Some Rewrites Just Might Not Be Worth The Money

[Scott M. Sandridge]

Has anyone else ever had an experience where the remarks from a requested rewrite are so asinine that you wonder if the peanuts you're being paid is even worth the freakin' headache?

It's bad enough that making the changes will require rewriting the entire article from scratch (since I have to throw away EVERYTHING that's in the article), but, being that I have Irish roots and all, to get treated like I know nothing about Irish traditions and such (even though I've studied the history and traditions of every ethnicity in me) is just downright insulting.

And that the copyeditor's remarks show that he either didn't read, or just skimmed over, said article (claiming that I left out things that I didn't leave out) simply adds injury to insult. A "could you make this part more clear, etc., etc.," I can understand, but dang!

[erazmus]

So don't do it.
its not like you'll miss making the rent because of it. If you don't agree, don't comply.

Mike

[Richard H. Fay]

Has anyone else ever had an experience where the remarks from a requested rewrite are so asinine that you wonder if the peanuts you're being paid is even worth the freakin' headache?

Yes, or at least, something roughly similar. I've had an editor request a rewrite of a poem from one form to another, which would have changed my whole concept.

Times like that, I just say no.

I also had a team of editors suggest that one poem would actually work better as prose, rewrote it as prose, and still had it rejected. That was a real waste of my time and energy, with nothing whatsoever to show for it (the poem in question was eventually published, as the original verse version, in a "4 the luv" market).

Of course, there was, infamously, the time a publisher wanted me to remove and/or change several poems in my dark speculative poetry collection because the poems in question were too dark. That was more of a change than I was comfortable with. In the end, it was mutually agreed that the best thing would be for me to send the collection elsewhere.

As for running across people that think they know more than you, when you clearly know more than them - well, get used to it. That's the way the world works.

[Scott M. Sandridge]

Thanks guys.

I just had to vent. It makes the second bad experience I've had with that particular company. And even though the extra money helps, the lack of any real editor/writer relationship is turning into a pain. All the copyeditors are basically rendered anonymous, and which copyeditor ends up reviewing your work is pretty much random. So you don't have that familiarity you get when working with a magazine editor, etc.

They might be one of the highest-paying content mills out there (and ,yes, $15 an article is high-paying compared to what most content mills pay), but the headaches of dealing with them is getting overbearing. They're a good way of getting a little quick money if you want it (because they do pay quite fast), but....

Eh. I should just stick to writing fiction.

[crystalwizard]

If this is the second bad experience, Scott, then you might either want to stop writing for them or else when you submit something just plan on it being a template for the real article they're going to ask you to write when they send back their revision.

Let me guess, you're trying to write for demand studios?

[Scott M. Sandridge]

Yeah.

It wasn't this bad when they first started out, but anymore it's just UGH! I've never had problems doing revisions for them, but it seems more and more you run into grumpy copy editors who just want to insult you.

[Richard H. Fay]

Thanks guys.

They might be one of the highest-paying content mills out there (and ,yes, $15 an article is high-paying compared to what most content mills pay), but the headaches of dealing with them is getting overbearing.

I get $10 or so for articles I write for various zines, and deal with editors I have some sort of working relationship with. Of course, they're restrictive in what subjects they want (some more than others), but it can be a valid outlet for non-fiction, perhaps minus some of the headaches you're experiencing.

I should just stick to writing fiction.

You might want to reconsider that. Based on my personal experience, non-fiction can be easier to place than fiction. Apparently, not so many people write non-fiction. At least, not in the field of genre writing. I've even been told by at least one fiction writer that she can't really write non-fiction.

Yeah.

It wasn't this bad when they first started out, but anymore it's just UGH! I've never had problems doing revisions for them, but it seems more and more you run into grumpy copy editors who just want to insult you.

Then find someplace else to write articles for.

[Scott M. Sandridge]

Yeah, you're right. I'm done with content mills. I have better things to do with my time, and better things to write about.

[John M. Whalen]

The thing that gets me about this is, if the editor has so many problems with the article, why doesn't he just reject it outright, instead of going through all that. Must be something there that he likes and wants. Maybe you can work out a compromise. Do some revising but set a limit and don't go beyond that. Because if you change EVERYTHING, he might as wel have written it himself. Happy Fourth!

[Scott M. Sandridge]

The system there doesn't let a copy editor reject an article outright. A revision has to be requested first before it can be rejected.

Another problem is the only information they give you on what the article is supposed to be about is the title (ex. "How to Build a 747" or some other silly thing that would take a book to explain instead of a 500 word article), the format (ex. "How to", "About", "List", etc.), the pay (which ranges from $3 to $30; although, I've never seen anything on there that pays higher than $15), and where it's going to (ex. "eHow", "About.com", etc.).

[Jaqhama]

Here's a link that reviews four of the article paid for sites.

http://writinghood.com/online-writin...rth-your-time/

I don't think I could be bothered with any of them.