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How I Make a Living as a Writer (and You Can, Too) - 0 views

lifehacker.com/ter-and-you-can-too-1525380428 2014 writing WriteLink copywriting freelance tips writer author Altucher advice living guide
shared by John Lemke on 19 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • If you sit down at a blank screen every day and simply do nothing then you are a writer. If you write one word, even better. Some people will disagree. Maybe you will disagree. That's fine. We also can all disagree. Meanwhile, our DNA is telling us we are pretty much exactly the same.
  • I try to read pieces or chapters in 3-4 books a day or more. I read at least from one non-fiction, one or two quality fiction, and one inspirational. I try to read at the level I want to write. I do this in the morning before I start writing.
  • Destroy every gatekeeper.
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  • Do what you want. Self-publishing simply means you write a book and you figure out how to get it into the hands of other people. It might just be you sell it on your email list. Congrats! You're then a published author. In my post "How to Self Publish a Bestseller" I write about the details and the numbers.
  • This seems opposite of what I said above. But blogging is not such a bad idea. How come? Because it makes you write every day. And it also is fun to build friends and community around your blog. But if you want to blog, don't just register a domain name and start blogging. You won't get any traffic.
  • There's a thousand ways to build community and practice writing on the Internet. Blog is one of them but there are many others. My #1 suggestion: first practice on Quora (cc Marc Bodnick) If you go there, follow me and say "Hi!".
  • If you don't write every day, you won't know what your potential skill level is. You will be producing sub-par work. And in a world where 15 million books will be published this year, your book will have little chance to shine.
  • Do the math: if you just write 1,000 words a day that are publishable then you have a book every two months. 1,000 words a day is not easy. But it's not hard either.
  • No. You used to be able to make a living writing articles. Just a few years ago. In 2005 I made a good living writing about 3-4 articles a day for different publications while I was running my fund and before I started and sold Stockpickr. But those days are over. People just don't pay for content. And there are too many writers. It's a supply and demand thing.
  • ou have to write more than one book. And for most people, you have to write dozens of books.
  • John Lemke on 19 Feb 14
     
    A great article of advice from a published author.
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EFF's Reading List: Books of 2013 | Electronic Frontier Foundation - 0 views

www.eff.org/...effs-reading-list-books-2013 2013 LL-Pub list books reading list eff
shared by John Lemke on 18 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • John Lemke on 18 Dec 13
     
    Here is a list of books from the EFF. They will mostly be about what I always call the "New Media Order", online privacy and technology. Based on my experience if it is recommended by the EFF, it is going to be worth the read.
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Writer Unboxed » The Lessons I Should Have Learned from Stephen King's On Wri... - 0 views

writerunboxed.com/...-from-stephen-kings-on-writing WriteLink writing freelance writer 2014 copywriting stephen king
shared by John Lemke on 26 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • It’s easy to get caught up in the fact that we want others to love what we write. We make one tiny, harmless alteration after another, and eventually our work becomes something else entirely.
  • John Lemke on 26 Jan 14
     
    I too love this book.  If you struggle with the rewrite, read this post and then get King's book.
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5 Books Freelancers Should Read Now - 0 views

workawesome.com/...what-is-freelancing 2014 freelancers books WriteLink freelance copywriting writing writer tips list
shared by John Lemke on 22 Aug 14 - No Cached
  • John Lemke on 22 Aug 14
     
    Five books for the freelancer. I added them to my list.
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Writer Unboxed » Is Your Book Good Enough for Publication? A Cold-Blooded Ass... - 0 views

writerunboxed.com/...tion-a-cold-blooded-assessment WriteLink writing freelance book writer assessment 2014 how to tutorial rewrite editing publishing
shared by John Lemke on 08 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • John Lemke on 08 Feb 14
     
    This article nicely breaks the rough and tough process into logical stages and steps. It also is very realistic.
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Storyville: Three Essential Books On Writing | LitReactor - 0 views

litreactor.com/...ree-essential-books-on-writing 2014 writing freelance WriteLink list tips writer books
shared by John Lemke on 10 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • John Lemke on 10 Feb 14
     
    The first one on the list is my number one pick. I can't wait to read the other two.
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This One Tiny Habit Can Help You Become a More Productive (and Wealthier) Freelancer | ... - 0 views

www.therenegadewriter.com/...mini-habits-stephen-guise 2014 writing copywriting tips freelancer writer
shared by John Lemke on 06 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle
  • Not only did his book confirm for me that the best way to create a positive change is through small acts repeated daily, but the book was exceptionally well written and researched — impressive in that the author is not a professional writer — and so applicable to the many writers I meet who struggle with getting query letters out the door or writing big projects like books and novels.
  • There are two kinds of motivation. The first type is having a reason for doing something. My motivation for exercise is to look and feel healthy. My motivation for doing this interview is that you asked me to do it and I want to spread the word about mini habits. Unlike the next definition of motivation, your reason for doing things is generally very stable and changes very little over time. There’s also emotional motivation, which is rooted in enthusiasm and determines your willingness to take action in the moment (“This year I’m going to get in shape so I’m off to the gym!”). Most goal systems rely on this type of motivation; they’ll tell you that you need to find this motivation to succeed. The problem is that emotional motivation isn’t reliable or habit friendly.
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  • There’s a quote from Sun Tzu’s Art of War which sums up the Mini Habit system: “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.” By taking one small action a day—just one small behavior change—we start with a win. After that point, you’re free to do more.
  • John Lemke on 06 Apr 14
     
    The article talks about taking small steps to make a big difference.
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How Much Should You Charge for Your E-Book? Ask These X Questions - 0 views

www.makealivingwriting.com/ge-for-your-e-book-7-questions price e-book ebook selling list WriteLink writing 2014 freelance tips
shared by John Lemke on 07 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • John Lemke on 07 Sep 14
     
    Seven good question to help you decide on that ebook price.
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» "Is there really writing work out there?" : Freedom With Writing - 0 views

www.freedomwithwriting.com/...-really-writing-work-out-there 2014 writing freelance copywriting reference WriteLink
shared by John Lemke on 10 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • How, then, do writing opportunities work? To be paid for writing, you need to look for a person with two characteristics: They’ve got money to spare. They’re looking for writers. This could be: A magazine editor who is looking for feature articles. An aristocrat or multi-billionaire who wants to support the career of an aspiring artist. A blogger who makes money from advertisements, or from selling information products, but is too busy to do all their blogging themselves. A book publisher who is looking for the next Da Vinci Code or Harry Potter. A business owner who needs help from a writer to promote their business. Do you see where this is going? There are writing opportunities out there, if you know where to look, and if you know the right people.
  • First, the more money a potential client has, the more they’ll be willing to pay you. Bloggers and content creators don’t typically earn much money from advertising. That’s why revenue sharing sites, which share advertising revenue with writers in exchange for content, often pay a relatively low rate. Magazine editors and book publishers are somewhere in the middle. They pay reasonably well, but they’re looking for extremely high quality, so you’ve got to be real good to get their attention. Business owners who have a steady income usually pay the most generous fees to writers. Businesses have a budget for marketing, so they’ve got cash to splash.
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What happens with digital rights management in the real world? | Technology | theguardi... - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...digital-rights-management rights 2014 DRM yourrights copyright DMCA copywrong security law legal litigation
shared by John Lemke on 10 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • In 1997's Bernstein v United States, another US appeals court found that code was protected expression. Bernstein was a turning point in the history of computers and the law: it concerned itself with a UC Berkeley mathematician named Daniel Bernstein who challenged the American prohibition on producing cryptographic tools that could scramble messages with such efficiency that the police could not unscramble them. The US National Security Agency (NSA) called such programs "munitions" and severely restricted their use and publication. Bernstein published his encryption programs on the internet, and successfully defended his right to do so by citing the First Amendment. When the appellate court agreed, the NSA's ability to control civilian use of strong cryptography was destroyed. Ever since, our computers have had the power to keep secrets that none may extract except with our permission – that's why the NSA and GCHQ's secret anti-security initiatives, Bullrun and Edgehill, targetted vulnerabilities in operating systems, programs, and hardware. They couldn't defeat the maths (they also tried to subvert the maths, getting the US National Institute for Standards in Technology to adopt a weak algorithm for producing random numbers).
    • John Lemke
      John Lemke on 10 Feb 14
       
      This is also why they have a hard on for developing a quantum computer.
  • An increase in the security of the companies you buy your media from means a decrease in your own security. When your computer is designed to treat you as an untrusted party, you are at serious risk: anyone who can put malicious software on your computer has only to take advantage of your computer's intentional capacity to disguise its operation from you in order to make it much harder for you to know when and how you've been compromised.
  • The DMCA's injunction against publishing weaknesses in DRM means that its vulnerabilities remain unpatched for longer than in comparable systems that are not covered by the DMCA. That means that any system with DRM will on average be more dangerous for its users than one without DRM.
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  • For example, in 2005, Sony-BMG music shipped a DRM called the "Sony Rootkit" on 51m audio CDs. When one of these CDs was inserted into a PC, it automatically and undetectably changed the operating system so that it could no longer see files or programs that started with "$SYS$." The rootkit infected millions of computers, including over 200,000 US military and government networks, before its existence became public. However, various large and respected security organisations say they knew about the Sony Rootkit months before the disclosure, but did not publish because they feared punishment under the DMCA. Meanwhile, virus-writers immediately began renaming their programs to begin with $SYS$, because these files would be invisible to virus-checkers if they landed on a computer that had been compromised by Sony.
    • John Lemke
      John Lemke on 10 Feb 14
       
      How the Sony DRM created serious security issues.  It should also be considered a violation of our civil rights.  Who the hell gave Sony permission to modify my OS!  Furthermore why didn't the OS companies sue Sony?  Likely because they are in bed together.
  • If I was a canny entrepreneur with a high appetite for risk -- and a reasonable war-chest for litigation – I would be thinking very seriously about how to build a technology that adds legal features to a DRM-enfeebled system (say, Itunes/Netflix/Amazon video), features that all my competitors are too cowardly to contemplate. The potential market for devices that do legal things that people want to do is titanic, and a judgment that went the right way on this would eliminate a serious existential threat to computer security, which, these days, is a synonym for security itself.And once anti-circumvention is a dead letter in America, it can't survive long in the rest of the world. For one thing, a product like a notional Itunes/Amazon/Netflix video unlocker would leak across national borders very easily, making non-US bans demonstrably pointless. For another, most countries that have anti-circumvention on the books got there due to pressure from the US Trade Representative; if the US drops anti-circumvention, the trading partners it armed-twisted into the same position won't be far behind.I've talked to some lawyers who are intimate with all the relevant cases and none of them told me it was a lost cause (on the other hand, none of them said it was a sure thing, either). It's a risky proposition, but something must be done. You see, contrary to what the judge in Reimerdes said in 2000, this has nothing to do with whether information is free or not – it's all about whether people are free.
  • The DMCA is a long and complex instrument, but what I'm talking about here is section 1201: the notorious "anti-circumvention" provisions. They make it illegal to circumvent an "effective means of access control" that restricts a copyrighted work. The companies that make DRM and the courts have interpreted this very broadly, enjoining people from publishing information about vulnerabilities in DRM, from publishing the secret keys hidden in the DRM, from publishing instructions for getting around the DRM – basically, anything that could conceivably give aid and comfort to someone who wanted to do something that the manufacturer or the copyright holder forbade.
  • Significantly, in 2000, a US appeals court found (in Universal City Studios, Inc v Reimerdes) that breaking DRM was illegal, even if you were trying to do something that would otherwise be legal. In other words, if your ebook has a restriction that stops you reading it on Wednesdays, you can't break that restriction, even if it would be otherwise legal to read the book on Wednesdays.
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New, inexpensive production materials boost promise of hydrogen fuel (Feb. 21, 2014) - 0 views

www.news.wisc.edu/22583 2014 production hydrogen fuel LL-Pub
shared by John Lemke on 26 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • The trouble with solar fuel production is the cost of producing the sun-capturing semiconductors and the catalysts to generate fuel. The most efficient materials are far too expensive to produce fuel at a price that can compete with gasoline.
  • "In order to make commercially viable devices for solar fuel production, the material and the processing costs should be reduced significantly while achieving a high solar-to-fuel conversion efficiency," says
  • Choi and postdoctoral researcher Tae Woo Kim combined cheap, oxide-based materials to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases using solar energy with a solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of 1.7 percent, the highest reported for any oxide-based photoelectrode system.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • "Without fancy equipment, high temperature or high pressure, we made a nanoporous semiconductor of very tiny particles that have a high surface area," says Choi, whose work is supported by the National Science Foundation. "More surface area means more contact area with water, and, therefore, more efficient water splitting."
  • "Since no one catalyst can make a good interface with both the semiconductor and the water that is our reactant, we choose to split that work into two parts," Choi says. "The iron oxide makes a good junction with bismuth vanadate, and the nickel oxide makes a good catalytic interface with water. So we use them together." The dual-layer catalyst design enabled simultaneous optimization of semiconductor-catalyst junction and catalyst-water junction.
  • In a study published last week in the journal Science, Choi and postdoctoral researcher Tae Woo Kim combined cheap, oxide-based materials to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases using solar energy with a solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of 1.7 percent, the highest reported for any oxide-based photoelectrode system.
  • John Lemke on 26 Feb 14
     
    I am an advocate of switching to hydrogen for combustion engines.  One of the best reasons is that combustion produces water.  Furthermore, it is much safer than most people believe.  (Your car is not going to turn into the Hindenburg.) In Ben Bova's Book "Break Throughs" he talked of huge floating solar powered hydrogen producing plants.  In Room's "The Hype About Hydrogen" he painfully points out that H2 production is still not cost effective enough to complete with Gasoline.  That said, research like this leaves us hope for the future.
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5 Quick Ways Busy Freelancers Can Keep Marketing - 0 views

www.makealivingwriting.com/freelancers-can-keep-marketing 2014 writing copywriting tips marketing business
shared by John Lemke on 06 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • The clients are “not there” for all freelancers, until we go out and proactively market and find them. Take responsibility for your business success and realize it’s up to you to get out there and look for new clients (or new projects from current clients).
  • Don’t have a writer website? It’s time to get one. You really can’t present yourself professionally these days without a site.
  • Tweaking your site copy is something you can do 10 minutes a day on, and it’s well worth it to up your odds of drawing prospects to you.
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  • The writer who sent this comment may be missing out if they’re not active on LinkedIn, the one social-media platform where self-promotion is more acceptable.
  • My experience is LinkedIn connections are happy to recommend and refer you, if you’ll only ask. And it takes just a few moments a day to reach out. You can even mass-mail your LinkedIn contacts 50 people at a time, but use this option with caution to avoid coming off spammy.
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Writer Unboxed » A 'Logic Model' for Author Success - 0 views

writerunboxed.com/...logic-model-for-author-success 2014 writer model author WriteLink copywriting freelance tips marketing management GTD
shared by John Lemke on 14 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • in this age of the “writer as an entrepreneur” responsible for a growing share of the work required to not only create but also sell a book, adding management skills to our repertoire of abilities is not at all a bad idea.
  • as launch time approaches, authors get overwhelmed by thinking that they have to do “everything:” Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, ad campaigns, bookstore talks, conference panels, media articles, email newsletters, book clubs…you name it.
  • what our goals are beyond sales
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  • Based on our mission and our definition of success, we can then work out a manageable set of steps to take in line with our specific interests and goals. We feel more in control and less anxious about having to “do it all.”
  • A more viable definition of success does have a quantitative element, but it doesn’t necessarily mean “number of copies sold or dollars earned.” It can mean other measurable outcomes such as landing a teaching job or a column in a respected publication.
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Writer Unboxed » Plotting, Pacing, and Crossing Over - 0 views

writerunboxed.com/...tting-pacing-and-crossing-over WriteLink writing 2014 freelance tips writer crossing over near death plot
shared by John Lemke on 04 May 14 - No Cached
  • John Lemke on 04 May 14
     
    A plot development method that suggests characters should "cross over" and experience "near death" at certain points in the story line. It makes a good argument by citing book and movie examples.
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Why Failure IS an Option for Writers | Positive Writer - 0 views

positivewriter.com/why-failure 2014 writing WriteLink freelance copywriting tips writer
shared by John Lemke on 23 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • Stop making failure a negative thing and start writing. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes and start creating. And if you do mess up, do your best to learn from it. Trust me, you’ll be much better off.
  • What if your first book was sold to a publisher quickly, but then each of your next 5 books were turned down? That exact scenario happened to none other than, Danielle Steel, currently the best selling author alive and the fourth bestselling author of all time.
  • John Lemke on 23 Jul 14
     
    Very true for writers but also applies to life in general.  "Nothing beats a failure except a try" is one of my favorite sayings.
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Is Paranoia Preventing YOU From Finding Success as a Writer? | Positive Writer - 0 views

positivewriter.com/paranoia-writer 2014 WriteLink freelance copywriting tips list writer
shared by John Lemke on 06 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • John Lemke on 06 Jun 14
     
    A good perspective to stay motivated.  Also includes a link to a free e-book.
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» How to Build Residual Income as a Writer for Examiner.com : Freedom With Wr... - 0 views

www.freedomwithwriting.com/...e-as-a-writer-for-examiner-com
shared by John Lemke on 13 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Examiner is very unusual in that writers have some serious perks. If you move your cursor over your name in the top right of your page you will see a drop down list. Choose the ‘Examiner Perks’ option and prepare to be awed. You can get discounts on everything from Insurance to books to concert tickets etc. The discounts alone are worth the 200 words a month!
    • John Lemke
      John Lemke on 13 Jan 14
       
      nice perks
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How to Become a Freelance Writer in 900 Simple Steps - Part 1: Risky Business | LitReactor - 0 views

litreactor.com/...le-steps-part-1-risky-business WriteLink 2014 copywriting freelance writing how to business
shared by John Lemke on 26 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • What exactly do freelance copywriters write? Everything! From ad copy to newsletters, from policies to blogs, from business proposals to brochures, and from catalog blurbs to t-shirt taglines, there's nothing off-limits. James told me she's worked on everything from tweets for non-profits to ghost writing a book for a motivational speaker to writing taglines for Nike. So, if you are after variety, it appears that the freelance thing delivers. Sure, some freelances have specialties, but generally speaking, they are just really skilled at writing and they help businesses who need someone with that skill to produce written content. Unlike traditional writers, these people don't get their names in the byline, but they do get paid hourly for their work. Did you catch that? HOUR-LY.
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Corroboratively vs. Collaboratively - 0 views

www.dailywritingtips.com/oboratively-vs-collaboratively 2014 freelancers books writing freelance copywriting tips
shared by John Lemke on 22 Aug 14 - No Cached
  • The verb corroborate means “to strengthen or confirm.”
  • John Lemke on 22 Aug 14
     
    One means to strengthen, the other involves working as part of a team.
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