It’s Now So Easy to Find New Paying Markets for Writers! – by Laura Yeager

In these volatile days, writing markets are vanishing left and right. This means that many writers are experiencing distress when they lose a beloved place or places that previously published their work.

But take heart. There are solutions when you find your markets slipping away, and you can survive (even thrive) despite the loss.

For five years, from 2015 to 2020, I wrote for psychcentral.com. They were good to me; they liked what I wrote, and usually published what I sent them. Over the five years, I penned several dozen blog posts for them, including stories about my personal journey living with a bipolar illness diagnosis, tales of learning how to mother my child and, eventually, narratives of coming to grips with surviving in a world pandemic. But in 2020, the website was sold, and most of the writers were let go. I lost a key market and I was disheartened.

I also wrote many personal essays for Aleteia.com, a Catholic website. For this media source, I shared stories of how I learned to navigate this earth with the help of God. Aleteia.com was a second reliable venue where I knew my writing had a home. Recently, I sent them a spiritual essay only to learn that they were not publishing personal essays anymore. This was another huge loss for me.

But, again, remember that writing venues come and go, especially in these erratic times.

What to do when something important is lost? Find something new! Since I didn’t have two of my favorite writing venues, I had to discover new markets. In fact, I recently sold a story to National Catholic Reporter. I also sold an article to authormagazine.org, and one to Angels on Earth.

How did I find three “new” markets?

I found National Catholic Reporter at Write Jobs Plus+, a job board hosted by patreon.com. This is a useful website where writers can see what editors need at many different venues. The job listings are posted Monday through Friday. Each day of the work week, they list 16 new freelance writing opportunities. Write Jobs Plus+ charges a fee, which writers pay monthly. I’m paying $3.00/month. This is the pandemic fee. Their usual fee is $5.00/month. Either way, it’s a bargain. What I’m earning at National Catholic Reporter pays for the Write Jobs Plus+’ monthly fees many times over.

I found authormagazine.org and Angels on Earth, two venues I hadn’t tapped in several years, by analyzing my previous places of publication, and taking a chance on two of them one more time. I picked publications with editors with whom I had a rapport. To my delight, I found success with both of them. As they say, everything old is new again.

In conclusion, losing markets makes you scramble, but you can survive the loss. We all know these are tough times but there are more remote/telecommuting jobs available for writers than ever before! You have to be a bit creative but you CAN find more writing customers online.

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Laura Yeager writes literary fiction and nonfiction for many kinds of markets. Her nonfiction frequently appears in The Writer Magazine, bp Magazine, and at authormagazine.org. She also works as a professional blogger and speechwriter. She teaches online fiction writing at Gotham Writers’ Workshop. Laura is currently looking for an agent for a middle-grade novel series.