Forget query letters for a while and think direct marketing instead. Not for you, you say? Perhaps you are a dedicated features writer, and certainly not interested in commercial freelancing? Even so, direct marketing can be a useful tool. Consider the Internet. Ever been amazed by the amount of markets available there? Or overwhelmed by […]
A little over a year ago ForeWord Magazine began a pay for review site that created quite a controversy. ForeWordreviews.com offered a review for $295 to any publisher or author who could afford one. Included in the price is the right to print the review in any marketing or publicity effort, lifetime archival of the […]
A boxing taco. That’s the subject of the first story I ever wrote, which I read to the other second grade students in Mrs. Moore’s class at Morningside Elementary. Their laughter was like medicine to me, a shy and often frightened child.
There are six major publishing conglomerates in the United States. Each conglomerate controls any number of subsidiary publishers. Rupert Murdoch, for instance, owns HarperCollins, William Morrow, and Avon, which, more or less, work as a unit, sharing resources and personnel. My first novel, Pretend I’m Not Here, is a romantic suspense published by HarperCollins in […]
My freelance writing career began with a poem that I never submitted. My father (also a writer) had sent it in on my behalf when I was 24. The interesting thing was, it was a poem I wrote at age 16. When the acceptance letter arrived, I thought, “Wow! If I can get something published that I wrote at age 16, what could I do now?”
Every career writer has been there: weeks without a single check arriving in the mail, nails chewed down to the knuckles worrying whether you’ll be able to eat this month, let alone pay the rent. In a perfect world, checks would arrive precisely on the due date, every single time. Unfortunately, our dear old world […]
When I quit my day job two years ago to jump into the perilous pool of freelance writing, my co-workers gave me retirement cards. Little did they know how many 50- and 60-hour weeks I would spend at the keyboard, searching for markets and taking on-spec assignments. I had no idea, either, which explains why I was so excited at the prospect of making a living as a writer.
I don’t own a copy of Writer’s Market (the book published by Writers Digest Books). No offense, but I already have access to more markets than the book provides without the additional cost. Here’s how. By using the right combination of keywords and search techniques you can find new markets to query all day long. […]
The old bait ‘n switch book review scam!
Picture an actual playing board with plastic pieces and a spinner in the middle. The spinner is important because it will remind you how much is left to chance. The best writer with the best novel still has to submit to the luck of random numbers. You obviously begin at Square One. For a realistic […]
