Writing Archives - Page 47 of 50 - Addicted to Writing

8 Awesome (Free & Paid) Places to Find Market Guidelines

Posted on July 4, 2011 Written by Pinar Tarhan

Writer’s Market – (from Writer’s Digest)

Writer’s Market 2018 can be found at the newsstands, or you can access the online Writer’s Market database. It is a paid resource, and some writers complain that it is not as up-to-date and extensive as it should be. I agree to a certain point, but I wouldn’t give it up on it just yet.

It offers some solid information, such as when the magazine was established, how to submit, who to submit, how much of it is freelance written, its response time, length and much more. However, you need to check the information yourself, as publications change editors/websites/pay rates, and many even cease to exist.

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I bought the VIP program which cost me $49.95 – it gives me a year’s subscription to the Writer’s Digest Magazine, a year’s access to the database, The Essentials of Online Marketing & Promotion Webinar, 10% off all Writers Online Workshop courses and 10% off all Writers Digest Shop purchases.

Remember that Writer’s Digest also works with freelancers, and you can find the submission guidelines here.

Susan Johnston’s The Urban Muse Guide to Online Writing Markets

Susan Johnston is a published author who runs her own blog The Urban Muse. Her e-book, The Urban Muse Guide to Online Writing Markets. She offers the website’s name, its attitude and who it targets. It also includes its pay rate (if it is specified), the topics covered and a link to the masthead/contact page/submissions page wherever possible.

At the very least, you have the link to the magazine’s main page where you can do your own digging. The book also features the reasons you might want to write for the web, how to approach the editors, and Susan’s own successful e-mail queries, including the background stories of these queries.

The book costs $17.99. I bought it after seeing it recommended on Carol Tice’s Make a Living Writing blog. I think it is a must for web writers, as her listing includes online publications in diverse areas, including web design, social commentary, relationships, parenting, stock markets, writing and more.

She also lists other resources where you can search for online writing markets.

Writing for Dollars

Writing for Dollars has its own free guidelines database, as well as a free newsletter that comes with useful articles on writing. The newsletter also contains a group of markets, but to find more, you need to dig in to the database. As far as free resources go, it is pretty good. For instance some of the publications writing you can find on the database include Freelance Market Writer’s News, FundsforWriters, WOW! Women on Writing, The Write Markets Report and more.

You can search according to the subject, market name, pay rate, submission style (simultaneous or not) and payment time (on acceptance or publication).

The markets are divided into three according to their pay: High (over $500) Medium ($125-$500) and Low (less than $125).

Writing for Dollars is itself a low-paying market. It starts from $10 (for reprints) and goes up to $25 for solicited articles. You can read its guidelines here.

Freelance Writing

Freelance Writing.com is a wonderful website that it comes with its own free (albeit) small markets database, job listings, writing contests and resources (such as useful articles and free e-books). If you subscribe to the newsletter, you will get freelance writing jobs. Currently they have free e-books on writing persuasively, writing good sales pages, online copyrights, time management, creativity and many more.

Towse’s Links to Online Submission Guidelines

Towse’s Links to Online Submission Guidelines is a quite comprehensive (and free) guide to submission guidelines (listed alphabetically) and agents (also listed alphabetically).

Writer’s Weekly

Writer’s Weekly is a wonderful e-zine that comes with a free newsletter, free guidelines database, news from the industry and free articles. Just like Writing for Dollars, it is also a paying market itself (in the subject of writing of course). It pays more than Writing for Dollars.

Freelance Market News

You can subscribe to Freelance Market News Magazine at £17 for 6 months (6 issues), and £29/year (11 issues). The site offers a free sample issue. The magazine is also a paying market. You can find its guidelines here. The pay ranges from £40 to £50.

Worldwide Freelance

WorldwideFreelance.com offers a free newsletter with useful articles, links and some market guidelines. Their premium database costs 24.95/year and 39.95/2 years, and it is supposed to have 2.500 writing markets. The site also offers e-books on writing, blogging and writing markets. Market List E-Books (such as 50 Women’s Writing Markets or Travel or 50 Traveling Writing Markets) cost $6.95 each.

As you can guess from the website’s name, you can find info on markets from Canada, Australia and the UK as well.

This is all from me for now. Please feel free to add your favorite resources.

*Note: Only Amazon links and Susan Johnston’s e-book link are affiliate links, so I make a small commission when you buy through them.

How to Handle Rejection (and When It Might Be A Good Thing)

Posted on June 28, 2011 Written by Pinar Tarhan

Writers are constantly exposed to a form of rejection. Well, no one likes to be rejected in any area, but we writers need to face the music more often than others. We apply to a lot of writing gigs both online and offline, try to get our stories/novels published, and/ or get our scripts read by producers/agents. And it doesn’t always matter whether we targeted the right market or abided by the guidelines. It doesn’t always make a difference that our writing is good, or the query letters rocked. John Grisham got rejected. J.K. Rowling got rejected. Do I really need to give more examples?

And having been writing full time since late 2009, I can say that I am pretty much at the start of the rejection cycle. Because although I have been writing since I was basically a preteen, I had never sent my writing to anyone besides my friends. I loved being read and I enjoyed a loyal following that loved what story I would come up with next.

But we all grew up and our lives became much more hectic than just going to school, socializing or dating. We were distracted by our career and family plans. That’s when I finally decided that I was not satisfied with writing just for me and my friends. I also wasn’t going to settle for some job I didn’t want because the economy sucked. It was time to follow my. So I dove straight into heavy research. I studied how magazine queries were made, how articles were formatted. I read about how you could sell your screenplays even if you lived a world away from Hollywood.

I read about blogging and writing, and applied what I learned. In addition to running several blogs, I got some decent gigs and continue to have them. I also keep getting rejected. Here is what I’ve learned so far:

1) Obviously, your samples won’t impress everyone. For many jobs, you will be either be overqualified or under-qualified. If you are overqualified, the job is highly unlikely to satisfy you.

2) With some gigs, you’ll have been 10 minutes/2 days/50 applicants too late to have applied.

3) Job-hunting for writers isn’t all that different from job-hunting for others.

4) You will be rejected, even if you avoided every rookie mistake you were supposed to avoid.

5) Many editors will not reply at all.

6) Some editors will just reply “No, Thanks”, only after you followed up twice.

7) It is be frustrating, but the acceptance e-mail and the check are all worth it. Yes, I am assuming the check is decent.

8) You constantly have to work on writing better, marketing and networking. And you need to keep querying.

A writer friend of mine recently mentioned that he hated the rejection letters that said that he was a good writer, the story was good but they were just not interested. I hate the letters that don’t come at all, or come very late. I have a whole article about it.

While obviously the news (of rejection) stinks, it at least enables you to move on, and learn. So try not to let it get you down so much. I once read somewhere that the more rejection letters you have in your drawer, the closer you are to being published. And then the author of the article had gone on to list the number of rejection letters famous authors got before they got lucky. The list is quite impressive.

Proof? John Grisham’s first novel is A Time to Kill. His first published worked however is The Firm. A Time to Kill got published after The Firm. Same guy, same style, same quality, both bestsellers. One just happened to be misjudged.

So the ultimate lesson is to hang in there. Your turn will come too, whether it is getting constant magazine gigs, or getting your fiction out there. You are just going to get rejected a lot in the process.

6 Reasons Why Every Writer Should Blog

Posted on June 25, 2011 Written by Pinar Tarhan

love blogging — image via ezgi.murekkep.org.

The article is short and to the point. It lists 5 reasons why you (as a writer) should blog:

1) The fun. Life is short and it is very important that if you find something that you enjoy, you should go after it. And if you like writing, there is a chance you’ll like it the colorful world of blogging.

2) The freedom. Part of t reasons why blogging is so much fun is that you can write about absolutely whatever/whenever and however you want.

3) Promotion. Do you write? What do you write? What are your strengths? Put in samples, talk about your credentials. It is your platform. Rock on. You can even put on a “hire me” button/page.

4) Interaction with like-minded people. It is amazing to share what you are passionate about with people who really care about that stuff.

5) Reputation. Get your name out there. Put in the hours, display the work, write the content. Then fingers crossed, things will eventually go viral- thanks to you and your n networking efforts. I started because of 1 and I got addicted because of 2. Then I realized, 3 was an opportunity and 4 made it even more fun.

6) Money. It may not the best idea to start blogging purely to make money, as it takes some time to start earning from it. But this is no reason not to monetize your site either. You can sell advertising space, promote others’ products, and a lot more.

Want to read more fun & useful stuff on blogging and writing? You might like:

4 Reasons Why Every Writer Should Use Twitter

Why Every Writer Should Watch ABC’s Mystery Thriller Castle

5 Authoritative & Popular (Writing / Blogging) Sites That Accept Guest Posts

Posted on June 4, 2011 Written by Pinar Tarhan

This post isn’t about the benefits of guest-posting. Chances are, you are here because you decided that you want to guest post (or you are already doing it). If the topics you want to write about concern writing (and/or blogging) better, marketing your writing, getting noticed and more, be sure to check out the guidelines (and content) of these sites. Of course there is no guarantee your queries will be accepted, but you don’t stand a chance without trying.

Freelance Writing Jobs: Also one of my favorite resources for job-searching and writing related information, this site offers guest posting opportunities. Try this link for the guest-posting guidelines.

Copyblogger: Copyblogger has tremendous authority when it comes to blogging, copywriting for the web and running businesses on the web. It also accepts guest posts on a frequent basis. If you have a compelling idea, it is one of the best places to pitch to. The publicity alone…You get the idea. This is the contact page.

Problogger: Darren Rowse is one of the most popular (and I am guessing one of the richest) bloggers out there. He is considered to one of the ultimate blogging gurus. While I couldn’t find a page for guest blogging guidelines, he often accepts (great) guest posts. This is his contact page.

Men With Pens: Their expertise is awesome web copy (and web design). Currently, the website has a page rank of 5. Guest post guidelines are here.

Carol Tice’s Make a Living Writing: I saved the best for last. Not only she provides comprehensive and valuable information on writing, she also accepts and PAYS for guest posts. Yep, you read it correctly. She recently started paying guest bloggers $50 for their posts. You can read the guidelines here. Oh, and this post also includes her reason for paying the writers for guest posts.