Sylvia Forbes on Freelancing (Part II)

When Sylvia Forbes spoke to Saturday Writers last month, she shared several markets where writers can find work. This is Part II of her discussion. Part I was posted Tuesday, Sep 7.

* Arts Magazines and Newspapers: Photos enhance writing and make it more valuable. Critical reviews are more sought after than general reviews.

* Parenting/Baby Magazines: National magazines - usually request all rights, but pay more (some up to $1500). Local magazines or newspapers - some take reprints, but pay less. Don't overlap a market.

* Profiles: Artists, farmers, children, teens, business people. Quotes enhance the profiles.

* Sports Writing: Must write fast, have an interest and knowledge of sports.

* Essays: Different types. Some are personal/emotional in nature. Others provide life lessons or can be presuasive. Lifestyle are another type. Some markets are: Skirt (10 essays per issue), Missouri Life, Christian Science Monitor, Arizona Highways.

* Outdoor magazines: Need to do descriptions well. Examples are hiking, bird watching, soft adventure to extreme adventure. Specialized markets: Deer, Turkey, Bass Fishing. Outdoor Writers of America organization for outdoor writers.

* Children's Magazines (most competitive). SCBWI good organization to join. Children's market pay is not great, but accepts a variety of submissions, including fiction, crafts, games, poems.

* Health Writing. Nursing and health magazines can be lucrative. "Be careful about health writing. You may die of a misprint." (Mark Twain)

* Restaurant Reviews another market.

According to Sylvia, the most lucrative markets are: Health, Business (Finance), and Technology. Her advice is to:

* Read, read, read the market to know what they're looking for before you query.

* Provide clean copy, on topic requested, correct word count, on time!

* Read the book "Outliers," which shows examples of successful people who have dedicated at least 10,000 hours to excel in their proven profession.

The best advice she received from an editor was: "Just tell the story."

Sylvia is currently accepting submissions for the 2012 Bylines Writers Desk Calendar. Visit the website for submission guidelines.

Advice on Freelancing from Sylvia Forbes (Part I)

Last month Sylvia Forbes, freelance writer and editor of Bylines Writers Desk Calendar, was guest speaker at the Saturday Writers meeting at the St. Peters Community and Arts Center.

Sylvia shared a wealth of information about nonfiction writing with about 30 other writers. I took several pages of notes, but I'm condensing part I of the highlights here:

* Keep your query letters short. Include title of proposed article, a paragraph of what it's about, and be able to answer the question: Why should the editor choose me?

* Keep a submission tracker to track submissions, some of which are written two years before payment.

* Most magazines prefer third person. A few, like Travel and Leisure, prefer first.

* Travel Writing - Articles should report on a wonderful trip, not sound like an ad. Make writing fresh, not trite. Some editors will reject an article that uses the word "nestled" anywhere.

* Study the publication ahead of time.

* The trend is towards shorter (600-1200) word articles.

* Press trips are a great way to get paid to travel and write. Start locally. Check with Convention and Visitors Bureau or State Division of Tourism.

* AAA is a good place to get started, but they accept queries only in Jan-Apr. If you query outside that time frame your query will be tossed.

* Garden Writing - Editors plan 1 1/2-2 years ahead because of photos.

* Gardening is one of the most popular hobbies in America.

* Descriptions are important.

* Scientific names are key to garden writing. (My observation: Sylvia has a degree in botany, so she knows what she's talking about.)

* Senior magazines

* Word Count: Generally 600-800

* Profile interesting seniors

* Health stories

* How to survive on limited finances

* AARP pays $1-$2 a word.

* Smaller markets $25-$75 per article, which equates to 10 cents a word. You can't make a living on 10 cents a word.

* Local news - Contact the editor. Pay is usually per article. Might need coverage for evening or weekend meetings.

* Business - always looking for stories

* Not great pay for general articles

* Specialized publications pay more (e.g. cranes, asphalt, paint, baking, produce, gift basket, etc.)

* Profiles of successful business people. (e.g. Saturday Writers member David Lee Kirkland is going to be interviewed by the St. Louis Business Journal.)

My next post will wrap up Sylvia's suggestions on freelance writing for magazines specializing in the Arts, Parenting, Sports, the Outdoors, Childrens, and others.

Bylines Winner, A Quote from Mark Twain, and Another Planning Tool

Today in St. Peters, MO: Snow showers, high 25 degrees.

Thanks to everyone who left a question or comment for Sylvia Forbes, publisher of Snow Flake Press (how appropriate today with all the snow) and editor of Bylines Writers' Desk Calendar. The name picked at random to win a copy of the Bylines Writers' Desk Calendar is . . . Bookie. Congratulations, Bookie!

I will e-mail Sylvia to tell her you won, but you will need to e-mail Sylvia with your mailing address. You can find her e-mail address on her website.

For everyone who left a comment or question for Sylvia but didn't win a copy of Bylines, you can visit Sylvia's website to find out how to purchase a copy. In addition to using my lovely Bylines weekly desk calendar to keep organized, I also use a monthly planning calendar.

I found the monthly calendar on the Reading Writers site. It's a no-frills, 12-page calendar that can be downloaded for free. At the beginning of the year I downloaded my copy of the Reading Writers calendar and have been using it as a planning and tracking tool for deadlines and submissions. One feature I enjoy is the monthly quote from a famous writer. January's quote comes from Missouri's famous author and humorist, Mark Twain:

"God only exhibits his thunder and lightning in intervals, and so they always command attention. They're God's adjectives. You thunder and lightning too much, the reader ceases to get under the bed." Mark Twain

So, if you're like me and one of your goals is to get organized in 2010, the Bylines weekly desk calendar and the Reading Writers monthly calendar are writing tool that can help.

Interview with Sylvia Forbes - Part II

Part II of my interview with Sylvia Forbes focuses on Snowflake Press, and specifically on Bylines Writer's Calendar. The calendar on the left is the 2009 edition.

DV: I love Bylines Writer’s Desk Calendar. The weekly testimonials of writers are so inspiring, and the resources to write down and organize annual goals are helpful. For several years, as publisher of Snowflake Press, you have produced this lovely and practical weekly planner for writers. When did you become the publisher of Snowflake Press? What inspired you to publish Bylines Writer’s Desk Calendar?

SF: I wish I could take credit for thinking up Bylines, but all the credit goes to Linda Hagen Miller, a freelance travel writer in Washington. She published Bylines for two years, then became very successful at travel writing and didn't have time to continue publishing Bylines. She looked for someone who would continue her vision. I bought Bylines from her.

I started with the 2006 version, and have been publishing it since then. Bylines evolves each year, with new things being added. It contains substantially more now than it did in the beginning. For one thing, it is 24 pages longer. I've added a list of "literary holidays," pages for conference notes, a submission tracker form that can be copied, an expense tracker, mileage tracker, monthly office task lists for the full-time writer, goal-setting pages, and other things that hopefully help a writer keep organized. This year's Bylines has a list of Literary Festivals. Previous editions have had lists of Nobel and Pulitzer prize-winning authors.

When I started, decided to put images of desks on the cover, as a creative setting for writers to imagine. With the 2008 Bylines, I started featuring actual desks of famous authors. I thought this might be helpful to writers to show them a variety of settings that inspired so much creativity. So far we've featured the writing desks of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Mark Twain and Will Rogers. I've got an idea for 2011, but writers are welcome send in suggestions if they know of a famous "writing desk" near them!

DV: As a writer, I find it so inspiring to see the the desks of famous writers on the front covers of each issue. I love that feature! Now that 2010 is here, you’ve already begun to plan next year’s calendar. What are you looking for in submissions for the 2011 issue of Bylines?

SF: Each essay reveals some aspect of writing. Some moment in a writer's life, or some realization about writing that might help other writers. I always enjoy humor, but I enjoy the serious ones, too. I like for the essays to have a positive message, rather than focusing on negative outcomes. It's hard to tell a story in 300 words or less, but writers have found many ways to do it.

Stories have included one on overcoming envy of another writer's success, how it is rewarding to be able to combine writing at home with taking care of one's children, how writing stretches the imagination, how writing has led a writer to have an amazing experience, and more. Writers have told about their divorces, death of children, overcoming disabilities and finding or changing careers, all in 300 word essays. Writers have compared writing to cooking, to rock climbing, to racing a car and to many other things. Humor is always good, but so is sincerity. We also take poems, if they're about writing.

DV: What would cause you to reject an essay? where can writers find complete guidelines?

SF: The entries that are most often rejected are those that are merely a bio of the person submitting. Complete guidelines are at www.bylinescalendar.com, along with a few examples.

DV: Showing examples is very helpful. When is the deadline for submissions?

SF: This time it's March 1.

DV: What can writers expect from you if their submission is accepted?

SF: Once their submission is accepted, I send them a final, edited version. Hopefully we'll eliminate any last mistakes this way. Then, I ask them if they want their email address published in Bylines on the writer's contact page. Sometimes readers of Bylines want to contact the writers and compliment them, and writers have even gotten assignments from being in Bylines! I also ask the writers if they want their website to be listed as a link on the Bylines website.

Later, I ask them to fill out a brief marketing form. Using the information from the marketing form, I try to send out press releases about the author to their local newspaper and library, in hopes of helping not only sell Bylines, but helping the writer with publicity for his/her own career.

DV: You do a great job encouraging writers to get the word out about the calendar. I won a copy of this year's calendar on another writer's blog. I’m excited about the extra incentive you will be giving for the top three submissions for the 2011 calendar. Please tell us a little bit about those incentives.

SF: This year, it's more like a writing contest that has no entry fee! I choose 53 submissions for Bylines, and each will receive $5 plus a copy of the book. Then I will choose the top 3 essays, and those will receive $100, $60, and $40, respectively. This may not seem like much, but the first three years Bylines was published, they didn't pay writers at all! As Bylines becomes more successful, I'm trying to increase the pay rate.

DV: That's very generous. I imagine you will get tons of submissions, and I bet it won't be easy to pick the top three essays. What’s the best way to find out more about Sylvia Forbes, Snowflake Press or Bylines Writer’s Desk Calendar?

SF: Visit http://www.bylinescalendar.com/ for more info about the Bylines Writer's Desk Calendar. Visit http://www.heartlandwriter.com/ for more info about my writing.

DV: Do you have any other words of advice or wisdom for my blog visitors?

SF: Keep writing!. It's easy to have self-doubt. When you get discouraged, immerse yourself in reading books on writing, read well-written books of any genre, network with writer friends and focus on the positive. Also, support your fellow writers by celebrating their successes, too.

DV: That's good advice, indeed. Thanks again, Sylvia, for being a guest blogger here today, for sharing information about yourself and for letting us know more about Snowflake Press and the Bylines Writer's Desk Calendar.

Don't forget, if you post a question or comment for Sylvia, you will be entered in the random drawing for a copy of the 2010 Bylines Writer's Desk Calendar. One winner will be announced on Monday. More importantly, don't forget to submit your essay to Sylvia by March 1.

Interview with Sylvia Forbes - Part I

Today in St. Peters, MO: Partly cloudy, high 30 degrees.

It’s an honor to have Sylvia Forbes, editor and publisher of Snowflake Press and the award-winning Bylines Writer’s Desk Calendar, as my guest blogger today. I’ve known Sylvia through the Missouri Writers Guild for about eight years and continue to be impressed by her enthusiasm and hard work as a freelance writer, photographer and publisher.

Part I of the interview will focus primarily on Sylvia, her background and writing philosophy. Part II will focus on Snowflake Press and Bylines Writer's Desk Calendar. Everyone who posts a question or a comment for Sylvia will be entered in a drawing to win a copy of the 2010 Bylines Writer's Desk Calendar (shown on the left). One winner will be announced on Monday.

DV: Thank you, Sylvia, for agreeing to be interviewed today on Donna’s Book Pub. Through Bylines Writer’s Calendar you have not only helped writers become more organized, you have also assisted many writers in achieving their publication dreams. As a writer, an editor and a publisher you have much to offer other writers. Please tell us about your wriring journey and background. How did you get started freelancing?

SF: Actually, it happened by accident. I moved to a small town to be able to help my parents, who had retired to their home town and were ailing. It was difficult to find ANY jobs in town or in the nearby area, much less good-paying ones. So I thought about what kind of work I could do while living in a small town and came up with the idea of freelancing. However, from thinking about it to doing it is a big leap. My first step was to contact my local newspaper, and ask if they needed freelancers. I wrote my first article on spec for that newspaper, and have been writing ever since.

DV: What are some notable writing assignments you've had or publishing credits you've achieved?

SF: I have a degree in botany, so my articles about plants are some of my favorites. I wrote about a "living wall" for the Christian Science Monitor, and have written several articles for Herb Quarterly, a magazine specializing in growing and using herbs.

Also, I live in a very historic area, where the Santa Fe Trail started, Kit Carson lived as a boy and Daniel Boone's sons lived and worked. Lewis & Clark spent a couple nights here on their famous journey. The first steamboats up the Missouri River stopped here and eight Missouri governors lived in this area. I have written dozens of stories about local history for our newspaper. I find it exciting to uncover some piece of history that isn't well-known, or to combine several related facts to put together a better picture of earlier times.

No matter what I'm writing, my favorite part of the writing process is interviewing other people. I really enjoy meeting other creative people and learning what they have done with their talent and skill, from artists to scientists.

As far as credits, most recently I had two features place in the top 100 in the features category of the 2009 Writer's Digest Contest. I've won awards in the Missouri Writers' Guild contest in each of the last nine years in a variety of categories, even though the judges change every year, and hopefully that's good measurement of the consistency of my writing.

DV: What’s the best writing advice you’ve received? The worst?

SF: The best advice I ever received was when I wrote my first article. I was worried about word count and style and interview techniques and many other things, and the editor said to me, "just tell the story." I think that's so important. You can edit for length, or style, or add quotes, or other things later, but first you have to get the story down.

The worst is "write what you know." I've written about a lot of things I don't know, from tool collecting to vintage jewelry styles to yodeling. I think what is important is that you acquire the research skills to be able to gather information about a topic, and the interview skills to ask questions of experts. Also, fiction writers have to have a wonderful imagination. Because the whole field of science fiction and fantasy, and much of the romance and mystery genres are based on "what if," not "what you know."

DV: That's some good advice and a unique way of looking at the "write what you know" philosphy. I guess it would be safe to say through research and asking "what if" a writer should "know what you write." Next question: You have received many awards as a writer and publisher. The Bylines Writer's Desk Calendar has been honored in the Independent Publishers Association "Book of the Year" Competition and as a finalist for the Walter Williams Award by the Missouri Writers’ Guild. That’s so impressive. Is there any award that stands out among the others?

SF: The "awards" that mean the most to me are when writers e-mail and say that they love Bylines and use it every day. That was the whole reason for me to take on publishing it - to help other writers.

A Winner and An Announcement

Today in St. Peters, MO Mostly cloudy, high 39 degrees.

Horray! Today starts a new month. With January behind us I'm looking forward to some warmer weather. I've already made a bit of progress on my goals of getting more organized, eliminating clutter, and donating more goods to worthy causes. One worthy cause I'm donating to is my blog--more specifically to my blog visitors. Last month I announced a contest to give away a copy of Mysteries of the Ozarks (Vol I), which includes my short story, "The Shape of a Heart." The winner was selected by a random drawing from the names of anyone who submitted a comment or a question on my blog in January.

Drum roll please .............................

The winner of MOO (hey, cute) is CATHY. So, I will send a copy of Mysteries of the Ozarks to Cathy this week.

Now for my this month's announcement.

I'm pleased to announce that on Feb 11 I will interview Sylvia Forbes, publisher of Snowflake Press and publisher and editor of Bylines Writer's Desk Calendar. Check back on Feb 11 to find out what Sylvia is looking for in the way of submissions for her 2011 calendar and what great incentives she will be giving this year. Sylvia has also agreed to answer questions and comments from visitors to Donna's Book Pub. She also will give away one copy of the Bylines 2010 Writer's Desk Calendar to someone who leaves a comment or a question for her. The name of one lucky winner will be picked at random, and Sylvia will mail a copy of the calendar to the winner.

Later in the month I will be giving away another book from my library, so check back to see what's up for grabs.

Monday's Market - Bylines Writers' Desk Calendar

Today's forecast for St. Peters: Mostly cloudy, high 51 degrees.

Here's some good news about two writing friends from Saturday Writers: Cindy Allen and Doyle Suit will be among the writers featured in the 2009 edition of Bylines Writers' Desk Calendar, which will be released on December 12.

I recently e-mailed Bylines Calendar publisher, Sylvia Forbes, and asked about what she is looking for in the 2010 calendar.

Sylvia is looking for: "great stories about the writing life. Stories that are funny, moving, tell of a rewarding moment, of hard work paying off, of not giving up, of "ah ha" writing moments, of learning something from other writers or writing groups, of a memorable moment at a writing conference, or even learning what NOT to do, are just a few possible topics that would be fitting. These stories are meant to motivate a writer to keep trying, to cheer them up on a day when the writing seems hard, or just to inspire them or make them feel they're not alone, by reading about someone else's trials, errors and successes.

"In 300 words, there's not a lot of room for a complicated or multifaceted story, so writers must pick just one incident, or idea and write about it. Some writers introduce too many elements, and then aren't able to resolve everything in such a short story. Writers are certainly welcome to submit more than one story, but only one story per person will be chosen for an edition.

"Two types of submissions that get rejected for Bylines are: 1) entries that are really just bios of the author. (I wrote published my first article, got better, met an editor, and now I have 5 books published, etc.), or 2) those who submit some version of "I write because I must."

"I would like to include a couple of poems about the writing life in each edition, but get very few poetry submissions. Poems must be specifically about writing to be eligible.

"Stories are accepted totally on the quality of the writing and on the story told. I do not look at the writer's name, what genre they publish in, or anything else, to decide. However, if I get two stories that are almost exactly alike, I might save one for a different edition. This has rarely happened, however.

"Compensation could be better, and as Bylines grows, I will try to do better. We pay $5 and a copy of the book, plus give discounts on any extra copies that they buy. We also put a link to their website from the Bylines website, and will publish their email address on the contact page in Bylines. I do know that several writers have been emailed by fans who got their email address from Bylines, and complimented the writer's writing, but I don't know if any Bylines writers have gotten assignments or book deals from being in Bylines.

"Currently Bylines is available on Amazon, from the Bylines website, and also from Funds for Writers, and by calling or emailing me. The website is the best way for me to sell books.

"Last year, we added a submission tracker, as well as an expense tracker. This year, I've added listings of over 50 popular literary festivals in North America. Authors who want to promote their books might find this listing of benefit, as one more way to market books is to either speak at or participate in a booth selling books." Sylvia

According to the submission guidelines on Sylvia's website, submissions for the 2010 calendar must be received by February 1, 2009. Writers will be notified by April 15. For complete submission guidelines, visit the website.

Good luck with your submissions, and congratulations, Cindy and Doyle.