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james_davis_nicollBut I am so stressed out I can't feel my fingertips and I can't see a way out of the corner I am boxed into:
A: Work has dramatically slowed down in the last year.
B: For reasons I am going assume for the moment are not due to deliberate choice on the part of the companies I freelance for, none of checks I've expected this month have materialized (if I am not stress-confused, I think at this point the most recent invoice that has been paid is about 2 months old); when companies were actually issuing checks they were irregular and unpredictable. This isn't specific to one company: nobody is paying me. Nobody. And even if all the money I am owed showed up today, I'd just be treading water.
UPDATE IN MID POST: in fact I just got email assuring me at least one check will definitely not be showing up for at least a week thanks to the new system (another company told me privately my checks might be cut in a week and then sent out a public email telling freelancers to expect the delay to be a month). I'd walk away from book reviewing at this point if there was anywhere to walk to.
Actually, the above is not quite true: while Romantic Times pays very, very little they have never promised to pay any more than that and they do pay on time. So kudos to them; they are the one bright spot.
[I spend a lot of my time telling myself that this is not a repeat of what Guardians of Order did to me, even though a lot of the same notes are in this tune]
C: There are bills I have been deferring for as long as I can and expenses I have cut to the bone as far as I can but I'm pretty sure all the plates I have in the air are about to come crashing down.
D: Can't afford to create the Millennium Reviews book and frankly I don't understand a lot of what people are telling me how to create it.
(That said, editing all the reviews and adding new commentary for all 35 essays would take me two weeks to a month)
E: Review site ditto: I know how to create content for it but I can't see how to create it and the advice I am seeing doesn't mean anything to me.
Open to suggestions here.
A: Work has dramatically slowed down in the last year.
B: For reasons I am going assume for the moment are not due to deliberate choice on the part of the companies I freelance for, none of checks I've expected this month have materialized (if I am not stress-confused, I think at this point the most recent invoice that has been paid is about 2 months old); when companies were actually issuing checks they were irregular and unpredictable. This isn't specific to one company: nobody is paying me. Nobody. And even if all the money I am owed showed up today, I'd just be treading water.
UPDATE IN MID POST: in fact I just got email assuring me at least one check will definitely not be showing up for at least a week thanks to the new system (another company told me privately my checks might be cut in a week and then sent out a public email telling freelancers to expect the delay to be a month). I'd walk away from book reviewing at this point if there was anywhere to walk to.
Actually, the above is not quite true: while Romantic Times pays very, very little they have never promised to pay any more than that and they do pay on time. So kudos to them; they are the one bright spot.
[I spend a lot of my time telling myself that this is not a repeat of what Guardians of Order did to me, even though a lot of the same notes are in this tune]
C: There are bills I have been deferring for as long as I can and expenses I have cut to the bone as far as I can but I'm pretty sure all the plates I have in the air are about to come crashing down.
D: Can't afford to create the Millennium Reviews book and frankly I don't understand a lot of what people are telling me how to create it.
(That said, editing all the reviews and adding new commentary for all 35 essays would take me two weeks to a month)
E: Review site ditto: I know how to create content for it but I can't see how to create it and the advice I am seeing doesn't mean anything to me.
Open to suggestions here.
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no subject
Date: 2014-07-26 03:16 am (UTC)We have a simple barter system set up. I would cheerfully take a short review, a cat story, or some other written word skill (such as editing) in exchange for the ebook cover. I have made over fifty covers by now (most of the books have sold quite well), and each was done in some barter exchange, none were for cash.
Further information on how Amazon and BN pay, by the way. While I can't tell you my pen name, I have made good money selling self-published stories on Amazon (yes, this is, er, not the sort of stories one wants one's mother to find). Amazon and BN pay very good royalties (about 70%, depending on the country and your pricing).
They pay two months out. So, July's payment hits around the 1st of October. However, unlike the other publishers, occasionally Amazon pays early, around the 26th-30th of September, say. Smashwords pays quarterly.