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Resources for Freelance Writers

These are the books, courses, and membership sites that I’ve invested in and use to learn and grow as a freelance writer. Full disclosure: If you purchase any of these through my links, I get credited some small percentage of what you pay. That’s how affiliate marketing works. But I value my reputation. Every product and service I recommend here is something I’ve purchased myself and strongly believe in.

My Stuff

If you managed to get this deep into my website without finding a way to order my own products, well, congratulations. I guess. (Memo to self: Redesign site.)

Write Where the Money Is

If I could find a book written by a pro who really knows the publishing business as well as I do and has worked successfully as both a freelance writer and magazine editor, I’d be happy to refer people to it. I couldn’t, so I wrote my own. I’m not bragging. It’s the simple truth. If you’ve ever quietly nursed the dream of doing some freelance writing, you owe it to yourself to buy the book. If you’re serious about earning a good income as a freelance writer, well, double what I just said. I cover the process from every angle, from how to come up with story ideas and pitch them to how to manage your workday and run your freelance business.

Is it worth $47? Darn right it is. It distills 30+ years of experience into 154 pages. Just following the advice in any one chapter in the book will repay your investment many times over. Like I said, if I knew of something as good, I wouldn’t have bothered writing it.

7 Stealth Secrets of Successful Freelance Writing

This is a handy 20-page cheat sheet filled with some of my best tips for freelance writing success. It’s free. Why? Geez, I don’t know. Maybe I’m nuts. Or maybe I reckon it’ll whet your appetite for the main course. (See above.) No matter what, it’s good, and I highly recommend it—even if you already own my book.

My Personal List of Writing References

I’m not big on touchie-feelie inspirational writing books. Reading them is generally an excuse to stay on your duff and not write a dang thing. I’m a lot more practical than that. I like good reference books, and I admire a few books about the art of nonfiction writing. I’m open to other suggestions, but these are the books I think should be on every freelancer’s desk:

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition

The standard dictionary for the American publishing industry, aka Web 11. It comes with a CD-Rom, so you have a dictionary at hand without reaching for the bookshelf, and without need for an Internet connection.

Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition

The arbiter of nitty-gritty style decisions for print. It’s more useful for editors than for writers, but if you’re the type who wants to know every nuance of style, like when to use an en-dash, how to capitalize titles, what to abbreviate when, whether to place a comma before the abbreviation “Jr.,” (no), pick up a copy of Chicago. The AP Stylebook is useful as well, but many of its old-school newspaper usages are out of place in magazines and on the Web. I prefer the more modern and elegant style of Chicago.

Garner’s Modern American Usage

Bryan Garner, one of the principals of the Chicago Manual of Style,  is a master of word usage and punctuation. He debunks much of what you thought was correct. Garner also holds the line against the anything-goes school of grammar by reminding us of such distinctions as the difference between “flout” and “flaunt,” “torturous” and “tortuous,” “fortuitous” and “fortunate.” If you love words and value using them accurately, get Garner.

The Elements of Style

Strunk and White’s slim but masterful manifesto of clear writing. You probably had it in college. It’s eternal and wonderful.

On Writing Well—30th Anniversary Edition

William Zinsser inspires as well as informs, showing that clear writing can and should be uplifting and entertaining.

Writing Tools

Roy Peter Clark’s collection of astute tutorials on how to purge clichés and other excesses. The result: fresh language.

Leveraging Your Writing Ability to Earn Extra Income

Regular readers of Surefire Writing know that I believe we writers can and should leverage our writing skills to make money in ways beyond traditional freelance writing, such as Internet marketing and copywriting. I cover many ways to make money online in my ebook Write Where the Money Is. But the nuts and bolts of Internet marketing are an entirely different matter and beyond the scope of my book.

The Internet is brimming with how-to-get-rich gurus. I’ve met a lot of them and studied a lot of their material. Many offer great information, but I prefer to work with two guys who are refreshingly different from the pack. I know both Chris Farrell and James Schramko personally. They’re gentlemen. No hype or BS. They know their stuff and spell it out for mere mortals in highly understandable terms. I highly recommend both of them.

Chris Farrell

Create Your Own Website By 3:45 This Afternoon is Chris’s flagship product. You can snag it as an ebook plus a series of very clear videos for the cost ($4.95) of a trial subscription to his site. (It’s $27 a month afterward, but you can host an unlimited number of websites on his server for free; each would otherwise cost about $10 a month.) You really can learn how to put up a website in an afternoon. He then proceeds to spell out exactly how to sell stuff on your site, or how to sell other people’s stuff—i.e., affiliate marketing. Which, come to think of it, I’m doing right now. He covers all the basics in a clear and entertaining manner, and his forum serves as a sounding board for ideas, questions, and problems.

James Schramko

If it weren’t for James, I wouldn’t have written Write Where the Money Is nor started this blog nor any of my other websites. We met when I was in Las Vegas writing about a group of entrepreneurs who go on adventurous trips together and brainstorm between outings. You can read the article I wrote for American Way magazine here. At that time James was still working a full-time job. Now he makes a seven-figure income in Internet marketing. His membership site covers some of the same elementary material as Chris Farrell’s, but James also offers advanced lessons that represent some of the most cutting-edge ways to make money online. His membership site is therefore more expensive—$97 a month. And it’s often full. But it’s worth getting on his mailing list to be informed of openings if you’re interested in advanced Internet marketing. And by all means, subscribe to his blog, Internet Marketing Speed.

Copywriting

Copywriting is the art of writing for advertising, including Internet marketing, print, direct mail, and business websites. If you’re a talented communicator, it behooves you to learn the nuances of persuasive writing. Why? Because the money’s good. It’s a skill you can take to business owners or Internet entrepreneurs or apply to marketing yourself. It’s a distinct art, but it can be learned. For me, it’s been a lucrative and enjoyable adjunct to my journalistic writing.

John Carlton’s Simple Writing System

You can buy books on copywriting, but I believe you need to dig deeper to succeed. That’s why I invest in and recommend John Carlton’s courses and seminars. This guy has been at the top of the copywriting game for many years. He learned from some of the best, and many of the best learn from him. I like John. He’s a straight shooter, direct, doesn’t mince words. Put yourself in his hands and you’ll learn a lot.

Carlton’s full Simple Writing System is an eight-week mentoring program wherein you learn how to write killer sales messages. You get direct, personal guidance from Carlton’s faculty, all of them top professional copywriters. You can also take the cheaper DIY approach and still learn a lot from simply buying Carlton’s home-study course. But if you’re serious about making money as a copywriter, there’s no substitute for having a mentor.

Moonlighting on the Internet

Yanik Silver is a friend and a brilliant Internet marketer. He does a great job in this book (not an ebook) of demystifying the many ways to make money online.

How to Write and Sell an Ebook

I have some experience in this regard, but I haven’t yet written about it. Until I do…

EBook Secrets Rated

This is my own website. On it I review what I think are the three best ebooks about writing and marketing…what else…ebooks. Below are my capsule reviews. You can visit the site for my more in-depth analysis.

How to Launch the ****Out of Your Ebook

Dave Navarro, aka the Launch Coach, and Naomi Dunford run through all the steps involved in writing and producing an ebook. But what sets this book apart is the launch strategy they prescribe. What’s the use of writing an ebook if no one knows about it? They offer outstanding marketing strategies.

Ebook Secrets Exposed

Jim Edwards and David Garfinkle are both successful Internet marketers. In this book, Garfinkle interviews Edwards, and they really do delve into and expose some ebook secrets. Two of their hot tips are themselves worth buying the book: “The Single Most Powerful Ebook Strategy” and “The Heartbreaking Mistake Most Authors Make.”

How to Write and Publish Your Own Ebook… in as Little as 7 Days

This is a basic e-book primer from two masters of the genre, Jim Edwards and Joe Vitale (really, it’s much more Edwards). This is the ebook to buy if you’ve never written a book before. Their seven-day strategy is a winner.

Entrepreneurial Mind-set

It takes a special frame of mind to succeed as a freelance writer. That’s quite apart from talent and understanding of the publishing business. Writers who grasp the entrepreneurial mind-set have a far greater chance of succeeding than passive writers who sit around waiting for replies to queries while reading touchie-feelie books on how wonderful it is to be a writer.

Wally Conger

Wally’s an old friend and one of the most inspiring voices on the Internet for entrepreneurs—or for anyone who’s contemplating a test dive into those waters. He cajoles you with straight talk and good humor. Before you know it, you’ve quit your day job. His brilliant package, Freelancing 101, contains enough inspiration to get anyone off the dead-end job treadmill. Some of it comes from, well, me; the package includes a rollicking interview we did together wherein we dish out the dish on how to overcome fear and become your own boss. Read his blog and listen to his interviews with other inspiring entrepreneurs. Good stuff!