Many freelancers are concerned about retaining their rights. I really don't care about the rights to the items I freelance. (Which is a good thing since I can't retain my rights and work on Guru.) The thing that puzzles me about this is that traditionally published author's frequently give up their rights to the work. Go to the library and randomly choose five books off the shelves - look at the copyright page. Most of the time you are going to see a publishing company owns those rights not the author.
Now, this is shifting somewhat, but not necessarily for the better. Traditional publishing companies may make you file for the copyright, but then make you sign a contract that gives them unlimited use. Since they want you to market yourself, can you really expect them to pay to have the book copyrighted?
Anyway, the things I care about, I self-publish. There are, for example, plenty of freelance jobs asking people to write romance novels. I could do this, but I do not. I am not going to put that much time, effort, and thought into something that will be published by a probably mediocre publishing company and if promoted right may end up making them tons of money. It doesn't appeal. I can do that much myself, and I do with CreateSpace.
But there are tons of jobs that I really do not care about. Website content - I won't even take these unless I can't find something else or the topic is easy and interesting. Research papers - I am not daring enough to approach the peer-pressure (uh, I mean peer-review) community on my own at this time. Articles - I put them out in about 1 - 2 hours, not enough time to make me interested in putting my name on them most of the time.
I am not a good marketer. I am struggling through self-publishing and starting to see my business pick up, but I do not do everything I should be doing to make my business shine. And, for the most part, I focus on editing and giving people feedback on their manuscripts. I love helping others, not asking them to buy my work - trying to justify its value. So, I am a freelance writer. And I give my rights away because I don't really want them. But that's just my opinion.
If one of my book-length fiction works had been traditionally published, I would have fought tooth and nail to retain only movie rights.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Monday, April 28, 2014
Doing a job wrong...
Sigh, I had worked for this person once in 2012 and was hired again. However, the description of the project was "write an academic paper with personal experiences sprinkled in".
You can't write and academic paper with personal viewpoints sprinkled in. It just isn't proper, but instead of rereading the previous paper I had done for this employer, I attacked the project with careless abandon.
I wrote 2000 words from a very personal point of view, completely ignoring the definitions of the words on this topic. I used general definitions as anyone outside the topic would use them.
In general, they are full of it, just as anyone (in my opinion) is full of it when they take a normal sounding word and decide to turn it into something it is not just to sound smarter and exclude others from their conversation. However, had I read the last paper from this employer, I would have known exactly what I needed to do. But, alas, I was in too much of a hurry.
At 2000 words, I got very negative feedback, "well, this isn't working out. It's not going in the right direction. You were great before, but now I am going to hire someone else."
Whoa!! I knew I had messed up big time. I needed this job, I spent tons of time researching this job (well, half-heartedly, but still it took lots of time). I was getting paid good money to do this job with the promise of more nice jobs in the future. I couldn't throw that away, so I asked for a second chance.
Second chances are not the way to go. It's best to just do the job right the first time, no matter how much you are not truly into it. However, my employer was nice (and had already invested a week into the project). I promised to still deliver on deadline - which I did - scrap the paper I had done, and produce exactly what she wanted. It was hard in the end not to look at the paper I had written and steal something to boost my new paper, but I did it without even looking at the first paper. I also learned a lot about the topic - which wasn't a bad topic, I was just trying to do too much at once.
In the end, I kept the employer, but I am writing this as a lesson - don't brush off your really good jobs just because you happen to have a lot on your plate.
You can't write and academic paper with personal viewpoints sprinkled in. It just isn't proper, but instead of rereading the previous paper I had done for this employer, I attacked the project with careless abandon.
I wrote 2000 words from a very personal point of view, completely ignoring the definitions of the words on this topic. I used general definitions as anyone outside the topic would use them.
To better explain, consider this example: evolutionists/geneticists/ some biologists use the words "highly conserved" when they really mean that the DNA has similar patterning; however, they are using this word to say "these creatures are closely related on the evolutionary chain we have made up".
In general, they are full of it, just as anyone (in my opinion) is full of it when they take a normal sounding word and decide to turn it into something it is not just to sound smarter and exclude others from their conversation. However, had I read the last paper from this employer, I would have known exactly what I needed to do. But, alas, I was in too much of a hurry.
At 2000 words, I got very negative feedback, "well, this isn't working out. It's not going in the right direction. You were great before, but now I am going to hire someone else."
Whoa!! I knew I had messed up big time. I needed this job, I spent tons of time researching this job (well, half-heartedly, but still it took lots of time). I was getting paid good money to do this job with the promise of more nice jobs in the future. I couldn't throw that away, so I asked for a second chance.
Second chances are not the way to go. It's best to just do the job right the first time, no matter how much you are not truly into it. However, my employer was nice (and had already invested a week into the project). I promised to still deliver on deadline - which I did - scrap the paper I had done, and produce exactly what she wanted. It was hard in the end not to look at the paper I had written and steal something to boost my new paper, but I did it without even looking at the first paper. I also learned a lot about the topic - which wasn't a bad topic, I was just trying to do too much at once.
In the end, I kept the employer, but I am writing this as a lesson - don't brush off your really good jobs just because you happen to have a lot on your plate.
Friday, April 25, 2014
Harvard Style? or was it Harvard Law citation style?
I write according to several different style manuals. I, however, only own the APA manual. For the other styles, I check out a book at the library on citation as needed or I look online at university websites. You can find good basic references for APA here, MLA here, and "Harvard" style here.
Style manuals are generally upwards of $20, so they are not cheap investments. If you are writing with them all the time I recommend them. The reason is because while you will find information about how to cite sources (the most important part of these guides for non-fiction purposes), you will not find grammar and spelling details, which makes you stand out against others. Here are links to APA, MLA, and Chicago (shuddering). I am not all that fond of Chicago, but the press (AP style is a shortened Chicago style guide for the associated press-do not confuse it with APA style) and many other places are.
Harvard style is used internationally. I always thought it was odd because Harvard is such an American school, but I didn't choose to investigate. In the past week, I was hired to do a Harvard style job. Since this is the second most popular style I write in, I decided it was time for me to expand my style guides. I typed in "Harvard style" on Amazon, and it returned this book. Now, the reviews at the time were mostly about the project managers test book (I complained and it looks like they have fixed it), which this is not, so I didn't have much to go on. I ordered it, and happily began writing, using the guidelines online.
The book arrived, and I was slightly disturbed to see it was for Harvard Law School. Hmmm... why was this international woman wanting me to write a research paper on a non-legal topic using Harvard Law School's citation manual? In fact, why do many of my international employers prefer this style? The book is thick, poorly organized, and primarily addresses legal citation. It looked to be a much heartier read that what the APA style manual is, so I gleaned the citation information and realized everything I had down needed to be fixed. Now, I know I was careful when I looked on the website (listed above), so I went back (unfortunately after changing everything) and discovered that the website was different from the book!!
Well, I can't just let something go - after all my job depended on it in this case. I needed to know which was correct. Guess what? It was the website (prompting more frantic citation changes - my least favorite thing to do). The internationally preferred "Harvard" style is actually put out by Australians. Yep, I spent about $40 on a book I will probably never use (unless a lawyer hires me to edit his citations). Anyone want to buy a slightly used legal citation book?
Style manuals are generally upwards of $20, so they are not cheap investments. If you are writing with them all the time I recommend them. The reason is because while you will find information about how to cite sources (the most important part of these guides for non-fiction purposes), you will not find grammar and spelling details, which makes you stand out against others. Here are links to APA, MLA, and Chicago (shuddering). I am not all that fond of Chicago, but the press (AP style is a shortened Chicago style guide for the associated press-do not confuse it with APA style) and many other places are.
Harvard style is used internationally. I always thought it was odd because Harvard is such an American school, but I didn't choose to investigate. In the past week, I was hired to do a Harvard style job. Since this is the second most popular style I write in, I decided it was time for me to expand my style guides. I typed in "Harvard style" on Amazon, and it returned this book. Now, the reviews at the time were mostly about the project managers test book (I complained and it looks like they have fixed it), which this is not, so I didn't have much to go on. I ordered it, and happily began writing, using the guidelines online.
The book arrived, and I was slightly disturbed to see it was for Harvard Law School. Hmmm... why was this international woman wanting me to write a research paper on a non-legal topic using Harvard Law School's citation manual? In fact, why do many of my international employers prefer this style? The book is thick, poorly organized, and primarily addresses legal citation. It looked to be a much heartier read that what the APA style manual is, so I gleaned the citation information and realized everything I had down needed to be fixed. Now, I know I was careful when I looked on the website (listed above), so I went back (unfortunately after changing everything) and discovered that the website was different from the book!!
Well, I can't just let something go - after all my job depended on it in this case. I needed to know which was correct. Guess what? It was the website (prompting more frantic citation changes - my least favorite thing to do). The internationally preferred "Harvard" style is actually put out by Australians. Yep, I spent about $40 on a book I will probably never use (unless a lawyer hires me to edit his citations). Anyone want to buy a slightly used legal citation book?
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