Category — Getting Published

If you’re looking to get published, make sure you’re submitting your work to a reputable market. If someone offers to help you get published, do your homework and make sure you know who you’re dealing with.

All writers should make Preditors and Editors their first stop before submitting anything or making any agreement with a market you’re not sure about. Their web site could be a lot easier to use, but it’s still the best place to go for this critical information.

It’s your work, and you poured your creativity and sweat into it. Protect yourself!

While just getting something published – even in a non-paying market – can be fun and rewarding, neither you nor I are going to turn down some cold, hard cash for our writing.

While something like Writer’s Market is an invaluable resource for breaking into paying markets, it’s also intimidating. There are plenty of smaller, friendlier-feeling, new-writer-welcoming markets out there far too numerous to make it into Writer’s Market. Keeping up with these opportunities requires a personal touch and a passion for helping all writers succeed.

That’s where C. Hope Clark’s FundsforWriters.com comes in. Every two weeks, Hope sends out a newsletter that lists grant opportunities and well-paying markets and contests only. At a ridiculously cheap $12/year, you can’t beat it.

I heard her in an interview a while back and love her spirit and commitment to her work and to writers everywhere. She has a ton of material on her site, so go have a look.

I’ve read a lot of advice over the years that writers should focus on getting the words right and leave the graphic designers to deal with fonts and the other pretty stuff. Employed writers often work as part of a diverse team where everyone has a specific role. Writers who work at ‘non-writing jobs’ and write stories and poems in between the nooks and crannies of their day often don’t have time to worry about anything else.

With the proliferation of self-employment and self-publishing, it’s getting harder and harder for writers to just write copy or stories. Competition for freelance work can be fierce. The more writing and design services you can (legitimately) offer, the more likely you are to get work. The more design work you can do on your book, the better it’s going to sell. If you rely on self-publishing houses to do your design work for you, expect much more often than not to be disappointed.

What I find fascinating is that graphic designers are typically much more willing to write copy for the pieces they create – such as brochures – than copywriters are to offer a design to go with their copy. Traditionally, these have been two separate fields and remain so in many places. A great designer who can write adequate copy or a great writer who can at least do adequate design are instantly more marketable.

Does this mean you should punt outside help from anyone? Of course not. But if you seek outside design help, you should know enough to know the right questions to ask and to evaluate how good that help is.

I feel that the days of just providing straight copy to a client are quickly waning. In talking with prospective clients, I discover that many of them have received bids for just writing the text for their project leaving them to wonder, “you mean I have to find somebody else to do the design and printing?”

I think if you bid on a job to produce an e-mail newsletter, you ought to know how to actually create and lay one out in HTML as well as how to use a couple of online services who help companies distribute those newsletters. The copy in those newsletters is still the most important part, but most clients I’ve talked to or worked with want more than a Word document with the copy in it. They want the project done so all they have to do is click Send.

That said, there are still plenty of places that want the copy and then want you to go away. That’s fine. They’re set up for that kind of process. I think, though, that there are ten orders of magnitude more places that would hire you if you could take them from beginning to “click Send”.

If you dread learning the skills needed to do that, then don’t. Aim for places that just want the copy. I’ve just found that I have a lot more options if I can provide more services. It helps tremendously that I love learning this stuff, and it gives me a place to express my creativity in those areas.

It feels good when talking to clients to say, “I write and…” Your “and” should be something you love, or are at least fascinated by, that also adds value to your writing services. That “and” will get you work.

So, what’s your “and”?

Connie, Maybe easily is one of the best short stories I’ve heard in a long time. It was featured eons ago on Escape Pod, which is currently one of my favorite podcasts for short stories.

Connie, Maybe by Paul Martens is a story about a man from a rural town claiming to have been kidnapped by aliens, though no one in town believes him. The fear of an alien conspiracy rises as people in town start becoming ‘different’. But which is easier to accept as the reason for these changes – aliens, or that even in small towns people can change just because they want to?

Wichita Rutherford reads the story and gives a beyond-brilliant performance. You have to hear it to believe it. I heard he does an occasional podcast of his own. That’s worth looking up!

Even though there are still 11 or so shopping months until next Christmas/Hanukkah, I figured I’d get a jump on it by releasing the print version of my holiday short story That Day in the Manger (PDF, in a new window), which was broadcast on The Writing Show last month. (Direct link to that show)

I wanted to point people solely to Paula’s site for a while since she was gracious enough to have me on the show. Please do spread a little site traffic love and visit The Writing Show’s web site. Every writer should subscribe to her podcast. I was a long-time listener even before I was on the show, so no bias here!

Continuing the tradition started by “It was a dark and stormy night,” the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest gives writers the chance to write (intentionally) the worst possible opening line of an imaginary novel.

You may spend countless hours at your desk believing your writing is the worst ever put down on paper or pixel. As long as this contest exists, you can rest assured that something out there is worse.

Here are the 2007 ‘winners’ along with more information about the contest.

It looks like entries for the 2008 contest are due April 15. Go intentionally write something bad and enter!

Great news! I recently had my first story published! The audio production of my holiday short story “That Day in the Manger” was released this past Sunday by The Writing Show podcast and is now available online for free!

I actually read and recorded the story myself, which was an entirely new experience for me. I plan to blog more on the experience of writing the story, submitting it to The Writing Show, reading and recording the story myself, being interviewed for the show, and more.

In the interest of getting this out there while the holidays are still going on, here’s a synopsis that will hopefully pique your interest.

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Well, it ain’t your typical Christmas. Then again, nothing with us ever is. We thought we had seen it all after Aunt Eugenia got hurt in that brawl three Christmases ago. Her complete recovery at age 90 was a testament to the unshakable spirit of our family. But even in a family where anything can and will happen, no one will ever forget that day in the manger.

This story has it all! There are pigs in pits and pecan pie; beer in washing machines, barbecue on plates, and bilingual adventures; large pickup trucks and large relatives driving them; big hair and boob jobs; patriotism, parole, and powder muskets; guns galore and the Great Elmo Heist gone wrong; and, of course, muumuus, Mama, and miracles.

“That Day in the Manger” is a hilarious, roller-coaster ride through the holidays in a small, Southern town, as told by a native-son-turned-outsider. He goes back every year with his wife and son to remember his tangled roots and reconnect with how this town full of crazy characters formed him into the person he is today. He searches for what it all means and finds it in the most unexpected of places.

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After the story, Paula and I have a conversation about it. Hopefully you’ll see it as an added bonus and not the ramblings of a newly-published writer!

The host of The Writing Show, Paula B, is an absolute joy to work with. The Writing Show is a must-have for any serious writer. Her free, weekly podcasts cover an incredible array of topics and genres. You’ll always learn something. I feel honored and privileged that she selected my story and invited me on the show.

This podcast is also featured on the links page of my main site along with a few others I recommend.

My story was one of two she selected. While you’re there, don’t forget to listen to Eric Pliner’s “Santa Baby” as well!