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Post by Phalon on Sept 15, 2010 21:47:26 GMT -6
So, all this advice here about how to write and get published, but not a specific thread about what not to do. I've learned the hard way a few times: I've lost the rights to some of my work, not presented my work in the best format readable to the particular publisher I was sending an article to, missed mistakes in proofreading, and let opportunities slip by because I have a habit of procrastinating, and always balk when it comes to writing queries.
It's been quite a while since I've sent anything out to a magazine other than the one I'm currently working with, and have been working with for the past two years. Maybe a couple of half-hearted attempts here and there. Heck, I can't even remember the last time I drilled what magazines are out there, accepting what kinds of articles.
It's not that I don't like writing the types of articles this magazine publishes, but I sometimes feel I've lost any humor I might have had before I started with them. They pay well - more than any of the few other magazines that have published my work - and I love the editors, and am familiar with what they expect.
Familiarity leads to complacency though. I've got so many unfinished things, a lot of mostly finished things, and some that just need a tweak or two, that I've decided to get a least one done a month, and sent out to magazines other than the usual.
But today, I screwed up again. ARGH. I had something that I felt fit in perfectly with the theme of a magazine for a particular issue. I got it done by the deadline. I read through their writer submission guidelines multiple times. I got my article formatted exactly the way this particular magazine wanted it. My introduction to the piece was concise, and my credentials in order. My bio within the word limit; my article within the word limit. Proofread and proofread over again.
Perfect.
I hit the send button.
And realized too late, there was one thing missing.
My name, address, and phone number.
I am such a ditz.
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Post by Mini Mia on Sept 16, 2010 22:41:17 GMT -6
Sorry for your screw-ups. They happen. Have a good cry and try to let it go. (Yeah. Easy to say, but not so easy to do.) Kind of why I haven't sent anything out in ages. I've sent out stuff I thought/swore was ready, and then dug it out of the drawer months/years later and realized it still needed tons of work. I'm a bit skittish on how to know when it's _really_ ready to be sent out. Kind of why I haven't self/indie-published anything yet too. I don't want to shoot myself in the foot by selling stuff before it's ready. I guess at some point ya just got ta laugh and go for it.
Anything in particular I can try and help you out with? I could have sworn I posted about not selling _all_ rights? If not here, then at The Illusive Muse? Very sorry I didn't red flag it. You should see if the library has the latest Writer's Market book. The really big one has info on mags/sites to sell non-fiction works. It also has generic writer info too, such as the _all_ rights vs other rights, etc.
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Post by Phalon on Sept 18, 2010 5:48:00 GMT -6
Nah - this was more of a little expression of "damn, you're a ditz, Phalon" slap-my-forehead kinda thing, rather than a cry-a-tale-of-woe thing. You can bet that next time I send something out, I'll be sure to include such basic information as my name, address, and e-mail. (eye-roll)
Yep. Keep trying. Just because it isn't accepted by a publisher the first time around, doesn't mean it isn't ready to submit again to another, or tweaked here and there, and sent back to the same publisher. Two of my personal experience essays were submitted three times to different magazines before they were accepted, proving that the third time's a charm....or that I'm suborn to the core.
I'm sure you did. And it wasn't a big deal that I gave up my rights on a few things - just three or four articles, not a major literary life's work. It was a beginner's mistake that happened shortly after my first article was accepted. I was so giddy with being a "published writer", that I signed a free-lancer's contract with a small regional gardening magazine that had enough fine print to make a person go blind, straining to read it. One of the points was that the magazine owned the rights to whatever they printed...forever.
It also stated that no personal experiences or opinions could be interjected into the articles. Pfft - I've got an opinion on everything. (eye-roll) It was like newspaper writing - just the facts, ma'am, only the facts - which isn't a style of writing that I like to do. I only wrote two or three articles for them before I took myself off the available writer's list for the magazine.
The only other time I lost my rights to something I'd written was the only writing contest I ever entered.
Since then, I only have submitted to magazines that state they own the "first American rights for one year".
I just started this thread because because the "learn from your mistakes" theme is pretty universal; everyone makes them, and everyone can learn from the mistakes of others.
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Post by Mini Mia on Sept 18, 2010 18:27:57 GMT -6
I have a hard time with beating myself up over even the little things I screw up. I figured out where it comes from, but I haven't broken the habit yet. Glad you can let it go. And also glad it wasn't anything very important to you.
Unfortunately, most of the children's mags I've looked into submitting to only buy all rights. And they don't pay very well ... which is why I keep 'thinking' about self/indie-publishing. Only then, I'd need an artist ... so ... I haven't actually looked in a few years, so maybe more and more are buying 'first/one-time rights.'
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Post by Phalon on Sept 19, 2010 8:49:43 GMT -6
I did a quick drill for children's submissions - I shouldn't have, because now my mind is whirling, and all I need is another project on my plate. Have you checked out the Cricket series of children's magazines, Joxie? www.cricketmag.com/6-Submission-Guidelines-for-kids-magazines-for-children-from-toddlers-to-teensClick on "Appleseeds" - they have a ghost stories issue coming up that might interest you; the query deadline isn't until January. You're right when you say the pay isn't the best for magazine articles...but most of these Cricket magazines pay 25 cents a word, which actually isn't that bad as far as magazines go. Smaller magazines, such as the one I submitted my screw-up to, pay 10 cents per word. I'm never going to get rich writing for magazines in my spare time. Just to be candid about how much you can expect to make if you chose to go the magazine route - for every personal essay such as the bra story I wrote taken from the A-cup thread, I've received $100 per 1,000-word story. Non-fiction pays better; I get on average of $500 for a 1,200 to 1,500 word article. In my book, $500 is nothing to sneeze at for a few hours work, (not to mention, I love the research part of writing non-fiction). I look at it this way, I've got all this stuff in my head not yet written, stuff saved in my computer and on scraps of paper all over my desk. Chances are my book is never going to get written (it's that procrastination thing again), and if by some miraculous granting of time and energy by some unknown entity, I did get my sh!t together and write it, it most likely would never get published. Self-publishing is something I haven't considered, and probably wouldn't - I've talked to a few people who have, and none of them have made money doing it; promoting the thing is a full time job in itself in most cases. In one case - a publish-on-demand book - the guy was out more money than he made, just because he bought a case of his own books, and ended up giving them away as gifts because he didn't have the time to promote them. But if I can take scraps of ideas, turn them into an article, and get paid for it, why not? Writing a book is a dream of mine; writing articles and getting them published is a reality I'm kinda proud of. Only mentioning this because I know you've got a ton of stuff hanging around. Why not get it out there? Save what you truly love, love, love for when you decide to go the book route, but take some of the pieces and submit them to magazines. Get a little bit of spending money for something that's just gathering dust. And every piece published is one more thing you can put on your list of credentials to take to a publisher when you do submit your book idea.
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Post by Mini Mia on Sept 19, 2010 17:54:40 GMT -6
These magazines are one of the first ones I looked at, and they always bought all rights. I see that some have it listed as 'rights vary' now though.
APPLESEEDS purchases all rights to material.
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Post by Phalon on Sept 19, 2010 20:21:19 GMT -6
Yeah, I know. Was just a thought.
Actually, a thought I'm seriously thinking about.
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Post by Phalon on Feb 16, 2011 8:13:58 GMT -6
Just a thread check-in. So here I am, nearly five months to the day of when I started this thread, and am pretty much in the same place. Sigh. Send a query or article out each month to a different magazine? Who the hell was I trying to kid? Myself, obviously, and I "yeah, right"ed me more than once.
I can't even remember the magazine or article I was talking about in the first post; obviously the article went nowhere.
I did though, shortly after we talked about the Cricket series, send a query to them. I won't hear anything back until July. Another for a different magazine in the series goes out this month - hopefully; the deadline is March 1st, and I've got to collect my sh!t again, and get it together.
Aside from procrastination, what's my latest screw-up? I'm not sure it's a screw-up exactly, but I broke one of my own rules.
I sent in an article to a magazine Monday; it was accepted for publication yesterday. It's one of those healthy living publications - a mind, body, and planet type thing. Pretty cool magazine, actually.
And free - offered in "health and education centers, healing centers, public libraries and wherever free publications are generally offered". Free publications generally offer no compensation. Therefore my article is free also, which I knew when I sent it, (based on word count, it would have netted me around $350 - $500 if the publication payed on scale with other non-fiction magazines).
Not to sound snooty, but I've always felt that if I'm going to take the time to write something, and someone prints it, I ought to get paid for it. There are two exceptions. I don't get paid for the articles I write for a Master Gardener's newsletter - the compensation there is I get credits to keep my certification. My blog I write for free also - but it keeps me in the faces of the editors for those printed, paid articles.
It's not like I put any time into this article either - maybe an hour to spruce it up a bit, because it was something I wrote a few years ago for that gardening newsletter. It was just hanging around hogging up file space, so I figured 'what the hell; do something with it'.
So there my article will be, among others who were written by authors with "Dr." in front of their names, with "PhD in this or that" after their names, or "author of such-and-such books" accompanying their names. LMAO! All I have to go along with my name is my blog address.
At least there's that, which is why I did it - free advertisement. Who knows, someone might see it, and make an offer. An offer for what, I don't know. Maybe for 'how to avoid procrastination' classes. I'd snap it up in a minute.....
....only if it was free.
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Post by Mini Mia on Feb 16, 2011 18:31:29 GMT -6
Glad it's going so well, despite the screwups.
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Post by Phalon on Feb 16, 2011 22:44:36 GMT -6
Oh, I wouldn't say it's going so well, Joxie, but thanks. It's more like a marginal standstill, with maybe a fraction of an inch of forward movement.
A bit of good news today, though. One of the articles I was assigned to write, I believe is going to be printed. LMAO. I really had my doubts, because I didn't write exactly what I was assigned, which was one part of a broad subject. It's been done before, I thought it quite boring, so I went in another direction. I knew I was taking a chance, and might be shooting myself in the foot (it took me a few minutes just now to remember what I might be doing to my foot - is there such a saying as 'stabbing myself in the foot'?). Not to mention I saw a preview for the next issue of the magazine, and it looks like they had an article for what I was supposed to write ready to go. They asked for a bio for my article today though, so I'm assuming it's going to print.
I will probably(?) not go in that direction again. I kinda/sorta/not very much fretted about it when I sent it in.
So what's new in the Writing World of Joxie? It's been a long time since we've talked 'shop'.
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Post by Mini Mia on Feb 16, 2011 22:55:47 GMT -6
Well, those two you said were too scary for young kids, I thought maybe I'd put them together in a book for adults, or older kids ... who don't need pictures ... so no need for an artist. I'll need more poems/stories to go with them though, so trying to figure out what I'll need in the collection. All scary? Seasonal? Gonna have to write more to fill up a book. Wondering how many poems/stories/pages I'll need. I thought I'd reread my two notebooks of poems to see what might fit, need reworking to make fit.
Oh, Yeah. It's PROCRASTINATION TIME!
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Post by Phalon on Feb 16, 2011 23:03:26 GMT -6
Ooo, maybe just go with the all-encompassing macabre; it doesn't have to be scary, just things that make you go "hmmmm".
<raises glass> Cheers!!!
We need to make a commercial celebrating Procrastination Time.
Makeup!!! (It's late; I don't want to look like a zombie on camera)
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Post by Mini Mia on Feb 17, 2011 0:38:53 GMT -6
Pretty much any time I've gotta make a decision, It's Procrastination Time! The problem is I usually forget why I'm procrastinating and the WIP goes undone.
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