Heather Johnson's Blog, page 7

More Money in Less Time—Believe It!

Last week I attended an ASJA teleconference led by Jennifer Fink on “How to Make More Money in Less Time.” Jennifer, a registered nurse-turned-freelance writer, increased her income nearly five-fold in five years. Fink shared tips on how to work more efficiently and how to prioritize our time, both of which can free us up to spend more quality time writing and, thus, make more money.

What struck me was how some of her tips on how to move forward in our careers paralleled spiritual prosperity...

Do You Want to Get Paid by the Page?

Starting July 1, Amazon will start paying some of its self-published authors by pages read rather than copies sold (or borrowed, if we’re talking about Kindle). This is an odd concept that could potentially hurt earnings for children’s book authors, who tend to write shorter works, but would benefit thriller and mystery authors, whose readers tend to stick through to the end. I’d say that it could effect nonfiction authors that spend years on thickreference books or research-intensive tomes,...

Paid by the Page

Starting July 1, Amazon will start paying some of its self-published authors by pages read rather than copies sold (or borrowed, if we’re talking about Kindle). This is an odd concept that could potentially hurt earnings for children’s book authors, who tend to write shorter works, but would benefit thriller and mystery authors, whose readers tend to stick through to the end. I’d say that it could effect nonfiction authors that spend years on thickreference books or research-intensive tomes,...

I’m on Twitter!

Better late than never: I signed up for a Twitter account in 2012 and started using it..last week!

I thought it was silly. I didn’t think I had anything to say that needed to be so immediate. But I’m realizing the value of Twitter.It can help me find sources, find information,connect with other writers, connect with people from other industries. (At least that’s what I hear anyway!) LinkedIn has been so valuable in helping me find experts for the small business articles that I write. I recent...

Is Your Fact Check Motivated by Fear?

In the wake of the Rolling Stone rape story, its retraction, and Columbia School of Journalism’s excellent analysis of the many ways Rolling Stone and journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdely went wrong, Monica Guzman wrote about fear and fact-checking for Columbia Journalism Review. She raises some strong points. Journalists fear big mistakes (and little mistakes, too), and that fear motivates us to be extra thorough in our fact-checking and reporting. Usually.

Also, in our over-sharing world, we hav...

Fear and the Fact Check

In the wake of the Rolling Stone rape story, its retraction, and Columbia School of Journalism’s excellent analysis of the many ways Rolling Stone and journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdely went wrong, Monica Guzman wrote about fear and fact-checking for Columbia Journalism Review. She raises some strong points. Journalists fear big mistakes (and little mistakes, too), and that fear motivates us to be extra thorough in our fact-checking and reporting. Usually.

Also, in our over-sharing world, we hav...

Big Typo: Fighting the Urge to Speak Up

Greetings,

So yesterday, I opened up the new issue of one of my favorite magazines (the only one I subscribe to right now). I just happened to turn to one of the issue’s major features. What was the first thing I saw? A glaring typo. Notjust a spelling error in the text, but a grammar error in the headline: big, black, bold, for all the world to see.

“Everything You Ever Needed to Know….Was Discover in 1937.” Discover? Discovered? Typos, especially big, obvious typos, bother me, whether I fin...

Headlines: Will You Keep Reading Now?

Headlines are not my strong suit. Every article I write has to have a headline, and I struggle to create something snappy and relevant almost every time. This means more than 15 years of headline struggle and probably thousands of words wrestled out of my brain in hopes of finding the ultimate catchy phrase that will interest readers and keep my editors happy. That’s a lot of word struggle!

Thanks to repetition, headline writing has become a little less tortuous, but my skills still need poli...

Essay Class: Find your story and sell it

Nonfiction writer and essayist Amy Paturel is hosting another installment of her popular essay class beginning April 13.If you’ve toyed around with essays, whether published or not, the course will teach you how to structure and create an essay that sells. The course covers everything from finding your voice and exploring your life for topic ideasto pitching.

I took the course last fall and it hugely improved mywriting—essays and otherwise. I also have three personal essays that I am pitching...

Welsh Business Destroyed by a Spelling Error

One missing letter led to the demise of a 125-year old Welsh family business. An article in an Australian newspaper reports that the government recordedCardiff engineering firm Taylor & Sons Ltd.aswound up. However, it was actually another company, Taylor & Son, that had gone under. By the time the government caught and tried to fix the error, the damage had been done. Read more about the benefits of proofreading here.

…As an aside, I once sent a letter of introduction to a marketing/PR agency...