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Vol
12 Number 7- February 19, 2008
In this Issue:
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)
Dan
Case, editor Evergreen – The Color of Money by Kathleen Ewing If there is a formula for success in freelance writing, it is the evergreen article. Evergreen refers to the type of article that a magazine runs in issue after issue regardless of season. By visiting your local magazine stand and studying the cover and table of contents of a particular publication from month to month, you will see the evergreen pattern emerge. For example, you can rely upon most women's magazines to have articles on diet, money and health, decorating, relationships and parenting. You decide to start with your favorite topic-decorating. If you can slant your decorating article for a holiday season, you stand an even better chance of getting it published. To increase your odds still further, you can stop by the library and check into the back issues of your target publication to see what types of articles the magazine published last year for that particular holiday. Say you want to write about decorating for Christmas 2008 and the December 2007 issue of your magazine features an article on the most efficient use of electricity for lighting Christmas decorations for your home and yard. Since many people are concerned about implementing green living these days, you might take the existing article one step further by demonstrating how your readers can use candles safely for their holiday home displays. Or you can carry the efficiency theme further by exploring a number of other methods for creating dramatic decorating effects without the use of gas or electric energy. If your target publication regularly carries budget tips, money savings is another element you can consider adding to your article on decorating. Every time you add a currently popular ingredient into the evergreen mix, you increase your chances of having an editor snap up your offering. Don't limit yourself to the December issue when you are researching evergreen articles for next Christmas. You might find something in a summer issue that would translate well to winter holiday planning. You should also keep an eye out for older articles which can be updated with new research, techniques and technologies. New studies and reports can change what experts are currently recommending for dozens of topics running the gamut from proper exercise practices and smoking cessation to healthy nutritional requirements. Look at other evergreen articles in the magazine from a green living point of view. Take cooking, for example. You can develop articles on healthy meals in the microwave, savory slow cooker meals, or ways to prepare a complete meal in a cooking bag, all of which are proven energy saving methods. Always try to think of ways you might combine two or more evergreen topics into a single article. Recipes for nutritious, minimal prep meals for two (diet), exercise for couples (health) and relaxation techniques (health) make an excellent combo for a piece on creating a mini spa retreat for you reader's quiet holiday weekend at home with a partner (relationship). By using your imagination and creativity and adding your own elements to the popular and successful evergreen formula, you can improve your chances of snagging that next big sale. © Copyright 2008, Kathleen Ewing Kathleen Ewing is a freelance writer who lives in the central mountains of Arizona where she enjoys hiking, horseback riding, four wheeling and target shooting. Among her more recent credits are articles in Art Calendar Magazine, American Falconry, Funds for Writers and Hobby Farms Magazine. You can visit her site at www.nothingbinding.com/writer/kathleen-ewing.html 21 Paying Markets Updated or added in our database since February 12, 2008 High - Over $500
Medium - $125 - $500
Low - Less than $125
Be Prepared To Sell Your Work by Amy S. Hansen No one expects the editors to call. Editors don’t call. They write. They e-mail. Mostly they say no. This was my expectation. So when they did started calling me, I blew it. The phone rang and I was dead asleep. It was only two in the afternoon, but the three-week old and the two-year old were both napping and I had zonked out on the coach. I picked up and said a very sleepy “yes?” The person on the other end identified himself as an editor from the magazine I had submitted a piece to three months before. “Who?” I replied, not really wanting to be awake. He explained a second time and said he was ready to buy the piece that I had sent. Since he had turned me down three times before that, he wanted to call to tell me himself. Finally I woke up. I explained about the baby and why I was so sleepy (and really not very nice). He said he understood and we went on to talk about the piece and why he liked this one. I have since sold many more pieces to that same editor but I’ve noticed he doesn’t call. He e-mails or writes. The Moral: We all have bad phone days. No need to share these. Let the machine pick up. Listen to the message and call back. So I went back to writing and researching. Stuff I knew well. I was a reporter before a book writer. So one would think I would know how to deal with an editor. I mean, the editor was just the person two desks away in the newspaper. But for some reason a book editor takes on mythical proportions. Which brings me to my first book sold over the transom. I had worked on my non-fiction picture book for a year before sending it out. And I was back to thinking that editors never call. Still I was part of a critique group, and I had learned the professional format for the picture book. What I hadn’t thought about was what happened next. Until it did... “Amy Hansen please,” I was sure I was being called by a telemarketer and I got ready
to tell him that I had five boys under the age of five in my house
and I wasn’t really interested in anything besides some sunshine
so I could send them outside (only two of them were mine, “Amy this is XX from XYZ House. I’m holding your manuscript and we want to buy it.” I went a little nuts. Instead of being quiet, or businesslike, I started babbling. “That manuscript,” I said, as if I had hundreds out. “Oh, I’m glad you’re interested. But it’s still out at other houses. What do I do? Do I call them? Editors say never to call. Do I write them? But that takes so long.” And then realizing I had a real-live editor on the other end of the line I asked. “Can you tell me what I should...?” He cut me off. “Let me tell you what we’re offering and you take it from there.” I wrote the numbers he told me and he hung up with alacrity. Finally, I let out a squeal. I had a book offer! But had I blown it already? Editors like calling to say yes. They want to offer good news. I had hardly let him talk. So I collected my brains and did some research. I learned the offer was acceptable and the company well respected. And I found out what I should do about multiple submissions. Finally, I arranged a babysitter so I could call back in peace. When we talked again, I was ready. I was excited but not squealing or babbling. I was as articulate as my manuscript would have led them to believe, and I did not promise anything without seeing the contract. The Moral: Don’t be surprised when something sells. Why send it out if you don’t expect it to work? Of course you should be excited, but if you can’t speak coherently, make an appointment to talk later. You need to celebrate, but you also need to be a businessperson. I know these things are all well and good to say in retrospect, but the real problem is that we can’t visualize the whole process until it happens. So having made these mistakes I’ve learned to practice. I visualize selling. I even practice negotiating into the mirror. Now when other editors call, I’m able to be excited and businesslike at the same time. Which brings up the final moral: Learning the business of writing isn’t the same as learning to write. Prepare yourself so that when your phone rings, you can be professional on your first sale. © Copyright 2008, Amy S. Hansen Amy S. Hansen has sold half-a-dozen books and hundreds of articles, and one play, mostly writing for the children’s market. Her books How Things Work, and Wild Animals, can be found on Barnes and Noble, Amazon and in local bookstores around the country.
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