Got the idea for this post from a picture sent to me by my brother… It was a unique desk arrangement he’d set up for his son. Apparently, my precocious nephew would often wake up in the middle of the night with the compulsion to get online and check this, play that, or research the … Read more
Recently came across this priceless quote from Dick Cavett: “Both minor and major publishing houses long ago perfected the art of unselling an author’s work. That excellent writer Calvin Trillin has threatened repeatedly to do a book titled, ‘An Anthology of Writers’ Atrocity Stories about Publishers.’ I think the most likely reason he hasn’t yet … Read more
About a month and a half before my holiday trip to Ohio this past December to visit family, I Googled “Ohio Writers Groups,” and found one right in my kin’s neighborhood, Western Ohio Writers Association. Shot an email to the executive director of the group (Gery Deer, also a commercial freelancer), letting him know I’d … Read more
Welcome to The Well-Fed Self-Publisher Blog… Since I first self-published the book by the same name in 2007, I’ve had the pleasure of communicating with, meeting personally and working with, many hundreds – perhaps, thousands – of you. And to those I haven’t met, but who share this goal (whether or not you have a … Read more
So, check this out… I few months back, I finally got around to returning a pair of sweatpants to Lands’ End that I’d bought a few years back to exchange for a new pair. They’d lost their elasticity in the waist, which made them droopy and draggy. And hey, when you’re a work-at-home commercial writer, … Read more
Got this great guest post from busy and talented commercial writer, Lori Widmer. As important as marketing is, it’s also something that so often gets turned into this big, gnarly, scary exercise that ends up reliably but unnecessarily freaking out commercial freelancers. NOT that it’s some piece ‘o cake, but, as Lori points out, it … Read more
In the November E-PUB (here and adapted below), I wrote a piece about finding commercial writing jobs in unlikely places. Thought I’d make it blog post, in order to collect your stories about landing copywriting work in cool and unplanned ways. I love it when work comes from unexpected directions. In The Well-Fed Writer, I … Read more
Okay, possibly just a “mental gymnastics” piece, but you be the judge…;) Read an interesting book recently: Drive – The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel Pink (author of Free Agent Nation and A Whole New Mind). While some of the stuff was a bit obvious (e.g.; money/prestige/titles doesn’t motivate everyone…no kidding), Pink … Read more
Thanks to Emily Suess for contributing this great guest post. While most of us probably think in terms of full-time when it comes to our commercial writing careers, there’s no doubt plenty of folks out there for whom part-time would make more sense. Enjoy! ********** Until recently, when people would ask me what I do, … Read more
Okay, time for a little levity. No sticky situations, anxious anecdotes or dicey dilemmas from the commercial writing world. Just some good old-fashioned griping – about grammar. Got the idea for this post a few weeks back when I managed to run afoul of a friend’s pet peeve by writing, “I’ll try and do _____.” … Read more