Back in the saddle this week. Still a little rocky, physically, but my energy and concentration are back. Apologies for no Friday update — had a fascinating family thing I’ll probably report on this week.
My Astoria guide is still on hold, likely until June. There were some problems with last-minute map stuff, or so I’m told. No worries, it will be great when it’s out there. Meanwhile, do you know what’s better than getting paid for your work?
Getting paid twice.
I’m not suggesting selling two identical articles to two different magazines — that’s a breach of the writing contract, and of the trust from your publisher. However, you can easily sell multiple articles from the same idea, and the same research. This maximizes your return on the investment of your effort. For example, I spent several weeks researching the Astoria guidebook. When it publishes, I get paid royalties…plus I have my first book deal, which is instrumental in getting more book deals. However, there’s a lot of information that didn’t get covered in detail during the book. Here are some articles that I’ve written or pitched for other publishers:
In a year or so, some of the rights to those articles will revert to me based on the contract I sign with various publishers. At that point, I can try to sell reprint rights — with full disclosure to the new buyer — and get paid a third time with a new batch of sales. Because it’s Astoria, and not New York or another international destination, it’s a thin resale market. But I should be able to find one or two.
Writing professionally means spending at least as much of your time finding work as you do writing. Using this kind of cascading series of assignments from the same idea and research helps you make the most of that time.
Thanks for listening.
This week will consist of a bunch of short posts. I’m in recovery from a minor surgery and, although everything went well, the pain meds are making my attention span shorter than it usually is.
You know what job I want? I want to be the Google front page guy. More days than not, Google replaces their standard front-page logo with a stylized logo that celebrates a birthday or anniversary…first cosmonaut, Montgomery Bus Boycott, famous artists, the fall of the Berlin Wall…all manner of cool people and happenings. It would be fun to get paid to choose and research who makes that list.
Of course, at Google, it probably isn’t a job. Google uses the concept of “20 percent time,” under which employees are free to work on whatever they want (so long as it’s for the company) one day per week. Google Docs and Google Maps are two of the products to come out of 20 percent time, and it seems likely that the front page celebration is, too.
Of course if I’m wrong, Google, please give me a call. We’ll talk.
Thanks for listening.
As a writer, I find templates to be one of my most powerful tools. When working with tools, a template is a metal or plastic form that lets you cut out the outline of an object. When working with words, it’s an organizational form that lets your rough out the outline of a work. In the context of web content, I have about a dozen templates — rough structures for articles — that I apply detail and personality to when I receive an assignment. This saves me hours every week, since I’ve gotten pretty quick at matching the right template with the right subject. Templates do not stifle creativity or voice any more than a standardized rhyme scheme stifles creativity in poetry. It actually encourages creativity and voice by allowing me to put all my focus on the unique part of the article. I no longer have to think about the frame of the house, meaning I can focus on what’s living there and how it’s decorated. Some authors use a template for their novels, producing entire series in which each book follows basically the same outline. Done poorly, they can be disappointing and formulaic. The best take that same outline and make each one a unique story by changing the characters, the dialog, the details. You can also make life easier by building “time templates” into your day. This is a way of organizing your time and your writing. I work best from about 6 to about 9. AM vs PM don’t matter, so I schedule the rest of my day around writing during that block. Weekly and monthly templates can help you arrange less frequent tasks — for example, committing to posting certain kinds of posts to your blog on certain days. Think about the writing you’ve done. If it helps, you can pencil a rough outline for a few representative samples. Chances are you also use templates, but may not know it. Once you realize you have such a powerful tool, you’ll be better able to use it to your advantage. Thanks for listening.
When I planned my earning cycle onslaught, I scheduled in a week off. The weather’s beautiful, I’m feeling a little burned out, and next week I’ve scheduled a surgery that will mean I can’t lift heavy stuff for about a month.
So I’m taking this as that week. I’ll still do work on some projects, but I’m not going to hold myself to the aggressive workload I’ve had for the past 5 weeks.
I get to do this because I accounted for it in my planning. If I hadn’t, needing to take some time for other things might have inescapably derailed me.
Yay, planning! It’s even more important when you don’t have a boss than when you do have one.
Thanks for listening.