I have a unique perspective as a writer and an editor – I get to see what it’s like on both sides of the submission desk.

In particular, today, I’m talking about Unsent Letters. As many of you know, this project is my baby. I currently do the acquisitions, but I’m working on setting it up so someone else can at least wade through the slush pile for me so that only the very best of submissions are getting to me.

I am AMAZED (read: appalled) at how many submissions don’t adhere to the submission guidelines. When I’m in a good mood, I might point that out, and make a slightly lower offer. When I’m in a bad mood, that person might just get a rejection for it.

Okay, so the submission guidelines are somewhat confusing, and unlike some projects, Unsent Letters is just for writers, so it’s tough to get laypeople to understand the way submissions work and I get all that, I do.

But I’ve received submissions where there is no punctuation at all, lower case letters on names and proper nouns, horrible spelling that obviously wasn’t spell checked.

And you know what makes it worse? When I try to email the person and explain why they were rejected, and they want to argue with me about it!

The one good thing about this is that having been on this side of the submission desk, when I’m sending in my work, I make extra special sure to follow the guidelines as best I can to make the editor’s (or agent’s) job as easy as possible. Yes, a lot of acquisitions is subjective, but a lot of it falls back on the head of the writer who doesn’t take the time to make my job easy(er).

If there is one thing I can impress upon you, it’s read the submission guidelines and follow them!

More on this was written here:

Submission Guideline Etiquette: Pros Vs. Players

Submission Guidelines – or – “Can’t You Read?”

If you haven’t sent in your Unsent Letter, why not? Read the blog here and comment on others letters, and read the submission guidelines here and send yours in!

Love and stuff,
Michy

I’m working on yet another a novel right now. The working title is: Accepting Aimee. I might change that later, but it’s the one that’s stuck for now. This novel is written in first person, narrative POV (point of view) and it’s written as though Aimee, the main character, is having a chat with the reader. It’s not quite the same as a narrative, but actually like Aimee is talking to the reader.

Now, there are also first person narratives, where the first person is telling the story, but doesn’t ‘break the fourth wall’ and speak directly to the reader.

In either of these instances, you’re going to get away with a lot of grammar faux pas than you would writing in first person limited, third person, or just about any other POV or person there is. Why? Because in this type of POV, the character is ‘talking’ in the text block and therefore, you can use colloquialisms, conversational style writing, etc.

I didn’t used to like writing in first person. I always felt it limited me in being able to tell a believable story where I could show the reader things the characters couldn’t see.

In Accepting Aimee, though, I have a unique way of doing this. The character is essentially sitting on her bed telling us, the reader, about something in her past. Therefore, she already knows what’s happened, even though we don’t yet, so when she retells the story to us, she can give us those little clues and hints (foreshadowing) that we won’t normally get with first person limited narrative POV.

I’m enjoying the writing… this is a good book, and I’m very excited about it. Though I have another manuscript finished, I’m debating waiting on shopping it around because I believe so strongly in this book being my breakout novel that I’m almost afraid to submit anything before, lest the universe say, “Nope, I said Accepting Aimee!”

The Universe can be quite demanding sometimes.

Anyway, the whole point of this is to make sure you guys understand when writing a novel, the descriptive part of the text and the dialogue are two different things. The descriptive text, the text block of the writing, should be more formal, adhere to grammar and style guidelines, and shouldn’t use colloquialisms, cliches and the like.

In the dialogue, however, anything goes, as long as it’s to make the character seem real, believable and whole to the reader. Slang and other colorful language might be essential to one character while proper and prim English is essential to another. None of us talk the same, and different regions and dialects speak differently too. If you’re from the South and haven’t traveled much, you might want to make sure your Southerness isn’t showing through in a character who is supposed to be from New York.

Of course, you should make sure your Southerness isn’t showing through in the text block of the descriptive text either! Ya’ll has its place, and a New Yorker probably won’t say it quite like a Texan would!

Be true to your characters, but be careful once you’ve selected your POV – stick with it, watch POV shifts that shouldn’t happen, and keep your descriptive text proper while your dialgoue is casual.

If you’ll excuse me, it’s time for a bathroom break, take my meds, and then git to writin’

Love and stuff,
Michy

PS: You can subscribe to my blog now, if you’ll look at the right-hand side so WP will send you one email every time I post a new blog. Feel free to sign up!

Awhile back, I wrote an article about the basics of copyright and copyright registration. I refer you to that article here, so you can read about the difference between a natural copyright and a registered copyright. To learn a bit more about copyright, and some frequently asked questions, you can also read this article I wrote about it.

Now, read those first, and then we’ll talk about copyright.

done? good….

Writing & Copyright Basics

All right, the basics. The copyright office changed things sometime in the ’80s so that now, when you write something, the minute it’s put in tangible form, you own a copyright on it. As I tap out this blog post, as each letter, each word is added to it, that word as part of the whole is immediately copyrighted to me under a natural copyright. I don’t have to click publish. I don’t have to DO anything. The copyright is mine by just simply putting the words down. I can delete them, I can publish them, I can promote them, I can sell them for value (make money from them), I can promote and distribute them, and I can even give someone else permission to use them, and if I really wanted to, I could sell my copyright to someone else, and then they would own my writing.

Do I Have to Put the Copyright Symbol on My Writing to Have a Copyright?

At one point in the distant past, having the copyright notification was required in order to take advantage of copyright protection. The copyright office states that the copyright notification is no longer required in order to enforce copyright protection. Writing is given an automatic natural copyright to the creator the minute it is created, and the copyright symb0l, while a good idea for additional professionalism, is not required to enforce a copyright.

What if Someone Uses My Writing Without Permission?

If someone uses my writing without my permission, I have a right to demand they take it down, destroy it, cease and desist using it. If someone else distributes or disseminates my information without my express permission, I have a right to ask them to stop, get a court order to force them to stop and even sue them for ACTUAL tangible physical damages for having done so.

When Should I Copyright My Writing?

Because a natural copyright is granted to your work the minute you pull it out of your mind and to your fingertips to make it tangible, you own a copyright on that work. There is no need to register that copyright in order to enforce it. If you want to register a copyright to provide additional protection, it’s important to note a few things. If you sell the writing to a publication, you will be granting rights to them, and one of those rights ‘might’ be copyright, and if it’s registered, transferring copyright can complicate a registered copyright issue, and you will have essentially wasted the money.

People who write web content, such as blogs and for article content sites will find that registering a copyright on their articles is simply absurd, since they will very rarely make enough money on their content to warrant registering a copyright.

People who intend to self publish should register a copyright at the time the book they are self publishing is being printed, and copies of the completed work should be on file with the copyright office. If you do not intend to self publish, you should not register your book for copyright protection prior to submitting to publishers.

Should I Register a Book-Length Manuscript Before Submitting?

No. As stated above, you should not register a copyright on a novel prior to submission to publishers. You already own the copyright once you wrote each page of the novel, but there’s another reason not to register the copyright. The publisher will, as part of the publishing process, copyright the book to you, and if you use a pen name once published, or if your manuscript is rewritten or edited before being published (and trust me, it will be) then your copyright of the book and the publisher copyrighting it for you, will conflict with one another. A real, reputable trade publisher will register your copyright.

If I Don’t Register Copyright Before Submitting, Can’t a Publisher or Agent STEAL My Work?

They could, but why would they? It is highly, highly unlikely a reputable agent or publisher would steal your manuscript and use it. Ideas can’t be copyrighted, so even if you had copyright protection, they could write a ‘similar’ story based on the concept and you couldn’t do a thing about it, but it likely wouldn’t turn out anything like your story anyway. There truly aren’t any completely original ‘new’ stories in the world; all are variations of themes anyway, and you’d be hard pressed to say the ‘concept’ was yours and yours alone, but the writing won’t be yours.

There are a lot of people who worry about copyright when they are writing stories, particularly novel-length works, and are sharing that with editors or submitting to publishing houses. While I understand your fear and concern, truly I do, if you are doing your research and submitting only to reputable and and long-standing publishers or agents, you’re not going to run into this problem. No agent or publisher is going to steal your work and risk their entire reputation and career on it.

If you’re submitting to small, untried, unreported publishers…. why? Stop that!

CAN you register a copyright on your manuscript before submitting it?

Yes, absolutely. You shouldn’t, but you can. It costs you to do so, and the publisher will have to re-register the edited final copy of the manuscript when it’s made into a book and they will do that at their cost, but if the 35-45 bucks and the wait time to register the copyright before you start submitting is fine with you, and you don’t mind having to deal with potential legal issues when it’s time for a big publisher to register your copyright when you sell your manuscript, then by all means, register it. (This is sarcasm, for those who don’t recognize it.)

However, since the courts do allow for ACTUAL damages, you can argue in court if you can prove your copyright, that any monies the infringing party earned from the sale of your work are actual damages. Statutory damages cannot be awarded without registration.

My point here is, an unsold manuscript doesn’t require copyright protection and it’s best not to register your copyright before submitting.

What About Critiques and Editing?

When dealing with editors who are not a part of a publishing house, such as pre-submission editors you might hire to make your manuscript perfect prior to submission to a reputable publishing house, it can’t hurt to ask for an NDA (Non-disclosure Agreement), just in case. I am a pre-submission editor, and I always offer a non-disclosure agreement to any author who wants one, and any work I do is under an NDA even if I don’t actually send one to the author.

Be sure to check the background, references, and published credits of an editor you hire to prepare your manuscript for submission to a publisher. Most freelance editors will begin working with small publishers first before going out on their own, or else they’ll get assignments through freelance bidding agencies, so there should be a track record for the editor you can ask about. Do NOT insult the editor by asking, “How do I know you won’t steal my work?” Not only is this insinuation and insulting, but it shows you’re a novice and aren’t aware that you have a copyright on your story already, even if it’s not registered!

However, asking for a non-disclosure agreement to protect both you and the editor should not insult the editor, so don’t be afraid to ask for one.

It’s highly unlikely someone will steal your work, but it’s better safe than sorry, right?

Copyright Questions?

I’m not an expert, per se, but I do know a lot about copyright and I have an attorney on retainer for all my business needs. If you have a question about copyright, ask it in the comments, and I’ll do my best to steer you in the right direction of an answer or answer it if I know it.

Love and stuff,
Michy

If you’re a writer, I’m here to tell you that you should blog. There are so many reasons why you should blog when you are a writer, and it doesn’t matter what type of writing you do. However, nonfiction writing does seem to benefit slightly more from blogging than fiction writing does, but both types of writers and writing will benefit from you having a blog if you’re a writer.

Why? I’m so glad you asked!

Why a Writer Should Have a Blog: Warm Up

Every morning, I used to get up and go write in my Myspace blog, something humorous, poignant, dull, boring… whatever it was, depending on my mood. It was a way to get my brain into mode, get my fingers warmed up, get settled into my day of writing ahead of me. Mostly, it got me brain in the mode I needed to start writing.

Why a Writer Should Have a Blog: Connections and Networking

If you are a fiction writer, you want to sell stories and book and if you’re a nonfiction writer, you want people to read you. If you write web content, you want people to view your work and comment on it so you get maximum exposure and revenue. So, blogging is a good way for people to connect with you in a social setting, network with them in a social way, making them more likely to stumble across you online and more likely to pick up your writing, in whatever form, and read it. You network with them in a way that doesn’t even feel like networking–through your blog–and get other benefits from writing the blog as well.

Why a Writer Should Have a Blog: Less Structure

When we write for everyone else, whether fiction or nonfiction, we have to write with our audience in mind, or we have to write to the style guide of the publication, publisher or website for which we write. On a blog, though we should use good grammar and writing style as much as possible, we’re allowed to be more casual, more colloquial, and more personal. Our blogs are all about us and our thoughts and ideas on things, so we can go first person when many print pubs don’t allow it. We can laugh and tell little jokes in between imparting information. People are more likely to overlook a misspelling or a typo on a blog too.

Now, that doesn’t mean to type in text or IM speak or to throw grammar out the window. Keep in mind that as a writer, everything we write, whether blog or otherwise, that is read by the public will help determine the type of writer we are in our reader’s eyes. If you type very lazy and poorly on your blog, it’s not going to entice people to come read your real writing work.

Still, blogs are a great way to write without as much structure, more for sheer pleasure or stream of thought writing, without having to adhere to hard and fast rules that someone else dictates.

Why Writers Should Have a Blog: Ideas

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve written a blog and someone has come into the comments and asked me to blog about something else or to write about it, because they were interested. Or, perhaps someone said something in the comments that made me think of a new idea for an article or even another blog. Ideas are everywhere, and blogging can help spark those ideas.

Why Writers Should Have a Blog: Help Break Writer’s Block

I don’t believe in writer’s block, not truly. Perhaps we don’t feel like writing, don’t have any ideas about what to write, or don’t want to work on the things we have to work on for work/income, etc., but we can always write. I did write this blog post (it’ll open in a new window for you so you can keep reading here), about how to overcome writer’s block. Keep in mind, though, that I don’t give a lot of energy to writer’s block, because I don’t truly believe it exists. A blog is one good way to prove to yourself that writer’s block isn’t ‘real’. If you can write a blog post about any old boring mundane thing, including writing a blog post about having writer’s block, you can prove to yourself that you can write – you just might not want to write. We are not always in the mood to write, no matter how much writing is a part of us.

Sometimes, an alcoholic doesn’t want a beer. Sometimes, men don’t want sex. Sometimes, women don’t want chocolate. And sometimes, a writer doesn’t feel like writing. There’s nothing wrong with us when that happens; it’s natural and normal, and we just push through it. Writing a blog when we feel stuck, especially writing a blog about being stuck, can help unstick us.

Why Writers Should Have a Blog: Breaks Monotony

Bored writing keyword articles for the money? Tired of writing an article you thought was good but the editor has sent back twice now for revisions and just told you to go a whole new direction? Write about it! A blog breaks the monotony of the writing-for-pay routine, lets you break out a little creatively and gives your mind a rest from the other type of writing. When you go back to your for-pay writing after having a little fun and blow-off on your blog, you might find you finish up quicker than when you were just trying to push through the mundane.

Why Writers Should Have a Blog: Release Frustration

Frustrated and on the verge of pulling your fingernails out one at a time? Having trouble getting into the flow? Kids driving you crazy and your husband just asked, “Are you on the computer… again?” Blog about it! If you’re blowing off steam in your blog, be sure to be careful not to blow off too much steam at an identifiable editor though – that might come back to bite you later – but blow off your frustration. I think you’ll feel better for it, can get back to your writing faster and more energized, and you can share the feelings with those who understand you and have been there too — other writers!

Blog venting is a great way to publicly journal and blow off steam in a safe, healthy way, get your fingers burning up the keyboard and get you ready to tackle the writing tasks in front of you.

GO BLOG!

See, I love blogging. I love to blog about whatever is on my mind, whatever I’m thinking, whatever pops into my head to share with you guys, sharing ideas, educating others, helping others, or just sharing my life with people who might or might not care, but hopefully in an entertaining sort of a way.

When I become a best selling author and people are buying my books by the truckload, I hope to continue to maintain a blog that is active and open for all to come to and post and ask questions and give me that interaction with people who love to read what I have to write.

Anyway, blogging is not only fun and easy to do, but it’s healthy, helpful and liberating to a writer. It doesn’t even matter if anyone reads it really, because sometimes, just getting the emotion tapped out is enough. Of course, getting comments and reader and reader questions is always nice too!

If you’re a writer and you have a blog, have you visited it lately? If not, why not? If you’re a writer and you don’t have a blog, why not get one? You can get one on Blogger or WordPress for free, or for a small fee, you can get your own domain and get free blog templates and such to help get you started. You can even monetize your blogs and make a little bit of extra cash on the side too. If you make at least enough to cover your blog hosting costs, you can have a nice self-hosted blog on your own domain and it won’t cost you a penny!

If you’re a regular blogger, blog to your readership about why they should have a blog, link back to me here, and let’s challenge all our readers to blog today and tomorrow! If you haven’t blogged in awhile, dust off the blog, remove the cobwebs, tune it up and then blog about whatever is on your mind. Then come back here and drop off a link for me to read and I’ll come comment on your blog. I’d love a link back on your blog saying I challenged you to write a blog post so it sends other writers this way so they can write a blog post too! I’ll comment on every blog that leaves me a link below!

Get to bloggin’!

Love and stuff,
Michy

I wrote this researched article awhile back about who owns blog comments.

The answer is: the commenter does. Read the article for more information.

But I want to talk about something that upset me awhile back and I thought I’d let it go, but it’s still bugging me. I’ve been a long-time reader and subscriber to Randy Cassingham’s This is True, and I like to read the Jumbo Jokes and Weird News and such. Mr. Cassingham (and I call him this for a reason) always provided interesting reads and good commentary. I particularly enjoyed reading his stance on Zero Tolerance, a subject very near and dear to my (and my son’s) heart.

For all the years I’ve read and was a (paid) subscriber to Mr. Cassingham’s newsletters and such, I had never commented on a blog post of his. One blog really struck a chord with me and I wanted to say so, so I penned a comment to him. In that comment, I started it like this:

“You know, Randy, [blah blah blah praise and comments I'd been a long-time reader]”

I then clicked the button to submit and it said my comment was pending moderation, and I signed up to receive notification of new comments on the blog, because I was interested in the subject and what others had to say.

When my comment came out of moderation and was posted on the blog, the part that you see quoted above: “You know, Randy…” was removed.

Yes. Mr. Cassingham delete my familiar use of his first name from the comment I had made. I guess I’m not allowed to call him by his first name? I get called by my first name a lot, by people I’ve never talked to before. I’ve never once been offended or upset by it, neither have I ever edited a commenter’s comment. In fact, unless there is profanity, vulgarity or hatred in the comment, I don’t even moderate comments to remove them unless they are blatantly spam. I believe people have the right to their opinions, however misinformed or wrong they might be, even when or if they disagree with mine.

But this wasn’t a cause of Mr. Cassignham editing my comment or the opinion or my stance and it wasn’t a case of me disagreeing with him (since I was actually agreeing with him in the comment). He simply edited out my familiar use of his first name and the phrase, “You know…”

I don’t know why. I didn’t ask why either.

Quite frankly, I don’t care why. I do know, I’ll never comment on Mr. Cassingham’s blog again.

What I do care about is the fact that I penned that comment and he altered it before publication without my permission, and because blog comments are owned by the writer, not the blogger, he had no right to do that without my permission. If he could edit that comment, what’s to stop him or someone from editing to make it appear I said something I did not say? I’m not saying Mr. Cassignham would do this, but he or someone else with the same software (and WordPress allows this too) could do this.

How do you prove what you originally wrote?

So my question to you guys is two-fold: 1) have you ever edited a comment someone else left on your blog? 2) how do you feel about someone else being able to or actually editing a comment you made on their blog?

And one last thing: If you know someone edits blog comments, will you ever post on their blog?

Love and stuff,
Michy

On the writers forum, we’ve been having a discussion about Associated Press’s recent desire to charge when people are using quotes from AP
articles. Some people are blowing this a bit out of proportion and calling what AP is doing preposterous. Okay, so maybe it’s a bit silly, but I don’t think it’s wrong what they are doing.

First, it’s important to recognize that AP has ALWAYS had a strange policy where it came to copyright law, and in the interest of Fair Use, their policy often was too stringent, and on several occasions was shown to be unenforceable.

I’m pretty sure their recent desire to charge for quoting is going to be unenforceable too, but I don’t want to talk about that. I want to talk about my opinions on why I feel AP is doing this.

See, I agree with AP.

I know, I know.

But I am so sick of doing a search on the internet for something I’m interested in, and finding 52 blogs and sites like Associated Content, all quoting an AP article, and then having trouble finding the original article. I bet AP is sort of tired of that happening too, and thus, why they are now trying to stop it.

When writing news, a journalist uses ‘sources’. These sources might be interviews they happened to get with folks, it could be research they did on their own, or it could be common knowledge/public domain information used to beef up a story. Whatever the source of the information is, the journalists who write for AP are required to get those sources and vet them too.

So, why is it fair that someone sitting on their arse at home on a computer can then take the hard work one AP journalist did in getting those sources and writing their articles and use that hard work to pad their own pocket by quoting AP? They shouldn’t be able to.

That’s my stand on it. They shouldn’t be able to.

I would be very upset if someone took my article that I spent hours writing, time researching, money for expenses to get the research… and then someone turned around and got more attention, better page views, and more money than I did by QUOTING my article.

It IS plagiarism, in that it’s using direct quotes (even with attribution, it’s still plagiarism) without permission. Fair Use allows a small portion to be quoted, as long as it meets certain criteria.

That means, if I write an opinion editorial about an article I read on the AP wire, and I quote the AP article only to provide my opinion commentary, I should be fine. But if I write a NEWS article, quoting an AP article, I have not only violated copyright, but I’ve stolen the ‘sources’, so to speak.

Remember awhile back, Associated Content got this brilliantly boneheaded idea to call the writers on the site ‘sources’? One of the reasons I hated that was the tagline they used, “Information from the source…”

See, AP is truly information from the source. They have freelance and staff journalists who go out and actually interview folks, go to the scene of a crime, go to the courthouse, research things, and write it up. The research is the source. The interview is the source. AP gives information from the source.

AC, on the other hand, almost always where news is concerned regurgitates information from someone else who got the information from the source. Very rarely where news is concerned on AC does someone truly do a researched news article from real sources.

Sure, you’re going to say, “AC doesn’t pay enough to do that much research for news!”

I agree with you. They don’t.

That means you have two choices: sell your real sourced news story to a real news wire or paper or don’t write news on AC that isn’t original research and sources.

It seems simple to me. Regurgitating someone else’s hard work doesn’t make you a journalist.

Citizen journalism doesn’t mean you rewrite other people’s hard work and articles. It means you research, source, observe and write about things yourself, when you’re not a professional journalist.

While I don’t think AP’s strategy to charge people for quoting them is going to work or be enforceable, I am on AP’s side on this one. If it does nothing more than get the word out to more bloggers that stealing content or copying and pasting portions of content without permission is ILLEGAL, it will have benefitted me too, what AP is proposing to do.

Keep in mind also, AP is not prohibiting you from referring to them as a source. They are merely not letting you use their quotes and research.

For example, I can say, “According to one AP article on the subject, prices are dwindling.” Totally paraphrased, my ‘summary’ of what AP said, without quoting them at all. AND, you CAN still quote for commentary in opinion pieces.

So long rant/opinion of it is this: I don’t fault AP for what they are doing, and in many instance, I agree with their reasoning behind it. Still, doesn’t mean I think it’s going to be enforceable.

What do YOU think?

For more information, you can read the Mashable article on this topic by clicking here:

http://mashable.com/2009/08/02/associated-press/

Love and stuff,
Michy

PS: new meds make me loopy. Please excuse typos!

So I was coaching with another writer the other day, and we were doing a comparison of total dollars divided by total articles to see how much our average per article was on Suite101, Helium.com and Associated Content.

Per Article Average Payment

Suite101 still has the others beat, per article, on average @ $20.82 per article, with most articles about a year 1/2 old.

AC comes in second, per article, on average @ $14.75 per article, with articles being between a few months to several years old.

Helium comes in third, per article, on average @ $3.73 per article, with articles ranging from a few months to about two years old.

As you can see, Helium still sucks when it comes to earnings, but… they have a past to overcome. Recent months, Helium is getting much better. Along with adding upfront payments, they added an empty title bonus, and have continued to increase the amount they pay for marketplace articles. I’ve slowly been watching them improve, a little at a time, and take into consideration the things the writers on their site ask for. I really like the communication.

What I Don’t Like About Helium

As I’ve written before, there are things I don’t like about Helium, such as the rating (which I’m not certain is 100% accurate), and I dislike the titles of articles not being in the proper title case. I’m not sure why Helium doesn’t put their titles in title case, but it irks me every time I see it.

I also detest the ‘groups’ they are doing, like professional journalist group, legal group, etc. Actually, to be honest, I like the concept. What I don’t like is that I can’t get into any of the groups, but that doesn’t mean I’m not qualified to write to those topics. I was a paralegal who has let her license lapse, but I have hundreds of TCLEOSE hours (Texas Criminal Law Enforcement stuff), and I have no way to prove this to Helium. They wanted to talk to an old boss or see my current license listed on a site. Well, I was my own boss (mediation) and my license is lapsed, but that doesn’t make me any less qualified to write on legal topics. I was a teacher for several years, but I can’t get the teacher one because I can’t verify what they need (current license or talk to an old boss – well, it was a private school that no longer exists, and the other one is in Dallas and I can’t find it listed anywhere, so maybe it’s closed too?) For journalism, they want to talk to an editor of a print mag I’ve been published in. I even offered to MAIL them the magazine, but no, they want to talk to the editor. I’m an editor – I won’t waste an editor’s time to get me to write for a competing publication/publisher. Sorry, won’t do it. Yes, I know she said most of the editors have been friendly, but it’s MY issue that I won’t ask them to do that.

So there are a lot of articles I’m qualified to write to that I simply won’t write on Helium for because they won’t verify me… or can’t verify me. I started to go looking for all the info and the old copies of my licenses and such and was going to find them and send them via email scanned, but right now, I’m still in the Houston area and all my stuff is at home 10 hours away. I finally said, “Screw it. It’s not worth it.”

Most of the time it doesn’t bother me, until I see a markeplace article with zero articles submitted to it, in a field I can write on, about something I am passionate and can write about well, and I can’t because I’m unable to go through my papers to send Helium what they need/want.

Other than that, I’ve been watching how things are performing on Helium, and they really are improving in revenue share too… at least, my revenue is starting to go up now.

Note to Helium:

If you would change from monthly payments to weekly payments, I think a whole lot more people would write for Helium. There are a ton of folks on my board who have said they only write for AC because of the immediate payment on accepted upfronts. AC pays DAILY. I think Helium could at least consider weekly payments, and those writers who really need cash faster would benefit and probably would write for the site more.

Helium Zones

Okay, back to the Zones on Helium.

Helium Zones appear to be similar in scope to a Squidoo Lens for those of you who have them. You can link to things, categorize things, you pick a topic to have the zone on, and make the things in the zone relate to the topic. If you do a zone on a popular topic that is well done and has a lot of great information, you can ‘request a link’. This means Helium will consider linking to your keyword in your zone on articles that use that keyword. For example, if you were to have a zone on Freelancing, and Helium approved your zone for linking, articles that have the word ‘freelancing’ in it would find that word linked to your zone for more information.

It’s a great concept. It’s relatively new. I’ve had one zone since it was in Betaville, and now I’m floundering my way around, but I created three zones total and requested a link on two of them. Today, I added a few people as friends too.

You can find my zones here:

• Freelancing:
  http://www.helium.com/zone/921-freelancing

• Michelle L Devon (michy):
  http://www.helium.com/zone/2114-michelle-l-devon-michy-

• Fiction Writing:
  http://www.helium.com/zone/2112-fiction-writing

Rate My Helium Zones!

Be sure if you stop by to scroll to the bottom and ‘thumbs up’ me so my score goes up, and also, vote in the polls! If you have a zone,a dd me as your friend, and I’ll come visit and rate yours too! If you have freelancing articles, check the freelancing one and leave a comment so I’ll feature you on Mondays!

If you have an adsense account with Google, there’s a place to enter your own adsense account. I don’t have a clue if it’s rotation, share, or what, but at least it’s a chance to get a little bit of extra revenue from Helium.

Helium really is making positive changes. With the continued decline of AC, the editorial push of Suite101, Helium is fast becoming a place new and nervous freelancers can get their feet wet and make a competitive income for online content.

Also, I like the way the cream does seem to rise to the top here. A lot of folks have talked about leaving Helium because they aren’t making any money, but most of those folks are consistently ranked in below 5 on the article listings by rank. Put some quality time into the writing and rate at least 5 rates or so per day, and I don’t think most folks will have a problem getting their stars up fast, especially since Helium accepts nonexclusive rewrites.

While I won’t say Helium is the best place to make money right now, I have been saying all along that I’m impressed with the direction they are going, and they are definitely a freelance site to watch.

Hope you’ll check out my zones and if you make a zone, come on back here and leave the link to it in the comments so everyone can come visit and rate your zone too!

Love and stuff,
Michy

I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember, even back when I was a little kid. My mama used to call me her “melancholy baby” while my sister was her “sunshine girl”. All my life, I’ve been prone to a clinical depression – not being depressed, but clinical depression, the medical condition.

This doesn’t mean I’m an unhappy person.

What it does mean is that I have to watch myself very closely for signs of depression, such as isolation, fixation on certain things, loss of pleasure and enjoyment over things I love, etc and all of this with no real cause or reason.

Somewhere along the way, we all get ‘depressed’ about something. The difference between someone who gets depressed and someone with depression is like the difference between someone who has muscle aches from working out versus someone who hurts from the pain of cancer – one is situational and goes away and the other is a medical condition that may or may not have been prompted by a situation and it often doesn’t go away on its own but needs medical intervention.

I’m not ashamed to say I sometimes take antidepressants. For the last year, I’ve been taking Cymbalta, because there is some clinical evidence Cymbalta does helps with widespread pain as well as depression, and since I hurt all the time (and I do mean all the freaking time) it’s supposed to help.

I can’t tell for sure if it helps with pain, but I can tell you for sure it helps with mood. The Cymbalta allows me to be me.

Now, looking back on my life, I see so many times when some of the best writing I’ve ever done has been in the midst of a terrible depression – whether situational or medical – and I have the writers forum now where others there, an overwhelmingly large proportion of folks, all have some form of depression, social anxiety, or mood disorder.

Being a writer doesn’t make you depressed, but there is definitely something to the theory that a large percentage of writers do suffer from some sort of psychiatric medical condition, depression being the most common of them all, with anxiety appearing a close second.

And this doesn’t mean that my writing that is so good when I’m ‘depressed’ is all morbid, sad, melancholy, or depressing. In fact, I’ve written some quite lighthearted stuff while depressed. It’s just that to touch that really deep part of me where the very best writing comes from, I have to go down into that well where the depression resides, and then write from that very emotive place.

When I’m not depressed, I have found that being absolutely exhausted makes me write better too. Well, the typos run rampant, but the ‘emotiveness’ of the writing is better when I’m either depressed or exhausted.

I think one reason for this is because the ‘inner critic’ gets shut off when depressed or exhausted. That little something in my ego that kicks and screams and runs tapes that say, “You aren’t good enough… you can’t, you shouldn’t, stop dreaming, blah blah blah, etc etc etc…” that part of me gets turned off and I can just do what I do best: write.

What about you? When do you write best? Are you prone to depression?

I read this article: http://articles.latimes.com/1996-05-02/local/me-65179_1

Of note: “80% of poets, 80.5% of novelists and 87.5% of playwrights.” [Suffer from some form of mental psychiatric disorder, mostly depression.]

80%.

Makes me glad I’m not a playwright, right?

Don’t become a poet. Apparently, successful poets are more likely to never have a ‘complete sexual union’, whatever that means. I’m a poet, but I’m pretty sure sexual union isn’t something I’ve had issue with.

Depression on the other hand….

It only takes a quick Google Search to see that depression and writing are often linked hand in hand.

I’m curious to hear your thoughts about this: do you think depression and writing are connected? If so, how and why?

Something to ponder…

Love and un-depressed stuff,
Michy

Writing Through the Darkness:
Easing your depression with pen and paper.