Over this weekend, Chicago freelancer Anne Ford will be blogging from the 12th Chicago Writers & Editors / One-on-One conference (which is co-chaired by MBToolBox guest-blogger Annie Logue.) Here's her second Saturday installment:

For the record, I did not fawn over Kelly James-Enger
(author of Six-Figure Freelancing) when I ran into her
in the ladies' room today. I saved my fawning until
after the panel discussions, where she offered the
following tip on dealing with those sucky all-rights
contracts: If you have to sign one, at least try to
retain nonexclusive reprint rights. But you should
probably talk about this with your editor instead of
following the "write changes on the contract, send it
in, and pray" method.

Other tips from One-on-One panelists:

* Nancy Shepherdson, conference founder and author of
the forthcoming The Power of Trust, on all-rights
contracts: "If everybody turned down these awful
contracts, we wouldn't have them." So if you're in a
position to turn down a crappy agreement, do. But if
the New Yorker comes calling with 11 cents a word paid
on publication, well . . .

* Diana Burrell, co-author of The Renegade Writer and
the forthcoming The Renegade Writer's Guide to Query
Letters That Rock!, on research: Rolodexes aren't just
for 1970s ad executives. "You want your sources ready
before you need them," so keep a database of them,
complete with keywords.

* Damon Brown, author of The Pocket Idiot's Guide to
Satellite Radio, on interviewing: "Let go of your
inner control freak." That's how he ended up talking
astrology with Li'l Kim (she's a Cancer).

*Aviya Kushner (author of the forthcoming And There Was Evening, And There Was Morning) on keeping your
literary side alive: "Try to find a writer much better
than you are" to have lunch with every week. And when
you're pitching essays, don't forget about the
literary magazines, some of which pay decent money.