Transcripts and Re-Writes

I do audio transcriptions in addition to writing, proofreading and copyediting.  

     A client might want to have his/her audio transcribed to turn it into an e-book, to offer as a freebie, or to offer as an alternative for the customer that doesn't want to listen to an audio or watch an entire video.

    Now, if you're a speaker, chances are you have repeated yourself in your audio.  Speakers are encouraged to repeat important points for impact.  

     In writing, if something has already been said, to say it again might imply the reader is too daft to get the point.  For this reason, you may not want your transcription to be exactly the same as your audio.

     You could have your audio transcribed verbatim and save money by then editing it yourself since by then it will be in an editable MS Word document.  

 

     An alternative is to have your audio edited and/or re-written.  In this case, it is good to hire a transcriptionist who is also a copyeditor and writer.  

GET QUOTES 

     Have your transcriptionist/writer give you a quote for both the transcription, editing, and/or re-writing.

     It can be a pricey process.  For instance, it can take me an hour just to transcribe 10 audio minutes.  No, I am not going to do the work for $3 an hour like some offshore transcriptionists might; and, you will get what you pay for. 

     With a transcriptionist like myself, you can expect to pay upwards from $80 for a 60-minute verbatim audio.  With basic copyediting included for flow, it would expect upwards from $100. For additional re-writing, estimate $130.

     If you send the work out to two separate service providers, it will cost you more; transcriptionist $80; editor/re-writer upwards from $130--for a total of over $200. 

 

Style Guides and Rules of Writing

We embrace innovation.  We encourage new forms of communication.  We love creativity. We self-publish.  Rules are broken...well, not all the rules.

I've been taking a proofreading and copyediting course recently.  I'd like to broaden the work I do in that area.  Nevertheless, the course has reminded me of all the different style guides and style books I need to study.  Rules continue to be made and followed even in these older more established guides, believe it or not.

It can be overwhelming. Nevertheless, I choose to trust I have great English grammar skills and a good sense of writing flow.  It develops when I write.  So write I must.  And from there I'll see what happens.

What style guides do you follow?

Where Entrepreneurs Can Buy Content

Entrepreneurs have enough balls to keep in the air.  They'll need fresh material for their blog posts, though, articles to add to their website resource files, and perhaps other cross-promotion type material.

Entrepreneurs may be good at many things and writing may or may not be one of those things.  Writing is time consuming.  To help close the gap, there are a number of freelance writers available to write for them.

Writers also post pre-written material on sites such as www.Constant-Content.com.

Why Buy Pre-written?

Pre-written content is helpful to the entrepreneur who's run out of ideas of what to add or write on next.  A buyer can look through a batch of pre-written articles at Constant-content.com and choose those that are suitable.  He can buy exclusive rights.  With the full rights license the business owner can alter the articles to suit his needs.

The entrepreneur can take purchased articles and compile them into e-books or use as workshop materials.  Any entrepreneur can use pre-written articles, making them their own.  

How I Write and Sell Web Content

I write and sell web content. I write articles, blog posts, website blurbs for clients.
 
Without the need for web content, I don't have a job.


HOW DO I WRITE AND SELL WEB CONTENT?


I write on a variety of topics.  My work is picked up by a conglomeration of varied buyers.  I actually prefer to sell my own pre-written material on topics I’ve chosen, but always look at what’s been requested and what’s selling.

I usually try to specialize in what I’m most knowledgeable about or interested in.  I do research constantly too and try to keep up with current trends.
 

I sell most of my work through www.Constant-Content.com.  They take a cut, but it’s kind of like my cost of doing business.  Why do I sell this way?  


a) Because I’ve developed a trustworthy relationship with Constant-Content.

b) Because they provide expert editing.  The editing advice I receive on pieces as needed, helps me learn what I may not already know and helps me mature as a writer. 

c) They draw buyers which saves me having to look for them.

d) They collect the payment from the client.

e)  They pay me on time as promised.


Help freelancers like myself stay in business!  Buy pre-written content for your newspaper, magazine, blog, website or ezine.
 

For my web content, see my profile page under my pen name Joy R. Calderwood at www.Constant-Content.com or visit my website at www.RosalieGarde.com.

Magazine Writing

GIFT SHOP BROWSING

I just returned from a short trip that included a stop at a gift shop. There's something about me that may never change which is my love for visiting gift shops.  I'm a self-confessed gift-shop junkie.  

One area of airport gift shops I'm always drawn to is the magazine racks.  There are magazines on almost every subject to be had.  

Yes, of course we can read all types of information on the Internet, but one thing magazines do is provide gorgeous glossy pictures.  I'm a visual learner and artist, and pictures draw me in.  

MAGAZINE WRITING 

It is still tedious querying to write for a magazine.  I don't know how many magazines have stepped out of former routines and are now purchasing content through new means.  For instance, articles and fillers can be picked up easily through content provider Constant-Content.  

Of course with all the web content available, magazine purchases have taken a dip.  You might have noticed the resulting compensating price increases on magazines.  (I paid almost $20 for a magazine for my daughter this week),  Still, writers and photographers still need to earn a living.  

No matter what you find on the web, there will always be a place for magazines.  As a writer, pitch in to keep magazines alive by buying a few.

Exclamation Marks

To my friends who are emerging writers, here's an important TIP:

Overuse of an exclamation mark (!) is a sign of immature writing. Exclamation marks can distract a reader. Try to use your words to create emphasis instead.

Make your writing more "mature" by using exclamation marks sparingly.

Use Your Gift

Writers' best gifts are within them.  Their gift for writing stems from a combination of their life experiences,  education, personal passions, current areas of study, their relationships, and whatever else is unique to them.

Writers take all the aforementioned, churn it about, and release it into content in a voice of their own.

Each writer's content is unique because it flows from their unique brain, unique set of experiences and all the aforementioned.  That is, unless they've been caught up in copying others.

Many writers get stuck in a temptation to copy.  Then there are times they write from their heads onto a blank piece of paper only to find similar pieces online.  Temptation to copy is always present.  Feeling as though you've been copied is angering.  These, however, are conditions of a writers' calling.  Their calling includes risk especially when much of their writing is online for the world to see (or copy).  Sometimes the coincidental similarities writers find are merely a product of current trends of the day to which they've been exposed.  Many today do talk in a similar voice.

As a writer, don't deny your gift!  Don't get caught up in all the would-bes or what-ifs.  Use your gift.  Use it in multiple ways.  Use it in good times and in bad.  Use it regardless of pay.  Use it because you know it will make someone's life better and your own more joyous and complete.

Challenge Yourself to Write

Try challenging yourself to write.  Yes, at times I feel I need to be in the mood.  I need to have inspiration.  Sometimes I just need to start writing.  Today I challenged myself to write 4 articles.  I challenged myself to do my first one in 15 minutes.  I did it.  It is now saved and simmering to be edited later.

Here's what helped:

1. On another day I'd come across some material I thought might make a good topic.  My writing is sold at Constant-Content.com so I choose topics I feel will sell to the audience that visits there.  This topic stuck out (topic was fear), so I'd printed out ideas from a few websites and left them on my desk for a later.  Often I'll create a word document and gather ideas and save them.  Both methods are equally effective.
2. Then I sat down not to copy from the printed material, but to have a conversation in my head about the topic. My thoughts would come out my fingertips (as I'm doing now).  The material was merely supportive.  I liked the tips it offered.  When I got to a place in my conversation where I needed a practical tip or the next paragraph direction, I glanced at the paper.  I adapted what I read to suit my article.  

So what I'm saying helps is to gather material you can use at a later date, and to write as though you're talking to someone.

Temptation to Copy or Plagarize

Even deciding to write on this topic in a way I'm plagiarizing because I chose to write this a few days after reading another person's blog post on this topic.

COMMON THINKING

Avoiding copying, plagiarizing breaking copyright laws, and so on, is hard, mostly because there are a lot of topics that we all tend to study and are knowledgeable about.  Writing thoughts on the same topic isn't plagiarism, but writing almost word-for-work is.
 
Many of us sign up for the same blogs, read similar books, newspapers, magazine articles, etc.  The information we learn sticks in our mind.  We are a sharing generation and want to share what we have learned.

It can be hard not to copy when tackling a topic or offering tips you've read elsewhere that are so valuable you want to pass them on to your readers. 

Let's say another article teaches me having a pet can ease lonely feelings.  That isn't just someone's idea, it is a pretty proven fact.  Also, forcing yourself to get out of the house to meet new people is also a good solution.  If I include these fact in an article on relieving loneliness, does that make me a plagiarist?  It's complicated.

TODAY'S COMMON TOPICS

When we "live" in similar circles, we tend to learn the same things, talk the same language, so to speak.

In my writing for a certain website, there are many requests for certain topics.  Yes, I often rehash the same topics other writers have.  Most of us share commonly known information.  The question is, when does it become plagiarism?

Let's say, for instance, I've learned a few tips on building a platform, developing a social media network or pitching a small business.  Some of the tools I might include in my article are the same tools many others are teaching clients in courses or writing about.

DID THEY STEAL THIS?

I've read many articles that I think I could have written.  When another writes in a similar style to me, or shares similar information to what I have written on in the past, I begin to wonder if I've been copied.  The truth is, there are many of us that think alike and that's what it is about in many cases.

Yes, I've been copyright violated.  It makes me mad when I discover that.  I've also sold articles on use licenses and that means the buyer can use my piece where he wants.  I have to be careful not to incorrectly judge a piece--it may have been fairly paid for.



RESISTING CUT AND PASTE

It's so easy to cut and paste and spin an article around or to use another person's information in your own ebook.  It is, however, unethical and, in some cases, illegal.

In order to make your writing genuine:

1.  If you cut and paste, make a note that it is verbatim from someone else.  If you journal ideas, make a note in the column which write author, book and page # it came from. If you don't you may incorrectly think it's a piece you started writing, use it and get caught.
2. Type from your heart.  Don't just list facts.  Think about why you're writing what you are and what you want your reader to learn from it.  Then include only the most important points and make it sound like they came from you (even though you may not be writing in first person).
3. Put your own spin on it.  Try to pull something out that's different about the topic.  Use different examples, look at it from another viewpoint, etc.

Stay true to form, ethical, fair and do your best.  Forgive others as you hope they will forgive you if you slip up.

Why? Because I Can. It's My Property! - Writers Take Lots of Punches

Why?  Because I can.  It's my property!

When starting to sell articles, your nose will get out of joint many times due to a variety of causes.

• You will get rejections from proofreading editors, publishers, and clients.  It will hurt.  When hit with the rejection punch you may want to cry.  You might want to walk away and give up.  Of course, most writers are right brained artist types who are known to have a starving artist archetype, so it only makes sense to beat oneself up.
• When you gain a private request, you will spend time researching the topic, perhaps visiting the website or blog of the person you're writing for.  You will eventually realize you are spending more time researching for the article than you will be paid for.  Your nose skin starts to crinkle as you feel time ticking away.
• Once you write the mammoth 500 word piece, you'll try a variety of phrasing, include some researched topics only to delete them later.  You'll move things around, read out loud, ask yourself if it makes sense, go have a shower, and a cold drink and come back to edit it again.  You probably will even leave it a day and edit it again the next, after all, you want to perfect your craft.  Then it dawns on you that hours upon hours have past and the client's quoted price will only clear $19.50.  Something begins to stink and your nose is met with another powerful punch:  You discover your client charges $39.50 per hour to her clients.  Your client isn't even willing to pay what she herself would charge!  By this time,you've written for 3 hours and still have to upload the piece, write a summary, add keywords, and so on.  You do the math and realize you'll make $5.50 an hour if it sells.
• You hear back from the client that she wants something in it changed. She expresses disapproval of something you've poured your heart and personal time into.  At this point, your nose really aches it is so badly out of joint.  At this moment, you choose whether to agree and edit it further, to ask for more money to do so, or decide to withdraw it.  It is your privilege.   What would you do?
• You decline and the article remains unsold, but to add an over-the-top response, the person who owns the third party site which you have given a percentage of your earnings to for several years doesn't stick up for you.  They don't just declare a non-sale and live with it, they threaten to not give you more work if you don't comply--as though they own you.  That could be the final knock out.  Or not.  You can choose to dust yourself off and keep setting boundaries instead.  Who needs to work for someone that doesn't appreciate them?

In a freelance relationship where no contract is signed or payment promised, you risk using your time for a maybe proposition.  But just as a client has a right to decline your article, you have a right to pull it.  You don't have to agree to anything that seeks to take advantage of you, your time and your skills.

This article cannot be copied.  If you'd like to purchase this article, contact the blog owner. $45 use.