On February 19th, 2010 Irene Watson and Victor R. Volkman spoke with fulltime freelance writer, proofreader, and editor Ernest Dempsey. He shared encouraging information on how you can get started in the fun and profitable art of freelance writing. In addition to having written 4 books, he is now the editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Recovering the Self: A Journal of Hope and Healing and also works as the country editor for Pakistan on the celebrated Internet news channel Instablogs.com. He shared with us on the following points:
- Where are some places that I can go to look for freelance web writing?
- Is it “ghost writing” or does sometimes my name get shown?
- What about being a Foreign Correspondent for a news organization in another country?
- How does getting paid work?
- How do you manage personal time, schedules, and deadlines?
- What types of writing projects are available: interviews, reviews, tutorials and how well does each pay relative to the others
- How have you improved your knowledge of English by writing over time?
- How does freelancing compare to a “regular job”? Do you get to travel more?
Ernest Recommends for finding gigs: Writer’s World |
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| Karim Khan, pen named Ernest Dempsey, hails from Hangu, a small town in Pakistan. As a child, he enjoyed two things: The joyful company of his brother and Khan’s best friend, Shais; and making airy castles with lots of characters in his mind. At twelve, he started writing detective stories, horror, thrillers, and humor. He has a Masters degree in Geology and one in English Literature.He has authored four books including his latest The Blue Fairy and other Tales of Transcendence and, in just the last few years, seen the publication of his poems, essays, short stories, and literary reviews worldwide. Khan is now looking forward to completing his first novel. |
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On November 5th, 2009 Tyler R. Tichelaar and Victor R. Volkman spoke with Toronto-based educator and print, radio, and TV journalist Donna Kakonge about how any writer can successfully refocus their work into the freelance journalism marketplace. She believes that you CAN break into the journalism business without having to have a specialist bachelor’s degree in the subject. Donna has been involved in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and Radio Canada International (RCI) on and off for 15 years at the local, national and international levels of both television and radio. She has also worked for the Discovery Channel and Discovery Channel International, Vision TV, the BBC and various publications around the world. Key talking points of tonight’s talk were:
- How can I educate myself to start a career in journalism?
- What important trade associations can help me on my journey?
- Besides book writing, what other kinds of journalism are out there now today?
- Should I establish some sort of business identity?
- Can I make money just form my blogs?
- What about rejection, how do you deal with it?
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Donna Kakonge started writing seriously at the age of seven. Her grade two teacher, Mrs. Chen, had the whole class keep a journal. She wrote a story about dinosaurs that Mrs. Chen deemed “outstanding.” Ever since then, she has been hooked.She went to journalism school at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada where she graduated with the Marjorie Nichols Award for being the student with the most promise of becoming an exceptional journalist. She has also been nominated for a Gemini Award (the Canadian version of the Emmy) for work done with the Discovery Channel and has been part of a W Network project “Tell it Like it Is” that won a Hugo Award.Her education continued with a master of arts in media studies and communications from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. Her thesis was on the politics of black hair. She has written 31 books, one of them called What Happened to the Afro? that gives a different side to Chris Rock’s docu
mentary Good Hair. She has also edited Being Healthy: Selected Works from the Internet and has a book called How to Write Creative Non-fiction is published by Lulu. You can find her books on Amazon.com and other fin e-tailers.She can speak both French and English, a bit of Italian and Spanish. She has received a Quebecor Documentary Fellowship from DOC Toronto. She currently teaches at Seneca College and Centennial College in Toronto. Her subject areas are writing and broadcast. |
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On October 15th, 2009 Irene Watson and Victor R. Volkman spoke with greeting card and gift industry maven Kate Harper. Kate Harper started her line of humorous greeting card from a hobby of making greeting cards for friends as gifts. Over the next 15 years, Kate’s turned her hobby into a business, manufacturing and shipping cards to over 2,000 stores, including Barnes & Noble, Whole Foods Markets and the Papyrus chain. She informed us on key areas of getting started as a writer or self-publisher of greeting cards, including:
- Card terends: research, seasonal cards, occasional cards, and publishers
- What subject areas and categories to focus on, how to stay organized
- Test marketing your cards and card verse.
- Seven most common mistake card writers will make
- Why competition in the card business is vastly over-estimated
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| Two years ago, she transitioned out of manufacturing and into licensing, where she now designs cards for Recycled Paper Greetings (a subsidiary of American Greetings Corporation) and gift items for seven other companies. |
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On September 21st, 2009 Tyler R. Tichelaar and Irene Watson spoke with international freelancer and editor Moira Allen. Allen is the host and editor of Writing-World.com, one of the world’s most popular websites for writers. She helped us understand key points that freelancer must know to enter this lucrative market, including:
- Why target international markets?
- Where do you locate international markets?
- What do you need to consider when targeting an international market?
- What about format and language issues?
- How do you contact/pitch to an international market?
- What are the rights issues you need to keep in mind?
- How do you get paid?
- What are some pitfalls of the international marketplace?
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| Moira Allen has been writing professionally for more than 30 years, and is the author of several books on writing, including Starting Your Career as a Freelance Writer and The Writer’s Guide to Queries, Pitches and Proposals, both from Allworth Press. Moira has been dealing with international writers and markets for many years, and was the editor of Global Writers Ink, a newsletter geared toward the international writer. |
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