First Chapters

So how's the epic novel about the inter-galactic warrior and his trusted space turtle probe coming along? Finished? Sent it off to your favourite publisher? Your publisher forwarded it to Jay Leno's writers? Well, now's your chance to get your work of art published. By means of the 'First Chapters' contest for wannabe writers, being promoted by Touchstone / Simon & Schuster and Gather.com.

The New York Times has a conspiracy theory that the First Chapters contest is a publicity stunt by struggling publishers, struggling writers and struggling book stores to try and revive their fortunes online.

C'mon. As 'American Idol' proves, it's a good learning process, both for participants and the audience, in this case, the readers. Chapter by chapter, when you fight to be one better than the other writers, it crystallizes your thinking, shows you what you did wrong at each stage. So you correct your mistake at that stage, and try again in another contest. You go one stage up.

End of the day, or maybe a couple of years, your writing will have improved beyond recognition. You get expert advice from publishers and acclaimed writers, you pit and hone your skills against your peers and, in the process, get your own 2 minutes in the limelight. So what's not to like about it? Course, it would be great if you were to win the darn contest....

Visit Gather.com to learn more about the 'First Chapters' contest for new writers.

Freelancer, By Choice

Why are you a freelancer? Maybe because you want or have to stay at home. Maybe because you want to explore your creativity. Maybe because you feel your boss is not paying you as much as you would get freelancing. Or maybe because you can't get hold of a salaried job in your chosen profession.

Whatever the reason, fact is, you're a freelancer. Now you have to live up to your hopes and justify your decision to quit the rat race. What's in store for you? Here's a few previews which offer some insight.

Surviving (and thriving) on $12,000 a year by Donna Freedman
"Make no mistake: I'm poor by choice, because I needed to change my life....Last year I survived on a number of here-and-there gigs: freelance writing, work-study, baby-sitting, mystery shopping, resident manager (read: janitor and handyma'am) of my apartment building, paid medical research and writing for the community-college newspaper. (I was the oldest living cub reporter.).....

Time and again I have found that when I need something I should "put it out in the universe," which is also known as "prayer." "

Please, please, read the full article. It's better than anything I can ever say to you. This is not something which a writer has written. This is Donna Freedman's heart and soul, poured into paper. And here's a prediction for you. She's a winner and she's going to strike gold, sonner or later.

Searching For Balance by J. Scott Wilson
"....we simply had to get our credit cards and other debt paid off so that we could begin moving forward with our other life plans. She picked up some extra work and I hung out my freelance-writing shingle in a big way....In the process, much of the rest of my life went in the toilet. The yard fell into disrepair, my household projects collected dust, and I went to the gym twice in four months...."

Again, please read the full article. If you're writing freelance for clients on the web and you don't know what day of the week it is, you probably need to read this article.

Freelance Nation by Alice Main
"For some electronic journalists, freelancing is a temporary fix. For others, it's a choice....Yet many who take those freelancing positions expecting to slide into full-time work find it's not always easy to make the transition. Others who freelance because they like the freedom and variety must weather the lean times without much of a security net."

Classic case of the confusion freelancers face when they give up the coziness and comfort of an office cubicle. The freelance world is a big place with lot's of oppurtunities, but it's also very competitive, where the wrong approach can set you back years.

Ultimately, what it comes down to is this. Regardless of why on earth you want to be a freelancer, you will have to struggle. Period. End of the day, you'll be successful if you work a lot, sacrifice a lot and most important, you win only if you really want to win. Like Donna Freedman and J. Scott Wilson and Alice Main.

Freelance Jobs 10th Jan

Here's today's freelance jobs:

Associated Content is now offering a fixed price of $8 per article ( for some topics ). Click here for more details.
Transcription gig. Audio to word. Click here.
Copy writers for movie poster wanted. Click here.
Ghost writer wanted to write part of a book. Click here.
Another ghost writing gig. Civilian contractor in Iraq wants to dish. LOL. Halliburton must be quaking in their boots. Click here.
Movie reviewers wanted. Click here.
Black writers wanted. Hmm...Politically incorrect title. Well, click here.
Writing intern wanted. Work from home. Click here. Note of warning: It says 'Paid postition available. Must earn it.' That's a red flag. I may be wrong. If so, I'll update this post. Let's see.

Ok. That's it for now. Where's that book you were supposed to be writing? Uhh..It was recently involved in a tug-of-war with reality. Reality won.

Someone shoud tell MSM writers suffering from the block that you don't to go around, hat in hand, searching for a topic to writer about. The writing, and the inspiration, is inside you. And it can be really beautiful when you pour your heart out. Here's a great example. The piece is about nothing. It means nothing. It talks about well, nothing. And yet, it's way better than anything I've read in the past 24 hours.

Freelancers - Follow The Money

With the internet in phase II of online commerce, and google driving the boom, it's time to stop learning and start earning. Enough probing and testing the waters. Grab hold of what you have and start hammering until it starts dripping gold.

I have been through three rounds of making money on the internet and hitting it big. So trust me when I say that it's time now. First round, 1999-2000. Dmoz was just starting and begging for editors. No one had 'links' pages back then. And I made a lot of money, doing exactly what I'm doing now. Writing pages and finding links. Needless to say, I blew all the money I made.

Then I started again. This time, focusing on niche industries and vertical portals, or as we say, vortals. This was before blogs and youtube. When linkbacks were still the in-thing with SEO's. I used my previous experience and helped a lot of online companies make it big. I still can't belive how big some of them have become. Needless to say, again, I didn't save a penny.

We are now in phase three involving local search, web 2.0 and other forms of bringing the internet closer to real business. The web is about to undergo one more round of changing clothes before the curtain rises. You have about 6-8 months, before the whole revenue model of online commerce goes into a tailspin.

Now would be a good time to step back, take a look at what's making you money, and follow it. Drop everything else. Devote all your time to building the successful model. And if this sounds too generic, here's an example. You're making money from a site where you have links to products from sponsors. Start looking into how you can implement local product search and web 2.0 into your web site. Meaning a visitor can click on a product and find the best combination of a store close to him and with the best price. Ask the visitor to enter his location to get directions from his location straight to the store. Ask him if he would like a virtual tour of the store. Ask him if he would like someone from the store to call him right now, while he's online. Zap a visitor with this technology while it's still in it's infancy, and before the big guys make it common-place. Do it properly, and you could end up as one of the big guys.

News Roundup

The Cleveland Plain Dealer says "The Sobol Award, a controversial new literary contest that offered agentless writers a $100,000 first prize and a contract with Simon & Schuster for the top three winners, has been canceled." Why? Lack of entries....

"One of the world's iciest literary feuds, sealed with a punch-up in a cinema 30 years ago, is thawing as Colombian Nobel prize winner Gabriel García Marquez and Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa prepare to publish together", says Giles Tremlett, writing for The Guardian.

There's a course on how to write a flawless non-fiction book. Interesting copy. "Are you a writer? Yeah, so is everyone else in this city." Ok. Fine. So why should you join the course? There must a million other sites with the same kind of stuff. Here's one reason why? The hot one in the pic is your instructor. That's why. Click here to umm...see more.

Things You Didn't Know About MSM Writers - And Their Wives

In the course of the last few days, I was asked by a client to do research on the personal lives of several big media writers, syndicated columnists and sundry internet pundits. Not only was the assignment highly challenging, but I now have the added advantage of giving my blog readers a sampling of all the dirt I managed to dig up. So bring out the popcorn, sit back and enjoy.

I could write a small booklet, if I focused on all the aspects of my research. But since this is a tiny blog, I would like to put the spotlight on one recurring theme which I found in writer after writer - Their wives. Most, if not all, political correspondents and opinion columnists, have wives who are, or were, working in the Administration at some point of time. Before I pontificate on the physcology behind this, I'll list a few sample cases.

Exhibit A : George Frederick Will ( Political Columnist - Washington Post )
Was married to one Madeline C. Marion, whom he divorced in 1991. Just before the divorce, he purchased a new house a few blocks away from his home. And his belongings were found dumped on the street in a pile, with the sign "Take it somewhere else, buster!" Link.
After a rumoured affair with Lally Weymouth, he then married Mari Maseng, a lobbyist for the 'Japan Automobile Manufacturers' Association, Inc.'. Mari Maseng Will, it seems, was a Reagan speech writer and communications director for the Dole campaign. She operates a lobbying firm called Maseng Communications. I'd dearly love to share more, but that would be crossing the line...

Exhibit B : Ronald Brownstein ( Political correspondent - LA Times )
On May 7th 2005, he married Eileen Nicole McMenamin, who is now a communications director for Senator McCain. Which means that if McCain becomes President....

Exhibit C : Jonah Jacob Goldberg ( Syndicated Columnist )
This is one MSM writer who's not only surfing on his wife's achievements, but the sad fact is that the only reason he's a columnist today is because he hung on to his Mom and took a free ride to celebrity based on her own stardom. The facts? His Mom - Lucianne Goldberg - One of the players in the Clinton-Lewinsly scandal. His wife? Jessica Lynn Gavora, a Washington, D.C. writer. And senior speechwriter for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. And chief speechwriter for former Attorney General John Ashcroft. And senior policy advisor at the Department of Justice....

I could go on and on and fill a couple of pages of exhibits like this. But my point, which I think I've made, is that I find this marriage of media and politics fascinating from a couple of angles. First, is the fact that it seems to be a symbol of the writers' arrival among the MSM stars, to be able to marry one of these administration speech writers or communication directors - A sort of trophy wife. Second, it goes without saying that the careers of both partners goes into an upward arc after the marriage. Despite any protestations of innocence, the fact remains that politicians and editors will be handling both husband and wife with kid gloves, in order not to annoy the other partner. The combined power of an MSM column and a staff position in the Administration or Congress can never be underestimated. Even the implied and unstated power.

The Little Book of Plagiarism

The title, the author and the subject are all intermingled and have hopelessly tangled threads which make it difficult to sort out the whole thing. If you're baffled, don't worry. So am I. And if you think I'm batty, don't worry. I am.

Title of the book? "The little book of plagiarism". Author? Richard A. Posner. To be released on? Jan 16th 2007. Fair enough. Posner is a judge. He churns out books and papers by the bucketload ( 47, to be accurate ).

Problem? Introducing the 'Little Book of Plagarism' by Marie Stinson
21 October 2003. Uhhh...Co-incidence? Maybe....Two or more people can and do come up with the same title. True. But I'd say that when you're writing a book on plagiarism and you're a judge and an expert on intellectual property rights, you take extra care to avoid even the perception of impropriety. All Posner, one of his assistants, or someone at his publishers' had to do was google up the title. Was that done? You tell me.

Here's a line from Amazon's Editorial review of the book. "Posner focuses a lot on student plagiarism and seems to think all students should be considered suspect; schools that don't subscribe to detection software like Turnitin, he says, are 'naïve.' "

He's talking about software to detect literary theft. He's an expert on intellectual property theft. Maybe he thinks using the same title as an existing e-book to sell his own book isn't plagiarism. Considering he's the expert and I'm infamous for stealing peoples' titles for my own posts, this does sound rather hypocritical of me. But then, there's different standards for a judge, professor and a published author, as compared to a lowly freelance writer.

Freelance Jobs 7th Jan

Here's today's freelance jobs:

Uhh...We have a chef who wants to dish on his clients. Needs a ghost writer. Click here.
Copy writers for internet startup wanted. Click here.

Wanted a grant writer who knows beach soccer. Click here. You know, this is exactly what I was talking about in the previous post about grant writers. These are probably a bunch of kids who want to skip school and frolic on the beach, and they need someone to help finance the party. One of their bright sparks probably came up with the idea of posting an ad on craigslist, looking for grants. I suggest you apply for the gig, get their names and contact their parents. These kids need a thumpin.

Persuasive writer needed for grants. Click here.
Data entry gig. Work from home. Click here.
Freelance PR writer wanted. Click here.
Got blog? Get paid $7 per post. Click here.
Freelance writers wanted to write-up educational material. Click here.
Excel data entry gig. Click here.
Web content writer wanted. Click here.
Creative writing submissions for online mag. Click here.
Book reviewers wanted. Click here.

Part-time customer service role. Work at home job. Click here. Note: If they end up asking you for money, do not pay a dime! I'm not sure I want to post this job, but there's a good chance it may be legit....

Writer and web marketing pro looking for a sidekick. Click here.
Freelance writers wanted for writing short articles and radio scripts. Click here.

Progressive ( as in loony lefty ) researcher and / or writer wanted to help write the umpteenth book on the success story of the Democratic party. Funny how all of them are crawling out of the woodwork to stake a claim to their piece of the pie. At this moment, the realization strikes me that there's very little difference between right-wing and left-wing pundits. I miss the old days ( that's before Nov 2006 ), when only true believers in progressive ideology were brave enough to be proud of liberals and liberalism. Ok. Rant over. Back to the jobs....Click here.

Part time, work from home job. I'm not sure what they're looking for. I'm not even sure they know what they're looking for. Still, click here.

That's it for today. Let me know if there's something you want, but don't see here. I'm kind of overloaded, which makes it hard to include all kinds of freelance jobs.

Non Profit Grant Writing

This is a guide, with links to, non profit grant writing and writers. In short, a howto for finding and conning various charitable and government organisations into throwing you a few scraps out of their vast pools of funds. 'You' being a non-profit&able...uhh...not-for-profit organisation yourself. Or an impoverished writer.

And as such, putting my time and formidable googling talents where my mouth is, I'm offering my services, free of charge. I'll do your research and point your nose in the right direction towards the easiest suckers you can find. You get someone else to write for you. Believe me, you don't want me to write your grant proposals.

Listed below are some great resources for grants and grant writing. For both non-profits looking for help and writers.

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Grant writing resources for non-profits

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• NPGuides - Non-profit guides are nationally-recognized free sample grants and grant-writing help for non-profit organizations.
  
• 712Educators About.com - Learn all about how to write effective and powerful grant proposals. Also, find out what grants are available.
  
• DrCharity - Grant writing resources for nonprofits including government grants and foundations.
  
  

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  Grant listings and grant writing resources for writers

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  FundsforWriters - Sources of grants, fellowships, contests, awards, markets and nonprofit partners.

  
  
• Poetry and Writers Magazine - A highly selective listing of grants, awards and prizes in poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction.
  
• Writers Services - Many of the bursaries listed are relevant to UK residents but some are available worldwide - Please check eligibility.
  
• PlacesForWriters - Resources for funding, awards, and prizes for writers.
  
• International Writers Grants - How to get grants, how to write grant proposals, and most importantly lists of grants that are available to writers and photographers.
  

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If you feel your non-profit&able organisation deserves a link on this page, either post your link in the comments or send me a mail and I'll add your link to the list above. Just a thought, though. Ayn Rand did say that the biggest sin was working without an intent to earn money. But then, Mother Teresa would disagree with that. And given a choice between these two ladies, I'll take the mother.

This post is useless without a list of grant writing jobs for grant writers. So here you go:

Monster job search - Grant writers
Indeed.com - Grant writer jobs
Jobster - Grant writing jobs.
And the motherlode of grant writing jobs from Craigslist.