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.

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

Another really busy week, and would you look at that? I actually managed to fit in some original writing (and sold some of it, too).

Did a bunch more content for Epic Polls, and four short stories. I'll only talk about three of them, though, because who knows what will ever happen with the fourth. If something ever comes of it I'll bring it up again, but I won't be holding my breath. These were all done on commission, but I'm not always able to determine what happens to these things once they leave my email.

First, we have "The Ravaged Earth." This little piece is concerned about just how desperate a man can get when the end of the world has actually come to pass. He's linked up with a group of survivors, but the story is more about how he's able to continue getting up every day.

Next, we have "The War for Internatioanl Intelligence." I was asked by a repeat client to pen the first in a potential series of shorts that feature a new government team of spooks. This particular team is called MTU and populated by six agents, three American and three British. It was a fun piece to write and I hope he places another order soon.

Finally, we have "The Wolf of Black Creek." It's technically unfinished, and I doubt that I'll ever get back to it. The client wanted me to write this story 1,000 words at a time so he could review the progress. I sent him the first portion and he complained that it was double-spaced instead of single-spaced. Anyone who has ever opened a modern word processing program knows what an easy change this is to make. He demanded that I change it and when I offered to walk him through the process so he could know how to do it in the future, he got really rude with me. Haven't heard from him since. So...yeah. It is what it is.

WWiR

Wow, what a week! Lots of work happening around here, so let's run down the list, shall we?

Lots more content for Get Exlcusiv! Go and comment, please, because this guy pays me very well. He's also hooked me up with some friends of his that are going to launch a new site soon, and I've been talking to them about providing web content.

Working on more content for Epic Polls, which is about as basic as my services get. This is easy money, and the guy that owns the site seems to enjoy my work, because he keeps ordering more. I found this guy through Craigslist, which goes to show that all those listings aren't out to get ya.

Wrote up a petition for Amazing Mutts, another regular client. Some serious stuff here. There's a guy endorsed by Animal Planet that is making a lot of people angry. I researched it, and they do seem to have a case here. But...I'm just the writer. I don't know anything about this legal stuff.

I edited some brochures for DistincVision Marketing. Nice guy, but I don't really get how his company can do what they claim if he needs someone else to edit his material. Maybe he just needs a second set of eyes to catch his mistakes.

Designed a sales page for Legs Gear, which seems like a great deal if you live in Australia.

Got a commission story finished called "The Ravaged Earth." This guy is putting out an ebook and asked me to pitch in a story. No word on when the ebook will come out, but I'll be sure to announce it and promote the crap out of it when it rolls around. The story is set ten years after your typical infection-wipes-out-population scenario. Just a quick piece that the buyer plotted himself.

Also started up my NaNoWriMo entry for the year, but there is just no way I'll get it done. Absolutely none. But, I'm not going to lose sleep over it. I just like getting the emails from famous writers that I respect and read. My story, "MonstroCity," is about a seven year old necromancer with her undead bodyguard as a supporting character. His name - Frank the Tank. He's an undead mob legbreaker that the little necromancer has coerced into helping her defeat a larger magical problem.

On the audio production front, I cut a spot for some Balaji guy who wants to help you with your karma, worked up a spot for List A Business, another spot for Mintmicro Computer Repairs, a spot for Movember, a spot for Rate Locking,