Behind the Book: The Gig Economy
September 2, 2026
This started as a money problem. The turning point was treating income generation as a science experiment instead of following it like a religion.
Tag: Freelancing
Freelance writing is a business before it is a craft. These articles cover finding clients, setting rates, handling contracts, and building a practice that pays, written from decades of doing the work instead of theorizing about it.
Contracts and AgreementsWhy Most Writers Never Get Paid
August 12, 2026
Talent is not what separates writers who get paid from writers who do not. Here is what really moves the needle, from voice and story to selling your work.
Business BooksThe Least They Could Get Away With: Pricing, Worth, and Why the Cheap Work Never Ends
July 29, 2026
Two contracts arrived unasked for and paid $25,000 in advance, and the look on the client's face said the quote had been too low. On Gamify Business Tavern Tales with Paul Pape: the $980 book that works out to five…
AI and WritingWhy Cheap Ghostwriting Is the Expensive Mistake
July 11, 2026
Cheap ghostwriting is expensive. Content mills produce books that look like books and fail at the one thing a book is for: building authority.
ConsultingMy First Consulting Job Paid $600. I Had No Idea What I Was Doing.
June 16, 2026
Overconfident, underprepared and completely naive, with my eye on six hundred dollars and no idea I could not do the work until I was in too deep.
SEE » The Authority Gap: 30 Days of Uncomfortable Truths series
Book MarketingWe Imagined a Little Flat Somewhere With a Typewriter
June 11, 2026
I was going to write the great American novel. What nobody described was the part where writing is a business with invoices in it.
Book ROI & Business CaseI Won a Contest for $15. It Took Me Two Hours.
May 19, 2026
Three hours on a review for a fifty dollar prize I did not win. Three months of contests for one fifteen dollar win. The arithmetic on micro-income schemes is worse than it looks.
Book ROI & Business CaseI Made $25,000 in a Year From Things in My Closet. Here Is What Changed.
May 16, 2026
A thousand items, twenty-five thousand dollars, one year. eBay has changed under sellers since 2003, and most of the advice out there describes a platform that no longer exists.
Book ROI & Business CaseThe Rose Parade Pins That Stopped Me Decluttering
May 14, 2026
I had the display case open and the pins counted. Then I checked what they were worth, and the arithmetic stopped me. Knowing when to stop is the part nobody teaches.
Becoming a GhostwriterHow I Handle Rejection as a Ghostwriter: The Business Reality Nobody Talks About
February 12, 2026
I charge $1 a word, which puts a typical book between $50,000 and $80,000. When prospects hear that, some of them simply disappear. Rejection is part of this business, and almost no one talks honestly about it. Here is how…
Becoming a GhostwriterFair Compensation for Writers: Never Work for Free
February 9, 2026
Getting paid to write is harder than it should be, but hard is not impossible. The writers who earn well are rarely the most talented, they are the ones who treat writing as a business. Here is what that actually…
Authority BuildingNetworking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections.
May 12, 2025
Richard Lowe (The Writing King) joins Michael A. Forman on Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections for a conversation built around one