Your Time & Talent Are Worth Money

I have never worked for free. If someone wants me to do work for them then I expect to be paid.

Why wouldn’t I?

Likewise, if I write and submit my work to a website or publication, I expect payment if they want to publish it.

I’m a hardworking writer so I should benefit from my hard work. People should respect what I do and if they want to make money from what I do they need to pay me.

Yet I come across so many writers who think that it’s normal to write and not get paid. They think that writing for free will mean they have clips to show an editor, or that giving their work away for free will get them exposure.

Cheapening yourself this way will not get you the job. If you have no confidence in yourself, neither will anyone else.

If you want to negotiate a price, that’s fine. But at least have a price to start with.

And this belief about the necessity to write for free is getting worse. Nearly every day I see a new writing scam on social media or on freelance writing websites offering writers great exposure (exposure to whom they never say) instead of paying them.

And even worse than that is people charging writers a fee just to send their work to them, whether it’s published or not. I find this the biggest scam of all, especially when it’s an unknown publication, or worse, an ‘online publication’ which, for the uninitiated, means it’s a website or blog.

Just a couple of weeks ago I came across a Facebook post asking for fiction submissions. I clicked through the link to ‘learn more’ and found it was someone who had only recently set up a website, had no content whatsoever, and were wanting gullible writers to send in stories so they could upload them to their website for free. In other words, they would make money from the stories, while the writers continued to write all the content for their site and get nothing.

What a scam.

Yet so many would-be and newbie writers fall for this. And how much ‘exposure’ will they get from an unknown website that no one’s ever heard  of?

I’ve challenged some of these websites owners and they always (and I mean ALWAYS) come back with the same excuse as to why they refuse to pay writers. They all say it’s because they have to keep up with the cost of running a website (which can be done for free or as cheap as $100/year) and they have to use their valuable time to read the submissions.

Did you get that? Their time is valuable but the writers’ time isn’t.

My advice to anyone looking to write for free is, don’t cheapen yourself.

No doubt there’ll be those who tell me I’m wrong, but I know that I’m right when I say that writing for free for an unknown publication/website, or for an unknown person who wants to publish an anthology, will only benefit whoever is earning money from your work AND they’ll keep earning money from it for years.

I have never worked for free and I never intend to. And neither should you.

The Monthly Challenge Writing Series:

Book 1 - Quick Cash Freelance Writing

I don’t believe in being a starving writer and neither should you.

That’s why this is the first book in a four-part series of how to write and earn money.

In this first book I take you step-by-step through Seven different ways to earn money fast as a freelance writer and this information comes from my own years of experience and success as a freelancer.

https://www.cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/MCWS1.html

When the S**t Won’t Stop Hitting the Fan

The kind of life I prefer is one without hassles and problems, easy-breezy and cruisey,  and that is how I always try and live. I don’t go out drinking, don’t do drugs, and in fact, I don’t like socialising and avoid it at all costs. And I don’t like having people in my home, especially overnight guests. My food is plain, not fancy.

Yet lately it’s been one difficult situation after another, and this has been going on for over a year. Even something simple like taking an item back to a store because it was faulty turned into having to go to mediation, a local tribunal hearing (which we won but weren’t paid), and then we had to lodge the matter with the magistrate court and began enforcement proceedings against the store owner, when he suddenly had a change of heart and paid us. He also had to pay our costs too so it ended costing him a lot. But how did something so simple like a store refund take months to sort out?

But this is only one example of how things have gone bad repeatedly. We also suffered a sudden death in the family, had other family issues going on, and because of reasons beyond our control we now have to move from the apartment where we live, which again it’s another legal battle over something that should have been an easy fix.

STRESS!

Naturally, dealing with all this has taken it’s toll on me. I feel physically and mentally exhausted, not to mention the hours/days/weeks I’ve spent filling out forms, writing out statements, visiting with our lawyer, sending emails back and forth… it all takes so much time and is exhausting.

To have the time to concentrate on all this, I’ve had to cut back on some things, one of which is my writing. I’ve also started napping a lot, which I think is just to block it all out, but it’s a habit I’m overcoming because I don’t want to sleep my life away.

But, through it all, I’ve also been giving a lot of thought as to the direction I want my writing to take.

I used to write a lot about blogging, marketing, copywriting, and other areas in that same vein of making money from writing, because these are things I’m good at. But then I started to change direction (because I was listening to too many so-called writing ‘experts’) and tried to go more towards subjects about how to write.

With hindsight, I’m annoyed with my own stupidity, because I don’t enjoy writing about how to write. I used to assume that anyone reading my stuff already knew how to write. They just want to earn more and be successful with it. I’ve also taken to doing more fiction writing (again, from listening to too many writing ‘gurus’).

I’ve been wondering for a while now why I’m writing less and less. I used to be actively writing every day but for a while now I’ve been knuckle-dragging my way to my computer and my notebooks every morning. And for a long time now I’ve had no idea why. I even thought that maybe it was an age thing and that the older I get (over 60 now, yikes!) the less I feel like writing. I also thought it might be with all the stuff going on in my life.

After giving it plenty of thought, or at least trying to, but my crazy monkey-mind often struggles to concentrate on one thing at a time, I realised my reluctance is because I’m not enjoying the writing I’m doing. It’s not horrible, it’s just not as much fun so my incentive has been waning. 

The thing is, we’re all different, so what’s good for one person isn’t good for all. How boring would life be if we were all the same? So if one person thrives on writing stories while others love to write non-fiction, that’s okay. It’s the same with my writing. I can’t please everyone because everyone wants different things.

I also used to write in different niches and had several different websites and blogs, and I gave that all away. When the industry changed, I thought I had to change with it. But I don’t. I can do whatever I want. If I’d kept all my websites they’d probably still be doing well.

Over the years I’ve ‘ummed and ahhhed' over whether to keep doing my monthly newsletter. I’ve even stopped and started it up again a few times. But now I’ve decided to let it go once and for all because, although it was an entertaining and informative read, it took a lot of time to put together, not many people were clicking on any of the links, and when I did the math, the time spent wasn’t worth the small income gained.

So I’m going back to what I do best and hopefully it will help a lot of people like it always used to do.

I’ll still write the novels I have planned, but I won’t make fiction writing the main focus of my business any more.

I’ve also organised a writing schedule for myself and it’s the best one ever, because I get more done without needing more time. Super productivity. And being productive makes me happy.

My plan also includes getting back to regular article writing and blogging so you should be hearing more from me soon. And the plan also includes writing useable, interesting and entertaining content.

Maybe I should heed the advice of Eleanor Roosevelt who said:

"Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't."

How I Write Books Quickly

I’m currently working on my next book which will be out next month in time for Halloween.

I’ve written dozens of books (I really should count how many) and that doesn’t include all the free ebooks I’ve written over the years, plus the books I’ve previously written that are no longer on the market.

The way I organise things to get all my writing done is probably different to many other writers because we all write differently. Some writers are happy working on their books for just an hour a day for several months or a year. Others shut themselves away for a few days and do nothing but work on their book, and by nothing I mean absolutely nothing. They don’t even communicate with the outside world.

Then there are others who write their books quickly, say in a month or less, while still being somewhat present in the world.

I’m one of the latter. I write my books quickly, usually in a month, while still engaging in life, although not as much because I spend most of the day writing - 10 pages is my minimum goal every day.

I’ve found this to be the ideal way for me to work. I need to write a book all at once so that I don’t lose the thread of what I’m doing and I don’t lose my ideas.

Blog posts and articles are fast to write, but when I’m writing a book I need a large block of time to get it done to keep me in the creative ‘flow.’ Plus the quicker I write it, the easier it is to do.

I usually get a head start on my other writing projects (blog posts, articles, emails, freelance work) and write them all up in advance, putting somethings on automatic scheduling because I need large amounts of time every day for book writing plus blocks of several weeks to get it done.

I know working this way wouldn’t suit everyone nor does everyone have that amount of time to write every day (I didn’t used to when I still had a day  job) but it’s how I work and I can’t imagine doing it another way.

Maybe it’s because I’m a bit of a control freak and when I start something I like to get it finished. Or perhaps it’s because I’m easily bored so if it took me year to write a book, I’d quit after the first few weeks because I’d lose interest in doing it.

Whatever the reason, we’re all different, and working fast, furious and focused works for me.

If you haven’t tried it yourself, write your next book quickly and see how easy and fun it is.

The 12 Month Challenge: Write and Publish 12 Books in a Year

https://www.cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/12MTH.html 

The Simple Little Tip To Writing More and Writing Better

If you want to earn money from writing, you need to write fast because you’re paid for what you do. You’ll earn the same amount of money for an article regardless of whether it took you 2 hours or 2 days to write it. So the faster you write, the more money you’ll earn.

Never make the mistake of thinking that writing fast means writing badly. In fact the opposite is true. The faster you write, the better you’ll write.

No doubt you’ve heard of the writing acronym, WAYS, Write As You Speak.

When you do this, it makes writing faster to do, and easier for the reader to understand. We’re always better understood when we’re explaining something in spoken words rather than writing it out in long convoluted words, which is why using WAYS works.

Readers aren’t looking for technical articles full of big words. They want fast information and an entertaining read.

In my book, How To Write An Article In 15 Minutes or Less, I show you how to quickly write short 300-500 word articles in 15 minutes or less, including research and proofing. It really can be done that fast.

Of course, speed comes with practice so the more articles you write, the faster and better you’ll get, plus you’ll be producing so much more work.

Short articles are always popular, but longer articles often earn more, especially if you’re paid by the word count.

To write an article quickly it’s good to have a simple outline containing an introduction, 3 points to cover and a conclusion. To expand it, each of the 3 points can have 3 sub-topics.

It can also be faster to turn each point or sub-topic into a question so that when you write your article you’re simply answering questions which is easier than justifying a statement. For instance if you were writing about a daily routine and you say, “I brush my teeth every morning.” You’d change that to, “Why do I brush my teeth every morning?” or “How do I brush my teeth?”

But no matter how you write your articles, it needs to be easy and enjoyable because if you don’t enjoy it, it won’t be sustainable. You won’t keep doing something you don’t enjoy.

Writing fast is enjoyable. It’s much more fun than writing slowly and trying to edit as you write and second guessing yourself all the time. Writing fast means there’s no time for any of that, and you’ll get a lot more writing done.

One of the most prolific authors was, Isaac Asimov, who wrote over 400 novels plus hundreds of scientific papers.

When asked about his amazing output he said, “I guess I’m prolific because I have a simple and straightforward style.”

This was a man who wrote fast, and he wrote for hours every day. And as he said, he kept his writing simple and straightforward which means he used WAYS, and you should too.

Handwriting or Keyboard?

There is always the age-old question of whether it’s better to write by hand or type everything straight on the keyboard.

There is no one-answer-fits-all to this because it all depends on what you’re most comfortable with.

Personally, I prefer to write by hand, and I always do, which means I have to type it all up later.

This may seem like a slow way to work, but for me it’s actually faster.

I’m far more creative when I write by hand so when I sit down with my notebook and pen I can write for hours and the ideas flow.

But when I try to write at the keyboard, the ideas don’t come as easily and my writing doesn’t flow as well. Even having a detailed outline doesn’t help. I end up using any excuse to get up and walk away for a while, but it’s no better when I sit back down again.

So while handwriting is slower than typing, it’s faster for me because it keeps me in the writing flow. I’m also a fast typist when I’m copying something that I’ve already handwritten.

I use the free grammar and spelling apps, Grammarly and Hemmingway to go over my work and check for typos, and ‘passive voice’ amongst other things.

Auto-correct also helps me to keep up with typing errors, although it doesn’t get everything right.

Once, when I bought a new computer, auto-correct kept changing my husband’s name, Dean, to Dead. It took me a few weeks to convince it that my husband wasn’t Dead. Shortly afterwards I was writing an article for someone about Ocean Dead Zones. But when I finished it I realized that auto-correct had changed it all to Ocean Dean Zones. This is why it’s important to check every word of your articles because even when you spell things correctly, it can be sabotaged.

Handwriting works for me because it helps me to stay in the zone and keep writing, and sticking with writing is THE most important thing. It’s so easy to get distracted and forget where you were up to, which is what happens when you’re not loving what you do.

So write your preferred way (handwriting or typing) and keep going. Once you start writing, don’t stop.

Using an outline is essential so that you can stay on topic, and when you finish writing for the day, it’s easy to pick up where you left off because all your outlines are ready and waiting to go.

When you’re writing, if you misspell something, leave it, you’ll pick it up in the edit. And if you can’t think of a word, leave a blank space and keep going. Once you start writing you must keep going.

And don’t worry if you think you’re going wrong, just keep writing.

I find that no matter how many errors I think I’m making, or if I think I’m not saying something the right way, I can easily pick up mistakes later and there’s never any need for much editing because I was always on track thanks to writing fast and staying in the writing zone.

And one last thing to remember is to always keep your reader in mind because as they read your articles, they’ll be asking themselves So what? Who cares? What’s in it for me? So make sure your articles always answer this.

But before you can do any of this, you’ll first have to know what to write about.

This is a short extact from The Monthly Challenge Writing Series:
Book 3 - Fast & Profitable Article Writing

Grab a copy now at:
https://www.cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/MCWS3.html