Have you ever felt overwhelmed with writing work and other details related to your freelance writing or publishing business? Is it difficult to get it all done when things ramp up and become really busy? Have you ever considered hiring someone to help?<\/p>\n
You may laugh because it\u2019s fairly widely known that writers don\u2019t have the money to hire people. In fact, when I presented the editor of a writing magazine with an article on this subject, she rejected it. She said it was unrealistic. <\/p>\n
I beg to differ. There are times when we can\u2019t afford NOT to get help. When we are overloaded with work, we\u2019re scrambling to meet deadlines and the assignments are piling up, how effective can we be? <\/p>\n
I\u2019ve hired help and I\u2019ve bartered for services over the many years that I\u2019ve been writing for a living. In the late 1990s, when I decided to revise my local history book, I hired a friend to type it into the computer. I originally completed that book in 1983 on an electric typewriter. This same friend used to prepare query letters for me and send them to editors. Of course, I gave her the list of query letters I wanted to send and to whom. I had the templates for the letters in computer files. She simply personalized them, enclosed a self-addressed, stamped envelope and sent them off for me.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve also hired book designers, webmasters, editors, proofreaders and, of course, printing companies.<\/p>\n
Over the years, I occasionally paid my teen-age grandkids to do filing for me, type my return address on envelopes, create new file folders and help with large mailings. As they got older, my grandsons helped transport crates of books to my storage unit whenever a shipment came in. During one period, I paid a young neighbor girl to help with mailing and filing once a week. When I travel, I get someone to ship book orders that come in while I\u2019m gone. <\/p>\n
I know authors who hire people to help with book promotion. Some hire publicists and others simply engage the assistance of colleagues, acquaintances and friends in various promotional activities.<\/p>\n
What kind of help could you use in your office? Obviously, things have changed over the last 30 years. You send query letters, articles, book proposals and manuscripts mainly through email. You may even have a paperless office (I met a writer once who did\u2014impressive). You may feel you do not have enough work right now to warrant hiring someone. But imagine how much more productive you might be if you had help. <\/p>\n
How are you spending your time, these days? Are you trying to keep up with the writing assignments while your desk and in-out baskets are overflowing? Are you concerned about having something lined up when you\u2019ve finished the work at hand? Why not bring someone in to do the filing and, perhaps, send queries to editors and your resume and introductory letter to potential business clients? <\/p>\n
Are you finishing up a book while trying to handle the details of establishing your publishing company? Help yourself and someone else by hiring a neighbor, friend, acquaintance, college student to handle the mundane details, to research printing companies or to send out pre-publication order forms, for example. <\/p>\n
Maybe you are in book promotion mode. It\u2019s a huge job, isn\u2019t it? Have you ever considered bringing in an intern or hiring someone to help locate appropriate book reviewers, send press releases, set up speaking engagements for you and\/or research venues for promoting your particular book? Just this week, I researched book promotion opportunities for a client. <\/p>\n
It seems to me that when we try to do it all ourselves, we aren\u2019t as effective as we might be if we had the right kind of help. Hiring someone could accomplish the following:<\/p>\n
\u2022\tFree you up to do more of the creative work.
\n\u2022\tPossibly increase your productivity.
\n\u2022\tHelp someone else out while also helping the economy.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll be leaving in a few days for a couple of weeks. I may post a few more new blogs before I go, then I\u2019ve instructed someone to post a new one only every 3 days or so. (Yes, I wrote them and saved them up to use while I\u2019m traveling.) Unless I have time in between photographing the fall colors along the Eastern seaboard and relaxing on shipboard, you\u2019ll only get 3 new postings while I\u2019m gone.
\nFeel free to enjoy some of the nearly 600, still pertinent, posts in the archives over the next few weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Have you ever felt overwhelmed with writing work and other details related to your freelance writing or publishing business? Is it difficult to get it all done when things ramp up and become really busy? Have you ever considered hiring someone to help? You may laugh because it\u2019s fairly widely known that writers don\u2019t have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t