The Fabulist Flash

Number 8

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In This Issue:

1. This Week
2. The Writer's Bookshelf
3. Making $25 an Hour with No Credentials
4. Tip of the Week
5. About the Fabulist Flash

1. This Week

Welcome to our subscribers, old and new! I hope you're enjoying your subscription to The Fabulist Flash.

It's getting downright chilly here in Las Vegas with daily temperatures down in the 50s. Brrrr! I had to break out my leather coat this week. Read this week's Tip of the Week for an indoor exercise idea during this cold season.

What did you accomplish this week that deserves a treat? I finished my eBooklet, "So, You Wanna be a Freelance Writer," this week. As a reward, I treated myself to a date at the movies. If you like neo-noir films, check out The Forgotten. This is one of the best crafted movies I've seen in quite some time. Go ahead, take an artist date at the movies, you deserve it.

This week's feature article, "Making $25 an Hour with No Credentials" by Wendy Burt, is filled with terrific information and inspiration for turning those low paying articles into cash cows. Guest Columnists for The Fabulist Flash earn $25 for their published article. Put in an hour of your own and send a fabulous article to The Fabulist Flash.

We're open to ideas and suggestions for future issues. Let us know if there's something you'd like to see or learn about, what you've enjoyed and would like to see more of, or just want us to know you think The Fabulist Flash is fabulous. Send your comments and ideas to editor@fabulistflash.com.

The December issues of The Fabulist Flash will focus on annual review and goal setting techniques. How do you review your writing year? How do you plan and set goals for the New Year? Visit our Writer Guidelines for more information on submitting your articles for consideration.

Having trouble following the links in your email version of The Fabulist Flash? Sometimes links come apart during electronic delivery. All links work in the archive issues on line at http://www.fabulistflash.com.

Until next week,

Gregory
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Gregory A. Kompes is a freelance writer and photographer. Learn more about Gregory and his work at http://www.Kompes.com
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What inspired your latest article idea? Email Aha@FabulistFlash.com
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2. The Writer's Bookshelf

The ASJA Guide to Freelance Writing

A review by Gregory A. Kompes

The American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) offers a good publication for freeance writers: ASJA Guide to Freelance Writing: A Professional Guide to the Business, for Nonfiction Writers of All Experience Levels, Timothy Harper, Editor.

This collection of essays for the freelance writer doesn't just present a list of dos and don'ts, the ASJA Guide is a series of how-to essays by published authors that explain ways to work through the varied aspects and challenges of freelance writing. This format allows experience to provide guidance.

I like to read about success stories and examples of what worked and what didn't work. Inside the covers you'll find advice on starting your freelance writing business, how to write and sell books, advice on networking, finding experts, self-publishing, and more.

This book doesn't need to move up high on your list, but I have used it many times to figure out different aspects of our business. Next time you're in the library, check out a copy of The ASJA Guide to Freelance Writing and see if it's something you want to own. The ASJA also has a free newsletter. Visit their website and sign-up.

For this title and others of inspiration to writers visit The Writer's Bookshelf.

3. Making $25 an Hour with No Credentials

By Wendy Burt

When I teach "Breaking Into Freelance Writing," the biggest concern among beginning writers seems to be the "catch 22" of the industry: You want to make money writing, but you have to have published clips to get in the door.

While this is true of the larger consumer magazines, many of the small- and medium-sized markets don't require published pieces. Sure, sometimes the pay isn't enough to fill your gas tank, but in addition to building your credentials, writing for smaller publications can actually earn you a lot of money for little work. The trick is to calculate your HOURLY rate. Here are three ways to build your clips and make at least $25 an hour with few or no credentials.

1. Sell reprints. Let's say you take one hour out of your day to write a 500-word article on feeding your children nutritious meals. You sell it to a parenting publication in Houston for $25. Most of the small- to medium-sized parenting publications around the U.S. only want one-time rights. That means they want to run it once and don't care who uses it after them. You can sell the same piece "with no revisions" to parenting publications in New York, Vermont, Idaho, or even overseas. In addition, many states are large enough to have non-competitive metro areas that each publishes their own magazine. Depending on the size of the publication, you might be able to sell the same article that Houston Parent bought to San Antonio Parent, Austin Parent, El Paso Parent, etc. When you do the math (one $25 article x 200 magazines = $5,000), it's not a bad chunk of change for a piece that took you an hour to write. Visit www.parenthood.com and click on "local sites" for a list of parenting publications.

2. Enter no-entry fee contests. The Internet is full of no-entry fee contests. (Visit www.proofpositive.com/contests/writecontests.php for examples.) If you win, you'll have a fabulous boost to your credentials, and if you don't, you'll have a piece you can recycle and sell. While most no-entry fee contests don't pay out huge cash prizes, they do often post winning pieces and "honorable mentions" on their Web sites. It's another clip to add to your published pieces. Sometimes an honorable mention can win you a small check, say $25 or $30, which again, isn't bad if you wrote the piece in an hour. Best of all, you'll have a deadline, something that many beginning writers benefit from in an otherwise unstructured profession.

3. Write fillers. Many of the large consumer magazines are chock full of fillers, those short snippets of information that either supplement an article or stand alone. Sometimes they're jokes or "it happened to me" pieces like in Reader's Digest or Family Circle, other times they're informational blurbs from recent studies (think "Why you need to eat cabbage" in Men's Health). While fillers don't typically pay much, maybe $15 to $30, they're easy to write, generally don't require query letters, and are in high-demand with consumer magazines that may run up to 50 per issue, which means you can often submit and sell several in one batch. Visit www.publication.com/aylad/paying.htm for a list of several publications that buy fillers.

Remember, those little checks are nothing to sneeze at. The key is to figure out how much effort you're putting in to make the money. Six $25 checks can be as exciting as one $300 check and you'll have more clips for your portfolio.

About the Author
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Wendy Burt is a full-time freelance writer with more than 500 published pieces, including work in The New York Times, Family Circle, Woman's World, Woman's Own, Complete Woman, Home Cooking and The Writer. Autographed copies of her books, "Oh, Solo Mia! The Hip Chick's Guide to Fun for One" (April 2001, McGraw-Hill) and "Work It, Girl! 101 Tips for the Hip Working Chick" (June 2003, McGraw-Hill) are available through BurtCreations.com.

4. Tip of the Week

As the temperatures drop, don't let the cold keep you from exercising. Combine your daily walk with your errand runs. Visit an indoor mall, walk a few laps, and then pick up those books and writing supplies on your list.

5. About the Fabulist Flash

ISSN: 1554-0804

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