Rants

The Dark Side of Diversifying

August 9, 2010
By Linda Formichelli
The Dark Side of Diversifying

Last month, Jennifer Lawler wrote an excellent general copywriting copywriting and editing for universities adoption profile/”dear birthmom” letter writing (I’m starting up the website in a week or so) two e-courses Renegade Writer e-courses (taught by outside instructors) phone mentoring for writers query letter critiquing free query letter packet Review Copy Helper (a list...
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Posted in Advice, Marketing, Observations, Personal yammerings, Rants, productivity | 4 Comments »

How to Respond to ProfNet/HARO Queries Without Pissing Writers Off

June 21, 2010
By Linda Formichelli

Think your peach defuzzer is the greatest product in the known universe, or rep a doctor who’s on the road to curing a formerly incurable disease? Then you’re probably signed up as an expert source on services like Help a Reporter (HARO) and ProfNet. I use these services as just one of many tools...
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Posted in Marketing, Public relations, Rants, Sources | 19 Comments »

Rant: On Ickiness (Or Those Who Can’t Do, Teach)

May 26, 2010
By Linda Formichelli
Rant: On Ickiness (Or Those Who Can’t Do, Teach)

I recently downloaded the free e-book The Zero-Hour Workweek by Jonathan Mead of Illuminated Mind. The title is a play off of The 4-Hour Workweek, the popular book by Tim Ferriss. The e-book is pretty inspiring, but when you get right down to it it’s a guide on how to start a blog on...
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Posted in Hooks & Crooks, Observations, Personal yammerings, Rants, Self improvement, Writers, productivity | 15 Comments »

3 Excuses That Are Keeping You from a Successful Freelance Writing Career

May 2, 2010
By Linda Formichelli
3 Excuses That Are Keeping You from a Successful Freelance Writing Career

Did you ever think it’s not the economy, of the toughness of the industry, or just plain bad luck that’s keeping you from flourishing as a freelance writer — but your own limiting beliefs? Many aspiring freelancers are wonderful writers with salable ideas, but they can’t break out of the writing-for-cheap (or worse, writing-for-free)...
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Posted in Advice, Motivation, Observations, Personal yammerings, Rants, Self improvement | 12 Comments »

Congratulations! You’ve been invited on a press trip.

March 25, 2010
By Diana Burrell
Congratulations! You’ve been invited on a press trip.

Or have you? Last week a writer friend forwarded me a press trip invite she’d received (and declined) and wondered if I’d be interested in following up with the host since I had some interest in the locale. I gave the invitation a quick read. It seemed like a personal invitation, and the trip...
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Posted in Advice, Public relations, Rants, Writing | 3 Comments »

Blast from the past: Ask not what writers can do for you…

March 17, 2010
By Linda Formichelli

I thought this post from 2006 was worth another look. Enjoy! A couple of things happened today that inspired this post. First, someone posted on a forum for professional writers asking for tips on how to get started as a freelancer. This, of course, caused many pro writers to become PO’d. (Why expect professionals...
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Posted in Advice, Rants, Rules, Writers | 10 Comments »

On Lazy Writers

December 7, 2009
By Linda Formichelli
On Lazy Writers

Three weeks ago, a writer (let’s call him Jack) e-mailed me asking for the contact information of the editor at a magazine I wrote for. I told Jack that I no longer write for the magazine and that the editor had changed since I last worked for them — but that the magazine was...
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Posted in Advice, Networking, Rants | 23 Comments »

On Writing for Peanuts

November 29, 2009
By Linda Formichelli
On Writing for Peanuts

A couple of weeks ago, someone posted a comment on this blog saying that in dissing content mills like Associated Content we “just don’t get it,” and bragged that she earns $1,200 per month on her articles on Associated Content and similar sites. (When I checked, I saw that the writer had over 1,000...
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Posted in Advice, Magazines, Money, Observations, Personal yammerings, Rants, Writing | 27 Comments »

The Project from Hell (And What I Learned from It)

August 1, 2009
By Linda Formichelli
The Project from Hell (And What I Learned from It)

Last week, I quit a writing project that was worth more than $10,000. When I got the project, I was coming off of a four-month famine, and I needed the dough. So I ignored the red flags. First, the expert co-author took so long playing hardball with the publisher that the deadlines were crunched....
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Posted in Book authoring, Observations, Personal yammerings, Rants | 13 Comments »

Turning Down Assignments

May 25, 2009
By Linda Formichelli
Turning Down Assignments

Every once in awhile I like to go through my journal to see what I was doing in this month in years past. Here’s what I wrote on May 29, 2007: I plan to either not write for again or to ask what we can do to make sure I don’t go through...
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Posted in Advice, Observations, Personal yammerings, Rants | 13 Comments »