January Just Hit Send

WildScribe

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Only one query and a bunch of research.
 

ravenlea

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Did something kind of crazy today.

The editor of our sort-of local, nonconfrontational, all around happy feeling newpaper was at the monthly city council meeting, where she spoke with my husband. Turns out she asked about me and wondered why I didn't write for her anymore. Hubby said I was busy, but he would pass on that she was looking for someone local to cover our town.

Now it's not that I think I'm too good to write for free, I like writing about the local HS sports, but to take the time and dig up news in our little town of 350 for a weekly just isn't possible for me. So instead I did something a little crazy ... I emailed her to see if she had room for an article next week about Senior night at the HS and then porceeded to see if she would be interested in a recipe column of sorts with recipes from the locals here. Like I said crazy. Too late now to take it back. We'll see what happens.

Off to feed then make cupcakes for the bunchkins bowling party tomorrow.
 

WildScribe

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Did something kind of crazy today.

The editor of our sort-of local, nonconfrontational, all around happy feeling newpaper was at the monthly city council meeting, where she spoke with my husband. Turns out she asked about me and wondered why I didn't write for her anymore. Hubby said I was busy, but he would pass on that she was looking for someone local to cover our town.

Now it's not that I think I'm too good to write for free, I like writing about the local HS sports, but to take the time and dig up news in our little town of 350 for a weekly just isn't possible for me. So instead I did something a little crazy ... I emailed her to see if she had room for an article next week about Senior night at the HS and then porceeded to see if she would be interested in a recipe column of sorts with recipes from the locals here. Like I said crazy. Too late now to take it back. We'll see what happens.

Off to feed then make cupcakes for the bunchkins bowling party tomorrow.

You're offering these for free?
 

Skyraven

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Woohoo raven! Way to go! Right now I'm working on a profile piece of a kid who raised money for Haiti. I'm looking at local parenting markets now and hope to get a pitch out this week! I'm so excited to see that my goal is actually coming to fruition. I'm petrified, but I'm moving forward so that my 2010 goal of breaking into a regional/national parenting magazine happens. Can't believe it!
 

ravenlea

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heard back from the paper. It's a go. I'll be doing a weekly recipe corner with recipes from locals. (Thank heaven I've got a stack of them! Not much research needed for that.) Plus she wants the article for the HS senior night.

Wildscribe: yes it is free. Very small town newspaper, contributor copy plus byline. But I figure it will get my name out there locally and hopefully use the recipe deal to get my foot in the door at other magazines. We'll see. Like I said, I really like writing for them, very hometown and family-ish. but not interested in trying to dig up news where the top story of the day may be how many calves got out from the diary or feedlot down the road. Not terribly exciting.
 

WildScribe

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Well good for you, then. Good luck!
 

CatMuse33

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Congrats to the Ravens, Sky and Lea, respectively!! :D January is ending with a bang and I cannot WAIT for February. I have all my assignments lined up and I'm super-psyched to go, coming off my best month in a long time.

In my quest to create passive income, I turned in my first assignment that I subcontracted someone else to write.

I'm still planning a teleconference for beginning freelancers in the beginning of March, which gives me a month to promote it, as well as our writer's chat, which should launch probably in April... my first goal -- and this may sound silly -- is to keep up with my work and get the house organized. If I take anything else on, housework will suffer more and that wouldn't be good at this point.

Dawn
 

Still Seaking

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I received word from my interviewee prospect that they are game however, they want to wait until after Mardi Gras so that changes my focus for my query letter for this month, yeah I still haven’t gotten it written but I have until midnight to still reach my goal. I think I know of the angle I’m going to go with so that’s okay, I’ll get to it after I get some immediate pay articles out of the way.

I do have a question for every one though, actually two… maybe more, we’ll see.

1. Should I write the article or at least be working on it before I write the query?

2. Should I do research on publications to query to before or after I write the article or start working on it?

3. Is there a thread (I looked but not much – very busy trying to pay bills so must write not research much loved forum where I could spend hours but not make any money) on query writing and tips for such and if not how about someone with successful experience starting one to help the rest of us out?

I’ve written some minor articles for a few print mags but not many and it wasn’t near about the national league or normal local market either so I’m a bit nervous. I feel like a newbie instead of someone who’s been writing professionally for five years now. Of course that two years of fulltime reporting really took away from my freelance career but I was writing professionally and have wonderful clips and photography skills now.

Congrats, on all the success everyone, I'm hoping to be very much more involved this year and not fall off the map like last year. Amy, I read one of your blogs, following one of the links and it was wonderful. I laughed and loved you're style and wanted to read more, which is a very bad thing right now. I don't really have time to sleep and every time I pee it's costing my money but I did enjoy it and once I'm back on track, I'll be reading more (as well as other fellow writers) for my entertainment and inspiration.

SS
 

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1. Should I write the article or at least be working on it before I write the query?
IMO no--most queries are not accepted.
2. Should I do research on publications to query to before or after I write the article or start working on it?
All of the above.

3. Is there a thread (I looked but not much – very busy trying to pay bills so must write not research much loved forum where I could spend hours but not make any money) on query writing and tips for such and if not how about someone with successful experience starting one to help the rest of us out?
Probably a few, as well as several excellent books.
 

Autodidact

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JHS on an article (should you buy a scooter) for our second tier city mag. Gulp. Would love to please this market. Editor was very efficient and non-crazy. Hope it satisfied.

On another note, I heard back from Skirt rejecting the essay I submitted for their January "No Regrets" issue. Reading it over, I was pleased with it, and wish I could find somewhere else for a chick-oriented essay. The theme is to avoid regret by making a fool of yourself on a regular basis. Any ideas?
 

Skyraven

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Posted at the examiner site on Friday. Also posted my round-up for this month on my portfolio. Man! I was a busy writer. I got my interview and now have a market for a profile of the "kid making a difference" story. I'm now researching newspaper writing tips for it because the market seems more like a newspaper than a magazine even though it is a print/online market. We'll see. I'm going to interview the parents and see if I can find out what organization she donated to. I'm so excited!
 

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I'm really just starting to get into the research phase of understanding Freelance Writing. My fiance and I are moving south in May where she's going to be looking for (hopefully already obtaining) a teaching job. She is a tremendous artist and frameworker. I am a capable writer.

We're hopefully going to turn those skills into some small supplemental income for our career/school lives, through freelance writing and small home/business solutions work (art on commission, photography, framing, resumes and other print work, copy, etc.)

It's a lot to learn. A lot to sift through. But the best approach is to get everything from all angles.

What is the best advice you would give a young man jumping into it over the next few months?
 

WildScribe

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If I'm feeling snarky, I would say read the guidelines and figure out the correct place to post before hijacking a thread.

If I'm feeling nicer, I'd say choose a book to read. There have probably been half a dozen new writers asking for advice in the last week, and we pretty much told all of them to read the same three books. I challenge you to go find out which ones. If you can't do that, you'll never be able to find things like guidelines, email addresses, and sources to be successful at this game.

I know that tone on the internet is hard to determine, and I am want to be clear that I am not being intentionally rude, but we do field this question... a lot. There is a lot of good advice here if you stop to read it instead of asking for the magic formula for success.
 

wardigital

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If I'm feeling snarky, I would say read the guidelines and figure out the correct place to post before hijacking a thread.

If I'm feeling nicer, I'd say choose a book to read. There have probably been half a dozen new writers asking for advice in the last week, and we pretty much told all of them to read the same three books. I challenge you to go find out which ones. If you can't do that, you'll never be able to find things like guidelines, email addresses, and sources to be successful at this game.

I know that tone on the internet is hard to determine, and I am want to be clear that I am not being intentionally rude, but we do field this question... a lot. There is a lot of good advice here if you stop to read it instead of asking for the magic formula for success.

I understand that you are not meaning to be rude. I didn't feel that I was hi-jacking the thread. I thought that the purpose for this thread was to create a conversational tone around what we are each accomplishing at the moment. What I am accomplishing at the moment is learning. I have (and will continue) to use the wide range of resources posted on the many threads on this web-site and others to better my knowledge of what I need to accomplish. My question was more rhetorical and conversational in tone (and as you've suggested, an inability to distinguish tone and at times, context, on the internet can make it incredibly easy to fall into that trap). So instead of asking for a blue print or magical formula for success, what I was looking for was more along the lines of general banter, tongue-in-cheek comments, and funny one liners. In other words, I was trying to have some fun.

I'm learning as much from studying what each poster is accomplishing and posting in their posts, and studying the many writer web-sites that are available to review around here.

I do not mean to come off rude as you did not, but, speaking frankly as we are, there is no reason to be so defensive as to my intentions here, or as if this is some sort of precious baby that will be horribly corrupted by my playful inquiry. As it goes, I don't need to be told what you told me, and I didn't realize there was such a feeling of exclusivity in this thread, that perhaps I am overstepping some bounds. But if I am, or if I am not, it is really an unnecessary presumption to say simply because I asked, "Hey gang, any tips for someone looking to get their feet in the mix?" that I required my hand held and have not been doing my homework to begin with. On the contrary.

So that presumption, it made a pre out of u and mpt.

Nevertheless, you said you weren't being rude, and I take your word for it. No hard feelings. Snarky reply forgiven. On the contrary, though, the approaching of reply with the hint of annoyance and contempt is a little below the line of welcoming. In other words, regardless of tone or intent: not very friendly. I won't hold it against you, but in the spirit of mutually not-rude advice, I would suggest that in the future, regardless of the frequency with which you field such questions, you approach people having genuine interest with a greater degree of empathy and/or benevolence, for I am sure there have been or will be situations in your life in which you are new to something or somewhere and privy to mistakes. I don't think you'd care for the snarky response in that instance, even if they didn't mean it.

Thanks. I'll check myself out of the thread, and refer to the posts I have already referred to, to make sure I haven't missed snippets of the wealth of wisdom that exists there, and no where else.
 
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Still Seaking

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I didn’t quite make my goal. I did write the query and it is here for critiquing in the appropriate thread and my goal is to have it submitted by this weekend. Then I’ll start on the query for this month so it will be submitted on time.

SS
 

WildScribe

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I didn’t quite make my goal. I did write the query and it is here for critiquing in the appropriate thread and my goal is to have it submitted by this weekend. Then I’ll start on the query for this month so it will be submitted on time.

SS

It's a new month, and you get a whole new chance. Good luck! My goal for this month is STEEP...
 

ravenlea

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- send out five queries - at least two to new markets - five sent, only one to a new market
- send out five short stories - sent two due to lost flash drive- finish 2 on-spec articles - one done
- get my office cleaned/organized /ready for 2010 (this is a biggie!) - finished!
- edit chapters 3-5 of Elementals - decided to go back and redo chpts 1-3 so those are done.
- send out Blood Sisters to 5-10 agents - nope. Missed on this due to that stupid flash drive. Will add this to next months goals.
- blog - yes, some

did better than I figured for the month. Plus I picked up a new gig so that has to count for something. Onto February!
 

WildScribe

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did better than I figured for the month. Plus I picked up a new gig so that has to count for something. Onto February!

Great job!! The lost flash drive was a big hit... I know missing my own would drive me nuts, and I back it up regularly anyway. Still, your most recent work is arguable the most relevant.
 

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I'm really just starting to get into the research phase of understanding Freelance Writing. My fiance and I are moving south in May where she's going to be looking for (hopefully already obtaining) a teaching job. She is a tremendous artist and frameworker. I am a capable writer.

We're hopefully going to turn those skills into some small supplemental income for our career/school lives, through freelance writing and small home/business solutions work (art on commission, photography, framing, resumes and other print work, copy, etc.)

It's a lot to learn. A lot to sift through. But the best approach is to get everything from all angles.

What is the best advice you would give a young man jumping into it over the next few months?

The nifty thing about writers is that they write. Therefore, anything you want to know about the writing business, there are several books about. My best advice is to get some of those books and read them, then have a crack at it, then read some more books, then take another couple of cracks.
 

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Only sent out 7 queries, not ten. OTOH got one acceptance, wrote the article and sent it, so I'm still pretty much on track.
 

WildScribe

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The nifty thing about writers is that they write. Therefore, anything you want to know about the writing business, there are several books about. My best advice is to get some of those books and read them, then have a crack at it, then read some more books, then take another couple of cracks.

Heh, that's essentially what I said, and he got snotty with me about it.

Only sent out 7 queries, not ten. OTOH got one acceptance, wrote the article and sent it, so I'm still pretty much on track.

Good job! Writing an article really can take time out of querying.
 

Skyraven

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Here's my round-up for the month. :) No goals, just accomplishments.

1. Posted at The Freshman Writer 11 times.

2. Posted on my portfolio five times.

3. Posted at my parenting site three times.

4. Posted two interviews and two articles at Momslikeme.com.

5. Reading up on magazine and essay writing.

I have come up with article ideas left and right since I started reading up on my craft. I’m reading about three or four books on writing as well as Writer’s Digest. I’m happy to report that I’ve been blogging and writing articles/interviews this month. I’m so excited about the progress I’ve made in my goals and know that all the writing I’m doing now is preparing me for this year’s goal of breaking into a regional or national parenting magazine.
 
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