Posts Tagged Freelance Market News
Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Resources, Writing on July 27, 2014
I’ve finally got around to joining the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society and registering my short stories and articles that have been published over the last three years.
Being a member of ALCS ensures that you get paid any secondary royalties earned by your works, for example if an article is photocopied by an organisation like a school.
Life membership of ALCS costs £25 but this is deducted from the writer’s first royalty payment – so there is no upfront charge and therefore no risk of being out of pocket by joining ALCS.
I have to admit to not totally understanding how ALCS knows what has been photocopied and how payments to writers are calculated. And I don’t imagine that at this very moment zillions of people are photocopying my work and handing it out to all and sundry. So will I actually ever see any money from ALCS? I have absolutely no idea, but you’ve got to be in it to win it, as they say.
Registering work published in magazines (newspaper articles are not accepted) is easy and can be done on-line. But only things published in the last three years are eligible – so it’s better to do this sooner rather than later and then keep it up to date.
The only problem that I encountered was finding the ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) for some publications. The ISSN is an identification number for periodicals but not all magazines have them. I’ve had several articles published in Freelance Market News which I discovered had no ISSN. However, when I contacted the magazine’s lovely editor, Angela Cox, she went to the trouble of obtaining an ISSN for Freelance Market News (thank you, Angela!) So I’ve now been able to register those articles, although I’m not sure of the implications if the ISSN wasn’t in existence when the article was first published.
Has anyone else got any experience/knowledge of ALCS?
Maxine’s Story – The Museum of Fractured Lives
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Promotion, Self-publishing, Successes on July 16, 2013
Maxine’s Story is the first in The Museum of Fractured Lives series.
The café in the Museum of Fractured Lives is a place for sharing secrets and exploring painful memories.
Several years ago, Maxine and Kaspar experienced the turbo-charged emotions of teenage romance. But the consequences of their relationship cast a long shadow into Maxine’s adulthood and now she is about to reveal something that she has never told a soul …
The Museum of Fractured Lives displays objects donated by people who have suffered a trauma in their lives. The objects are a symbol of that trauma. When accepting a donation, the museum employees try to obtain the full story behind the object. This is difficult because many of the donors are very emotional.
Each book in The Museum of Fractured Lives series tells the story of one donated object and the person who has given it.
This is a ‘flash’ novella of approximately 8,500 words and it is FREE today and tomorrow (16th and 17th July).
Click HERE for Amazon UK or HERE for Amazon.com. Or search for ASIN: B00DO0USNM
The first 3,000 words of Maxine’s Story were professionally critiqued as part of my annual subscription to Freelance Market News. Here are is an extract:
“A thoroughly compelling read, which flows effectively from start to finish. I don’t see how you could improve it.”
Please take advantage of the free offer and, if you enjoy it, as always, I’d be extremely grateful for an Amazon review – these reviews are like gold dust to authors.
Also, if there’s anyone out there who hasn’t read One Day For Me yet – that’s free at the moment too.
One Day For Me – Eight Award Winning Stories by Sally Jenkins
A selection of 8 short stories that have all won or been shortlisted in UK writing competitions.
Click HERE to obtain through Amazon.UK and HERE to obtain through Amazon.COM. Or search for ASIN: B00B4XCYJC on other Amazon sites.
Happy Reading (and reviewing)!
Getting to Grips with E-Publishing 3
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Computers & Technical, Resources, Self-publishing on April 2, 2013
After all the wonderful advice I got on my previous post about cover design, I thought I’d got things
under control in that department. But my attempt at a cover for my third book was so abysmal that I daren’t even show it to you here. Compared with similar books already on Amazon it looked very basic and most definitely amateurish.
I think this is because the book is non-fiction and therefore requires a very business-like cover to get anywhere near competing with the hundreds of other books on the same subject.
So I decided to call in the professionals. I used the website Fiverr. This site features hundreds (or maybe thousands even) of sellers offering their services for just $5. The range of services is vast from personalised greetings cards, translations and bespoke bedtime stories. But there are also lots of e-book cover designers on there too.
I picked one of the top-rated designers (like on EBay, buyers have to leave feedback on the service they received) and told her the title of the book, what it was about and a brief suggestion about the type of image that might be suitable (it is also possible to send the designer a specific photo if you have one that you want to include on the cover).
Two days later my cover design was delivered and you can see it on this post. It’s much better than I could produce. I’ve borrowed the title from a ‘column’ on the Open Writing website which runs an extract from this blog each week (the site includes lots of other writing from around the world, too).
A Writer on Writing is a compilation of 14 of my articles that have appeared in the UK writing press, such as Writing Magazine & Writers News, The New Writer, Writers’ Forum and Freelance Market News. They cover subjects as diverse as generating ideas, writing articles with an anniversary ‘hook’ and flash fiction.
As I did with my other books, I have set an introductory price of 77p – with a view to increasing it when I see how sales go. Setting the perfect price point to encourage buyers without devaluing the work involved in producing a book is very difficult. 77p is the lowest price point available to independent authors.
Click here to see the book on Amazon UK and here to see the book on Amazon COM. It’s also available on all other Amazon sites by searching for ASIN: B00C0GBRS6 or by title and author.
I’ll keep you posted on how my e-publishing empire is growing (or not as the case may be!).
Some Good News
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Markets, Successes on April 11, 2011
Image by Goxxy via Flickr
Acceptances seem like buses – you go for ages without any and then several come along at once.
Over the last few months I’ve been submitting stuff into a big black hole with every editor ignoring me. However, patience and perseverance has paid off and in the last couple of weeks I’ve had a handful of positive responses. So I’m feeling good!
Articles have been easier to place than fiction (not surprising when you think how many more markets there are for features compared to short stories) and the turnaround is quicker too.
These are the publications that have recently accepted my work – they’re wide open to all writers so why not give them a go?
- The Weekly News – I have a short story in the April 9th issue (in the shops now!) and have previously posted here about writing for them.
- Writers Forum
- Freelance Market News – this is available on subscription only and comes from the Writers’ Bureau stable
- Work Your Way – this is a brand new magazine aimed at entrepreneurial mums (incidentally I found this market through a lead in Writing Magazine).
Sally Jenkins 