The Paris Review Interviews

First up, the Paris Review is looking for submissions. Short stories, manuscripts and poetry - From new writers.

Richard Eder, writing a book review for the New York Times, "For 50 years The Paris Review has been talking to writers, in one long session, or several sessions, or recurring sessions spaced years apart. The first talk in this collection - there are to be two other volumes - is with Dorothy Parker, from 1956; the last, from 2006, is with Joan Didion. In between we get Ernest Hemingway, T. S. Eliot, Jorge Luis Borges, Rebecca West and Elizabeth Bishop, among others."

Reviewing the book review, it would have been great if the above paragraph had been the first one, but it's prefaced by a bucketload of magnificient prose just to show us that Richard Eder is a great writer himself. Sad to say, but this highlights the accusation that the NYT is a hotbed of elitist urban windbags. So here's what I propose. You go read the NYT book review. Then you come back here and read the excerpts below.

What does The Paris Review have to say for itself? "Welcome to the DNA of literature - over 50 years of literary wisdom rolled up in 300+ Writers at Work interviews, now available online—free"

What the Paris Review Interviews do have is a collection of fine wit and acerbic advice for writers, dripping with sarcasm and destroying any and all delusions of grandeur. Here's a few samples:

"I like to stay up late at night and get drunk and sleep late...The afternoon is the only time I have left..." - William Styron

"I don't believe for a moment that creativity is a neurotic symptom. On the contrary, the neurotic who succeeds as an artist has had to overcome a tremendous handicap. He creates in spite of his neurosis, not because of it." - Aldous Huxley

"Once in college I...got to going to the library and reading what I wanted instead of what was required. I got behind....And I still have bad dreams about that. It must have cut a very deep channel." - John Steinbeck

"...whoever you are, you've got to start from where you are. If you're a sailor, and only know sailor's language, well, write in it, for God's sake" - Peter Levi

"At the age of eighteen all young poets are sure they will be dead at twenty-one..." - Marguerite Young

"After my best friend jumped off the bridge, I knew that I was next. So—Paris. With forty dollars and a one-way ticket." - James Baldwin

"[There’s] the idea that by birth you are born a sinner. Why? I didn't ask to be born. Why do I have to be born on a blacklist?" - Max Frisch

I'm really sorry, but I have to cut in here. I believe that I have made my point. That since you're trying to introduce great writers to your readers, there are no better words than those of the writers. So, without making a horse's ass out of myself, I end this post. These are the books - The best of the Paris Review in hardcover and paperback. And you can get it all for free here - The Paris Review.

Update: Uhh...At the risk of screwing up this post, I'd like to post this link to an interview with Philip Gourevitch, editor of the Paris Review.

Working Hard - To Get Work

What's freelancing about? Depends on which stage of evolution you're in, as a freelance pro. What I'm going to do, is list the stages of evolution of a freelance writer. The growing up curve, you can call it. By the end of this piece, you will have a very clear idea of where you are, what you need to do and if you're any good at freelancing.

Stage I - Baby Freelancers

So you just gave up that cozy job and you're shaking and quaking in your boots thinking about whether you'll ever see a single penny in freelance work. You review job postings, begin to write appications and scratch them out half-way, becuase you think you won't be able to do it. Now you're having second and third thoughts about eating crow and going back to beg your old boss to give you back your job...
How to get over this stage? Two things you can do to get your confidence back. Firstly, scale down your demands. If you're thinking about jobs which pay in dollars, start thinking about gigs which pay in pennies. Easy to get, requires no qualifications and it will keep the engine ticking while you prepare yourself to earn the dollars. Secondly, you can start networking. Believe me, it makes things a lot easier when you realize that you're not alone. Besides, you can get a lot of advice and job leads if you hang out online and make a few friends.

Stage II - Fishing For Stability

Assuming that you're already past the newbie pangs, this stage is a tumultous time. You can see the jobs, you can see the potential. You think you can do it, and you're starting to get responses from employers, if not actual work. One day you think you've found a great gig and the next morning, you bump into something even more lucrative. What's required here is an understanding of what you are good at, what you want to do and what's available. Finding the right balance, which satisfies all there criteria, is a tricky affair. Don't stop the penny work. At least not until you're onto the next stage. And yes, you can start buying the home office furniture.

Stage III - Less Searching, More Working

What you've been doing until now has basicaly been fishing for jobs. You've been spending more time searching for work than actually doing the work. This is part of the job description of a freelancer. But it's time now to scale back the job-hunting and focus on keeping a solid base of 4-5 clients very happy. You need to select the best employers, criteria being the long-term viability and payment terms. For example, an employer who lets you do as much work as you can handle on a specific subject, and pays you lump sums every fortnight or monthly based on how much you did would be a good choice, provided you're sure the employer isn't going to dissapear overnight.
This does not mean that you stop looking for new clients. An ideal situation would be one where you devote about 80% of your time to your regular clients and spend a couple of hours each day to search for and complete work for new clients.

Stage IV - Profit Analysis

I very much doubt if you have any idea, at this stage, of how you're doing, in terms of money. Are you making as much as you used to do when you had a regular job? Are you working harder than before? What happened to your medical coverage? And the paid holidays? Now would be a good time to write down all your expenses and calculate how much more you need to make than before, just to maintain your life-style.

There's a lot more which kicks in after this, including an online presence, setting the rates you charge and working for yourself. This would in turn include getting published, creating a portfolio, getting certified and turning yourself into the professional freelancer that you claim to be.

Freelance Jobs 4th Jan

Here's today's freelance jobs:

Freelance writers wanted. Click here.
Relaxed blogger wanted. Uh....not exactly. But something like that. Click here.
Product description writer needed. Click here.
Copywriter for direct marketing firm wanted. Click here.

OK. It seems "The world's largest cataloged collection of original jumbo lobby cards from Mexico is seeking a new home". Fine. So do they call a real estate broker? Nope. They want a freelance writer. So click here.

Get $10 for your ePIFfunnies? Click here.
Faith based sketch writer wanted ( $100 per hour ). Click here.
Published writer wanted for a web media company. Click here.
Research writers ( freelance position ). Click here.

Freelance web content writers wanted. Click here.
Note: This is a great gig, if you can do it.

Political junkie? Want to get paid to write your rants? Click here.
Web profile writer wanted. $25 per profile. Click here.

I'm itching to apply for a few of these gigs. Only problem being that I'm already overloaded. If I take on any more work, I'll have to give up my morning news junkie time, which I will not! If someone had told me a couple of years back that it's so easy to get a job on the net ( that's different from finishing the job, which is friggin difficult ), I really would have found it hard to believe. Anyway, fire up those emails, bring out the word processors and let's go hunt down some paypals.

SEO for Writers

The question of SEO comes in only when you are not an expert on the subject, but you still want the search engines to think of you as one. I would rather be an underappreciated writer, than an appreciated SEO who doesn't know how to write. Disclosure here: I was a moderately successful SEO before I was a wannabe writer. Read the entire post before you come to a conclusion.

Brandon Cornett, writing for the Internet search engine database, has a few great tips for writing web content. "If you're a decent writer, you have a powerful search engine optimization tool right at your fingertips ... literally. It's the ability to create quality content, and used properly it can dramatically increase your website's visibility." Read the entire article. It's worth your time.

Mike Banks Valentine, writing for Internet World Stats, continues the discussion about SEO guys who write and writers who do SEO. The best thing I like about his article is the title - 'SEO mercilessly murdered by copywriters.' Well, now you know he's an SEO and he thinks copywriters are trash.

Tell you the truth, I think SEO is an art which is often mistaken as a science. The best results I have achieved, in terms of SEO, is when I produce a work of art, involving a bucketload of knowledge about the subject matter, a strong helping of hard work and a little spice of scientific SEO.

It does not hurt when you are considered to be an expert on the subject, you write a huge piece on something specific, and it's an instant hit in the community, with a lot of sites linking to your article. That's what makes SEO more of an art form rather than a package of SEO nuts and bolts which you put together. Which is why being an expert on the subject matter is more important, rather than being an expert on search engines.

In fact, look at it from an idealistic point of view. What gives a page a higher ranking in the search engines? Your page is considered to be an authority on the subject, and voted in ( linked to ) by your peers to be at the top of the rankings. After a certain period, any article you write is automatically considered important, even if no one has as yet linked to it. Why? Because the search engines know you're an expert. That's true SEO, as an art. Anything else you do to achieve rankings, is, simply put, a fraud.

News For Writers

I can understand regretting writing a book, and symphatize with those regretting reading a book, but writing a book on regret? Seems a couple of odd-ball professors at Mount Saint Mary College are writing a book on regret. I hope they don't end up regretting writing it. Now let's move on to other news before you end up regretting reading this post.

"Like a dark and stormy night, bad writing has long shadowed the business world..." begins the AP's Dave Carpenter. Whatever he's talking about, I'll skip straight to the end, "But there still isn't much of a market overall for business-writing classes, according to Peter Handal, CEO of Dale Carnegie Training.
'I think that would suggest that people are just so happy to get the communications going that they aren't spending the time on how to communicate,' he said."
Memo to Dave: Get The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest out of your mind. And secondly, Peter Handal is right. You know what's the most beautiful prose I ever recieved by email? "Article accepted. Paypal sent."

VOA has an article out profiling a child prodigy writer, whose first book was published when she was 7 years old. Cough! Cough! Ack! "Adora Svitak started writing when she was only four. She published her first book Flying Fingers at seven, and authored more than 400 short stories. 'Flying Fingers' was published in four languages for international audiences. Recently she was invited to New York City's Stony Brook University to speak to aspiring children and their parents at the Charles Wang Center."

Finally, there's good news and there's bad news. The Philly has the good news that poetry and creative writing are hot and there's lots of new jobs and openings in the creative writing field. The bad news is that these jobs are for teaching students creative writing. Well, if you can't write, teach.

Freedom Writers - Book, Film and Swank

Freedom Writers - Book & Film

1. Movie trailer
2. Photo gallery
3. Hillary Swank talks about 'Freedom writers' ( video )
4. Freedom writers original music soundtrack

Let's get down to business. Which happens to be the Erin Gruwell education project, better known as the freedom writers project. "In the fall of 1994, in Room 203 at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California, an idealistic twenty-four-year-old teacher named Erin Gruwell faced her first group of students, dubbed by the administration as "unteachable, at-risk" teenagers."

Twelve years later, as the sun rises on 2007, Erin Gruwell is a hero. She is a shining example that writers do not live in an ivory tower. That writers can, and do, make a difference, not besides, but because of their writing. I'm sure tons of ink will be spilled on Ms Gruwell, and of course, Hillary Swank. But what about the teachers, writers and activists out there, struggling to light a spark, make a difference? Fear not, I list you here.

Dr. Bob Farmer - Sitting in that call room, I found myself engaging in some serious introspection. The time had come to lasso the sunshine. The time had come to embrace the opportunity the Lord had given me. I had been given the chance to help others who were ailing. Reflecting upon the overwhelming positives of my chosen field, how could I possibly focus on an occasional negative?

Deborah Meier - Meier has spent more than four decades working in public education as a teacher, writer and public advocate. A learning theorist, she encourages new approaches that enhance democracy and equity in public education. Her books, The Power of Their Ideas, Lessons to America from a Small School in Harlem (1995), Will Standards Save Public Education (2000), In Schools We Trust (2002), Keeping School, with Ted and Nancy Sizer (2004) and Many Children Left Behind (2004) are all published by Beacon Press.

Kalisha Buckhanon - After graduation, Kalisha worked a series of day jobs in Chicago and continued to work on her writing at night....she supported herself with freelance writing, temporary jobs and teaching opportunities with non-profits throughout New York City.

Teresa Antonia Broccoli - She is a writer and social worker.

If you think you deserve to be listed in this page, send me an email. Conditions? You're a writer, you do some good, whatever form that may be in, with the help of, or besides, your writing. Who knows? Maybe you could end up as the inspiration for a film after twelve years.

Freelance Jobs 1st Jan 2007

Considering this is the first freelance jobs post for 2007, I wish you all a thumpin success. Work hard, work until you drop and your employers go broke paying you for completed assignments. Here's the jobs:

Novice writer? Want to be paid for writing? Click here.
Translation gig. Multiple languages. Click here.

Want get paid to write for a quixotic quest to restore world peace? Click here. Note of warning: He's a good guy. Pays on time, work is interesting, but most of you may not be able to deliver what he wants.

Need hot copywriter for consumer products. Click here.
SEO content writers for websites wanted. Click here.
Looking for a financial services copywriter. Click here.
Healthcare copy writer wanted. Monthly column required. Click here.
Book transcription gig. Click here.
You think you're in search of a job? Think again. This is a guy in search of a job.
Creative product description writer wanted. Click here.
Freelance writers needed. Click here.
Online mag seeking regional writers ( nationwide ). Click here.

The World Today

Writers are influnced and inspired to write about events and people they come in contact with. Which is why the Iraq war and the dismal state of politics and politicians in the U.S.A. is the subject of tons and tons of spilled ink. Sometimes, the pathos and the supreme stupidity of war and it's shattering effect on young lives, as narrated by writers, starts taking on ominous tones, and reader and writer can no longer hide behind a partisan divide.

Vengeance of the Victors
There may be some truth to all these claims—Iraq is a tough place—but the Bush administration is not quite so blameless. It thoughtlessly engineered a political and social revolution as intense as the French or Iranian one and then seemed surprised that Iraq could not digest it happily, peaceably and quickly. We did not give them a republic. We gave them a civil war.
By Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek

America's Lost 3,000
But as we look backward at our lost 3,000, it's worth hoping one more time that the ending stanza for the paratroopers today will be better than Owen's. He was killed in action trying to take a canal from German defenses, just one week before the Armistice ended the war for good. He never saw his verse published in a book. War can make poets and war can kill them, one by one.
By Nathan Thornburgh, Time

What this basically means is that the the writers, and by implication, the magazines for which they write, have crossed an imaginary line and are now in tear-shedding mode. No solutions, no wise punditry. Just plain and simple grief. Inspired writing - Yes. But terrifying. And if you're not scared, now would be a good time to take off the blinkers. These are hard nosed columnists who have seen and been through a lot. When they start hiding behind inspired prose....

Great Expectations

What I seek as a writer:
1. That I enjoy writing.
2. That I enjoy my writing.
3. That others enjoy my writing.
4. That I be able to live off my writing.

Somewhere between 2 and 3 is where reality bumps into great expectations.

If I don't have 1 and 2, I might as well give up writing. But I do. I enjoy writing. And I intensely enjoy reading my own writing. The bridge from 2 to 3 lies in a change of medium, I believe. The internet is not a place to search for fame and appreciation. You, I, need to get published in print. In 2007, I pledge to do whatever it takes to get immortalised on paper. This bridge might lay the foundation for the next bridge between 3 and 4. I'm convinced that I can live off my writing. All I need to do is convince a publisher.

What brought about this introspection was that this is the last day of 2006. I was thinking about where my life is headed. What's my career? I make money off the internet. Enough to live off it. But it's not what I want to do. What I want to do, what I need to do, is write, in print - An ink stained wretch.

It hit me, rather hard, that I really am no good at anything else. I will never make it big in anything except writing. Because I love to write, and it's the only thing I'm good at. I realize that I can bear the burden of being a failed writer, but I won't be able to live with not being a writer. So, my resolution for 2007, with great expectations, is to roll the dice, and gamble my future, on being and becoming a full-fledged writer. And let the chips fall where they may.

Ebook Publishers

Comprehensive listing of ePublishers ( electronic publishers ) and resources for e-book writers. If you are an e-book writer or publisher and want to have your site listed on this page, send me an e-mail.

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• Echelon Press Publishing - Offering unique stories for exceptional readers in both e-book and paperback. Submission guidelines posted on website.
  
• agoodbook.com - E-book publisher that includes work by Valerie Hardin.
  
• American e-Book Factory - Site offers full range of services for e-book authors, including professional 3D e-book covers, niche market analysis, e-book eCommerce hosting, and e-book Ghostwriting.
  
• Artemis Press - Electronic publisher of feminist and lesbian fiction and nonfiction e-books in Acrobat PDF and Palm formats for the worldwide women's community.
  
• Atlantic Bridge - An e-publisher which publishes original work in various genres by previously unpublished and published authors.
  
• Beckham House - Publishing house offering books online in electronic or paper format. Also helps promote Black authors.
  
• bob-e-books - An online Internet publishing site.
  
• The Book Den - Denlinger's Publishers, Ltd.: primarily publishes eBooks and print-on-demand paperbacks.
  
• Books Unbound - Publishing ebooks in a wide range of formats. Royalties paid to authors.
  
• Brown Bear Press - Brown Bear Press is an independent ebook publisher, dedicated to providing a venue for thought-provoking, original material that is overlooked by the larger publishers.
  
• Browzer Publishing - Site offers free ebook publishing of approved materials only and lists some classic literature for download.
  
• C & M Online Media - Publisher of electronic books under the imprint Boson Books.
  
• California Ebooks - Creates and publishes virtual 3-dimensional electronic publications such as brochures, catalogs and manuals.
  
• Cappuccino & Success For Everyday Living - Motivational and inspirational stories with proven Success Principles.
  
• Cardinal Books - Offers online books, mini-reviews, and recommends bookstores and sites.
  
• Central Europe Review eBookstore - Publishing electronic books dealing with the Central and East European region.
  
• Charm Write E-Book Publishing - E-book sales, author promotion, entertainment and marketing.
  
• Cool Publications - Offers a range of fiction, non-fiction and novellas in PDF and CD formats.
  
• CORAT Publishers - Publisher and supplier of books/eBooks written by Peter Rudge including theological, management, gardening & croquet books. Free downloads available.
  
• Crowsnest Books - Publisher that is best known for e-books and print-on-demand novels in the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres. Other genres covered include crime, thrillers and historical.
  
• CustomGuide, Inc. - Offers print on-demand courseware and quick references suitable for instructor-led training courses and as self-paced tutorials. They cover most Microsoft subject matter.
  
• Cwpublishing - Dedicated to electronic publication / republication of out-of-print Civil War and family history documents.
  
• 3D Effect Web Books - Low cost web books for brochures, resumes, technical manuals, catalogs, news letters, and unique fund raisers.
  
• Dailey International Publishers - Free ebooks covering WWII history, memoirs and technology.
  
• Dead End Street - Cutting-edge "Alternative" Ebooks, including works by Valerie Hardin
  
• Dewara's Free eBooks - Free classical eBooks in Microsoft Reader format..
  
• Dungan Books - Independent publisher of full length classics on disk.
  
• eBook Conversion Services - We produce ebooks for all platforms. Our eBooks clients include a number of the World's Largest International Publishers and Leading Authors.
  
• e-Book e-dition - Electronic books for the Windows platform.
  
• eBook Generator - Windows based software used to create e-books.
  
• E-book Publishers - Publishing books in PalmPilot, eBook Reader, Rocket format and others
  
• eBook Publishing - Knowledge Download provides a single, convenient and effective source for sellers, writers and potential authors to self-publish and sell your ebooks.
  
• Ebook Publishing Tools - Site offers a suite of tools to successfully write, publish and market ebooks.
  
• eBook Wholesaler Guide - Work at home eBooks and software info products exclusively for you to sell.
  
• eBookery.com - Publishes ebooks for a variety of subjects.
  
• eBookMall Publishing Center - E-book publisher for Microsoft Reader, Adobe PDF, Palm, and Instant eBook formats.
  
• EbookSites.Org - Online publisher of fiction and nonfiction.
  
• eBooks-Online - Independent ebooks in a variety of categories.
  
• eBookTime Publishing - Publisher of ebooks in most popular formats. Site offers an e-bookstore for sale of published e-books.
  
• eCover Generator - Easy-to-use software that lets you create professional looking ebook covers.
  
• E-Digital Books, LLC - Offers downloadable e-books in PDF format.
  
• Electron Press - E-book publisher
  
• eLibrary - Site offers wide range of ebooks organised by category or popularity.
  
• Embiid Publishing - Purveyors of electronic science fiction and fantasy reprints . Proprietary and Rocket formats.
  
• Extensive eBook Selections - We carry an extensive selection of ebooks that are all available for instant download.
  
• Fitton Books - Online books by Robert P. Fitton. Genres include science-fiction, mystery, fantasy, thrillers, and pop novels.
  
• Franklin Electronic Publishers, Inc. - Producer of handheld eBook readers and publisher of eBooks. Includes online ordering, company and product information.
  
• Free Marketing eBooks - Directory of marketing related ebooks and resources all free to download.
  
• Gate Way Publishers - Electronic publisher of science fiction, paranormal, metaphysical and UFO stories in Acrobat PDF and Palm e-book formats.
  
• Glastonbury Archive - Publisher of free online books in spiritual and humanitarian matters.
  
• GNAAK Enterprise - Publishers of spiritual and inspirational poetry by a local author in PDF format.
  
• Good Idea Creative Services - Ebook publishing, ghostwriting, cover design, art and illustration services.
  
• Hidden Knowledge - eBook publisher that not only publishes new authors but also re-publishes old books.
  
• How To Promote Concerts and Festivals - Most inclusive manual on concert and music festival promotions. Authored by promoter with 25 years experience.
  
• IndependentBook.com - An e-book publishing and e-library. Self-publish your electronic document and read or download e-books here ... for free.
  
• InfoClearinghouse - A marketplace for downloadable technical information on any subject. Authors may sell their information or use our platform to distribute their information for free.
  
• Information eBooks - How-To eBooks on a wide variety of subjects- also available is a free self publishing e-book.
  
• Integrity Tech City Publishing Division - EPublishing since 1997, romance, science fiction, fantasy, horror and nonfiction. Offers writers 50% of cover price, international promotions and professional web sites.
  
• Literary Lights - Publishes inspirational Christian literature including fiction, essays, non-fiction, poems, and lyrics.
  
• Magpie epublishing - Epublishing firm specializing in science fiction/fantasy and adult fiction in Microsoft Reader format.
  
• Maithuna Publications - E-book and paperback book publisher of new age, metaphysical, occult, astrology, alternative spirituality, health and erotic titles.
  
• Maxit Publishing - An online publishing company also market a book to its full potential.
  
• mittymax.com - Subsidy e-book publisher and seller.
  
• NetImpress, Inc. - Offering ebooks on computer technology.
  
• Online Originals - Online publisher of literary e-books. Charges a small submission/review fee.
  
• The Peanut Press - E-books for PalmOS or WinCE devices.
  
• Phoenix Books / Publishers - Full-length e-books on business, entertainment, and a variety of cultures, languages and travel. Also special interest topics such as face-reading principles.
  
• Pocketmanager - Management ebooks for the Psion or Palm.
  
• PoeticJava Publishing - Offering fixed fee self publishing options for authors.
  
• Poseidon Books - E-book publisher accepting new submissions. Also offering online sales.
  
• Quellheart Books and Publishing - Gives users the ability to read online books and offers publishing services to unpublished authors.
  
• Raven ePublishing - Committed to finding new authors and new ways to express their ideas.
  
• Romance Novels ePublishing - Published and unpublished authors invited to submit completed manuscripts of 60k words or more.
  
• RosettaBooks - Classic book titles available viewable in Microsoft Reader and Acrobat formats.
  
• Saga Books - Historical fiction with Celtic flavor and historical romance. For sale by download.
  
• Scorpius Digital Publishing - Free and Premium eBooks for Microsoft Reader. Specializing in science fiction, fantasy, and horror.
  
• Sensory Publishing, Inc. - Offering Fiction, non-Fiction and Technical books in Print, PDF, and Microsoft Reader formats. PDA format will be offered soon.
  
• Silent Partners - A full-service electronic publishing bureau in Austin, Texas, specializing in medical, scientific, and high-tech publications.
  
• Stone Garden.net Publishing - Discount e-book publisher. Searchable online catalog.
  
• SunnySide Up Publishing - An e-publishing website with various contests, freebies, e-books, print books, movies and merchandise for sale plus an Author Program.
  
• SynergEbooks - ePublishing site dedicated to both authors and readers.
  
• Tangyblue - Provides informational eBooks, focusing on how to get freebies of value for the small business.
  
• Taylor and Francis - Features an extensive collection of academic digital books in multiple electronic formats.
  
• Treeless Press - Electronic publisher supporting Rocket eBook and SoftBook
  
• Tyborne Hill Publishers - Electronic book publisher that specializes in fiction, poetry, and reference.
  
• Web Book Publications - Site offers free eBooks including over 400 classics and contemporary works.
  
• Webscriptions - Web-based recreation of the serialized novel using science fiction published by Baen Books.
  
• Wheelock Mountain Publications - E-book publisher of all types of non-fiction and fiction, including arts, science, technical, alternative energy, hobbies, do-it-yourself, romance, and adventure.
  
• Wind River Press - Includes design, ghostwriting, and editing services, advertising guidelines, and submission guidelines.
  
• A Write Shop - Editing, publishing, and marketing literary materials in traditional and ebook formats.
  
• Writers Closet - Site publishes eBooks in various categories and research papers.
  

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Paying Markets For Writers

This is a list of paying markets for writers. Publishers who will pay writers for articles, submissions, fiction, non-fiction, poems, true stories, cookbooks, chicklit, romantic musings and more. Personally speaking, I have neither need nor time for pursuing publishers. That's a discreet way of saying that my writing is trash and I'm scared of putting my thoughts to paper and submitting it to publishers. Doesn't mean that I can't list these publishers.

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• AA Independent Press Guide - A free, online writer's resource, with detailed listings of over 2000 literary & genre magazines, and links to over 700 internet magazines.
  
• Absolute Markets - Paying market guidelines for freelance writers, writing contests, and interviews with editors, publishers, and agents.
  
• Avalanche of Jobs for Writers - Employment opportunities for writers and journalists in reporting, feature writing, reviewing, editing.
  
• Bonnie Mercure's Guide to Writers' Markets - Market listings for speculative fiction, science fiction, fantasy, horror, slipstream, mystery fiction. Divided into paying/non-paying markets and print magazines/ezines.
  
• The Critter's Workshop Market List - Market list from Critter's Workshop. Targets science fiction, fantasy, and horror.
  
• Duotrope's Digest of Fiction Fields - Free, searchable list of fiction markets (mainstream and genre). Also offers a calender of themed publication deadlines.
  
• Every Literary Magazine - A list of literary magazines, zines, and online publications. (Some link rot).
  
• Foreign Language Market List - Douglas Smith's market list for multilingual writers.
  
• Forwriters.com - This is an all-purpose site with links to such writer's resources as markets, agents, groups, conferences, forums, and workshops where writers can have their works critiqued.
  
• FTP Directory of the news.answers/writing Newsgroup - Contains a listing of market information under Resources.
  
• ITI's Literary Market Place.com - Searchable database of the book publishing industry. Search by subject, type of publication, city, state, zip, and even by number of publications issued in the past year.
  
• Just Markets - Markets from travel writing to freelance newspaper jobs. Subscribe for $9.95 a month.
  
• Kimberly Brown's Writing Page - Contains links to writing markets.
  
• Literary Magazines Reviewed for Writers - Short descriptions of literary magazines for prose writers: typical stories, story length, when to submit, typical contributor's background.
  
• The Market List - "A resource for writers of science fiction, fantasy, and horror."
  
• Mastheads.org - A website dedicated to updating hundreds of magazine mastheads, with information for freelancers on how to contact magazine editors.
  
• Media Bistro - A website connecting journalists and new media professionals to jobs and each other.
  
• Online Content UK: Jobs List - The job list of Online Content UK, the national organization for new media editorial professionals in the United Kingdom. Jobs cover editorial roles, including writing, editing and other content-related jobs.
  
• The Paper Journey Press - Links to writer's guidelines for various literary journals.
  
• Paula Fleming's Market List - List of markets for speculative fiction.
  
• Publisher Database - Offers a submission tracker, forums, and a member-maintained database of magazines looking for writers and poets.
  
• Ralan's Webstravaganza - Writing market listings by genre. Also a spec. fiction newsletter.
  
• The Rose & Thorn Writer's Market Info - Paying and non-paying market listings; links to other sites offering market listings; on- and offline contests and competitions; links to additional market sources.
  
• Sally Stuart - Market guide targeted to Christian writers, including periodical, book, greeting card, poetry, and specialty markets. Also links to conferences contests, and agents.
  
• SciFi Editor: Paying Markets - Paying markets for writers of science fiction, fantasy, speculative fiction, and horror.
  
• Speculations - An online resource for writers who wish to break into or increase their presence within the science fiction, fantasy, horror, and speculative fiction subgenres. Subscribe for $20 a year.
  
• Speculative Fiction Markets - Paying markets for short science fiction, fantasy, horror, and speculative fiction. Categorized by pay rate.
  
• Submitting to the Black Hole - Links to science fiction/ fantasy/ horror magazine and book publishers including market information. Site reports statistics on average response times for submitted manuscripts, the theory being that markets with very slow response times are akin to black holes. Only paying markets are tracked.
  
• Wooden Horse Publishing - A news and market resource site for nonfiction periodicals writers.
  
• Word Dragon - Markets for writers to send their work to.
  
• Worldwide Freelance Writer - Global directory of markets for freelance writers.
  
• The Write Market - Online writer's market list, containing listings for print magazines, book projects, contests, webzines, and publishers.
  
• Writerfind.com - Global freelance and telecommuting jobs for writers.
  
• The Writers' Desk - A service query desk which allows authors to send multiple queries, pitches, manuscripts, articles and screenplays to syndicates, agents, magazines and publishers.
  
• Writer's Digest - Writer's Digest features daily writing and publishing updates, writer's guidelines, ranking of places to get published, courses and contests.
  
• The Writers Place - Market database, Chicken Writer daily cartoon and a humour column. Home page of the Writing for Dollars newsletter.
  
• Writers Write: Paying Markets - List of paying markets and writer's guidelines from Writer's Write.
  
• WritersMarket: Market Watch - Searchable database of publishers and agents. Offers features such as the Submission Tracker, the Tips Library, Your Writer's Market, Web Resources, the Market Watch section, the Spotlight Market and the Ask the Agent column.
  
• WritersWeekly.com - Free listing of paying markets for freelance writers. Also includes links to various resources for writers.
  
• Writers@Work - Job board and market database.
  
• Zongoo - Writers submit their articles, publishers get their free content.
  
  

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Freelance Jobs 28th Dec

Here's the jobs, freelance, telecommute, work at home, sit on your butt and earn money:

New York, food, writing. Mix 'em up, throw in craigslist and a sprinkling of telework and what'd you have? A food writing gig in NYC. Click here.

Forum posters wanted for NYC forum. I know which forum the ad is talking about, but the very thought of posting there again sends cold shivers up my spine. Dead forum. Still, if you're a sucker for punishment, click here.

Got pipedreams of being a hot-shot journalist? Well, this may not be exactly what you had in mind, but it's a start. Specially if you're not willing to get up off that comfy chair. Click here ( news content writing job )

Love politics? Want to express your partisan rants? And get paid for it? Nope. This ain't a blogging gig. Political bloggers are totally unemployable. What these people need are real writers, who can write lengthy features, with facts and analysis and history lessons and quotes from famous politicians, analysts and regional experts. If you can do that, click here.

Ghost writer wanted. Click here.
Freelance copywriter wanted. Click here.
Teen weblog looking for freelance writers. Click here.
Uh...Parrot forum posters wanted. Click here.
Medical proof-reading gig. Work at home. Click here.
Freelance web copy writer. Click here.
PR firm looking for a freelance writer. Click here.
Marketing copy writer wanted. Telecommuting is A-Ok!! Click here.

From now on until the 2nd or 3rd of Jan, there won't any job postings. That's not because I'm going to be punch drunk ( well...maybe a bit...), but because the people who post the jobs on craigslist likely won't be around for the next few days. I will be posting, in the brief periods of clarity, when the haze of alcohol induced stupor lifts a bit and allows me to see one screen, instead of a couple. A happy new year to every useless scum of a writer and all the fine freelancers who visit this page!!!!

Write For Rights - Write-A-Thon

Want to write? Here's what you need. A central idea, a set of ideals, which propels the writer to a logical conclusion. The hero? Someone the reader wants to be. End of the day, it's a must that your words inspire change in the reader - Whether it be picking up some of the slang, a change in lifestyle or, in the best of circumstances, a transfer of ideas and ideals from paper to mind.

An example would be non-fiction writers who catalog human rights abuse. The writer has this feeling that he or she is fighting to correct some wrong. It's less about writing, and more about the subject matter. Meaning that you, the writer, are part of a crusade. And this gets transferred into paper and shows up as the central idea. Couple this with some moving and graphic pictures, detailed research and citing of facts and what you have is that the sense of fighting on behalf of the oppressed is transferred from the writer to paper and crawls into the reader's mind.

Look up a few articles and features written Nicholas Kristof for the New York Times, and you'll realize what I'm blabbering about. He's not a great writer. What he does have is an unshakable sense of conviction and a quixotic impulse to fight for the downtrodden. He doesn't play with words like say, David Brooks. I'd say that he's more of a human rights activist than a writer. Every other day, he's slam-bang in the middle of a new mess. He turns up in remote and oppressed parts of the world, and the local two-bit dictator starts quaking in his boots thinking about the backlash from a Kristof article in the NYT. Womens' rights in Pakistan, the Orange revolution in Ukraine, Rose revolution in Georgia, Darfur, call-girls in Cambodia....

You don't have to be a Kristof or an NYT columnist to be able to do this. You can sit on your butt in your parents' basement and write about it. By participating in Amnesty International's annual Global Write-a-thon. Every December, AI activists from countries all over the world write letters during the Global Write-a-thon. The letters and postcards they write effect powerful change in the lives of individuals, help stop violence against women and contribute to the release of Prisoners of Conscience around the world. "The candle burns not for us, but for all those whom we failed to rescue from prison, who were shot on the way to prison, who were tortured, who were kidnapped, who ''disappeared'. That is what the candle is for." - Peter Benenson ( Founder, Amnesty International )

End of the day, your writing is better because you care. And you become a better person because you write about things which concern you. Your writing holds you up to a certain standard, and it's difficult to run away from those standards. Alcohol helps, but there really is no escape. As a rule, writers are like water - Always looking for the path of least resistance. Write for rights, and you'll not only be a writer, but also a better person.

The American Title

No, this isn't another post about stealing titles for your doodling. This is about the American Idol for writers. The "American Title Contest". The Philly has the inside dope. "By winning American Title, the stay-at-home mom of three would get her romance novel published by Dorchester Publishing... 'Life interferes with my writing,' Fennell said." She's gonna win it, all right.

The film Freedom Writers is making waves, for all the right reasons. Normally, this kind of stuff would be inspiration fodder for budding writers to wring their hankies over, but by adding Hillary Swank to the cast, the film is headed for a far bigger audience share. The Republican has the details. "The film is an adaptation of Erin Gruwell's 1999 book, 'The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them.' "

I've often bloviated on the need to be a 'life writer'. Write about what you do, your life, your thoughts, your ideas, your mom, your cat....Beats writing about the vietnam war, when you have absolutely no clue how it feels to be hunted by a sniper in the Cambodian jungle. Anyway, Juanita Riedel a.k.a. "The Basket Lady" has a unique way to help writers stretch their imaginations.

Journalist? Nope. Holy Terror

"Just imagine a young journalist who knows how to write and has also studied forensic accounting. He or she would be a holy terror. Politicians and executives alike would quake in their boots at the mere mention of the reporter’s name. And when they hear who is in the waiting room, they’ll hide everything in sight. It would be like having a secret weapon in your pocket." - Attribution, Plagiarism and Lies - Part 2 - Hot Copy, by Del Marbrook

I like the thought of people quaking in their boots at the mere mention of my name. But as of speaking, my 4 year old nephew starts rolling on the floor with uncontrolled mirth whenever I'm the subject of discussion. So there's a bit of work to be done, before I can hope to become a holy terror. Moving away from navel gazing, I'll list a few scribes who do manage to induce a few beads of sweat:

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Bob Woodward : Nothing much to say about Woodward that hasn't been said, discussed and dissected on the net. Starting off with a navy career, Woodward moved over to reporting, broke the Watergate scandal, had a movie made about his exploits, regularly churns out best-selling and meticulously researched books. Has a great job with the Washington Post, which gives him a lot of freedom to write his books. His latest book was one of the turning points in the shaping of American opinion about the Iraq war. You can say that it started going downhill for the Bush administration after Woodward's book came out. In short, he's everything that defines the concept of a journalist as a 'holy terror'.

That said, there's something more about Woodward that needs to be said. He's a sellout. He cultivates friendships and flushes them down the loo when he's done. He has a long trail of bitter friendships, starting from Mark Felt to Carl Bernstein right up to President Bush. Modus operandi: Snuggle up to people, listen to what they have to say, flatter them, make use of their information and access and then shut the door in their face. He's done it all his life, and I don't see a shred of emotion or remorse in him. A real cold-blooded fish. Or a successful journalist and investigative reporter. Take your pick. I guess it means the same...

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Seymour Myron Hersh : Exploits? Investigative reporting on My Lai, the C.I.A.'s bombing of Cambodia, Henry Kissinger’s wiretapping, and the C.I.A.'s efforts against Chile's Salvador Allende, among other topics. In 2004, Hersh was responsible for exposing the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. He then moved on to the Bush administrations plans to deal with Iran and with a single article effectively blew the bottom out of any Iran buzz.

Seymour Hersh's main assets include an unshakable conviction that as a reporter, he's entitled to the truth and a deep pipeline into the armed forces, which helps him dig up and write about the dark side of war and its ravages. If you're in the middle of a war, have something to hide and you find Hersh sniffing at your heels, it would be a good time to break out in a sweat.

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Matt Drudge : If you don't read the Drudge report, you're one news cycle behind anyone else who does. The secret of his strength is his unshakable reader base, which he cultivates with a very simple formula. Breaking news. If I'm following a story and expect some breaking news, there are only two sites I keep open - The NYT and Drudge. Every single time, it's either one of these that breaks the news first. And if you are the headline in Drudge, you would be well advised to go on a vacation, a long one.

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Flawed as they are, these are the representative icons of journalism and news reporting. Ultimately, they must be thanked for doing their job. Which is to break news and bring out the truth.

The Gift Of Hope - Bill Gates

Time may have made an astute marketing choice by nominating you as the 'person of the year', but I'd like to shine the spotlight on an unlikely candidate. Bill Gates. Anything the man does, was and is an unqualified success. He wants to be charitable. So he sets up the Bell & Melinda Gates foundation. Fine. Nothing special. World's richest guy. World's biggest charity. $30 billion. Usual stuff.

But then, with the Google boys nipping at his heels, Bill Gates decides he's had enough and turns his cold eye to really 'doing' charity. And this is where it gets interesting. He cons Warren Buffet ( Or maybe it was the other way around, as Alan Sloan brilliantly explains in Newsweek ) into handing out another $30 billion, which makes the foundation good for $60 billion. And that's just the simple math.

What Gates did in that one week of blanket media coverage was to turn philanthropy from something which Madonna and Angelina Jolie did into something which you and I can do. He made it fashionable, and cool, to give away a fortune. His actions and words are attracting talented graduates fresh out of college into the world of charity and non-profit research. A chance of getting a grant from the B & M Gates foundation is spurring non-profits and drug companies to venture into fields which they would normally avoid like the...like the...All right. This line was a mistake.

On this Christmas day, when Santa brings joy to millions of kids around the world, he has the King of the Geeks as a new intern. For bringing the gift of hope to those most in need of it, to those who have been forsaken by state and society, for lighting small sparks of charitable spirits in the hearts of millions, I give to you my 'Person of the Year 2006'. Bill Gates.

Addicted To Chaos

When normal people hit a roadblock in life, they put their heads down, struggle through the storm and then live happily ever after. When a writer bumps into tragedy, he breaks out the champaigne. Do writers invite tragedy and turmoil, consciously or otherwise, in order to be writers? I have here a collection of links, quotes and facts to shed more light on this affliction.

"It is often tragic to see how blatantly a man bungles his own life and the lives of others yet remains totally incapable of seeing how much the whole tragedy originates in himself, and how he continually feeds it and keeps it going." - Carl Gustav Jung

Sharon K. West, writing for Suite101 ( Contract writers on Suite101 get paid based on page views, so I'm helping her out here by linking to her article ) lays out the facts.
"What do we know of the tragic afflictions of historical figures?
Some who have suffered from depression include Beethoven, Ernest Hemingway, Jack London, Judy Garland, Claude Monet, Norman Rockwell, and Edgar Allen Poe. Winston Churchill called depression his "little black dog."
Of course, depression is not the only tragic affliction. What of the afflictions of Joseph Merrick, also known as the "Elephant Man," or blind and deaf Helen Keller, or Franklin D. Roosevelt with polio?
We certainly would consider dyslexia to be a tragic affliction. Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and Albert Einstein had this affliction. Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Pablo Picasso had it as well."

Well, that rules out at least one thing. This affliction of the "tragic" can't be a co-incidence. Which means that someone, somewhere, probably has a study on this, or a thesis and has all kinds of statistics and data to back it up. Well? Uhh.....yeah. There is. "A portrait of the artist as a nutcase".
A perspective on the biological basis of aesthetic preferences from neuropsychological study of artistic creativity by Anna Lee Strachan.
Go figure...

And just when I was patting my back at this excellent analysis and dissection of writers, tragedy and creativity, I bump into the word "art therapy". Which basically means that I must flush my entire post down the loo. But no, I must hit 'publish', close blogger.com, shut down the computer, get drunk and try and forget about this tragedy of a post.

Nobel Prize Laureates Danced the Night Away in Night Club

Well...Not exactly. It's "Nobel prize laureates danced the night away in virtual night club".
"Live sounds and video were projected from the famous Club NEVERDIE into the physical night club, creating the illusion that the Nobel Laureates and the avatars were dancing and partying together" - Press release, Market Wire.
Ok. Bit wierd. Grumpy old gramps dancing to the flashing lights. Couple of questions. What happens if you link up a few night-clubs, and project the crowd in each into the others, creating the illusion of one massive night club? And secondly, why weren't the nobel winners projected out? But I'm pretty sure somebody must have thought about this already, and there must be nightclubs which share crowds virtually and I'm also sure there must be a lot more innovation to this than only sharing crowds. Definitely needs more looking into. But then, bloviating on this without pictures or a video is a bit pointless...


Ok. So I go over to check out Club Neverdie, and run smack bang into something even more wierd. Club Neverdie, it turns out, is a virtual space station, inside an online game called Entropia. Wierd part is, there's a big virtual universe inside the game, and hunders of thousands of registered members roaming and spending time in this universe. These players buy and sell parts of the world, with real money. Jon Jacobs, the guy who owns the club, brought the spaceship for $100,000. That's real money. And turns out there's a huge real estate boom in the Entropia universe. With players developing virtual property and selling it off.

Finally, the wierdest part is that the owners of these virtual properties, like Jacobs, are tying up with owners of real places, like the club the Nobel laureates ended up in, to mix up both worlds and produce cocktails of real and virtual worlds. This is getting just a little bit too close to the sci-fi movies and art and life symbiosis that I bloviated on in the previous post. Makes you kind of uncomfortable.

Art imitates life, and life imitates art

I wanted to write something about the symbiotic relationship of life and art. Guess what? There's 1,250,000 writers who have already explored this, as per google. In-depth. Make that a 1,250,000 + 1. So what's left for me to do? Link to them, of course.

Life imitates art far more than art imitates life - Oscar Wilde
A little detour here, if I may. The words writer, tragic and destined all come to mind when you say Oscar Wilde. While many would argue that he was horribly wronged, I would say that he breathed and lived and died the life and death of a writer. Envy him, if you will, but do not belittle his life and his writing with your pity.

"We try to live as art teaches. We express love in the ways of characters in stories. We speak in unfamiliar situations in ways that we've read characters speaking. We select the clothes we wear based upon an ideal determined by art (such as fashion photography). We take on the roles of characters we see in art, and judge others by those same characters." - Richard Nokes, Unlocked WordHoard
One more detour. By that standard, the concept of what a writer should be, what you need to write about, how you live and what is good writing would be called life imitating art. So any art you create, based on your life, is basically life imitating art, not art imitating life. And here I was thinking that you need to pour your life onto paper. Well, scratch that. You can skip a stage and directly write from the life of writers from the past. Uhh...All right. I'll say it one more time. Slowly. With bullet points.

• 1. You read about other writers and their books.
• 2. Over time, from these readings, you form an outline of what a writer should be, how you live, what you do and what you write about. You begin to follow these guidelines, and you become a writer.
• 3. Your writing sounds suspiciously similar to the stuff you were reading in the first place.

Forgive me for the rather batty detour. Just seemed like something worth exploring. Not so sure now, when I see what I just typed out. Anyway, let's move on to something a little less abstract....

"Imagine a gun that uses fingerprint scanning to prevent you from firing a shot...It's not science fiction, it is science fact....Scientists have taken many cues from what they have seen on screen....Artists are generally very good at reflecting human nature in the tenor of their times and sometimes that leads to very valuable insights....If you're not constrained by knowledge of things you can't do or think you can't do, I think you can come up with some really nice insights." - The Age, AU

Which means life, as the artist sees it, is the building block for the artist's depiction of the future, which in turn is the inspiration for real-life scientists to turn that art into reality. The cycle started with artists imitating life, and keeps going on simply because scientists watch films. If they used their own imagination instead, the art gets a boot in the rump. There's no way to turn this one around and say that life imitates art.

Life does imitate art, to the extent that we take inspiration for our lifestyle from art. The Jennifer Anniston and David Beckham haircuts are testament to this fact. But artists, and writers in particular, sorely need a reality check, if they think that their writing, or art, is any form of inspiration for life, or other writers and artists. It's just art inspiring more art. There is no life in there anywhere.

Books Which Sing And Dance

You're reading a book. Nice and quiet. Very peaceful. Lost in your own world. Just the book and you. A gentle breeze. Makes you sway left and right. Suddenly, you hear a voice, very close to you. He's saying exactly what you're reading on the page. You look around, startled, to see who else in the subway is reading the same book. Don't see anyone. But why is everyone looking at you? You have this sinking feeling low in your stomach. It's the audio in your book. Technology integration now allows you to publish books with music, games and video.

Kimberly Maul, writing for TheBookstandard.com, has an article about this. "Authors Add Music, Games and More To Their Books". Punch line? "So as authors grab their guitars, bust out the glue gun or get creative with games, look for even more multimedia book experiences to come out in 2007."

I think it was the books whch were supposed to sing and dance. Not the writers. Now they want the writers to do it. I thought grovelling at a publishers feet was enough.

In a related development, your book can now be an mp3 file played on a single-play mp3 player. Don't even think about asking me how that works. Besides, I have only question. You think bookstores across the UK might need something more than mere police protection if JK Rowling were to release the 7th Harry Potter book in her own voice along with the book?