I am a  struggling freelance writer. Do you have any words of advice?

Mary Ann

My advice on freelancing would vary depending on whether or not you are looking for magazine/feature article type work or whether you are willing to do commercial work (newsletters, advertisements, marketing etc).

If concentrating on Features, I'd say work on your query letter skills, and start with something you can claim to be something of an expert in (something you've been doing as a hobby, perhaps).

I think the query letter is the most important skill a feature article writer can learn, to get one's foot in the door. It should grab them with the opening line (just like your articles should), then it should tell them in bullet points the three main points your article should make. Next tell them why you are qualified to write it (I err on the side of formality rather than jocularity or humility here). Sum up by reiterating why it's a good idea and why THEIR readers will want to read it. Say you're looking forward to hearing from them, and enclose a self-addressed envelope.

Then rinse and repeat. And repeat. The more queries you send out, the more likely one will hit.

Don't take rejection on these approaches personally. There may be a million and one reasons why your article doesn't fit that market that month.

If you receive any positive feedback whatsoever, keep sending ideas to that editor. Try to find out what they ARE looking for and then propose an article on that.

Lisa Collier Cool has written a lot of good stuff on the query letter.

If looking for commercial work, I'd say invest in a copy of Peter Bowerman's "The Well-Fed Writer". He makes it all sound a little easier than I have found it but then I am not quite as persistent as he. Also, I'm a little less good at the sales thing, in person. (That's why I'm a writer, I suppose. I prefer the written word).

He advocates cold-calling lots of business in the hope that someone will remember you when they need a writer. I did get one client this way, but have had more success with face to face networking (despite my earlier comment...). I have joined the local Chamber of Commerce and another group that exists solely for the purpose of networking. So far I've had a couple of clients and a couple of leads from that. It's much more comfortable for me, to chat to someone and let them know I exist, in that setting than to make a true sales call. It's much easier to find out what they really need and if, therefore, they are a potential client.

I gave a talk at the Chamber about what I do, and handed out a tip sheet (6 Tips for Better Business Writing) at the end. Got a couple of clients and a couple of potential clients that day. I'm hoping to line up more talking engagements at similar groups.

My last comment would be not to fall into the usual writer's trap of spending too much time reading about writing and not enough time actually pursuing it. In many ways the Web has been a gift for writers, but it can be a bit of a curse too, with all those good writers' sites out there.

Having said that, I have a list of good resources here. Oh yes, and if you're thinking of self-publishing a book, buy my book ;-)

I'm trying to find out information about packagers and a fair split of revenue. I was recently approached to write a book in my specialty area. It was the packagers idea to write this particular book concept and this is my first book.

The contract states they would take 15% of the royalties (a standard agent percentage, I understand). Then we would split the remaining net royalties 40% (me) - 60% (packager). The way I view it is that they view themselves as equivalent to a co-author and are taking their split. My question is: is this reasonable? Is it conceivable that they could invest enough time in the editing, promotion, publishers search, to take such a split.

The book is a relatively straightforward one, with short sections, so I can get a decent estimate of how much time it will probably take me to write it (maybe 300 - 400 hours).

Thanks, MM

I spoke with Jim Salisbury (book packager and co-author of "Smart Self-Publishing") about this. Although he does not hire writers for ideas he comes up with, he knows of authors who have been in this situation. In one case he cited, the author was approached by a book packager and asked for a couple of sample chapters and an outline. In this case the packager never did manage to sell the idea to a publisher and so the author was never paid.

This is definitely something to bear in mind if you are only being paid on condition of a sale to a publisher. You may feel it is worth 300-400 hours of your time if the end result might be a book. On the other hand, you might not feel that way.

If the book packager was publishing the book, I might say that yes, it is conceivable that they would invest enough in marketing and editing to justify the 60% of net royalties. However, the publisher they sell it to will take final responsibility for all those things. In this case, the deal seems a little unfair, even if it was their idea.

And remember, I have rarely heard a writer say how thrilled they were with their agent or publisher. If you go in feeling that you are being taken advantage of, imagine how much harder it is going to be if you don't feel they are working hard enough for the book...

If it was me, I'd try to negotiate a 50-50 split on the royalties and I would limit how much work I promised to do before they obtained a publishing contract.

HOWEVER, this area of publishing is not one I am expert in, so I will continue to research this and see if I can come up with a more definitive answer.

I occasionally write construction project articles for hobby electronics magazines. 

I have often wondered if it would be possible to sell these articles directly to hobbyist rather than to the magazines (of which there are very few in the U.S.). The typical construction project is less than 10 printed pages. Much less than booksize. 

Is it possible to successfully sell small documents such as this directly to the public?

Thanks,

Philip

Thanks for the email.

I have to confess I'm not an expert on publishing short works. I was a big fan of sites like MightyWords when they started up, because they were designed to do just what you're talking about, online. Sadly they were a little ahead of their time and most folded.

You could sell articles on your site, using either a service like PayPal (see my ebook page) or using real shopping cart technology. The beauty of this is that you have few hard costs (apart from transaction fees) and can keep the prices 'impulse-buy' low.

The other alternative is to get into booklet publishing. I don't know a heck of a lot about this but did find a link to Paulette Ensign's site. Ensign is a bit of a whizz when it comes to selling 'tips booklets' apparently. You can find out more here: . There are some interesting articles under the 'articles' link.

You'd have to charge more for these, of course, because you have to cover printing and shipping. However, you might also be able to get appropriate stores to carry a stock of them (stores frequented by your audience). In this case you might want to get ISBNs, but you could check with the stores to see what they require. (Bookstores usually require ISBNs since they order through wholesalers and everything hangs off the ISBN. Gift stores often don't care, especially if they are ordering directly from you, and you might find the same thing with your neighborhood Radio Shack or Bob's Electronic Bits Store).

I think electronics (gadget) folks are quite likely to be willing to download a piece online (especially a short piece) so why not go ahead and set up some kind of online store, put a sig file in your emails and wade into the newsgroups? Maybe you'll even make enough money to finance your first print run...