Romance writer here.
Two complete manuscripts. A dozen others in various stages of undress on my hard drive. I write reviews of series romance on my site (not updated in a while). If you wanna read them you can click the little house at the bottom of this post.
Yea, it’s a bad web design. I’m a writer not a web designer.
Well, I did write a while ago. It was mainly reviews of software and IT articles. They were published (big UK computer magazines) but, as previous posters have said being freelance is sketchy at the best of times. Too busy at University at the mo but novel ideas float in (and rapidly out of) my head from time to time. As and when I have the time I will see if I can actual string a couple of hundred pages together rather than 2 or 3.
Good luck to all (persistence is the key, oh, and a very, very thick skin).
Merrin
I freelance, mostly in nonfiction book reviews for the local paper. I also have a site dedicated to it at, surprisingly enough, NonfictionReviews.com. Among the reviews you’ll find there is one of Greg’s book, Lay This Body Down. (I just started reading Greg’s second book and it’s already quite interesting. But it’s not due out 'til July so you won’t see a review 'til then.) I just interviewed The Bad Astronomer for an article that should run in the paper next Saturday, the 20th (International Astronomy Day), and then I’ll run an expanded version on the website about 10 days later.
It’s good to have SDMB connections. 
But besides book reviews, I do occasional features. Lately, most of 'em have been on Survivor, mostly because I also run a reality TV website, RealityNewsOnline, which takes up far too much of my time.
I’d like to branch out, but who has the time? Actually, this leads to a question that I’m going to post as a separate thread, about agents.
I wish you the best of luck, but I’m curious. Did you pay an agent before you made a sale? Is this the norm in non-fiction publishing? I’m asking because in fiction publishing, you never pay an agent. They make their money from commission from the sale of your book.
To answer LL’s question: I write on notebook paper with a pen on a lapdesk. I don’t write on the computer because I have a tendency to do stuff like this when I do. Also, I can write anywhere, whether I have a computer available or not.
The comment about paying a “retainer” to a literary agent also caught my attention. Maybe we don’t have enough info, but that doesn’t sound right.
A legitimate agent will not ask for any money up front. The whole concept is that they take a percentage of your income from the project, and thus they are highly motivated to get you a lot of income. Paying an agent up front suggests something quite different, and not something good.
Some agents will charge a “reading fee” to look at your manuscript, and that’s usually a big red flag that you should stay away from this person.
A reading fee is not neccessarily a sign of a bad agent. In the romance industry many legit agents have been charging this fee. The agent should be upfront about this fee, what it is and exactly what it is you are paying for.
This is usually a small fee (5 or 10 dollars) the agent charges to read you manuscript. This is after you have sent an inquiry and a small (usually 3 chapters) sample of your work. The reasoning in the romance industry is this: agents spend an inordinate amount of time reading submissions. They get hundreds of them a month and it takes time to read them. The agent should make it very clear that this fee does not guarantee s/he will accept you. It does not guarantee anything except that s/he will read your complete ms.
I have never sent an ms to an agent who charges a reading fee because there are still enough of them who do not. I do think that this will change and soon most agents will charge this fee-- within the romance industry at least.
A retainer sounds like a major rip-off, however. An agent is supposed to make money selling your work, not milking your bank account.
The Canon of Ethics for the Association of Authors’ Representatives, Inc." states specifically that:
rastahomie, be very careful if you are ever approached by this agent to sign a contract. Many such agents are notorious for placing books with “publishing houses” that they themselves are affiliated with and requiring additional fees for manuscript preparation, copyediting and other scams.
You should also check out Writer Beware which reports on scam agents and publishers.
Writer Beware’s take on fees is the following:
BTW, your additional comment that:
is a red flag that screams amateur. Professionals know that nobody is out there lurking to take their ideas. I sincerely hope that you are extremely careful of this relationship every step of the way in the future.
I guess you could say I’m a wannabe writer. I have written a few plays, one of which was performed by a theatre group was in. I’m not saying it was any good, but it got some laughs and that’s all I was aiming for at the time. My current play actually has a good shot at getting performed by a much more professional-like theatre group. I say professional-like because they’re just my college’s theatre group, which means I wouldn’t get paid for it.
I’m also [sub]slowly[/sub] working on a non-fiction humor book. Seeing as half of the stuff I plan to put into it relies heavily on my experiences in different phases of life, it won’t be done for a while.
I’ve also had a few humor articles published here and there (Teemings, school newspapers, whatnot.)
Fulltime (at present) freelancer reporting here.
The books I’ve published are mainly young adult nonfiction, with an emphasis on history and current events. I also wrote a whole bunch of books, from publisher-provided outlines, in a couple of children’s fiction series. Unlike the nonfiction, I get no official credit in most of these, and only unofficial credit in others, but if you knew me very well you might recognize a few names of minor characters, situations, and lines of dialogue as being stolen from from my own experience and life. I also have a picture book which has been accepted for publication, under my own name yet!–but which the publisher has been sitting on for some time now.
Right now I’m doing some last minute revisions on a book on Civil War women, and I’m starting one on the Elizabethan theater, both for young adults. Those I have contracts for. I’m also putting the finishing touches on a picture book ms, for which I do not presently have a contract.
I also write now and then for magazines. The bulk of my income, though, comes from educational writing–textbook chapters, workbook pages, teachers’ guides, and the like.
Good luck to all who have posted. Whether you have been published, hope to be published, or just write for yourself, it’s all writing. Anyway, an awful lot of publication is luck–pure, sweet, and simple–and being in the right place at the right time.
Let’s see: book reviews, some travel articles, two unpublished novels, now working on #3; and the Web site, on which there’s some of the above stuff, some attempts at humor, plus a daily diary and some blogging.
A short story of mine took 2nd in the Mark Twain Writers Competition.
As for time, I work in the mornings, then go to the newspaper and work second shift. I’m not very good at being organized, so I can only take it day by day and plan as it comes. “Life is what happens when you’re making plans,” as John Lennon put it.
A month ago, the wife took the kids and visited relatives, giving me ten days at home. I wrote about 10,000 words then.
Believe it or not, I’m nearing the end of the first draft, and I started in early November. It can get done, but only if you’re willing to put in the work.