Tag Archives: Laura Roberts

Preditors & Editors Readers’ Poll nominations

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Guess what? I’ve been nominated in several categories for this year’s Preditors & Editors Readers’ Poll!

The poll is an annual tradition, and boasts a variety of categories on everything from books to short fiction and poetry to digital publications—including online magazines and e-books.

So I turn to you, dear readers, for support. If you like my writing or my magazine, Black Heart, give these projects some love by voting in the following categories:

I also have a piece nominated in the Nonfiction Article category, “Top 5 Reasons You Can’t Get Laid in Montréal,” which I published as part of my “quickies” series at Amazon and Smashwords. If you’d like to vote for this piece, I would also be eternally grateful for your support.

To facilitate voting for something you’ve actually read and enjoyed, you can currently download a free copy of “Top 5 Reasons You Can’t Get Laid in Montréal” from Smashwords by clicking here and using the code JL28B (only until January 11). It’s available in all formats, including PDF, so you can read it on your computer or with your favorite e-reader.

And then, remember to vote by January 10!

Become a successful writer in 3 easy steps!

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“Become A Writer” collage by Laura Roberts

Today I’ve been catching up on my Twitter feeds, and I’ve found some interesting posts from a variety of writers. There’s The Worst Love Poem in Chicago by Mel Schwartz over at the Tribune, Bo’s Café Life (a cartoon about writing in cafés by Wayne E. Pollard), a list of 100 Little Ways You Can Dramatically Improve Your Writing at a site called “Online Colleges,” and my friend Jason Mashak has recently published a book of poetry entitled Salty as a Lip with Austin’s own Haggard & Halloo, (and which you can buy online here).

In short, I’ve been inspired, and I feel compelled to sit down and write like the wind. Because, ultimately, if I were to write a book on How To Become A Successful Writer, it would only have three steps. They would be:

  1. Sit your butt in a chair and write.
  2. Edit your work.
  3. Repeat steps 1 & 2 as necessary.

That’s it, that’s all. Publication? That’s a concern that comes later, and it’s up to a wide variety of whims. Ultimately, the way to become a successful writer is to write. That’s what all the great writers, and even the not-so-great writers who get it, will tell you. If you’re not writing, you’re not a writer. Period. So sit in the chair and write!

How to become a successfully published writer is a whole different blog post, my friends. Don’t bother yourself about it right now; just get out there and get writing!

Editors like money too

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I realize there’s next to no money in writing erotica, as I run an erotica website myself and make no money off of this project, but this is simply ridiculous. Here’s a copy of an email I just sent to Ellora’s Cave Publishing’s Editor-in-Chief, Kelli Collins, upon reading this unbelievable “job posting,” and its insultingly low payment.

Dear Ms. Collins,

I recently saw your ad on JournalismJobs.com in search of copy and content editors, but I believe there must be a typo in your posting. Does your company really only pay $0.0075 cents per word (i.e. less than 1 cent per word) for content editing, and $0.00175 per word for copy editing? This seems unbelievable, as you say the typical project is a minimum of 10,000 words, which by my account works out to a pay scale of $75 per book edited, content-wise, or $17.50 per book for copy editing.

Are you aware that this payscale is far below industry standards? According to Writers.ca, the website of the Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC), the average payment for editing is between $500 and $20,000 per project, or $30 to $60 per hour. These are figures that have not changed substantially over the past 30 years, and I would certainly hope that rates for professional editing would not have dropped so significantly!

Please let me know if these are, in fact, your rates for editing work, or if there has been some mistake, as I would certainly like to know why “the premier publisher of erotic romance novels” cannot, seemingly, offer their freelance editors a more competitive wage.

Sincerely,
Laura Roberts
–
Writer, editor, button tapper

http://buttontapper.com

If you’re going to pay people for their work, you should pay them at least the minimum by industry standards. If kids flipping burgers are guaranteed a minimum wage, then why shouldn’t writers and editors receive equally fair treatment? Ads like this make me mad, not just because it’s all about quantity over quality, but also because it shows just how little the person offering the job will respect the person who does the job. I don’t expect respect, but I do expect to be treated like a human being, rather than a wage slave. If I wanted that, I’d go take some office job pushing papers in a cubicle, à la Office Space.

What do you think?