USEFUL THINGS

LinkedIn is a business networking site that offers job searches and international networking.

I use this site frequently to make employment and business connections, to keep up with present clients, to find employment, and to exchange knowledge within my specialties of freelance writing and education.

LinkedIn is a must for business owners and prospective employees.

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BEST THINGS

Freelance Writing.com is a great site for many links to a variety of freelance work opportunities. Sign up for their Tuesday Morning Coffee which is a digest of current jobs.

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KNOWING YOUR LIMITS

Wise Moves In The Profession

Recently, I turned down a gig to translate a lifestyle entrepreneur's fifteen page manuscript from English into French. I am not having much of a go with the translation business. Sigh... It was one of those dubious health and wealth peddlers whom I do not trust to have my best interests at heart. Especially after I did a little research and the person's website was down. Yeah.

Part of writing is giving oneself a good pace. It is also important to reflect on what creates moral value and what does not. Is it more important to push a dubious product or to create something poetic? In the long view, poetry or a finely crafted novel is of more ethical value than a get-rich-immediate scheme.

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AN INTERESTING QUESTION

If I Knew The Answer


Someone recently asked me how one gets started as a writer. Fools rush in where Seraphim fear to tread. I know this from my experience as a not yet published author who got her first rejection letter not long ago. Writing seems to be the easy part but getting published is the greater hurdle. I sent in a plot synopsis but didn't fit in with the publisher's list.

I have since been more successful in the commercial markets as an editor. I have updated my initial advice.

I think what is most important to me as a writer is to find something from your own experience. Don't go chasing the latest literary fad. No more chick lit, please. Fads in publication come and go or get stale to publishers very quickly. Boy wizards are out.

Write from your heart. When I write, the words are a culmination of life experiences.

Research the publisher's catalog of books before you inquire on a manuscript. It makes no sense to send a non-fiction tome on the molecular structure of carbon to a literary publisher.

Read books like eating potato chips. Read about everything from nineteenth century violins, for example, to herbs of the Middle Ages and every topic beyond. Make notes if the reading sparks an idea. See the advice below.

Always carry a notebook and several pens to jot down your thoughts. I feel dishabille without at least two pens, the other for emergency ink shortage, and the same quantity of notebooks with the addition of a day planner. Ideas strike with a rain shower's immediacy and fade to dust as soon.Capture these ephemeral tangents while you may.

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BEST THINGS

From time to time, I will post useful sites for writers.Ralan's Webstravaganza is a useful site for freelancers and those hoping to be published.


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