writingforyourlife

So, you don’t happen to know Stephen King personally.

So what?  Neither do I.

That doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t sit down over a cup of coffee and ask him hundreds of annoying questions about the art of writing.  It just means you might have to dig a bit for the answers.

And that’s okay.  Because you’re resourceful.  You’re motivated.  You enjoy the pursuit of knowledge.

If you ever wanted to know what pearls of wisdom Stephen King, Virginia Woolf,  Shakespeare or Margaret Atwood have to share on writing, there are a few simple ways to do just that:

1. Pick up one of their books.  Sounds simple, and it is.  Analyze their word choices, novel structures, literary devices.  Find out what makes them tick.
2. Read their biography or autobiography.  Don’t reinvent the wheel!  Find out what an author says about themselves, or what others say about them.  Learn  how they got published and what struggles they encountered along the way.
3. Research their publisher.  You can tell a great deal about a writer by looking at who published them.  Find out their submission requirements, what styles they usually accept, other famous names within their publishing list.
4. Go to their website.  Obviously this only pertains to modern authors unless someone is managing a site on behalf of a deceased writer.  Most published authors today have websites promoting their work, and even offer workshops or other resources for aspiring writers.
5. Read an interview.  At some point in your favourite author’s life, they’ve been interviewed.  They’ve been asked the tough questions, probed for information about the very things you wish to know.  All you have to do is to find one transcript or video.

From now on, you have no excuses to mourn your long, lonely pursuit of publication.  Take what those who’ve gone before you have done, and learn from their example.

So go make yourself a cup of coffee and start picking someone’s brain.

Are you a published writer?

Do you have magazine credits?  Have you published a newspaper article or anthology entry?

If you’ve written and published a full novel, you probably won’t need the following advice.  However, possessing only minor writing credits shouldn’t prevent you from marketing yourself and your skills.

Consider these 10 easy ways to increase your exposure:

1. Create a blog on writing tips and resources.
2. Contact other bloggers to see if they will interview you.
3. Write guest posts for other bloggers.
4. Make a YouTube video of yourself sharing useful writing tips, and link to your blog.
5. Share with other writers the steps you took to become published.
6. Continue to build your credits by writing and submitting.
7. Interview other writers and ask them to link to your site.
8. Attend local writers functions or library events and mingle.
9. Create a Facebook group to show support for your writing.
10. Write articles for online magazines that allow you to link to your own site.

Start implementing these tips and you’ll soon recognize even minor writing credits can help make you an authority on a subject many people are dying to know about.

What are your best tips for marketing your writing?

The next time you finish a short story, a set of poems, or even a novel, take the hard work out of finding a suitable publisher.

Duotrope Digest is a searchable database of thousands of publishing markets.  The website is easy to use, having separate searches for short fiction, poetry and novels.

You can limit your searches by specifying criteria, some of which include:

• genre
• length
• theme
• location
• pay scale
• keyword
• electronic or postal submissions
• print or electronic publication
• multiple submissions
• simultaneous submissions

You can automatically exclude markets that are temporarily closed, saving you the hassle of weeding them out yourself.  Registering as a member will give you access to a submission tracker.

I heard about Duotrope a few weeks ago and tried it myself recently.  With each search, I needed to specify many search terms, otherwise I got far too many results.  Not that that’s a bad thing, mind you.

Try Duotrope yourself and increase your chances of being published.

Yesterday I said I need to be more diligent with submitting work to magazines and journals.

Today, I give you…  THE BIG LIST of LITERARY MAGAZINES !

By the time you finish looking through the links, you’ll have 1800 less excuses for not being published.  Here’s my strategy for getting through this massive list:

1. Start at the top of the list and use new tabs to open 5 links at a time on your browser.
2. Quickly look at each site.  In a text document, copy and paste links to the ones that seem to meet your requirements.  Close each tab as you finish with it.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 until your eyes shrivel. Make note of where you’ve left off.
4. Sleep.
5. Repeat steps 1 to 4 until you have your own personalized list of appropriate places to send your work.

A quick note of caution:  when looking at links, I didn’t bother wasting time on any magazines that had dodgy looking sites, or those that were obviously not my type of writing.  I immediately closed any tabs with pictures of vampires on them, or those that had very poor quality design.  If their website looks terrible, what does that say about their magazine?

Also, make sure you understand whether a magazine/journal is offered in print or only online.  Many websites make it difficult to tell.  Being offered publication online isn’t as prestigious as having your work accepted in print.

If you have used other lists, please send us the link.   Best of luck!

I haven’t been diligent enough with submitting my writing lately.  If a piece is rejected, I tend to think it isn’t good enough and I start writing something else.  This is entirely the wrong attitude.

So, yesterday I spent a couple of hours searching the internet for print magazines and journals (as opposed to online publications), that publish short works of fiction.

I managed to compile a list of those in my own country, which will require only small postage.  I also made note of overseas magazines that accept submissions via email.   Obviously, email is easier on the wallet.

In any case, I’ve created a hierarchy list of magazines.  I will start by submitting to the ones I’d most like to publish my writing, and work my way down until I run out of print options. If I’m not successful, I’ll continue the process using online magazines.

I believe having a system in place will force me to submit pieces to all my options.  It will be time consuming, but worth it.

What do you think?  Is getting published just a game of numbers?