Commercial Writing v Ficiton Writing

The majority of my writing these days is commission work, with clients bombarding me with article requests and content editing. It's paying the bills (not all of them, but more than you would think), but it is so stale at times.

At the end of the day I'm so drained from cranking out a few dozen articles that I have no energy to work on my own fiction. I suppose that's a great problem to have these days, what with people barely scraping by and all.

I'm a copywriter by trade, so it's not like I don't want this. I used to sit in my studio at Forever Broadcasting and dream of the day when I could do nothing but freelance work like this all day long. I'm pretty much there these days...and it tastes like sour grapes.

I do love me some sour grapes, though.

The bittersweet after effects of so much freelance work are daunting. Yes, I'm doing precisely what I set out to do, but now I can't get a short story finished to save my life. And poor Brandon Wilt, who has provided with me intensely amazing artwork (interior and exterior) for several projects, is left with only one set of eyes to look at his detailed masterpieces: my own.

My inability to get shit finalized and sold is grating on my nerves, but the money that rolls in every month from commercial work paid for Christmas. Six of one, half a dozen of the other. A catch-22, if you will.

I almost feel like issuing a challenge. Give me an idea for a fiction piece and I'll get that thing completed, slam-bam-thank-you-man

The rattle of a death cry

Sick? Yeah, you know it. Hard to focus on writing anything, or even write AT ALL like this. Pnuemonia, bronchitis, and the flu do not mix well together.

Signed new clients!

A couple weeks ago I signed www.dealticker.com to providing new content to their affiliate sites. It's been awesome so far, with a steady stream of work and mucho dinero. Today I just got a call back from Main St Host to provide editing and copywriting for their affiliate sites. Looks to be a lot of steady work for them, too.

Honestly, yesterday I made more money copywriting and providing a voice over than I did at my day job.

...if it keeps up like this, do I take the plunge and go freelance full time?

Back in action!

I've been taking some time off as I get through the summer months at my day job. Summer is the busy time of year for my industry and I just don't have the free time to get much writing done, personal or otherwise.

Now that things have slowed down, I'm finally able to get back into this madness! I have a lot of projects lined up and have found some new contacts, too.

Current sites I frequent looking for freelance work:

www.freelancewritinggigs.com
fiverr.com
www.elance.com
www.freelancer.com
www.voicebunny.com
pittsburgh.craigslist.com

I highly recommend you start looking around, too! Um...but don't look at my frequented sites. I wouldn't want to track you down and destroy your computer because you stole a gig out from under me.

Currently working on things for Amazing Mutts, a few short stories, a commission ebook, random podcasts and radio spots, and more. Summer is done, so now I can hibernate with my laptop and make some $$$.

The way of the dodo

Nein!

I have not faded away. I'm just super busy at work, and running like a writer with his head cut off while at home. My daughter just turned two years-old and my son is  5 1/2 months-old, so you can imagine that sleep and free time are valuable commodities in my household.

I've been working on a ton of commission stuff, balancing about 30-40 clients per month. Maybe a little more. Audio production is in full tilt, and I'm churning out some quality material (like the segment just sent to the owner of Blue Cattle Dog Boxing Gym this morning). Lots of podcasters looking for me to edit stuff, too, which is cool.

Just submitted something to The WiFiles. We'll wait the 90 days and see how it goes. This particular story was rejected six times previously from other places, so I massively edited it and have crossed my fingers.

I have two mroe pieces to rewrite today and submit...somewhere. I'll have to look on Duotrope and pick a place.

I'm also in need of intereted parties to submit to an anthology I'm pulling together. The genre is probably anything sci-fi/fantasy/weird/pulp. Ed Ainsworth and Mike Hintze are on board. Anyone else?

Busy, busy, busy

A rough week around these parts, as I lost two days of productivity due to a family funeral. It was a sad event, but we're through it now and it's time to get back to daily living.

Today turned out to be an awesomely awesome day full of sales and surprises. I've scored a steady gig writing web copy for a real estate marketing company based in Florida. I've been working up page content for brokerages around the country (from South Huntington Beach to Brainerd), and it's proving to be quite lucrative. So much so that I'm thinking of outsourcing some material. There's a lot of writing to be done here, and it's getting paid for, but I don't have all day to get it done anymore.

I also got a lovely e-mail alerting me that three stories I wrote last year were purchased by All Access HD, LLC. I call it lovely because it was more money than I was expecting to get, with a promise to look at any more material I send over. Stories sold include the following:

Citizen Cog and the Vampire Society
One Life to Lose
Midnight Mistress; Dangerous Damsel

When the releases come around in the associated anthologies I'll put the word out. And have you noticed the LLC attached to the end of the buyer? I'm thinking of going that route myself, but I'm not sure on what all the benefits would be other than not getting destroyed by the government for tax reasons.

Hey! I'm still here!

So, all of the commission writing has been taking off. I'm writing short stories, articles, and SEO material for more sites and ebooks than I can name. It's becoming quite lucrative. So much that I'm actually thinking of outsourcing. Not sure if that's plausible right now, as I would have to find some efficient writers that I trust, but we'll see how it goes.

Freelancing work has tripled in the last two months. That's not blowing smoke. I'm running out of free time, and my day job is only getting busier.

The latest thing I've worked to see the world wide web thingy-ma-bob is a nice compilation of work. I wrote two short stories for this Facebook page, which is a business selling computer hardware. I also was comissioned to record and produce audio version of my stories, plus three others. Check it out, some cool stuff (even if it is technically propaganda for the stuff they're shilling).

Lots more stuff brewing right now, and lots of submissions sent out recently, too. I'll get around to talking about them when I get the time.

Ah. Time. Where does it all go? I think as a people we ought to consider going to the 27 Hour Day.