This book is a whopper and stands at an impressive 501 pages. Reading this book actually teleported me back to my college days when I was buried in the 800 odd pages of the Robotics compendium or the 600 page Object Oriented Programming minefield. When I started reading this, I was not very sure I would finish it. But like Jeremy’s last book I reviewed, Verbal Kung Fu For The Freelancer, this was easy reading in the same infectious engaging style that conveys a lot without preaching with plenty of stories and scenarios to keep your interest alive.

Being A Starving Graphic Artist Sucks targets a graphic artist, especially one who is leaving the roost and is striking out on his own. With a little bit of imagination and common sense, you could easily take all the advice in this book and apply it to your own occupation whether it is photography or marketing guy. What I am trying to say is that although the title reads "Graphic Artist", it is not just graphic artists that will benefit from reading this book. In the book Jeremy talks about the dreams and aspirations that people have and how quickly they turn into dust once they are burnt by clients from hell, bad economy, excessive competition and overcrowding ofd the market. He shows you how you can not let factors like that deter you from your goal. In the book you will find interesting tips on how to find jobs and hold on to returning clients even in a downturn, how to build solid foundations and business relationships and how not to fall into the beginner’s trap of bartering for services.

Jeremy wisely emphasizes on the importance of having a business plan, marketing yourself and your skills and getting down and dirty with accounting and finances. The book takes an in-depth look at focusing your strategies and sticking to a time frame. It educates you on drawing up contracts and sticking to legally right channels in every aspect of your business.BASAS teaches you to stop floundering around trying to do a little bit of everything, tempting as it may be, and find a unique niche that will accelerate your progress a million fold.

But most importantly it tackles the age old dilemma of assigning rates for your services, whether it should hourly or on a per project basis, how you shouldn’t be afraid to increase your rates and best practices revolving the "How Do I Charge My Client?" conundrum that we all seem to have.

BUY BEING A STARVING ARTIST SUCKS ON AMAZON
 

For a while now I have been on the notify subscription list of this wonderful new application called MyOws which stands for My Original Works. It sounded very promising which prompted me to sign up for it in the first place. Last week I finally got around to testing it, now that it has launched in Beta testing phase.

Let me begin by mentioning that I love the interface of the website. It is clean, crisp and blue. I love the flow of the information provided and how simple and effective everything is. Above all I love their mascot [I will admit, that is what grabbed my attention when I first visited the site many months ago and I recently found out, it was created by Von Glitschka]. Using white space effectively even in the darker panels, what this site does is manage to make you feel at ease and confident enough to sign up and start uploading your work without nagging questions and doubts.

The idea is simple. You create a free account and with that you get 200MB free space to upload your files that you desire to copyright. It is essentially a timestamp that you get [the website claims that not even their staff can tamper or alter your files. Even you can't!] Once uploaded, you cannot alter the file in any form. You must delete and re-upload if you wish to change a detail in it or simply want to copyright a fresher version of your file. That in itself is a pretty air-tight copyrighting solution. You can upload images, video, sound, text, vectors, html, code, animations and so much more. Which means everytime you create something from your head and heart, you better head over here and copyright it the same day.

Safety and security is well thought of with secure servers doing the transfers and files kept on two geographically separated servers identified with a unique hash value. You can not only upload and copyright your works, you can also open infringement cases and track their progress and outcome via your account. The guys at MyOws are in testing phase and the website promises many more exciting new features in the works.

VERBAL KUNG FU FOR FREELANCERS
Author – JEREMY TUBER
Pages – 166
LBOI RATING –

I recently got an opportunity to review Jeremy Tuber’s Verbal Kung Fu For The Freelancer. Ever since I came across the title on another blog, I have been eager to read the book. The title made me think that the book would unearth mysterious oriental secrets to combatting a client verbally and efficiently in the freelancing arena. Although there is nothing oriental about the techniques, the book does share a few hidden gems, words of advice and gentle suggestions for the two different kind of freelancing personalities out there, the bold confident one and the shy doormat.

What Verbal Kung Fu For The Freelancer does is, it outlines the various problems and dilemmas faced by freelancers when dealing with clients who are overbearing, demanding, inconsiderate and rude. "We all know the problems!" you say? "We’ve all had bad clients!". I hear you people, I thought so too. But I was amazed to see the different situations that can potentially arise and might need you to be calm in your head and quick on your tongue. Jeremy does it very methodically. He first outlines the problems and "What a Client Could Potentially Say To Make Your Life Miserable Or Put You In A Spot". He then proceeds to suggest two sets of corresponding tactics depending on the situation, the gentle technique and the stronger more forceful technique.

He touches on subjects related to Pricing, Contracts, Billing and Collecting Money, Project Turnaround Times, Being Asked To Work For Peanuts, Stalling And Approvals, Copyright And Master File Issues and more. It tells you what you must not say, even though you think it is right and fair. It teaches you to use words smartly, as silent weapons that could make a difference between a long fruitful client relationship and a failed project with a bad taste.

There is a lot here that you might have already experienced if you have been in the freelancing business for a while. You might have devised your own KungFu techniques, but I am sure a different perspective can sometimes make you realize what you are doing wrong or assure you that you are doing the right thing. For freelancing virgins, this book offers a wonderful resource from a talented and experienced professional who conveys his message in a unique, humorous style and offers a wealth of information in the process. The illustrations are fun and break up the worded pages nicely. Kudos to Jeremy for compiling and writing a resource that we all live each and everyday but don’t really share with each other.

I also wanted to add that even though I always knew it, this book has made me realize more than ever how blessed I am to have the clients I do. They are absolutely great, they have never taken advantage of me, trust my judgement and minus the one off slightly frustrated email, they are a joy to work with.

If you enjoyed the review and would like to purchase the book, get Verbal Kung Fu on Amazon. Alternatively, you can head over to Jeremy’s blog and get in touch with him.