Wow! Women on Writing

Smart Habits of Publishing Writers A Series of Tips
By Christina Katz

Develop Confidence By Doing

Ever heard, "Luck is when opportunity meets preparation"? Well, it's true. The best thing you can do for your writing career is to practice writing and submitting. Over time you will find that opportunities coincide with your ability and your confidence. Choosing a market, polishing your manuscript, and sending it out feels great whether your piece is accepted or not.

Follow Your Instincts

I have always found following my instincts to be the best way to advance my writing career. Do you dream of writing profiles? Fantasize about seeing your writing in a certain publication? Do you just know that you are born to write humor? Ask yourself what steps you need to take to turn that dream into a reality. Keep current account of your dreams, so when it comes time to sit down and set goals, you'll know where to point your bow. Write your dreams, collage them, and walk them. What you dream about is far more important than someone else's formula for success.

Cultivate Relationships with Editors

Once you publish a piece with an editor, ask yourself, "Would I like to publish more with this publication?" If the answer is "Yes," approach him or her with your ideas. Your chances for acceptance are much better now that the editor knows you and your work. Ask about editorial needs. Ask for an editorial calendar. Study a few issues of the publication and then send a professional e-mail with three to five ideas. If they liked what you already wrote, and like your ideas, chances are good that you will get another assignment.

Following Up with Editors

It is perfectly acceptable to call an editor after the allotted time published in their writing guidelines. For example, if they say they respond in one month and it's one month and two weeks, send a polite e-mail inquiry or call them on the phone. Acknowledge that they are probably very busy and ask for what you need to know. They may not need the piece you sent but while you have them on the phone you can ask for what kind of pieces they are currently looking for.

Keep Your Eyes Open for Reprint Markets

Let's say you publish in a women's business publication. This type of publication exists in many forms, regional, national and online. Once you have success in one market, find similar markets you can reprint in without making too many editorial changes. Also consider a slightly different market. For example if an idea was popular with a women's business publication, maybe a women's or parenting publication would be interested in the same article with some slight revisions. Just send an e-mail to the reprint editor with a short cover letter and manuscript cut and pasted into the document. Then forget about it because they will probably file it and get back to you later.

To Query or Not To Query

Querying is a skill in itself and there are many good courses and books out there on the subject. My advice is: Write about what you enjoy writing about. Get good at it. Learn how to turn out strong writing on deadlines. Write enough material to discover a niche or two. At that point, query writing may make sense, or you may want to consider writing a non-fiction book proposal. Book proposal writing is similar to query writing and the compensation for your efforts is greater. If you get sick of a topic, your niches can evolve as you do. But chances are you will come back to well-written material and resell it over and over again.

Christina Katz is the author of Writer Mama, How To Raise A Writing Career Alongside Your Kids (February, 2007, Writer's Digest Books). She has been doing just that for the past five years and has published over 200 articles in magazines, newspapers, and online publications. She teaches eight nonfiction-writing classes a year and is publisher and editor of the online monthly zine, Writers On The Rise, voted by Writer's Digest as one of the “101 Top Web Sites” for writers. Christina is a graduate of Dartmouth College and has an MFA in Fiction from Columbia College, Chicago. Visit www.writersontherise.com or www.christinakatz.com or www.thewritermama.com for the latest about Christina.