Tag Archives: Writing

Business prices for authors, Pricing your worth

Business: Do you charge what you are worth?

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2013-07-27 09.19.12Pricing your work and worth is not easy. How do you figure out how much an hour of your time for the knowledge and experience that you will use to help your client? I think a lot of us undervalue ourselves, not wanting to charge too much and scare people off. But yet when we break down the fee we can see how much we have under cut ourselves.

How we see ourselves as people in so many ways gets hit from a host of places. So when it is time to put a number on what we know we shy from that. It was not until my first client who actually set the standard of how much I charge that I started to feel good about it. In fact she refused to pay me zero. She said what I knew was worth it to her and that my time was valuable. Thanks to her I have progress into making business grow with new ventures.

Let me take a step back. For about three to four years I told people in my writing groups to let me help them. I wanted to show them how I did it. I wanted to teach them what I had learned in what took a few years to figure out on my own and with help from those who were making it.

I didn’t get a nibble. Not one bite. Maybe people feel I am not legit if I don’t charge? Not sure. A lot of people helped me when I first started and when I asked how I could repay them they said always pay it forward. I tried. A few people I was able to. Most of the time no.

Looking at the ratio of pay scales it was in the range of what other charge. So now I charge. Does that give me legitimacy? Perhaps. Will it make the people who said they would want my help and never stepped up be mad when they find out? Probably.

But now part of my business includes more than writing and photography. It includes creating an author’s platform and developmental editing. Who knows it may expand to even more.

Author who reads, Books

I’m an author and a reader: Are you?

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When I hear writers tell me that they really not readers I am taken back. How you can be one without the other amazes me. I been an avid reader since gosh as long as I can remember. My husband and I have way too many books. Our move to our home now had a U-Haul that primarily had books in it.

So why are you writing in the first place and to who? And why should people read your book?And would you get offended if someone say to you that they don’t read?

I always have a book in my purse, car, by my bed, by my place in the living room and yes the bathroom but those are the funnies. Sadly life gets busy with family, health, the home and everything in between and being able to mark out time to read is not always there. That happened recently to me. It had been weeks since I had picked up a book. This past weekend I read two books, I made the time and plus the weather was crappy and I was not feeling well so was situated on the couch. But I did read and it felt so awesome. And not a digital book, which I get the reasons for that, but a real book in my hand. It was a glorious weekend to be reading. I have missed reading for pleasure hopefully it won’t be weeks before I do it again.

How my library has helped me as an author, Writers Resources

What my library has done for me as a patron and author

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I have been asked twice, one by a librarian in town and by an author who runs her library’s blog space, to describe what my library has done for me. The first time it was a video I submitted to the library the second time will be posted on a library website in Texas sometimes in the near future. To put into words what it has done for me is hard to completely put down into words. But this is what I wrote for Texas.

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I first started thinking about writing in July of 2009. I actually began in December, however. Not knowing anything about writing, nor knowing anyone who was also a writer like myself, or the process involved with it, I was on my own. I just wrote until my first manuscript was done.

Several months later, I was checking out the website of one of our local libraries, and I noticed they had started a writer’s group. I was thrilled. Attending the first meeting, there were six of us, five librarians and me. This was a huge boost. It gave me the motivation to continue, but that is just a small portion of how the library has helped me throughout this journey.

Last November was the third year they hosted a free writer’s conference. This is huge in the sense that the nearest conference for us is about an hour away. The really big ones are even further. To have one in our area is fantastic. It’s also free. Hello! We get to attend free classes and seminars on various topics that can help us with our writing. Each year, the guest speaker has been spot on and amazing.

The library also brings in feature authors, which is hosted by the Friends of The Library. This gives us insight on how authors are doing throughout the literary field. The talks are friendly and laid-back, and it gives us inspiration as well.

If that was not enough, the materials you can borrow from the library are writing books, magazines, and computers to use. If you don’t have any of these things, access to them is a writer’s dream. The staff is friendly and very helpful if you need help in researching a topic.

Before I started writing, I was already a fan of our library system. At one point, I was going so often that one librarian asked me what shift was I on that week. Another gave me the keys to unlock a door since she recognized me from my being at the library so often.

Books, movies, CDs, and the endless programs they offer to the community is a true blessing for us here. There is always something to do at the library, which is always free to the public.

Now that I am a published author, it is even more invaluable because of the services they offer me throughout this venture. To me, if they had not started a writer’s group in this area, who knows where I would be right now. I am grateful for the libraries in my area. They are a great resource to have for those of us that need to make use of their services, especially someone who writes and researches often.