The Renegade Writer Blog

I thought this post from 2006 was worth another look. Enjoy!
A couple of things happened today that inspired this post. First, someone posted on a forum for professional writers asking for tips on how to get started as a freelancer. This, of course, caused many pro writers to become PO’d. (Why expect professionals to spend [...]

Three weeks ago, a writer (let’s call him Jack) e-mailed me asking for the contact information of the editor at a magazine I wrote for. I told Jack that I no longer write for the magazine and that the editor had changed since I last worked for them — but that the magazine was published [...]

A couple of weeks ago, someone posted a comment on this blog saying that in dissing content mills like Associated Content we “just don’t get it,” and bragged that she earns $1,200 per month on her articles on Associated Content and similar sites. (When I checked, I saw that the writer had over 1,000 articles [...]

Last week, I quit a writing project that was worth more than $10,000.
When I got the project, I was coming off of a four-month famine, and I needed the dough. So I ignored the red flags. First, the expert co-author took so long playing hardball with the publisher that the deadlines were crunched. Then, she [...]

Every once in awhile I like to go through my journal to see what I was doing in this month in years past. Here’s what I wrote on May 29, 2007:
I plan to either not write for [magazine] again or to ask what we can do to make sure I don’t go through another experience [...]

1. You have the right to say no.
An editor asks you to write for exposure? “No.” A source asks to see your article before you turn it in? “No.” A friend keeps calling during your working hours because “you’re always free”? “No.” See how easy it is? You have the right to say no — [...]

I was recently on a writer’s forum where a writer posted that he was writing articles for a penny a word and wondering if that was wise. The other posters shared that they also write for a penny a word, and boast that they can bang out the articles quickly so it’s worth it for [...]

Brazen Careerist Penelope Trunk took aim at The 4-Hour Workweek darling Tim Ferriss last week on her blog with a post called “5 Time Management Tricks I Learned From Years of Hating Tim Ferriss.” And she’s not coy in her post. She came into the ring throwing punches and didn’t stop for 700 (or so) [...]

I like to work at Borders. Today, I take a cushy seat in the nearly-empty café. Soon afterwards, a tunelessly humming old man takes a seat right next to mine. And now all the seats in the café are filled so I can’t move. I’m trying to write a blog post for Monday and am [...]

Today I had to call a few retailers for a short piece I’m writing for the Boston Globe. Many of my freelancing colleagues hate talking to professors (“they’re too academic”), doctors (“they’re totally unreachable, and when you do get them, they can only spare a minute”) or corporate types (“jargon city!”).
For me, it’s mom-and-pop shops. [...]