Darren Marcy - Freelance Writer, Editor & Photographer

Digital versus books

Interesting story out that books for the Kindle are selling faster than hardcovers through Amazon.

I heard about this a few days back as novelist Chris Bohjalian discussed the way the writing world is changing in the digital age and how writers should be excited about the opportunities and embrace it or prepare to be left behind.

This article discusses the fact that Kindle books are selling faster than hardcovers at a rate of 143 titles for the Kindle for every 100 hardcover titles through Amazon.

It's a brave new writing world out there. Better hang on tight.

Writers' conference

I'm at the League of Vermont Writers conference at Mount Snow in West Dover and so glad I'm here.

Today was the main day of the conference. It got underway last night but today was filled with workshops and I thoroughly enjoyed them while learning a great deal.

The day was capped off with a dinner and keynote address by novelist Chris Bohjalian who was hilarious, entertaining, enlightning and thought provoking.

And on top of it all, I picked up a book in the fundraising raffle, winning "Into the Wilderness," a novel by Deborah Lee Luskin.

Met a bunch of great people and made a few contacts I'm hoping will pay off some day as well.

A highly recommended experience.

I'm calling Google style

I noticed a blurb by Writer's Digest about Google Voice and liked the features they listed for writers. I'm sold.

I like the idea of forwarding calls to multiple phones at the same time, voicemail delivered as e-mail, in-call recording and similar features.

I'll be trying Google Voice and will let you know what I think as soon as I have a good handle on the program and the way it works.

Timeless Craft, Timely Skills conference

I have registered for the League of Vermont Writers conference July 23-25 at Mount Snow in West Dover, Vt.

The event promises workshops, speakers, panel discussions, networking opportunities and more.

I have signed up for six different workshops and look forward to learning a great deal.

If you are interested in attending, early registration ends June 1.

How much to charge for freelance work

An ongoing discussion on LinkedIn about what to charge for freelance writing and editing has kept me following along with interest.

The original query asked:

I'm wondering what the going rate is for various freelance work, including article editing, book editing, article writing, speech writing, press release writing, etc.

At this point there have been more than five dozen responses along with the discussions that have followed and it's interesting to see the answers. But, the more I read, the more I began to understand that there really is no simple answer to the question, no matter how cut and dried some would like to see the issue.

But then, I ran across a blog post by a woman who was either reading the same LinkedIn discussion thread, or another, very similar, discussion and I really liked her answer.

Deb Ng wrote:

I do see the usefulness of these discussions as they give an idea of what writers earn and can also serve as inspiration for beginners. I’m sort of old school though. I was raised to believe it’s impolite to discuss money, salary and how much one has in the bank. Besides feeling that it’s none of anyone’s business what I earn,  I feel that everyone has different circumstances and different clients.

She wrote that she doesn't advertise her rates on her website, blog or anywhere else online. Read the entire post here. She makes some really interesting points.

My take on the issue is only slightly different, but agree with much of what she says.

I'm not one to post rates either, but for a different reason. If I had a client seek me out and ask what I charged for a certain job, there would be many factors that entered into that decision. I couldn't just pull out a sheet and quote a price off that. In addition, the majority of my work right now is for markets that have a set pricing structure. It doesn't matter what I charge, it's a matter of what they pay. Either I do the work for what they pay, or I don't do the work.

This could all change someday, which is why I'm interested in these discussions, but for now it's just not reality for me.