GIVEAWAY! Print Edition of "Make Money to Write About Your Kids" 6th Edition

It's time for a giveaway of a print copy of Make Money to Write About Your Kids: Get Published in Regional, National & Online Parenting & Family Magazines!!!!!! To be perfectly honest with you, I am purging my home because we are hoping to move sometime and I found a pristine copy of the book and wanted to give it away to someone who might love it!

If you blog or write, you need this book! If you like to make money, you need this book! If you want to work from home and be with your kids or write while on vacation or while traveling or on the go, you need this book!

There are 285 markets in this book and I add new ones in the Updates section of this site and make sure to update email addresses and pay information as well! Oh, and did I mention I am ACCESSIBLE?! Yep, you can find me on email or Facebook in my group Regional Parenting Magazine Writers if you want to ask me any questions about getting published!

And yes, the 7th edition is still in the works so make sure you check this UPDATES page if you get email bouncebacks :-)

You can sign up for an email subscription to this site and get a free sample of the book, including FIVE markets that pay $50 plus for reprints! Please also consider joining my Facebook group called Regional Parenting Magazine Writers ... it's FREE and full of tips and tricks and markets and like-minded writer friends!

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How I Earn Over $500 for Each Regional Parenting Magazine Article Reprint ... the Magic of Reprints!

Let me start by saying not EVERY article I write makes this much money. I've written and submitted nearly 100 in the 10 years since I started doing this (that's only 10 per year, people, so consistency counts), and a handful of them did very poorly. By poorly I mean sold to one or two magazines then went into oblivion.

Some have sold a total of a few hundred dollars. But today I want to share with you the 

ARTICLE ROCK STARS

I'm sharing this not to say, "Woo hoo, I am awesome and check out how much money I make doing this." Instead, I'm sharing to say, "Wow, I didn't realize that it all added up like this! I mean, I knew my Christmas Peace piece did pretty great, but it might hit $1,000 in sales in 2017 if I tweak it a bit! This can happen for other writers as well, and there seems to be plenty of room for all of us!"

You might also say, "I could do better than that!" and then I would reply, "Be my guest! Write on, friend, and I wish you success!" Please feel free to share with me in the comment section about your successes! I'd love to visit your links and author pages! I love to follow and like all over social media!

Here are the article titles and links and I'll update them as I improve my record-keeping from days of old and sell more:

Birthday Party Etiquette, written in 2013 (link goes to Westchester Family), $515

10 Meaningful Birthday Traditions, written in 2011 (link goes to Black Hills Parent), $578

8 Tips for Holiday Sanity, written in 2009 (link goes to Playground), $894

Conquer Kid Clutter, written in 2010 (link goes to Hudson Valley Parent), $505

Forming Friendships from Toddler to Teen, written in 2010 (link goes to Kansas City Parent), $579

Pregnancy Sleep Disruption Solutions, written in 2009 when I was pregnant with my 5th child (link goes to Palm Beach Parenting), $533

I've written close to 100 articles. Some have made over $500 in reprint sales and are still selling. I still get checks from articles I wrote 10 years ago!

So how do I do it?

1. Come up with an idea.
2. Do some research, get some links, get some personal quotes if the piece needs them.
3. Write the rough draft of the piece.
4. Sit on the piece for a while then come back to it for editing.
5. Send the piece to all the markets in my book and do so with prayers and good vibes. You may go another route and send your piece first to the national magazines that pay extremely well (also in my book), and then revamp them later for the regionals. You could make double what I make!
6. ****Send out your reprint list every couple of months, and season-specific pieces when needed. If it's a holiday piece, for instance, resend it again in a year around back-to-school time. If you have a bunch of birthday pieces, send them all in one email to all the editors on my list and say, "Hey, here are my birthday pieces for you to check out. Hope you can use one or all of them ;-) Please let me know if you would like to use one of them because I want to make sure I maintain market exclusivity where needed." 
7. Check out other markets that take reprints other than the regional parenting magazines. I have so many markets in the book ... so many to try and your piece has to fit in with at least one of them!

You can sign up for an email subscription to this site and get a free sample of the book, including FIVE markets that pay $50 plus for reprints! Please also consider joining my Facebook group called Regional Parenting Magazine Writers ... it's FREE and full of tips and tricks and markets and like-minded writer friends!

Pregnancy and Newborn Magazine Submission Writers Guidelines

Freelance Writers
We’re glad you’re interested in the prospect of working with Pregnancy & Newborn magazine—we’re always looking to add to our pool of writers and are currently accepting freelance submissions! Please read and follow the guidelines below so you can query us effectively and we can respond efficiently.

First, familiarize yourself with Pregnancy & Newborn both in print and online. Our targeted audience is comprised of women who are expecting or have a child under the age of 1. We strive to provide insightful, informative articles that discuss all things pregnancy- and baby-related in a casual, conversational, girlfriend-to-girlfriend manner. As a national magazine, we cover topics that are relevant to pregnant and new moms across the country.


Each month, we print articles that fit into the following categories: prenatal health, prenatal nutrition, emotional well-being, labor & delivery, infant care and parenting. Examples of topics that might be of interest include, but are not limited to, baby’s development month by month, alternative pain relief during labor, choosing a name for baby, healthy snacks for hungry moms-to-be, postpartum depression, maternity leave, finding childcare, vaccinations, raising a bilingual baby and more. We’re always looking for new and creative story ideas—please send yours our way!

We prefer to receive queries via email; you may direct them to editor@pnmag.com. Please send a detailed description of your proposed article, including topics you’ll discuss, experts you’ll interview, and sidebars you’ll provide. Department articles are typically 750 to 1,000 words plus 2 sidebars; feature articles are usually 1,750 to 2,000 plus 4 to 5 sidebars. Keep in mind that we generally work under a 4 to 6 month lead-time.

We appreciate when you include clips of your previously published articles. It’s always nice to see the work you’ve done in the past.

Please be patient as you wait for our response. Oftentimes we may not have a spot for your story immediately, but will file it away to have on hand when an opportunity arises—and rest assured that when one does, we'll be in touch!

And for over 250 more parenting and family markets you can write for and make money, check out my book here at Amazon!

You can sign up for an email subscription to this site and get a free sample of the book, including FIVE markets that pay $50 plus for reprints! Please also consider joining my Facebook group called Regional Parenting Magazine Writers ... it's FREE and full of tips and tricks and markets and like-minded writer friends!

How to Make an Extra $2,000 Per Month From Home ... the Answer is Not Sexy

People ask me all the time how I bring in an average of $2,000 per month working from home while also homeschooling 5 kids and leading an active life (walking almost every day, taking the kids all sorts of cool places, going on dates with my husband, etc.). They don't think they could ever do it.

Honestly, the answer is not sexy or intriguing and I don't have any life hacks. Here is the "secret" ... It's waking up early and working when I don't want to work.

I WANT to laze around in bed every morning, sleeping as late as I can. Instead, I get up at 6:00 every morning so I have time to pray, make coffee, and then get to work ... while the kids are sleeping.

I WANT to binge-watch entire seasons of shows in a week while my kids sleep in during the morning time. Instead I watch one episode of a favorite show maybe once a week or as a reward to myself for finishing a big project.

I WANT to read books at night. Instead I am happy reading when I can sneak it in ... and listening to audiobooks while I walk (multitasking!). I'm a proofreader by trade, so I get plenty of reading time in.

I WANT to feel less rushed socially and be able to mingle and form relationships, but instead I really need to get home to turn in that article or that proofreading job or work on that book.

I only work an average of 2 hours per day (some days I work 4, morning and night, and some I work just a bit). Doesn't sound like much, does it? But that's 60 hours in a month I am not watching TV, reading, lazing around, napping, and generally hanging out. And that's just during the school year when my focus is on homeschooling.

I cook easy meals for my family, the kids help with chores, I do laundry in a simple fashion (I honestly don't separate types or colors and never have) and I cut corners other ways to make time for the important things I want to do other than working: spending time with my family and cultivating friendships. See my post on Time Management for Writers!

Yes, everyone needs down time. I grab mine in the form of what I mentioned above ... in little bits of reading, TV, podcasts and books and music while I walk, lunch dates with my husband, the zoo with my kids. I also recharge every week at Mass :-)

And yes, after a few months of this pace, I burn out a little bit and need a day to just do nothing ... put on a movie or two for the kids and just take a nap, turn off the phone, grab a book, and say no to everything and everyone for my own sanity. Update: my son had an outpatient surgery and wanted me to just hang with him watching The Walking Dead for a couple of days and you bet your butt I cleared my schedule to do that with him!

This might not work for you, and you might not be a writer-type like I am. You might need to make a lot more money (I am blessed to have a husband with a full-time job so making this much works for our family). You might only be able to carve out one hour a day. I'm telling you if you carve out 15 minutes a day to do something like write a book, you will have a finished product at some point. If you carve out ZERO, you will have ZERO.

All I know is the cubicle life was not for me for a variety of reasons and being with my kids and husband as much as possible was a goal of mine since birth! So I prayed and Googled and asked around and somehow made it happen. I believe you can also!

I'd love to hear from you in the Comments section ... do you work from home or want to? How do you do it or plan to? How much time can you realistically devote to it? How are you going to find business ... clients you love that you can work with long term?

Please sign up for an email subscription so you can be updated when a new post comes out ... and get my free list of 5 regional parenting markets that pay $50 and up!

Get Published, Paid and Sell Those Reprints to Regional Parenting Magazines

In 2006 or so, I started writing for regional parenting magazines. The success I've had since has been amazing! Here's what happened ...

1. I could not comprehend something a friend was doing (grocery shopping daily with small kids).  At that time I had 3 small kids of my own and had to stock up on food because grocery shopping with my kids while my husband was out of town quite frankly sucked.
2. I wrote out my thoughts (I'm a huge journaler) and they eventually turned into something resembling what I had seen in my local parenting magazine, Kansas City Parent.
3. I emailed my piece to KC Parent and they bought it for $25. I was thrilled! I was PUBLISHED and PAID!
4. Then I realized these magazines must be everywhere. I had traveled a little and had seen similar magazines with similar articles.
5. I didn't have internet at home, so I started to head to the library with or without small children whenever I could and borrowed the internet of friends during playdates. I searched online for other magazines in other cities and started emailing them my pieces.
6. I started selling articles!
7. I started writing more articles, usually based on things that I felt passionately about. My best-selling piece, Christmas Sanity (goes by several different titles at this point), sold close to $1,000 in reprints and is still selling (click link to see the others that have sold over $500 in reprints so far). It was written out of my struggle with continuing to travel for Christmas to see extended family on Christmas Day or stay home with my own little family.
8. I figured other writers might want to know what I had found out, so I wrote a book in 2009 about how to get published in regional parenting magazines and sell each article as a REPRINT again and again. I compiled information from dozens of magazines in one spot to help myself with the submissions process.

This book has been compared to Writer's Market, only if you pick up a copy of that resource you'll see they only have a HANDFUL of parenting markets. I am working on finding 300 for the 7th edition.

I have updated this book every year and now I have over 160 publishing credits under my belt (list is here so you can check it out) and am still writing. It's a great business to be in because I can take a long break to do proofreading projects or write books or work on my direct sales businesses and then always come back to it. Even without writing any new pieces for many months, my reprints keep selling.

If you aren't sure yet, join my Facebook group! I never want to try to sell you something you don't need, so join in the group and check it out first! And happy writing!

You can sign up for an email subscription to this site and get a free sample of the book, including FIVE markets that pay $50 plus for reprints!

UPDATES to the 6th Edition of Make Money to Write About Your Kids

Please check back here regularly for updates to the 6th edition of Make Money to Write About Your Kids, as publications are always starting up and going out of business and making email changes!

That's what great about the print edition of the book: you can just cross out the ones that are out of business and add in the new ones! Then make sure to adjust your email submission list accordingly! Here we go:

1. Active Family/Kids DELETE info at activefamilymag dot com (nonpaying) 
2. Adelaide's Child is now editorial@copelandpublishing.com.au.
3. Alamo Area Kids & Family ... do not submit. They are not a paying market and asked me to take them off my list for submissions entirely.
4. American Baby is no more and has merged with Fit Pregnancy. See my post here.
5. Appleseeds has merged with Ask.
6. Augusta Family send to karin.calloway@augustafamily.com
7. Baltimore's Child try joanne@baltimoreschild.com
8. Bay State Parent "We don't accept unsolicited freelance. We assign to local freelancers."
9. Bermuda Parent email change: info@knbmediagroup.com
10. Central Penn Parent: editor@centralpennparent.com is not working. Try lesliep@centralpennparent.com
11. Coastal Family: editor at coastalfamily dot com
12. Columbus Parent is now editor@columbusparent.com
13. Connecticut Parent remove joel.macclaren@ctparent.com and send only to editorial@ctparent.com
14. Curious Parents 7/16/17 seems to be no longer publishing
15. Faith and Family Magazine is no longer publishing so I'll be adding information for Catholic Digest instead
16. Family and Parenting delete rensley@owatonna.com because I can't see that they are publishing anymore.
17. Family Fun is at queries.familyfun@meredith.com.
18. Flagler Parent/Volusia Parent: I am hearing from other writers that they are finding their work in these magazines from recently to way back and were not contacted or paid. I had trouble getting paid in a timely manner. Submit at your own risk.
19. Fort Worth Child alex@dfwchild.com and this would also be Dallas Child and North Texas Child
20. Fredericksburg Parent email change to fredparenteditor@gmail.com
21. Girls Life email change
22. Good Life Family needs tween and teen articles but nothing about small kids, babies, toddlers, etc.
23. Hello, Darling (MOPS) does NOT pay but they have a large following of 120K with 60K Facebook fans so consider giving them one freebie
24. Homeschooling today is now ashley@homeschoolingtoday.com
25. Hudson Valley Parent delete fhodges@excitingread.com
26. Hybrid Mom is now something very strange and is gone so delete them from your copy
27. IParent ... email darlene.bourgeois@me.com
28. Jersey Shore Family is not accepting articles at this time ... updated February 2017
29. Kid Stuff delete (was lj@uppervalleylife.com)
30. Kids on the Coast Australia (Mother Goose Media) does not pay
31. LA Parent email is no longer good and you now have to submit on the site and the guidelines are entirely different.
32. Main Line Parent is now gwyneth@familyfocusmedia.com
33. Maritime Family has still NOT relaunched. Their website says their "latest issue" was in 2013. Update: email bounceback. Delete from book.
34. Melbourne's Child is now at editorial@copelandpublishing.com.au.
35. Memphis Parent change email address to michelle@memphisparent.com 
36. MetroParent Wisconsin. Email Amy Schwabe at aschwabe@gannett.com.
37. Midwestern Family is now at  jenny.rudd5@gmail.com
38. My Child (Australia) email change to editorial@mychildmagazine.com.au
39. Neapolitan Family: as of August 15 the contacts are changing to Stacy Nicolau snicolau at neafamily dot com and Leigh Ann Newman lanewman at neafamily dot com.
40. OC Family can be contacted with Inland Empire Family at iemail@iemag.bz instead of schurm@churmmedia.com
41. Offspring Australia is nonpaying
42. Ohio Family Magazine seems to not be publishing any longer
43. Omaha Family: lauren at hathawaypublishing dot net
44. Owatonna Family and Parenting delete
45. Palmetto Parent (Upstate Parent) is now loric@palmettoparent.com
46. Parents' Source is no longer publishing.
47. Raising Arizona's Kids can now be reached here and they have an entirely different pay structure, which I'll have in the new edition of the book soon! editorial@RAKmagazine.com
48. Red River Family: working on getting publisher at redriverfamily dot com or laura at redriverfamily dot com to go through and asking their best email for submissions
49. Richmond Family Magazine only uses local writers
50. Richmond Parents Monthly has been taken out of the book for nonpayment and no communication and recently I also learned the owner passed away
51. Sacramento Parent: shelly at sacramentoparent dot com
52. Santa Barbara Family Life production@sbfamilylife.com not working. Wrote editor to find out a new submission address. Did not hear back and dug around and got this: news@santabarbarafamilylife.com
53. Savvy Kids Arkansas email bounceback
54. Seattle's Child delete dzedonis@seattleschild.com and use only editor@seattleschild.com
55. Solo Parent is not a paying market. If you would like to get some coverage and offer them a piece for free, go for it, but they do not pay. I apologize for adding them to the book without researching enough.
56. South Florida Parenting email submissions to editor@sfparenting.com
57. Space City Publishing (several magazines): kim at spacecitypublishing dot com
58. Suburban Parent New Jersey also Suburban Family no longer publishing
59. Sydney's Child is now at editorial@copelandpublishing.com.au
60. Tidewater Parent is no longer in print so please delete them from your list
61. Treasure Coast Parenting: trying k.ferraro at tcparenting dot com ... I had two emails for her and believe that period makes a difference
62. Upstate Parent is Palmetto Parent
63. Utah Family: I hate to do this but I am taking them out of the book. I find my articles in their publication, notify them and then it takes them forever to pay. I recently contacted some other writer friends and they had the same experience. Once writer has been waiting two years for payment. This is not acceptable and it is also illegal.
64. Valley Parent Georgia: jill@columbusandthevalley.com
65. Valley Parent Oregon: Taking out of the book until I get paid :-)
66. The Village Family Magazine is currently on hiatus and thus, will not be accepting reprint materials at this time
67. Wilmington Parent came back (wilmingtonparent@ec.rr.com) and I use danielle.wilmingtonparent@gmail.com instead.

Boston Parents Paper Submission Guidelines

BOSTON PARENTS PAPER (locals only)

Norwood, MA – monthly                                              bostonparentspaper.com

Phone: 617-522-1515                                 cheryl.crosby@bostonparentspaper.com

Guidelines: The Boston Parents Paper has no formal guidelines, but generally never works with writers who live outside of our region. Department length pieces should be no more than 1,000 words, while features should be no more than 1,600-1,800 words in most cases. We consider queries, but for the most part we do not accept reprints. We do usually require a Resource List (as a sidebar) at the end of any major department article or feature with books, websites and organizations readers can turn to for more information. We also like sidebars or boxes with bulleted tips offering parents real, actionable steps toward solving a particular problem or dealing with an issue.
Approximate pay: We pay anywhere from $100-4oo.

You can sign up for an email subscription to this site and get a free sample of the book, including FIVE markets that pay $50 plus for reprints! Please also consider joining my Facebook group called Regional Parenting Magazine Writers ... it's FREE and full of tips and tricks and markets and like-minded writer friends!