Are Libraries Ruined?

Maybe I'm just a grumpy old person, but I miss my old library.


The library has always been one of my favorite places. I love the quiet, the smell of old books, seeing children explore new worlds with boundaries set only by their reading levels.


Visiting the library has changed over the years. Instead of using the card catalog, we can look for information on the computers available, if we wait in line for the teenagers to access the email accounts their parents have forbidden on the home computer. Most libraries have free wireless internet access so that their patrons are not denied the wonders of the world wide web even if their budget does not allow for the added expense.


My local library offers even more. It has a used book store, a coffee shop, and patio tables with umbrellas set up outside for users.


So what in the world is there for me to complain about? All these wonderful service additions have changed the way people use the local library that it's hard for us old timers to adjust and be productive.


Is the Library a Place to Conduct Business? 




photo used with permission under morgueFile Free License

All written content ©2010 Patrice Campbell unless otherwise noted.

Facebook Crisis Proves Importance of Social Media Support

It was a crisis. A CRISIS.


I clicked on my Facebook tab to check in with friends and my Facebook page was gone. I reloaded, and the page stayed the same. What in the world was going on? I needed proof that my circle of Facebook writing friends were still chained to their computers, churning out information and willing to offer advice and support to their fellow freelance writers.


I have to admit I panicked.


Many freelance writers don't realize how much of their social life they have given up in order to build their freelance careers. Deadlines, and sometimes sheer exhaustion have slowly reduced face to face time with real friends in the real world to practically nothing.


We've slowly replaced our social life with cyber life. Facebook offers a wonderful platform to fill the void. We can use the private messaging system to communicate those thoughts and ideas we don't want to share with the world in a status update. We can use the chat feature for a more detailed communication that need real time responses. We can share links to our work in status updates. The status updates also allow us to see what our friends and colleagues are accomplishing.


Most of us are logged on to both Facebook and Twitter continuously during our working hours. A quick glance at the browser tab alerts us to the number of updates while we've been busy in another browser window or working in another computer application.


I've known for a long time that I depend on social media as I work, but never did I realize that I was emotionally dependent on it.


When I took a break from the article I was struggling with to check in with my Facebook friends and let my jaw muscles have a moment to recover from the stress of grinding my teeth, it was gone....all gone.


No friends, no support, no Facebook.


In denial I reloaded and reloaded. I pulled up a previous Facebook from cache and tried to reload and log in to no avail. I was all alone in the world.


Fellow freelancers, remember the good old days when we actually took the time to make a phone call? Sometimes we'd get voice mail, but that was no problem. We left a message and went back to work as we waited for the person to call us back. I never panicked when no one picked up, did you? In fact, I usually expected my friend to be busy and was always prepared to leave a message on voice mail.


So why did I feel so disoriented when I lost my Facebook?


I clicked the Twitter tab and sent out my SOS to all my Facebook friends. Amazingly, my tweet was able to post to my Facebook account, even though I couldn't access it from my computer. I got a few replies from friends who were on Twitter at the same time, giving me reassurance that no catastrophe had happened and I wasn't the only survivor of a global catastrophe. 


Reassured, I went to my favorite news website and saw that a glitch was causing Facebook problems all over the world. I was finally able to breath.


We justify our time spent on Facebook and Twitter as using social media to promote ourselves and our work, but in truth, a lot of us find it's more than that. We have found friends that we will probably never meet face to face. We have found support from strangers. We have filled the holes in our life that our commitment to our work has left with people who are just like us. We don't meet up for lunch or drinks. But we've grown to depend on each other being available during working hours when we just need a bit of encouragement, or a good laugh.


I'll never feel like I have to make an excuse for being on Facebook again. Thanks for being there, FB friends and Twitter followers.


All written content ©2010 Patrice Campbell unless otherwise noted.

Alert - Outlook for the Older Freelancer

Pat yourselves on the back, Freelance Writer. You're employed. If you're over 50, give yourself an extra pat on the back as you may have lucked out. 

"I wasn't pleased with the news, either"

It's good news and bad news for the full time freelancer. The Great Recession is over, according to reports I've read today. In fact, it's been over since June 2009.

The National Bureau of Economic Research Website states:

"CAMBRIDGE September 20, 2010 - The Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research met yesterday by conference call. At its meeting, the committee determined that a trough in business activity occurred in the U.S. economy in June 2009. The trough marks the end of the recession that began in December 2007 and the beginning of an expansion. The recession lasted 18 months, which makes it the longest of any recession since World War II. Previously the longest postwar recessions were those of 1973-75 and 1981-82, both of which lasted 16 months."     Read the full report.

The bad news for all those freelancers over 50 is that you may never find another job, and if you do, it probably won't pay as much as the job you were downsized from. According to the New York Times:

"After other recent downturns, older people who lost jobs fretted about how long it would take to return to the work force and worried that they might never recover their former incomes. But today, because it will take years to absorb the giant pool of unemployed at the economy’s recent pace, many of these older people may simply age out of the labor force before their luck changes." Read the rest of this very interesting article.

If you're over 50, reach for the notebook and keep plugging away. You always wanted to retire early and write, and it looks like you're getting what you wished for. 






All written content ©2010 Patrice Campbell unless otherwise noted.

An Epiphany...Don't Roll your Eyes at Me!

Yes, I've had an epiphany. I chose the word carefully because I was afraid you'd just roll your eyes and move on to something else, but there is not other way to describe it.


It's not only changed my freelance writing schedule, but it seems to have started a trend of improved finances and has eliminated a whole lot of stress from my working days, which as you all know seems to be seven days a week.


It's all about self imposed deadlines. We were all told years ago that the successful person, no matter what they do for a living, set goals and impose deadlines and stick to them. Although I don't usually consider myself a sheep, I admit I said "baahhhh" and followed the herd.


I know I'm taking a big risk sharing this with only 2 weeks worth of results, but the whole thing just seems logical now that I see it with fresh eyes and have put aside decades of habit.


Each evening, more so as the end of the week approached, I'd look at those deadlines and get worried that I wouldn't be able to meet them. Then, I'd get a vulnerable feeling that I would fail in all of my goals,  tighten my jaw in determination to get through the daily schedule and grind my teeth until I got a headache and had to give up in frustration.


Guess how much sleep I'd get in the few hours left of those nights.


So.....on to the epiphany. I took a look at my schedule and highlighted deadlines that were imposed by clients. Then, I highlighted deadlines that were set for work with upfront payments I needed to pay my bills. Then, with a different color highlighter, I highlighted self imposed deadlines that I had set for p/v sites so they always had updated articles or because I had committed to so many articles a month.


So my three top priorities were all highlighted and what hadn't been accomplished was squeezed into the planner for the next day, filling it up. I went back and discovered that the items I couldn't find time for were my blogs, website and fiction. With no time scheduled away from the computer!


Duh. Snap.  What's the word of the day?


Isn't the whole idea of struggling to be a freelancer the goal of working for yourself?
It was time for some self examination. What did I really expect to gain from this whole freelance writing world I had committed myself too?

1. To be able to set my own deadlines.
2. The freedom to change my own schedule to meet my needs.
3. The freedom to just be able to write.
4. To be able to support myself doing something I enjoyed.

Duh. Snap. What's the word of the day?


It's epiphany.


I rearranged my list to read:

1. To be able to support myself doing something I enjoyed.
2. The freedom to just be able to write.
3. The freedom to change my own schedule to meet my needs.
4. To be able to set my own deadlines.

You see, number 4 on the list was getting in the way of what now is, and should have been number 1 all along, but somehow lost ranking along the way. Just like my blogs, website and fiction fell to the bottom of the priority list every day because of my self imposed deadlines.


But, deadlines are deadlines, and I'm supposed to set deadlines. My mind was fighting with my gut. Luckily my gut won out.


My private clients and upfront payment work all had strict deadlines and so did the due date on the bills that work paid for.


My blogs, website and fiction had self imposed deadlines, but were both urgent and important in my long term goal of getting paid for what I enjoyed. Change it to a strict deadline.


The work I did for p/v sites all had self imposed deadlines. Sure, they have the possibility of paying off really well in the long run with attention and luck. There is the risk of the site still being in business down the road. The numerous streams of income is really nice, even though it's a trickle, together they may someday merge into a river. But push come to shove, it's still working for someone else for just a bit of money when I really need to devote the time to other priorities. They have to stay on the list, and they stay with self imposed deadlines.


So, in a moment of absolute brilliance I changed my meaning of the term self imposed deadline to mean reminder.


Not only do I have a lot less stress, at the end of the day I've accomplished my set in-stone deadlines even when I've had to be flexible.


To top it all off, the stats on my blogs and website continue to trend upward.


The best part of all is that I've been sleeping at night and not dreaming that I was still on the computer.

All written content ©2010 Patrice Campbell unless otherwise noted.

Not Frustrated at all Today

Today was one of those days everyone who works as a freelance writer dreams about. The stars have aligned. I finally found time to go through email and found that tiny streams of money from various sites have been trickling into my PayPal account. I noticed these emails as they came in, but none showed amounts large enough for me to stop what I was doing and transfer the money. 


It's not often that so many sites pay out within days. But when these days do come together, you see that the potential is there to keep plugging away putting content up at those obscure sites you really don't count on. This little windfall, along with the payouts I'm expecting this week will allow me to back off and really devote time to my own projects.


The motivation of the unexpected payments kept me working all day with few breaks, and I've had one of the most productive days in recent memory. I know that this is all a fluke, but I also realize that my stats overall are trending up, so in the future this might become the norm. Someday in the future.


I'm not bragging here. It wasn't THAT much money. But is was more than I expected.


So I'm sharing with hopes that anyone who may not have had as good a day as I had today might get encouragement. Especially those of you just starting out who may be tempted to just give up because it seems no one is reading them and they have only earned pennies. You know who you are. I talked to one of you just last night.


If you enjoy it, keep at it. Someday your stars will align, and you, to, will see your progress.


All written content ©2010 Patrice Campbell unless otherwise noted.

Eyestrain? Are you Working from the Backyard?

One of the great things about working from home is that on beautiful days you can move the laptop and cup of coffee outside and enjoy nature without sacrificing the schedule. Sounds perfect, but it can cause some major problems.


I've learned a few tricks this summer about preventing computer eyestrain and still enjoy working outside.Sunglasses don't often offer enough protection from the glare of the sun. Even when sitting in the diffused light of a shade tree, you'll find yourself squinting as the dappled sunlight plays across your work.


A simple hat or cap with a long visor will do a great deal to help protect your eyes from strain, as well as help keep the hair out of your face when the breeze kicks up. But, you may still find yourself squinting.


The unfortunate thing about being engrossed in your writing is that you don't notice little things like how uncomfortable you are. So, maybe you should just let your laptop tell you.


When the laptop battery runs low, it's time to bring your work inside, out of the bright light. On those days when you just can't bear to leave the beautiful fresh air and sit couped up in the home office, don't fight it. Grab a notebook and your favorite manual writing instrument, a stack of correspondence, work that needs editing, or the trade journals you never got around to reading and continue to work outside until the laptop is fully recharged and ready to join you.


Chances are, this change of routine will often recharge you, too.


Nothing motivates a freelancer as much as seeing the stack of paperwork in the in basket go down.




All written content ©2010 Patrice Campbell unless otherwise noted.

How do You Define Share?

As freelancer writers, we know the importance of social networking in self promotion. Most of us use Facebook and Twitter on a regular basis, and our stats show that we do get clicks from those sources.

Each time we see our links shared by Facebook friends or retweeted by Twitter followers, we imagine the extra clicks we may get as a result of the additional exposure.

Why, you might wonder, with hundreds of friends and followers, are so few people sharing your links?

It's true that freelance writers are a tight group of people who promote other writers by sharing links and tweets. But look up the meaning of the word share. It is implied that you will also share.

You are free to use social media in any way that suits you. So is everyone else. Sharing of links is not a requirement. But those of us who consider the time spent clicking, reading, commenting and sharing as part of our daily business routine soon have a list of people who promote us. We will go out of our way to promote them.

We can't share everything that comes across our page, of course.  Not only will links to our own content be lost in the sheer number of updates, but we may run the risk of alienating the friends and followers we have accumulated as simply readers of the topics we write about.

During writing challenges and toward the end of the month, writers can publish and post links to a lot of articles. If we promoted them all, even with being choosy and only promoting those writers who promote us the most, we could be sharing hundreds of links a day. Sometimes we have to choose which posts to share, which posts to simply click, tweet and comment on, and occasionally, when time is really limited, which links to simply click on and allow to open in a separate window. Luckily, Twitter followers are less likely to be offended by the number of links we promote and will often RT our RT's.

So, if you notice that one of your freelance writer friends is no longer sharing your articles or retweeting you, stop and examine your sharing behavior. Reestablish relationships by taking the time to be a friend and start sharing. It's never too late. Freelance writers are a forgiving group of supporting friends. For some of us, social networking is the only social life we have.

So, how important do you think it is to promote other writers, and how do you manage it with your busy schedule. Please share by commenting.

All written content ©2010 Patrice Campbell unless otherwise noted.