Paul Lima: Freelance Writer & Trainer

800

I just checked my book sale statistics on Lulu.com, the print on demand (POD) company I use to publish and sell my books for freelance writers and business/promotional writers. I am pleased to say that as of today, I have sold… (drum roll, please)… 800 books.

Not bad for a self-published author who really does little or no promotion beyond what I do on my website and here on my blog. Sure, 800 is not a Canadian bestseller, but it’s far more books than I thought I’d sell when I was asked if I could convert some of my business of freelance writing and business/promotional writing workshops into books for folks who could not attend my workshops. Not only that, but each quarter, my books sales go up–so I’m pleased with that too, and look forward to hitting 1,000 books by the fall. (And the really neat thing is that it has cost me absolutely nothing to publish and sell my books through Lulu, which is not a vanity press–a company that charges you an arm and a leg to self-publish and doesn’t give a fig if you actually sell any books.)

If you are interested in self-publishing and print on demand, you can read a dozen or so of my blog posts on the topic here. POD is not for everyone. However, if you have a book in you and have an audience in mind, and if you don’t have the patience it takes to find a traditional publisher (let alone have them actually get around to publishing your book), you too may want to check out POD. Oh, and if you have a non-fiction book in you and you are having difficulty getting it out of you, do read about my latest books (quickly becoming one of my bestsellers), How To Write A Non-Fiction Book In 60 Days. Maybe you will be the 801st person to buy one of my books. (See, I told you I use my blog to promote my books.)
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Paul Lima is a freelance writer and business writing instructor. He is also the author of several books on business and promotional writing and the business of freelance writing.

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Just how do you price corporate writing/editing (or training) work?

I am often asked questions about pricing corporate work. The first question I ask back is this: “How much do you charge per hour?” All too often, I am greeted with a blank stare, or the person replies with something like this: “I want to know how much clients expects to pay.”

Allow me to be blunt: I don’t give a hoot what the client expects to pay. I give a hoot about what I expect to earn. And the only way I can earn what I expect to earn is by knowing my hourly rate.

When asked for a quote on a corporate writing or editing gig, I define the scope of the project (how many interviews and meetings, how much research and background reading, how much writing, how many revisions, will I be working with a designer or webmaster, and so on). Then I estimate to the best of my ability how many hours it will take me to complete the job. Once that is done, I multiply my hourly rate times my estimate of the hours required to complete the job. And that is how I generate my quote. I couldn’t do it with knowing number of interviews and meetings, background research, word count, possible number of drafts/revisions, approval process, and so on. And I certainly could not do it without knowing my hourly rate.

To that, people often say: “But what if your estimate is too high?”

My answer is simple: “I don’t land the gig.”

And that is a good thing. If I think a job is going to take 20 hours to complete and based on that I issue a quote for $2,500 and the client is only willing to pay $500, then I am better off spending time looking for better paying gigs.

Scoping out the project applies to my business communications training work too. For instance, if someone wants me to conduct a 3-hour email writing seminar, I can pull it off the shelf and do it–no problem. But if the client wants me to customize my examples to meet the learning needs of the company (which makes a lot of sense) I am happy to customize the training session. I then have to calculate that development time into my quote. Same with media interview training. I have an off-the-shelf seminar that I deliver, and it’s quite effective. However, most companies expect me to customize the training and mock interview questions to meet their needs. That makes a great deal of sense from the client’s point of view; it takes time to do from my perspective. Add customization to a three-hour training session and you may be looking at an additional 3 to 6 hours of of development time. And time is money.

So follow the rate formula: Know your hourly rate. Scope out the details of the project. Estimate how long it will take you to do all that you have to do. Multiply your hourly rate times your hours estimate. Then issue your quote.

If the job goes to another writer or trainer, so be it. If you land the gig, you are going to feel good about yourself and your client, and you will do a better job. At least that has been my experience.

If you are interested in more posts on pricing corporate assignments, please read my pricing corporate work articles here: http://paullima.com/blog/?cat=15

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Paul Lima is a freelance writer and business writing instructor. He is also the author of several books on business writing and the business of freelance writing.

Posted in Pricing Corporate Assignments | No Comments »

Amazon wants to rule POD; BookLocker fights back

THIS ARTICLE IS REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION. If you want to read my posts on print on demand (POS) and self-publishing, click here.

BookLocker Files Class Action Lawsuit Against Amazon.com
[This article may be quoted and/or reprinted in its entirety. If you'd like to comment on this situation, please visit http://antitrust.booklocker.com.]

BookLocker has filed a class action lawsuit against Amazon.com in response to Amazon’s recent attempts to force all publishers using Print on Demand (POD) technology to pay Amazon to print their books.

You can read the complaint here: http://antitrust.booklocker.com/complaint.pdf

Amazon began their clandestine effort earlier this year by phone (nobody there seemed to want to put anything in writing), approaching POD publishers, and telling them they must pay Amazon to print their books or their active “buy” buttons would be turned off at the Amazon.com website. What this means is Amazon customers won’t be able to purchase those books directly from Amazon.com (and would not qualify for free shipping), but only through third-party resellers on the site.

Under the Amazon/BookSurge contract, Amazon: Read the rest of this entry »

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Gas: $1.35; Carbon tax coming. Time to reprint: “Working from home: Is it for you?”

With gas at $1.35 a litre and threatening to hit $1.50 (or more) over the summer, and with the Liberals talking about a carbon tax (notice how silent the Greens and NDP are on this; the conservative are dissing the Liberals, but they are going to have to soon announce an alternative policy…), it’s time to reprise my CBC.ca article: “Working from home: Is it for you?”

I work from home as a freelance writer, and have done so for almost 17 years. Every day, I wake up, grab a mug of tea and commute from my bedroom to my home office. I haven’t met most of my editors or clients. I file my work by e-mail and we communicate by e-mail unless an issue seems complex, in which case I pick up the phone. Occasionally, I attend initial client meetings, but they are rare. While I’d love to attend a meeting with my client in Belgium, I don’t think that will happen any time soon.

In addition to freelance writing, I teach continuing education business writing and copywriting courses for the University of Toronto. Until last year, that involved commuting downtown one night a week. Not any more. All the courses I teach are now online. That means students and the teacher are not driving or taking transit anywhere.

All that being said, I do not have the world’s most sophisticated technological set up. I have a phone and a three-year-old computer with a broadband Internet connection. If I can use this technology to successfully work from home — with editors, clients and students across Canada, in the United States and in Europe — then why can’t more people in corporations, organizations and government offices do likewise? Why do they have to clog our highways every morning and afternoon to commute to work?

Full article here

Posted in Published Articles | 1 Comment »

How to Get Clients to Pay Invoices Promptly

From an article on wikiHow: “One of the toughest things you must do as a businessperson is get paid! You work hard for your clients to provide them with a valuable service, and then spend months chasing your money. The truth is, many business to business invoices get put on the back burner, because unlike credit card companies who will immediately report the late payor to a credit agency, the smaller business will usually not do this. It’s a tough call, sometimes, but you’re the one who will suffer if you don’t make it.”

The rest of the article include 7-steps that focus on how to get clients to pay invoices promptly. Read the full article here.

Posted in Freelance Writing - Corporate, Freelance Writing - General, Pricing Corporate Assignments | No Comments »

Harness the writing process to become more effective (and efficient) writer

If you want to become a more effective (and efficient) writer, you need to harness the writing process. First off, to be effective any document should AIAA:
- Capture Attention
- Maintain Interest
- Influence Attitude
- Motivate Action

To be effective, you need to AIAA in that order. If you do not capture my attention, I will not read. If you do not hold my interest, I will stop reading. If you do not influence my attitude, I will not act - even if I am predisposed to doing what you want. (Think about elections: you might support a particular party but if the party leader or party platform does not inspire you, you may not act - vote.
The party must influence your attitude before you will act.) And finally, if you do not motivate me to act - could be as simple as telling me what to do and when to do it (and sometimes how to do it) - I may not act.

Be specific
When asking people to act, be specific. For instance, if you want me to do something by a certain date, say so. Do not say “ASAP”. When you say “ASAP” you might mean today or tomorrow. But my interpretation could be as soon as it is possible for me to get around to it - as in next week.

Note: In advertising, motivation often includes time-limited incentives, such a discounts or give-aways.

As the subject line of this blog post indicates, writing is a process. Effective (and efficient) writers spend:
- 40% of their time planning
- 25% of their time writing
- 35% of their time revising

Less effective and less efficient writers spend more time on projects and distribute time differently:
- 20% planning
- 60% writing (writing, pausing, sighing, tinkering…)
- 20% revising

The key to effective writing is to invest more time up front:
- Planning (thinking about your topic, audience, purpose, scope, media)
- Research (conducting appropriate internal or external research)
- Organization (creating an outline)

If you do all of the above, you no longer start writing with a blank screen. You start with an outline - the points you want to make in the order you want to make them. This means you no longer have to remember everything you want to write about; it’s all there in front of you, in the form of a logical outline. You simply write from outline point to outline point, kind of like Tarzan swinging through the jungle from vine to vine to vine…

When you finish a first draft, you edit and proofread. With that in mind, write with grammar and spell check off. When you let your computer tell you that you’ve made a mistake, you tend to edit as you write, which is inefficient. It can also make you less effective as you ten to lose your train of thought when you edit while writing.

One final point
Before you write, determine your true business purpose and work it into your first sentence or your first paragraph. Doing so will help you capture the attention of the reader. Also, if the reader knows what you want up front, then he or she will be reading your email message or document with your purpose in mind. That helps hold interest. You still have to influence attitude. However, when you start with purpose, you are half way there.

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Paul Lima is a freelance writer, copywriter, business writing trainer and media interview trainer.

Posted in Business Training | No Comments »

FREE Business Vision and Time Management e-Reports; no subscribing; no strings!

Get two Free Short e-Reports to help you create your business vision and manage your time. No strings attached; no personal information required. Just download the PDFs.

Why is Paul Lima giving away two free reports?
Let’s face it, I am not doing this just because I am an altruistic kind of guy. However, there are no strings attached to this give away. To receive either, or both, report(s), you do not have to register for anything, subscribe to anything or provide me with any personal information. If you like the information in the reports, you can send me an email — info@paullima.com — and let me know. I will reply and say thanks, but will not try to sell you anything. Promise.

If this not simply an act of altruism, why do it? What’s the catch?
There is no catch. I hope you find the information in the reports so practical that you are inspired to buy one of my books on the business of freelancing or on business and promotional writing or to take one of my e-courses on the business of freelancing or on business and promotional writing (or perhaps one of my workshops in Toronto. At the same time, you are under no obligation to do so. If you get what you want from the reports (and the reports are detailed and comprehensive), then that is cool.

So much for the blatant self-promotion.
Let’s get on with downloading the free reports!
Here’s how you download the free reports: Right click on the links below and choose “Save As” or “Save Target As” and save the PDF files to your hard drive. It’s that simple. Again, no registration, no subscription and no personal information required. Are you ready? If so, right click and save. Happy reading!

FREE report #1: If You Don’t Know Where You are Going, How are You Going to Get There? Business Vision Short eReport. “I did the business vision exercise and am more confident about my enterprise now that I know where I’m going.” - A. Fecteau. 24 pages. Printable PDF file.

FREE report #2: Put Time On Your Side: Time Management Short eReport. If you are not managing your time effectively, then you are not managing your business effectively. By showing you how to manage your time, this report will help you manage your business and help you implement your Business and Marketing Plans - so you can achieve your Business Vision. 26 pages. Printable PDF file.

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Paul Lima is a freelance writer, copywriter, business writing instructor and media interview trainer. He is also the author of several books on business writing and the business of freelance writing. His latest book is How To Write A Non-Fiction Book in 60 Days.

Posted in Freelance Writing - Corporate, My Books, Workshops, Seminars & Online Courses | No Comments »

Lulu expands Print on Demand options; Lima sells 790th book

I have just sold my 790th self-published book through Lulu, a print on demand (POD) company that makes available both print copies and PDF copies of my books. I know 790 is an odd (yet even) number, but for some reason it feels like a milestone to me - maybe because I wondered if I’d ever sell 50 or maybe 100 books. Of course I will pop the champagne cork when I hit 1,000 books, but 790 feels worth celebrating here!

I have not written an update on my experiences in self-publishing, using POD with Lulu.com for a while. If you want to know more about my overall experiences (I’ve self-published 8 books on promotional and business writing and the business of freelance writing), you can read about my Lulu adventures elsewhare in my blog - I have 9 articles in my POD blog category; this is a direct link to them - no searching required.

What I want to say here is that Lulu has really expanded its POD options. In addition to Paperback and Hardcover books, you can publish Comic books, Dissertations, Cookbooks, Product Manuals, Sales Proposals, Travel Guides, Presentations, Textbooks and Training Manuals. While many of these are variations on the paperback/hardcover theme, Lulu is set up now so you can publish these specific items as well as generic books. You can even publish and update Directories, Course Outlines, Brochures, Yearbooks, Photo Books and Wedding Books. And Lulu has gone multi-media.

If you have a lot of images, you can set up and publish a Calendar or your Portfolio or create an Artwork Poster. You can also self-publish CDs - video, audio or other data files - and DVDs. (My daughter is in film school and I’ve been thinking of having her film me giving a couple of my summer workshops for freelance writers and editors - we can add slides and graphics to it, so it’s not all me all the time on screen. The only problem is, as soon as someone points a camera at me, I freeze. I enjoy conducting workshops, but the camera feels so intimidating.)

The one thing I like about Lulu is setting up your project costs nothing (unless you want your book to appear in some online bookstores). Most POD companies want a thousand or several several thousand dollars up front to take on your book project. On the other hand, Lulu is a do it yourself site - don’t expect any handholding as you try to get your book project online. It isn’t difficult, but to get your book online you need to know a something about formatting a Word file and a bit about image files and how to create PDF files.

Anyway, the books continue to sell - generally an average of a couple a day - and Lulu continues to work for me. If you are thinking about self-publishing, you might find Lulu or other POD companies will work for you too.

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Paul Lima is a freelance writer, copywriter, business writing instructor and media interview trainer. He is also the author of several books on business writing and the business of freelance writing. His latest book is How To Write A Non-Fiction Book in 60 Days.

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July Seminar Series for freelance writers & editors

July Seminar Series for freelance writers and editors.

July 15, 16 & 17 - 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Seminars are limited to about 15 people, so register early
Early bird prices in effect until June 15; prices increase $10 per workshop.
Register online: www.paullima.com/workshops

July 15 - Query Letters that Rock: How to develop article ideas and sell them to newspaper and magazine editors. Based on the book, Business of Freelance Writing: How to Develop Article Ideas and Sell Them to Newspapers and Magazines, this seminar will show freelance writers how to develop article ideas, how to write query letters that rock and how to pitch queries to magazine and newspaper editors. Includes The Yes Checklist — 21 points to discuss when an editor says “Yes!” to your query. Instructor: Paul Lima.
- PWAC, EAC, CAA, WEN and CAO members - $60
- General Public - $75

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July 16 - Conquering Corporate Markets I: How to market and promote writing, editing or other services. Based on the books The Six-Figure Freelancer: How to Find, Price and Manage Corporate Writing Assignments and Build A Better Business Foundation: Create a Business Vision, Write a Business Plan, Produce a Marketing Plan, this seminar is ideal for freelance writers and editors, webmasters, graphic designers and other independent practitioners who are looking to market and promote their services to corporations, small and medium businesses and even non-profit organizations. Instructor: Paul Lima.
- PWAC, EAC, CAA, WEN and CAO members - $60
- General Public - $75

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July 17 - Conquering Corporate Markets II: How to price and manage writing, editing or other services. Based on the books The Six-Figure Freelancer and Build A Better Business Foundation, this seminar is focuses on accurately pricing services and issuing firm quotes — all while ensuring you don’t end up doing more than you estimated. It’s ideal for freelance writers and editors, webmasters, graphic designers and other independent practitioners who want to learn how to issue accurate estimates and quotes. Case studies will be presented so participants can practice quoting on jobs. Also discussed: advances, retainers, invoicing and what to do when the client doesn’t pay. Instructor: Paul Lima.
- PWAC, EAC, CAA, WEN and CAO members - $60
- General Public - $75

For more information, to see multiple workshop discounts or to register, vistit: www.paullima.com/workshops

Location & instructor bios
All Summer Seminars run from 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM
Place: Centre for Social Innovation, 215 Spadina Ave. Toronto (Alterna Boardroom in suite 400)

The Instructors
Paul Lima has been working as a freelance writer, author and trainer since 1990. He has written for the Globe and Mail, National Post, Toronto Star, Profit, Backbone, Time Canada, CBC.ca and a variety of trade and online publications. He is the author of 8 books on business and promotional writing and the business of freelance writing.

Questions: Email info@paullima.com.

Posted in Workshops, Seminars & Online Courses | No Comments »

For Editors: How to Source & Retain Great Freelance Writers

The information presented here is based on a talk Paul Lima gave to magazine and newspaper editors attending the MagNet conference held in Toronto, June 4 to 6, 2008.

About the session: Freelancer writers bring ideas, energy and words to publications. And there’s nothing that makes an editor’s job easier than writers who deliver exactly what was asked of them. But for a variety of reason, it doesn’t always happen and frustration takes hold. If this sounds familiar, it’s time for a crash course in working with writers. Paul Lima (www.paullima.com) will show you how to source, select and retain great freelancers, how to eliminate misunderstandings and obtain great copy—on time and on budget. It involves knowing what you need, understanding what the freelancer can deliver and keeping the channels of communications open.

Note: Paul opened his talk with a bit of tongue-in-cheek stereotyping, or relationship psychology. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Freelance Writing - General, Freelance Writing - Newspaper/Magazine | 3 Comments »

eNewsletter keeps you up-to-date with this blog

If you want to keep up-to-date with this blog, you can bookmark it and visit it now and then, subscribe to the RSS feed or subscribe to the new e-newsletter by e-mail or on the web.

Paul Lima’s e-newsletter contains articles from, and updates about, his Freelancer Writing Blog, rated as one of the premier blogs about the business of freelance writing for newspapers, magazines, corporate clients and non-profit organizations. No matter where you live, if you want to know more about the business of freelance writing and editing–how to develop article ideas and pitch them to newspaper and magazine editors, how to find and price corporate and non-profit writing and editing assignments–then this new e-newsletter is for you. To keep the volume of email down, this is a one-way list. In other words, you will receive updates with practical, informative information a couple of times a month from Paul Lima; you will not receive email messages from other members of this list. And yes, you can unsubscribe at any time.

Posted in Freelance Writing - General | No Comments »

Talk from “Nuts & Bolts of Freelance Writing for newspapers and magazines”

Below is the talk, “The Freelance Writer’s Job Description”, presented by Paul Lima on Thurs. May 22 when he spoke at “The Nuts and Bolts of Freelance Writing for Newspaper and Magazines”, a seminar presented by the Toronto Chapter of The Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC). The talk is based on his book, Business of Freelance Writing and on Paul’s worskhops and e-courses for freelance writers.

When a new director took over the graduate placement department where I used to work at Georgine College, he called me into his office for a chat. He wanted to know if I had written my own performance reviews. When I asked why, he said he had never seen such glowing reviews. I told him to look at my job description. “All I do is follow my job description,” I said. He seemed amazed. To this day, I don’t understand why. I mean, what is the point of doing the job if your are not going to do it right. And following a perfectly good job description is the best way, that I know of, of doing a job right.

I apply the same principles to my work as a freelance writer. If you want to be a successful freelance writer, you need to know how to write. But you also need to know—and follow—your job description.

Here is the freelance writer’s job description… Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Freelance Writing - General, Freelance Writing - Newspaper/Magazine | No Comments »