Best Regards,

William Cassius and the team at citi5.org

I’ve linked you up for my latest blog post (not yet published, though – in about 7 hours, it will be.)

All the best, Deb. I’m really enjoying (and learning a lot) from your posts.

Good luck to you, please come back often and let us know how you’re doing with your queries!

Thanks.

What I recommend is that folks make sure the end justifies the means. I don’t recommend any writer work for pennies, ever. I always suggest writers who write for residual sites to divide their total residual income by the total amount of articles written. If it turns out they’re earning $80 an article, rock on. If it turns out they earned about $1 over time, they need to rethink their situation.

And I agree with you. Writers need to make their own choices. What I can do is present all sides of the situation, but ultimately, they need to make their own decisions.

Thank you for stopping by.

Secondly, the second half of my post was basically agreeing with her about what works for each person. That was nothing against her at all. Like I said I was agreeing with what works for each person’s situation and is no one else’s business. Not sure how you took that, but sounds like you took it wrong.

And then there was number 11 in the list. Did you catch that? Good grief, it amazes me how a totally positive and upbuilding post can still attract someone who finds fault. Which brings us to number 6 on the list…

I think that any writer or so-called writer should do whatever they want. What is it to another person what kind of money and how hard another writer works. Does anybody go up to the McDonalds in their city and tell the people behind the cash register that they need to quit the job and look for a better one when you don’t know what kind of situation that person is in?

I’m not a huge fan of residual sites because I don’t think many writers make money from them, but that’s not a secret. However, I will always respect a writer’s decision even if I don’t understand or even approve. What I can do is suggest writers make sure the ends justify the means. I can offer tips and advice for finding higher paying work, and I might even get angry at some of the places I feel truly take advantage. What I won’t do is show disrespect towards any writer who makes a choice I wouldn’t necessarily make. We all do what we have to do.

It’s really a different world out there than when I started in publishing (over 20 years ago). I get that. I also know that sometimes we have to do things others might not approve of in order to put food on our tables. It’s not up to me to decide where you should work. I make suggestions, but you make the ultimate decision.

Rock on.

I say try as many different types of gigs as you can, and see what suits you. If it doesn’t work out well, just cut your losses (or gains) and move on.

Lisa

Love this post. And you have always been an empowering force for those of us in the trenches. Thanks!

Eric (who posted right before me) – you have to keep sending those queries out to land the big gigs. It took me one year of sending 5 queries out per week to start landing regular magazine writing jobs which paid around $300-$600 each article. After I published several, editors of sister publications called me to offer me assignments. But it took a year and I didn’t count the rejection slips.

One of the essays I sold that year (1994) ended up in an anthology which is still in print today, so I guess I did well.

Even today, rejection (or worse, silence – never hearing back) hurts. But if you want to write, you just have to keep at it.

My personal list of where I like to work and write wouldn’t work for all. What I loved about this post is the emphasis on finding what works for YOU. So many writing bloggers take a stance that this and that content site is demeaning, all revenue sites are bad, whatever. My mixed bag of regular private clients, content sites, royalty sites, and magazine/book writing wouldn’t work for lots of people – but it works for ME.

Excellent post. This one gets bookmarked.

But, if freelancing has taught me anything in the past year, it’s that you can’t count on those big-money deals to come through if you want to survive. It took Smithsonian more than a month to get back to me when I submitted an essay to them, and then it was a polite “no”. If I hadn’t been caulking the leaks with quick-and-informative gigs through Demand Studios and the like, I’d have no money in my pocket right now. Times are tough.

Besides, I love being able to pick from the long list of available topics. I started out doing articles about things I already understood, but quickly branched out into things I just found interesting. It’s a marvelous way to practice formal writing and learn a little in the bargain.

Basically, I hate having to take $15 jobs from a financial perspective, but I’m glad they’re there, because if I can’t make any money between big projects, I’m going to have to stop living the dream and go back to a cubicle.

Yuck.

There are writing jobs that I applied for that I didn’t get. Oh Well! I move forward with my life. I ask for feedback when I remember to do so. Feedback can help improve your writing skills. Also, I tune out the “Negative Nancy’s” in the world. It’s not worth it.