Showing posts with label writing a blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing a blog. Show all posts

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Why give it away?

Professional writers often wonder why a professional writer would give perfectly good content away in a blog. Why not sell it to a newspaper, a magazine or a web site?

It's not as easy to sell stories to newspapers and magazines as it used to be. I've sold stories to web sites on occasion, too, but I don't know what's normal. There are too many writers out there willing to be a "professional" by writing for $1 a story.


Me? I need to write. I'm kinda like the woman in the Louis L'Amour book Conagher. The woman would write poetry or something short on a piece of paper or petticoat and tie it to a tumbleweed. Conagher or one of the other cowboys might find it miles away.


She needed to talk to someone, but there was no one. Only the wind on the grass.


I prefer to be paid for writing, but I've enjoyed my four blogs. They've kept me sharp as a writer, and they've forced me to edit my own copy. Hey, if you write about being a professional editor/proofreader/writer, you're going to be treated as such. Nearly every time I make a mistake, someone tells me about it. So I need to be careful.


Who knows? I may be able to rewrite, consolidate or morph some of this into a magazine article or even a book. Or, if I can get enough readers, I can make money off the blog directly.


To me, a writer/editor/proofreader gets paid for his work. It's not good enough to be published or praised. Payment makes all the difference.


And I do write and edit for a living. But sometimes I need to be heard, too. That's why I'm here.


Write on.

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ENTRIES FROM THE DOG BLOG

BLOG ENTRIES FROM THE AUTO RACING JOURNAL
(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)
(the book of great NASCAR stories)