Southern Writing

Financial realities of a freelance writer

About a month or two ago, I had to have my brakes fixed. And, when I mean fixed, almost all of the parts had to be replaced. The repairs pretty much decimated my bank account, so I was more than happy that I paid off a loan around the same time, which filled my credit with the glow of responsible decision making.

Because my account now has the brakes deficit, and because a publication I write for is more than a month late in paying me, I decided to ask my credit union for a loan. And, I discovered that since my day job only provides about 25 percent of my income, and that's what they go by, I won't qualify for a loan until I "make more money."

My response was to ask what I should do in case of an emergency. The credit union rep's response was to "make more money."

Fortunately, the payday advance rep at the seedy office a few blocks from my house was more understanding. 

I also realized while doing my taxes that things are a lot more complicated this year. I am now considered the sole proprietor of my freelance business and should have been saving my receipts on just about everything I bought last year, from gas to notebooks.

Soon I will be posting an account of my battles with tax season during my first year as a paid freelance writer.

More to come soon. 

A contest of sorts

It's been a while since I ran a contest on one of my blogs, so I decided to have a good karma type contest.

The first five people to comment on this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.

This contest does have some restrictions and limitations:

- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!

- What I create will be just for you.

- It'll be done this year. No guarantees when, it will be a total surprise!

- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be poetry. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!

- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

(If you comment on this post, please list any allergies you may have and include a way I can contact you for your address.)

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you have to pay this forward by either spontaneously making things for five friends, family members, or charities and/or commit five random acts of kindness. I have no way of policing this, but if you don't do it you will have to live with your own guilt.

We can all make stuff and make someone's day a little bit brighter!!

(If you saw me post this somewhere else and responded to it, I will not make you two things.)

Tampa Bay Arts Network is now up

My old editor at the Gazette launched the Tampa Bay Arts Network today. My first Tampa on the cheap article is there. Over the next few days, I plan to archive some of my other articles from that site here, because I think they were important enough to keep around.

Losing money

Yesterday, I had a $20 bill in my pocket. Then, I went to the gas station and spent a good five minutes on my hands and knees, adding air to my tires. I came home and changed into my comfy house clothes then changed back into my street clothes for a class a few hours later.

My $20 was gone.

Where did it go?

It's a mystery.

The current tally of money I've managed to lose since December 24 is $70.

Tampa Bay Gazette is no more

The publisher of the Gazette decided to discontinue it after he faced a number of monumental problems. Instead, he's going to start an art site, which I will also contribute to. I will have new links to my work and the site when it's up.

First short story of the year completed

I finished writing my first short story of the year, "Seeing God." It is the story of a young blind girl who is visited by a supernatural being who gifts her with sight. Is it an angel? Is it God itself? Or, is it something more sinister?

I will probably start the editing process tonight and hope to submit it by the middle of next week at the latest.

This is going to be my Necrotic Tissue submission, because I would like to join the Horror Writer's Association by the end of the year.

(Necrotic Tissue offers payment specifically so horror writers will qualify for HWA membership, so if you're an author who would like to join but hasn't sold a story at a high enough pay rate, you should think about submitting to Necrotic Tissue.)

The key to making money in a digital era- DIVERSIFY

This is going to be a post in two parts. The first is going to be about how freelancers can diversify to make money in the digital world, the second is going to be how media organizations can do the same.

For freelancers

To make money as a writer in today's economy, you have to be more savvy than ever before. Tap into your own interests for story ideas and expand them for a larger audience (think regional, national, etc.). The more topics you can prove yourself an expert on, the more potential sales you can pull in.

You should also be writing for a diverse group of publications. Submit to every kind of media available, including newspapers, blogs, video channels (unless you're a pro with top of the line equipment, think online video channels like YouTube), magazines, and commercial and content based websites.

Look into starting your own blog to use as an online portfolio and as a way to play around with monetization. I recommend Blogger, because it works seamlessly with Google Adsense and Analytics, which is where most bloggers I know cut their teeth on blog tools.

It's also good to become a networking fiend. Meet as many people as you can and give them your card; you never know when you'll get a call from an editor who picked up your info from a friend or an email from your pal's aunt Sally who wants you to work on her Mary Kay site.

For news orgs

Here's something I've noticed from the current upheaval in our industry- firing your company's top talent, whether they be community columnists who know their city better than anyone else or that young kid who developed a few widgets and a quick, interactive flash game for your site, isn't working.

Asking the public to take pity on us and tell their friends about how important the news industry isn't working.

Dumping your newspaper directly onto a website isn't working.

What we need to do is ride out the current storm and redefine the industry. Focus on new ways to engage your audience. Give your reporters small, crappy cameras so they can take footage that really won't look that bad on a 4"x 4" movie player. (Trust me, if you include a tripod with the camera, it will be fine for online.)

Let your best writers write but give them the tools to make their own multimedia presentations. In fact, insist they do. Let your best photographers write small pieces if they're going out into the field by themselves.

Look past the traditional "new" media and towards innovative thinking. Give readers interactive Flash presentations, copies of public documents, and widgets that inform and connect them to other users. Offer up an interactive "newspaper" where readers can flip the pages. Give local musicians a network where they can upload footage from live performances and a calendar of events everyone can add to. 

Above all, become the ultimate guide to your coverage area. If that means creating portal sites to specific neighborhoods or paring down your coverage to one city instead of ten, that's what you should do.

If I type in Tampa, a Tampa newspaper should pop up on top of my list of results. (The Tampa Tribune is on the first page, but the Busch Gardens website is ranked before it. Does the Busch Gardens website really have more information about Tampa than The Tampa Tribune? And, why doesn't the St. Pete Times, with the address tampabay.com come up in that first page of results?)

If I want to find a hotel, a newspaper website should pop up. If I want to go see a show, a newspaper website should come up. If I want to know whether or not roads are going to be blocked because of a football game, a newspaper website should come up.

In order to survive, I really believe newspapers need to become the portals everyone uses to view the world. Unfortunately, years of comfort in a booming economy have shaped the ways in which Western newspapers and other media organizations react to their audience, and apparently the audience isn't impressed.

This post is part of the January Carnival of Journalism, hosted by Paul Bradshaw. Just to have everything out in the open, I cover city government for two cities in Pasco County for the St. Pete Times.

My career is officially launched

I listen to a lot of the things my rabbi says, and one think that really stuck with me recently was what he said about being a learned man.

He said that as a rabbi and an intellectual, he knows of a multitude of things he does not know. In fact, he is embarrassed about all of the things he doesn't know about Judaism, which is his area of expertise.

I'm beginning to feel that way about my new beat. I officially have a beat with the St. Pete Times, and my first two articles, about the Dade City and Zephyrhills city councils, were published this week.

I hope my fear of being caught as a fraud is a sign I will make a good reporter. It does mean that I will always strive to learn more about the councils and the local governments in these cities.

So far, my editor says I've been doing a good job. That definitely means a lot.

Funny sayings

What my coworker, Julie, said after sampling tea I gave her from Kaleisia, a local tea shop-

"It's kind of like you're drinking a really good potpurri."

Leaving, on a jet plane

Tomorrow I'm leaving for Milwaukee Wisconsin. I'm going to be at Midwinter, a big deal for crazy, geeky gamer girls like me. Basically, a group of hundreds of One World by Night Vampire: The Masquerade players will take over a hotel for three days.

This means I won't be online or around my computer.

Being a freelance writer is interesting, because it means I'm always working. I've been known to pull my car over to conduct an interview by the side of the road or take a call during dinner in a restaurant and have it morph into a Q&A session. So, in some ways being unplugged will be good (at least when it comes to my computer- I'll still have my notepad and phone with me), but I keep trying to justify bringing my laptop with me. Every time I come with a reason why it's a bad idea (I don't want a lost, stolen, or broken computer) my brain whines about it and tries to come up with an excuse, like "You need your computer so you can do a little work in the hotel, which probably has free wifi."

I know I won't actually get work done in Milwaukee, because I brought my laptop to St. Augustine a few months ago and didn't get any done then, but I did have to either lug my computer around in its case or worry about it sitting alone in the hotel. So, instead I'm going to enjoy my weekend of being semi-unplugged and work on a short story or two. I also have a stack of books I'm bringing, so I'll be updating the book list I've been neglecting on this blog.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. And, if there are any fantastic places I should visit in MIlwaukee while I'm there, let me know!