NaNo Alert!

Holy crap...NaNoWriMo begins in just over an hour. I need to get my head in the game. I need a character. I need a plot. I need to find that bean counter link.

50K words in one month. I can do this. I have done this. Several times. I can do it again!

Maybe a book about invisible secret agents that have an affinity for cookies. Or a novel featuring a murderous ugly duckling looking for revenge against those who marked him with him unfortunate moniker. Perhaps a book about a horse. A zombie horse.

WWiR

Lots of sales this week, a few commissions, and a bunch of web content. It's another busy week at this casa, and the new job is putting some straing on my writing time.

At my old job I had all time to write. I was able to do two things at once, but now I'm limited to just working on my writing during my lunch hour. I've been staying up late, often until 2am, to get production squeezed in as well as some writing time. It's rough, but it's worth it.

I did more content for http://www.getexclusiv.com/, http://www.mintmicro.com/, and a few bits of research for a collection of places that aren't worth mentioning. I produced spots for a few UK companies, and even got in touch with some of my old DJ coworkers at Forever Broadcasting to do some lines for me. It's nice to have a network of productive, talented people.

"Stranded With A Killer" got an overhaul and I'm starting to look for places to sell the story to once it's done. I'll take suggestions! Keep in mind, this is a space noir murder mystery pulp adventure...with chicks. Got to have chicks, man, or Joel McHale won't pay attention.

BY THE WAY - Stay far away from The Rag. I inquired about their submission process and the editor, Daniel Reilly, wrote me back to tell me that online submissions must pay a sum of $3.00 for consideration. WTF? Are you serious? You want me to pay for you to take a look at something you're thinking of buying?

Oh, wait, it's cool because they offer people who make online submissions $4.00 off a yearly subscription! Well, that makes it all better, doesn't it! You still have to pay the remaing amount for the yearly subscription, of course. They claim to pay their writers upwards of $250 per piece, which I find highly unlikely since they've only had one issue released.

This is obviously a scheme to get novice writer to give them money. I doubt a third of the submissions are even looked at. Don't waste your time, save your money, and send your hard work into a site that will actually take you seriously as a professional.

WWiR

Scored another recurring gig, this one writing web content for Epic Polls. The clients are racking up enough that I'm now offering some of them a labeling of "Preferred Client." Basically, if you're on the PC list and you need me to do something for you, I bump all of my other work back and focus on your needs. There's no cost associated with this labeling, it's just an incentive to keep the decent paying clients coming back.

Did more work for Get Exclusiv!, Mintmicro Computer Repairs, RE Cloud, Rock Weddings, and some research for a guy that's looking into black magic (not kidding on that last one). Once again, I didn't get much done in the way of original writing this week. With the new job and all I just haven't had time. The paying gigs come first these days.

NaNoWriMo is coming up in under two weeks. Any takers? I've done it for the last four years, and usually had a great time. It's a little stressful, but it is a lot of fun and very motivational. I might need to use it for a way to get through the rest of my novel. Lord knows I need the motivation to get it done.

My own personal social network

I've been pulling more and more work out of Craigslist ads. There's a high volume of competition, but I've managed to sign a few recurring clients on a monthly basis. This week's pulls include writing some polling questions. Boring as anything, but the money is right, and we all know how much of a sell-out I truly am.

I also got a real nice lead from my best recurring client. The guy that runs Get Exclusiv! hooked me up with some of his friends that are looking to launch their own project. It's a relationship site, and who knows more about relationships than me? No one, that's who. I'm da man. Yeah, buddy.

I think I hear my wife laughing at me from somewhere in the house.

Manic Monday

It's only Monday, and I've already gotten a lot lined up for the week. Two rejections (for Drunk Tank, and Citizen Cog), thus leading to two submissions. Drunk Tank was sent to The Drabblecast and Citizen Cog to...I haven't decided yet. But I will. Tonight.

I also began a short fiction piece that I was commissioned to write, entitled The Non-Life of Christopher Mahoney. Just a quick flash on the keyboard, really.

And I also signed a guy to SEO his realty site. Pays a hundred smackers, so hooray for $$$.

WWiR

*whew*

Got really busy this week, and not just with writing and producing. I started a new job yesterday, in a new career field. My previous employer was fantastic, but I had to resign for a number of reasons. I won't go into it here, but I will say the decision to change jobs was purely from a logistics standpoint. No ill will harbored here, and I truly hope that I have an opportunity to return to them someday (for the right amount of money). Everyone at my new company is really nice and I'm looking forward to moving up the corporate ladder.

Anyway, back to what you're all here for. Here's the rundown of all the work I did this week:

Five articles for Get Exclusiv! (coming soon; owner is away on business)
Content for Amazing Mutts
Promo for Fresh Radio
Promo for Fashion Show Inc
Promo for KuduBids
Commercial for The Prophecy 23
Article for Things I Fear
Content for a Super Bowl 2012 site (launching soon)
Article on Kindle Fire vs the Nook (site unspecified)
50 polling questons on comics and books (site unspecified)
Article on the LA Staples Center (site unspecified)

Plus, I did some work editing on an autobiography. Sadly, because of time contraints, I had to drop this project. The book is awesome: this guy really went through a lot in his life, through many amazing circumstances that would be hard to pull yourself up from. However, he did pick himself up. Really nice guy, and I'm dissappointed that I won't have time to work with him on the rest of the project.

I did absolutely no work on my own writing this week. Just too busy. And it super-sucks because the deadline for my novel is fast approaching. The stuff that pays immediately is going to have to take a step back if I plan on actually making my deadline. We'll see.

HTWWW v2

How the West Was Weird: Volume 2

You should probably go and order that particular little item, as it will make a wonderful addition to your anthology collection. I hear it makes a great Christmas gift, too!

Never mind the fact that I have a story in there, "Raid at Razorfang Ranch." I think you should buy this just for the sake of owning some wonderfully crafted stories. So, go forth and purchase.

The Blubber

Collegehumor and The Onion apparently need to watch out, because The Blubber is going to be giving them a run for their money. Or at least they're going to try. While I'm not too enthusiastic about their chances, they do pay for articles from unpublished authors. So, if you're looking to get into freelancing, and you think you have a few funny bones in your body, click the link and submit something.

Insanity strikes!

Crazy weekend. Here I thought I wasn't going to get any work done. Instead I found myself able to edit a chapter of a dude's book, finish six articles, write a script for a :60 spot, and then produce that same spot.

All that and I still had time to visit the Franklin Apple Festival with my wife and daughter. Surprisingly, not a lot of apples.

WWiR

Another week in writing, another few dollars made. Things only seem to be picking up for this fledgling freelancer, as I obtained several more commission articles and a few pieces of audio production. I also got some insane offers, which baffle me. Just because I am a freelancer does not mean that I will lance for free. I'll explain:

I got an offer yesterday to be a staff writer for Steel City Magazine, which is Pittsburgh based. At first glance that seems awesome because I live in Pittsburgh and I really love it here. However, I was quickly informed that I would not be paid for the articles I write. Instead, I would be offered 20% of the advertising that I signed. That's right, I would not only have to provide content, but I would have to go make advertising sales as well. C'mon... Do people fall into that trap? Seriously? Because those people deserve to not get paid. the creative and sales departments should never intertwine; that's where conflict of interest comes from.

I also got an offer to be an editor for an erotic publisher...so, I'm probably not going to take that job. If Grandma Golightly can't look at it, then I'm not going to do it. I'm not desperate enough to throw away my scruples (scruples is a word I have decided to work into conversatin more often). I'm not on a moral high horse here, I just think that if there's a chance that I could be shamed into not promoting my work that I probably shouldn't be doing it.

I rewrote some content for Amazing Mutts, added more reviews to Get Exclusiv!, sold an article to Social Skyline, mixed an intro for a podcast hosted by Situations the Game, edited someone's ebook, and edited what I've written so far of my own novel.

The novel, by the way, is called "Prodigal Son" and used to be featured at Revenance before the site went belly-up. Some may remember the three part adventure that was hosted there starring my urban fantasy, paranormal investigator Felix North. I sliced out some scenes, extended others, and rewrote the prologue to work better as a full length novel instead of an episodic series (which it was originally intended to be). Where will this novel be published? Well, I'm not saying yet, because I'm still talking with the editor about how to best promote the book. The deadline is January 1st, 2012.

Probably not going to get any writing done this weekend, as we're hitting two community fairs. Autumn Leaf Festival in Clarion (where my wife went to college) and the Franklin Apple Festival (where...someone did something at some point). These fairs aren't really my thing, but I want to spend time with my wife and visit friends.

Copyscape

As writers, our written word is worth its weight in gold. For some it is how the bills are paid. It's a hard business to be in, and there are more people out there looking to scam you than you might realize.

Thus, I present this awesome tool I just discovered called Copyscape. I'm told businesses use this to monitor their intellectual properties, but I see no reason why us writers can't use it, too. Once you write your story/article/poem/recipe for pipe bombs and send it off to your grateful (and hopefully paying) client you are assuming that they will publish or post your works as agreed.

But...what if they *gasp* take advatange of your work?

How would you even know that your supposedly honest client didn't just change a few proper nouns and then sell it again somewhere else at a profit? Some contracts actually allow for that, so maybe this isn't a concern of yours (since once the thing is sold, it kind of stops being yours anyway). But if that's happening are you sure your name isn't still attached?

Using Copyscape requires that you have a source to compare to, meaning your story needs to already be online. If you have webspace already then you're golden. If not, there are a lot of free services available for temporary webhosting. I'm not saying this service will save your from having your name posted where you don't want it, but it's an interesting, if not resourceful, tool to use just in case.

Go click yourself

So, I just signed a contract that puts a litte cash in my pocket from writing. I would ask that people go start clicking the following link:

http://www.getexclusiv.com/

It's a TV and movie review site that just got started. I'll be posting reviews of TV shows I watch regularly (20 reviews a month), so please go check out the site and leave some comments. If you watch the shows I'm reviewing, then you definitely should leave some comments and we'll begin some discussions!

My pay is not based on the number of clicks my articles get; I have a contract with an alotted budget. I just want to drive traffic to the site.