Don’t Be Afraid of Trade & Technical Markets By Cheryl Pickett
If you've ever assumed you can't write for trade or technical magazines because you know nothing about the industry, maybe my story will change your mind... …
Success Story
No Longer “Just” a Mom By Diane Stark
One afternoon at the library, I searched the card catalog for books on work-at-home opportunities. Most of the books told stories of women who opened catering businesses from their homes or moms who sold afghans at craft fairs. Great for them, but me - I'm not so crafty. But I did find one book on starting a freelance writing business. Now writing - there was something I was good at. …
Keep Sending Your Work Out By Martha Miller
Isaac Asimov said, "You must keep sending your work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one... …
Success Will Come By Willis T. Bird
After a couple years of no success in trying to market children's stories, I tried writing an article for Boy's Life magazine on the subject of photography. It was quickly rejected... …
Getting Started as a Sex Columnist By Laura Roberts
Upon graduating from Concordia University in Montreal, I had big dreams about how I would put my honours degree in Creative Writing and English Literature to work. I had started my own smut zine as a student, and wanted to write a more interesting version of the sex column for one of the local papers. .. …
Ideas are Everywhere and in Everything By Abby Williams
Sitting in a caf…
Lifestyle Inspirations By Lorraine Mace
Subjects for non-fiction books often come from our life experiences, but they needn't be confined to our professional knowledge. My co-author of The ABC Checklist for New Writers is a family history researcher and has a book on genealogy published as part of The Greatest Tips in the World Series. …
Don’t Sell Your Work Short By Chryselle D’Silva Dias
One of the first stories I wrote on the road becoming a 'serious' freelancer was comparing train travel between London and India. It was a subject close to my heart and the words flowed. Delighted with the end result, I pitched the essay to an 'about-to-be-launched' magazine in London. They loved the idea and accepted it for the inaugural issue. …
Success in the Midst of Darkness By Sarojni Mehta-Lissak
Success, for a writer, can be measured by a leap into the spotlight with a high-end book deal, or by steady publication over a long period of time. My own path has been the latter. …
SYNCHRONICITY: Another Word for Success By Dawn Goldsmith
Ever since I encountered the word synchronicity, I've seen it working in my life. I met that word about the same time I met Peggy Vincent. At that time, 2002, Peggy was writing her first book, Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife, a memoir of her experiences birthing babies in the San Francisco area. …
Sweat the Small Stuff By Nancy Redd
Who would have guessed that an article I sold for $200 the first month after subscribing to WritersWeekly.com would lead to a six-figure book deal seven months later? Certainly not me, but after all, that's the exciting thing about a writing career - one never knows what opportunities may be around the corner, and dreams sometimes really do come true. Some WritersWeekly readers subscribe already knowing that the path to being a published writer isn…
Dancing to Save My Life By Yocheved Golani
I went to an Israeli wedding tonight. The wedding proceeds, dinner begins, and we dance, dance, dance. Tired dancers leave as younger, more energetic celebrants hit the bumpy stone floor adjacent to King David's grave. The band strikes up a Celtic sound in the starlit night. We get jiggy with it, and the wait staff joins the foot-stompin' party. Women and girls toss glitter, wave paper pompons and metallic streamers of many colors, ululating to the beat. Teen girls wind paper leis around their arms and necks and rock-sway with them to the music. Guys perform acrobatics or dance with full-throated song. …
Christmas Break
Success Story will return next week. If you have a success story you'd like to share, please read our guidlines at: https://writersweekly.com/misc/guidelines.php Yes, WritersWeekly.com is a paying market! …
Distributors – Who Needs Them? By Joei Carlton Hossack
It has been a very tough year. After six or seven years of being the only distributor for my books, the company decided they didn't want to distribute anyone's books but their own. I discovered this when I was about halfway across the country to pick up my supply. I had called to ask if they were going to be closed any time during the summer so I wouldn't plan my arrival around their vacation. His answer was, "Didn't you get my letter?" Not only did the distributor have almost 10,000 of my books (5 different adventure-travel books) but I had a new one being printed. It felt like someone had kicked me in the gut but I certainly wasn't going to admit that to them. …
H-O-L-I-D-A-Y-S can spell W-O-R-K for freelancers By Philomena Lawrence
Editors are always on the lookout for feature articles for the year's biggies - Mother's, Father's and Valentine's Days, to name a few. With budget cuts, especially in newspapers, staff writers don't always have the time to write feature articles in perfect prose. Enter the freelancer with a well-researched, well-timed and well-suited story idea and what harried editor wouldn't seriously consider the query letter? …
Inspiring Young Writers By Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy
Each time I visit one of the local schools to talk to the kids about writing, I pull out my high-heeled shoes and dress up, casting aside my normal attire of faded jeans and T-shirt, to present a professional appearance. I don't have a prepared program or speech, just a few props and more than twenty years of experience to bring to the youth. …
Watching A Dream Blossom Into Reality By Sharon Elaine
It all started with a few prize wins - and a dream. I'd been enjoying the hobby of entering sweepstakes for over 15 years, while working as a computer instructor at our local technical college. Over the years my sweepstakes hobby grew and I began to accumulate a long list of sweepstakes wins (lists and pictures of my wins are on my web site at https://www.unleashedminds.com). …
A Ticket to Ride By Nadia Ali
I was recently commissioned by a travel company to write two mini destination guides. The work covered various categories that appeal to visitors from food and drink to see and do's. …
Success Can Come From Writing What You Don’t Know By Kelley R. Taylor
Writing what I know has always worked well for me. But as I recently discovered, writing about things I don't really know, can also bring success. …
Writing about Life Experiences Launched My Paying Freelance Career By Roy A. Barnes
During the Summer of 2004, I began to devote more time to my writing. Each day, I worked on articles and essays about the places I've traveled to as well as other personal experiences. I also made a daily commitment to study markets, and read writing skill-themed articles so as to improve my authoring abilities. …
Success Story: An Introvert Speaks Up By Beth Hering
I have no qualms about stating that I am an introvert. Thus, being a home-based freelance writer is in many respects a great career for me. I've turned out hundreds of encyclopedia entries and other pieces of researched nonfiction over the years, as well as enough personal stories about my son to make his 8-year-old mind think he's famous enough for a spot on "Dancing with the Stars" (sorry, kid, there are still more people from "Beverly Hills, 90210" left). …
Blind Submissions Can Be Lucrative! By Susan Johnston
Several months ago I was trolling the web for new writing markets and stumbled upon a website that was just what I'd been looking for: a career site with articles for young professional women. Alas, there were no writer's guidelines on the site, and it looked like the site wasn't being updated regularly. Still, I had an idea for an article that would perfectly fit the website's readers, so I sent a blind email to the generic "info" email box pitching the article and asking if they needed writers. …
Marketing Books on MySpace.com By Sigrid Macdonald
Many people envision idle teenage chatter when they hear the words "MySpace.com." MySpace is indeed a gathering place for high school kids; however, it is not widely known that with 200 million members, MySpace is the world's sixth most popular English-language website. It attracts a large adult following, and can be an effective networking tool for many writers, publishers and editors. …
A Foot in the Door By Keith Latch
Writing careers are not made with one book. They just aren't. That's a rule. Of course, that being the rule, there are exceptions. J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Stephen King's Carrie, Nicholas Sparks and his blockbuster debut The Notebook to name of few. But that's just it, try to think of more. I'll wager you'd be hard-pressed doing so. …
Pursuing My Dream By Jessica Mayo
When one of my college professors suggested I subscribe to WritersWeekly.com, my world opened up. I had always thought I would get a Ph.D. in literature, teach at a college, and hopefully have free time during the summer to dabble in writing. But to presume that I could actually make a career out of writing …
BookLocker.com Set the Stage for a Multi-Book Contract With a Traditional Publisher By Tom Douglas
As a Toronto-based freelance writer, I was often asked when I was going to write a book. When The Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper, started buying articles about my life growing up in the wilds of Northern Ontario, I figured the time had come. So I collected a number of both funny and poignant anecdotes I had written about my early life into a manuscript with the title Some Sunny Day. But, as an unpublished author, I found that it wasn't easy to attract the interest of a traditional publishing house. …
YOU Are Reponsible For Making Your Writing Career Happen! By David Berlin
I wrote my first piece when I was 20 and got my first useful lesson in professional writing a couple of weeks later: I received a letter from the publication saying that the article had been accepted. It contained no information about when they planned to publish it and pay me. Over the years I've learned that getting a publication date is hard and getting an editor to tell you the exact date the check was sent is well nigh impossible. …
My What Big Ears You Have By Jan Henrikson
UPS did not deliver my professional writing career. A midwife did. I felt so nourished by how deeply she listened to me during a routine exam, I wanted everyone to know about these creatures I once associated with the Middle Ages. When was the last time I felt like a whole human being instead of a body part at any doctor's appointment? …
Unexpected Success By Brandi Rhoades
"You know what I should write?" I asked my husband one evening early in 2006 while lamenting the direction of my freelancing career. He looked over and just raised his eyebrows, a sign that he wished I'd make up my mind about where my career was headed, too. "Careers in women's studies. Maybe 101 Careers in Women's Studies." …
Writing, Obesity, and Me By Michele L. Tune
"Mom, I'm going to die," I whispered faintly to my Mother. "No, you aren't!" She encouraged. As I lay on my death bed at close to 300 pounds, with heaps of health problems, having surgery after surgery, I thought I would die... …
Country Fried Writing Success By Keith Latch
Let me tell you how I got published...…
Freelance Success By Laura Lee Carter
My recent freelance success has been based on some of the worst experiences in my life. Without divorce, job loss and a number of illnesses, I wouldn't have the successes I have experienced in my first year as a freelance writer... …
Sharing What I’ve Learned as a Published Writer: How The Serious Writer Book Was Born By R.T. Byrum
Writing might have come natural to me, but it was never easy. As far back as I can remember, I enjoyed telling stories to my young brothers and sister. When classes in English grammar and composition required the writing of essays, poems, and short stories, I was excited …