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Do's and Don'ts of Writing
I'm continually updating this page. If something works, I'll let you know. If something fails, I'll warn you.
Do
- your homework; most of querying involves researching publications.
- invest in a copy of the Writer's Market. I skimp and buy last year's copy for 25% of the price. You should always check the website of the magazines you're querying to see if anything has changed since publication whether you have the current edition or an older one. Try to update your copy every year (I'm always a year behind, but I still update.) Too many new publications come out. If you're interested in contests and workshops, which I'm not, then you want the newest edition. There are various Market books: fiction writers, photo, children's, publishers, general market, etc. I own them all.
- learn how to take photos and submit them with your articles. It makes you so much more marketable to magazines, especially those without in-house photographers.
- proofread, proofread, proofread! A great plus I've found is that I'm very grammatically meticulous.
- be as professional as possible. The easier you make it on your editor, the more he/she will want to work with you in the future. You may even be contacted when a story is needed that is "up your alley." If you mailed a sloppy package, that's the image you sent.
- be courageous and explore various areas.
- keep vigorous records of your expenditures and your profits. Taxes are much easier this way, and you want to deduct ALL of your expenses to justify the tax you will owe on your profit. Editors report your earnings to the IRS; you should report them, too. Keep a log of your mileage to the library, office supply store, post office, interviews, photo shots, etc. Keep all receipts and copies of checks.
- read as much as possible. The more you read, the more up to date you are on what's being written. Reading is also the greatest way to improve your writing skills.
Don't
- query without at least looking at the magazine, even if it's the on-line version. Yes, I've gotten away with this once or twice, but it's worth the effort to flip through it at the library first.
- write an article for a magazine without buying a copy of the magazine and reading it several times. Be sure to match the magazine's style and format. I've had a query accepted and then the article denied because I didn't meet the expected style (I was far too formal for the relaxed-read style of the magazine.)
- make assumptions about magazines before reading a few articles. This goes hand in hand with #1 and #2, but it bears repeating. I recently spotted a new magazine on a shelf and had three queries in mind before I even got it to the checkout. It looked like a great new local magazine focusing on odd historical facts. Once I read through the readers' letters and two articles, I realized this was not for me. It was more of a conspiracy theory type magazine with more personal thoughts than facts. While it was entertaining, and I passed it along to others to read, it's not the magazine that I want to post in my clip file. Your clips are a permanent part of your writing history, so decide which publications will look great when editors look through them.
- send original photos.
- be discouraged or allow rejections to hurt. They do hurt; I'm not going to lie. When you start to send bulks of queries, you can expect a rejection every few days. Don't take it personally; it's not a personal attack. Grow from them.
- send sloppy packages of your finished work. Present everything professionally and neatly. Think of it as a job application for future work.
- feel locked into a "specialty." Look at my Published Work page and you'll see what I mean. I write about whatever interests me at the moment. While I tend to lean towards historical pieces, I never believed I would end there. I thought I would start out as an environmental writer! I haven't published one environmental piece yet!
- feel as if you need to invest huge amounts of money in supplies. You need a computer with an internet connection (which is available at a library), some postage, a Writers Market (which if you're lucky is also at your library), and some creativity. From there you can add supplies as you need them.
- overwork yourself! I did this in the fall of 2006, and I felt so burnt out. I took time off to refocus, and I didn't write anything--not a query, not an article--for three months. Instead, I focused on my teaching, my son, and some creative writing that was more for me than anything. Then, I created a plan and I log in my tasks on a calendar in my office. I only work on one project at a time. This motivates me to get some dreaded tasks finished so that I can move on to an upcoming one of more interest. For instance, updating this web page isn't my favorite thing to do, but if I check that off my list of to-dos I can then research a quirky history idea I have for an upcoming article. I intersperse the actual work--researching publications for queries and office maintenance tasks--with fun work--creative writing, article research, and photography.
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