Recently, high-profile house Simon & Schuster, Inc. launched a “self-publishing division,” partnering with the true Dark Star mother ship of POD (print-on-demand) companies, Author Solutions (AS). Not familiar with AS? A few years back, four members of the “rogues gallery” of POD companies—AuthorHouse, iUniverse, Trafford, Xlibris— joined together to form AS. And Penguin actually bought … Read more
So, I’ve been working on an interesting commercial freelancing project lately, one that doesn’t fit the typical list I (and others) rattle off to explain the kinds of things we commercial writers do: “marketing brochures, ad copy, newsletters, web content, direct mail, case studies, etc.” Here’s the deal… Every year, a group of folks from … Read more
Great guest post from fellow commercial freelancer (and fellow Atlantan), Don Sadler. Don’s carved out quite a lucrative niche in his area of specialty, and how it all came about is a good story. I hope it can serve as a good discussion catalyst, and can spur others who’ve either been there as well (or … Read more
I’ve been keeping an eye on a recent trend in the indie publishing community — paid reviews (and family/friends reviews) and the controversy surrounding them. But I fail to see why it’s such a hot topic. On one hand, when I see people asking the question of whether or not it’s okay for authors to … Read more
In the last post, erstwhile copywriter/now graphic designer, Mike Klassen, on whom I can always depend for wisdom, shared this comment: When I started out, I hated the thought of losing any potential copywriting client. Now, I do little things to weed out the potential problem clients. One thing I will no longer do is … Read more
(The original version of this article—adapted and augmented here—was published in the IBPA Independent in November 2011) I attended college at the University of Virginia, one of a relatively small group of schools (including all the military academies) with an honor code, and one of the very few whose code is totally student-administered. The terms … Read more
I got an email from a commercial writer recently voicing a common concern: The one sticking point I keep running into is not knowing how many hours a project will take me to complete (and the obvious quoting struggle related to that). Do you know any resources where I can find that information? By trolling … Read more
If you listen to the news media, we’re living in “tough economic times” right now. But, if you keep listening to the same outlets, when aren’t we (according to them)? You however, and of course your writing business, don’t have to suffer through the “tough times” the media prescribes. In fact, you should completely ignore … Read more
Came across a blog post on 30-Day Books recently that excitedly shared the news of a contest awarding a free book-cover design to a few lucky self-published authors. Of course, we’re talking about crowdsourcing here… Just to get us all on the same page, crowdsourcing is the practice of throwing out a job to a … Read more
I recently heard from an old commercial writing client for whom I hadn’t worked in probably five or six years. She had a small copywriting project, along with a vague “and we’ve got a few other things cooking we might need your help with.” Always a nice treat when old clients surface, but there’s always … Read more