMA toured damaged areas, I covered a local elected official’s press conference to announce he was not running for re-election.

The Red Cross set up shop as a local business held a ribbon cutting for its new expansion. Furthermore, 70 evacuated patients made home in a church hall, as the city council authorized a land annexation at its meeting that night.

Those stories give us something to talk about as well.
_________________________________________________________________

Chris Welch is a happily-married freelance reporter, writer and reviewer. He mostly works for the Daily Jefferson County Union newspaper and WFAW 940 AM radio in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. His most recent creative works will be appearing in the upcoming anthologies “The HWA Presents: Blood Lite” and “Catapolis.”

As I talked about earlier this week, I mentioned how important it is to look at the non-financial methods of how you feel validated about your writing. I think it goes without saying that this is a common desire for many writers, and I feel that there is a way we can help each other out. Giving someone else credit for the work they do is a great way of supporting your fellow scribe, because credit is free.

In my travels to various conventions, I’ve met quite a few “B”-list actors and stunt folk that have been kind enough to explain to me what it’s like working on various sets. One of these actresses (who shall remain nameless for privacy reasons) once told me how she doubled for an “A”-list actress in a well-known action movie. For whatever reason, the “A”-lister proclaimed that she did her own stunts to the media, which is not an uncommon thing for actors and actresses to do. Unfortunately, in this case the claim wasn’t true but there was no appropriate way for anyone involved to go and correct the mistake. Years later, the stunt double still remembers the claim and (you guessed it) will probably never forget it. What did the “A”-lister do wrong?

Acting is, undoubtedly, a highly competitive field that requires a lot of strategy and public relations know-how. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that any actor (or actress) might make claims that are a little unreasonable from time to time in order to gain notoriety to further their career. I often think of the quote that the Harry Potter character Gilderoy Lockhart when he said: “Celebrity is as celebrity does.” The challenge here, though, is that the claim negatively affected another person in the craft. Hindsight may be twenty-twenty, but the “A”-lister would have lost nothing by giving credit where credit was due because someone was there to know the truth. And the truth, my fellow writers, is very contagious–especially in this age of electronic communication.

In our quest to build our portfolios, resumes, and lists of publications, we may often forget what is going on all around us. We may not remember that when the podcast interviewer Skypes us, there are other people we should point out. We may unintentionally omit a name or even a small “Thank You” to the people who help us with our work when we sit in front of the camera, because we are so excited that someone is finally noticing what it is we do.

Now, we may forget to give credit for other reasons, too. Maybe we’ve had a falling out with a fellow writer, or maybe we can’t stand the fact that they’ve gotten that elusive contract faster than we did. In my opinion, this is not contemptable–this is understandable because it’s hard for any writer to quantify success. When we see someone else publishing a book or reaching a milestone that’s part of our goals, it’s very natural to feel envious of their achievements. The point I’m trying to make here, is that scrutinizing other writer’s careers can be quite destructive because you’ll waste more time worrying about Writer A and Writer B when you should be writing.

I don’t believe that anyone reading this blog wants to be regarded as an arrogant writer who is hard to work with. I also don’t think that people intentionally commit these types of oversights; we often get caught up in the moment because we’re passionate about what we do. However, when you forget to give credit because someone helped you out in a substantial way, you are unknowingly hurting your own career.

By not publicly saying “Thank You” and taking all the credit on a project that someone else has worked on, you instantly put yourself in a bad light. Nine times out of ten, you’ll end up looking like a fool, especially when that other writer can prove what they contributed to your project. Some may never go that far but, like my above example, they’ll never, ever forget it. That may one day come back to haunt you, and you’ll never know when it will.

Even though credit doesn’t cost a thing–I feel that it’s the most precious gift you can give to another writer. What better way to encourage and foster healthy relationships with your colleagues than to give credit where credit is due?

Before I do, I’d like to offer that if you’d like to read up on Google Analytics there’s nothing like going straight to the source: you can read the Google Analytics Blog or the ROI Revolution Blog which is the company that performed the training I had attended. Second, web data is not like financial data no matter how many ways you slice and dice it. This means that while every penny may add up in your accounting software; not every visit will “add up” in web analytics so don’t get too obsessed over every, bitty thing.

Since installing GA early January, I’ve been using it to track comparison trends and understand where my traffic is coming from. My goals for my blog are different than a website that sells stuff or offers rapid-fire information; I hope that my content will be useful six months, a year, or even five years from now. I do not have buckets of traffic where I have even 1,000 plus visitors every day. Another way my needs are different from other blogs, is because blogging is a way for me to explore more tools, stay on top of web trends, network, make announcements and offer you my experiences to “pay it forward.” I’m not blogging for dollars; if I was, you’d better believe I’d be doing things differently.

Here’s an example of the comparison view graphs you can use to track trends in Google Analytics.

In this example, you can see from the graph how much time people spent on a page. Time on site in Google Analytics is calculated by taking the difference in time between the first page that a reader visits and the second. What you see is the difference between the two timestamps. (For more information, feel free to read this post about the difference between time on page and time on site.) Now, how is this data relevant to me? Well? My traffic dipped in May. By looking at this graph, I can see that regardless of traffic, it looks like visitors spent about the same amount of time for the period I specified on my blog. (Yeah, I know there’s a peak there toward the end, but I know where that came from.) Hmmm…I feel a hypothesis forming.

Next, I’m going to take a comparative view at the page views for the same time period. Notice the spikes.

Hmmm…so I know that there were more page views in the first quarter than in the second according to that graph. My traffic has dipped in May, and I know that I didn’t post regularly enough. Lastly, I’m going to take a look at new vs. returning visits (which are based on a six-month time frame according to a cookie that’s set when you visit my blog) and my RSS feed. Look at that! Returning visits are up for the second quarter and so are my RSS feed subscribers. What can I infer from this data?

Let’s recap, okay?

Goal: Review trends to see if I can find a pattern that will help me increase traffic to my blog.

Review Data: Review first quarter versus second quarter traffic, time on site and page views graphs after identifying any spikes or anomalies (which I had done already). Next, review new vs. returning visits and RSS feed subscribers.

Data Summary: Traffic is down, time on site had little to no changes, page views down, returning visits up, RSS feed subscribers up.

Conclusion: My readers are beginning to stick with me because my returning visits and RSS feed subscribers are up; the reason why my traffic may be down is because I don’t have enough “new” content to attract my existing readers back. The people that do find my blog stick around some, but since I don’t have a very large archive they may either a) check back when there’s more posts or b) subscribe to the feed to preview the headlines and click through to what’s important to them.

Action: Post more frequently and, after time passes, monitoring trends on the types of content I’m posting.

So there you have a preliminary, very basic overview of how I use Google Analytics for my blog. This is just a small example of what I’ve been working with to help me reach my blog’s goals. I’ll talk more about what those goals are in an upcoming post but–rest assured–they are all about you, the reader.

Are you using any type of web analytics software on your blog? If so, which one?

Your family and friends know “you” and the roles you play; they can’t get inside your head but they know you for who you are right now, right this minute. Your bank account knows your financial situation, because the dollars and cents add up telling you whether or not you’re really “making it” as a writer. Only you know how your dollars match your dreams; the two are not mutually exclusive because you understand that money is a means to an end.

But you’re stubborn, and you have a dream of selling lots of books and earning beaucoup dollars. Have you planned to get their with your long-term goals?

Long-term goals are two parts planning, a healthy dose of discipline, a sprinkling of wishes and a lot of flexibility. But those longer-term goals don’t come without achieving the balance between responsibility and creativity: you have to think outside the box and sometimes, you have to forget what money you have to do it.

We get hung up on how much money we’re worth because sales is one way we can measure our success. In most cases, success doesn’t always come from what you make. If you’re confused about that then I’d recommend reading novelist Holly Lisle’s website, Ten Reasons to Keep your Day Job and Pubrants, a literary agent’s blog. Seriously. (Or, if you’re into gaming, read my reflections of a gaming industry freelancer post).

When we do get hung up on sales or benchmarking what we’re doing against somebody else, chances are we’re gonna get pretty depressed. We’ll throw planning out the window, bash our keyboards, and say we’re just going to give it all up and “be like everybody else.” Be normal.

Right. Like being normal worked for any dreamer.

Toss all that self-deprecating b.s. out the window and really, the reason why we’re not happy is because we believe we failed. Either we didn’t sell enough copies against an imaginary benchmark we created or we settled for three cents a word instead of four. Honestly? Did we ever once stop to think we set that bar too high or our definition of success doesn’t match the reality of what we accomplished?

Sure we have; we’ve launched into self-analysis and mind-numbing research into our writing habits, its quality and our career. We’ve asked ourselves what we could have done differently. We cling to the should haves, could haves, would haves.

Bullshit. Guess what? Money is not a tangible thing and the last time I checked, it’s only one component of success. The dollar is a piece of paper we’ve assigned a value to that gets us more things. Some things we need; some we don’t. Do we really need a fancy car? The world’s most expensive purse?

In order to balance dollars and dreams to measure your success, ask yourself what you want versus what you need from your writing. Sounds simple enough, but it’s really not because there are so many intangible things that you can’t pay money for. Your relationships, your ability to write and your health are just three things that are essential to any writer that we can’t put a price tag on–but take for granted all the time.

If you have something (or someone) that allows you to write when you need to, when you want to, on your terms? Then you have a lot more than most people because you have time to put your heart into what you love to do. That, my fellow writers, is a rare and special gift because every time you break out your notepad and pen, every time you open your computer, you’re living your dream. The rest is just in the details and how you manage them.

Thanks for listening to this post. It comes on the heels of a bit of personal drama and a realization of all the things I’m grateful for. It also comes from the cockles of my ink-filled heart because I can’t tell you how many times I hear writers whine about how they didn’t make it or they’re not successful enough. Don’t. Write. Plan. Dream. And don’t forget to count your lucky stars because we writers are a rare breed; we love it, we hate it, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Happy scribing!

The tendency to turn down projects is to say something generic like, “I’m booked working on other projects.” If you have a blog, online journal, or socially network on MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. and you put yourself out there saying that you’re looking for work, make sure that your public profile matches what you’re telling people who want to hire you. This may seem like a no-brainer, but please: do not make the mistake of begging people for work and then turning someone down because you don’t want to work for them. The “I’m-too-busy” excuse really makes you look bad–especially when the person you turned down reads what you’re up to. Of course, there is the flip side when you are “that” busy. When that happens, be clear and be honest; there is no guarantee that the other person on the other end of the computer won’t misinterpret what you’re saying, but there is really very little you can do about that.

Here are a few samples of how you can politely turn down “new” work for different reasons ranging from time constraints to concerns about whether or not the publisher will pay:

(1) When Time is the Issue (You Don’t Have Any to Spare):
At this time, I have previous commitments to fulfill through August 31st and would be unable to meet your deadline of June 30th. Would you have the flexibility to move your deadline? If not, I hope that you keep me in mind for future projects and I would like to touch base with you again.

(2) When Working for “Free” is the Concern (You Don’t See Any Benefit to Working for Free):

While I do not typically work on unpaid assignments due to time and budget constraints, I would be willing to negotiate for a smaller word count. Do you accept reprints of previously published work? If this does not meet your publication’s needs, I would be happy to promote your publication elsewhere to help find someone else that might be interested within the writing community.

(3) When Getting Paid is a Worry (Publisher has a Bad Reputation):

I appreciate your offer of $X for your upcoming publication, and my understanding is that I will be paid 90 days after the publication date. Since this project will be a big time commitment for me and I will be unable to take on other paid projects during that six month period, would you be willing to re-negotiate the payment schedule?

(4) When Your Skillset is Inadequate (You Know You Won’t Meet the Deadline):

I am flattered that you have considered me as an author for your project. To ensure that we have the best communication possible, I would like to be upfront and let you know that I am not as familiar with your product as I would like to be. My concern, at this time, is that I’m not sure if I’ll be able to successfully meet your deadline because it may take more time than I had initially expected to learn more about your product. What are your expectations of me on this project? Do you have some amount of flexibility on the project due date?

(5) When You’ve Over-committed (You’ve Book a New Gig and Shouldn’t Have):

After reviewing my schedule, I realized that I had made an oversight in scheduling. One of my prior commitments has taken longer than expected, and I will not be able to work on any new projects until July 15th. I estimate that your project will take me 25 hours to complete, provided there are no revisions. How does this fit within your schedule?

You’ll notice here that I’ve recommended asking for additional information from the editor, and that I am pretty transparent about what I need to get done. Every writer is different, but I believe that honesty is the key to a successful business relationship–especially when communicating via email. Written words do matter and in my opinion, polite, professionally-written words set you up for success.

I can’t think of a better reason to decide up front what you will or won’t work on based on the strength of your reputation. If you’re a star, great! You probably know what projects you’ll take on and which ones you won’t. If you’re not, remember that it’s a lot harder to manage your reputation when you have no rep to manage. There is nothing worse than pissing someone off, even if it’s by accident, who has a better rep or is more well-known than you. Sure, there are ways of dealing with that but remember, work is a lot harder to come by when you’re just starting out.

By establishing guidelines for yourself and learning how to say “No” when something doesn’t fit within your professional goals, you will avoid a lot of miscommunication, confusion, and heartache for yourself. Maybe you don’t want to work with a publisher because you know they don’t pay; maybe you have no desire to write for a fledging webzine because you feel you’re too good to be seen in that space. Whatever the reason, you’ll want to tread carefully to make sure you don’t come across as an elitist jerk.

Next week I’ll be covering more about what the benefits and drawbacks of writing for “free.” I eluded to this in point number two and will talk about this aspect because it’s something that comes up often. I’ll also be talking about some free tools to help you blog and places you can buy used books online for your research.

Thanks for sticking with my blog, cheers to your success!

By now you should know, realistically, what you can and cannot write, and how long it takes you to complete your word count.

Please note: If you don’t know how to estimate your word count, there are many articles you can read like D.L. Snell’s The Wordkins Diet, obtaining a rough word count from your file size, this forum post about estimating word count based on your handwriting and my article about estimating word count.

Now comes the fun part. Knowing what you’re capable of, I find it essential to “life plan” or that is, set up both longer-term and shorter-term goals for yourself. Next, you’ll want to set up your free time like a project to see what you can and cannot fit in.

Saying “No” to new projects can be tricky because on the one hand, you don’t want to turn down an opportunity but on the other, you want to make sure that publisher keeps you in mind again. Freelancers often make the mistake of committing to projects they can’t reasonably complete within the timeline that they’ve been given. Maybe they don’t know the topic or game they’re working on; maybe they’re more familiar with writing fantasy than sports. Or maybe they’ve overcommitted, taking on more work than they can finish.

Admittedly, when things come up like additional trips or unexpected surprises, I’m often thrown off-track and off-schedule. With the way that I plan, I try not to let a horrific schedule affect the current projects that I have a signed contract for; when things go crazy, it does influence the amount of time I spend on “free” or “interest”-related work and new projects.

The responsible thing to do is to say “No” to a new project if, in your heart of hearts, you know you can’t realistically do the job. Take it from someone who has witnessed other writers get a bad reputation based on their inability to make deadlines: you do not want to be “that” guy or gal. If you can’t meet your goal in a timely manner, it doesn’t matter how great of a writer you are because the publisher will lose money on a project they can’t print according to their business plan.

There are times you may be contacted by someone that you normally don’t work with. My policy is to respond to every query because really, you never know where that person might end up. From my experiences, the same small press publisher you may be working with now may move on to a larger company; your employee may one day end up being your boss. There were a few instances where I couldn’t respond due to a returned email address or a technical difficulty with the person’s website. Please, when you’re putting yourself out on the web, make sure your technical bases are covered.

Tomorrow I’m going to give you some examples I’ve used to turn down new work as well as some instances where it’s smart to be forthcoming about your situation to ensure that your reputation is preserved.

When someone edits for content, they are trying to communicate what they envision your audience to be and what story you are trying to tell. When someone edits for grammar, word usage or punctuation, they are using copy editing skills to ensure that your project or story is readable. There are several different naming conventions that might apply for the role of editor (proofreading, content editor, text editor, line editor) but, for the sake of simplicity, I’m utilizing “content” and “copy” here.

Many experienced content editors will talk to you about your work in general without ever pulling up the specific words you write in front of you. Why? Good content editors trust that a writer will do their job to massage the voice according to the overall goal of the piece.

Sometimes, it’s not the words put down on the page that an editor has a challenge with but the strategy behind the words. In that case, consistency is key to ensuring predictable submissions: that is both the responsibility of the content editor to communicate their needs, and the writer to deliver them through the words they choose.

Take a women’s fitness magazine for example. Say that you’ve written an article about nutrition for women over the age of 50. A content editor might shoot you an email saying something to the effect of,

“While I was really impressed with the scientific charts and historical facts you provided for your article, I’m not sure that it fits with our readers. Here’s an example of what has worked for us in the past. Can you please revise your article to ensure it’s similar to this?”

Here, written examples of text work really well for a writer because it’s something for the writer to hang up on their wall for this time to use–and for the next.

Other times, an editor may feel the urge to dig in deep and tear apart your work, commenting on sentence structure, proper grammar, word usage, etc. While the depth and breadth of the comments may depend upon the editor–it also depends upon the writer and the quality of the submission. Some writers are very good with content, but aren’t the greatest when it comes to writing mechanics. Other writers don’t write combat scenes or executive summaries very well, but they can do the other stuff.

Editors can usually spot a writer’s shortcomings from a mile away, because by their nature they deal with multiple deliveries and products according to their schedule. A word to the wise: even when an editor points out your weaknesses, do not rely on them to “fix” your work again. Part of being a writer is being thick-skinned, able to take constructive criticism; the other part is to incorporate an editor’s comments when its appropriate to improving the quality of your work.

If you know you’re not the greatest at writing love stories but are much better at writing advice columns–you may want to consider going with what you’re good at. Relying on editors to continually revise your work and make it shine is a bad practice; remember, word gets around.

With copy editing, a style guide may again come into play on a more granular level. Regardless of whether or not a style guide is in place, a line editor will look for proper punctuation and abbreviations, consistency of voice, physical formats, proper word choices, etc. In this phase, some awkward sentence structures may be rewritten, and some words that you typically use may be omitted. Remember, a copy editor reads everything line by line to ensure that your work is polished so don’t be offended if a few passages read differently in the final publication. A big part of copy editing is proofreading your work, too: please, make their life easier and spell check (that is, manually spell check) your work.

By the time your work gets to a copy editor, it’s quite possible you’ll never see your work again. In some cases, you may want to request that you do get your work back before you see it, especially when you’re intentionally playing around with style, foreign language, or formatting because it’s an integral part of your story.

Much of what I’ve written here is under the assumption that you’re dealing with an experienced editor. As much as I’d love to say that every editor out there is–every writer knows that is not the case. In those cases, you may be very limited to what you do (or do not) have control over, which is why I highly recommend ensuring that you reread your contract. Most contracts build in how many edits you are required to give and what your rights and responsibilities are.

Up next, I talk about this a little bit as I cover some polite ways of saying “No” to new projects.