In this Issue:

• "Welcome" - Dan Case, editor
  
• Feature "Become a Healthy Writer" by Kathryn Lay
  
• 12 Paying Markets - High, Medium, and Low

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

Welcome

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. THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO WRITING & SELLING MAGAZINE ARTICLES 2nd Edition by Peggy Fielding and Dan Case. FREE SHIPPING!
   
2. MAGIC STEPS TO WRITING SUCCESS by Charles W. Sasser. FREE SHIPPING!
   
3. CONFESSING FOR MONEY 2nd Edition Writing and Selling to the SECRET Short Story Market by Peggy Fielding FREE SHIPPING!
   
4. DEVOTED TO WRITING by Nancy Robinson Masters & Maurice Parsley Mallow FREE SHIPPING!
   
5. 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
   
6. JUMPSTART YOUR WRITING CAREER & SNAG PAYING ASSIGNMENTS by Beth Erickson.
   
7. JOURNAL JUMPSTART for WRITERS by Jennifer DiCamillo
   
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)

Like so many people, I’ve tried to become a healthier person lately. I try to eat more chicken and fish, less red meat, more fruits and vegetables. I bought a treadmill. I drink more water. And so on.

As writers, we can also improve our writing health.

DIET.

Don’t send out your words as they are first written. Thin them, make them lean and strong. Learn to revise. It’s easy to fall in love with our words and want to leave them just as they are, but cutting and shaping and putting only the right words into our literary meal is what will make that fiction piece, that article, that poem, or that book its best.

Sometimes revision means cutting out all the fat, the words or phrases that don’t move a story forward or make an article confusing and are needless. Sometimes it means changing your writing diet, such as creating a new character or reslanting a nonfiction piece to fit a specific publication need.

RUN.

Make writing goals and run toward them. Don’t give up on your dreams when those rejections come. When our writing career isn’t going the way we expect it, the first thoughts may be to give up, to stand still, to fear what may be ahead. But this is the time to make a plan and keep running, even when it seems impossible, when your lungs want to explode and your heart is pounding.

I’ve had rejections of children’s books when it seemed like the acceptance was near at hand. For awhile, I was winded. I doubled over in pain. I didn’t care who was running past me or what amazing event might be ahead of me, it hurt too much to run anymore. But in the end, I know that my writing means too much to me and that I’m the only one who can reach those goals I’ve set.

STRETCH.

Stretch yourself as a writer. Try something new. Learn something knew or better. Go to a conference, take a course, find a mentor. If you’ve only written fiction, try writing a nonfiction piece. If you’re a nonfiction writer, try your hand at fiction. When a project feels stale or you find yourself in the middle of “writer’s block,” it’s a perfect time to take a chance and try something you’ve never done before with your writing.

What if it doesn’t work out? Maybe it won’t. If that happens, it isn’t fatal. But perhaps, you’ll stretch yourself in such ways that you’ll find that voice you’ve been searching for and the running toward your old or new goals will get easier.

WALK.

Don’t rush into submitting your writing willy-nilly. Research and study markets. Before I send any of my pieces out, unless it’s written for a specific market, I slow my enthusiasm to get it straight into the mailbox or into an email and figure out my marketing game plan. Even when I may have written it with a specific market in mind, I try to make a list for each piece of many possible markets. This keeps me from running headlong into a marketing wall when something is rejected. I know where I’m sending it next. And I know that that market is a possibility, not just the next one listed in the market guide by alphabetical order.

REST.

I generally write every day. It’s not just because I’ve heard that “a writer writes,” but because I enjoy it and want to progress forward. But there are times when I’m tired, when the words seem forced, when things in my life make writing a chore. These are the times that I have learned to step back and rest from my writing schedule, to allow myself to not write and to do it guilt free. It may be a day or a few days or a week or longer, though rarely. But when I am refreshed and my creative mind has had a chance to “sleep," I find that the old enthusiasm is back.

REHYDRATE.

I read because I love it. But I also read to learn, to grow as a writer, to see what I like and don’t like and why successful writers are successful. Don’t let your thirst for growing as a writer dry out. Writers learn from what we read and what we observe.

To keep our writing healthy, we must continually learn and re-learn, challenge ourselves and our writing.

© 2008 by Kathryn Lay

Kathryn Lay is the author of Crown Me! a middle grade novel and Josh's Halloween Pumpkin, a picture book due out in 2008. She has had over 1400 articles, short stories, and essays published for children and adults, as well as her book for writers, The Organized Writer is a Selling Writer, AWOC.COM Publishing. Check out her website at www.kathrynlay.com and email her at rlay15@aol.com.

• American Heritage - Guidelines:  Pays on acceptance.  Seeks nonfiction, photos/artwork. Subjects: American history. 

• The Conference Board Review - Guidelines:  Pays on acceptance.  Seeks nonfiction, columns/departments, photos/artwork. Subjects: Business perspectives on timely issues. 

• Southwest Airlines Spirit - Guidelines:  Pays on acceptance.  Seeks nonfiction, columns/departments, fillers, photos/artwork. Subjects: People, places, products, business, travel, technology, sports, lifestyle, food, fitness, culture. 

• Sport Diver - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Accepts simultaneous submissions.  Seeks nonfiction, columns/departments, photos/artwork. Subjects: Diving, travel. 

• Woman's Day - Guidelines:  Pays on acceptance.  Seeks nonfiction, columns/departments, fillers. Subjects: Women's interests, family life, childrearing, education, homemaking, money , careers, family, etc.. 

Medium - $125 - $500

• Calliope - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Seeks nonfiction, fiction, fillers, photos/artwork. Subjects: World history for grades 4 and above. 

• Metro Parent - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Accepts simultaneous submissions.  Seeks nonfiction, columns/departments, photos/artwork. Subjects: Modern parenting issues. 

Low - Less than $125

• Boys' Quest - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Accepts simultaneous submissions.  Seeks nonfiction, fiction, columns/departments, fillers, photos/artwork. Subjects: Boys 6-13, pets, nature. hobbies, science, games, sports, careers, simple cooking. 

• Fun For Kidz - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Seeks nonfiction, fillers. Subjects: Pets, nature, hobbies, science, games, sports, careers, simple cooking. 

• Hopscotch - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Accepts simultaneous submissions.  Seeks nonfiction, fiction, columns/departments, fillers, photos/artwork. Subjects: Girls 6-12, pets, nature. hobbies, science, games, sports, careers, simple cooking. 

• Oatmeal Studios - Guidelines:  Pays on acceptance.  Seeks nonfiction. Subjects: Greeting cards, post-it notes. 

• Pentecostal Evangel - Guidelines:  Pays on acceptance.  Seeks nonfiction, photos/artwork. Subjects: Christian living, soul winning, conversion, prayer, doctrine, family .