Why, now, am I discovering I may not be normal?

Is the customer always right?

A very controversial question to ask, yes – and despite what I’ve always said (that customers most definitely are right), what I think is another matter.  What if they don’t know what they want from a freelancer?

This month I’ve had two new clients receive the work I’d provided negatively.  Not in a spiteful sense but in the spirit of “It wasn’t what we wanted”.

This could have very easily knocked my confidence (in fact, it did) but I had treble that amount of new customers in the same period who were more than pleased with the work I produced.  Those successful new clients were impressed that I’d summarised their requirements and delivered above and beyond their expectations.

So if I’m conjuring up the same standard of work, and if I’m asking the same questions to all clients, what went wrong with the other two?

I’ll throw another thought into the fire – perhaps the clients didn’t know what they wanted (and therefore could not translate that to me) but could tell what they didn’t want when they saw it?

If this is the case, and because of my desire to keep clients happy and win future work, I can’t charge them for work that’s not what they want – meaning I could go round in circles, over and over again, using time that could be better spent on work that will earn money.

It seems to be whenever I use the word ‘draft’.  As a writer of various communications and material, I suggest, in situations where there’s no firm brief, that I put something down first and we work from that.  However, this seems to be a green light for them to reject what I offer and for my time to be given away for free.

Am I wrong to care, or to take things personally?

This is a very hard subject for me to address, simply because I take it personally if someone isn’t happy with my work.  I know I shouldn’t and it’s just business, but as I take such pride in what I do, it feels as if I’ve failed if I don’t get it spot on first time.  Luckily, (or it may not be down to luck), I have plenty of regular clients who are more than satisfied with what I do and I enjoy a great relationship with them.

Perhaps you’d agree that I was at fault, that it’s clear I’m doing something wrong or missing something – if so, please tell me what it is!  I’m genuinely interested, as you can imagine this causes me stress.

Water off a duck’s back?

I admire those freelancers and professionals that can bounce negativity off their backs – or better still, convert it to positivity.  Please share that magic with me!

As a freelancer, it’s my reputation out there. Each dissatisfied customer is a lead and income stream lost.  I can’t afford for that to happen.

One contact suggested I’m not doing my job correctly, in the sense that I hadn’t asked the right questions to prompt what the customer doesn’t know they want.  I agree with this in principle but knowing the situations and clients personally, as opposed to any generalising, these were experts in their field and I felt that interrogating them further than I did would have been a little insulting.  Maybe that was the issue.

I’ve been in business for a few years now but this is proving a difficult period for me – why now, I don’t know.  Is this normal?  Am I?

 

I’m frustrated and need a man…

A BT man.  One that will connect my damn Broadband in my new office.  I’ve been connected over a week ago and have yet to get on the internet, meaning I’m working from home which is not conducive (for me, at least) to getting very far, and also results in dead rent for an office I’m not in.

I get shunted from department to department when I phone as “they don’t what the problem is”.  Yeah, I’d kinda worked that out myself.  I’v moved my hub all of 20 feet across a corridor, yet, between being unplugged from the wall in office A, it has gone from working to mysteriously not working when plugged into the socket in Office B.  The line can’t be a complete bodge as the phone works fine – which too was connected the same day.  So,

internal BT department passes the issue to internal BT department, leaving me with an online business that’s not, well, online.  The whole move, with missed dates, computer-generated but misleading emails, no-knowledge staff and life-sapping automated phone menus have made this among the very worst experience I’ve ever had with a company.  Had I not started a new contract (another setback – why can’t your contract can’t move with you?  Hell, even multi-million pound mortgages can do that.  Then again, they’d not be squeezing you for as much for their incompetence), I would tell them to shove the issue up their own phone jacksy.

I filled in a customer satisfaction survey about an hour ago.  Not that I think my ‘extremely dissatisfied’ choices will even lodge with BT (they’d not be seen as anything different, I’d imagine – the ‘extremely satisfied’ responses are the ones that would stand out like a sore thumb) and neither will my scathing comments in the ‘anything you’d like to tell us’ box – but hey, I wanted to vent anyway.  Same reason for this post.

I need a man to come to my office with a bag of answers to connect me once and for all.  For all I know, when they’re passing me from department to department over the phone, they’re just filing my report in the wastepaper bin – at least with a guy in front of me I can hold him to ransom until the damn thing’s fixed.

I’m frustrated and I pity the poor man that has to come and sort me out.

Price-fixing

No, not war of the supermarkets – I’m talking about determining the price of your book.  As a new author, with few followers, it can be hard to make your book price attractive without giving it away for free.  After all, you worked for months on that book, didn’t you?  You wouldn’t want it to be for nothing, would you?

I’ve read a lot of advice on this subject recently.  As someone who launched their first book a few months ago (and has yet to focus fully on its marketing, truth be told) I am in this position.  As I self-published the title, the book’s price had to cover the printing costs at the very least.  The price I arrived at seems fair to me as it’s only a pound or two above printing fees, and as the paperback version is selling a slow trickle of copies, so be it.

However, the amount of information I’ve read on ebook prices has really opened my eyes.  Some place a price on their ebooks that are proportionate to the tangible book’s cost, whereas one unique account I read didn’t do this.  Their whole story has interested me enough to try out a little experiment.  One which has seen me reduce the price of my ebook version of Son of the Ringmaster from £3.99 to 99p.  This may only be for a limited time, but should it prove successful, it may remain.  I’ll tell you what I read.

This newbie author had written an adult fiction book, which is a market notoriously difficult to penetrate and sustain lasting sales.  Not impossible, just difficult.  This lady launched her story as an ebook only, believing these were the format of choice for readers of her genre.  Her initial price for the download was around £4 (she was American and therefore the true dollar/pound conversion may be innacurate now).  Her initial sales were from those she knew and from those she directly marketed to, but not an audience of any magnitude.

She decided to lower the price to something too good to be true (almost) and kept it under a dollar.  Other authors thought she was practically giving her book away but the sheer volume of sales because of the cheaper price meant increased interest in her book, leading to media opportunities and similar picking up on the frenzied interest.  People who bought the download genuinely enjoyed the book and therefore word of mouth ensured even more books sold – far more than she could ever have envisaged had she kept at the higher price.  Once she started shooting up charts, people bought the download out of curiosity to see what everyone was talking about – and things snowballed.

I doubt that her book would have been in the eye of so many if the price had been more expensive.  To emulate the sales through focused marketing would have more than likely carried an investment which would have needed more book sales to earn this speculation back.  It was also unexpected; the mindset of the author at the outset was that she could gain more followers through earning little on her first book but ultimately securing fans for the future.  These fans would then be more likely to buy her second book, knowing they would be in for a good read.

The huge sales from the cheaper first book meant she had a significant revenue.  And the fans.  And the notoriety.  A job well done, I’d say.

So, I’m trying this myself.  I’m going to see if reducing the price of my ebook version to less than a pound makes any difference to sales at all.  If my next post comes from a beach in the Bahamas, you’ll know the answer.

Yesterday you blogged, today you’re stuck…

Just as the best writers can endure writers’ block (though some dispute such a thing exists) – for a regular blogger, there can be times when you’ve run out of things to say.  You’ve committed to a frequency, a schedule and almost always provide some value or information to your readers – which is why they flock to read your musings.

If you (like me) don’t post often enough, you risk losing your audience altogether – which, when you’ve spent hours building up a rapport and readers, can be a horrible thing.  The flipside of this coin – if you blog too much – you can alienate your readers as they basically get sick of hearing from you.

Posting every Thursday, for postings sake, say, may be good for you.  It fits with your family plans, it means you can focus on what you write and not be disturbed and your traffic gets used to when the next nugget of knowledge arrives.  However, just as we can’t determine when a headache will appear, we cannot always assume inspiration will strike each Thursday….at 10 a.m…..as you sit in front of your laptop, staring blankly at the screen.

So don’t.  So your post goes out Friday, Monday, whatever.  As long as months haven’t passed and dust hasn’t settled on your computer, your audience will cut you a little slack.  They’d rather read something interesting, something that will either effect them or matter to them, over what you had for tea or your toilet habits (because you can’t think of anything else to write about).

Here’s just a few potential topics for a blog:

• Case Studies – write about someone else for a change, but someone who’s relevant to your readership
• Debate – Find some industry news – even if it’s not too current – and play devil’s advocate
• ‘How to’ type posts – pass on your knowledge
• Review something – could you help your visitors by providing feedback on a product or service?
• Humorous – readers always love satire or sarcasm – though this can be a thin line between actual abuse – so tread carefully
• Rants – Has something upset you that’s pertinent to your audience?
• Statistical – run a poll and interpret the results for your readers, or discuss the findings of someone else’s report

Just a few ideas, but I only have to flick over my list of prompts and my mind is no longer empty.

Blogging continues to rise in popularity and as the cost of printing rockets due to heightened distribution and material costs, advertising prices have risen as a result.  Readerships of tangible magazines and newspapers are decreasing as more of us find our information online.  Therefore, blogs, being low-cost, if not free, and other social media platforms are catching the eye of even the largest corporations.

How many household brands have you seen sporting buttons, all portraying the message ‘Follow us on Twitter’?  Or how many tell you to look for up to date, minute by minute information on their blog?  Still think it’s a trend?

I’ve recently launched blogging workshops and tuition for either individuals or businesses who want to start, or get more from their blog.  The more people are switched on to blogging, the more of them we’ll see in the webosphere.  Crowd control, people.  The more voices out there, the louder you have to shout.

Your blog could become the face of your business.  Consider me the beautician, enhancing what is already there to make it very attractive.  (That’s what they’ll call me, the blogging beautician….)

In all seriousness, if you would like help with your blog, call me on 07983 089621 or contact me on diane@clericalandcontent.co.uk.

Sharing skills and swapping services

I came across a great business model this week – an outfit that understood that newly formed, or small, businesses don’t have a great deal of cash to throw around.  They thought that if enough people were in the same boat, the oldest form of bartering or marketing should raise its head once again, in the form of skill swapping.

In days gone by, most people could only get something done by returning the favour; for example, a blacksmith may have offered to shoe a farmer’s cart-horse in return for a month’s supply of potatoes from his farm.  No money changes hands yet both parties receive something they want or can make good use of.  Though farmers are far fewer in number and blacksmiths even more so, you get the idea.  The basic principle of this trade-bartering is a great idea in this recession – ideal for those who cannot afford to pay for things they want with currency.

As I am in the position of negligible cash flow, due to far more personal reasons than I could ever wish to list here, I jumped at the chance to offer proofreading en masse for much-needed help in return.  However, this is where the model fell down for me as I had to pay a lot of money (in my eyes, anyway) to join the site.  The altruism the site intimated came to an abrupt stop.  Although advertising revenue could have made a small profit for the company owners, the membership fee was the road they’d chosen to exploit.

However, it led me to thinking that there was no need to offer this kind of bartering through a middle man – I could simply contact my contacts and ask for their help.  Should they decide my services are not what they could make use of, they only have to say ‘no’.

So, through this post, I’m asking for some PR/media help.

Although I class myself as a freelance writer, I hate writing press releases as I’m not very good at them.  For that reason, I’ve never gained many contacts in the media world.  Therefore, to promote both my book and my proofreading/editing services, I’d love some media help.

Because I can’t afford this in ‘real’ money I am trying this bartering theory out.  Should anyone be in a position to, and also who would want to, help me in my plea, I will offer my services.  This could include proofreading, editing, other forms of writing, blogging, virtual assistance, writing coaching, literacy coaching – I may even come and clean your loo should you live near enough.  This is not to say anyone willing to help me cannot do the things I offer for themselves, but they may be too busy or detest doing some of said services.

If this is the case, they could spend their time doing something they enjoy and I could take one of their hateful jobs away from them – and vice versa.  So, to anyone still reading, could you complete the other end of my bartering plea?  Do you know of any of your contacts who could help me out whilst receiving my services in return?

If so, contact me at diane@clericalandcontent.co.uk or call 07983 089621.

PR and media coverage is my need, the horse will have to wait till next week. 

Happy Christmas – here’s looking to 2011!

Hi all – just wanted to write a quick post to say Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all followers of The Writing Hall.  I’ve finally ‘broken up’ – though so have the kids so it’s not too much of a rest – and now have a couple of weeks to lay down some plans and foundations for 2011.

Son of the Ringmaster is now out and available to buy: http://goo.gl/sbhaA which was just in time for Christmas.  It’s going to be great to hand copies to my family at Christmas (saves buying presents at least).  I’ve decided to clear time for more writing next year and already have the plot and backbone for my first novel for adults.  I need to do a little research though, but not too much as some of it will be autobiographical.

The businesses will change too; The Writing Hall’s website is being refurbished and this will hopefully not drag on for much longer.  Clerical and Content’s direction has altered dramatically in the three months of trading and a new spin-off branch will be launched in 2011.  There’s not much chance of me clawing back any spare time for quite a while yet!

So there’s more reason than ever to take the Christmas break as an excuse to do sod all.  The only effort I’ll be making is to eat, drink and be merry.  Here’s hoping everyone has a great holiday – I’ll make a silent toast to you all when I next have a large glass of Lambrini in my hands (Oh yes, I’m a cheap night out). 

Cheers!

My shop window

Retailers have it easy, really.  They sell a product and find it effortless to shove it in their shop window for all to see and for most to purchase.  But for those of us who provide a service, it’s a little harder to present what you do to anyone stumbling past on-spec.

There are some that can do this – the wanton women in Amsterdam hanging out of their windows display exactly what they offer a client but how does a proof reader, writer and coach, i.e. me, display my wares?

To promote proof reading I have, on occasion, called companies that publish a raft of mistakes on their web pages and marketing copy telling them how I can fix it.  I do this sensitively – after all, they may take my intervention the wrong way – and although they’re pleased I’ve shown them the light, few change their mindset and continue to print error after error.  Lost causes.

My writing coaching fares better, seemingly something that relies upon word of mouth; my clients have always approached me, so I’m glad this is one less thing I have to promote.  So that just leaves the writing.

Everyone and their dog harbours secret ambitions to become a writer, yet few of us actually manage to make a living out of it.  Thanks to the surge in ebooks and the improvements in self-publishing tools, aspiring authors can have a tangible book in their hands that’s all their own work.  They then have to practically sell their soul to get people to know said book is out there, available to buy, but I’d say it’s decidedly less stressful than chasing the traditional publishing deal dream.

As I’ve moved into the field of professional blogging, writing for clients on a range of subjects, I have recently looked to include blogging coaching as a complimentary workshop to my writing classes.  It has pleasantly surprised me as to how many people would be interested in this type of tuition, so much so, that I have started drafting the framework with a view to launch these one-day courses in the New Year.

Therefore, to publicise my blogging coaching, surely I should be using this area of cyberspace as my ‘shop window’?  I should post on here how great blogging is, what it can do for one’s business as well as various tips on the mechanics and features of a blog account.  As I said, I should.

Time, again, has been my enemy and The Writing Hall’s blog posts have been rarer than spotting my husband Christmas shopping.  This is my shop window yet I’ve barley hung a sign or gathered any swathes of attractive fabric.  There are no special offer stickers nor products on show.  There is just this post – kind of an IOU behind the glass.

This could be a good sign; builders’ wives traditionally moan that their houses are in disrepair because their other half is too busy servicing clients to spend time on their home.

Yes, that sounds nearer the mark for me.  I am too busy servicing my clients to write in my blog….though not in the same way as those ladies in Amsterdam.

Attention: New Authors

The Writing Hall’s site redesign will incorporate a new section: where authors can advertise their book for free after taking up TWH’s proofreading and editing service.  Not only will they benefit from a fantastic service at next-to-nothing prices, they will be able to display a thumbnail/link to where the book can be purchased, an author bio and book blurb.  For any new author, indeed, established ones too, the more places to advertise your book, the better.

The Writing Hall champions aspiring authors, giving tips and relevant links to the community on our Facebook fan page.  Anyone is welcome to post their short stories or poetry material for the enjoyment of others – you never know who may be reading or passing by.  Raising a profile can be very hard to do nowadays as new platforms spring up daily.  Keeping each market, forum and community serviced with information and relevant links is a task but one firmly associated with the author.

Although traditional marketing contracts may still be drawn up for new authors, the marketing and promotion will fall very heavily on their shoulders, a complete contrast to the days when the publishing house looked after everything.  Now that international and online markets have opened up, courtesy of the internet, the world is very much an author’s oyster.  However, the industry has never been more competitive as a consequence.

The Writing Hall may seem like just another place to display your details – but this is a great positive.  Your book will be proofed and edited to an exemplary standard and the growing traffic to the TWH website will read the details of your book.  Whether they then decide they want to go ahead and buy it, to read it in its entirety, is completely in your hands….

For more details, call 07983 089621/01977 614 799 or contact abth@live.co.uk

Hoping to bring you a brand-new website soon!

I’m in the process of having The Writing Hall’s website redesigned to incorporate more news for writers, more interaction and a place where authors can display and advertise their books for free (subject to conditions).  I’ve seen so many changes in the company since I launched myself into it full-time earlier this year that I felt the old site didn’t reflect my fabulous and faithful client base – or the great community of aspiring writers we have on the Facebook fan page.

Writing is all I’ve ever wanted to do and my love of the English language has given me the career path of being a damn good proof reader.  I have also found empathy with struggling writers and realised I can help and motivate other authors in this position far better than geeing up myself.  The Writing Hall, to me, is a labour of love.  Members from TWH community have given me help when the workload has been more than I could handle and I would like to eventually expand this – to have a workload that means I can share the writing with others through TWH.

For now, whilst the brand is still emerging and work is building, I’m concentrating on serving the clients in the hope they’ll return and bring more work.  Offering a great service at a great price as I do, this seems to be working.  Let us hope this continues.

So, I hope you all like the new design which I’ll ‘unveil’ in the next week or two as soon as the developer finishes his magic.  If you are a member of The Writing Hall’s community on Facebook and would be interested in any ad-hoc writing assignments in the future, please email me at abth@live.co.uk giving your experience, core specialities and – most importantly – your rates of what you would hope to receive as remuneration.

Am I cheap?

I have a few regular clients; some for proofreading, some for copywriting and a few for blogging alone.  The latter of the three is something I’ve only moved into over the past few months and therefore felt I had to charge minimal amounts until my services were in demand (like my proofreading and copywriting) and I could be described as making a name in the blogging field.

Fast forward to today and I’ve five blogs on the go for customers of varying degrees of frequency.  Some are on subjects that I have to research and some are on subjects I have more knowledge about and therefore assumed I could write with more freedom.  Now, I don’t mind doing work for next to nothing, particularly when clients’ traffic doubles and comments are made by their audience in reply to my posts – it makes me feel good.  When I’m charging pennies, though, it seems as though I’ve been naive to think it would be easy, and have received instruciton to match the most detailed and highest-paid jobs I’ve worked on.  This just serves to make me frustrated.

Of course, I understand that I’m working for the client and that they have the right to tell me what to do, but feelings as though I’m being taken for a ride start to surface.  I can’t help but think they’re asking too much for too little. 

My business coach called me, not so long ago, a busy fool; I was packed out with projects, working evenings and weekends too, just to please everyone – even the ones who expect something for nothing.  His suggestion was to put my prices up.  Although it seemed a strange concept, I did eventually see things from his point of view.  He said you would always find some people “trying it on”, whatever you charged.  I had to come out of the mindset that 100% of poorly paid work (that would leave me busy and frustrated) compared to 80% of higher paid work would not affect my income, but would increase my feeling of self-worth and ensure I would be paid fairly for the job I was doing.

I had to stop equating ‘cheap’ with ‘good value’.

If I did each job well and continued to receive the same great feedback from my customers – then even charging the going rate, the dedication to ensure quality service would still place me above my competition.  When some of my clients started telling me I was too cheap, I thought perhaps he had a point.

So, to new customers, my prices – especially for blogging – have gone up.  I’m still cheaper than my competittion, just not laughably so.  My high standards of work could even improve further, now that I don’t feel taken for granted.  If I don’t win every piece of work that comes my way, then the ones who don’t appreciate my prices and service as good value would probably have been the kind I would have been frustrated with anyway – you know, those that want something for nothing.  Am I cheap?  If you were to believe my husband, then yes – but that’s a different conversation….

I just believe I provide a great service for a great price.  What you’d call good value.