The Write Way.

think about selling your writing (Photo by zoha_n)

Here you go – I’ve gathered the top five favorite websites for writers and freelancers for this week. I’ve followed some of these for years, and I’ve knocked others off my list recently. If you want to learn to sell your writing – try these.

Writing.com – this one is almost overwhelming. It’s a huge writers’ group online. You can join free, set up a portfolio, chat with other writers, get a critique or give one. If you have a bit of time to spend and you need support and community – this may be it. If you want to learn the ropes of writing for money – Ontext is, of course, your resource.

Guide to Grammar and Writing – every writer needs to revisit the basics sometimes. I do. Here’s a knowledge base of language mechanics that you can print as the spirit moves you. You can’t sell writing that’s unpolished.

About.com Fiction Writing – when I’m up-to-here with the writing I do for a living, I browse this site, about writing fiction, for inspiration. Maybe one of these days I’ll go all Danielle Steel…

Women Day by Day – this is not a writers’ site, per se, but it’s a place to find tons of great ideas and direction, as well as inspiration, especially if your market is women.

Writer Beware – the Science Fiction Writers Association has a list of warnings related to writing as a business. I cruise through here now and then to make sure I’m not being had.

Now, if you need your OWN writing website, I have an answer for that, too. We just put together a website package for writers only. It includes a very slick and professional web design – you choose which – a year of hosting and a complete learning video so you can manage your site alone with no further expense. Have a look!

Your brilliance moves you (photo by gaetan lee)

Ali Hale makes real money as a staff blogger, her primary revenue stream. Ali is a freelance writer and entrepreneur, in her 20s, carving out a solid living for herself. This Q&A interview will introduce you to Ali and her new ebook staff-blogging course. Further – you may gain some insight about parlaying one revenue stream, freelance writing into more – like making money by teaching others what you know.

Ali Hale

So, Ali – let’s do some quick bio before we talk about staff blogging. Give us a little personal/professional background?

I live in London, in the UK. I moved here in 2006 to start a technical support/testing job after graduating from university: it really wasn’t “me”, and after nearly two years of it, I left to start my own freelancing business, Aliventures, primarily providing writing services and also some website work for very small companies.

What is staff blogging — why is it hot?

Staff blogging is working as a staff writer — that means regular and paid — for a blog that you don’t own. It’s awesome because it’s easy to get into, it’s fun and immediate, the pay is fast and surprisingly good if you’re an efficient writer. You know exactly what you’ll be getting per post (unless you’re writing for a share of advertising revenue, which I don’t really recommend), and because you can write for multiple blogs at once, you’re not going to end up in a financial crisis if one of them shuts down.

Is that your main revenue stream or a part time thing?

Currently, it’s my biggest revenue stream, though I don’t work on it full time. I have a few other small jobs going on, and I’m taking an MA in Creative Writing at the moment, too.

What else do you do for a living?

Over the past few months, I’ve created websites. I’ve done some childminding, (a great way to get some stimulating human interaction in the day!) I’ve done various small writing and editing jobs for clients, one of whom contacted me after enjoying one of my staff blogging posts; and I’ve written the Staff Blogging Course, which I’m selling as an ebook.

How many hours do you spend staff blogging and how much recognition does it get for you as a writer? Is it like ghost writing?

The number of hours fluctuates a bit week to week – I’d say it’s probably ten hours a week, on average; that’s including writing posts and also the admin side (comments, invoicing, contacting editors).

It’s definitely helped me to get my name known in the blogosphere, though I doubt more traditional, mainstream outlets (like newspapers and magazines) would pay much attention because of that. All the blogs I write for put my name on my posts, and most have an “authors” page with more information about me and the other staff bloggers. Dumb Little Man give me a full bio on every post, and I get good traffic to my business website, AliVentures,  from there. So no, it’s not like ghost writing (though I’ve done a bit of that too).

What made you decide to write a course? What background do you have in training?

One of the things I did enjoy about my technical support/testing job was that I was in charge of company documentation, so I got to write lots of user guides. The subject matter wasn’t exactly thrilling, but I enjoyed breaking down instructions into an easy-to-understand format.

In my second year with the company, I did a number of presentations and also ran a couple of full-day training sessions. I really enjoyed these (after I got over my initial nerves!) and used to prepare sheets of exercises to get people interacting with the software and trying out what they’d learnt. I’ve included exercises and handouts with the Staff Blogging Course, and had a lot of fun putting those together too.

I usually work alone, though my boyfriend helps with any graphic design when I’m doing website work — he’s got a real eye for it whereas I’m definitely a “words” person!

What kind of writer might be successful at staff blogging?

Ideally, you’ll want to have had some experience blogging — it doesn’t need to be in a “ProBlogger” way, but a familiarity with blogging software and writing for the internet in general will be a big plus. I recommend in the first unit of the Staff Blogging Course that would-be staff bloggers set up their own blog, so they have somewhere to build up a few samples of online pieces.

Is the compensation based on pay per click like Examiner.com or AssociatedContent or is it flat rate or hourly?

It varies depending on the blog, but all the blogs I’ve written for pay per post. Dumb Little Man even gives an extra bonus to authors who get the most traffic to a single post in a given month. I’m wary of writing for a share of advertising revenue, as this doesn’t give you much certainty over income, and can lead to very low incomes. A few blogs do pay hourly, but these tend to be the exception rather than the rule.

What kinds of companies or entities use staff bloggers? Is the demand healthy?

I’ve noticed IT companies increasingly advertising for staff bloggers, including PCWorld and similar. I’ve also written for a magazine with a blog, who paid very well, but that was on a one-off rather than regular basis. Most of the blogs who use staff bloggers are large blogs with a readership of 10,000+ and who are run by an editor (often not the owner), though some are much smaller in terms of readership and are using a blog to supplement their main website.

Demand seems very healthy to me; despite the credit crunch, I’ve had new jobs coming in from new start-up blogs, or from blogs who’ve become big enough to hire writers.

How much fun are you having?

Loads! The best thing is when I get an email from a reader who’s found one of my posts particularly helpful or useful — that’s always lovely. I love staff blogging because it lets me get my writing in front of a huge audience, and there’s a definite writerly thrill in being read!

What’s your best advice to writers in today’s challenging marketplace?

Don’t get stuck in a rut. Keep looking for new places you can write for, rather than assuming that current jobs will be around forever. Eighteen months ago, I had no clue that staff blogging even existed. I’m sure there are other writing areas now that I’m not aware of, too! Be proactive, and don’t be afraid to put out the word that you’re looking for jobs — you could be just the writer who someone needs.

What’s your last best project and what’s your next?

Great question! I think the Staff Blogging Course is my current “best” project, because it was a lot of fun to do, and I’ve learnt to be a bit brave about putting the word out — leading to an interview with Daily Blog Tips, a guest post on ProBlogger and a review on Freelance Folder.

My next project … I’m working on revamping the Aliventures site completely and turning it into a blog, not a business site. I’ve got enough staff blogging and other things going on at present that I’ve stopped taking on new website work completely, so the site really does need an overhaul.

Where can writers find you and your work?

You can find the list of blogs I write for, or have written for, with links to each, at AliVentures. The blog I probably enjoy writing for most, where I have a post or two up each week, is Dumb Little Man.

Thanks so much, Maryan, hopefully my answers will help your readers with their own freelance writing or writing businesses.

Note to readers: I’m taking Ali’s staff blogging course and will have a review of it for you very soon.  –mkp

All star mystery writer Sara Paretsky, talked with me about writing and about her career. This author of the wildly popular V.I.Warshawski series spoke forthrightly about the challenges of a writing career, especially in today’s economic downturn.

Sara Paretsky says, about her bold woman detective, V.I. Warshawski,

She is the quintessential urban woman. She grew up in the shadow of the steel mills on Chicago’s Southeast side and knows her way around every alley. She’s a street fighter, a singer, a bit of a clothes horse, and a woman of great intensity and passion.

Chatting with Paretsky, it’s obvious she isn’t her character and isn’t conflicted about that.

My favorite anecdote from our conversation goes like this:

Sara, how did you develop your unique writing voice? Is V.I. channelling you?

“It didn’t happen overnight. When I was struggling to come up with a character, I tried different appoaches and got nowhere. When I worked at CNA Insurance, part of the first generation of women in management in large numbers, I worked with a guy who, to put it kindly, had issues where women were concerned.

In October 1979, we were working an event in Grant Park. A dreary day. This man was going on. My lips were saying, “Gosh! Heck of an idea!” But the balloon over my head was saying unprintables. I suddenly thought: That’s my character! She says what’s in the balloon, not worrying about getting fired.”

I grew up in Kansas, a good girl. She didn’t. So her edgy voice is the part of me I hide. In some ways, it’s a crutch. I’ll be in a situation where I’ll think: A stronger, more courageous person than me would say something. But I can’t. I know later I’ll let her say it in a book for me.”

On getting started as a writer

Sara, like many writers, began her love affair with words as a child. Early in her career she craved writing, but settled for business writing for a major insurance company. Still, she couldn’t shake the private dream of publication, particularly in short stories.

“I’ve always loved detective fiction and wanted to create a woman detective. It was getting to the right time for strong women; for women to take a step forward. That was on my mind. The women’s movement was at its peak. There were characters like Nicole Hollander’s Sylvia.  Sylvia began a year before V.I.– I was about to find a niche that hadn’t existed, and people were hungry for it.”

Sara enrolled in a detective-fiction writing class at Northwestern University’s Chicago extension.

Kathleen Turner as Detective V. I. Warshawski

Her V.I. storyline was right there, but she didn’t know how to pull it together. Later, her instructor introduced her to a literary agent and the rest, Sara says, was very slow history. She became an overnight success — in 30 years.

Sara Paretsky said she’s lucky to have begun when books were marketed through small, independent bookstores. Successful sales were counted in terms of thousands of copies rather than tens of thousands. Her fan base built slowly over time. That kind of audience stays loyal — has legs.

She certainly had to market herself and her work, but the world was ready for her and she was eager, ready to deal with booksignings, public speaking engagements, book tours, a tiring road.

“I’d go anywhere. Any library, community group, or club looking for a speaker. I’d be there. I’d meet with people. I was published in too small a way for the publisher to care about marketing,” Sara recalls.

She encourages up-and-coming and new writers to keep feet planted on terra firma, especially when forming expectations about how fast and how far a book or written work might go. In today’s economy, marketing is essential and knowing how to market your work effectively is critical to success or failure, she’ll tell you.

How to get your writing out in front of the crowd

I asked Sara what a writer’s best tools might look like. She feels that in the end, it’s about carving out time you need to get inside yourself enough to really consider what you’re doing and what it means to you. You have to feel it to portray it.

“Herman Melville talked about the green grass-growing place you need to become really connected to your unconscious mind. That gets you insight you need to go forward. When we spend too much time managing things by phone, the Internet, wherever, without allowing quiet time, we’re killing the source of our creativity,” Sara said. “America is a culture where, if you don’t look like you’re working, there’s something wrong with you. Especially true for women. Put that aside. Sit staring into space. That’s where we go when were doing groundwork and getting prepared.”

That doesn’t mean a writer in the business of writing needn’t attend to business. Sara has a personal blog where she talks about the writing life.  Her website keeps her connected to her audience.  She makes public appearances, and though she recently hired a publicist, she makes sure that she’s accessible to her public.

Sara Paretsky outside the writing life

Writing is her passion and her business. Always, she’s either planning, writing, or promoting a book. She makes herself write every day. Even in bouts of thinker’s block, she wants to be at the keyboard when the logjam breaks. But like all worker bees, she needs down time to connect with family and her community. Sara came to Chicago in the summer of 1966 to do community service work in the City’s South Side nieghborhoods. That, she says, is what made the City her home. The fury over open housing and ethnic neighborhoods marked her, changed her life.

Now, she nurtures organizations that support girls and women in the arts, letters, and sciences. She has endowed scholarships at the University of Kansas and mentored students in Chicago’s inner city schools. Sara created Sisters in Crime,  an advocacy organization for women in the mystery writing world. She founded, Sisters for Science in Chicago, supporting programs for school-age girls and Girls in the Game to give at-risk girls a place to run off pent up energy.

Internationally acclaimed writer Sara Paretsky is a brilliant, thinking woman – a pleasure to talk with. She’s due to release her latest V.I.Warshawski novel, Hardball, this fall. Get a sneak peek at the book on her website.  (Photo above, of Sara Paretsky, is by Steven Gross.)

Read more about Sara at Chicago Freelance Examiner

You might also enjoy Newspaper writer sells writing on talk radio

Sell your writing. Turn a newspaper career into a profitable writing and broadcast career, even in the middle of an economic disaster. Fran Silverman did it. Marketing is her biggest asset, though she’s an accomplished writer and talk radio host, too. Her success reflects deep experience in her niche, extreme organizational skills and a purposeful campaign that’s putting her latest book in front of the right people.

Fran Silverman is author of several books. Early on, she went the route of  self-publishing, and says she learned a lot about the book and writing business that way. Her most recent mega-project is an ambitious reference book called, Talk Radio Wants You, published by McFarland & Co. It’s an interesting tool for writers who understand that marketing is more than half the battle when you have a book to sell, no matter who published your work, what it’s about or what your sales numbers look like right now.

The coolest part of Fran’s plan is that you can do a whole book tour – world-wide even, without leaving your own living room. One of those – I don’t even have to dress up deals. Fran says unequivocally, you can reach an audience with talk radio, and you control the size and scope of that audience.

Fran began her career as newspaper feature writer for local papers. She freelanced, too, writing magazine service pieces on East Coast historical places and events.

“I was a local historian who wanted to be a travel writer,” Fran recalls, “So finally, I pitched a book to a publisher, made a sale, and I began doing travel books.”

Doing her research, she found Hunter Publishing, pitching them an idea for Catskills Alive and  Long Island Alive. Both books got released, and, with the author’s diligent marketing plan, sold well. But travel books get dated quickly – short shelf life. That created an update sale for one and the demise of the other. It wasn’t a terribly prolific revenue stream but Fran was learning, through her own mistakes, that there are right and wrong ways to market your work.

“That’s when I began my newsletters online,” she says. “I had been marketing incorrectly. Too much effort, not enough results.”

Intrigued, Fran would discover that’s a problem most writers encounter. She went after a dozen or so local writers, asking her own set of burning questions about how they were selling their books. Most of the authors returned her emails, with answers. Fran discovered many of them weren’t doing much – didn’t know how. Didn’t have the time. Didn’t feel motivated. Felt overwhelmed.

She designed a newsletter project to market books for herself – and for other authors. For a fee. A small, affordable fee. She marketed that newsletter, coupled with a publicity package, to hundreds of authors, and her Odyssey began. Fran became a publicist and learned more than most people know about using radio to sell yourself. She has shared more than 300 essential marketing tips, gleaned from her efforts and the suggestions of other writers.

She self-published a book, Book Marketing from A-Z, and, around the same time, developed her own blog radio talk show – to promote authors and books .

With a whole lot of ambition and drive, coupled with a touch of intuitive genius, Fran earned clients who paid her fee and received, in return, air time on Fran’s show, the newsletter, consultations and periodic press releases. Now she was a publicist, and still learning fascinating techniques.

“It was tough to get press releases into newspapers or magazines. Press releases got lost or ignored. But I discovered that talk radio show hosts are always in need of guests and topics. With a daily program, it’s challenging to fill that time – so I got my clients on to talk shows,” Fran explained.

Before she knew it, she had a second contact data base – hundreds of talk show hosts who were cordial and amenable to working with her and her clients. Some had well known, established shows. And her next book project took root, beginning to sprout.

Learning to use the Internet to her extreme advantage, Fran nurtured her projects and revenue streams, putting them together to her best advantage. She kept track of everything she learned and every connection made. Then she developed her book, a national directory of talk radio shows and hosts who could, and would interview authors.

Fran says she considered self-publishing again, but decided to send a proposal out. Her current publisher responded with a few pertinent suggestions and she felt encouraged. Then a few more suggestions, and more. Frustrated, but pleased, she finally put her cards on the table, asking the publisher to give her a contract in place of the excellent, but never-ending suggestions. They did. She got a contract and a fairly standard royalty agreement.

No writer is born knowing how to publish and promote a book into a successful way to make a living. But the skills can be learned. Fran’s experience underlines an essential fact – if you don’t take a step out of your comfort zone, you’ll never begin your journey. Her sense of organization, her ability to brainstorm solutions, and her courage to reach out and pull information from other people are key ingredients to Fran Silverman’s success.She’s a skilled writer and has good research technique – but without her desire to get down and make it happen, all she’d have is a good idea.

Baby boomer Fran, a native New Yorker, still lives in that city with her husband, Ronald, an engineer. They have a grown daughter and lots of irons in the fire. Email her: franalive at optonline.net

May I suggest you also read:

1. Freelance writers wanted at three markets
2. Top websites for freelance writers
3. Make money writing business plans