In this Issue:

• "Welcome" - Dan Case, editor
  
• Feature " How To Convince an Editor To Give You an Assignment" by Kelly James-Enger
  
• 12 Paying Markets - High, Medium, and Low
  
• Feature "My 'Manilla' Indian" by Willma Gore

Want to contribute to this newsletter? We are a paying market. Read our guidelines for contributors here: http://www.writingfordollars.com/wfdguidelines.cfm

Welcome

I'll be speaking in Tulsa, Oklahoma for the Tulsa NightWriters at the Martin East Regional Library, 26th and Garnett Road at 7:00 pm tonight. If you're in the vacinity, come and say "hi." The NightWriters welcome visitors.

Check out our new article database. We finished adding our whole inventory of past articles from WFD, now over 400 articles are available to search and read. Find just the right information you need to make a few more bucks in the new year.

Don't forget our database of writer’s guidelines is readily available to everyone for FREE! All links have been checked within the last year (the date that they were last checked is listed) so you can be sure to have the most up-to-date information.

Here are the top-selling writing books at AWOCBooks.com - FREE SHIPPING on selected books! ($2.95 value)

1. CONFESSING FOR MONEY 2nd Edition Writing and Selling to the SECRET Short Story Market by Peggy Fielding FREE SHIPPING!
   
2. THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO WRITING & SELLING MAGAZINE ARTICLES 2nd Edition by Peggy Fielding and Dan Case. FREE SHIPPING!
   
3. DEVOTED TO WRITING by Nancy Robinson Masters & Maurice Parsley Mallow FREE SHIPPING!
   
4. BOB BLY'S FREELANCE WRITING SUCCESS (How to Make $100,000 a Year as a Freelance Writer and Have the Time of Your Life Doing It) by Robert W. Bly
   
5. JUMPSTART YOUR WRITING CAREER & SNAG PAYING ASSIGNMENTS by Beth Erickson.
   
6. MAGIC STEPS TO WRITING SUCCESS by Charles W. Sasser. FREE SHIPPING!
   
7. BEYOND THE BRANCHES: Writing and Scrapping Your Complete Family Tree by Robyn Conley
   
8. THE ORGANIZED WRITER IS A SELLING WRITER by Kathryn Lay. FREE SHIPPING!
   
9. WRITING HUMOR FOR MORE THAN LAUGHS by Phil Truman FREE SHIPPING!
   
10. BE YOUR OWN BOOK DOCTOR: So You Can Cure What Ails Your Writing by Robyn Conley.
    

Dan Case, editor
editor@writingfordollars.com (put WFD in the subject line)

New writers often overlook a critical element of their query letters. It's not the strength of their idea, or their analysis of the relevant market, or the amount of research they do, or even the tone of their queries they neglect. Rather, freelancers forget to demonstrate why they are the perfect writer for the assignment—to show how they are "uniquely qualified" to write the article they're pitching.

When I teach magazine writing or speak at writers’ conferences, I call this the "I-am-so-great" paragraph, or ISG. An ISG is an essential part of any magazine article query, but it's particularly important when you're a new writer with few clips or little experience. Knowing how to demonstrate your unique qualifications or relevant background and experience can make the difference between hearing a "no thanks" and getting the go-ahead.

Remember, a query letter includes four basic parts:

• The lead, which is designed to catch the editor's attention. It might be a startling statistic, a recent study result, a timely news event, or an anecdote. The key is that it interests the editor enough to continue reading.
• The "why write it" section. This paragraph (or two, if you have a particularly detailed query) fleshes out the idea, demonstrating why the readers of the magazine will be interested in the topic.
• The "nuts and bolts" paragraph. Here you give the details of the story itself. What types of sources will you contact? How long will the story be? Will it have sidebars, and if so, how many? What section of the magazine will the story fit in? What's the working title?
• The "I-am-so-great" paragraph (or "ISG"). Here, you highlight your relevant qualifications, including your writing experience and background with the subject matter. This is the paragraph where you showcase your unique qualifications and convince the editor to give you the assignment.
  

Let me give you a few examples of compelling ISGs from early in my freelance career:

• When I pitched a story on a hidden dating treasure (also known as "shy guys"), I made sure that I mentioned that I am an extrovert who fell in love with and married a shy guy. ("10 Reasons to Date a Shy Guy," Complete Woman, October/November, 1997.)
• I pitched a true-life feature about a young woman's struggle with a serious, debilitating yet undiagnosed medical problem to a number of women's magazines. In my ISG, I wrote that I had already spoken with the woman and had her permission to write her story. ("An Answer at Last," Woman's World, April 7, 1998.)
• When I queried a bridal magazine with a story idea on the importance of communicating about money, I included an anecdotal lead about a money argument between newlyweds. In my ISG, I revealed that the couple was me and my newlywed husband. ("A Match Made in Financial Heaven," Bridal Guide, March/April, 1998.)

But the ISG isn't only for new writers. As I've garnered experience in a variety of subject areas, I've harnessed it to break into new markets as well as other types of writing. For example:

• When sending a letter of introduction to IGA Grocergram, a trade magazine for grocery store owners, I neglected to include that I'd recently worked part-time at Trader Joe's, a specialty grocery store. But when I followed up with editor by phone, you better believe I worked that fact into the conversation!
• When contacting The Pampered Chef about freelancing for their corporate communications department, I mentioned my relevant experience writing about food and nutrition for national magazines. (I'm not a big cook; otherwise, I would have said so.)
• When sending a letter of introduction to a medical consulting firm, I mentioned both my health-writing background and my work (even though it had been years prior) doing PR for a small hospital.

Get it? The idea is to always look for some connection you have with the work you're pitching, especially if you're a new writer. If you want more assignments, make sure that every query you send specifies what makes you uniquely qualified to write the story. Taking the time to polish your ISG will improve your chances of getting an assignment, whether you're an experienced freelancer or one who's just starting out.

© 2008 by Kelly James-Enger

Kelly James-Enger is a speaker, consultant, and the author of books including Six-Figure Freelancing: The Writer’s Guide to Making More Money (Random House, 2005) and Ready, Aim, Specialize! Create your own Writing Specialty and Make More Money (Marion Street Press, 2008).Visit www.becomebodywise.com for more info about her.

• Caribbean Beat - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Seeks nonfiction, fiction, columns/departments, fillers, photos/artwork. Subjects: General Caribbean interest, BWIA West Indies Airways' Caribbean or international destinations. 

• Cruising World - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Seeks nonfiction, columns/departments, photos/artwork. Subjects: People and cruising. 

• Family Tree - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Seeks nonfiction, photos/artwork. Subjects: Genealogy, ethnic heritage, personal history, scrapbooking, photography and photo preservation. 

Medium - $125 - $500

• American Snowmobiler - Guidelines:  Pays on acceptance.  Seeks nonfiction, photos/artwork. Subjects: Snowmobiling, travel. 

• Bead & Button - Guidelines:  Pays on acceptance.  Seeks nonfiction, columns/departments, photos/artwork. Subjects: Bead ,Button And Acessory Hobbies. 

• Berks County Living - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Accepts simultaneous submissions.  Seeks nonfiction, photos/artwork. Subjects: Berks County, PA local figures and personalities, politics, business, current events, recreation.... 

• Catholic Digest Publications - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Seeks nonfiction, fillers. Subjects: Religion, family, science, health, human relationships, nostalgia, good works. 

Low - Less than $125

• Arts & Letters - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Seeks fiction. Subjects: Poetry and Art. 

• Canadian Writer's Journal - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Seeks nonfiction, fiction, fillers. Subjects: Writing, short-fiction contest, poetry contest. 

• INTHEFRAY Magazine - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Seeks nonfiction, fiction, columns/departments, photos/artwork. Subjects: News, travel, general. 

• Mommy Think - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Seeks nonfiction. Subjects: Natural mothering, attachment parenting, natural childbirth, breastfeeding, cloth diapers, babywear. 

• Online Dating Magazine - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Seeks nonfiction, columns/departments. Subjects: Online Dating, Self-Improvement, Dating in general, Romance. 

I was a "soda jerk" back in the days when "jerk" was a respectable job title for teenagers earning spending money by dispensing ice cream and soft drinks at soda fountains. Home for the summer after my first year at college, I was re-hired for the same after-school job I'd held through high school at the local drug store.

My dream of becoming a successful writer was always in mind and I sneaked quick reads of short stories in Good Housekeeping and Ladies Home Journal, borrowing them from the magazine rack when business was slow. To me, in those days, fiction was the only genre that distinguished a successful writer and allowed the hallowed term, "author."

One of my customers was a local Native American. We called them "Indians" in those days. Lines in his shiny brown skin were deep rivers of time. He spoke little English, but his mumbled "manilla," told me each day that he had come for a vanilla ice cream cone. Stubby, weather-cracked fingers laid a dime on the counter and I scooped the ice cream into a cone for him.

He went out the door and settled himself on the front step of the Lone Pine Drug Store to eat his ice cream cone. I was fascinated to see flies buzz around his head and descend on the diminishing mound of ice cream, his brownish-red tongue barely missing them as he licked. He touched me deeply. I penned a little story about him and took a picture of him with my Brownie camera. This was long before I knew that I had written a profile.

The official publication of the Automobile Club of Southern California, Westways came to our home monthly. The editorial page, just inside the front cover, published short observations or anecdotes about a wide variety of subjects. Totally unaware of length restrictions, I sent the editor about 800 words of my precious prose. I titled the piece, "Manilla" Indian." I was overwhelmed with delight when I received a check for $10 in payment. However, when my first published words appeared in print, the kind editor had trimmed them to 300 to fit the format of that editorial page. But my byline was there for all to see. (No longer in my experience do editors take time to trim extra words when their guidelines plainly read "500-1000 words, max.")

Well, I thought, since that sale was so "easy," I would try a little more nonfiction. The next summer my college girlfriend and I did a 350-mile trip on balloon tire bicycles. A professional photographer who was the new executive director of the local tourist promotion organization followed us with his camera. This became my second sale to Westways—the first of many travel articles I eventually wrote for the magazine.

As important—though I've never given up writing fiction—my most-successful writing has been nonfiction pieces. My essays, travel articles, and 200 profiles have been published in more than 75 national and regional journals over the past 40 years. That first sale launched me into a life-long career of "write what you know."

© 2008 by Willma Gore

At age 86, Willma Gore is still writing daily (having sold her first article at age 19) with her most recent book Long Distance Grandparenting, released by an advance/royalty publisher in Nov. 2007. She welcomes visits to her blog and website: http://willmagore.com/blog/ www.willmagore.com