NAIWE Board of Experts

Are You Ready To Be a Professional Ghostwriter?

Most people do not understand the multifaceted differences between writing and ghostwriting. Great writers often believe that because they know how to write bestsellers, they can just as easily pull on the mantle of ghostwriter.

While it’s true that ghostwriting can be profoundly rewarding for those who understand its complexities, it can also be frustrating or even disheartening for those who do not. Every experienced or trained professional ghostwriter I know has in common what one (CSULB) Certified Ghostwriter called “The Ultimate Editorial Toolbox,” which includes:

Specific skills
Creative analysis
Industry knowledge
Positioning mindset
Ghostwriting psychology
Business perspective

If you are an aspiring ghostwriter, you must enjoy thought puzzles. You must have the space in your life to take on new perspectives, to release business and writing preconceptions, and to recognize your clients’ truths may well differ from what you deeply believe—which is tough. Uniting integrity with professional impartiality can be extremely daunting.

It can also be extremely rewarding.

Ghostwriting has been the most lucrative avenue for skilled independent writers since late 2009. The call today for professionals with the knowledge base to command $35,000 or more per book is higher than at any other time in history—and still rising.

Take this test to find out if you have what it takes to transition from writer, journalist, editor, or author to professional ghostwriter.

Professional Ghostwriter Self-Assessment

Please select one.

a) In 300 words or less, write a persuasive argument for why the candidate of your choice should have won the 2020 presidential election.

b) In 300 words or less, write a persuasive argument for why the opposing candidate should have won the 2020 presidential election.

Note: Use verifiable facts and sound reasoning only. Do not use rhetoric, opinion, or emotional lures.

Fact: I am writing this on a Saturday.
Rhetoric: Clearly, Saturdays were never meant to be workdays.
Opinion: Saturday is the best day to catch up on errands and chores.
Emotional lure: People who work on Saturdays are dopes.

Please select one.

a) Look at your candidate’s campaign platform. What was its single strongest point? What missing points would have made it more compelling? What points were confusing? What points would have been best left out?

b) Look at the opposing candidate’s campaign platform. What was its single strongest point? What missing points would have made it more compelling? What points were confusing? What points would have been best left out?

c) How do you think the election would have differed if the candidates had followed the concepts you enumerated above?

In 300 words or less, explain why an author’s platform both is and is not important.

In 300 words or less, what is your professional reaction to a presenting manuscript that is overwritten, boring, grammatically unsound, and derivative?

In 300 words or less, explain why you would or would not work with an author whose political, religious, social, economic, racial, or spiritual views are diametrically opposed to your own.

Your Results

If you could not wrap your head around any of the questions, you do not have the space in your life to pursue ghostwriting right now. Keep following your current path. Hopefully, it will lead you to your personal comfort zone.

If you could not see the point or value in getting into an opposing mindset, you will likely be uncomfortable trying to take up a professional ghostwriting career.

If you found the exercise interesting but overwhelming, you may have the stuff to explore professional ghostwriting. The deciding factor is whether you can stomach being a beginner again at this point in your career.

If you felt intriguingly challenged, you probably have what it takes to become a professional ghostwriter, whether by trial-and-error, through personal mentorship, or via Ghostwriting Professional Designation Program.

Claudia Suzanne is a consummate ghostwriter/teacher, understanding what authors need in order to successfully complete their book dream, and she has a finely honed talent for communicating what she knows to her students and clients. Popularly dubbed “The Einstein of Ghostwriting,” Claudia has entertained and informed tens of thousands of writers, editors, journalists, and aspiring authors at countless writer and professional meetings, conferences, radio and BlogTalk radio broadcasts, webinars, and podcasts. Claudia was an invited expert on Penguin’s Author Solutions Expert Video series and a featured entrepreneur in Orange County Business Journal and Norwegian Business Daily. Her signature title, This Business of Books: A Complete Overview of the Industry from Concept through Sales, earned her a 2018 Author of Influence Award from Connected Women of Influence. Her Ghostwriting Professional Designation Program won 2018 Outstanding Non-Credit Program Award University Professional Continuing Education Association (UPCEA) West Region.

How to Write an Apology in 4 Easy Steps

Friday, November Post a comment

It’s going to happen—you’re going to do or say something stupid. And you’re going to apologize.

If you’re in the public eye in any way, it’s critical that when you make a mistake, you also make a heartfelt apology. There are four parts to a proper apology. Here is your guide to writing an apology that is sincere and has a good chance of repairing the damage done.

A couple years ago I sent an invitation to my membership with a sentence that offended more than one person. In the invitation I wrote what I thought was a funny joke:

There will be soft drinks, heavy whores-de-ovaries, and door prizes!

One of my writers wrote to tell me she and others found the joke offensive. I had to retract what I had said in short order.

Part One: Describe it and own it

In this first part of your apology, describe what happened. You don’t have to give all the gory details. But you have to be clear that what happened was real, you wish it hadn’t happened, and you recognize it was wrong.

You may have seen this done badly by politicians, actors, and other public figures.

Avoid phrases like:

I am sorry my comments were taken out of context.
I am sorry if anyone took offense by what I did.
It is unfortunate that so many were offended by what I said.

These sorts of comments are a non-apology. They put the responsibility for the offense on the recipients. You must own whatever it was that you did wrong. Here’s what I wrote in my apology email:

In my last email I used a barnyard joke that I had learned in my youth and gave little thought to. A good friend alerted me to my indiscretion, and to my horror, I realized I’d said something stupid and offensive.

Part Two: State your standards

It’s critical that you let your audience know that what you said or did does not meet your standards for excellence. Remind them what you expect of yourself and others in your organization. Make it clear that your actions did not come up to those high standards.

Agile Writers has always been about inclusiveness and respect. And in this moment I’ve failed you all in that goal. Sadly, as this was sent in a mass email, there is no way to take my mistake back.

Part Three: Apologize

State clearly that you apologize for your actions. Don’t hedge. Don’t blame circumstances (like illness, stress, the weather, etc.).

I hope that you will accept my deepest apologies and disregard my mistake and will still feel welcome to come to our party.

Part Four: Learn from your mistake

Let your audience know that you’re human. You make mistakes. And you will accept this error as a learning opportunity to improve yourself. You want the reader to know you don’t want this to happen again.

My lesson learned is that I still have biases that I have to re-evaluate and overcome. I will endeavor to do better in the future.

Conclusion

You’re human and you have a wide audience. Inevitably you’re going to make a public mistake that you will have to apologize for. Own it, remind everyone of your standards, apologize unequivocally, and learn from your mistake. If you do this, people will remember your apology far longer than your error.

Greg Smith is a writing coach, editor, and publisher. He founded the Agile Writer Workshop in 2011 with the mission of finding a method to help beginning writers complete a first draft in 6 months. The Agile Writer Method is based on the writings of experts in mythology, screenwriting, psychology, and project management. His seminars on the Agile Writer Method have informed and delighted thousands of writers, scholars, and university students. Agile Writer authors have written over 50 first draft novels and 10 published novels. Greg is a developmental editor for novelists and memoirists. He also coaches authors through the self-publishing maze. Greg runs the popular Agile Readers Book Club where new writers can get a beta read from a dozen or more readers.

3 Ways to Raise Your Freelance Rates

Wednesday, October Post a comment

With the end of the year approaching, many freelancers are thinking about raising their rates in 2021. I often see advice that basically amounts to raising your freelance rates 10% (or whatever) each and every year, which is fine as far as it goes. If you underpriced yourself when you were starting out, it might make sense; in some cases, you might be able to double or triple your rates and still get projects. Once you’ve been in the business for some time, however, you probably can’t get away with large, frequent increases.

The key is to find your sweet spot, and that requires a strategic approach to raising your freelance rates.

As you gain experience and expertise, your work is more valuable to clients—and no doubt you’re faster and more efficient. To me, there’s no reason to wait till the end of the year to bump your rates. If you’re so busy you can’t remember the last time you needed to market yourself, raise them now. Maybe you’ve discovered peers who are charging a lot more for similar projects and clients, or perhaps you’ve acquired a new skill or certification. The raise-your-rates alarm should really be screaming if you can’t remember the last time you got turned down for a project based on price.

Suffice it to say, there’s a long list of reasons to consider raising your freelance rates. So how do you do it without creating client pushback?

The Grandfather Clause. This one’s simple: Keep existing clients at their current rate, while quoting new prospects at a 10–20% higher fee. That way, you can test the market, while eliminating the concern about losing loyal clients who’d react poorly to a price hike. (If you’re freelancing for the long haul, of course, you’ll eventually need to raise prices for loyal clients, too—a much easier conversation if you have a strong relationship and deliver results.)

The Stealth Raise. I’ll be honest: I’ve never understood why some freelancers feel obligated to make a big deal about a price increase. The stealth raise works exactly like it sounds: Build in another 10% in every new quote, including new and existing clients. Or if you do estimated ranges, which is my favorite approach, nudge the higher end a bit higher. No one needs to know but you.

The Circumstantial Increase. There’s no reason you shouldn’t raise your fees during busy times or during the holidays. Think of it as a broad application of minor rush fees during a period of high demand (i.e., when you want to carve out some personal time away from the desk).

Note that all three of these are easier to execute if you generally provide project estimates. Indeed, I believe the ability to seamlessly raise rates is one of the best arguments in favor of using estimates whenever you can, rather than an hourly rate or publishing a rate sheet.

Two final thoughts on why there’s no wrong time to consider a fee increase: (1) Pricing serves as a market signal of your value, whether it’s high or low. (2) One of the strangest dynamics in the freelancing world is that, in most cases, higher-paying clients are better clients. That’s a pretty sweet side benefit in addition to the extra income.

Jake Poinier made the leap into freelance writing and editing in 1999 after a decade of positions in the publishing industry, giving him key insights from both sides of the desk. As the founder and owner of Boomvang Creative Group, he has worked with a diverse array of Fortune 500 and small businesses, consumer and trade magazines, and independent authors. Jake is committed to helping freelancers improve their businesses and shares his knowledge and experiences frequently as a speaker at industry conferences, through webinars, and on his blog.

The Case for the CASE Act

Friday, September Post a comment

Many people still don’t realize that copyright does not need to be formally registered with the U.S. Copyright Office to be protected by copyright law. That said, among the benefits to registration is the right to bring forth a suit for infringement, under which the rightsholder may be awarded legal fees and statutory damages.

“This is all well and good,” you think, “for large publishers. But what about me, the independent author? Surely attorney’s fees, time, and energy required to pursue such a claim would prove detrimental to my own bottom line. What then?”

Enter the CASE Act, introduced to the House by Rep. Jeffries and Rep. Marino. This legislation proposes the creation of a sort of copyright small claims tribunal (called the Copyright Claims Board), which would review claims of infringement and pass limited judgement on the cases presented. In essence, this review board would function in much of the same way as a suit brought forward in federal court, but from within the U.S. Copyright Office itself.

What are the benefits? The Copyright Claims Board would hold its hearings with written submissions or electronic hearings, and the claimants would not necessarily need to hire legal counsel to pursue a case (which would save money). Potential damages awarded would also be limited (currently, the bill is written to limit damages to $30,000), whereas federal court judgements have no set limit. Further, a hearing in front of the Copyright Claims Board would be voluntary, so either the plaintiff or the defendant can opt out of this alternative to a traditional copyright hearing in front of a judge.

Among the organizations who have vocally supported the CASE Act are the Copyright Alliance, the Authors Guild, the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA), the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), and the Digital Media Licensing Association (DMLA).

Some “copyleft” organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have suggested that the creation of the Copyright Claims Board would result in frivolous copyright infringement suits. However, given the opt-in nature of the board, it seems highly unlikely for copyright trolls to come out of the woodwork. Others worry that the CASE Act doesn’t allow for ample appeals or would still benefit large companies more than an individual creator due to the opt-out ability for either party.

The CASE Act easily passed the House with bipartisan support last fall but has been on hold in the Senate due to the lone objection of Oregon Senator Wyden. Wyden’s hold on the bill means that the bill will not come up for a vote on the floor unless other senators force it to come to the floor, which will force Wyden to articulate his objections to the bill, and those supporting the bill to likewise explain their views. Senators Kennedy and Durbin have been spearheading the negotiations with Wyden on the bill, and although progress has been made on both sides (including further limits on damage claims and other clarifying definitions), the bill still remains on hold.

That said, it appears that the CASE Act will come up for a vote in the next few weeks. As an author with your own copyrightable materials to protect, I encourage you to read up on the CASE Act and contact your senators to take action when the bill ultimately comes to the floor.

Links for further reading:

CASE Act legislation (you can subscribe for updates at this link as well)

Opinion: Senate Holds Should Not Be Dead Ends

House Approves Contentious Copyright Bill

Legal note: This article is provided as educational reference material only and does not constitute formal legal advice. You should consult your own legal counsel to determine whether any of this material is appropriate for your needs.

Mary Jo (“MJ”) Courchesne is the owner and principal consultant of Gryphon Publishing Consulting. A publishing veteran with more than 20 years of experience in trade, academic, and direct-response publishing, she has spent nearly two decades specializing in licensing, subsidiary rights, and permissions. MJ is a frequent and polished presenter on licensing and copyright. When it comes to intellectual property, she firmly believes that everyone from authors to publishers to corporations should know their rights. To that end, MJ instructed in the George Washington University’s Masters in Publishing program for 13 years, first for 11 years as adjunct professor for a course titled Editorial Content, Rights, and Permissions and subsequently as lecturer in a course on copyright. She currently serves on the Board of Experts for the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors and is a member of the Independent Book Publishers Association and the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators. MJ has also held memberships with other publishing organizations such as the American Society of Picture Professionals and Washington Publishers.

How to Meet Every Deadline

Wednesday, August Post a comment

As a professional, you make explicit commitments to every client you accept. Chief among these is your commitment to deliver your work-product on time.

You and your client may differ on matters of taste, opinion, values, payment, and more. But there is no room for disagreement as to deadlines. If you promise to deliver your work on the first of the month, delivering it any later than the first of the month is a major violation of your professionalism and your commitment.

With professional deadlines so important, here are some techniques to help you meet every delivery date to which you commit.

Plan Your Work

Some creative work, and some creative people, are not amenable to planning. If the work is too loosely defined, you may not be ready to plan what you’re going to create, how you’re going to create it, or even what tools you’re going to need to complete the project. If you need the Muse to rev up your creative engine, it’s improbable that you can schedule a creative work session for any particular time, such as 10 am next Tuesday.

Nevertheless, you can strive to make some progress toward completing the work, even if that progress is merely to do some preliminary thinking and feeling about where you want the project to go.

As you firm up your thoughts and feelings about the creative goal, you can usually begin to flesh out a more practical plan that specifies the tools you’ll need, the hours you’ll spend, the steps you’ll need to complete the project, the sequence in which you’ll want to complete the steps, and so forth.

Not everyone wants or needs a plan for every creative project, but it’s often a good idea to have one because it helps you focus, recognize your next step toward your goal, and appreciate the work and the steps you’ve already accomplished.

Work Your Plan

Many people say, “If you’re failing to plan, you’re planning to fail.” That’s mostly true, as far as it goes. But if you want to meet your deadlines, it’s equally important to work your plan once you have it. Otherwise, what’s the point of planning?

As I’ve learned from my son, a plan need not be frozen in place. It’s okay to revise your plan in light of new information or new developments. But a willingness to revise a plan when and as needed does not invalidate the importance of having a plan in the first place.

Think of a plan as a roadmap. It gives you the advantage of knowing the lay of the land, where you’ve been, and where you’re heading. It lets you know where you are in relation to your goal, and it helps you identify your next step in making progress toward it. With all of these advantages, the roadmap doesn’t prevent you from taking excursions off the main route, or staying longer at some waypoint that attracts your interest or demands your attention.

In terms of deadlines, your plan helps you recognize how much more work remains in the project you’re trying to complete and helps you calculate how many hours of effort that work is likely to require.

Without a plan, your next deadline can loom up suddenly out of the darkness and slip on past you before you can deal with it effectively.

However, if your plan shows that you have, for example, 100 hours until a deadline, and your plan helps you estimate that you need to put in 50 more hours of work before then, you’d have to be the opposite of a professional to let that deadline slip past you.

Work in Sync with Your Natural Patterns

As I’ve discussed in a previous post, creativity is a flow that almost always exhibits patterns you can follow to generate more and better work.

The basic idea is to recognize and sometimes even anticipate, based on your creative history, the dates and times you’re likely to be doing your best work—and your worst. This can help you select which project to pursue during upcoming periods of prime creativity and which projects you can afford to kick down the road a while longer.

Allow Extra Time in Case of Work Problems and Delays

Let’s go back to that hypothetical from above where you had 100 hours remaining in which to complete 50 hours of creative work. Hypothetically, any professional worthy of the name can meet that deadline.

But in the real world, there are unpredictable variables that can turn those 50 hours of remaining work into 75 hours, and can eat into those 100 hours of available time until there are only 50 hours of actual working time left. In other words, completing a project in time to meet a deadline can be far more difficult than you anticipate.

That’s why a professional interested in meeting deadlines does not schedule work too tightly, with too little room for delays and errors. A novice or amateur may be proud of finishing a project an hour before it’s due. But the prudent, experienced professional plans to finish a day, maybe even a week, in advance of the deadline. This way, when delays crop up—as they very often do—the seasoned professional still has a reasonable possibility of meeting the deadline.

Learn to More Accurately Estimate Your Time Requirements

Much of this discussion on meeting deadlines has involved estimating time requirements. Obviously, if your estimates are overly optimistic, you’ll run the risk of missing some deadlines that you might have met had you estimated more accurately.

For this reason, accurately estimating time requirements for a project’s remaining work is a valuable tool in meeting deadlines.

One of the best ways to learn to more accurately estimate how much time a project will require is to log the time you spend, and later review those logs to learn from your own experiences.

Your time estimates will naturally become more accurate as you gain professional experience. But keeping and reviewing a time log will significantly shorten your learning curve.

The main point here is simple: The ability to set and meet deadlines without stressing yourself to the breaking point is a critically important tool in the professional writer’s toolkit. I’ve seen lots of professionals sharpen their deadline-meeting skills to better match the increasing scope of their projects, and the prestige and importance of their professional challenges. You can do this, too.

Robert Moskowitz is an award-winning independent professional writer who has written and sold millions of words in just about every format over five decades. He instinctively sees the big pictures, breaks each one down into coherent slices, meaningfully prioritizes and sequences those slices, and then executes the tasks inherent in each slice in very productive ways. Put more simply, Robert knows how to succeed as an independent writer, covering all the bases from soliciting assignments to delivering polished work, from pricing jobs to budgeting and managing personal finances, from organizing a conducive office environment to establishing and following sensible guidelines regarding life, work, and productivity. Having done all this, and having paid attention to how he did it, Robert is now in a position to pass along what he knows to others.

Should We Capitalize ‘Black’? Publications Should Be Talking About It

Sunday, June Post a comment

Many publications have decided recently to capitalize the racial identifier Black. This is a perfect time to review this internal style question.

In the wake of nationwide protests over police brutality and racial disparity, prominent publications have adopted capital Black to refer to people of color who trace their roots to Africa. Among them are The Los Angeles Times, NBC News, The San Diego Union-Tribune, and the Gannett newspaper chain, including USA Today. They join the Boston Globe and Seattle Times, which made the change several months ago.

The descriptive term has traditionally not been capitalized, just as white has been lowercase to refer to lighter-skinned people who trace their roots to Europe. The Chicago Manual of Style points out that “terms such as black and white, when referring to ethnicity, are usually lowercased unless a particular author or publisher prefers otherwise.” In contrast, the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association has long called for capitalizing racial designations.

The Associated Press Stylebook goes with lowercase for descriptive terms regarding race. But AP Stylebook editors are gauging the mood. In answers to Ask the Editor queries at apstylebook.com, the editors write: “We continue to discuss the question, as we have been for some time. Some black people believe strongly that the term should be capitalized. Some black people believe strongly that it shouldn’t be capitalized. There also are other considerations, such as how to handle white. In-depth study and discussions continue.”

The argument for uppercase has been that the word identifies a distinctive group of people and should follow the pattern of other racial or ethnic identifiers, such as Asian and Latino. But other racial or ethnic identifiers are based on geographic location or language, which are generally capitalized. The terms black and white are vaguely descriptive and are not based on location or language. Linguistically, the general trend is toward lowercasing words as they become more widely used. To capitalize Black goes against this pattern.

One issue with capitalizing Black is what do we do with White? Some argue that the latter is not as distinctive as a self-identified group, except perhaps among a few racists who are militant in their identity. But leaving white lowercase risks presenting one race as the norm. Writing on March 23 on the website of the Center for the Study of Social Policy, Ann Thuy Nguyen and Maya Pendleton argue that “to not name ‘White’ as a race is, in fact, an anti-Black act which frames Whiteness as both neutral and the standard.”

Looking to precedent

There is a strong precedent for capitalization that can provide us guidance now, a century later. The Spanish and Portuguese word for the color black was adopted in American English as a racial term and was commonly written lowercase. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, writers and activists—including W.E.B. Du Bois—campaigned for Negro to be capitalized. In 1929, Du Bois told the editors of Encyclopedia Britannica that he considered “the use of a small letter for the name of twelve million Americans and two hundred million human beings a personal insult.” There are now 44 million Americans and more than a billion people worldwide who have ancestral ties to Africa.

In grappling with this decision, publications also might look to the New York Times in 1930, which acknowledged it was late to capitalization when it decided to uppercase Negro, joining “many of the leading Southern newspapers as well as most of the Northern in according this recognition.” In a small announcement of the change in the March 7, 1930, New York Times editorial page, the editors wrote: “In our ‘style book,’ ‘Negro’ is now added to the list of words to be capitalized. It is not merely a typographical change; it is an act in recognition of racial self-respect for those who have been for generations in ‘the lower case.’”

In the 1960s, the word Negro began to fall out of favor, to the point of now being considered an offensive throwback. It was spoken by Martin Luther King Jr. in his 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, but James Brown helped hasten the reclamation of black when he sang “Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud” in 1968. Only recently has African American (with or without a hyphen) become a commonly used term, but it has had a mixed reception.

Looking for guidance

News organizations and other publications look to the AP Stylebook and other big style guides for leadership on social, political, and cultural language trends. The AP Stylebook likes to reflect the norm rather than push cultural change, but it has demonstrated an awareness of what writer Karen Yin calls conscious style—favoring words that acknowledge underrepresented communities and avoiding words that disparage or belittle. Yin, creator of the Conscious Style Guide, suggested in 2017 that publications not wait for the big style guides to change because the big style guides will change when they see publications adopting the capital B.

Yin also suggests that Black-focused magazines can show the way.

“If your editorial directive is to call people what they want to be called—including names, pronouns, and labels—then look to Black media outlets like Ebony and Essence for accepted usage and avoid overriding their terminology,” she wrote.

Arguments about linguistic trends and descriptive vs. nominal uses seem petty in the face of the real, often violent inequality in American society. And capitalizing Black now might seem reactionary or an emotional response. But as is usually the case, the right time to engage in the discussion is now.

Mark Allen is an editor, writer, and teacher focused on helping people communicate with clarity and honesty. He has trained hundreds of editors and writers on a variety of topics, including the latest and most important elements in the Associated Press Stylebook and the Chicago Manual of Style. Mark has led conversations about copyediting and writing at conferences and workshops in Detroit, St. Louis, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Portland, Columbus, Chicago, Pittsburgh, New York City, and York, England. He was the first freelancer elected to the executive board of ACES: The Society for Editing, and Mark currently teaches advanced copyediting for UC San Diego Extension’s copyediting certificate program.

Public Library Shuns Writer

Saturday, May Post a comment

From Publishers’ Weekly:

“YA author Julia Watts has been removed from the slate of authors participating in LitUp, a teen literary festival sponsored by the Knox County (Tenn.) Public Library that was inspired by a teen book festival of the same name launched last year in the Kansas City area. Knoxville’s inaugural LitUp festival is scheduled to take place on October 13 with a full day of programming, including appearances by 10 YA authors, a mix of regional and national names.

“According to Watts, a local indie bookseller who is involved in the LitUp festival’s planning asked her in July to be one of its featured authors. ‘My name and photo went up on the website,’ she said. Last Friday, however, that same bookseller called Watts to tell her that she was no longer slated to appear, as, after Googling her name, a member of the organizing committee had expressed concerns that she has also written erotica.”

I’ve seen this before. When a public organization or non-profit decides they don’t like what an author has written, they withdraw support. In this case, Julia Watts is in every way a “legitimate” writer. While she’s written erotica (which is essentially pornography in print), she was not presenting that content. She was presenting her traditionally published YA/LGBTQ fiction.

This is a case of confusing the author and the art. There is no law against writing pornography. Generally speaking, there is a difference between erotic romance and erotica.

While I don’t allow erotica in my workshops (I tell the writers no worse than R-rated content, please), I have never turned an author away for their content. I wonder if this library would have turned Shel Silversteen away for writing for Playboy? I certainly think not.

Shunning authors for any reason is unacceptable. Content does not maketh the man*. If an author has a catalog that includes works that are essentially illegal, that is one thing. But shunning an author for artistic expression is the worst form of censorship.

The Value and Magic of Networking: How It Can Help You Build Up Your Business

Monday, May Post a comment

We hear about networking all the time, but what is it—and why is it valuable to independent writers and editors? Why do it? How can you do it well? And what shouldn’t you do?

Done right, networking can create credibility and visibility, provide leads to new projects and clients, and bolster your independent business in many other ways.

Networking is simply interacting with colleagues to exchange information, resources, and support. What everyone doesn’t understand is that networking is a two-way process; it goes beyond joining a professional organization or asking questions in a discussion forum. To be effective, networking has to be both two-sided and—a lot like marketing—constant.

In the process of networking with colleagues or prospective clients, you can ask questions and ask for help, but you also have to give something back. If you always take and never give, you aren’t networking; you’re being a leech.

A common misconception of networking is that it means talking up ourselves, but this is not how it works (or not only how it works). Your networking efforts will be far more successful if you take a 180 degree turn and spend your time learning about other people and their services. It can’t be said too often that networking is a two-way process, and it starts with the other person. You want to be seen as someone who knows how to listen and learn from colleagues, and then as someone who can offer advice, resources, and other aspects of helping each other do our work better. You don’t want to be seen as someone who sucks information out of colleagues and never gives anything back in return.

If it’s hard to envision how networking works, two synonyms that might help would be “interacting” and “a two-way process.” Again, the ideal is for you to answer colleagues’ questions as well as ask your own, provide tips, and resources that colleagues will find helpful, and hold or host useful conversations that center on more than what only you want or need.

Networking in the current era

For many colleagues, networking means meeting and interacting in person, usually at local meetings of professional organizations and annual conferences of those organizations. With social distancing now in effect and other restrictions in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re seeing some changes in the networking world, although the basic principles remain the same. For the next few months (or longer), networking is going to be more and more “virtual,” with meetings and conferences already having been canceled throughout the spring and into the summer. We’re already seeing events being held electronically, whether through something like Zoom or Skype (where you can see each other) or by teleconference.

If you plan to participate in virtual networking events, remember to present yourself professionally. Just because most of us are working from home for now, we shouldn’t let go of our professionalism. Wear something (at least from the waist up!) that looks like what you would wear to the office or a conference. Make sure your setting—background, noise, interruptions, etc.—is appropriate. Ask questions, and also try to provide relevant experiences or answers to colleagues’ questions.

Some organizations are already breaking up their big events, such as annual meetings, into smaller pieces and offering sessions as webinars, and many are offering those resources at lower costs than full conference registration or even for free. Many colleagues will save money on everything from conference registration to travel to accommodations to meals, which might mean being able to invest in more (online) training or more events next year, once—we hope—our professional lives return to something approaching normal.

The impact on organizations of losing a lot of money from having to cancel those conferences remains to be seen. Some might have to cut back on services or staffing to survive. Virtual networking will be more valuable than ever, yet harder to do on a large-scale basis. In turn, networking etiquette is likely to be more important than usual but could be harder to maintain as larger numbers of people seek ways to connect and learn from each other.

However you aim to network, remember that you have something to offer even if you’re new to writing or editing, or to being an independent writer or editor. We’re all here to learn from and support each other. Here’s to keeping those connections growing.

Here are some additional resources:

Ruth Thaler-Carter has been a full-time freelance writer, editor, proofreader, and desktop publisher for more than 30 years. She has been published locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally in, and does writing, editing and proofreading for, publications, associations, nonprofits, websites, service firms, and businesses. She sold her first freelance articles when she was still in high school. Renowned as a skilled networker, Ruth is active in about a dozen professional associations, serving as a newsletter editor, webmaster, publication author, speaker/presenter, blogger, program host or planner, and chapter leader. In 2006, Ruth launched the Communication Central “Be a Better Freelancer” annual conference to help aspiring and established freelancers find greater success and connections with colleagues. Ruth is the owner and editor-in-chief of the An American Editor blog and received the Philip M. Stern Award of Washington (DC) Independent Writers for service to freelancers; the Writers and Books Big Pencil Award for teaching adults and contributions to the literary community; EFfie awards for writing, editing, and newsletters; and the APEX award for feature writing. She was also an IABC/DC Communicator of the Year.

The More Unique and Popular You Are, the More Your Compensation

Sunday, April Post a comment

How much does a writer for your local advertising weekly earn? How much does J.K. Rowling earn?

What’s the reason for the difference?

In my view, there are primarily two reasons.

First, popularity. A lot more people read Rowling than the advertising weekly. It’s only natural she earns more.

The second reason is a little more esoteric: uniqueness. Almost anyone who can string 50 words together can write for the advertiser. Only Rowling was able to deliver more Harry Potter.

If you think about it, this same paradigm is pretty much true of other career paths:

Unique and popular musicians earn more than cover bands.
Unique and popular actors earn more than extras.
Unique and popular visual artists earn more than those who only copy the Great Masters.
Unique and popular historians earn more than high school history teachers.

And so forth.

Let’s be clear here: I’m not telling you what to write. I’ve worked with lots of people and I’ve never told any of them what to work on next. I’m just saying that if I like a certain kind of material, and I can get similar material from a hundred or a thousand different writers, I’m going to pay relatively little for the next installment of that material.

I’m going to pay a lot more for the next installment of material I can get only from one writer.

Is this just another argument for you to find and cultivate your own voice? Absolutely. That’s one of the main reasons I encourage you to strive toward becoming the best version of your creative self that you possibly can be.

Is this another hurdle on the road to success that you have to leap? It doesn’t have to be. Many people I’ve worked with start out fearful that finding and developing their unique voice is a terrible obstacle that’s difficult to overcome. As I’ve coached, mentored, and counseled them, I’ve helped them recognize that it’s really an opportunity. In fact, it’s a privilege and an opportunity.

Keep Your Creativity and Your Business Separate

Sunday, April Post a comment

One of the biggest mistakes that a creative professional can make is to blur the line between creative efforts and business efforts. You don’t expect a doctor to diagnose every person she meets. You don’t expect an auto mechanic to tune up every engine she encounters. You don’t expect a musician to sing every line she utters and never talk.

In the same way, you shouldn’t expect yourself to bring your creativity to every business task you tackle.

It’s Just Business, Not Personal

The brightest line between business and creative activities demarcates the simple fact that lots of people can do business, but only you can do your creative work. That’s why it’s important you learn to recognize when you are doing business, and when you are creating, and that you intentionally bring different traits and skillsets to each of these two categories of activity.

When to Wear Your Creative Hat

Obviously, you’ll want to wear your creative hat when you are fulfilling a creative impulse, or a creative contract. This includes the times when you are actually working, but also such times as when you are

planning the work
contemplating the work
researching or investigating the work
gearing up for the work
polishing the work.

These are among the times when you’ll be drawing on your professional training and experience, tapping into your innate creative resources, and generally letting rip your creative powers. You’ll be in or near—or trying to achieve—a state of flow. You’ll be making your own professional choices and decisions. You’ll be enjoying yourself in what will often become a peak experience.

During these times, you need not—and should not—be thinking about business considerations.

When to Wear Your Business Hat

But at other times, you’ll want to doff your creative hat and put on that more practical, more hard-headed, more logical and material hat that denotes your emphasis on a business frame of mind.

When you wear your business hat, you’ll almost pretend that your creative side belongs to another person. You’ll stop trying to solve problems in new ways, stop trying to send a message or deliver meaning to an audience, stop trying to draw on those creative talents and innovative ideas that others just don’t have.

Instead, you’ll put into practice some basic, simple functions that reflect a well-defined collection of black-and-white guidelines and practical policies that have been shown to maximize your level of success in the world of business.

These include times when you are

pricing
billing
collecting
marketing
negotiating

Let’s take a closer look at each of these, in turn.

Pricing

As a professional writer, you produce output. This output is worth money. How much money it’s worth depends to a large extent on the value you set for it, and your determination in sticking to that valuation.

Pricing is a purely business function that depends primarily on how much supply you can deliver, how much demand there is for your output, and what range of values the market allows for your work.

For example, if you can crank out a professional-quality piece of work in a day, you’ll probably be satisfied to take less for it than if the same work takes you a week, a month, or a year. What’s more, if you can find only one buyer for your work, you’ll probably be forced to take less for whatever you write than if 25 buyers are clamoring for everything you can produce.

In the same way, the market sets a range of prices for your work based on the number of suppliers, the number of demanders, and other key market factors.

To illustrate: if your competition charges $5,000 to $10,000 for a certain kind of written item, you’ll probably be hard pressed to get $20,000 for something similar that you generate. But you’d almost certainly have an easy time getting $2,000 for it. Pretty much the same situation obtains for work that falls into all different price ranges.

Given all this, the Holy Grail of pricing professional work is to find the price that brings you the most money. This could entail selling lots of material at relatively low prices, selling very few pieces at very high prices, or—for most of us—selling many pieces at prices well within the range established by many other professional writers.

Setting a price entails very little creativity. It is much more like practical experimentation. If buyers are reluctant to accept your price, that’s a signal it may be too high. If buyers snap up your work, that’s a signal you may be pricing it too low. For most of us, the goal is usually to find the “Goldilocks” price that’s just right.

Billing

As a professional writer, you ask for money for your work. This entails not only setting a price, but drawing up an invoice of some kind that states the item you are selling, the buyer of it, and the price you’ve established for the work, along with any relevant conditions such as rights or royalties.

You might also establish other conditions, such as how long you’re giving the buyer to pay, how the money is to be paid, and so forth. Billing also entails communicating this information to your buyer. There’s little or no creativity involved in this work, yet it’s important to do it well, on a timely basis, and to keep track of who you have billed for what.

Collecting

As a professional writer, pricing and billing are only two of the business tasks you’ll need to accomplish in order to receive payment for your work. Collecting is perhaps most important, because without the act of collecting the money you’ve asked for through pricing and billing—particularly when buyers are slow to respond to your routine billing efforts—you may never get paid.

Collecting begins with checking the bills you have sent out and determining your next action on each of them. For relatively fresh bills you’ve just sent out, you’ll probably decide to wait and do nothing extra.

But as a particular bill ages, there will come a time when you’ll want to consider contacting the buyer to see how far along she is in paying your bill, then later perhaps sending the same bill again as a reminder that you’re still waiting to get paid, and eventually taking more drastic steps. These might include cutting off any further deliveries of your work, charging interest on the unpaid balance, asking a professional collector to go and get your money, or taking the buyer to court.

I don’t see any need for creativity here. Do you?

Marketing

As a professional writer, you’re interested in selling your work. Naturally, you can’t sell unless you can find buyers, which automatically brings you into the realm of marketing.

While there may be some creativity involved in marketing efforts, you don’t need to expend any of your own creativity in this area. Very intelligent and creative people have spent many years developing lots of interesting and effective ways to find buyers and to persuade them to buy. All you have to do is study the world of marketing and emulate what the most effective marketers do.

Marketing itself is beyond the scope of this article. But it’s well within my scope to suggest that you include marketing as a prominent part of what you do when you’re wearing your business hat.

Negotiating

As a professional writer, you’ll regularly be making deals with buyers who want to obtain some of your work. As soon as someone expresses interest, you’re a denizen of the world of negotiation. You’ll want to reach an agreement with each buyer on the terms of each purchase, including your obligations to the buyer and the buyer’s obligations to you.

Although there are some industry standards for the sale of professional writing, there remains a great deal of latitude within the areas of rights, promises, remedies for broken promises, deadlines, parameters of the work you’re selling, and more.

As with marketing, you don’t need to invent any negotiation techniques. Simply study and learn what the best negotiators do, and add those skills and behaviors to the repertoire you draw on when you’re wearing your business hat.

Networking

As a professional writer, relationships are frequently central to your success. Relationships bring you opportunities to sell your work, to learn new skills, to expand your creative powers, and more. These relationships have to be started and cultivated, which is precisely where networking becomes important.

As with marketing and negotiating, there’s little advantage to you expending your creative energy on developing new and better ways to network. Simply recognize the need for it and use the well-established best practices of networking, which you should do on a regular basis. This is an important task for the times you’re wearing your business hat, and you should consider it so.

Over the years, I’ve found great pleasure in watching talented writers grow from timid souls who feel that the business side of our profession is not their cup of tea to marveling at the raw power and financial benefits these same writers can produce by putting a little elbow grease into the mechanics of business, without ever compromising their inborn creative capacities.

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