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As I tried to explain last week, pitches must be smart and cater to the needs of the editor and their publication first and foremost. Again, in my researching markets, I came across a guidelines page with great advice. Climate Change News posts detailed and informative guidelines at https://www.climatechangenews.com/write-for-us. In your pitch, explain: What is new? Whether your story is based around a single event, ongoing process or trend, explain why *now* is the time to read about it. Why does it matter to an international audience? Who are the main actors? To catch a reader’s attention, there should be colourful characters and/or tension between different interest groups. What sources would you use? Make the most of any hard-to-reach contacts, leaked documents, original analysis and on-the-ground reporting. What is your background? If you have not written for us before, include a short bio and links to two or three stories you have had published. Where is the action? For certain reporting programmes, we can cover reasonable travel expenses, by prior agreement. Is there a visual or audio component? While our reporting is text-based, good photos can elevate a story and we are open to multimedia ideas. The guidelines go into greater detail about More

I’ve had more than twenty surgeries from my eyes to feet, and my health has become accepted as one part of my writing journey. Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes (EDS) is a manageable group of connective-tissue conditions — shared by others like actress Jameela Jamil. It hasn’t slowed the writing journey down. Actually, it’s helped! Here’s how surgeries and medical costs can change your writing perspective, and what to do if you’re a chronically ill author, too. Selling My Own Story Lived experiences are powerful essays, which can be the right fit for many publications. My first medical story sold in 2009 as a Readers’ Digest short. Call it the writing bug, but I’ve written more about my medical experiences since. In 2018, when doctors believed my diagnosis to be a closely related condition called Marfan Syndrome instead, I sold Spider Hands: Writing With a Deadly Genetic Disorder to Folks Magazine. Since, I’ve realized my condition shares similar symptoms to Marfan, though is much closer to EDS. In 2021, I wrote an update about the signs of connective-tissue disorders for Bridge Base Online. Also branch out from your own story to find others worth telling: I’ve written for Alzheimer’s South Africa on the topic of cards and More

A lot of freelancers make the mistake of thinking that the publication they are pitching wants to know more about the writer than the topic being pitched. Please, understand that most publications are most interested in a quality subject that strongly pertains to their readers. Who you are matters little unless you are an expert in the matter and bring a large platform with you. In researching markets to place in FundsforWriters, I read dozens of guidelines. Some are fantastic. Others are vague, expecting you to become intimate with the publication rather than just read a submissions page. This one with The Woodlands Magazine (see pitch guidelines for Volume 3 here) gives a fantastic step by step on pitching to them. In my opinion, the template fits for most magazines. [Sentence 1] This is an attention-grabbing intro sentence that sets the stage for your story. [Sentence 2] This sentence elaborates on and explains the intro sentence. [Sentence 3-4] In this sentence, you explain the form the article will take and the main point it aims to make, like a thesis statement. You may add some other clarifying details about the main idea and why this story is interesting. [Sentence 5] You More

Rates are perhaps one of the most important considerations in freelance writing, yet authors seldom dare to adjust them or discuss them thoroughly. A writers’ rates are their income, and usually their food budget and rent. Here’s how to secure a better future . Rates and what’s fair Households have inflation and ‘bad months’, and so will your business. Rates are key to surviving the future. Charge what you are worth, and use industry guidelines as a way to calculate your own rate. Don’t be ashamed to charge what other writers are asking for their services. Otherwise, someone out there is earning smarter than you are. Consider rates suggested by organizations like the Professional Writers Alliance or South African Freelancers’ Association (SAFREA). Writer’s Digest publishes How Much Should I Charge in each of its annual yearbook issues, the latest having been written by C. Hope Clark of FundsforWriters. When expenses have gone up, remember it’s okay to raise your rates as long as people know about it (and the raise is reasonable for the current industry). It pays you to keep up with the going rates. It also keeps you looking professional. Different ways to charge There are different ways to charge clients: More

Right now I am reading The Idea: The Seven Elements of a Viable Story for Screen, Stage or Fiction, by Erik Bork. I don’t read many how-to writing books, but this one was a gift, and I decided to give it a go before deciding against it. I love it. It’s basic, understandable, with loads of common sense. Right off the bat, he states, “…reaching the right people is really not the hard part of succeeding as a writer. The hard part is creating something that the “right people” would be excited by if they read it.” If the story idea isn’t unique, the characters identifiable, their wants serious, the obstacles real, their efforts deep and burning, the struggle hard, the purpose relevant and important, it isn’t a story to tell. It doesn’t matter how well you write, if the story isn’t good, it will not sell. That logic right there is why 90 percent of rejections take place by agents and publishers. Yet I mentioned in my earlier comments above, that a well-read friend of mine stated she hated the story concept of a book she promised to read, yet once she got into the author’s voice, she loved it. It More

Sometimes, we just need to laugh at ourselves, but if you’re the kind of writer who enjoys writing humor, you can turn something funny into your next humor article or story. Doing so could mean your next sale! Anyone can write humor, but it takes a bit of practice to “get it right.” Humor is subjective; not everyone will think a joke is funny. But for the seasoned humor writers looking for more markets to submit to, many can be found and continue to sprout up on the internet. Humor writers can create many different types of work when it comes to writing humor. You can write about a personal experience or you can use it to write a fictional funny story. One common way humor writers turn real-life experiences into funny stories is to put their sense of humor to good use and write in a catchy, witty and unusual style. Your funny experiences may also be fodder for a story, whether it is a funny fictional account or something else entirely. Writers of fiction are always getting ideas for stories based on personal experiences, so keep in mind that you can take a funny experience and turn it More

There are as many reasons for block as there are writers attempting to overcome it. These are the primary obstacles: -Fear of judgment / self-doubt -Need for perfection -Exhaustion -Illness -Lack of ideas -Distractions -Temperature -Lack of inspiration -Lack of family support -Depression As a professional, I’ve experienced all of these but one: I’m blessed to have family support.     Today I can sit and write just about any time and anywhere. Some days I can write a thousand words in an hour while other days take five or six hours. Some nights when I cannot sleep, I throw on a robe and write, to tire my brain. What happens in forcing one’s self through those trying times is that you build the foundation for habit. By forcing yourself to not rise from your chair until the work is done, your brain falls into a routine when your body assumes its position at the keyboard. That doesn’t happen overnight. However, the more you let block prevent you from writing, the more you let the difficulty win, the more your mind learns to dislike the writing in lieu of loving it. By pushing through the block, career writers keep their careers. Is More

‘Never write anything for free’ is an important mantra, and one I know Hope believes in very strongly. But in my experience there are times when writing for free can be worth it – so long as you are clear about your end goal. Take the world of short stories, creative nonfiction, and essays. There are a great many litmags – many of them quite prestigious – that cannot afford to pay contributors in these areas. But getting published by one of them is a real feather in your cap that can lead to other opportunities of monetary value. For example, my first collection of short stories, Hotel du Jack (Sandstone Press) was a much easier sell, as my publisher later told me, for the fact that many of the stories had appeared in litmags already, almost always for free. Some of them had done well in competitions, for some of which I even had to pay an entry fee. After the collection appeared, I got asked to write articles and give talks about the art of short story writing. I was interviewed for websites and podcasts, and asked to judge a fiction competition. I was asked to write blurbs More

When someone new thinks about becoming a freelance writer, they often start with writing about themselves. However, nothing paints a novice more than writing about themselves. Unless….they specialize in a niche area and can be considered an expert. When someone new wants to write a book-length project, they often start with a memoir. The problem is the stories aren’t often mind-blowing nor are they written in a well-exercised and accomplished voice making them beautiful to read. Write what you know is preached, discounted, and analyzed ad nauseum to the point the advice can’t be trusted. But if you are intent on writing what you know, you must: 1) Be an expert in a subject. 2) Have experienced a highly unusual event or some level of success. 3) Find a market like Chicken Soup. 3) Write only for family and self. And even when you write about yourself, to make it interesting, you must: 1) Show vulnerability. 2) Know your audience. 3) Write about a highly unique topic. 4) Have a remarkable writing voice. 5) Show you clearly lived through it. 6) Write about something that has a broad interest to readers. Frankly, once you test drive a few essays or stories about yourself, More

People talk about hating resolutions yet they are jumping all over the question, “What word describes 2024 for you?” It’s the same thing. And what have you accomplished in dropping one word? And look at the energy you wasted pondering which word to choose. Are you doing to wake up every morning, remember your word, and go like gangbusters putting that word into practice? The best summation of how to venture into 2024 was in an essay that was part of an advertisement, entitled RESOLUTIONS ARE BULLS#*T.  “What really counts is waking up every day and treating it like it’s day 1, resolving not to give in.” In other words, it’s developing a lifestyle, regardless the year, the month, or the day. It’s waking to be diligent in making the most of the day. Whether you are quitting smoking, running miles, or writing, you get up and do it. You don’t go to bed until it’s done. Soon it’s a habit, and you become eager to do it and reluctant to put your head on a pillow without it being done. Forget that it’s 2024. Just decide to be resolved.