Typical Writing Scams & Rip-Offs

If you're a writer, chances are, you may have fallen for one of these gimmicks a time or two. They're fairly common and they net fresh, naive talent every day. Why? Because, when you're just starting out, sometimes you're over-eager, publicity-hungry, egocentric, or have otherwise clouded judgment when it comes to accepting gigs. It sounds good, so you go for it.

I have no way of knowing every scam or rip-off that there is out there, but there are a few "oldie-but-goodie" (note the sarcasm) scams and rip-offs that can be spotted a mile away. Stay away from these:

• The "poetry anthology" scam. These jokers encourage you to submit your poetry for inclusion in their anthology. When they accept you (and they always do, no matter your level of talent), they ask that you pay them X amount of money and they'll send you a copy of the anthology with your work printed in it. So, basically, they've just gotten you to pay them for printing your poem in a book along with thousands of other poems of people who also paid them. The book never ends up on shelves in bookstores and is not, in fact, for sale anywhere. So, sadly, the only people who will read the book that your prized poem is featured in are you and the other victims.
• The websites who want you write "academic" material for them. These websites take what you write and sell it to students who will pass your papers off as their own. Not only is the work dishonest, but several of these sites have been notorious for either not paying their writers or paying less than the agreed-upon amount. ALWAYS search for information on a company before writing for them. (What I do is type the company name in Google with the word "scam" and see what pops up.) As a good rule of thumb, though, stay away from term paper mills. Don't let someone get a degree riding on the back of all of your hard work.
• Any company that wants you to purchase materials or lessons from them before you start work for them. NEVER pay to work. Beware of the adds targeting stay-at-home-moms or college students where the main emphasis is on working from home. Those ads almost always have a catch.
• The people/websites that want you to write for them for "exposure." Basically, they want something for nothing. You wouldn't hire a roofer to come over and fix your roof and offer to pay him or her with a good recommendation to your friends, would you? It's the same with writing. People and companies who offer to pay a writer with exposure are counting on the writer being naive and desperate to get noticed. Yes, you can get clips through these people, but you can also get clips through people who are willing to pay you for your work. It all comes down to exercising some patience (realizing that a writing career won't happen overnight) and selectiveness in who you decide to take on as a client. Set your standards and do not compromise.
• The "steal this blog" sites that set up tons of blogs on different subjects and then tell you to "steal this blog" for free! The idea is that you'll have a free blog . . . just. like. this. one. Only, it's already been started and may have an audience so, according to them, the hard work has already been done. Anyway, the CATCH is that the blogs are covered with advertisements that you don't get paid for. But, guess who does? That's rii-iiight . . . the person(s) who set up all of these blogs in the first place. He or she is rolling in the dough because you're writing free material for them, generating an audience that will click on advertisements that they'll get the money for. You never see a dime. Don't be a sucker.

What's in a name?

I read a discussion on Deb Ng's blog, Freelance Writing Jobs, yesterday morning about pen names and whether or not writers should use them and under what circumstances. Personally, I do not use a pen name for 97% of the writing that I do on the Internet. I do, however, use a couple of different pen names for about 1.5% and the remaining 1.5% of the time, I ghostwrite.

Why have I used a pen name? To be perfectly honest, I've only used pen names on those bits of writing that I don't want to be tied to, professionally, because of the content. Take out of that what you will. ;) I feel that pen names are wonderful little tools that certainly have their place in the literary world. Whether you're like me and you want to disassociate your professional identity from other writing or you just simply like the sound of a pen name better than your own, pen names definitely have their perks. They allow a writer to remain anonymous, in some situations while, in others, they allow him or her to create a whole new persona.

Did you know? Lots of famous authors have written under a pen name at one time or another. Here are a few examples (real names on the left, pen names on the right) :

Stephen King -----> Richard Bachman, John Swithen

Esther Friedman -----> Ann Landers

Dean Koontz -----> David Axton, Leonard Chris, Brian Coffey, Deanna Dwyer, K.R. Dwyer, Leigh Nichols, Arthur North, Richard Paige, Owen West

Nora Roberts -----> J.D. Robb

Samuel Clemmens -----> Mark Twain

Agatha Christie -----> Mary Westmacott

If you are in the market for a pen name, but are having trouble coming up with one (or even if you're having trouble coming up with character names), you may want to try this nifty little resource: the Random Name Generator.

According to the Random Name Generator, my pen name should be . . . *drumroll* . . . Sherise Glascott. Nice, but I think I'll stick to the one I have. ;)

A Writing Challenge!

For those of you who are having trouble getting your creative juices flowing, I present a writing challenge! *drumroll*

Okay, here are the rules: Choose from a group of elements below and write at least 5 different intros for five different stories based upon those elements. Ready? Let's go.

• Teenage boy, Idaho, bicycle, recycling plant, wealthy tycoon
• Surfboard, middle-aged woman, family heirloom, wine bottle, secret
• Duckling, executive, shopping mall, stereo, plastic surgery clinic
• Jewelry, old woman, condemned house, bakery, children's toys

Good luck! Feel free to post your most interesting intro! ;) Who knows? You may even get a whole new story out of it!

Don't Let Your Modifiers Dangle ;)

First of all - what is a dangling modifier? There is no better way to explain this particular writing faux pas than to demonstrate it:

• Burnt to a crisp, the chef had overcooked the Thanksgiving turkey.
• Having returned from his business trip, the dog greeted Dad at the door.
• Giving in to temptation, the chocolate was being eaten by Sherry.

Having read those sentences, you may have squinted, giggled, or even cringed. None of those reactions are something that we, as writers, want to elicit from our audience . . . at least, not when it comes to the structure of our content.

Dangling modifiers are fairly easy to spot, but what can be done to fix them? Well, first, we have to understand why they create the confusion that they do. The modifying phrases at the beginning of the sentences (i.e. the words that come directly before the first comma) are being attributed to the first noun in the sentence. So, for instance, when you read the first sentence, "Burnt to a crisp, the chef had overcooked the Thanksgiving turkey," chef is the noun that the modifier is being attributed to. In other words, the sentence reads as though the chef is burnt to a crisp.

To identify and fix the problems in sentences with dangling modifiers, first go through and find the first noun in the sentence. That is the noun that is being modified. Next, you'll want to identify the noun that you want to modify in the sentence. In other words, what is it that you're wanting to attribute the first part of the sentence to? In the burnt turkey example that I talked about above, the TURKEY was the noun that I intended to attribute the phrase about being "burnt to a crisp" to.

Once you've identified these two elements, it's time to rewrite your sentence so that it makes logical sense. You'll want to leave your modifying phrase where it is and place the noun that you intend for it to modify directly after the modifying phrase. The noun that USED to be the first noun will now follow the first noun in the sentence. Here are the corrected sample sentences, to give you an idea of what I mean:

• Burnt to a crisp, the Thanksgiving turkey had been overcooked by the chef.
• Having returned from his business trip, Dad was greeted at the door by the dog.
• Giving in to temptation, Sherry was eating the chocolate.

There is, of course, more than one way to skin a cat. You could also rewrite the sentences the following way:

• The Thanksgiving turkey was overcooked and burnt to a crisp because of the chef.
• Dad was greeted by the dog when he returned home from his business trip.
• Sherry had given into temptation and was eating the chocolate.

The beauty of the English language is that there are countless ways to say the same thing. What is important is that the meaning isn't lost on your audience because of a simple grammatical mistake. However you rewrite your sentences, just be sure that you're attributing modifiers to the nouns that you intend to be attributing them to.

TIP: Reading your work out loud, to yourself, will help you to catch dangling modifiers!

Rejection

You've sent off your resume and a few clips to the managing editor of a publication that you've been dying to work for. After weeks of nail biting and excessive email checking, you finally receive word back: "Thanks, but no thanks."

Rejection can be so disheartening. It's difficult to put a lot of hard work into a piece only to have it deemed unworthy of publication by the company that you choose to offer it to. Perhaps worse yet are the companies that don't even bother to get back to you at all. Not contacting someone back, after they've sent their work to you for your review, is akin to saying "You're not even worth the time that it would take me to type up an email to tell you that I don't want your work." Ouch.

So, how do we writers get past rejection? First and foremost, we must remember that rejection is all a part of the job. If you're going to be a writer, you're going to have to have (or, at least, develop) a thick skin. Business is business and just because one publisher has no use for your work, that doesn't mean that there aren't more publishers out there who are willing and eager to buy it. You just have to find them.

Secondly, you must maintain confidence in your work. Regardless of how many rejections you receive, you must stay on top of your game as far as believing in your ability as a writer. Why? Because part of being a writer is being a salesperson. You're selling your writing ability to clients every single day. How can you sell something that you have no confidence in? Do you want to buy something from someone who is iffy about the product that they're selling? No! When you believe in yourself, it shows. When you don't believe in yourself, that also shows. Believe in yourself. Believe in your work. When you get rejected, just keep in mind that no one's saying that your work is bad; it's just not good for them at that time.

Finally, improve your chances of success by submitting as many resumes/queries/clips to as many potential clients as possible. The laws of probability dictate that the more that you put yourself out there, the more likely you are to land a gig. It's true that, sometimes, even with a bunch of submissions to publishers, you may still wind up empty-handed at the end of the month. Keep in mind that writing for a living can be a gamble. Some months are just better than others. You might be a failure this month and a complete success the next. You'll never know if you don't hang in there and keep trying.

Interview Tips

Conducting an interview can be tricky. Writing an interesting piece that revolves around an interview (and not having it sound like a script) can be even trickier. Here are a few tips and tricks to help you along:

1. When possible, conduct your interview in person. Interviews that are conducted over the phone or via IM or email are much, much more difficult to turn into a vivid and engaging piece than those that are done in person. Why? Because you lose a very crucial element - the visual description of the person that you're interviewing and their mannerisms. Believe it or not, describing the little nuances of a person's behavior can be more telling than even their own words.
2. Indulge the comforts of your interviewee. This doesn't mean feed them grapes by the fireplace. What it does mean is, find out what makes them comfortable, in an interview setting, and accomodate that. Find out, before the interview, what location would be most comfortable for them, whether or not it would be okay to record the interview, etc. Then, when it's time to get the interview started, you know that you've done everything to make your interviewee as comfortable as possible.
3. Ask open-ended questions. Open-ended questions are questions that cannot be answered with "yes" or "no." For instance, "Did you wear your yellow shoes today?" is a yes or no question, but "What shoes did you wear today?" is open-ended, requiring more than one word to sufficiently answer the question. The reason that you want to ask open-ended questions is, simply, that "yes" or "no" doesn't exactly make a great quote and the quotes are what your entire piece will be built around.
4. Probe. When someone answers a question, follow up with a probing question or statement, such as:

• "What else?"
• "Anything else?"
• "What happened next?"
• "Tell me more."
• "Is there anything you'd like to add to that?"
• "Why?"
• "How did you manage that?"

Above all else, remember to conduct yourself in a professional manner. Be discreet and courteous and advise your interviewee of when the interview is beginning and when things are "off the record."

Once you've finished your interview, the task of turning the information that you have into a workable story begins. Peruse through your quotes and look for a common theme. What impression did the interviewee leave on you? Design your piece around that central theme, using the interviewee's quotes to illustrate it for you. Be as descriptive as possible about your respondent's inflections, nuances, and so forth, making the respondent come to life on every page. You'll want your readers to feel as though they, themselves, are sitting down for a one-to-one conversation with the respondent. Last, but certainly not least, try to anticipate questions that your readers may have and do your best to answer them in the piece. You have no way of knowing every single question that a reader might have, but start with the ones that are most obvious to you and work from there.

Not all interview subjects make good interview subjects, but a good writer can make all the difference in the literary value of an interview piece, despite the quality of the responses.

Journaling

I have a confession to make: I am addicted to journals. That's right. I said it. I'm a helpless journal junkie. I cannot step into a Barnes & Noble or Hastings without heading straight for the journal section. You would think, being a journal junkie, that I would've filled volumes of them, by now. Yet, the sad truth of the matter is that most of them are still just as empty as they were the day that I bought them. So, what's the obsession?

Here is how the typical journal-buying scenario plays out: I see this awesome journal that is absolutely perfect in every way -- it's unique, the cover is exquisite, the page lines are perfectly spaced -- and it's like falling in love. I have to have this journal. So, I collect my prize at the cash register, get it home, and place it somewhere special. Occasionally, I'll get it out to gaze at it and wonder what great writing masterpiece will grace its pages because, of course, a journal like this one is special and requires that only the best writing be scrawled across its pages, lest it be desecrated. (Oh yeah. It's that serious. lol) So, there it will sit -- unused -- because, of course, I never can come up with something good enough to write in it. Eventually, it becomes covered in dust and I forget all about it by the next time that I wind up in the journal section of a bookstore, fawning over my latest "perfect" journal. It's a never-ending cycle, with me. I think, when I die, everyone will wonder what the significance is to all of the beautiful, empty books hidden in special nooks throughout my house.

When I actually do get the courage to write in a journal, I find that journaling presents an emotional safe-haven as well as a judgment-free zone in which to practice and improve upon the art of writing. Not only do I chronicle important events in my life, but I'm also able to do what I love and to play around with it, in a medium that I know that no one has access to but me.

After speaking to several others about their journaling habits, I've learned something interesting. People have very different ways of journaling. For instance, I, personally, tend to journal on occasion, when the mood strikes, and I do it all free-form. A friend of mine told me that he writes his journals as though they're a story, with him as the first person character. Still another friend of mine told me that she writes her journal entries as though they were letters to a friend. It seems that everyone has a unique way of expressing themselves through journal-writing and that's the sheer beauty of it. There are no rights or wrongs.

If you keep a journal, I'm sure that I don't have to sell you on the benefits of it. If, on the other hand, you've never kept a journal, I highly recommend it. If, by chance, you happen to go shopping for a journal and you see a girl standing there, fawning over the empty little mini-books with a look of obsession in her eyes, back away slowly. Just let her pick the one that she wants and she'll be on her way.

Need a Little Practice?

If you're new to writing, or if you just want to have a place where you can explore your craft and receive honest feedback, you may consider visiting http://www.writing.com. This wonderful little writer's home on the web is full of aspiring authors, poets, and editors, each there to help one another out while honing their craft.

It doesn't matter what type of material you write, because Writing.com has a category for just about everything. You're presented with your own personal portfolio and in that, you can put stories, poems, or whatever it is that you wish to write. Best of all, it's a website that is friendly to all ages. All material is rated, according to content, so that young aspiring writers don't unwittingly stumble upon material not meant for their eyes.

Perusing the site, I was able to find many writing exercises, contests, and games. A lot of the contests award prizes, which are given out in a point system that is unique to the site, but can be used for actual purchase of various things, including upgraded memberships.

So, if you're looking for exposure, contacts, a fun writing-centered community, some quality critiquing, or just some good practice (and especially if you're looking for all of the above), stop by http://www.writing.com and have a look around. Basic membership is free, so you have nothing to lose.

How To Get Legit Writing Jobs

I've had a lot of people ask me how I manage to actually get paid for writing on the Internet. It seems as though they have trouble finding legit sites or sites that offer jobs available without the user having to get a paid membership. The trouble with subscribing to a site that lists jobs is that you never know what you're really getting. You may end up paying a monthly fee when all that is offered is a handful of jobs from con artists looking to rip you off by promising payment and failing to deliver. There are plenty of sites out there that list a plethura of writing jobs available for freelancers every single day. Check out the links in my sidebar for reference.

So, how do you know that they're legit?

Writing for money over the Internet is a gamble. One can never can be 100 percent sure that the person on the other end of the Web is going to live up to their end of the bargain and fork over the cash. But, there are some things that you can do to protect yourself against con artists:

1. Research, research, research. Don't just send off your resume and three writing samples to some random company without doing your homework. Search the company name and the word "scam" and find out if anyone has been taken by them. You might be surprised.
2. Get a contract, if at all possible. If there isn't a contract available, get the stipulations of your agreement in writing, via email. An email is a legal document and will stand up in court, if need be.
3. ALWAYS know what type of licensing agreement you're selling your work under and follow up to ensure that the company that you're working with is abiding by the license under which they bought your writing. In other words, if they bought Usage rights and they modify your content, or remove your byline, you have every right to take legal action and you should send them an order to cease and desist.

Freelance writing over the Internet is a fun, but challenging job. Some months are better than others and, sometimes, it's hard to weed out the sharks. However, if you know what you're doing, you're more likely to get the kind of jobs that you want for the kind of pay that you require. Best of luck!