By Cheryl Rushing

I’ve been reading the The Renegade Writer blog off and on for a while now.  Linda Formicelli posts things there that usually hit a topic I want to find out more about.

The past few months she has been offering a series of free teleclasses, and alas! I have signed up for many of them and something always seems to come up.  Sometimes it’s an emergency and sometimes it’s ennui.

The teleclass offered this past Tuesday was on freelance writing success, and I was really interested in it, but unable to attend the class.   I was sick and chose sleeping over attending a class I likely wouldn’t be able to comprehend anyway.

Luckily, Linda records the classes and puts them on her website.  I downloaded this one, and on Friday night when I got home from work I hooked up the wireless headset to the computer and listened to the class while I swept and mopped my house.

I am so glad I listened.  This short teleclass was chock full of really great information, and the question and answer session was even more helpful.  I finished the class feeling positive and excited.  Now that’s a good class.

Check out The Renegade Writer.

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This is more of a tease than a sneak peek, but I just had an amazing idea and I can’t wait to get started on it.  It’s a businessy sort of idea for writing, and I got the idea from an RSS feed I get for a work-from-home opportunities company.

I’d tell you more, but I want to see if it works first.  I’m really excited about this!

For the first time in about a month both of my assignment bins are empty.  On the one had it feels good because I finally got all of that work done and not a single assignment slipped through the cracks.

On the other hand, empty inboxes means there is no work right now.  That makes me wonder how long it will be until there is more work.  No amount of work is ever guaranteed.

These assignments are just that – assignments.  Someone somewhere matches up my abilities with something that needs to get done and they send it to me. 

What I need now is to start going out and looking for my own work.  Time to start making this work!

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I needn’t have worried about writing assignments.  The higher paying site has been sending me 2-3 assignments per day, in addition to the one assignment I am allowed to pick.

In addition, the lower paying website has thrown me at least an assignment per day, and none of them pertain to diet pills.  I’m making a little money there, too.

Right now I feel overwhelmed with the amount of work to be done, but I know that’s more mental than actual.  Life has been busy, and holding down a full time job plus these assignments is not as easy as it seems.

I’m not complaining.  The work pouring in gives me hope that one day this will all be in the past and I can write full time.  That is, after all, the goal.

In other news: on the recommendation of a friend I started reading “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins and I am blown away by it.  I got the books on the Kindle on Thursday, started The Hunger Games on Friday at lunch and finished it at two a.m. Saturday.  I read Catching Fire off between errands on Saturday, finishing it at three a.m. Sunday.  I started Mockingjay Sunday afternoon and had to put it down at 12:30 this morning so I could get some sleep.  I am enjoying every bit.

It’s been a good week writing-wise.  My two newsletter articles turned into three, and I’m pleased with the way they turned out.  So is the newsletter editor.

The paid blogging site that pays me well has sent me at least one assignment every day this week.  That’s in addition to the single task I am allowed to self-assign each day based on availability.

I got the lastest issue of the Florida Freelance Writers Association newsletter and it had some interesting articles on something I’ve been thinking a lot about.

I can’t recommend FFWA enough.  Of all the writers groups I’ve joined this one has been, by far, the most beneficial, and I’m not even using most of the available resources.  This is a one membership I will be renewing year after year.  If you’re thinking about joining FFWA or the parent association (the Cassell Network of Writers) please let them know that I referred you!

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I wrote earlier about paid posting issues, and for some reason they’ve cleared themselves up.

The site that pays the least has only thrown me a couple of bones, but the higher paying site has suddenly sent me three assignments in one day. I was wondering why, and then I checked my pagerank and see that it shot up, which is a pleasant surprise.

I asked the editor of a newsletter for a couple of assignments and received them. One article is about an event that I didn’t attend, so I contacted the event organizer and got some additional information and some contacts to call for quotes.

The editor then informed me that this is just a filler piece, the shorter the better. Must remind myself that writing is writing, no matter what.

The second piece needs to be much longer and I don’t have many parameters. I’m a bit lost on where to go with it, and it’s due Friday. I really need to get it written tonight.

Writing is writing, and I got paid for something today, so it’s been a good day.

I read somewhere, possibly Jezebel (ok, I admit, I read it – it’s interesting!) about The Book Depository’s live feed.  I thought it was a webcam in a bookstore (Watch People Shop), which sounded like a snooze.  I clicked anyway.

It’s actually a live map feed of what people are buying all over the world at any given time.  The map moves to pin the location and tells you that someone in _____ bought _____ at such-and-such time.   Very interesting.

It’s interesting to see which countries are buying what books, and it’s also interesting to see what books people are buying in general.  I’ve already added a few to my reading list.

Before this I had never even heard of The Book Depository.

Check it out!

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My main source of writing income for the past couple of years has been paid postings on other blog sites.  It hasn’t amounted to much, but sometimes it is gas money, and sometimes it is grocery money, and sometimes it is play money.  Hey, it’s money, you know?

It seems I’ve hit the wall with these sites, though.

Site A – I’ve made a decent amount of money from them, though they generally only pay $5 per post.  The posts are short, but there are far more requests for diet pill posts than anything else.  I’ve stopped doing the pill posts, and it’s been about two weeks since they sent me any assignments.  I think they are on to me.

Site B – when my high PR blog site went to automatic “nofollow” I lost a lot of post opportunities. My other site has a very low PR and so there are less posting opportunities available to me.

Time to find a new source of income.  I suck at affiliate marketing.  Any other ideas?

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I did some digging and found a couple of articles I wrote, so the Writing Samples page has been updated.

My goal for this week is to spend at least one hour per day doing something related to getting this writing career well and truly off the ground.  Last night I read some great blogs and articles, and found a website I’d like to emulate.

I also have a printing company as a contact on Facebook.  They mentioned yesterday that they have work coming out their ears and are looking for help (I would imagine it is help of the fold, staple, mutilate variety).  I told an unemployed friend they were looking for help, but I also sent a message to them asking if they ever get calls for copywriters, as I am one.  Here’s hoping they respond!

As I’ve written before, I invested in a Kindle earlier this year, and I love it (despite the fact that I bought it when it was $259, and now they have $139 versions).  I also have a Zinio account and have a couple of magazine subscriptions through them.

I love books and magazines.  I read 2-3 books per week, and at one point I had over 20 magazine subscriptions by mail.

Digital content should be a no-brainer, right?

It reduces clutter.

It’s environmentally friendly.

Readily available without the heft.

So then why do I still have 8-10 magazine subscriptions by mail, and 2 library books sitting on my bedside table?  It’s simple: I’m cheap.

If I want to read a bestseller I will generally go to the library to get it, especially if it is by an author I have never read before.   I don’t want to pay $24.95+ for a hardback book only to find out that it sucks.  If I borrow it, I can give it back half-read, no harm, no foul.  If I buy it and it’s still in good shape I might be able to take it back for a full refund.  Otherwise I’m stuck selling it used, and books depreciate more steeply than that Ford in your driveway.

Digital content can be less expensive, though I still don’t want to pay $9.99+ for a product that I can neither return nor re-sell.  It’s even more of a gamble.  I love that you can sample books, but what happens when the story all falls apart in chapter 3?  You’re stuck with it, that’s what happens.

I also can’t lend the book to someone else, or borrow a book from someone else.  That’s the nice thing about real books.

Magazines are a bit more forgiving than books, but there are still issues with pricing.  If I keep an eye out, I can sometimes get my favorite magazines for $5 a year.  Other magazines will send me renewal reminder after renewal reminder, and drop the price every time.  So my $18.99 one-year subscription might end up being a $14.99 two-year subscription if I hold out long enough.

With digital magazines there are the occasional $5 deals (those are the only ones I subscribe to right now), but you don’t get the deep Renew-Right-Now! discounts for multiple-year renewals.  You also can’t bring the ones you’ve already read to work and dump them in the community reading material basket.

I don’t understand why digital content is so expensive.  There is no ink, no paper, and no network of warehouse managers, postal workers and delivery services to get the content to you.  Someone pushes a button to produce, someone else pushes a button to distribute.  No trees are harmed in the making of the product.

I understand content is worth something.  I know MY content is worth something.  But if we take away 90% of what increases the cost of the product (materials and labor for the finished product, not the ideas behind it) why is the cost still so high?

(found this online prior to hitting “publish”)