As I ramp up my activity on LinkedIn, I come across quite a few posts by businesspersons claiming that they dislike writing, that it’s not their forte, that they don’t have time to compose articles. I have trouble restraining myself from simply snapping back, “Then why do it? Hire me to do it for you.”
As I think about that, I wonder if, perhaps, I should respond with just those words. After all, two years of subtlety hasn’t seemed to work very well; perhaps blatant suggestion might.
Another gripe more frequently showing up is buyers requesting bids on projects and setting absurdly low budgets, then saying that any vendors who can’t work within those budgets need not apply. For instance, one buyer limits the budget to $25 for 15,000 words. I shudder to think of the dismal quality of the content those people are getting, but they make their own bed and now they must lie in it.
Just in case you haven’t been through this before, drafting, editing, and revising 15,000 words of content will take the average writer around 49 hours. That works out to an anticipated wage of $0.59 per hour for that project.
I’m also struggling against the temptation to edit people’s articles and posts and sending them the edited documents with a note stating that their writing could use significant improvement and, see, I’ve done the work for them. Now hire me, damn it.
Speaking of editing, another buyer advertised a 55,000-word manuscript to be edited. He’s willing to pay $100. For a hard edit, I can probably edit 2,000 words an hour–and I always default to the assumption of a hard edit because… well… experience. That’s 27.5 hours of work. So, that’s $0.275 per hour.
In business, executives delegate to managers who delegate to everyone else because–let’s be honest–those folks at the top of the corporate food chain can’t do it all, much less do it all well. Many entrepreneurs fail to understand that. Yes, the business rests upon their shoulders, but no law mandates that they must do everything themselves. Also, they should remember that, just as they expect to be paid for their expertise and skill, so do the vendors they hire.
As we creep further into 2018, I hope to build greater awareness that content is only “king” if it’s well written, informative, and engaging. If no one reads it, then it does no good. If it’s poorly written, then it undermines your credibility. The content a business reveals to the world is its public face, the measure by which people will judge its worth and its worthiness for their patronage.
One more manuscript in the works:
Yes, I started another manuscript and one of my 2018 goals is to finish the darned thing this year. This book is a sequel to my new adult romance Pure Iron. Tentatively titled, Iron Sun, this new adult romance will feature Jack, lead singer of Iron Falcon and popular womanizer. Of course, he’ll be handsome and all alpha-male: that’s what readers of this sub-genre expect and want. But he won’t be an unmitigated jerk. Our heroine already knows Jack, is a friend of a band member’s sister, a traumatized teacher, and struggling to decide what to do with her life after a bullied student commits suicide in front of her.
Wow, I’ve got my work cut out for me this year. I have to finish my already overdue current work-in-progress, Daughter of the Deepwood, and then get cracking on Iron Sun, The Dragon Sang Tenor, and Bear of the Midnight Sun. A quick check at my to-do pile also shows over two dozen more unfinished manuscripts. Argh. If only I didn’t need to make a living…
Languishing manuscripts include an MC romance for readers who like tough bikers, a billionaire romance for readers who like those, and a May-December romance for those who enjoy romances featuring heroes a generation older than their true loves. And more. So much more.
So, for those new authors who request that their editors sign NDAs and are afraid their editors will steal their ideas, don’t worry. I’ve got more than enough ideas of my own. I don’t need to steal any other person’s story premise.
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