Will Work for Free

Nearly every artist, professional, and entrepreneur struggles at some point with whether to offer work for free. Law students often volunteer at legal services clinics. Sometimes they even pay tuition to do so. Authors and publishers offer some books free to obtain reviews and get the word out. Businesses send promotional items. (My favorite is a pen I received free with my law firm name on it and a flashlight at the end – not that I’m starting to find it hard to read menus in dim light or anything). Knowing when to work free and when to hold out for pay, especially when starting a new career or venture, can be a challenge.

When I was sixteen, I aspired to be not an author or lawyer but a singer-songwriter. My friend and mentor, Mark Dvorak, who went on to make a living as a folksinger, gave me solid advice on when to work free. Though I ultimately didn’t pursue music as a career, I’ve found Mark’s rules helpful throughout my professional life. No doubt Mark stole the rules from someone else, but I hear that’s part of the folk process, so I’m guessing whoever originated them won’t mind my giving Mark the credit. Mark told me there were only three reasons an aspiring professional ought to work free: (1) to gain experience; (2) to gain exposure; or (3) to gain potential future paid work.

(1) To Gain Experience: There’s a reason most authors, myself included, have a stack of unpublished novels in a trunk or on their computers, why aspiring doctors spend years studying medicine, and why beginning musicians jump at the chance to perform before live audiences for nothing. My cases tend to be large class actions that take a long time to get to trial. So despite having practiced law for years, when I can fit it in, I try cases with a criminal lawyer I know. Working one or two days free now and again is worth it to me to sharpen my trial skills. (Also, it’s fun.) Similarly, when I started submitting short stories to literary publications, I didn’t care whether I got paid. Seeing how my work looked in print and getting feedback from editors and readers helped me learn about writing and marketing.

Offering published books free provides good marketing experience for independent authors. If your downloads are few, your cover, book blurb, or sample pages may need polishing. You also may need to vary the days you run promotions. When I offered my occult thriller The Awakening free during 3 weekdays after Christmas, I had fewer than a thousand downloads. Over Halloween weekend, though, nearly 7,000 people downloaded the book, and on the Friday and Saturday before Easter there were about 4,500. As I otherwise did all the same things (same cover, same blurb, same marketing tweets, listings in the same venues), I’m certain the difference was due to weekends versus weekdays and to the Halloween tie in.

Knowing when you really aren’t getting experience: There are times you don’t need further experience or won’t get it from working free. To go back to my music example, if you’ve played several times on stage in front of a hundred people, and many times in small coffeehouses, you don’t need to play at your neighbor’s barbeque free just to get some practice in front of a crowd. Along the same lines, I write and argue a lot of appeals in my practice, so while I will do a short trial to gain more experience, I don’t handle appeals free.

(2) To Gain Exposure: Offering a service or product, even a good one, isn’t enough to generate paying work if no one knows who you are, what you do, or whether your work is any good. That’s why businesses, professionals and artists often offer a limited amount of work or product free.

For indie authors, this usually means offering free sample pages, or even an entire book free for a limited time. Enough free downloads can put the book on one or more Top 100 free lists. For instance, The Awakening reached No. 1 on Amazon’s Free Horror and Free Occult lists. Following that, more than 100 people put the book on their Goodreads shelves, which was one of my goals, and it gained about 25 additional reviews. This exposure led into category 3 – future sales – as well.

For medical, legal, or other professionals, working free on occasion can also provide exposure. Speaking at seminars, getting featured in articles or writing them, and networking at business events all help people become familiar with your name. It may not result in business right away, but if someone recommends you, it helps if your name already sounds familiar.

When you’re really not getting exposure: Going back to the neighbor’s barbeque (not a good example for me, because I live in a condo, but still), if everyone there has heard you play and sing before, performing there for free does not get you exposure. Similarly, as an attorney, if you’re looking for work defending doctors against malpractice suits, it’s unlikely taking on your neighbor’s employment discrimination claim for free will bring you the type of exposure you need, especially if your neighbor’s work has nothing to do with medicine. Another thing to be aware of is that free sometimes results in negative exposure. If I know little about employment law but try to help my neighbor for free, it’s unlikely I’ll have the time or knowledge to do the type of job someone who concentrates in, and gets paid for, employment law would do. Worse, I could make a serious mistake and commit malpractice, which now harms my neighbor and my reputation, to say nothing of a possible lawsuit. (“But I did the work for free” is not a defense.)

(3) To Gain Future Paid Work (or Sales): As a musician, even once I started getting paid, I sometime played free at festivals because proprietors of coffee houses and clubs who hired musicians might see me. That’s a great example of working free to gain potential future work. In the writing world, free days can lead to sales. Following my last free days for The Awakening, there were enough sales for it to stay in the Top 100 Occult books on Amazon for nearly a week. Before that, the longest the book stayed on that list was two days. Right now, it’s off the list, but it’s still considered a best seller, and that helps future sales. On the other hand, I’ve been neglecting the marketing of my short story collection The Tower Formerly Known As Sears And Two Other Tales Of Urban Horror and it’s never been on any Top 100 paid list. So I’m hosting two free days this Saturday and Sunday (May 11 and 12, 2013).

When I started as a lawyer at a large firm (not the one featured in The Tower, of course, or I might not have survived), I attended client meetings whenever I could, even if I couldn’t bill for the time. Often, the “free” meeting led to the client asking me to do paid work, and many of those clients still send me work today. That’s why I’ll provide free consultations to existing clients if they need some one-off research or advice, even if it takes a few hours.

It’s also worth giving advice free to other lawyers on occasion.  When I started my law firm, a business colleague introduced me to a lawyer who’d started her own practice years before. Rima met me for coffee and spent over an hour telling me what she’d learned about computers, billing software, business development, and finding a good employees. When I realized I didn’t want to handle the various filings required by the state and federal government for starting and maintaining a law firm, I called Rima and hired her to do it. I’ve also referred other small business owners and lawyers to her over the years.

How to know when there is no potential for future sales. When I started my practice, I used to talk with anyone who called for up to forty-five minutes if it sounded like a matter that might be in my field. Unfortunately, most of the people were looking for a lawyer who would handle an entire case free or guide them while they handled the case themselves, which is something I don’t do. Now when people call cold, after the first ten or fifteen minutes, I let them know that I’m happy to talk a little further at no charge, and even review basic documents to see if I can help, but if it turns out they want me to represent them, my fee is $___ per hour and I will need an up front retainer of $____ (usually my hourly rate times 10). At that point, most people say they are looking for someone to handle the whole matter free, and I refer them to a legal aid society. (I do some volunteer legal work, but only related to non-profit entities I’m involved with.)

Another downside of free is that people don’t tend to value something they don’t pay for. Every lawyer I know has experienced this. The acquaintance who asks if you can provide free legal advice is far more likely to forget to show up for the appointment, or reschedule repeatedly, than the paying client, even if you don’t typically charge a cancellation fee. Likewise, most authors I know find they get more negative reviews from people who get their books free than from those who buy them. When you think about it, if you don’t value your time or product, why should the other person? Many recipients on some level feel that if something is being given away, it can’t be worth much. That’s another reason it’s wise to limit free offers to a sample size, introductory consultation, or a limited number of days.

I hope the above guidelines are helpful in deciding when or whether to offer your work free. Comments about your experiences are welcome.

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Lisa M. Lilly is an attorney and author of Amazon occult bestseller The Awakening, short story collection The Tower Formerly Known As Sears And Two Other Tales Of Urban Horror, and numerous poems, short stories, and articles. She is currently working on the sequel to The Awakening.

The Tower Formerly Known As Sears And Two Other Tales Of Urban Horror will be free 5/11 and 5/12 at http://amzn.to/nSGpew

Visit The Awakening on Amazon: http://amzn.to/pFCcN6

Me, Myself, and – I’s?

I first heard it on a snippet from reality TV.  A woman with cover model looks said something about “Sean and I’s relationship.”  A month later, I attended a condo board meeting and a board member said, “John and I’s work on this took a long time.”  Talking about themselves challenges many people when it comes to grammar (in particular, “me,” “myself,” and “I” are often misused), but I still wasn’t sure it warranted a blog post.  Then I received an email from a businessperson that ended with:  “If you have concerns, please bring them to Susan’s or I’s attention.” 

I blame grade school teachers.   (Not you, Miss Hall, you were great.)  My sixth grade gym teacher, of all people, drummed into every student’s head that a sentence should never begin with “Joan and me” or, worse yet, “Me and Joan….”   Similarly, the vice president of marketing I worked for in my first full time job learned in business school never to say “I” or “me” in a business letter.  These types of dictates have led many people to fear the word “me.”  As a result, they say or write “I” or “myself” when “me” is actually proper.  And now the fear of “me” and all its variations has led to something worse – use of the non-word “I’s” in place of “my.”

In the hope of making it easier for people to talk and write about themselves, though admittedly there are some who need no encouragement to do so, I prepared some simple guidelines.

(1) At least one thing grade school teachers preach is correct.  The other person’s name comes first, so “me and Joan” is always wrong.  Think of it as being polite and letting your friend, colleague, or even adversary walk through the door first. 

(2) An easy way to sort out “me” versus “I” is to remove “and Joan” and listen to the sentence.  “I went to the store” sounds – and is – correct (because “I” is the subject of the sentence – the one who acts).  “Me went to the store” is and sounds incorrect.  (“Me” is proper only where “me” is the object of the sentence – the person acted upon.)  Grammar doesn’t change just because Joan goes with me to the store.   Accordingly, “I went to the store,” becomes “Joan and I went to the store,” not “Joan and me went to the store.”

(3) But what about “Joan and me?”  As before, drop “Joan and” and see how the sentence sounds.  “The store manager gave me free donuts” sounds correct (and is correct, because "me" is the object of the store manager's action), while “the store manager gave I free donuts” sounds wrong.  Accordingly, the store manager “gave Joan and me free donuts,” but he didn’t give “Joan and I free donuts.”  Similarly, I would say “please talk to me about your grammar questions,” not “please talk to I,” if I want you to contact me with your questions.  So, if I’d like to include Joan, I should say, “please talk to Joan and me about your grammar questions” (unless Joan, like many people, really hates discussing grammar). 

(4) Sometimes it’s all about you, and there is no other person involved.  The easiest way to decide whether to use “me,” “I,” or “myself” is to consider how the sentence would sound if you were talking about someone else.  For instance, consider the following sentences about Bill, the billing administrator:  “Bill has been handling the billing.  Please contact himself with questions.” “Bill has been handling the billing.  Please contact he with questions.”   Without knowing the rules, most of us simply know those sentences are wrong, and that the correct phrasing is as follows:  “Bill has been handling the billing.  Please contact him with questions.”  This formulation doesn’t change if I am the billing administrator.  The correct sentences in those circumstances are as follows:  “I have been handling the billing.  Please contact me with any questions.”   To say “contact myself” or “contact I” in that instance would be just as incorrect as saying “please contact himself” or “he” when Bill was the billing administrator.

(5) So when is “myself” proper?  Rarely.  That’s because – and this is the official rule – words with “self,” such as myself, himself, herself, and yourself, are reflexive pronouns.  Reflexive means the subject (the person acting) and the object (the person being acted upon) in the sentence must match.  This rule is the same no matter what the verb.   The best way to understand this is to remember that I can help myself, talk to myself, or challenge myself, but I cannot help yourself, talk to yourself, or challenge yourself, only you can do that.  That’s why asking someone else to “please contact myself” requests the impossible.  Only I can contact myself, everyone else can only contact “me.”

(6) Which brings me (not myself) to the impetus for this post -- the growing use of “I’s.”  The rule here is easy – “I’s” is wrong.  “I’s” is not a word.  But possessives can be tricky, especially when more than one person is being talked about.   As with “Joan and me” versus “Joan and I,” for the possessive, again try removing “and Joan.”  You would never say, “I’m taking I’s car to the shop,” you would say, “I’m taking my car to the shop.”  If you’re taking Joan’s car, you would say, “I’m taking Joan’s car to the shop.”  So, if you are taking a car you and Joan own together:  “I’m taking Joan’s and my car to the shop.”  If you are taking two cars, one that belongs to you and one that belongs to Joan, “car” becomes “cars,” but all else stays the same:  “I’m taking Joan’s and my cars to the shop.”  (For reality show viewers, for this reason, while “Sean’s and my” relationship could be going well if I were on The Bachelor and looked like a cover model, “Sean and I’s” could not.)

Questions?  Please feel free to contact me.

Lisa M. Lilly is an attorney and author of Amazon occult bestseller THE AWAKENING, short story collection THE TOWER FORMERLY SEARS AND TWO OTHER TALES OF URBAN HORROR, and numerous poems, short stories, and articles.  She is currently working on the sequel to THE AWAKENING.

Follow her on Twitter:  @lisamlilly

Check out THE AWAKENING on Amazon:  http://amzn.to/pFCcN6

The Proof is in the Proofing

It’s one of the less fun, to say the least, parts of writing, even for someone like me who loves to write. But proofreading matters, no matter what type of writing you do.  If you’re a lawyer, it’s hard to make a good impression on clients, the court, or other attorneys you work with (or against) if you send documents with typos.  If you write fiction, nothing is more distracting to a reader, or more likely to alienate a potential publisher, than grammatical mistakes or spelling errors.  We’d all like to think our plots or characters or arguments are so compelling that the reader will soldier on despite being yanked out of the narrative by errors in spelling, format, or grammar.  But why take the chance?  And why would you want your reader – whether a book purchaser, judge, or business colleague – to stop in the middle of what you wrote to wonder whether a comma really belongs there or why that word looks wrong?

Ironically, the ease of revising documents today compared to the days of typewriters and photocopiers actually seems to make producing perfect text harder.  It’s possible via email and word processing and electronic publishing to edit documents down to the very last second, and so we do it.  Which makes it more likely we’ll miss errors.  Below are my top eight tips for producing perfect copy. You won’t be able to use all of them all the time.  But if you apply a few, chances are your finished work will be much closer to perfect.

(1) Give yourself time.  If it’s at all possible, aim to finish your brief, story, or statement the evening before it’s due so you can look at it fresh in the morning.  It’s amazing what will jump out at you.  If that’s not possible, and often it’s not these days, find a way to set the document aside for at least an hour, during which time you should do something completely unrelated, before the last read through. 

(2) Print and print preview.  At least once when your document is close to final, print it and review it on paper.  When you make final edits, print at least the pages you’ve changed, set them aside for a few minutes, then look one last time.  And before you email or submit any document, use the print preview feature on your word processor to eyeball the entire document.  Check for formatting aspects such as margins, paragraph indents, and spacing.  Nothing is more frustrating than slaving over a 10 or 20-page manuscript, making a last minor change, and not realizing it threw your formatting off so that suddenly there’s a half a blank page in the middle, or the font shrunk to 8 point on page three.  The reader sees this major problem and thinks you never bothered even to glance at the work before you sent it.  A quick review with print preview ensures your document looks good overall.

(3) Read aloud.  Reading a document aloud helps you get a fresh look and spot mistakes.  I often read my outgoing emails aloud before I send.  (This also helps me recognize if the tone of the email is other than what I intended.)  For longer documents, or shorter turn around times, try just reading aloud the areas you’re struggling with or the areas to which you made your last changes.

 (4) Use a ruler.  If you’ve rewritten a document several times and your eyes are blurring, try placing a ruler under each line of text as you read.  This helps you focus on one line at a time and makes it easier to spot mistakes.

(5) Read backwards.  Reading backwards won’t help you with grammar, but it will help you spot spelling errors and spacing issues like th is one.  Reading forwards, your mind tends to fill in the blanks and correct errors because, as hard as you try, your brain focuses on the content, not the actual words.  Reading backwards short-circuits that.  This approach obviously is not for entire novels or even 25-page briefs.  It can be very effective, however, for a short document that you absolutely need to be perfect.

(6) Share the work.  Ask a clerk, secretary, or colleague who has never reviewed your document before to read it.  Even if the person you ask is not a fantastic proofreader, he or she will almost certainly spot errors you read right through because you know the writing so well.  (If you’re a lawyer, you may wonder, why not let the client or your supervising partner do that – she or he is going to read the document anyway.  Yes, but do you really expect your client or supervisor to act as your assistant and correct your mistakes?  Really?)

(7) Aim for perfection.  Make it your goal to provide a story or brief or memo that’s free from all errors.  Is that realistic?  Probably not, especially if you are working on an 85,000 word novel.  But if you aim for a perfect document, the odds are, at worst, you will miss a few typos.  If you mentally shrug your shoulders and decide that typing “where” instead of “wear” or “therefore” instead of “therefor” really doesn’t matter, it’s likely you’ll produce work with many errors.  (Homonyms – words that sound the same but are spelled differently like “where” and “wear” – are the main reason you can’t rely on your word processor’s spell checker alone for proofreading.) 

(8) Start well and end well.  In a very long document, particularly if you need to finish within a short time period, you may not be able to proof the entire document one last time after your final changes and before calling it finished.  So, at the very least, make your first page and last page perfect.  Read them aloud, read them backwards, read them with a ruler to be sure those pages shine.  Why?  The beginning of a document provides the reader’s first impression, and the end of the document will be most likely to be remembered.  Make your first and last impressions good ones.

Now, if there are typos in the above, I’m going to be really embarrassed.

Lisa M. Lilly is an attorney and author of Kindle occult bestseller THE AWAKENING, short story collection THE TOWER FORMERLY SEARS AND TWO OTHER TALES OF URBAN HORROR, and numerous poems, short stories, and articles.  

Follow her on Twitter:  @lisamlilly

Check out The Awakening on Amazon:  http://amzn.to/pFCcN6