Monday, January 10, 2011

Chances are

I am so excited I am writing this post and scheduling it a whole 8 hours b4 it goes live - I am all grown up! there might just be hope for me after all.

I am hanging out at the inlaws till the hubs gets back from this new round of travelling, problem is there are so many kids running up and down i cannot even hear myself think on the plus side tho' grabby toddler gets to hang out with his cousins and i can take him to childrens shows, the library and watch yo gabba gabba.

Okay so back to my post of the day Chances are .....
as helpful as the blogging community might be there might still be scammers amongst us (did I just hear you say duh? u are such a smart cookie)
There are loads of services being offered to help us writers online, and I won't really go into great detail about those services, but please please look before you leap.
Do your research! talk to your bloggy friends about their experiences, find out about their qualifications, ask them a billion questions and best of all follow your instinct.
Good Luck me hearties and if all else fails ask Writers Beware.

am off to send out a million batches of questions to some amazing folks, tomorrow I'll talk about google alert - it has me intrigued.

xoxo
Joanna

19 comments:

  1. I’m such a skeptical person that I didn’t go through any writing services. The most I did was read every “how to” article there was to find about writing.

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  2. "Good Luck me hearties "


    I'm suddenly compelled to think in pirate.

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  3. Great advice!!! Boo to scammers!!!

    Enjoy your evening in the chaos!! Take care
    x

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  4. I don't really check out the writing services online--I try to stay away from everything except some writing advice, which can be quite good.

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  5. Excellent advice. My hubby was a bit skeptical about me giving my address when I win books and goodies on different blogs. So far o good:)

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  6. Happy New Year, Joanna. I've never used online writing services and never will. I'm too paranoid about someone stealing my premise!

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  7. When I figured out how to schedule posts I was ecstatic. It changed my life. Now if only blogger stats would come back!

    Scams are everywhere. There's a few I've seen and/or suspected but don't say anything because I don't want to be that suspicious sceptic. Even tho I am. Best advice is what you said-- research it and be careful with your money.

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  8. Ah, you can add this to my list of things that I'm paranoid about ;). Like you said, the key is research and checking with co-writers in your professional groups. When in doubt, trust your gut and check it out!

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  9. Thanks for the excellent advice. As far as I'm concerned it's very timely as I'm floundering about which online services to take.

    Thanks again for great posts always!

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  10. Never got into online services, I get all I need from our wonderful community of bloggers.

    Stop over Joanna, I have a cute interview today with Nancy's MC Missie.

    I'd love to see you there.

    Michael

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  11. I know what you mean about scheduling posts ahead of time. I just scheduled Wednesday's post but now I wish it were Wednesday just so it would post, lol.

    I'm so paranoid about entering any kind of information over the internet...to a probably unhealthy extreme. But at least it keeps me safe most of the time.

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  12. Like some of the others here, I don't do online writing services. Though now that I think about it, I did hire a woman in California to critique a film script for me a few years ago, and she did an excellent job. I keep thinking about working on her suggestions; I'd write it first as a story, no frills, no fancy descriptive passages, and then turn it into a script. I was pleased with her "service." So, that is one case of a good result.

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  13. p.s. But that wasn't an online service. I just found her online and then emailed her.

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  14. Sites like Writers Beware are great. Thanks for getting the word out there.

    Hope you survive all the madness at your in-laws' home!

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  15. Good reminder about scammers. I so wish it wasn't necessary. Enjoy your in-laws visit. And cousins. Cousins for toddlers are wonderful!

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  16. It sounds like my life at your in-laws. LOL

    My Google Alerts tell me all about my very own post and Fantasy Football!

    Thanks for the comment on Michael's blog. Did you realize I'm running a contest for 3 e-books. But you have to leave your email to qualify. So dear lady, if you follow, comment and leave your email I can put you in the contest grab bag over and over again.
    Nancy
    N. R. Williams, fantasy author

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  17. Yikes. I would never use a service. My mother introduced me to someone who knew an editor. I had to explain to my Mother that paying somebody to edit my work is like cheating; I should be able to do it on my own, make it my best before an agent/editor sees it. THEN I would trust both said agent/editor with any editorial suggestions.

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  18. Writer Beware...I was just over on another blog about trust. Mistrust must be contagious :) I think a good freelance editor is like having a coach. You don't want them telling you what to do with line edits, but you want them to keep you going in the right direction. Even olympiads have a coach. :) Of course, there are coaches, and then there are coaches. The right coach is an ideal reader/ultimate crit partner, if you will. We all have crit partners, I hope.

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  19. Thanks for this, I am so sceptical that I tend to deal with people who have been recomending by people I know and trust. Sad though that we have to be so untrusting of many good people. Take care x

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