Writing and Publishing News

I often develop my daily blog post from a writer’s question or a conversation I’ve had with a student or client. Well, this morning, I offered advice to a student in my article-writing course and I wanted to share that with you.

She, like many writers starting out, is stuck on wanting to write within her comfort zone. Unfortunately, our comfort zone is usually quite narrowly focused. She likes to write personal opinion and personal experience pieces. And why not? These are easy. They require no research and no interviews. You do not have to go anywhere to validate or verify anything. You just write from the head or the heart. Nice work if you can get it.

The problem is, there’s not much of a market for this type of writing, unless, perhaps, it is a spicy op-ed piece on a controversial subject.

So what did I suggest to her? Here’s the gist of my response:

I have to say that the piece you wrote from the heart is cute, but you aren’t going to get very far earning money with personal stories. If I were you, I’d move away from that for now (come back to it after you have established yourself within the world of magazines). Use some of the techniques we’ve discussed in the course to locate article ideas that are timely, things that are on people’s minds now, unique ideas that others are interested in and that haven’t been overused. For example,

“What to do if you get a tsunami warning” (for magazines related to coastal living).

“How dogs are helping with the rescue and recovery effort in Japan.”

“How to teach your children to be givers—to develop an altruistic attitude/behavior” (for any number of parenting/religious magazines).

“Profiles of teens who are helping others in major ways.”

Read newspapers and magazines and watch the news for story ideas.

Find magazines that have editorial calendars and study them to discover article ideas. Wooden Horse Publications publishes a lot of magazine editorial calendars along with their expansive database of magazines. http://www.woodenhorsepub.com or use Google to find magazines with editorial calendars.

I would advise that you stay away from the personal piece for now. As you proceed within the world of article writing, you will become more and more familiar with magazines and you will get to know editors. Then you will have a better chance of getting some of your more fun things—things that are close to your heart—published.

When I started my article-writing career, I wanted to write about parenting (from a parent’s point of view), and I loved writing personal experience pieces. But I knew these pieces were harder to place. (Besides, I was not a celebrity or a parenting authority.) So I chose to write about something I knew well and that I knew wasn’t being covered adequately at the time—things related to horsemanship and amateur horse showing for horse magazines. I think you’ve heard me say that I sold the first article I wrote and quite a few subsequent pieces to horse-related magazines.

Around that time, I got a job with a local newspaper writing a business column. This meant I had to go out and interview people. I found interesting stories throughout my community and I submitted some of them to magazines. I wrote about a woman who made exquisite batik dolls and a man who built guitars from scratch. I wrote a how-to piece on drying flowers (based on the instructions of a local florist), and one on how to cook using flowers—which flowers are edible, etc. I featured a fabric store owner who packages her quilting fabric pieces to look like food—salad, milkshake, sushi, etc.

I suggest that you check into your regional magazines for ideas and for possible opportunities.

I hope this gives you some ideas and some encouragement to step further outside your comfort zone, which, in my opinion, is going to be necessary if you truly want to establish and build a lucrative article-writing career.

For more about article-writing, visit my websites and look at some of my articles.
http://www.matilijapress.com
http://www.patriciafry.com

If you want more help with your article-writing career, sign up for my article-writing course:
http://www.matilijapress.com/course_magarticles.htm

My next Article-Writing course starts Tuesday, February 15, 2011. Read what it covers here:

http://www.matilijapress.com/course_magarticles.htm

Sign up by Feb. 15, 2011 and get a free copy of A Writer’s Guide to Magazine Articles for Book Promotion and Profit. Whether you want to use magazine articles to promote your book or you want to establish a career writing articles—or just supplement your income—this book (and this course) will guide you.

Here is an excerpt from the third lesson:

Focus Your Article—What’s the point?
Most editors don’t want “all about” articles. They may publish articles on a wide array of subjects, but the individual article must have a specific purpose. Aspen Magazine, for example, publishes essays, articles on new products, historical pieces, articles on environmental issues and most any topic that relates to Aspen, Colorado. But you’re going to have a better chance of being published in Aspen if you submit an article that is narrowly focused. For example, they would probably sooner accept your piece featuring a local artist who has made it big than a piece about the variety of art pursued in Aspen or one all about your appreciation for Colorado art.

Woman’s World frequently publishes articles on how one woman made a difference. But they wouldn’t be interested in your piece on why some women are altruistic and some aren’t and what happens in people’s lives to make them want to reach out to others. A psychology or religious magazine might be willing to publish this piece.

Below are examples of 4 broad subjects each followed by possible pointed or more narrowly focused article ideas:

Showing horses as a hobby.
Tips for winning in the show ring
How to choose the right riding master for your child
Grooming techniques for a show horse

Flying kites for fun
How to make a box kite
Tips for flying stunt kites
The best kite-flying exhibitions in Southern California

Wedding planning
Go Hawaiian: How to present an authentic luau wedding reception for 200 guests
Great gifts for your wedding party
How to overcome pre-wedding jitters

Gardening
Container herb gardening for apartment dwellers
How to integrate art into your garden
Easy to install water features for your garden

It may help you to narrow your focus by studying regular columns in the magazines (or newspapers) you want to write for. The general topic might be foods, beauty, home and garden, parenting, seniors or spirituality, for example. Read several columns and observe how the writers narrow down their focus. Most magazine websites list the table of contents for several issues. Read the story titles. Study technique and you’ll soon get the idea.

It may take some brain-storming to find your article focus. See if this helps:

• Of course, you have already studied the magazine’s Guidelines for Writers.
• You’ve looked at the magazine (or at least their website) with an open mind in order to see what they typically publish.
• You’ve set aside your attachment to your article written the way you want it and containing the material and stories you want to share.
• Now write down topics within your main subject.
• Narrow the focus of each topic down even more.

As an example: your subject might be fishing. Your possible topics might be:
Fishing in Alaska
How I love fishing
Fishing in Mexico
Lake fishing

Now focus:
Which lure catches the most trout in Cachuma Lake?
How to survive cold water fishing trips.
Where do they catch the big ones in Mexico?
How to instill the love of fishing in your child.

And folks, if you promise the editor a “how to,” make sure that it is a how-to with a real self-help element and not an essay describing your decision to go fishing, getting dressed and packing for the trip, driving to the fishing hole, etc.

That is just a snippet of the lesson you’ll receive in one class. You will be asked to work on an assignment based on this lecture and turn it in. I will, then, offer feedback.

Sign up for the Article-Writing Course today and receive your free copy of A Writer’s Guide to Articles for Book Promotion and Profit by Patricia Fry.

http://www.matilijapress.com/course_magarticles.htm

Are you thinking about joining in on the upcoming online Article-Writing Course starting Tuesday, February 15? Be one of the next 5 people to sign up and we’ll send you a FREE copy of A Writer’s Guide to Magazine Articles for Book Promotion and Profit.

Learn more about the course and sign up here: http://www.matilijapress.com/course_magarticles.htm

What will you get out of this course? If you study the lectures and follow through on the assignments, you will learn how to come up with viable article ideas, write articles and submit them to appropriate publications.

How will this serve you? You can begin to supplement your income through articles and/or you can use article-writing to quite successfully promote your book(s).

Who am I? I’ve been writing articles for magazines and other publications for over 35 years, having contributed hundreds of articles to around 300 different magazines. I am also the author of 33 published books, most of them for writers and authors.

Sign up NOW for this valuable course—a course that could, if you are motivated enough, lead you into a new career or position you as an expert in your chosen field. (Experts sell more books.) Be one of the next 5 people to sign up and receive my book, A Writers Guide to Magazine Articles for Book Promotion and Profit. Questions? PLFry620@yahoo.com

If you have been working as a freelance article writer for a while, the holidays are not your favorite time of year. Everything slows down. Magazine editors are impossible to contact. You’re hard-pressed even to receive rejection letters this time of year. You wonder, “Where did everyone go?” “Don’t they have magazines to get out?”

It has always been a puzzle to me—why it is so difficult to communicate with someone about your pending story, your idea or even your paycheck during the summer months and the major holidays. I imagine huge offices going vacant this time of year except for a lonely janitor tidying up while the phones are ringing off the hooks. Where are the employees? Home preparing Thanksgiving dinner, decorating their trees, shopping for gifts, I suppose. Maybe they’re traveling to warmer locations or to visit family in other states.

You know how the janitor feels as he or she rattles around in the expansive New York office building alone. You feel alone in your attempt to place your articles this time of year.

When I was writing articles full-time, I tried to keep up with the game all summer and during the fall/winter holidays. I continued my routine of coming up with article ideas, conducting research and interviews, sending out query letters and writing requested articles. But I felt as though I was in it all alone—that New York had disappeared from the face of the earth or at least had closed down for the winter. I also felt frustrated and a tad angry. Here I was working as usual and nobody cared.

If you have experienced this phenomenon or if you begin to experience it this year, I have a few suggestions. Rather than trying to conduct business as usual all by yourself, you might adjust your mindset, way of pursuing your work and your expectations. Here are some ideas:

• Catch up on your bookwork and organize your workspace or office while sipping on a hot toddy and listening to holiday music.

• Research new outlets for your articles. You’ll be prepared when everyone gets back to work.

• Contact several smaller publications with your article ideas. They seem to keep to the grindstone like you do. They may pay less, so think volume.

• Go into idea mode. This is a good time to read magazines and newspapers with a pen and pad nearby. Study the news and current trends with an editorial eye. Listen as people converse. Watch talk shows on TV. Locate new ideas or find ways to put a new twist or spin on older news/concepts.

• Recycle some of your articles. This might be a good time to send out reprints.

• Tackle that major piece you’ve been wanting to write. Start with the research and interviews you need to conduct in order to write a powerful query letter.

• Next year, leading into the summer and holiday seasons, shift into high and crank up your query and article submissions considerably to help cover the weeks (or months) that little is happening in your profession.

• Work hard all year and take a few weeks off during the holidays. You won’t even notice that no one is home in New York.

Are you aware of the phenomenon I’ve touched on here today—the absence of editors during the holidays? How do you handle your freelance business during these times? We’d love to hear from you.

Learn more about me and my work here:
http://www.patriciafry.com
http://www.matilijapress.com

Some freelance writers have trouble seeing possibilities in their articles. They get hooked on presenting a particular article in a certain way for a specific magazine and, when that doesn’t pan out, they give it up.

In this age of recycling, renewing, regenerating, replenishing, it only makes sense that freelance writers would conserve time and energy by revising rejected articles and even published articles to fit new markets.

If you would like your articles to work harder for you, here are some ideas that might help:

1: You sold your 1,200 piece on how to achieve family togetherness to Family Magazine (a regional parenting magazine for New Jersey parents) and earned $200. Now tweak that piece to fit other regional parenting markets. Mention family-related events, activities and programs in Massachusetts for Bay State Parent Magazine, New York for Hudson Valley Parent, Atlanta for Atlanta Parent, Alabama for Birmingham Parent and so forth. These are regional magazines, covering only certain areas and there should be no problems with rights overlapping.

2: Health Magazine purchased your article featuring the whooping cough epidemic and paid you $2,000. Now start submitting spin-offs of that piece on whooping cough facts and fiction for a general interest, religious, senior and/or parenting magazine.

3: Your submission focusing on therapy pets was a big hit with Vim and Vigor. Now change it to fit several regional publications (featuring local people and organizations), a religious magazine (focusing on families using therapy pets), a travel magazine (how to travel with your therapy pet) and senior publications (how to locate the right therapy pet).

I met a man many years ago who had written an article for a magazine that I frequently write for. He asked me to read his article and tell him why I think they keep rejecting it. (Yes, he has sent it to them more than once.) I looked it over and told him that this magazine publishes how-to pieces and his was an essay. I suggested that he change his article to comply and gave him some pointers on how to do this.

The next time I saw him—about a year later—he was still trying to get the same article (the essay) published in the same magazine. It’s kind of like trying to fit that square peg into a round hole.

If you have an article that is repeatedly rejected, perhaps you should start looking at it as that proverbial square peg. Certainly, there are methods of driving that peg in, but it will take some significant changes. As I see it, you have 3 choices. You can continue to try making it fit and experiencing failure. You can hone the angles on the peg so that it conforms to the round hole, thus will fit. Or you can enlarge the hole. What will you do?

http://www.matilijapress.com
http://www.patriciafry.com

Yesterday I wrote about writing for major magazines and/or the magazines of your choice. I hope you found the suggestions helpful.

When I started out writing articles (in 1973)—and throughout most of my career—I relied mainly on small and medium-size magazines. While, in the beginning, I accepted as little as $50 per article, I eventually got to a point where I would not write for less than $200. Obviously, I broke into this field through some rather obscure, low-paying markets. And I can tell you there’s not much prestige for a freelance article writer when no one has heard of the magazines you’re writing for.

(But then you’re not writing to impress your friends, are you? Your goal is to earn some money and/or reach your audience with your message.)

Unless you own a copy of Writer’s Market and study it often, even you have probably never heard of Minority Engineering, Bodywise, Children’s Voice, Seattle’s Child, Teacher’s Vision, Family Motor Coaching, The Edge and National Barbecue News. These are some of the low-paying markets I submitted to in the early days.

I learned during those years about the importance of quantity versus quality. Several low-paying magazine editors loved my work and the work was fairly easy to produce. So I could earn a decent part-time salary (and, by the way, credits) by being a loyal contributor.

As time went on, I also earned some fairly good money from magazines such as Columbia, The Walking Magazine, Pages, Business Start-Ups, Sam’s Club Source, Technology and Learning, Vim and Vigor, HOW and The Toastmaster Magazine. While some of these magazines paid well per article, others used many of my articles, thus were reliable sources of money. How many of these magazines have you heard of?

I find that most authors who want to promote their books and most writers starting out are focused on some of the big name magazines—Family Circle, Glamour, Saturday Evening Post, National Geographic, Harpers or The Atlantic Monthly, for example. They aren’t even aware of some of the other magazines in these categories—magazines that pay less, but are more apt to accept your submission. And some of them have fairly good circulation. Columbia has 1,700,000; St. Anthony Messenger, 300,000; Vim and Vigor, 200,000.

When I was earning my living through article-writing, I discovered early-on that I could make $3,000 more quickly and surely by selling articles to 6 small to medium-size magazines than by trying to sell one article to Parade or Reader’s Digest.

If you’ve been unsuccessful at breaking into the article-writing business, you might consider changing your strategy. Rather than setting your sights on the big time with your amazing article idea, lower your standards and seek out some of the more realistic opportunities. You may want to set aside your amazing article and start earning money and credits through smaller markets.

I have used several tactics for finding markets. Here’s one. Sit with the Writer’s Market (or your favorite directory of publications) and go through all of the magazine listings in the categories you could potentially write for—general, regional, religious, parenting, inflight, etc. Read each listing. If you are sitting with an open mind, article ideas will begin to occur to you. As they do, write them down.

If you’re like many freelance writers, you have a favored topic and some article ideas. By reading through the listings, you’ll also discover potential magazines that you may want to approach with your article. A serious article-writer is willing to tweak his/her article to fit the requirements of the magazine. I’ve seen numerous writers enter into the world of article-writing without the flexibility necessary to succeed. Don’t make this mistake.

Tomorrow, I will write about how to creatively tweak your articles to fit markets outside of the norm.

Be sure to visit my websites:
http://www.matilijapress.com
http://www.patriciafry.com

Are there specific magazines you’d like to write for? Do you yearn to see your articles published in a particular home and garden, parenting, regional, religious or business magazine, for example? Perhaps you want to publish in this magazine for the prestige or the money. Or maybe you want the publicity this magazine can offer for your book.

Whatever your reason for wanting to publish in this magazine, if the editors accept submissions, you should be able to break in. All you need is an article that is timely, appropriate and well-written. After studying each magazine’s submission guidelines and before writing the article, I suggest that you scrutinize the magazines themselves. You may be quite familiar with the magazine, but have you ever truly examined it with an editorial eye? For example:

• Study the articles in order to understand the style and focus the editors prefer.

• Review the ads so you know not to write an article that might offend or counter the advertisers’ messages.

• Read Letters-to-the-Editor to learn what readers are asking for, commenting on, interested in, etc.

• Peruse back issues (archives sometimes appear online) to discover what articles similar to yours have appeared and the focus of these articles. If you see an article similar to the one you want to write, you may need to change the scope and focus of your article.

• See if you can discover a theme running through the various issues and match your article to the appropriate issue. Some editors post an editorial calendar so writers know when to pitch certain topics.

I see a lot of articles by authors hoping to promote their books and writers wanting to start freelancing for magazines. Among them, I see many misdirected articles that will never make it to publication. The main mistakes I see among those new to the world of article-writing is:

• Poor writing skills.

• Lack of understanding about the concept of an article and its purpose.

• Writing the wrong article for the wrong publication.

Folks, successful article-writing is not a matter throwing a few words together on a subject you adore and expecting to get it published in your first choice of magazines. As you can see, it takes skill, study, thought and the willingness to adhere to guidelines.

Tomorrow I will talk about successfully earning a living or promoting your book by writing for small to medium-size publications.

For help with your next article consider reading my book, “A Writer’s Guide to Magazine Articles,”
http://www.matilijapress.com.

Sign up for my article-writing course: http://www.matilijapress.com/course_magarticles.htm

When my primary writing work involved articles, I always carried a camera and a notepad to every event and on every outing. I still do. While I’m not as enmeshed in article-writing as I once was, I continue the practices and the thought processes I adopted back then.

Yesterday, for example, I attended a cat show. About halfway through the day, I realized that I was automatically forming article ideas in my head. As I observed, assimilated, absorbed, evaluated and learned, potential article topics came to mind.

If you write articles for publication or would like to, it helps if you can train your mind to see the article potential in the activity, situation, innuendo, etc. you are observing or involved in. Start by viewing each and every aspect of your experience as a potential article. Here are some tips:

• Look for the story in everything around you. Yesterday, I became aware of cat breeds that I have never seen before and I am pretty sure that the standards for some of the more common breeds are changing because the cats’ looks are changing. Both of those observations, with adequate research, could be expanded into articles.

• Listen in on conversations. I overheard a couple of cat breeders discussing some new regulations or policies with which they were not pleased. This might be an area of interest to other breeders, thus worth an article in a cat magazine.

• I also caught part of a discussion among visitors. They wondered about the judging criteria. An interview with a couple of judges could result in an article or even a booklet or pamphlet for folks who like to attend cat shows, but who don’t understand how the cats are judged.

• The huge array of cat items for sale prompted my idea for a review of various homemade cat foods, the best cat toys for encouraging agility, toys that entertain cats while the owner is away, favorite cat beds and so forth.

• While watching the people who brought cats to show, I began to wonder who they are, what prompts them to want to show their cats, how far they travel to shows, etc. I think an interview with a serious cat breeder and then someone who just shows household pets would make for interesting reading.

• And what about the judges. Most of them at the show yesterday were men. How do they get started as judges? What do they get out of it? Do they judge just certain types of cats or do they need to know the various points of several breeds? I’d be interested in reading this article.

• As I drove home to my own little cat menagerie, I thought about how Max, Lily and Sophie would fare in the show ring. These cats don’t even like getting in the carrier or riding in the car, let alone being handled by strangers and leered at by cooing cat lovers. I wondered how one trains or chooses cats to endure this type of life. Now that’s another article idea.

Where are you going next? To a concert, sophisticated gala event, wine tasting, chili cook-off, charity walk/jog, talent show, street painting exhibit, haunted house tour, walk on the beach, to visit a nursing home, car show, class reunion, the zoo, a playground…? If you are interested in writing articles for magazine, don’t go alone. Carry your camera, notepad and an open, creative mind with you. And plan to score at least one article out of the experience.

Not only could you make a little money selling your article, the event or activity could be a write-off.

http://www.patriciafry.com
http://www.matilijapress.com

Would you like to start contributing articles to magazines and ezines, but you don’t know how to get started? Are you working on a nonfiction book and you need to build your platform—your credibility, your reach in that topic? Good for you! Here’s what I suggest:

• Consider the audience for your book. Who are they, where are they, what publications do they read and why?

• Study some of these magazines, ezines, newsletters and find out what they present that you could contribute to and what’s missing that you could offer.

• Note the types of articles the various publications use—essays, reporting articles, how-to, informational, bulleted, interview, profile, new product or first person, for example. How many words do they typically publish? Not all publications are the same, nor do they use the same type, style and size articles. Study and follow Writers’ Guidelines for each mag/newsletter.

• Write articles that are useful and informative, not self-serving or advertorial.

• Provide your bio at the end of each article including your name, area of expertise and title of your book (where appropriate). Here’s an example, “Megan Smith is a hang-gliding expert living in Spokane. Watch for her upcoming book, ‘Hello Sky’ (High Flying Books). Contact Megan at megans@dot.net” Or “John Rancher has been farming for 25 years in Illinois. He is also the author of several articles on farming and a new book, ‘Grow What You Want to Eat and Sell the Rest,’ www.rancherfarmingbooks.com.”

Many of the people who are interested in your articles will be eager to read your book. The more articles they see from you, the more credible you seem to your readers and the more likely they will buy your book.

I suggest that you start your article-writing campaign before your book is a book and continue it for as long as you want to sell copies of your book. The most difficult thing about article-writing for many people is coming up with article ideas. This is covered thoroughly in both my book and my course. If you want to know more about coming up with ideas for numerous articles over time, leave a comment here and I’ll try to accommodate you in a future blog post.

In the meantime, for more about how to get involved with article-writing, read my book A Writer’s Guide to Magazine Articles< /em>.
http://www.matilijapress.com