I created my website that deals with writing and used this blog to find six publishers that I work with on a weekly basis. Now I’m moving to Hawaii where my mother will help with the bills for at least four months rent free.

I really believe my good fortune came about because of taking life by the horns and telling myself “I’m better than Verizon thinks I am!” Now it’s just a matter of time before I make a lot more than Verizon would ever pay me. And I am in no hurry, just enjoying the long road to success that every writer goes through.

As far as making sure you don’t miss any important emails, I would advise everyone to get a Gmail account ASAP. You can actually set up your account by importance, such as putting a star by important publisher’s names and putting in a long description of an important contact person in the “Contacts” list. I’ve never missed any important emails using Gmail.

Hope this was helpful for everybody on the writer’s road to success, and good luck to everybody.

Like everything in life, your reality exists only by how you choose to view it. So instead of being angry or down that I’d been let go, I figured being laid off was the greatest opportunity I could possibly have. I went for it. I had business cards made. I declared myself a successful writer, and away I went. This blog was key to one of my first steady gigs, in fact!

It took a couple of months to really get going but I’ve worked every day since on projects of my choice. I’ve even started coaching other people to help them find the courage to live their dreams. I love it!

Not having a safety net nor a plan B was definitely one of the greatest reasons for my success. Yes, I am so grateful that I was so broke!

You can read more about it a t http://www.squidoo.com/freelancewriting1. It contains info for those thinking of going freelance.

I also don’t like to ask who they are when I get an email like that. I usually do a bit of sleuthing, just like you. If I really can’t find anything about it, I’ll ask them to “refresh my memory” about the specifics of the project. It makes it sound like I don’t remember the details, rather than them.

I’ve also been down in the dumps lately because I’ve found out that several job offers ended up in my spam folder so I never got to read them. It would have been all right since I already have quite the client base recently, but one of those is the blogging job I’ve always wanted! I worked really hard to be eligible for that but the email got buried in my spam folder for a month and I only saw it last week….

We have owned our own business, a B&B for nearly 5 years and have not been writing, but my husband is getting back into and I likely will, too.

Anyway, my husband is in the “prep” process for a guide position at About.com. I read that you used to be the freelance writing guide. He is not “prepping” for that spot. I’m wondering if you can tell me a little about the prep process (i.e. he’s a week in and he’s getting positive feedback but not a lot of it) and, if he gets the gig, I’m wondering if you would mind sharing how the pay works, since About.com seems to play that close to the vest.

I’d sure appreciate your thoughts. Thanks much.

JILL

That is so funny, because the same thing happens to me! I’ve actually started copying and pasting the ad below my cover letter, because otherwise I forget the details of the job, and sometimes I can’t find the ad again to refresh my memory.

Have you ever had someone response to your cover letter and resume months later? I’ve had it happen more than a few times. Usually I have absolutely no clue by that time who they are or what the job was.

Peggy –

Rob is right about following up. If you really want the job but haven’t heard back, call or shoot them an email. Sometimes that makes you stand out enough from all the other submissions that you’ll end up getting the job or getting published. But if it doesn’t work, move on — plenty of other fish to fry!

The reason for that could be because the publisher contacted too many writers for a particular publication date or there is not enough writing work to substantiate immediate work for me.

Whatever the reason is, I don’t really care because I am continually searching for a steadier writing gig all the time anyway. The only time I won’t is when my eight hours alloted time schedule is way too full with writing already, which has not been close to happening yet.

That would be my advice to you, Peggy. After you don’t hear back from your future publisher, contact him one more time to see if they forgot about you, and them write them off and look to replace them immediately. You’ll be a lot better off in the long run.

My persistence paid off. I now have two steady gigs and am able to write full-time. I still get nervous about applying for jobs, but I’m getting much better about handling rejection. When I get those “thanks but no thanks” emails, I just curse a little under my breath, let it go, and move on.

If I’m not mistaken, “he (or she) who gets the most no’s wins” is from Zig Ziglar. In addition to sales books, I have found “success” books, like Steve Covey’s “7 Habits” to be very good.

I haven’t started a firestorm in a while, so let’s see how I do with this.

There aren’t a lot of men on this board, and there aren’t a lot in the profession, really. My approach is a bit different than what clients usually get just for this reason, I think.

Do I use this to my advantage? Hell, yes! I think it’s funny as all Hell to have some advantage based on being uniquely pale and male.

The thing is that everyone has an advantage of some kind, some angle on the world that is uniquely theirs. Mine happens to be my love of and connections within Community District Councils in Saint Paul. It’s work I enjoy doing and it shows.

Those of you who are discouraged should probably think about what your passions really are and what unique perspectives you might have. Hopefully, they are the same. But if you think about who might particularly like your outlook on the world, it’s not all that hard to be confident with them. They like you! They really, really like you!

I’m trying to figure out why I’ve always been so confident and relate it back. It’s to keep my status as Wise Elder or something. If it fails I can resort to the Tao Te Ching or quoting Polonius. (Well, I sorta already did …)

So, I’m at that stage where I’m saying “what am I doing??” And trying not to get discouraged.

I am still new at this (working with my first job-board client now), but at least I know I can do it.

I wasn’t always that confident about it, though. I have been writing since I was a kid, and in high school I started writing novels and sharing them with friends and family. While most of my readers raved about my writing, every criticism was a mortal blow… But back then, I suppose I struggled with self-esteem in other areas, too.

I stopped writing for a long time in my teens and early twenties, and I think insecurity was a major part of it — not just insecurity about my abilities, but also about whether I could earn a living as a writer. I was told I couldn’t so many times that I just stopped considering it at all.

The good news is that by the time I started writing seriously again, I had matured in many ways, and self-esteem was no longer an issue for me. I am now fairly good at brushing off rejections and focusing on the praise I get. My clients love my work, and the few who don’t are usually idiots anyways (at least, I think they are ).

I think my point is that you don’t have to settle for being insecure. Most of us — particularly women — are taught that confidence is unbecoming, but I say screw that! You have every right — and every reason — to believe in yourself. And if you don’t (or don’t at least act like you do), who else will?