| To tell you the truth (and about 53% of this | | | | don't have money in the budget to pay |
| article is true), I don't know where I heard this | | | | them.Twain countered with an amazing offer. |
| story about Mark Twain. But I've heard it enough | | | | What if he agreed to work for free? I'll write for |
| times to verify that it's either (a) at least half | | | | you, Twain said. You publish my work, and if |
| true, or (b) a credible lie.Anyway, it's seems that | | | | people like what I write, maybe you'll hire me.You |
| in the early 1850's Twain - then known as Samuel | | | | can guess the rest of this report. The editor |
| Clemens - found himself in San Francisco without | | | | loved Twain's work, hired him, and Twain's career |
| a job. The reason he was there, I believe, had | | | | continued to build. But what if he'd simply walked |
| something to do with the Gold Rush.Twain loved | | | | out the door that day?The moral of this story: |
| the town, and wanted to stay. But to do so he | | | | Free is pretty hard to refuse. Next time you have |
| had to find a job. Since he'd worked on a | | | | trouble winning a client, how about offering to do |
| newspaper before, he applied at a big publication | | | | a project for free, just to show what you can |
| there.No thanks, the editor said. We don't need | | | | do?Rix Quinn's new book "Words That Stick" is |
| any writers right now. And even if we did, we | | | | inexpensive, and offers lots of writing ideas. |