When you’re a writer working for a paycheck, you quickly learn to dread the dawning of a new work day. So how do you handle the daily challenge of showing up the office when you’d rather be working on your novel? You have two choices when dealing with your Day Job Monster.

1. You can tether your Monster to a leg of your desk, where he’ll do the least amount of damage,

or

2. You can let him rampage wildly all over your life, running up a huge damages bill you’ll never be able to pay.

Unless you’re completely masochistic, option one is probably a lot more appealing. But you may have already chosen option two, because you didn’t realize there was an alternative to the day job dominating your life. If you did choose the nastier option, I’m guessing you’re pretty unhappy. Recognize yourself in any of these behaviors?

• You look for ways to stay angry

How do you spend an average work night? Do you replay the day’s Horror Highlights in your head? Do you fume about how much writing you could have done if only you didn’t have to work? Do you start obsessing about the toxic nature of your office culture? Spend your evenings thinking about the Day Job Monster, and you can guarantee you’ll be anxious, angry and frustrated most of the time.

• You argue with your partner a lot more than you used to

Do you complain about the tedium of the day to your partner until he or she can really take no more? This habit can quickly develop into a nightly screaming match about how you can’t handle your job. You end up feeling lonely, misunderstood, and desperately unhappy. When you’d rather be writing full time, your day job is going to frustrate you. It’s unavoidable. But the fact you have to work to pay the bills is probably not your partner’s fault. And, it’s true, maybe your partner doesn’t really get the full picture.

People who are not stuck in a job that’s driving them nuts can never fully comprehend the misery of the day job world. If your partner doesn’t understand the agony you endure on a daily basis, you may have to find a way to be forgiving. Because you need the good parts of your life. They remind you of what’s really important; they give you the strength to face the Monster, and to keep working on your writing dream.

• You’re addicted to negative emailing

Isn’t it tempting to arrive at work, fire up your computer and start the day by emailing the three human beings in your building about the appalling quality of your life? It might make you feel better for a couple of minutes. Only thing is, you’ll get a volley of negativity in return. Because other people are also struggling with their Day Job Monsters. Do you want to take on their problems as well? Surely your own experience is painful enough! And what if you email that savagely sarcastic message to the wrong cubicle dweller by mistake? Before long, the boss gets to read it, and suddenly your day becomes so very much worse.

• You’ve become very friendly with a bartender

After a hard day of Monster grind, it’s all too easy to reach for the vodka. Or the whisky, gin, wine or beer. Because, let’s face it, alcohol works. After a few stiff ones, you’ll definitely feel better. With the sharp, spiky edges of the day nicely softened, it’s easier to forget about the office reality. But after another Tuesday night of Martini Madness, you won’t sleep too well. You’ll wake up bleary, nauseous, and possibly even more depressed than you were yesterday. And just try facing the Monster with a hangover! Now that’s a real challenge.

• You find comfort in the fridge

Hating your day job is hard work. It’s easy to build up a healthy appetite fighting back those waves of office depression. So three helpings of Butter Chicken for lunch is a tempting idea. Each bite will offer temporary comfort. But too much food will quickly make you feel even worse. Don’t let the Monster tempt you to eat yourself into a deeper depression – having to buy a whole new wardrobe of office clothes in a larger size doesn’t do much for your mood, let me tell you.

Can you see yourself in any of these behaviors?

Could you be making your day job even harder than it has to be? The good news is that you can make your working life easier on yourself. These kinds of responses to the day job are simply bad habits. You’ve developed them as a desperate response to a traumatic work environment. And habits can be broken. When you break habits like these, you reduce the Day Job Monster’s power to ruin your quality of life. Your day job is just not that important in the wider scheme of things. It doesn’t define you. In fact, it probably barely interests you!

Tether that Monster to the leg of your desk, and you can get back to noticing the good parts of your life. They include your partner, friends, hobbies, and the ways you relax and have fun. And they also include the kind of work that does matter – your manuscript.

This article may be freely reprinted, as long as the biography is included. I’d love it if you’d send me a link if you use my work!

Author: Liz Hardy
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Netbook, Tablets and Mobile Computing

You should become a manuscript or book author’s ghost writer, copy editor and proof reader. However, if you’re only starting to think about a writing career, I suggest you get a bachelor’s degree in English or whatever language, perhaps in language studies, English literature, creative writing, or English in general. A master’s degree or higher is even better. I myself have a combined degree in journalism, fine arts and creative writing.

Once you have that, you need to get some experience. You could be hired by literary magazines, especially at your school, or you could write articles for newspapers, perhaps starting your own column. You can also acquire writing jobs on the Internet by looking up work. I suggest avoiding the low paying bidding jobs and going for regular posted work at sites like Daylo, or other freelancer’s sites – where writing work is posted for free.

Once you have a few writing credits, you can begin your ghost writing career. I would suggest trying to get hired by a book ghost writers service, as there are many on the Internet. Another possibility is you can start your own service, as I did; mine is called Rainbow Writing, Inc., and we hire people who either have a lot of professional experience, a good educational background, and/or show a lot of writing talent. I have over thirty years of experience at writing, especially as a book ghost writer, copy editor and proof reader.

Once you get on the Internet, you will need to search engine optimize your website, post lots of articles with your credit box attached to them, or hire pay per click or other services to get advertising exposure. Then you can begin to acquire clients. You may start by offering a free five to ten page rewrite of a chapter the client sends you; this is what is generally expected of a book ghost writer and copy editor. You can quote a price, and I would start fairly low early on in your career, unless you have prior writing experience. Ask the client what he or she can afford, but stay reasonable, so you can keep your costs low and pay your bills.

As book ghost writers, copy editors and proof readers, we all need to make sure our clients are satisfied with their results. So while you are in the writing field, make sure you read copiously and on a regular basis, write short stories, poems and articles on a regular basis to refresh your writing skills, and be sure to work on a novel or two of your own. This will keep you handy when it comes to being a book writer for others as well. Another possibility is to keep a daily hardbound journal of your writing or simply comment on your daily activities, thoughts and dreams. This sort of thing can keep you really practices; I kept such a journal for over twenty years.

As to scheduling, it’s a good idea to take on as many clients as you can handle. Don’t overload, but you’d be surprised how much work you can do once you get into the swing of it. Try to get a book ghost writer job done in two to three months. If you charge $5000 per book at first, you can make $20,000-30,000 a year if you keep up on a regular basis. Once you have more experience, you can begin charging more money.

When you are a book author, ghost writer, copy editor and proof reader, you will find you are working a job that really consumes your time, so make sure you take the time to perform your other daily activities of family life, and set aside a one hour period every day to exercise. Book writers are one group of people who have the "sedentary lifestyle pattern" hazard, so in order to avoid getting sick, you must exercise. If you don’t want to go outside and walk, purchase a cheap treadmill. Those work quite well.

Book authors, ghost writers, copy editors and proof readers all need to maintain the standards of our profession. When you are a ghost writer of any kind, chances are you won’t be allowed to take credit for your work. It’s supposed to belong to the works true "author," who is the person paying you to do the ghost writing. Even if you do most or all of the work, your client is the author of it and is the one who receive the credit, unless you make some other arrangement. If the client is willing, you can be coauthors with him or her, or make some other such arrangement, such as you getting credit and a percentage of book sales in lieu of upfront payment.

By the way – the method of payment for a manuscript or book ghost writer is upfront. You get paid in advance, in installments usually as the book is being written. This is the main advantage of being a book or manuscript ghost writer, copy editor and proof reader – upfront payment. You need to sound the client out on his or her budget, set a total price, and then ask for the first installment payment once you have been hired.

You might also sign a contract with a non disclosure clause with the client. The contract might be three way, if you are working for a ghost writing agency, or two way, if it’s just you and the client signing it. A non disclosure clause states that you won’t discuss the book’s contents with anyone not designated by the client as someone with whom you may do so. Also, copyright laws in the USA and several other countries treatied with the USA, such as England, Canada and Australia, state that the author of the ghost written work retains full copyrights. You can check with the US Copyrights Office on the Internet to read the full scope of these laws.

Basically, even if you write the whole work yourself from research and you get nothing but basic ideas for the book from the supposed "author," he or she is still considered the true author of any such ghost written book, and will still hold full copyrights to all original material within it. This is, however, subject to whatever agreements you and the client make.

After the job is proof read, paid for and delivered, ask for a reference, also asking the client if it’s okay to run an installment from the work on your website – with a credit that you are the ghost writer. Also, when the book is published, ask the client to include a reference to your name, perhaps within the Acknowledgments, as the book ghost writer.

You also don’t have to stop as just the manuscript or book ghost writer. You may also be able to help your client set up to get his or her book published. This largely involves contacting literary agents and publishers. I would suggest contacting small publishing houses, and not the larger ones, unless you have a celebrity client with a large scale best seller on your hands. Due to confidentiality issues and ethical issues, you can’t maintain contact with literary agents and publishers on a regular basis, but you can acquire lists of these people in order to contact them. Some more disreputable manuscript and book ghost writers also set up deals with literary agents and publishers where they are sent clients’ work that the agents and publishers were sent, in order to edit it for them. Under the table money is made this way. It’s not considered to be ethical practice.

It’s satisfying to complete a client’s book manuscript and then find him or her an agent and/or publisher. You can get a percentage of book sales this way, or by negotiating a deal with the book’s author while you are being the book ghost writer. Sometimes a client will want you to work "on spec;" instead of paying you in advance, they will ask you to take a percentage of the book’s profits. Unless you’re sure the book is going to sell broadly, it’s not advisable to do this, or you could end up working for free. But once you’ve got a book publisher’s attention, anything is possible.

Lastly, be sure and enjoy your new career. Writing can be a fulfilling line of work, so if you keep at it, you can have tons of fun working for authors, getting the first time one’s books written and published, and in general, having a "blast" as a book author, book writer, ghost writer, copy editor, and proof reader.

Get out there, now – and write!

Author: Karen L Cole
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Cellphone news

If youve read any of my work before, you probably know that I’ve been in publishing since 1987, have been a freelancer since 1993 and ran an editorial staffing agency in New York City from 1996 through 2004.

Some lessons Ive learned from this crazy journey are as follows:

1. Staying abreast of technology is crucial: Back in 1998, I was pushed to get a website for my company because clients and candidates were asking questions like, Can I apply online? Can I download the contract from your site? Can I post a job to your website?

Well, as we didnt even have a website, I would embarrassingly say no. The loud silence, especially from clients, on the other end of the phone line got to be too much.

Going through the process of getting a website taught me the value of staying on top of technology. I learned that while I dont need to be a hard-nosed techie, to stay competitive, I had to know enough to be able to stay competitive. This meant not only getting a site, but learning how to update it myself.

One of the wonderful things about technology is that new tools are constantly being developed for those of us who are NOT tech-savvy, eg, FrontPage software for building websites, autoresponder software, listserv software for building mailing lists, etc.

2. Writing is a skill: Obviously, you mutter. However, many writers dont treat their craft like it. I single out writers because, in my experience, proofreaders, copy editors, indexers, editors, graphic designers, illustrators, etc. all seem to see intrinsic value and take pride in their work.

Many writers take their craft for granted. Maybe its because society views writing as just words on paper. After all, once you know your ABCs, you can write, right? Well, editorial professionals know better than anyone that this is not so.

One thing I advise all professional writers to do to combat this lackadaisical attitude is to treat their writing like a business skill. Just like being a professional coder, artist or web designer when you put yourself out there, market and treat your skill like the highly valued commodity it is.

Let it be reflected in your perfectly prepared marketing materials eg, your website, brochure, postcard, etc. Also, when you speak with potential clients, be sure to use a professional tone. No one is going to believe that you write professionally if you dont talk like it as well.

3. Freelancing full-time is not hard: Its not easy, to be sure. But, building a successful, full-time freelance career is not terribly difficult, if:

a. You have experience within your discipline. Most successful freelancers Ive encountered have worked full-time within their discipline at some point.

b. You are willing to work fulltime and freelance on the side for a period of time. Many freelancers leave their jobs once they got too burned out doing both, or secure a big project that allows them to make the leap.

c. You plan for it. Some freelancers (the most successful ones I might add) are more calculating about their careers.

What I mean by this is that they plan a year or two out knowing that they are going to leave their jobs. So, they save 6 months or a years expenses, pay off credit card bills, buy equipment while working full-time, etc.; then, they make the leap.

The ones I know who followed this path are, not surprisingly, the most successful meaning, they have gone on to hire employees. A few even opened offices and became official businesses because their client load demanded it.

Can you build a freelance business if you dont have these three things? Absolutely! However, it is even more critical that you devise a plan of how youre going to go about it. Having experience and industry contacts makes it easier, but the web makes it easier than ever today to start a freelance business.

4. Marketing is a skill that must be developed: When most freelancers start out, they may have two or three clients who keep them pretty busy. BUT, the day comes when the projects dry up (it always happens) and you have to scrounge for business.

Its at this point that many panic and start looking for a full-time job again. When I was recruiting, I received more than a few panicked calls, eg, I have to find something — quick!

Invariably, I was unable to help them (see Point #5 below). It usually was a moot point though because within a month or so, some project would come along and they would no longer be interested or available for a full-time job.

It was during this time that I got interested in the whole topic of freelancing as a business. Most freelancers focus on their craft and not the business of freelancing. However, as I preach ad nauseam on InkwellEditorial.com, to be successful as a freelancer, you must, must, must learn how to market if you want a full-time, sustainable career as a freelancer.

5. Employers dont like to hire freelancers for full-time jobs: It was my experience when I was recruiting that if you freelanced full-time for a year or more, employers were very hesitant to hire you as a full-time employee. Why?

Because most think that you are only seeking full-time work because you have hit a rough patch financially. Logically, it just makes sense. I mean, who gives up a successful freelance career to go back to the 9-5 grindstone? Most employers figured that as soon as the next big project came along, their new hire would be out the door.

I have seen it happen on many occasions so much so that when I was recruiting, I would screen out those with a significant freelance history because the chances that they would leave was just too great.

I once lost a $6,000 placement fee because the employee quit 10 days before the 90-day guarantee. [Most recruiting firms give employers a 60 or 90-day guarantee that the employee will stay put for at least this amount of time, or they dont have to pay.]

6. You cant change your rates every year: Charge enough that you dont have to change your rate for three years. I know some make take umbrage with this, but Ive found editorial (eg, writing, copy editing, proofreading, indexing, editing, etc.) to be a very static industry. It is not one where you can raise rates yearly.

Some of the companies I freelanced for back in 1993 still pay the same rates today Im not kidding! So, I advise all freelancers who are just starting out to start out charging enough so that they dont have to change their rates for three years.

Its been my experience that after this period, you can increase rates without worrying about losing even one of your clients. Putting forth the argument of, we havent raised rates in three years somehow seems to make it fair for them.

Working on this time schedule, I dont ever remember losing a client. I think its a combination of clients being comfortable with your work and them thinking, after three years, an increase is only fair.

7. You must develop a niche: Ive known a few freelancers who did several things successfully (eg, designed websites and wrote the copy for them), but this was the exception, not the norm.

Most successful freelancers niche it. What I mean is, they develop a niche and stick to it. In my opinion, it is far easier to become successful like this than being a generalist.

Trust me, those sites where you see freelancers touting that they do everything from writing to web design to illustration are not making that much money, or they are farming the work out to other freelancers.

Most clients like to know that they are getting a knowledgeable professional who has a history and body of work within the discipline they are being hired for. If it is a pharmaceutical company, they want a writer who has done this type of writing before.

So, develop a niche and market the hell out of it!

8. Patience is a virtue: Even after all of my years in the industry, Im amazed by how difficult it can be to be patient while I grow my business. I have lists and lists of ideas that I want to implement and there just never seems to be enough time.

This is easily a career where you can work nonstop all the time. An idea for an article pops in your head and instead of jotting down the idea, you find yourself writing the whole article; you go online to do some research, and before you know it you have spent two hours surfing the net on an unrelated matter; you log on to check email, and in an instant, you find yourself redesigning a section of your website; the list is endless.

This is an issue I still struggle with; although, I have gotten better about stopping. So, instead of browsing for 2 hours, it might be 30 minutes before I literally make myself stop and go back to my original task.

The best advice I can give to stop this kind of behavior is to think of your long-range goals and ask yourself if what youre doing this very minute is getting you closer to them. If not, stop and get back on track.

9. Retirement is not planned for: I can count the number of times on one hand that Ive had conversations with freelancers about retirement. Most small business owners (and thats what freelancing is, small business ownership) have an exit strategy, or a day where they envision doing something else.

For some reason, editorial and creative freelancers dont think this way. Well, while you may be able to write or design websites from anywhere at any age, whos to say youre going to want to when youre 70?

In my quest to get freelancers to think of themselves as businesses, one of the things I wish more would do is plan for retirement. This includes looking into 401K plans, buying investment real estate, building a sellable business, etc.

Again, just because you might be capable of churning out material long past retirement age does not mean that you are going to want to. So, plan for the day when you wont have to.

10. Longevity pays: The longer you freelance, the easier it gets. My business mentor said to me once, when you first start out, you are just greasing the pipes. After two or three years, clients will not be quite so hard to come by.

Its just like search engine positioning — the longer your site is on the web, the more frequently it is spidered by search engine bots, the more results it shows up in, the more popular it is, more people find it and voila! you have a popular site.

If you are constantly marketing and networking, eventually, it will seem effortless and referrals will flow in. Thats because you build traction just by being around. Many freelancers dont hang in there long enough to get this type of seamless recognition.

In conclusion, freelancing is a wonderful career — if, like anything other venture you enter, you take it seriously enough to work it like a business.

Author: Yuwanda Black
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital Camera Times