Another Read for Book Authors

Unfortunately, I came across an amusing concept in a Guardian blog this morning after my post for the day had already gone out, or I'd have combined these two. A novelist decided to bring in some extra cash by selling shares in his future US royalties. Though, on reflection, perhaps amusing isn't the right word. There is something sad about having to trade on your future potential because you can't get enough money to undertake your profession based on what you've already done. But there is something intriguing about the publicity possibilities in such a move. Sadly, once done, I think it would be tough to get attention a second time. All you have to do is come up with the next outrageous gimmick to get media attention on your book, which is really where you want it.

Myth of the Long Tail?

A study in the Harvard Business Review looked at some data in the light of Chris Anderson's "long tail" theory and concluded that while the tail is getting a bit thicker, the head - the "popular stuff" - is really what is growing. Or in the words of that great business philosopher, Ira Gershwin, "Them that's got shall get, them that's not shall lose. So the Bible says, and it still is news." I've written about this on BNET (the new business arm of CNET), and that has links to the study as well as to Anderson's reply (which I found essentially unsatisfactory).

But enough of them; let's talk about us. Does the long tail hold any hope for individual writers? Yes and no. The upside is that if you have some writing that will interest a large enough community, and you market hard, then you can make money. You can, that is, if you put in the work and don't sit passively, assuming that the long tail is going to bring your income to you.

I get the sense that many writers look to the long tail concept as a silver bullet that will bring money in without them having to do anything else. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Say that an Amazon sees 20 percent of its 2007 sales of about $14.8 billion in the long tail (though the study would suggest more like 10 percent). According to Anderson, the tail should be everything that you wouldn't find in a Borders or Barnes & Nobel physical location. That means every one of the estimate million book SKUs the 10 or 20 thousand you might find in a store. So be generous and call the remainder 9.8 million. Divide and you get ... $285 per year per SKU.

Even if there is an average of 2 SKUs per book (each SKU representing a specific version of the book you could buy), that's annual revenue of $570 from Amazon. Even if that is only part of what you get (and remember, physical book outlets won't even have your title, by definition of tail), what are you going to make total? Maybe $1100, and that's in total sales. The cut going back to the publisher is half, so you're back to your royalties on $570 a year, or maybe $60. Self-publish and you could get the number higher, but that's hardly the passive approach to the long tail.

The only hope the "long tail" offers the individual author is the old concept of niche audiences, marketing to them, and making money. Nothing new there, and nothing easy. In fact, I'd argue that the only writer who is really making money off the long tail is Anderson himself.

Fear of Phoning: 5 Techniques to Reduce It

From time to time I see writers posting online messages about feeling afraid to call clients. Personally, I think it's a mistake to simply avoid the situation by using email for several reasons:

• Constantly avoiding what you fear only strengthens the emotion's grip on you.
• Editors often ignore email, or the messages get pushed into a spam filter, leaving the writer wondering why there is no answer.
• Sometimes the phone is the best form of communication, next to being in-person, and to avoid it is to give up an important marketing and sales tool.

I often see another writer answer something to the extent of, "Oh, but you're great, so just call. Don't be worried about it." Tell that to the person in the middle of fear. It may sound good, but the results can be exactly the opposite of what the encourager might want. Instead, here are some approaches that can be helpful. None of them require you to directly confront the fear, as often the most effective approach is an indirect one that lets you focus on intellect or action, both of which offer you far more control:

• Write it down One of the ways the fear of phoning comes out is the sense that you're babbling and sound like a complete loon. So write down all the points you want to make in roughly the order you want to make them. When you're prepared and know what you have to say, then you can stick with that, rather than trying to wing it.
• Take your time There is no rule that all negotiations happen within one sentence, let alone one conversation. Take the time you need to make your points. If someone comes up with something you're not ready for, say that you have to give it some thought and plan a subsequent discussion on the issue.
• Schedule ahead It's tought to make yourself pick up the phone when you're in the middle of fear. But the entire situation is different when you've scheduled the call and you cannot simply not bother. Use the power of your own obligation to get you on the phone in the first place, when possible.
• You can always say no You tend to get on a call to conduct a negotiation, whether over a contract, an assignment, or even the attempt to get an assignment. Fear comes in part from the concern that you won't get what you want. When that happens, invoke the power of walking away. There is no single assignment that will make or break your career and no single job that will make or break your entire financial existence. There are always other clients and other work out there; remind yourself to reduce the pressure of how much you need this particular negotiation to go through.
• Do some marketing A variation on the previous point, you can become more confident when you have more prospects. Reduce your dependence by sending off a few queries before you get on the phone. The more choices you have in work, the more control you have and, as a result, the more confidence and less fear you will feel.

Work with every intellectual and physical tool you have in a way that increases the odds in your favor and reduces the power of fear.

Dealing With Rejection

Heather Boerneris addressing hte topic of rejection on her blog. That got me thinking about the topic and sending her a reply to a LInkedIn message she had sent out. But I thought I'd also look at the topic here.

Rejection is a constant companion for the self-employed. In fact, ask a group of experienced freelancers about the most important qualities for success, and not getting bogged down by rejection is one of the answers you'll inevitably get. The reason is that success in freelance writing comes from reducing the inevitable amount of rejection you'll get.

It's easy enough to say, "Develop a thick skin," but that doesn't explain why it is necessary. If you've been writing for any period of time, imagine what would happen if everyone said yes to everything you proposed. You'd drown in work and have no life. Getting work depends on hitting the right person in the right company at the right time with the right idea and right background to carry it out. That's a lot of right. The odds of that happening each and every time you send out a letter of introduction or query - given how much is completely out of your control - is unrealistic.

To get down from rejection has three parts. One is normal disappointment. I'd really like to know that the work and money were coming in, but they're not, so I have to move on to the next prospect.

Another part is not so normal, because it involves taking rejection as personal failure when you don’t accomplish what literally cannot be done. One is when the freelancer takes everything personally. Do you agree with your significant other on everything? Probably not, and you’re far less close to your clients, so why expect that much acceptance? You may be involved in your business, but you are not the same as your business. Focus on your decisions and the efforts you make, not on others.

The third problem is when you view each rejection as a threat. It’s not. Rejection works two ways, and you constantly reject clients – by not pitching them, by turning down projects that don’t make sense for you, by negotiating different terms than they originally wanted. It’s a game of numbers, and you need to make enough efforts so that, on the whole, the numbers break your way.

There is enough heartache in the world; why needlessly manufacture more for yourself? Clients aren’t family, friends, or lovers. They’re people who pay you to do something. Keep some distance and save the bitter rejection tears for those times that they are really warranted.

Taking Low-Paying Work

In response to my post about tips for writers during fears of a recession, a reader responded with the following:

Your latest email is great. I think there’s a #10 issue to address: whether to take on work that pays less than your normal rate because some money coming in is better than none. This is an issue that we go around and around about online, I know, but it’s a very real one, especially in this economic climate. Yes, taking lower-paying work will take time away from my marketing for better gigs, but I need to pay the mortgage, too. I know I’ve seen you opposed to doing this, in general, but you might want to revisit the issue and examine it from both sides.

Happy to oblige. What I oppose is taking low-paying work when that becomes a reflex action to any business difficulty. The problem is that you set yourself up in a few ways:

• You generally have to work more with low-paying work to make a living, which means that you end up cutting down your marketing time and reducing the chance of getting something that pays reasonably.


• Often writers point to an effective per-hour rate that seems reasonable. That may be true for the off-piece, but those who do significant amounts of such work don't generally seem to do that well overall. That's because you still have to spend time getting the work in and managing the flow. Now your marketing needs increase, because an increased set of assignments means you must bring them in. So you're cutting down on the time available for that lower-paying work and putting a ceiling on what you can earn.


• It should take about the same amount of time to do a competent job on a given length assignment; it's independent of the pay. To decrease the time and increase the hourly rate, you cut corners. Read the writers' boards and you'll see how many people complain about having the do the extra interviews, concept planning, rewrites, etc. That means, to some extent, you must do less than your best, and certainly less than would be required with a higher-paying and more demanding client. You end up turning the writing into factory work. Those who want the commodity writing excuse their lower pay by lowering their expectations. However, if you do this all the time, you end up with a lot of work samples that, to a more discerning client, will speak of such factory work. To put it bluntly, when you skimp, you make yourself appear like a hack to the clients you really want to attract, who then are less likely to use you and you do more of the low-end work. It's like the old concept of company-provided housing and a company-owned store; you never get to make enough to get out from under.

All that said, the reader who emailed me is right. There may be times to take lower-paying work. If you have to send off the mortgage or rent, you need money to do that. But given the above discussion, I think there are a few principles to follow when taking lower rate work:

1. Don't discount. You want to preserve the ability to charge more, because that makes a living easier to get. So don't drop your rate with regular clients in a hope to attract more work. If they are regular clients, then they know what you're capable of doing. If you start taking less, you will continue to take less, because you've said through your action that what you do is actually worth less.


2. Limit the exposure. Treat lower-paying work as something literally to make your nut. Keep marketing fiercely to make it as unnecessary as possible. Continue focusing on getting better-paying work.


3. Balance the value equation. As I teach in my various classes, business is a value equation. You provide value and expect value in return. I don't believe in cutting corners. If you get paid less, still treat the assignment as seriously as you would any. But try to balance the equation to get enough value back in one form or other. Low paying assignments will have to turn around cash quickly enough, be limited in the rights they get, or possibly sit on research you've already done. If you can't make it a naturally more acceptable assignment, then you should pass on it.


4. Incorporate it into your business model. Low-paying work can be a distraction when you just react to it. So don't. Make the lower paying work part of your business model, even if only while economic times seem tough. Have a strategy for it, set boundaries for how you deal with such work, and stick to them. That way you reduce the possibility of losing a grip on your higher-paying "real" work, and increase the chance that the two work streams will harmoniously co-exist.


5. Don't buy someone else's PR. Economic downturns are funny things. They don't affect everyone and everything evenly. Don't go into lower paying work from a panic. Instead, watch how things are going in your usual work. Are you sure that any problem isn't a result of your letting up on your usual marketing? (That can happen too easily to any of us.) Try doubling up on marketing first, unless you're in a cash crisis and the turnaround on such efforts will take longer than you have.


6. Don't buy someone's negotiating tactic. Sad as it is from a view of humanity, there are people who will try to use a recession as an excuse to reduce what they pay, even though they don't have to. But it's not as though you can find a way to work more cheaply as manufacturers often do. Maybe you can to some degree, but be wary of any client who tries to strong arm you into what is unwise for your business. Another way of putting it is that there are poorly-paying clients, and then there are cheap clients. The latter are generally ones to avoid, because they're not providing value in other ways. They just want something for nothing.


7. Don't panic. Douglas Adams had it right in the Hitcherhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The biggest mistake you can make is to freak out. Take a deep breath and consider all your options in dealing with an economic crisis. Some of those might include borrowing money, negotiating with creditors to spread out payments, or reduce expenditures. The more creative you can be on money, the more space you can make for smarter business decisions.

It may be that a recession will force you to consider lower-paying lines of work, and that can be part of life. But if you have to go there, do it with your eyes open.

Nine Tips for Writers During Recession Fears

What kills business isn't a recession so much as the fear of one. I don't just mean the overall economic effect, but the paralysis that can happen when you own a business and start thinking that you are the plaything of inevitability. You aren't. Here are nine tips you can use to strengthen your approach to doing business during a recession:

1. Market more - a lot more.


2. Don't be picky about topics. You can focus on the "but I *love* to write about XYZ" when you can afford to.


3. Look not just at the clients (and advertisers), but the industries. For example, the legal industry is often considered to be virtually recession proof, because companies need lawyers to do the deals when things are good, and bankruptcies/restructuring debt when things are bad.


4. Read trade press and talk to other writers to see if a given publication shows any of the signs of financial trouble. Ziff Davis just went into bankruptcy, but the signs were there for a while - one reason I didn't try to get work out of them.


5. Look for signs of trouble in your own clients. If checks start taking longer to get to you, start looking for other people to work for.


6. If you have a knowledge/experience niche that gives you a strong in with certain types of stories, strengthen it. If you don't, develop a niche. And keep adding niches as you can.


7. Don't put all your eggs in one client type basket. If you cover a topic for consumer pubs, see if there are things you can do for trade pubs as well, and vice versa.


8. Don't end up using a recession as an excuse: "I can't do any better because of the economy." When most everyone is marching in one direction, go in the other to find opportunities.


9. Look for companies that are more likely to keep producing written materials. An association magazine is one of the better examples, because if they're not sending something out to the members, it's probably because they're out of business. A custom publisher is a lesser example, because when companies feel the pinch, the custom publishing projects may be some of the first things to go, unless not having the publication is unthinkable for their businesses.

If it makes you feel any better, during the last major recession, right after the dot com bubble, there were writers who didn't see big drops in their income. Keep working away and, even if things aren't pretty, you can weather the storm.

Update

A reader emailed, asking me to address the issue of taking lower-paying writing to fill in cash needs. Here's my take on it.

Amazon Kindle and Controling Electronic Rights

By now you've probably heard about Amazon's Kindle e-book reader. I've been thinking a bit more about the economics of it. According to one knowledgeable colleague in a private writers' mailing list, Amazon takes 65% of the money it receives for e-books and the other 35% goes to the publisher. Large publishers are probably getting a better deal - I hope they're getting a better deal. But better deal or not, this is a significant development and one that should command attention of freelance authors. So let's comb through the readily available information to see what we can learn:

• Although journalists are saying that 90,000 books are available, that's not how Amazon phrases it. Instead, it's over 88,000 books, with 100 of the current 112 NYT best sellers. (Who knew there were that many on the various NYT best seller lists - something that is interesting on its own.)


• The screen uses reflected light, and not a back-lit approach, and it only uses power to change the image on the screen, so it should have far longer battery life than other devices.


• It's $400 bucks to the user. Add in the 65% of the sales price it gets, and that seems like a lot. But, the device uses a cellular phone network for browsing and shopping, and there are no monthly fees, so some amount of that money has to go to the carrier providing the service, and has to potentially last a long time. That might explain some of the economics, and why publishers/authors aren't likely to get better deals going forward. Amazon may not be able to afford to give them.


• NYT best sellers and all new releases are "$9.99, unless marked otherwise," which is like saying everything is a dollar unless it's not. That low a level of pricing has two effects. One, it potentially hurts the preceived value of books, and, should this take off, puts competitors into some pretty serious trouble. Do they start more heavily discounting? Because even with the lower price, Amazon makes a bundle. Figure a best selling paperback costs $15. Amazon, or one of its normal competitors, gets maybe a 55% discount, but probably knocks off 30 to 40% of the cover price, so it getting 5% to 15% of the cover price. That's $0.75 to $2.25 a a copy as gross margin (money left over after they pay for the copy). But 65% of $9.99 is $6.49 - a heck of a lot more in their pockets. They say that it takes less than a minute to download a title, so take out, what, 50 cents at most to the cell carrier, figuring that they have to cover all the times that someone doesn't buy? That's still profit to make them drool, and it lowers warehousing and processing costs.


• If Amazon is making out like a bandit, what happens to the publisher/author? They get 35% of $9.99 (for that category of book), or roughly $3.50, rather than the $6.75 they would have received. So take out $2 for printing and warehousing, and that's still $4.75. Guess what that means? Publishers will want to pay authors even less for these rights. It becomes smart business to insist on keeping the electronic rights - probably difficult without some leverage of good sales history, but important to try anyway, because with contracts going the way they do, that means the author will get 12% of the new lower price (that paperback trend of getting royalties on money received), or a whole 42 cents per book. Sell 100,000 copies electronically, and you see $42,000, which is chicken feed given the popularity.


• Some money must be split with newspaper publishers, because you apparently get wireless copies of the NYT, WSJ, Washington Post, Time, Atlantic Monthly, and Forbes. No mention of subsciption costs to these. And you get international newspapers, as well. Guess what? That means more pressure on costs - including writers fees - across the board.


• There are some significant drawbacks to the business model. You don't sync the machine with a computer, so how do you store the titles you aren't keeping on the machine? It's also a proprietary system, which means it could leave people with the feeling of being locked in. Then again, I used to think that about the iPod, but I was clearly wrong there. So there is a chance that the publishing industry will get locked into this, whether it wants to or not.

In other words, it's not going to be a pleasant business model, but you may have to deal with it. Better figure out how to without losing even more income to all the other businesses that want a cut so they can make money. Best new mocking nickname of the system? The Swindle. Question is, who's getting the worst of it - reader, or author?

Australia Becomes Viable Market

A little over a month ago I mentioned that some foreign markets were becoming interesting business prospects for writers because of the fall of the dollar. Since then, the Canadian dollar has reached complete parity with currency here, which means that a magazine in Canada that pays $1 a word Canadian has just become a market that pays $1 a word American.

Now add another market - Australia. A few years ago, the Australian dollar was running at about 50 cents American. Yesterday, it hit a 23-year high - just over 90 cents - according to the Wall Street Journal. The trick here, as with Canada, is to find a publisher paying a reasonable amount in native currency. That means you'll bee seeing the same here, so long as you don't get quoted a lesser rate in dollars.

Another consideration is any country on the euro. At about US$1.40, you could get a premium. Something interesting is that a strong job report did nothing to boost US currency. This could mean that the dollar will continue to drop, making foreign markets even more attractive. Ironically, you'll be using the same business strategy as major investors: find where the return on the money (or time, research, and writing) you've invested is more, and take your profits from there.

Before using such a strategy, though, check with your bank. You want to be sure that wire fees and possible charges for converting currency to the US dollar doesn't put a crimp in the deal.

Re-Placing an Article

There are times that publishers will kill an article or, more often, turn down a pitch that you swear is perfect. You might send the idea out again to similar publications, but eventually you might find that you run out of "more of the same." But you may not be ready to retire the idea. here are some ways you can take a fresh look at where to send your query:

• Category Analogies You can get locked into thinking that a certain type of article has to go into a publication dedicated to that subject. But often, magazines with other focuses will still be interested. For example, an article on a parenting issue might have a home in a women's magazine with an appropriate demographic. A piece on a new audio technology for a home audiophile title might find a home in a men's magazine or something like Popular Science or Popular Mechanics.


• Change Focus Don't get stuck on your original focus. You can always consider changing the specific subject of a narrative, the problem or solution approach for a service piece, or the entry point of a think piece.


• Turn it Inside Out This is a more extreme version of changing focus. You might be able to take an article that you thought was one type and completely transform it into another. What you might have originally conceived as a reported article might actually work as a personal essay. Your experience, that was the center of an essay, might also spark ideas for bullet points in a service article. If you can't sell it one way, try another.


• The Consumer/Trade Shift You can get unnecessarily stuck if you think of yourself strictly as a "consumer" or "trade" writer. They often have different styles, but the gulf isn't that large. If something is old news for a trade, it might be the first time the consumer mag has heard of it. If the latter finds a topic too "inside baseball," the former might think it right up their ally (to mix the metaphors). Or you might find, as I have at times, that both trades and consumer pubs have similar tastes at times.

And here's the bonus: you don't have to use these techniques only to find a first home for a story. You can use them to get new spins and markets for work you've already done.

Business, Accident, and the Law of Averages

Accident plays a much larger part in business than most of us like to think. I don't mean that the people who do well are only lucky, though some seem to be. But by and large, you actually make your own luck. If you are working enough, and in an effective way, then assignments, whether corporate or editorial, will come your way.

It's law of large numbers - that is to say, the law of averages. This concept is that when things happen at random - that is, by accident - and there are enough of them, you will inevitably see patterns come out. The end results are predictable, like dropping marbles down one of those devices that are a board with lots of pegs, so they can bounce this way or that. You can't predict where any single marble will land, but you know that some small percentage will be all the way at the ends and that the numbers increase until they hit a maximum in the middle, producing the classic bell curve.

There is a lot of accident in business. Sometimes clients need writing, and sometimes they don't. Sometimes they'll want certain topics or treatments, and sometimes others. Sometimes it's one person at a company or publisher who needs something, and sometimes it's another. You don't know for sure which one will need help on any given day. But, you know that if you take enough clients together, some of them will need help on any given day. The more with whom you're in contact, the greater a chance that you'll talk to the ones that need the help when you'd like the work.

To make marketing effective, you have to take the long view. You also have to be in contact with enough people that you hear about the work coming in that is available. That's why numbers are so important in marketing and sales, and why you must keep making marketing efforts even when the work is coming in.

Sometimes it will seem that work comes in for no particular reason, but I've found that such happy occurrences generally happen when I'm working hard at developing my business, and it's the constant effort that makes things work. If you don't make the marketing effort, well, you might have some business show up of its own accord, but chances are that you won't be making much of a living. If you do make the regular and sustained efforts, you will eventually have success - it's mathematical.

On Rate Cards

I recently took part in an online conversation about rate cards. A writer had a client asking for one and didn't know what to put on it. My suggestion was to avoid rate cards entirely. When clients ask for rate cards, what they really seek, whether they think of it this way or not, is control over what you do and how you charge.

An hourly rate could potentially vary depending on the nature of the project ... and the client. And how can you quote a project rate when you don't know anything about the project's details? Recently I was asked for a corporate rate and I mentioned a range within which I'd typically work, but I can't offer a single number Some projects rquire me to deliver more value - not time, but value. They may require specific expertise or information. Why should I offer that at the same rate a simple press release or front of book article might take?

If a client wants something that completely predictable without offering any details as to what the work entails, then perhaps finding another client would be the best thing.

Breaking the pay ceiling mentality

One of the big questions that writers ask other writers is "How much does market X charge?" The other is, "How much should I charge to do Y?" Notice a trend? So there's no wonder at conversations on how much money you can get. But recently I followed a discussion in which some writers were lamenting the payment "ceiling" at publications.



There may be averages, but if you're going to be smart about this business, you don't start thinking in terms of ceailings. Language constrains thought, and when you use the term ceiling, you set the subconscious assumption that you can't do better. It's a terrible way to go into negotiations because you're undercutting yourself, and you don't even realize it.



To get away from the ceiling mentality requires a more effective approach to sales and negotiations. Here are some of the techniques:

• Show value. Writers often fall into the fallacy that the business is completely supply and demand - that another writer will do fine, so paying more isn't necessary for a publication or corporation. Ban that thought from your mind! You don't sell time or standard billing. Sell value. Work on your skills and knowledge and simply offer more than most other writers could deliver. I recently picked up a corporate assignment where I was one of four writers under consideration and my estimate was fairly ... robust. But my writing sample was strong because I not only got what they said they wanted, but I understood what they needed that they didn't mention. Hence, I got a significant fee, because I sold on value.

Price by the project. Every time you price yourself by the hour or word, you literally have put a ceiling on what you can charge. That's why so many savvy writers charge by the project. There is some danger, because if you do a poor job of estimating the necessary time and effort, you can be working for hamburger-flipping wages. But if you are careful, you can get a more reasonable fee based on what you figuratively deliver, not literally. And many clients, particularly on the corporate front, like flat pricing. There is no surprise for them to explain, and no time sheets to review. Life is easier for them and an assumption among their bosses that this is a smart way to control costs. Yup - only you're the one controlling the costs, and generally in your favor.

Write longer. On the magazine front, depending on the type of publication, you might well end up writing more than the assignment calls for. If the topic lends itself to a longer treatment, then push for some extra words. The editor may not be able to raise the word limit, but might OK the additional length, which means additional money.

Don't assume that your budget is their budget. When you assume that there is a ceiling, you don't ask for more, but the assumption may be flawed, particularly if you've worked for the publication for a while and have proven your value (speaking of an earlier point). Try asking for additional pay and see what happens? The chances are virutally zero that the client will take such offense that you can never get work there again. Realistically, the worse you'll hear is the word no. But you might hear yes. And if you wait for the client to decide to offer you more money, it might be a long time. After all, if you're not complaining, why should they offer?

Never Walk Away From the Good Fight

There will be times (if you haven't already seen them) that you are in conflict with a client. Perhaps it wants to unreasonably delay payment or demand significant more work for no extra compensation or ask you to shoulder other burdens that never were mentioned during discussions of the assignment. You may have talked to the people involved, trying to get a resolution, but to no avail.

I understand the reluctance to take significant action. A number of thoughts are running through your head - don't want to lose the client, I'm friends with the editor, what if they get angry because I hate conflict - as your emotions bubble over. And I certainly understand how you would prefer a reasoned solution that got you what you needed. Obviously if that is possible, then it's a good outcome.

But there will be times that does not happen, and the company is happy to string you along or out or whatever preposition best describes your state of misery. In those circumstances, for your own sake as a human being, you cannot back down or give in. To do so is to allow yourself to be stepped on. That sets a bad precedent for the future and puts you further into a frame of mind where you feel like you're getting what you actually deserve: "If it's happening, then I must have done something to bring it on." This is the abused spouse mindset, and one that you must discourage.

That doesn't mean you necessarily become crazed and demand a knock-down, drag out fight. However, you stand firm for what is right and take the actions necessary to see it happen. It's good for you, it's good for your family and friends - it's particularly important if you have children, because somehow they know when you act in a righteous, and not self-righteous, manner and it teaches them to stand up for themselves. It's good good for the writing community, and it's good for the world. If people firmly planted their feet at such times, we'd have far fewer tragedies, because we would not let things go so far.

Be firm and hold your ground. You did the work and they owe you the money. If they want more work, they can pay more money. Insist that they make good. And when they do act in a reprehensible manner, add your voice to the others descrying such atrocious behavior. The more you do this, the lest often you'll find people ready to take you on. You don't go into new business relationships with a chip on your shoulder and frothing at the mouth because you won't have to. People will just know. And, more importantly, you will know. You may win, you may lose, but you'll feel better about yourself no matter what.

Upcoming Marketing Class

I'm teaching one of my periodic marketing classes at FreelanceSuccess.com. Here's some info:

Selling and Marketing for Writers

When: Aug. 20-Sep. 28
Where: An online teaching forum
Cost: $179 ($159 for FreelanceSuccess members)

Most freelancers love to write but feel like ducks out of water when it comes time to market and sell. If you find yourself in that category, it's probably because you never learned how. In the Selling and Marketing for Writers class, that's exactly what Erik Sherman teaches you.

Understand such basic concepts as marketing, brand and platform, all of which are more subtle and intricate than you might think. Make your marketing organic, and know what you are to the client. Find clients that fit your business, create a profile of the ideal prospect, and know what the prospect is to you. Check your marketing materials - even the ones you don't realize that you have. Understand the sales process and take control of it. Do vital market research and develop profiles of real prospects and clients. Create a prospecting program and move toward your financial goals. Make use of the rule of numbers, even if you don't take to math. Effectively follow up to get more business.

Syllabus

Week 1: Learning basic marketing principles and unlearning some bad scuttlebut. What motivates customers. Selling to a client and a buyer at the same time. Learning the emotional triggers. Handling conflicts between clients and buyers. Who your marketing is about. Getting the right relationship to a client.

Week 2: Deciding on the “right” customers, profiling customers and prospects and their fit, discounting assignment payments, lifetime customer values, rate research, client financial stability, profiling prospect needs.

Week 3: How and when to talk about yourself, unique selling propositions, positioning, branding, platform, understanding how to really use these buzzwords and knowing what they aren’t.

Week 4: The need for good marketing materials – and what they are, your most important calling cards, the difference between marketing and tools, the two basic types of marketing, understanding the tools you really need, knowing when to use a given tool, learning the basic structure of any marketing piece, the time line of marketing.

Week 5: Difference between marketing and sales, what selling isn’t, stages of the buying/selling process, get the right emphasis when approaching prospects, matching the sale to the need, getting into a conversation with prospects, handling objections whether heard or silent, closing the deal.

Week 6: Need for numbers, determine your personal sales conversion rate, planning on enough marketing and selling, enjoying marketing and sales, the biggest single problem in getting business, the power of unimportance, being genuine, negotiation.

Testimonials

Here are some unsolicited comments that some students from the last session I taught posted on FreelanceSuccess when I mentioned that I'd be offering it again:

"I just scored a new column this morning by putting to use what I learned in the class."

"If you're stalled on your marketing, just getting started, looking at new revenue streams or just want to tweak your message, this is a great class."

"I snagged a $4,000 project using techniques I learned in Erik's class."

I can't promise this sort of response, but if you do the work and apply it, you will start seeing positive results.

Learning the Sales Cycle

An important concept for any business is the sales cycle, or how long it generally takes between the time you first approach a customer and when a purchase actually takes place. This is particularly important for writers, because their own impatience loses a tremendous amount of work.

I've often spoken to writers and seen posts on writing boards telling how, after sending a query or letter of introduction and hearing nothing for two or three weeks, the writers gave up and went to try and find another source of business. They tell themselves that they gave up because they assumed that the prospects weren't interested. In reality, they gave up because they insisted on putting themselves first in the potential relationship and assumed that their schedule was the client's schedule. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

When making a successful sale, you have to meet four conditions:

• the right offer


• to the right person


• for the right price


• at the right time

We're just going to look at the third condition today. What does the right time mean? As any smart business knows, the right time is when the customer is ready to part with money for what you offer. Note that it's not when the business approaches the customer. That is the sign of someone trying to quickly do business and run; in other words, a con. No, it's when the customer is ready.

Does your car need brakes every day, or every year? No. Yet that doesn't keep companies from marketing their services to you. That's because they don't know when you might need those brakes, so they want to be at the top of your mind. The cycle of need is different for various industries, and even sections of them. In our cases, publications are typically looking for "products" all the time. Corporations look for writers are various times, depending on their business needs. But even within a type of client, things will widely vary. I've seen some magazines look for material two weeks before going to press and others that schedule a year or more in advance. Some corporations have regular need of writing, and others, sporadic.

You have to get to know the rhythms of a specific client to learn how to market to it. For example, I just got an assignment from a large corporation. I've been in contact with the appropriate people for about six months - a typical sales cycle in such cases. Why? Because the client has to accomplish four things:

• get comfortable with you


• find an open opportunity


• ensure that you would be suited to the opportunity


• do everything else they have to do

That last point is possibly the most critical, because the client representative is probably inundated with other tasks and expectations. Figuring out how to employ you is low on the list. The same things happen at magazines. The editors are busy with many things, they try to slot ideas at the best times, and they work in bastions of inefficiency.

The only generally effective way to deal with this problem is to keep in touch with the prospect. Wait three weeks and nicely touch base - by phone. Why phone? Because when you get someone on the phone, it's a lot harder to ignore your gentle prodding.

Technique and genuine respect are everything in these calls. You always start by asking if the person has time to chat briefly. This shows your understanding of their needs and also sets the expectation of a short time on the phone (which can grow if necessary). At worst you learn that the client isn't interested. More likely, though, you'll find that the person hasn't really considered what you sent, or is circulating it. In that case, say some variation of the following: "Great. When should I get back in touch?" By putting it politely, the person will almost never refuse, and you've also taken control of the sales process. Then you follow up and follow up and follow up, each time setting the next time to touch base.

This demonstrates your businesslike attitude and resolve to work within their sales cycle - and you might often find that you'll get work because it's easier for the contact to do so than it is to brush you off. I once had an editor say, "One big reason you're getting this assignment is because you're so persistent."

I know. That's why I do it.

Three Marketing Approaches When Things Are Good

I can feel it now - that warm comfortable sense of well-being that comes on when my schedule is full. But it's the same warm sense that reportedly comes on before you freeze to death. Whenever you feel that things are going right, you can depend that they will soon go wrong. So when things are looking up for business, that's when it's time to knuckle down and push forward on your marketing. However, there is a difference between times like these and when things are slower. Here are some ways to make your marketing pay off:

• Replace clients. Because you're in a strong position, seek replacements for your least desirable clients. You aren't in a rush, so begin testing a few new clients, see which ones provide the most satisfaction, and then begin weaning yourself from the ones that aren't worth the time you spend on them.


• Think long term. Different companies or publications take various amounts of time to bring into your business fold. When things are going well, you can begin developing relationships with the ones that take longer. These are often the greater prestige and better paying prospects.


• New areas. You might have wanted to move into new areas - whether subjects, industries, or types of writing. When you go into something new, you often can't prove the value you can in more established areas. So when things are going well, you're in a position to take some lower-paying work, if necessary, to establish your credits in the new area so that you'll be in good shape to get the better pay. When things are leaner, you may be more dependent on the revenue from each assignment, and so won't necessarily have this opportunity to develop your business.

Marketing isn't a uniform and unchanging activity. Let yours be sensitive to where your business is at any time and shift your focus and approach to make marketing increasingly effective.

8 Pointers on Mixing Writing and Photography

A writer recently asked me about selling photos with articles. It's great if you can do it, but there are some things to consider:

• Know your stuff. Just as you would rightly be insulted if someone suggested that anybody could write an article, photographers and photo editors feel the same way when told that anyone can snap a picture - and the results prove it. Good photography is as hard to achieve as good writing, so learn about the technical and compositional aspects and then practice. If possible, get someone to critique your early attempts so you can avoid telltale signs that you're just pushing the button. Study good photo work in publications you'd like to reach and get yours up to that level. I still work on learning more, and I've been taking photos for at least 30 years and even recently published the Complete Idiot's Guide to Canon EOS Digital Cameras. If I can stand to learn more, you probably can as well.


• Talk to the right people. You wouldn't approach an advertising sales manager with an article idea. Know who looks at photo pitches. Generally it will be a photo editor separate from the editorial department. They don't like having their turf marked up by others, so be considerate and respectful of their positions and don't assume that your editor will assign you photo work.


• You can't always be everything. Yes, it's nice to make more money, but many publications have a prejudice against jacks-of-all-trades. I can remember a magazine where I had contributed for a number of years where the photo people wouldn't even entertain looking at my work because they found that, generally speaking, writers weren't good photographers. (That goes back to the first point.) Realize that some won't want to open the photo door to you.


• Get an introduction. Even though there are separate territories, if you've worked with an editor for a while, he or she might be willing to give you an introduction to the photo people. I've gotten such introductions at most of the magazines for which I've done some shooting.


• Find your strengths. Just as there are certain types of articles and topics at which you excel, you will have photo strengths and weaknesses. Until you can bolster the weaknesses, sell on the strengths, whether formal portraits, candid work, a knowledge of particular conditions, or certain types of formats and results that you can provide.


• Invest in your business. Unlike writing, photography is equipment heavy. Make sure that what you have can provide the quality results that photo departments need. For example, don't try to get away with a point-and-shoot digital that won't give you the image size, resolution, and file format that the editor is likely to want.


• Learn the lingo. If anything in the previous point was confusing, then it's time to learn more about the language of photography - not just how to do it, but how to communicate about it. Know as much about how to communicate with photo departments about their needs as you know about communicating with editors. Also learn the organizational structure of the typical photo department and the usual business practices in the field.


• Watch the rights. Ultimately there is money to be made in reusing photographs. Don't let some publication snow you into thinking that selling all rights is normal. Most photographers are far more sophisticated about rights issues than writers, so learn from them.

It's certainly work to get there, but photography can add significant revenue to your assignments and satisfaction to your story telling.

The Fallible Book Excerpt

The New York Times had yet another article on book marketing, this one on whether book excerpts help sell the titles. It's another facet of what I covered in my Book Blockbusters article. It comes down to the subtle and treacherous world of publicity. Contrary to popular opinion, not all press is good. As the article points out, if there is one major revelation to be found in a book and that finds its way into the excerpt, then you've just killed sales. Here are two paragraphs of the article that give a good summary:

Because the excerpt is just one weapon in the publicity arsenal, publishers are hard-put to assess its role in the campaign. Still, they can point to recent successes like "It Ain’t All About the Cookin’" by the restaurateur and Food Network host Paula Deen, which was serialized in Ladies’ Home Journal and hit the New York Times best-seller list immediately after publication.

On the other hand, Time magazine’s excerpt of "I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story," by Rick Bragg, put a dent in book sales, according to Mr. Bogaards of Knopf. "The excerpt gave away too much — I think people felt they’d had their fill," he said. "We sold 175,000 in hardcover but had expected to do twice that."

Publishers in the past were motivated to place excerpts because the money for them could hit $100,000 - and that's the equivalent of a lot of copies at one shot without the actual cost of producing them. Yes, writers get a big chunk - sometimes 90% of such serial sales - but that's still a lot of cash for a single book. When the magazine paid big money, they wanted big and juicy parts, sometimes even taking a bit here, some there, and putting them all together, even if they've given away important parts of the book.

Now the fees are less and the benefit less obvious. As the publisher of Hyperion was quoted, "For $1,500, why risk exposure of all the juicy bits if it’s going to hurt sales?" That's pretty short money, which means someone will have to explain why this is all a good idea and just how many copies moved as a result. For authors the point is clear: You have to take significant interest in the marketing of your book, because there are so many ways it can go wrong. So much habit, so little desire to do something new, which only shakes up the status quo and leaves everyone at the publisher feeling less comfortable. Oh, and then the entire marketing department is so overwhelmed with work and titles and lack of resources that all they can do is plod along like automatons. If you're not keeping watch, there's little chance that anyone else will.

Breaking the Book Blockbuster Bane

I have a new article up on getting smarter about book publicity that came from a post I had at ASJA that a number of people found useful. Hope it's useful to you as well. Look under Resources to the left, or click here.

Pen-Ultimate Freelance Job Site Guide

Sorry for the pun (alright, not really), and this isn't intended as the absolute "ultimate" guide, but the sites that you can find in the Freelance Job Sites link under Resources (on the left) work and don't require a fee. If you like checking Craigslist, then look at the FreelanceWriting.com Career Center, which, somewhere down the page, has a compendium of listings from the different CL locations.

Don't Flatter Those Clients - But Compliment Them

Anyone who has ever taken my marketing class knows I feel strongly that part of effectively placing your work and services is to unerstand the needs of the client, practical and emotional. Part of that emotional need may be ego. Yet I'd say never, never use flattery to land a client.

In a previous occupation as head of product marketing at a publicly-held direct marketer of specialty software and hardware, my department was responsible for deciding what we would actively carry and promote. When you are a professional buyer - and editors are certainly that - you become wary of people buttering you up, because it happens all the time. The act telegraphs that the product or service probably isn't that compelling, and that the salesperson thinks you enough of a rube to fall for a line. In other words, flattery becomes an immediate red flag.

Flattering someone for calculated effect has an undermining effect on your own psychology. It's manipulative, and so a distasteful activity. In addition, if you keep pursuing the tactic, you undermine your own confidence in your work, making you rely on flattery even more and undermine your own marketing and sales.

Instead of flattery, consider offering a compliment at the right time. Although they sound the same, they aren't. The former is praise either falsely given or delivered in excess in an attempt to influence someone. In its most obvious form, there is actually a rhetorical term, appeal to flattery, that is one of the classic logical fallacies.

But a compliment? It's something that you know is deserved, and it's rightful place is after you've worked with a clien