Meg Schneider - The Only Writing Series Youll Ever Need Get Published

The Only Writing Series
Youll Ever Need

Get
Published

MEG SCHNEIDER & BARBARA DOYEN

Copyright 2008 by F+W Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher; exceptions are made for brief excerpts used in published reviews.

Published by
Adams Media, an F+W Publications Company 57
Littlefield Street, Avon, MA 02322. U.S.A
www.adamsmedia.com

Contains material adopted and abridged from
The EverythingGet Published Book, 2nd Edition
by Meg Schneider and Barbara Doyen, Copyright 2006 by F+W Publications, Inc.

ISBN-10: 1-59869-687-4
ISBN-13: 978-1-59869-687-5
eISBN:978-1-44051-562-0

Printed in the United States of America.

J I H G F E D C B A

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
is available from the publisher.

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional advice. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.

From a Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations

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Contents

Introduction

This is The Only Writing Series Youll Ever Need: Get Published. Thats a big promise! But it can happenif you follow the advice in this simple and straightforward book, you will find that getting published is actually possible.

Its true, there has always been a certain romance about writers and writingbut along with the glamorous notion of the industry comes the serious mystery of how does it all actually happen?

How do people get their ideas to write? How do they know if they are good enough to be published? And how do they get an agent and actually, finally, get their work out there? In the end, most published writers feel like their energy, time, and work was well worth it. So how did they do it? And how can you? Its easy!

Whether you are a beginner writer who is just experimenting and honing a hobby or youve been writing for years and youre sick of receiving rejection letters, this book will act as your cheat sheet to success. Exposing the truths of the publishing industry as well as suggesting ways to get past common writers roadblocks, this experienced agent and author team will take the mystery out of making your work marketable.

If youre considering sending clips to a newspaper or magazine, interested to try your hand a book proposal, or simply want to get your work up on the Internet, let this book guide you along the oftentimes meandering path that is the publishing industry.

What are you waiting for?

Chapter 1
Welcome to the World of Publishing

Newspapers

Your local newspaper can be a great training ground for developing your freelance career. Aside from the opportunity to hone your writing skills and learn how to work with an editor, its a good place to develop story ideas for other markets. A story about an innovative new business in your community might be of interest (with the proper slant) to a larger newspaper, a regional magazine, or a trade journal, and, through the story for the local paper, youve already done some of the research and developed some sources.

Opinion Pages

Letters to the editor and guest opinion essays are excellent openings for beginning writers. You wont get paid for them, but you will get authorship credit, and these short pieces are valuable exercises because they force you to tighten and clarify your writing. Most local newspapers have a limit of 250 words for letters to the editors, and perhaps 600 to 800 words for guest essays. You dont have room for excessive exposition here; you have to make the most effective use of your limited space.

Helpful Hints

Its harder to get your letter to the editor or opinion piece published by larger newspapers. The New York Times, for example, receives thousands of letters each week, and only a very select few ever get published. Those that do are generally quite short100 words or fewer.

Some newspapers have policies limiting how many times you can have a letter or opinion piece published. They might publish a letter from you only once every thirty days, for example. Longer pieces will be published even less often, unless the paper asks you to write a regular column. If that happens, you might well be offered a small honorarium for your contribution, and you may be asked to commit to writing your column for six months or a year.

Weekly newspapers and small dailies often are more open to accepting regular columns from contributing writers (that is, writers who arent on the newspapers staff). Pay for your services will be minimal, but a well-written and well-read column can be a springboard to other writing opportunities.

Food, Entertainment, and Travel

Medium- and large-circulation newspapers usually have sections devoted to food, entertainment, travel, and other special interests, such as hobbies. Often these newspapers accept articles from freelancers for these sections, especially if they dont have staff reporters who are interested or available to cover these beats. Again, pay usually is low, but you generally get a byline and clips to add to your portfolio.

For food sections, you might be able to review new restaurants, interview chefs in your area, or even write a feature on unusual items for the barbecue or cool new kitchen gadgets. Entertainment sections usually cover such things as movies and concerts but also extend to articles on exhibits and lectures at area art and science museums, festivals, and maybe even architecture and local history. Travel sections usually use wire services such as AP or Reuters for major domestic and international destinations, but there may be opportunities for you to highlight local attractions.

Become a Stringer

Occasional submissions to a local newspaper can turn into a regular freelance gig. Stringers, as they are known in the business, are basically on-call reporters who are assigned articles when the regular staff of reporters is too busy to do them. Depending on your newspapers coverage area, it may need stringers to cover high school sports, graduations, or other events where there are too many things for one person to cover. Some newspapers have general-assignment stringers who arent limited to any one beat or particular area of coverage. Some have stringers who cover only sports, business, or other specific beats. Pay rates for stringers vary widely and may be based on so much per article or column inch, or on hours worked.