career management for writers Archives

Best Courses for Freelance Writers: Earn More Writing by Holly Johnson

Posted on November 23, 2017 Written by Pinar Tarhan

I’m a big fan of investing in yourself when it comes to your writing career, so whenever a course filled with valuable information and advice that I don’t see often, coming from successful writers who have succeeded brilliantly in a relatively short amount of time, I jump at it.

Partly, it is for me. I love learning new tips and remembering great evergreen advice I know but lack in practice.

Partly, it is for you. I love sharing awesome resources with you.

Now, this post will include affiliate links. It means if you purchase the courses through my links, it won’t cost you extra, but I’ll earn a little something. If you don’t buy, you will still have learned about an amazing blogger who shares awesome free content on her website.

And yes, I own and completed this course. I keep going back to it for reference on a regular basis, even though I’ve been doing this for a while. Sometimes, you need the extra inspiration and motivation.

The course also comes with its own Facebook group. I can say that the members of the group are lovely, helpful and inspiring.

Now that we got that out of the way, the review:

Earn More Writing

Earn More Writing was created by Holly Johnson, a six-figure writer specializing in personal finance and travel. She co-runs the blog Club Thrifty with her husband, where they give smart, fun and applicable advice on living better for less.

I own the standard package that comes with 8 modules and a bonus section.

The modules are video courses with a written summary, and they each have a worksheet you can print out to study and record your progress.

The modules include:

How to Establish Your Blog and Brand
How to Build Your Portfolio and Pitch Clients
Defending Your Work Day
How to Transition from Broke to Rich Writing
Finding and Keeping Your Dream Clients
Actually Getting Paid
Get More Work by Making Editors Happy
Taking Your Income into the Stratosphere

The bonus section includes several guides and a bonus video on ghostwriting for CEOs. The guides include an actual successful pitch letter Holly sent herself, essential resources for freelancers, what editors really want, anatomy of a perfect blog post – and my personal favorite: list of businesses with blogs.

The course, while fun, is a lot of work. However, despite however long you have been doing this, I recommend not skipping even a second of the videos. You can always improve on your brand as a writer.

This course is for all writers of non-fiction who want to make more money and build or maintain a writing career on their own trips. That’s why the course includes modules on branding, time management and relationships with your editors.

About Holly Johnson

You can learn more about Holly through the blog ClubThrifty. Her bylines include The Simple Dollar, Forbes and CNN.

If you have any questions about the course, hit me up in the comments. If I can’t answer it, I’ll ask Holly and get back to you.

You can buy the course here.

Writing for Free: Everything Writers Need to Know About Writing for Free

Posted on September 9, 2017 Written by Pinar Tarhan

Ah, the age-old question. Should a writer ever write for free?

The simple answer to that question is that, if you can help it, no. You should not write for free. Writing is work. It’s labor. And we need to be compensated. As awesome as exposure and fame sound, they don’t buy groceries.

Which brings us to the “if you can help it” part. You might consider writing for free when:

You are a newbie with no clips.

What if you can afford not being paid in the short term? Maybe you are still at your full-time job. Maybe you have another source of income or a partner who can help with the cost of living for a bit? Then, you might consider writing for a very authoritative, popular and respected site – like Copyblogger – for free.

While Copyblogger can afford to pay writers, guest posters – as far as I know- are not paid. However, the traffic, social media shares, and hopefully email subscribers are potentially a lot more than you’d get from writing on your own blog or writing for a site that is much smaller, not-as-well-known and pays a pittance.

You’d also be exposing yourself to a wide audience coming from a variety of industries. You would be majorly enhancing your portfolio by including a link to your Copyblogger piece in your pitches. Clients have a better chance of reaching out to you after your piece there as well.

You are an experienced writer but you have no relevant clips, and you are looking venture into a new niche.

Sometimes you have clips, but nothing remotely close to the ones your potential client is looking for. You can try getting published for pay, and that is better than writing for free. But sometimes, you can’t get published for pay.

Sometimes a publication pays but does not offer a byline: You need your byline to add to your portfolio. You can still opt to get paid if you need the money, but that means you still have zero relevant clips.

You can write for a relative/friend/acquaintance for free. They should ideally pay you. But if they can’t afford it, and or you are new at this niche – meaning you have no experience from your education, work experience, etc., you can write in exchange for a stellar testimonial from them.

Remember, we all write for free…for ourselves.

We write our blogs and social media posts. No one pays us. OK, we are our own boss, but we are also our own marketer. We are marketing our writing with each thing we put out there.

Since we already do a lot of free writing, it is better not to write more for free, as much as we can help it.

I believe that most publications that don’t pay are setting a bad precedent.

Make a website, offer exposure, don’t pay anyone. Right…

Yes, obviously, if my favorite author came out of nowhere and asked me to do some writing for free, telling me that he will share my post (with my byline) with everyone, then yes, I’d do it. For the exposure. Because I’d totally fan out on him. (Yeah, probably not a term.)

But my favorite author is filthy rich. And at this point, he knows I can write. Why else would he ask me to write something for him? So, the obvious question is, why the hell is he not paying me?

The lesson to take from this piece is simple: It’s complicated.

Things, unfortunately, can work differently than other professions. The best thing we can do is to go after paid opportunities as well and as much as we can.

But if we need the byline more than the money, we can swallow our wallet (not our pride; writing for them is prestigious, remember?) occasionally to make our portfolio shine.

Yet every time we do swallow our wallet, we are making it harder for other writers to get paid too.

So, let’s have a toast: May we always get paid and get a byline too.

Tell me, what do you think about writing for free? Please share in the comments.

And if you found this post helpful, please share it on social media. My boss, aka me, is paying me with exposure for this one. 😉

How to Get Back to Work After Vacation (Even If You Are Exhausted)

Posted on July 19, 2017 Written by Pinar Tarhan

Pinar Tarhan, writer — Me at one of my favorite places: by the pool. July, 2017.

Hi, everyone! I’m back from a week of beach vacation at an all-inclusive resort in Kemer, Antalya, and I’m positively exhausted. Knackered. Shattered. And the rest of the thesaurus.

Unfortunately, I’m one of those people who needs another vacation to offset the effects of the previous vacation. I had a lot of fun being very active, and now my body is paying the price. So this second “vacation” is basically sleeping off the effects of the first one.

But being a freelance writer means when I don’t work, I don’t make any money, so I have to get back to work ASAP. And it was even more so this time because I had a deadline for the second day of my return.

I’m also planning mini getaways before the summer ends, as well as a couple of days abroad. And fingers crossed, a second beach vacation because I need all the Vitamin D and happiness I can get as someone with a weak immune system, and as a writer who sometimes gets so lost in her stories that she forgets things like the outside world, healthy-eating, and exercise.

But this post is coming to you right after I’ve submitted my piece a day before the deadline and feeling slightly better. So I wanted to share my tips with fellow freelancers who freak about their vacations because of the mountain of work that awaits them afterward.

11 Tips for How to Get Back to Work After Vacation (Even If You are Exhausted):

1) Sleep well and long.

Here’s the thing. I’m not rich. I can afford vacations at five-star resorts through a carefully calculated budget, and watching out for discounts.

So when something you love – aka beach holidays- happens once or twice a year, you make the most of it. This usually comes in the form of overdoing things like swimming, dancing, eating, drinking; and underdoing things like sleeping.

After a week of fun and an exhausting return trip, you need your sleep. So do it. Even if it means it is 5 pm by the time you properly wake up. Your body and mind will thank you for it.

2) Eat healthily, even if you have to commit a few “sins” until you get the energy to concoct something nutritious.

In my case, I ate chocolate before I could move my butt to heat and eat vegetables.

3) Have a nice and long shower, or bath.

You’ll feel refreshed and energized.

4) Take a painkiller with minimal side effects if you are in physical pain.

If everything hurts badly and it hasn’t waned a bit even after the sleep, bath and meal, you might need a painkiller. Of course, this is between you, your common sense and doctor. But if you pushed your body like you never do in a year, taking something might be in order. (But please don’t do anything your doctor doesn’t approve of. I’m not a doctor.)

5) Drink coffee! (Or tea, if that’s your thing.)

After I do all four, I still need my good friend and preferred medicine, coffee. (This time I also watched the two Jim Jefferies Show episodes I missed for relaxation and laughs before getting to work.)

The following tips require you do them before your trip so that the five tips above will be more effective.

6) Stock your fridge (and freezer) with food and beverages that won’t go bad.

So that you won’t have to run to the shops when you’d rather not leave your house. Or your bed.

7) Try not to get a deadline for the first couple of days you are back.

Sometimes it is inevitable, but it is wise to give yourself a breather. In my case, I had already written and edited the essay that was due. I re-read it for flow, overlooked language mistakes, and connectivity. It wasn’t that much work as I had done the heavy lifting earlier.

8) To continue from tip 7, if you must have a deadline soon after your return, do the work before you leave.

So that when you come back, you just have to do minor edits and hit send.

9) Don’t leave your house a mess.

I find it impossible to not to leave the house at least a bit messy while packing. But this time, I managed to leave a relatively tidy place behind, as well as a desk ready to be worked at. I am now more relaxed and motivated to get to work.

10) And try to pick projects that not only pay well, but you care about and enjoy.

Whether it is your internal harsh critic or the editor you are working with, (and it is generally both), a piece can often take longer than you thought it

would. It wouldn’t do anyone any good if you resent yourself, the piece or the topic. So pick something you are passionate about whenever you can.

Writing the essay was scary and emotional, but ultimately, I love the subject. People need to read it, and I want it to be its best version.

It’s hard producing your best work if you are cursing the moment you decided to take on this work.

11) Enjoy the hell out of your vacation!

A great vacation makes you ecstatic and fills your head with awesome story ideas. So arrange for your work to be done before your vacation starts. Have a solid plan on what you will do afterward, but don’t worry about it as you relax with your favorite cocktail.

Do you have any other suggestions on how to get back to work after an exhausting vacation? Please share in the comments.

What I Can and I Can’t Do For Writers As A Writer

Posted on November 29, 2016 Written by Pinar Tarhan

Every once in a while, I’ll get an email from a freelance writer that asks me to do something I can’t or don’t do. It might be in the form of a pitch to write for me, or it might be a CV to… Well, I really don’t know why someone would send me a writing CV out of blue, but they do.

Well, let’s go over for my abilities, services and well, capabilities about the matter:

I can’t hire you as a writer.

I am a writer. I’m a one-person business. I’m not an agency, so I can’t hire you as a writer.

I can’t find you work.

Learning to write great pitches, differentiating yourself and landing jobs are things you have to do yourself. I can offer you advice on how to do what, but I can’t feed you jobs.

Yes, I might refer work to writers, but those will be the writers whose work I know well. In other words, one semi-customized email from you won’t get you referral work from me.

I’m open to business partnerships.

If you want to be my researcher:

I can be your proofreader or social media manager.
I can be a brainstorming partner, offer career management tips, and I can help you become more productive.
I can also be your virtual assistant.

So we can exchange services.

I don’t accept guest posts on this blog, unless….

Unless you are John Grisham. Or Kathryn Bigelow. What? I’m not going to turn them down!

The truth is, I am not fond of asking for guest posts because I can’t pay writers at the moment. And this blog has a very specific goal: helping writers make money while writing (about) what they love. So asking writers to write for free doesn’t sit well with me.

If you are in love with my blog and my writing, I can write for you too, and that will be payment. Eye for an eye in a positive context. Go over the content on my site, how I format things and the style. Then send me a pitch. But as of this post, yours might be the first “outside” post ever.

And of course I’ll promote the hell out of the post. Duh!

But still, go pitch that idea to a publication that pays first.

I help with social media.

I offer help with social media. If you have a specific question, shoot. The free mentoring is all over the blog posts. Email me, or tweet me a question, and I’ll gladly answer.

I mentor.

I offer mentoring. Most writers I know have a strong support group, me included. Some of these are free FB groups. Some of these are private FB groups I was invited to join after purchasing an awesome course. I run two writing groups myself:

Writers Helping Writers Writers help each other pretty much everything writing-related. However, I try to keep this group about non-fiction

Logline Buddies Logline Buddies is where you come for fiction-related questions, especially to fix your loglines.

Again, email me, or tweet me a question, and I’ll gladly answer. If you’re not following me on Twitter, I’m @zoeyclark.

But if you need more time and attention, you can hire me as a mentor. E-mail me for my fees.

I provide script reading and coverage.

Yes, you can hire me to read your script. However, even though I follow the industry, I am not in it yet. So I’m not going to give you a pass, consider, or recommend.

But I have read and watched a lot. Like really a lot. And I am always studying structure, format, subtext, dialogue and beyond. So if you are new to screenwriting, you can benefit from my expertise.

I haven’t won anything yet, but I was asked for a treatment after a pitch. I was a semi-finalist with a TV pilot, and a feature of mine got a Consider from a SpecScout reader.

The advantage of working with me is that I’ll do my best to see your story through your eyes. I also answer follow-up questions. E-mail me for at pinartarhan@windowslive.com for my fees.

If you want someone more experienced, I can gladly refer you to the names and companies below. I have worked with them at least once, and I still use them whenever I need professional reading.

(I don’t get a commission for recommending these people and companies.)

Lucy V Hay

Coverage Ink

Selling Your Screenplay

SpecScout

So there you go. I hope I could help. : )