The Renegade Writer Blog

Let’s talk about kill fees, those profit-sucking vampires that deserve a good stake through their hearts. For those not in the know, a kill fee is the money you get when a magazine decides not to accept a contracted article for reasons ranging from poor quality of the finished piece (fair enough) to the editor […]

I was talking to a freelancer friend of mine on the phone the other day and she was telling me how many other writers have come to her asking, “Can you give me your editor’s name?” or “What’s your editor’s e-mail address?” Frankly, I was surprised by the number of times this happened to her. […]

… than announcing to the world, “I’m trying to figure out this blogging thing” or “What’s Facebook all about and how can I use it?” In the last couple of weeks I’ve heard or read variations of these sentiments among writers and journalists and it cracks me up. All I can hear in my head […]

On a writer’s board I belong to, journalists are buzzing about the latest scandal to hit the memoir-writing industry, the story of Margaret Seltzer a/k/a Margaret B. Jones, who wrote a book about her foster childhood in south central LA running drugs for a gang. Minor little detail: Margaret was raised by her biological family […]

In her blog Serenity for the Self Employed, Heather Boerner has an excellent post on The Serenity of Saying No. One of her pieces of advice is to tell too-cheap-for-you clients that you just revised your business plan and you need $X amount to give the assignment the time it deserves. Another tip is to […]

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Diana’s post Say No, Dammit came at the perfect time. I went to the doctor two weeks ago after going through bouts of severe stomach and head pain for several months. After doing some medical tests, asking about my lifestyle, and making me keep a food log for two weeks, the doc determined that the […]

by Diana Burrell and Linda Formichelli
(Diana) Writers love to talk trash about crazy sources. Most experts I interview are smart, funny, well-spoken, and interesting. There’s always the expert source that defies reason, though. Like the renowned negotiation expert who expected me to negotiate with him — hard — for a 15-minute interview. Or the PR […]

Check out this Craig’s List posting. Hilarious!
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Yesterday I got this e-mail from a source I interviewed for an article:
Thanks for the e-mail. You are a very special writer to take the time to notify experts when the article is out. I appreciate it.
Apparently, I am one of the few writers who alert sources when the article I interviewed them for has […]