Reader Tom Colvin wrote in with another endorsement on a product that has been improving his freelance life:

Write Again -- a software to help writers organize and track contacts, markets, submissions, etc. It is available as a free "lite" version, which is sufficient for many writers who are not very active. I myself eventually paid for the PRO version, after my 30-day evaluation.

One of the things I like about it is the capability to customize the program to your own needs. It takes some poking around to figure how to do this, but it's worth the effort.

One criticism: The program writer did not activate the drop-down facility to copy & paste. He's a long-time computer user and he uses the simple keyboard commands:

Control and C after highlighting what you want to copy

Control and V will then paste the info into Write Again

I use the commands now a lot, cutting writer's guidelines, for example, and pasting them into the NOTES section for each market.

I have exchanged a couple of emails with the developer of Write Again and he says that he put this program together about five years ago in his spare time, for his own personal use. He decided to share it with other writers and has done occasional updates to the program ever since.

He is now working on a complete rewrite of the program, which will add cut and paste from the drop-down menu, along with many other major improvements. However, as this is a personal project, done "after hours" and because it is a complex task, it is taking longer than he had guessed. He cannot yet predict when the new version will be available. ADVICE: go ahead and use the current version -- when the new one comes along, it will pick up all the data so that nothing will be lost.

There is a competing software, which I have not examined closely. It's called Write That Down.

It appears to me to be less easy to customize, and it costs a bit more. Would be interested in hearing someone's view on this software though, as a comparison.

Come on, authors, editors, freelance writers, share: is there a system, download, tool or time-saving device that makes your life easier? Email me and tell me what it is and what's so great about it.