Freelance Writing and Regular Income

If you're like me and all the other freelance (ie, self employed) people I know, you may be a little concerned how you'll maintain a regular income from what is, when all is said and done, an irregular income source.

The best solution, and one which many writers in particular employ, is to create 'multiple income streams,' preferably as 'hands-free' as possible so you can concentrate on the job you enjoy doing, and the internet is one very good place to create and maintain those streams. For one thing, much of the income can be automated, and for another it's a global market, less subject to the waxing and waning of individual countries' economies.

With that in mind, I'd like to introduce you to a new, potentially massive and totally free system for creating at least one income stream that will require the minimum intervention from you once you've registered. Registration takes about thirty seconds, by the way. Furthermore, they even pay you for joining! Okay, so it's only ten dollars, but it's a start.

What it boils down to is advertisers paying you for receiving their ads. In practice, they pay the organisers for access to your mailbox and the organisers pay you for every ad you acknowledge receiving, on a points basis. It's small now, but growing rapidly, and the potential is simply enormous.

It's also a terrific way to build up a swipe file of effective (and ineffective) sales copy - probably the most valuable thing in a copywriter's armoury. Every successful copywriter I know has a swipe file, so thay can literally steal the best ideas and most effective copy to adapt for their own use. If you're serious about copywriting for a living, you should have one too. All you have to do is read the ads that get your attention and print the best of them off to 'swipe' later.

For the swipe file value alone, this is a terrific opportunity. That it can earn you money too makes it a fantastic deal.

And it's free - and they pay you!

Click on this link to sign up: http://www.taketheinternetback.com/index.php?refId=5083

It's one income stream, and you really should have as many as you can to counter the vagaries of a freelancer's income, but let this be the first. Here's the link again: http://www.taketheinternetback.com/index.php?refId=5083

I'll have more to say about swipe files soon.

Roy

Writing Fiction - 3

Getting Published

However good you are, however talented and dedicated you may be, you will only be read once you're published. And you'll only be published if you write what people want to read. And publishers should know - their business depends upon it, and these days publishing is a business like any other.

So, it follows that you should write for the market rather than seeking a market for what you want to write, and that way you'll save a lot of time, effort and heartbreak. Therefore your major task as an ambitious writer is to be a voracious reader, especially of the genres you like to write for but as widely as possible, too. That way, you'll be much more able to write what's in demand and also much better equipped to assess your own writing honestly and objectively in comparison to published work.

Once you've done that, and you've written some stories of your own, you've really no excuse not to start sending them away; releasing your babies into the big bad world to fend for themselves. But you must only send them where you have good reason to believe they'll be welcomed, having read and researched just who publishes what. The biggest publishers of single short stories are women's magazines, so they're often your best bet to start with. You should read their guidelines and all publishers' guidelines carefully - each magazine and publisher will have their own - and don't expect to be the exception to their 'rules', especially as an unknown writer.

Aim to use the type and level of language your target publisher or magazine usually employs, make your story the length they usually publish, keep a copy for yourself and record when and where you send every one - you will forget otherwise.

Then you'll have to be patient, I'm afraid. If your story is 'right' for the place you've sent it, there's a reasonable chance it will be used. If it's almost right, they may tell you what needs changing, but remember they're busy people, working to tight deadlines, so they very probably won't. If they decide don't like your story or can't use it, expect to hear eventually, but it may take up to two or three months.

Meanwhile, divert your mind away from your 'baby' by keeping busy with other writing projects. And reading. Lots of reading.

And if you conclude at this point that you're not ready for publication yet, that doesn't mean you never will be. It doesn't mean you will be the most in-demand writer on the planet one day either, but you can only keep trying!

Roy

PS. Don't forget there's a free ebook available from published author Jacqui Carrel, on all aspects of making money from your writing, and with other products in the pipeline for coming months. Click here to find out more.

The Beatles Directory

I've just added a new branch to the growing network of Well Versed sites. This time, it's a brand-new Beatles Directory, available here.

As you might gather from time to time from my other online activities, The Beatles have been a big part of my life.

Take a look.

Roy

Writing Fiction - 2

Novels or short stories, or...

Well clearly, novels contain a lot more words than short stories, so on that basis alone they should be more difficult and demanding to write. Certainly, we'd expect them to be more time-consuming. It's not necessarily quite so simple, though. Author Michael Legat, who's written both novels and short stories - and much more besides - says that the short story is one of the most difficult forms, not least because it must be precise and concise, and it must impact on the reader much more quickly. Most short stories still need a beginning, a middle and an end, too. And all in a very short space of time.

So, whatever is said about the demands of novel writing will apply almost equally to the short story. And in the end, honing a short story may demand just as much time as writing a novel. That said, some people will polish a novel to the point of obsession, while others will produce short stories at a quite alarming rate. Which situation is much the same, in my experience, as in poetry, but that's for another time.

So, by all means write both, although I'd be tempted to recommend you start with short stories because they are, despite what I've said, usually a bit quicker to write. They're also easier to research in greater numbers so you can assess the market and plan your assault upon it.

Which leads us to getting published, which will form part 3 …

Roy

Writing Fiction - 1

I want to tell you a story…

Once upon a time, in a cold garret at the top of an old house in a quiet street in a grim town, there lived an unknown writer. He didn't mind being unknown because he knew he was a great writer, even if no one else knew yet, nor would know for many years to come, most likely some decades after his death. His death would most likely be the eventual result of starvation, neglect and some lingering romantic wasting disease or other; such was the lot of the great writer.

In your dreams.

Actually, to me that sounds more like a nightmare, but it's still some people's idea of what it takes to be a fiction writer. And it's both right and wrong. Certainly, if you want to spend your days alone in a cold loft that's up to you. You might even produce that great work of fiction that every century seems to demand.

Then again, you might do so whilst relaxing in a comfortable chair in a warm study, or in snatched moments in a library café, or on frequent Transatlantic flights between meetings for that matter. I'd just rather do it in comfort, thanks.

So, you can be a writer too. Almost regardless of your circumstances, if you can find the time and something to write with, and if you have stories to tell or something to say, you can be a fiction writer. Hundreds of thousands of people are and most of them are as unknown as our 'hero' above, and destined (like him, probably) to stay that way. A good number are quite sanguine about that, but maybe you're not, or won't always be...

So, before long you'll be wondering how to get published. We'll assume, for the sake of argument that you can write sufficiently well… But hold on, what have you written? What are you writing now?

More pertinent, what are you reading, and what have you read?

Roy

The New Well Versed Poetry Blog

I've been aware for a little while that the entries on this blog have fallen into two main categories - poetry, and the rest.

With that in mind, I've started a new blog, 'Well Versed Poetry,' linked to my main website, specifically for poetry and related topics.

From now on this blog will be focused more tightly on business writing, copy writing and other ways you might earn money as a writer. The benefit being that you'll know more precisely what to expect when you visit - either here or Well Versed Poetry.

Roy

Poetry Directory

Hello - I'm pressed for time right now, but I wanted to tell you about my new poetry directory. Let me explain:

Those of you who are regular visitors to the Well Versed blog will know that poetry is important to me. Even so, there are only so many hours in a day, and right now my other writing work has to take precedence. Still, I didn't want to leave the poetry realm totally uncatered-for in the Well Versed mini-empire.

So, I've put together a directory of poetry resources, here, which I know you're going to have fun exploring.

Meanwhile, if writing your own poetry appeals to you, you might like a copy of my Beginners' Guide to Writing Poetry. You can get that by emailing me here.

There are other writing resources available from the links to the left, specifically Jacqui Carrel's wonderfully comprehensive ebook on Making Money From Writing. You can also get that here.

If you have problems accessing any of the above, just leave me a message on this blog and I'll do my best to get it to you.

Marketing Yourself

Selling your services is mostly about selling yourself. That means selling the idea that your prospect needs your service in the first place, AND convincing them that you're the best person to provide it.

Let's assume that the service you're trying to sell is marketing-related. You write sales letters, brochures, business to business letters or web copy. You may even specialise in writing small ads.

Your problem is that every prospective client you approach has had his or her fingers burnt by marketing that didn't work. They had a marketing department, but it was so costly they closed it down or reduced it to a bare minimum, or they had a marketing budget that was grossly disproportionate to results.

Not surprisingly, they seriously doubt whether you can do any better, and they certainly don't want to shell out any more silly money for no return on their investment.

Even if they do hire you, they want to beat your price down so it's barely worth your while taking the job. You could try elsewhere, or you could accept minimal fees, 'just this once' in order to gain a client.

Stop.

If your service is worth having, it's worth paying for. If your skills are valuable you should be rewarded accordingly. More to the point for the prospective client, when your marketing actually works, anything they've paid you was an investment, not a cost.

That's the message you must get across when you market your services. Explain to them how the marketing you propose will be at lower cost, even counting your generous fees, because it will bring a higher return. In fact, if you feel confident enough to guarantee it (and you really should be that confident), you can even tell them that the more they pay you, the more return they are guaranteed.

Just don't take on any lame ducks where such returns are really impossible, or any client whose marketing is already top-notch, so that you're unlikely to improve on their results.

Frankly, though, there aren't that many top-notch marketers whose business won't grow by at least several times your fees in the next twelve months, so your guarantee should be safe.

The benefit for you, in 'positioning' terms, is that you can present yourself as exclusive and difficult to access (ie, in demand and desirable), merely because you warn prospective clients that you may have to turn them down.

Sometimes, it's just a question of holding your nerve.

Roy