Greetings all!

[mattrwriter]

Hello,

I'm new to Constant Content so I thought I'd introduce myself. I've been trying to get started as a writer for a few years now, mainly due to crap jobs and a feeling that I could have some talent as a writer. I've sold the odd thing here and there but have never had the motivation to give it a proper go. I started writing for Demand Media a couple of months ago but pretty quickly got bored with the choice of titles and the rigid format of the articles. I'll stick with it but will probably only bother writing anything for them if something I have knowledge or interest in comes up and am low on inspiration in a spare hour.

Constant Content seems to be much more suited to me. I can write about what I want and then, hopefully, that piece of writing can keep earning money. I've started by going over some old stuff, rewriting it to remove any first person references and submitting. Still waiting for acceptance! I plan to build up a good amount of articles in a few subject areas I'm interested in and then sort of see where my brain takes me in terms of subject matter. I'll see what sells, what I find most inspiring, and go from there.

Any advice gratefully received!

Thanks

Matt

[Antonia]

Welcome Matt! You have the right idea in your approach to CC - building up a portfolio, tracking your sales, and modifying your strategy as you go along - all key to success. I would just caution you not to submit too many articles at once until you've had one or two accepted. Once suspended, there's no returning, and the CC guidelines here take a bit of getting used to. If you have any specific questions just ask - the forums are friendly and super helpful.

[mattrwriter]

Thanks Antonia. Having now read a lot more forum posts, I'm beginning to wonder if I paid enough attention to the guidelines when submitting my first article. I just sorted out the first person thing, made sure it was in the correct format and submitted. I'll wait to see what they say about that one before submitting anything more.

[BarryDavidson]

Hey Matt...

I've got accounts on several other 'freelance' websites, but none have earned what I've earned here. I have put up some of my articles published elsewhere, and several have sold several times for usage rights. The best money is in full rights sales. (Just make sure that any previously published articles you submit are published with the same name you use on the main CC site, and that they conform to the other guidelines. With that you should do just fine here.)

P.S. You're right about Draconian formatting styles of some of the other sites, as well as limited topic choices.

[VersantScribe]

Welcome! Enjoy C-C and the forums. Lots of us love it here!

[mattrwriter]

Thanks to Barry and VersantScribe for their welcome. I'm a little frustrated as my first submission came back after three days with a few alterations to be made. I agreed with all of them except one but decided to make all suggested changes as I'm a new writer and didn't want to make a fuss! Anyway, I've resubmitted but three days later I'm still waiting for it to be reviewed again.

One quick question. If a piece is returned for revision, can I assume that the areas of concern mentioned cover everything wrong with the article and that, once fixed, the article ought to be accepted? I made all changes suggested and also had another read through with a couple of minor alterations but I'm worried that maybe the editor just stops reading once he or she has found enough errors to reject and that it is possible that new problems will be picked up on the second submission.

Also, (sorry, two quick questions!) if a very minor error is found, like a missing full stop or one out of place comma, will the editor just make the change themselves or will it always be rejected?

Thanks

Matt

[Antonia]

The eds do stop reading after spotting enough errors to warrant a rejection, so you should give the whole piece a thorough going-over before re-submitting. And no, they will never change a writer's work, no matter how minor the change. (This is actually a good thing!)

The process can be frustrating for new writers, I know, but once you have a few articles accepted you'll get into a groove and everything will flow: working on one article, another waiting for review, another just accepted, another just sold....it all happens simultaneously and you don't notice the review times.

[mattrwriter]

Thanks again Antonia. I think that everything else was OK with it. In fact I'm certain the grammar is fine, it's just the punctuation that very occasionally lets me down. It would be annoying to have it come back again for a rogue comma!

[Antonia]

Darn commas Hopefully it will be accepted all right this time around. No worries, even those of us who have been writing here for some time get an occasional rejection. In fact, I had TWO rejected yesterday, entirely because of sloppy proofreading on my part. Really ridiculous errors. I was rushing and trying to submit all my articles before our power went out (I'm in Kathmandu and we have scheduled power cuts 10 hours a day). Am re-reading now more carefully...