In this Issue:

• "Welcome" - Dan Case, editor
  
  
• Feature "Know Your Writing for Less Stress and More Profit"
  by Kathryn Lay
  
  
• 14 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

One of the best things you can do to become a successful writer or to make more money as a writer is to attend good writing conferences. I’d like to invite each of you to join me at one of the largest and best writing conferences in the country next month on April 29 thru May 1 in Oklahoma City. The Oklahoma Writers’ Federation, Inc (OWFI) is holding its 42nd annual writers’ conference, “Write Every Day,” at the beautiful Embassy Suites Hotel on Meridian Street. There will be thirty speakers and presenters putting on more than forty workshops, panels and speeches. Plus, there will be buzz sessions on Friday night, bonus workshops on Thursday night and Friday and Saturday at lunchtime, appointments available with agents and editors, and plenty of opportunity to smooze with all thirty of the guest speakers. You can take them to lunch, sit in a buzz session in their hotel room, or sit and have a conversation with one at breakfast. There will be a famous authors’ banquet on Friday night and an awards banquet on Saturday night… all included in your conference fee of $175 for the 2-day conference.

Who will be there? NY Times bestselling author Dana Stabenow (www.stabenow.com) will be the Keynote speaker at the Friday night banquet and will be smoozing around at the conference for the entire weekend. There will be an autograph party and booksigning on Saturday afternoon so you can get those autographed books. In addition to Dana, there will such notable speakers as Jane Friedman of Writer’s Digest, writer Kelly James-Enger (www.becomebodywise.com), writer Jessica Burkhart (www.jessicaburkhart.com), writer Deborah LeBlanc (www.deborahleblanc.com), writer Christina Katz (www.christinakatz.com), writer Page Lambert (www.pagelambert.com), writer Jory Sherman (www.jorysherman.com) (Jory Sherman has written over 400 published novels!), writer Nancy Robinson Masters (www.nancyrobinsonmasters.com), writer Margaret Daley (www.margaretdaley.com), writer K.D. Wentworth (www.kdwentworth.com), four agents, eight editors, and many more.

And best of all, the conference will be hosted by ME! Yes, I am the president of OWFI this year and I was able to invite many of my favorite authors, agents and editors, and to put together my dream writing conference. Plan on attending, please! You can find details and forms for signing up on the OWFI website (www.OWFI.org). But hurry, space is limited to the first 400 who sign up and we are already half full. See you there!

You can follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ChickenWriter and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1041077107
I'll tweet you some interesting articles and markets!

How to Promote Your Book Get new ideas to promote your book at promotebooks.blogspot.com. Please visit and leave a comment or two.

Check out the article database. Our inventory of over 500 past articles from WFD is available to search and read. Find just the right information you need to make a few more bucks this 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 - $1 SHIPPING on selected books! ($2.95 value)

1. The Complete Guide to Writing & Selling Magazine Articles 2nd Edition by Peggy Fielding and Dan Case. $1 SHIPPING!
   
2. Confessing for Money 2nd Edition Writing and Selling to the SECRET Short Story Market by Peggy Fielding $1 SHIPPING!
   
3. Who's Your Daddy? by Carolyn B. Leonard $1 SHIPPING!
   
4. Inspire! Writing from the Soul by Linda C. Apple $1 SHIPPING!
5. Preserving Family Legends for Future Generations by M. Carolyn Steele $1 SHIPPING!
   
6. The Organized Writer is a Selling Writer by Kathryn Lay. $1 SHIPPING!
   
7. Magic Steps to Writing Success by Charles W. Sasser. $1 SHIPPING!
   
8. Devoted to Writing! by Nancy Robinson Masters & Maurice Parsley Mallow $1 SHIPPING!
   
9. Journal Jumpstart for Writers by Jennifer DiCamillo $1 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)

Know Your Writing for Less Stress and More Profit

We have heard the expressions, “Know thyself” and “To thine own self be true.”

This is important in the area of writing, especially if you want to see those acceptances, checks, and bylines coming in your mail.

Many of my writing sales have come from knowing my writing projects, my interest, styles, abilities, and so on. No one knows my writing better than me. They may critique it, judge it, applaud it, or criticize it, but they do not fully know my abilities and what I truly can do well because something calls to my writing soul.

When your understanding of the areas of your writing is confusing, it’s easy too be stressful about writing and marketing, which leads to the inability to write and market, which leads to less profit.

1. Know What You Have:
   
   If learn about a new market or a market looking for something specific and needs it fast, do you know what you have in your writing folders well enough to find it?
   
   When a friend at a writer’s meeting mentioned that she knew of a big name children’s writer looking for short stories for an anthology about unicorns, I knew I had a story in my files of short stories that might fit. I was able to quickly tweak it and send it in. The story was accepted into the anthology and netted me a nice advance and years of royalties.
   
   Once a month when I have my ‘Marketing Day’, I look over my files of articles and stories and essays to remind myself of pieces that are available or pieces that I could send out quickly for reprint rights. When I learn of an anthology looking for a specific topic, I usually know quickly if I have something on that topic or not.
   
   
2. Know Your Abilities:
   
   I’m good at writing on deadlines and writing quickly. So I don’t mind last minute writing assignments or work-for-hire that has a quick turnaround time. I love dead-lined contests and theme lists where there is a specific date for my work to be turned in. I have many writer friends who are stressed by such things and would never seek out these type of things that I find an enjoying challenge. I also know that I am not a huge fan of lengthy research. Others I know love to spend the majority of their writing time preparing for the piece.
   
   Because I know this about myself, I am more likely to choose something that takes less time to research or prepare, yet might have to be written and turned in quickly.
   
   
3. Know Your Interests:
   
   I love writing personal experience essays and pieces for children. I don’t read romance stories or westerns pieces or in-depth political pieces.  Therefore, I’d never write this kind of thing, not because there is something wrong with them, only because they aren’t in my area of interest.
   
   Think about the type of things you read. Most often, those are the type of things you are more interested in writing. Make a list of all the areas you like writing – travel pieces, humorous essays, medical articles… Trim that list to the areas that really float your boat and watch for markets and opportunities in these areas.
   
   
4. Know Your Weaknesses:
   
   One of my main writing weaknesses is flitting from project to project. This can be a productive thing at times, but other times it keeps me from completing something because I’m excited about the next ‘shiny object’ that comes along in my writing queue. Therefore, when I get something that is on a quick deadline, I take all the other writing files and projects off my desk and focus on this one project until it’s done. Then I know I can go back to my variety of projects with a clear writing conscience.
   
   What is your writing weakness? What is your marketing weakness? Learning to overcome that area will often strengthen your productivity.
   
   
5. Know Your Strengths:
   
   When you discover what your real writing strength is, you can use it to overcome weak areas and build your completed projects, your marketing plans, and ultimately your sales.
   
   Maybe your strength is in locating markets, but not in writing query letters. Take a course on query letters to help you improve that strength. Or work with a writer friend who writes tantalizing query letters but is not good at perusing markets. Your strengths  can help one another.
   

By knowing your writing and your writing-self, you can work toward a writing career that is more profitable and less stressful.

© 2010 by Kathryn Lay

Kathryn Lay is the author of The Organized Writer is a Selling Writer, AWOC.COM Publishing, as well as children’s books Crown Me!, a middle grade novel and Josh's Halloween Pumpkin, a picture book. She has also had over 1800 articles, essays, and stories published in hundreds of magazines and anthologies for kids and adults. Check her website for information on her writing classes, school visits, and more at www.kathrynlay.com.

High - Over $500

• Canadian Gardening - Guidelines:  Pays on acceptance.  Seeks nonfiction, photos/artwork. Subjects: Home gardening, gardening techniques, ponds, environment.. 

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

• High Times Magazine - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Seeks nonfiction, columns/departments, photos/artwork. Subjects: Marijuana cultivation, counterculture lifestyle, travel, entertainment. 

Medium - $125 - $500

• Adirondack Sports & Fitness - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Seeks nonfiction, photos/artwork. Subjects: Outdoor recreation sports and fitness topics in New York State's Adirondack Park and Capital-Saratog. 

• Alpinist Magazine - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Seeks nonfiction, columns/departments, photos/artwork. Subjects: Climbing. 

• Australian Catholics - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Seeks nonfiction, photos/artwork. Subjects: Faith and life of Australians, social justice, initiatives that foster awareness of socil justice. 

• The Capilano Review - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Seeks nonfiction, fiction, fillers, photos/artwork. Subjects: Visual and literary arts, poetry. 

• FUSE Magazine - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Seeks nonfiction, columns/departments. Subjects: Opinion, commentary on the arts, cultural analysis, interviews and critical reviews. 

• LatinJazzClub Magazine - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Seeks nonfiction, columns/departments, photos/artwork. Subjects: Music reviews, articles, interviews, education and historical preservation of Latin Jazz. 

Low - Less than $125

• Bellingham Review - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Accepts simultaneous submissions.  Seeks nonfiction, fiction. Subjects: Contemporary Literature and Poetry. 

• Chesapeake Family - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Seeks nonfiction, columns/departments. Subjects: Parenting in Maryland area. 

• Digital Journal - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Seeks nonfiction, photos/artwork. Subjects: News. 

• Strange Horizons - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Seeks fiction. Subjects: Sci-fi, fantasy. 

• Treasure Valley Family Magazine - Guidelines:  Pays on publication.  Seeks nonfiction. Subjects: Parenting, crafts, family excursions, and health. 

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