Holy Crap

I did my once-in-a-great-while Google search on myself just now and guess what I found? My book.It's already listed on Amazon, and it looks like it's already been pre-ordered by at least a couple of people, judging by the placement number. I don't even know how to get my mind around that. I really, really don't.

Class Action Suit Against Mahalo

If you were a Mahalo writer or manager, someone is finally getting a class action suit together to throw at them. The full information is here. If you were burned by Mahalo when they decided that they didn't feel like paying people anymore and decided to change their terms from "you own all of the rights to your work and you will be paid as long as your work is on our site" to "nener neners," the lawsuit may need your input.

This year has seen a rash of content companies who have pulled this, from eHow changing its rights statement from writer ownership to complete eHow ownership to Mahalo firing thousands of people and flat out stealing their work with no notice. They were pretty classy and moral next to How to Do Things, however, who simply stopped paying people and didn't bother to even send an email about it. After being burned by all three companies, content sites are now guilty until proven innocent. I don't care how great a company sounds, they will screw you in the blink of an eye if they can. And they can. So if you were screwed this time around, please help send the message that every company, even large and well-funded ones, is expected to conduct business honestly and without making a profit from screwing over other people with dishonest practices.

DragonCon, Creativity and Double Chins

I attended DragonCon last weekend and have just recovered from the sleeplessness (and drunkenness). If you've never heard of it, it's a massive science fiction and fantasy convention held in Atlanta every year. I hadn't been in more than 10 years, and was pretty astounded at how enormous it's gotten. Aparently it's no longer embarrassing to be a sci-fi geek or a writer- it's swelled to more than 30,000 con-going geeks, about half of whom wear costumes.

DragonCon is many things to many people, but to me it's always been about writing and being creative. There are always dozens of writers' panels that bring in well-known writers to dissect technique and to talk about their own works and genres. I got to meet several interesting writers, including Mike Resnick. During his panel he mentioned that he had "won several awards." Studying the DragonCon book later I discovered that he's been nominated for Hugos 34 freaking times and has won five Hugos. My biggest dream in life is to win a Hugo. I mean, have healthy offspring and be nice and all, but yeah, mostly to win a Hugo. Being able to meet such epic writers and listen to them discuss their methods of creation was truly mind blowing. My conclusion? I need plots.

Warning: Double Chin Ahead

One of the highlights of the four-day sci-fi experience was to get my picture taken with various Star Trek personnel. Spouse had sprung for me to get my picture with Denise Crosby and Jonathan Frakes (thanks!). No lie- Denise Crosby had a fight with Jonathan Frakes and she left the pictures early before people could get their photos with her. I got mine with Frakes first, and told him that the offspring love him. His reply? "Well, they have great taste."

Ok, so in two years I have never posted a picture of myself here, but I have to now. Just try not to look at it. I now present: Tom Baker meets Jonathan Frakes:



When it was time for the second picture, freaking Tasha Yar was nowhere to be found, so I was offered Marina Sirtis in her place. That was fine with me, she's pretty awesome, so I agreed. What I didn't realize is that all of her single pictures were already taken. By the time I got up there, I was told that only the group shots were being taken. The group shots were with every Star Trek person there, not including freaking Denise Crosby. I kept trying to tell them that I only had a single shot (the group shots cost five times more). They were trying to figure out how to get only Marina Sirtis out there, and then I saw them. Star Trek people.

Geordi LaForge was standing right in front of me trying to figure out what my costume was about. Then, BRENT SPINER came out and looked at me with a sweet smile on his face. He was walking toward me and I totally froze. I squeaked a tiny "hi" in my saddest fangirl voice. He stopped and squeaked "hi" back at me ironically. It was probably my best experience of the con. Tons of Star Trek folk came running out- even Q was there. It was so bizarre and surreal, and the shot or two of vodka I'd swilled beforehand wasn't helping a lot. I'd show the picture, but my smile is crazy and my double chin is way more pronounced, so I won't.

Conclusion: Geek Is Good

Other than Wil Wheaton not appearing (Wheaaaaaaaaton!), the trip was an effective effort to get a get a quick booster shot of creativity. It was amazing to see the creativity of ordinary people who aren't ashamed of being intelligent and fanatical. Everyone is fanatical about something, and if it's about Firefly or Ghostbusters or writing about new worlds that you've just created, that's fantastic. I actually met people there who had dressed up in elaborate costumes based on short stories that they had written. If I could, I would do that every day. It's hard to re-enter the real world after a few days like that.

Jobs, Writing and Vampires

So, my spouse actually got a job this week. He's been out of work for almost two years because his industry has pretty much died in this country. Thanks, China! Anyway, with him soon to be employed, that means that I don't have to write full time anymore, though pretty close to full time. The first thought in my head was, holy crap, I get to write some fiction.

I have been writing a lot about online publishers for Suite101, and every time I write one I wish I had something completed that I can submit for consideration. I have a half-fleshed-out vampire story in mind for an online publisher, a weird past-life story hopefully for print and about a dozen sci-fi stories bouncing around my head. Most of them are finished in my head, but the time to actually get them down has eluded me so far.

Is it possible that now I will be able to finish one of them outside the realm of my cloudy head? I can't even dare to get excited about it. Getting time to write the fiction you want to write is like slipping into a big bathtub that is just the right temperature. It's feels effortless and sensual. It lets you take all of those weird things that wander around your head and tell them that they are real and interesting. They get to exist in the real world instead of being stuck inside you in between the worry about website design and the worry about the landscaping. It lets them free to wander in the actual world, free to be rejected or accepted by the world at large.

Demand Media Isn't Profitable. No Biggie.

There is wave of panic rolling across the freelance Web writing world right now because of the news that Demand Media isn't actually profitable. Multiple stories have come out touting the company's lack of profits, as announced during the company's IPO, as a sign that they will fail any day and that the entire business model is obviously an unprofitable one. Here's why they're wrong.

Profits Often Happen Years Down the Road

It's not at all unusual for a company to make no profits in its first few years, or even longer. Amazon showed no profit for its first 10 years. Now? Not so much. During the last quarter, its profits were $207 million. NetFlix, now a giant in the movie rental industry, showed no profits for its first six years- a year after it's IPO. What do they have in common? They're both large, online companies that grew quickly and expanded into new areas of their industries. Sound familiar?

They Don't Actually Need Profits Right Now

If this was a mom-and-pop operation, they would need profits immediately to stay in business. But it isn't mom and pop running Demand- it's a large company with scores of investors who have pumped hundreds of millions into the business. Even if they never make a dime, they have enough to stay in business for at least the next 10 years and even longer if the IPO generates the $125 million they're seeking.

It's Losses Are Shrinking

The gap between what they make and what they need to make isn't growing- it's rapidly shrinking. According to Daily Finance, during the first half of 2009, Demand lost $13.9 million. During the first half of 2010, it lost $6.05 million. At this rate, they could be profitable within a year.

So, are Demand Media and I best friends? No. They're dead useful, but they definitely have issues, as anyone who has ever worked for them knows. But, the sky is not falling. It remains in place just in case you need it.

Still Alive

I think that was the longest break I've taken from blogging since I started, but my schedule has been so difficult that no other option was possible. Last week, I wrote more than 32,000 words, including two mid-sized projects and most of the last third of a book that is now (mostly) completed. Final edits will be coming back soon, but for the most part I never have to look at the thing again.

I've back on the 'ole freelancing train now, taking care of my PR work and looking at ads in an attempt to avoid the content mill work that pays most of the bills right now. Here's basically what freelance writing ads have to offer:

Generic Ads: We need people to write stuff! We need stuff written, and we need millions of people to write that stuff! If you know what stuff is and you can make words, you can write our stuff. We may or may not pay, we'll tell you after we find out after you sign up and fill out five contact information forms.

Laundry List Ads: We need everything in the world: Literally- whatever it is, we need it. We will sit on our backsides while you will run out business with little direction, writing everything and then marketing it through 225 different social bookmarking and networking sites. You must have a PhD. in douchebaggery and at least 17 years of experience. We don't pay much, but you will get a Zen satisfaction from working for us. Zen!

One Guy in a Million Ads: We need one person to write about purple squash that grow on one specific bank of the Amazon. If you have five years of experience in writing about that squash (the blue ones from the same bank don't count), feel free to send in at least 10 clips that are exclusively about that type of squash. There will be four levels of testing to determine your squash knowledge. Pay is $12 an hour.

Half-Assed Ads: We think we need something written, or maybe we need something else. We're not sure yet. We think that once we get started, maybe in a few weeks, there will likely be money coming in. This is an amazing opportunity! You can get in on the ground floor of whatever this turns out to be! We don't have any money, but if you create the content for our websites, then we will and we might pay you. Imagine the exposure!

In the meantime, I found this:

I write like
Vladimir Nabokov

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Content Hell

Content writing is a temptation that is hard to fight sometimes. It's pretty simple to do once you get the hang of it, but the pay is pretty average. If I want a kick-ass pond in the backyard and some days off every month, content writing needs to go. Unfortunately, I do have some contracts and I do get bogged down in writing content for content sites out of simple laziness. Normally, this means a boring week that pays ok and little more. This week sucked. It sucked the big one.

When it all began, I was pretty happy with doing some marketing this week, throwing together a PR document and doing some content writing when time allowed because it's easy and people pay me. Here's how I started the week:



Then, one of the content sites that I occasionally writer for decided to lay off more than 4,000 writers and may not pay me a thing for the work that I've done for them. That was less fun.



I got bored one night and thought I'd write a few articles for a cheapie content site that is always a quick buck. A short article about affiliate marketing was sent back as "good, but not funny." It was an article about affiliate marketing. Seriously. It was supposed to be funny? Why??



Then, another content company sent an article back because they "forgot to add" that their new articles are to be written in a specific style that they never put into their style guide. I have to redo it after emailing some obscure person to get the new style guide that is so important that they never gave it to us.



THEN, another content company gave me new, more complicated guidelines that tripled the amount of time that their articles take without raising my rates by a penny. This was already my lowest-paying client, and now their articles pay about a fifth of my normal billing rate. No apologies from them and no acknowledgment of the extended time and expense.



Some weeks are good, some weeks make you want to swing a big fat tuna at the idiots who waste your time with incompetence. I can run a content company far better than most of these people because I have this crazy thing called common sense. I think I'm almost done with writing anything at all for content mills. They've been getting far to much from me for far too long.