Jennifer Mattern For our first book marketing author interview, I talked with author / blogger / jewelry guru Tammy Powley about her now somewhat unusual experience with book marketing: publishers who do the bulk of the work. While publishers increasingly expect authors to be more hands-on with their book publicity and marketing efforts, they do still play an important role with many authors (even if just trying
As an independent professional, do you respond to everyone who contacts you? I don’t. I had a comment left publicly for me on a forum today because I didn’t respond to someone’s contact through the forum’s private message system. While a part of me understands their frustration (I struggle to reach colleagues that I know personally half of the time because of their busy schedules),
Today I’m going to tackle one of my own areas of expertise: press release writing (not sure why it took me so long). If you’re interested in PR writing (public relations writing), knowing how to write a press release is essential. Use these press release resources to help you learn how to write effective press releases for your clients (or yourself!) – please note, most
I was tagged by Misti Sandefur of Life of a Writer to offer seven little pearls of blogging wisdom on what not to do as a blogger if you want to keep your readers, subscribers, and fellow bloggers in your network happy. So here you go… seven reasons I won’t read your blog: 1. Your font choice makes my eyes bleed. I’m still a sweet
It’s easy to get stuck in a certain way of working. Sometimes our methods can become stale and negatively affect our productivity as writers. So this week’s challenge is about scheduling, and how mixing it up once in a while can keep your work fresh. If you think you’re already working as productively as you possibly can, there’s no need to take part in this
This week’s reader question comes from Mariella on the writing forums, regarding a request she recently received for copywriting services through a forum private message system: “I’m guessing someone referred him to me, I just can’t get it out of him because he barely speaks English. If I’d ever ask a question for your blog Jenn, it would be how to deal with such clients.”
While a marketing calendar can be an important tool in book marketing, it can also help writers of all kinds promote their work more efficiently. What is a Marketing Calendar? A marketing calendar is a calendar (you can choose whether to make it monthly, weekly, or daily), where you lay out your planned marketing activities based on events throughout the year. How to Create Your
Advertising your writing services on writing forums may seem like a natural marketing activity to bring in freelance writing clients, but it probably won’t be the most effective way to harness forum postings to bring in gigs. Here’s why: A forum for writers to network won’t necessarily be overflowing with clients looking to hire within your niche. A writing forum is going to very likely
It can be a common misconception that being a freelance writer is an “anyone can do it” kind of career. I’d imagine most of you reading this blog know that’s simply not true. A successful career as a writer means that you have to do a lot more than just dream about being a famous novelist or enjoying a “cushy” career in your pajamas writing
If you’re a writer of any kind, it’s likely that you’re familiar with article marketing. But are you using it effectively? Here’s what article marketing can do for you if you go about it the right way: It can help you sell your book. It can bring in clients for custom work. It can attract readers to your blog or website where you then promote
Latoya had a third great question for this week’s reader question set: Question “Anytime I’ve worked with clients for more than a few months, I noticed the relationship gets kind of stale. It becomes a very robotic process of receiving assignments, returning the work, and then receiving payment. So, do you have any advice for relationship building when you work with someone strictly via email?”
Here’s another question from Latoya of Writers Brew: Question What tips do you have for creating a referral system using existing clients? Answer I can’t say that I’ve ever set up a referral “system” with my existing clients. I’m a big believer in natural referrals whenever possible… they just carry more weight. My clients are happy with my work, and they refer me to their
This question comes from Latoya of Writers Brew: Question What’s the most professional way to deal with bossy clients? Those who like to dictate every aspect of your work as if they were your employer. Answer I’m sure plenty of writers are going to disagree with me on this one, and perhaps my mindset on this issue stems from my primary role as a consultant
White papers can be a very lucrative field for freelance business writers. If it’s something you’re interested in pursuing, the following resources may help you learn a thing or two about writing white papers: Articles on Writing White Papers: How to Write a White Paper (my article on a client’s blog) Getting Off the Starting Block: Practical Tips to Starting a White Paper How to
I see a question asked repeatedly by writers and webmasters… “How can I market my e-book?” Well for starters, that’s something you should have thought about before writing it, now isn’t it? But OK… you’ll see the same responses surface each time: Launch an affiliate program. Write a long sales letter. Get testimonials. Submit to article directories. Start a newsletter. Use pay-per-click ads or other
As freelance writers, it’s not uncommon to have our work referred to potential clients from past clients or from other writers (or other publishing professionals in our networks). But too many writers stop there, when referral possibilities can seem practically endless if you really put some thought into it. Business cards are just the tool to help you improve your referral network. Here’s how: Online
Sure, you could browse through the latest edition of the Writers Market looking for outlets to query. But then you’re just querying the same outlets that all of your competition already knows about. This week I want you to forget about your typical go-to sources for writers’ markets and your more well-known niche publications. I want you to step a bit outside of your comfort
Many writers dream of writing and publishing a novel someday. If you’ve caught the novel writing bug, or are already a published novelist looking to improve your craft or technique, here are some novel writing resources that you may find useful: Sites on Novel Writing Fiction Factor Advanced Fiction Writing National Novel Writing Month About Fiction Writing Articles on Writing a Novel Writing Your First
People are always asking what the “best” marketing tool or tactic is. While marketing tactics can’t be the same for everyone and every purpose, there’s one surefire marketing rule that any writer would benefit from, no matter their style, level, or niche: Do something to market your writing every single day! Yes, seven days a week. Even on your days “off,” there’s no excuse not
I just read a post on Julia Temlyn’s blog about her removing the no-follow attribute on her blog comments, encouraging others to do the same. Personally, I think that’s a really bad idea, and would encourage just the opposite. Here’s my response, posted to her blog: It’s a nice thought in a general sense, but is missing a few points: 1. Having no follow on
If you’re the type of freelance writer that accepts every writing job that you’re offered, you’re very likely dooming your writing career. The best writers are always choosy in who they work with. They set standards such as: The types of clients (or industry / niche of clients) that they’ll work with. This allows them to develop a reputation as an expert writer in a
If you’re interested in becoming an author, you have a few publishing options: most notably working with a publisher or self-publishing either through a vanity press or print-on-demand (POD) publisher (like Lulu.com). One of the biggest problems writers face when deciding to self-publish a book is the lack of “legitimacy” they still often face in the eyes of buyers. Starting your own small publishing company
It’s no secret that business networking is vital to the careers of many successful freelance writers. Networking is simply the act of connecting with colleagues, potential clients, or others in your industry, and those connections have a tendency to lead to freelance writing gigs; including unpublished ones. How My Network Gets Me Gigs Personally, I get the majority of my clients (both in writing and
I’m not going to go into too much detail here, but today I hit a milestone: $2000 for the month of June from one of my blogs (if you know me and what I’ve been promoting lately, you may know which one I’m talking about). It’s in the business niche. I don’t blog because I expect them to be big earners… I earn the majority
It’s so easy to steal content on the Web these days that it feels like “everyone” is doing it sometimes. Whether it’s through publishing your blog content from an RSS feed without consent (a debatable issue in and of itself) to blatantly ripping content from a site, what can you do to protect your rights when someone steals your work? Here are a few tips
I received this note from the Editor-in-Chief of Suite101 today. I was quite content leaving it at my last post, b/c it was a simple solution to avoid the regular emails nagging me about why I was leaving. But apparently it wasn’t enough. And since I’m under no contractual obligation to keep any such correspondence confidential as it was offered after my contract termination, I’m
It’s not as hard as many writers think it is to get high paying freelance writing jobs. The fact is that many writers, especially new freelance writers, sabotage themselves from the start. Do you? Let’s more specifically talk about freelance Web writing. We’ll explore how you can earn more, and what might be holding you back if you’ve been trying to earn more unsuccessfully. Why
Every day I look around the Web for freelance writing jobs to post to AllFreelanceWritingJobs.com. I usually find a few that baffle me, and a few that amuse me… especially when the hiring party is particularly clueless. I ran into a good example of that today. Here’s more on what I came across, and some tips to help you decide when to turn down a
If you’re working as a freelance writer, you should be well aware that there are a wide variety of rights attached to all of your work. When deciding where and how to sell your writing, you get to decide what kinds of rights you want to offer your clients (unless you choose to apply for gigs where demands for rights are already laid out… then
If you want to be as successful as you can be as a freelance writer, you should take the time to build an effective writer portfolio. Your writer portfolio is a showcase of your abilities, and it offers potential clients a snapshot of the quality of your work. Here are a few tips when it comes to building writer portfolios: 1. Don’t link to something