FW: [HSList] writing for money

[WARILA Paul]

I am forwarding this comment to the list today, as I sent it to the
wrong place yesterday. (Should have the hang of this mailing list
concept down soon! : )
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re: writing for pay,

I would suggest a trip to the library to search for books on the topic.
I haven't written for pay myself, but it's a lot like contracting for
anything where there are middlemen, agents, and other such parties
involved. In order to ensure a fair deal it is important to understand
the various relationships involved, how the money typically changes
hands, what reasonable splits are, and what is and is not typically
negotiable. (Actually, almost everything in the world is negotiable if
you want to spend your life working at negotiating; somewhat fewer
things are "typically" negotiable, and this is where to get improved
bang for the buck, as they say.) I wouldn't leave the understanding of
these things up to an agent - it's worth the time to read a book or two.
(Agents, realtors, and lawyers certainly have their uses and I'm not
saying they shouldn't be involved - they can do work that needs to be
done - but it's important that you yourself understand the relationships
and money transfers so that you can ask the right questions and get
better value for your effort.)

paul
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