Monday, I turned in the rewrites on
my first work-for-hire gig for an educational packager. Educational packagers
put together series books for educational publishers. They recruit authors to
do the writing.
To work for a packager, you submit a
resume and writing samples. Then, you wait.
If they like your samples and have a
series that matches your interests and expertise, you get an e-mail. That’s when the serious work begins. From the date of initial contact to final
deadline, I had six weeks to research and write the book, chosen from their
topic list. I had another week to do the
rewrites which were minimal.
The deadlines are tough but the money
is good. I hope they contact me
again.
Here are five things to consider
before applying for this kind of job:
- Are your interests varied enough to write a book on someone else’s topic? I lucked into a series on ancient cultures. The list included two cultures that I’m deeply interested in, but I would have written about any of them if it meant getting the experience. My background is anthropology. Ancient cultures in general intrigue me. A sports book would be a less comfortable match.
- Do you have access to the resources you need? It doesn’t matter if you go to a local university library, use Google scholar, or an online catalog, you have to have access to something. The reality is that with a six week deadline you need to be able to access and request resources NOW.
- How quickly can you write? My final word count was 14,500 words. This means I researched, wrote and did 2 rewrites on almost 15,000 words in under two months. I’m not going to lie – it wasn’t easy, but I write hard and fast so for me it was do-able. That isn’t the case for everyone.
- How long do you have to let something rest before you can approach it with fresh eyes? You can’t put this kind of project aside for a month before you finalize it. I wrote the manuscript from chapter 1 through chapter 9 and then started again at the beginning with the rewrite. By the time I reached chapter 9, chapter 1 was no longer fresh in my mind.
- How well do you deal with an editor’s comments? Step 1 in this job was to rough the first chapter and an outline. When I wrote the complete draft, I had comments back and, not surprisingly, I had things to fix. I’m not shy so when I had questions, I asked. I looked hard at what they wanted and, the few times their fix wouldn’t work, still addressed their concerns.
SueBE
To find out more about Sue Bradford Edwards and her work, check out her blog, One Writer's Journey.
5 comments:
Sue--I bow down to you. You are one fierce writer. Thanks for posting the "requirements" needed to do this kind of job. Many will consider, few will apply (I imagine).
Thanks for this. I'm going to check in to it. I should be doing this. . .:)
Sioux,
Part of it is being at the right point in your writing career. I've had a lot of experience in research and I have almost as much experience writing nonfiction. Plus, I had space in my calendar.
That said, it definitely isn't for everyone.
--SueBE
Margo,
You'd be excellent at it although you might want to wait until Katie is a little older. Shrug. I don't know how you work.
--SueBE
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