Make More Money Freelancing

In today’s topsy-turvy world of freelance writing, making a lot of money is nothing more than a pipe dream for most. Making any money is more realistic. It has become harder and harder to do so with the flood of new media. So how can you make enough to pay the bills—and not count on your spouse’s paycheck. Ladies I’m speaking to you.

The first thing you have to learn to do is to do your best for whatever you’re getting paid. This can be a challenge as many publications have cut their pay rates in the last several years. To make sure you come up with good content, you need to be as organized as possible, so you don’t spend countless hours on a job that pays a low rate.

There’s an old saying: “You get what you pay for.” While that may be true, a lot of editors want more than they’re willing to pay for. You can make your articles seem better if you include lots of details and keep them short. Generally, a shorter piece take less time to write. So stay focused on your topic. Get excited about it and let that excitement spill out to both your editors and readers.

The second thing you must learn to do is negotiate. Most writers shy away from this because they assume that if they push too hard, their editors will reject them. That may be true when you first start working with an editor. Rule Number One: Don’t negotiate on the first job with an editor. Do the best you can on it and win that editor over. You might consider doing two or three jobs for that editor before asking for more money. Sometimes, an editor’s hands are tied and he or she cannot give you more. But usually they have some leeway in what they pay freelancers. Some writers get paid the minimum while others get the maximum.

Start out by asking what the editor can pay for the assignment. It’s at this point that you must decide if you can economically do the job. Is it worth your time? Will it be easy enough to make lower pay feasible? If the answer is no, tell the editor you’re sorry, but you can’t do your best on the job for that price. Believe it or not, there are other fish in the sea.

Once you feel confident enough to negotiate, think like you’re at a public market in a foreign country where bargaining is the norm. Before you begin, consider what you are presently being paid and then figure how much more you can accept. Ask for 50 percent more to start. Don’t get greedy. The editor may counter with 25 percent more. It’s just like bargaining for a souvenir. If you don’t get your price, be prepared to walk away. If the editor likes your work enough, he or she will counter with an acceptable offer. You’ll be surprised how often this works.

In order to be able to negotiate successfully, you have to have shown the editor that you can get your articles in on deadline. If you discover that you’re going to be late, call the editor and let him or her know. They really appreciate that. In fact, they’re smart enough to have given you a deadline that is actually a week or two ahead of when they actually need the article. So there’s a little wiggle room. But don’t count on this. Some editors work right to the wire.

Lastly, as a business person, it’s important for you to follow up. Remember, editors are busy people. Besides dealing with other writers, they’re dealing with various departments. After you’ve sent in the assignment, wait a couple of days and then send a short Email asking if the editor received it. If you mailed it, give them a call in a couple of days. Both the U.S. Postal Service and Email can be unreliable.

The editor will tell you when he or she plans to run your article. Once that date passes, send another message asking for a copy or two of the issue in which your article appears. And if you haven’t received payment by the negotiated time, contact the editor about it. And don’t forget to let the editor know how much you enjoyed working with them—if you did. Don’t lie. There are some editors who are hell on wheels to work with. In their case, move on to another publication. Don’t torture yourself, no matter how much you’re paid.

NOTE: For additional ideas on negotiation, read my blog from Feb. 1, 2013---"10 Ways of Improving Your Chances in Negotiation."

A Writer's Haunted Life

When is a writer’s life like a haunted house? Always.

Writers, most of them anyway, live a haunted life. Ghosts appear at every turn. Sometimes, these are the ghosts of previously written pieces that come around to bite them in the ass. Sometimes, these are the ghosts of editors who still carry a grudge for one reason or another. And sometimes, these are the ghosts of poorly made decisions. But whatever haunts you, you can bet it will be far worse than going through a haunted house during the Halloween season.

While visiting a haunted house is meant to be entertaining, living a haunted life certainly isn’t. The bad times far outway the good ones. Usually the euphoria that comes with the good times certainly lingers longer. But the truth is that bad things that happen to writers can have lasting effects.

Take the first time someone critiques your work. You feel scared as hell—your skin may itch, your eyes water, your stomach churns. And what if the critique turns out to be horrible. Will you crawl in a hole and die? Certainly not. But you may get terribly depressed. In fact, you may never write again. It happens far more often than you think.

Perhaps you’ve been working with an editor for a long stretch and you have developed a great working relationship. Then the editor tells you that they’re leaving for another job. You know what you have, but you have no idea what you’ll be getting. The new editor may love your work and give you more than you can handle. Or the new editor may end up telling you can’t write, leaving you without a good regular market.

Or what about when an editor promises you’ll get paid, but you never see the money. If you’re a full-time freelancer, the bill collector demons may be knocking on your door—or calling you every hour. Boy, could you use that money now. But it never arrives. And what about all the work you put into that piece. Sometimes, you can’t even sell it elsewhere.

But then you get a call from your publisher with a nod to a book proposal you sent him months ago. Hallelujah! You dig in and begin working on the book. You’re having a fantastic time. You send in the manuscript. Your editor loves it. Then you wait. One day, you get an Email telling you the publisher decided not to publish your book because the market took a downturn. You get to keep the advance. But no one will ever read your book. And unless the publisher releases you from your contract, you’re stuck.

Haunted houses are full of surprises. They’re meant to be. But so will your life be as a writer. Often you won’t know what the next day will bring. Too many surprises can cause a lot of stress. This turns a lot of beginning writers away from freelancing. The New York Times is in the process of laying off nearly 100 reporters and editors. You can bet a bunch of them will try their hand at freelancing. They should succeed, but many of them won’t. Why? Because they don’t like surprises. Working for a salary has its advantages.

It takes more than writing skill to be a successful writer. It takes stamina. You’ve got to be on top of your game all the time. And when you’re hit with too many ghosts coming at you, you tend to back off and your writing suffers.

You’ve only heard about all the good things that happen to famous writers. But they, too, have had their share of surprises—ghosts that have come back to haunt them. 

Is Writing a Pastime or a Business?

For many writers, perhaps yourself, writing starts off as a pastime. People dabble in it as much as in photography, cooking, painting, and sculpture. It’s funny, but they don’t seem to dabble in medicine or law or engineering. Do you ever wonder why that is?

For the latter subject fields, you need extensive education. But for the former ones, albeit those centered in the arts, you need little or none. In many cases, writing, photography, painting, and sculpture, and even music come naturally. This is where talent enters the picture. But it takes a lot more than talent to earn a living in any of the arts.

Because the arts come easily to so many people, society considers them pastimes. Doctors, who study for years to practice medicine, think nothing of dabbling in writing or photography, for instance, when they retire. They see it as fun. And they’ll be the first to laud over you the many years and tons of money it cost for them to go into practice.

And there’s the other rub. Except for extreme cases, it doesn’t take much money to get started in the arts. Look at writing. All you need is a pen and paper—or in today’s world, a laptop computer or tablet. The rest comes out of your head. If you have any talent for writing at all, you’re on our way.

So then what’s the difference between a writer who dabbles in it on nights and weekends and one who puts his or her heart and soul into it every day? Nothing really—at least on the surface. But underneath, the writer who works at writing every day has a different mindset.

Too many writers view writing as a divine pastime that shouldn’t be tainted by money. Not so long ago, society considered non-fiction writers as hacks because they got paid for their work. It accepted the idea of them working as journalists, but doing it on their own was folly. Fiction writers, on the other hand, rested high on a pedestal, put there by generations of students whose English and literature teachers instilled in them the lofty attainments of the greatest writers of all time—all, by the way, writers of fiction.

Times have changed thanks to writers like Truman Capote and John Updike, to name just two. Both experimented in crossing the border between fiction and non-fiction, thus graying the line.

Writing is hard work, even if you’re just dabbling in it. But if you’re serious, then it’s time to move up to a higher plane. It’s time to make all that hard work pay off.

Because it’s so easy to get started writing, many beginning writers think they can catapult to the top overnight. Some lucky ones have done just that. But of the thousands of writers out there, only a handful have done this. The rest have had to work long hours to get their pieces recognized and published.

If you want to work towards writing full-time, then you have to start slow, in your spare time. But keep that goal of getting paid for what you write in the forefront of your mind. In fact, make a sign and pin it up over your computer reminding yourself that your intent is to get paid. You might even want to do what many small business owners do—they frame their first dollar.

Making Book on Your Business

No, you’re not headed down to your local bookie to make a bet, although sometimes it may feel that way as a freelancer. This business is fraught with risks, so why not take control of one from the start. Keeping a record of your income and expenses, known in the business world as bookkeeping, is an off-putting subject to many writers. But in fact, it’s an essential tool you shouldn’t do without. As for the idea that it's just a drag on your creative prowess, get over it. If you want to make a success of your business, you’ve got to keep records. It’s as simple as that.

Most people think bookkeeping is only for tax purposes. True, keeping good records certainly will help you at tax time, whether you do your own taxes or have someone else do them for you. But record keeping has other advantages. It can tell you where you’ve been and perhaps where you’re going. It gives you a heads up when things aren’t going as well and let’s you know when to breathe a sign of relief when they’re going better.

If you don’t keep good records, you’re allowing forces other than yourself to run your business. For one thing, whether your freelance operation shows real profit or not will he evident in well-documented books. Losses won't hit you as hard since they’ll appear in time for you to make needed alterations in your work habits or markets. On the positive side, if your income is growing, you might he edging toward a higher income-tax bracket. By noting this possibility early, you'll be in a better position to make the decisions that will save money and offset your tax liability.

How you keep control of the financial end of your business is totally up to you. You decide whether you want it to be easy or a constant headache. But it doesn't have to be the latter. Much depends on how you lay out your initial plans and how willing you are to diligently record the necessary information. Whatever system of keeping track you choose, you'll want it to he simple to use, easy to understand, reliable, accurate, consistent, and designed to provide information on a timely basis. The IRS doesn’t require any particular accounting system. All it requires is that you keep track of income and expenses.

Today, you have many digital accounting programs, both independent and online, to choose from. In most cases, these are meant for larger businesses. You want to keep things simple—at least in the beginning. You’ll need nothing more than a simple record hook using a single-entry system of recording expenses and income. You can pick one up at your local office supply store.
If you’re more inclined to work digitally, you could create a simple spreadsheet or multiple ones showing the necessary information. Whatever system you decide to use, you want to make sure it allows for expansion and ease of input.

One thing you’ll have to learn to do is a profit and loss statement. This should be done at the end of each year. Such a statement not only helps you see where you’ve been, but can also help if you need to get a loan as most lending institutions require one. There’s no special form. Just list all the money you took in and the expenses you paid out in various categories. By employing the expense categories set up by the IRS on Schedule C, you can just transfer those amounts to your statement. The difference between what you earned and what you spent is your profit or loss. This may or may not be the same as the total on your Schedule C of your tax return as there are other items involved on it.

A record of furniture, fixtures, and equipment in a separate section of the same record book will be an added convenience when, at tax time, or perhaps during any problems dealing with an insurance company, you need to see quickly what you purchased, from whom, when, and for how much. With all of this together you can then also record by which means of depreciation you are operating—another bit of information the IRS requires of businesses. All equipment needs to be depreciated according to IRS rules.

You can also keep a record of payments to your retirement fund, your savings account, insurance payments, dividends received, receipts from medical and disability insurance, details on payments and subcontracts, accounts receivable and payable, loans, leases, etc. Only your own particular situation and your accounting preference will dictate what is or isn’t included. Generally, as a freelancer, you don't have to be concerned about most of these details but, if and when you do, the same record book is expandable to include them and you have, as near as is possible, a complete financial accounting of your situation in one handy book.

NEXT WEEK: Some bookkeeping tips to make your life a little easier.

10 Ways of Improving Your Chances in Negotiation

As you progress in your freelance career, you’ll find that you’ll need to start negotiating with your editors if you expect to get paid more money. In the beginning, you had no recourse but to accept whatever a publication paid. But as you move on up the ladder of success, you’re in a position to ask for more pay. But to do that, you’ll need to negotiate.

Negotiation is a two-sided process. If either side weighs heavier than the other, it’s out of balance. Since you’re the one who will be initiating the negotiation most of the time, it’s up to you to make sure all your ducks are in a row. Otherwise, the other side will get the upper hand and control the process, usually not in your favor.

Here are ten things you can do to make sure the negotiation goes well and in your favor. Keep them in mind each time you step up to ask a client for more money or a more reasonable deadline. And as in any bargaining situation, be prepared to back away.

    1. Sell yourself on your idea first.
   
    2. Get to the right person before you start your negotiation. Let’s face it, there’s no point wasting your
time talking to someone who’s in no position to talk money.
   
    3. Know why you deserve what you’re asking for. Your resume and hourly rate schedule will help you here.
   
    4. Before you negotiate, get a good night’s rest. Being well rested will boost your confidence, improving your chances during the negotiation.
   
    5. Make sure you take the right approach at the start of the meeting or phone call. Remember, you want the client to think your idea is his or her idea and that you’re just calling attention to it.
   
    6. Think big. Always ask for more than you think you’ll get. You can always go lower but never back up once you’ve come to an agreement.
   
    7. Keep some other ideas in reserve. Be prepared to counter a negative offer with an irresistible idea.
   
    8. Offer to help the client. See the negotiation from his or her point of view. Does he need to make money or save money or reach more readers?
   
    9. Make your client think he’s getting the better part of the deal. If you do, he’ll want to do business with you in the future.
   
    10.  If you’re client gives you the your price-is-to-high treatment, don’t retreat. Be ready to explain why your price is a bargain.

Controlling What Comes In vs. What Goes Out

Let’s face it, unless you’ve just written a best seller and have sold the movie rights to it, you won’t make a whole lot freelancing. That’s the truth and there’s no getting away from it. So to maximize your profits, you have to control your expenses—and not just your business expenses.

To set up a good system to control your overhead, you should take a look at how other small business do it. The first, and most important, thing to do is to keep careful records of what you spend on every item and review the figures regularly. Keep an eye out for bargains and buy in bulk at a discount when you can. Use credit wisely—but don’t become dependent on it. Create a budget and stick to it. And lastly, update your equipment when you can afford to. In other words, put some money back into your business.

You'll want to measure your success against the cost of it to see where you can cut corners and still maintain your needed writing routine. While the latest and greatest computer and phone equipment might be nice and will impress your friends, neither is necessary to conduct your freelance business. In fact, you may not want to buy the latest computer with the latest operating system.

For example, let’s say you have some programs that you know how to use well. It’s likely that if you upgrade to the latest Windows, for instance, those programs will no longer work on your system. You’ll have to go out and buy new ones or new versions of the old ones and that takes money. Plus, you’ll have to take the time to learn the new programs and that takes time and time is money. The same applies to your phone. If you have to have a cell phone, then consider a prepay plan like Tracfone that will enable to you to keep your costs in line and not give you another bill to pay every month.

How you handle the basic, materials of your trade is a matter too important to ignore. However the thought process may begin, you’ll soon find yourself composing and refining your thoughts on paper. Perhaps you’ll begin in longhand on a legal pad. Or maybe you’ll go directly to your computer and compose on the screen. Keep an eye on how you use paper. Do you really have to use fresh sheets for your notes? Why not print out your notes on the used pieces of paper? Likewise, do you need to buy special note pads or can you employ the backs of used envelopes to jot down memos or to-do lists? This may sound frugal, but it does save money. And while you’re at it, why not reuse those large envelopes in which you get other mail. Of course, in all cases, the envelopes shouldn’t have more than an address and return address on them, both of which you can cover over with labels and new addresses. To reseal them, buy some clear shipping tape.

You'll be dollars ahead if you study religiously every tip that comes your way regarding items you can get for less or, better still, for free. Know what you need and be on the lookout for sales. For example, you know you’ll need to buy additional print cartridges for your printer, so why not buy them from a discount house like LD Products and take advantage of their occasional sales and free shipping on weekends.

When you need office supplies, don’t make a beeline for your nearest Staples or Office Max. Instead, check online first and keep an eye peeled for sales of printing paper at your local supermarket when school begins in September and at drug retailers like Walgreens.

Today, you don’t even have to buy books new. There are plenty of places to buy used copies, both online and at book sales. And don’t forget that you can still borrow them from your local library, and they won’t cost you a dime unless you return them late.

Look at each item on your budget, including food and utilities, and examine alternatives. Can you use another service, such as UPS, in place of the U.S. Mail and save money? You don’t have to spend hours clipping coupons to get bargains.

Also, consider how you do your research. Technology in general has enabled people to spend far less for communications. Not so long ago, you would have had to pay hefty long-distance charges to interview someone across country—and even worse, within your state. Today, most phone companies, both cell and land line services, offer package plans that include long distance—one amount for all services per month. While before you would have had to keep a phone log of each call, today you needn’t worry about it. Instead, you can deduct a portion of your phone bill for your business.

You can even conduct interviews or get the information you need by E-mail. An advantage to using E-mail is it enables you to send the questions you want to ask ahead, so that your interviewee can prepare, resulting in a more productive interview. It also enables those who speak English as a second language to get an assistant to send you the answers to your questions in clear English, so there will be no misunderstandings.

Finally, you’ll need to record your expenses so you can interpret them as you go. There are a number of programs that allow you to do this. Try to find one that will let you record each expense right after you pay for it, then will let you compile all your expenses for tax purposes.  Splash Money from www.iambic.com is one such program that works with smartphones, tablets, laptop and desktop computers.

What is Your Profit Motive?

As a freelance writer, you’re in business to make money. How much is up to you. You can write a lot and get paid little or write a little and get paid a lot. Chances are you’ll fall somewhere in between. But one thing is for sure, there are only so many hours in a day, so the amount you make may be limited, especially if you’re writing books or articles for magazines.

If you’re writing books, you can only work on one at a time. The amount of time it takes to research and write a book is staggering while the advance you may receive pays for only a fraction of that time. If you’re a good multi-tasker, you may be able to pound out an article or short story or two while working on your book, but most writers put all their energies into such a massive project.

Writing articles actually pays better in the long run. If you have acquired some steady markets, you’ll be writing constantly and the money will pour in regularly.  If you’re just starting out, you may find yourself strapped for cash between assignments.

So what is your profit motivation? Are you content to make a little while pursuing other creative projects—for this you’ll need a working spouse or a rich benefactor? Or do you need to earn a living to help support a family or yourself if you live alone? Many married women writers claim they’re making a living just like any male writer, but what if they weren’t married and couldn’t depend on their husbands’ paycheck to take care of most or all of the bills? While it may be okay to do this in the beginning, after a while your spouse will grow tired of paying the bills by himself.  The opposite it also true for husbands taking up freelance writing while their wives work at a steady job to pay the bills.

Even if you’ve been publishing and making a modest living at writing, you may be guilty of practices that hinder you from making more money. Maximizing your profit requires you to budget time and money carefully. Will you be able to live on say $12,000 a year or less? Perhaps you had better decide if you love your daily Starbucks latte more than writing!

You need to budget everything. Leave nothing to chance. Periodically review your bills to see if you can lower any of them. This will mean not having the latest smart phone or that big-screen Plasma T.V. that your neighbors have. And while you’re at it, better decide to move from the McMansion you live in now to a more modest house.

But budgeting isn’t all about sacrificing the things you love for your writing. It just means that you need to prioritize. List the things that are most important to you. If that cup of Starbucks coffee or that giant SUV that you drive is important to you, then perhaps you better give up on your dreams of becoming a writer, unless you want to write press releases or advertising copy.

As much as you need to learn about writing to improve your skills, so you should learn about the business of business if you expect to keep your profits growing. You’ll be running a small business. Don’t kid yourself into thinking it’s anything else. Talk to other small business owners. What do they do to make sure they stay in business? While your business may be slightly different than theirs, the procedures are the same, even down to what to deduct on your tax return.

Set up daily and monthly schedules and stick to them. Self discipline is very important in freelance writing. It’s not all about spending leisure time at the café reading Twitter messages from your peeps on your smart phone. It’s about working hard and enjoying your time off, knowing that you’ve done the best job you could getting pieces finished and sent in on time.
   
Review your methods periodically. Weed out the bad habits. Are you allowing too many interruptions to devastate your schedule? Are you letting too much time slip by before you get an idea and propose it to editors or your agent? Are you learning from your competition?

To be a successful freelancer, you have to periodically review your assets and liabilities. You  can’t afford to imagine there isn't room for improvement. Above all, freelancer writers don't believe in giving things away for free. If a publisher isn’t willing to pay for your work, pass them by. You can’t pay for groceries with a freebie.

Avoiding Those Dark Clouds

Dark clouds have descended over my house as thunder rumbles off in the distance. Mother Nature has been doing that a lot lately, keeping my houseplants well watered and lush. But the same thing has happened many times during my freelance career, except the storms are at times less frequent. Freelance writing is a tough business no matter which way you look at it. I’ve had to work hard to succeed in the last 26 years and even harder to make progress. Every time I think I’m well on the way, another obstacle crosses my path. These dark clouds can be daunting and can usually be avoided—although not always.

One of the first of these headaches will be to convince those around you—family, friends, lovers, and yes, even creditors—that you’re really working. Everyone in business for themselves finds themselves in this position. But with freelance writers it’s even harder because much of time a writer spends thinking, which, let’s face it, doesn’t show any physical activity.

Another dark cloud that interferes with many writers’ work is discipline. In this business, it’s imperative to be disciplined. You’ve got to get work done no matter how you feel or how nice it is outside. When it’s a beautiful day, especially in the summer, I take my work outside. I love working on my patio. It’s the ideal place to mull over notes and get my thoughts together. Sure, you can take off whenever you want, but taking off too often doesn’t provide you with money to pay your bills.

To become successful in this business it’s important to have some business acumen. You’ll need to manage your money very carefully and market yourself and your work. Many writers see these as stumbling blocks to their creativity, but both need to work hand-in-hand with it. According to the Small Business Administration, the single biggest reason for failure is a lack of expertise in a chosen field. Second to that comes a lack of understanding of the business side—such things as managing inventory, bookkeeping, understanding what your overhead will be, and managing your cash flow. Unlike a job at which you get paid every week or two, payments will come in sporadically. It’s important to know how to manage your money to make it last.

In the beginning, it may be a struggle to keep going, but eventually you may have the problem of too much work—too many assignments or deadlines. Right when you have several short pieces to complete, your book editor sends you your final galley sheets to be read in just five days! Or right when you plan to enjoy the holidays with your family, a magazine editor calls with a rush assignment that needs to be completed before the New Year. To keep your head straight, you need to set your priorities and make to-do lists—and follow them.

Sometimes, there are even darker clouds on the horizon. During my career, I’ve lost all of my markets at least six times. This happened for a variety of reasons, most of which I can’t begin to fathom. Perhaps my favorite editor left the publication or maybe the publication folded, neither of which I could control. Perhaps the economy takes a nosedive and advertisers stop purchasing ads. Fewer ads equals a thinner magazine, in my case, which results in less editorial and, thus, fewer or no assignments.

This happened in 2001 right after 9/11. Because one of the major areas of my expertise is travel writing, I found myself adrift going into 2002 and have yet to fully recover 10 years later. That one event changed things globally, knocking out many travel markets. But I didn’t let that stop me and turned to other markets I had been cultivating.

And when times get tough, creditors get nasty. To avoid this, I try to stay on top of my bills when times are good so that I have a good record coming into bad times.

One of the most bothersome of those dark clouds are editors who cry on my shoulder that they just can’t pay very much—but want the world. I try not to give in, but sometimes I have to because I need the money. It’s important to judge how much work you’re putting into a project compared to what you’re getting paid. Too many freelance writers work for too little.

Another headache that writers have to deal with today is keeping their office equipment in good running order. Computers are great at increasing productivity until they break down. Most writers know little of the workings of their computer and have to trust other people to fix them which can often be an expensive process.

Lastly, the fast-changing world of communications and the many new outlets for it have changed publishing substantially, making it hard to adjust to competitive conditions. The secret is to evaluate those changes and cope with them. But with the speed of things today, that’s not always possible.



    

The Money Migraine

Collecting the money owed to you can be frustrating and time consuming. In this business, we call it a “money migraine.” Some markets pay on time all the time, other are just the opposite. I got paid for my first article exactly one year after I sent it to a magazine. At the time, I was so excited about being published in a national magazine that it didn’t dawn on me that if I wrote full time that I would starve if I had to wait that long to be paid.

The better markets out there do pay on time and do respect writers. But some of the middle markets and, especially those at the bottom of the ladder, drag their feet. One magazine even offered me free advertising for the $1,500 they owed me for several articles. Now why would I advertise in their magazine?

The first step in timely payment is to find out when you’re supposed to be paid. Don’t hesitate to ask a publishers when they pay writers. Some pay on acceptance, some on publication, and some after publication. Knowing when you should expect payment will help you know if you should take further steps.

If payment time passes, send a second invoice, accompanied by a friendly reminder. Hopefully, the publisher may have just forgotten. Editors are busy and sometimes overworked. Or perhaps your invoice got misplaced. If you receive no answer or money after 10 days, it’s most likely that you’re being ignored.

Send another letter, reminding the editor that you met your obligations and insist that the publisher meet his or hers. If not answer again, it’s time for you to call. But often this has no effect.

What should you do now? If all else fails, you can take a publisher to court-–small claims court, that is. The only problem with this is that you have to do that in the county or town in which they’re located. For a small fee, you can file a claim or have someone locally file one for you. There’s a good chance you’ll get the money owed you, but you’ll have lost that market.

In my experience, nearly all publishers eventually do send payment–albeit very late. Continuing to work with a slow-paying publisher is a decision you’ll have to make. Sometimes, it’s a one-time event, but there are publishers who operate by the seat of their pants. You’ll have to decide if it’s worth continuing to work with that publisher or should you put your energies into finding a new one.

Payment on Acceptance or Publication

Writing for publication can have its drawbacks. For beginning writers, just getting published is enough. But for professional writers–those of us you need to get paid for our writing–when and if we get paid becomes a continual concern.

Professional writers’ associations like the prestigious American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) continually say writers should get paid on acceptance. That means getting paid the moment an editor accepts an article or short story. Well, that’s easy for them to say.

In today’s madcap word of publishing, fewer and fewer publishers of periodicals are paying their writers on acceptance. They want to keep their money as long as they can, and so do their advertisers, who are paying their bills later and later. So what is a writer to do?

First, find out beforehand when the publication pays its writers. You can easily find this in such directories as Writer’s Market, published by Writer’s Digest Books. If you don’t see the publication you’re interested in within its pages, then call the editor and ask. Too many magazines, for instance, want your story months ahead of time, but don’t pay for perhaps a year later. You can’t wait a whole year to shop at the supermarket!

Many publications pay on publication–or more to the point, perhaps 30-60 days after publication. If you’re expecting immediate payment as soon as your piece is published, don’t bet on it. This has become more the norm than not.

The argument ASJA makes is that payment on publication may mean never. What they mean by this is that the publication may close up shop before you get your money. Unfortunately, in today’s economy, that’s the risk you have to take. Otherwise, go get a job at McDonald’s.

In order to write and publish and still get by, you need to work on a number of projects. Always have something in the works. Sending an article or story off every so often will make sure that the payments also come in every so often. 

Invoices–The Key to Getting Paid

Many writers, especially beginners, live in an idealized ivory-tower world where the only thing that’s important is their writing. That’s fine if they’re independently wealthy. Unfortunately, few are.  Most work at 9-5 jobs and write either in their off hours or when the muse strikes them. They don’t particularly have to worry about whether their writing brings in any money.

If you want to make money at writing, you need to start using a staple of the business world–the invoice.

To get paid in business–and yes, writing is a business, especially if you do it full-time–you need to bill for your time. With every piece of writing you send to an editor, you need to include an invoice. This can be as simple as a sheet of paper with your name and address at the top, followed by the name of publication and, below that, the title of your piece and the amount due for it, or it can be an elaborate affair with a category code, invoice number, date, social security number, etc.

If you don’t want to design and print up your own invoice, then you can go to any office supply store and buy a pad of them, filling them in yourself. It’s infinitely more business-like to create your own. You can do this as a separate file to be sent with your writing file by E-mail, or of a simpler design that you can tack on at the end of the composition file. The former works better because the editor can print it out and send it on to the accounts receivable department of the publication. Remember, editors don’t pay you; someone in the accounting department does.

You should also always include an invoice, even if you aren’t being paid money for your work. While you should try not to write for free, you need to make the person on the other end know what your time is worth if they had paid for it. In this case, include a reasonable amount, and then mark the invoice “PAID.” Also, don’t forget to print a copy of every invoice you send out for yourself, so that you’ll have a record of all your sales for the year.

If you work on different types of writing–articles, public relations, fiction, etc.–you should consider including a category code on your invoice. This makes it easier for you to tally up the totals for each category at the end of the year. While you don’t need these totals for taxes, they help you see which categories are making more or less money, so you can plan for the next year.

While an invoice may seem an insignificant thing in your writing life, it’s more important than you  may realize.