Welcome to THE WELL-FED E-PUB!

The companion monthly ezine to the quadruple-award-winning
how-to guide, ÒThe Well-Fed Writer.Ó Serving up food for thought
and tasty tips for the prospering FLCW*. Come on in, sit
anywhere and bring your appetite!

*FLCW, peppered throughout the ezine, stands for ÒFreelance
Commercial WriterÓ—anyone who freelances for businesses
(vs. writing magazine articles, short stories, poetry, etc.), typically
earns $50-125+ an hour, and is the sole focus of this e-newsletter. 

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VOLUME 13, ISSUE 12 – DECEMBER 2014
Publishing the first Tuesday of every month since May 2002
Read it online at HERE.

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2014 EDITION OF ÒTHE WELL-FED SELF-PUBLISHERÓ NOW AVAILABLE!
And itÕs a TRIPLE award-winner! Check out various book AND ebook
(multiple formats!) products/bundles HERE!

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ARE YOU PARTNERING WITH DESIGNERS? IF NOT, YOUÕRE MI$$ING OUTÉ
Get the real-world scoop on a low-effort flow of writing jobs HERE!

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NEW 1-ON-1 COACHING PROGRAMS: SAMPLE/SITE REVIEW & ÒSIDECARÓ!
Low-cost peace of mind and guidance. Details HERE.

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WANT TO BUY ÒTHE WELL-FED WRITERÓ IN BULK (AND SAVE BIG)?
Buy for writerÕs group, class or workshop! Details HERE.

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THE WELL-FED WRITER BLOG! Weigh in on ÒHow Long Did It Take You to
Become a Profitable Commercial Writer?Ó; ÒIs Your Web Site Bio
Creating Trust or Indifference?; ÒWhatÕs Your ÔDiscomfort ThresholdÕ
for Growing Your Writing Business?Ó; & More!

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THIS MONTHÕS MENU:

THIS MONTHÕS MENU:

I. APPETIZER: WILL YOUR ÒWELL-FED LIFEÓ LAST FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE?

ÒThe Cow StoryÓ Illustrates the Math Behind Powerful Retirement-Style Investing!

II. ÒFIELDÓ GREENS: MAKING THESE BRAINSTORMING MISTAKES?
Atlanta Creativity ConsultantÕs Three Tips for More Productive Brainstorming Sessions

III.
MAIN ÒMEATÓ COURSE: YOUR 2015 FINANCIAL-SUCCESS PLANNING GUIDE
IL FLCW Offers Up Step-by-Step Plan for $ucce$$ (Includes Google-Docs Template!)

IV. DESSERT: Sweet Success Stories and Tips
FLCW/Magazine Writer Ditches Mag Work, Lands Juicier Commercial Gigs
TIP: Email Marketing Pro Offers Up His 7-Step Success Formula—Free!

V. COFFEE, MINTS AND TOOTHPICKS
- MORE WORK WITH LESS EFFORT? Ebook Serves Up ÒHow-ToÓ!
- GOT ANY SUCCESS STORIES YOU'D LIKE TO SHARE? Email ME.
- THE WELL-FED E-PUB NEEDS ALL COURSES!
- The WELL-FED WRITER BLOG is RockinÕ!
- AWAI Copywriting (& Other) Courses: Register Here, Get Bonus CD!
- How Can My Mentoring Service Serve You?

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I. APPETIZER: WILL YOUR ÒWELL-FED LIFEÓ LAST FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE?
ÒThe Cow StoryÓ Illustrates the Math Behind Powerful Retirement-Style Investing!

ItÕs wonderful to be in a writing field that affords us the opportunity to
make a great living, and, thanks to that fact, perhaps buy a house, have
nice stuff, take cool vacations, keep out of debt, and save for retirement.

But I also know that writers (and creative folk in general) often live
for today, and donÕt think about Òdown the road.Ó So, every few years,
around this same time, as we wrap up one year and get ready to start
the next, I take a moment to invite you to think ahead. Translation?
If youÕre not doing regular investing for the future, start doing so now.

DonÕt know a good financial planner. Tap your network and ask around.
I promise that more than a few of your friends are likely working with
someone they like and trust.

Some of you may remember ÒThe Cow StoryÓ IÕve run a few times over
the years. Well, here it is again, along with a few encouraging words to
take this crucially important step, and extend the enviable notion of
Òwell-fed writingÓ to the rest of your life!  

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II. ÒFIELDÓ GREENS: MAKING THESE BRAINSTORMING MISTAKES?
Atlanta Creativity ConsultantÕs Three Tips for More Productive Brainstorming Sessions

Got this great little piece from friend, fellow Atlantan, author, and
creativity consultant Sam Harrison. Even if you donÕt regularly do
brainstorming sessions as a FLCW, map these ideas onto your own
one-person brainstorming sessions. And perhaps, itÕll arm you with
some ideas the next time a client is planning such a session.

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Ideas and brainstorms are delicate. The wrong words at the wrong time
can bring brainstorming to a screeching halt. For healthy brainstorming
and bountiful ideas, always steer clear of these three sentences:
 
1. "Let's hold our ideas until we can get out of the office."
Sure, a change of scenery often inspires fresh thinking. But, if you
and your team constantly delay brainstorming until you can leave the
premises, you'll lose the readiness and spontaneity of in-the-moment
collaborations. Ideas have short shelf lives; they need expression
while thoughts are flowing and passion is high.

2. "OK, everybody start tossing out ideas."
A common opening line to many brainstorming sessions. And what
happens? The usual suspects hold court while everybody else doodles,
daydreams or checks their iPhones.

Brainstorming is typically more potent and participatory if each
person first spends a few minutes quickly writing down ideas before
shifting into an open forum. During five minutes of silence,
participants furiously fill their pads with ideas, place the notes on
a wall, only briefly reading and organizing ideas. Then shift into
open brainstorming.
 
3. "We need to walk out of here with one great idea."
Bad idea. If you insist participants concentrate on generating one
great idea, you'll put chokeholds on every creative mind in the room.
 
Instead, before brainstorming begins, schedule a follow-up session for
examining and selecting ideas generated during the initial brainstorm.
After all, brainstorming is about quantity, not quality, about multiplication,
not subtraction. The objective should be to walk out with buckets of
ideas, not one idea carefully polished and perched on a pillow.

Sam Harrison is a speaker, writer and coach on creativity-related
topics and presentation skills. His books include Zing!, IdeaSpotting,
and IdeaSelling. The above piece was an excerpt from Sam's 8/26/14
article for Fast Company, "7 things you should never say when
brainstorming."
Read the full article HERE.

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III. MAIN ÒMEATÓ COURSE: YOUR 2015 FINANCIAL-SUCCESS PLANNING GUIDE
IL FLCW Offers Up Step-by-Step Plan for $ucce$$ (Includes Google-Docs Template!)

Want to have a truly prosperous 2015? Then, plan it out. How? Well,
check out this made-easy, step-by-step financial-planning guide from
Crystal Lake, IL FLCW Melissa Weir. Answer 13 questions within a
Google Docs template she generously provides, and youÕll be that
much closer to understanding your business and reaching your goals.
Thanks, Melissa. Great stuff!

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ItÕs that time of year, when commercial freelancers add up their 2014
earnings—in time for the taxman. Will you start 2015 with a plan and a
strategy? Or will you just Òhope for the bestÓ?

With a little bit of planning, youÕll know how much writing youÕll need to
do to meet your 2015 income goals (and whether you can afford that
new iMac and those two conferences). By understanding your income
and expenses, you are more likely to end 2015 with the income you
worked so hard for.

IÕm not an accountant. But I did learn the discipline of financial
planning and reporting at a large, profitable consulting firm. WeÕll
be constructing a simple Planned Profit and Loss Statement for 2015,
to guide your financial decision-making for the year. Your accountant
will love you and there will be few financial surprises at yearÕs end.

YouÕll need to do the thinking, but a Google Docs template IÕll provide
will do the math. Answer the 13 questions below, and record your
answer on the spreadsheet. Download it HERE.

Start with gross revenue for writing services provided, then these questions:

1) How much gross revenue did you make in 2014?
2) How many hours per week do you plan to work next year?
3) What is your target average hourly rate? (Even if you price work by the projectÉ)  
4) How many weeks of vacation do you plan to take next year?
5) How many days for professional development (seminars, conferences and training)?
6) What % of your time will you be writing (not marketing, admin,etc.) 50%? 80%?
7) Any other revenue (books, coaching, courses)? Approximately how much?

Anticipating expenses is just as important as planning revenue.

You pick your level of detail. You could simply take your 2014 total
expenses and bump that figure up or down (depending on growth or
belt-tightening). Or, just set a dollar limit for expenses.

If youÕre just starting your writing business, use the following
questions to craft a more detailed plan for 2015. The first few years
in business are expense-heavy with start-up costs and often lots of
professional development.

8) What do you plan to spend to market your business? Business cards,
flyers, advertising, portfolio creation, logos, etc.


9) Expenditures on professional development? Books, conferences (plus
travel), subscriptions, membership fees, coaching, etc.


10) Operating expenses? Rent, utilities, Internet, web hosting, office
supplies
, legal expenses, etc. Work from home? Ask your tax man if you
can deduct a portion of your these home-office expenses.

11) Any one-time investments? Computers, printers, office furniture?

12) Business-development expenses? Lunches with clients/potentials,
website development, client gifts, client-visit expenses, etc.  

13) Any writeoffs? Stay in business long enough, and youÕll cross
paths with a non-paying client. At some point, you can declare these
as Òwrite-offsÓ and theyÕll favorably effect your tax situation.

Any other expenses not listed above? Include them as Òother.Ó

Now look at your Google Docs template. Using the first spreadsheet as
an input doc, record your answers in the appropriate place. Once done,
look at the Profit/Loss Plan in the second spreadsheet.

Is the number at the bottom positive? Congratulations. ThatÕs your
planned profit for 2015! If itÕs negative, it means youÕve planned a
loss for 2015. Three choices now:

1) Leave the planned numbers as is, and accept a loss (i.e., youÕll
kick in personal savings to run your business next year).

2) Add more revenue to the plan. Meaning, increase your planned
fees or increase the number of clients, or both.

3) Decrease your planned expenses. Trim your book budget, delay
that computer purchase, or reduce expenses in another category.

Okay, youÕve built a plan. Now, keep track of your actual revenue and
expenses every month so that you know how you are doing. Using
Freshbooks or Quickbooks? Record your income and expenses, and
then use their built-in reporting tools to assess your monthly results. If
youÕre tracking your own expenses and revenue, invest a few hours
monthly to find out where youÕve landed month to month.

Going through this process takes time, but itÕs worth it. Crystal balls,
Ouija boards and tarot cards are fun, but they have no place in
projecting the health of your business.

Now, go and plan your success for 2015. And when you reach the end
of 2015, will you celebrate with White Castles and Mountain Dew? Or
will it be champagne and caviar?

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IV. DESSERT: Sweet Success Stories and Tips
FLCW/Magazine Writer Ditches Mag Work, Lands Juicier Commercial Gigs
TIP: Email Marketing Pro Offers Up His 7-Step Success Formula—Free!

Got a cool mini-success story from Dublin, OH FLCW Margy Rockwood.
Her background is mostly in magazine work and when she sprung for some
commercial-writing coaching from me, I suggested that the magazine world
was simply not a good bet these days for anything resembling decent pay.

So, taking my advice, she tweaked her web site and focused instead on the
corporate arena—leveraging her industry-specific, magazine-writing expertise.
Below is a recent note from her.

Following that is a link to a great NO-CHARGE resource: A 7-Step email
prospecting formula
thatÕs yours with no obligation (AND with more
free stuff coming). Enjoy!

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Just got some nice advertising copy work from an agency. Wrote the COO
of the agency via LinkedIn Wednesday afternoon and he wrote back
within five minutes and had me coming in yesterday morning. By
afternoon I had been pulled into meetings with the creative team and
given my assignment to write copy for a brochure, followed by video
scripting. So much for the world of magazine submissions. Without my
talk with you, I wouldn't have turned my attention back to LinkedIn
and local businesses. Thank you!

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As much as IÕm a fan of cold calling to build your business, IÕm the
first to admit that, 1) I liked it because IÕd built other businesses
that way, and had no fear of it, and 2) there are definitely other
ways to build a copywriting practice. One of the most effective ones
is email prospecting—sending short, inviting emails to prospects.

My buddy here in Atlanta, Ed Gandia, has been creating some really
cool, powerful and effective resources in this arena—tools that have
been proven to get serious clients Òon the hook.Ó


I recently heard from a reader who hadnÕt had much success with
cold-calling, but found EdÕs stuff, put it to work, and had this to report:

ÒIn the past week IÕve got two companies that want to talk about work,
one fairly large assignment from a company on my first contact with
them, and my website has gotten more hits than ever. IÕm almost afraid
to send any more emails for the moment, Ôcause it looks like IÕm about
to get busy!Ó


Well, Ed's offering up a free "cheat sheet" where he details his 7-step
roadmap for getting hot client leads with short emails.


Grab it HERE.

AND, heÕs got even more no-charge stuff coming after that. Check it out!

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V. COFFEE, MINTS AND TOOTHPICKS
- MORE WORK WITH LESS EFFORT? Ebook Serves Up ÒHow-ToÓ!
- GOT ANY SUCCESS STORIES YOU'D LIKE TO SHARE? Email ME.
- THE WELL-FED E-PUB NEEDS ALL COURSES!
- The WELL-FED WRITER BLOG is RockinÕ!
- AWAI Copywriting (& Other) Courses: Register Here, Get Bonus CD!
- How Can My Mentoring Service Serve You?

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GOT ANY SUCCESS STORIES YOUÕD LIKE TO SHARE?
While my call for submissions netted some things a few months back, IÕm
still a bit lean on success stories. Whether starting out or experienced, if
you recently had a noteworthy success (i.e., landed a new client—perhaps
in an unusual way—a new gig, new work from an old client, or anything
else that has a good lesson for your fellow FLCWÕs), send it on to ME.

100-300 words is great.    

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IÕM (STILL) SERIOUSLY LOW ON ALL WELL-FED E-PUB COURSES!
Got a great strategy, approach or specific expertise youÕre willing to share?
Turn it into a Feature (MAIN COURSE) for the EPUB (500-600 words;
query first). ALSO, send your ÒGREENSÓ (200-400 words), TIPS (100-200)
and SUCCESS STORIES (150-300) to ME. Archived issues HERE

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The WELL-FED WRITER BLOG is RockinÕ!

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AWAI COPYWRITING (& OTHER) COURSES: Register Here, Get Your
Choice of Bonus CD Program! Six-Figure Copywriting, Graphic Design,
Internet Writing, Fundraising, Health Market and more!

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HOW CAN MY MULTIPLE MENTORING PROGRAMS SERVE YOU?
For details and testimonials, visit HERE.

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