Lately, I’ve heard fellow writers make two recurring statements that go something like this:

“I’m losing work – my clients are cutting back on projects because of the economy.”

“I’ve tried to network for new business but I can’t seem to make the right connections.”

You can blame the struggling economy and lament your lack of connections, but the bottom line is: to consistently profit from your writing you must systematically promote your talent and abilities.

Many of us fill our schedules with projects and then stop looking for more. It isn’t until we are staring at the final delivery date of the final project that we realize we have nothing new to put in its place. So we start looking for work, and sometimes make poor choices because we need something NOW. This is a disastrous way to search for writing work.

Successful business owners have marketing plans—if you sell your writing services, you are a business owner. Do YOU have a marketing plan?

If not, I’m going to make it easy by helping you create your writer’s marketing plan using seven simple steps. Do this process once and you’ll never have to do it again—the benefit is that you’ll know how to open doors to new opportunities with a flick of the marketing switch! Here’s how (includes a free book offer!): Read the rest of this entry

Two measly letters: N and O.

At the age of 2, “no” was easy to say. The word gave us a bit of power, scoring us an extra hour before bedtime or preventing the hated peas from being hidden in the favored mashed potatoes. However, as adult writers in search of projects to work on, it’s harder to refuse requests—especially when you work so hard to attract them.

Yet, there are times when it is in your—and your potential client’s— best interest to refuse a particular work assignment.

Last Wednesday, I received an email inquiry through the contact page of my book ghostwriting and editing services site (www.authorsanonymous.com). I was open to finding a new project and my interest peaked when I saw the inquiry. He thought my services were a great fit for his project and I was local—often an author’s preference.

Several emails later, after the potential client answered a questionnaire I sent out for more project details, I turned it down. Saying “no” to a paying gig is difficult, yet there are appropriate times to exercise your right of refusal… here are a few: Read the rest of this entry

A number of years ago I was doing a lot of copywriting… and I mean a LOT of copywriting… for an advertising agency that used freelance talent. After three months of working on occasional assignments for its high profile clients, I started getting so much work that I my fingers were flying across the keyboard 12-14 hours a day to deliver it on deadline.

Unfortunately, my fatigue and frustration with the constant time crunch led me to spending less time on each project to self-edit my work—and it began to show. When one of the agency’s clients pointed out some obvious “lazy” editing I had done on the company’s brochure content, my project manager was not happy. The incident affected my reputation with the agency and that affected my bank account when they pulled back on sending me new assignments.

It was a humbling experience and I learned a hard lesson: sloppy copy reduces writing profits.

Maybe you are a skilled self-editor but, for those of you who are like me and need an occasional refresher to prevent your prose from running amok—whether you write marketing and web copy, books, articles or blogs—here are five ways to say more with less: Read the rest of this entry

Many working writers tell me that they get most of their assignments and projects by “word of mouth.” I’ve been fortunate to get many projects through this referral practice myself—and I’m thankful for every one of them. I suppose we like to think that our writing services are so great that clients and editors rave about them to everyone they meet.

Nice thought, but if we take the time to really examine the “word of mouth” process, we are likely to discover that the referral itself is the tip of a very deep and unobtrusive marketing iceberg, whether we do it consciously or instinctively. Here’s what lies beneath the surface: Read the rest of this entry