Keep Writing Despite Rejection

I'm watching my 10-year-old daughter draw in front of me at the dining room table while I'm writing on the laptop across from her. She is critical of her flowers, but to me they are beautiful. They are nothing like anything I could ever do. I am no artist for sure. But she has talent and is so hard on herself. And I tell her, "I could never do that. You are so amazing. Don't stop because you will only get better and better with practice."

Sometimes in my Facebook writing group, there will be someone who just isn't getting articles accepted. And I ask some questions like, "Are you sending to just a few at a time or doing a BLAST to like all 200 regional parenting magazines on the list? (it's a numbers game) Are you following the general submission guidelines? Don't stop because you will get better and you will get a piece accepted and then the snowball will start."

How to Stop Being Self-Critical

And I wondered ... how do you get someone to stop being self-critical? How do you convince them to keep going? Then I realized that the same things I say to my kids and to my writing group members to be encouraging, I should also be saying to myself.

How to Make an Extra $2,000 Per Month from Home with Words

I'm often asked how I can effortlessly earn an average of $2,000 per month working from home with words while also homeschooling and leading an active life. 

The answer is not sexy or intriguing, and I don't have any life hacks. 

The "secrets" to my productive lifestyle are waking up early, setting goals, getting a bit less sleep, and working when I want to be doing other things.

Things to do Instead of Making Money

Here are just a few fun tasks I'd prefer to be doing instead of painstakingly writing that article or perfecting that proofreading job or publishing that book. I bet you can relate:

Languishing in bed every morning, sleeping as late as I can.

Binge-watching fantastic shows, movies, and podcasts.

Devouring All. The. Books.

Socializing leisurely at a coffee shop.

Write for Reader's Digest

Check out this post on The Adventurous Writer/Writing Blossoms titled 10 Things You Need to Know About Writing for Reader's Digest. Then see the submission guidelines below. Good luck to you!

Don't send the completed manuscript of your article. The editors will not read it or mail it back. Instead, write a summary of no more than one page. If you will interview the hero of the story, be sure to mention it---it may help you sell your story. Email your proposal to articleproposals@readersdigest.com.

If writing an entire article is too daunting, try something shorter. Reader's Digest encourages its readers to send in funny true stories, jokes, and humorous quotations. Keep your submission within the 500-word limit. If you submit an anecdote originally published elsewhere, include the name of where and when it was published, including the page number.

How to Find Out if Your Work Was Published without Your Knowledge

Keep publishers honest! Issuu.com has changed everything about their site and now writers can't find their published work anymore.

Updates as of 2023:

One member of the Parenting Magazine Writers Facebook group shared: "I just checked Muckrack and it only shows 5-10% of publications at most of my articles. So it's a minimally helpful resource."

Another shared: "One thing that seems to be working is searching my name and the word 'magazine' and filtering by image. This shows a good amount of my stuff."

One member shared: "Given that my experience is that 20-25% of regional publications try to get away without paying writers (unless you spot your article and invoice them...and even then a few require months of begging), that's a lot of money we're losing out on..."

Below is the old information about Issuu.com. Back when they actually were amazing and helpful.

Make Money from Home on Fiverr

I stumbled on Fiverr.com in April of 2013 when I was looking for a way to make money from home online to pay off some mounting dental bills and other things. I needed a job that would allow me to continue homeschooling, a job that would travel well if I had to go out of town or work from another location.

I was not disappointed. 

I immediately had a full queue of jobs and found that I could easily customize my "gigs" (what I offer for $5). I could promise to deliver a proofreading job to a client within 24 hours. Or, if life was busy and I was not able to do that, I could change it to a longer delivery time to discourage new orders from coming in as quickly. It's very customizable!

My Love-Hate Relationship with Scrivener

I got Scrivener in 2020 when the lockdown was first in effect and was surprised/happy about the reasonable price. Many of my favorite writers raved about this program, so I had to try it.

While I love how I can organize and move chapters around easily without much scrolling, I hate a few things even more, which are huge time-wasters in my writing career:

1. I can't make the screen bigger without making the font bigger like you can in, say, an Internet browser when you increase the screen print size.
   
   
2. I can't do a search. At least I could never get it to work, so trying to find one magazine market in a sea of several hundred market names was not possible.
   
   
3. When I compiled it into a Word document so I could do final proofreading, Scrivener randomly smooshed words together and randomly messed up the formatting, which wasted a lot of time. So my text might look like this:

The Pomodoro Technique: Focus for ADHD Writers

I'm reading The Art and Business of Writing by Chris Jones on my Kindle and it's full of helpful advice. I'll review it in a later post. For now, please take this gem I got in there (then, interestingly enough, I also found the same gem the next day in a speed-reading ebook I was proofreading on Fiverr, which tells me the Universe wants me to try it).

Basically in the mornings, I put my butt in my seat after getting my coffee and something to eat. Focusing after that is hard. I want to check email, Facebook, my ebook sales, Fiverr, blog stats, do some blog social media, and more. Back and forth and then I've wasted an hour! That is no way to make your dreams come true of moving to the country, traveling the world with your family, and writing a bunch more books! 

Write Timely Articles Parenting Magazine Editors Want to Purchase

As parenting magazine writers, we all need ideas for articles to write about all year long.

Do you feel like you have written everything you have to say on the topic of birthday parties or camp or holidays?

Need some inspiration because your brain has run dry?

Check out this site. Turns out there are not only those obvious and popular things we knew about like Valentine's Day in February, but also things that should be on our radar like Black History Month ... and did you know that February 20 is Love Your Pet Day? 

What a great time to whip out that piece about whether or not your kid should get a pet. Or maybe you sold it in December about getting a pet for Christmas and it just needs a little tweak and a re-send.

Write for Highlights for Children Magazine

We do not accept work through Submittable (or through e-mail) from writers younger than 16. 

Young writers and artists may send their work to: Highlights for Children, 803 Church Street, Honesdale, PA 18431

. 

Highlights is a general-interest magazine for children ages 6-12. By publishing stories, puzzles, articles, and activities that are fun and engaging, we aim to inspire kids to be their best selves–creative, curious, caring, and confident. Highlights was founded in 1946 by Dr. Garry Cleveland Myers and Caroline Clark Myers, and is still owned and run by their family. The magazine accepts no outside advertising and has no religious or organizational affiliation. Highlights has a circulation of about a million and is published monthly.

8 Steps to Make Over $500 for a Regional Parenting Magazine Reprint

Let me start by saying not EVERY article I write makes this much money. I've written and submitted over 100 parenting magazine articles. 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 over $1,000 in total sales 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 to make money writing from home!"

Proofreading Jobs from Home: 20 Ideas + Income Potential

I have met many writers and published parents who are also passionate about editing and proofreading, so this post is for you! I work primarily on Fiverr.com, and I have received almost 3,000 positive reviews since I started in 2013. 

Benefits for me include:

* Being able to work from home and homeschool! 

* Being able to pick up and travel with my family and make money while we're away from the house. 

* Being my own boss.

* Not working in a cubicle anymore.

If you want to join Fiverr just to check it out and possibly sign up to do your own proofreading jobs from home, please use my referral code!

Here's what I have come up with so you can also enjoy this kind of lifestyle. The first two services I am not familiar with because I just haven't had the time to dive into them. They are reputable sites that ask for a proofreading test or sample, but I hear competition can be fierce, and I'm not about underbidding my services!

How to Get Started as a Proofreader

So you want to be a proofreader? It's a rewarding job that you can do from anywhere in the world! I have worked on Fiverr for 10 years, including while homeschooling my kids, while traveling with my husband for his job, watching my son at basketball practice, teaching at the homeschool co-op, on my back deck on gorgeous summer mornings, and so much more! 

To start proofreading on Fiverr, simply sign up. Then follow these steps and tips, and you'll soon find yourself with a successful work-from-anywhere business! 

1. Do some research and recon work — Start out with the main Writing & Translation section, then dive into the Proofreading section to find out how others are working their gigs. Some questions to keep in mind are:

How many words are others proofreading for $5? (Don't forget that Fiverr takes 20%, but consider: Fiverr is attracting the clients for you, handling the payments securely, and providing a platform for showcasing your work and glowing reviews.)

How fast is the turnaround? How quickly can you complete 500 words of proofreading (you can earn more if you can get a job back to a client quickly)? 

15 Great Links: Working from Home as a Writer

It's true that working from home can bring special challenges, and working for yourself brings even more interesting situations! Further, being a writer takes real focus and brain space. 

Please enjoy my writing roundup of fabulous posts about working from home as a writer!

6 Essential Things to Make Your Writing Session More Productive

7 Steps to Freelance Writing Success

Dads Can Write for Parenting Publications Too!

AdvancedWriters.com: Book Review Service with Expert Writers