Today I chat with an author who spent ten years in the publishing industry before she started writing books herself like Animal Husbandry and Dating Big Bird. Her new book, Piece of Work, is about a woman who's been a stay-at-home mom for ten years, but when her husband is laid off from his job, she's forced to go back to work as a celebrity publicist and resurrect a screen legend's career. And apparently some of this is not-NOT-autobiographical.

Did your experience working on publishing give you any insight or upper hand when you wrote your books?
I guess the main part of working in publishing that helped me write my books is the material it gave me --- mainly for this new book, Piece of Work. Not only is Mary Ford, the has-been celebrity who is looking for a comeback, based on many of the celebrity authors I came in contact with over the years (or heard about through similarly abusedpublicist-friends), but Julia, the main character, is a publicist. No one, I don't think, except other publicists, can ever truly understand what it's like to be one -- imagine waitressing without the tips, and you begin to approach the what's-in-it-for-me? part. Which is ironic, given the fascination people have with celebrities now. People have this idea that celebrities are wonderful fabulous people and oh my god, most of them (except Nia Vardalos and Hugh Jackman -- see below) are just awful. Sometimes I'll be watching Entertainment Tonight and I'll see an actor or actress doing a sit-down interview for their new movie and something about them makes me suddenly know deep in my bones that they are one of the awful-est ones. I'll usually have a frightening realistic flashback then and have to turn the TV off (or climb under a table) in order to calm myself down.

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Today's interviewee and I frequent the same writers message board, and I knew her as the editor of the helpful and witty Renegade Writer blog. She is quite the Renaissance freelancer on top of this, as a published author, active freelancer and writing teacher amongst other things.

I'll be teaching a course on blogging for mb in a few weeks and I've never taught a seminar on my own before. Any advice on how to be a good teacher in general, and how to be a good teacher in this subject?
I think part of the reason that my students like me is that I spend wayyy more time on the course than I should given how much I charge! I give well thought-out critiques of ideas and queries, I help students brainstorm markets to target, I try to think up motivational tactics that will work for them, and I also remember my students when I'm at the bookstore reading magazines. For example, this week I was reading Body + Soul and saw that they ran an article similar to an idea that one of my students is working on, so I zapped her an e-mail telling her to check it out. I even do this for former students; if I discover a new magazine that might be a good market for one of my former students, I'll send her a note about it.

Another tip about teaching that you can use: Before each session, I ask every student to send me information on their writing background, their interests, what writing challenges they face, etc. That way as the course progresses I can keep each student's details in mind as I answer their questions and critique their work. For example, if a student tells me that his challenge is dealing with rejection or that he wants to break into parenting magazines but has no clips, I can tailor my advice accordingly.

A course on blogging, eh? I don't know much about blogging (Diana set up our blog) so I can't think of what the best way to teach it would be. I have success with my course setup, but I've heard of other teachers who set up Yahoo groups or similar groups so that students can interact with one another. Also, maybe it would be helpful to have a list of links to blogs you think do it well -- and to some you think DON'T do it well?

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I saw today's freelancer speak at a conference a few years ago and was impressed by her success but also the fact that she was fun to listen to, who made freelancing sound fun and funny and not a perilous existence. She is a longtime freelancer and author, former contributing editor at Self and Allure, and co-host of the public-radio show about language, A Way with Words produced by KPBS in San Diego.

What's your advice for freelancers on finding time to write books when they're working on articles as well?
That's a really tough one. I tend to focus in like a laser on one thing at a time, so I usually end up working madly to finish paying work, so I can buy myself some time to concentrate solely on a book project for a while. A dear friend of mine, a theologian named Wayne Oates, wrote 57 books and a zillion articles before his death at the age of 82 - and all that in addition to a career in teaching and counseling. Dr. Oates once told me that his secret of productivity was to "rest with your labors," rather than "rest from them." For him, alternating between two projects provided its own kind of rest and mental restoration - a kind of cross-training in which each activity enhanced the other. Then again, Dr. Oates is credited with coining the word "workaholic," so go figure. (You can look it up in the Oxford English Dictionary!)

I tried to take his advice, but I find that hard to do. I think the biggest key is to keep reminding yourself what you're really passionate about. Don't ever lose sight of that. It's too easy to get caught up in the paying work and let your passions slide.

And I can't emphasize this enough: Listen to those passions of yours, and find ways to pursue them, no matter what. It's funny: The two most counter-intuitive things I did in my career turned out to be precisely what got me the dream job I have now. First, I left a good job in newspapering to go off and study ancient Greek, of all things. Couldn't explain why, except that I really wanted to learn it and was willing to sacrifice to do so. The other thing was that for years, I played in a rock-and-roll band. Again, it was simply something I was passionate about, but made no sense career-wise. As it turned out, both the background in ancient Greek and the performing experience were key to my getting a job discussing word origins on the radio.

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As a creative director at Young & Rubicam advertising in New York, today's interviewee developed brand advertising and award-winning commercials for some of the world's leading companies, an experience that led to his new novel, The Futurist. The first chapter of said book appeared in The Virginia Quarterly Review and was named a finalist for the National Magazine Award in Fiction.

Has your outing as a 'soulless ad guy' turned off some of the literati? I used to think that that was outdated--that journalists and novelists think you're useless if you're in advertising or pr--but maybe that's not the case.I'm sure it has turned off some people. Or maybe it's led some to believe I woke up one day and decided, Instead of writing about yogurt today, I'm going to write a novel. Yeah, a novel! It's probably my just being overly sensitive to the whole thing. I mean, even though I got an MFA in writing from NYU and have been writing (but not necessarily publishing) fiction for more than 20 years, I did work in advertising for a long time. Having a soul-challenged protagonist who works on the perifery of advertising and touting my former job in my book jacket bio may be contributing factors as well. And the truth is, the ex ad-guy angle probably got me a lot more press, because the middle-aged white guy writes a book angle isn't the most differentiating way to position a supposedly literary novel. Then again, I guess the best way to deflect attention from my advertising past would be to do what Don DeLillo did: write a bunch of brilliant novels.

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Today I'm chatting with a colleague of mine who I met after we both realized we'd contribued How to Pitch pieces for mediabistro. She's written for and edited a plethora of publications, including ElleGirl, Rosie and Glamour. Currently, she's working on a young adult novel and giving full-time writing a shot after the untimely demise of ElleGirl, where she was features editor.

How is freelancing full-time comparing to having a full-time magazine job?
I like setting my own schedule and sometimes working
in my pajamas (I even get back into them after the gym). I dislike buying stamps, upgrading my phone plan to allow for more daytime minutes, and only having contact with the mailman (he comes around 2:17pm every day) until I go out at night to meet the working world for drinks.

What do you find more enjoyable, writing or editing?
I really love both, but now that I don't do much editing, I miss it. I'm sure the opposite would be true if I were only editing and not writing.

You're working on a Young Adult book right now--did working for ElleGirl prepare you at all for writing for that age group?
ELLEgirl had me thinking about that age group almost 24/7, so it surely helped the idea grow. But I've been trying to write a teen novel since I was about 8. That one was about an overweight high school junior who really, really wanted a date for the prom. No lie.

You've worked for a few publications that folded while you were working for them. Can freelancers/employees sniff out what pubs might not live long or is it a crapshoot?
I like to think of myself as a loyal person--I've never left a job; they've all left me. But it's true. With ROSIE, of course, there was something in the air for months, although at first the venture seemed solid.

ELLEgirl was fantastic, but we never had the staff or the budget we needed, so a perceptive fold-detective could have probably known that it was a pet project for Hachette that may not be a long-term investment.

Based on your experience as an editor, what tended to be the most frequent reason for turning down freelance pitches?
Lots of pitches aren't targeted enough, or they're not well thought out. I hate having to package an idea for a writer--they should be packaging it for me! Tailor your idea to a section, following the word counts, sidebar formats, etc. Do the work for the editors (that's what they all want).

As a stringer, do you have any tips on assembling a well of potential sources/resources to draw from?
I ask all my PR contacts to be on the list, as they have access to their clients, etc and are generally glad to be included. Otherwise, I've just built a list of around 700 women through friends and friends-of-friends-of-friends. every year or so I send out a "want off this list? know anyone who might want ON this list?" email to get new blood in and let people opt out guilt free.

Today I chat with the proprietress of Freelance Success, one of the most helpful resources for freelancers out there. For 10 years she was the top editor of daily newspapers, including seven years working for Gannett Co. Inc., and currently freelances for such publications as Television Week, Health Day and Newsweek International.

Based on your experience as a newspaper editor, what's the biggest mistake freelancers tend to make when pitching to them?
In the last few years, I've worked as a freelance project manager for several companies and commissioned freelancers. When I get responses to ads, I think the thing that surprises me the most is that the letters of application often don't persuade me that the person can do the work.

For instance, I was recently searching for business writers and got lots of responses from people who sent me clips and lists of publications for which they had written that were wholly unrelated to business. I guess their thinking is that if you can write about one thing you can write about anything. But so much of the available work these days is specialized and to ask an editor to take a huge leap of faith about your credentials is asking a lot.

How did you come to found Freelance Success?
I didn't start Freelance Success -- it was begun as a print newsletter 12 years ago. I took it over in 2000 when it was partly e-mail. Since then, I've emphasized its virtual community aspects and eliminated the paper.

I personally came in contact with Freelance Success about eight years ago when I had been freelancing a couple of years and felt isolated and a little stymied about what I could do next. Business-wise I was doing OK - I was paying the bills - but I wanted more interesting work and I wanted to make enough money to go on vacation. Someone online pointed me toward Freelance Success and I became a convert. I credit the people there - some of whom are still with me - with showing me how to make this business really work for me.

I decided to give owning Freelance Success a try when the previous owner decided to give it up. It's never going to make me a wealthy woman, but it's satisfying because I still turn to people here for inspiration and advice and I get a huge sense of community, which is practically the only thing I miss about an office job.

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Today I speak with the author of Feeding the Monster, a book about the John Henry-Tom Werner ownership group of the Boston Red Sox. In 2004, he published Hard News, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year. He is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. In 2002 and 2003, he was a senior writer at Newsweek, where he wrote the media column "Raw Copy" and also covered politics and popular culture. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, New York, The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post Book World, Spin, Slate, Salon, and other publications. He did not take this photo of himself, however: that was done by John Huba.

What plans to you have to promote your new book?
I'll be doing most of the usual stuff -- book tour, lots of radio interviews, some TV stuff, etc. Simon & Schuster and I also have some ideas tailored specifically to this book, like tie-ins at Red Sox-centric sports bars. And I set up my website and began putting up daily entries as well as posting outtakes from interviews done for the book in an effort to get people interested in and talking about it before it comes out. So far, that seems to be working: in the first week the site's been up, there have been days where I've exceeded 20,000 page views, and it looks like pre-sales are pretty healthy as well.

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Today I chat with Caroline Tiger, a successful freelancer who published her latest historical nonfiction book in the fall and who has a new etiquette book coming out in the spring. In addition, she teaches magazine writing, so she pretty much is a font of information on everything writing-related.

What would be your advice to other freelancers about establishing themselves as 'experts' within a particular field or genre?
You know, I didn't even think about this until after my first etiquette book, "How To Behave," came out in 2003. My publisher, Quirk, didn't seem to care about platform, so I was lucky enough to be able to use my book to create one. The same went for my second book, "The Long-Distance Relationship Guide," although I think by that point Quirk and the rest of the publishing world was more wrapped up in acquiring books by credentialed experts and/or people who had built up a following. Still, having experienced two long-distance relationships was enough of a platform to satisfy my editor at the time.

So I guess my advice for non-experts would be to get into situations that have universal appeal and haven't been written about very much, such as long-distance relationships or saying "yes" to every man who asks you out in the space of a year and hoping that leads to finding your soulmate.

Okay, back to being serious: My advice to a freelancer would be to pitch magazine and newspaper articles about the topic in order to grow a body of work that lends credibility to your book proposal. If you don't have the clips to convince editors at the national mags to publish you, start smaller and work your way up. (Or make friends with a book editor who works at a publisher you love.)

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Today I chat with Rachel Donadio, writer and editor at the New York Times Book Review, formerly of the Observer. I learn the hard way that unlike at the Chicago Tribune, the book-related section at the Times is not called "The Book Section." D'oh.

How do the editors at the Books section decide which publishing industry news belongs in the section and which belongs in the Business/Media sections?
I'm not quite sure what you mean by the "Books section." At the New York Times Book Review, which is edited by my boss, the inimitable Sam Tanenhaus, we're only responsible for the reviews and essays you see in our pages each Sunday. It's generally understood that the Arts Section and Business Section of the paper handle all the hard news and more time-sensitive features. We can't accommodate any breaking news at The Book Review since we actually close ten days before our publication date. That's because we're the only section of the Times with its own subscribers, who receive the Book Review on the Monday before the Sunday it lands on doorsteps across America. While I and my editor colleagues at The Book Review are entirely separate from the news sections of the paper - and from the critics who appear in the daily Arts Section - we plan far in advance and try to be as timely as possible with our reviews. By temperament and because I can't really break any news on our schedule, in my reported essays I like to let things percolate for a while and then circle back, taking a more oblique angle and placing things in a broader context. When I was a reporter at The New York Observer, a weekly newspaper that places a premium on the individual writer's voice, the editor, Peter Kaplan, liked to remind his staff that there are different kinds of scoops: you can be the first to break a story, but you can also turn a story into a scoop by the force of your insights.

Do you think that 'fratire' will come close to having the sort of commercial success that 'chick lit' has?

I think it depends on how you define "fratire" and "chick lit." Sometimes the only thing that separates a chick lit or lad lit novel from a literary novel is marketing. It's a fine line between targeting a readership and pigeonholing an author. It's said that the majority of book buyers in America are women, but I have no idea what that might mean for the success of "fratire."

How does the Books section view Young Adult writing--does it belong in the children's section or does it get to sit at the 'big kids' table?
The Book Review reviews young adult books in the children's section, which appears about once a month and is edited by my terrific colleague Julie Just.

Have you written much fiction? Do you think that working so much with other people's literature makes it easier or harder to create your own?
I haven't written fiction since high school. As a writer and editor at the Book Review, my job entails reading books, interviewing writers, writing on publishing and culture and assigning and editing book reviews. I think the only training for writers is to read and write as much as humanly possible. The rest is commentary. You don't want your reading to cause a kind of paralysis - how could I ever live up to so-and-so's writing? What's the point? - but nor should you think you can write with authority if you don't know anything. I love getting lost in the byways of my reading and reporting. Often my favorite part of the assignment is the reading and extensive interviewing that's not overtly visible in the final product. My philosophy is it's only over-reporting if you don't meet your deadline!

As certain methods of book promotion wane, which new ways, in your opinion, have been most effective?
Whether a review helps sell a book is a matter of some debate these days. Publishers say their money is better spent on in-store placement for books instead of print advertising, and fewer ads means fewer pages for book reviews in most book sections in the country. But reviews are essential for the historical record, and also for generating important word of mouth. The web has become an extremely important means of book promotion and discussion. I think bloggers help promote books, either by praising or burying them. Books have several lives. When they're just out of the gate, television, radio and book reviews can help a book catch on quickly, but a book really lives on in paperback, and that's where word of mouth, book groups, blogs, reviews, on-line used booksellers can really help.

Today I chat with Jason Fried, founder of the Chicago company 37 Signals, a company that produces applications to help simplify the lives of small businessmen and women. Their blog, Signal vs. Noise, is a thought-provoking site that explores "entrepreneurship, design, experience, simplicity, constraints, pop culture, our products, products we like, and more." Currently, the company is promoting its self-published book Getting Real: which " is packed with keep-it-simple insights, contrarian points of view, and unconventional approaches to software design. This is not a technical book or a design tutorial, it's a book of ideas."

The comments section on your blog can get pretty vicious sometimes. Have you ever considered disabling comments? What do you get from them?
We did disable comments for a week or so, but turned them back on. As much as we get tired of the viciousness, our blog thrives on comments and many opinions. We couldn't keep them down. I do think the comments have gotten better after we demonstrated that we could take commenting away due to abuse. I think people are more respectful now.

Why did you skip the traditional publishing route with Getting Real?
We worked with a traditional publisher on our first book. The experience was decent, but we wanted a lot more control than they would give us. They wouldn't even allow us to choose the name we wanted for our own book. Further, you give up the rights to your work once you publish with a traditional publisher. We didn't like that. And finally, the traditional publishing world is not the place to be if you want to make money on the time you spent writing the book.

So we decided to go it on our own this time. To write the book we wanted to write. To call it what we wanted to call it. To publish it as a PDF or print or audio or whatever we wanted. And to actually make sure it was profitable. We need to make sure the time we put into things is profitable time. Writing a book takes a significant amount of time so we need to be compensated for that.

If you were a freelance writer, what would you find most helpful from the 37 web applications?Writeboard for sure. We actually wrote our entire book in Writeboard. It was incredibly helpful during the editing phase and for sections that were written by multiple authors. I think we would have exploded
if we had to use Word.

From your study of simplification at 37 Signals, what are some basic things most people who work for themselves can do to simplify?
Do less paperwork and focus less on abstractions. Do more *real* work. Instead of thinking about how you are going to do something, or planning how you are going to do something, just do something and make decisions along the way. You want to make decisions when you have the most information available to you -- and that's never at the beginning of a project.

What have been some of the applications, time savers or tools that have changed your life for the better of late?
A simpler cell phone, for one. I used to have to get the latest PDA
phone or high-tech "this can do anything" phone. I've since scaled
way back. Now my phone actually works. It doesn't crash. It's not
slow. And that's pretty great. I recommend everyone try a little less
phone next time around. More tech is rarely the answer.