Monday, May 17, 2010

Catching Up is Hard To Do

Long, long ago, in a radio station far, far away, I worked as a copywriter.

Now, I loved writing commercials. But I hated taking a vacation. Because I knew when I got back, first thing Monday morning, 87 gajillion work orders would be sitting on my desk. That meant 87 gajillion commercials would have to be written, produced and scheduled. By the end of that Monday.

Flash forward to today. You'd think being a writer, working at home, AND having a laptop computer that one can tote everywhere, would sidestep that vacation pile-up on Monday. But you'd be wrong if you were Cathy C. Hall. Apparently, I cannot bring myself to work while I'm on vacation. So, I've spent the entire morning culling emails. (I caught up on the writing stuff over the weekend. Sorta.)

Mostly, I zipped through submission call outs, writing opps, and contests. All the newsletters that have been piling up in the old Inbox. To be honest, I zipped through them at record speed because I'm pretty particular. But halfway through my zipping, I started to wonder about contest entry fees.

You know I like my contests. But I'm very particular when it comes to entry fees. Or maybe just cheap. The point is, I rarely send anything off if a fee is over 12 bucks. But what I'm wondering is if I'm letting my cheapness stand in the way of opportunity. So, I'm asking you to weigh in on contest entry fees. What will you pay? And why?

And now, Monday's pile of writing is singing. "They say that catching u-u-u-p is hard to do." (That's what happens when you've worked in a radio station.)