To the freelance writers: The good Angela Hoy of WritersWeekly has written an article on Red Flag Phrases To Avoid In Freelance Help Wanted Ads. I recommend reading it.

Sunoasis tries to weed out bad ads, certainly when we link to jobs, but a few can get through. Just use your common sense and remember that old phrase, "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."

There's a piece in a Cox newspaper, The Daily Reflector, on a job fair for journalism students. Journalism is all about telling people the news and how it effects them. Even if that means covering the mundane news story.

The job fair is effective for more than one reason but the central one gets back to "networking." If you talk with an editor or hiring manager at a job fair they then can associate a resume or cover letter with a voice and a face. It's much more effective than mere anonymous words.

An article on older workers getting into new careers. And we do have loyalty to older workers who, ironically, are going to be needed more than ever in the next decade or so.

Personally, I like to keep my writing resource shelf well-stocked and effective. I prefer my almanacs, dictionaries, and style books bound and within arms reach. However,I was told that flipping through a dictionary was, "so 90's," and I guess the fashionable thing is to get everything from the Net. Why not? We get almost everything from the Net and are still greedy for its treasures.

Style Manuals and Writing Guides
American Heritage Book of English Usage
Punctuation Made Simple
Effective Writing
Public Speaking and Speech Writing

We always like to pass on links to improve your writing and editing. No matter how much the resume, cover letter, interview, employer targeting, are important nothing speaks more clearly than the talent and skill to solve the problems that different employers are trying to solve.

The Craft of Writing: An Interview with Catherine Boo from NPR.
The graphic use of "concept maps" will help the writer fully explore the diverse nature of any piece of writing.
These techniques for "raising your writing an extra notch," are useful. One of the better things the author says is always be aware when you have to clarify a point. The writer needs to objectify his own work to critique it. Most writing that conveys information is "scanned" by readers who are trying to pick out the salient aspects of the piece. It may seem selfish that the reader is reading for himself and doesn't take into consideration the work that went into it, but that is the sad truth.

The craft of copy editing.

Ah, the famous and potent query letter. I always felt that if you make an important piece of writing a template then editors will find them boring and useless. A freelance writer should always keep in mind that he or she is trying to reach another person and to use some imagination when putting a query letter together. Make your query letter a balled-up fist and hit the editor between the eyes.

Some resources:
Writing a Bulletproof Article Query by Laura Backes
21 Rules for Writing Stellar Query Letters by Paul Lima
Carolyn Dekat has an extensive article on the ins and outs of preparing non-fiction article writing. Recommended.
Sample query for a book.
Advice in preparing a query to agents.

There are other job sites that are filled with specialty jobs. Here are a few:

• Jobs for News Researchers.
• Poet's and Writer's includes job information for creative writing teachers, among other things.
• Workinpr.com is for PR professionals.
• BackstageJobs.com has openings for playwrights and dramaturgs.
• Council of Science Editors has postings for science editors.

I suppose every writer has a book in him or her. Over the past couple of years we've paid attention to the art and craft of self-publishing. It's another interesting niche in the publishing universe, amplified now by the new technologies and distribution systems. There is nothing that can enhance a career more than a well-written book. Here are some articles to take a look at:
How to Write a Great Non-Fiction Book Proposal.
Self-editing success by Carole Moore
We came across one of the best outlines of what a book proposal should be.
The author of DaVinci Code has tips to sell a novel.

Two blogs to check out:
A self-publishing blog by Stephen Weber
Check out the self-publishing blog from Foner Books. The writer is a former trade book writer who, "gave it up for self-publishing." His name is Morris Rosenthal and he has the best take on self-publishing I've seen yet. He makes the point that when you self-publish you have become an "acquisitions editor."

There are new federal rules that will make getting a job online a bit more complex. The rules are designed to get more diversity in companies with over 50 employees. Read the article and look at the bottom for tips on how to make sure you aren't lost in the shuffle.

We get many questions about the front-end of a writing career; either by students or by people who are trapped in a job they don't want and would like to realize their dreams of being a writer.

In the process of making these transitions from one career to another or from school to jobs there are three basic things to think about.

The first of these is self-assessment; the ability to see yourself objectively with some achievements to back up your skill sets, an understanding of what motivates you, how you work with others, your work ethic and so on. Write it all down!

Move, then, to the second thing: Researching the career you want to go into. There are books, web sites, references to every type of career, including the writing career. There are books on how to get into magazine careers or newspaper careers or, now, web writing careers. As you research write down all possible contacts you can make in your quest. Begin to signal out places you want to work.

The third thing is getting the necessary skills to do a job search. You can't avoid writing resumes and cover letters. The old ambiguous word, networking makes its appearance. Do you know how to interview or negotiate salary? Do these things before you actually start the job search. Put these ducks in a row and then prospect, network, research and so on for jobs in the area of interest you have chosen.

It is never a "do it all now" proposition. Separate these steps out and do the necessary things thoroughly and be prepared for the task of finding a job in the career of choice.