Who is Upwork?

I reviewed a company called ODesk a little over two years ago.  Well it’s now called Upwork. But more than just the name has changed. ODesk was a decent company. That apparently wasn’t good enough for those at the helm. They decided to turn it into a top-notch place for both clients and freelancers.  In a rare stroke of luck, writers actually have a company that has noticed we exist!

Applying to Upwork

First, don’t stop reading when you hear that you don’t apply, you sign up for an account. There are safeguards in place to protect both the freelancers and the clients. There are skills tests that I’ll mention in their own section.

Second, Upwork acts as a broker. They find clients that need freelancers. They do not assign work you apply for it. I’ll get into that later. For now, you just sign up for an account.

You can sign up in the normal manner, with your name, country, username, and so forth.  You also have the option of applying with Facebook, Google, or LinkedIn.  They send you an email, you click on it to verify your address, and you are signed up with Upwork.  It takes 5 minutes at the most.

Your Profile

This is one of the most complete but least guided profiles you will probably ever fill out online. The text boxes have a heading and you put as much or as little as you like. You will want a complete profile but don’t put so much that you overwhelm viewers.

There is a place for education in the profile and I’m going to address this by itself for a reason. Many writers aren’t “writers” so much as they are experts in some field and they write about it. Your samples will attest to your writing ability. Later, after you have had a few clients through the site, your ratings will also speak to your writing abilities. Don’t omit your business degree because it has nothing to do with writing.

The final block of your profile allows you to list other experiences or information. You can give it a heading and then fill in the description. This is great for those with random experiences that simply don’t fit anywhere else.

Finding Jobs at Upwork

This is very simple. On your screen you will see a list of categories on your left. Select one and scroll through the various job options. There is also a search bar where you can enter your own search terms and look for a job like that.

Once you find a job you like, you have to submit a proposal. It’s not difficult and your profile is sent automatically so don’t duplicate the information.  There is a set budget for the project and you will bid in that range, but this site weeds out most of the problem bidders so you have a fair shot of having a decent offer accepted.

The Time Tracker

Thanks to America Online back in the 1990’s I’m an extremely fast and accurate typist. People like me tend to hate being paid by the hour on writing projects because it tends to punish us for our speed. That is what the Time Tracker is and why I dislike it. That’s the bad.

The good news is that it is rarely, if ever, used for writers. Because the site also brokers jobs for other freelancers, like computer coders and app creators, it may have a place in tracking projects. I’ve never actually run into a writer that has had to use it. There probably is one but I couldn’t find them.

The other problem I have with the Time Tracker is that it takes periodic screen shots so the client can monitor your work and check your progress. If I wanted someone staring at my computer screen while I work, I’d get a corporate job. One of the reasons I’m a freelance writer is because I loathe being treated like a child at work. It’s up to you if you want to deal with clients that insist on using it.

Test your skills

I wrote before about the safeguards in place to protect writers and clients. These safeguards are in the form of skills tests. The first one you will want to take it the proficiency test in the language in which you wish to work.  These tests will be listed on your profile so that potential clients can see that you have the necessary skills.  These also come into play when applying for jobs. Many clients list requirements at the bottom of the listing. They will often automatically ignore those that don’t meet their requirements. Check those before applying.

A special word here to those who, like me, speak more than one language. Even if you primarily intend to write only in English, go to the translation test for your other languages and pass those as well. Sometimes a client wants someone who can understand their Russian instructions but can produce their copy in English.

There are a number of skills tests and they are all free. This is a site that finds clients for more than just writers. There are a number of freelance opportunities here so look around on the site to make sure you are not overlooking a profitable niche.  You can retake tests you failed at a later time, so if at first you don’t succeed, try again!

Working on Upwork

There is no writing platform. You will want to double check with your client about the format they want used but the vast majority want Word or a similar document. The best and safest way to deliver the finished product to the client is to upload the document through the Upwork system.  This way there is proof of it having been delivered.

The Editing Process

This is between you and the client. If they want edits, and they probably will, do them and send the copy back to them.

Your Dashboard

When you log into the site you are automatically on your Dashboard. To your right you have a snippet of your profile, to your left the job search categories. In dead center, you will have the latest recommended jobs. These are based on previous searches, jobs you have applied for and how your profile is set up. It’s basic but it works perfectly for your needs.

Communication with clients

You will chat back and for with the clients through the system. You do not contact them outside of the system. Communication is good or bad depending entirely on the client. When you rate them, you do have a selection that rates their communication.

Stars and Job Success Scores

I was going to mention stars but they are phasing them out. You rate the client and the client rates you. Currently you get a star rating. They are changing that to a job success percentage. Where this really counts is in the fact that they take the record of the client into consideration when figuring the scores. If you get a nasty review from a client that has a history of being a problem, it’s going to have very little impact on your score. Currently, they have as much of an impact as everyone else!

Subscriptions

I didn’t mention it earlier because it’s not a big deal. You get 60 “connects” or new contacts per month on the free account.  That means you can apply for 60 low jobs, 30 mid-level jobs and 20 high level jobs per month. If you pay $10 a month for a subscription, you get 70 “connects,” the “connects” roll over to the next month, and you can see the high, low, and average bids on the projects on which you are bidding.

Payments

The client pays Upwork when they accept a proposal. Upwork holds the money until the job is completed. Once there is client approval, they take their cut (10%) and the rest is posted to your Upwork account.  You can set it up to automatically send the money based on a schedule you set or you can click on the “Get Paid Now” button and transfer the money to PayPal or begin a transfer to your bank. There are several other options including Payoneer, for those outside of the United States.

Those of the basics of Upwork.com. So head over, get yourself an account and start making some money!

Who they are

Express Writers is a content development company that enters into contracts with clients. Writers fulfill the contracts for a portion of the proceeds. They also hire editors. They are interested in SEO copywriters, marketing writers, and technical writers.

Applying

This is a fairly intricate process, which is surprising given the level of writing and pay. You submit a basic application with personal information, a resume or CV, and samples. Then if they are interested, you take a couple of tests to determine things like SEO awareness, English fluency, spelling, and grammar.

Dashboard

It’s a basic user interface that is quick, intuitive, and well designed. There is only a short learning curve to it and most people have it figured out quickly. Like most other companies, it’s designed to facilitate you working as quickly as possible.

Working

You don’t get to choose either your topics or articles here. They are assigned to you. You do have the right to refuse but will want to take care to use the right of refusal judiciously, especially in the beginning. You write the articles for Express Writer, submit them, and are paid.

There has been talk of allowing people to specify interests so that writers would have more of a choice in choosing topics. As of this writing, however, that is still in the planning stages. There is an amazing variety of brands that have used Express Writers and likewise the variety of topics should not only help you stay interested but should also help expand your writing knowledge.

One of the positives that Express Writers stresses to their clients is that while they are SEO aware, they write for readers first and search engines second. This means the new freelance writer will not be forced into keyword stuffing, which makes their writing look stilted and awkward.

It’s interesting to note here that there is a confidentiality agreement that prohibits active writers from talking about the jobs they do beyond approved samples and a mention on their resume. Some writers have an issue with this but this is standard for all content provider services. Many clients take credit for the words written. That is the nature of this particular business.

Editing

The editing is pretty basic. You complete the work and submit it to Express Writers. They evaluate the work and either send it through. From those who worked there for a decent amount of time, the editors are friendly and the process is relatively painless.

There is feedback from the team leaders and editors to the writers. This is helpful to new freelance writers who may feel a bit adrift in the writing world. The communication is said to be good between writers and editors so that is a point in their favor. There are many places where there is no communication between editors and writers. That is never a good idea because it creates an adversarial relationship instead of a collaborative partnership.

Communication

There is a policy here that I really despise. It’s not an unusual policy and many, if not most, writing companies have it. The policy prohibits and even prevents direct communication between the writer and the client. No one is fooled by the reasons here. It’s to keep the writer and client from cutting them out of the money.

The problem is that means there is almost no way to get clarification on what it is that the client is wanting. You have to hope that the instructions are clear or that your team leader responds in a timely manner. Again, this is not an unusual policy but it’s one that most writers loathe. If a chief complaint from writers working with Express Writers exists, this would be it. Writers have unclear instructions and have to wait while the team leader clarifies the situation. It’s time consuming and often there isn’t enough time for that.

This is not a company where you are going to make long-term writing clients. You will be writing what is assigned by your team leader and being paid by the company. It’s a great place to get started in the business. You will learn the ropes of online writing and SEO with style as opposed to keyword stuffing.

Payment

The easy part of this is that you will be paid biweekly, on Friday, through PayPal. Now comes the tricky part and that is to figure out how much you will be making come payday.

Payment is around one cent per word. Unfortunately, it’s not really that simple. You are paid based on your projects and completed work. As you have seen, you will have little control over that. Generally speaking, it’s $57.69 per 5000 words, which is also considered to be a full day of work. Provided you get 5000 words to write.

There are bonuses and awards that can increase your pay based but it’s never good to plan on those. Always plan on what is guaranteed and not what might happen. Many long-term Express Writers state that they tended to average around $800 to $1,000 a month, depending on how often they worked.

One issue here is that there is no transparency. The writers have no idea how much Express Writers is being paid so there is no way to determine what percentage goes to the writer. Many companies do this but I tend to prefer those that are more upfront about what they are keeping of the proceeds.

Another issue, and this one is open to a lot of conjecture, is that many writers felt they were required to work 6 days a week. Others tell me that information isn’t true at all and they were only working maybe 3-4 days a week. I’m going to take a guess here and suggest that this might be the difference in team leaders and personality quirks.

Tips

• According to a few long term employees, do not refuse any initial writing assignments. People who do will quit being asked and eventually dropped. Write them, learn from your mistakes, and move on to the next assignment.
• Don’t look at this a permanent or even long-term. See it as a stepping-stone and keep looking for other work and other clients. They pay isn’t enough to support yourself and the work is grinding. See it for what it is and keep looking for other opportunities.

My recommendation here is basically the same as it always is for new writers: write where you are paid but always be looking to move on to writing that will pay you enough to support yourself. If you are an absolute beginner with no idea how to start, this would be a great place. You will learn a lot here. You can take those skills and apply to sites that pay better or start pitching ideas to clients that you find on your own. Everyone has to start somewhere and this is as good a place as any.

Application

This is one of those rare sites that you actually have to do more than sign in and start working, which is great because it weeds out a lot of the writers that would make potential clients stay away. It’s a really simple application and I don’t anticipate any of you having a problem with it.

You sign up for an account and then apply to one of the divisions. There are several, including writing and editing. Each division has an application process and approval or denial in each division has no impact on the others.

The writing test is quick and they let you choose from a handful of topics on each of 3 pages. Read the instructions to learn what they are looking for in answer to each section and you will be fine. Each sample you will create is roughly 100 words so it’s not anything to worry about.

Once you submit your application you can expect to hear from them within 4 days. They are very good about this and they inform you even if you have not been accepted.

Your Dashboard

This is tricky because there really isn’t one. When you first log in to the site you will be at a rather confusing page of pop-ups, a bunch of topics that make no sense and it’s probably one of the worst welcome landings I’ve seen. Thankfully that is one of only two negatives.

You will want to go to your profile, such as it is, at the top right of the screen. It’s in the drop-down by your name. You need to set up your email address to be either your Amazon MTurk or your PayPal address. I recommend using your PayPal address. That is it for your profile. Oh, you can add your gender and your country if you really want but thus far I don’t think anyone really cares.

Finding Work

Once you have set up a way to be paid you will need to start looking for work. The top right of the screen it says “Find Work” so click on it. You can now start looking at jobs. There is a drop down menu that allows you to change how the job listings are ordered and most people use it to find those with the highest dollar amount.

There are several types of writing jobs here and each one has a different format. You need to understand the specified format before you begin. Many of the offerings are lumped into massive groups. Such as more than 1,000 different topics, or tasks, under one heading. You will be paid for each task you complete, not one sum for the whole 1,000. Let me break this down:

Job has 1,000 tasks for $12 per task. You can take one task from this job at a time. You can then go and look at another job and take another task from that one. You can only hold one task at a time from each job. As soon as you finish one you can choose another.

Completing Assignments

The other negative here is the writing platform. It’s almost as bad as the original Textbroker. It’s actually set up largely like an online essay exam. Thankfully you are never writing much at a time so it’s not as bad as it could be.

This is important: You are on a timer. The time varies depending on the task but runs from 5 hours to as low as 10 minutes. Once that timer runs out the task is removed from your queue and put back into circulation.

Once you have selected a task you will immediately be taken to the writing page. You can leave this and save the task for later but in many cases it’s easier to just go ahead and write it.

I’ll assume you have chosen a task and it’s a 100 word answer task. Typically those give you 3 hours. At the top of the writing platform you will see the timer and a goal meter. It tells you how many more tasks you have to complete to reach the next level; more on that in a minute. You can access the style guide from this page as well as the summary of instructions on how to complete the assignment.

Write the assignment, double check the writing for errors, hit the submit button. That is it; you have completed your first writing assignment for CrowdSource!

The CrowdSource Game

Oddly enough this site seems to have certain elements that must have been designed by a gamer. The goal meter for one is akin to playing just one more level of Angry Birds! Once you get used to the formats and the platform, you can quickly complete a writing task. It’s only 100 words after all! Okay, sometimes it’s 200 or maybe 400 words. But it only takes 100 words to move the goal meter. Just one more and you level up! There is no real downside here. It keeps you motivated to write and you get paid for it. That’s even better than Flappy Bird!

Part of this game involves levels and ratings and scores. You have one chance to get your task written correctly. There are no rewrites here. After you submit your completed task you can move on and you should because it can take up to 10 days for the task to be accepted or declined. I’ve found that the time is generally no more than 3 days and that was because of the weekend. The tasks are pass/fail. In either case you will know exactly what the issues were, if any, based on the feedback that is always given.

You will start at level 1. To level up you have to have an 87% approval rate. Each level has a different minimum approval rate to remain at that level and an approval rate needed to level up. Your progress report, found by clicking on the goal meter, will tell you exactly how many more tasks you need to move ahead. The higher your level, the more you get paid. Level 2 and above will net you your base pay plus a bonus. The bonus is 5% at level 2 and tops out at 20% on level 4.

Getting Paid

It really doesn’t get better than this in terms of getting paid. Any tasks approved will be paid the next day. When you are lucky, you write it one day and are paid the next. It’s the fastest turnaround I’ve seen for online writing of this nature. It’s all automatic and you have to do nothing more than you have already done which was to give them your PayPal email address.

Tips for Success

• Double and triple check your writing. You don’t want to be failed because of spelling errors.
• Look for the smallest and easiest tasks to complete to get your level to 2.
• Focus on the highest dollar amounts first and then go for the smaller ones.
• Pay attention to the timer!

If you want to get published by magazines, newspapers, and many of the best websites and blogs, then pitching simply becomes a regular part of your routine. This article is all about writing a pitch that gets your writing published and gets you paid.

Writing pitches is one of those things that are only difficult until you have written about a dozen of them. After that it’s just one more routine in your day. It’s actually not a big deal once you get the hang of it and you might be surprised at how often writing one pitch will lead to additional ideas for other pitches and even open your eyes to other markets.

Tailor your pitch to the market

Just as you have to change your tone with different publications, you also have to change your pitches. A pitch that will land you a gig writing for Cracked will not be as well received at Forbes. In most cases you will be fine as long as you are familiar with your target.

Online Content

This is where new freelance writers often get stuck. What you need to remember here is that pitching online markets is not really different than pitching to a print publication. It just seems that way because there are so many different styles floating around on the Internet. Essentially you use a similar tone that you find on the website that you are targeting. This is one of those times when you ignore the big picture and zero in on a single site and then move on to the next one.

Print Media

Most magazines have a digital presence (There might be one that doesn’t but I can’t name it) and often the content is different than the content that appears in their print edition. This is where it gets tricky. I would advise new writers to always try to break into a magazine via their digital door. Typically this pays less but it gives you the credential of having written for them previously.

Writing a pitch for a print market is the same in basic format to writing a pitch for most other markets with a twist in type of pitch. It’s important to understand that print media, such as magazines, tend to have the content for the next issue secured and planned a minimum of 6 months in advance. This means if you are writing about the winter holidays then you have better pitch the story in May or June.

For newspapers you will often be given what is known as a “stringer” pay. This is simply newspaper lingo for a freelance writer or pitch hitter for a specific topic. The deadlines here are immediate if not sooner and you need to have the article ready almost as soon as you pitch it.

When pitching to magazines it is imperative that you have read several issues and have a good grasp of the flavor of the publication. You want to match the tone and interests of the target audience with your pitch.

Send it to the correct person

This used to be so simple. Back in the old days you just send your pitch to the editor. Now there is probably an editor for each specific department, one for online media, one for print media and maybe even one for each specific department in both online and print! It can get confusing even for those who have been writing for decades. Here is the easiest way to figure out who is the Pitch Master you need to find:

Blogs:

Generally here you will be pitching to the owner. Check out the “About Me” or “Contact” pages on the blog. It will typically tell you who to contact if you are pitching ideas. If there is no specific person listed then send it to the Administrator of the blog. That is usually both the owner and manager of the blog. Blogs that frequently have guest bloggers will most likely have a link on their contact page for this specific purpose.

Newspapers:

The person to contact here is normally the publishing editor. The managing editor runs the entire newspaper while the publishing editor makes the decisions about content.

Magazines

This is tricky. As I mentioned earlier, magazines often have print content that is different from the content on their website. If you are pitching to the digital aspect of their magazine then you need to send your pitch to the editor in charge of digital content. Do not send the same pitch to both digital and print divisions at the same time. The website should tell you who to send pitches to for their digital site. The problem is that they rarely tell you where to send print pitches. This is where Writer’s Market comes in handy. Go to their entry and see who print Pitch Master is there. If you don’t have a copy of this necessary little book then either get one or take a trip to the library and do the research that way.

Keep it short

Once you have tailored your pitch to the specific market and figured out where to send it you only need to remember to keep your pitch as short as possible. This is one of the places where your website will come in handy. You keep the pitch itself as short as possible and include a link to your website in your contact information.

One thing you need to assume when sending out a pitch is that the person on the receiving end is very busy. This means that they don’t have the time to wade through three pages of information on your pitch. Keep it short and to the point.

You will want to include everything necessary in your pitch so don’t misunderstand me on this. The pitch should be as short as possible and yet include all of the information that the editor will need in order to make a decision. Remember this writing truism when creating a pitch: When it doubt, leave it out.

Put it all together

Now that you have all the basics, assemble your pitch. The best pitches tend to go in reverse order of regular writing. That is you will introduce the pitch before you introduce yourself.

After addressing the Pitch Master of your target you want to jump into the pitch. Always use the formal form of address during the initial email. It will be an email. I know of no publication that still accepts pitches through the postal mail.

In one sentence state you are a writer with a story idea that you wanted to submit to them. Then lay out the idea you have, including points to be covered in the story. After you have presented the pitch you give a brief summation of your background but limit it to only that which concerns your specific pitch to them. Include a hyperlink to your webpage and invite them to visit it and examine your samples. Close with contact information.

Tips

• Never pitch the same article to more than one publication at a time.
• Wait a week before submitting the same pitch to another publication.

Conduct a Performance Review

For those who hail from the corporate world a yearly performance review is nothing new. It’s also probably one of the things that you are glad to be rid of in your life as a freelancer. You might want to rethink that position and continue conducting an annual review.

It’s basically the same as in the corporate world. You will look at the hours worked, the amounts paid and any client feedback that you received throughout the year. Assess yourself and your career honestly, even brutally. Look at yourself as your employee and be ruthless. Rip apart every aspect of your writing career and how you have done in the last year.

After you have made mincemeat out of yourself you are in a position to find ways to improve the areas that need improving. Did you discover that you spent so many hours on research that you often lost money? Then you may need to change your niche, improve your research skills, or maybe you just need to increase your rates. Whatever the deficits, a yearly performance review will help you find them and once you recognize them for what they are you can begin to resolve the issues and improve your freelance writing career.

Set Goals

This is probably the single most important thing people can do for themselves. January, being the start of the year, is traditionally the time for New Year’s Resolutions. I happen to loathe “resolutions.” I find them pointless and ultimately detrimental to the vast majority of people. Most people have the trifecta of “lose weight, make more money, and stop smoking” as their resolutions. By the time you read this most people will have already dumped their resolutions. Set goals instead.

The difference is that goals are far more detailed, specific and useful. Goals help you stay focused, give you a direction to take when you feel overwhelmed and give you an incredible sense of accomplishment. There is a catch though and that catch is you need to set goals correctly. Goals need three things to work for most people:

• They need to be specific
• There need to be milestones
• They need to be realistic

The single most common goal for freelance writers is to make more money. That doesn’t meet any of the necessary criteria because if you earn even $1 more you have technically met the goal. A better goal is to set a monthly income amount. Instead of saying that you want to make more money, set your goal at a specific amount. By the end of the year (or whatever time frame you set up) you want to be earning $4,000 a month. Spend some time each month looking over the past month and make any necessary changes. Get into detail on how you will meet this goal. How many new clients do you need? Where are you going to get them?

Setting goals that are specific, have milestones so you can track progress and are realistic will improve your writing by keeping you focused and making you feel great when you reach each milestone. One other thing about goals that makes them superior to resolutions: When you make a mistake you just regroup and go on toward the goal.

Formulate a Marketing Plan

January is the best time to devise your marketing and promotional plan for the year. For most freelance writers out there now there are two aspects to their careers: The freelance work they do for others and the projects they do for themselves.

If you are like most freelance writers you are probably also working on a book or two of your own. This is a great time of year to decide on a marketing plan for all of your writing projects for the year.

Most marketing plans are essentially the same, no matter what the material happens to be. Once the overall plan is in place you can quickly and easily adapt it to suit the particular project. You will save time and energy not to mention you will not feel overwhelmed by being rushed to get a promotional plan in place on the fly.

The marketing aspects include marketing your services as a freelance writer. This is the time to seek out new clients, revise your email contact list and the email marketing letters that you send out.

We’ve published  several articles about finding new clients. Now is the time to put those tips into action and land some new clients.

Examine your Productivity

This is probably the biggest reason freelance writers fail and return to the corporate world. To be a successful freelance writer you must have self-discipline. There is simply no way around this issue. Landing clients, being able to write well and marketing all only work if you actually sit down and write. No, hanging out on Facebook for 12 hours a day playing Farmville does not count as working. If you aren’t making money from the activity then you aren’t working. The upside here is that you can almost always set your own schedule as far as what hours you actually do the work. It’s also important to remember that because writing is creative you simply can’t do it non-stop for 8-10 hours a day straight. You need more breaks and time away from it to let your brain rest.

Most people work better with some sort of schedule. Creating your own schedule and forcing yourself to stick to it is the secret to being a successful freelance writer.

Update Social Media Sites

While you need to update your samples on your website every few months, the entire site should be updated each year. This is true of all social media sites. Consider your yearly updating to be akin to a good deep cleaning. Eliminate what isn’t working, revise and improve what is working. Add new material and consider using a new template or theme for your website. On social media sites you will want to update your profiles and graphics where applicable. You want to keep things fresh and new.

Finally, with the exception of marketing plans, there are plenty on apps available to help with goal setting and tracking as well as productivity. I use Evernote to jot down ideas for books and articles and Jorte is a great calendar where projects and deadlines can be housed. We here at Freedom with Writing use Trello to keep projects organized. Setting these things up now, when you have plenty of downtime, will save you a lot of time and stress later in the year when you are hopefully swamped with work.

Happy Writing!

The Writer’s Market by Robert Lee Brewer

This book, which is updated yearly, needs to be on the desk of every freelance writer and author. In fact I would go so far as to say that this book is perhaps the single most important book most writers will own next to the above mentioned dictionary and thesaurus. Because it’s updated yearly, you will want a new one each year. It’s never even close to being the same book twice. The layout of this massive book is in two major components and then divided in sub-headings. The first section focuses on articles and the second on markets.

The articles are different each year and typically fall into the three categories of professional basics, the craft of writing and professional development. These articles are written by some of the best writers, authors and publishers in the business and the advice given in them is worth more than the cost of the book.

The second major section is on writing markets and is further broken down by types and publishers. You can search for markets via your favorite niche or by title. Once you have located your favorite magazine, for example, you can look over the entry and find out what they are looking for and how much they pay. While the information was current as of publication, you should double check the information by visiting the listed website to make sure nothing has changed.

If the above doesn’t sell you on this great book then consider this: In the very beginning of the book, before you get to even the first article, you will find the latest tips, hints and samples for writing query letters, book proposals and crafting pitches. It’s all there along with a bit of current tax advice. If you are going to buy one book for your writing career then this should be the book.

Damn! Why Didn’t I Write That? By Marc McCutcheon

This interesting book is a great resource for the non-fiction author. Seriously, how many times have you looked at a book and wondered why on earth you didn’t write it first? It happens to us all and this book helps you move beyond that and opens you up to the amazing non-fiction market that is out there just waiting for you to tap into it. This book is designed for traditional publication but is easily tailored for digital publication is you choose that route.

This book is set up with chapters on what sells, how to determine the potential of your idea and even sections on writing a book proposal, query letters and promotion. What makes this book stand out is the way it breaks down the basic elements of non-fiction book writing into manageable bites that not only inform but also inspire you to write your own book.

Character-Naming Sourcebook by Sherrilyn Kenyon

I study names and naming trends along with the cultural trends that go with them. I’ve always done this and it’s a quirk that pays off greatly in writing fiction. I own several baby-naming books that I use to help select character names when writing fiction but The Character Naming Sourcebook is the best of the bunch. This book in particular makes it really easy to find the perfect name based on the setting of the story, the background of the character and even the personality of the character.

The book is set up with alphabetical lists based on country of origin. This is a great way to figure out what to name the characters of your new book that is set in the countryside of Finland, for example. Alternately, if you have the perfect name, you can simply look it up in the index and see where the name originates. There are also sections on naming characters and an especially handy section for choosing names based on genre.

20 Master Plots (And How to Build Them) by Ronald B. Tobias

This is an outstanding book that is both a guide for veteran authors and a must-have for new ones. Because most writers are also avid readers, this book is a lot of fun to read just for entertainment purposes.

The book is set up with sections discussing plot formation and then moves into a chapter based on each of the Master Plots. Many people don’t realize that there are 20 Master Plots in fiction writing and every book falls into one. Reading through it you will quickly begin to call to mind favorite books when you spot their Master Plot. What makes this book a necessity is that it deconstructs every one of these Master Plots in order to teach you how to create each one for use in your own work. This is really helpful if you find yourself stuck and can’t figure out what to do about it. The deconstruction of the plots can often help you map out a strategy.

The Fiction Writer’s Workshop by Josip Novakovich

This book needs to sit on your desk next to the one above. The Fiction Writer’s Workshop has two components in that it’s both a writing course with assignments and a reference manual. This is a fairly small book but it packs a lot of information between the covers.

The book is set up with chapters for the various elements of your novel. Everything from Setting, the invention of characters, plots and writing dialogue is included in this book. Each of these chapters deconstructs and explains every detail of the topic. For example, the section on crafting a setting goes into detail on using setting as the antagonist, how to create a setting but not overdo it and even discusses whether or not to use real places or invent new ones.

The second component of the book, one that is outstanding for new writers, is the exercise section at the end of each chapter. The exercises help you to put into practical use everything discussed in the chapter. Interestingly, if you start at the beginning and follow the exercises by the time you have finished reading the book you have almost written a book of your own!

This is not a site that offers a list of articles for you to write. It’s an education site that needs experts to write their content for them. That is your job and if you do it well you will be well compensated for the work.

What is Tuts+?

Tuts+ is primarily an educational company that specializes in the creation of tutorials, ebooks, and courses to teach people various skills within the technology and business world. These include everything from web design and coding to finance and marketing topics. There are also courses on do-it-yourself projects and classes.

Tuts+ is thriving and, according to their website, reaches more than 5 million people per month. That is an impressive market any way you look at it. This company has become one of the top go-to companies for training and development.

The methodology here is simple: You want to learn a skill so you sign up for an account with the company. You look over the options for your desired skill and choose to read an ebook, take a video course, study a tutorial or any combination of those methods. There is a brief free sample and after you have selected your products you buy them. Then you learn the material and the process is complete.

Getting started at Tuts+

Sign up with the company for your free $14 day trial and look around. Normally I would not suggest this but it really does help to look at the free offerings to get a good feel for the place. If you cancel before the 14 days is up your card will not be charged.

Take a course or two to get the best idea of what Tuts+ is looking for in material. There are plenty of free ones that will allow you to learn something new while you are investigating the place. Pay attention to things like tone, length of the tutorials and the flow of the content.

This will also help you in determining what it is that you would be writing about in terms of subject matter. If you have expertise in things other than writing this would be a great fit as you will be able to write about those areas and be paid well for your experience and knowledge.

The first approach to money: Become a Tut+ Author

One way to approach Tuts+ is to write articles about the various courses that the company uses to introduce the course to prospective students. These articles are designed to give the prospective student enough information to make an informed decision about whether or not to buy the course. There are also necessary marketing articles and after you have written a number of introduction articles then you may be asked to write some of the marketing articles.

This is a great opening into the company and you can get started right on their website by pitching an article to them. Just click on the link to teach at Tuts+ and follow the instructions on the next page.

The second approach to money: Create a tutorial

This is a little more involved than writing an article. Okay, in reality it’s a lot more involved but it goes along great with many of the articles written here about focusing on your previous skills and experiences outside the field of writing. It also pays well.

Essentially what you are doing here is creating a long how-to article that will teach a particular skill to a student through written material. It needs to be greatly detailed, aimed at the skill level of potential students and give them everything necessary to complete the advertised task.

This is one area where Tuts+ excels in teaching their students. Often adults need to learn a particular, but limited skill set. They don’t need a wide variety or in depth information. As an example, a tutorial on how to set up a Word Press website would be a particular skill that a student might need to learn but they don’t need to take a time consuming class that teaches coding, Java etc. A tutorial on how to set up the Word Press website is just what they need and will save them both time and money. This extends to virtually every aspect of every business. People want a singular skill without the extras piled on with it.

You pitch a tutorial in the same manner that you pitch an article.

The third approach to money: Teach a course

This is a lot more involved but it pays better as well. You create a video course and teach a class in it. Again, this is a great way to merge your existing skills into your new freelance writing career. Please don’t limit yourself to writing on this. Look at your past work experience, hobbies and any other skill or specialized knowledge that you have obtained over your lifetime for tutorial and course ideas. Check out what is offered already and see if you can add to what is there.

These courses are pitched in the same manner as the articles and tutorials.

How to Pitch

At the bottom of the Tuts+ page there is a link to Teach at Tuts+. Follow it and you will see a nicely laid out page with two options, Teach a course or create a tutorial. Select one and you will land on a page asking for information about you. The pages are similar and you can pitch more than one idea at a time. From there you will wait until they contact you. It’s short and simple to get started with Tuts+.

Pitching articles is a little more involved. There are two ways to do this. The first is to send them an email with your pitch. This is probably the easiest way to pitch an article. The second method is to enter the search term “Articles” at the top of their page. Then scroll down to their latest request for articles and click on it. Follow the instructions presented. This is generally the best way to pitch your first article. Afterwards you can just email them your pitches to make the process easier.

Getting paid

This is the good part. The average payment is around $100 for a short tip tutorial and $250 for a standard tutorial. There is a sliding scale from here and it’s not unusual for those who have been with the company to exceed $1000 a month in earnings. There is more money to be made in video courses and ebooks so it’s worth it to get involved with this company on an in depth basis.

That’s all there is to Tuts+. It’s certainly a company worth investigating if you are looking for a long term online writing company that pays well. This is also a great way to get involved with technical writing and lay a firm foundation for future technical writing gigs.

People Per Hour provides a safe place where freelancers of all stripes can sell their services and businesses can hire exactly what they need. It’s a straightforward business that benefits everyone involved. The best part is that it has a simple format without much of a learning curve. You will be able to figure out the site quickly and start making money almost immediately.

Getting Started

Go to the website and sign up. You will immediately be sent an email verification that activates your account. Click on this and you are now a member of People Per Hour. I highly recommend that you sign up to this site via your LinkedIn account.

The Application

Once you have become a member of the group by validating your email address you can then apply to begin selling your services. This is a rather odd process so let me take you through it step by step.

The first thing they want is a lot of information about you. If you signed up via LinkedIn then most of this is already filled in for you. Your basic biography and job skills will be there but you can alter them if you wish. Pay close attention to the skills boxes. There are two and one is for those skills where you are an expert and the other is for general skills. You want to be sure and highlight the right skills.

If you didn’t sign up via LinkedIn then you will have to manually input the information. Thankfully you only have to do this once s it can be time consuming.

Next they will want references. If nothing else, download a copy of your website and upload that for them. It will make them happy. If, by chance, you should have skills that lend themselves to other areas besides writing, please add any documentation you might have for those.

Finally, and this was the odd part, they want a video. It’s not required but your application will take precedence if you submit a video. You can select a text option and they will give you a guided list of the questions that you should answer in the text box.

After that you have a short wait of 1-3 days.

Once you are approved you can start making money.

Your Dashboard

Your profile has already been created via your application. Beyond that your Dashboard will have your hourly fee listed as well as information about the projects you are working on, the money you have made and jobs you have posted.

There is an area for endorsements as well. This improves your ranking and makes you look good to potential clients. You can request endorsements from friends and/or those within your social media network.

Finding Jobs

You have a couple of options here. The first is to click on the “Sell” button and browse jobs. By default the system will look for those that match the skill set in your profile. You can choose other criteria for a manual search if you wish. When you find something interesting you click on “Send a Proposal” and you will be given further details on the job and the ability to apply for it.

It should be noted here that every account is given a total of 15 proposal credits a month. That means you can send 15 proposals per month and this number doesn’t change based on whether or not your proposal was accepted.

The other method of finding a job is to post what the site terms an “hourlie” or a job that should take no more than an hour. You set the parameters and if clients wish to engage you for the job they purchase it. You do the job and then you get paid.

Working a Job

Once you have a job, either from a proposal or selling an hourlie, it will appear in your workstream. Through this you can communicate with the client and then complete the job. If you are writing an article, for example, you will complete it in Word and then upload it to the workstream for the client.

There are a few rules but they are mostly common sense. You have to respond to messages from the client within 24 hours and meet the agreed upon deadline. Likewise, they have to respond to you within 24 hours. You can’t solicit them to pay you outside of People Per Hour and they can’t offer to do so.

Ratings

Once a job is completed and you have been paid you can rate the client. They will also rate you and the higher your rating the better offers you will get and the sooner the best jobs will become available to you.

Getting Paid

This is pretty basic. After you complete your assignment and the buyer is happy you submit an invoice to them via the invoice button. They pay the invoice and the money is deposited into your People Per Hour wallet. You can then withdraw it at any time to your Skrill, PayPal or bank account.

There are transfer fees for both Skrill and PayPal but none for a bank transfer.

Buyers are required to pay within 7 days. Most pay within hours.

There is also an escrow option for large jobs and any job over $500 should probably use this service though I have not heard of any problems at all with buyers not paying. Buyer disputes tend to favor the seller (or writer) in most cases.

The Downside of People Per Hour

It seems like there is always a downside. In this case it comes via fees. You pay 15% of the first $280 you earn in service fees. Anything over that is calculated at a 3.5% fee. Then there is the proposal credit fee. After you run out of your 15 free proposal credits you can purchase more of them at roughly $1 a credit.

The easiest way to deal with the fees is to pass it on to the client and charge a higher fee. This seems to be the norm on the site so apparently the clients are all good with it.

Tips for Success

On your Dashboard, at the bottom of the page, there will be a number of “Trending Hourlies.” Not only is this a great way to see what people are buying and get some cool ideas, it’s absolutely fascinating. The wide range of available jobs, the prices on them can all serve to help you word your own Hourlie, set your rates and even give you an idea or two.

This can be a fun site to play with and if you work it you can make some serious money. Give it a shot and let me know how it works for you.

These companies vary widely in what they publish, how fast the respond to submissions and how they accept those submissions. The goal here is to give you the information necessary for you to take the next step in getting your book published by a publishing house.

While in most cases there are exceptions to every rule, in the publishing business the rules are carved in granite. The top publishing houses will not accept unsolicited manuscripts. For those you have no choice but submit through an agent. Sending your book to them yourself is pointless as they flatly refuse to consider anything unsolicited and simply throw them away.

The Crossroad Publishing Company

This publishing company is focused on religious thought and spiritual living. This company is the oldest on this list which means that it has a historic track record of success. They don’t offer advances but they do offer a larger share of the profits than other companies so that should be taken into consideration.

Company History

This is a rare publishing company that has an incredible history and yet still welcomes unsolicited manuscripts. The roots of the company go back to 1798 and the Herder family. In 1980 Crossroads was formed with the Herder Book Company booklists. With a history spanning centuries and not just decades you know that this company is capable of handling your manuscript and your book with great care and consideration.

What they publish

This company focuses primarily on books with a religious basis to them. The popular Bad Catholic humor series is published through them as well as notable works on Christian theology. While many of the books have a Catholic frame of reference, all Christian works are considered in both fiction and nonfiction categories. There are also books on families, relationships, children’s books and everyday living.

Notable Authors

This is a rather notable list of the top personalities in Christianity including Pope Benedict and Mother Theresa. Robert Barron is also published here as is of course John Zmirak, the writer of the previously mentioned Bad Catholic Guides

What you need to know before submitting your manuscript

Take a few minutes before submitting your manuscript and look over the submission guidelines on their website. They are fairly standard but you should note a few things are requested. Please see their website at crossroadpublishing.com for a more detailed list:

• Proposal Title
• A brief pitch of the project
• A few paragraphs describing the project
• Intended format for the book
• A table of contents
• Approximate word length
• A mostly finished book
• Intended audience
• Your bibliography and resume

Crossroads Publishing will only accept e-mail submissions of manuscripts. Additionally, while they try to respond within 6-8 weeks, they cannot guarantee that this will happen or that you will receive a response at all.

Witness Impulse Publishers

Does your heart race at the thought of a corpse in a toolshed? Perhaps you prefer a man vanishing without a trace in a locked room? If so I really hope you’re a mystery writer! If you are then Witness Impulse Publishers might be just the publishing company for you.

Just so you know in advance, Witness Impulse authors get 25% royalties for the first 10,000 copies sold and 50% after that.

Company History

This is as close to getting involved with one of the big house publishing companies as you can get without an agent. The good news is that the company in question is HarperCollins.

What they publish

Violence, murder and mayhem! This is the HarperCollins division dedicated to all things mysterious. From historical mysteries to modern police procedurals (Think CSI or Law and Order) and psychological thrillers, if it’s mysterious then it might find a home here. They love a good mystery series so consider this when creating your proposal.

Notable Authors

Witness Impulse puts out some heart stoppers thanks to numerous outstanding authors including, James Hayman author of The Cutting and The Chill of Night, Margie Orford, Gallows Hill and Daddy’s Girl, and Stephen Booth Dying to Sin and Scared to Live.

What you need to know before submitting your manuscript

Witness Impulse makes it insanely easy to submit your work to them for consideration. Go to their website at wmmorrow.hc.com/witnessimpulse and click on the “Submit Your Writing” link. You get a form page where you fill out the form, including the title, whether or not it’s finished and approximate length.

Don’t let the informality fool you. There are three text boxes that ask for:

• Brief synopsis
• Best scene
• Your query letter

You need to impress them enough to get them to read your submission so don’t take this lightly. Be sure to double and triple check what you write. I recommend writing it in Word or some other word processor and copy/pasting it into the text boxes. When you are finished you will have a chance to upload your manuscript to them. That’s it and you’re done.

Avon Impulse Publishers

Many people, including many writers, joke about romance novels. When you consider that romance novels are a multi-billion dollar share of the publishing then you might consider that this is a genre you don’t want to dismiss.

Avon Impulse is the Romance publishing arm of HarperCollins. Like The previously mentioned Witness Impulse, you don’t need an agent to break into this extremely lucrative area of writing with a top publishing house. The same royalties apply here as with Witness Impulse: 25% of the first 10,000 and 50% of everything after that.

Company History

This division of HarperCollins is focused on churning out as many new romance novels as possible. They created this unit several years ago with the specific goal of meeting the demands of their readers. Since then they have grown rapidly and anyone who writes for them has the HarperCollins name backing their work.

What they publish

These are more modern styled romance novels. You still have the romance and steam but Avon Impulse is open to characters that reflect the lives of modern women. There is plenty of room here for historical romance novels, of course but they are also welcoming of female characters with strong careers and even alternative lifestyles and non-traditional careers. They want moderate to super steamy here so if you can deliver that to the readers then be sure and submit your manuscript.

They absolutely love new book series! Keep that in mind when you craft your proposal and be sure to let them know if your book is part of a series.

Notable Authors

These authors are the Queens of Steam! You will find Monica Murphy, Lecia Cornwall, Cathy Maxwell and even Elizabeth Boyle on their booklist.

What you need to know before submitting your manuscript

The website here is avonromance.com/impulse and the form is exactly the same as it is for Witness Impulse. Again, those text boxes matter so consider writing your responses in a word processor and doing the copy/paste routine.

One slight difference with Avon Impulse is that their website will often put out a call for certain types of romance novels. If you are responding to one of these calls be sure to note it on the form in the space provided. These go to a specific editor and you want to be sure she gets it in a timely manner.

Harlequin Enterprises

Don’t laugh at the multi-billion dollar market share! Even people who have never read a romance novel in their lives know the name of this publisher. If you are looking to crank out a great living as a romance novelist then you should probably head to this company first.

Company History

Infamous for their so-called “bodice rippers,” Harlequin has been the leading publisher of romance novels for decades. They are considered to be the top company in the world for romance novel publication and they don’t require an agent.

What they publish

If I compiled a list of what they were looking for in new material we would be here for the next 5 years. More importantly for the new author, Harlequin has created genres within the genre. They are all romance but they focus on specific types of romance. This division has made it really handy for new writers to get their material to the right editors.

Visit the website at Harlequin.com and scroll down the list. Do you like to write romances about women in danger? Try the Romantic Suspense division. You prefer Lords, ladies and knights in not so shining armor? The historical division is where you want to be. They publish virtually any kind of romance you can think of and if you manage to come up with one that they haven’t considered, pitch it to them!

Notable Authors

This reads like a who’s who in publishing because many top authors got their start here. Authors like Mercedes Lackey, Nora Roberts, and Christopher Rice have all written for Harlequin at some point.

What you need to know before submitting your manuscript

This is something of a unique process. First you create an account. You only need one even if you submit several different manuscripts to several different divisions. Once you have created an account you will see a form. Just fill it out and upload your synopsis and then your manuscript. Interestingly, if your manuscript is not accepted within one division you can resubmit it to another to see if it would be a better fit.

Chronicle Books

This company is environmentally friendly, is always on the hunt for new authors and can spot a trend while it’s still forming. This is a great all around company to look into if you are a new author.

Company History

San Francisco based Chronicle Books was founded in 1967 and was once affiliated with the newspaper The San Francisco Chronicle. After nearly 50 years in the publishing business Chronicle books knows how to spot a best seller!

What they publish

If you were disappointed by the previous entries because your manuscript doesn’t fit in any of them then this is the one for you. Chronicle publishes a wide variety of genres including non-fiction, cookbooks, poetry, biographies and books for children of all ages.

Notable Authors

My favorite author, Grumpy Cat, is among the notable authors that have been published by Chronicle. If you tend to favor human authors you fill find E.C. Large, Barbara Boxer, and Ida Magntorn on the booklist here. Equally impressive is their list of New York Times Bestseller books including The Worst Case Survival Handbook and The Beetles Anthology.

What you need to know before submitting your manuscript

For adult trade books Chronicle prefers e-mail submissions on manuscripts. For children’s books they prefer that you mail them. Due to the large volume of submissions they will only contact you if they are interested in publishing your work.

Visit their website at Chroniclebooks.com for a detailed manuscript submission guideline as well as the e-mail and postal address of Chronicle books.

There are a couple of unusual points of note in their guidelines:

• They want a one page cover letter detailing your project, what is included in your submission and why you think they should publish your book. I would really be interested in what Grumpy Cat had to say on that last part.
• They want a market analysis of the potential readership of the book. This is rather unique but at least you will have a better understanding of who you are trying to reach through your book!

Those are the top publishing companies for new authors. I took into consideration their name recognition, payment to authors and their track record of publishing success. These are great places to get started if you want to move ahead without an agent. To break into the biggest publishing houses you will simply have to have an agent or become such a self-publishing success that they come to you. With any luck I’ll have my next article to you shortly on how to find a literary agent. Until then, happy writing!

If you’re a writer, then you should seriously consider self publishing your first book. The reasons are numerous, as I discussed in a previous article. The bottom line: If you want to help your writing career, writing and publishing a book is one of the best things you can do.

That’s why I’ve recently written about how to write a book in one week, and how to set the right price for your book.

This article is all about how to sell your book, even if you are an introvert.

There is only one thing left to do and that is to sell your book! The downside for most people when it comes to self-publishing is the promotion of the book.

There are several different ways to do this and most of them are painless, even for an introvert like me!

Create a Buzz

The best way to create a buzz about your book is to start before the book is released. You want people to anticipate its publication as much as possible. Social media announcements, teaser paragraphs, interesting graphics or anything else you can dream up to get people thinking and talking about your book. One fun way is to do a countdown starting 10 days before your book releases.

Take advantage of Site Sponsored Programs

Amazon has great programs for promoting your book. Take advantage of those, especially with your first book, to get your name out there. These programs will market your book, offer it at a discount and so on, depending on which program you select. These are designed to sell as many books as possible. Amazon wants you to succeed, so be sure to take advantage of the resources they offer.

Create a Facebook Page

A writer should have at least two Facebook pages; their personal page and their writer page. Ideally these two pages never meet each other. Fiction writers will often create an additional page for their book or the lead character in a new series. These pages take very little time to create and keep updated but will help expand your book sales by making you more approachable and giving people a chance to get to know the author.

Hit the Major Social Media Outlets

If you don’t already have a LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter account…well shame on you! These are huge marketing tools and you want to tap into them. Create buzz and keep it going on Twitter. With Facebook, you want to promote your book on your writer’s page, the page you created for the book itself, and on your personal page.

The psychology behind this is very basic in that people want to read books written by people they know. This is true even if they only know you in a virtual sense. How they respond to the information is often dictated by the platform in which they are responding.

One important note about social media and that is that everyone seems to have a favorite. While just about everyone has a Facebook and Twitter account, whether or not they use them is an entirely different matter. Some people live on Twitter. Others never seem to be without their Facebook app open. What people use the most and that which they are the most comfortable with will differ between groups of people. You want to reach as wide of an audience as possible and that means being as diverse as possible with your social media marketing.

Facebook

Here is where there is the most give and take. This is also the most real of the sites in that it seems more personal than  Twitter. You want to promote the book but not overdo it on your personal page. Post status updates along the lines of “I just finished my book, keeping fingers crossed that people like it!” Or “What do you think of my cover art?”

You can go all out on your writer page and/or the page you create for the book itself. That is what the page is for and what people expect.

Twitter

Feel free to jabber on at will on Twitter, everyone else does. Status updates can be fun though if you create a Twitter feed for your fictional character and let them do the tweeting. For non-fiction, share tweets with relevant groups of people, specifically those who might be interested in your book.

LinkedIn

This is a bit tricky. You want to promote your book but you don’t want to be unprofessional about it. The best idea here is to add it to your profile, and make a few comments about it.

Tumblr

Over the past couple of years this has become the go-to blogging site. It’s a great place to promote your book, network with graphic designer and gain a loyal following. This is a great site for a writer’s blog and you can easily promote your book from within this blog.

Goodreads

This might not seem like a social media site to you but it is and it’s a very important one for writers. This is the ultimate readers website where they can create a virtual bookshelf, join groups of like-minded readers and often chat with authors. That is where you come in to the picture. You do not have to be Stephen King to generate interest on this site. There are frequent author chats, giveaways and there are even book clubs devoted to indie writers! Sign up for an account and take a look around. This is a great place for writers to not just meet their public but to create an entire reader base.

Create a Teaser Book

This is a great idea for fiction writers. A short prequel to the main attraction is a great way to both create a buzz and to really hook your readers. One popular way to do this is publish both at the same time and then take advantage of the site sponsored programs for the teaser book. Reduced or even free prices for the prequel with the ability to immediately buy the main book will let readers continue immediately with the story. Many people will buy the main book just because they need to know what happens next.

Bonus Tip: Create a website devoted to the book

This is particularly useful and fun for those who write serial fiction. Create a website devoted entirely to the series. This can be done several ways.

• From the point of view of the main character
• From the point of view of the protagonist
• As a narrator

Just to name a few. With each of these points you can offer insight into the minds of the characters that is not covered in the books.

As the main character, you could write it as his or her blog or create it much like an online diary. You can even address events in the book and what he or she really thinks. Design the site with the character in mind and even consider including artwork and graphics.

As the protagonist you can delve into their mind in a way that the books make difficult. Again, consider treating the character as though he or she is a living breathing person and include the things on the site that the character would include.

When creating the web page as the narrator you can opt to discuss character profiles, the town, landmarks or whatever else applies. You can cover it as though you are a journalist and writing for the town newspaper.

There are plenty of ways to do this but the main point is to sell more eBooks. This works with fiction because it allows the reader to become invested in the character in a more personal way. They can almost become friends of the characters. Of course they are going to read the next book, after all they need to know what happens with their friend!