Cazmanian_minx's MFi3 diary

setmefree2

Fantastic Photos.:T:T:T

cazmanian_minx

Two bits of good news - I sold another bangle and got a cheque for one of the transcription jobs :T :T :T :T :T

Royal Mail's website was so slow that I managed to write an entire 2,000-word short story whilst waiting for it to process my labels. It's for a competiton to write a modern ghost story, but the closing date isn't until February, so I have time to put it aside for a couple of weeks and then read it with fresh eyes closer to the time.

I've taken off all my automatic relists on eBay today, so items that sell won't get put straight back up. We're away north on the 22nd and I want to have all my eBay stuff paid for and sent out by the time we go, as I won't have any internet access up there.

Caz

cazmanian_minx

The third bangle sold last night for the full asking price :j :j :j Didn't realise until I was printing off my bead orders this morning and realised that I had one more Paypal notification than I had bead orders!

I'd better make some more this afternoon then

Caz

Kaz2904

Caz, I went out to a 'Mums market' last night which had lots of Mums selling things. There were lots of jewellery stalls there selling the kind of items that you have the components for.
I think you should defiantely go for this as you will have time to assemble some jewellery before these fairs start coming up again.
Go for it!

cazmanian_minx

Thanks to eBay's cheap listing day today, I have another 11 bangles up for sale Fingers crossed they do as well as the last lot. I've done the photos in my table-top studio this time, so they look a little bit more professional.

Today's post has brought one returned bead (which I was expecting) and one CD of transcription work (which I wasn't!). Running my mouse over the files, it's only 44 minutes, but £30 is £30... I shall try and knock it out tomorrow.

The Crimble shopping is nearly done. I've done Xmas stockings for brother-out-law and mother-out-law instead of 'main' presents, as we're all going to be together over Christmas, so I've had lots of fun belting round all the pound shops trying to find lots of useful bits. I just need to make sure everything stays in labelled bags - I'm not sure my 80-y-o M-o-L would see the funny side if she gets a copy of Nuts in her stocking instead of the Womens Weekly Fiction Special :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

About to pack up today's eBay parcels and then I'm going to sit down and try to write a pitch for a publisher - I've heard about a series of non-fiction books wanting new titles for their range and I'm going to pitch them one on eBay! A writing friend who's had one accepted has very kindly sent me her successful pitch to use as an outline, so hopefully I can get a first draft done tonight while OH is out at yet another Xmas do!

Caz

setmefree2

Good luck with the book pitch!

cazmanian_minx

That's IT! I've finished the Xmyth shopping!! Just got to write all my cards and wrap the stocking fillers and I'm done :A

Finished the transcription job today and need to do an invoice and post back the CD tomorrow. eBay has really quietened down. No sniffs at the bangles this time and the beads side is slacking off because I'm letting all my listings end prior to going away for Christmas. However, it's the business credit card statement cut off date tomorrow and I have £45 more in the current account than the total due, so at least I'm solvent :rotfl: And I have £552 in my Paypal account (with about another £100 due) so I can afford to pay myself as well :j :j :j

I emailed my story to my writing group for crit and they loved it, so it's gone off to two possible markets, one in the UK and one in Aus. Hopefully they'll both say yes or no in time for it to go off to the competition it was originally written for if neither of them want it. However, if both of them take it, it would earn me around £700, so I'm crossing my fingers. Book pitch is half written - I've done the 'why this book needs to be written', 'how I can promote this book' and 'why I'm the perfect person to write this book', I've now got to come up with a list of chapter titles and some idea of what I'd put in each. I have a big spider diagram that's getting bigger every day, so I shall try and sort it into some kind of order over the weekend.

Caz

catshark88

Have just sold a picture to Horse & Hound! It's gone in today's issue. No idea what they pay and having looked in the Photographer's guide, am only expecting £20-30 but am so excited, I don't care!:rotfl:

Your ebay sales seem to be going really well. :T

Happy Christmas everyone.

cazmanian_minx

catshark88 wrote: »

Have just sold a picture to Horse & Hound! It's gone in today's issue. No idea what they pay and having looked in the Photographer's guide, am only expecting £20-30 but am so excited, I don't care!:rotfl:

That's FANTASTIC, well done :T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T

Which guide are you using? I've got the BFP one, The Freelance Photographer's Market Handbook 2007, but it only gives day rates for H&H. Something I've always wanted to know - how do you sell photos to magazines? Is it just a case of emailing the picture editor with low-res jpgs or do you send a list of subjects and then email the ones they request? I wish there was a photographic equivalent of Renegade Writer! (Thoroughly recommended to anyone wanting to write for magazines, by the way - it's American, but its methods work over here just as well.)

I've been spoiled for Christmas - OH told me on Saturday he wanted to buy me an extra present, swept me into the camera shop and I now have a 70-300mm zoom lens, which because the 300D doesn't have a full-frame sensor, works out at nearer 420mm at the long end So I'm hoping to get some cracking shots of the surfers on New Year's Day (mad fools - this is just down from John O'Groats!) and hoping like mad that I manage to track down some of the local otters, of which there are quite a few.

Not much other news. I've possibly got another transcription job coming in for early January, which would be useful. Oh, and I got round to valuing my business yesterday. The balance sheet shows it's worth £4,800 or thereabouts, and the profit and loss shows a profit of £9,600 since April 07. Not a fortune, but it more than covers the bills and I hope it'll be onwards and upwards in 2008!

I'll be offline for the next two weeks, so if I don't nip back here before we head north, MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE:xmassign::xmastree::xmastree::xmassign:

Caz

catshark88

Thank you!

I've got the same guide and was too embarrassed to ask about rates. The photo editor said they were paying "photo rates" and seemed to assume I would know what she meant...:rotfl:

I sold this one through luck really. H&H have been running a series about training various pro riders. One of them won at an event I was attending and they got my number via the show organiser. Unfortunately I only had pics of their rider on a different horse (the light was getting so bad that we couldn't finish the class) but they have gone with one anyway. It is really worth getting the right kit if you do want to make cash though. Without the new camera & lens, we would never have been able to take indoor pics, mid p.m. in dark conditions and certainly not a snap mid flying change.

Personally I would suggest getting a bit of a portfolio together and then phoning picture editors and arranging to send them pics that they would find relevant. I didn't get a response when I emailed a mag on spec and the personal contact really helps.

Best of luck and have fun with the new camera!