The Only Writing Series You'll Ever Need Get Published
By Meg Schneider and Barbara Doyen
()
About this ebook
Do you send out countless samples, proposals, and pleas only to hear nothing back?
Do you long to see your name in print and actually make money as a writer?
With The Only Writing Series You'll Ever Need: Get Published, you can finally learn how to master the process and get that byline you've always wanted.
Offering you insider's tips to the tricky publishing world, this expert author and agent team can help you make your writing dreams a reality. Meg Schneider and Barbara Doyen reveal how to:
- Approach the appropriate publishing house
- Make a successful pitch
- Get material to the decision-makers directly
- Self-promote and negotiate the best deal possible
The ultimate writer's resource, The Only Writing Series You'll Ever Need: Get Published offers the cold hard facts about the business as well as valuable advice that will turn your career around-or give it the kick-start it needs!
Meg Schneideris an award-winning writer with nearly two decades of experience in journalism and public relations. She has written 8 books, including two for writers: The Everything Guide to Writing a Book Proposal. Her journalism honors include awards from the Iowa Associated Press Managing Editors, Women in Communications, the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association, Gannett, the New York State Associated Press, and the William Randolph Hearst Foundation. A native of Iowa, Schneider now lives in Upstate New York.
Barbara Doyen is President of Doyen Literary Services, Inc. – an agency representing 100-plus authors. Her writing credits include many articles and eight published books, both fiction and nonfiction, and an audiocassette instructional series that was endorsed by James Michener. Her Write To $ell® seminars have assisted thousands of attendees in furthering their writing careers. Doyen has been involved in publishing since the mid-1970s, when her first novel was published. Her agency was incorporated in 1988. Doyen lives in Northwest Iowa.
Meg Schneider
An Adams Media author.
Read more from Meg Schneider
Budget Weddings For Dummies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Making Millions For Dummies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Everything Casino Gambling Book: Feel Confident, Have Fun, and Win Big! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStem Cells For Dummies Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Everything Guide To Writing A Book Proposal: Insider Advice On How To Get Your Work Published Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Everything Get Published Book: All You Need to Know to Become a Successful Author Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCOPD For Dummies Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5
Related to The Only Writing Series You'll Ever Need Get Published
Related ebooks
Become a Freelance Writer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSelf-Publishing for Traditionally Published Authors: Method Writing, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Everything Guide to Getting Published: Expert advice for building a successful writing career Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFinding Topics That Make Your Articles Indispensable Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWrite From The Start: The Beginner’s Guide to Writing Professional Non-Fiction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Savvy Ghostwriter: Secrets of an Invisible Author Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWrite Your First Nonfiction Book JOURNAL: Write Your First Nonfiction Book Series Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow To Write Nonfiction - Demystified Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPlot Hot-Selling Fiction The Easy Way: How To Write Novels And Short Stories Readers Love: Selling Writer Strategies, #3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Writer's Survival Guide: An Instructive, Insightful Celebration of the Writing Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Indie Author Bestiary: Author Level Up, #7 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWrite a Book in Two Hours: Authorship, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5200 Words: How to Be a Prolific Writer in 5 Minutes a Day: The Unfocused Writer's Guide, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow To Make A Good Living As A Freelance Writer - A Quick Start Guide To Earning Money From Home Writing For Others Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYou Can Be A Winning Writer: The 4 C's System to Author Success: Craft, Commitment, Community & Confidence Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWrite Your Book Today The Master Guide to Writing a Bestselling Book Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Tale of Two Authors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Dictate a Book: Author Level Up, #14 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mastering Book Hooks for Authors Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPost-Release Marketing Checklist: The Self-Publishing Checklist Series Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Author Life: A Collection of Essays on Craft, Marketing, and Mindset: The Author Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Write Formula Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Influential Author: How and Why to Write, Publish, and Sell Nonfiction Books that Matter Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAngela Booth's Easy-Write Process: Write The EASY Way, Like a Professional Writer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Eightfold Writing Process: A New Creative Workflow to Help You Write Book After Book Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnlimited Writing Ideas: Writing Tools, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShort Fiction Secrets: How To Write And Sell Short Stories: Selling Writer Strategies, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings10 Things You Need to Know about Self-Publishing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Indie Author Checklist: From Concept to Launch and Beyond: Indie Author Mindset, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNaNoWriMo-How to Write a Novel in 30 Days Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reference For You
The Everything Sign Language Book: American Sign Language Made Easy... All new photos! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Emotion Thesaurus (Second Edition): A Writer's Guide to Character Expression Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/51001 First Lines Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Legal Words You Should Know: Over 1,000 Essential Terms to Understand Contracts, Wills, and the Legal System Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Spy the Lie: Former CIA Officers Teach You How to Detect Deception Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51,001 Facts that Will Scare the S#*t Out of You: The Ultimate Bathroom Reader Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn Sign Language in a Hurry: Grasp the Basics of American Sign Language Quickly and Easily Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5THE EMOTIONAL WOUND THESAURUS: A Writer's Guide to Psychological Trauma Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bored Games: 100+ In-Person and Online Games to Keep Everyone Entertained Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Everything Essential Spanish Book: All You Need to Learn Spanish in No Time Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Emily Post's Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mythology 101: From Gods and Goddesses to Monsters and Mortals, Your Guide to Ancient Mythology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Robert's Rules For Dummies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Astrology 101: From Sun Signs to Moon Signs, Your Guide to Astrology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5U.S. History 101: Historic Events, Key People, Important Locations, and More! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The Only Writing Series You'll Ever Need Get Published
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Only Writing Series You'll Ever Need Get Published - Meg Schneider
The Only Writing Series
You’ll Ever Need
Get
Published
9781598696875_0004_001MEG SCHNEIDER & BARBARA DOYEN
9781598696875_0004_002Copyright © 2008 Simon and Schuster.
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 imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc. 57
Littlefield Street, Avon, MA 02322. U.S.A
www.adamsmedia.com
Contains material adopted and abridged from
The Everything® Get Published Book, 2nd Edition
by Meg Schneider and Barbara Doyen, Copyright © 2006 Simon and Schuster.
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
This book is available at quantity discounts for bulk purchases.
For information, please call 1-800-289-0963.
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1 • Welcome to the World of Publishing
Newspapers
Magazines
The Internet
Commercial Opportunities
Newsletters
Books
Chapter 2 • Set Yourself Up for Success
Learn the Tools of the Trade
Setting Goals for Yourself
Writing for Free, then Getting Paid
Building a Credential Pool
Play by the Rules
How Teaching Can Help
Conferences and Seminars
Web Sites and Blogs
You Can Become an Expert
Chapter 3 • Find Your Place in this Writing World
A Matching Game: Ideas and Audience
Get to Know Your Potential Markets
How to Think Like an Editor
Finding and Filling Voids
Establishing an Angle
Keeping an Open Mind
Chapter 4 • Working with an Agent
Do I Need an Agent?
The Job of an Agent
What to Look for
Finding the Right Agent for You
Author-Agent Agreements
Sustaining a Professional Relationship
Chapter 5 • Tackle the Magazine Market
How Magazine Publishing Works
Spotting Break-In Opportunities
Get to Know the Publication
Guidelines for Submission
How to Craft Your Query
Accepting Work
Try, Try, Try Again
Chapter 6 • The Basics of Book Proposals
Find a Target
Submitting Your Fiction
Submitting Your Nonfiction
Some Elements Are Required
Only Give Your Best
Avoid These Common Mistakes
Chapter 7 • Submission Protocol
Query First
Understand the Guidelines
Practice Patience
Can You Make Multiple Submissions?
When the Answer Is Yes
When the Answer Is No
Chapter 8 • Revising Can Get You the Deal
Who Is Your Client?
Coping with Criticism
Common Nonfiction Criticisms
Common Fiction Criticisms
Accepting the Challenge
Chapter 9 • Contract Negotiations
Types of Rights
Consider the Sale
Living Up to Your Promise
Working for Hire
Getting Credit
Different Types of Payment Arrangements
Chapter 10 • Collaborate with Your Editor
The Job of an Editor
What to Expect of Your Editor
What Your Editor Expects from You
Solving Problems Together
Beyond This Project
Chapter 11 • Make Your Book Known
Working with Others
What You Can Do
Take Baby Steps
Take Advantage of Your Platform
Network, Network, Network
Parlaying Coverage
Be Aware of Opportunities
Chapter 12 • I’m a Writer Now
Great Expectations
Creating a Business Plan
Accessing Markets
Juggling Projects and Deadlines
Protecting Your Reputation
Measuring Your Rewards
Appendix • Sample Query Letters and Proposals
Introduction
This is The Only Writing Series You’ll Ever Need: Get Published. That’s a big promise! But it can happen—if you follow the advice in this simple and straightforward book, you will find that getting published is actually possible.
It’s true, there has always been a certain romance about writers and writing—but 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? It’s easy!
Whether you are a beginner writer who is just experimenting and honing a hobby or you’ve been writing for years and you’re 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 writer’s roadblocks, this experienced agent and author team will take the mystery out of making your work marketable.
If you’re 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, it’s 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, you’ve 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 won’t 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 don’t have room for excessive exposition here; you have to make the most effective use of your limited space.
Helpful Hints
It’s 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 short—100 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 aren’t on the newspaper’s 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 don’t 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 newspaper’s 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 aren’t 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.
Magazines
As exciting and gratifying as it is to see your byline in Cosmo or GQ, the truth is that these large markets are highly competitive and almost always out of reach for beginners. However, there are hundreds of smaller magazines, many of which welcome new writers. Pay rates and circulations often are lower than with the big national magazines, but a solid track record with them can help open doors down the road.
Trade Journals
Virtually every sector of business has its own magazine, and very often there are several magazines covering various aspects of a particular industry. These highly focused magazines are known as trade journals, and they have very specialized needs for very specialized readerships. Northeast Export, for example, covers New England’s international trade community. The Chief of Police magazine is targeted to the command ranks of law enforcement agencies. There are hundreds more; Writer’s Market devotes nearly 150 pages just to paying trade journal markets.
Trade journals are always looking for well-written articles that meet the needs of their readers, and they are generally open to beginning writers, as long as you can supply appropriate material. This doesn’t mean you have to be an expert, or even a practitioner, in the field, but you do have to be able to write for a knowledgeable reader. If you have lots of good ideas for a trade area that interests you, you can make a respectable income while you build a collection of clips.
Helpful Hints
One of the easiest ways to break into the trade journals is to examine the magazines in your own profession, or that of someone close to you, such as a parent, spouse, or friend. As with any potential market, study several issues of a journal to get a feel for the kinds of information it publishes and the writing style.
Consumer Magazines
Most people think of the big national magazines that you see at supermarket checkouts and bookstores when they think of consumer magazines. As noted earlier, these can be hard to break into. But there are hundreds of smaller consumer magazines. Some of them have a general-interest slant, but many of them fill narrower niches, such as rock-climbing, star-gazing, gourmet cooking, or home decorating. If you have a hobby, chances are there’s a consumer magazine that could be interested in your material.
Starting out with small consumer magazines can give you the credentials you’ll probably need to break into the larger publications. Even so, when you’re first starting to approach the big magazines, you have a better chance of breaking in with shorter pieces. The big national magazines generally reserve their main features for established writers, but they also usually have departments that are open to newcomers.
The Internet
The Internet has given rise to a whole new world of potential markets for writers. Every Web site must have content, and Web site operators often need writers to supply that content. If you connect with the right place and know how to write effectively for the Web, you can command respectable fees for your work.
Writing for the Web
According to various studies, Internet users are an impatient bunch. They are willing to wait an average of eight seconds for a Web page to load; if it takes longer, they give up and go somewhere else. They generally like small nuggets of information and tend to shy away from text-heavy pages that scroll on forever. If they can’t find what they’re looking for within a few seconds on a given page, they try another site.
Most of these issues can be resolved in the design of a Web page. But an effective design requires effective structure in the content. Long pieces generally should be broken into sections to allow for easier navigation. Links to additional information often need to be imbedded in the text. Writers need to think about the keywords users will search for to find what they want.
Helpful Hints
Whenever you post your writings on the Web, whether it’s through an e-zine, a blog, or on your own site, it counts as publication. If you post an essay about your cat, for example, you can’t sell first serial rights to that same essay to Cat Fancy magazine; the best you can offer is second serial rights.
Writing for the Web can be a challenge, especially for writers who aren’t accustomed to thinking about space limitations. It requires tightly focused text, an understanding of how readers will use the site, and insight into what readers want and need. If you can master these elements, you can make a name for yourself creating content for any number of businesses and organizations that need a continual supply of fresh material for their sites.
Guide
Sites
Becoming an expert guide on sites like About.com can provide a big boost for your writing career. It gives you a platform for marketing magazine articles and book proposals, especially if your articles and book ideas are related to your guide topic. Writing regularly for these sites helps you sharpen your skills, and many such sites pay respectable fees to their guides.
The field is fairly competitive, and the more well-known guide sites have a fairly rigorous screening process for hiring guides. These sites also require you to commit your time to research and writing, because you’ll be expected to provide regular updates to your page. However, as in any aspect of publishing, there are other ways to break in. For example, Amazon.com allows you to put together a virtual reference library on a topic you’re interested in. You won’t get paid for this, but you will draw in other readers who share your interest, and a comprehensive resource list under your name helps establish you as an expert on your topic.
Things to Consider
If you get a contract to write Web site content, go over the provisions carefully. It’s reasonable for the site owner to prohibit you from putting material you’ve written for the Web site into a book. However, the contract should not prohibit you from writing any print books on any topic related to the content you create for the site. Such a requirement is overly broad and even unnecessary, since the target markets for Web sites and print books usually are significantly different.
Helpful Hints
Articles you write for Web sites often are work-for-hire arrangements. That means you get paid for what you write, but the site owner keeps all rights to the article; you can’t sell reprint rights, for example. This usually isn’t of too much concern, because most publications aren’t interested in printing something that already has appeared on the Internet to a global audience.