From The Splashpress Media Network

Recent Posts from The Freelance Writing Jobs Network HQ

Freelance Writing Back to School

Time to Get Back to Writing Basics

I wrote a post today over at Performancing.com called Blogging Back to School, and I thought it was a good topic to talk about here on Freelance Writing Jobs, too.  With all the kids heading back into the halls of learning at this time of year, many freelancer writers have a bit more time each day to work and catch up on all the things we had to push down on the list of priorities while our kids were home on summer vacation.

It’s also a good time to think about writing basics!  The English language has taken on a variety of nuances throughout the past century, and as …

Can I Make Money Blogging?

Does This Close the Door to More "Reputable" Writing Opportunities?

Dear Jodee,

I’ve been writing for magazines for a long time, but with the print media struggling to retain readers gigs are harder to get, so I thought I’d investigate writing for on-line sources. From reading e-books and “pro” Blogger sites it seemed that a reasonable income could be earned this way. Some of the professional writer sites (not just bloggers) decry the skill levels of most Blogger forums and state that participating in them will actually hurt a good writer’s ability to get assignments from more reputable publishers.

I’ve been Blogging for Bucks only for a few weeks, but results so far are very discouraging as far as potential income, and I have felt as though participating in certain forums …

Traffic Secrets For Writers

Hello everyone. My name is Ahmed Bilal, and I’ll be here every week showing you how to get more traffic for your content (be it your own website or content you’re writing for a client).

As a writer, putting words on a paper or a text document is easy. You have an idea, you have a mission, you have a story to tell, and you say it. In words. Simple, right?

But getting people to read that story is a different beast altogether. It’s made more difficult by the self-centered, uber-idealistic mindset of beginner writers that writing is about them, about what they’re thinking or saying, and everybody else needs to sit in rapture and marvel at their brilliance.

Chances are that …

This Month in Media News

All the media news you were too busy working to read

It’s that time of the month! While you were hunched over your keyboard writing articles and SEO-ing the heck out of your blog, you may have missed these industry nuggets:

You may have heard that Editor & Publisher will cease publication at the end of the year, but you may have missed this great Q&A between Greg Marx of Columbus Journalism Review and Editor & Publisher’s editor-in-chief Greg Mitchell.

Like eating? Like blogging about eating? If you can articulate the difference between nutmeg and cinnamon you may be interested in learning: Spanfeller Preps Foodie Launch for Web from AdWeek.

What happens when a newspaper decides to wrap itself in advertising so you don’t see the, um, news? You have the USA …

Don’t Lede Me On

Creating a strong article to support an iron lede

I hate it when an article ledes me on. Things start off promising – the header is enticing, the sub-heading is clever and the lede is saying all the right things. It’s strong and gives a great angle. It asserts a particular opinion, thought or idea and whispers sweet nothings of all of the supporting facts to follow. In fact, the darn thing tells me it’s going to satisfy a particular question and then…I read the article.

After hundreds of words and several opportunities, the article ends without giving me everything it promised. My time is precious and if I need to bill you …

5 Literary Agent Blogs Aspiring Writers Should Read

Get the Inside Scoop on Query Letters, Manuscripts and Publishing from the Pros

There are a number of interesting and useful blogs written by literary agents that can help aspiring writers learn the process of querying agents, writing and formatting manuscripts, publishing, and more.  However, there are five blogs written by agents that are absolute must-reads for any writer that has goals to publish a book through a well-known publisher one day.

A few of these blogs helped me immensely as I taught myself how to get a literary agent and publisher for my first book.

If you want to get published, start reading the following literary agent blogs today:
1.  Nathan Bransford
Nathan is a respected agent working for the well-known Curtis Brown agency …

Is the Word “Freelance” Hurting Your Job Search?

Have you ever thought about what a potential client thinks when you describe yourself as a “freelance” writer? The dictionary software on my Mac defines freelance as follows:

“working for different companies at different times rather than being permanently employed by one company”

A person who can’t hold onto a job for a time is generally looked down upon, since we value people who can commit to an employer for a time. Companies recognize long-term workers and may even provide them with gifts or bonuses in return for their years of service.

If you tell someone you are a freelance writer, what does that say about you? It certainly is an accurate term if you work for clients, as opposed to being an …

PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellowship Accepting Submissions

Enter to Win a $1,000 Fellowship and 8-Month Mentorship

Sorry for the late notice on this opportunity, but I just stumbled upon it this morning.  If you have poetry, fiction or creative nonfiction ready to go, then you can still make the August 31, 2010 deadline to enter to win a $1,000 fellowship from PEN Center USA and an 8-month mentorship in Los Angeles, California.  The entry fee is just $10.

Here are the main entry details from the PEN Center USA website:
“Emerging Voices is a literary fellowship program that aims to provide new writers, who lack access, with the tools they will need to launch a professional writing career. Over the course of the year, each Emerging …

My Name is Jonathan Bailey, Let’s Talk Law

Introducing a New Column to Help You Understand the Law and Your Writing

Hello. My name is Jonathan Bailey. As Susan warned earlier this week, I am the new guy here and I wanted to take a moment to both introduce myself and my new column here. I also want to invite you to send me your ideas and questions to help get this column rolling.

So, without any further ado, here’s a little bit of information about me, what my column here is about and how you can help pick the topics that get discussed.

About Me

As a blogger I am best known for my site Plagiarism Today where I blog about copyright and plagiarism issues aimed at bloggers and …

Join the eBook Revolution

Everything You HAVE to Know

As technology advances, art always finds new ways of taking advantage of it.

For Music, vinyl records were the first major format to catch on, until cassette tapes came along. Years later, we ditched out cassettes in favor of CDs. Today, the format of choice for most music lovers is the downloadable MP3. The technology got better — with new benefits such as higher quality recordings and instant distribution over the Internet — and the entire art form grew because of it.

Movies started out as silent black & white films, then graduated to sound and color. Today we can watch them in high-tech 3D. And recorded movies and TV shows were once on VHS; video tapes gave way to DVDs, and …

Submission Guidelines – Sword and Saga Press

Sci-Fi, Fantasy and More

Hunter Liguore, Editor-in-chief of Sword & Saga Press, sent me the current submission guidelines for Sword & Saga Press, and asked me to share them with the Freelance Writing Jobs audience.  You can check the guidelines out below and visit the Sword & Saga Press website to learn more or follow @SwordSagaPress on Twitter.

Submission Guidelines Provided Directly from Sword & Saga Press
1. Science Fiction & Fantasy Cookbook
A cookbook for science fiction and fantasy fans. Now accepting submissions for both recipes and stories that have a genre and food element. A fun way to explore the food side of the genre. We will …

Save Money – Pay Your Taxes in Full

Why You Should Avoid Installment Agreements

If money were no object, would you rather pay your taxes in full or via an installment agreement? I don’t know about you, but I would rather get it over with and pay everything up front if I could. While this may not be possible for everyone, you ought to realize that you can actually save money if you pay your taxes in full.

That is probably common sense – you don’t need me to tell you that you will save money if you pay everything in one go (much like with other purchases that you make). Do you know exactly why/how you can save money by paying …