This may not be the correct venue, but I wanted to reach you. I followed a “market” ad from your listings,and submitted an article to a magazine. The ad stated “payment upon publication”, and the item was published. I have yet to be paid, and wonder what to do next. I wrote two “gentle” e-mails to the editor asking about payment, and suddenly no one’s home.
If you want to write about parenting, it makes the most sense to pitch parenting magazines, right? The same logic suggests food writers target food magazines and travel writers try travel magazines. Not so, in my experience.
In just two days, Mason will be turning one year old. We can’t believe a whole year has gone by! The days when he was in intensive care seem so very long ago, thank heavens. I wanted to give you an update on how he’s doing.
Angela, Mason and Max all have a cold. Her column will return next week.
So your click will not have been in vain, here’s an interesting tidbit sent in by author Burt Close:
Angela I was reading your column on freelance writing rates. When I saw Writer’s Digest, it reminded me of a subscription offer I received from them not too long ago. I had quit subscribing about 2 years ago when their subscriptions had raised from around $21 to $23 per year. This subscription offer was for $19. While lower than the previous rates a couple of years ago, I then noticed the word “bi-monthly.” Didn’t they used to be monthly? This got me curious. So besides checking the current guidelines, I looked at their 2002 guidelines. I was correct. In 2002 they were monthly. Now they are bi-monthly. While I’m certain part of their reason–probabIy a majority–was increasing their income, it seems to me that by being bi-monthly and only dropping the subscription cost by around $3, they wound up still not giving a little of that “income raise” to their freelance writers.
Question. Can you guess what type of publication I’m describing?
*Sample copies are often free.
*The pay tends to be on the medium-high side, $500-1000 per article and more.
*These magazines are bulwarks; they survive in any economy.
*Many, if not most of them, pay on acceptance.
Give up?
At 17, I wanted to write, but knew intuitively that a writer needs life experience.
When friends pursued journalism or English degrees, I studied forestry — something I know nothing about, though I’d always wanted to.
Getting good grades was easy – it was the forestry jobs that proved elusive. So, since I’d earned tuition money working as a nurse’s aide and was interested in health, I next went to nursing school.
About two months ago, when there was still snow on the ground, I lovingly set out my pots and my dirt and my seeds. Max helped me gently lay each tiny seed in each pot, and gently cover it with soil. We bought a special spray bottle so we could mist them gently, each day, giving them their nurishment. Once the seedlings emerged from the soil, reaching for the grow light Matt and Frank installed for me in the mudroom, Max and I fed them organic fertilizer. And, they grew. Oh how they grew! Each day, they were taller and more proud. Some reached for the grow light while others reached for the winter sunlight streaming through the window.
So, your book is finally being published! Congratulations! If you’re like the rest of us, you envision yourself walking into your local bookstore and seeing your book on the shelves. You start to plan book signings and appearances. And you dream about how big your first royalty check will be! But, if your traditional publisher is a small one…or even a new, unestablished POD publisher, how long will it last, and how much money and time could you lose?
