How To Get All Your Important and Professional Writing Questions Resolved
The next question and answer session on Zoom is scheduled for Friday, December 6th
Hello Friends!
I have another big and delightful day ahead of me. My youngest daughter is performing in the school's Christmas concert this evening, so I have that to look forward to. A couple of years back, my daughter had a solo in the concert. It was fun to watch her detach herself from the choir and move to the front, then she looked over at the director, and hit her cue perfectly. She plays piano, so she knows what she's doing when it comes to music, but my wife and I looked at each other and went, “Shesh... she's gotten so big!”
Wouldn't it be nice to have them as babies again for just one day?
The next question and answer session
I wanted to schedule another question and answer session on Zoom for Friday, December 6th at 2:00 PM CST. Please let me know if you intend to come either in a comment or a direct message. I like these sessions because they always give me something to write about. It's good to be aware of your particular questions. That helps orient me so I can provide useful information.
It's a very casual session. Usually only a couple people show up, but I appreciate the opportunity to chat with you. Consider this a resource, particularly if you want to do more with writing.
In the past, I've sent out the link both as an email and through a message thread on Substack. I think this time I'll just do the message thread. I feel like I already overwhelm your inboxes with information, so I want to try and cut down on that. Two Zoom meetings per month feels about right. This is for paid subscribers only, so if you haven't upgraded yet, now would be a great time (thanks in advance).
Questions from a reader
Speaking of questions, I received a wonderful comment from
. The comment asked a bunch of questions, so I thought I’d take the time to answer them for all my readers. Here they are:Being graphically challenged, what are sources for graphics and how does one access them? Who decides on fonts - writer or publisher?
How would the artists get paid - directly from me to them? From me to their source? Through my publisher off the top of my earnings?
When quoting writings or speeches, who handles copyright credits? Payments?
Same question as #3 re quoting music lyrics.
Do Medium and/ or Substack have technology to link quoted music lyrics to an actual artist’s recording of said song?
Are there services that handle publishing, self-publishing, subscriber database, submitting for books for review, cross-referencing one’s work for earned PR, etc. if a series of writings evolves into a book?
How is it that MS Word and its edit tracking features are not adequate for you all in publishing and academia?
These are all really important topics that all writers need to consider, so let me do my best to answer them.
Sources for graphics
As for me, I tend to simply sketch out my graphics. The reason for this is that I’m usually writing for Medium or Substack. Medium likes to be a little more academic, but you’re still writing for a general audience there. I prefer to use graphics that also serve as cartoons. The example above provides information, but it’s also comical/casual.
That’s a graphic I made by myself. I enjoy taking a break from the computer every now and then to relax and play around with watercolors. Then, I arrange my images in Photoshop.
A lot of people have told me to try Canva. I haven’t done that yet, but it would be a good thing to experiment with. Finally, when I’m sharing data, I just use screen shots from the internal side of my various accounts. On Medium, it’s important to cite all your images. That’s less important on Substack. As a general rule, I prefer to use graphics that I created myself.
Hiring artists to create graphics
As for me, I often pay my kids to create sketches for me. I think people are tired of looking at AI generated images. The one above has a lot of personality and color.
If you’re hiring artists, you’ll be responsible for that payment. I’ve heard of people using platforms like Fiverr. If you’re working on platforms like Medium and Substack, you’re an independent operator. It will never be the case that payments will be transferred from your earnings to the artist (so don’t let anyone trick you into adding them to your Stripe or any other payment delivery service).
There are some places that allow you to download fonts that are free to use. Make sure to check the licensing agreements. Not all fonts are free.
Quoting speeches, etc.
Again, the writer is responsible for securing rights, crediting the original writer, and offering payments. For that reason, I rarely quote anyone anymore. Instead, I treat my articles as if I’m writing a college paper. I cite my sources using hyperlinks.
You don’t want to use large quotes, particularly on Medium. I’ve found that a story is less likely to be Boosted if it has a lot of quotes. Medium pays you for the stories, so if your story is a collection of quotes, you’re getting paid for somebody else’s work.
The basic rule is that you don’t want to be guilty of plagiarism.
Quoting and featuring music lyrics
Years ago I read a wonderful article by
on this topic. You can read it here:What You Must Know to Include Song Lyrics in Your Story
Keep in mind that this article is in the context of lyrics in a novel rather than lyrics in an article. Still, after reading this, I determined it wasn’t worth the bother and I simply don’t quote song lyrics.
Both Medium and Substack would allow you to insert a link to a YouTube clip that featured the performance of the original artist. You might be able to link to external sound recordings on other platforms as well.
Databases and publishing
Medium and Substack are already publishing platforms. You retain the rights to your work and you’re free to reuse your material wherever you want. If you decide to expand an article, or series of articles, into a book, you can certainly do that.
One option for self-publishing is through Kindle Direct Publishing. It’s pretty self-explanatory, but there are many “publishers” that charge you a fee and set your book up for you. There’s nothing wrong with going that route if you want something convenient. But I’d recommend you pay a flat fee rather than sign a contract that forces you to give up 50% of sales… forever.
Both Medium and Substack allow you to keep track of your already published articles, but the interfaces become clunky when you have thousands of articles like I do. Your best bet in most cases is to keep track of your submissions yourself on a spreadsheet.
Submittable has a good system for tracking submissions.
Tracking edits
MS Word has good tracking features, but I personally don’t pay for the license for MS Word. I use Open Office. I am a cheap writer, so I can’t justify paying for a program when perfectly fine free versions exist. In fact, I don’t understand why any corporation or school or business pays for programs when there are free versions available. It seems like a waste of money.
Google Docs is convenient because it has a great tracking feature and the document is accessible for everyone involved.
Thanks for the great questions!
There’s a lot to the technical side of writing that I probably don’t address enough (and I should). I also recently received a message from
who wanted some advice on Substack. I’ll get to those questions next week.Again, don’t forget about the Question and Answer session on Friday. If there’s anything I didn’t answer in this email, Friday would be a perfect time to bring up those concerns.
Don’t forget to upgrade if you haven’t already. I appreciate all of you!
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Hi Walter - Thank you for all the helpful information in response to my questions. Of course, they are now prompts for my next questions - to follow at another time. As you have likely inferred, I tend to the nuts and bolts side of life rather than the creative.
I would love to attend your discussion today but we have house cleaners arriving between 12 N and 2 PM MST today and every 3 weeks on Fridays. Any possibility that in the future you would calendar those discussions in advance? My life tends to be structured around Google Calendar and Google Search (my “other brain” which prompts me to remember words and concepts I blank out on). Advance calendaring would help me to schedule future “one-off” appointments around your sessions.
As for the cost of MS Office products, I forgot: My son provides my 2 college -age grandchildren with a subscription to online MS Office business version which subscription has 4 “seats”. The 3rd seat is mine at no cost to me. Son & his wife subscribe to MS Office through their business (higher security). I can work with MS Office both on-and offline.
I am delighted to have “discovered” you and am about to turn my subscription to Paid. Thankyou!
Nadina Cole-Potter aka Phoenix Bubbe, fka Scottsdale Bubbe
Hello Walter - I like your writing so signed up for the year. Question for the writing Q&A: Do you think Substack can be used for serial narrative fiction, like Dickens and Trollope did with magazines? If people find it in the middle, would they go back to the beginning? Or do we need to have them access the first chapter first and go from there? (I say "access" because Substack posts include video, audio, text and images - potentially reaching non-readers.) Thanks!