This is a follow up to a discussion several months back. I’m wondering if any of my regulars who wrote the 101 Tips Booklets for Lifetips were successful? If you remember, there was a discussion with hundreds of heated responses. Lifetips were launching a series 101Tips books as a companion to their different tips sites. The writers had to write 101 Tips for both the site and website, for free, but if the Print on Demand book sold, they would get $2 or $3 per.
I lost the original discussion when I redesigned and moved to WordPress and I haven’t been back to Lifetips since. I did see a discussion regarding them at the WAHM forum this morning, where there are once again allegations of lots of work for little or no pay. I’m not really trying to rehash that – but would like to know if those who went ahead and wrote the books actually made money from them. Was it worth the effort?
I just think it’s fair to provide a follow-up, especially if authors successfully sold their books.
Thanks!!
Yeah I feel for it. It was a big mistake. I wrote 101 Tips. Well it was really 111 because we had to give 10 free tips back then. I spent 12 hours on the book and they took the tips and put it on the stie and I didn’t get paid becasue they said I’d get paid when the book sells. Well it didn’t sell. No one wants to buy a book about 101 tips on my topic. I’m too embarrased to tell you what it is at this point.
Lifetips keeps asking their workers to do more without pay. It’s a shame, I had such high hopes thanks to the pep talk the owner gave over the phone. Never again.
Thanks to places like this I know I should get paid for all my work and not fall for promises of glory.
I was going to join Lifetips too, but fortunately, I was swept into the company of more experienced writers who adviced me that I’m better off doing something else.
Which reminds me….I know this is a bit OT, but what is the usual percentage of royalties for books (publishing houses, not ebook publishers)?
Glad I never got caught up in that scam. Worst that ever happened to me was ResultsAbout.com and I actually received some payment for the work I did for that bomb.
I write for Life Tips quite regularly and usually get paid $9-10 per tip, which is good money for the effort.
But I don’t write the books – I just write for the client projects.
I am very happy with them.
–Kori
Is that an actual website some of you wrote for? I have not heard of it but maybe it’s before I joined here.
I joined a while back, but haven’t finished the “burdensome questionnaire” yet, because that whole book thing made me nervous.
I wrote for Lifetips for a while, but haven’t done since they started the 101 tips series. It seemed a lot of work with no promise of reward, so I opted not to do it. I haven’t seen many paid opportunities come my way since, though.
Mariella –
I don’t remember it all off the top of my head, but check out How to Be Your Own Literary Agent by Richard Curtis. He has a pretty thorough explanation — high, average, and low royalties for different types of books (i.e. hardback, trade, mass market). Very good book.
I had done the proposal for a 101 book but when the editor mistook me for another writer and became down right nasty to me, I thought twice about doing it. She did say she was sorry and wanted me to write the book, but I decided I was better off doing it on my own. I found another venue for the book through one of my freelance gigs and I am excited about the book coming out soon. Even if it does not hit the best seller list, or land me on Oprah’s couch, I know that I am getting paid fairly for my work and not forking it over to LifeTips.
It is possible for us to successfully publish our own books as writers and reap the rewards. I really feel like LifeTips was all about taking advantage of writers. That is just my own opinion though.
Happy Writing,
Tina
I signed up for Life Tips about a year ago and wrote my first 10 tips and then it became a bit confusing to me how and when you actually got paid for writing so I never did it again (but I think I am still on there)I was thinking about going back as I am still finding regular gigs very hard to come by…hmmm, I am not sure
I thought about doing the tip book but it seemed like a lot of work for little money
Katharine> Thanks a lot for the tip. I’m being offered 15% and since I’m a neophyte, I’m not sure if that’s fair.
^errr…I meant I don’t know if that’s a fair rate since I have absolutely no idea.
I wrote a book for them. Is it selling? Yes. It’s hard to say how profitable it is just yet, though. To the person who spent twelve hours on it – I’m amazed you can knock out 101 tips in 12 hours. I couldn’t even type that fast if I wanted to. I must have spent well over 80 hours on the book. That’s including research, interviews, etc. I think for books to do really well in general, you have to do a lot of marketing. No matter what the topic is, they will not sell themselves. I did some rather minimal marketing for mine.
Instead of writing a book for lifetips and hoping to get paid when it sells, why not write a booklet of your own and sell it yourself? A booklet is fast and easy to write, affordable to produce, and can be sold to quantity buyers by the hundreds or thousands, which can be quite lucrative for you.
I’ve currently got two booklets on the market titled “60 Ways To Make Fast Cash” and “119 Ideas To Save You Money Now.” I don’t even promote them to individuals, although I have had individuals learn about them through other means, usually word of mouth, and purchase copies.
I’ve now got two more booklets in production and due to my earlier success I am the CEO of Up & At ‘Em Publications – a company devoted to publishing, marketing and fundraising with booklets.
A booklet can take your writing to a whole new level, not to mention your finances!
Kim Hillman
CEO of Up & At ‘Em Publications
http://www.upandatempublications.com
I just ventured over to lifetips for the very first time.
Pardon my confusion, but it seems rather .. Confucian. I don’t understand for a second how people are supposed to keep all the various admonitions and loosely jointed ideas straight.
Granted, I’m a person who has trouble remembering what he had for breakfast this morning*. I work in big themes and great flowing metaphors that careen wildly between possibly brilliant and certainly absurd. I don’t handle the details all that well. But how on earth is someone supposed to be able to make sense of so many disjointed aphorisms in the first place?
I dunno. I suppose there are other fairly obvious things in life that have somehow escaped me as well.
* Twinings Prince of Wales tea – I was only joking for effect.
Erik you are a read for weary eyes! I enjoy your comical ways!
I just stared off into internet space so I have to go to bed now. Cya all later on.
“A man attempting to walk around the world, drowned today.” ~George Carlin
Thanks for posting this! I have been considering LifeTips.com for a while now. I’m not so sure I want to go for it.