When writing is your profession, you have to do it, day in and day out. You can take the occasional break, but the number of words you put on paper (or on screen) directly corresponds to the number of dollars in your bank account. Even if you’ve got some good passive income streams going, you still have to write up your products and marketing materials. All of that means that anything you can do to become more productive is beneficial.

But every writer has a different creative process. What gets me in my chair and working isn’t necessarily going to get any other writer working. That means that we have to ask ourselves some questions about productivity and how we work as individuals.

1. What does productivity mean to me? Is it just a question of clearing a couple of hours for writing? Or is it clearing out non-writing tasks? Or something else entirely? The answer usually has something to do with what you want to accomplish is a given day. Personally, my productivity is a question of writing a certain number of words per day. I have to have the time and the flexibility to make sure that I get the writing part of my work done every day. Most of the rest of my work can get handed off to someone else, if necessary and if funds are available. But I’ve got to write.
2. What do I need to be able to write? I’m a big proponent of the idea that we don’t need anything special to write and that getting caught up in the system and the surroundings is just a way to create excuses to avoid actually working. But I freely admit that there are situations and circumstances that I simply can’t work through. Being productive means setting things up so that those situations are avoidable.
3. How do I keep track of my writing work? With the solitary exception of fiction writers working on novels that ‘tell’ them what’s going to happen next, most of us need some pretty concrete plans in order to tackle a writing project. Keeping track of those plans becomes necessary in order to keep moving forward, but how you keep track of them is a personal question. I know writers who rely on sticky notes all over their walls because they need the physical reminder to keep moving. I know writers who make up very precise task lists. It’s all a question of what works for you.
4. How do I divide up my writing work? Not every writing project can be done in a single day. That means breaking it up into concrete tasks. Of course, breaking down ‘write an article’ can be incredibly difficult — does ‘write the first 250 words of the article’ actually help guide you through the process? But there are ways to get things into a manageable set of actions. Personally, I break things down between the time actually spent writing and everything else. I have set times when I go through and do all the interviews I need for a given project, as well as set times for the writing aspects.
5. How do I handle the non-writing part of my work? As much as most of us don’t want to worry about anything except actually writing, we’ve all got little details that need to be handled. Tasks like setting up interviews are a necessary part of our day. There are plenty of strategies for attacking your every day tasks, but as a writer, there’s an unusual aspect. How do you balance writing with everything else that needs to get done? If you’re off sending emails, after all, you aren’t writing.
6. How do I follow up on my writing? My work doesn’t send itself out to clients, more is the pity. That means that I have to have systems of some sort in place to get my work distributed, paid for and other important steps. Writing may seem like a solitary game, but it requires regular communications as well as an ability to work around specific dates. After all, following up on an unpaid invoice three months later isn’t going to get you paid quickly.
7. How do I make sure I actually get out of my chair? Writing, for the most part, is a sedentary activity. On top of that, it can be a bit lonely. It’s crucial to get up and out of our chairs regularly — such activities are just as important to our productivity as actually getting our rear-ends into our chairs and working. Just what that looks like can depend on your own goals and needs, of course, but I’ve had to put systems in place that get me up and moving over the course of the day as well as out of my home office and actually interacting with people on occasion.
8. How do I get the new information I need for ideas? I could spend all day online, just browsing for new information. Despite the fact that I get some of my best ideas that way, it’s probably not the most effective approach to planning my work day. With that in mind, it’s important to consider how much time we’re spending on consuming media, rather than creating it, and how we’re processing that information.

I’ve been thinking about these questions because I’m working on a top secret project with Ali Hale over at ConstructivelyProductive. We’re getting pretty close to finishing up our project and will be unveiling it soon. But we’ve had to put a lot of thought into just how we organize our own approaches to productivity and how anyone in a creative profession can manage her work.

Image by Flickr user Chris Metcalf

Over the weekend, I went to Fan Expo in Toronto, which required a nine-hour drive up from Maryland. The drive wasn’t bad and, over the course of the weekend, I made some observations about writing that are going to be worthwhile.

They Did It First, We Do It Better

We drove through Buffalo, New York, which meant that we simply had to stop for wings. On the way to Toronto, we stopped at Duff’s Famous Wings and noticed the wait staff wearing shirts that read “They did it first. We do it better.” It didn’t make sense until our drive home, when we stopped at the Anchor Bar on our way home.

The Anchor Bar proudly proclaims itself the home of the original Buffalo chicken wing. The two restaurants are considered the best in Buffalo for wings and have something of a rivalry going. And, as far as my opinion goes, Duff’s has it right. The Anchor Bar may have invented the Buffalo chicken wing, but Duff’s does it better.

It’s a good lesson to keep in mind in the hustle and bustle of writing online. There always seems to be some new strategy coming out for SEO or social media, which some enterprising individual is pioneering in order to make a name for herself. But just because someone else got to a strategy first, you shouldn’t write it off. Looking for the next newest thing can be a tough way to build a writing business. Rather, picking up the strategies that you can be the best at — whether or not you were first — makes sense.

Creativity is Easy, Money is Hard

At the FanExpo, I met some incredibly creative and passionate people, but several people told me that while they’re willing to shell out $500 bucks just for a booth at FanExpo, it’s not something that they expect to ever make money at. Being the consummate networker I am, I started asking about the promotion strategies they use (especially whether they use content to promote themselves).

For a surprising number, their promotional efforts amounted to building a website and showing up at FanExpo. They would love to take their projects full-time, but they’re focusing entirely on the creative aspects. That’s okay if it’s going to remain a hobby, but if you’re serious about something like that, you’ve got to give a fair amount of time to marketing. It’s hard (especially if you’re also working full-time), but if you want to make a living writing fantasy novels, putting together an online television show or pursuing some other creative venture, your only option is to push hard.

It’s been done before and it will be done again, but it will never be easy.

Warm Audiences Are Always Easier

There were big name draws at FanExpo — William Shatner and Stan Lee were both there. But there were also attendees who came specifically because their favorite vendor or their favorite web comic had announced they’d be attending. An email newsletter was enough to bring out fifty committed buyers for one vendor I talked with. He sees the same truly excited fans at every convention he goes to and those fans always buy something.

In comparison, he has to work hard to get cold audiences to come to him. He spends three days straight yelling, cajoling and tempting people who have never heard of him to come to his booth and look at what he’s selling, while taking the money of the fans already on his mailing list.

It’s a good comparison of what happens when a writer wants to sell a product or land a new client. The more we can do to warm up an audience ahead of time, the more likely we are to walk away with money at the end of the day. Maybe we run blogs that cater to our target clients so that they’re already warm to our names and ideas before we ever start talking about money. Maybe we warm up a cold audience at a convention by using social media to see who is going to be there ahead of time — then we can reach out and make sure that an introduction in person is simply a matter of continuing an online conversation.

FanExpo is one of the first events in a while that I didn’t have an idea (beyond the speakers) of who would be there and who I wanted to talk to. It wasn’t a conference I wanted to work, but honestly, since I knew so few people ahead of time, it was harder to get into the swing of things. I do wish I’d at least looked a little bit online before heading up there.

Image by Flickr user Benson Kua

I used to absolutely refuse to ever write articles on spec. If I didn’t have a contract in my hands, I wasn’t going to write the article. This is not uncommon: many freelance writers have gotten this advice from on high (freelance writing blogs, forums and so on).

I’m not really at a point where I’m hurting for work, either. In theory, I should still be staying away from the spec article system. So why am I putting together 1,000 words that could easily be rejected?

Writing with Multiple Purposes

Putting together evergreen content is an easy way to increase your freelance writing income: anything that you can sell reprint rights to (either to magazines or through content mills) after you’ve seen it run somewhere else first is a great investment of your time.

But it’s possible to extend that principle. When you’re writing anything these days, considering multiple purposes is just good sense. You can turn blog posts into an ebook, turn old articles into marketing pieces. It is, more than anything else, a question of thinking of the multiple purposes with which you can use any given piece of writing.

I’m primarily talking about writing articles here — this works with other types of writing, but is extremely difficult with something like copy writing. Reusing copy from a client’s site is a big non-no. The only exception I can think of is if you were to collect a couple of different pieces of copy writing you’ve done previously to use as examples in an article or an ebook.

Multiple Purposes for Spec

First of all, I’ve picked the spec markets I’m interested in submitting to very carefully. They do pay well as a general rule, but my goal isn’t necessarily to make money off these articles — the money is more of an added bonus. Instead, I’m interested in raising my profile in some very specific publications. I only write about a couple of topics these days, but I want to make sure that I’m the go-to-gal for those topics. So the spec publications I’m interested in have some sort of prestige associated with them.

Second, I always work on an article with other homes in mind in case it is rejected. Each of the spec articles I’ve put together could easily be sold to another publication, used as a guest post to raise interest in something else I’m doing or otherwise be published right here (saving me some writing the next time I need a post).

I only write on spec under my own terms. I certainly won’t write on spec for a client who has brought me a project — in that direction lies frustration and financial disaster — or for silly contests meant to get someone a cheap first round of creative work. Instead, I make sure any spec work thoroughly benefits me and moves me directly towards my goals.

Image by Flickr user Marcin Wichary

There is no physical possible way for me to write every article that my clients bring to me. It certainly isn’t a bad problem to have — and it took plenty of marketing to get to this point — but I can’t bring myself to turn down work, even as I’m looking for ways to cut back on my work. But that doesn’t mean that the only option is to drive myself a little bit crazier because I want the money that goes along with these projects. It doesn’t hurt that my clients are a lot happier if I can take care of all the work they can give me.

Bringing in another writer is just about the only way I have found to take on these projects without losing sleep. But there are some ethical concerns that go along with bringing in help that I think are crucial to consider. After all, if someone screws up on a project that is just for you, that’s one thing. If it is a project for a client, however, your reputation is on the line — not the person actually responsible.

Is Your Client Cool With It?

My clients, when they first come to me, are looking to pay Thursday Bram to write something for them — not any other writer. Not everyone is willing to pay me to edit something someone else has written or to manage a project without actually banging out a few words myself. That’s fine with me. I charge rates that make me comfortable doing all the work myself.

It’s only when I’ve got an okay from the client that I’m willing to bring in someone else. My client has to be fully aware of not only the fact that I’m not the one writing the material, but to have approved who I’m working with. The situation has to be fully transparent.

Are You Cool With Freelancers’ Rates?

When I started out as a freelance writer, I picked up several assignments that other writers were outsourcing. The pay was on the level that my experience was getting me elsewhere, but I know there was a significant difference between what I was getting and what the original contractor was getting.

As a result, I tend to price the work I outsource a little lower than my standard rates. I’m still paying a fair rate to the other writers involved, but I don’t feel right about adding much more of a margin than the actual time I’m spending on a given project. If I’m only going to spend 15 minutes editing or tweaking a blog post, I’m not about to charge my hourly rate for the whole project.

At the same time, I’m very worried about putting other writers in a bad place, financially speaking. I’m often on the other end of the paycheck and I don’t want anyone to think that I haven’t treated them fairly. As a result, I’ve been thinking about what I can offer the writers I work with to make projects more worth their while — especially since I’m looking for opportunities to bring in more work for them. So far, that’s included little things, like offering free hosting for a couple of great writers’ websites (I host a couple of my clients’ websites already). But I’d love to put together something that reaches a little farther. If you’ve got any suggestions on the support you’d want in a freelance job, I’m happy to hear it.

Are You Able to Handle the Logistics?

Outsourcing a project doesn’t entirely get things off your plate. You’ve still got to make sure that the project is going well, that everybody gets what they need and so forth. So far, I’ve been using Google Wave to manage everything, along with OmniFocus (the task management tool I use for my own work). But I can tell that this won’t last — OmniFocus isn’t exactly robust and Google Wave is effectively being discontinued.

So I’m on a hunt for a new approach to managing things. I have a pretty specific idea of what the end result needs to look like, but I’m definitely struggling with the best way of making the transition. This is certainly not a problem that a freelancer working on her own runs into.

When your team consists of more than just you, it becomes very clear very quickly that you need a simple approach. You need everyone to be able to check just one place to stay on the same page — and to be able to make the connection between your approach and they way they manage their own tasks. It’s a problem we often see from the other end: we have standard invoicing procedures but different clients require us to invoice in different ways, resulting in freelancers getting frustrated. The same problem shows up in asking freelancers to handle work in different ways.

An Informal Poll

I’d like to know if you’ve ever outsourced part or all of a writing project to another freelancer. What worked? What didn’t?

And if you haven’t, why not?

Image by Flickr user Mike Baird

I haven’t been spending as much time writing for this blog as I would like over the course of this summer. This isn’t an excuse — just a simple fact. That’s because this summer hasn’t been as simple as I’d hoped and, when things get crazy, I have to focus on work for clients first.

That’s sort of the freelancers’ credo: clients come first. We’ll skimp on our own projects, kill off our social life and do anything else it takes to make sure that the projects we’ve contracted for get finished. After all, we want to pay our bills, eat something other than ramen and generally have a respectable income. Our clients are the only ones writing us checks.

When crises hit, we bunker down — we get through the client projects that we can and everything else can quickly fall to the wayside. And that’s been the story of my summer. No one wants to hear the litany of whining that goes along with a retelling of my summer and I’m not after sympathy, but it’s worth admitting that as freelancers, our priorities are not exactly what they might be if we held jobs.

How to Make It Worse

While I haven’t been active here as much as I’d like, I did find a way to make my life even more complicated. I’ve been working on some of my other side projects, and had some pretty interesting partnership opportunities come up. Of course I said yes — why make my life easier?

There is a light on the other side of the tunnel, of course. My business is growing by leaps and bounds and it’s (hopefully) going to reach an equilibrium soon. I’ve been able to find some great help and I’m not exactly going it alone. And, if my side projects work out the way I know they can, I’m going to have a little more financial freedom in my writing career.

Coming Back from the Crazy

This summer, if nothing else, has given me some opportunity for reflection. I have a much better idea of where I want to take my writing in the future and I think I have some valuable information to share in the future.

I’ve rearranged my priorities and I know where I’m headed. Just to give you a head’s up, you’re going to see that reflected in the content here.

You’re going to see more about several topics:

• Going beyond freelancing
• Building up passive income stream
• Turning writing from a service to a product
• The project management side of writing
• Creating partnerships to earn more money
• Hiring staff or subcontracting to expand a writing business

In short, I want to talk about writing as a business — without the assumption that freelancing is the only way for a writer to run her business. It is a question I’ve been struggling with, especially when I’m not in a position to put in the sheer number of hours that tend to go along with a good freelancing career.

I don’t think I’m the only one, either. A lot of us get into freelancing because we are looking for flexibility and, yes, it does provide a lot more flexibility than an employer ever would. But there are other constraints, often on income and time. There has to be a way to build up great income without giving up flexibility or constantly working ourselves to the edge of burnout.

I’m Not the Only Crazy Person

The entire profession of writing is undergoing some interesting upheavals right now, and there aren’t a lot of clues to where things are going. We know that the Internet has created an incredible demand for new content. We also know that outsourcing to countries like India or the Philippines (where many people speak English fluently) are changing the types of work that we are seeing. Big batches of SEO articles routinely get outsourced, while a writer from the US or the UK will be hired to ‘localize’ those articles.

It’s easy to see the changing economics as a problem — as a sign that the world has gone crazy. But it is just as easy to find opportunities. It takes almost nothing to start an online publication or to act as a content marketing consultant. Well, nothing for a writer who pays close attention to what is going on online. We have to embrace those opportunities.

Image by Flickr user Stuart B Pilbrow

I have an admission to make: when I wrote The Freelance Writer’s Guide to Passive Income, I thought about making it longer. A lot longer, as a matter of fact, because I really wanted to provide a lot of information on affiliate marketing. It was a tough decision, but I eventually came to the conclusion that it wasn’t the best option. Not only would it have driven the price of the ebook up, but — according to a couple of people who helped me by reading through outlines and drafts — a lot of readers would have wound up with a bad case of information overload.

I didn’t leave out affiliate marketing, by any means, but I reduced the amount of information that I was planning to include. If you’re focused on affiliate marketing as the key strategy by which you plan to make money from your writing, though, you’re going to need something more.

Affiliate Marketing as an Income Source

As a writer, affiliate marketing can be a great way to earn money without having to hand over everything you write to someone else. You don’t have to worry about the hassle of finding advertisers, you can focus on topics that interest you and you can focus on products that you genuinely believe in. It can be as simple a matter as starting a blog and writing on a regular basis — provided that you have a good grounding in affiliate marketing. That can include:

• Where to find good affiliate programs
• How to promote affiliate products effectively and actually make sales
• How to bring traffic into your site

While I gave an overview of that material in my ebook — more than enough to get you started with affiliate marketing on the side if you’re freelancing as well — I didn’t go into the sort of depth you’ll need if you want to turn affiliate marketing into a full-time income.

If that is indeed the case, though, you’re not high and dry. There are a number of sites that you can collect that information from or — assuming you’d like to dive into the information and actually get down to business — Corbett Barr is relaunching Affiliate Marketing for Beginners today. I consider this course complementary to my ebook: where I offer a broad set of resources, Corbett gets down deep into affiliate marketing techniques that can actually benefit writers.

It’s incredibly realistic as a program in ways that many affiliate marketing training courses aren’t. Corbett gets into how the numbers break down and the sorts of income you can expect in given situations, rather than waving around big numbers like so many internet marketers are prone to. That’s on top of the five modules of the course, the opportunity to ask Corbett questions, example sites to study (which happen to actually make money) and, if you choose the deluxe version, a lot more.

Affiliate Marketing and Passive Income

Because I think that my ebook and Corbett’s course go so well together, I’m offering a special deal today only: If you purchase Affiliate Marketing for Beginners through the link below, I’ll give you a copy of The Freelance Writer’s Guide to Passive Income for free. If you’ve already got my ebook, I’ll give you a sneak peek (a free copy as soon as it’s ready) at the ebook I’m planning to offer next. All you have to do is forward your email receipt to thursday@thursdaybram.com.

And, for the record, the link is an affiliate link.

Buy Affiliate Marketing for Beginners

A computer that isn’t regularly backed up is a problem waiting to happen — especially when you’re a freelancer and every bit of your professional life is on that laptop or desktop. IT pro Robert Granholm has put together resources for getting the best back up systems in place for entrepreneurs, freelancers and the rest of us that both rely on our computers for everything and don’t have a boss to tell us to get a move on. Robert was kind enough to answer a few questions for me.

How did you get into providing IT, especially online?

I’ve always been technically inclined but my troubleshooting days were probably a result of the time I spent breaking computers in my teen years. I have a lot of memories of taking down my Dads computer and then hurrying to somehow fix the damage I’d done before he found out. I was hooked and continued to work with computers from then on.

The jobs and social interests I developed helped grow me into a people person and what you see today. The online aspect is somewhat recent in providing tech support. Traditionally, you need an in house tech or your best option is Google or cousin Fred. I have nothing against Google (or Fred), but the search engine can’t have a real contextual conversation with you…yet. I saw a need with solopreneurs, entrepreneurs and anyone starting a movement online for IT support and with the growing availability of remote control, communication and content delivery systems I am glad to be a resource.

What sort of backup options are there for a freelancer? What about if the freelancer in question isn’t particularly technical?

The freelancer has constantly changing client data so any backup solutions need to be near immediate and automatic. The two major considerations are to backup to the “cloud” meaning an online service of some sort or to a local device like an external hard drive or a thumb drive. The actual options are numerous, there’s no shortage of tools out there (Dropbox, Mozy, Time Machine, Carbonite, Crash Plan etc), but knowing how to use them and taking action to do so is why almost 50% of people don’t have a good backup.

I recommend backing up to the cloud and an external location, but for the most non-technically minded a service like Dropbox is ideal. Simply put, it places a folder on your computer, everything in that folder gets backed up. That’s it. The free service get’s capped at 2GB of data, but for immediate projects it works well. It’s not really meant to be a complete computer backup solution though.

What factors should a freelancer, or someone else with a body of creative work that would be impossible to replicate, consider when it comes to back ups?

The most important factors would be time, frequency and redundancy, but I’ll be honest, since so many people don’t backup at all…just taking some sort of action is going to be a big deal. The best solutions are going to be those that are automatic, and in multiple locations. Even if you’re not a big business you should operate like one, try to have a backup in 3 locations all the time. It’s not practical to go “lock up” your PSD files, but a copy on your computer, on the cloud, and one other remote location like a laptop or an external drive works well.

What sort of help can a reader get from your ebook?

The guidebook is meant to be an action guide for those less technically inclined. The biggest problem in backing up is that people don’t know where to start or how to take action. The Backup Informer was built to take you from decision point (with a decision map) on what solution fits you best to a completely set up backup plan with plain English, pictures, and video support. The guide features a “jump to solution” format to help you make the best choices, learn about why it’s the best for you, and then a set-up guide for that solution.

If you’re part of the 50& of people NOT currently backing up, check out The Backup Informer and get a system in place today, it won’t hurt, it won’t take long, and you can do it.

I flew out to San Diego last Friday to see my husband, who happens to be working out here this summer. I found out that BarCamp San Diego was Saturday and Sunday — I’m a fan of BarCamps and other small sort-of conferences because they’re almost always free and you get to hear from a lot of people who are truly passionate about the projects they’re working on. This weekend was no different… but I wound up giving a talk myself.

If you aren’t familiar with the BarCamp format, it’s pretty spur of the moment: all the attendees show up about an hour before talks are scheduled to start and hash out the day’s speakers. Before that point, no one really knows who will be speaking and what they’ll be talking about, and that can include the speakers. As people were hanging out and chatting, I wound up on one of my standard soap boxes — making money off of writing online. If you do that at a BarCamp, you quickly wind up on the schedule.

That meant, between the next few sessions, I had to distill my soap box down into about 30 minutes of coherent presentation. I’ve included my notes below, but I simply wound up focusing on giving a broad overview on how a blogger can make money, mentioned a few key bloggers who are good role models and then offered about ten minutes for questions about the specifics people were wondering about.

Five Things to Do Before Trying to Make Money as a Blogger

1. Use WordPress. Furthermore, get your own domain name and host it yourself. Sure, there are other blogging tools out there, but WordPress is the horse I’m betting on. It’s more robust, has a bigger community of developers and the user interface is very friendly for new bloggers.
2. Look for money-making opportunities, besides advertising. It’s hard to make a living off of AdSense and it’s getting harder. Most other approaches to advertising require you to have a lot more traffic than you will when you’re starting out.
3. Network with the other bloggers covering your topic. Having a network is crucial to making money, even if it’s only a matter of discussing a product idea with a friend who can say ‘I tried that and it didn’t work so well.’
4. Listen to your readers. Maybe your readership is ten of your closest friends and your mom. Assuming your mom is only there to be supportive, your friends can still give you a good idea of what you’re doing well and where you can improve. As you grow, keep listening: ask readers questions, especially about what they’d be willing to buy from you.
5. Write as much as you can. Even if you don’t consider yourself a fabulous writer, you have to write as much as possible. The practice will make you a better writer, which is an absolute necessity for a career as a blogger.

Five Strategies to Make Money Blogging

1. Set yourself up as an expert and sell consulting services or freelance services
2. Use your blog as a portfolio and land paid blogging gigs on other websites
3. Sell information products (like ebooks or webinars) related to your blog
4. Sell physical products related to your blog (like t-shirts, cookware or whatever your niche is)
5. Use affiliate links to promote other companies products

This is just a smattering of options, of course. There are plenty more. But these are the big ones — the ones that absolutely have to be covered when you’re limited to thirty minutes of chatting. I think it’s worth noting that that these five methods all fall into one of two categories of making money from blogging, as do all the alternatives: indirect and direct income. Direct income comes from advertising, selling a product and so on, while indirect income comes from establishing your expertise and using it to land bigger gigs (such as consulting or writing).

I think two bloggers really typify the difference: Darren Rowse and Chris Brogan. Chris has built a whole company around his expertise and the expertise of the people he works with, earning a nice chunk of change from consulting and speaking gigs. Darren has also built up a company, but he’s focused more on ebooks, membership sites and more directly selling to his readership. There is some overlap between what they do, of course. Both of these bloggers are immensely successful, though, and make for wonderful blogging role models.

One of the perks of writing articles for various publications is that you can wind up with review products. If you write about cooking, you can wind up with pots and pans. If you write about technology, you can wind up with software. And if you write about anything, well… through review copies, I’ve learned that there really is a book on every topic.

All of that is great, but you can wind up with enough review products in your home to drive you crazy after a while. Even worse, you may be technically expected to report any review copies that you receive on your taxes, due to the fact that you received value for your freelancing business. Unless there’s a very good reason not to, I make a point of getting rid of review copies — preferably in a way that does not change my financial situation so that I don’t even have to consider the tax situation. All of this, by the way, does not include books and other items that I bought to review on my own.

1. Donate ‘em: If it’s something that will be useful for someone else, I donate it. Libraries, for instance, are often pleased to see brand new books that they can either add to their collections or resell. Other items can go to appropriate charities. I’ve also been known to give books directly to educators who can use them — the receipts don’t matter in this situation beyond proving that you no longer have the item in question. You can’t actually write these types of donations off on your taxes.
2. Give ‘em away: Every so often, I’ll have a giveaway here on this blog. I try to only give away books here that are actually something that one of you would want. If you saw my stack of ‘books to get rid of’, you’d probably appreciate that fact a little more, but if it’s not relevant I don’t worry about it. I’ve also just handed books off to people who were in my house and said that they wanted to read a particular book. As long as it’s gone, I’m happy.
3. Trade ‘em: I’m not necessarily the biggest fan of this approach simply because I feel like, technically, it might bother the IRS. I’m pretty paranoid when it comes to my taxes and I’d like to avoid any potential problems. But there are a lot of online tools that allow you to hand off books to people who really want them. I particularly like Bookmooch because it allows me to send out books and then donate the books I would get in return to charity.
4. Send ‘em back: In some cases, you can simply return the review copy to the seller who provide you with it. With big items such as microwaves — yes, I’ve reviewed a microwave — the public relations firm is much more willing to take such steps. For smaller items, such as books, though, the postage to send it back seems like too much for most of them.
5. Delete ‘em: With ebooks and other digital review copies, I make a point of getting rid of items that I don’t need anymore. Even if it’s just cluttering up my hard drive, it’s still clutter that I don’t need. I may as well get rid of it and make sure that I’ll have that much more room still on my hard drive to fill up with my own writing. I’ve actually started requesting electronic copies when possible because it makes getting rid of them when I’m done so much easier. Sure, I could just toss print copies in the trash, but I’d feel pretty guilty about it.

There are a few ethical concerns that go along with review copies, especially these days, and I’ve found that getting rid of books and other products after you’re done with them is the easiest way to resolve the issue. In a time where, every so often, we hear about a blogger asking for (and even getting) a new laptop in exchange for a review and equally unethical situations including reviews, I feel that it is important to make sure that my readers here and elsewhere have no reason to question my integrity. What about you? What do you do with your review copies?

I write a lot. There are weeks when I feel like I do absolutely nothing beyond dream up new article ideas and then write them. That can be a bit wearing and I can’t afford writer’s block. To combat creative fatigue, I’m always on the look out for a little inspiration. Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen’s ebook, 73 Ways to Fire Up (or Just Fire) the Muse provides some great tips to moving past obstacles in your writing.

Laurie divided the information into fifteen obstacles, from surviving the fear of rejection to waiting for publication. Each of the fifteen sections starts with an overview of the problem, followed by advice on how to work through those obstacles. That includes advice from big name authors, such Annie Dillard (a Pulitzer-prize winner), as well as from freelancers, writers with day jobs and other practitioners of the craft of writing. There may just be a piece of advice from me in there some where. Laurie winds up each section with a few quotes from the most successful writers out there — like Agatha Christie.

Different Opinions and Different Approaches

Considering writing is a creative act, the fact that there are so many different approaches to even something as simple as finding something to write about should come as no surprise. One of the strengths of 73 Ways to Fire Up (or Just Fire) the Muse is that it showcases so many different approaches. No matter your style or subject matter, you’ll find useful advice in this ebook.

The organization also makes it easy to use this ebook. If you’re having a specific problem with your writing, don’t bother with reading the book straight through — there’s great information in each section, but it may not be applicable to what you’re going through right now. Skip to the section that really reflects what you need to work on and see what tips and quips Laurie has collected for you.