Clients, Clowns, and Craigslist: Searching for Work Online

I’ve found work on craigslist.org.

Shocked? I can understand why. Every few weeks, I take a spin around craigslist.org posts looking for writers. The overwhelming majority of them are, quite frankly, ridiculous. I see rates like $.02/word, or $15 for a 500-word article—but with the promise of as much work as you can want.

Woo hoo! As much poorly-paid work as you want! Um…thanks, but no thanks.

But here’s the thing. I have gotten work from craigslist postings over the last four years. I’ve written for a local magazine and a custom publisher that posted looking for freelancers. And I’ve even found ghosting work from craigslist, including two book proposals. As a result, I’ve gotten good at deciphering craigslist.org ads.

Language like “perfect for new or inexperienced writers” or “students encouraged to apply” is craigslist-speak for “we don’t pay.” Avoid ads that promise “exposure” for your work (remember, people die from exposure!) or that say you’ll be paid from royalties. I also skip the ones that ramble on about the person’s personal experience with drugs/crime/sex/fill-in-the-blank story or talk about a “shocking cover-up” or “unbelievable-but-true” tale.

So, what should you look for? Your mileage may vary, but for me, a promising ad:

*Provides a description of the project. “Need a writer for my book; send a resume with your qualifications” doesn’t give me any idea if it’s worth my time.
*Asks for writers with experience. That tells me the poster values my abilities and wants a good writer instead of the cheapest he can get.
*Describes actual compensation (as opposed to “a share in the proceeds” or some other nebulous amount). Or, it may say “DOE,” or depending on experience.
*Sounds like a person with a brain wrote it. I like working with smart people, and if someone’s one-paragraph ad is riddled with mistakes or misspellings, I doubt that he has much promise as a client—at least as a client of mine. (Want to know more about how to separate potential clients from clowns? I've got a whole chapter in Goodbye Byline, Hello Big Bucks: The Writer's Guide to Making Money Ghostwriting and Coauthoring Books on this very subject!)

What about you? Have you found work on craigslist? Are there any words or phrases you look for to weed out potential gigs?

Pros with Platforms: The Most Lucrative Clients for Ghostwriters

For the next few posts, I'll be talking more about ghostwriting--after all, my new book, Goodbye Byline, Hello Big Bucks: The Writer’s Guide to Making Money Ghostwriting and Coauthoring Books, is now in print (with an e-book version coming by week's end).

Of course you can't be a successful ghostwriter without clients. And while ghosting clients range from everyday people to book publishers to packagers, most of my ghostwriting and coauthoring work comes from a type of client I call "Pro with a Platform", or "PP".

Who is a PP? She's a businessperson who doesn’t just want to write a book; she wants to add “book author” to her CV, or curriculum vitae. Maybe she’s establishing herself in a particular profession and knows a book will build her credibility. Maybe she’s a motivational speaker who wants to a book to boost “back-of-the-room” sales. (In addition to speaking fees, speakers make money by selling books, DVDs, and other products to attendees.) Maybe she’s a plastic surgeon or an investment advisor or a personal trainer who knows a book will help her attract more clients.

Whatever the motivation, the PP wants to write a book but lacks the ability, time, or patience (or all three) to do so.

PPs are my favorite kind of clients. They tend to be smart (at least about their particular subject area), and often respect the time, brainpower, creativity, and experience it takes to ghostwrite or collaborate on a book. PPs usually look for ghostwriters who already have some knowledge of their subject area whether they're hiring someone to write a book, an article, a speech, or even blog posts.

So how do you reach PPs? Play up your background and experience, especially if you specialize. When you write magazine articles and get a bio note (the brief line at the end of an article about its writer), identify yourself as a ghostwriter. Let the expert sources you interview for magazine articles know that you ghostwrite and collaborate on books. You never know who may know a PP who's looking for a ghostwriter or coauthor.

Want to know more about branching into the lucrative field of ghostwriting? I'll be offering my six-week ghostwriting e-class again starting November 1, 2010; let me know if you have any questions about it.

Get Contract-Savvy: Three Ways to Retain Reprint Rights

Earlier this week, I gave you five good reasons to sell reprints. But to sell reprints, you must own the rights to your work. I've written before about how to negotiate more writer-friendly contracts, but let's focus specifically on how to retain reprint rights. Here are three options to consider:

1. If you're presented with an all-rights contract, ask if the magazine has another version you can sign instead. Many national magazines have more than one "standard" contract--one which requests all rights, and a more writer-friendly one which lets you retain some rights to your work. Sometimes simply asking will get you the better one.

2. If an all-rights contract is offered, ask if you can change it to something more writer-friendly. I've had success changing all rights to first N.A. serial rights and nonexclusive web rights, which lets me resell the work to other print publications.

3. If your editor insists on an all-rights contract, ask if you can retain nonexclusive reprint rights. This was the only option I had when writing web stories for a giant corporation with an ironclad all-rights contract. While my editor wanted all rights, he was willing to let me amend the contract to let me retain nonexclusive reprint rights to my work. That simple change has meant thousands of dollars in income from print magazines that purchase reprints; the editors there don't care that a story appeared online several years ago.

Hey, I do write for markets that insist on purchasing all rights, and won't let me retain anything. But I always try to negotiate a better contract--worst case scenario, the editor says "no." I've found it never hurts to ask.

Want to Add Ghostwriter/Coauthor to your Resume? Here's How

Are you a book author who wants to make more money, sell more books, or work more efficiently? Or are you a freelancer who wants to branch into a lucrative niche? Consider getting into ghostwriting. (I decided to start ghosting and coauthoring when I realized I could make more money as an author in less time by collaborating with experts on their books--but there are other compelling reasons as well.)

Not sure what you need to succeed in this field, how to attract and qualify clients, or set your fees? Need advice about marketing yourself, negotiating contracts, and working efficiently with clients? Then you'll want to check out my new book, Goodbye Byline, Hello Big Bucks: The Writer's Guide to Making Money Ghostwriting and Coauthoring Books. (While you can get the print version now, I'll let readers know when the Kindle version is available.)

Just as with my earlier books on writing, Six-Figure Freelancing and Ready, Aim, Specialize, I don't rely only on my own experience--I want to know how others have succeeded as well. So, for Goodbye Byline, I interviewed twenty experienced ghostwriters, coauthors, and publishing experts to include their experiences and advice. Plus you'll find templates for letters of introduction, bids, contracts, and other essential documents you need to succeed in this growing field.

If you want to start ghostwriting--or simply want more information about the field--I hope you'll check out my new book. And please let me know what you think!

Five Good Reasons--to Sell Reprints

According to my survey of fulltime freelancers earlier this year, only 2 percent of respondents are selling reprints to their work. I find that surprising and hope to convert some of the other 98 percent.

Sure, many writers say that selling reprints isn't worth the time or effort. I say, think again--and consider these five excellent reasons to jump on the reprint train:

1. Great per-hour rate. Let me give you an example--I have a local magazine that buys a reprint from me four times a year. She emails me, asking if I have something relevant, I send her the story, and she sends me a check. Total time invested? Maybe 15 minutes. Payoff? $75. That's a $300/hour rate...not bad at all.
2. Bigger platform. I've sold reprints to markets throughout the country, which helps build my platform both as a writer as a fitness/health expert. (In addition to freelancing, I'm an ACE-certified personal trainer and public speaker on topics including healthy habits and stress management, so I want my name "out there" as much as possible. And the bigger my platform, the better chance I have of selling my next book to a publisher, too.)
3. More book sales. When I sell a reprint about a health topic, I include a bionote ("Kelly James-Enger is the author of books including Small Changes, Big Results: A 12-Week Action Plan to a Better Life, with Ellie Krieger, R.D.). If it's a piece on infertility or parenting, I'll mention my book, The Belated Baby, which is for parents who experienced infertility. Not every reprint market will provide a bionote, but when they do, I get some free publicity.
4. More assignments. I just finished two original articles for a reprint market after the editor asked me if I was willing to write new pieces for her. The per-word rate wasn't as high as I'm paid by national magazines, but each story only took a few interviews and several hours to write, which made it worthwhile. And editors coming to me with work means I spend less time marketing.
5. Multiple sales--and free money. Sure, reprint markets may not pay that much--I have steady markets that pay only $35 or $50 for one-time reprint rights per story. Paltry, right? But almost all of those "low-paying" markets buy more than one story from me, often at once. One regional women's magazine requested about twenty stories from me earlier this year. I sent them in several batches so she could select the ones she wanted to use. So far, she's purchased eight of them, for a total of $520--and I haven't had to do any more work. I just find a check in the mail for $60 or $70 every month or so. That kind of "free" money is my favorite kind to get.

Of course to sell reprints, you need to retain reprint rights to your work. Next post, we'll talk about how to negotiate more writer-friendly contracts.

Ten Good Reasons the Editor Said "No"

When you freelance, rejections are part of the territory. In fact, I don't tell students what to do if they get rejected--I tell them what to do when they get rejected.

But new writers (and even experienced ones) often wonder why. Why didn't their pitch sell? Why did the editor say no? Or worse yet, why did the editor fail to respond?

In no particular order, here are a few of the most common reasons:

1. You misread the market. Your idea may have been excellent, but it wasn't right for that particular publication. Remember, your query should answer the question, "why will readers care?"

2. Your editor actually loved the idea...so much that she's already assigned something similar to another writer, or has a piece like it in inventory waiting to be run. Sorry--you can't do anything about this reason, but at least you know it's not you.

3. She never got it. That's why following up is so critical. How can an editor respond to something she never received?

4. You pitched an idea that would be assigned to a staff writer. Make sure you read the magazine's most current guidelines so you know what types of work is assigned to freelancers. Pitching something that would be written in-house shows that you didn't do your homework beforehand.

5. You didn't provide enough detail about how you'd approach the story. How long will the piece be? What kinds of sources will you interview? How will your structure the article? Will you include a sidebar or two? The more detail you provide, the easier it is for your editor to envision your piece--and say yes to you.

6. Your query is sloppy, whether it has mispellings, grammatical mistakes, or other glaring errors (like spelling your editor's name wrong). To an editor, sloppy query=careless freelancer.

7. You pitched too late. In other words, you queried a holiday idea to a national magazine in October. Magazines have varying lead times, so make sure you've giving yourself plenty of time (typically about six months for national pubs) when you pitch a seasonal topic.

8. The editor is overwhelmed--and hasn't had a chance to read it yet. That's another reason to follow up on every query you send. You're not being a pest; you're being a pro.

9. Your idea is nothing special. To set your query apart, don't pitch an idea like "five simple ways to lose weight." A unique or counterintuitive spin, like "eat more, weigh less" or "laugh yourself thin" is more likely to stand out--and sell.

10. She thinks you stink, she thinks your ideas stink, she thinks your work stinks, and she wants you to lose her contact info--permanently. Kidding! That may be the first thing you think of when you get a rejection, but this isn't why editors reject you. More likely you just had the wrong idea for the wrong editor at the wrong publication at the wrong time.

Readers, what do you think? Have I missed any of the major reasons editors say no?

Monday, October 4, 2010: Talking about Changing Careers, Finding your Passion, and Ghostwriting

I'll be a guest on the new "Get Inspired" radio show on Monday, October 4, 2010, at 12:00 noon central time, talking about everything from changing careers to finding your passion in life (and work) and how I got started in ghostwriting. Check out the show, Get Inspired, hosted by Dick and Florence Nogaj, and let me know afterwards if you have questions about what we covered. And in the meantime, stay tuned for news about my upcoming book, Goodbye Byline, Hello Big Bucks: The Writer's Guide to Making Money Ghostwriting and Coauthoring Books, which will be in print very soon!

Coming next week: more tips for busy, cash-crunched freelancers on making more money in less time.