You’re interested in selling some writing, maybe even starting to “freelance,” but where do you go to SELL your work? Here are some of the most popular sites and the pros and cons of using each.
After registering, you’ll submit your work for approval. You can submit content that matches up to a previous request, or you can write whatever you like. After the content is approved, it’s up for sale.
Pros: You can write about what you want and charge what you want. Writers can typically get more from Constant Content than from other sites.
Cons: Your writing skills need to be a bit more polished than other sites might require; otherwise, your content is likely to be rejected. Your content may not sell for quite some time, or ever. In my experience, most of the content sold here will sell for full rights, meaning that the writer gets no byline or credit for the piece. Writers will need to accumulate $50 in earnings before being paid.
Associated Content is similar to Constant Content. Associated Content has different payment categories, some of which pay up-front and others don’t.
Pros: You can get paid something for just about anything you’ve written. Even if they offer no up-front payment, you’ll get paid a small amount for each article based on its page views, so your articles can continue to earn for months or even more. Even better, Associated Content will begin paying you about a week after your first article is bought. Beginning writers will find their work more readily accepted here. Because writers can claim their works publicly, Associated Content also makes a much better portfolio than Constant Content does.
Cons: The pay is pretty low, sometimes only $3-7 per article. Priority is given to content that is unique to the site.
Helium allows you to post whatever content you want, like Associated Content. However, Helium is unique in that members rate articles, and those ratings determine which articles move to the top of their categories and get the most page views.
Pros: You get paid something for your work, but it may be a small amount since Helium pays a percentage of the advertising revenue the article earns. Helium also has a marketplace where buyers can ask for particular articles, but in my experience there are usually few options there.
Cons: The pay is low. You’ll need to accumulate $25 or more before you get paid.
I can’t speak to the pros and cons of this site since I’m not a member. Unlike the other sites listed here, Suite 101 requires writers to apply to write for them. From that point, they sound a lot like Helium; they pay a percentage of the ad revenue your articles earn.
Xomba is another site that works very much like Helium or Suite 101. The revenue model for many of these is the same, you earn a share of adsense revenue.
You may be asking, why would I use any of these sites that share their ad revenue when I can write for myself and get all the ad revenue? That’s a good question, and I think it depends on what your ultimate goal is. Writing for your own site will build your blog or website and, over time, increase its traffic. However, you’re likely to earn very little if anything in ad revenue for some time. Sites like Helium can provide you with better initial traffic, and higher earnings. If you’re allowed to put links back to your own site, you can also drive some traffic as well (check the TOS first).
This is what I do. If the content would work well on one of my blogs, that’s where I put it. If it’s an article that I’m interested in writing but that doesn’t fit with my blogs, then I sell it.
Note that I’ve deliberately eliminated sites that pay you to write advertisements and reviews on your own site. Those are a bit of a different animal. I also didn’t include article directories that don’t pay but that drive traffic back to your site. I also didn’t include freelancing sites like elance or guru. All those are for a future post.
My best advice is to experiment with different sites. Join, write an article or two and see what happens. You may find some easier to work with than others. I tend to post most of my work to Constant Content. If an article doesn’t sell after several weeks, then I might consider placing it on Associated Content or even Helium. In short, try for the biggest payout first, and only later settle for one of the lower paying options.
I’m talking about WeBook, a site I ran across the other day through StumbleUpon. From their about page…
Webook is an “online book publishing company, which does for the industry what American Idol did for music.”
That’s a pretty interesting intro, don’t you think? From browsing around the site, it looks like you can start a project, collaborate with others on projects, and vote for projects (the American Idol part). I haven’t joined, but I’ll keep it in the back of my head. Right now I’m more focused on finishing my novel than getting started with something like this.
Any members out there?
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I recently headed over to Constant Content to shop for some articles for my sites. I was surprised by some of the things I found. If you’re having trouble selling your material, then maybe one of these is the reason why.
As I’ve mentioned here before, I write for Constant Content, and I’m happy to say I’ve sold about 75 percent of what I’ve written there. You can see my profile and articles here. I hope that these tips can help you sell more there, or wherever you’re trying to sell your content.
Originally uploaded by Ian Wilson
Techdirt has a great article about publishing and the internet, and how the publishing model will need to change in the future. I’m sure you know about the RIAA and/or MPAA and their many lawsuits against users downloading their content without paying.
It doesn’t take much imagination to see it happening with books as well. (more…)
Really. Yes. No kidding.
Finding an agent doesn’t have to involve searching through publications, acknowledgment pages, and a myriad other places. Here’s a site you’ll want to try, LitMatch.
First, you can search for an agent or agency. Their search feature allows you to filter by several categories like genre, fiction/non-fiction, geographical area, agent name. You can further limit your search to agents with web sites, those taking queries, and those who accept e-mail submissions.
For each agency, you’ll see information to help you decide if they’re right for you. This includes a list of other authors they represent (you can search by that as well). Users of the site report their interactions with the agency, including response times, whether rejections are personal or form, and acceptance information. Users can even enter comments for the agency.
The site also has an area to allow you to track submissions. If you have a book you’re interested in sending out, enter its information and track which agency you’ve sent it to and the response.
Overall, I think this site looks great, so if the time is right for you to approach an agent, this is definitely a great place to begin looking.
As you know, I’m busy NaNo-ing this month. For those of you who may have missed these, here are five of the most popular blog posts on the site. Take a minute and check them out, and then get back to your novel!
I ran across an interesting blog tonight, which covers self-publishing through Lulu. I’ve linked to her most recent post, but I’d recommend exploring the site further. She gives some good tips and insights into how Lulu works and what some of the pitfalls are.
I know a lot of us will have a novel rough draft in a month or so, and if print-on-demand is what you’re thinking of, then you’ll want to check this one out.
As writers, we often don’t want to think about finances. That’s too “practical” and we tend to be the artsy, creative types. Right?
Wrong. If you want to write for a living, you have some serious financial planning to do now.
Walking away from a 9 to 5 job with benefits is going to be tough when the time comes, regardless of the planning you’ve done. However, it will be impossible if you haven’t done any planning at all. Imagine it, you get your first book deal, and you still can’t afford to quit work and write! Not exactly what you’re dreaming of, is it?
Let me say that once more…. Unless you plan financially now, you’ll never be able to quit work and write for a living.
So, what are you doing about it?
Over the past year or so, we’ve been working on our finances and planning/hoping that my writing career can be my main source of income eventually. Here’s what we’ve done.
Yes, living on an erratic source of income can be scary, but it’s also very doable! Plan on making just one financial change this month that can put you closer to that goal. What will yours be?
Note: This entry is part of a group writing contest being held at Get Rich Slowly, which happens to be a great site for finding advice on living more frugally, budgeting, getting out of debt, etc.
Imagine that you’re walking down the street, and you spot a mother pushing her new baby in a stroller. You stop to admire the newborn, gaze at her, tilt your head, and look up at the mother and say, “Wow! That’s one ugly baby you’ve got there.”
That new mom is going to stomp a mud hole in you. Unfortunately, many writers react like that new mom when they’re asked for edits.
1. Your book or story is not your “baby”
I feel a certain emotional attachment to my work too. I spend a lot of time on my writing, and when I need to cut out a scene that I particularly like, it can hurt. However, I also know that once my writing leaves my computer and goes out in the wide world, it will be read, interacted with, and (gasp) judged by others.
Let your baby grow up!
2. Whom are you writing for?
If you’re writing only for yourself, then by all means, ignore your editor. Of course, if you’re writing only for yourself, why are you sending your work out anyway?
If you’re writing for others…well, shouldn’t you be taking others’ opinions into consideration?
3. Get some good criticism
“Good” criticism doesn’t come from your mom, husband, wife, or best friend. Those people will tell you your book is great no matter how horrible it truly is. They love you, or at least like you, and they want you to feel good about yourself.
A writers’ group may be a source for a good critique. However, sometimes strangers are just as likely to feel uncomfortably offering criticism, even when it’s constructive. If your critique group doesn’t usually suggest something to improve on, they’re probably not giving you an honest critique. How many writers are there, after all, who really don’t have room for improvement?
4. Art or Excuses?
Ah, this is the one that’s likely to give some folks an apoplectic fit. Keep in mind my background… I did a grad degree in English and suffered through endured was a part of many discussions about writing and art. These also included many deprecating comments about genre fiction (try saying it with a sneer, that works best… “genre fiction”… ew).
I write genre fiction.
Needless to say, I’m not big on the “art” side of things. I’m not interested in grad students doing theses on my work. I don’t care if some academic finds me worthy of study. I want to tell a good story and have readers enjoy it.
And that means I need to listen to readers when they tell me something isn’t working.
No, that doesn’t mean that I’d necessarily take any advice given, but I will consider it, and honestly. In most cases, the editor is right, and I make the changes requested.
Yep, this post was inspired by a request I got this week to make some changes to a short story before it’s published. Of course, I’ll make the changes, because the editor was right on the mark.
How do you feel about changing your work at an editor’s request?
If you’re reading this blog, I assume that you have at least some interest in making money from your writing. Maybe you’re very optimistic and hoping to support yourself completely or simply looking to supplement your income or buy dinner once a month or so.
So, what are you doing about it?
I know quite a few writers, both online and in the real world, and many claim to want to publish and make money writing. However, very few even manage to make anything, let alone enough to live on. Why is that?
The Artist
The artist won’t compromise his work for anyone or anything. To complicate matters, proofreading, editing, and rewriting all seem to fall under the large umbrella of “compromises” that he won’t make. Forget working with an editor, this person refuses to change the most egregious errors. None of the really great writers are appreciated until after they’re dead anyway, right?
The Chaser
The chaser will compromise her writing for nearly anything. What’s the latest bestseller? She’ll start a novel that’s similar. She reads that children’s literature is booming; she’ll write a children’s book. Never mind that she has no interest or background in the genre, she wants in on the action. When asked about her “voice,” her most honest answer is “Whatever you want it to be.”
The Perpetual Novel
This is the novel that sits in the writer’s drawers (not those drawers!) and gets pulled out occasionally. A paragraph is tweaked, a sentence is labored over, the novel is stroked, loved, admired, and slipped back in the desk. It must be perfect before going out in the world. As everyone except the writer knows, nothing is perfect, so this novel is doomed to be admired by one.
The Almost Writer
These are the folks who sit down and scribble on a poem or story for a few minutes, and then weeks or months go by with no writing. Still, they hope to one day write full time or publish. They’re sure they can do it, when they get the time.
The Sprinter
These writers start strong on a work and then fizzle out. Sometimes it’s the work that doesn’t quite make it, but often it’s the writer’s stamina that’s at fault. Novels are a marathon, not a sprint. Persistence and stamina count.
Fixing it
Okay, maybe these are a bit tongue-in-cheek, but I bet most writers can see a bit of themselves in the descriptions. I know that I can. What do you do to fix it? How do you get on the path to writing success?
In short, stick with it!