Everybody is
different, so how we go about launching a writing career is going to be a
different story for everyone. For some of you, a quick query to Working Mother might be the first you’ve
ever written. You nervously hit the SEND button on your email program and go
about your life. You check your email later that day and find an acceptance of
your pitch at a pay rate of $1.00 per word! You create an article based on that
piece that’s just different enough to send to the regional parenting magazines,
and you sell nothing … for a week. Then the acceptances come pouring in.
Or maybe you always
got As in college writing classes and everyone you know says you rock as a
writer. But you are having trouble getting any of the RPMs to give you even so
much as a nibble. Then you try an online literary magazine that pays and you
have found your niche. You go on to sell many pieces to Chicken Soup for the
Soul, then try the regionals again and find even more success.
This is my Writing
Story because I think it’s important to remember how you started doing
something you are very passionate about.
I always thought of
myself as a writer growing up, but I didn’t think I was that great at it …
nothing special. I got good grades in English and Creative Writing classes in
school and even wrote some decent papers during my community college years. I
was always observing, journaling, venting on paper. Interesting things happened
to me, but I didn’t know how to craft them into something people would want to
read.
I had three kids
when I started writing for money and was a 35-year-old stay-at-home mom with a
husband who traveled frequently for long periods of time. I loved being a mom
more than anything in the world, and I also loved recording every thought in my
head while I held my nursing baby during her naptime and her big brothers
watched TV nearby. Trying to not let Caillou
suck out all my brain cells with his whining was a top priority back then.
We had a little
paper in my city called Mother and Child
Reunion that was like a regional parenting magazine only smaller and more
like a little newspaper. I always found helpful parenting articles in there and
wondering if I could offer them something of value. In 2006, I submitted a
series on how to make money with your kid on your hip. They were only used
online, and I was too chicken to ask for money. I was just happy to have a
writing credit.
Next I went after
my local RPM, Kansas City Parent. I
had whipped up a piece about stocking up on meals (kind of a passive aggressive
vent, unfortunately!) and sent it off. It ran in the January 2007 issue, I
received a $25 check, and I was on top of the world.
Next up was New Beginnings (La Leche League’s
magazine), and I sent off an essay on how much I love having my kids nap on me.
It ran in the March/April 2007 issue, I got 2 free copies, and I was ecstatic
again.
Then I stumbled
upon an article online about selling reprints and started trying to send out my
Stock-up-Mentality article. I made many submission mistakes, receive one kind
rejection, and didn’t hear from anyone else.
After that, I got fired
up about kids and fundraising, pounded out a piece, submitted it to my local
newspaper, and saw it in print 6 months later, in January 2008. The pay was the
satisfaction of my family knowing I could write and hearing my name on a local
radio station when the host agreed with my stance.
Time to head back to the regionals, I told myself, because I loved writing articles and decided I
should be writing for an income. I enjoyed some success with various magazines
and kept collecting information for new markets.
Then I got pregnant
with this guy, my fifth child (below) in 2009 and thought it might help other
writers to learn from my mistakes and to have the list of markets, guidelines,
and pay information I had compiled.
I headed into the land of
ebooks while also submitting magazine articles and doing some other things on
the side, like writing for Contently.com and Scripted.com and proofreading on
Fiverr.com and Scripted.com.
Honestly, some of my most
successful paid parenting articles came about because of annoyance at other
people. I channeled my frustration into my writing, as I had done since I was a
little girl, and I found that sometimes venting pays. Some examples:
·
I
thought my friend was nuts for grocery shopping daily with her small children
in tow, so I wrote called Stock-up
Mentality, sharing tips for meal planning and stocking up on groceries and
meals to save time and money.
·
I was
getting frazzled about expectations put on my family to be several places at
once on Christmas morning, so I wrote 8
Tips for Holiday Sanity. I have since earned $954 from this one article,
selling it as a reprint all over the United States. And it still sells every
year. Talk about residual income!
·
Even
though my kids were not in school, I was still affected by fundraisers through
activities they were in. Instead of giving up on the whole process, I wrote Rock the Next Fundraiser and also Fundraising Life Lessons Learned. These
were to put a more positive spin on that newspaper op ed.
From there, I headed in a more positive direction and started penning
informational pieces: conquer the kid clutter, how to get started
homeschooling, traditions (birthdays, seasonal, holidays), and so much more.
Now I’ll write just about anything, including humorous listicles (Parenting by the Numbers is an article I
wrote that’s humor + list + article = listicle), essays, and informational
pieces on things that have zero relevance in my life (Co-Parenting Best Practices, Kindergarten
Separation Anxiety, etc.).
My love for words remains all
these years later. I love writing ebooks and want them to be as helpful as
possible. I love writing regional parenting magazine articles and working with
amazing editors. I also love connecting with other writers J
What’s your Writing Story?
*This was an excerpt from the PDF and ebook versions of my book, but it had to be omitted from the print edition due to space!
Have files of article reprints that you own but have no clue where to start reselling them? Have ideas for some fantastic new pieces but no idea who might want them? Check out my 386-page PDF of tips, tricks, and insider information, as well as 384 paying parenting and family markets for only $9.99! Just head to this page to download How to Get Published (and Paid!) Writing About Your Kids and get started immediately! (I am working on getting this into print on Amazon and would love to hear from you about this!)
Sign up for an email subscription to The Published Parent and get two amazing freebies: 10 Parenting Markets That Pay $100+ and 10 Markets That Pay Writers to Write About Writing! And join my Facebook group called Parenting Magazine Writers ... it's FREE and full of tips and tricks and markets and like-minded writer friends!
