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.

Spinning

I do not understand why people agree to spin their content. As a writer, one of the most frustrating things in life is being forced to rewrite something that you've put serious time and effort into. I don't mind editing based on someone's notes, but spinning is just tedious and silly.

It's a product of greed. Spinning means rewriting the a sentence without changing the content. Example:

-Dave wrote a story the other day.
-The other day Dave wrote a story.

A lot of people pay good money for crap like that. It's baffling to me. I suppose the point is so they can resell whatever you're providing them so it will pass Copyscape. Could you imagine being commissioned to not only write a 1K word blog article, but then having to spin it five times? Yeah. FIVE. I just came across an offer to do that exact thing.

To that I say, "Sit on this and spin."

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.

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.

WWiR

It's been a productive week here in the OK Corral. Got another thousand words added to the sequel Wendell Null story, "Stranded with a Killer," in which our starship constable has crash landed with his worst rival and a recently convicted felon. But when the death that caused the crash seems to be murder, is the felon really the prime suspect?

I would have gotten more writing on that story done, but the paying gigs took over for a bit there. I did some reaserch for SupermomWFH, a stay at home fitness site. I provided more web content to Arcade Grab. I signed a deal with the guy who runs Get Exclusiv! and will be providing articles on a regular basis there (so you should go and comment on them so he sees how valued an employee I can be).

I also wrote up a quick story called "Chance Encounters," which I discussed in my last post. Just a quick commission piece that I have yet to find out where it will land on the great, wide, wonderful internet. The instructions he gave me were thus, "Write a sexy sci-fi story." Sexy? Well, I gave it my best shot without being too graphic. I don't do gratuitousness in stories. I believe things like that are better left to the imagination of the reader.

Right now I'm righting some ad copy for a new product that is basically a sports-themed puppy tent. If I had a dog I would consider buying one, but since I have a cat I doubt that he would enjoy it. Still, an interesting product that will soon be available and when you read about it just think about me.

Fangs or no fangs?

Having just recieved a polite rejection from Comets and Criminals, I begin to wonder just how worn out vampires are in this industry. The story in question barely dealt with the bloodsuckers, but they were present, and the editor of the site told me that vampires are just too hard a sell.

When searching for a new magazine to submit the story to, I came across several more that basically said, "If your story has vampires, just move along." Have the billion dollar franchises of True Blood and Twilight ruined the market for the rest of us? And yet, they're still insanely popular. In fact, I'd wager that stories online featuring vampires in any respect would probably garner more attention/hits. Why are editors turning away a specific genre?

Hmm.

If move along I must, then move along I shall. Repacking the story and sending it over to Apex Magazine, which is certianly a colorful publication, vampires included. Their submission system is filtered through HeyPublisher, which is fine by me. It seems like a very efficient way of getting lots of stuff out to lots of different buyers.