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Van Cliburn Competition: Seeing the Mountaintop

June 4, 2009 by Karen Berger

Sometimes it’s really important to see just what the tippy-top highest standard in your field of endeavor is: Pianists can see the tip of the mountaintop at the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. It’s one of the most exciting events in classical music, and those of you who think that that’s equivalent to “one of the most exciting days watching paint dry” should look it up. The performance of Chopin’s Conceerto #1 tonight (9:45 Eastern Time) by a blind pianist might rock your world.  www.cliburn.tv.

Just making it to the competition is a lifetime achievement. The range of repertoire runs through four hundred years of classical music, including the bedrock pieces of the classical repertoire, along with chamber music, and the huge knuckle-pounding concerti.

29 pianists started in the competition, which runs from May 22 to June 7 (2009), every one of them a phenomenal artist. It’s now down to 6 finalists,  and those of us who aren’t lucky enough to be there in person can watch performances AND rehearsals, streamed live, on Webcam.

www.cliburn.tv 

The performances will also be archived.

Posted in Music, Performing | Tagged | Leave a Comment »

The Best Seller List: Myth and Reality

May 29, 2009 by Karen Berger

It’s the goal of every writer:  A place on the New York Times Best Seller List.

A few months ago, I was at a writer’s conference, where one of my fellow writers had achieved that golden status: She was a coauthor of a book that had been solidly stuck on the list for months. There was talk of a movie.  I’d been wondering for years about how this watershed achievement changes lives, and the answer turns out to be: Not so much.

My colleague had, like me, paid a few hundred bucks to attend this particularly selective conference, in order to pitch ideas to magazine editors whose interest in the assembled writers ranged from avid to tepid. Many of them, after the conference, would not even bother to reply to e-mailed pitched they had personally solicited. 

Believe me, I was incredibly impressed with my colleague’s accomplishment: I figured the editors would be lining up to talk to her. If I were an editor (and I actually HAVE been one), I’d go looking for a story to assign this writer to do. You make it to the NY Times, list, I figure, you get a free pass into the fast lane.  But, according to her, that’s not the way the world works. New York Times bestseller? Yawn. She still had to write queries; she still got ignored by 24-year old assistants.  I found that about the most depressing thing I’d heard all year (and in the world of publishing this year, THAT is saying something).

So that was reality check number one.

Here comes number two: The money isn’t even all that good. A few months ago, author Lynn Viehl promoised to reveal all if she ever made “The list.” Twilight Fall debuted at Number 19; Lynn kept her promise, and here’s her tale.

I don’t know what the moral of this story is; I don’t even know IF there is a moral to this story. Keep your day job? Do it for the dream, but not for the reality? 

I suppose we’re writers, so we write. Reality be damned.

Posted in Freelancing, Writing | Tagged | 1 Comment »

How Work Finds You

March 24, 2009 by Karen Berger

I am a piano player, that’s what I do.

Workwise, I’m some other things as well: A writer,  a teacher, and an occasional photographer and a once-in-a-while public speaker. Related to work, because they are the things I write about and teach and speak about and photograph and love doing: I’m also a long distance backpacker, a scuba diver, and a traveler. 

You undoubtedly have the same-but-different weird mix of things you do that is part of what makes you YOU. And it’s part of makes your work uniquely YOURS.

The balance changes over the years: In my case, I’m doing more diving now than hiking.  Some years, I do a ton of public speaking, some years not so much. Some years I do more writing, some years more teaching. There’s an ebb and flow with no real plan to it. Things change, and then they change back. But over the course of my work life, the things I listed are the things that are constant. In a very real way, they are a big part of how I define who I am.

What all of this boils down to: These are the things I do, and I do them whether someone is paying me or not.

Which is how I found myself sitting at the piano, playing blues and Chopin, at what used to be called the Troutbeck Travel Writer’s Conference (It’s now called Travel Classics Conference).  I was at the conference to convince editors to buy my stuff; I was at the piano because I play the piano. 

A couple of years later, one of my fellow writers got a lead from an agent who was looking for a piano-player/piano teacher/writer to write a book for the Idiots Guide’s series on playing piano chords. She thought of me because of that night at Troutbeck, and just like that, the Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Piano Chords fell into my lap. At the same time, the same agent was looking for a bass-playing writer to write a bass guitar book, so the Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Bass Guitar fell into David’s lap. And now, they’ve come back to us with the Complete Idiot’s Guide to Private Music Teaching, and the Complete Idiot’s Guide to Rock Guitar.

There’s a nugget of a lesson here: We writers and artists spend a lot of time alone. We day dream, we create, we turn over ideas, and some days we don’t get out of our bathrobes  (Okay, I don’t work in my bathrobe, but I KNOW some of y’all do…. I will however cop to not getting out of the house).

And we need to: We need to put what we do in front of people, even if our only motivation is “Hey! There’s a piano piano! And I’m a piano player: Maybe I should play it.”

Good things happen when we put ourselves and our work into the world — when we share what we create  – by design, on a whim, in any way we can.

And now, I’ve got a book outline to complete….

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Finding Balance as a Freelancer

March 21, 2009 by Karen Berger

One of the  predictable and seemingly unavoidable side-effects of being a freelancer is that work comes in waves and spurts, priorities get hijacked, new enthusiasms take over, and balance can be hard to find. This blog has been a casualty of that lately.

In this economy, certainly, no freelancer/self employed creative can complain about having too much work. Or about having too many different kinds of work, which is as important. But sometimes, managing them all, and keeping all the balls you’re juggling up in the air can be a bit tricky.

Since  January, for instance: I went to Egypt for the SATW Freelance Council meeting. (An index of the articles I wrote on Egypt — from the new library in Alexandria to hot air ballooning over Luxor — is at http://www.suite101.com/blog/karenberger/resources_about_egypt)

Speaking of Suite 101, I remain as enthusiastic, if not more so.

Here’s the update on THAT: It’s a tough economy right now, and advertising revenues are a bit down, but I have a lot of faith in the financial model for freelancers, and I’ve also got a lot of faith in the Suite101 people. The feeling reminds me of when I was working for GORP.com, back in the first Internet boom and bust cycle — the folks there were absolutely terrific, and created a working environment that was a true partnership. I feel the same way about the folks at Suite 101: My editor is accessible, the technical team is responsive when glitches arise, my fellow writers are professional and supportive on the forums, with none of that “I’m smarter than you” one-upsmanship that I’ve seen on other boards. It’s nice to  feel positive about the people you work with. . .

I got promoted to Feature Writer in the ecotourismvolunteer vacations/adventure travel area. http://volunteerecotravel.suite101.com/ So I’ve been trying to write an article a day for Suite101, which is harder than it sounds; I got behind in Egypt, of course, and haven’t quite caught up yet, but my goal is to have 91 articles up by the end of March. I’m at about 66 or 67 right now, so that looks do-able.  in April, I’m off to Hawaii, then down to Florida for a diving press trip.

Added to all that: I was just offered a contract to write The Complete Idiots Guide to Teaching Music (due in August), and of course, there are those 30 students I see every week, keeping me on my toes (or fingers) working on everything from Mozart sonatas to Chopin preludes to Beatles tunes to jazz improv to finding their fingers number 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 for the very first time. 

Not to mention spring cleaning, which I’m taking a break from as I write this, and the necessity of doing SOMETHING about the winter weight gain (which to be honest, has been going on for longer than just this winter)…and David is working on  a book, too  (Complete Idiots Guide to Rock Guitar) and he has HIS gazillions of students, plus gigs……

Life is good, and full, but it would be an understatement to say that it’s in any way under control. I’ll be trying to post more often here, because I think we all have to deal with these issues, and maybe we can help each other. In the meantime: If YOU have any suggestions on finding balance, please leave a comment: We all need all the help we can get!

Posted in Freelancing | Tagged | 1 Comment »

Paperwork

March 2, 2009 by Karen Berger

Blech.

It’s THAT time of year again. Well, maybe you’ve already dealt with it, but for me, pulling my tax information together is one of those uber-procrastination issues.

Some of my colleagues use Turbo Tax, and I have a few friends who have recommended it highly, but to tell you the truth, I’d rather clean out a slaughterhouse than try to put my own taxes together. It’s as much an emotional issue as anything — I’d probably need therapy if I had to figure out both a new computer program AND which column what number goes in at the same time. Considering the cost of therapy, an accountant is cheaper in the long run.  I have a very nice competent person who is willing to look at all my various lists and sort them into categories and add everything up and tell me what I owe.  Only downside: He wants my stuff, er — soon.

In nearly 20 years of self-employment, I have figured out a few things to help smooth over a proccess I’m not very good at.

1) Keep good records. Some people use spreadsheet programs like Quicken. I’ve actually drawn up my own Excel program to keep track of income from various income streams. Whatever you do, keep it up to date. I log all checks before depositing them. Cash and barter income has to be accounted for as well, if you have any. (I don’t;  I prefer checks because they are traceable,  but if you’ve got any retail products, you probably have some cash to account for. Keep up with that, because you’ll never remember.)

2) A business checking account and a business credit card separate out business expenses from personal ones.

3) I try to pay for everything with debit card so that I have a receipt record AND a record on my bank account of where all my business expense money went. It’s a back-up system that means I won’t forget any expenses.

4) Keep a log of expenses: What they were, what they were for; how they relate to your business. Ideally, your annual log should have all business related travel expenses, home expenses that have a business application, office and business equipment, repairs, advertising, etc. If you get audited down the road, such a log makes it clear what you were doing, what its purpose was, and how it pertained to your business.  

5) Your accountant is probably pretty busy right now, but after April 15, while things are still fresh, set up a time to talk with him or her, especially if your business has undergone any major changes (such as a new income stream, a new category of expenses, or  you’ve found yourself making significantly more or less than usual).  There may be some things you should be thinking about to get ready for NEXT year.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a bushel-load of papers to go through….

Posted in Business Issues, Freelancing | Tagged | Leave a Comment »

More on Pay-Per-Click Writing

January 21, 2009 by Karen Berger

I’m surprised at how much I’m enjoying this new Internet writing project.  It’s nice to know that after all these years of writing for a living I still — love to write.

The formats are tight and inflexible: 400-600 words,  no first person, or even second person (although the imperative is okay).  But I love having an hour or so free, and sitting down and thinking, Okay, I’ll write about this.  I LOVE the autonomy.  Love Love Love it. And as soon as the article is up, it starts getting clicks, and clicks lead to revenue.

Although right now, I think I’ve made about 57 cents.

Okay, so the jury is still out on revenue. I’ve done the math every way I can figure, and it still seems a crap shoot to me. I can see where it could work out very nicely long term, but I also don’t think anyone in their right mind would want to wager a whole lot on how Internet revenue models are going to work for writers a few years down the road. But if, a year or so from now, I decide it’s a bust — I’ll still have rights to my work, and can repurpose and repackage it.  I’m feeling optimistic, and I have to say that that hasn’t been true in the writing biz for a long time.

Here’s my bio page: http://www.suite101.com/profile.cfm/karenberger

And here’s a list of articles: http://www.suite101.com/writer_articles.cfm/karenberger

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Writing Site Recommendation

January 20, 2009 by Karen Berger

A few weeks ago I blogged about some of the challenges of freelancing in the current economic conditions, and some of the steps I’m taking to not only survive in this difficult economy, but make the best of it. 

http://createworklive.com/2008/11/22/silver-linings-in-stormy-clouds/

http://createworklive.com/2008/11/20/surviving-the-recession/

Here’s another site, called The Writer’s Place, that’s giving some great advice to freelance writers this week: http://nancychristie.blogspot.com/

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

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